I always hated cellars, and the catacombs at Rome are worse, though full of sacred interest." Then we started, Tommy frisking on ahead in a most provoking way as though he were bored by a visit to a strange house and going home, and Yva gliding forward with a smile upon her face that was half mystic and half mischievous.

We passed the remains of the machines, and Bickley asked her what they were.
"Carriages in which once we travelled through the skies, until we found a better way, and that the uninstructed used till the end," she answered carelessly, leaving me wondering what on earth she meant.
We came to the statue and the sepulchre beneath without trouble, for the glint of her hair, and I may add of Tommy's back, were quite sufficient to guide us through the gloom.

The crystal coffins were still there, for Bastin flashed his torch and we saw them, but the boxes of radium had gone.
"Let that light die," she said to Bastin.

"Humphrey, give me your right hand and give your left to Bickley.

Let Bastin cling to him and fear nothing." We passed to the end of the tomb and stood against what appeared to be a rock wall, all close together, as she directed.
"Fear nothing," she said again, but next second I was never more full of fear in my life, for we were whirling downwards at a speed that would have made an American elevator attendant turn pale.
"Don't choke me," I heard Bickley say to Bastin, and the latter's murmured reply of: "I never could bear these moving staircases and tubelifts.