Walter and Paul stood close beside Jack Kimball, as he turned over the
package which had dropped from the automobile--Cora's automobile, to be
exact.
"What is it?" asked Walter.
"Just what I'm going to find out," answered Jack. "Feels like a package
of money, if I'm any judge."
"Whew!" whistled Paul. "Counterfeiters, do you think?"
"I'm not so rash as to do any thinking after the queer things that have
been happening," retorted Jack. "I'm going to make sure before I do any
guessing. Here goes!"
He cut the string of the packet. It was well wrapped in stout brown
paper, and when Jack, sitting down on a wayside stone and resting the
bundle on his knees, had folded back the covering, there was revealed to
the boys bundles of tickets tied in little packets.
"What in the world is this?" asked Paul, picking up one of the little
packages. "Tickets?"
"Railroad and theatrical," added Walter, as he examined some more
closely. "Say, this is a queer find!"
Jack whistled shrilly and then cried out:
"It fits in! It all fits in!"
"What does he mean?" asked Paul.
"I don't know," Walter answered. "Tell us, Jack. Can you see through the
puzzle?"
"Part of it. Don't you see? These tickets--some railroad and the others
for theatres and opera houses--they're counterfeit--bogus--no good! They're
just like those that girl in the Spinning Wheel tea room bought. Don't
you remember, she purchased two of a couple of young fellows. It was
thought at the time they might have been the ones who went off with
Cora's auto. Now we reverse the process. We find the bundle of tickets
that dropped out of Cora's car, and we see two men running away in it.
They're the same ones, or in the same gang, I haven't a doubt. It's up
to us to get after them."
"You seem to have struck it," commented Walter. "Do you mean these men
have gone into the business of counterfeiting tickets on as big a scale
as this?"
"I'm thinking that," Jack answered. "You see it wouldn't pay to print a
few tickets. They'd have to make a whole lot of them, and in the case of
theatrical coupons, sell them quickly, for the fraud would soon be
discovered. Railroad tickets might take a little longer to prove
invalid, for they would have to go to the head offices, and there the
railroad men could tell by the consecutive numbers that there was
duplication somewhere. And the tickets would have to be pretty well
distributed--only a few in each city."
"That's what they wanted of Cora's auto," suggested Paul. "They wanted
to cover a big area."
"Yes," Jack went on. "And they probably have accomplices in many places.
Once the tickets were printed, they had to distribute them over a wide
territory. Boys, I think we've discovered a daring band of
ticket-counterfeiters."
"But where do they do their work--their printing?" asked Walter.
"Why not in the cave?" asked Jack. "It would be the most natural place
around here."
"What's the matter with looking in that shack where the auto came from?"
asked Paul, nodding back toward the field against a hill in which the
shed was built.
"I was going to suggest that," Jack went on. "Perhaps that is another
entrance to the same cave Cora found. Come on, we'll have a look,
anyhow. We've got this for evidence, in any case," and he held up the
bundle of tickets.
"Are you sure they are bogus?" asked Paul.
"Well, not positive, of course," Jack said. "But you'd hardly find so
many kinds of railroad and theatrical tickets, the latter for a number
of different cities, all in one bundle unless something were wrong. I
put these fellows down as counterfeiters of tickets, and you'll see I'm
right."
"Well, we'll take a chance," decided Walter. "Now what are we going to
do about getting Cora's car back?"
"We can't do much right away," said Jack. "But those fellows will come
back, I'm sure. Let's explore a bit in that shack, and then we'll go and
rip out that door in the secret passage."
The doors of the shack which stood against the hill in the big field
were fastened with a cheap padlock, and Jack, after a moment of
hesitation, smashed it with a stone.
"Come on in, boys!" he called, swinging back the doors.
"It's as dark as pitch," complained Walter. "Did any of you bring your
flash lamps?"
"Left 'em at the bungalow," Paul answered. "I have some matches though."
By the glimmer of one he struck, the boys saw that the shack was a sort
of vestibule to a cave, for a big hole extended under the side of the
hill.
"Jack was right!" Walter exclaimed. "This is a cavern, and it looks to
be a good-sized one. I wish we had a light."
"Here's a lantern," said Paul, who had lighted another match. "We'll
explore a bit."
