After that there was another unnerving wait. Higher and higher rose the sun, and still there were no further signs of the enemy. After what seemed like an age, Dick said: “Do you suppose they’ve given up?”
“No chance of it,” Larry contended. “They’ve gone too far. They know that if they let us get away now there’ll be something worse than a charge of mine-jumping to face. They’ve tried to murder us.”
“Gee, gosh!” Dick complained. “I wish they’d hurry up before I get any hungrier!”
As the time dragged on, there seemed to be little chance of the wish being fulfilled. At last Dick jumped up, declaring that he’d fly all to pieces if he didn’t stir around a bit.
“Stir all you want to,” said Purdick. “Larry and I will keep watch.”
Dick tramped back and forth in the cavern for a few minutes until he got his stiffened muscles limbered up, and then disappeared in the backward reaches of the crevice. When he returned he was breathing hard as if he had been running.
“What is it?” Purdick asked.
“A knock-out,” said Dick shortly. “There isn’t any back door.”
“What do you mean?” It was Larry who wanted to know.