Down this I clambered, and was instantly conscious from the purer air that I was in some larger cavity.

I heard the snapping of my companion's flint, and the red glow of the tinder paper leaped suddenly into the clear yellow flame of the taper.

At first I could only see that stern, emaciated face, like some grotesque carving in walnut wood, with the ceaseless fishlike vibration of the muscles of his jaw.

The light beat full upon it, and it stood strangely out with a dim halo round it in the darkness.

Then he raised the taper and swept it slowly round at arm's length so as to illuminate the place in which we stood.
I found that we were in a subterranean tunnel, which appeared to extend into the bowels of the earth.