Anxiously Fenn waited. Every minute seemed an hour as he sat there in the darkness, now and then kneeling down to peer under the door, to see if the men had gone. But, every time, he saw them at their queer operations, or taking something from the walls of the cave.
He fell into a doze, to be awakened by the entrance of some one into his apartment.
“Where’s the light?” asked a voice Fenn recognized as belonging to the man who had carried him in.
“It fell and broke,” he answered.
“Humph! Well, I’ll bring another. The boss didn’t give no orders to leave you in the dark. Here’s some grub. It’s supper time.”
“What day is it?” asked Fenn.
“Thursday. Why?”
The boy did not answer. He knew, however, that he had been in the cave a much shorter time than he supposed. It was the evening of the same day he had started to follow the smugglers. Now he appeared to have lost track of them, but he was in the power of a gang as bad, if not worse.
The man brought another lantern, and also some water. The food was coarse, but Fenn ate it with a good deal of relish.
“Guess you’ll have to sleep on the table,” the man went on, as he threw some blankets down. “There’s no bed in this hotel,” and he laughed.
But Fenn was too busy thinking of his plan to escape, to care about a bed. He hoped, now that it was night, the men would stop working. And, in this, he was not disappointed. Some one called a signal through the cavern, and the men, dropping their tools, and taking their torches with them, filedout of sight of the boy, watching from beneath the door.
He wanted to begin his digging at once, but concluded it would be safer to postpone it a while. He was sure it must have been several hours that he waited there in the silence. Then, taking an observation, and finding the outer cavern to be in blackness, he commenced to burrow under the door, like a dog after a hidden rabbit.
The big blade of his knife easily cut into the soft clay, and, working hard for some time, he had quite an opening beneath the portal. He tried to squeeze through, but found he was a bit too big for it.
“A little more and I can slip out,” he whispered to himself.
Faster and faster he plied the knife, loosening the earth, and throwing it back with his hands. Once more he tried and, though it was a tight squeeze, he managed to wiggle out.
“Now!” he mused. “If I don’t run into anybody I can get to the foot of the shaft, and go up that ladder. Guess I’ll take the light.”
He reached back under the door, and got hold of the lantern, which he had placed near the hole, slipping it under his coat so that the gleams would not betray him. Then, remembering, as best hecould which way the man had carried him, he stole softly along, on the alert for any of the miners.
He had not gone more than a dozen feet, and had just turned a corner, which showed him a straight, long tunnel, that, he believed, led to the foot of the shaft, when, to his consternation, he heard a noise. At the same time a voice called:
“Hey! Where you goin’?”
Fenn resolved to chance all to boldness. Taking the lantern from under his coat, that he might see to run through the cave, he sprang forward, toward what he believed was the shaft down which he had come on the tree-trunk ladder.
“Stop! Stop!” called someone behind him, but Fenn kept on.
Fenn’s fear, and his fierce desire to escape from the cave, lent him speed. Forward he went, faster than he had ever run before. Suddenly there loomed up before him a dim, hazy light, but it was the illumination from the sun, and not from an artificial source.
“It must be morning!” the boy thought. “I worked at that hole all night. But how is it that the sun shines down the shaft? I didn’t believe it could. There’s something strange here!”
All these thoughts flashed through his mind while he ran on, intent on distancing his pursuer, who was close behind him. Fenn could hear the man’s footsteps. Once more the fellow shouted:
“Hey! Stop! You don’t know where you’re goin’!”
“I don’t, eh?” thought Fenn. “Well, I guess I do. I’m going to get away from you, that’s where I’m going.”
The dim light became plainer now. Fenn couldsee that it came through an opening in the cave; an opening that was close to the ground. Clearly then, this could not be the shaft down which he had come. He was puzzled, but he kept on.
He threw away the lantern, for he did not need it any longer to see where to go. Several other voices joined in the shouts of alarm, and in urging Fenn to stop. He did not answer but kept on.
“If I can once get outside they’ll not dare to carry me back,” the lad reasoned. “It’s only a little farther now.”
He was panting from the run, for the exertion, following his illness, and the experience he had gone through, was too much for him. He felt that he could go no farther. Yet he knew if he halted now the men would get him, and he feared for the consequences that might follow his attempt to escape.
