And then, after a moment of silence, he asked, "How about you, Frank? Hope you're not banged up too much."
"No, I'm all right," I protested, as stanchly as I could, considering that I felt as if I had been run through a threshing-machine.
"We'll sure be able to collect big damages!" proceeded Clay, as optimistically as though we had already made our escape. "But say, old pal, you certainly were right about the earthquake! That one was a whopper! I didn't know they had them around this part of the country!"
"Neither did I!" I declared. And, even as I spoke, a violent shudder once more went through me. The earth was again trembling!
"Guess the climate here isn't any too healthy!" decided my friend, while from somewhere amid the darkness, I heard him shaking off the débris and struggling to his feet. "Don't know where we are, Frank, but I wouldn't mind being anywhere else! Come! Where are you, old fellow?"
As we had lost the flashlights in our fall, it took us several anxious minutes to locate one another amid that tar-like blackness. Several times we stumbled over unseen obstacles, and more than once we followed a false lead; but at length, guided by the sound of each other's voices, we brushed shoulders in the darkness. And thenceforth, like lost children, we held hands lest we lose track of each other.
Where had we fallen?—to what hidden cavern deep in the earth's maw? This was the question we asked ourselves many times, as we groped our way down the sloping floor, we could not guess whither. Yet each moment we were making discoveries. After a few minutes, as we shuffled cautiously forward, we had passed the débris-littered area and found a smooth stone floor slanting beneath our feet. And we discovered that, a yard or two to each side of us, was a polished stone wall!
"Holy Jerusalem!" whistled my companion. "Who'd have thought the mine reached down this far?"
"Mine?" I returned, derisively. "Your misfortunes must have gone to your head, Phil! When did you ever see a mine with polished walls?"
"Well, what is it if not a mine?" he flung back in gruff challenge. "What is it? Just tell me that!"