The Call of the Beaver Patrol

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"Then we'd have the case closed up in a jiffy!" was the reply.

Before leaving that particular chamber, Tommy selected a large round
piece of "gob," placed it in the center of the open space, and laid
another small piece of shale on top of it.

"What are you doing that for?" demanded Sandy.

"Don't you know your Indian signs?" demanded the boy. "That means 'This
is the trail.' Now I'll put a stone to the right, and that will tell
these imitation Boy Scouts to turn to the right if they want to get
out."

"I guess they can get out if they want to," suggested Sandy.

Thirty or forty feet further on, where, following the string, the boys
turned again, this time to the left, Tommy laid another signal which
showed the direction to be taken.

"There," he said with a grin, "we've started them on the right path. If
they don't want to follow it, that isn't our fault!"

"We must be getting pretty near the shaft," Sandy said, after the boys
had walked for nearly half an hour on the backward track.

"Pull on your string," suggested Tommy, "and see if it stiffens up like
only a short length of it remained out."

Sandy did as requested, and then dropped to the floor with his
searchlight laid along the extension of the cord.

"The other end is loose!" he said in a tone of alarm.

"Loose?" echoed Tommy. "How did it ever get loose?"

Sandy sat down on the floor of the passage and began drawing the cord
in, hand over hand.

"I'm going to see if it's been cut!" he said.

Tommy stepped on the swiftly moving cord and held it fast to the floor.

"You mustn't draw it in!" he exclaimed. "As long as it lies on the floor
as we strung it out, we can follow it without taking any chances. If you
pull it in, then it's all off."

"I understand!" Sandy agreed. "I didn't pull much of it in."

The boys started up the gangway, one of them keeping a searchlight on
the white thread of cord.

They seemed to make a great many turns and once or twice Sandy declared
that they were walking round and round in a circle.

"I don't believe the passages run so we could walk around in a circle!"
argued Tommy. "That ain't the way they run passages in mines!"

"I don't care!" Sandy insisted. "We've been turning to the left about
all the time, and if you leave it to me, we'll presently come out in the
chamber where we heard the call of the pack!"

"That may be right," admitted Tommy. "It does seem as if we'd been
turning to the left most of the time. Besides," he went on, "we've been
walking long enough to have reached the shaft three or four times."

"And yet," argued Sandy, "we've been following the line of the cord
every step. It lies right in the middle of the gangway here, and we're
going the way it points all the time."

This bit of reasoning seemed to give the boys fresh courage, and they
walked on, expecting every moment to come in sight of the frame work
which surrounded the shaft. At length, after a long half hour, Tommy
stumbled over an obstruction lying in a chamber which somehow seemed
strangely familiar. He lifted his foot and gave the obstruction a hearty
kick.

"That's my Indian sign of the trail!" grunted Sandy.

"For the love of Mike!" exclaimed Tommy. "Have we been traveling all
this time to come out in this same old hole at last?"

"That's what we have!" replied Sandy. "If we had paid no attention to
the string whatever and followed the rails when we came to the main gang
way, we would have been home and in bed by this time!"

"But we didn't," grinned Tommy. "We thought we had a cinch on getting
out by way of this cord and so we followed that. I don't see, though,"
he continued, "how we came back to this same old chamber by following
the cord. That looks queer to me!"

"I'll tell you how!" replied Sandy. "There's some gink been walking on
ahead of us stringing the cord out for us to follow!"

Tommy sat down on the bottom of the chamber and wrinkled his freckled
nose provokingly.

"We're a couple of easy marks!" he laughed.

"Easy marks is no name for it!"

"Well, what'll we do now to get out?" Tommy asked. "First thing we know,
it'll be daylight, and then Will and George'll be calling out the police
to find us. We ought to get home before they wake up."

"I'm willing!" declared Sandy. "I'd like to be in my little bed this
minute! I've had about enough of this foul air!"

The boys passed along until they came to the second trail sign and then
stopped. Tommy pointed down to it with a hand which was not quite steady
and looked up into his chum's face with frightened eyes.

"That's been moved!" he said.

"How do you know it's been moved?"

"Because you had the side stone on the other edge."

"I don't think I did!" argued Sandy.

The boys puzzled over the situation for a few moments, and then
proceeded down the chamber looking for the tramway rails.

