man getting out, even if he had a light;
but if he were in the dark it would, of course, be far more difficult."

"So I should think."

"And the darkness is something dreadful. I tried it once for an
experiment. Let us try it again!" He stooped to the lantern, and in
an instant it was as if an invisible hand was squeezed tightly over
each of Kennedy's eyes. Never had he known what such darkness was. It
seemed to press upon him and to smother him. It was a solid obstacle
against which the body shrank from advancing. He put his hands out to
push it back from him.

"That will do, Burger," said he, "let's have the light again."

But his companion began to laugh, and in that circular room the sound
seemed to come from every side at once.

"You seem uneasy, friend Kennedy," said he.

"Go on, man, light the candle!" said Kennedy impatiently.

"It's very strange, Kennedy, but I could not in the least tell by the
sound in which direction you stand. Could you tell where I am?"

"No; you seem to be on every side of me."

"If it were not for this string which I hold in my hand I should not
have a notion which way to go."

"I dare say not. Strike a light, man, and have an end of this
nonsense."

"Well, Kennedy, there are two things which I understand that you are
very fond of. The one is an adventure, and the other is an obstacle to
surmount. The adventure must be the finding of your way out of this
catacomb. The obstacle will be the darkness and the two thousand wrong
turns which make the way a little difficult to find. But you need not
hurry, for you have plenty of time, and when you halt for a rest now
and then, I should like you just to think of Miss Mary Saunderson, and
whether you treated her quite fairly."

"You devil, what do you mean?" roared Kennedy. He was running about in
little circles and clasping at the solid blackness with both hands.

"Good-bye," said the mocking voice, and it was already at some
distance. "I really do not think, Kennedy, even by your own showing
that you did the right thing by that girl. There was only one little
thing which you appeared not to know, and I can supply it. Miss
Saunderson was engaged to a poor ungainly devil of a student, and his
name was Julius Burger."

There was a rustle somewhere, the vague sound of a foot striking a
stone, and then there fell silence upon that old Christian church--a
stagnant, heavy silence which closed round Kennedy and shut him