The seer gave a grunt of approbation.
“You advance by leaps and bounds,” he declared.
Exploration of the continuance of the passage was speedily effected, as it narrowed immediately beyond the pit, and came to a definite end within ten yards. Thereupon, the four retraced their steps, inspecting with care every inch of the way, until they reached the break that formed a communication between the two tunnels. It was decided now that the party should divide, Billy and David keeping on in this passage, while Saxe and the boatman crossed into the other, there to follow its length under the lake.
Saxe knew that he and the girl had gone a little way beyond the junction of the passages, and he was intensely eager to learn what might lie farther on. Hope mounted high as he set forth down the slope, with Jake hard at his heels. He realized that, for ill or weal, he was close to the issue of his adventure, and he dared expect success.
The way at first led downward steeply, but afterward, at a point which, as Saxe judged, was still well within the island, the tunnel ascended for a time, then ran level. This level broadened presently into a chamber, larger even than that back at the entrance to the cavern. Their lanterns showed a room fully a hundred feet in diameter, irregular, its walls broken by many ledges, with here and there deep shadows that might shroud the entrances to other passages.
“It’s not the place, though,” Saxe declared; “for we are too high. This isn’t under the lake—and the cipher says, ‘The Bed of the Lake.’ Come on, Jake.”
He led the way toward a tunnel that yawned blackly on the south side of the chamber. This sloped sharply downward, without a bend. Saxe, who possessed an instinct for location that was rarely at fault, had kept careful watch of every change in direction throughout the exploration.
“Jake,” he said abruptly, after the straight course had been followed for a few rods, “if we keep on like this, we ought to hit the passage where the pit is.”
“I guess not,” the boatman objected. “We’ve been all over that-thar tunnel, and there ain’t no place where this-here tunnel comes into it. Now, what do ye say to that, Mr. Temple, eh?”
“Not a blessed thing,” Saxe replied. “You’re right, of course, and yet—anyhow, I’d be willing to wager we’ll run within a rod of the other passage, at farthest.”