They passed from chamber to chamber and finally came to a place where
the slope was upward.

"I guess we've struck it at last!" Sandy exclaimed.

"But there are no rails here!" Tommy argued.

"Then we're on the wrong track again," admitted Sandy.

He bent down to the rock with his searchlight and pointed out evidences
that the passage had once been laid with rails.

"When they strip a chamber or a counter gangway," he said, "they take
away the rails. It seems that we are now in a part of the Labyrinth mine
which has been worked out."

"I know what to do!" exclaimed Tommy. "I'll give the call of the Beaver
Patrol and tell those ginks who have been giving the call of the pack
that we're lost! That ought to bring them out of their holes."

The Beaver call was given time after time, but no reply came.

"Say," Tommy said after his patience had become exhausted, "I believe
it's daylight. Look at your watch. I left mine in the bed!"

"I left mine in bed, too," answered Sandy. "I know it is day, because
I'm hungry."

CHAPTER IV

A SENSATIONAL DISCOVERY

When Will awoke he began preparations for breakfast before paying any
attention whatever to his chums, whom he believed to be sleeping quietly
on their cots. It was November, and quite chilly in the apartment, so
his next efforts were directed to coaxing the electric coils into a
cheery glow.

Presently George came tumbling out in his pyjamas and sat down on a
rickety chair to talk of the adventures in prospect.

"I wonder if the Labyrinth mine is so much of a labyrinth after all?" he
asked. "It seems to me that we might find our way through it without
danger of losing ourselves," he continued with a yawn.

"It's some labyrinth, I take it," Will replied.

"Well, we can make chalk marks on the walls as we move along," suggested
George. "Besides," he added, "we can string an electric wire through the
center gangway and turn on the lights."

"There are probably electric lights there now," answered Will.

"Then there's no danger of our becoming lost," George argued.

"I wish you'd go to the back of the room and tip over those two cots,"
grinned Will. "It's the hardest kind of work to get Tommy and Sandy to
bed, but when you do get them in bed once, it's harder still to get them
out of it. Just tip the cots over and roll 'em out on the floor."

George approached the two cots in a stealthy manner and made ready to
give Tommy and Sandy the bump of their lives.

"Don't break their necks!" advised Will.

As soon as George reached Tommy's bunk he stretched forth a hand for the
purpose of tangling the boy up in the bedclothing so that his fall to
the hard floor might be in a measure broken.

As he swung his hand over the cot, however, his eyes widened and he
called out to Will that the boys were not in their cots.

There was a look of alarm as well as of annoyance on each face as the
lads thought over the situation.

"The little idiots!" exclaimed Will.

"That isn't strong enough!" George corrected.

"There's no knowing how long they've been gone," Will suggested. "The
chances are that they went away as soon as we went to sleep."

"In that case, they're in trouble!" George declared.

"In what kind of trouble?"

"The good Lord only knows!" replied George. "Tommy and Sandy can get
into more different kinds of trouble in less time than any other boys on
the face of the earth. They're the original lookers for trouble!"

"Do you suppose they've got lost in the mine?" asked Will.

"It may be worse than that!" cried George. "They may have butted into
some of the people the caretaker indirectly referred to last night."

"He did speak of strange noises and mysterious lights, didn't he?"

"He certainly did, and I've got a hunch that Sandy and Tommy have butted
into some hostile interests.

"It does seem as if they would be back by this time unless they were in
trouble!"

The boys prepared an elaborate breakfast in the hope that Tommy and
Sandy, who would be sure to be hungry, would return in time to partake
of it. A dozen times during the meal they walked back to the shaft
opening and looked anxiously down into the dark bowels of the mine.

"Those fellows are always getting into trouble," Will said, rather
crossly, as he stood looking down. "They have a way of running into most
of their dangers at night, too. It was the same up on Lake Superior; the
same in the snake-haunted Everglades of Florida; the same on the Rocky
Mountains, and the same in the Hudson Bay country."

"They sure do keep things moving," grinned George.

"I think," Will suggested after a time, "that we'd better find Canfield
and get his advice before we do anything in the way of setting up a
search. I hate to admit that two members of our party got into a scrape
on the same night we struck the mine, but I guess there's no way out of
it."

