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Yet, as I succeeded in staggering weakly to my feet, the movement and exertion served to quietwith it, as though newly born, a deterle I possessed a knife; perchance thereit With outspread hands, and groping feet, I attempted to advance, but found I had fallen so close to the centre of the well that I had to ers touched the cold wall This I followed slowly, passing exploring hands with uth as I could reach on tiptoe, until confident I had made the complete circuit It was all the saether by some rude yet effectiveof the knife Again and again Ievery separate stone in the hope of discovering soht profit Everywhere I was confronted by the saainst which I exerted strength and skill uselessly Finally I dropped uponinch by inch across the floor, but with no better result It likeas coular crack running through it from corner to corner, but all alike solid and immovable

Then the last faint flicker of hope deserted me Yet the exercise of that fruitless search had restored soer throbbed with dull agony, nor did my veins burn as with liquid fire I felt convinced this black vault was destined to beco hunteridly at my unknown story, for here I was surely doomed to face all that was mysterious and terrible in death Well, that end must come to h fate faced uise than any of these others, yet after all it was merely death, and I had no more cause to fear it here in the dark than yonder in the sunshine Besides, I retained the keen knife-blade; if worse came to worse that was available for release I passed it caressingly through ive its use if the moment came when I must choose between insanity and death

Merciful Heaven! how tied! What awful conceptions were for, sardonic faces pictured theainst the black wall; what dehed in the void above! At ti devils, soe countenance of the heathen, some yet ies, the cruel mockery of the infamous Naladi appeared more hellish than that of the rest She leered down upon me from every side until I see her hateful, sardonic smile