“I’m sorry, Sis,” Ted said lamely. “You were right. I’m sure glad we changed our air tanks before we left!”
“Let’s start looking for a way to the top,” Randy said. “The search party will never find us down here.”
They discovered that the flashlight had been smashed in the fall. They would have to depend now on catlike vision to show them the way. As nearly as Ted could make out, they were still in a corridor. It stretched mysteriously ahead of them, turning a bend about fifty feet away.
“That seems to be the only way we can go,” Ted said, looking forward. “We certainly can’t climb back up the way we came down.” He looked behind at the steep, rugged incline they had so unexpectedly tumbled down. The slope was covered with a matting of lichens or moss that had broken their fall.
They walked along the corridor. Finally the light at the far end began to get brighter.
“It looks like daylight ahead!” Jill said hopefully.
They increased their pace in the hope of finding a way leading back to the surface of the ground. They made a final turn in the winding underground aisle. Then the corridor abruptly blossomed into a mammoth open area, still underground.
The sight that faced them quickened their heartbeats and made their mouths sag open in amazement. Before them stood a towering iron gate, through which they could see evidence of one-time human habitation!
“What in the world have we found?” Ted exclaimed.
“It must be a city!” Randy burst out. “It is! We’ve found an underground Martian city!”