“I had taken some twenty-five steps before I slipped.
“Now a fall in that shaft would be an ugly business, and I don’t think you could complain if you broke no more than a leg: and, as, all things considered, it’s not the place you’d choose for a first-class smash, I saved myself at the cost of dropping the torch. This, of course, was broken by the fall, and, although I recovered it, it would give me no light.
“To proceed in the dark seemed futile, and I had just begun to retrace my steps, when I became aware of a light which came from the well.
“I at once assumed that you had adjusted the searchlight and were letting it down, for I heard the windlass working: but a moment later I thought that I heard a whistle, and stopped in my tracks.
“Someone alighted heavily on the stage.
“But for the whistle I had heard, that it was not you, Chandos, would never have entered my head. As it was, I made sure you would hail me almost at once: but, remembering that all things are possible, I waited for you to speak.
“That I did so was just as well, for I was still waiting when somebody snuffed and spat.
“Well, that eliminated any of us.
“I can’t pretend I wasn’t shaken.
“I dared not think what had happened to you and Hanbury: the servants, presumably, were obediently keeping the house: the enemy had the windlass: and I was trapped, good and proper, in a blind tunnel five by three, and eighty-odd feet below ground.
“All of a sudden I wondered if the enemy knew I was there.
“I decided that the odds were that he did not. Unless he had seen me go down, there was no reason why he should know. The searchlight had failed: my torch had gone out: although the stage was there, I had withdrawn my bridge. The fact that he made no attempt to conceal his presence assured me that I was right.
“Instinctively I began to reascend the shaft.
“I had not thought that even Rose Noble would suspect our work at the well, and the reflection that I had been so heartily outwitted and outclassed was very bitter. The attack had been well done. One minute, you and Hanbury were bailing: the next, one of the five was descending the well. I assumed that he had come to reconnoitre. When he had made his report, the others would bail for a while, and then the actual attempt to lift the treasure would be made. Unless I could reach the servants, I did not see how this could fail.
“I had taken five or six steps, when a splash told me that my man was making the shaft. Though there was still one spare plank, the idea of a bridge had not, I suppose, occurred to him: but, after a struggle—in which he went under water—I heard him make the steps. For a moment he stood grunting and blowing, and trying to get his breath. Then he began to ascend. This surprised me, for I had made certain that he would first produce a torch; but what astonished me still more was the progress he made, for he climbed as well as I had when I had seen my way.
“So we went up the shaft in single file, some thirty odd steps apart.
“My one idea, of course, was to get to the top of the well. The only way to do this was, unknown to the rest of the gang, to take his place and let them haul me up in his stead. What would happen when they saw their mistake no one could tell, but with luck I should have been landed before they saw what they had done.
“It was quite plain that, if I could escape the notice of the man in the shaft, I should stand a better chance of taking his place. Even if I had had room, I could not see to hit him under the jaw: unless I could knock him senseless, he would probably let out a yell: I was unarmed, and by a hand-to-hand fight in the dark in such a place I was as likely to come to harm as was he. But what weighed with me most of all was the natural reluctance to kill. Unless I laid him out, his shouts would give me away: but, if I put him out of action, in view of the pace at which the water was rising, he would either be drowned or trapped—probably trapped. And it seemed a shocking thing to sentence a fellow creature to such a terrible doom.
“To avoid him in the shaft was out of the question, but I thought if I could reach the chamber, I could let him go by to the treasure and start right back.
“I was not afraid of his hearing me, for I was going quietly, but he made a lot of noise.
“The shaft seemed endless, but at last I felt a step which was clear of ooze. I took it, and two more, and then something I hadn’t expected told me that I was upon the threshold of the chamber itself. Four iron bars, set up on end in the way. From their shape, I should say they were crowbars, such as a well-digger used about his business. And I don’t suppose it took five minutes to bed them, but, once the cement had set, well, I don’t know if you’ve ever filed iron, but it’s tedious work. Top and bottom, they were bedded into hewn stone. There’s no doubt about it, Axel the Red was a very careful man.
“That it would come to a fight was now certain; so I set my back to the bars and awaited my man.
“Suddenly I heard the bell ring at the top
