"The other end is loose!" he said in a tone of alarm.
"Loose?" echoed Tommy. "How did it ever get loose?"
Sandy sat down on the floor of the pa.s.sage and began drawing the cord in, hand over hand.
"I"m going to see if it"s been cut!" he said.
Tommy stepped on the swiftly moving cord and held it fast to the floor.
"You mustn"t draw it in!" he exclaimed. "As long as it lies on the floor as we strung it out, we can follow it without taking any chances. If you pull it in, then it"s all off."
"I understand!" Sandy agreed. "I didn"t pull much of it in."
The boys started up the gangway, one of them keeping a searchlight on the white thread of cord.
They seemed to make a great many turns and once or twice Sandy declared that they were walking round and round in a circle.
"I don"t believe the pa.s.sages run so we could walk around in a circle!" argued Tommy. "That ain"t the way they run pa.s.sages in mines!"
"I don"t care!" Sandy insisted. "We"ve been turning to the left about all the time, and if you leave it to me, we"ll presently come out in the chamber where we heard the call of the pack!"
"That may be right," admitted Tommy. "It does seem as if we"d been turning to the left most of the time. Besides," he went on, "we"ve been walking long enough to have reached the shaft three or four times."
"And yet," argued Sandy, "we"ve been following the line of the cord every step. It lies right in the middle of the gangway here, and we"re going the way it points all the time."
This bit of reasoning seemed to give the boys fresh courage, and they walked on, expecting every moment to come in sight of the frame work which surrounded the shaft. At length, after a long half hour, Tommy stumbled over an obstruction lying in a chamber which somehow seemed strangely familiar. He lifted his foot and gave the obstruction a hearty kick.
"That"s my Indian sign of the trail!" grunted Sandy.
"For the love of Mike!" exclaimed Tommy. "Have we been traveling all this time to come out in this same old hole at last?"
"That"s what we have!" replied Sandy. "If we had paid no attention to the string whatever and followed the rails when we came to the main gang way, we would have been home and in bed by this time!"
"But we didn"t," grinned Tommy. "We thought we had a cinch on getting out by way of this cord and so we followed that. I don"t see, though," he continued, "how we came back to this same old chamber by following the cord. That looks queer to me!"
"I"ll tell you how!" replied Sandy. "There"s some gink been walking on ahead of us stringing the cord out for us to follow!"
Tommy sat down on the bottom of the chamber and wrinkled his freckled nose provokingly.
"We"re a couple of easy marks!" he laughed.
"Easy marks is no name for, it!"
"Well, what"ll we do now to get out?" Tommy asked. "First thing we know, it"ll be daylight, and then Will and George"ll be calling out the police to find us. We ought to get home before they wake."
"I"m willing!" declared Sandy. "I"d like to be in my little bed this minute! I"ve had about enough of this foul air!"
The boys pa.s.sed along until they came to the second trail sign and then stopped. Tommy pointed down to it with a hand which was not quite steady and looked up into his chum"s face with frightened eyes.
"That"s been moved!" he said.
"How do you know it"s been moved?"
"Because you had the side stone on the other edge."
"I don"t think I did!" argued Sandy.
The boys puzzled over the situation for a few moments, and then proceeded down the chamber looking for the tramway rails.
They pa.s.sed from chamber to chamber and finally came to a place where the slope was upward.
"I guess we"ve struck it at last!" Sandy exclaimed.
"But there are no rails here!" Tommy argued.
"Then we"re on the wrong track again," admitted Sandy.
He bent down to the rock with his searchlight and pointed out evidences that the pa.s.sage had once been laid with rails.
"When they strip a chamber or a counter gangway," he said, "they take away the rails. It seems that we are now in a part of the Labyrinth mine which has been worked out."
"I know what to do!" exclaimed Tommy. "I"ll give the call of the Beaver Patrol and tell those ginks who have been giving the call of the pack that we"re lost! That ought to bring them out of their holes."
The Beaver call was given time after time, but no reply came.
"Say," Tommy said after his patience had become exhausted, "I believe it"s daylight. Look at your watch. I left mine in the bed!"
"I left mine in bed, too," answered Sandy. "I know it is day, because I"m hungry."
CHAPTER IV
A SENSATIONAL DISCOVERY
When Will awoke he began preparations for breakfast before paying any attention whatever to his chums, whom he believed to be sleeping quietly on their cots. It was November, and quite chilly in the apartment, so his next efforts were directed to coaxing the electric coils into a cheery glow.
Presently George came tumbling out in his pajamas and sat down on a rickety chair to talk of the adventures in prospect.
"I wonder if the Labyrinth mine is so much of a labyrinth after all?"
he asked. "It seems to me that we might find our way through it without danger of losing ourselves," he continued with a yawn.
"It"s some labyrinth, I take it," Will replied.
"Well, we can make chalk marks on the walls as we move along,"