nstein is the
head,' to bring the gun-men down on me. But you'd die first."

The boy's breast swelled with pride and martial ardor. "Betcher life,"
he said, and then: "If I get the news will I bring it here?"

Mr. Lichtenstein considered for a minute. Then shook his head. "I'll be
in Blicker's drug-store between 'leven and midnight," he said.

"If I don't show up it'll be because I can't."

Mr. Lichtenstein smiled encouragingly. "Don't look on the dark side of
the future," he said, "but don't take any chances, and don't show a
light till you have to."

XXIX

The night was hot, but the rising tide had brought in cold water from
the ocean, and what with his excitement and trepidation it was a very
shivery small boy that began to investigate the passage under Pier 31A.
Mindful of Mr. Lichtenstein's advice not to show a light till he had to,
Bubbles felt his way forward very slowly in the inky darkness,
unrolling, as he went, a huge ball of twine. It would be time to take
the bearings of the place by compass when he had ascertained its general
extent and whether it was free from human occupants. On this score he
felt comparatively safe, since it seemed likely that the passage had
been constructed with a view to emergency rather than daily use.

Having advanced a distance of about three short city blocks, it seemed
to Bubbles as if the passage had opened suddenly into a room. If so, he
had to thank instinct for the knowledge, since he could see but an inch
in the blackness. He had the feeling that walls were no longer passing
near him, and, groping cautiously this way and that, he found it to be
fact and not fancy. During these gropings he lost his sense of
direction, and, after considering the matter at some length, he
concluded that the time had come to flash his torch. But first he
listened for a long time. At last, satisfied that he was alone, his
thumb began to press against the switch of his torch. A shaft of light
bored into the darkness, and he saw two wildly bearded men, who sat with
their backs against a wall of living rock and looked straight at him.

It was as if he had been suddenly frozen solid, so dreadful was his
surprise and horror, but the men with the wild heads showed no emotion.
They had a pale, tired, hopeless look; and though one was dark and one
blond, this expression, common to both, gave them an appearance of being
twin brothers. They had gentle soft eyes in which was no sign of
sur