“Oh, if only some of the boys were here!” was his almost despairing thought. “If ever I needed help I do now!”
The light was so good now that Fenn could distinguish the sides of the cave. He saw that he was running along a straight tunnel, quite high and wide, but which narrowed, like a funnel, as it approached the opening toward which he was speeding.
“I wonder if there’s room for me to get out?” he thought. “And I wonder where I’ll be when I get out?”
“Hold on! Hold on!” yelled the man back of Fenn. “You’ll get hurt if you go any farther!”
“And I’ll get hurt if I go back,” whispered Fenn, pantingly.
“Stop! Stop!” cried another voice which the lad recognized as Dirkfell’s. “Come back! I’ll not harm you!”
“He’s too late with that promise,” Fenn thought.
A few seconds later he was at the opening of the cave. He fairly sprang through it, finding it large enough to give him passage standing upright. He leaped out, so glad was he to leave behind the terrors of the dark cave, and the mysterious men, who seemed so anxious to keep him a prisoner.
“Free!” Fenn almost shouted as he passed the edge of the opening. He was about to give an exultant cry, but it was choked on his lips.
For the opening was on the sheer edge of a cliff, without the semblance of a foothold beyond it, and below it there sparkled the blue waters of Lake Superior!
Fenn felt himself falling. He was launchedthrough the air by his leap for liberty, and, a moment later, the lake had closed over his head!
Meanwhile Mr. Hayward, followed by his daughter, Frank, Bart and Ned was hurrying along, bent on discovering and rescuing Fenn. True, they did not know where he was, but Mr. Hayward had a clue he wished to follow. As he hastened along, he told the boys what it was.
“My daughter and I have been sort of living in the woods for the past week,” he said. “We have taken auto trips as far as the machine would go, and then have tramped the rest of the way. I want to see how my land is. It is some property I bought a good while ago, and which I never thought amounted to much. But I have a chance to sell it now, and I may dispose of it.
“I was looking along the lake shore, the other day, for some of my land extends out there,—and I saw a boat, containing some Chinese and a white man. It was being rowed up and down the shore, and I thought, at the time, the men acted rather suspiciously. They seemed to be waiting for something to happen. I was too busy to pay much attention to them, but I believe now that they were part of that smugglers’ band you speak of.”
“Why didn’t you tell the police, father?”asked Ruth. “To think of poor Fenn being captured by them.”
“We are not sure he is captured by them, Ruth,” said Mr. Hayward. “At any rate I’m going to the point on shore near where I saw the boat. It may be there is a tunnel running from that place on the hill, where Fenn disappeared, right down to the lake. In that case we may find some trace of him there. This region used to be worked by some ancient race, I understand, who dug deep into the earth after certain minerals and ores. There are several tunnels, shafts and queer passages through the hills and along shore, I have heard; shafts that used to give access to the mines. They have long been abandoned, but it is just possible that the smugglers may have discovered and utilized them.”
“Maybe they’re hiding in a cave, somewhere, now,” suggested Ned, “and perhaps they have Fenn a prisoner.”
“Oh dear! Isn’t it dreadful!” exclaimed Ruth, with a shudder. The other boys could not help wishing she was as anxious about them as she was over Fenn. It made up, in a great measure, for all he was likely to suffer, Bart thought. He looked closely at Ruth. She seemed strangely excited,as though she feared some nameless terror.
“This way!” called Mr. Hayward, leading the little party of rescuers through a short cut, and down a sloping bank to the shore of the lake. “Here we are. Now the boat, when I saw it, was right opposite that little point of land,” and he motioned to indicate where he meant.
At that instant Bart saw something black bobbing about on the surface of the lake.
“What’s that?” he cried, pointing to it.
“A boat!” exclaimed Ruth. “There is the boat now, daddy!”
“It’s too small for a boat,” replied Mr. Hayward. “It’s a man! It’s some one in the lake!” he added excitedly. “And he’s about done for, too! I’ll swim out and get him!”
Before any of the boys could offer, or indeed make any move, to go to the rescue, Mr. Hayward had thrown off the heaviest of his clothing and plunged in. With powerful strokes he made for the black object, which, as the others could see, was a person making feeble efforts to swim ashore.
