eemed to me that if we were to push
against that little carved knob in the wall, it would open a passage
into the room outside. Shall we try it?'

'Yes,' said Calladon; 'it can do no harm to see whether you are right,
at all events.' So they went to the knob, and Calladon gave it a push.

'Not that way; you should push it sideways; see--like this,' said
Callia; and she shoved it a little towards the right. Sure enough, a
part of the alabaster wall slid back, so that the children were able
to look into the room beyond.

'It seems rather dark; don't you think so?' remarked Calladon, drawing
back after a moment.

'We must take a lamp along with us,' said Callia. 'That lamp that
burns in the centre of the room will be no use to us. We shan't be
able to see anything without a lamp of our own.'

'Well, I suppose we must,' said Calladon. 'Now I think of it, though,
that was another of the things the Master said we ought not to do.'

'What did he say would happen to us if we did do it?'

'I don't remember his saying anything.'

'Of course he didn't! because nothing will happen, except that we
shall know more than we could know by staying here. He was only trying
whether he could frighten you.'

'You shall see that I am not so easily frightened,' said Calladon. 'I
am a man now, and able to take care of myself. Come, let us light a
lamp of our own and go. I will show you the way.'

'Here is a lamp,' said Callia. 'I just found it on this little shelf
in the corner, though I had not seen it there before. But how shall we
light it?'

'We must light it from the great lamp; there is no other way.'

'But then it will be the light of that great lamp that will guide us,
after all.'

'No,' said Calladon, 'because the part of the flame that we take away
will become our own, and would keep on burning even if the great lamp
were to go out.'

They lit the lamp accordingly. As they did so, the air around them
grew colder than before, and a gust of strangely melancholy music
sighed through the room. From the crystal ball in the roof overhead
there came a red reflection, as of some terrible fire burning in the
world without; and then a white flash, as if an angel's sword had
suddenly been thrust down into the room. Now the sword seemed to be
brandished about the great lamp, its point against the children, who
shrank back in fear towards the alabaster wall. Still the sword
threatened them; and there was a violent rush of icy win