Jack knew well enough what the trouble was. There were places up in the new chambers where the deadly carbonic acid gas was escaping into the prison, adding, with terrible rapidity, to the amount produced by exhalation and combustion. But he said nothing; the boys did not know, and it would be useless to alarm them further.
Bennie started and moaned now and then in his sleep, and finally awoke, crying. He had had bad dreams, he said.
Jack thought it must be late in the second evening of their imprisonment.
He took all the food from the basket, and divided it into three equal parts. It would be better to eat it, he thought, before actual suffering from hunger began. They would be better able to hold out in the end.
Nevertheless, he laid his portion back in the basket.
“I haven’t the stomach for it just noo,” he said. “Mayhap it’ll taste better an’ I wait a bit.”
There was plenty of water. A little stream ran down through the airway, from which the pail had been repeatedly filled.
The night wore on.
The first sound of rescue had not yet been heard.