He glanced up at the roof near the block and then, taking a big stone, he struck the roof hard. A shower of earth fell at once.
“George! What are you doing?” cried Jack.
“I’m just making a small roof-fall,” grinned George, his teeth flashing in the light of Jack’s torch. “If I can fill up the hole we’ve made in the block, we’ll be all right. We don’t want our dear friend Mr. Diaz to squeeze through the hole too!”
“Good idea,” said Jack. “Now hadn’t we better go on, George? It’s getting late.”
“Sh!” said George suddenly. Everyone stood perfectly quiet in the passage. “Switch off your torches,” whispered George. “I can hear something.”
They all switched off their torches. Sounds were coming near - voices - angry voices!
“Oh, do let’s go,” whispered Mike. But George shook his head in the darkness and whispered “No.”
“We don’t want them to hear us,” he said in a low tone. “They may guess where this leads to if they hear us, and go rushing off to the beach to find our boat. I think we’re safe enough if we keep quiet. Put your arm round Paul, Jack - he’s frightened, poor kid!”
They stood there in perfect silence. They heard Mr. Diaz and Luiz and someone else talking. They came to the roof-fall in the other passage and exclaimed about it.
“Look at that! They can’t have gone down that way!”