“We may as well go. We’ve no time to spare. Stay! as we are here, we might as well search the place. There are three passages. I’ll take the centre one; Gamba can search the one to the right, while you examine the one to the left. Got an electric torch?”
“No, matches.”
“All right. Go ahead.”
Feeling his way along the wall, Hugh ran back into the darkness. There was not a moment to lose; Castelli was almost in the passage. He must escape. Ah! the boulder that concealed the secret exit! He reached it and tried to move it. In vain! Again he tried with all his strength. He was able to budge it only a few inches. Castelli was already at the opening. No, he could not shift this cursed boulder; he would be caught like a rat in a hole! Castelli was in the passage now, trying to light a match. As Hugh flung himself flat against the rocky wall, his uplifted hands came in contact with the ledge of the cleft where he had been sleeping. Quick as thought he drew himself up and shrank back till he was wedged into the rock itself.
Castelli was fumbling and stumbling. He was striking a fresh match every minute and swearing audibly. Hugh saw a faint glow, then darkness, then the glow again. Castelli did not like his job; but he was taking no chances. Nearer and nearer he drew. Now he had come to the end of the passage, just below Hugh’s hiding place.
“Sapristi! My last match,” Castelli muttered. He struck it, holding it high above his head, and examined the opposite wall. The light just came to the ledge within a foot of Hugh’s face. Then Hugh did something for which he was proud as long as he lived. Reaching forward, he softly blew out the light.
He heard Castelli curse; but the Italian had his back to him and did not realize where the draft had come from.
“There! that’s out,” he exclaimed. “But there’s nothing here. I’m off.”
Hugh breathed freely again as he heard Castelli groping his way out. He could scarcely realize his luck. On such small things human destiny often turns. Had Castelli possessed another match he would surely have been discovered. He raised himself, confident of his safety, and listened. He heard the distant voice of the doctor.
“No sign of any one. The passages Gamba and I examined dwindled away in the rock.”