The Call of the Beaver Patrol
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V. T. Sherman >> The Call of the Beaver Patrol
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"Stand clear! Stand clear!"
"That's Ventner's voice!" exclaimed Will.
"There's a blast going off in a minute!" the voice came again.
"Now we've gone and done it!" exclaimed Will. "After all the trouble
we've taken to make that fellow think we've left the country, we've let
him bump right into us. I wonder if he really has fired the fuse."
"Stand clear! Stand clear!" shouted the voice.
Almost before the words had died out, the explosion came, tearing more
than one pillar out of position and dropping a great mass of slate down
on the floor of the cross-cutting.
For a moment the gases which filled the chambers were overpowering. The
only wonder was that they were not ignited. The electric lights carried
by the boys shone dimly through the smoke of the confined place.
"There goes Ventner," whispered Will, pointing to a figure moving
swiftly through the half-light of the place.
"He's going to see what the shot brought down!" suggested Tommy.
The boys rushed forward in a little group. When they gathered at the
scene of the explosion, the detective was not there.
"If he got hold of the cash, he knew what to do with it all right!"
exclaimed Tommy. "He got away with it before we got a chance to see what
he had. Now we've got to catch him!"
"May as well look for a needle in a load of hay!" grumbled Sandy.
"Look here," Jimmie exclaimed. "There's a way to keep him shut up in the
mine if we do the right thing. This cross-cutting runs out to a gangway
on the north, and that, in turn, leads, of course, to the shaft. Now,
one of you boys duck out to the shaft and see that he doesn't get up.
You'll have to go some on the way there, because a man with two hundred
thousand dollars in his pocket will put up some running match!"
"I'm off!" shouted Tommy. "I know I can get to the shaft before he can!
He's too fat-bellied to run, anyway!"
Tommy started away at a swift pace, and the other boys closed in on the
gangway, Will alone stopping at the scene of the explosion.
"This gangway," Dick explained, "runs back into the mine for some
distance, but there are no cross passages. I guess the coal wasn't very
good here. At least, they never spread out the drive."
"Then we've got him bottled up unless he got out of the shaft!" declared
Sandy. "We'll soon know whether he got out or not!"
"I don't believe he would try to get out," suggested Elmer. "The chances
are that he'd make for the back of the mine, thinking to hide away with
the plunder, provided he had any plunder to hide away with."
"I'm afraid he found the hidden money," Will said, taking a scorched
ten-dollar bill from a pocket. "I found this back there, where the
pillar fell. I guess he found the cash all right!"
"And that's a nice thing, too!" exclaimed Sandy. "You boys kept saying
that Ventner was helping you find the coin. You were right about that,
for he did find the coin. And now the trick is to get it away from him!"
"I'd like to know whether Ventner got up the shaft or not," suggested
George, "and I believe I'll take a run up there and see.
"That's a good idea!" advised Will. "If he didn't get up the shaft he's
surely imprisoned in the gangway. He may be between this cross-cutting
and the shaft, or he may have gone further in!"
"It'll take a long time to find out about that," suggested Jimmie.
Directly Tommy and George were heard returning from the shaft. They came
through the gangway flashing their lights in every direction.
"He never went up the shaft!" Tommy exclaimed as they came near. "We've
got him canned in the mine all right. If he's got the money, we'll take
it away from him! He wouldn't know what to do with it, anyway!"
"First," suggested Will, "we'd better make sure that the fellow got the
money. The bank note I found may have never been in the possession of
Mr. Carson. And even if it was, it may be the only one to be blown out
of its hiding place by the explosion. It strikes me that we'd better
give the place a thorough search before we waste much time looking for
Ventner. If, as Tommy says, he never left the mine by way of the shaft,
we've got him blocked in, all right!"
The boys now began a careful examination of the cross-cutting where the
explosion had taken place. As has been stated, more than one pillar had
been blown out. There was a great heap of debris on the floor, and this
the boys attacked with a vim.
Tommy and George were now standing guard at the mouth of the
cross-cutting so that no one could pass down the gangway toward the
shaft.
"Suppose that fellow did get the money?" asked Sandy, as the boys
cleared away the heaps of slate, "what then?"
"Then we'll have to take it away from him!"
"We'll catch him first."
"We've got him blocked in, haven't we?" asked Sandy.
