Part 22 (1/2)
”In there,” answered Mr. Petrofsky. He and the guard murmured their good-byes, and then, with a lighted candle the faithful Nihilist had provided, and with several others in reserve, our friends stepped into the blackness. They could hear the board being pulled back into place behind them.
”Forward!” cried the exile, and forward they went.
It was not a pleasant journey, being through an uneven tunnel in the darkness. Half a mile later they emerged into a large salt mine, that seemed to be directly beneath the town. Work in this part had been abandoned long ago, all the salt there was left being in the shape of large pillars, that supported the roof. It sparkled dully in the candle light.
”Now let me see if I remember the turnings,” murmured Mr. Petrofsky.
”He said to keep on for half an hour, and we would come out in a little woods not far from where our airs.h.i.+p was anch.o.r.ed.”
Twisting and turning, here and there in the semi-darkness, stumbling, and sometimes falling over the uneven floor, the little party went on.
”Did you say half an hour?” asked Tom, after a while.
”Yes,” replied the Russian.
”We've been longer than that,” announced the young inventor, after a look at his watch. ”It's over an hour.”
”Bless my timetable!” cried Mr. Damon.
”Are you sure?” asked Mr. Petrofsky.
”Yes,” answered Tom in a low voice.
The Russian looked about him, flas.h.i.+ng the candle on several turnings and tunnels. Suddenly Ned uttered a cry.
”Why, we pa.s.sed this place a little while before!” he said. ”I remember this pillar that looks like two men wrestling!”
It was true. They all remembered it when they saw it again.
”Back in the same place!” mused the Russian. ”Then we have doubled on our tracks. I'm afraid we're lost!”
”Lost in a Russian salt mine!” gasped Tom, and his words sounded ominous in that gloomy place.
CHAPTER XX
THE ESCAPE
For a s.p.a.ce of several seconds no one moved or spoke. In the flickering light of the candle they looked at one another, and then at the fantastic pillars of salt all about them. Then Mr. Damon started forward.
”Bless my trolley car!” he exclaimed. ”It isn't possible! There must be some mistake. If we'll keep on we'll come out all right. You know your way about, don't you, Mr. Petrofsky?”
”I thought I did, from what the guard told us, but it seems I must have taken a wrong turning.”
”Then it's easily remedied,” suggested Tom ”All we'll have to do will be to go to the place where we started, and begin over again.”
”Of course,” agreed Ned, and they all seemed more cheerful.
”And if we start out once more, and get lost again, then what?” asked Mr. Damon.
”Well, if worst comes to worst, we can go, back in the tunnel, go to our cells and ask the guard to come with us and show us the way went on Tom.