With anxious eyes the three chums and Ruth watched the rescue. They saw Mr. Hayward reach the bobbing head, saw him place an armabout the exhausted swimmer, and then strike out for shore.
A few minutes later the man was able to wade. In his arms he carried an almost inert bundle.
“I got him, boys!” he called.
“Who?” asked Ruth.
“Fenn Masterson! I was just in the nick of time. He was going down for the final plunge,” and with that he laid the nearly-unconscious form of Fenn down on the sandy shore.
“Quick! We must hurry him to a doctor!” exclaimed Ruth, as she bent down over Fenn. “Will he die, daddy?”
“I think not. He’ll be all right in a little while. But we’ll take him to our house. Lucky the auto is not far away.”
“I’m—I’m all right,” gasped Fenn, faintly. “I was just tired out, that’s all. I didn’t swallow any water. There—there seemed to be some sort of a current setting against the shore, and—I couldn’t make any headway.”
He sat up, looking rather woe-begone, soaking wet as he was, and with some of the red clay still clinging to his clothes. Mr. Hayward was hastily donning his outer garments over his wet things.
“I’ll have the auto around in a jiffy!” he exclaimed. “Lucky it’s summer, and you’ll not take cold. Just rest yourself, Fenn, until I come back, and we’ll have you all right again.”
“But how in the world did you ever get intothe lake?” asked Ruth, as her father hurried away.
“I jumped in.”
“Jumped in!” repeated Bart. “How was that?”
“Now we mustn’t ask him too many questions,” interrupted Ruth. “He’s not able to answer.”
“Oh yes I am,” replied the lad who had been through rather strenuous times in the last few hours. Thereupon he briefly related what had happened since his chums left him to go hunting, ending up with his unexpected plunge into the lake. In turn Bart told how they had searched for him, and how, having met Mr. Hayward and his daughter, the hunt was brought to such a timely ending.
“But what were those men taking out of the cave?” asked Frank, when Ruth had gone down the shore, along which a road ran, to see if her father was returning.
“That’s what we’ve got to discover,” answered Fenn. “I think there’s a valuable secret back of it. We’ll go—”
But further conversation was interrupted by the arrival of the auto—the same big touring car that had so nearly come to grief in Darewell. The four boys got in, Fenn was wrapped in a lap robe, to prevent getting chilled on the quick ride thatwas to follow, and the car was sent whizzing along an unfrequented road to Mr. Hayward’s home, several miles away.
The three chums wanted to ask Fenn all sorts of questions about his experiences, but Ruth, who constituted herself a sort of emergency nurse, forbade them.
“You’ll have time enough after he has had a rest,” she said. “Besides, he’s just gotten over a fever, you say. Do you want him to get another? It looks as though he was.”
And that was just what happened. When the auto reached Mr. Hayward’s home Fenn was found to be in considerable distress. His cheeks were hot and flushed and he was put to bed at once, though he insisted, with his usual disregard of trifles that concerned himself, that he was “all right.”
A physician was summoned, and prescribed quiet, and some soothing medicine.
“He has had a severe shock,” he said, “and this, on top of his former attack of fever, from which he had barely recovered, has caused a slight relapse. It is nothing dangerous, and, with careful nursing he will be all right in a few days.”
“Then, I’m going to take care of him,” declared Ruth. “It will be a chance to pay backsome of his, and his folks’ kindness to me and my father. Now mind, I don’t want you boys to speak to Fenn unless I give you permission,” and she laughed as she shook her finger at the chums to impress this on them.
Fenn, under the influence of the medicine, soon fell into a deep sleep, which, the pretty nurse said, was the best thing in the world for him.
“I guess we’d better go back to camp,” proposed Bart. “All we brought away from there are the guns, and some one might come along and steal the other stuff, which isn’t ours.”
“That’s so, those smugglers are still around I suppose,” added Ned. “We had better get back, I think.”
“You’ll do nothing of the sort,” declared Mr. Hayward good-naturedly. “You’re going to be my guests, or I’ll be very much offended. We’ve not got such a fine place as some, but you’re welcome to what there is. If things were different—but there, I want you to stay.”
