Pagina 396 de 1116

They stinted not their going, O my lady, till all went down by

the trap door and did not reappear for an hour, or rather more;

at the end of which time the slaves and the old man came up

without the youth and, replacing the iron plate and carefully

closing the door slab as it was before, they returned to the ship

and made sail and were lost to my sight. When they turned away to

depart, I came down from the tree and, going to the place I had

seen them fill up, scraped off and removed the earth; and in

patience possessed my soul till I had cleared the whole of it

away. Then appeared the trap door which was of wood, in shape and

size like a millstone; and when I lifted it up it disclosed a

winding staircase of stone.