Page:The Young Auctioneers.djvu/218

202 through the brush and around the rocks as rapidly as they could.

"Let us go forward as silently as possible!" suddenly whispered the boy. "Barberry may still be around, and if that is so we want to surprise him."

"That's a good idea! What a pity we can't put out the light."

"We can't do without it. The track is growing fainter. We are coming to almost solid rock."

On and on they pushed, until Andy calculated that they had covered a distance of five hundred feet from the main road. Then they found themselves on the verge of a deep ravine, with a high wall of rock to the left of them.

"Phew! supposing he drove over that!" shuddered Andy, as he pointed into the blackness of the hollow. "That must be a hundred feet or more deep."

"He went to the right, Andy—the only way he could go. Have you any matches with you?"

"Yes. What do you want of them?"

"I am going to put out the light, for I fancy the wagon is not far off, and the thief may be around also. If we wish we can light up again later on."

Matt did as he had intimated, and the two found themselves in a darkness that was simply intense to the last degree. They could not see their hands