They had not gone far when Bill stopped and picked up a piece of cloth from the ground.
"Here's what was over his eyes," he said, "an' as it's a bit furder dan where we left 'im, it shows he's gone furder in."
The boys gazed at the cloth in awe-struck silence, as though it were something to be dreaded; and, when Bill called out, "Come on, fellers, yer won't never find nothing a-standin' dere like a lot o' balky mules," they followed him even more reluctantly than before.
Lighted by their lamps, they made far more rapid progress than poor Derrick had in the darkness, and soon approached the place where he had discovered the dim, reflected light above the mouth of the old air-shaft. Just here the oil in their leader's lamp began to give out, and its flame to burn with a waning and uncertain light.
All at once a strong draught of air extinguished it entirely. He took a step forward in the darkness towards a log which he had barely seen, and thought might be Derrick Sterling lying down. Then came a terrible cry, and Paul's light showed nothing in front of him save the yawning mouth of the shaft down which Bill Tooley had pitched headlong!
CHAPTER VII
A CRIPPLE'S BRAVE DEED
As Bill Tooley thus met the fate Derrick had so narrowly escaped, and the Young Sleepers who followed him were left without a leader, they were thrown into a sad state of confusion. Two of them started to run back, another threw himself on the floor and burst into loud lamentations, while the fourth stood motionless and silent from fear. Of them all, only Paul Evert, the crippled lad, retained his presence of mind.
As upon all such occasions he who retains full command of his faculties and remains calm at once assumes the position of a leader, so it was now.