He seemed affected by something, and his manner was so queer that the boys could not help noticing it. Ruth, too, appeared embarrassed, and, at first, Bart and his chums thought it might be that she was not prepared for company, since, as her mother was dead, she had the whole care of thehouse, though there was a servant to help her. But her invitation, which she added to that of her father’s, assured the boys that they would be very welcome.
“You can’t rough it so much as you could out in the woods,” said Ruth, “but I think you’ll like it here. We have a motor boat, and you may wish to run it on the lake.”
“A motor boat!” exclaimed Bart. “That settles it! We stay!”
“But what about our camp stuff?” asked Frank.
“I’ll send a man to gather it up and ship it back to Duluth,” said Mr. Hayward. “There’s no need of you going back there at all. I’ll be glad to have you stay. We’re a little upset on account of—”
He stopped suddenly, and glanced at his daughter, who did not appear to be listening to what he was saying. But she heard, nevertheless, as was shown by her next remark.
“Oh, dad means some of the servants have gone,” quickly explained Ruth. “You see we had too many,” she went on. “I decided we could get along with one, for I want to help do the work. I must learn to be a housekeeper, you know,” and she blushed a little. “We’re not upset a bit, daddy. You see, I’ll manage.”
It seemed as though something sad was worrying Mr. Hayward, but, he soon recovered his usual spirits, and got the boys to give him directions for shipping back their camp stuff.
“Now, I’ll look after it,” he said, as he prepared to leave the house, having changed his wet garments for dry ones. “I have some other matters to attend to, and I may not be back until late. I guess you can get along here. You can pretend you’re camping out, and, if you get tired of that, Ruth will show you where the motor boat is. Only, don’t upset,” and, with that caution, he left them.
The three chums decided they would try the boat at once, and, Ruth, having ascertained that they knew how to run one, showed them where the launch was kept in a neat boat-house on the shore of Lake Superior.
“Don’t be gone too long,” she said. “You can’t tell what will happen to Fenn.”
“I guess he couldn’t be in better hands,” said Frank, with a bow.
“Oh, thank you!” exclaimed Ruth, with a pretty blush.
“That’ll do you,” observed Bart, nudging Frank with his elbow. “I’ll tell Fenn when he gets well.”
Ruth returned to her patient, after urging the three chums to be back in time for dinner. She found Fenn awake, and with unnaturally bright eyes.
“You must go to sleep,” she told him.
“I can’t sleep.”
“Why not?”
“I’m thinking of something.”
“What about?” she asked with a little laugh. “About all the wonderful adventures you had?”
“Partly, and about that cave. It’s the same one.”
“The same one? What do you mean?”
“The same one you talked about when you were at our house. The mysterious cave, where the men were at work. I see it all now. It’s the same cave! There is some secret about it! Tell me what it is. Don’t you remember what you said? You wanted to find the cave, but couldn’t. I have found it!”
“Oh!” exclaimed Ruth. She drew back as if frightened. “Oh!” she cried again. “Can it be possible. It seems like a dream! Can it be my cave?”
“Tell me about it,” suggested Fenn, for even his illness could not deter him from trying to solve the mystery.
“I am going to tell you a secret,” answered Ruth. “It is something I have told no one. You know my father is—or, rather he was—quite wealthy. He owned considerable property, and was counted a millionaire. But lately, through some misfortune, he has lost nearly all his wealth. I suspect, though I do not know for sure, that some wicked men have cheated him out of it. But he does not know that I am aware of his loss. He has kept it a secret and he tries to keep up when he is with me, but I can see the strain he is under. He does not want me to suffer, dear daddy! But I don’t mind. I don’t care for money as long as I have him.
“He thinks he can get his wealth back again, and so he has been making all sorts of sacrifices in order that I may continue to live here, in the same style we used to. But I found out about it. I discharged all the servants but one, to save money, and I am economizing in other ways.”
“But about the cave,” insisted Fenn.
