twelve to fifteen feet wide, running
from side to side of the passageway. The walls of the opening were
perpendicular, and the hole was so deep that when a stone was dropped
into it they could scarcely hear the thing strike bottom.

"Here's a how-d'ye-do!" cried Leroy, gazing into the pit. "We can't
jump across that, nohow!"

"A real good jumper might," answered Larry. "But I shouldn't want to
try it. The other side seems to slope down toward the hole. What's to
be done?"

Ah, that was the question. It looked as if their advance in that
direction was cut off completely.

CHAPTER XXVI

BOXER THE SCOUT

Much chagrined, man and boy stood on the brink of the chasm before
them and gazed at the other side. It was sloping, as Larry had said,
and wet, which was worse. A jump, even for a trained athlete, would
have been perilous in the extreme.

"Looks like we were stumped," remarked Leroy, laconically.

"And just as we were so near to yonder opening!" cried Larry, vexed
beyond endurance. "If we only had a plank, or something."

He looked around, but nothing was at hand but the bare stone walls,
with here and there a patch of dirt and a loose stone. He walked to
one end of the hole.

"A fellow might climb along yonder shelf if he were a cat," he said
dismally. "But I don't believe a human being could do it."

"No, and don't you go for to try it," put in the old sailor. "If you
do, you'll break your neck, sure as guns is guns."

"Well, we've got to do something, Leroy."

"So we have; an' I move we sit down an' eat a bite o' the stew. Maybe
eatin' will put some new ideas into our heads."

"I'd rather wait until we gain the open air."

"But we can't make it--yet--so be content, lad. It's something to know
thet the blue sky is beyond."

They sat down, and soon finished one-half of what remained of the mess
in the kettle. Never had anything tasted sweeter, and it was only by
the exercise of the greatest self-control that they kept back a
portion of the food.

"Perhaps we'll have to go back, remember that," said Leroy, as he put
the cover on the kettle once more.

"Go back? No, no, Leroy! I'll try jumping over first."

"I don't think I shall. Thet hole-- What's that?"

A sound had reached the old sailor's ears, coming from some distance
ahead. It was the sound of footsteps approaching.

"Somebody is coming!" whispered Larry, and crouched down. Then a man
put in an appearance, coming from the opposi