realized that Leroux was
firing his revolver at the panels. It was fortunate that we both stood
at one side, where the latch was.

Then I yielded reluctantly to Jacqueline's soft violence. I followed
her through the dark chamber, under an archway of stone, and through a
winding passage in the rock. Pierre's candle flickered before us, and
in another moment we had squeezed through a narrow opening into a
chamber in the cliff.

On the ground were five or six large stones, and Pierre began to fit
them into the aperture through which we had passed. In a minute the
place was completely sealed, and we four stood and looked breathlessly
at one another within what might have been a cenotaph.

Not the slightest sound came from without.

We were standing in a stone chamber, apparently of natural formation,
but finished with rough masonry work. It was about the size of a large
room, and I could see that it was only a widening of the tunnel itself,
which continued through a narrow exit at the farther end, running on
into the unknown depths of the cliff.

From the freshness of the air I inferred that it connected with the
surface at no distant place.

The entrance through which we had come had been made by blasting at
some period, or widened in this way, and then cemented, for the stones
which Pierre had fitted into it exactly filled it, so that it was
barely distinguishable from where I stood, and I am certain that it
would have required a prolonged scrutiny on the part of searchers on
the outside to enable them to detect it.

And even then only dynamite or blasting-powder could have forced a
path, and it would have been exceedingly difficult to handle such
materials within the tunnel without blocking the approach completely,
while leaving open the farther exit.

The chamber seemed at one time to have been prepared for such a
contingency as had occurred, for there were wool rugs on the stone
floor, though they had rotted and partly disintegrated from the
dampness.

There were a table and wooden chairs, also partially decayed. The
mouldering fringes of some rugs protruded from a bundle wrapped in
oil-paper.

Pierre Caribou opened this and shook them out on the ground. Except
where their edges had been exposed, they were in good condition, and
were thick enough to lie upon without much discomfort.

The interior of the cave was pleasantly warm, though moist.

"M. Duchaine, he make this place in case gov'ment co