With a last look up the shaft at the gray sky, Steve followed Pitch down the tunnel. The descent was not steep, but it seemed never-ending, and soon Steve felt the dull ache in his legs from the stiff, awkward steps he had to take in his crouched position. The light pack became heavier, and the pick he carried was an added weight to his misery.

Suddenly Pitch came to an abrupt stop as the flashlight revealed a sharp angle to the right.

“Another tunnel,” Pitch said.

“But we should keep going down, the way we’re doing,” Steve returned. “This other tunnel probably only goes to another spot along the sea.”

“I know,” Pitch said. “But I was thinking of our return trip. We want to make sure that we have no trouble getting back to our rope. We mustn’t get lost. If only we had something to mark our way—”

“The chalk!” Steve said quickly. “You dropped it down the shaft. We could mark our way with that.”

“Just the thing, Steve.”

“I’ll get it.”

Pitch handed over the flashlight to Steve, who removed his pack and then went back up the tunnel. Sitting down on the ground, Pitch watched as the light moved along to the steady sound of Steve’s footsteps. A little while later, the light flashed downward and Pitch knew that Steve had arrived back at the shaft. The light bobbed around the ground, then was turned in Pitch’s direction again.

“I’ve got it, Pitch!” Steve called down the tunnel.

Back with Pitch, Steve sat down and rested while his friend marked a large arrow on the wall of the tunnel, pointing in the direction of the shaft.

“We can’t miss it now,” Pitch said. “And we’ll do the same each time we come to another tunnel.”

Soon they were on their way again, stopping only when they found other tunnels diverging from the one they were following. “This place is a maze,” Pitch said after a while. “We’d never have found our way back without the chalk marks.”

Downward, ever downward they went, their footsteps beginning to drag, their cramped muscles sore and painful. They began to stop more often, even when they did not come upon other passageways. They found, too, that they were too tired to talk, so they sat quietly beside each other during their frequent rests.