“Whew!” came from Digby. “What do you know about this hole, Chet? Look out! If you ever slip over the edge of it you’ll be a long time getting back to the top.”
But Chet gave him slight attention. He was peering into the shaft that here opened in the floor of the cavern. The lantern light showed that the walls of the shaft were rough; indeed, there were natural steps in it.
But a new rope had been fastened to a heavy beam laid across the mouth of the pit; and there were knots every two feet or so in the rope, to aid one in descending and ascending the shaft.
Chet turned eagerly to ask the Indian lad:
“Does it lead into the tunnel from the Crayton shaft?”
“Yes,” John Peep replied, simply.
“Say! no miner ever dug this!” cried Digby Fordham.
“Of course not! It’s an old watercourse. That’s plain enough. Long before it was a bears’ den the water bored this passage in the rock, found this shaft, and through it reached some subterranean stream.”
“Whew!” whistled Dig. “And who put the rope here? Not this Indian, I bet a cookie.”
“White boys ask no questions, I tell no lies,” said John Peep succinctly.