"We were sitting about two hundred yards from the cliff, by the side of a stream which, we had noticed, flowed from a fissure in the rock. Whilst thus resting and talking, a strange thing happened. The noisy stream which flowed at our feet suddenly became silent; we looked down in surprise to find that now only a little trickle of water passed over its rocky bed. My companion jumped up in excitement and looked towards the crevice from which the water came. Signing to me to rise quietly, he pointed to the cliff which we could see through a gap in the trees. From out the fissure in the rock which a few minutes before was filled with water, we saw two men pass, clad in the yellow robes of mendicant priests. As they came out of the channel and made their way into the wood, the water once more dashed out of the rock with more than usual force, so that in another minute the stream at our feet was a roaring torrent. "’The key is in our hands if we can use it,’ my friend said as soon as he had satisfied himself that the priests were out of hearing. ’That is the gateway, and no doubt the inhabitants have some arrangement inside by which they can for a short time divert the water into a reservoir, and thereby open the passage or close it at will.’ "’Yes,’ I replied, ’but I cannot agree with you that we have the key; they seem to keep that safely inside. If we want to get through we must wait patiently until they open the door for their friends, and then take French leave. Probably we shall soon wish we had kept outside. What do you think of doing?’ "’I shall get in at all risk,’ he answered. ’It is too good an opportunity to lose; but let us go back now and make our plans, we can do nothing more at present, and if we are noticed our presence may cause suspicion.’ "During our evening meal we discussed the situation. I must own that I tried to persuade Kanwick to give up the idea of forcing an entrance into these sacred precincts. Cut off as we should be from all possibility of rescue, the idea seemed foolhardy in the extreme; but seeing that my friend had determined to go, I decided to share the risk. "As soon as it was dark we agreed to start; and watch the entrance, as our only chance of slipping through the tunnel unobserved would be during the night-time.