As the light flickered over the recess Gregory noticed some ring like marks upon the stone. Stepping nearer they made out the remains of an early wall fresco. The rings were haloes and below them could still be faintly seen the outline of the pointed faces of saints with huge flat almond shaped eyes. Obviously it had once been an altar and the cavern used as a church, perhaps in the days when the infidel Turks were the masters of the city.
Somewhat to Gregory's surprise, Sabine bobbed before it, as though it were an altar in a still used church. Next moment she turned to him and said:
'Give me a candle, please: one of the whole ones. I want to light it to the Virgin.'
'Oh come!' he protested, as the echo of her voice died away. 'No religious rites have been performed here for centuries; and it's possible that later on we may need really badly the few candles we have.'
'I can't help that,' she retorted. 'Please give me one.'
'Sabine, be sensible. We simply can't afford to do this sort of thing. Down in this place candles are more precious than gold.'
'All the more reason we should donate one to the Holy Mother, and secure her protection,' came the swift response. 'You must give me one for her, Gregory! You must!'
Her voice had risen to an hysterical note; so, with considerable reluctance, Gregory got out from the bag one of their precious candles and a box of matches. Taking it from him she set it up in the embrasure, lit it, and knelt for a moment in prayer. Then, taking his arm, she said in a normal voice:
I feel much happier now. Look at our shadows. Aren't they weird? Which way shall we try next?'
The lack of success with which they had so far met in endeavouring to force up stone flags in cellars decided Gregory that their best hope still lay in finding an entrance to the caves somewhere along the river bank; so they set off down the slope of a tunnel next to that from which they had emerged.
After ten minutes' walk they were brought to a halt; the tunnel ended as had the first, with its floor shelving into the underground lake. While going down the tunnel they had noticed several more stone stairways at its side, and on their way back Gregory went up three of these; but his efforts were wasted. It struck him now that probably very few of them any longer led into cellars that were in use. In the past five hundred, years the great majority of the palaces above must have been rebuilt, and the replacement of timbered mansions by ones of stone would have required more solid foundations, so many of the old cellars would have been filled up with rubble and concrete.
On re entering the big cavern they tried a tunnel on its opposite side. That led after only a hundred paces into another cavern, from which four or five lower tunnels fanned out. Afraid now of getting hopelessly lost they decided against exploring any of them, and, retracing their steps, turned into a third tunnel that had a downward slope. In another ten minutes they once again found themselves on the edge of the sinisterly still lake.
In walking up and down the three tunnels and exploring the two caverns Gregory reckoned that they must have walked a good three miles, and he saw from his watch that their explorations, together with the time expended in trying to force up flagstones, had occupied a little over two hours. Sabine had gamely refrained from complaining, but she was clearly tired and was limping a little, as the rough rock floor of the cave was hard going in the thin-soled shoes she was wearing.
He was still convinced that if only they could get down to the river bank they would find a way out and it occurred to him that possibly the lake was shallow enough for them to wade through it.
When he told her his idea she murmured, 'Oh, God! Must we? If it wasn't for my fur coat, and that I've been using my limbs all this time, I'd be frozen already. I expect that water is icy.'
Stooping, he dabbled his hand in it, and replied, 'It's not too bad. And you needn't go in yet. I'll go ahead and find out how deep it is.'
'No, no!' She grabbed him by the arm. 'Don't leave me! Anything but that!'
'You'll be all right,' he soothed her. 'I promise you I won't take any silly risks, or go out of your sight.'
'But there may be a sudden drop in the bottom. You might be drowned.'
'There's no fear of that. You know I'm a good swimmer. At worst I'll get a thorough wetting.' As he spoke he set down the canvas bag, took two stumps of candle from it and, setting them up on a ledge of rock, lit them. When he had done, he added, 'There! Now I won't be leaving you in the dark, and if I do drop the torch I'll be able to see my way back to you. Should you need it the other torch is in the bag. Sit down and rest your poor feet for a bit. I won't be long.'
As she sank wearily down on the floor of the cave he waded cautiously out into the dark water. The slope was gradual and when he had progressed about twenty feet the water was still only midway up his thighs. A few steps farther on it began to get shallower, and he gave a cry of delight. The torch beam had picked up the opposite shore, and he was already more than halfway to it. Turning, he splashed his way back to Sabine.
'We'll make it easily,' he told her. 'Even if there is a hidden clip we can swim the last few yards; but it's very unlikely that well have to. We must try to keep your coat from getting wet though. Take it off and I'll carry it as a bundle on my head.'
Scrambling to her feet she slipped the coat off, giving a quick shiver as the cold air struck the flesh above and below her elastic belt. He put out the two bits of candle, returned them to the bag and took from it the smaller electric torch. Handing it to her, he said:
'You had better take this, just in case I drop the lot.' Then he rolled the bag up in her coat, put the bundle on his head and held it firmly there with his left hand. Side by side they went into the water. It proved no deeper the whole way across than he had found it on his reconnaissance. Within two minutes, and with Sabine's belt still dry, they were safely on the opposite shore. But in her near naked state the dank chill had made her teeth start to chatter; so as soon as Gregory had unrolled her coat he fished the flask of brandy from its pocket and made her take a couple of good swallows.
'That… that's better!' she spluttered. 'Thank goodness I've always made a habit of carrying cognac when I travel.'
As he helped her back into her coat she insisted that he too should have a pull and, seeing that the large flask was still nearly full, he gladly did so. Then they set out again. But they soon realized that they were not in the wide mouth of another cave, and after a dozen paces a flash of the torch showed them more water.
Thinking that they had landed on a curved promontory and that beyond it must lie a tunnel leading riverwards, they turned left and followed the water's edge. It was full of small irregular bays and creeks so its direction was difficult to guess, although in general it seemed to curve more to the left than right. Flashing the torch every few seconds they walked on for about ten minutes, then Gregory halted, shone it on a spur of rock, and exclaimed:
'Damn it! I could swear we passed that pointed bit before.'
Sabine agreed, and after they had gone a little farther they realized with dismay that they were on an island.