For a mile or more they threaded this tunnel, and not a sign of life was there the whole way. When they emerged from the darkness into comparative space and light, the boys wiped their faces, which were clammy with moisture.
"A few more experiences like that, Dick, and we cross the river for good."
"Eh?"
"Why, man, it's the Styx. It has given me the shivers."
"Quinine," said Compton; and they dosed one another there and then. "I say, I'd give the whole five hundred miles square of this forest for one little glade in Epping."
"Bother!"
"Of all the squirmy, snaky, gloomy, airless, sunless, moist, decaying masses of misery, I think this is the worst."
"It is, Dick; it is. There's not a butterfly even."
"Thunder! It's raining fire! No; it's an ant S It's raining ants, by gum!"
"You ass, you've hooked the bill into a nest. There—that round, black thing—like a football. They're running up the bill-hook."