"Oh, we know that he can't get out," Dick cut in, "but we know, too,
that there are a lot of shallow benches along that gangway. We can't
walk in and pick him out in a minute. Besides," the boy continued, "when
we find him, we may find his pockets empty."
"That's just what we will do!" Elmer agreed. "He'll hide the money in
another place, and swear that he never found it!"
"I wish we'd kicked him out of the mine!" exclaimed Sandy.
The boys continued their search until daylight, and then, leaving Tommy
and George still on guard, they went up to the old tool house for
breakfast. The lads were by no means elated over what had taken place.
They believed that Ventner had succeeded in finding the money, and were
certain that, even if located in the mine, he would deny any knowledge
of it.
"I guess we got you boys into a mess by insisting on having the
detective roaming around," admitted Elmer, as the boys were eating a
hastily prepared breakfast. "I guess we should have listened to you in
regard to that. There is no knowing how much trouble we have made!"
"He may help us find the money after all!" laughed Will.
"Yes," cut in Sandy, "it may be easier to get it away from him than to
find the place where it was hidden."
"Oh, yes, if we could lay our hands on him and order him to give up two
hundred thousand dollars, and he would say: 'Yes, I've been waiting to
find the owner,' that would be all right, too! But the thing isn't
likely to turn out in that way! He'll hide the money, and swear he never
found it! Then, when everything quiets down, he'll sneak back and get
it!"
This from Jimmie, who seemed to take a rather gloomy view of the
situation. The boys remained at the old tool house only a short time.
Their minds were fixed so intently on the work in hand that they hardly
knew whether they had had any breakfast at all.
As they passed down the ladders to the lower level, they heard something
which resembled a pistol shot, and almost tumbled over each other
getting down into the gangway. Will and Elmer were first to reach the
cross-heading where the explosion of dynamite had taken place.
They called to Tommy and George, but received no answer. They walked for
some distance down the gangway without hearing any sound indicating the
presence of their companions, or of any one else.
"Now that's a funny thing!" exclaimed Will. "I don't see why those boys
should go rambling about the mine at a time like this just for the fun
of the thing!"
"They never did!" replied Elmer. "You remember the shot we heard!"
"It might not have been a shot!" suggested Will.
As the boy spoke he bent over and pointed to three stones lying on the
floor of the gangway.
"There!" he said. "The boys have left a record. They not only point out
the trail, but warn, us that there is danger in following it!"
CHAPTER XVIII
TWO HOLD-UP MEN
"That's Boy Scout talk all right!" exclaimed Elmer.
"Yes, the three stones, piled one on top of the other, mean that there
is danger in following the trail. I don't understand exactly what kind
of danger can be threatening us, and so the only thing we can do is to
go on and find out," Will said with a glance backward.
The other boys now came up and a short consultation was held. It was
decided to leave Sandy and Dick at the point where the explosion had
taken place, while Will, Elmer and Jimmie followed on down the gangway.
"Now whatever you do," warned Will as the two boys were left behind,
"don't leave this gangway for a minute. If Ventner isn't out of the mine
now, we don't want him to get out. He may have the money or he may not.
That is one of the things no fellow can find out at this time, but
whether he has or not, we want him to give an account of himself before
he leaves the Labyrinth. He's got several important questions to
answer."
The boys promised to watch the passage faithfully, and the others passed
on down the gangway, flashing their lights in every direction and making
no pretense of moving quietly.
"Look here," Jimmie said after they had proceeded some distance into the
mine and discovered nothing of importance, "I have in my possession a
great idea! Want to hear about it?"
"Sure!" laughed Will.
"We're making too much noise."
"Making too much noise in order to attract the attention of a couple of
lost youngsters?" asked Elmer.
"They're not lost!" insisted Jimmie. "They've been lured away or dragged
away! We don't know how many men were in the mine with Ventner!"
"Well, produce your idea!" Elmer exclaimed.
"Well, my notion is that I ought to go on ahead of you boys, walking as
quietly as possible and without a light. If there are people waiting to
snare us, they'll naturally think we've bunched our forces and are all
coming along together. Then, you see," he continued, "I'll be right in
among them before they suspect that we have a skirmish line out."
"That's an all right notion, kid!" answered Will.
"Then I'll be on my way," Jimmie replied. "And if I need help at any
time, I'll give the call of the pack!"
"But you mustn't do that unless you have to," Will cautioned, "because,
the minute the cry is heard, everybody within eighty rods would know
what's going on. Have you matches with you?"
