had more money, so that the man might not feel shy about accepting
so large a sum as sixpence.

The man blessed our kind hearts and we went on.

The sun was shining very brightly, and the Tower of Mystery did not
look at all like a tomb when we got to it. The bottom Storey was
on arches, all open, and ferns and things grew underneath. There
was a round stone stair going up in the middle. Alice began to
gather ferns while we went up, but when we had called out to her
that it was as the pig-man had said, and daylight all the way up,
she said--

'All right. I'm not afraid. I'm only afraid of being late home,'
and came up after us. And perhaps, though not downright manly
truthfulness, this was as much as you could expect from a girl.

There were holes in the little tower of the staircase to let light
in. At the top of it was a thick door with iron bolts. We shot
these back, and it was not fear but caution that made Oswald push
open the door so very slowly and carefully.

Because, of course, a stray dog or cat might have got shut up there
by accident, and it would have startled Alice very much if it had
jumped out on us.

When the door was opened we saw that there was no such thing. It
was a room with eight sides. Denny says it is the shape called
octogenarian; because a man named Octagius invented it. There were
eight large arched windows with no glass, only stone-work, like in