"How's that?"
"Looks more'n more like Ben Bolt's work."
"Think he's in there now?" exclaimed Tom, in an awed whisper.
"No, I don't think that. But it shows me that he's knocking about here again, an' he's been in the caves quite recently."
The boys looked into each other's faces, and felt—well, just as you would feel, brave reader, were you in the cavernous depths of earth, in the very haunts of proclaimed outlaws, not knowing at what moment they might spring upon you. Standing in the cold, damp, dim underground, at the mouth of an unknown passage, which might take you to the innermost den of the outlaws, could you contemplate advance without an attack of the creeps? The crevice, after going down sheer a few feet, turned on a level plane, right across the floor of the cathedral, in a westerly direction. How far could be known only by actual travel.
"Come on, boys," said Sandy, after a moment's silence; "it's what we've come here for. I believe, for one, we're goin' to solve the mystery."
One by one the lads dropped into the bottom of the well. The passage was of unequal width, but always wide enough to allow the party to proceed without squeezing, and had a fairly level floor. The floor, after extending two hundred paces or so in a westerly direction, began to decline somewhat sharply, and presently Sandy gave a warning shout—
"Water ahead!"
The others crowded round him as well as they could. There, at their very feet, was a pool of water of unknown depth.
"Here's a go, chaps! Looks as if it might be a swim."