At the foot of the stairs, never forgetting his limp, he traversed several passages in which at long intervals only had a light been left burning, and at length he came to a massive oak door. Opening this, he found himself at the top of a flight of straight stone steps, running down into the blackness of the great subterranean chamber, which had been used as a crypt in the old monastic days. The shutting of the door cut off the last ray of light, and there being no rails to the steps he struck a wax match in order to make the descent in safety. But the feeble flame had hardly flickered out when it was rendered useless by a dazzling beam of white effulgence that suddenly sprang into being and shone upon him from below. "Hang it all, I didn’t allow for this!" he thought uneasily. "They have brought one of those wretched portable electric lamps, and I doubt if the disguise will stand. However, here goes." Nerving himself for the ordeal, he went slowly down the steps, and so limped across the stone floor towards a spot in the very center of the crypt where five figures were grouped under the groined roof. He had only time to observe that one figure—that of an old man with snow-white beard and puffed, purple cheeks—stood slightly in advance of the rest, when on his near approach an order was given in a queer, parrot-like squeak to switch out the lamp. The crypt was windowless, but it was conceivable that a light in the interior might be seen from outside under the door leading into the gardens. Hence, doubtless, the precaution. "You have made all preparations above, Duke?" was queried in the same piping voice. "The bonds are in my own safe, and I obtained the key of the Senator’s despatch-box by a trick—picked his pocket, in fact—after dinner," Forsyth replied, in a perfect imitation of Beaumanoir’s tone. He was beginning to feel more confident in being able to sustain his part; he would not, he thought, have lived to reach this parley if his disguise had been penetrated. "Then," the unseen spokesman proceeded, "all you have to do is to take this bundle of papers and place them in the box, extracting the originals, and returning here at once with them. It will then give me pleasure to absolve you from further service."