“Genius, I do not think you have yet seen all through my palace. Though you have not asked to do so I cannot think but that you must be curious. If you will come with me I will show it you now.” With little answer I followed her back to the door from which I had come out, and we re-entered the palace. Hitherto I had only been acquainted with those principal apartments which led from the large hall and from each other. But now she led me to a large folding-door at the upper end, remote from the end by which I had entered on the day when first I came. I had often looked towards this door with curiosity. There was a darkness and mystery about it which had caught even my uncaring thoughts. Many a time too I had seen a slave pass through it, either in or out, and in the momentary opening I had noticed the blackness beyond. I remember as we passed through this heavy door a terrible silence greeted us, so terrible that whereas without there had been light and warmth, here one experienced neither. I stood still. A feeling of utter repugnance overwhelmed me, that feeling of undeniable degradation which had overwhelmed me when touched by the stunted woman long ago. “I do not wish to see this place,” I cried. “Are you afraid?” she asked scornfully. “If fear is born of unavailing sorrow then I am much afraid,” I answered. Her laugh broke drearily on the stillness. “You must come,” she went on. “It will do you good and act like a tonic. When we get back again you will feel quite cheerful, and congratulate yourself upon your luxurious life as a guest.” I made no further reply. We had come into a long narrow passage, so gloomy and dark that it seemed more like the passage through the thick wall of an old church than anything else. It appeared dusty and full of cobwebs despite its evident occasional use, and I remember I coughed once, because there was some irritating matter in the air. At the other end of the passage was another door. It was locked, and I noticed for the first time that she unlocked it before we passed through; and also from this time I became conscious that she was carrying a large bunch of keys. The gloom beyond was greater than it had been before. It was deepened by a narrow spiral staircase leading sheer down for what might have been several hundred feet. It was a giddy, gloomy depth, and would have made dizzy any mortal brain, but we passed down it silently and swiftly, she leading, I following, till we lighted on firm ground again amidst total darkness. Where we had come to I could not tell, as the isolation and heaviness were complete. “Can you hear anything?” she whispered in my ear. And again she whispered,— “Listen.” Yes, I heard it. “Gurgle, gurgle.” Ever the same deep sound—the dull keynote to hell. Then gradually, slowly and mysteriously, the darkness gave way to a dull red light. It lit up the arched passages that branched out in every direction from where we stood, like the crypt of some cathedral.