save one by draping his overcoat round it.

"It might excite remark if anyone saw a light in this lonely place,"
said he. "Just help me to move this boarding."

The flooring was loose in the corner, and plank by plank the two
savants raised it and leaned it against the wall. Below there was a
square aperture and a stair of old stone steps which led away down into
the bowels of the earth.

"Be careful!" cried Burger, as Kennedy, in his impatience, hurried down
them. "It is a perfect rabbits'-warren below, and if you were once to
lose your way there the chances would be a hundred to one against your
ever coming out again. Wait until I bring the light."

"How do you find your own way if it is so complicated?"

"I had some very narrow escapes at first, but I have gradually learned
to go about. There is a certain system to it, but it is one which a
lost man, if he were in the dark, could not possibly find out. Even
now I always spin out a ball of string behind me when I am going far
into the catacomb. You can see for yourself that it is difficult, but
every one of these passages divides and subdivides a dozen times before
you go a hundred yards."

They had descended some twenty feet from the level of the byre, and
they were standing now in a square chamber cut out of the soft tufa.
The lantern cast a flickering light, bright below and dim above, over
the cracked brown walls. In every direction were the black openings of
passages which radiated from this common centre.

"I want you to follow me closely, my friend," said Burger. "Do not
loiter to look at anything upon the way, for the place to which I will
take you contains all that you can see, and more. It will save time
for us to go there direct."

He led the way down one of the corridors, and the Englishman followed
closely at his heels. Every now and then the passage bifurcated, but
Burger was evidently following some secret marks of his own, for he
neither stopped nor hesitated. Everywhere along the walls, packed like
the berths upon an emigrant ship, lay the Christians of old Rome. The
yellow light flickered over the shrivelled features of the mummies, and
gleamed upon rounded skulls and long, white armbones crossed over
fleshless chests. And everywhere as he passed Kennedy looked with
wistful eyes upon inscriptions, funeral vessels, pictures, vestments,
utensils, all lying as pious hands had placed them so many centuries
ago. It was apparent to