“You big stiff!” he said, carefully feeling over his pudgy form to make sure there were no bones broken, “next time you feel like shoving a fellow, just look who you’re shoving, will you? I suppose you think this was fun.”
“It was—for us,” retorted Herb, relieved to find he had not seriously hurt his fat chum. “Stop glaring at me, Doughnuts,” he added placatingly. “I didn’t mean to shove so hard, honest I didn’t.”
“Well,” said Jimmy, somewhat mollified, “I suppose I’ll have to take your word for it. Only don’t let it happen again, that’s all.”
“And now that we’re here,” said Bob, gazing about him with lively interest at the walls of the cave into which they had literally stumbled, “what do you say we look around a bit?”
“You bet,” agreed Joe, feeling in his pockets for matches. “From the looks of things, if we’re going to do much exploring we’ll need plenty of light.”
“I’ve got a new box of matches myself,” said Herb. “Any of the rest of you fellows got any?”
It appeared that they all had, and Bob, feeling about on the floor of the cave, found a stick that would serve them admirably as a torch.
This he lighted with one of the precious matches and held it over his head in an attempt to pierce the dark corners of the place.
“Probably ends a few feet farther on,” said Herb, as they carefully made their way forward, groping along the damp walls of the cave. “You go ahead with your light, Bob, and lead the way. It’s as dark as pitch in this hole.”
But, contrary to Herb’s prediction, the cave did not end a few feet further on. As a matter of fact, it seemed to widen as they went forward and the boys began to feel a growing excitement.
“This is getting good,” chortled Bob, then stopped short as by the light of his torch he discovered something new. “Say, fellows,” he cried, in an excited voice, “here’s a tunnel—and, yes, there’s one on the other side.”
“Better and better!” exulted Herb. “Which one of the tunnels shall we explore first?”
“Why not take both?” asked Jimmy, who had completely recovered from his ignominious tumble. “Two of us can go down one of them and the other two can take the other.”
“Nothing doing,” said Bob, firmly. “We’re going to stick together on this jaunt. We don’t want to take any chances of our matches giving out and being left in the dark—not if I know it!”