CHAPTER XVII

IN THE DARKNESS

After what seemed to Jo Ann an interminable time the cable appeared, and Mr. Eldridge was pulled up the shaft.

"I feel better now that he's up safely," Jo Ann said, breathing more freely.

"I don't know which I dread worse--going up in that awful bag or staying down here in this terrible dark," Peggy groaned.

Noticing that Peggy's flashlight was not on, Florence asked, "Why don't you switch on your flashlight? That'll help some."

"It won't turn on. When I bumped against that dynamite box, I got so scared I dropped it. It must've got broken then."

So worried over Manuel was Jo Ann that she paid little heed to Peggy's continued laments. If only this awful suspense about him was over! Surely he must be only unconscious. If he were, when they got out they could help give him first aid. She'd had first-aid training in her scout work. "I wish I could go up first and see if I could do anything for him," she told herself.

Just then she heard Peggy say, "I believe I'll go up first. I can't stand this creepy darkness. I keep thinking that smuggler's hidden down here and----"

"Peggy's so upset and nervous, she'd better go up first," Jo Ann admitted to herself reluctantly. Aloud she said, "All right, Peg, you go next. See what you can do to help Manuel."

"But, Jo, Manuel's dead!" she wailed.

Jo Ann shook her head as she answered, "I can't believe that he is."

Shuddering, Peggy went on: "I'd planned to wait for you two before I took a step when I got up. The lights are off up there. Whoever killed Manuel must've cut off the lights."

"Mr. Eldridge'll have some kind of a light, surely. If Manuel's breathing--I can't help feeling that he is--do everything you can for him."

Soon the quivering Peggy was inside the bag and being slowly pulled up the shaft. When, however, she had ascended only a short way, something went wrong with the cable, and the bag hung suspended--motionless.

Peggy's terrified shriek echoed and re-echoed through the shaft.

"Horrors!" gasped Florence. "I hope the cable's not stuck. Sometimes it'll get stuck that way for an hour or more."

"You'll be all right in a minute," Jo Ann called up to Peggy. "Don't get scared." In a low voice she added to Florence, "I hope I'm telling the whole truth."

To their vast relief, in a few minutes the bag began to move upward once more.

"Thank goodness!" Florence ejaculated. "Which one of us had better go up next? I'd like to, but if you----"

Jo Ann's impulse was to speak up, "Let me go," but, instead, she replied, "You go on. I have a flashlight, and you haven't."

Several minutes later, with mingled feelings of relief and fear, she watched Florence being pulled up till she was above the reach of the flashlight's beam. All was eerie blackness now. The shadows began to take on weird ghostlike shapes. Was that a man crouching over there? The smuggler?

An involuntary shudder shivered through her body. She must not let her imagination run riot this way. She steadied her lower lip to prevent its trembling.

At last the bag loomed into view, and after an anxious wait she got inside it. Slowly--painfully slowly she began to ascend.

When she was about halfway up, the cable suddenly spun around, knocking the bag against the rocky side of the shaft. She felt a stinging sensation in her right arm as it struck the rocks. Clutching her flashlight more tightly and cringing with pain, she lifted her arm to protect her light. It was too late. The flashlight had been broken--badly smashed.

In another moment she had forgotten about her injured arm and broken flashlight in a more serious trouble. The bag was stuck--not moving either up or down. She stifled a shriek that was threatening to escape her lips. No wonder Peggy had cried out. And it was worse this time. There was utter darkness below. No one to call up comfortingly from the bottom of the shaft. No one at the top either. Both girls were probably hovering over Manuel now, if he---- Had they found by now that he really was dead?

She must shut out that terrifying picture from her mind. It seemed, though, to be outlined against the darkness in a glaring light that refused to be blotted out. How long would she have to hang this way in midair, seeing this horrible picture?

"Better to hang suspended than to be dashed to the bottom on those rocks," she told herself. "Peg was in the same plight, and now she's up safely. But then she was stuck only two or three minutes, and you've been here ten or fifteen at least," she reminded herself discouragedly.

