“Then you’ve got another presume coming! They’ll think we have been abducted and killed. So many strange things have occurred lately that they have a right to think almost anything! It is after midnight now, and I was to awaken Case at that time and go to bed.”
“We’ll both go to bed in the promised land, I guess!” Tom declared, gloomily. “I don’t see how we’re ever going to dig out of here!”
“If you’ll cast your mournful eyes over into that corner,” Clay said, “you’ll see a shovel, or a spade, or some digging implement King must have left here. I reckon we can do something with that! Do you get me?”
“I never knew that a shovel could dig through stone or iron,” observed Tom, still despondent. “You’re just trying to think you can dig out.”
“Son,” chuckled Clay, “these stones are laid on solid ground. I don’t know how deep the foundation runs below the bottom of the cellar, but, no matter about that. We’ll dig down until we get under the wall, and then the stones will come tumbling down and we’ll walk out—to the confusion of King and the great delight of the boys and Captain Joe and Teddy.”
“I’d like to know how King got up here,” Tom muttered, as Clay took up the shovel and set to work. “You said he was down the river.”
“He won’t stay put,” said Clay. “He probably attracted the attention of a steamer crew and came up ahead of us. There! Look here,” he added. “The foundation is on a level with the bottom of the cellar. I’ll have this wall tumbling in no time. Then for the Rambler before daylight.”
Clay dug away manfully, and the great stones of the wall soon began sagging down. Directly there was a line of light just under the sill of the house.
“Now we’ve got it!” laughed Clay. “Here’s light and fresh air. The moon must have come up after we came down here. See how light it is! A few more minutes, and we’ll be out of here and on our way!”
Quite a section of the wall now fell in, so that Clay had to make quick motions in order to avoid being crushed by the great rocks. Still there was insufficient space at the top to permit of their passing out.