into it, and let go the rope, which Curdie
drew up.

Then he lighted his candle and searching in the rubbish found a bit of
iron to take the place of his pickaxe across the hole. Then he
searched again in the rubbish, and found half an old shutter. This he
propped up leaning a little over the hole, with a bit of stick, and
heaped against the back of it a quantity of the loosened earth. Next he
tied his mattock to the end of the rope, dropped it, and let it hang.
Last, he got through the hole himself, and pulled away the propping
stick, so that the shutter fell over the hole with a quantity of earth
on the top of it. A few motions of hand over hand, and he swung
himself and his mattock into the passage beside Lina.

There he secured the end of the rope, and they went on together to the
door.

CHAPTER 17

The Wine Cellar

He lighted his candle and examined it. Decayed and broken as it was,
it was strongly secured in its place by hinges on the one side, and
either lock or bolt, he could not tell which, on the other. A brief
use of his pocket-knife was enough to make room for his hand and arm to
get through, and then he found a great iron bolt--but so rusty that he
could not move it.

Lina whimpered. He took his knife again, made the hole bigger, and
stood back. In she shot her small head and long neck, seized the bolt
with her teeth, and dragged it, grating and complaining, back. A push
then opened the door. It was at the foot of a short flight of steps.
They ascended, and at the top Curdie found himself in a space which,
from the echo to his stamp, appeared of some size, though of what sort
he could not at first tell, for his hands, feeling about, came upon
nothing. Presently, however, they fell on a great thing: it was a wine
cask.

He was just setting out to explore the place thoroughly, when he heard
steps coming down a stair. He stood still, not knowing whether the
door would open an inch from his nose or twenty yards behind his back.
It did neither. He heard the key turn in the lock, and a stream of
light shot in, ruining the darkness, about fifteen yards away on his
right.

A man carrying a candle in one hand and a large silver flagon in the
other, entered, and came toward him. The light revealed a row of huge
wine casks, that stretched away into the darkness of the other end of
the long vault. Curdie retreated into the recess of the stair, and
peeping round the corner of it, watched him