In two or three minutes the stone was moved out of its position, taken out of the hole, and laid down on the steps.
Half an hour later Meinik came up, with a trooper, another guard, and one of the boys; and was delighted to find that the obstacle, which had seemed to him fatal to their hopes, had been removed.
Stanley showed how they had carried out the work; and then, with his party, went down into the rock chambers.
"It was pretty tiring work, Harry," he said, "though we were only at it about a quarter of an hour, at a time.

My wrists and arms and shoulders are aching, as if I had been beaten with sticks.

Tomorrow I will take up a good supply of firewood.

The chisels got blunted before we had worked an hour; and we should get on a deal faster, if we could sharpen them frequently." "Is the stone hard ?" "No; it is a sort of marble, I think.

We had the underpart of the slab on our side, and I did not think of looking when we took it down.