Thinking to catch Sandy before he was too far away, Dick hastened forward with less caution. He had advanced some fifty yards, when of a sudden the earth gave way under him. His cry of terror was drowned by the sound of falling stones and gravel, as he pitched downward. His clutching hands encountered a rim of solid rock. With a painful jerk he stopped his fall, dangling there by his fingers over a chasm he knew not how deep.
Once he regained his breath and sense, he endeavored to pull himself up. But he could not quite make it. The hole bulged outward under his feet and, kick and thresh as he would, he could not get a foothold anywhere. The rim he was clinging to was so narrow that it was impossible for him to hold his body up on it even if he pulled himself up by the hands. He realized that he was part way down the hole, hanging to the conical wall.
Dick’s struggles slowly weakened. His head was paining him severely. He realized that he could not hang on much longer, yet gritting his teeth, he clung on while his muscles burned and his fingers grew numb.
With his last remaining strength, he shouted. But it seemed that his voice was deadened by the formation of the hole, as if he had shouted into a barrel. But again and again he raised his voice, though it grew weaker and weaker.
He did not know whether he imagined it or not, but he thought his last outcry received an answer. Slowly he was losing consciousness. It seemed that he could hear the pad, pad of moccasins and more voices. A hand grasped his wrists, then he gave out.
When once more Dick awakened he found himself in a dimly lighted underground room. Some one was pouring something hot between his teeth.
“Sandy!” he started up, looking into his chum’s happy face.
“Greetin’s, lad,” called Malemute Slade, smiling down from the other side of him, “you’ve had a tough time of it.”
“I thought it was all over with as far as I was concerned,” replied Dick.
“Uncle Walter is here, but he’s pretty sick,” Sandy was telling him. “We found him in this room, almost dead from starvation. He seems to be a little better since we fed him some hot broth.”