THE CAVE-IN
Next day, refreshed by their night's sleep, the Hardy boys set out on a
systematic search for the hidden gold.
"There won't be much real detective work about this case," their
father told them. "It will be just a plain case of plugging along
and searching high and low for that gold. It is hidden somewhere, or
the gang wouldn't be staying around. Hunt in all the abandoned mine
diggings, in any place where it might possibly be hidden. You may
follow that line or you may try to find where the outlaws are camping
and possibly pick up some clues there."
With this to go on, Frank and Joe Hardy left the cabin in the morning.
They decided to explore some of the abandoned diggings first.
"It's like hunting for a needle in a haystack," said Frank; "but we
might have a bit of luck and stumble on the gold."
They did not go down into the town because they knew that their
presence in the camp would cause considerable talk and, although they
had little doubt but that news of their arrival had reached the outlaws
by now, they preferred to remain under cover as much as possible.
Hank Shale had suggested searching the workings of an old mine just
over the brow of the hill, and toward this place they went. There was a
faint trail through the rocks, although it had long since been snowed
over, but the boys managed to find the workings without difficulty.
They felt the exhilaration of the clear, cold air and the excitement of
at last being at work on the mystery of the hidden gold.
The abandoned mine did not look very much like a mine. It was just
a large pocket in the earth, with a shaft that sank down into the
darkness. The shaft was but a few yards across and a rickety ladder led
down into the hard rock.
"We may as well try this one for a start," suggested Frank. "We can
easily tell if any one has been around recently."
They had brought electric flashlights with them, and without further
ado Frank began to descend the ladder. Joe followed. Their descent into
the abandoned mine was precarious, as at various places the rungs of
the ladder were broken, but after descending about forty feet they
came to the first and only level. The mine had evidently been a failure.
In the light of the flashlights they saw that they were in a rocky
cavern about two hundred feet in length. Not a great deal of work had
been done in the mine and it had evidently been abandoned years before.
The boys found the cavern extremely cold and damp and they made haste
to explore it.
When they had almost completed the circuit of the place, hunting
carefully for any sign of recent removal of rock, for any place where
the stolen gold might possibly have been hidden, they were of the
unanimous opinion that no one had been in the place since it was
originally deserted. There was not the vestige of a hiding place. The
abandoned working was but one of many in that locality, one lucky
strike in the neighborhood having sent other miners into a frenzy of
excavation on their respective claims. It had been worked for a short
time and then left to its fate.
"I don't think there's anything here," said Joe.
"I'm sure of it. Oh, well, we couldn't expect to find the gold right
off the bat. There are lots of other mines to search yet, and most of
them plenty deeper than this."
"Think we should go back?"
"Just a minute. There seems to be a passage here."
Frank's light had revealed a narrow opening at the extreme end of the
cavern. He bent down and examined it more carefully.
"This seems to lead somewhere," he said. "I think I'll follow it." He
crouched down and made his way on hands and knees into the passage. Joe
waited until he had disappeared and then called after him.
"I'll wait here."
"If it leads anywhere I'll call you."
Joe could hear his brother scrambling along through the little corridor
in the rocks. After a while the sounds died away. It was dark and
lonely in the cavern in which he stood. He waited for Frank's summons
to follow.
After five minutes there was still not a sound from the opening into
which his brother had disappeared. Joe began to get anxious. He knelt
down and flashed his light into the interior of the passage. There was
no sign of Frank.
"I wonder if anything has happened to him," he muttered.
When another five minutes passed and there was still no sign of his
brother, Joe decided to invade the passage himself. Anything might have
happened. Frank might have been overcome by poisonous gases in the
depth of the mine. He might have tumbled down some unseen pit and hurt
himself. Flashing the light ahead of him, Joe crawled into the narrow
corridor in the face of the rock.
For several yards the passage extended directly ahead; then there was
a turning. Examining the corridor, Joe saw that it was not a natural
opening in the rock, but had been constructed by human hands, for the
marks of pick and shovel were plainly visible. It had been blasted out
of the rock, and for a short distance the dimensions of the passage
were of good size, but gradually they narrowed.
He had just gone past the turn in the tunnel when he heard a faint
shout.
"Joe! Joe!"
It seemed to come from a long distance, and there was a note of appeal
in it that told the boy his brother was in danger.
Scrambling on through the tunnel that seemed to open before him in the
vivid circle of light, he made his way toward Frank. He heard the cry
again, and this time it was louder. He shouted back:
"I'm coming. What's the matter?"
"I'm trapped here. My foot is caught."
On through the gloomy tunnel Joe went.
At last the light revealed the form of his brother some distance ahead.
