“Now,” he declared briskly, “we must stop right where we are until we’ve planned a campaign. This is a real adventure.” Even as he spoke, miserably aware of the serious predicament into which the going out of the torch had plunged them, he was conscious of the delicate fragrance of her hair, so near his lips, and the vague, yet penetrant, perfume that exhaled from her to the ravishing of his senses. He fought manfully against the temptation to draw her to his breast, as every fibre of him besought. Under the stress of desire denied, his voice came with a ring of imperiousness. “I had a lot of experiences in caves, when I was a boy. This thing will be easy.”
“But we’re going downward,” Margaret faltered. The mystery of the event had sapped courage.
“Exactly!” Saxe conceded. “Somewhere, we turned off into a branch passage. Did you know of any branch?”
“No,” came the answer. The inflection of distress gave new strength to the temptation that beset him.
“I should have noticed it on the way down,” Saxe confessed, in great bitterness of spirit; “but my mind was wool-gathering.”
The girl ventured no question. Perhaps she guessed the nature of that distraction.
“Anyhow, we’ve managed to leave the passage in which we came down. We couldn’t have turned around in it, without knowing the fact. It seems to me that we’ve only to face about, and make our way upward again—merely watching out that we don’t get switched off another time. The ascent will surely take us back by one or the other of the two corridors into the big room above.”
“But—if it should not!” Margaret stammered. The woe in her voice was pitiful. “Why, we might—here in the dark—no light—no food—oh!”
Saxe spoke with a manner of authority:
“Stop! Don’t imagine things. Worry wastes strength. Save yours for this exciting climb through the dark. There’s no danger—that I know.” The calm confidence with which he contrived to charge his voice soothed the girl, and restored to her some measure of courage. From his position on the left side of her, he put out his free hand, and touched the wall. “Put out your right hand,” he bade her, “until it reaches the wall. Now, we’ll turn round, and begin the journey in the right direction. Keep in touch with the wall, please. Move slowly, using your feet in place of eyes, to avoid stumbling.”