Dick had read enough about them to realize the situation, and as he knew perfectly well that many of these underground streams never come to the surface, the prospect was anything but encouraging.
All at once the strength of the current seemed to slacken—a little further on it grew less still until at last there was scarcely any movement at all and just then, to his great joy, Dick caught sight of a patch of moonlight striking across the water on ahead, which showed him the black, dripping walls of the cave.
“There’s an opening there,” he thought. “I’m saved if I can only get through it. I must. If it isn’t big enough to let me through I shall give up in despair.”
His heart almost stood still as he thought of this new danger, but he swam on and in a moment was crawling through a narrow opening, which brought him out upon a ledge of rock under some towering cliffs, where he sank down too much exhausted to hold his head up, and lay so for several moments, when all at once he was aroused by hearing a voice below him say:
“They are coming! I can see them. It’s just Bill and the girl.”
“Ah, but I can’t see nothing—hold on! I’m lying. I do see them. Yes, it’s just Bill and the girl, as sure as fate, Mr. Mudd.”
The pronouncing of the name put Dick on the alert instantly.
The two men, whoever they might be, seemed to be just below the ledge upon which he was resting.
He crawled to the edge and looked down.
Now, for the first time, he perceived his true situation.