"Then why don"t you tell?"
"Couldn"t think of telling on an empty stomach!" laughed Jimmie provokingly.
As the boys walked along the pa.s.sage, only a short distance from the old tool house, they heard a rattling and b.u.mping on the shaft ladders and instantly extinguished their lights.
Presently they heard footsteps on the hard floor of the gangway, and then a light such as those being used by the boys flashed out.
"Now we"re in for it!" exclaimed Tommy.
"For the love of Mike, don"t let him see us!" whispered Jimmie.
"It"ll spoil everything if he does," d.i.c.k submitted.
The boys crowded close against the wall of the gangway and waited impatiently for Ventner to pa.s.s along.
He was muttering to himself as he moved down the gangway, and his round, protruding belly and his little shapeless shoulders reminded the watching lads of the gnomes they had read about, living in underground cells and preying at night upon the fairies.
Only for a trifling accident the boys would certainly have been discovered. Just as the detective same to a position ten or fifteen feet from where they were standing, when he was in a position to see their faces by the rays cast on ahead by the flashlight, he partly turned his ankle in a stumble on the rails, and for a moment the rays of the light were directed downward. He hobbled along, raving and cursing, for a few steps and then walked briskly on again.
But the ever-watchful eye of the searchlight no longer struck upon the wall where the boys stood, and they realized that for the present they were safe from discovery. Ventner moved on down the gangway and soon disappeared in a cross cutting which ran to the right.
"That"s lucky!" exclaimed Jimmie.
"Why didn"t we geezle him?" demanded Tommy.
"Because we want his help!" replied d.i.c.k.
"His help?" laughed Sandy. "Yes, you"ll get his help, all right!
That fellow would get up in the middle of the night to do you a dirty trick, and don"t you ever forget it!"
"That"s the way he"s going to help us!" laughed Elmer. "He"ll get up in the middle of some dark night to do us a dirty trick, and before he knows what he"s about, he"ll be doing us a great kindness!"
"Suppose I slip back there and see what he"s doing?" asked Tommy.
"Can you find your way back to headquarters alone?" asked Sandy.
"If I can"t," a.s.serted Tommy, "I won"t be sending any wireless messages to you! If you think I"m likely to get lost, d.i.c.k can go back with me. He ought to know every corner in the old mine."
"Sure he does!" laughed Jimmie. "We"ve been traveling this mine for a good many nights now, and we know it like a book."
So Tommy and d.i.c.k started back down the pa.s.sage, the intention being to hasten to the spot where Ventner disappeared from the gangway, and then return to their companions immediately.
"We can"t stay very long, you know," Tommy explained, "because you"ve got to have that peroxide dope put on your bites. It doesn"t pay to fool with wounds of that description!"
"We"ll be back to the old tool room as soon as they are!" answered d.i.c.k. "It will take only a minute to run down there and back!"
When the boys reached the cross-cutting into which Ventner had disappeared, they saw his light some distance away. It seemed to be in one of the chambers connected with the cross-cutting.
As they looked, the detective stepped forward into the circle of illumination and began working with a pick.
"Is he always doing that when you see him?", asked Tommy.
"You bet he is!" answered d.i.c.k.
"What"s he doing it for?"
"You"ll have to ask Elmer that."
"But you know, don"t you?"
"Of course I know, but I"m not going to tell, cause we all agreed that the story should never be told by any member of our party until Elmer gets ready to tell it. So you see you"ve got to wait!"
"If I had my way about it," gritted Tommy, "I"d go back there and geezle that b.u.m detective and wall him up in a chamber until he got hungry enough to tell the story himself. Then we wouldn"t have to go sneaking around the mine in order to keep out of his way!"
"That would be a foolish move," insisted d.i.c.k, "because every stroke of the pick Ventner takes he helps us along in the game we"re playing."
"You"re the original little mystery boy, ain"t you?" said Tommy rather crossly. "All right, I"ll get even."
The detective now moved farther along the cross-cutting and attacked a column of mingled rock and coal which helped to support the roof.
"The blithering idiot is going to try that trick again!" exclaimed d.i.c.k. "He"ll have the whole mine down on our heads if he doesn"t stop that business. He"s always cutting down pillars."
"Just say the word," declared Tommy, "and I"ll go stop him!"
"Let him go his own gait," replied d.i.c.k. "We"ll manage to keep out of the way of the falls, and he can run his own chances."
Presently they saw the detective take something which resembled a stick of dynamite from a pocket and begin the work of setting it into the pillar. The boys moved hastily back.
"Now what do you think of that for a fool?" exclaimed d.i.c.k. "He"ll have the whole mine down on our heads some day, just as sure as he"s a foot high! I hope he"ll be broken in two when the fall comes."
The boys stood some distance away watching the detective as he awkwardly manipulated the stick of dynamite.
CHAPTER XVI
CAUSED BY A FALL
In the meantime Sandy, Elmer and Jimmie reaching the old tool house, found Will and George very wide awake and doing the most extraordinary stunts of cooking.
"You said that your friends would be hungry," laughed Will, "and so we"re preparing to feed them up fine. After that, you know, you"ve got to go on and tell us why we were sent down here without any real information as to the work we were to do."
"Where did you leave, Tommy and d.i.c.k?" asked George.
"They went back to see what the detective was up to."