He looked around with fearful eyes. He could not see any signs of the animal. That did not mean that it was not near. He thought that the Thing could move with less noise than a cat, and with the swiftness of an eel.
“W-w-what was it?” Joan stammered.
“I hope to high heaven I never find out,” Epworth breathed fervently. “It was the most gosh-awful horror that ever stirred my nerves. It has probably crawled back in its hole, which must be down this chamber. I hope it dies before I see it again. At least I am going to go in the direction directly opposite from that taken by the Thing—and I am going as fast as my slow feet will let me.”
He sprang up, caught her hand, and ran hurriedly down the chamber, stumbling over big rocks, and against the sides of the tunnel in his desperate effort to leave the spot.
He had no idea where he was going. For all he knew he was going back the way he came. He was getting away from that chamber of horrors as speedily as possible.
They wandered on for an hour—two hours. There was no end to the dark tunnel but they were moving and getting farther and farther away from that hidden monster; and they were going swiftly, without thinking of falling into another chasm. In fact any kind of a hole would have been preferable to this, and they dared not stop.
Finally Joan looked ahead and saw a streak of light.
“Thank heavens,” she breathed. “At last we are coming to the end of this horrible tunnel.”
Epworth did not reply. He was not so sure. On the contrary he could not, by his greatest scientific legerdemain, figure how they would ever get out of this crater.
The end came abruptly—butting up against a pile of large stones. There were large cracks between the stones, and it was patent that intelligent hands had placed them and not Nature. Some being or some intelligent Thing had blocked up the passage purposely with loose stones, to keep out the enormous reptiles.