ose of the stair, were of roughly
dressed stones, and unplastered. It led them straight to a strong door.
It was locked, and in the rusty lock they could see the key from
within. To the right was another door, a smaller one, which stood wide
open. They went through, and by a short passage entered an opener
space. Here on one side there seemed to be no wall, and they stood for
a moment afraid to move lest they should tumble into darkness. But
sending the light about, and feeling with hands and feet, they soon
came to an idea of the place they were in. It was a little gallery,
with arches on one side opening into a larger place, the character of
which they could only conjecture, for nearly all they could determine
was, that it went below and rose above where they stood. On the other
side was a plain wall, such as they had had on both sides of them.

They had been speaking in awe-filled whispers, and were now in silence
endeavouring to send their sight through the darkness beyond the arches.

"Listen, my lady," said Donal.

>From above their heads came a chord of the aerial music, soft and
faint and wild! A strange effect it had! it was like news of the still
airy night and the keen stars, come down through secret ways into the
dark places of the earth, from spaces so wide that they seem the most
awful of prisons! It sweetly fostered Arctura's courage.

"That must be how the songs of angels sounded, with news of high
heaven, to the people of old!" she said.

Donal was not in so high a mood. He was occupied at the moment with the
material side of things.

"We can't be far," he said, "from the place where our plummet came
down! But let us try a little further."

The next moment they came against a cord, and at their feet was the
weight of the clock.

At the other end of the little gallery they came again to a door and
again to a stair, turning to the right; and again they went down.
Arctura kept up bravely. The air was not so bad as might have been
feared, though it was cold and damp. This time they descended but a
little way, and came to a landing place, on the right of which was a
door. Donal raised a rusty latch and pushed; the door swung open
against the wall, dropping from one hinge with the slight shock. Two
steps more they descended, and stood on a stone floor.

Donal thought at first they must be in one of the dungeons, but soon
bethought himself that they had not descended far enough for that.

A halo of