“Oh, for a chance to telephone the paper!” exclaimed several reporters. But they knew there was no opportunity.
“Now’s your time!” whispered Mr. Newton to Larry. “Hurry back, and as soon as you can get to a telephone tell Mr. Emberg all that you have seen and about the failure of the ram to work. I’d go, only if I leave the other men will notice it and they’ll try the same trick.”
Slipping through the crowd, Larry started back. He was not noticed amid the excitement. He could hear the blows which the laborers were beginning to rain on the brick wall and the thud of them sounded like thunder in the tunnel. Down the sloping planks he went until he found himself on the floor of the tube.
Then he began to run as fast as possible on the uneven surface and through the semi-darkness. Several times he stumbled over big sections of the iron lining and once he fell into a puddle of water. He got up, not minding the smart of his cut hands, and kept on.
The tunnel made a slight turn a few hundred feet back from where the wall was being cut through and this curve hid the throng from Larry. Now he was all alone in the big shaft and he began to experience a feeling of fear. Suppose some accident should happen? If the roof should cave in? Or he should fall, strike his head, and be rendered unconscious?
All these things Larry thought of as he hurried on. But he tried to forget them and to think only of getting to the surface and telephoning the news. The fact that the hydraulic ram had failed to work made the story all the better for newspaper purposes.
Larry’s one real fear was lest he might not be able to get through the air lock. This was a sort of double opening leading into the tube at the western end. There was no air pressure in it however, but the lock remained and had to be entered through small openings.
When the party had reached this, in going through the tunnel, they found the opening so narrow that but one could pass through at a time. Workmen had been stationed there to help, as the doors which formerly closed the lock were still in place and were heavy affairs. If one of them should happen to be closed Larry felt that his mission would prove a failure.
He kept on as fast as he could walk. He was glad when he came to an electric light, for it made the tube seem less lonesome. But the lights were few and when he had left one behind Larry began to wish the next one would gleam out.
When he felt the floor of the tube beginning to take an upward turn Larry knew he was approaching the end, and, also, the air lock.