appened before. In fact, the place seems to be
decidedly uninteresting, Dick."

"Nothing has happened so far, if that is what you mean," laughed the
other, "but you never can tell."

They made one or two more sharp turns and at length came to an opening of
greater magnitude where they could see three or four passages leading in
different directions, some very narrow and one wide enough for them to
walk side by side.

"Which one shall we take, Jack?" asked Percival. "The place begins to grow
interesting now that we have several routes to choose from. Does it look
as if men had been here? Do you see any smudges on the walls or any
footprints in the dust? Is this just an accident, or has it been cut out
and made of use for a hiding place?"

"No, there are no smudges which might have been made by torches, Dick, and
I don't see any footprints except our own. I don't believe any one has
been in here for years."

"Then you think that there may have been some one here at some time, Jack?
It has been used?"

"Yes, for it has not the looks of a natural cavern which has not yet been
discovered. It has been cleaned up to a certain extent. Still, I do not
think that the particular gang of malefactors we are looking for has ever
occupied it."

"Then there is not much use in our going any farther, Jack?"

"No, not if we want to find Rollins and the rest."

"Suppose we take the widest passage, Jack!"

"Very well. Come ahead."

They went on for twenty feet, when the floor of the passage began to take
a sudden decline which increased at every step.

"Hold on, Dick," said Jack, holding his light low and flashing it along
the rough floor. "This thing may take a sudden drop and----"

"So it does!" gasped Percival, lying at full length on the floor and
crawling carefully forward a pace or two. "It takes a drop for fair. It is
a lucky thing you noticed it."

"Then we may as well go back, for I don't care to take a drop I don't know
how deep."

"I'll see," muttered Percival, picking up a loose stone as big as his fist
and tossing it ahead of him.

Not until several seconds had passed did the boys hear the sound of the
stone falling into water, and Percival said with a sigh of relief:

"Well, we didn't go that way, at any rate. Come on, Jack, there is nothing
to be seen in that direction."

The boys returned to the place where the passages diverged, and Percival
suggested that they take one of the narrower paths and follo