mines!"

"I don't care!" Sandy insisted. "We've been turning to the left about
all the time, and if you leave it to me, we'll presently come out in
the chamber where we heard the call of the pack!"

"That may be right," admitted Tommy. "It does seem as if we'd been
turning to the left most of the time. Besides," he went on, "we've
been walking long enough to have reached the shaft three or four
times."

"And yet," argued Sandy, "we've been following the line of the cord
every step. It lies right in the middle of the gangway here, and
we're going the way it points all the time."

This bit of reasoning seemed to give the boys fresh courage, and they
walked on, expecting every moment to come in sight of the frame work
which surrounded the shaft. At length, after a long half hour, Tommy
stumbled over an obstruction lying in a chamber which somehow seemed
strangely familiar. He lifted his foot and gave the obstruction a
hearty kick.

"That's my Indian sign of the trail!" grunted Sandy.

"For the love of Mike!" exclaimed Tommy. "Have we been traveling all
this time to come out in this same old hole at last?"

"That's what we have!" replied Sandy. "If we had paid no attention to
the string whatever and followed the rails when we came to the main
gang way, we would have been home and in bed by this time!"