"They can't stay there
forever. I'm going to find out."
He sprang on the edge of a boulder at the mouth of the passage
and disappeared on the other side. In fifteen minutes he
returned, and I saw by the expression on his face that there was
no chance of escape in that direction.
"They're at the other end," he said gloomily; "a dozen of 'em. I
looked from behind a rock; they didn't see me. But we could never
get through."
We turned then, and proceeded to the third wall and followed it.
But we really had no hope of finding an exit since Harry had said
that he had previously explored it. We were possessed, I know, by
the same thought: should we venture to follow the fourth wall?
Alone, none of us would have dared; but the presence of the
others lessened the fear of each.
Finally we reached it. The corner was a sharp right angle, and
there were rifts and crevices in the rock.
"This is limestone," I said, "and if we find an exit anywhere it
will be here."
I turned to the right and proceeded slowly along the wall,
feeling its surface with my hand.
We had advanced in this manner several hundred yards when Desiree
suddenly sprang forward to my side.
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