Endless ages dragged on, it seemed to her, as she hung there. Would this suspense never end? Had anything happened to José? Had he been killed, too?

At last, when her hopes had almost ebbed away, she felt the bag moving upward. Actually going up now. As she neared the top and drew in deep breaths of the fresh air, a great wave of gratitude swept over her.

Once safely out on the ground, she began feeling her way through the darkness toward the light on her left. José hurried up just then with a lantern in his hand.

"Tell me about Manuel--he is not dead, is he?" she asked him quickly.

"I think he is. He look dead when I see him," José answered brokenly. "That wicked Luis--he knock him down. I catch Luis and tie him to a tree." He gestured to the right.

"Luis! That miner Mr. Eldridge discharged for stealing?"

"Yes."

"But why did he want to hurt Manuel? Manuel didn't discharge him."

"Manuel tell him to keep away." José went on to explain that Luis had thrown a crowbar back of the switchboard, so the _malacate_ would not work, and that when Manuel had tried to grab him Luis had knocked him down. There was a triumphant tone in his voice as he added, "I catch Luis. I fix him."

"How did it happen that you came up here? You didn't come with us."

José hesitated a moment, then replied, "I saw you come up here, and I think _El Señor_ need me. He tell me to take Luis down to the big house now. I leave you now."

On nearing the _malacate_ Jo Ann could see Manuel's inert figure lying on the ground, Mr. Eldridge bending over him, and the girls standing near by.

"Is he----" Jo Ann left her question unfinished, but both girls knew what she meant.

"He's still alive," Florence whispered. "Unconscious. I could feel his pulse. His skin is a clammy cold. I wish I had some hot-water bottles to put around him."

"Thank goodness he's still alive!" Jo Ann exclaimed softly.

"We've put our sweaters over him," Peggy added, gesturing to the sweaters on Manuel's body. "I can't think of anything else to do."

"We might heat some rocks or bricks and put around him," Jo Ann suggested eagerly.

"Good idea," approved Mr. Eldridge, who had overheard her. "I'll help you. We must do something to help him, since it'll be hours before we can get a doctor here."

They hurried about gathering wood and soon built a small fire on some flat stones. As soon as the stones were hot, they pushed them out of the fire, then covered them with some old pieces of a torn blanket.

"We must be absolutely certain these rocks'll not burn him," Jo Ann cautioned. "Persons suffering from shock are more easily burned than usual. My scout book said never to put anything hot next the patient till it could be held against your face for a minute without feeling too hot." She tested each stone before passing it on to Mr. Eldridge to place next to the unconscious figure.

After that was done, Jo Ann began rubbing his arms toward the body.

"Why's she doing that?" queried Peggy in a low voice.

"I think it's to restore the circulation."

When Jo Ann was still rubbing his arms, Manuel's eyelids began to flicker.

"He's beginning to become conscious," Mr. Eldridge said, low-voiced. "As soon as José comes back he and I'll carry him down to the house. There isn't any serious bleeding, so I feel sure it'll be safe to carry him now. We'll have to make a stretcher."

No sooner had he finished speaking than Jo Ann dashed away, returning shortly with two poles. Mr. Eldridge immediately jerked off his coat and pulled the poles through the sleeves, then tied a piece of blanket securely to the poles also. By that time José was back from taking Luis to the house. With Mr. Eldridge's help José tenderly lifted the injured man upon the improvised stretcher and set off down the trail, careful to hold the poles as steady as possible.

The girls followed close behind, Jo Ann bringing up the rear.

"Do you know where José took the prisoner?" Peggy asked Jo Ann.

"Yes. To our house."

"Gracious! That's awful. I'll never be able to sleep a wink tonight, knowing he's in the same house that we are."

"It's the safest place to keep him in the camp. The walls are as thick as a regular prison's, and there're iron bars to all the windows. Besides, José'll guard him."

"It makes me shivery all over to know he's under our roof."

"I don't believe even a Houdini could escape from that house," Jo Ann assured her. "You'll be safe. Don't worry."