"I'm hangin' out in space. If I
should let go with one finger or one toe I'd take a tumble through
to China. One of you fellows come down on the rope. Hurry!"
"Are you hurt?" asked Nestor, anxiously.
"Not on your life, only in me feelings," replied Jimmie. "It breaks
me tender heart to get into a hole I can't help meself out of! Come
on down with that rope!"
Nestor drew up the line, tied one end about his waist, and, wondering
what might lie within the forbidding place, and where it might lead to,
was slowly lowered into the tunnel. The flashlight showed a level
space about two yards in extent at the bottom of the shaft, directly
under the opening, but beyond that the tunnel dropped away toward the
east and the middle of the Chinese empire, as Jimmie declared. The
fall of the passage, which was not more than six feet in diameter,
was at least fifty degrees.
As soon as his feet struck the little landing Nestor saw Jimmie lying
flat on his stomach on the incline below, hanging on with his fingers
for dear life. As Nestor looked the boy's fingers slipped on the
smooth rock and he started, feet foremost, down the dark passage.
Calling to the boys above to cling tightly to the rope and to pay it
out slowly, Nestor slid swiftly downward until the slack of the line
was gone, and was then brought up with a quick jerk, with the still
slipping boy's head a foot away from his hands. He whirled about and
dropped his feet down the passage.
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