“What’s the answer to that?” demanded Jimmie.
“Why, the outlaws are doubtless collecting their forces now, and in a very short time they’ll be rummaging every nook and corner of this hole in the ground. We certainly can’t show a light after they get in here.”
“I should have known that!” Jimmie exclaimed. “I think I’m getting pretty dense, anyhow. Say, Ned,” the boy went on, “is it absolutely necessary for us to get captured, and tied up, and imprisoned, and shut up in some old hole, every time we go out on a vacation trip?”
“You can’t go out looking for adventures and have things come your way all the time,” suggested Ned. “Now, turn on your light,” he continued, “and we’ll make a quick break for the passage by which you entered. The minute you see the passage, turn out your light and we’ll find our way in the dark.”
“I’m afraid we’ll need wings to get up into the passage,” Jimmie suggested. “It seems to me that I fell far enough to hit the pavement from the top of Madison Square Garden.”
“Well, get to going!” urged Ned. “Get a move on! For all we know they may be lurking around here now.”
Jimmie switched on the light, whirled it over the dilapidated and rotting furniture for an instant, then shot into the next chamber, and from that into a by-passage by way of which he had entered. The floor of this by-passage stood at an angle of about fifty degrees, and the boys were preparing to undertake the climb when shouts came from the rear, and a great light filled the room they had just left.
“We can never get up there now!” Ned whispered. “We’ve got to take a run for it!”
“Huh!” returned Jimmie, “we can run only around in a circle, and there’s enough of them to wear us out in a few minutes. What we’ve got to do right now is to find a hiding place!”
At great risk of discovery, Ned seized the flashlight and pressed the spring. The illumination showed a moldy chamber with water dripping from the walls in places.