Here he found a series of steps, similar
to those used by the Waz-don in scaling the cliff to their caves,
leading to a lower level.
First satisfying himself that his guide was continuing upon his
way unsuspecting, the other descended after him and continued his
stealthy stalking. The passageway was now both narrow and low,
giving but bare headroom to a tall man, and it was broken often by
flights of steps leading always downward. The steps in each unit
seldom numbered more than six and sometimes there was only one or
two but in the aggregate the tracker imagined that they had descended
between fifty and seventy-five feet from the level of the upper
corridor when the passageway terminated in a small apartment at
one side of which was a little pile of rubble.
Setting his cresset upon the ground, Pan-sat commenced hurriedly
to toss the bits of broken stone aside, presently revealing a small
aperture at the base of the wall upon the opposite side of which
there appeared to be a further accumulation of rubble. This he
also removed until he had a hole of sufficient size to permit the
passage of his body, and leaving the cresset still burning upon
the floor the priest crawled through the opening he had made and
disappeared from the sight of the watcher hiding in the shadows of
the narrow passageway behind him.
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