“It sounds almost like a dream,” went on Ruth. “One day, when I was walking through the woods around here, just before daddy and I took that automobile trip East, I was on a ledge of the cliff, about opposite where you were in the lake to-day. That particular ledge is not there now, as a landslidecarried it away, but it was quite large, and easy to get to, when I was on it. I was after some peculiar flowers that grew there.
“As I was gathering them I saw an opening in the cliff, and I could look right into a large cave. I was so surprised I did not know what to do, and, much more so, when I saw several men at work. They seemed to be taking stuff out—valuable stuff, for they were very careful with it. I must have made some noise, for one of the men came to where I was looking in.
“He was very angry, and tried to grab me. I drew back, and nearly toppled off the ledge into the lake. Then the man threatened me. He said if I ever told what I saw something dreadful would happen to me.
“I was much frightened, and hurried away. I was going to tell my father of what I had seen, but the memory of the man’s threat prevented me. The thing got on my mind so I was taken ill. Then came the automobile trip and the accident. But I could not forget the cave. It seemed like a bad dream, and it followed me. I did not know I had mentioned it in my delirium at your house, until you told me. Then I was frightened lest something happen to you, as well as to myself, and I begged you never to refer to it. But I could notforget it. All the while I kept wondering who those men were, and what they were taking out. I thought perhaps they might have found gold. Of course it was foolish, and, sometimes I think it was all only a bad dream. Only it is not a dream about poor daddy losing all his money.”
“And it isn’t any dream about that cave!” exclaimed Fenn, sitting up in bed. “It’s real. There are men in it taking out something I think is valuable. They are doing it secretly, too. I don’t know who it belongs to, but we’ll soon find that out. By some curious chance I have discovered the same cave you looked into. I’ll take you to it, and we’ll see what those men are digging out. I’m going to get right up and go back there. I’m all right! We must go before the men take all the stuff! Where are the boys? Tell them to come here and help me dress.”
“No, no!” exclaimed Ruth. “The doctor said you must be kept quiet!”
“I’m going to go back to that cave!” declared Fenn, and, getting out of bed, clad in a big bath robe, he began to hunt for his clothes, which, however were not in the room, having been taken to the laundry to be pressed.
“Mary! Mary!” called Ruth to the servant. “Telephone for the doctor. Tell him Fenn is delirious!”
Fenn sat down rather suddenly on hearing Ruth make that announcement. He grew calm.
“All right,” he said, good-naturedly, “there’s no use alarming you. I’m not delirious. I never felt better in my life. That sleep I had was fine. My fever is all gone. But, go ahead, if you want to. Send for the doctor. I don’t mind. I know what he’ll say, and then I can go and hunt for that cave.”
“Oh, Fenn, are you sure you’re all right?” asked Ruth, much reassured by the cool manner in which the boy spoke.
“Sure. Here, feel of my pulse. It’s as slow as yours.”
Ruth did so, and, having had some experience in cases of illness, she realized that Fenn’s fever had gone down.
“You do seem better,” she acknowledged. “However, I think it would be a good thing forthe doctor to see you. I don’t want you to run any chances.”
“All right,” agreed Fenn.
The physician came again and said that, much to his surprise, Fenn’s illness was not as alarming as had at first appeared.
“Can’t I go out?” asked the lad, not telling what for.
“Hum—ah—er—um—well, it’s a little risky, but then—well, I guess you can,” and, after much humming and hawing the medical man gave his consent and left, shaking his head over the perverseness of those who were always in a hurry.
“Now send up my clothes, please,” begged Fenn, when the doctor was safely away. “We’ll solve the mystery of that cave in jig style.”
“Hadn’t we better wait for the other boys?” suggested Ruth. “Besides it’s nearly dinner time, and you ought to eat something.”
“Good idea,” declared Fenn, but, whether it was the one about eating, or waiting for the boys he did not say.
Frank, Bart and Ned were rather late getting back from the motor boat ride, but they had such a good time that no one blamed them. Mr. Hayward also returned, and it was quite a merry partythat gathered about the table. That is all except Mr. Hayward. He seemed to be rather worried over something, and, at times, was rather distracted, his thoughts evidently being elsewhere.
“What’s worrying you, daddy?” asked Ruth, after a while.
“Nothing, my dear. Why?”
“You’re not eating at all.”