While the boys talked together, the door opened softly and the caretaker
entered, accompanied by a short, paunchy man with a very red face and
eyes which were black, small and suspicious. He was a man well past
middle age, but he seemed to be making a bluff at thirty-five. His hair,
which had turned white at the temples, and his moustache were both dyed
black.

Canfield introduced the new-comer as the detective, Joe Ventner, of New
York, and the boys greeted him courteously.

He accepted their proffered hands with an air of condescension which was
most exasperating. He puffed out his chest, and at once began talking of
some of his alleged exploits in the secret service of the government.

"How did you pass the night, boys?" asked the caretaker.

"Slept like pigs!" replied Will with a laugh.

"Where are the others?" asked Canfield.

"They're out getting a breath of fresh air, I reckon," answered George.

The boys did not take to the detective at all. There was an air of
insincerity about the man which at once put them on their guard.

Had Canfield visited them alone, they would have explained to him the
exact situation. In the presence of this detective, however, they
decided to do nothing of the kind.

"Now then," the detective said after a moment's silence, "if you boys
will outline the course you intend to pursue in this matter, I think we
can manage to work together without our plans clashing."

"We have talked the matter over during the night," Will replied, "and
have decided to remain here only long enough to obtain some clue as to
the direction taken by the boys in their departure."

"Then you think they are not here?" asked the detective.

"There is no reason why they should be here, is there?" asked Will.

"I don't know that there is," relied Ventner.

"Can you imagine any reason for their wanting to linger about the mine?"
asked George.

"No," was the reply. "It has always been my opinion that the boys left
the mine because they feared arrest for some boyish offense committed in
some other part of the country, and that they are now far away from this
place."

Both lads observed that the detective seemed particularly pleased with
the statement that they proposed to abandon the search of the mine
immediately. Somehow, they caught the impression that they would
interfere with his plans if they remained.

"It might be well," Ventner said, directly, "to keep me posted as to any
discoveries you may make. We must work together, you know."

"Certainly," replied Will, speaking with a mental reservation which did
not include the giving up of any information worth while.

"Well, then, I'll be going," the detective said, strutting across the
room, with his little round belly protruding like that of an insect.
"You can always find me at the hotel down here, if I'm in this part of
the country. Just ask for me and I'll show up."

Canfield was turning to depart with the detective when Will motioned to
him to remain. The caretaker turned back with a surprised look.

Will waited until the door had closed on the detective before speaking.
Even then, he went to the door and glanced down the passage.

"Something exciting?" smiled the caretaker, noting the boy's caution.

"Yes," Will answered, "there's something exciting. Tommy and Sandy
disappeared during the night."

"Disappeared?" echoed the caretaker.

"Yes," George cut in, "there was some talk of their visiting the mine
just before we went to bed, and we are of the opinion that they went
down the shaft shortly after we fell asleep, and failed to find their
way to the surface again. We are considerably alarmed."

"I should think you would be!" replied the caretaker. "In the first
place, the Labyrinth mine bears the right name. There are old workings
below which a stranger might follow for days without finding the way
out."

"Then we'll have to organize a search for the boys," George suggested.

"Besides," continued Canfield, "there are things going on in the mine
which no one understands. I have long believed that there are people
living there who have no right to take up such a residence."

"I'm sorry you said anything to this detective about our being here,"
Will said, after this phase of the case had been discussed.

"As a matter of fact," the caretaker replied, "I didn't intend to say
anything to Ventner about your being here, but in some way he received
an intimation that you were about to take up the case and so pumped the
whole story out of me."

"Perhaps he received his information from the New York attorney,"
suggested Will.

"I'm sure that he did not," answered the caretaker. "If the attorney had
written to him in regard to the matter at all, he would have posted him
so fully that when he cross-examined me such a proceeding would have
been unnecessary."

"Has this man Ventner visited the mine often?" asked George.

"Yes, quite frequently."

"Does he always go alone?"

"Yes, he always goes alone," was the answer. "Once I accompanied him to
the bottom of the shaft, but there he suggested that we go in different
directions, and did not seem to want me anywhere near him."

"I don't like the looks of the fellow, and that's a fact!" exclaimed
Will. "He doesn't look good to me."

