“None at all,” replied Lawrence. “It is only to walk down some rough steps.”
She said no more, but let herself be helped down through the opening, and in five minutes they were all in what seemed to be quite a warm atmosphere, waiting in the intense darkness while Yussuf carefully closed the stone.
“There is nothing to mind,” said Lawrence. “I have been all the way down here, and I will tell you when the steps end and the rough slopes begin.”
He spoke aloud now, in quite a happy buoyant manner which affected the rest, and their spirits rose still higher when Yussuf suddenly struck a match and lit the lamp which his forethought had provided.
This done they stood in the rugged arched passage to shake off the clinging snow with which they were covered, and with spirits rising higher still the whole party followed Yussuf, who, lamp in hand, now went to the front.
“I should like to stop here for an hour or two to examine this roofing and the steps,” said the professor. “Pre-Roman evidently. We have plenty of time, have we not?”
“Effendi, it would be madness,” cried Yussuf angrily. “Come on!”
“I have done, and you are master of the situation,” said the professor quietly; while Mr Burne burst into a laugh, took snuff, and then blew his nose, so that it echoed strangely along the passage.
“Effendi!” cried Yussuf reproachfully.
“Tut-tut!” exclaimed the old lawyer. “I thought we were safe.”