n the floor. There was a terrible
explosion.

Francoise and old Lasvene have done their duty ere they died. The walls
of the hut fall, and hide the trap door.

CHAPTER XI.

CHILDREN IN DARKNESS.

The trap door closed on the two children, leaving them in total
darkness. Lasvene had not thought of that.

The boy hesitated. His mother had bidden him save Francinette--here was
safety, even if there were also darkness. He kissed his little sister
tenderly.

"Can you walk, dear?" he said.

"No--I am afraid!"

Jacques remembered that he was ten, and that Francinette, who was only
six, had a right to be afraid.

"Afraid!" he repeated, "what is there to fear? I am not afraid!"

He was not speaking the truth, but he had a vague idea that it was not
wrong to tell a falsehood on this occasion. He placed Francinette on the
ground, and she clung to his legs. He passed his hand over the wall, and
they slowly crept on. The ground was slippery and the air foul. Suddenly
Jacques tripped and fell. The little girl began to cry. Her brother had
lost his hold on the wall, and when he gathered himself up, he missed
the touch of those little hands.

"Cinette! Cinette!" he cried.

She replied with sobs, and he suddenly realized that these sobs were
becoming fainter and fainter. Where was she?

"Cinette! stand still."

The voice replied:

"Jacques! Oh! mamma! I want mamma!"

It was plain that the child was lost, and that several paths ran from
the point where he stood. He called to his sister again--no reply. He
began to run, and came up against the wall. He started again, then
stopped. He saw a red light at the end of a long gallery. This light
came from the funeral pyre of Francoise and the old man.

The boy smiled--he fancied that aid was coming. He called: "Mamma!
Mamma!" Suddenly his hurrying feet encountered an obstacle, and he fell
from a height. His head struck a rock, and he felt the blood stream over
his face. Then he fainted.

How long he lay there he never knew. After a while he struggled to his
feet, and then hurried on, always away from the red light, not toward
it. Suddenly he felt the air strike his face, and he saw the sunshine.
The subterranean passage ended. He emerged upon a plain. An old chateau
stood on the brow of a hill opposite.

"If I go there," he said to himself, "I can find people who will look
for Francinette with me."

He tried to run; his foot slipped. He looked down and beheld