"You"ll have to creep close beside me," said Julie, linking Ruth"s arm through hers.
The cave now narrowed down so that they had to stoop to go on. About fifty feet further, the tunnel forked. Two separate tubes ran at diagonal lines with each other.
"Which shall we take first?" asked Joan, comparing the two openings.
""My mother told me to take this one,"" counted Julie, her finger pointing to each tunnel alternating on each word she spoke. It was the right-hand opening that was on the last count.
Mrs. Vernon laughed. "Well, we will go this way and see why your "mother told you to take this one.""
The scouts laughed, too, but the echoes failed to ring back as repeatedly as in the front tunnel.
"That means we are near the end of this tube," said Joan.
"I"m glad of it! I don"t like to be away in here," admitted Betty.
"The roof is coming down to b.u.mp our heads, Verny," said Julie, who was now leading.
"Then we must soon retrace our steps and take the other tube, as this was the short one that leads nowhere. The other must be the tube that leads to the stalact.i.te cave," said Mrs. Vernon.
The scouts proceeded a few feet further but the aperture was becoming too small to follow comfortably, and the Captain said:
"Well, we may as well turn around, girls."
As she spoke a low moan seemed to come from the ground, and the girls huddled close to the Captain.
"What was it, Verny?" whispered Julie, fearfully.
Mrs. Vernon gravely turned her flashlight over the walls and ceiling of the rocky tunnel, then moved it slowly over the ground about them.
Just when the scouts began to feel courageous again, thinking the sound was some other form of hallucination in the cave, the light fell upon a form doubled up against the side of the rocky wall.
The scouts saw it about the same time the Captain did, and four high-pitched, excited young voices screamed fearfully, causing the tunnel behind them to echo with ear-splitting yells of terror. Even Mrs.
Vernon shivered at the uncanny sight and sounds.
Betty and Ruth had hidden their faces in the Captain"s skirt, as if this would defend them from danger. But Julie and Joan stood their ground beside the Captain, trying to peer in advance of their position to see what the form could be.
"Is he drunk?" whispered Joan.
"Maybe he is murdered," ventured Julie, causing the others to shiver again.
"No--he moaned, so he is not dead. I must find out what is the matter,"
replied the Captain, bracing herself for the unpleasant task.
"Oh, Verny! Please don"t!" wailed Betty.
"He may be hoaxing us like Hepsy did--better call to him and tell him we haven"t a jewel or a cent with us," cried Ruth.
But the form remained inanimate. Not another sound was heard other than the cries and talking of the scouts.
Mrs. Vernon went over slowly, keeping the electric light directly upon the form. The two other girls held their candles so that the footpath showed distinctly, as they walked beside the Captain. Ruth and Betty clung to each other where they had been left standing.
"Here! Get up!" ordered Mrs. Vernon, pushing the body gently with her foot.
But there was no sound or motion from the form.
The coat had been removed, but the undergarments looked like good ones, so Mrs. Vernon stooped down the better to see. The right arm was so bent upwards that it covered the face, and it seemed as if the man was sleeping that way.
"Wake up! Do you hear me?" called the Captain, again.
The fearful quiet was the only effect of the second demand, so then Mrs.
Vernon carefully removed the arm from the face.
"Oh!" shrieked Julie and Joan, falling back suddenly, and even the Captain cried with horror.
"Help! Help!" screamed Ruth, not sure of what was happening to her friends.
But the movement of the arm must have caused an instance of consciousness in the man, as he made another faint sound like a sigh or a moan.
"Girls, something has happened to this man, and we have to use our scout-sense to try and carry him out to the air," said Mrs. Vernon, turning to the girls.
"Oh, dear me! I"m afraid to go any nearer. He may die if we move him,"
said Joan, fearfully.
"He"ll surely die if left here alone. It may be days or even weeks before any party again visits this Cave," said Mrs. Vernon, emphatically.
"How terrible! We just can"t let him die, then," admitted Julie.
"Do we have to help you?" wailed Ruth, from the rear.
"Betty and you will have to carry the lights, while we three try to carry him," answered the Captain.
"If only we had a blanket!" sighed Julie.
"It would have been so easy to make a stretcher, then," added Joan.
"We"ll have to contrive one from my skirt, girls. I have a full skirt on, and the pleats at the belt can quickly be ripped out."
Even as she spoke, Mrs. Vernon slipped off the plaid skirt and began pulling at the belt. But it was well-sewed and would not give way.
"Here, let me chew open some of the st.i.tches," said Joan.
"No, no! I have an idea--let me burn the threads with the candle-flame,"
called Julie.
"Good! Now touch it right there," said the Captain, as she held the belt over the flame.
In a few moments, the scorched and smoking skirt belt gave way to the strength of the pull Mrs. Vernon used on it, and once the st.i.tching began, it easily ripped across the entire width.
"That scorching also reminds me, girls! I"ve heard said that smoking wool will revive a fainting person. We will try it as soon as we have him out of this smothering place," said the Captain.