Frank Hardy could not have fallen more than ten or twelve feet, but he had the sensation of having dropped from an enormous height. The unexpectedness of it took his breath away, and when he finally crashed into a heap of earth and gravel with a jolt that jarred every bone in his body he could only lie there in the darkness and wonder that he was still alive.
Then, to his relief, came a voice from close at hand.
"Are you all right, Frank?"
"That you, Joe?"
"You didn't expect to find anybody else down here, did you?" asked Joe, with a chuckle.
"I'm all right. No bones broken. How about you?"
"I'm shaken up a bit, but I'm all right. Thank goodness I didn't land on my head."
"What on earth happened?"
"We must have stepped right back into the main shaft of the mine. That passage we were in was a drift that went right through to the cave. We're at the bottom of the shaft now, I guess."
Frank had still retained his grasp of the flashlight. Fortunately it had not been broken in the fall and when he switched it on the welcome glow of light again pervaded their prison.