Scarcely had he taken two paces when a crash
resounded back of him and a heavy sheet of steel closed
the opening into the cavern from which he had just
come. He paused a moment, but it still seemed best to
proceed, and as Inga advanced in the dark, holding his
hands outstretched before him to feel his way,
handcuffs fell upon his wrists and locked themselves
with a sharp click, and an instant later he found he
was chained to a stout iron post set firmly in the rock
floor.

The chains were long enough to permit him to move a
yard or so in any direction and by feeling the walls he
found he was in a small circular room that had no
outlet except the passage by which he had entered, and
that was now closed by the door of steel. This was the
end of the series of caverns and corridors.

It was now that the horror of his situation occurred
to the boy with full force. But he resolved not to
submit to his fate without a struggle, and realizing
that he possessed the Blue Pearl, which gave him
marvelous strength, he quickly broke the chains and set
himself free of the handcuffs. Next he twisted the
steel door from its hinges, and creeping along the
short passage, found himself in the third cave.

But now the dim light, which had before guided him,
had vanished; yet on peering into the gloom of the cave