ng it into a blaze with
nervous energy.

Was the landslide at an end? Fervidly he prayed that it was. Torch in
hand, he tried to make his way to the spot where he had entered the
mine.

He soon found this impossible, for the reason that the passageway had
shifted, and huge rocks blocked his way. Several times he tried to climb
over the rocks, only to fall back helplessly. He cut his hands and broke
his finger-nails, but this availed him nothing.

"But I've got to get out! I've got to!" he told himself, over and over
again. "I can't stay here!" And then he tried to climb the rocks in
front of him once more.

It was hard work, especially with the torch in hand. Once Dave tried to
carry the torch between his teeth, but it was too short, and his face
was scorched, while the smoke almost strangled him.

Suddenly he slipped on some wet rocks and went down and down, he knew
not whither. He was stunned by the fall, and the precious light slid
from his grasp and rolled several yards away.

"Oh!" he murmured as he gathered his scattered senses and arose slowly
to his feet. Then he saw that the torch was on the point of going out
and he made a dash for it, and swung it once again into a faint blaze.

As he stepped around he noticed something else that added to his dismay.
In his fall he had twisted his left ankle, which gave a twitch that made
him shut his teeth hard, to keep from crying out with pain.

"Oh, I hope I haven't broken it!" he muttered. "However am I going to
walk on it, even if it is broken?"

In sheer desperation he commenced to climb up the wet rocks down which
he had tumbled. The ankle hurt not a little, yet in his excitement the
youth scarcely noticed the pain. His one thought was to get out of the
cave before another landslide or earthquake occurred.

A few minutes later found Dave on the level from which he had fallen. As
he scrambled over the rocks something caught the glare of the
torchlight. The youth picked up the object.

"Another nugget!" he told himself. "The place must be full of them!"

But what good would these nuggets be to him or his friends if he could
not get out of the mine-cave? He was deep underground and this new
landslide or earthquake might bury him and the contents of the mine
forever!

"I've got to get out!" he repeated over and over again. "I've got to get
out somehow!"

Trying to pierce the gloom ahead, Dave swung his torch behind him. Was
he mistaken, or was that a gli