CHAPTER XTHE OLD CONVENT
Atfirst both boys could see but little, for the room they had entered was semi-dark, while outside the sun was shining brightly. But gradually their eyes became accustomed to the gloom and then they made out a staircase running to a floor above.
“Where is he?” demanded Sam, catching thevolantedriver by the arm.
“Him up de stairs, señor. Better air up dare.”
“I should hope so,” muttered Darry and bounded up the stone steps two at a time. Sam came on his heels, but the Cuban remained below.
There was something of a hallway, dirty and covered with dead leaves which past storms had blown into the barred slits of windows. Then came a room with an iron door which stood half open.
Just then a moan reached their ears and it appeared to come from the room. Thinking Hockley must be within they rushed past the iron door.
“Jake, are you here?” called out Sam.
There was another moan, but where it came from puzzled both of the lads.
“Jake, where are you?” exclaimed Darry. “We are here to help you, Sam and I.”
Both moved forward, peering eagerly to the right and the left. There were only two windows, each heavily barred, and they were far from large.
Suddenly the boys heard the iron door shut and an instant later a heavy bolt was slipped into place. Sam leaped back and shook the barrier, to find it fast.
“We are locked in!” he ejaculated. “Darry, this is a trick!”
“A trick!” gasped the other. He too shook the door. “Hi! let us out!” he called.
“Not just yet, my fine young fellows!” came in a strangely familiar voice. “I did not bring you as far as this just for fun.”
“Why, it is Captain Sudlip!” exclaimed Sam, who could scarcely believe his ears.
“Captain Sudlip, is that you?” called Darry.
“It is.”
“Where is Jake Hockley?”
“He is not far off.”
“Is he really hurt, or was it only a trick to get us here?”
“I’m not answering all your questions just yet,” returned the ex-master of theChester, tartly.
“If you brought us here on a fool’s errand you shall pay for it,” said Sam.
“You had better not threaten me while you are prisoners.”
“Prisoners!” came from both.
“Do you intend to keep us prisoners?” demanded Sam.
“For the present, yes.”
“What for?”
“To pay you back for your impudence on board of my steamer, for one thing.”
“We weren’t impudent. We merely stood up for our rights, and for the rights of that negro you misused.”
“I won’t argue the point with you—at least not now.”
“What are you going to do?”
“Going to get back my rights. I know all about that paper your crowd gave to my second mate. That paper was a mess of lies and I’m not going to stand for it.”
“We simply put down the truth, Captain Sudlip,” answered Sam, firmly. “And if you don’t let us go at once you’ll get yourself into a worse situation than ever.”
“I can’t get into a much worse fix,” growled the ex-ship’s captain. “I’ve lost my position and without a recommendation, too. If I can’t get it back through your crowd I’m going to make you pay for it. Reckon that professor of yours has considerable money, hasn’t he?” went on Jason Sudlip, craftily.
“If he has you’ll never get any of it,” answered Darry, quickly. “I’d rot here first before I’d let him give you any on my account.”
“And I say the same,” came from Sam.
“Reckon you’ll both sing a different tune when you are good and hungry,” retorted the captain, but it was plain to tell by this tone that this was not exactly the reply he had anticipated.
“Will you tell us where Hockley is?” went on Sam, after a painful pause.
“He is not a million miles from here.”
“Is he a prisoner, too?”
“I won’t tell you.”
“How did he come to write that note?”
“I won’t tell you that either.”
The boys could now hear thevolantedriver calling up from below, and a moment later they heard the captain move along the hall and descend the stone stairs.
“Well, this is a pickle and no mistake,” grumbled Darry, when they found themselves alone. “What do you make of it?”
“I hardly know what to make of it, so far,” was the slow answer. “For all we know, Hockley has turned traitor to our crowd and is in with the captain.”
“Do you think he is as bad as that?”
“If he isn’t, how did he come to write that note?”
“That’s true. But I shouldn’t think it, even of Hockley. Ever since we saved him from that boa constrictor he has acted pretty decently, for him.”
They moved over to the windows, to see if they could catch sight of the captain or thevolante. At first they saw nothing, but presently they caught a flying glimpse.
“There go the both of them!” cried Sam. “Darry, we have been left to our fate.”
“Glummy wasn’t with them.”
“No.”
“I wonder what Professor Strong will say when he finds we, too, are missing?”
“He’ll be very much worried, no doubt of that. Perhaps he’ll set the police on the track. I’d like to know if he found out anything about Glummy.”