After some discussion it was decided that the caretaker would accompany
the two boys to the bottom of the shaft and direct them down gangways,
which they could follow without fear of losing their way, and the
illumination of which would be likely to be observed by anyone wandering
about the blind chambers and passages of the mine.

When they reached the bottom of the shaft, climbing down the ladders, as
Tommy and Sandy had done some hours before, they gathered in a little
group at the bottom while the caretaker gave them a few general
instructions regarding the general outlines of the Labyrinth of tunnels,
chambers and cross passages which lay before them.

"Did any one come down after us?" asked Will directly.

"No one," was the reply. "Why do you ask?"

"Because," Will answered, "there's some one skulking off down that
passage, and it looks to me like that bum detective!"

CHAPTER V

THE FLOODED MINE

"What makes you think it's Ventner?" asked the caretaker. "Did you see
his face? I don't think he is here."

"I didn't see his face," answered Will, "but I saw the shape of his
shoulders and the hang-dog look of him."

"You're prejudiced against Ventner," laughed Canfield.

"I admit it!" replied Will. "He looks to me like a snake in the grass. I
don't think anything he could do would look good to me."

"Now," Canfield said, "perhaps we'd better be mapping out a plan of
campaign. Here are three gangways leading in three different directions.
We'll leave one of the lights burning at the shaft, then we'll each take
a light and proceed into the interior, making as much noise as we
conveniently can, and flashing the light into all the chambers and cross
headings we come to."

"How long are these gangways?" asked Will.

"Somewhere near a half a mile straight ahead!" was the answer.

The caretaker went away swinging his electric searchlight, and Will and
George pushed forward in their respective passages.

After proceeding a short distance, George heard Will calling to him.

"There's some one just ahead of me in the gangway!" Will declared. "I
think we ought to go together!"

"Do you think it's that bum detective?" asked George.

"I certainly do!"

"Well, we can go together if you like," George said. "We can't cover
quite as much ground in that way, but I guess we can accomplish more in
the long run!"

The boys had proceeded only a short distance when they heard Canfield
calling to them. A moment later they heard the caretaker's steps ringing
on the hard floor of the gangway down which they were advancing. He came
up to them panting, in a moment.

"There's something mighty queer about this mine," the caretaker
declared. "It was punk dry only two days ago, and now there are four or
five feet of water where the gangway I started to follow dips down.

"And look there!" Will exclaimed holding his light aloft and pointing,
"you can see plenty of water ahead! I guess all the gangways are taking
a washing, and the water seems to be rising, too!"

"Is there any way by which the mine could be intentionally flooded?"
asked George. "There may be some one planning trouble for the owners."

"There is only one way that I know of in which the mine could be flooded
intentionally," replied the caretaker. "There is a large drain, of
course, in what is known as the sump. Considerable water runs off in
that way, and the rest of the drippings are taken out by the pumps. If
this sump drainage should become clogged, the mine, of course, would
become flooded though not to such an extent, unless the pumps were kept
constantly at work."

"Then I guess you'd better set the pumps going," Will suggested. "We
can't get into the mine in its present condition unless we swim."

"Haven't you got a boat?" asked George.

"Why, yes," replied the caretaker. "There's a couple of boats somewhere
in the mine. The operators placed them here thinking they might come in
handy at some future time, but I haven't any idea where they are now.
Still, I think they're not far away."

"If you'll go and set the pumps in motion," Will advised, "George and
I'll look around for the boats. We may need them before the pumps get
under motion the way the water is pouring in now."

"I guess Tommy and Sandy don't come back because they're penned in by
water," George suggested, as the boys began searching the vicinity of
the shaft for the boats.

"If they're anywhere within hearing distance, they ought to answer us
when we called out, hadn't they?" asked Will.

"We haven't tried that yet," George answered. "Suppose we let out a
couple of yells!"

To think in this case was to act, and the boys did let out a couple of
yells which brought the caretaker running back from the shaft.

The boys were listening for some answer to their shouts when he arrived,
and so they paid little attention to his numerous questions.

"There is no time to lose," Canfield went on. "I'll go to the top at
once and call an engineer and a couple of firemen. When you find the
boat, take a trip down the main gangway here and stick your lights into
all the crossheadings and chambers you see. But, above all," he
continued, "don't fail to leave a light here at a shaft, and be careful
that you never pass out of sight of it."

