‘Yes.’ She half sat up, pushing her hair off her face. ‘I’m behaving awfully badly. I’m sorry. I’ll try not to do it again.’
‘Forget it,’ I said and took her hand. ‘You’ve got a touch of claustrophobia. You’ll get over it. Feel like moving? We’ll crawl some of the way. Keep your nose close to the ground. I’ll go first.’
We crawled over the rough ground, bruising our hands and knees. After a while we had to stop again. I was sweating, and my breath rasped at the back of my throat. Paula flopped beside me: all in.
‘Do you really think we’ll get out?’ she asked in a small voice.
‘Yeah; we’ll get out,’ but my voice carried no conviction. ‘We’ll take it easy for a few minutes; then we’ll go on.’
I was beginning to realize that Dedrick couldn’t have come this way. It looked as if we had taken a wrong turning somewhere. The thought of being in this mine much longer was beginning to get on my nerves.
Suddenly she gripped my arm.
‘What’s that?’
I listened.
Somewhere in the mine, I had no idea how far away or how near, there came the sound like rain falling and the soft rustle of dry leaves.