She became confused with the goddess herself, and his loved unfolded itself all the more, like the great lotus-plants blooming upon the depths of the waters.
Spendius was calculating how much money he would have made in former days by the sale of these women; and with a rapid glance he estimated the weight of the golden necklaces as he passed by.
The temple was impenetrable on this side as on the other, and they returned behind the first chamber.

While Spendius was searching and ferreting, Matho was prostrate before the door supplicating Tanith.

He besought her not to permit the sacrilege, and strove to soften her with caressing words, such as are used to an angry person.
Spendius noticed a narrow aperture above the door.
"Rise!" he said to Matho, and he made him stand erect with his back against the wall.

Placing one foot in his hands, and then the other upon his head, he reached up to the air-hole, made his way into it and disappeared.

Then Matho felt a knotted cord--that one which Spendius had rolled around his body before entering the cisterns--fall upon his shoulders, and bearing upon it with both hands he soon found himself by the side of the other in a large hall filled with shadow.
Such an attempt was something extraordinary.