“It’s all right. It broadens out beyond here. Come on, Percy, you can squeeze through alright.”
“I’ll try,” declared the stouter of the two youths valiantly, and, with a violent effort, he forced himself forward. It cost him almost all the breath in his body, but he succeeded in passing the narrow place and then found himself beside his companion in what appeared to be a much larger space beyond. Another match was struck which revealed the place into which they had forced their way as a circular cave with a dome-like roof from which water dripped in a constant shower.
It was cold and damp and the boys shuddered as the water, which was icy cold, pattered about them as if a violent rainstorm was in progress.
“Ugh! What sort of a place have we landed in now, I’d like to know,” muttered Percy Simmons. “Shivering snakes, it’s like a Cave of the Rains, or something of that kind.”
“That’s so. We can’t stay here; it’s like being in a damp ice box. We must find some way out.”
“Where do you suppose we are, anyhow?”
“Evidently in some subterranean cavern or passage that runs under the hillside.”
“The question is, where does it come out?”
“That’s what we’ll have to see. There must be a way out.”
“Oh, of course,” assented Persimmons with suspicious eagerness.