All their tiredness was gone now. They raced eagerly for the patch of light ahead of them and burst out upon a valley of green.
“I was never so glad to leave any place,” Phyllis said, sinking down beneath a tree and leaning wearily against the trunk. “Rest a couple of minutes and then we’ll go back to camp.”
“Phyllis,” Gale said slowly, gazing about them first this way and then that. “This isn’t the same place where we went in.”
“No,” Phyllis agreed thoughtfully, after looking around, “it isn’t. Don’t tell me we’re lost again! At that,” she said calmly, “I’d rather be lost out here in the open than in those underground passages.”
“Come on,” Gale said impatiently, “we can’t sit here all day. We have to find the camp.”
The sun was high overhead. It was hours since they had left their camp site. What must the others be thinking? Had Tom or Jim started out to find them?
“Maybe we could stay here and let ’em find us,” Phyllis said, relaxed and lazy.
“We can’t stay here,” Gale said decidedly. She hit upon a sudden inspiration to make her friend bestir herself. “We are too close to the cave, the bandit might pursue us,” she added smilingly.
That was enough. Phyllis jumped to her feet and started to climb over the uneven ground through the trees. At the top of the rise they saw their camp nestling beside the little creek in the valley. The subterranean passages they had been in led directly through the hill which they had started to climb earlier in the day. From where they stood now, they could see the partly hidden entrance which they had first discovered. On their way down the hillside they took particular care not to go near the mouth of the cave, lest they should see and be seen by the bank bandit.
When they returned to the camp the others greeted them with mingled exclamations of curiosity and thankfulness.