“I’m not very hungry. But come, we must go with Fenn and see if we can’t help him locate that cave. I don’t imagine we shall find anything of any account. Most likely the men were engaged in working an abandoned mine from which the prehistoric inhabitants took everything of value. Perhaps the men were those Chinese smugglers. I have telephoned word to the Government authorities about them, and some detectives may arrive any minute.”
“Those men were not smugglers,” declared Fenn. “They were taking something valuable from that mine, and they were so secretive about it that I’m sure they had no right to the stuff.”
“Well, we’ll soon see,” declared Mr. Hayward.
“Where are we going to begin?” asked Bart.
“Let’s go up to that hole, where we found Fenn’s hat, and work down,” suggested Ned.
“That’s no good,” declared the lad who had made the queer passage. “That chute only comes out on the ledge, where the main shaft begins. If we could get to the ledge we’d be all right.”
“I think we can get there without crawling or sliding down that dark, roped passage,” said Mr. Hayward. “But I was going to suggest that we take the motor boat and cruise along near where we picked Fenn up. If we found the opening in the cliff, from where he jumped, it would be easier. It is rather difficult to get to the ledge.”
“I think that’s the best idea,” remarked Frank.
“May I go with you, daddy?” asked Ruth, a bright flush of excitement coming into her cheeks.
“Maybe I can find the—” She stopped suddenly.
“I’m afraid not. There might be danger,” said her father, not noticing her last remark.
“I’m not afraid.”
“I wouldn’t,” said Fenn quickly. “Those men that I saw, didn’t have any weapons, but they might be ugly customers, just the same.”
“I think you had better remain at home, my dear,” decided the girl’s father, and, somewhat against her will, she consented, after a whispered conference with Fenn.
The others were soon in the motor launch, and were cruising along the lake shore, as near as possible to where Fenn had leaped into the water. Narrowly they scanned the face of the cliff, for a sight of the opening from which Fenn had jumped. They went up and down for half a mile, in either direction, but there was no sign of it.
“Are you sure you jumped out of a hole, Stumpy?” asked Bart.
“Sure. I remember catching just a glimpse of that point of land before I went under water.”
“Then the opening into the cave ought to be somewhere near here,” remarked Mr. Hayward, bringing the boat to a stop.
Once more they scanned the cliff, going as close to shore as they could. There appeared to be no break in the surface of the palisade.
“I guess we’ll have to try the ledge,” announced Mr. Hayward. “We can go down that tree-trunk ladder, but it’s more risky than this way.”
He was about to head the craft for a landing place, in order to begin the tramp through the woods, to a point whence the ledge could be reached, when the attention of all in the motorboat was attracted by something happening on shore. From the bushes dashed a Chinaman, hispig-tail streaming in the wind. Behind him came a man, with a revolver in his hand.
“Stop! You almond-eyed scare-crow!” he exclaimed. “I’m not going to hurt you!”
But the Chinaman only ran the faster. Suddenly the man raised his revolver and fired in the air. The Celestial stopped as though he had been shot.
“I thought that would fetch you!” shouted the man, and, a moment later, he had the handcuffs on the representative of the Flowery Kingdom.
“That’s one of the smugglers!” cried Fenn. “The police must be after them!”
“What’s the trouble?” asked Mr. Hayward, of the white man, as the boat neared shore.
“Chinese smugglers,” was the short answer. “We got the whole crowd a while ago, just as they were landing a boat load in a secluded cove. But are you Mr. Hayward?”
“I am.”
“I was told to look out for you. I understand you gave the information that led to the capture.”
“I did, but these boys here told me of it. They’re to get whatever reward is coming.”
“Oh, there’s a reward all right. This fellow got away when we were bagging the rest. I had a hard chase after him, and I wanted to catch him,as he’s one of the ring-leaders. But what are you doing here; on the lookout for some more of the Chinks?”
“No, we’re searching for a queer cave where Fenn, one of these boys here, was kept a prisoner. There have been some strange goings on in these parts, and I’d like to get at the bottom of them. I thought maybe the smugglers had a hand in it.”
