“See, there is your pick and shovel. Are you satisfied that this is the place where you work?”
“Certainly, I can see that,” returned the other wonderingly.
“Good!” returned the Indian. “Now we will go only a little way from this place.”
He extinguished the candlelight, and the inky darkness enveloped them like a blanket.
“But,” he added, “I must first make sure of your never again going as we shall go. I will blindfold you and you will follow me by holding fast to this rope. Are you willing?”
There was a taunting sneer in his tone that would have goaded the white man into any reckless adventure.
“As you like,” he said shortly.
When the cloth was bound securely about Hugh’s eyes, the Indian caught him by the arms and whirled him about until he was completely bewildered. Then he felt one end of the rope thrust into his hand.
“Come,” said the Indian, and gave a slight pull on the rope.
It was impossible for the white man to form any idea as to their course. At times they climbed upward, then again they descended as rapidly. At other times they made their way along some steep slope. Now and then the Indian bade him go on hands and knees, or warned him to move with care and to hold fast to the shrubs and bushes. At last Hugh Edwards knew that they were entering a cavern by an opening barely large enough for them to crawl through. He could not even guess the dimensions of this underground chamber, but he imagined that it was a passage or tunnel, for as they went on he touched a wall on his right and the Indian cautioned him to keep his head down.