They did not intend to remain prisoners if they could help it, and so set to work immediately, exploring every nook and corner of the room, which was large and built in the shape of the letter L.
“I don’t see any way out, excepting by way of the iron door, and that’s as fast as can be,” said Sam, after an hour had passed.
“Excepting we can pry off the bars from one of the windows.”
“Even if you did that, how are you going to get to the ground? It’s a good eighteen or twenty feet. If you dropped that far on those stones you might break a leg.”
“Oh, I’d risk a drop. Besides, we can make a rope by tearing up a shirt, or one of our jackets. Anything to get away, to my way of thinking.”
They examined the various bars to the windows and began operations on one which looked to be more loose than the others. But though they workedwith a will on the mortar with their pocket-knives, the stuff was hard and defied all their efforts.
“We ought to have one of Hockley’s dime novel heroes here,” said Sam, grimly. “He’d twist this bar out in a jiffy.”
“Or one of the half-dime novel detectives,” returned Darry. “He’d find a secret passageway leading down into a counterfeiter’s den, with a trunk full of gold in the bargain.”
“Well, this is no laughing matter, Darry. That ride made me hungry. If I had known this I’d had breakfast before I started.”
“Yes, indeed, and I’d have packed a big lunch box in the bargain, Beans. But don’t mention food—it only makes me more hungry. Let’s take another look around.”
“Bound to find that passageway to the counterfeiter’s den, eh? All right, Old Flashlight, go ahead and make yourself famous.”
Both boys laughed in spite of the seriousness of the situation, and then began another hunt around the room.
“I see something that I didn’t notice before,” observed Darry, after searching around for quarter of an hour. “Do you see this wall? Right abovemy reach it is depressed for about a foot. If you’ll boost me up to the ledge I’ll feel around there for an opening.”
“To be sure I’ll boost you up. But don’t fall and hurt yourself.”
Once up on the ledge, Darry felt around with care. As before, he found plenty of dirt and mixed in with this were two or three musty books, a couple of empty bottles, and other odds and ends of no value whatever.
“Here’s some reading for you—it will help to pass the idle hours,” cried Darry, tossing the books to Sam.
“They are Spanish prayer books,” said Sam, examining them by the light of one of the windows. “They are dated fifty and sixty years back.”
“I thought I had struck rare volumes worth a few thousand dollars,” returned Darry, dryly. “Too bad! Old Flashlight must renew his wondrous search! If we only—hullo!”
Darry broke off short and Sam heard the creaking of rusty iron.
“What have you discovered now?” he asked, after an anxious pause.
“Discovered a door, as sure as you live!” exclaimedDarry, and now he was quite excited. “Hurrah, it’s daylight!”
He had pushed in a small iron door and true enough both could see a streak of sunlight beyond, streaming into a small stone passageway. In the passageway was an iron ladder, leading to the flat roof of the building. There was a trap door above, which the storms of years had moved several inches out of place.
It did not take Darry long to give Sam a hand up to the ledge, and then both boys entered the little passageway and crawled up the iron ladder. The trap door was thrown open and they came up onto the flat roof of the building. Near at hand was a sloping roof and also a square tower, all much dilapidated and covered in spots with heavy trailing vines.
“So far so good,” exclaimed Darry, as he walked over to examine the tower. “Now if we can only get to the ground from here we’ll be all right.”
“There must be another stairway to the lower floor, Darry.”
“To be sure, and it’s likely in the tower. Come on.”
Without much difficulty they crawled to the towerin question. Here they found another trap door, but it was tightly fastened and although they did their best they could not budge it.
“Stumped again,” grumbled Darry. “Did you ever see such luck?”
“I know what I’m going to do!” exclaimed Sam, suddenly. “I’m going to climb down on the vines. I am sure they are strong enough.”
“Just the thing! Why didn’t we think of it before.”
They ran over to the edge of the tower and began to test the vines. Then Sam let himself down a few feet and Darry did the same. Soon they were moving downward, slowly and cautiously.
“There goes that volante again!” cried Darry, presently. “But it didn’t have the captain in it.”
“Let us get away as quickly as we can,” came from Sam. “If we don’t we may run into more trouble.”
“Hi, you boys, come back here!” was the cry which reached their ears. “Come back, I say!”
In amazement, both looked up. There on the tower stood Captain Sudlip, shaking his fist at them!