‘Another hundred yards. If it doesn’t take us anywhere we’ll go back.’
I caught hold of her arm and pulled her along. Fifty yards farther on, there was another intersection. The air was very] bad now.
‘There you are,’ I said. ‘I told you we’d come to something. We’ll go right. If it goes down we’ll turn back and try the other way.’
She went with me.
Every new tunnel we came to was exactly like the others. We might just as well be walking up and down the same tunnel of all the progress we seemed to be making. And as we went on into the darkness, walking became more difficult. My legs felt heavy, and I had to make a continuous effort to move them. Paula was gasping for breath, and I had to help her along.
But at least the floor of the tunnel wasn’t going down. If anything, it was going up.
‘I’m sure we’re on the right road now,’ I gasped. ‘We’re climbing.’
She leaned more heavily on me.
‘The air’s awful. I – I can’t go much farther.’
I put my arm round her and helped her along. The roof of the tunnel was getting lower. We had to bend our heads. Another twenty yards and we were bent double.