OCR Text |
Show 88 tremble as he reached to touch the rough rock wall at his side. From the entrance they could make out the dim voice of Rollins, "In here-we got 'em." Josh knew what awaited him if he remained here. With a deep breath, he set his jaw, took a firm grip on Chinook's collar, and lurched onward with the bag. The blackness, darker than anything he had ever known, closed around them. Determined not to panic, Josh swallowed and felt his way-like a blind man-along the mine wall. The tunnel was shored up at intervals with timbers, and Josh kept bumping into these until he learned to gauge theuistance and to grope ahead with his hand. On the floor they could at times feel the small ore tracks, like a tiny railroad, but they were mostly covered with fallen rock. Against these rocks they kept barking their shins, and twice the boys fell over heaps of rock that had sloughed off the walls through the years. "You got any matches?" Josh finally grunted. "A few. But they'd see us," Cap answered. "I got two flashlights in my pack-back on that hill." "Me too, but I feel like I'm going to break my neck every step I take." Down the tunnel behind them they heard swearing. The tunnel had turned so they could no longer see Rollins outlined against the light of the entrance, but they could imagine he had gone sprawling over a rock. In spite of his efforts, Josh struggled with the cold clamminess of the tunnel closing in around him. At night his mother left the |