oof. The top of the arched ceiling rose like a
whale's back in the dim glimmer of the lamp. Here and there were
spy-holes, concealed, on the other side, by the carving of the cornice;
and looking down through one of these, Dick saw the paved floor of the
chapel--the altar, with its burning tapers--and stretched before it on
the steps, the figure of Sir Oliver praying with uplifted hands.

At the other end, they descended a few steps. The passage grew narrower;
the wall upon one hand was now of wood; the noise of people talking, and
a faint flickering of lights, came through the interstices; and
presently they came to a round hole about the size of a man's eye, and
Dick, looking down through it, beheld the interior of the hall, and some
half-a-dozen men sitting, in their jacks, about the table, drinking
deep and demolishing a venison pie. These were certainly some of the
late arrivals.

"Here is no help," said Dick. "Let us try back."

"Nay," said Joanna; "maybe the passage goeth farther."

And she pushed on. But a few yards farther the passage ended at the top
of a short flight of steps; and it became plain that, as long as the
soldiers occupied the hall, escape was impossible upon that side.

They retraced their steps with all imaginable speed, and set forward to
explore the other branch. It was exceedingly narrow, scarce wide enough
for a large man; and it led them continually up and down by little
breakneck stairs, until even Dick had lost all notion of his
whereabouts.

At length it grew both narrower and lower; the stairs continued to
descend; the walls on either hand became damp and slimy to the touch;
and far in front of them they heard the squeaking and scuttling of the
rats.

"We must be in the dungeons," Dick remarked.

"And still there is no outlet," added Joanna.

"Nay, but an outlet there must be!" Dick answered.

Presently, sure enough, they came to a sharp angle, and then the passage
ended in a flight of steps. On the top of that there was a solid flag of
stone by way of trap, and to this they both set their backs. It was
immovable.

"Some one holdeth it," suggested Joanna.

[Illustration: _"We must be in the dungeons," Dick remarked_]

"Not so," said Dick; "for were a man strong as ten, he must still yield
a little. But this resisteth like dead rock. There is a weight upon the
trap. Here is no issue; and, by my sooth, good Jack, we are here as
fairly prisoners as though the gyves were on