t a depth of about a
hundred feet, he was hanging level with a hole which marked the mouth
of another tunnel.

This new tunnel sloped down into the earth on his right hand. The floor
and walls were glassy smooth, and the angle of descent was steep, but by
no means as steep as the drop of the vertical geyser shaft in which he
now hung.

Laughter, music, the new tunnel suddenly aroused an excitement which
made him quiver.

"When I saw _her_," he gasped, "she was standing here, in the mouth of
this tunnel, looking up at me!"

Violently, Freddie Kirby forgot the maple-shaded street of his Kansas
town, forgot everything but desire to reach the mouth of the new tunnel,
where the girl of the exquisite face and beckoning lips had stood.
Tightening his grip on the rope, he began to swing himself back and
forth like a pendulum.

It seemed probable that when the geyser water shot up past the
horizontal tunnel, its force was so great that no water at all entered.
He redoubled his efforts to widen his swing.

* * * * *

Then his feet scraped on the floor, and in a second he had alighted
there. He still hung stoutly to his line, however, for the tunnel sloped
down sharply enough, and was slippery enough, to prohibit the
maintenance of footing unaided.

The music which issued from the depths of that stunningly mysterious
passage swelled to a crescendo--and stopped. Kirby clung there to his
precarious perch, his feet slipping on the glass under them with every
move he made, and feelings stirred in his heart which had never been
there before.

Then, as silence reigned where the music had been, something prompted
him to look up. The next instant he stifled a cry.

With widening eyes he saw the flash of a white arm and the gleam of a
knife hovering over the spot where his taut rope passed out of the
geyser opening into the sunshine of the outer world. Again he stifled a
cry. For crying out would do no good. While the suppressed sound was
still on his lips, the knife flickered.

Then Kirby was shooting downward, the severed line whipping out after
him. The first plunge flung him off his feet. A long swoop which he took
on his back dizzied him. But as the fall continued, he was able to slow
it a little by bracing arms and legs against the tunnel walls.

"Holy Jeehosophat!" he gurgled.

But there seemed to be no particular danger. The slide was as smooth as
most of the chutes he had ever encou