It would, however, be rest.

But, just as he was yielding to it, the thought came to him that, by the settling of the clay, washed in, the lower orifice was likely to be obstructed.

All passage for the outer air would be closed.

Within, the respiration of ten persons would soon vitiate the air by loading it with carbonic acid.
Dick Sand then slipped to the ground, which had been raised by the clay from the first floor of cells.
That cushion was still perfectly dry, and the orifice entirely free.
The air penetrated freely to the interior of the cone, and with it some flashes of lightning, and the loud noises of that storm, that a diluvian rain could not extinguish.
Dick Sand saw that all was well.

No immediate danger seemed to menace these human termites, substituted for the colony of newroptera.