The discovery instilled new strength into both the men and with quickened steps they hastened along the tunnel in the direction of the promised escape. As they advanced, the light became more apparent until finally they came to the point where the tunnel they had been traversing opened into a large corridor, which was filled with a subdued light from occasional patches of phosphorescent rock in walls and ceiling, but neither to the right nor the left could they see any sign of daylight. “Which way now?” demanded Jude. Tanar shook his head. “I do not know,” he said. “At least I shall not die in that awful blackness,” wailed Jude, and perhaps that factor of their seemingly inevitable doom had weighed most heavily upon the two Pellucidarians, for, living as these people do beneath the brilliant rays of a perpetual noonday sun, darkness is a hideous and abhorrent thing to them, so unaccustomed are they to it. “In this light, however slight it may be,” said Tanar, “I can no longer be depressed. I am sure that we shall escape.” “But in which direction?” again demanded Jude. “I shall turn to the right,” said Tanar. Jude shook his head. “That probably is the wrong direction,” he said. “If you know that the right direction lies to the left,” said Tanar, “let us go to the left.” “I do not know,” said Jude; “doubtless either direction is wrong.” “All right,” said Tanar, with a laugh. “We shall go to the right,” and, turning, he set off at a brisk walk along the larger corridor. “Do you notice anything, Jude?” asked Tanar. “No. Why do you ask?” demanded the Himean. “I smell fresh air from the upper world,” said Tanar, “and if I am right we must be near the mouth of the tunnel.” Tanar was almost running now; exhaustion was forgotten in the unexpected hope of immediate deliverance. To be out in the fresh air and the light of day! To be free from the hideous darkness and the constant menace of recapture by the hideous monsters of the underworld! And across that bright hope, like a sinister shadow, came the numbing fear of disappointment. What, if, after all, the breath of air which was now clear and fresh in their nostrils should prove to be entering the corridor through some unscalable shaft, such as the Well of Sounding Water into which he had fallen upon his entrance into the country of the Buried People, or what, if, at the moment of escape, they should meet a party of the Coripies? So heavily did these thoughts weigh upon Tanar’s mind that he slackened his speed until once again he moved in a slow walk. “What is the matter?” demanded Jude. “A moment ago you were running and now you are barely crawling along. Do not tell me that you were mistaken and that, after all, we are not approaching the mouth of the corridor.” “I do not know,” said Tanar. “We may be about to meet a terrible disappointment and if that is true I wish to delay it as long as possible. It would be a terrible thing to have hope crushed within our breasts now.”