"Do you think he is dead?" asked Dudley, "I don't think he can be. Why it was only the day before yesterday we saw him, and he was as well as we are."
It seemed a long time before they reached the cave; the hills were steep and the pony rather old, and more than once Dudley felt inclined to run forward on his own two legs. Roy at last suggested this.
"I can drive up after you as fast as I can; and if you find him you holloa to me."
So Dudley jumped out and was soon lost to sight behind the bushes and hollows that fringed the hills.
Roy drove on busily thinking, and wondering if they had done wisely to take the matter into their own hands, and come off alone as they had done.
When he at length reached the cave Dudley came to meet him with a puzzled face.
"Something has happened, Roy. I can't get into it very far; there's a lot of earth tumbled down and I can't move it."
"Then old Principle is buried alive!" cried Roy in terror. "Quick, Dudley, let us dig him out."
Dudley seemed quite helpless.
"I've no spade, and there's no place near to get one. I wish we hadn't come alone."