All hands started on a trot, now stumbling, now falling, but without a single murmur, or protest.
"You are a nervy bunch of boys. Never saw anything to equal you," gasped the engineer. "I can't forgive myself for getting you into this wretched mix-up."
"You never mind us. We're all right," answered Tad brightly. "I'm sorry you got knocked out so."
"Here's the cross cut," cried the miner. He had paused and was cautiously feeling his way along the wet, slippery wall.
The boys breathed a sigh of relief.
"Now run as if the Indians were after you. I'm in a bigger hurry than
I ever have been in my life."
And run they did.
The boys had no idea what Tom Phipps's reasons were for urging such haste upon them, but they knew they must be urgent ones.
Tad found himself wondering what new peril might be facing them. He decided that the assistant superintendent must be seeking to protect the company's property by stopping the sending of more cars through the tunnel. Yet, if this were so, why had the guide urged them to such haste.
"No," said Tad to himself, "it's something that we don't know anything about. But unless I am greatly mistaken we are going to find out pretty soon."