to see to what ignoble ends one
of like desires with himself can come, and for no crime save the lack
of freedom to be better than a slave. Another day thou mayest see.
Now we must hasten where we go. The mouth of the subterranean passage
opens just ahead. The way will be narrow when we reach the corridor
leading into the _tufa_ rock. I guide thee this back way, and longer,
that thou mayest pass the prison where my fellow working man and thy
brother, oft are thrown into."

As they made their way into the subterranean passage, the light of day
faded into a small pale spot and then went out, leaving the gloom of
midnight ahead. "The path beneath thy feet is smooth. The walls are
so close thy hand on either side can feel the way. There is no water
nor living beast to fear. When we reach the first chamber, we will
find a torch burning with which to light other torches. Follow me."

A faint glow, like a star against the pitch black, told them they were
near the chamber where the spark, as they entered, grew into the dim
light of a torch which cast a yellow circle on the rock floor. Here
the guide opened his bundle and took out two torches which he lit.
Handing one to the Phoenician he said, "Watch well thy step and keep
thou at my heels. We go down into a huge grotto quarried in the bowels
of the earth. Its passages are cut through sharp cornered rocks
between which thou must squeeze thy body, and yet other rocks stick out
into the darkness like the bristles of a mad boar. Beware these
bristles! If thou shouldst run against one, thy feet will stumble over
the edge of the abyss. Once thou hast fallen into it, no more forever
will thine eyes behold the light of day. Hold tight thy lamp. Watch
well thy step."

Carefully they made their way down, and down, and around the sharp
rocks in silence. Once they stopped and the guide said, "Stand close
against the wall. Just beyond thy feet lieth the hole of live tombs
that is a prison. From it was quarried rich material to build palaces
for masters. And the hole that was left of their labor hath often made
good prison for the workmen who quarried, when found guilty of the
crime of planning freedom."

Like parasital mites making their intestinal way the two men followed
the windings of the narrow, black corridor until they came into another
chamber where, from a grotto in the wall, oil was taken to replenish
the torch cups.

"There is now a long journey before