other. I feared,
should I move it, that I might bring others down on my head. I should
have liked to have put them all back in their places, but that was
impossible. By great care I made my way among them; when I at last
reached the walls, it was the part I had not before examined. How I
could have passed it I could not account for, unless I had been
prevented reaching it by the chests piled up in front, and which I had
displaced. As I was extending my arms my hands touched what felt like a
wooden latch. There was no doubt about it; it was the latch of a door.
I lifted it up and pulled it towards me. The door opened, but all was
dark within the recess. I felt sure that it must be the entrance to the
vault. I was going to step forward when it occurred to me that it might
lead to a lower vault and that I should be precipitated into an unknown
depth should I move without feeling my way. I knelt down, extending my
hands, when they touched the ground as far as I could reach. This
satisfied me that my first conjecture was correct.

Cautiously feeling my way, I stepped forward and explored the recess as
I had the larger vault. Contrary to my expectation, I could discover no
ladder. I was thus no nearer to my deliverance than before. I felt
round and round this smaller vault, without being able to decide as to
its object. That it was the entrance to the vault I thought very
likely. I wished that I could find out the height of the roof, and of
what it was composed. It seemed probable that it was lower than that of
the larger vault. I thought that I might drag in some of the smaller
chests and place one on another against the wall and climb up. I made
my way accordingly back to the large vault, in search of some which I
could move.

In going along my foot struck an object on the ground. It was a long
spar--the very thing I was in search of. I supposed it had fallen down
with the boxes, having either been placed upon them or assisting to
support them. It appeared, as far as I could judge, to be twelve or
fourteen feet long, and was thick enough to enable me to swarm up it,
and thus to serve the purpose of a ladder. I first tried to reach the
roof of the large vault with it, but it was not long enough, though I
lifted it as high as I could; and then carrying it in my hands went back
to the recess, and, eager to ascertain the height, I struck upwards. It
at once met with resistance, not as I supposed, from a