At last it yielded to the combined efforts of all four.
Inside they found a big, bare room of stone, where in the old days the sacks of corn were stored. Soon, having explored the place by the aid of two flash-lamps, and Elma calling constantly, Roddy’s voice directed them to the chamber below in which his captors had placed him with such evil intent.
At last they descended a flight of winding stone steps, slippery with slime, but on reaching the last step they found the water to be high above their waists.
“Roddy!” cried Elma breathlessly, “are you there?”
“Yes, dear. I’m here! Try and open the door. But do be careful. The water is rising. It’s very deep now!” was the faint reply.
They could not see the fastenings of the door on account of the black flood, but after great difficulty, all four succeeded in forcing it open, whereupon Roddy, entirely exhausted in body and in mind and at the limit of his endurance, fell back into the girl’s ready arms.
Elma’s voice from the void had given him courage, and his life had, after all, been saved by wireless!
There is an old Spanish proverb which says, “From poverty to wealth is the breadth of two hands: from wealth to poverty, the breadth of two fingers.”
De pobre à rico, dos palmos!
De rico à pobre, dos dedos.