"They'll find the place, I reckon," Uncle Jeb said. "Naow let's pull ashore and root around."
The fellows in the other boats waited, just rowing around close to shore, while Uncle Jeb and Westy and I climbed up to the cave. It was higher above the lake than it was before, on account of the water escaping and we had to scramble up through a lot of mud.
I was so excited I couldn't keep still and I just stumbled into the cave and stood there for a couple of seconds, holding the lantern. It was as dark as pitch and smelled like earth. I kind of had a feeling that it was a grave. I was sorry I had ever shouted down to Bert Winton that maybe the passageway came out there. Anyway, I held the lantern into the passage way. It was a sort of an opening between two big rocks inside. Then I squeezed myself in and went ahead about thirty or forty feet, I guess. And that was every bit as far as I could go. The passageway just fizzled out against a great big rock. It didn't lead anywhere at all.
Then, all of a sudden, a cold feeling came over me and my fingers just loosened and I dropped the lantern. It sort of scared me when I heard the glass crash on the ground. For about half a minute I couldn't budge; I just couldn't go out and tell Westy and Uncle Jeb that it was all up with Bert Winton—I just couldn't do it. Because I knew I was to blame for shouting that down to him like a fool.
If I had been a good scout I would have known that passage didn't lead anywhere. Look how Bert was always finding things out and how he knew all about the country around there. I could just kind of see him poking around with his stick. And I just couldn't call and I felt sick, as if I was going to fall right down.
"It was me that killed him," I cried, and I heard a voice say, "killed him."
It was just an echo, I guess.
CHAPTER XXXIII
TELLS ABOUT HOW WESTY AND I WAITED
Uncle Jeb and Westy came in and saw how it was and there wasn't anything more to do, so we went back to the boat. The fellows who were waiting around in the other boats said it wasn't my fault, but anyway, I knew it was.