wonder at the destruction before them. The air was filled with dust and dirt which blinded and choked them, and then came a sickening odor of released gases.
"Gracious, I didn't suppose a pistol shot would do so much!" murmured Don, when he could find his voice. "A quarry blast would bring the whole thing down, I suppose."
"We were lucky to escape with our lives," said Robert Menden. "No, it doesn't do to make too much noise in a cave like this. The sound waves are almost certain to loosen something overhead."
"I think this has placed us in a putty bad pickle," said old Jacob, seriously.
"What do you mean?" asked Bob. Then his face blanched. "Are we—we—hemmed in?"
"Thet's about the size on it—to my way o' reckonin'."
"Have the fallen rocks really closed up the passageway?" queried Robert Menden.
"O' course we can't say till we investigate, Mr. Menden. But it looks thet way from here," came from the old tar.
They wished to investigate at once; but old 'Jacob held them back. "More rocks might be a-comin' down. Take yer time—it will pay in the end." And they waited quarter of an hour longer.
