CHAPTER XX
SPACEMEN’S FATE
HUTCHCRAFT’S threatening words echoed in the boys’ ears as Tom and Bud landed, sprawling, on the floor of the tomb. An instant later they heard the grenade hit the floor beside them with a metallic clangl “Quick! Out of the way, Tom!” Bud cried.
Both made a frantic leap to get out of range of the explosion, and hurled themselves flat. Tom was already counting under his breath: “One … two …
three … four …”
He reached twenty and still nothing happened. “We’re safe, Bud!” he muttered huskily. “Hutchcraft must have forgotten to pull the pin!”
The boys remained flattened a while longer to make sure the bomb or grenade was not a delayed-action type. Finally they got to their feet, still shaken from their close call.
“What a scare!” Bud gulped.
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SPACEMEN’S FATE 179
“But we’re alive, pal-we’re alive!” Tom drew a deep breath of relief 1
“Now all we have to do is get out of here,” Bud remarked dryly.
“Let’s try shouting,” Tom suggested.
Both boys yelled at the top of their lungs, together at first, then taking turns.
At last they gave up, winded and hoarse.
“No use,” Tom said. “The village is too far away. Looks as if we’ll either have to wait for someone to show up or find our own way out.”
“That’ll be fun,” Bud said gloomily.
The underground chamber was in inky darkness, except for the pale moonlight that barely shone down through the opening.
“There are two exits from this room,” Tom mused, trying to visualize the layout. “I wonder where they go?”
Suddenly Bud snapped his fingers. “Tom! When the crew stopped digging today, I noticed something on the outside of the mound that looked like a door.
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