It was the work of a moment to untie his feet. Feeling that the battle was already half won, he jumped up, his heart full of joy and gratitude. God was giving him another chance. He was to find a way of escape. Taking his little torch from his pocket, he pressed the button, and a ray of light pierced the darkness.
CHAPTER VIII
TAPPING THE CABLE
The first thing that Danny noticed was something that had not been there before when he had explored the passage. It was something that had happened since the German had gone away with the light.
It was a great crack in the stone wall!
A huge stone—the very one he had been pushing and rubbing against to cut his bonds—had shifted its position. Here, surely, was the opening to a secret way out of the passage! Pushing the stone gently Danny found that it swung round on a pivot, just allowing room for a man to pass.
Stepping through, he flashed his light about him. He was in a great, arched vault.
Hanging on a pillar just in front of him was a lantern, containing a candle end, and a box of matches. Thankfully Danny took this down from its hook, for already the light was getting faint—the battery was giving out. Lighting the lantern he held it aloft. As its yellow light flickered in the dark corners, and between the massive pillars, a sight met his eyes that sent a thrill of horror and excitement through his heart.
Standing in the narrow aperture of the secret door, Danny gazed in fascinated horror at the scene.
Before him a great, low hall stretched away into the darkness, so that he could not see the end of it. Massive pillars supported the vaulted roof, which was not more than eight feet high. And amid the dust, and the sense of old days long gone by, of a dead, forgotten past, he had come all unexpectedly on war and its most deadly instruments lurking, hiding, and, somehow, terribly alive and modern.
