“where are you, frank?” called andy.
“right here. give me your hand. it won’t do to get lost in this darkness. where are you?”
the two brothers groped about in the darkness until they had found each other.
“listen,” whispered the older one. “do you hear him?”
in the silence and blackness there came to them the sound of retreating footsteps, and of small stones and particles of earth falling.
“he must be climbing up,” said andy. “this cave is bigger than we thought, and he must know the place, even in the dark.
“it is as dark as a pocket,” complained frank. “i can’t see anything.”
“wait!” suddenly exclaimed andy. “why didn’t we think of them before? our pocket electrics. they’ll do the trick!”
“sure enough.”
an instant later two small but powerful gleams of light cut the blackness of the cavern, and the boys were enabled to see so they could hurry ahead. they could still hear the man retreating before them.
“we’re coming!” cried andy in reckless bravado.
“hush! he’ll hear you,” cautioned his brother.
“what of it? i want him to. he’ll see our lights anyhow. but i think we have him trapped.”
“if there isn’t another outlet to the cave. but come on.”
forward they pressed. they could still hear the noise made by the man, and once they were startled by his mocking laugh. so close was it that they knew he must have doubled on his tracks and returned toward them.
“there are several passages in this cave, i’m sure of it,” declared frank. “we’ll have to be careful not to get lost.”
“that’s right. this fellow must be at home here. but the floor is beginning to slope upward. say, it’s damp in here, all right,” andy added, as he stepped into a little puddle of water.
“from the rain, i guess,” replied frank.
“hu! how could rain get in here?”
“it must have soaked in through the roof. but we can’t talk and listen for that man. let’s hurry on.”
once more they advanced, but they became confused by many windings and turnings of the dark passages, until frank called a halt.
“let’s consider a bit,” he said to his brother. “we can’t go on this way. we’ve got to mark some of these passages so we’ll know them again if we come by. otherwise we’ll get all confused.”
“good idea. make some scratches on them with your knife. that will do.”
frank quickly did this and they pressed on. occasionally they called to the man, but he did not answer them now—not even by his mocking laugh. they, however, could still hear him.
“he’s leading us on a wild goose chase!” declared frank at length. “the first thing we know he’ll get back to the entrance and escape.”
“then one of us had better go to the mouth of the cave and either stop him, or else be there to give the alarm when he tries to get out,” proposed andy. “i’ll go.”
“no, i think we’d better stick together,” suggested his brother. “that man is too dangerous for one of us to tackle alone. we may catch up to him any moment now, and i hope he’ll give in, and tell us what we want to know.”
without the portable electric lights which they each carried it would have been impossible for the racer boys to have found their way about the cave. they marveled how it was that the mysterious man could follow the windings and turnings in the dark, but, as they learned afterward, he had been in the cave before.
back and forth, up and down, here and there, like following some will-o’-the-wisp went the boys. at times they thought they had lost the object of their pursuit, but again they would hear him hurrying on ahead of them.
“hold on a minute!” suddenly exclaimed frank, when he had led the way down a steep descent. “i don’t like this.”
“like what?” asked andy, in some alarm.
“this chase. that man knows what he’s doing and we don’t. if he wanted to he could have been out of this cave a dozen times or more, yet he’s staying in and leading us on. he has some object in it, and i don’t mind confessing that i’m afraid of it.”
“how do you mean afraid?”
“i think we may come to some harm. he fairly enticed us in here and now he’s playing with us as a cat does with a mouse. i’m going to stop and go back to the entrance.”
“well, perhaps you’re right,” admitted andy, and it was quite an admission for him, as he was always willing to take more risks than was his brother. “we’ll stand still a few minutes and see what happens.”
they remained there, quiet in the darkness. for a time not a sound broke the stillness. then, with startling suddenness came a hail:
“well, why don’t you catch me?”
“catch me?” repeated the echoes, and there followed a mocking laugh.
“here he is!” cried andy. “off to the left.”
“no, the right,” insisted frank. “over this way.”
“all right,” agreed andy, and he followed his brother.
hardly had he spoken than there rang throughout the cave a dull, booming sound. it seemed to shake the ground.
“he’s exploded something!” cried frank, coming to a halt. he flashed his electric torch around, but could see nothing. he and his brother were in a low, rock-roofed passage.
“it sounded like something falling,” was andy’s opinion. “let’s go forward and see what it was.”
they had not gone forward more than a dozen steps before they were halted by the sound of a voice—the voice of the mysterious man.
“maybe you’ll take a warning next time!” he sneered. “i think you’ve followed me once too often. this is the end.”
they could hear him hastening away. then came silence.
“what did he mean?” asked andy.
“i don’t know,” replied his brother. “let’s look.”
andy was in the lead. slowly he advanced, flashing his electric light. then he came to a halt.
“what’s the matter?” asked frank.
“i can’t go any farther. the passage ends here in a solid rock.”
“then we’ll have to go back. i thought he was fooling us. he wanted to get us in some side chamber, so he could make his escape from the entrance. hurry back.”
they fairly ran to the other end of the passageway, retracing their steps. this time frank was ahead. suddenly he came to a halt.
“well, why don’t you go on?” asked andy.
“i can’t. there’s a big rock here.”
“a rock? there wasn’t any there when we came in.”
“i know it, but it’s fallen down since. the passage is closed.”
“closed!” gasped andy. “then i know what happened. that was the noise we heard. that man toppled this rock down to trap us here. we’re caught, frank! caught!”
for a moment the older brother did not answer. then he replied:
“it does looks so. but we’ll try to shove this stone out of the way. come on, lend a hand.”
together the boys pushed and shoved. but all to no purpose. flashing their lights on the obstruction, they saw that it had fallen down in a wedged-shaped place, dove-tailing itself in so that no power short of dynamite could loosen it. the hopelessness of moving it struck them at once.
“the other end!” cried frank. “we must try to get out the other way!”
back they raced along the passage, slipping and stumbling on the wet, rocky floor. but it was only to come face to face with a solid wall of rock.
“no use trying to get through there,” said andy. “we must try to move the big rock.”
“we can’t,” spoke frank. “i think—”
but he never finished that sentence. instead he focused his light down on the stone floor of the passage in the cave. a thin stream of water was trickling along it.
“look! look!” whispered andy.
“yes,” answered his brother in a low voice. “the tide is rising. it’s running into the cave, and we—we’re trapped here, andy. no wonder that man said it was the last time. we’re trapped by the rising tide!”