Canfield hastened away, climbing the ladders two rungs at a time, and
soon disappeared into the little dot of light at the top.

The two boys searched patiently for the boat for a long time, but did
not succeed in discovering it. At last, Will suggested that it might be
in the mule stable and thither they went.

The boat was there, in excellent condition, and the boys soon had it
swinging to and fro on the surface of the water which now lay several
feet deep in the main gangway.

"Je-rusalem!" exclaimed George, taking the depth of the water with an
oar, "if the water is four feet deep here, how deep must it be at the
middle of the dip?"

"About forty rods, I should think!" exaggerated Will.

The boys left a large searchlight at the shaft, so situated that it
looked straight down the passage they proposed following, and started
away in the boat. The flashlights illuminated only a small portion of
the underground place, but the boys could see some distance straight
ahead.

Once they ceased rowing to listen, believing that they had heard calls
from the darkness beyond. The sound was not repeated, and they were
about to proceed when a sound which brought all their nervous energy
into full swing reached their ears.

It was the bumping of an oar or paddle against the side of a boat. The
blow echoed through the cavern as sharply as a pistol shot might have
done. There could be no mistake in the cause.

"Now who's in that other boat?"

"Somehow," George grumbled in a whisper, "we always have propositions
like that put up to us! There's always a mystery in every trip we take!
We found one on Lake Superior, and one in the Florida Everglades, and
one at the top of the Rocky mountains and one in the Hudson Bay
wilderness."

"Yes, and we solved them, too!" grinned Will. "And we're going to solve
this one! You remember about my seeing some one sneaking in here just
ahead of us, don't you?"

"Yes," was the answer. "You thought it was that bum detective."

"I think so yet," replied Will.

"If it's the detective," asked George, "why didn't he give the alarm
when he found that the mine was being flooded. He might at least have
done that and saved the company a great deal of expense and trouble."

"Give it up," replied Will. "I might ask you," he went on, "why he was
rowing away into a flooded mine which is supposed to be deserted."

"And I'd have to give you the answer you gave me," George declared.

The boys could now hear the strokes of the oarsman who was in the lead
quite regularly and distinctly. Now and then he turned into
crossheadings and chambers, as if to escape from their surveillance, but
they kept steadily on after him, not taking into account the fact that
they were leaving the light they had set at the shaft far out of view.

"Perhaps we ought to turn back now," George proposed, in a short time,
seeing that they came no nearer to the boat in advance. "We left the
main gangway some time ago, and we ought not to get too far away from
it."

Will turned and looked back, facing only an inky blackness.

"We should have stuck to the main gangway," he said. "I don't even
remember when we left it! Is it very far back?"

"Some distance," answered George. "You see we followed this other boat
without thinking what we were doing."

"Perhaps, if we continue to follow the other boat, it will lead us
somewhere. The fellow rowing must know something about the interior of
the mine or he probably wouldn't be here!"

"I've been listening for a minute or more, trying to catch sound of the
fellow's oars," George went on, "but there's nothing doing. I guess he's
led us into a blind chamber and slipped away!"

"We don't seem to be lacking for excitement," Will suggested with a
grin. "We've lost Tommy and Sandy, and the machinery of the mine has
been interfered with, and the lower levels are filling with water! Any
old time we start out to do things, there's a general mixup!"

"Aw, quit growling and listen a minute," suggested George.

The boys listened only for a moment when the sound George had heard was
repeated. It was the call of the Wolf pack!

CHAPTER VI

THE BEAVER CALL

"That's Tommy!" exclaimed Will.

"I never knew that he belonged to the Wolf Patrol!" George observed.

"He might give the call without belonging to the Patrol!" urged Will.

The boys listened, but the sound was not repeated, although they called
out the names of their chums and gave the Beaver call repeatedly.

"I guess it was a dream," George suggested.

"Then it was the most vivid dream I ever had!" Will declared.

They rowed about the chamber for some moments searching for the source
of the call, but to no purpose.

"Let's go back to the shaft," urged George.

"I'm agreeable," answered Will. "The only question now is whether we can
find the shaft. The water is so deep that all branches of the mine look
alike to me!"

In passing out of the chamber into another passage the boys were obliged
to stoop low in order to avoid what is called a dip.

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