Let me down easily if you can.

I can neither pass nor follow suite.

I am right out of my reckoning.

Now what do you propose to do ?" "Get one of those torches we brought with us, and find out what there is in that hole," Kitwater answered.
They waited while the latter went back to the camp, and when he reappeared, and had lighted the torch, they prepared to follow him down the steps into the mysterious depths below.

The former, they soon discovered, were as solidly built as the rest of the palace, and were about thirty in number.