A KNOCK AT THE DOOR
When Will and George came to the back of the weigh-house they heard
some one moving about at the front.
"That's probably the caretaker, taking his last look for the night,"
suggested Will. "He pokes around all the outbuildings every night
before he goes to bed. At least, he is supposed to."
"But this fellow hasn't got any lantern," urged George.
"The plot deepens!" chuckled Will.
"Can you crawl around there and see who it is," asked George, "or
shall I go? It may be a thief, or it may be Ventner, or it may be
this boy we're looking for. Anyway, we want to know who it is!"
"I'll go!" Will suggested, "and don't you make any racket if you hear
something doing there. The one thing to do at this time is to keep
our presence here a profound secret."
Will moved cautiously around the angle of the weigh-house just in time
to see a figure leaving the side of the building and moving toward the
breaker. There was a little side door in the breaker not far from the
weigh-house, and it was toward this that the prowler was making his
way.
Half way to the little house the fellow stumbled over some obstruction
in his path and fell sprawling to the ground. He arose with an
impatient oath and moved on again, but not before the watcher had
recognized both the figure and the voice. Will, turned back to where
George stood. "That's Ventner," he said.
"Are you sure?"
"Dead sure!" There was a short silence. "What can we do now?"
"I don't know of anything we can do, unless it is to watch the rascal
and see where he goes," answered the other. "The chances are that
he's trying to get into the mine!"
"That shows the fellow is a crook!" Will contended. "He has full
permission to enter the mine at any time he sees fit."
"Of course, he's a crook!" agreed George. "What would he be sneaking
around here in the night for, if he wasn't engaged in some underhand
game? You just wait until we get into the mine," the boy continued,
"and we'll give him a ghost scare that'll hold him for a while."
As Ventner approached the little side door leading into the breaker, a
light flashed in the window of the room which the boys had occupied,
and directly Canfield's voice was heard asking:
"Who's there?"
"Now if he's on the square, he'll answer!" whispered Will.
There was no reply whatever, and in a moment the caretaker called
again, this time rather peremptorily:
"What are you prowling about the yard for?"
The detective dropped to his knees and began crawling away.
"If I see you around here again," the caretaker shouted in a braver
tone now that the intruder was taking his departure, "I'll do some
shooting!"
Evidently giving over the attempt to enter the mine at that time, the
detective arose to his feet as soon as he gained the shelter of the
weigh-house, and walked away, passing as he did so, within a few feet
of where the boys were standing.
"That settles that bum detective, so far as we are concerned!" Will
said to his chum, in a whisper. "We knew before that he was playing a
rotten game on us, but we didn't know that, his plans included such
surreptitious visits to the mine."
After making sure that the detective was not within sight or sound,
Will and George tapped softly at the little door and were admitted by
the caretaker. Five minutes later they were joined by Tommy and
Sandy.
"Were you boys out there a few moments ago?" asked Canfield.
"Nix!" replied George. "That was Ventner. We saw him from the
weigh-house. He was trying to sneak his way into the mine!"
"But he has full permission to enter at any time he sees fit!" urged
the caretaker. "It doesn't seem as if he would attempt to steal his
way in during the night. You must be mistaken!"
"Yes, and perhaps we were mistaken about the sawing of the ladder,
too!" Tommy broke in.
"Yes, we may all be mistaken about that."
"Not so you could notice it!" declared Sandy.
"If you look at the thief's coat, you'll see that he didn't do all the
sawing on the rungs of the ladder. We've got him too dead to skin!"
Without any lights being shown on the surface, the boys were conducted
down the ladder to the first level. There they found a room very
cozily furnished, indeed. A lounge from the office, a couple of good
sized cupboards, and a large table had been brought down, together
with a serviceable rug and numerous chairs, and the apartment presented
an unexpectedly homelike appearance.
The current was on, and two electric lamps made the room as light as
day. The cooking was to be done over electric coils so that the
presence of the boys would not be disclosed by smoke. One of the
ventilating pipes which supplied the offices in the vicinity of the
shaft with fresh air passed through the room, so there was no lack of
ozone.
"Have we got plenty of eatings?" asked Tommy.
"Plenty!" was the reply. "I have arranged for fresh meat, milk and
vegetables to be brought in every evening."
"Talk about your bull-headed, obstinate men!" exclaimed Tommy, as the
caretaker finally took his departure. "That fellow takes the cake!
He knows very well that we caught Vintner in the act of sawing on the
ladder, and he knows, too, that we heard Wolf calls while we were in
the mine. Still he shakes his head and says that he don't know about
the boys being there, and don't know about that bum detective being
crooked. If you could get a saw and operate on his head, you'd find
it solid bone!"
"You'll feel better after you get supper!" Sandy declared.
"This isn't any grouch!" insisted Tommy. "This is the true story of
that man's life! If I had a dollar for every time he doesn't know
anything, I'd be the richest boy in the world!"
"Are you thinking of going down the mine tonight?" asked George, with
a wink at Will. "We might try another midnight excursion."
"If you kids go into the mine tonight," declared Will, "I'll send you
both back to Chicago on the first train!"
"Aw, how are you going to find these boys if you don't go into the
mine?" demanded Tommy. "I suppose you'll want us to wait till
daylight when the owners will be looking around to see if any damage
was done by the inundation. The best time is at night!"
"Look here," Will argued, "we've got to do more than lay hands on the
boys! We've got to find out why they are hiding in the mine."
"That's the correct word," agreed George. "Hiding is the word that
expresses the situation exactly!"
"There is no doubt," Will continued, "that the boys were sent here by
some one for some specific purpose. They are hiding in the mine with
a well-defined motive. I have an idea that we might be able to find
them in twenty-four hours, but what is more important, is to find out
what they are up to."
"Well, in order to get the whole story, we'll have to pretend that we
are looking for them and can't find them!" George said.
"That's right!" laughed Tommy. "Give them plenty of rope and they'll
hang themselves. We may as well have the whole story while we're at
it."
Before preparing their beds for the night, the boys paid a visit to
the shaft and made their way down to the rungs which had been cut.
They found that they had been replaced by new ones.
There was still water in the lower levels of the mine, but it was
slowly disappearing through the sump, and the indications were that it
would be dry by morning. The boys listened intently for some evidence
of occupancy as they moved up and down the shaft, but all was still.
"This would be a good place to tell a ghost story," Tommy chuckled as
they moved back to their room on the first level.
"There's about a million stories now, entitled "The Ghost of the
Mine!" declared Sandy. "Perhaps however," he went on, "one more
wouldn't hurt."
"If I see a ghost tonight," declared Tommy, "it'll be in my dreams!"
Sandy and Tommy were sound asleep on their cots as soon as supper was
over, and Will and George were getting ready to retire when the soft
patter of a light footstep sounded in the vicinity of the shaft.
"Rats must be thick in the mine!" suggested George.
"Rats nothing!" declared Will. "Those two youngsters are prowling
about in order to see what we are up to!"
As he spoke the boy arose, turned off the electric light and stepped
out into the passage.