Yet to endeavor to push forward was no more to be dreaded than to attempt retracing my steps.

In one way there was hope; in the other none.
With groping fingers I verified the situation, as that brief glance ere the candle failed had revealed it.

A beam had fallen letting down a mass of earth, but was wedged in such a way as to leave a small opening above the floor, barely sufficient for a man to wiggle through.

How far even this slight passage extended, or what worse obstruction lay hidden beyond was all conjecture.

It was a mere chance in which I must risk life in hope of saving it--I might become helplessly wedged beneath the timbers, or any movement might precipitate upon me a mass of loosened earth.