ey found their shirts, then went back to
survey what they had accomplished.

One glance told them it wasn't much. They had cleaned out the passage up
to the main slide, and that was all.

They looked at each other in the flashlight's glow.

"Got any earth-moving equipment in your pocket?" Rick asked wryly.

"Not a dragline or a clamshell," Scotty said. "We certainly didn't make
much of a dent, did we?"

"At this rate we'll be here until Christmas," Rick said.

"Not that we'll need a Christmas tree."

"We could use the lights," Rick commented. "Let's keep plugging. I'm not
so sure I need a rest after all."

"Might as well."

"Just sitting on the rocks will sap our strength, anyway," Rick pointed
out. "We might as well work while we're still fresh. We can take
five-minute breaks when we begin to tire."

"I'm with you. Tote those rocks."

"Let's use one light, too. No point in just clearing the tunnel. We want
to break through in as short a time as possible. If we use the light we
can pull rocks from nearer the top of the slide."

"Sensible as usual. I'll prop my light so it shines on the slide."

Scotty did so, then both boys shed their shirts once more.

The rock hauling went faster even with the rays of the single
flashlight. They took turns climbing the slide and throwing rocks down.
The boy taking a turn at the bottom moved them out of the way.

"Watch it!" Rick yelled suddenly, and jumped away from a slide of rock.
Scotty, who was back in the tunnel disposing of a big rock, asked
anxiously, "Are you hurt?"

"No. Hand me that light, will you?"

Scotty carried the light to where Rick waited. Rick took it and shone it
upward to where the slide had come from. He whistled. There was solid
ceiling, but it was a yard higher than the rest of the tunnel ceiling.

He calculated quickly. "If this is typical, we have rock three feet
thick, ten feet wide, and twenty feet long piled up in front of us. That
makes six hundred cubic feet of rock."

"But it can't be typical," Scotty disagreed. "If three feet had fallen
uniformly, it wouldn't have filled the tunnel. It must be much thicker
right over the broken timbers."

"Not a very cheerful prospect, is it?" Rick had a vision of yards of
rock ahead.

"I've seen happier prospects. But what can we do? Keep plugging is all,
and hope it doesn't take long for Dr. Miller to locate us."

Rick looked at his watch. "No chance of that yet. It isn't even
suppertime.