“After three hundred years of absence I found the entrance, but if I had not so well noted its position in relation to certain ruins and natural objects I should not have recognized it.  It was not now a wide opening through which a man might walk; it was a little hole scarcely big enough for a fox to crawl through; in fact, I do not believe there would have been any opening there at all if it had not been for the small animals living in the catacombs, which had maintained this opening for the purpose of going in and out.  It was broad daylight when I found this entrance.  Of course I did not attempt to do anything then, but in the night, when there was no moon, I came with a spade.  I enlarged the hole, crawled through, and after a time found myself in a passageway, which was unobstructed.”

“Now, hurry on,” said Mrs. Crowder.

“I brought no rushlights with me this time,” said Mr. Crowder.  “I had a good lantern, and I walked steadily on until I came to the third transverse passage; I turned to the left, counted three more passages; I turned to the left, I walked on slowly, I examined the left-hand wall, and apparently there were no open tombs.  This startled me, but I soon found that I had been mistaken.  I saw some tombs which were not open, but which had been opened and were now nearly filled with the dust of ages.  I stopped before the first of these; then I went on and clearly made out the position of another; then I came to the third:  that was really open, although the aperture was much smaller than it had been.  It did not look as I remembered it, but without hesitation I took a trowel which I had brought with me, and began to dig in the nearest left-hand corner.

“I dug and I dug until I had gone down more than two feet; then I dug on and on until, standing in the passage as I was, I could not reach down any deeper into the hole I had made.  So I crawled into the tomb, crouched down on my breast, and dug down and down as far as I could reach.

“Then,” said Mr. Crowder, looking at us as he spoke, “I found the box.”

A great sigh of relief came from Mrs. Crowder.

“I was so afraid,” said she—­“I was so afraid it had sunk out of reach.”

“No,” said he; “its weight had probably made it settle down, and then the dust of ages, as I remarked before, had accumulated over it.  That sort of thing is going on in Rome all the time.  But I found my box, and, after hours and hours of wandering, I got out of the catacombs.”

“How was that?” we both asked.

“I was so excited at the recovery of my treasures after the lapse of three centuries that when I turned into the first passage I forgot to count those which crossed it, and my mind became so thoroughly mixed up in regard to this labyrinth that I don’t know when I would have found my way out if I had not heard a little animal—­I don’t know what it was —­scurrying away in front of me.  I followed it, and eventually saw a little speck of light.  That proved to be the hole through which I had come in.”