"I'm going to find
out what this means before I'm another minute older."
Hastily lighting a match he made a tour of the chamber, every corner
of which he examined carefully, ending by a long, critical survey of
the hole in the roof.
"It is just as impossible for anyone to be up there as it is to expect
to see some one walk through the solid rocks here beside us," he
decided, throwing the spent match on the floor where it glowed briefly
and went out, leaving the darkness more dense than before.
Tad struck a fresh match.
"Hello, what's this?" he cried, reaching for a small package that lay
wrapped in a piece of newspaper on the floor near him. "I didn't see
that before."
"Doughnuts!" shouted Ned, who had been peering curiously over Tad's
shoulder as the latter opened the package.
"Yes, and they are real," exulted Tad. Already one of them was in his
mouth, and the others of the party quickly helped themselves. There
was just enough to go around.
"I don't care who you are, but we're much obliged just the same,"
called Ned in a muffled voice.
"Yes, there's nothing ghostly about this 'bear sign,'" added Tad.
As for their companion, Tom Phipps, words failed him.
"I'm sure I'm going crazy now," he said. "If you are real, for
goodness' sake tell us who you are and where you are?" he pleaded.
A merry, chuckling laugh answered him.
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