I am back, and still alive.
Through The Rabbit Hole.
"Herr Weiss! Herr Weiss!" Alice turned a corner to see Mr. Weiss leave through the front door. "Please wait, you forgot your gloves!" she dashed out the door, pausing only for a shawl to ward off the chill of early spring.
My, it's just like the book, what with chasing Mr. Weiss and all. It's almost like chasing the white rabbit.
"Herr Weiss, wait! Please!" She caught sight of Mr. Weiss as he turned onto The High.
"Herr Weiss!" She dodged pedestrians as she followed, dropping any lady-like pretences she may have possessed. Ahead of her she saw Mr. Weiss make a left down St Edmund Hall Lane into Queen's Street then turn into New College Lane, causing her to become half worried that he might leave Oxford altogether before she could return his gloves.
He stopped shortly before the city gates and turned down St Helens Passage.
He must be going to Turf Tavern; I can give him his gloves when he gets there.
But he wasn't heading for the Tavern; instead he turned down a narrow side street which she'd never noticed before.
Stopping at the entrance, she squinted, trying to make out the name on the rusty placard. "Con…" She narrowed her eyes at next few letters which where rusted over, then giving up, skipped to the next word. "Hus…?"
Had she understood Old English, she would have known that 'Hus' was house, 'Con' being the first half of Coney brought it out to meaning in modern English 'Rabbit House' or 'Rabbit's Hole'. Had she known this, she might not have been so keen to follow Weiss in down the narrow passage.
Pulling her skirts close around to prevent them snagging on either wall, she moved forward. As she progressed further down the passage, she noted uneasily that it seemed to close in both overhead and on either side, growing progressively tighter as she went.
Before long, it seemed to her that she would become stuck if she moved ahead any further. She winced at the sound of her dresses fabric catching on the rough walls and tearing.
Only a little more, then I will leave if I don't discover where he went…
Taking one more step, the heel of her boot caught on a stone, and she fell forward with a startled cry, her ankle twisting beneath her. She braced herself, arms out before her to stop her fall on the hard ground, but the ground never came and she plummeted down into darkness.