hem?" asked Tom.

"I don't like to talk about it," replied the Russian with a shudder.

"Bless my soul! Was it as bad as that?" asked Mr. Damon.

"It was," replied the exile. "But now let's see if we can find our way
back, and start afresh. I'll be more careful next time, and watch the
turns more closely."

But he did not get the chance. They could not find the tunnel whence
they had started. Turn after turn they took, down passage after passage
sometimes in such small ones that they almost had to crawl.

But it was of no use. They could not find their way back to the
starting place, and they could not find the opening of the mine. They
had used two of the slow burning candles and they had only half a dozen
or so left. When these were gone--

But they did not like to think of that, and stumbled on and on. They
did not talk much, for they were too worried. Finally Ned gasped:

"I'd give a good deal for a drink of water."

"So would I," added his chum. "But what's the use of wishing? If there
was a spring down here it would be salt water. But I know what I would
do--if I could."

"What?" asked Mr. Damon.

"Go back to the prison. At least we wouldn't starve there, and we'd
have something to drink. If they kept us we know we could get
free--sometime."

"Perhaps never!" exclaimed Ivan Petrofsky. "It is better to keep on
here, and, as for me, I would rather die here than go back to a Russian
prison. We must--we shall get out!"

But it was idle talk. Gradually they lost track of time as they
staggered on, and they hardly knew whether a day had passed or whether
it was but a few hours since they had been lost.

Of their sufferings in that salt mine I shall not go into details.
There are enough unpleasant things in this world without telling about
that. They must have wandered around for at least a day and a half,
and in all that while they had not a drop of water, and not a thing to
eat. Wait, though, at last in their desperation they did gnaw the
tallow candles, and that served to keep them alive, and, in a measure,
alleviate their awful sufferings from thirst.

Back and forth they wandered, up and down in the galleries of the old
salt mine. They were merely hoping against hope.

"It's worse than the underground city of gold," said Ned in hollow
tones, as he staggered on. "Worse--much worse." His head was feeling
light. No one answered him.

It was, as they learned later, just about two days after the time