d
still a dozen or so matches left. And then my eye fell on that shattered
chest. There were those boards, too. At all events I could build a fire
and make torches of slivers of wood, so long as the wood lasted.

And then I had an idea. Why not make the fire against the door at the
end of the gallery, and so burn my way through. Bravo! My spirits rose
at the thought, and I set to at once--splitting some small kindling with
my knife. In a few minutes I had quite a sprightly little fire going at
the bottom of the door; but I saw that I should have to be extravagant
with my wood if the fire was to be effective. However, it was neck or
nothing; so I piled on beams and boards till my fire roared like a
furnace, and presently I had the joy of seeing it begin to take hold of
the door--which, after a short time, began to crackle and splutter in a
very cheering fashion.

Whatever lay beyond, it was evident that I should soon be able to break
my way through the obstacle, and, indeed, so it proved; for, presently,
I used one of the boards as a battering ram, and, to my inexpressible
joy, it went crashing through, with a shower of sparks, and it was but
the work of a few more minutes before the whole door fell flaming down,
and I was able to leap through the doorway into the darkness on the
other side.

As I stood there, peering ahead, and holding aloft a burning
stick--which proved, however, a poor substitute for my lantern--a
wonderful sound smote my ears. I could not believe it, and my knees
shook beneath me. It was the sound of the sea.

Yes! it was no illusion. It was the sound that the sea makes singing and
echoing through hollow caves--the sound I heard that night as I stood at
the moonlit door of Calypso's cavern, and saw that vision which my heart
nearly broke to remember. Calypso! O Calypso! where was she at this
moment? Pray God that she was indeed safe, as her father had said. But I
had to will her from my mind, to keep from going mad.

And my poor torch had gone out, having, however, given me light enough
to see that the door which I had just burnt through let out on to a
narrow platform on the side of a rock that went slanting down into a
chasm of blackness, through which, as in a great shell, boomed that
murmuring of the sea. It had a perilous ugly look, and it was plain that
it would be foolhardy to attempt it at the moment without a light; and
my fire was dying down. Besides, I was beginning to feel lightheade