ght down into that vault before Allstone, who was at
the head of the steps leading down, suddenly shouted:

"That's all. Look alive up."

"Ay, ay, we're coming," was the reply, and Hilary heard the men drag a
case of some kind a little way along the floor with a loud scratching
noise.

"I don't like leaving those nets," said the one who had been round. "We
don't want 'em now, but the time may come when we shall be glad to go
drifting again. What are you doing?"

"Only got a handful of this 'bacco, my boy. I don't see any fun in
buying it where there's hundredweights down here."

"Bring me a handful too."

Hilary could resist the temptation no longer, and rising softly, he
peered over the piled-up boxes and tubs to get a better view of the
place, and make out where the door of exit lay. This he ascertained at
a glance, and likewise obtained a pretty good idea of the shape and
extent of the vault before the men took up their candles to go.

Now was the critical moment. Would they raise their eyes and see where
there was a stone missing in the ceiling? A few moments would decide
it, and so excited was Hilary now that he could not refrain from
watching the men, though the act was excessively dangerous, and if they
had turned their heads in his direction they must have seen him.

But they did not turn their heads as it happened, but went by within a
yard of where the young officer was concealed. Then he saw them mount
some broad rugged old steps beneath a little archway, whose stones were
covered with chisel-marks; there was a Rembrandtish effect as they
turned round the winding stair, and then there was the clang of a heavy
door, and darkness reigned once more in the vault, for Hilary was alone.

For a few minutes he dared not stir for fear that some one or other of
the men might return; but as the time wore on, and he could only hear
the sounds of talking in a distant muffled way, he descended from his
awkward position, reached the stone floor, and feeling his way along
reached the opening through which the men had come, and then stumbling
two or three times, and barely saving himself from falling, he found his
way to where they had been at work, for his hand came in contact with
one of the rough candlesticks thick with grease.

Sure thus far, he was not long in finding the doorway, where he stood
listening to dull sounds from above, and then crept back a little way so
as to be able to retreat in case th