CHAPTER IV.
Numbers of lizards glided away from my feet as I descended the steps, and when the flare of my torch penetrated the darkness I heard a scurrying of wings mingled with various hissing sounds and wild cries.
I knew now--none better--what weird and abominable things had habitation in this storehouse of the dead, but I felt I could defy them all, armed with the light I carried.

The way that had seemed so long in the dense gloom was brief and easy, and I soon found myself at the scene of my unexpected awakening from sleep.

The actual body of the vault was square-shaped, like a small room inclosed within high walls--walls which were scooped out in various places so as to form niches in which the narrow caskets containing the bones of all the departed members of the Romani family were placed one above the other like so many bales of goods arranged evenly on the shelves of an ordinary warehouse.

I held the candle high above my head and looked about me with a morbid interest.

I soon perceived what I sought--my own coffin.
There it was in a niche some five feet from the ground, its splintered portions bearing decided witness to the dreadful struggle I had made to obtain my freedom.