killed and flung in after me! In that case the
precious trio had, without a doubt, fled.

Realisation of the utter hopelessness of the situation sent a cold
shudder through me. I had miraculously escaped death by the snake's
fangs, and was I now to die of starvation deep in that narrow well?

Again and again I shouted with all my might, straining my eyes to that
narrow chink which showed so far above. Would assistance never come? I
felt faint and hungry, while my wounds gave me considerable pain, and my
head throbbed so that I felt it would burst at any moment.

I found a large stone in the mud, and with it struck hard against the
wall. But the sound was not such as might attract the attention of
anybody who happened to be near the vicinity of the well. Therefore I
shouted and shouted again until my voice grew hoarse, and I was
compelled to desist on account of my exhaustion.

For fully another half-hour I was compelled to remain in impatience and
anxiety in order to recover my voice and strength for, weak as I was, the
exertion had almost proved too much for me. So I stood there with my back
to the slimy wall, water reaching beyond my knees, waiting and hoping
against hope.

At last I shouted again, as loudly as before, but, alas! only the weird
echo came back to me in the silence of that deeply-sunk shaft. I felt
stifled, but, fortunately for me, the air was not foul.

Yes, my assassins had hidden me, together with the repulsive instrument
of their crime, in that disused well, confident that no one would descend
to investigate and discover my remains. How many persons, I wonder, are
yearly thrown down wells where the water is known to be impure, or where
the existence of the well itself is a secret to all but the assassin?

I saw it all now. My taxi-man must have been paid and dismissed by that
thin-faced young man, yet how cleverly the woman had evaded my question,
and how glib her explanation of her servant going into the town in a
taxi.

When she had risen from her chair and left me, it was, no doubt, to
swiftly arrange how my death should be encompassed.

Surely that isolated, ivy-covered house was a house of grim shadows--nay,
a house of death--for I certainly was not the first person who had been
foully done to death within its walls.

As I waited, trying to possess myself with patience, and hoping against
hope that I might still be rescued from my living tomb, the little streak
of light grew brighter