At the mention of the cave, concerning which Mr. Hayward gave the government officer a few details, as Fenn had related them to him, the Chinese captive seemed suddenly interested. When Mr. Hayward told how they had so far, conducted a baffling search, for the entrance, the Celestial exclaimed:
“Me show you.”
“What does he mean?” asked Mr. Hayward.
“Blessed if I know,” answered the officer. “What’s that, John?”
“Me show hole in glound. Me know. Clum that way,” and he pointed a short distance up the lake.
“Do you suppose he knows where the entrance is?” asked Mr. Hayward.
“Shouldn’t wonder,” replied the detective. “Those Chinks know more than they’ll tell. Probably he knows the game is up, and he may think,if he plays into our hands, he’ll get off easier.”
“That’s lite!” exclaimed the Chinese with a grin. “Me turn state’s evidence. Me know. Me show you.”
“I guess he’s an old hand at the game,” commented the officer. “Probably it wouldn’t be a bad plan to follow his advice. Wait, I’ll summon a couple of my men, and we’ll go along. No telling what we’ll run up against.”
He blew a shrill signal on a whistle he carried and soon two men emerged from the woods on the run. They did not appear surprised to see their chief with the prisoner, and at a word from him they got into the motor boat, the handcuffed Celestial meekly following.
“Now, John, which way,” asked the detective, who introduced himself as Mr. Harkness.
“Up by bluushes,” replied the Chinese, pointing to a clump which grew on the cliff. “Hole behind bluushes, so no can see. Smart trick. Me know.”
“I believe he does,” commented Mr. Harkness. “I’ll unhandcuff him, and he can show us,” and he removed the irons from the almond-eyed chap.
The motor boat was put over to where the Chinaman indicated. It came to a stop at the foot of a sheer cliff, right under the clump of bushes, whichgrew about thirty feet up from the surface of the water.
“How in the world are we going to get up there without a ladder?” asked Fenn. “We should have brought one along.”
“Here ladder!” suddenly exclaimed the Celestial, who, at a question from one of the officers gave his name as Lem Sing. “Me get ladder.”
Lem Sing took hold of a stone that jutted out from the face of the cliff. He pulled on it, and it came out in his hand. To it was attached a strong cord, extending up somewhere inside the cliff, Lem Sing gave a vigorous yank, and something surprising happened.
The clump of bushes vanished, and, in their place, was a round hole.
“That’s where I jumped from!” exclaimed Fenn.
But this was not all. Down the cliff, out of the hole in the face of it, came tumbling a strong rope ladder, being fastened somewhere inside the hole.
“That how up get!” exclaimed Lem Sing, with a grin. “Now can up-go!”
“Sure we can ‘up-go’!” exclaimed Mr. Harkness. “Come on, boys,” and he began to ascend the ladder, which swayed rather dangerously.
The others followed, one at a time, leaving one of the detectives in charge of Lem Sing.
“Now, Fenn, lead the way,” called Mr. Hayward.
“I guess they’ve all gone,” said Fenn. “There don’t seem to be any of the miners here, now.”
Hardly had he spoken when, turning a corner in the shaft, the party came upon a curious scene. In a big chamber, the same one which Fenn had viewed from the crack in the door of his small prison, there were half a score of men, working by the light of torches, digging stuff from the walls of the cave, and carrying it out in small boxes.
“Here they are!” shouted Fenn. “This is the place, and they’re at work!”
“To the shaft!” shouted some one. “They’re after us!”
There was a hurrying and scurrying to escape, and, before the detectives or Mr. Hayward couldmake any move to capture the men, they had all disappeared.
“Come on!” cried Mr. Harkness. “Show us the way to the shaft where the ladder is, Fenn! Maybe we can nab some of ’em.”
“It isn’t worth while,” declared Mr. Hayward. “These men were evidently afraid of being caught, but, from what I can see, they were not doing anything unlawful.”
“No,” admitted Mr. Harkness. “We caught the last of them when we got Lem Sing. But what were these men digging?”
“I’ll take a look,” answered Robert Hayward.
Suddenly he gave a cry, as he took some of the soft earth in his fingers.
“Say, this is almost as good as a silver mine!” exclaimed Mr. Hayward. “This stuff is in great demand! It’s used by chemists, and they can’t get enough of it.”
