Next moment we heard him saying: "Want to come up, please.

This place is not pleasant." We pulled him out and asked what he had found.
"Nothing good to eat," he answered, "only plenty of dead bones and one rat that ran up my leg." We tried the next two pits with the same result--they were full of human bones.

Then we cross-examined Maqueda, who, after reflection, informed us that she now remembered that about five generations before a great plague had fallen on Mur, which reduced its population by one-half.

She had heard, also, that those stricken with the plague were driven into the underground city in order that they might not infect the others, and supposed that the bones we saw were their remains.

This information caused us to close up those pits again in a great hurry, though really it did not matter whether we caught the plague or no.
Still, as she was sure that corn was buried somewhere, we went to another group of pits in a distant chamber, and opened the first one.
This time our search was rewarded, to the extent that we found at the bottom of it some mouldering dust that years ago had been grain.