Then, as all three moved into the dark interior:
"You be good, and lay down on floor for minute. That's all."
Jack felt his feet kicked out from under him. Down he went, one of the
Italians sitting firmly on him. The other went across the room, fumbled,
and presently lighted a lantern in an open cupboard.
"Now, you come along, no fuss and no hurt," advised the late guide, as
they raised the boy. They conducted him through into a rear room, where
one of the pair raised a trap-door in the floor.
"Now, this is easy," smiled one of the pair, pointing to the darkness
under the open trap.
"We have take ladder away, but you can drop. Not far."
Then, seeing a look of alarm flit across the boy's face, the fellow
laughed, adding:
"No hurt. All right. See?"
He dropped a stone through the trapway. It fell on ground underneath,
nor did the distance down appear to be more than a few feet.
"Cellar, that's all," grinned the Italian, reassuringly. "Now, drop,
and we not hurt you. No danger. In two, three, four hour we put down
ladder and let you up. Keep you here little while; that's all."
Of course Jack Benson could have tried to put up a fight, but he knew he
would easily be beaten. Besides, these men, smiling and polite as they
now appeared, might have tempers bad enough to lead them to resort to
Italian steel, if they had to do it. Therefore Jack nodded, then knelt
at the trapway, and next, with an inward prayer, let himself drop down
into the darkness.
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