“Fellows, we seem to be in a pretty bad fix,” said Phil. “If you have any ideas for getting out, now’s the time to say so.”
“Search me,” said Tom, shaking his head. “All I can see is, to keep going and trust to luck to come out somewhere before we starve to death.”
“Shucks!” exclaimed Phil, “that’s no kind of an idea. Can’t you think of anything better, Dick?”
“Well, I don’t know,” returned his friend, slowly. “I’ve noticed there’s a slight draught through these passages, and it must come from some opening into the outer world. I think that if, at every fork, we turn in the direction that the wind is coming from, that we may land out somewhere. How does that strike you?”
“I was thinking the same thing,” nodded Phil. “We were careless to get in this fix without having anything with us to eat. I’m half starved already.”
“I’m about nine-tenths starved,” lamented Tom. “I was never so hungry in my life.”
They started on again, following Dick’s suggestion. At some of the forks, however, they found that a draught blew up every one, so that they were no better off than before. The air was dark and chilly, too, and in spite of the exercise they were chilled to the bone. They kept doggedly on, but were almost ready to give up hope, when Phil stopped and listened.
Far away in the depths of the black passageway they could hear a faint murmur, like the sound of running water. They pressed onward, the sound growing ever louder as they went. Soon the murmur had grown to a roar that filled their ears, and made it impossible for them to hear each other’s voices.
Two of their three flashlights were useless, the batteries being completely exhausted. The third gave only a dim light, that seemed only to accentuate the darkness through which they groped. It sufficed, however, to show them the cause of the roar that echoed through the subterranean caverns.
Their passage opened out into a vast cave. From a point near the roof of this a great waterfall thundered down a wall of glistening black rock, and then swirled away in a rushing torrent.