“This is awful!” Louise whispered nervously. “Let’s turn back.”
Penny might have yielded to her chum’s coaxing but at that moment the tunnel broadened out and became lighter. Directly ahead a series of steps led down to a lower room of the cave.
“This place must be safe enough or steps wouldn’t have been built here,” she whispered. “Don’t be nervous, Lou. We may discover something important.”
Louise muttered that they were more likely to break their necks. However, she cautiously followed Penny down the rock-hewn steps. Half way down, they both paused. From below came a weird sound.
“What was that?” Louise whispered.
“It sounded for all the world like the note of a pipe organ!” Penny observed. “There it is again—a different tone this time.”
Noiselessly the girls moved on down the steps. Ahead of them they now could see a moving light which undoubtedly was a flash lantern carried by the beachcomber. Drawing closer, they saw the man himself. In the great cavern his shadow appeared grotesque and huge.
“What is he doing?” Louise whispered in awe.
The man was unaware that he had been followed. He stood in the center of the great chamber, gazing with wrapt expression at the stalagmites which rose in strange formations from the cave floor. The girls could hear him muttering to himself. At the risk of being seen they moved closer.
“Music! Music!” the old man mumbled. “Talk about your pipe organs! They ain’t in it with this!”