pastime for the sake of keeping one's hands amused as it were, and
so I went on working the long slit in the stone, which the blade
was making, deeper and deeper. The sand trickled from it in a
stream, and then all of a sudden I became aware that I had pierced
through the stone into a hole behind, and I bent over to see how
this could be.

The stone was not more than an inch or two thick, and there was
certainly a hollow which it closed, and when I saw that I broke and
worked away more of it until I could get my hand in. Then I found
that I could feel nothing, for the place was deep. So I made the
hole bigger yet, and put my arm in. Then I found the back and one
side of a stone-cased chest in the wall, as it were, of which the
stone I had bored was the door, though this was to all appearance
like several other of the larger blocks that the place was built
of.

When I reached downwards my hand could just touch what felt like
rotten canvas, and at that I began to work again at the hole. The
stone was too strong to break, though it seemed thin, and I was so
intent on this, that the voices I had longed to hear made me start.

"He was hereabouts, master, when I last saw him," said one whom I
thought was Spray the smith.

"I will hang you up if he is lost," said Wulfnoth's voice.

Then I sprang up and shouted, and the vault rang painfully in my
ears. It was Olaf who called back to me.