guard to come with us and show us the way." went on Tom.
"Never!" cried the exile. "It would be the most dangerous thing in the world to go back to the prison. Our escape has probably been discovered by this time, and to return would only be to put our heads in the noose. We must keep on at any cost!"
"But if we can't get out," suggested Tom, "and if we haven't anything to eat or drink, we"
He did not finish, but they all knew what he meant.
"Oh, we'll get out!" declared Ned, who was something of an optimist "You've been in salt mines before, haven't you, Mr. Petrofsky?"
"Yes. I was condemned to one once, but it was not in this part of the country, and it was not an abandoned one. I imagine this was only an isolated mine, and that there are no others near it, so when they abandoned it, after all the salt was taken out, most people forgot about it. I remember once a party of prisoners were lost in a large salt mine, and were missed for several days."
"What happened to them?" asked Tom.
"I don't like to talk about it," replied the Russian with a shudder.
