The big blade of his knife easily cut into the soft clay, and, working hard for some time, he had quite an opening beneath the portal. He tried to squeeze through, but found he was a bit too big for it.
"A little more and I can slip out," he whispered to himself.
Faster and faster he plied the knife, loosening the earth, and throwing it back with his hands. Once more he tried and, though it was a tight squeeze, he managed to wiggle out.
"Now!" he mused. "If I don't run into anybody I can get to the foot of the shaft, and go up that ladder. Guess I'll take the light."
He reached back under the door, and got hold of the lantern, which he had placed near the hole, slipping it under his coat so that the gleams would not betray him. Then, remembering, as best he could which way the man had carried him, he stole softly along, on the alert for any of the miners.
He had not gone more than a dozen feet, and had just turned a corner, which showed him a straight, long tunnel, that, he believed, led to the foot of the shaft, when, to his consternation, he heard a noise. At the same time a voice called:
Fenn resolved to chance all to boldness. Taking the lantern from under his coat, that he might see to run through the cave, he sprang forward, toward what he believed was the shaft down which he had come on the tree-trunk ladder.
"Stop! Stop!" called someone behind him, but Fenn kept on.
Fenn's fear, and his fierce desire to escape from the cave, lent him speed. Forward he went, faster than he had ever run before. Suddenly there loomed up before him a dim, hazy light, but it was the illumination from the sun, and not from an artificial source.
"It must be morning!" the boy thought. "I worked at that hole all night. But how is it that the sun shines down the shaft? I didn't believe it could. There's something strange here!"
All these thoughts flashed through his mind while he ran on, intent on distancing his pursuer, who was close behind him. Fenn could hear the man's footsteps. Once more the fellow shouted:
"Hey! Stop! You don't know where you're goin'!"
"I don't, eh?" thought Fenn. "Well, I guess I do. I'm going to get away from you, that's where I'm going."
The dim light became plainer now. Fenn could see that it came through an opening in the cave; an opening that was close to the ground. Clearly then, this could not be the shaft down which he had come. He was puzzled, but he kept on.