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 could see 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 pa.s.sage 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 pa.s.sed 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 launched through 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 sh.o.r.e, 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 sh.o.r.e, 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 sh.o.r.e 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 pa.s.sages through the hills and along sh.o.r.e, 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 sh.o.r.e 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 ash.o.r.e.
With anxious eyes the three chums and Ruth watched the rescue. They saw Mr. Hayward reach the bobbing head, saw him place an arm about the exhausted swimmer, and then strike out for sh.o.r.e.
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 sh.o.r.e.
CHAPTER XXVIII
RUTH TELLS HER SECRET
"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 sh.o.r.e, 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.