At first Tom and Becky played with their friends in the cave. Then Tom wanted to go down a new tunnel, and Becky went with him.
They walked and talked, and went into a second tunnel, then a third. Tom put a mark with candle smoke on the tunnel wall – he wanted to find the mouth of the cave again! Then they came out of the tunnels into a big room. There were hundreds of bats in this room, and the candles woke them up. Tom took Becky’s hand and they ran into the nearest tunnel, with the bats behind them. But one bat hit Becky’s candle and it went out. The children ran and ran through the tunnels, and at last they got away from the bats. They stopped and sat down. Suddenly, it was very, very quiet.
‘Where are we now, Tom?’ Becky whispered, afraid.
‘I don’t know,’ said Tom. ‘I think it’s time to go back. But we can’t go through that big room because of the bats. Let’s go down this tunnel.’
They went down one tunnel, then a second, a third, a fourth … Then they wanted to find the big room with the bats again, but they couldn’t. Becky began to cry:
‘Tom, we can’t get out. We’re lost, Tom, we’re lost!’
