“Yes,” Steve admitted slowly, “I know you did. Do you think we could have taken another tunnel somewhere along the line? We must have run a hundred yards before we lit our first match.”

“I would say it was more like three hundred yards before we stopped running,” Pitch returned.

“It couldn’t have been, Pitch!” Steve stopped, suddenly realizing that probably neither of them was right. In the darkness they could have run from fifty to five hundred yards for all they knew. Fright did that to a person. “We’d better turn back then,” he said aloud.

“Yes, we’d better.” Pitch made no effort to keep the concern from his voice. They both were aware of the consequences of getting lost.

As they started back down the tunnel Pitch said, “You keep a hand on the right wall when we go along in the dark, Steve. I’ll keep mine on the left wall. That way we won’t slip by any tunnels that may converge with this one. If there’s a break, stop—and I’ll do the same.”

They had walked along for about half an hour when suddenly Steve’s hand encountered nothing but air. “Wait, Pitch!” he called.

Pitch struck a match and they saw another tunnel. “You see we missed this on the way up,” he said. Eagerly they looked for a large white arrow, but found none. “Obviously,” Pitch continued dismally, “we didn’t come down either one of these tunnels on our way to the chamber or there would be an arrow on one of them.”

“Then which one did we just come up?” Steve asked anxiously. “Which one goes back to the chamber?”

Pitch didn’t answer. And Steve couldn’t help him. They simply couldn’t tell, for both tunnels went downward and at this point they came together in a V-shape.

“One’s as good as another,” Steve said. “Let’s take our pick, Pitch.”

Pitch’s round face was grim and his pale blue eyes were but slits in the light of the burning match. “Don’t worry, Steve. We’ve got plenty of matches. We’ll find our way out.”

But still they stood before the two tunnels, neither caring to make the decision. They knew that only one tunnel went back to the chamber where they’d have a chance of picking up the arrows again.

“We could separate,” Steve suggested. “You take one tunnel and I the other. We’ll come back after going a short way.”

“A short way wouldn’t do it,” Pitch protested. “We must be all of half an hour from the chamber. No, Steve, we’d better stick together. We need each other now.”

“Then let’s go to the right,” Steve suggested quickly. “The right way could be right,” he added without smiling.