Mandie Collection, The: 4 Read Online Free PDF Page B

here gives me the jitters.” She laughed nervously.
    There were several archways leading into the various sections of the catacombs. The crowd had thinned out after a quick look, and Mrs. Taft and Senator Morton became engrossed with carved tablets in the walls, which they tried to decipher.
    Jonathan led the girls forward. “Here’s another room over here,” he said. “Look!” He stepped through an archway into a corridor that went around a bend, and the girls followed.
    Mandie freed her hand from Celia’s long enough to push her bonnet back so she could see better. The long ribbon secured it on her neck. Celia pushed hers back too.
    “I don’t know whether it’s hot or cold down here,” Mandie remarked, breaking the silence. “I feel hot, but the air around us feels cold.”
    The young people looked around the room for some connecting corridor.
    “This seems to be a dead end,” Mandie said.
    “You’re right,” Jonathan agreed. “But look at this carving on the wall.”
    The three inspected the ancient writing, barely visible from the light of only one candle near the archway they had come through.
    “Is it Latin, Jonathan?” Mandie asked, pointing to the inscription.
    Jonathan bent to look closer. At that moment the candle went out. Jonathan caught his breath. The girls grabbed each other. The three were left in complete darkness. The bend in the corridor kept light from coming in from other rooms.
    “Where is everybody?” Mandie cried. “I can’t hear a sound.”
    There was not a single noise to indicate that anyone else remained in the underground caverns.
    Jonathan began feeling his way along the wall. “I think I can locate the archway that we came through,” he said. “You girls hold on to my coat.”
    Mandie and Celia took hold of his coattail and followed him closely in the blackness.
    “Wh-what do you suppose made the candle go out?” Celia stammered.
    “There must have been a draft down here,” Jonathan said, moving along in small, careful steps. “Let’s see, I believe I’ve found the entrance.” He moved a little more and said, “Yes, I think this is where we came in. Now, stay close together.”
    He stepped cautiously through the archway. It was still completely dark in the corridor.
    “Jonathan, what happened to the candles that were along the way when we came in here?” Mandie asked, holding tightly to her kitten.
    “They all seem to have gone out,” Jonathan said, still moving slowly as he felt his way along the stone wall.
    “Then someone must have put them out,” Mandie reasoned. “I don’t see how a little draft could blow them all out at once.”
    “Oh, no!” Celia moaned.
    “Don’t panic,” Jonathan told the girls. “We’ll be out of here in no time, and then we’ll find out what happened.”
    “Why don’t we call out for help?” Celia asked.
    “Too embarrassing,” Jonathan said, as he kept inching his way along. “Don’t worry. We’ll be out of here soon.”
    As they moved along at a snail’s pace, Jonathan suddenly cried out. “Ouch!” He stood still.
    “What’s wrong?” Mandie asked.
    “Nothing. I must have put my hand right on top of a candle that just went out. The wax was hot,” he explained.
    They moved along through what seemed to be several rooms, and still no light appeared anywhere. The girls were getting frantic. Every time they whispered, their voices echoed back at them.
    “Jonathan, someone has put out all the candles, or we would have found a lighted one by now,” Mandie complained, nervously clutching Snowball.
    “It sure looks that way,” Jonathan admitted. “But if we keep going, we’re bound to find the entrance. Then we can get out of this place.”
    “I don’t understand why we keep moving and still don’t find anyone else down here,” Mandie said shakily. “Where is my grandmother... and the senator?”
    Jonathan kept feeling his way along with the girls closely following, but they didn’t find a single