This also was opened, and led down a flight of winding stone steps, which terminated at another formidable gate.

Mr.
Merryweather stopped to light a lantern, and then conducted us down a dark, earth-smelling passage, and so, after opening a third door, into a huge vault or cellar, which was piled all round with crates and massive boxes.
"You are not very vulnerable from above," Holmes remarked as he held up the lantern and gazed about him.
"Nor from below," said Mr.Merryweather, striking his stick upon the flags which lined the floor.

"Why, dear me, it sounds quite hollow!" he remarked, looking up in surprise.
"I must really ask you to be a little more quiet!" said Holmes severely.

"You have already imperilled the whole success of our expedition.

Might I beg that you would have the goodness to sit down upon one of those boxes, and not to interfere ?" The solemn Mr.Merryweather perched himself upon a crate, with a very injured expression upon his face, while Holmes fell upon his knees upon the floor and, with the lantern and a magnifying lens, began to examine minutely the cracks between the stones.