Not a moment had passed before Betty, too, was dressed in silk, a marvelous creation of flaming red.
And then, faint and from far away, there echoed down the long-abandoned corridors the sound of footsteps.
“This way!” Seizing the flashlight, with no thought of how she was garbed, Ruth leaped up and out, then on tiptoe went racing down the aisle that led away from the chamber of mysteries, and on and on into the dark.
Madly the feet of the two girls flew down a winding corridor, wildly their hearts beat, as they fled from resounding footsteps.
Now the round circle of yellow light from their electric torch guided them. And now, as Ruth suddenly realized that the light would reveal their whereabouts, the light blinked out, and, dropping to a walk, then to a slow creep, guided only by the sense of touch, they moved along between the dripping walls.
“Could anything be worse?” said Betty.
“Nothing,” Ruth came back.
She was thinking, thinking hard. Tales had been told of ancient wells dug there years ago to enable the garrison to withstand a siege. That the wells now stood uncovered down there somewhere in the depths of the earth, she knew all too well.
“If we blunder into one of those!” Her heart stopped beating.
“The dresses!” Betty whispered suddenly. “Our khakis! We left them. We must go back for them. They will have us arrested.”