By the greater light of the lantern, which was found near the doors, the
boys saw that the cave was indeed a large one, extending well back under
the hill. They went in cautiously at first, not knowing what they might
find, or what hidden pitfalls might lie in their path.
"Look!" exclaimed Jack, pointing to several boxes lying about. "They
must have been doing, or else are getting ready to do, lots of business.
Those boxes contain paper and cardboard by the looks and marks on them.
And now----"
"Hark!" exclaimed Paul in a whisper. They all listened. From somewhere
far back in the cave came a dull, rumbling, vibrating noise, and the
ground faintly trembled.
"There it is again!" said Walter--"that strange noise. Now we'll find out
what it is. Come on."
He started forward, the others following, Paul in the rear with the
lantern, for it had a reflector on and gave better light when carried
behind the boys.
"Wait a minute!" cautioned Jack. "I don't seem to hear that noise now.
It's stopped."
"So it has," concurred Paul.
They listened intently, then Jack said:
"I hear another sound, though. It's behind us, toward the mouth of the
cave. Boys, it's those fellows coming back. Out with that light, Paul.
We'll hide in here and surprise them. Quick! Down behind some of these
boxes!"
Paul extinguished the lantern, and he and his companions sought places
of concealment. They could now plainly hear footsteps approaching, while
they also distinguished the murmur of excited voices.
Meanwhile, another part of the strange mystery was being enacted with
the girls as principal characters. They had entered farther into the
secret passage, beyond the queer swinging door which had closed after
them.
"We're caught!" cried Belle. "Oh, Cora!"
"Perhaps not," said Jack's sister. "If that door opened once for us it
will do it again. But don't go back. Come on. We must see what is ahead
of us. The boys will laugh if they hear we turned back when we had such
a good opportunity."
"Well, they shan't laugh at _me_!" declared Hazel. "I'm with you, Cora."
"And you may be sure we're not going to be left alone," cried Bess.
"Come on, Belle!"
The latter hesitated a moment, looked back at the closed door, and then
went forward. Their lamps made the place fairly light, and they could
see that the passage was planked here as it had been nearer the
bungalow.
They had gone on perhaps fifty paces more and were wondering when the
queer tunnel would come to an end, when Cora, who was walking in advance
with Hazel, put her hand on her companion's arm, and cried:
"Do you hear it?"
"Hear what?"
"That strange, rumbling, trembling noise. Don't you _feel_ it?"
"Yes! Yes!" cried Belle. "Oh, what is it?"
There was no doubt of the noise. It seemed to fill the whole passage
with a dull, rumbling roar, and the ground vibrated and trembled.
"Come on!" cried Cora, resolutely. "It's just ahead of us. We will solve
the mystery now!"
Willing or unwilling, Belle, Bess and Hazel followed their leader. With
their electric lights showing the way the girls pressed forward.
Suddenly the passage turned, and, making that turn, the girls came upon
a strange sight.
Before them was an open door, which gave entrance to a large cave with
rocky sides and roof. Vaulted and large the cave was, and from long
wires fastened somewhere in the roof hung a number of incandescent
lights. In the cave the girls saw several queer machines, and Cora, at
least, recognized more than one of them as printing presses. A gasoline
engine was throbbing away in one corner, and it was this, Cora decided,
which made the rumbling, the throbbing and trembling vibrations.
Hardly realizing what they were doing, the girls walked forward, and,
passing through the open door, entered the cave which widened out at the
end of the secret passage.
"What--what does it all mean?" asked Bess.
Low as her voice was it seemed to awaken strange echoes in the vaulted
cave. And at the sound of it something stirred in one corner. From a
pile of boxes something arose--a something that resolved itself into an
old man with white hair and a long, white beard. He peered from beneath
his bushy white eyebrows, with piercing eyes at the startled girls, and
from his throat came a guttural cry.
"Ah, ha! Police spies--four of 'em!" he snarled. "I thought we'd be found
out!"
With surprising quickness in one seemingly so aged the man slipped
behind the girls. They turned, fearing an attack, but they need have had
no alarm on that score. With a quick motion the old man closed and
locked the door through which they had come.
"Now you're here--you'll stay!" he rasped out. "On guard here, Bombee!
Hist! Watch 'em!"
And, as he called, a raw-boned, half-witted boy shuffled forward, and
squatted, with a horrible grin, in front of the terrified girl
prisoners.