“Say, Mas’r Harry,” said Tom after a long silence. “We are only wandering here and there without finding the passage to go out.”
“I have been thinking so too, Tom,” I said, as a thought struck me. Then loudly—“Look out, and see if you can make out anything when I fire: the flash may guide us.”
Taking out my pistol I fired upwards, when it was as if the whole cave were being crushed up together—thunder, roar, and bellow, in a deafening series of echoes—echoes succeeded by the rustling as of ten thousand wings, and shrieks that were deafening—noises which were quite a quarter of an hour in subsiding.
“We must be near to an opening, Tom,” I said, as soon as I could make myself heard.
“All right, Mas’r Harry, and I’ve seen it,” he said cheerily. “This is a big place, hundreds of feet over, but the passage out lies here; that firing of the pistol was a good idea of yours.”
He took my hand and stepped out boldly. Then feeling his way with caution, he exclaimed joyfully that he had found the opening, into which we stepped, and soon knew by the hollow sound that we were in a rapidly contracting passage.
From time to time I now flashed off a little powder in the pan of my pistol, in which instant we were able to see that we were in one of the riven passages of the cave, similar to those which we had before traversed; and, faint with hunger, we pressed on, till a distant murmur, ever increasing, forced itself upon my notice, and in a voice of despair I exclaimed:
“Oh, Tom, Tom! we are going back, my lad!”
“Mas’r Harry,” he exclaimed, “don’t be down-hearted. ’Tis so, though; and I’ve been thinking it for the past quarter of an hour, but I wouldn’t say it for I wasn’t sure. Never mind, let’s turn back. That’s the big waterfall we can hear, sure enough. But we can step out bold now, as we know there’s no danger; and when we are in the big place where we slept, a little powder will show us the way.”
A weary walk and we were once more upon the soft earth of the cave where we had slept—the bird-chamber we called it—when, by means of flashing off powder, we arrived at a pretty good idea of the size of the place, and, better still, discovered a fresh outlet.