"Yes, you're right about that," admitted Jack.
"Oh, I felt it before Jimmy said a single word," Teddy remarked. "I was sucking it in for all I was worth, because after that dust got to going, it's been hard to breathe at all."
"Must be the outlet, don't you think, Ned?" questioned Frank.
"We'll all hope so," came the reply from the leader.
"P'raps the three men may be hanging around meaning to keep us from rushing the exit, if we happen to come along that way?" Jimmy next advanced; for his mind was so fashioned that he could think of more objections in a minute than would occur to any one else in an hour.
"Well, they'll wish they had'nt, then," said Jack, belligerently. "All told, we're seven against three; and what with our guns, we ought to put up a pretty stiff sort of a battle."
"Well, I guess so," grunted Jimmy, immediately appeased by the prospect of action, which always satisfied a certain longing in his soul; for doubtless the ancestors of the Irish boy had once fought at Donnybrook Fair in the Old Country.
The atmosphere certainly grew fresher as they continued to push forward. This fact told them they must be approaching an opening where the outer air managed to gain ingress to the fissure.
Then they noticed that it was no longer so intensely dark as it had heretofore been. Ned concluded that it would be policy for them to lessen the illumination they were making with their torches.
"Shut off your light, Jimmy, Teddy and Frank," he told them.