The depth was more than five feet now, and his experience
told him that even in the construction of a mediaeval palace the walls
above the level of the ground were very rarely as thick as that, when
built of good brick and cement like this one.
When he took up his lantern, he was amazed at what he had done in less
than four hours; if he had been told that an ordinary man had
accomplished anything approaching to it in that time, he would have
been incredulous. He had hardly realized that he had made a hole big
enough for him to work in, kneeling on one knee, and bracing himself
with the other foot.
But the end was narrow, of course, and when he held the light before
it, he could not see past the body of the lantern. He opened the
latter, took out the little oil lamp carefully and thrust it into the
hole. He could see now, as he carefully examined the bricks; and he
was easily convinced that he had not entered a cross wall.
Nevertheless, when he had been working with the bar, he had not
detected any change in the sound, as he thought he must have done, if
he had been near the further side. Was the wall ten feet thick? He
looked again. It was not a vaulting, that was clear; and it could not
be anything but a wall. There was some comfort in that. He drew back a
little, put the lamp into the lantern again and got out backwards.
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