“Look out for wolves!” cried Riasantzeff. “It’s all right. I’ve got a revolver!” came the answer. It sounded faint and weird. Yourii advanced slowly and with caution. The sides of the cavern were low, uneven, and damp as the walls of a large cellar. The ground was so irregular that twice Yourii just missed falling into a hole. He thought it would be best to turn back, or to sit down and wait a while so that he could say that he had gone a good way in. Suddenly he heard the sound of footsteps behind him slipping on the wet clay, and of some one breathing hard. He held the light aloft. “Sinaida Karsavina!” he exclaimed in amazement. “Her very self!” replied Sina gaily, as she caught up her dress and jumped lightly over a hole. Yourii was glad that she, this merry, handsome girl, had come, and he greeted her with laughing eyes. “Let us go on,” said Sina shyly. Yourii obediently advanced. No thoughts of danger troubled him now, and he was specially careful to light the way for his companion. He perceived several exits, but all were blocked. In one corner lay a few rotten planks, that looked like the remains of some old coffin. “Not very interesting, eh?” said Yourii, unconsciously lowering his voice. The mass of earth oppressed him. “Oh! yes it is!” whispered Sina, and as she looked round her wide eyes gleamed in the candle-light. She was nervous, and instinctively kept close to Yourii for protection. This Yourii noticed. He felt a strange sympathy for his fair, frail companion. “It is like being buried alive,” she continued. “We might scream, but nobody would hear us.” “Of course not,” laughed Yourii. Then a sudden thought caused his brain to reel. This beautiful girl, so fresh, so desirable, was at his mercy. No one could see or hear them…. To Yourii such a thought seemed unutterably base. He quickly banished it, and said: “Suppose we try?” His voice trembled. Could Sina have read his thoughts? “Try what?” she asked. “Suppose I fire?” said Yourii, producing his revolver. “Will the earth fall in on us?” “I don’t know,” he replied, though he felt certain that nothing would happen. “Are you afraid?” “Oh no! Fire away!” said Sina, as she retreated a step or so. Holding out the revolver, he fired. There was a flash, and a dense cloud of smoke enveloped them, as the echo of the report slowly died away. “There! That’s all,” said Yourii. “Let us go back.” They retraced their steps, but as Sina walked on in front of Yourii the sight of her round, firm hips again brought sensuous thoughts to his mind that he found it hard to ignore. “I say, Sina Karsavina!” His voice faltered. “I am going to ask you an interesting psychological question. How was it that you did not feel afraid to come here with me? You said yourself that if we screamed no one would hear us…. You don’t know me in the least!” Sina blushed in the darkness and was silent. At last she murmured. “Because I thought that you were to be trusted.”