“Whew!” came from Digby. “What do you know about this hole, Chet? Look out! If you ever slip over the edge of it you’ll be a long time getting back to the top.” But Chet gave him slight attention. He was peering into the shaft that here opened in the floor of the cavern. The lantern light showed that the walls of the shaft were rough; indeed, there were natural steps in it. But a new rope had been fastened to a heavy beam laid across the mouth of the pit; and there were knots every two feet or so in the rope, to aid one in descending and ascending the shaft. Chet turned eagerly to ask the Indian lad: “Does it lead into the tunnel from the Crayton shaft?” “Yes,” John Peep replied, simply. “Say! no miner ever dug this!” cried Digby Fordham. “Of course not! It’s an old watercourse. That’s plain enough. Long before it was a bears’ den the water bored this passage in the rock, found this shaft, and through it reached some subterranean stream.” “Whew!” whistled Dig. “And who put the rope here? Not this Indian, I bet a cookie.” “White boys ask no questions, I tell no lies,” said John Peep succinctly. “Well! we’ve got no business to ask questions,” declared Chet quickly, before his chum could say anything to anger John Peep. “We’re sure obliged to you for showing us this place.” “Come on, Dig. I bet this leads down to the very tunnel from the Crayton shaft that father spoke about. Oh, my! if it enables us to get into the Silent Sue and get father and the boys out—” “All right. Lead ahead,” interrupted Dig. “I’m game if you are.” CHAPTER VI—IN THE OLD TUNNEL The lame Indian youth had no idea of giving up the leadership of the expedition. He grunted, and pushed Chet’s hand away when the white boy reached to take the rudely-made lantern by its bail. “Me go first,” he said with confidence, and immediately swung himself over the edge of the rock. In spite of his crippled leg, John Peep went down the rough rocks quickly, clinging with one hand to the knotted rope, the bail of the lantern swung over his other arm. “He must have been often down this shaft,” thought Chet to himself; but said nothing to Dig Fordham. He only wondered why the Indian had often descended this shaft into the heart of the mountain. John Peep raised his face and spoke from the depths: “Havens follow—’bout ten yards; then other white boy come ten yards further back. Rope plenty strong.” “All right!” responded Chet cheerily. “We’re after you.” “Whew!” whistled Digby. “If that rope should break we’d be after him with a vengeance!” The descent of the shaft was no easy matter, as the two chums from Silver Run quickly learned. Three bearing their weight upon it made the rope jerk and wriggle like an excited snake. Both Chet and Dig were several times almost thrown from their footing on the rough rock. “You’re rocking the boat, Chet; look out!” grumbled Dig. “I expect to make a dive over your head any moment. Ugh! that’s wriggly!”