The boy felt in the pockets of his coat and nodded.
"Well, then," he said, "if you want to signal, wet your hands and rub
the phosphorus off the matches. Turn your hands, palms in our direction,
so no one can see from the other side and wig-wag."
"That will be fine!" exclaimed Jimmie. "I've got this wig-wag system
down pat. I guess this Boy Scout training is pretty poor, ain't it, eh?
The darker it is, the better we can talk!"
Jimmie darted away, while Will and Elmer remained stationary for a short
time in order to give him an opportunity to get out of the range of
their lights. Directly they heard him whispering back and listened.
"There's another stone cairn here!" he said. "I guess I knocked it over,
for I can't tell exactly what it is. You can learn that when you come up
with your searchlights! I think there are three stones."
"All right!" Will whispered back.
When the boys came to the spot from which the voice had been heard they
found three stones lying side by side on the floor of the gangway. It
was plain that they had been placed one on top of the other, and so they
accepted them as another warning of danger.
"I wish we had some intimation of the kind of trouble we are likely to
get into," Elmer suggested, as they passed along. "I don't like this
idea of boring a hole in the darkness with a little bit of a light and
anticipating an attack at any minute."
"I don't like it a little bit myself," replied Will.
"A person so inclined might shoot us down without ever showing himself,"
declared Elmer. "In fact, the only protection we have lies in the fact
that Jimmie is on ahead, and would not be likely to pass any one lying
in wait for us. Bright little boy, that!"
"There he is now!" exclaimed Will. "He's using the phosphorus, all
right, and I can begin to understand what he's trying to say? There's a
'W', and an 'A', and an 'I', and a 'T'. That means that he wants us to
stay where we are. The system works fine, doesn't it?"
The question now was as to whether the lads should extinguish their
lights. That, of itself, they understood would be suspicious in case
they should be in sight of their enemies. It would simply proclaim their
knowledge of the danger they were in, whatever it was.
"I think we'd better keep the lights going until we hear something
more," Elmer said. "Jimmie will talk again in a minute."
The boys waited patiently for some moments, and then the wig-wag figures
came again. Will read slowly:
"There's a 'V', and an 'E', and an 'N', and a 'T', and an 'N', and an
'E', and an 'R'," he said. "Now the boy's starting it again. He says,
'Ventner is here.' Now wait a minute, there's more coming!"
"The next words are: 'With two others'."
"It's only a question of time when that detective will get next to the
wig-wag game," Elmer declared. "This gangway smells like a match factory
already. I wonder how far Jimmie is away from them."
Directly Jimmie began talking the wig-wag tongue again. This time he
said that Tommy and George were not in sight, and had evidently been
surprised and taken prisoners. He advised Will and Elmer to come on
softly with their lights out.
The boys did as requested, but they had advanced only a few paces in the
darkness when Canfield, accompanied by Sandy and Dick came running up,
showing both lack of breath and profound excitement.
"Boys," Canfield called. "Boys!"
"Will!" yelled Sandy.
"I guess they're going to bust up the whole combination!" declared Will
rather sourly. "I wish I had them by the neck!"
"They may have important news," suggested Elmer. "Anyway, we'll have to
turn on our lights and meet them. If we don't, they'll keep on yelling
all down the gangway!"
Canfield and the two boys came up as soon as Elmer showed a light, and
stood for a moment looking cautiously about.
"I don't think you boys ought to go any further into the mine!" Canfield
exclaimed, breathing heavily from the long chase down the passage. "I
have just received word that two of the most desperate hold-up men in
the country have taken refuge here. There's no knowing how they got over
to the mine, but it is a sure thing that they did get here, for a couple
of breaker boys saw them climbing into the breaker."
"What time was this?" asked Will.
"Oh, I don't know," replied Canfield. "The matter was reported to me
early this morning. I couldn't find you before, or you should have had
the news sooner. It isn't safe for you to go into the mine!"
"Your information," grinned Will, "comes a little bit late, but it's all
right, just the same! Ventner is in there, and there are two men with,
him. It's a mystery how they made their way in without being discovered,
but it seems that they did so."
"What are you going to do?" asked Canfield.
"We're going on into the mine."
"In the face of my warning?"
"It's just this way," answered Will. "We left two of the boys on guard
in this passage, not so very long ago, and they have disappeared. We
suspect that Ventner and the two men to whom you refer have good reason
to know something of their whereabouts."
