There was no
reply, but after a pause that distant beat began again. Ross stepped
cautiously forward, and by the simple method of running fullface into
the walls, discovered that he was in a bare cell. He also discovered
that the noise lay behind the left-hand wall, and he stood with his ear
flat against it, listening. The sound did not have the regular rhythm of
a machine in use--there were odd pauses between some blows, others came
in a quick rain. It was as if someone were digging!
Were the Reds engaged in enlarging their icebound headquarters? Having
listened for a considerable time, Ross doubted that, for the sound was
too irregular. It seemed almost as if the longer pauses were used to
check up on the result of labor--was it the extent of the excavation or
the continued preservation of secrecy?
Ross slipped down along the wall, his shoulders still resting against
it, and rested with his head twisted so he could hear the tapping.
Meanwhile he flexed his wrists inside the hoops which confined them, and
folding his hands as small as possible, tried to slip them through the
rings.
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