A moment's scrutiny--then advancing to a corner of the building he wrenched away great armfuls of the thick overgrowth. A hole stood revealed--a dark passage slanting down into the earth. "Wait here a moment," he said. "I'll go in first and see that the way is clear." The tunnel was straight and smooth. Once inside there was not much difficulty in getting along. But it suddenly occurred to Vipan that he might be acting like a fool. What if he were to encounter a snake in this long-closed-up _oubliette_, or foul air? Well, for the latter, the matches that he lighted from time to time burnt brightly and clear. For the former--he was already within the "dug-out" when the thought struck him. He glanced around in the subterranean gloom. It was not unlikely that the floor of the tomb-like retreat might be strewn with the remains of its former owners, who had perished miserably by their own hands rather than fall into the power of their savage foe. But no grim death's-head glowered at him in the darkness. The place was empty. Quickly he returned to his companion. "It's pretty dark in there," he said. "Think you'd care to undertake it? It may try your nerves." But Yseulte laughingly disclaimed the proprietorship of any such inconvenient attributes. She was resolved to see as much wild adventure as she could, she declared. Nevertheless, when she found herself buried in the earthy darkness as she crawled at her companion's heels, she could not feel free from an inclination to turn back there and then. But when she stood upright within the underground fortress, and her eyes became accustomed to the half-light, she forgot her misgivings. "How ingenious!" she cried, looking first around the earthy cell and then out through the loop-holes. "Now, let's imagine we are beleaguered here, and that the savages are wheeling and circling around us. We could `stand them off'--isn't that the expression?--till next week." "And then if nobody came to get us out of our fix next week?" "Oh, then we could hold out until the week after." "You think that would be fun, eh?" "Of course," she answered, her eyes dancing with glee in response to his queer half-smile.