“All right, Roger, I’m willing. But it is going to be hard work crawling back, those rocks are so smooth.”
“We’ve got to get back!”
“I can’t hold the light and climb too. And if I place it on the rocks it may roll away and go down into that hole,” went on our hero.
“Oh, put it in your pocket again and we’ll try to climb back in the dark. We know the direction.”
Dave did as his chum suggested, and then commenced a climb that neither of the lads ever forgot. The rocks were so smooth in spots that at times to get a foothold was next to impossible. Once Roger slid back several feet and would have gone to the bottom had not Dave caught and held him.
“Take it slowly, Roger,” was our hero’s advice. “If you go to the bottom, you may be killed!”
“I’ll hang—on!” gasped the other. “But I wi-wish I was out—of—th-this!”
“Well, I wish the same.”
It took fully a quarter of an hour longer to get out of the rocky cave, and when the boys reached the surface of the earth they were so exhausted they could do little but sit on the ground and pant for breath.
“It’s Cave Island right enough,” was the comment of the senator’s son. “But excuse me from tumbling into any more such openings!”