CHAPTER XX
THE ESCAPE
For a space of several seconds no one moved or spoke. In the flickeringlight of the candle they looked at one another, and then at thefantastic pillars of salt all about them. Then Mr. Damon startedforward.
"Bless my trolley car!" he exclaimed. "It isn't possible! There must besome mistake. If we'll keep on we'll come out all right. You know yourway about, don't you, Mr. Petrofsky?"
"I thought I did, from what the guard told us, but it seems I must havetaken a wrong turning."
"Then it's easily remedied," suggested Tom "All we'll have to do willbe to go to the place where we started, and begin over again."
"Of course," agreed Ned, and they all seemed more cheerful.
"And if we start out once more, and get lost again, then what?" askedMr. Damon.
"Well, if worst comes to worst, we can go, back in the tunnel, go toour cells and ask the guard to come with us and show us the way went onTom.
"Never!" cried the exile. "It would be the most dangerous thing in theworld to go back to the prison. Our escape has probably been discoveredby this time, and to return would only be to put our heads in thenoose. We must keep on at any cost!"
"But if we can't get out," suggested Tom, "and if we haven't anythingto eat or drink, we--"
He did not finish, but they all knew what he meant.
"Oh, we'll get out!" declared Ned, who was something of an optimist."You've been in salt mines before, haven't you, Mr. Petrofsky?"
"Yes, I was condemned to one once, but it was not in this part of thecountry, and it was not an abandoned one. I imagine this was only anisolated mine, and that there are no others near it, so when theyabandoned it, after all the salt was taken out, most people forgotabout it. I remember once a party of prisoners were lost in a largesalt mine, and were missed for several days."
"What happened to them?" asked Tom.
"I don't like to talk about it," replied the Russian with a shudder.
"Bless my soul! Was it as bad as that?" asked Mr. Damon.
"It was," replied the exile. "But now let's see if we can find our wayback, and start afresh. I'll be more careful next time, and watch theturns more closely."
But he did not get the chance. They could not find the tunnel whencethey had started. Turn after turn they took, down passage after passagesometimes in such small ones that they almost had to crawl.
But it was of no use. They could not find their way back to thestarting place, and they could not find the opening of the mine. Theyhad used two of the slow burning candles and they had only half a dozenor so left. When these were gone--
But they did not like to think of that, and stumbled on and on. Theydid not talk much, for they were too worried. Finally Ned gasped:
"I'd give a good deal for a drink of water."
"So would I," added his chum. "But what's the use of wishing? If therewas a spring down here it would be salt water. But I know what I woulddo--if I could."
"What?" asked Mr. Damon.
"Go back to the prison. At least we wouldn't starve there, and we'dhave something to drink. If they kept us we know we could getfree--sometime."
"Perhaps never!" exclaimed Ivan Petrofsky. "It is better to keep onhere, and, as for me, I would rather die here than go back to a Russianprison. We must--we shall get out!"
But it was idle talk. Gradually they lost track of time as theystaggered on, and they hardly knew whether a day had passed or whetherit was but a few hours since they had been lost.
Of their sufferings in that salt mine I shall not go into details.There are enough unpleasant things in this world without telling aboutthat. They must have wandered around for at least a day and a half,and in all that while they had not a drop of water, and not a thing toeat. Wait, though, at last in their desperation they did gnaw thetallow candles, and that served to keep them alive, and, in a measure,alleviate their awful sufferings from thirst.
Back and forth they wandered, up and down in the galleries of the oldsalt mine. They were merely hoping against hope.
"It's worse than the underground city of gold," said Ned in hollowtones, as he staggered on. "Worse--much worse." His head was feelinglight. No one answered him.
It was, as they learned later, just about two days after the time whenthey entered the mine that they managed to get out. Forty-eight hours,most of them of intense suffering. They were burning their last candle,and when that was out they knew they would have the horrors of darknessto fight against, as well as those of hunger and thirst.
But fate was kind to them. How they managed to hit on the right gallerythey did not know, but, as they made a turn around an immense pillar ofsalt Tom, who was walking weakly in advance, suddenly stopped.
"Look! Look!" he whispered. "Another candle! Someone--someone issearching for us! We are saved!"
"It may be the police!" said Ned.
"That is not a candle," spoke the Russian in hollow tones as he lookedto where Tom pointed, to a little glimmer of light. "It is a star.Friends, we are saved, and by Providence! That is a star, shiningthrough the opening of the mine. We are saved!"
Eagerly they pressed forward, and they had not gone far before theyknew that the exile was right. They felt the cool night wind on theirhot cheeks.
"Thank heaven!" gasped Tom, as he pushed on.
A moment later, climbing over the rusted rails on which the mine carshad run with their loads of salt, they staggered into the open. Theywere free--under the silent stars!
"And now, if we can only find the airship," said Tom faintly, "we can--"
"Look there!" whispered Ned, pointing to a patch of deeper blacknessthat the surrounding night. "What's that."
"The Falcon!" gasped Tom. He started toward her, for she was but ashort distance from a little clump of trees into which they had emergedfrom the opening of the salt mine. There, on the same little planewhere they had landed in her was the airship. She had not been moved.
"Wait!" cautioned Ivan Petrofsky. "She may be guarded."
Hardly had he spoken than there walked into the faint starlight on theside of the ship nearest them, a Cossack soldier with his rifle overhis shoulder.
"We can't get her!" gasped Ned.
"We've got to get her!" declared Tom. "We'll die if we don't!"
"But the guards! They'll arrest us!" said the exile.
An instant later a second soldier joined the first, and they could beseen conversing. They then resumed their pacing around the anchoredcraft. Evidently they were waiting for the escaped prisoners to come upwhen they would give the alarm and apprehend them.
"What can we do?" asked Mr. Damon.
"I have a plan," said Tom weakly. "It's the only chance, for we're notstrong enough to tackle them. Every time they go around on the far sideof the airship we must creep forward. When they come on this side we'lllie down. I doubt if they can see us. Once we are on hoard we can cutthe ropes, and start off. Everything is all ready for a start if theyhaven't monkeyed with her, and I don't think they have. We've got roomenough to run along as an aeroplane and mount upward. It's our onlyhope."
The others agreed, and they put the plan into operation. When theCossack guards were out of sight the escaped prisoners crawled forward,and when the soldiers came into view our friends waited in silence.
It took several minutes of alternate creeping and waiting to do this,but it was accomplished at last and unseen they managed to slip aboard.Then it was the work of but a moment to cut the restraining ropes.
Silently Tom crept to the motor room. He had to work in absolutedarkness, for the gleam of a light would have drawn the fire of theguards. But the youth knew every inch of his invention. The onlyworriment was whether or not the motor would start up after thebreakdown, not having been run since it was so hastily repaired. Stillhe could only try.
He looked out, and saw the guards pacing back and forth. They did notknow that the much-sought prisoners were within a few feet of them.
Ned was in th
e pilot house. He could see a clear field in front of him.
Suddenly Tom pulled the starting lever. There was a little clicking,followed by silence. Was the motor going to revolve? It answered thenext moment with a whizz and a roar.
"Here we go!" cried the young inventor, as the big machine shot forwardon her flight. "Now let them stop us!"
Forward she went until Ned, knowing by the speed that she had momentumenough, tilted the elevation rudder, and up she shot, while behind, onthe ground, wildly running to and fro, and firing their rifles, werethe two amazed guards.
Tom Swift and His Air Glider; Or, Seeking the Platinum Treasure Page 20