Page 22 - 1931

20 H '1'ItE GLEANER"
of a man was on it. It was strong enough however to raise the floor back into place. As soon as the floor had risen into place I saw an iron ~upport slowly cross underneath the floor. I imagine that this was to keep the floor from being too flexible bqt yet would not hinder it from ris: ing m• sinking. 1mprisoned as I was in a dark tunnel, my thoughts im- mediately turned to Bob who I thought must have met with a sim- il~rfate.Icalledtohimbutreceived only m'V echo in reply. I called again. louder than before. in the distance I he;:~rd not mv echo, but another voice. I ran in the direction from which the voice came and there I found more than a voice, a person, and tha,t oer.son was Bob. He wa.s 30 !';urprised to see me that he did not know what to Ray. After he had re- covered from his surprise. I told him bow I had got down into that. dingy !'lnhtf~rranean dungeon. According to his Rtorv he had entered by the same route. Since we could not get out the w;:~v we had got in. we decided t.o follow the tunnel a little further. It was so dark in thi<; underground p<~sS::~fTe t.hat w.,. could not see a foot ::~head o f u s . W e h u r r i e d a l o n g a s fa.st aR we could ann. as the tunnel w a R f a i r l v strai~ht w e a d v a n c e d
·onite auicklv. Boh ::~nrl 1 wPre hoth anxious to get out of this hl;:~ck dun- fTeon as .soon as possihle. When we h a f t prn~"eeded a h o u t f i v e h u n d r e d rods, Bob snddenlv thought that he P.aw ]ifTht ahear'L We st!Olrtfn "ff at a run to rea.ch what we thought was thP end·M the tunnel. We had gone only a littlf~ way when Rob trinnerl over Pome obiect on the floor. When he fell the obiect over which he trinoed made a iingling noise lil{e that of coins. Not having bePn hurt 'Roh inmoefl nn irrn11.ediately. He said he h;:~d heard the .iingling noise also. "'~Te k n e l t d o w n a n d f e l t a l o n _g t h e floor trvi.ng to find that over which R o b h;:~d t r i o o e d . A n e x c l a m a t i o n from Bnh hr"ught me immediatelv to hi.s side. He showed me what nt> had found. It proved to he two lea- ther bags, I opened the first bag and
took out one of the many objects in it. 1took a match out of the box 1 had with me and struck it. The flame revealed a sauare piece of tarnished copper with the image of a cow on it. Bob and I uttered a cry of delight at our discovery. Picking up both bags we started off down the tun- nel. These coins we meant to kee;J as a souvenir of our visit to Rome.
We came at last to the end of the passage. What Bob had seen was a thin streak of light coming through a crack in the floor where the trap door was separated from the floor.
We looked around for a chain or rope with which to pull away from the iron support. Finding a chain on the side of the wall, we pulled it and much to our delight the iron support slowly moved to one side and the trap door began to come down. We realized that we must step on it ouickly or else it would return to its place again. When this part of the floor reached the tunnel we both jumped on it and none too soon for it immediately began to rise. Step- ping off our improvised elevator we found ourselves in a large room ~:rf an ancient mansion. Through it walk- ed tourists of all nationalities. Sud- denly Bob espied my mother and fa.ther and we wer e off immediat(!- ly. They were both overjoyed at !'eeing us safe and sound. After the first greeting-s, and I must say they were very affectionate, we told our Rtory. My father asked what was in the bags. I showed him one of the pifceR of copper. First he frowned :;~_nd then he began to laugh. I asked him why he laughed. He said the supposed coins were onlv pieces of cheau copo2r. I said that 1 was goin_g- to keen them as souvenirs at any rate. As mother was tired. we de- cirlef\ we would return to the hotel. While Bob and I were n-etting ready
for bed that night B-ob suddenly _inmoed uo and started to say some- thin~! a b o u t s o m ' e a n c i e n t c o i n s a t school. I asked him not to get so ex- cited and tell me what those coins were. I manifested my surprise at his statement. He .asked me wheth-