“Can you not smell something strange?” said Onrai.
They all drew in a deep breath. Yes, there was something; a nasty odor, which they had not noticed before, and it was getting plainer each moment. They looked about them, but could see nothing.
“It may be the torch,” said Mr. Graham.
“No, it is a different smell from that, but we must extinguish the torch or the smoke will soon suffocate us, if this other smell does not,” and saying this, Mr. Bruce blew out the torch. But that fearful smell, what could it be? In a short time their eyes began to smart.
“It is smoke of some kind,” said Harry, “and I am going to find out from where it is coming.”
He relighted the torch, and for a moment the men could hardly see, so thick had the smoke become in those few minutes.
“It is stifling,” said Mr. Bruce. “Can you see where it comes from?”
Harry, who had the torch and who was looking for the source of this new danger, examined every nook and corner, but could find no hole or opening. The smoke was getting thicker each moment, and the men were gasping for breath; it would only take a very few minutes of this to kill them all; still there seemed to be no avenue of escape. These natives had shown great cunning in thus allowing them to get into the chamber, imprisoning them and choke them to death with smoke.
Mr. Bruce took the torch from Harry and started inspecting himself. He was staggering about the room half-blinded and choked by the smoke, when the torch fell from his hands, and falling to the floor went out. He stooped to pick it up again, when he felt a draft near the floor; he hurriedly relit the torch and placed it near the floor; he had to get down onto his knees and bend close to the floor before he could see, and there, coming in a great broad stream, he saw the smoke coming through a crack about an inch in width, and five feet in length. The crack ran with the floor, and Mr. Bruce at once came to the conclusion that another stone door must be at this point, and it had been lifted to leave a space for the smoke’s entrance.
“Come quickly,” he called to the others, not knowing but that they had already succumbed to the fearful smoke, as he could not see them. They had been leaning against the opposite wall, fighting off that fearful suffocation, when they heard Mr. Bruce’s voice.