“But he isn’t here, and we are,” remarked Slim gloomily.
“I wish now I’d waked Sylvia up and shown her the stair landing opening,” sighed Katherine regretfully. “She was so sound asleep, though, I couldn’t bear to waken her. If she only knew about it she could send Sherry after us!” Oh, the tragedy bound up in that little word “if”!
Then to add to their troubles the lantern began to burn out with a series of pale flashes, and Slim was so agitated about it that he dropped the biggest electric flashlight on the floor and put it out of commission. Katherine’s small pocket flash had burned out some time before. That left only two small flashlights.
“Put them out,” directed Justice, “so they’ll last. We can flash them when we need a light.”
It was much worse, being there in the darkness. Sahwah and Katherine clung to each other convulsively and the boys instinctively moved nearer together. Conversation dropped off after a while and it seemed as if the silence of the tomb hovered over them. No sound came from any direction.
During another one of these silences, following a desperate outburst of shouting, a sound burst through the uncanny stillness. It was a slight sound, but to their strained nerves it was as startling as a cannon shot. It was merely a faint pat, pat, pat, coming from somewhere. They could not tell the direction, it was so far off.
“It’s footsteps!” said Sahwah, starting up wildly.
“No, it’s only water dropping,” said Justice, cupping his hand over his ear in an attempt to locate the direction of the sound. “I wonder where it can be.”
He flashed the light and looked for the dropping water, but failed to find it. He turned the light out again. Then in the darkness the sound seemed clearer than before—pat, pat, pat, pat.
“It’s getting louder,” said Katherine.