i knew why the iron tree had returned, in this third change of scene!...
the iron tree was waiting for me!...
but, as i stared at the punjab lasso, i saw a thing that made me start so violently that m.de chagny delayed his attempt at suicide.
i took his arm.and then i caught the pistol from him...and then i dragged myself on my knees toward what i had seen.
i had discovered, near the punjab lasso, in a groove in the floor, a black-headed nail of which i knew the use.at last i had discovered the spring! i felt the nail....i lifted a radiant face to m.de chagny....the black-headed nail yielded to my pressure....
and then....
and then we saw not a door opened in the wall, but a cellar-flap released in the floor.cool air came up to us from the black hole below.we stooped over that square of darkness as though over a limpid well.with our chins in the cool shade, we drank it in.
and we bent lower and lower over the trap-door.what could there be in that cellar which opened before us? water? water to drink?
i thrust my arm into the darkness and came upon a stone and another stone...a staircase...a dark staircase leading into the cellar.
the viscount wanted to fling himself down the hole; but i, fearing a new trick of the monster's, stopped him, turned on my dark lantern and went down first.
the staircase was a winding one and led down into pitchy darkness.
but oh, how deliciously cool were the darkness and the stairs?
the lake could not be far away.
we soon reached the bottom.our eyes were beginning to accustom themselves to the dark, to distinguish shapes around us...
circular shapes...on which i turned the light of my lantern.
barrels!
we were in erik's cellar: it was here that he must keep his wine and perhaps his drinking-water.i knew that erik was a great lover of good wine.ah, there was plenty to drink here!