"How about it, Ruth?" demanded Tom, cheerfully, when she reappeared.
"That's not the one. It is just a pocket," declared Ruth. "Wait till I try another."
"Well, don't be all night about it," growled Tingley, ungraciously. "We're wasting a lot of time here."
Ruth did not reply, but took the next tunnel. She followed this for even a shorter distance before finding it closed.
"Only two more. That's all right!" exclaimed Tom. "Narrows the choice down, and we'll be surer of hitting the right one—eh, Ruthie?"
She knew that he was talking thus to keep her courage up. Dear old Tom! he was always to be depended upon.
She gathered confidence herself, however, when she had gone some distance into the third passage. There was a place where she had to climb upon a shelf to get along, because the floor was covered with big stones, and she remembered this place clearly.
So she turned and swung her Tight, calling to the boys. Her voice went echoing through the tunnel and soon brought a reply and the sound of scrambling feet.
"Hold up that lantern!" yelled Ralph, rather crossly. "How do you expect us to see?"
Young Tingley's nerves were "on edge," and like a good many other people when they get that way, he was short-tempered.