Friends, we must
explore this! It may be of the utmost importance!
Come, we have our electric torches, and we shall
need them, for it's very dark in there," and he
peered into the passage in front of which they
all stood now. It seemed to have been tunneled
through the earth, the sides being lined by either
slabs of stone, or walls made by a sort of concrete.
"But what about the rescue work?" asked Mr. Damon.
"I am not forgetting Professor Beecher and his
friends," answered the scientist.
"Perhaps this may be a better means of rescuing
them than by digging them out, which will take
a week at least," observed Tom.
"This a better way?" asked Ned, pointing to the tunnel.
"That's it," confirmed the savant. "If you
will notice it extends back in the direction
of the cave from which we were driven.
Now if there is a buried city beneath all this
jungle, this mountain of earth and stones, the
accumulation of centuries, it is probably on the
bottom of some vast cavern. It is my opinion
that we were only in one end of that cavern, and
this may be the entrance to another end of it."
"Then," asked Mr. Damon, "do you mean that
we can enter here, get into the cave that contains
the buried city, or part of it, and find there
Beecher and his friends?"
"That's it. It is possible, and if we could it
would save an immense lot of work, and probably
be a surer way to save their lives than by
digging a tunnel through the landslide to find
the mouth of the cave where we first entered.
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