scared too by the noise of the bats, and as the windows behind were too

small for them all to fly out together, they made for the light instead."

 

"Well, now, let us start," Harry said, getting up.  They again lit their

torches, and this time found everything perfectly quiet in the passage.

Two or three yards beyond the spot at which they had before arrived they

saw a staircase to the left. It was faintly lighted from above, and,

mounting it, they found themselves in a room extending over the whole

width and depth of the house. The roof at the eastern end was not

supported by pillars, but by walls three feet wide and seven or eight feet

apart. The first line of these was evidently over the wall of the room

they had left. There were four lines of similar supports erected, they had

no doubt, over the walls of rooms below. The light from the four windows

in front, and from an irregular opening at the other end some three feet

high and six inches wide, afforded sufficient light for them to move about

without difficulty. There were many signs of human habitation here. Along

the sides were the remains of mats, which had apparently divided spaces

six feet wide into small apartments. Turning these over they found many

trifles--arrow-heads, bead-necklaces, fragments of pots, and even a

child's doll.

 

"I expect this is the room where the married troops lived and slept,"

Harry said; "there is not much to see here."

 

The two stories above were exactly similar, except that there were no

remains of dividing mats nor of female ornaments. They walked to the

narrow end. Here the opening for light was of a different shape from those

in the rooms below. It had apparently been originally of the same shape,

but had been altered. In the middle it was, like the others, three feet

high and six inches wide, but a foot from the bottom there was a wide cut,

a foot high and three feet wide. As they approached it Dias gave an

exclamation of surprise. Two skeletons lay below it. "They must have been

on watch here, senor, when they died," he said as they came up to them.

 

"It is a rum place to watch," Bertie said, "for you cannot see out."

 

"You are right, Bertie, it is a curious hole."

 

The wall was over two feet thick; all the other openings had been driven

straight through it, and, as they had noticed, were doubtless made in the

stones before they were placed there, for inside they were cleanly cut,

and it was only within three inches of the outer face that the edges had

been left rough. This opening was of quite a different character. It

sloped at a sharp angle, and no view of the open sea could be obtained,

but only one of the line of rocks at the foot of the cliffs. It was

roughly made, and by the marks of tools, probably of hardened copper, it

had evidently been cut from the inside.

 

Harry stood looking for some time. "I cannot understand their cutting the