"They won't injure the boys!" pleaded Canfield.
"We don't mean to give them a chance!" insisted Elmer. "We're going to
jerk those boys out so quick it'll make their heads swim!"
"But it's positively dangerous!" urged the caretaker.
"If there wasn't an element of danger in the situation, we wouldn't be
here!" replied Will. "I don't see as we need to run away from two
hold-up men, anyway," the boy went on. "Here are five boys and one full
grown man in the gangway. We ought to give a pretty good account of
ourselves, in case some one starts anything!"
"Where's the fifth boy?" asked Canfield. "It seems to me that you're
getting quite an accumulation of boys in here!"
"Two of the boys are Jimmie Maynard and Dick Thompson!" answered Will.
"You know you informed me quite positively not long ago that the two
lads were hundreds of miles from this place by this time."
"You might barricade the hold-up men and starve them out," suggested
Canfield, "that is, if you're sure they're in there!"
"We have just had a wireless from the interior," Elmer answered. "There
are three men in there, all right!"
"Well, it won't take any longer to starve three out than it would one!"
declared Canfield.
"Yes," Elmer cut in, "and about the first time the hold-up men got good
and hungry, they'd be sending out Tommy's ears or one of George's
fingers just as a warning to us not to meddle with their appetites."
Before long Jimmie began wig-wagging again, but before any words could
be formed the waiting boys heard a distant scuffle, a short, quick cry
of alarm, and then the phosphorus-covered palms disappeared from sight.
"They've got Jimmie!" Elmer said in a tone of dismay.
"Well, what are we going to do?" demanded Sandy. "We've got to do
something right away, and that's no story out of the dream book!"
"I don't suppose it would be of any use to rush them," suggested Elmer.
"They'd mow us down like rats!" declared Dick.
"It strikes me," Sandy said, "that we'd ought to get back further and
keep out of sight until we can decide upon some definite plan of
action."
"I've got an idea wandering around in the back of my brain," Will said.
"If the situation is exactly as I think it is, we may be able to get the
best of those hold-up men after all."
CHAPTER XIX
THE MONEY IN SIGHT
"Not while they have possession of the boys," Canfield declared,
dolefully. "They'll murder those boys if we shut off their supplies!"
"Oh, I don't know about that!" suggested Dick. "We've been mixed up in a
great many awkward situations, but we've always managed to save our
necks. We'll get the boys out in some way!"
"Look here, Mr. Canfield," Will said, "how well do you know this mine?"
"Every inch, of it!" was the reply.
"Every inch of every level," asked Will.
"Yes, sir!" replied the caretaker, rather proudly. "I can go into any
part of it without a light!"
"Then look here, Dick," Will directed. "You chase back to the old tool
house and bring back a long rope. And when you return, stop at the
second level. Some of us will meet you there."
"I hope you don't expect to pull these boys up through fifty or a
hundred feet of shale?" asked the caretaker.
"I don't know whether my scheme will work or not," Will answered, "but
it's worth trying! We shall have to leave at least two here, well armed,
and take the others with us. You'll have to act as guide, Mr. Canfield,
and we'll meet Dick when he comes down to the second level with the
rope. As soon as we get the boys out of their trouble, we can leave the
three outlaws in full possession of the mine. If we watch the shaft at
the old tool house, they can never get out without our knowing it!"
"I don't understand what you have in mind," faltered Canfield.
Leaving Sandy and Elmer in the gangway from which the wig-wag signals
had been shown, the others hastened up the ladder to the second level.
Then Dick ran away to bring the rope, while Will questioned the
caretaker regarding the fall between the two levels.
"You remember the old shaft, cut through years ago, and doubtless
deserted when the vein ran out, which at one time connected the two
levels, don't you?" asked the boy of the caretaker.
"There is such a place," replied the caretaker.
"Can you find it?"
"Of course I can."
"Does the fall open into the system of chambers in the center or to the
north? You understand what I mean! Is it possible to enter any of the
benches or chambers connecting with the north gangway on the lower level
by means of this deserted shaft?"
"I am not quite certain about that," replied Canfield, "but my idea is
that the north benches and chambers can be reached by means of that
opening. I am glad you thought of that," he went on.
Dick now returned with the rope, and the three proceeded down the second
level until they came to a confusion of passages and benches which would
certainly have bewildered any one not familiar with the mine.
