Craning my neck round, I could see the black angular silhouette of my companion as he came after me.

He paused at the entrance, and then, with a rustling of branches and snapping of twigs, the faint light was suddenly shut off from outside, and we were left in pitchy darkness.

I heard the scraping of his knees as he crawled up behind me.
'Go on until you come to a step down,' said he.

'We shall have more room there, and we can strike a light.' The ceiling was so low that by arching my back I could easily strike it, and my elbows touched the wall upon either side.

In those days I was slim and lithe, however, so that I found no difficulty in making my way onwards until, at the end of a hundred paces, or it may have been a hundred and fifty, I felt with my hands that there was a dip in front of me.