He stooped over it. The air came up with a rush.
At first he could see only a little way. Then he made out that the
shaft went straight down only a few feet and then slanted away in a
great chute like the floor down which he had already come, only so much
steeper that he knew had he fallen there would have been no return
possible for him. To what eventual landing place would he have
plunged? For a moment or so his eyes strained in vain into the gloom.
Slowly faint and then growing detail rewarded him. It was but a small
section offered him because of the angling of the tunnel. But before a
watch could have ticked ten times he knew into what place he would have
fallen, into what regions his glance had penetrated. The light was dim
down yonder but he knew that he was looking down into the gardens of
the golden king of Tezcuco.
"Another way into the hidden place, and one that Zoraida herself knows
nothing of," he thought. "If a man took this drop and then the slide,
he'd land with the breath jolted out of him but there is shrubbery to
fall on and it wouldn't kill him. But in there he'd stay! There would
be no climbing back up the slippery chute."
He withdrew and looked about him again. Expecting pitfalls, he took no
single step without making sure first. He crossed the chamber and upon
the further side he came to a second pit and a second tunnel. This
like the first was steep and smooth; this also gave him a glint of
light at the further end.
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