turned toward him. As Shaw finished speaking the boy found
another, and the watcher was wondering how rich the earth was.

Then he saw the boy, stooping to the floor of the cavern, evidently in
quest of more gold, he being at that time close to the east wall,
suddenly throw up his arms and disappear, apparently through the very
floor of the chamber.

Frank stood for a second looking toward the place where this strange
disappearance had taken place, rubbed his eyes to make sure that he was
wide awake, and then uttered a cry which brought the others hastily to
his side.

When the boys reached the point of disappearance they looked for a
fissure in the rocky floor, but found none. Instead, they saw a round,
smooth opening into what seemed to be another tunnel. The light, when
held into the dark break in the rock, revealed a landing about six feet
down, but Jimmie was not in sight. Presently, however, the alarmed
boys heard his voice, coming up out of the darkness.

"Hey, there!" he said. "Get a rope and a light! I'm on a toboggan!"

"In a second," Harry replied. "Are you falling?"

"No, I'm hangin' on with me toes!" was the reply. "Hurry up, you
fellers! I'll drop clear into the middle of the world if I let go!"

Harry darted away to the outer chamber and brought a line from his
camping outfit. Tying a piece of stone to one end, to act as a sinker,
he dropped it into the mouth of the tunnel.

"Catch it!" he called to the boy.

"Nothin' doin'!" returned Jimmie. "I'm hangin' out in space. If I
should let go with one finger or one toe I'd take a tumble through to
China. One of you fellows come down on the rope. Hurry!"

"Are you hurt?" asked Nestor, anxiously.

"Not on your life, only in me feelings," replied Jimmie. "It breaks me
tender heart to get into a hole I can't help meself out of! Come on
down with that rope!"

Nestor drew up the line, tied one end about his waist, and, wondering
what might lie within the forbidding place, and where it might lead to,
was slowly lowered into the tunnel. The flashlight showed a level
space about two yards in extent at the bottom of the shaft, directly
under the opening, but beyond that the tunnel dropped away toward the
east and the middle of the Chinese empire, as Jimmie declared. The
fall of the passage, which was not more than six feet in diameter, was
at least fifty degrees.

As soon as his feet struck the little landing Nestor saw Jimmie lying
fla