Harry Ware struck another match. This time the two imprisoned lads did not bother to look above them. They knew that escape in that direction was an impossibility. Instead, they turned their attention to their immediate surroundings.

Suddenly Percy Simmons gave a cry of triumph.

“Look! See there, Hardware, old boy, isn’t that a crack or fissure in the rock?”

“Sure enough,” responded his companion, who had just time to notice the crack in the rock wall of their prison before the light of the match died out.

“Maybe we can get out that way,” sputtered[150] Persimmons, all agog at the thought that a means of escape had been opened to them.

“Perhaps we can, but it looks pretty narrow,” responded Hardware dubiously. “Anyhow, it’s worth trying. Strike another match and we’ll have a good look at it.”

A second inspection showed the boys that the fissure, though narrow, was sufficiently wide for them to squeeze into in all probability. Although in the event that it grew smaller further on, they would be as badly off as before. Still, as Harry Ware had said, it was worth trying, and the two boys clambered off the body of the unfortunate pony and began forcing their way into the fissure. Harry Ware went first and Percy Simmons, who was stouter, followed close behind.

For a distance of some five feet they managed to forge ahead. But suddenly Persimmons gave a grunt.

“I’m stuck, Harry, I can’t get any further.”

[151]

“Too bad; I guess we’ll have to turn back,” Hardware started to say, when he gave a cry of delight.

“It’s all right. It broadens out beyond here. Come on, Percy, you can squeeze through alright.”

“I’ll try,” declared the stouter of the two youths valiantly, and, with a violent effort, he forced himself forward. It cost him almost all the breath in his body, but he succeeded in passing the narrow place and then found himself beside his companion in what appeared to be a much larger space beyond. Another match was struck which revealed the place into which they had forced their way as a circular cave with a dome-like roof from which water dripped in a constant shower.

It was cold and damp and the boys shuddered as the water, which was icy cold, pattered about them as if a violent rainstorm was in progress.

“Ugh! What sort of a place have we landed in[152] now, I’d like to know,” muttered Percy Simmons. “Shivering snakes, it’s like a Cave of the Rains, or something of that kind.”

“That’s so. We can’t stay here; it’s like being in a damp ice box. We must find some way out.”

“Where do you suppose we are, anyhow?”

“Evidently in some subterranean cavern or passage that runs under the hillside.”

“The question is, where does it come out?”

“That’s what we’ll have to see. There must be a way out.”

“Oh, of course,” assented Persimmons wi............