Again and again I made that circuit, testing each crack, sounding every separate stone in the hope of discovering some slight fault in construction by which I might profit.

Everywhere I was confronted by the same dull, dead wall of cold, hard rock, against which I exerted strength and skill uselessly.

Finally I dropped upon my knees, creeping inch by inch across the floor, but with no better result.

It likewise was composed of great slabs of stone, one having an irregular crack running through it from corner to corner, but all alike solid and immovable.
Then the last faint flicker of hope deserted me.

Yet the exercise of that fruitless search had restored some measure of manhood; my brain no longer throbbed with dull agony, nor did my veins burn as with liquid fire.