Jed caught up a lantern, snapped back the covering of wire gauze which protected the wick, and lighted it.
“Come on,” he said. “It’s safe for awhile now,” and he led the way into the cavern.
For a moment Jack could see nothing; then as his eyes grew accustomed to the gloom, he discerned the black and dripping walls on either hand, and the dark void before, into which Jed walked, swinging the lantern from side to side.
But he did not go far. Fifty feet from the entrance, a pile of debris blocked the way. Jed swung his lantern over it and inspected it.
“No use t’ look any further in here,” he said. “This stuff’s been down a long time. Let’s go on to number two.”
The second tunnel was about five hundred feet from the first one, and resembled it exactly. But when Jed threw into it his blazing ball, there was no explosion.
“Hello!” he said, in surprise, and then, bending down, he saw the ball blazing brightly on the floor of the tunnel, some distance from the entrance. “Why, that hole is ventilated as well as a house!” he added. “Plenty of air there,” and catching up the lantern, which he had not extinguished, he started into the tunnel.
The air was fresh and pure, and Jed, looking about for an explanation, was not long in finding it.
“Look up there,” he said, pointing to where a glimmer of light showed through the gloom above. “There’s a flue up there—an accident, most likely,—just a crack in the rock,—but it lets the gas out all right. Why, a feller could live in here—By George!” he added, “some feller has been livin’ here. Look there.”
Jack followed the motion of his finger, and saw, on the floor, a pile of half-burned coal. Over it was a bent piece of iron which had been driven into the floor and evidently served as a crane. A pot and a couple of pans lay near the base of one of the pillars which had been left to support the roof.