THE CAVE
The morning of the next day O’Hara went about his chores as usual, at
the same time keeping a sharp lookout for any suspicious signs that
might betray the further plans of his employer.
About three-thirty in the afternoon he was just leaving the kitchen
when he was surprised to hear the voices of Brown and Tom Whalen raised
in rather an excited discussion.
“Yes, Jo had definite word that the officers suspected O’Hara’s
presence here,” said the voice of Brown.
“Oh, let ’em catch him then,” replied Tom Whalen gruffly, “I’m tired of
watching him anyhow.”
“Keep still and attend to your own part of this business. The man
will be useful. I need him and desire to have you hide him. Do you
understand?”
The very tone was a command, and to the great interest of O’Hara he saw
Tom Whalen straighten and salute. Then O’Hara slipped again into the
kitchen and now he emerged noisily.
The men turned to him and as they did so, Brown said in a low tone,
“Put him in the cave.”
Then he spun on his heel and departed. He had no sooner left than the
startled eyes of O’Hara made out a cloud of dust on the far horizon in
the direction of Albuquerque.
“Come on,” exclaimed Tom Whalen, hurrying his huge bulk toward the
garage, “or the devil take you.”
Wondering, O’Hara easily kept pace with him and paused beside the
garage. Tom Whalen had by now removed the top of the hole where the
huge gasoline tank was buried, and to O’Hara’s amazement, the tank was
revealed to be empty. Whalen slipped carefully into the tank and O’Hara
followed as directed. Whalen then pressed some hidden spring in the
metal and the sides slowly revolved, leaving an opening large enough
for a man to slip through. His guide ordered O’Hara to step through the
aperture, and with a shiver of apprehension, but helpless to disobey he
did so. Then the man handed him a lantern somewhat resembling a miner’s
lamp and the wall swung back slowly.
O’Hara stood perfectly still in the darkness. The air was dank and
musty but there was means for allowing fresher air to enter, for it
was not breathless. Slowly he flashed his lantern about the place. The
walls of the small room in which he stood seemed to be made of adobe.
He searched the sides most carefully, there was nothing to break the
absolute uniformity of line until the lantern’s rays reached the third
side, the side through which he had entered. Here faint and far away,
he could discern up through a small hole the dim light of day.
About a foot out from this wall, standing sinister and black, was the
only object within the room, a huge iron safe.
The light of O’Hara’s lantern passed carefully over it and then went
on to the fourth wall. The lantern flickered and then beamed steadily
upon the gleaming wall. With a shiver of amazement, O’Hara realized
that here in this desert spot, in his beloved country, the floor of the
garage reached down a full twenty feet of solid concrete emplacement!
Astounded beyond measure, he recalled the many reports he had heard
about the huge concrete emplacements supposed to have been built by
the Germans during the war, and even before the war, in various parts
of the United States.
He had not believed these reports at the time. They had seemed too
incredible. He had considered them figments of imaginations that
had been fired by the fears and excitements of war. No, such things
were too fantastic for sane, sensible Americans to believe. It was
impossible that our country would be betrayed by those whom she had
welcomed so heartily to her shores.
But here in this desert spot, for an unknown purpose, stood tangible
evidence that these reports were true. They were not idle fancies. And,
so, it must likewise be true that America did harbor base creatures who
would sell their adopted country’s honor for gold and silver, men who
sought to injure her, and lower her prestige in the eyes of the world.
Very well, it would be America’s duty henceforth to ferret out these
creatures. It would be her duty to strip them of the possessions and
privileges that a generous country had showered on them with a profuse
hand.
Again and again these reflections kept running through O’Hara’s mind,
as he explored every nook and cranny of the curious subterranean
hiding-place. He wondered what criminal plan had dictated the
construction of this great gun emplacement. Where did Brown intend
to get the enormous gun that such a base would accommodate? These
questions were too deep for solution. Perhaps the future would supply
an answer.
O’Hara looked at his watch and found it had been about twenty minutes
since he saw the dust of the approaching automobile. He figured that
the officers were just now arriving at the place, but of course no
sound could penetrate to his dark hiding place. Wishing to save the
oil, he turned out his lamp and sat down on the hard sand of the floor.
He placed his shoulder against the back of the safe so that he would be
facing the one ray of light which struggled in from the hole above, and
settled down to wait.
Thus it happened that he was entirely invisible when the opening in the
wall suddenly revolved again. Thinking merely to remain quiet until
Tom Whalen called him, O’Hara made no move. He heard the sound of two
voices, one undoubtedly that of Jo the Jap, the other with an Irish
accent.
“Sure,” the latter was saying, “I’m after helping ye turn the trick.
Begore, I hate the English, but niver a cint have I seen yit, and the
money will be welcome,” and there squeezed through the opening a
small, red-headed, freckled-face Irishman, wearing a detective’s star.
“I’ve saved ye from suspicion time and agin,” he grumbled, “and now I
come with the crowd to-day fer pay, and shure, I’ll be after gettin’ of
it.”
The Japanese had been carefully covering the tank, and now he turned
softly toward the safe. The combination came quickly and deftly to
his fingers, and O’Hara could hear the safe swing back. Then from the
comments and remarks of the Irishman, he judged that the latter was
being given a portion of his ill-gotten gain.
“All right,” he now said in a pronounced brogue to the quiet servant,
who as yet had spoken no word; “I’ll be after hurryin’.” He then
added: “Raise the door quick; sure and I can’t be missed.” Then as he
evidently tucked away his money in his pockets, he added a sentence
which made O’Hara’s breath come quick: “It’s a hen party we be after
havin’; there’s two gurrls joined the chase and a lad along with ’em.
It’s shrewd and wide-awake they be, I’m tellin’ ye!”
While he was speaking, the Jap crowded quietly to the trap door of the
tank and cautiously glanced around. “All right,” he whispered, and the
Irishman extinguished his light and followed him.
Quick as a flash O’Hara crawled around the safe and reaching in the
open door took out a package from the lower shelf. Instantly he was
back, and then the Japanese returned. He closed the door of the safe
and leisurely turned and secured the lock. Then quietly as ever he
slipped up the secret entrance.
When he was positive the man had gone, O’Hara sat for a moment almost
stunned by the hope that Mary Louise and Danny had come again to save
him. Then he lit his lamp and flashed it upon the package in his hand.
It was just such a package as he had hoped to attain. Sheet after sheet
of documents relating to the Mexican lands and oil wells, one or two
translated into code. With great care he placed them, equally divided,
in the two inside pockets of his coat. Then again he settled down to
wait and to plan his escape. For now O’Hara realized clearly that even
if he were arrested, he must hand these papers to the government he
loved.