hes.
Contact with the rocks had bruised their hands and feet, and every step
was a torture.

At last the canoes grounded on some yielding surface and refused to
budge. Ned staggered forward and found their prows imbedded in what he
judged to be a bar of sand and gravel stretching across the channel. He
walked on a few steps to ascertain its width, and was amazed and
frightened by coming in contact with a solid wall of rock.

"Come here, quick, Nugget!" he called hoarsely.

Nugget waded alongside the canoes, and was soon on the bar.

"What is it?" he cried. "Anything wrong?"

For answer Ned took the last match from the little metal box, and
lighted it.

As the little blaze flared up the boys looked curiously about them. One
brief glimpse revealed the awful truth. The sandy bar was in reality the
end of the passage. Beyond it rose a smooth, slimy wall, and overhead
was a low jagged roof dripping with moisture. The canoes lay in a quiet
pool of water that was as dead and void of current as a mill pond.

CHAPTER XXXV

NUGGET DISCOVERS A LIGHT

The half-burned match fell from Ned's trembling fingers, and went out on
the sand. Then there was silence for nearly a minute--a terrible,
oppressive silence.

It was broken by a sharp cry from Nugget that echoed far through the
cavern. He seized Ned by one arm and clung to him, trembling from head
to foot.

"Is there no hope?" he wailed pitifully. "Must we stay in this awful
place until we die? I can't stand it, Ned, indeed I can't. Oh! do
something quick, won't you?"

Ned was at a loss to reply. His own heart was full of misery and
despair. What word of comfort could he give his companion? Would it be
wise to give him any--to excite hopes that might never be realized?

He put his arm about Nugget, and this seemed to comfort the lad a
little.

"We will surely find a way to escape, Ned?" he asked in a calmer tone.
"Don't you think so?"

"It shan't be our fault if we don't," returned Ned. "You must be brave,
Nugget--brave and patient. We are worn out and exhausted now, and must
have rest before we can do anything more."

"I was awfully tired a minute ago," said Nugget, "but I feel now as
though I could push on all day if I was sure of finding the way out of
this cavern. Do you think we will have to go all the way back--to the
place we entered by, I mean?"

"I hope that won't be necessary," replied Ned. "The simple truth is that
we have blundered into a s