Then his light began to brighten;
the embers glowed and when he blew on them, broke again into flame. He
looked up; he could not see the square of light above now. Evidently
he was passing into some sort of wide tunnel or lengthy chamber. Dimly
he could descry walls on either side of him. Ahead was only black
emptiness; underfoot the uneven floor seeming to grow smoother and to
slant still more abruptly downward.
"I'd better go easy," he told himself grimly. "If a man started
sliding here I wonder where he'd land!"
Decidedly the air was better. He filled his lungs and stopped where he
was, moving his torch above his head, lowering it, peering about him on
all sides. At last he made out that a dozen steps further on there was
a level space about which the walls were squared so as to give the
effect of a small room. He drew nearer step by step and again was
forced to kneel and then feel his way forward with his hands for the
floor under him grew steadily steeper so that it was difficult to keep
from sliding down the incline. When he saw his way sufficiently
clearly he did slide the last three or four feet. And now, as again
his torch flared and the air freshened in his nostrils, he saw that
which put an eager excitement in his blood. The small room had every
appearance of an ancient storeroom. He saw objects piled on the floor,
objects of strange designs, cups and pitchers and vessels of various
shapes.
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