What if some huge box or case of bottles should have been piled up in front of the marked brick I was seeking?
I am strong, but I could not move such an object alone, and this search was a solitary one; I had been forbidden to seek help.
The anxiety this possibility involved nerved me to instant action.

I leaped forward to the one clear spot singled out for me by chance and began a hurried scrutiny of the short strip of wall which was all that was revealed to me on the right-hand side.

Did it hold the marked brick?
My little candle shook with eagerness and it was with difficulty I could see the face of the brick close enough to determine.

But fortune favored, and presently my eye fell on one whose surface showed a ruder, scratched cross.

It was in the lowest row and well within reach of my hand.