“Lucky for the man who owns this land,” commented Mr. Harkness. “But I don’t see that it concerns us. Guess I’d better be going.”
“Why, man, this is my land!” suddenly exclaimed Mr. Hayward. “I own a big tract in here, but I believed it was worthless, and I was about to sell it very cheap. Now—well, say, you couldn’t buy it! My fortune is made again!”
“Boys,” he went on, a little more soberly, “you don’t know it, but I’ve been in quite a hole lately. The house where I live was about to be sold for a mortgage. But my daughter never knew. She—”
“Yes, she did,” interrupted Fenn. “She knew all about it, and she was trying to help you!”
“She did? You don’t mean it!”
Then Fenn explained; telling of Ruth’s strange remarks while in a delirium at his house, her unexpected discovery of the cave, the man’s threat, her long silence under fear of it, and her desire to aid her father to recover his wealth.
“Well, this gets me!” exclaimed Mr. Hayward. “Ruth is a girl that’s hard to beat.”
They went to the foot of the shaft, where Fenn had come down, but there were no men to be seen.
“Let them go,” suggested Mr. Hayward. “I’ve got all I want, and I must hurry and tell my daughter the news, bless her heart!”
“It was all Fenn’s good luck,” declared Ruth, when the story had been told. “You ought to reward him, daddy.”
“Reward him! Well, I guess I will. And the other boys, too. Nothing is too good for them.”
The Chinese smugglers were punished for theirattempt to break the United States immigration laws, and the Celestials they tried to land were sent back to Canada.
Lem Sing had planned the trick so that by pulling on the rope the bushes dropped back out of sight, and the ladder came down. The miners used this device to send away the valuable clay, and it was by this queer hole that the men on the cliff so mysteriously appeared and disappeared when the boys were watching them from the deck of theModoc.
The two Chinamen and the white man, whom Fenn had followed, were the advance party, looking to see if the coast was clear for a landing which had once been unintentionally frustrated by the boys, and, the visit of the one Chinese to the camp was only to discover if the lads were detectives, which Lem at first feared. While Fenn was following the men, one had slipped behind him and gone to the camp, to see if it was deserted. It was this fellow who had dropped the button which gave Frank, Ned and Bart their clue.
“But what I can’t understand,” said Fenn, “is why that man Dirkfell should chase us the night of the fire, and pursue us in the steam yacht. Do you know him, Mr. Hayward?”
“Dirkfell!” exclaimed the gentleman. “I should say I did, to my sorrow. It was through business dealings with him that I lost all my wealth. He held the mortgage on this house, and was about to buy that land, under which the cave is located. He has long borne a grudge against me—a grudge for which there is no excuse, for I never injured him. When he heard of my loss in the elevator fire I presume he could not help saying how glad he was. Then, probably, when he saw you looking at him so sharply, Fenn, he imagined you must be some agent of mine. He was evidently in fear of being found out in his secret mining operations under my land, and that was why he made such an effort to catch you, even following theModoc. I understand now, why he was so anxious to get possession of this land that I considered worthless. But I beat him at his own game, thanks to you and your chums.”
“And your daughter did her part,” said Fenn, “for she saw the cave first.”
“Of course she did, God bless her.”
“I don’t understand how the Chinese smugglers and the miners both used the cave and the secret entrances,” said Frank.
“I didn’t until I had a talk with the detectives,” said Mr. Hayward. “The Chinese used the cavea long time before Dirkfell was aware of what valuable stuff was in it. He and his gang worked in harmony with the Celestials.”
“Are they going to try to catch him?” asked Fenn.
“No, it’s not worth while, since they have broken up the smuggling gang. I guess Dirkfell will not show himself in these parts soon again.”
Nor did he, or any of his gang. The boys spent a week with Mr. Hayward. Then they started back to Duluth, to join Captain Wiggs.
They found theModocready to sail, and they were warmly welcomed by the commander.
“Well, we’ve certainly had some strenuous happenings this trip,” observed Frank. “I don’t think we’ll have such lively times again.” But he was mistaken, they did have plenty of adventures, and what some of them were I shall relate in another book, to be called “Bart Keene’s Hunting Days.”
THE END