"It connects with the vaults under the church," Croquier answered.
"How did you find out about it?"
"I didn't," said the hunchback; "I made it."
"When?"
"Last week. The story of me and the eagle was all over the village and the Germans were looking for me everywhere. There wasn't a corner they didn't search.
"To have a hiding-place which no one could reveal, even under torture, meant life and death. Therefore I had to make it myself. This well is in my neighbor's garden."
"Is it? I hadn't followed which way we were going. But wasn't it a lot of work?"
"Yes," said the hunchback, "but when it's your life that's at stake, you're willing to do some work. It wasn't so hard to figure the course of the tunnel from here to the church," he explained; "one couldn't help striking the vaults somewhere, they're so big."
"So that's how you escaped this afternoon from out of the church."