“And they are still digging?” the Baron asked Grant as they moved on. “The Apollo had not risen when your Simon came to San Tommaso? He is then a contemporary resurrection?”

“A latter-day Lazarus,” fluted Mr. Mailer. “But how much more attractive!”

Somewhere in the dark Kenneth echoed his giggle.

Sophy, who was between Alleyn and Grant, said under her breath: “I wish they wouldn’t,” and Grant made a sound of agreement that seemed to be echoed by Major Sweet.

They continued along the cloister of the old church.

It was now that Baron Van der Veghel developed a playful streak. Holding his camera at the ready and humming a little air, he outstripped the party, turned a corner and disappeared into shadow.

Mr. Mailer, at this juncture, was in full spate. “We approach another Etruscan piece,” he said. “Thought to be Mercury. One comes upon it rather suddenly: on the left.”

It was indeed a sudden encounter. The Mercury was in a deep recess: an entrance, perhaps, to some lost passage. He was less strongly lit than the Apollo but the glinting smile was sharp enough. When they came up with him, a second head rose over his shoulders and smirked at them. A flashlight wiped it out and the echoes rang with Baron Van der Veghel’s uninhibited laughter. Lady Braceley gave another scream.

“It’s too much,” she cried. “No. It’s too much!”

But the elephantine Van der Veghels, in merry pin, had frisked ahead. Major Sweet let fly anathema upon all practical jokers and the party moved on.

The voice of the subterranean stream grew louder. They turned another corner and came upon another railed well. Grant invited them to look up and there, directly overhead, was the under-mouth of the one they had already examined in the basilica.

“But what were they for?” Major Sweet demanded. “What’s the idea? Grant?” he added quickly, apparently to forestall any comment from Mr. Mailer.

“Perhaps,” Grant said, “for drainage. There’s evidence that at some stage of the excavations seepage and even flooding occurred.”

“Hah,” said the Major.

The Baroness leant over the rail of the well and peered down.

“Gerrit!” she exclaimed. “L-oo-ook! There is the sarcophagus! Where Simon sat and meditated!” Her voice, which had something of the reedy quality of a schoolboy’s, ran up and down the scale. “See! Down there! Belo-oow!” Her husband’s flashlight briefly explored her vast stern as he gaily snapped her. Heedless she leant far over the railing.

“Be careful, my darlink!” urged her husband. “Mathilde! Not so far! Wait till we descend.”

He hauled her back. She was greatly excited and they laughed together.

Alleyn and Sophy approached the well railing and looked downwards. The area below was illuminated from some unseen source and the end of a stone sarcophagus was clearly visible. From their bird’s-eye position they could see that the stone lid was heavily carved.

As they looked, a shadow, much distorted, moved across the wall behind it, disappeared, and was there again, turning this way and that.

Sophy cried out: “Look! It’s — it’s that woman!” But it had gone.

“What woman?” Grant asked, behind her.

“The one with the shawl over her head. The postcard seller. Down there.”

“Did you see her?” Mr. Mailer said quickly.

“I saw her shadow.”

“My dear Miss Jason! Her shadow! There are a thousand Roman women with scarves over their heads who could cast the same shadow.”

“I’m sure not. I’m sure it was she. It looked as if — as if — she wanted to hide.”

“I agree,” Alleyn said.

“Violetta is not permitted to enter the basilica, I assure you. You saw the shadow of someone in another party, of course. Now — let us follow Mr. Grant down into the temple of Mithras. He has much to relate.”

They had completed their circuit of the cloisters and entered a passage leading to a spiral iron stairway. The ceiling was lower here and the passage narrow. Grant and Mailer led the way and the others trailed behind them. The head of the little procession had reached the stairhead when Lady Braceley suddenly announced that she couldn’t go on.

“I’m frightfully sorry,” she said, “but I want to go back. I’m afraid you’ll think it too dreary of me but I can’t, I can’t, I can’t stay in this awful place another moment. You must take me back, Kenneth. I didn’t know it’d be like this. I’ve never been able to endure shut-up places. At once. Kenneth! Where are you! Kenneth!”

But he wasn’t with them. Her voice flung distorted echoes about the hollows and passages. “Where’s he gone!” she cried out and the whole region replied, “—gone — on — on.”

Mailer had taken her by the arm. “It’s all right, Lady Braceley. I assure you. It’s perfectly all right. Kenneth went back to photograph the Apollo. In five minutes I will find him for you. Don’t distress yourself. No doubt I’ll meet him on his way here.”

“I won’t wait for him. Why’s he suddenly taking photographs? I give him a camera costing the earth and he never uses it. I won’t wait for him. I’ll go now. Now.”

The Baron and Baroness swarmed gigantically about her making consoling noises. She thrust them aside and made for Grant, Major Sweet and Alleyn, who were standing together. “Please! Please!” she implored and, after a quick look round, latched with great determination on the Major. “Please take me away!” she implored. “Please do.”

“My dear lady,” Major Sweet began in tones more consistent with “My good woman”—“My dear lady, there’s no occasion for hysteria. Yes — well, of course, if you insist. Be glad to. No doubt,” said the Major hopefully, “we’ll meet your nephew on our way.”

Clinging to him she appealed to Grant and Alleyn. “I know you think me too hopeless and silly,” she said. “Don’t you?”

“Not at all,” Alleyn said politely and Grant muttered something that might have been “claustrophobia.”

Mr. Mailer said to the Major: “There’s a continuation of this stairway that goes up into the basilica. If you’ll take Lady Braceley that way I’ll go back and find Mr. Dorne and send him to her.”

Lady Braceley said: “It’s maddening of him. Honestly!”

Sophy said: “Would you like me to come with you, Lady Braceley?”

“Oh no,” she said. “No. Thank you. Too kind but—” Her voice trailed away. She still gazed at Alleyn and Grant. “She wants an entourage,” Sophy thought.

“Well,” Major Sweet said crossly. “Shall we go?”

He piloted her towards the upper flight of the spiral stairway. “I’ll come back,” he shouted, “as soon as that young fellow presents himself. Hope he’s quick about it.”

“You’ll carry on, won’t you?” Mr. Mailer said to Grant.

“Very well.”

Grant, Alleyn and Sophy embarked on the downward flight. They could hear Lady Braceley’s heels receding up the iron treads together with the duller clank of Major Sweet’s studded brogues. Behind them the Van der Veghels shouted excitedly to each other.

“It is only,” roared the Baroness, “that I do not wish to miss a word, my darlink, that he may let fall upon us.”

“Then on! Go and I will join you. One more picture of the Mercury. Joost one!” cried the Baron.

She assented and immediately fell some distance down the iron stairs. A cry of dismay rose from her husband.

“Mathilde! You are fallen.”

“That is so.”

“You are hurt.”

“Not. I am uninjured. What a joke.”

“On, then.”

“So.”

The descending spiral made some two or three turns. The sound of running water grew louder. They arrived at a short passage. Grant led them along it into a sort of anteroom.

“This is the insula,” he said. “You might call it a group of flats. It was built for a Roman family or families somewhere about the middle of the first century. They were not, of course, Christians. You will see in a moment how they worshiped their god. Come into the triclinium. Which is also the Mithraeum.”