“Agreed,” said Harry, “and let us keep close together, for we may need each other’s immediate help.”
“Yes,” said Mr. Bruce, “we must move cautiously and silently if possible and may be we will pass the point where the natives turned off.”
With this they moved on, feeling their way by the walls of the corridor and keeping close together. A braver lot of men it would have been hard to find; in fact, not one of these men felt the least fear even after their recent experience, unless it might have been Onrai, and it was not a fear with him, but more that unexplained uncertainty. He had been led to think, throughout his life, that his race was the only one inhabiting this world and he had first been visited by a number of strange people, even coming into his company in a strange way. He had accounted for these by believing that they had come from another planet. This had not worried him but only a few days before, while moving through his country his men had found a woman and child, which had evidently belonged to another race of people. This had set him to thinking and now, down here in the bowels of the earth, living in caves hewn out of rock, he had found still another race, a miserable half-dwarfed race, and Mr. Bruce had assured him that these people had lived here for ages, probably longer than had his people in the open country above. All these things had upset the teachings and the beliefs of a lifetime and Onrai now was in a doubt as to what to believe. But he felt no fear really, but only a disgust, brought on by all this doubt.
The party calculated that they had now reached the point where the natives had disappeared and the precautions were doubled. The floor of the cavern at this point was strewn with spears, which had been dropped by the frightened natives and it was hard work to walk over these in the dark without making some noise, but no signs of natives were seen, as it was supposed that they had hid themselves in some remote part of the cave. After passing this point, the explorers moved faster but did not attempt to light a torch.
“Do you think that we can be able to find the other corridor again, the one by which we entered this place?” asked Onrai.
“That’s so,” said Mr. Bruce. “I had forgotten that we were now in another corridor.”
“No,” said Harry, “and even if we look for it we would not know where to find it. We may wander about here for weeks or months and never find our way out.”
“Now, these are disagreeable things which we must not think of if we would enjoy this adventure to the fullest,” said Mr. Graham. “I can understand that to be lost in this hole would be fearful, but we are not lost yet, for if we are, we are not aware of the fact; so let us not think of that. We must try, however, to keep in this corridor or one which leads off from it and to know at all times just how many turns we make.”
“It would be well for us to notch these walls occasionally, or in some other way leave marks by which we can find our way back,” said Mr. Bruce.
“That is a grand idea,” said Harry, “and I will commence right here by scratching the wall.”