"Don't be a baby, Belle," advised her brother Ralph. "Nothing is going to hurt us here."
"Especially as we have plenty of fuel and grub," added Bobbins, thoughtfully.
But Ruth saw that it would be wiser to try to get through the tunnel to the brookside. Nobody could dig them out at this end, that was sure. So she agreed with Tom and Ralph Tingley to try to follow the same passages that Jerry Sheming had taken her through upon the occasion of her first visit.
"How shall we find our way, though, if it's dark?" questioned Ralph, suddenly. "I can't see in the dark."
"Neither can the rest of us, I guess," said Tom. "Do you suppose we could find torchwood in that pile yonder?"
"Not much," Bobbins told them. "And a torch is a smoky thing, anyway."
Ruth was hunting the dark corners of the big cavern in which they had camped. Although Jerry had been at the far end of the tunnel when he was captured by the constable and his helpers—outside that end of the tunnel, in fact—she hoped that he had left his lantern at this end.
As it proved, she was not mistaken. Here it was, all filled and cleaned, hidden on a shelf with a half-gallon can of kerosene. Jerry had been in the habit of coming to the cave frequently in the old days when his uncle and he lived alone on the island.
So Tom lit the lantern and the trio started. The opening of the tunnel through the hill could not be missed; but farther along Ruth had a dim recollection of passing cross galleries and passages. Should she know the direct tunnel then?
She put that anxiety aside for the present. At first it was all plain traveling, and Tom with the lantern went ahead to illuminate the path.