We stopped short, not knowing what pitfalls there might be ahead of us, and each felt in all his pockets for a match. We had none! Never anticipating any such contingency as this, we had ventured into this black hole without a match in our possession.
I admit that we were scared—the darkness was so very dark and the silence so very silent—but fortunately it was only for a moment. Standing stock still, for, indeed, we dared not move, we shouted for Tom, when, to our infinite relief, we heard his familiar voice call out:
“Hallo, there! That you, Patsy? I’m coming. Does the boss want me?”
The next moment a light appeared moving towards us, and as soon as we could safely do so we advanced to meet it.
“How are you, Tom?” we both cried, simultaneously, assuming an off-hand manner, as though we had not been scared a bit.
Tom stopped, not recognizing us for a moment, and then exclaimed:
“Hallo, boys! What are you doing down here? Who brought you down?”
We told him how we came to be there, and how our lamp had gone out; at which Tom shook his head.
“Well, it was certainly a smart trick to send you down into this wet hole and not even see that you had a match in your pocket. What would you have done if I’d happened to have left the drift?”