rmona held his match-box to me, saying that when we had seen the place
he would look in to refresh his recollections. But Dick calmly helped
himself to several _fosforos_ and took first turn, probably suspecting
something in the way of an _oubliette_, especially prepared for me.

He reappeared presently, however, his suspicions allayed. "Beastly hole,"
he remarked; "almost bad enough for Philip, though he did grill some of my
best ancestors."

I took a couple of matches, lighting them on the Duke's box; then, bending
my head low, and pushing in one shoulder at a time, I squirmed through the
aperture. In so doing, however, I contrived to trip over Carmona's foot,
which must have been thrust forward, staggered against the opposite wall
of the narrow cell, and lost both my lighted vestas. Carmona exclaimed, I
stumbled, and almost simultaneously the door slid into place with a sharp
click.

There was not space to fall at length. I merely lost my balance, and saved
my head from a bump by shielding it with a raised arm, I steadied myself
in a second or two; but I was in black darkness. Outside I could hear a
confused murmur of voices, and would have given something to know what
Dick was saying at the moment.

I was thinking that I should not like to be a prisoner in this hole (only
large enough for the swing of Philip's scourge) for many hours on end,
when there came an imperative tapping. "Holloa!" I answered, expecting to
hear Dick speak in return; but it was Carmona's voice which replied.
Evidently he was speaking with his mouth close to the secret door.

"I'm very sorry for this accident," said he distinctly. "When you
stumbled, you knocked my arm, and made me touch the spring. Unfortunately
the door closed with such a crash, that the spring seems out of order, and
I can't move it. But if you'll be patient a few minutes, I'll look for an
attendant who understands the thing, to bail you out of gaol."

If I had been Lieutenant Cristobal O'Donnel I would have heard no more in
the rhyming junction of those words "gaol" and "bail" than met the ear,
but being the man I was--the man he suspected me to be--I did hear more; and
I believed that he wished me to catch a double meaning.

"Does he mean to hand me over to the police now, on suspicion?" I wondered
in my black cell--"before Monica's eyes?" But aloud I said, "Thanks; don't
be too long, or I shall be tempted to smash the door."

"You'll find that impossible," answere