Page:Allan Dunn--Dead Man's Gold.djvu/232

218 Then the light from the torch began to wane, slowly diminishing, so that in the beginning they mistrusted their eyes more than the failing battery until the wire within the vacuum turned red, then blue, and vanished. Before Stone, by renewing a battery, could give them light again, they became swiftly conscious of their aching muscles, their splitting heads, and when the second torch revealed once more the piles of gold they had temporarily lost their magnetism.

"Those were eight-hour batteries," said Stone. "Probably burned a bit short." He looked at his watch. "It's half-past three," he announced. "Better leave this for a while and get up to fresher air. What with the fire and the dynamite, we've used this up too quickly and we've been working where the bad air has sunk to the floor. It'll be daylight by the time we get to the opening. Those burros have got to be fed and our grub is down at the bottom. I'm starving."

"I'm hungry as a spring b'ar, myself," admitted Harvey. "And we got to water them burros. Better fill our canteens with this stuff, though it's no balm for a weak stummick."

They ascended the way they had come and saw the gray light of the dawn through the entrance. Before they reached it the light turned to salmon and then to glowing orange. Stone set down the coil of rope with a sigh of relief. They had left the tools and dynamite in the great cavern. Larkin and Harvey carried the filled canteens. The morning wind blew