“Yes, it could have been worse. If I had been caught in the cave-in you would be lying under that boulder yet.”
“We still have a chance as long as we have that crowbar and can keep moving.” Frank paused. “By the way, do you feel a draft?”
“Seems to me I do feel cold air!”
“Perhaps there is an opening to this tunnel. This seems promising.”
The rush of cold air about their heads was soon quite evident. The boys’ spirits rose forthwith and they proceeded through the tunnel more cheerfully.
“If air can get into this place we should be able to get out of it,” said Frank. “Perhaps this tunnel is just another entrance to the mine.”
“Let’s hope so.”
They continued, Frank flashing the light before him. The tunnel began to grow narrower. They had to crouch almost double in order to avoid bumping their heads on the rocky roof.
“Another minute or so and we’ll know whether this place has an opening or not,” called back Frank.
“It must have an opening! Where would that fresh air we feel be coming from if it hadn’t one?”
“It might be coming through a small slit in the rocks. We can’t depend on it too much. Ah! Here we are!”
His light had disclosed the fact that they were at the end of the tunnel. But his tones immediately changed to a murmur of disappointment when he saw that the tunnel ended in a sheer wall of cold, wet rock.
The boys crouched in silence gazing at the rock wall that seemed to crush all their hopes. The wall was a barrier that cut them off from all chance of reaching the sunlit, outside world again.
“It’s a blind alley!” said Joe, in a hushed voice.
Frank merely nodded. He had been buoying up his hopes by refusing to admit to himself that the tunnel could be anything else than an outlet to the mine. Now he was overwhelmed by disappointment.
“We’re up against it,” he said at last. “This tunnel leads nowhere and the shaft is blocked.”
“I’m afraid so.”
Joe tapped the crowbar tentatively against the wall of rock. It thudded dully. There was no hollow sound that might indicate another tunnel beyond. The dull ring of the iron bar seemed to sound their death-knell.
“I guess this is our finish, Frank,” he said gravely.
XIV
Attacked by the Outlaws
The Hardy boys were so profoundly discouraged by the discovery that the tunnel, their sole hope of safety, ended in nothing but a blank wall of rock, that for a while they sat in the gloom, scarcely speaking. Their plight was perilous and there seemed not the slightest ray of hope.
At last Frank bestirred himself.
“I’m still thinking of that gust of fresh air we felt farther back in the tunnel!” he said.
“There is fresh air coming in somewhere. The air in here isn’t getting foul.”
“Let’s go back and explore the tunnel again. We might find an opening of some kind.”
“It won’t be big enough for us to get through,” predicted Joe, gloomily.
“Well, we’ll go and see, anyway.”
The boys turned back. Frank took the lead again and they moved on. The flashlight cast its bright circle of illumination on the dank rock walls of their prison as Frank explored every inch of the sides of the tunnel. For a while their scrutiny met with no reward. The tunnel was unbroken by crevice or cranny.
“We must have passed the place by now,” said Joe.
“I don’t think so. We’ll keep on trying.”
At last Frank gave an exclamation of satisfaction. He had felt a sudden rush of cold air against his face. It seemed to come from above and he stopped, flashing the light hither and thither.
“It’s around here somewhere.”
“I can feel the draft. There must be a big opening.”
The circle of light ceased wavering and rested finally on a place at the side of the tunnel, toward the roof. It was just a dark patch, an indentation in the rock, but it was quite large and it seemed to indicate an opening of some kind. It was about five feet from the ground.
“I’ll hold the light,” Frank said. “See if you can clamber up and investigate that place, Joe.”
He stepped back and directed the flashlight so that Joe was able to find a convenient foothold. Joe reached up and secured a grasp on the edge of the natural shelf of rock. Then he managed to scramble up the wall until he swung himself over the ledge. Frank stepped back farther and the light plainly revealed his brother kneeling on the rocky shelf.
“Find anything?” he asked.
“There’s a powerful draft of air coming down through here,” said Joe, in tones of suppressed excitement. “I think this is a sort of tunnel or air shaft through the rock. I’ll turn on my own flashlight.”
In a moment Frank could see the glow of his brother’s light reflected from the rocks above. Then he heard Joe give a lusty shout of delight.
“It leads on up!” he called. “It is a tunnel running at an angle, and I think it goes to the surface.”
“Can you see any light?”
“No. Nothing. But I think it won’t hurt to explore it. By the force of the cold air rushing down through here I think it must lead to the top.”
“I’m coming up.”
Joe disappeared up into the tunnel and Frank, putting his flashlight into his pocket, scrambled up to the shelf of rock. There he knelt and turned on the light again.
He could see Joe ahead of him, crawling on up through the narrow passage. The tunnel in the rock was just as Joe had described it, a long, narrow shaft that led upward at a steep slope. It was not so steep that they would not be able to clamber on up to wherever it might lead.
“Go ahead,” he called out. “I’ll follow you.”
“I hope it doesn’t get narrower up ahead.”
“We’ll go as far as the tunnel lets us.”
The two
