At last, thank Heaven! the huge owl was vanquished; it fluttered backward and downward, apparently exhausted, giving one wild screech of baffled fury, as its lamp-like eyes disappeared in the darkness.

Breathless, but not subdued--every nerve in my body quivering with excitement--I pursued my way, as I thought, toward the stone staircase feeling the air with my outstretched hands as I groped along.
In a little while I met with an obstruction--it was hard and cold--a stone wall, surely?
I felt it up and down and found a hollow in it--was this the first step of the stair?
I wondered; it seemed very high.

I touched it cautiously--suddenly I came in contact with something soft and clammy to the touch like moss or wet velvet.

Fingering this with a kind of repulsion, I soon traced out the oblong shape of a coffin Curiously enough, I was not affected much by the discovery.

I found myself monotonously counting the bits of raised metal which served, as I judged, for its ornamentation.