clothing soaked in that ink down there!"

The water rose higher and higher in the passage, and it seemed to the
boys that by this time most of the lower gangways were entirely
impassible.

"It doesn't seem to me that the water in this blooming old mine could
rise any faster if the whole Mississippi river were turned into it!"
cried George in a tone of disgust. "If Canfield doesn't get his pumps
going before long, he'll have a job here that'll take him all winter."

"I presume he's doing the best he can," Will argued. "For all we know,
the boilers as well as the electric motors may have been tampered
with. That would be just our luck!"

"I wonder what's become of that bum detective?" asked George after a
short silence. "We heard him rowing along in front of us one minute,
and the next minute there wasn't a single sound to indicate that there
was another boat in the mine."

"As soon as I get out of this," Will stated, "I'm going to make it my
business to find out whether that detective is regularly employed on
this case. He looks to me like a crook."

It was dreary waiting there in the sealed-up chamber, and the boys
found themselves dropping into long intervals of silence while they
listened for the gurgle of the water which would indicate that the
great pumps had been set in motion.

During one of these intervals of silence they heard sounds which