“I guess they’ve gone back!” ventured Frank.
“I don’t believe they have,” replied Jack. “It’s just this way, you see,” he went on, “they would naturally expect to find a current of running water passing through the chamber. Well, we shut the water off, didn’t we? That, of itself, will render them suspicious, and they’ll keep up their investigation until they find the cause of the change in the stream. I only hope they won’t get up to the vicinity of the pit and find Harry before we get back to him!”
Stopping frequently to rest, the boys crawled on up the incline until they came to the angle which led to the first steep passage they had negotiated. By this time, their hands were bleeding from contact with the rough rocks, their breath was coming in short gasps.
Once around the angle, however, they stopped and lay motionless for a moment. Then Frank turned the eye of his searchlight upward. What he saw at the head of the incline caused him to grasp his companion fiercely by the shoulder and point with a trembling finger.
“If that isn’t a ghost up there,” he said, “it is Harry!”
“We never left Harry as far in the hill as that!” Jack suggested.
“Then it’s a ghost!” Frank insisted. “Anyway, there’s some one up there. I can’t see the whole figure, but I saw a white face for just an instant. It must be Harry!”
The boys were not long kept in doubt as to the identity of the figure they had seen at the top of the incline. Before they had proceeded half a dozen paces, an electric light flashed out, and they saw Harry, evidently startled by the noise of their approach, looking toward them.
“It’s Harry, all right!” Jack said. “But that isn’t where we left him. He must have crawled down alone.”
“Perhaps there’s been a mixup on the outside,” Frank suggested.
The whispered conversation was interrupted by a soft call from above. The boys recognized the voice of their chum.
“Don’t make too much noise,” Jack suggested. “We’ve just made the discovery that the heart of this stony old mountain is inhabited.”
“That same!” answered Frank, dropping to the ground at the place where Harry sat. “It’s inhabited, and the inhabitants seem to be averse to our efforts as missionaries.”
The boys talked in low tones for a moment before Harry referred to the arrival of Ned and Jimmie. The excitement over the possible pursuit was so great that even this most important event was overlooked!