with provisions here and show a light. If you see the light burn
steadily it is safe for you to approach, and I come only to bring food
or news; if you see the torch wave to and fro, it is a warning that they
intend to search the reservoirs. I do not think it likely they will do
so; still it is best to be prepared, and in that case you must paddle
far away in the recesses. They might search for a long time before they
find you. I trust that your imprisonment here will not be long, but that
we may hit upon some plan of getting you out of the citadel. I would
gladly go with you to share your solitude, but I must remain outside to
plan some way of escape."

With a short farewell to his faithful follower Malchus took his place
on the raft, having lit a torch and fastened it upright upon it. Then
he paddled slowly away, keeping between the lines of heavy columns. His
rate of progress was slow, and for half an hour he kept the torch
in sight. By this time he felt sure that he must be approaching the
boundary of the reservoir. He therefore moored his raft against a pillar
and waved his torch backwards and forwards. The signal was answered by
a similar movement of the distant light, which then disappeared. Malchus
now extinguished his own torch, placed the means of relighting it with
which Nessus had furnished him close to his hand, and then, wrapping
himself in a rug, lay down to sleep.

When he awoke it was day. The light was streaming down on to the water
from an opening two or three hundred yards away, while far in the
distance he could see a faint light which marked the place of the
steps at which he had embarked. In the neighbourhood of the opening the
columns stood up clear and gray against the dark background. A little
further off their outlines were dim and misty; and wherever else he
looked an inky darkness met his eye, save one or two faint bands of
misty light, which marked the position of distant openings.

The stillness which reigned in this vast cavern was almost oppressive.
Sometimes a faint rustling whisper, the echo of some sound in the
citadel above, passed among the columns; and the plaintive squeak of a
bat was heard now and then, for numbers of these creatures were flitting
noiselessly in the darkness, their forms visible for an instant as they
passed and repassed between Malchus and the light. He wondered vaguely
what they could find to eat here, and then remembered that he had heard
that at nightfall