“Like ’nough dey have gone,” he said, after a little; “’twouldn’t do no hurt to see.”
“Wal,” said Vic, “s’posen ye go out an’ see.”
“Oh Lor’!” ejaculated Scip, “I can’t. S’pose dey was dar, whar’d I be? You g’long!”
“Wal,” said Vic, “I’m about caved in for want of some grub, an’ we are all in the same fix. I’m a-goin’ tew take jist one more tower of this honeycomb, an’ see ef I can’t find a hole out. Ef I can’t, we’ll begin another tunnel. We won’t stop tryin’; it’s root hog or die.”
“It is useless to try to find an opening,” remarked Kent. “We have searched over and again, and had there been one we must have found it.”
Vic took a survey of the cave, however, as he had done a dozen times before, and without success.
“Now, then,” he said, “let’s dig another tunnel. It’s doubtful, but thar’s a chance for success. Let’s begin here.”
It was with hope at a very low ebb that the men began the work. Their success had been so poor hitherto, that they were beginning to despair. One man worked at a time, and in order to advance as rapidly as possible they changed every twenty minutes, and the digger fell back to help to remove the dirt. For instance, Vic dug, pushing the dirt a little behind him. Scip came next, who pushed the dirt still further back to Kent, who advanced it to Wild Nat, whose business it was to keep the mouth of the hole clear. In this way they progressed rapidly, and in four hours had tunneled the distance of eighteen feet. Hope now began to rise. The soil was quite easily removed with their knives, and they had as yet experienced no difficulty with stones.
“We’re gittin’ along purty well,” remarked Wild Nat, as he industriously plunged his knife in the soil. “At this rate— Hello!”
His knife had struck something that sounded like stone. A gloom fell on the little party at the sound. Without a word the trapper continued his work, and in a moment the cause stood revealed. A huge rock—how large it was impossible to tell—obstructed the tunnel, and effectually cut off all hope in that direction. Dead silence reigned for a moment; then: