The String of Pearls (1850), p. 304

as it can very well be, and the measures taken for the purpose of ventilation, have not as yet had a very great effect upon it."
"I should say not."
With tolerable speed the magistrate led the party on through a vast number of vaults, and through several narrow and rather tortuous passages, after which
he came to an iron door. It was locked, but placing the lantern for a few moments upon the floor, he soon succeeded in opening it with a skeleton key.
The moment he had done so, the secretary exclaimed—
"Hey day! This is something different."
"In what respect, my lord?"
"Why, if my senses don't deceive me, the horrible charnel-house smell, which we have been enduring for some time past, has given way to one much
more grateful."
"What is it like, my lord?"
"Well, I should say some delicious cooking was going on."
"You are right. There is cooking going on. We are not very far from Mrs. Lovett's pie manufactory,"
"Indeed!"
"Yes; and the smell, or rather I ought to say the odour of which the air is full, comes from the bakehouse."
The secretary gave a perceptible shudder, and Mr. Villimay tittered a groan.
The gentleman who was with the secretary was about to say something, but the magistrate, in a low voice, interrupted him, saying—
"Pardon me, but now we are in close proximity to the place of our destination, I would recommend the profoundest caution and silence."
"Certainly—certainly. We will only be silent spectators."
"It is better, I think," added Sir Richard Blunt, "to allow me to carry on the whole of the conversation that is to ensue; and at the same time, any of you gentlemen can suggest to me a question to ask, and I will at once put it to the man we come to speak to."
"That will do, Sir Richard, that will do"
The magistrate now hurried on as though those savoury steams that scented the air from the bakehouse of Mrs. Lovett's pies were to him more disagreeable
than the horrible smell in the vaults that made everybody shake again. In a few minutes he arrived at a room, for it could not be called a vault. It had a
floor of rough stone flags, which seemed as though they had originally belonged to some of the vaults, and had been pulled up and carried to this place to make a
rude flooring. There was nothing very remarkable about the walls of this place, save at one part, and there there was evidently a door, across which was placed a
heavy iron bar.
"It is through there," said Sir Richard.
"But—but you do not intend to open it?"
" Certainly not. There is a small crevice through which there will be no difficulty in maintaining a conversation with the imprisoned cook, if I can only make
him hear me from this spot.

CHAPTER LXVII.
THE REVELATIONS IN THE VAULTS.

The object of Sir Richard Blunt was, of course, to make the cook hear him, but no one else. With this aim he took a crown-piece from his pocket and tapped with the edge of it upon the stone-work which at that place protruded trom the wall to the extent of nearly a foot. The stone shelves upon the other side were let nto the wall in that fashion. The monotonous ringing sound of the coin against the stone was likely enough to reverberate through the wall, and