“Oh, go on a little further,” urged Jo. “Perhaps we shall find something.”
“I’ll bet, if we do, it’s something we don’t want,” objected Tom.
“Well, we needn’t take it if we don’t want it,” retorted Jo. “Let me go ahead.”
As Jo spoke, pressing forward they came to a sudden enlargement along the way, the walls receding on either side. Jo raised his torch for a better view when a grinning skull flashed out of the darkness, nodding and bobbing at them, while a rattling and whirring noise resounded through the cavern.
With a cry of astonishment, Jo let fall the torch which was quenched as it fell upon the floor, and at the same time something big and indescribable struck him full in the face.
So confused were they by the suddenness and unexpectedness of the attack, and encompassed as they were by the absolute blackness, the first thought of the boys was to run to the entrance of the cave, and this they set about to do with the greatest possible promptness.
But both boys as they started were grappled by unseen antagonists with whom they were locked in a deadly embrace, struggling and straining as they wrestled in the darkness, until Tom almost at the point of exhaustion was roused to a frenzy by the rattling of bones and the feel of a skeleton hand on his arm. With a sudden, not to be denied effort, he threw off his adversary and rushed wildly through the cave, followed by Jo, who had bested his opponent.
In the meantime, Jim and Juarez were still poking in the little mounds near the cave’s mouth and wholly unconscious of the trying experience of the two explorers. The commotion and sound of rapidly moving feet aroused them, and almost immediately Jo and Tom appeared upon the scene. Somewhat breathlessly, both speaking at once, they tried to describe their uncanny experiences.
“Hold on a minute,” said Jim. “Let’s get the straight of this. We were just about to follow you in, for we found nothing in the little mounds. Let’s know what to expect.”
“I will have to go back anyway,” said Jo. “I dropped my gun.”