While they struggled up the hard slope, after passing the gold chamber, lights flashed in the darkness behind them and they lay flat on their faces, expecting every moment to hear the sounds of determined pursuit.
But the men who had been seen about the fire did not advance beyond the gold chamber. The boys heard them talking together for a moment, and then the sound of their voices died out.
“I guess they’ve gone back!” ventured Frank.
“I don’t believe they have,” replied Jack. “It’s just this way, you see,” he went on, “they would naturally expect to find a current of running water passing through the chamber. Well, we shut the water off, didn’t we? That, of itself, will render them suspicious, and they’ll keep up their investigation until they find the cause of the change in the stream. I only hope they won’t get up to the vicinity of the pit and find Harry before we get back to him!”
Stopping frequently to rest, the boys crawled on up the incline until they came to the angle which led to the first steep passage they had negotiated. By this time, their hands were bleeding from contact with the rough rocks, their breath was coming in short gasps.
Once around the angle, however, they stopped and lay motionless for a moment. Then Frank turned the eye of his searchlight upward. What he saw at the head of the incline caused him to grasp his companion fiercely by the shoulder and point with a trembling finger.
“If that isn’t a ghost up there,” he said, “it is Harry!”
“We never left Harry as far in the hill as that!” Jack suggested.
“Then it’s a ghost!” Frank insisted. “Anyway, there’s some one up there. I can’t see the whole figure, but I saw a white face for just an instant. It must be Harry!”
“Up we go, then!” Jack exclaimed.