The two men turned that
way, but after walking a dozen yards, they turned to the left and
entered a damp passage barely wide enough for them both abreast. It
ended at the padlocked door, and before unlocking the latter Malipieri
laid his ear to the rough panel and listened attentively. Not a sound
broke the stillness. He turned the key, and took off the padlock and
slipped it into his pocket before going on. Without it the door could
not be fastened.
The passage widened suddenly beyond, in another short tunnel ending at
the outer foundation wall of the palace. In this tunnel, on the right-
hand side, was the breach the two men had first made in order to gain
access to the unexplored region. Now that there was an aperture, the
running water on the other side could be heard very distinctly, like a
little brook in a rocky channel, but more steady. Both men examined
the damp floor carefully with their lanterns, in the hope of finding
some trace of footsteps; but the surface was hard and almost black,
and where there had been a little slime their own feet had rubbed it
off, as they came and went during many days. The stones and rubbish
they had taken from the wall had been piled up and hardened to form an
inclined causeway by which to reach the irregular hole. This was now
just big enough to allow a man to walk through it, bending almost
double.
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