"Since the night before last, or early yesterday morning. I did not go down the deep hole when I first came here, because I had promised to be careful. I went down the first one, and then got some dead leaves from the old bottle-tree camp, lit them, and threw them down. By the light we could see that there were no sides to the hole—it seemed as though it had been punched in the roof of a tunnel. However, we found a place at last where some boulders were piled up, and I thought that, with Billy's help, I could get down on to them. I did so, and found that I could get from there on to the floor of the place without any trouble. I came back for Billy, and he was being helped down by Columbus, when suddenly there came a most awful sound, half a shriek and half a sigh, which so frightened Billy that he must have let go, for he came tumbling on top of me, and the two of us dislodged the boulder, which was not very firm to start with. Fortunately we were neither of us hurt, but Columbus must have thought we were killed, for he cleared out—"
"And came straight back to us, luckily," interrupted Morton.
"When I found that he was gone," went on Charlie, "I thought we could get back again by piling rocks up to stand upon; but there were no small ones, they were all too big for us to shift. We waited there, and shouted, and called, and every now and again we heard that sigh—"
"We heard it as well," said Morton.
"Billy shook with fright every time, and nearly made me as bad as himself. At last I made up my mind to explore the passage we were in; but I had a great job with Billy, for the passage led in the direction the sound came from, and Billy conjured up all manner of horrors. Luckily I had the packet of candles with me when I came down, so we had plenty of light."
"Was the air bad?" asked Morton.
"There was a funny damp smell, but the candles burnt well, and we felt no bad effects. The passage was smooth enough underfoot but not very high, so that we had to stoop; but we came to occasional places where we could straighten our backs. The noise kept getting louder, until at last Billy with his terror got to be such a nuisance, that when we got to where there was enough space I put my candle down and gave him a good punching."
Here Brown and Morton burst out laughing. The idea of Charlie, down in the blackness of a subterranean passage, thumping Billy to keep his own courage up, was too original.
"Presently we came to where the passage branched, and along one came the noise, now a regular bellow. Nothing could induce Billy to go along that one; he threw himself on the ground and let me kick him, but he wouldn't budge."
"Were you very anxious to go yourself, Charlie?" asked Brown.