Fanfar reflected a moment. "As we cannot go back, let us hasten forward with all possible speed. We will find the way out."
"Or we will make one!" cried Bobichel.
The three friends started once more, Bobichel in front, holding a heavy bronze candelabra.
CHAPTER LX.
ESPERANCE IN DESPAIR.
It was indeed by this mysterious path that Esperance had gone. When he heard that Jane was not to be found, he at first could hardly comprehend what was said. He ran to Jane's room and looked about, then scarce knowing what he did, he left the house and then returned to it, after having wandered over Paris for two or three hours. No one noticed his pallor when he entered the hôtel. He went to Jane's room again, and there, lying back in a low chair, he looked about with sad eyes.
Suddenly he saw a panel slowly open in the wall. He was not afraid. Esperance did not know the sensation, and now he simply expected some revelation. He instantly knew that this was the path by which Jane had been taken away. He rose and entered the dark corridor. He had no light, and the door at once closed behind him; but he had inherited his father's singular power of seeing in the dark.
He discovered the stairs, and began to descend them. He went on and on, and then another corridor, and then more stairs. Finally he reached a door, which he opened, and entered a large room hung with silk. It was one of the houses which had been so useful to Monte-Cristo years before. The path by which Esperance had come crossed the Champs Elysées under ground, and communicated with this house.