"Unless I am very much mistaken," Canfield went on, "this passage, the
one straight ahead, runs almost directly over Tunnel Six. If I am right
in this, the deserted shaft is here."
"And Tunnel Six is the haunted corridor, isn't it?" asked Dick.
"That's where the lights have been seen!" replied the caretaker.
"You never believed in the ghost stories told about Tunnel Six?" asked
Will. "I should think you'd begin to see now that the alleged ghosts
were pretty material things."
"Well, I don't know about the ghosts," replied the caretaker, "but I
really was getting a little bit nervous when you boys arrived. You
know," he continued, "that we all feel a little shivery when we butt
into anything which we can't understand."
"Well, suppose you follow this passage to the end and see if you
discover anything like the deserted shaft," suggested Dick.
"You're not going to venture into the lower level again, are you?" asked
Canfield. "I don't blame you boys for wanting to rescue your companions,
but, at the same time, I don't want to see you throw your lives away.
Those are desperate men in Tunnel Six!"
"If my idea is worth anything at all," replied Will, "we'll get the boys
out without ever letting the hold-up men know that we are within a mile
of them. You know we had very little difficulty in getting out of the
chamber where we left the boat."
"Trust you boys for inventing ways of doing things!" exclaimed Canfield.
"Of course," Will said hesitatingly after a time, "it may be that this
deserted shaft doesn't connect with Tunnel Six, but even if it doesn't,
we'll find some way of getting to our friends from the new position. We
can only try, anyway!"
"I'm pretty certain that it connects with Tunnel Six," replied the
caretaker. "But you mustn't show your light when you approach the old
shaft," he went on, "because if it does connect with the chamber we
seek, and the chamber in turn connects with the north passage, the
robbers will see what we're doing."
"That's a valuable suggestion!" replied Will.
"I'll go on ahead," Canfield continued, "and find the old shaft. Then
you can follow on with the rope, and one of you boys can drop down and
see what can be discovered."
"It's dollars to apples," chuckled Dick, as the boys trailed along after
the caretaker, "that we find the three kids trussed up like a lot of
hens ready for the market in the chamber where you came so near getting
wet. I hope we do, at any rate!"
"There's one thing we overlooked," Will said as Canfield whispered to
them that he had found the deserted shaft, "and that is this: We should
have directed the boys in the gangway to have attracted the attention of
the outlaws by a little pistol practice while we are communicating with
our friends. They may be all packed away in the chamber together."
"Yes, we should have attended to that," replied Dick. "Perhaps I'd
better go back now and tell them to get busy with their automatics."
"We may as well investigate the situation here first," the other
answered.
The boys heard the caretaker creeping about in the darkness, and
presently a piece of shale or coal was heard rattling down the old
shaft.
"We'll have to get that blundering caretaker away from there," whispered
Will. "If we don't, he'll notify the hold-up men that we're getting
ready to do something! I've heard that about three-fourths of the people
in the world object to doing anything unless they can take a brass band
along, and I guess it's true."
"Say," Canfield whispered, calling back to the lads, "when that stone
dropped down, I heard something that sounded like a paddle slapping down
on the water. That room can't be wet yet, can it?"
"The Beaver call!" whispered Will.
"Right you are!" replied Dick. "The boys are there, all right!"
"Now the next thing to do is to find out if those highwaymen are
watching them," declared Will.
"I'll tell you that in a minute," Dick whispered.
As the boy spoke, he passed one end of the rope to Canfield.
"Hang on to it, whatever takes place!" he whispered, "and I'll drop down
and see what's going on."
"You must be very careful," warned Canfield.
"That's all right," answered Dick, "but we can't stand here all day
figuring out precautions. We've got to know right off whether there's
anyone in that chamber watching the boys!"
"What a joke it would be to put on a ghost in Tunnel Six!" laughed Will,
in a decidedly cheerful frame of mind, now that rescue seemed so near.
"Don't try any foolishness!" advised Canfield. "Let's rescue the boys if
possible and make our way out of this horrible place."
Will crawled to the edge of the shaft with Dick and whispered as he
lowered him into the dark opening below:
"Remember," he said, "that Ventner may have discovered the money. If so,
we must secure it before we leave the place! It will be just like him to
stow the bank notes away in some chamber like the one you are about to
enter. When you strike bottom, if there is no one in sight except the
boys, turn on your searchlight and take a good look over the interior of
the chamber.
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