With a lighted candle in his hand the Captain went through a broad but low arched doorway, followed by all the others, into a small dark cell, paved with stone, to which a few faint rays of light were admitted by a slit a foot long and about two inches wide in the upper part of one wall.
“And did Monte Cristo spend fourteen years in such a dark hole as this!” Kit exclaimed, with a shudder.
“No, indeed,” the Captain answered; “he was in a far worse place than this. Now look out for your footing on this slant and for your heads in the low doorway.”
He led the way to another and smaller doorway in the darkest corner, not high enough to stand erect under, and reached by going down a dark and dangerous incline of a few feet.
“This,” said he, “is Monte Cristo’s dungeon. You see it is lower than the other, and even darker. Here on the side is the hole that he cut through into the priest’s cell. Do you see where a large stone has been removed? We could crawl through there into the other cell, but it is not worth while, as they are much the same. Well, Mr. Supercargo, how do you like this sort of a residence?”
“Terrible!” Kit answered. “The only good thing I see about it is that it is entirely dry. There does not seem to be any of the dampness that we expect in a dungeon.”
“That is because these dungeons are all above ground, and founded on rock,” the Captain explained. “And this Monte Cristo cell is the worst of all. It is not more than ten or twelve feet square, you see, and the ceiling is low. In fact, it is no better than a dark cellar. But in the upper tier there are some fine cells. Occasionally they caught a king or prince and caged him here, you know, and they had better quarters.”
“Then let us go and see them!” the chief engineer exclaimed. “It’s enough to give a man the shivers to look at such holes as these.”
Cautiously they crawled out of the lower dungeons and went to the stairway. As they passed the well-curb, Harry stopped and raised the lid and looked down.
“Water!” he cried; “I should say so. Here’s a big square tank with water enough to float a ship.”