Then he realized that he could no longer see the stars overhead. From this he judged they must have passed underground; and that this was a fact he presently learned when, by stretching out his hand, he felt the cold rock close by.
All around them was pitch darkness at first, and the girl had made Bob take hold of her dress, while Thad in the rear kept a hand on his chum's back as they moved slowly along.
Presently the watchful scoutmaster made a little discovery that afforded him pleasure. There must be a light ahead somewhere, for he began to catch a faint glow, such as might come from a lantern.
This illumination grew gradually stronger, until they could actually manage to see dimly around them.
"Wait hyah foh me, till I see ef ther coast is clar," whispered the girl.
The two scouts saw her slip away. It struck Thad that possibly he and his chums had much to learn ere they could pass along as noiselessly as this mountain girl.
How the seconds dragged. Each one must have seemed torture to poor anxious Bob, knowing as he did that the one he had long mourned as dead was so near at hand. They heard nothing save a dripping sound, which might have been caused by water. Evidently the secret Still was not in operation just then; and words dropped by Polly gave Thad the impression that possibly it had ceased work for all time, because of some reason that brought about a change in the conditions.
Polly could not have been gone more than five minutes before she came gliding back again to where she had left the boys.
"Hit's all right, an' thar don't 'pear ter be any guard 'round."
She plucked at Bob's coat sleeve, as if to let him understand that he could come on now; as if the boy needed a second invitation.
They turned a bend in the narrow passage ahead, and Thad drew a long breath as he looked upon one of the most remarkable scenes it had ever been his fortune to see.
The cave was a natural grotto, rock-ribbed, and as firm as the everlasting foundations of the mountains themselves. The moonshiners had fitted it up for their purpose; and there, for the first time Thad saw what a Still looked like. After all, it did not amount to much, the worm being the most interesting part of it. But then the fact that he was now gazing upon the very Still that revenue men had for years tried in vain to discover and wreck, gave the scoutmaster a sensation akin to awe.