The capture of the two men took place in a cleared spot in the yard
around the Corner House, a place well illuminated by the brilliant
moonlight. So every move of the suspects was plain to be seen.
Neale gave a gasp as he saw Agnes emerging from the door under the
porch. Hearing the commotion in the cellar when the pursuit of the two
intruders had begun, she had dashed down the stairs and followed as
quickly as possible in their wake.
From the house now came Ruth and Nalbro, with Mrs. MacCall and Linda.
Ruth caught sight of the man who had first fallen. He was just then
starting to rise.
“Oh, Luke!” she cried, “don’t shoot him. Please don’t!”
“I won’t,” answered the boy. “It won’t be necessary.”
“Do you surrender?” demanded Neale, swinging his club suggestively.
“I reckon we’ll have to,” growled one of the men sullenly. “I stumbled,”
he went on, as he arose. “But——”
“But if you think you’re going to pull off anything because the young
lady says not to shoot, get that idea out of your head!” cried Neale
menacingly, as he advanced with his substantial club.
“Oh, we know when we’re beaten,” growled the other man. “We weren’t
doing anything, anyhow.”
“No? Not even trespassing in the cellar?” asked Luke, with sarcasm.
“Oh, well, if we’d found anything we’d have given you folks a share,”
said the second man, who was now on his feet again.
“I suppose we can believe that or not, as we see fit,” remarked Luke.
Now the question arose of what to do with the two captured men. Captured
they were, since they must see the futility of trying to escape from
double their number of males, to say nothing of Mrs. MacCall and Linda,
who, in actual strength, were the equal of the tramps.
“You fellows may as well consider yourselves under arrest,” said Luke.
“You can take it quietly, or you can make a fuss if you please. I’d
advise you to take it quietly and come with us.”
“I hope they tell us where the iron box of gold is hidden!” exclaimed
Agnes, and they all noticed that the men started in surprise.
“Do you know about it?” asked the one afterward identified as Max
Rother.
“We certainly do!” declared Ruth. “Hop Wong has given us all the
particulars.”
“That Chink!” growled Simon Meggs. “I always was suspicious of him.”
“Settle one thing first,” suggested Luke. “Are you coming with us
quietly or shall we use force?”
“Oh, we’ll come along,” snapped out Rother. “But where are you taking
us? We haven’t done anything to be arrested for—except maybe sneak in,
trespass as you call it. You can’t do much to us for that. We haven’t
taken a thing.”
“Maybe we won’t send for the police after all,” said Ruth. “It all
depends on what you tell us. As you say, you haven’t done anything yet.”
“Except frighten us all a bit, and bang Luke Shepard over the head,” put
in Agnes. “And if you are willing to tell us where the box of gold is,
maybe we’ll let you go, provided you promise not to come back.”
“I guess we’ll have to do as you say. There’s no help for it,” grumbled
Meggs. “But I don’t believe you’ll find the money. We couldn’t, and
we’ve had several trials after it.”
“In the first place—is there any money?” asked Ruth.
“We think there is, lady,” answered Rother.
“Whose money is it?” demanded Luke. “Suppose you tell us about it.
Everything you do to save us work will count in your favor.”
“Well, it was going to be our money if we found it,” said Rother. “But
at the start it belonged to Collis Ingleton.”
“The heavy drinker?” asked Luke at a venture.
“How’d you know that?” asked Meggs with a perceptible start.
“Never mind how. Was he a drinker?”
“He was a soak, if that’s what you mean, asking the ladies’ pardon for
giving it a plain name,” said Rother. “And when he couldn’t get what he
wanted elsewhere we supplied him. He said we would be rewarded by
finding the box of gold in this cellar and we’ve been trying for it ever
since.”
“Then the money didn’t belong to Mr. Stower?” asked Ruth.
“Maybe some of it did. He and this Ingleton were in business together
once on a time,” Meggs answered. “But Ingleton said it was all his, and
Mr. Stower took it from him to save it and buried it.”
“But Ingleton said we could have it if we found it. That was to pay for
keeping him in liquor,” said Rother. “Oh, I know it’s a terrible bad
thing,” he admitted, as he saw the look of loathing on the faces of the
girls. “We’re bad men—not as bad as some, maybe, but bad enough. This
man suffered a lot. And he couldn’t stop. He just had to have liquor.”
“We got into it against our will, and we made up our minds to quit and
live straight after we got this money,” added Meggs.
“Do you think there is any chance of getting it?” asked Agnes.
“We did at one time,” Rother replied. “But I’m not so sure now. We
looked around and dug whenever we could without letting you folks know
about it. But the white star doesn’t seem to give the location as we
thought it would.”
“The white star!” cried Ruth. “Is there a white star in the cellar? We
couldn’t find it.”
“Where did you look?” asked Rother.
“All around the walls.”
“You should have looked overhead—on the beams. It’s there all right,”
said the man, with a grin. “Stars are always overhead, lady.”
“That’s so! We never thought of that!” cried Agnes. “Of course a star
would be as high up as it could be placed!”
“Do you mean, to say you have located the star in the cellar? The star
that Hop Wong said indicated the location of the iron box of gold?”
asked Neale.
“Reckon Hop Wong told all he knew,” murmured Meggs. “Yes, we have
located the star.”
“Come and show us,” ordered Luke. “And no tricks, mind!”
“Oh, we’re past tricks,” said Rother humbly enough. “We’ll play into
your hands now. Only, if you do locate any money—well, maybe you’ll give
us enough to get a fresh start.”
“We’ll see,” Ruth replied guardedly.
The boys carefully guarded the men, surrounding them as they all went
back to the cellar.
“We never knew that other door was there!” exclaimed Ruth, when they saw
how the men had entered and left the cellar.
“That’s one of the things Uncle Peter kept to himself,” said Agnes.
“There seems to have been a number of them.”
The lights were turned on in the cellar, and then, followed by the
Corner House girls and their friends, the men led the way to the corner
where they had been digging when surprised by Luke and Hal.
“There’s the white star,” remarked Rother, pointing to a beam overhead.
And there, showing faintly in the half darkness, was a white star
painted on one of the beams. Just beneath it was the beginning of an
excavation in the cellar bottom.