s a big hole in the
earth. The mouth of the cave was uninteresting, so Jack lit a match and
walked a few feet further in. On the ground were bits of broken stone
which she stuffed in her pocket for Frieda, thinking she spied an odd
glimmer in them. Although the main entrance to the mine was through a
single opening, by the aid of her flickering light Jack saw that miners
had pursued many dead lodes in the sides of the hill. This means they
had dug tunnels wherever they hoped to follow a vein of gold, until the
whole inside of the hill looked like a network of black passages.

It now occurred to Jack that Jim and Carlos must have returned and
surely they would think the earth had opened and swallowed her, so out
she crept into the daylight again. The place was still solitary and
gloomy. "Jim! Jim! Carlos!" Jack cried aloud. There was no answer. If
only she had waited five or ten minutes more before she started back
into that gruesome cave. And yet, perhaps, the spirits of other
adventurous natures were summoning her to follow them.

One passage was larger than the others. Jack certainly thought she saw
stones that shone like gold lying near its mouth. It was separated from
the main tunnel by a gully, across which some planks had been laid. With
a lighted match in her hand and gazing upward, Jack stepped on the
forward end of a plank. In a flash her light went out and she fell back
with a heavy thud. Her weight on the loose plank had caused it to rise
up, striking her in the forehead with terrific force. Fortunately, she
had fallen clear of the gully, but her body lay in the shadow out of the
reach of any light that might come from the mouth of the cave. She
suffered no pain; the blow had been too swift and sure, stunning her
into silence and complete unconsciousness.

"Oo! Ooo! Oooo!" Jim whistled through his fingers nearly a quarter of a
mile away. "Cheer up, Jack, I'm coming at last," he shouted, a few yards
farther on. His conscience had begun to trouble him, and he was quite
prepared to find Jack cross at having been forced to wait for him more
than half an hour. Jim had not consulted his watch at the moment of his
departure, but he was fairly certain that he had been gone some time,
and that they must hurry off at once if they were to be with Ruth and
the girls by an early bedtime.

Jim whistled and called all the way to the three pine cone hills. He
presumed he would have to make his peace with his companion by