He threw away the lantern, for he did not need it any longer to see where to go. Several other voices joined in the shouts of alarm, and in urging Fenn to stop. He did not answer but kept on.
"If I can once get outside they'll not dare to carry me back," the lad reasoned. "It's only a little farther now."
He was panting from the run, for the exertion, following his illness, and the experience he had gone through, was too much for him. He felt that he could go no farther. Yet he knew if he halted now the men would get him, and he feared for the consequences that might follow his attempt to escape.
"Oh, if only some of the boys were here!" was his almost despairing thought. "If ever I needed help I do now!"
The light was so good now that Fenn could distinguish the sides of the cave. He saw that he was running along a straight tunnel, quite high and wide, but which narrowed, like a funnel, as it approached the opening toward which he was speeding.
"I wonder if there's room for me to get out?" he thought. "And I wonder where I'll be when I get out?"
"Hold on! Hold on!" yelled the man back of Fenn. "You'll get hurt if you go any farther!"
"And I'll get hurt if I go back," whispered Fenn, pantingly.
"Stop! Stop!" cried another voice which the lad recognized as Dirkfell's. "Come back! I'll not harm you!"
"He's too late with that promise," Fenn thought.
A few seconds later he was at the opening of the cave. He fairly sprang through it, finding it large enough to give him passage standing upright. He leaped out, so glad was he to leave behind the terrors of the dark cave, and the mysterious men, who seemed so anxious to keep him a prisoner.
"Free!" Fenn almost shouted as he passed the edge of the opening. He was about to give an exultant cry, but it was choked on his lips.
For the opening was on the sheer edge of a cliff, without the semblance of a foothold beyond it, and below it there sparkled the blue waters of Lake Superior!
Fenn felt himself falling. He was launched through the air by his leap for liberty, and, a moment later, the lake had closed over his head!
Meanwhile Mr. Hayward, followed by his daughter, Frank, Bart and Ned was hurrying along, bent on discovering and rescuing Fenn. True, they did not know where he was, but Mr. Hayward had a clue he wished to follow. As he hastened along, he told the boys what it was.