ed Mr. Petrofsky.

"Yes," answered Tom in a low voice.

The Russian looked about him, flashing the candle on several turnings
and tunnels. Suddenly Ned uttered a cry.

"Why, we passed this place a little while before!" he said. "I remember
this pillar that looks like two men wrestling!"

It was true. They all remembered it when they saw it again.

"Back in the same place!" mused the Russian. "Then we have doubled on
our tracks. I'm afraid we're lost!"

"Lost in a Russian salt mine!" gasped Tom, and his words sounded
ominous in that gloomy place.

CHAPTER XX

THE ESCAPE

For a space of several seconds no one moved or spoke. In the flickering
light of the candle they looked at one another, and then at the
fantastic pillars of salt all about them. Then Mr. Damon started
forward.

"Bless my trolley car!" he exclaimed. "It isn't possible! There must be
some mistake. If we'll keep on we'll come out all right. You know your
way about, don't you, Mr. Petrofsky?"

"I thought I did, from what the guard told us, but it seems I must have
taken a wrong turning."

"Then it's easily remedied," suggested Tom "All we'll have to do will
be to go to the place where we started, and begin over again."

"Of course," agreed Ned, and they all seemed more cheerful.

"And if we start out once more, and get lost again, then what?" asked
Mr. Damon.

"Well, if worst comes to worst, we can go, back in the tunnel, go to
our cells and ask the guard to come with us and show us the way went on
Tom.

"Never!" cried the exile. "It would be the most dangerous thing in the
world to go back to the prison. Our escape has probably been discovered
by this time, and to return would only be to put our heads in the
noose. We must keep on at any cost!"

"But if we can't get out," suggested Tom, "and if we haven't anything
to eat or drink, we--"

He did not finish, but they all knew what he meant.

"Oh, we'll get out!" declared Ned, who was something of an optimist.
"You've been in salt mines before, haven't you, Mr. Petrofsky?"

"Yes, I was condemned to one once, but it was not in this part of the
country, and it was not an abandoned one. I imagine this was only an
isolated mine, and that there are no others near it, so when they
abandoned it, after all the salt was taken out, most people forgot
about it. I remember once a party of prisoners were lost in a large
salt mine, and were missed for several days."

"What happened to t