then they were
out in the other chamber.

"Val," Ricky clung to him, "I've got that little flash I keep under my
pillow at night. Wait a minute until I get it out of my pocket. We can't
find our way out of here without a light."

Muffled sounds from behind them suggested that their pursuers were on
the trail even without light. After all, given time enough, it would be
easy for them to feel their way out of the vaults. Val hustled Ricky on,
taking his direction from one of the wine-casks he had bumped into. And
before he allowed her to hunt for her torch they stood in the first of
the chambers.

The light she produced was poor and it flickered warningly. But it was
good enough for them to see the dark opening which led to the outer
world. They ducked into this just as the first of the other party came
cursing into the open. At Val's orders, Ricky switched off the light and
they crept along by the wall, one hand on its guiding surface.

But the way seemed longer than it had upon their entering. Surely they
should have reached the garden entrance by now. And the surface
underfoot remained level instead of slanting upward. Suddenly Ricky gave
a little cry.

"We've taken the wrong passage! There's only a blank wall in front of
us!"

She was right. The torch showed a brick surface across their path, and
Val remembered too late the second passage out of the first chamber.
They must go back and hope to elude the others in the dark.

"They may have all gone out, thinking we were still ahead of them," he
mused aloud.

"Well, it's got to be done," Ricky observed, "so we might as well do
it."

Back they went along the unknown passage. This appeared to run straight
out from the first chamber. But why it had been fashioned and then
walled up they had no way of knowing. Ricky's torch picked out the
entrance at last.

"Wait," Val cautioned her, "we had better see how the land lies before
we go out in the open."

They stood listening. Save for the constant drip, drip of water, there
was no sound.

"I guess it's clear," he said.

"Wonder where all the water is coming from?" Ricky shivered.

"Down from the garden. Come on, I think it's safe to have a light now."

Ricky must have been holding the torch upward when she pressed the
button, for the round circle of light appeared on the supporting timbers
above the door. They both looked up, fascinated for a moment. The old
oak had been laid in a crisscross pattern, the b