“Hope your flash is all right,” said Ernest. His voice sounded flat and small in the close passage.
“It is,” answered Bill. “I put a new battery in this morning.”
“I have a flash, too,” said Fatty unexpectedly, “but my battery is almost gone. I put it in my pocket to get a new one and forgot it.”
“We will stick by Bill’s, I reckon,” said Ernest. He turned a sharp corner and disappeared, light and all. Fatty surged forward and pressed close to Bill, but Bill in turn hurried ahead, shaking Fatty’s hand from his shoulder. Bill didn’t want anyone leaning on him in the dark. They felt their way around the jagged rock and found Ernest standing in a high chamber, turning his flashlight here and there on the walls and the vaulted ceiling.
Snow white pillars supported the roof, which was covered with icicles of sparkling stone. Some of these stalactites were five feet in length, but most of them were no larger than the icicles that hang on the eaves after a hard thaw and sudden freeze, and they were even more beautiful. In the light of the flash they sparkled as though covered with small, brilliant gems.
From a far, far distance came the sound of water dripping. Otherwise the silence was complete.
The boys were awed.
“Mamma!” exclaimed Eddie softly. “What a place for spies!”
Ernest walked slowly around the great chamber. It must have been thirty feet in diameter. In the center was a sort of hump or mound of the glistening white stones. Ernest went over to it and they all sat down.
Eddie tried making unusual sounds. His voice sounded very queer.