Frank was lying flat on the rocky floor of the passage, with his foot
caught in a crevice between two heavy boulders. He had tried to climb
over them, and one rock had evidently become dislodged, pinning his
foot against the other.
"Are you hurt?" asked Joe anxiously, as he reached Frank's side.
"No. I'm all right. But I can't move my foot."
Joe put down the flashlight so that its glare clearly illuminated the
scene. Then he went over to the boulder and exerted all his strength to
move it. But the boulder was heavy. Had it struck Frank's foot directly
it would have shattered it to a pulp. Fortunately, it had merely slid
into position above the other rock, pressing against the boy's ankle
and imprisoning his foot in the crevice between.
Frank was unable to lend his brother any assistance. He was lying face
downward and was unable to rise to a sitting position.
"It's--mighty--heavy!" panted Joe, as he strove to move the heavy
boulder. It refused to budge.
"Rest a bit and then try it again."
Joe sat down, breathing heavily.
"How did it happen?" he asked.
"I was crawling along through the tunnel when I saw this pile of
boulders ahead. At first I was going to turn back, but I thought that
when I had come this far it was foolish to turn around, so I started
to climb over the boulders. Just as I was almost over, that big boulder
slid down against the other one--and there I was. Lucky I didn't break
my leg."
"I'm afraid to move that boulder the wrong way, or it might roll over
onto you. There's only one way to move it safely and that is to lift it
straight up, just enough to release your foot. But I'm afraid I'm not
strong enough."
"Try it again, anyway."
Again Joe applied himself to the heavy rock. Although he strained and
gasped in his efforts to move it, the boulder defied his efforts and
he was unable to budge it an inch. He made attempt after attempt, but
it soon became evident that the effort was beyond his strength, and at
last he was forced to sink back, exhausted, against the wall. He mopped
his brow.
"Too heavy!" he declared, out of breath.
Frank was silent.
"If we only had a crowbar of some kind!" he suggested at last. "It
wouldn't be hard to move it then."
Joe looked up.
"Why, I saw a crowbar back in the mine!" he exclaimed. "It will be the
very thing."
"Go back and get it. You'll be able to move the boulder away without
any trouble. Then we'll clear out of here."
Joe picked up his flashlight and turned to retrace his steps into the
main working of the mine.
"I'll only be a few minutes," he promised.
"Don't worry about me. I won't go away," said Frank, with a laugh. He
could be cheerful even in the dangerous position in which he found
himself.
Back down the narrow tunnel crawled Joe, back toward the cavern into
which they had first descended. He remembered having seen a long iron
bar lying at the foot of the shaft and he realized that it would be an
ideal lever for moving away the boulder that imprisoned his brother. He
made haste, not wishing to leave his brother too long imprisoned, and
in a few minutes he was back in the great cave.
At first he could not find the iron bar, and he hunted about, flashing
the light here and there into dark corners. At last he found it, near
the foot of the shaft. It was quite heavy and one end of it lay beneath
a heap of rocks.
Joe tugged at the iron bar.
At first it resisted his efforts. He put all his strength into the
attempt and the bar slowly moved. A final tug and it came free so
suddenly that he staggered backward.
It was this circumstance that saved his life.
For, in extricating the bar, he had dislodged the mass of rocks. With
a rush and a roar they came tumbling down across the bottom of the
shaft. Had Joe been standing beneath he would have been crushed to
death.
Then, before the clattering had died away, came a sullen, hollow roar
from higher up in the shaft. Timbers snapped and crackled. The old
boards, long since rotting away, suddenly gave beneath the pressure of
rocks and earth. An avalanche of stones descended into the shaft on top
of the first downfall of rock. More followed, showers of earth came
rushing down and a cloud of dust pervaded the cavern.
Joe leaped back.
Then, with a roar like thunder, the entire shaft caved in. Rocks and
timbers came tumbling down with a terrific crash. The air was filled
with the noise of smashing timbers and falling rock. The faint light
from the shaft that had given some vague illumination to the cave, was
blotted out. The mine reverberated with echoes and shook with the force
of the crash.
Silence reigned. It was broken by the sharp sounds of falling pebbles
that descended in the wake of the avalanche. Then those noises too died
away. The cavern was filled with a choking cloud of dust.
Joe was almost stupefied by horror. He realized to the full the peril
of the situation.
"The shaft has caved in," he thought. "We're trapped in the mine!
We'll never get out alive!"
He turned his flashlight on the place where the shaft had been. The
light revealed only a high, sloping hill of rocks and shattered
timbers. The shaft was completely blocked. It would take an army of men
to clear away the d├ębris.
Joe realized that he and Frank would never be able to accomplish the
task. And he knew there was no hope of assistance from outside, for no
one knew where they were. It might be days before they were traced to
the mine.