They both heard something and paused.
‘What’s that?’ she said.
He knew what it was, he’d heard it before and it had nearly cost him his life. He looked at her. ‘When you came to the church was it raining?’
‘Yes, it was falling down like buckets!’
‘In that case we had better go, and now!’
‘What’s wrong?’
‘A flash flood. This chamber is protected by the wall.’
‘You mean we’ll be trapped?’
Finally, the girl sounds ill at ease! ‘Not if we hurry. Come on!’ he said, grabbing her arm.
He led the way out of the crypt and waited for Eva to climb down through the opening first. By the time they were halfway through the first part of the tunnel, the water had reached Rahn’s knees. It was unbearably cold. Rahn could hardly feel his feet and he was trembling. Eva followed, stumbling in the near dark.
‘How does it happen so quickly?’ she said.
‘I was caught in the caves of Ornolac during a rainstorm. I hit my head,’ he said, between breaths, ‘and I only survived because a Senegalese friend, a man who is almost a giant, carried me on his shoulder through the channels swollen with water. He carried me for miles! Hard to believe, but true.’
Eventually, they emerged from the tunnel and found the steps that led to the confessional. The water was waist-high here, too close for comfort, Rahn thought, but when the opening above became visible, he made an awful discovery.
‘Someone has locked the hatch!’ he said.
‘What?’
‘The hatch! The hatch is locked! But I saw two more exits. Wait here. And don’t worry, as I said, I’m used to things like this.’ He left her shivering on the topmost steps, encroached upon by the rising water.
Moving through floating bones and other debris, with the candlestick held high over the water in one hand and his jacket in the other, he took an eternity to make his way to the other steps he had seen earlier. No luck! These only led to a boarded-up sub-floor. Immersing his shivering limbs back into the water he looked for the third set of steps. If he found that boarded-up as well, then things were not going to work out in their favour. To his great relief these steps led upwards in a spiral to a small room full of bric-a-brac.
He descended again quickly. ‘I’ve found it!’ he called out, and made a hasty journey across the flooded crypt holding the candle out before him.
His return with Eva was difficult because the water was now nearly at the level of his chest and he had to help her through the mud and debris, bones and swimming rats and floating spiders. All this while trying not to trip on submerged obstacles, keeping his candle lit and, most importantly, his coat dry. By the time they reached those steps, however, Rahn had dropped his candle into the water, and Eva’s had gone out, leaving them in utter darkness. His legs and hands were numb and he had to find fresh reserves of strength in order to drag Eva, who was now listless, up the steps and into the room.
The room felt narrow and smelt stuffy. He could see almost nothing except that the walls appeared to be whitewashed and the floor underfoot felt like compacted dirt. There was a small window, which was hardly sufficient for ventilation or light. The only way out was what looked like a door or hatch at the top of another set of steps.
‘Where are we?’ Her voice sounded sleepy and drugged, and this alarmed him. He placed his jacket over her shoulders.
‘That way must lead into the sacristy.’ Rahn pointed to a door. ‘This must be a second secret way in and out of the crypt.’
He was mentally prepared for it to be locked and so when he found that it opened easily into a small closet, he was so relieved he nearly fainted. He had to get past a number of musty priest’s robes in order to find a second door, through which he emerged into the sacristy. He returned to help the poor shaking girl.
The door leading to the sacristy from the church opened out into the area between the statue of Saint Anthony of Padua and the altar enclosure. The priest had said that the tomb of Sigisbert lay somewhere beyond it, perhaps because he knew that, behind that false wall in the sacristy closet, there was a way to the crypt.
The church seemed to be bursting with light compared to the darkness of the sacristy. Rahn made certain there was no one in sight. Someone had locked the hatch and they might still be in the church. Luckily for them, whoever it was either didn’t know about the second entrance or didn’t think he and Eva would be able to find it. Peering down the nave, he realised the pulpit had been built over the second entrance. Perhaps by Saunière, wishing to keep it secret? These thoughts ran through his mind in the time it took for him to blink. He felt his old fear rising up. He tried to calm himself. There was sweat forming over his brow. Having survived being trapped and nearly drowned in a crypt hadn’t made him any braver when it came to churches. But he could hear his teeth chattering and he knew he had to get out of his wet clothes, or he would succumb to the cold himself.