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In a few moments it was probable that the cart would upset, and then Presently the wheel bumped against something, the cart gave a great lurch, and scraped along a little. "Now for it," thought John, for the water was pouring over the flooring. Then came a check, and the cart leant still farther to one side. Crack! The pole had gone, and the cart swung round bows, or rather box, on to the stream.
Sir Godfrey was lowered down, and when Fred was helping Nat to sink gently on the flooring of the cave, the sharp clicking of flint and steel fell upon his ears, and soon after the gloomy place was illumined by a candle stuck in a niche of the rock. "I wouldn't be longer than 'bout an hour, Master Fred, sir," came down the opening. "We may as well get back safe if we can."
There were no gardens; the flooring of the entire court was of stone; there was not even the usual vine sprawling over the walls. Men had died in this house; not always in bed, which is to say, naturally. Some had died struggling in the gloomy corridors, in the grand salon, on the staircase leading to the upper stories.
"I don't see anything of his majesty," said Roger, in almost a whisper, for the strange adventure had set his nerves on an edge. "Oh, I suppose he had life enough left to crawl quite a distance," answered Dave. The cave was irregular in shape, forming something of an underground split in the rocks. The flooring led steadily downward, with here and there an opening of unknown depth.
Any man who undertook to argue a medical question with him, or make a suggestion relating to medical treatment, he was in the habit of flooring at once, by wisely and almost pityingly shaking his head, and saying: "It's very evident to me, sir, that you've not received a medical education."
Furniture and flooring shone with polish, a log fire, tipped by dancing flames, burned in the low wide grate. Upon the side-table, between the westward facing windows, a row of silver chafing-dishes gave agreeable promise of varied meats; as did the tea and coffee service, arrayed before Damaris, of grateful beverage.
It had a flooring of soft green turf, and about in the middle lay a great rock as large as a playhouse. This rock was all covered over with moss and lichens, and the strange thing about it was that a neat door had been cut in its side. Before this door, talking and waving his hands to the crowd that thronged about him, stood a man the queerest little man the children had ever seen!
"I entreat you, my dear little child, do not see in my acts anything mysterious, anything hard to explain. That anxiety you speak of never leaves me. Whenever I have the chance I examine the flooring." "Madame," demanded the young man, "what was your daughter doing in this room?" "She came for a glass of mineral water; the bottle is still on the table."
So elegant were his habits, and so constant his demand for the luxurious accommodations of polished life, as it then existed in Rome, that he is said to have carried with him, as indispensable parts of his personal baggage, the little lozenges and squares of ivory, and other costly materials, which were wanted for the tesselated flooring of his tent.
Arrived at the top stair, she turned round, and called out, in a warning tone, to her husband, "Gaspard, consider well what you are about to do!" "I have both reflected and decided," answered he. La Carconte then entered her chamber, the flooring of which creaked beneath her heavy, uncertain tread, as she proceeded towards her arm-chair, into which she fell as though exhausted.
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