draught of air, Jack noticing the direction whence it came, said:

"Try this way, Dick. There is a draught which makes the flame flicker. Try
the axe on the rocks and see if you can loosen them, or, better yet, see
if there isn't a fissure somewhere."

"Yes, there is," said Percival, climbing a mass of rock somewhat to one
side of where the others had fallen. "Yes, I see it, Jack."

Between them, working with the axe and their hands, the boys opened up a
passage between the rocks wide enough for them to crawl through, and in a
few minutes were on the top of the wooded point only a few yards from
where they had entered the strange place.

"The boat's gone, Jack!" exclaimed Percival.




CHAPTER VIII

DISCUSSING THE FIND


The boys could see the water and the bank from where they stood, and Dick
had been the first to notice that the boat was not where they had left it
before going down into the buried wreck.

"I suppose it might have drifted away," said Jack. "The warp could have
become loosened."