They were only half a dozen yards away from him, but had separated themselves so that they might surround him and thus effect an easy capture. He saw their maneuver and made a spring forward--going toward the house instead of away from it. As he passed at a bound the eunuch waiting for him, Max put out his left foot and tripped the fellow up. As ill luck would have it--or perhaps it was Max’s good luck--the man fell on his face in a bed of _euphorbia splendens_, a plant commonly known as the “crown of thorns.” The sharp thorns tore the man’s face in a criss-cross fashion and made him wish he had never been born. Max was now pursued by the others. He ran fast, and when he saw an opportunity, doubled on his pursuers. Two of them he tripped up, and thus gained another advantage. He thought if he kept by the wall he would be able to find some means of exit. But again he was mistaken. He, however, found something he did not bargain for, and that was a trap or cellar door. It was open. Max did not see it. It did not require a great exercise of his reasoning powers, or even much knowledge of the rules of logic, to comprehend the result. He fell through the open door. CHAPTER XXVIII. AN UNEXPECTED BATH. Throwing out his hands to save himself, Max clutched the door and closed it, by accident, after him. It had a spring lock, and he was a prisoner. Fortunately, the fall did not hurt him. He was only shaken and slightly bruised. His pursuers reached the door and tried it. Max felt his heart go pit-a-pat, pit-a-pat--louder than he liked. But to his great astonishment he heard his pursuers declare that he must have scaled the wall. “The cellar,” said one, by way of suggestion. “The door has not been opened for a week,” answered one of the eunuchs. “How blind they were!” mused Max, as he heard the declaration. His heart gave a big leap for joy when he heard the eunuch call off his men and declare that the “infidel” had escaped. When the footsteps died away Max began to think about his prison house. If the door had not been opened for a week, was there any way of egress or ingress? If not, then might he not starve to death? “Perhaps the Mahdi will capture the place, and I shall be saved.” Max was looking on the bright side of the subject, and his spirits rose correspondingly. The cellar or basement was very dark, but Max fortunately had a small pocket lantern with him, and after being there an hour he felt it was safe to light the lamp. He saw that he was in a great, excavated cellar, without any flooring save the mud. The roof was very high in some places, and in others so low that Max could not stand upright. It seemed to be under a whole series of houses, its extent was so great. A few rats shared the pleasures of the solitude with Max, but those were the only living things he saw. Wandering about a dark cavern, even if it is under a house, is not the most inspiring exercise, and Max was not very elated.