"Yes, but the bar, Allan--the bar! How did you leave the bar?" "Raised!" The one word seemed to seal their doom. A shudder passed through Beatrice. "So then," she choked, "some air-current swung the door shut--and the bar--fell--" A sudden rage possessed the engineer. "Damn that infernal staple!" he gritted, and as he spoke the ax swung into air. "Crash!" On the metal plates it boomed and echoed thunderously. A ringing clangor vibrated the crypt. "_Crash!_" Did the door start? No; but in the long-eroded plates a jagged dent took form. Again the ax swung high. Cold though the vault was, sweat globuled his forehead, where the veins had swelled to twisting knots. "_Crash!_" With a wild verberation, a scream of sundered metal and a clatter of flying fragments, the staple gave way. A crack showed round the edge of the iron barrier. Stern flung his shoulder against the door. Creaking, it swung. He staggered through. One hand groped out to steady him, against the wall. From the other the ax dropped crashing to the floor. Only a second he stood thus, swaying; then he turned and gathered Beta in his arms. And on his breast she hid her face, from which the roses all had faded quite. He felt her fighting back the tears, and raised her head and kissed her. "There, there!" he soothed. "It wasn't anything, after all, you see. But--if we hadn't brought the ax with us--" "Oh, Allan, let's go now! This crypt--I can't--" "We will go very soon. But there's no danger now, darling. We're not children, you know. We've still got work to do. We'll go soon; but first, those records!" "Oh, how can you, after--after what might have been?" He found the strength to smile. "I know," he answered, "but it didn't happen, after all. A miss is worth a million miles, dear. That's what life seems to mean to us, and has meant ever since we woke in the tower, peril and risk, labor and toil--and victory! Come, come, let's get to work again, for there's so endlessly much to do." Calmer grown, the girl found new courage in his eyes and in his strong embrace. "You're right, Allan. I was a little fool to--" He stopped her self-reproach with kisses, then picked up the torch from the floor where it had fallen from her nerveless hand. "If you prefer," he offered. "I'll take you back into the sunlight, and you can sit under the trees and watch the river, while I--" "Where you are, there am I! Come on, Allan; let's get it over with. Oh, what a coward you must think me!" "I think you're a woman, and the bravest that ever lived!" he exclaimed vehemently. "Who but you could ever have gone through with me all that has happened? Who could be my mate and face the future as you're doing? Oh, if you only understood my estimate of you! "But now let's get at those records again. Time's passing, and there must be still no end of things to do!"