"We kin git out that way," she said.
The boys wondered why they had not discovered the door when they examined the place, but there was no time for investigation.
Kate Kenyon flitted lightly toward the opening. Pausing beside it, she pointed downward, saying:
"Go ahead; I"ll foller and close ther door."
The boys did not hesitate, for they placed perfect confidence in the girl now. Barney dropped down in advance, and his feet found some rude stone steps. In a moment he had disappeared, and then Frank followed.
As lightly as a fairy, Kate Kenyon dropped through the opening, closing the door behind her.
The boys found themselves in absolute darkness, in some sort of a narrow, underground place, and there they paused, awaiting their guide.
She came in a moment. Her hand touched Frank as she slipped past, and he caught the perfume of wild flowers. To him she was like a beautiful wild flower growing in a wilderness of weeds. The touch of their hands was electric.
"Come."
The boys heard the word, and they moved slowly forward through the darkness, now and then feeling dank walls on either hand.
For a considerable distance they went on in this way, and then the pa.s.sage seemed to widen out, and they felt that they had entered a cave.
"Keep close ter me," directed the girl.
"Here, give me your hands. Now you-uns can"t git astray."
At last a strange smell came to their nostrils, seemingly on the wings of a light breath of air.
"What is that?" asked Frank.
"Ther mill whar ther moonshine is made."
"Oh!"
Now the boys recognized the smell.
Still she led them on through the darkness. Never for a moment did she hesitate; she seemed to have the eyes of an owl.
All at once they heard the sound of gently running water.
"Is there a stream near?" asked Frank.
"Lost Creek runs through har," answered the girl.
"Lost Creek? Why, we are still underground."
"An" Lost Creek runs underground. Have ye fergot that?"
So the mysterious stream flowed through this cavern, and the cave was near one of the illicit distilleries.
Frank cared to know no more, for he did not believe it was healthy to know too much about the makers of moonshine.
It was not long before they approached the mouth of the cave. They saw the opening before them, and then, of a sudden, a dark figure arose there--the figure of a man with a gun in his hands!
CHAPTER XLIV.
FRANK"S SUSPICION.
"It"s all right."
Kate uttered the words, and the boys began to recover from their alarm, as she did not hesitate in the least.
"Who is it?" asked Frank.
"Dummy."
"Who is Dummy?"
"A cousin o" mine. He"ll do anything fer me. I put him thar ter watch out while I war in hyar."
They went forward. Of a sudden, Kate struck a match, holding it so the light shone on her face, and the figure at the mouth of the cave was seen to wave its hand and vanish.
"Ther coast is clear," a.s.sured the girl. "But it"s gittin" right nigh mornin", an" we-uns must hustle away from hyar afore it is light. We won"t lose any time."
The boys were well satisfied to get away as quickly as possible.
They pa.s.sed out of the dark cavern into the cool, sweet air of a spring morning, for the gray of dawn was beginning to dispel the darkness, and the birds were twittering from the thickets.
The phantom of a moon was in the sky, hanging low down and half-inverted as if spilling a spectral glamour over the ghostly mists which lay deep in Lost Creek Valley.
The sweet breath of flowers and of the woods was in the morning air, and from some cabin afar on the side of a distant mountain a wakeful watchdog barked till the crags reverberated with his clamoring.
"Thar"s somethin" stirrin" at "Bize Wiley"s, ur his dorg wouldn"t be kickin" up all that racket," observed Kate Kenyon. "He lives by ther road that comes over from Bildow"s Crossroads. Folks comin" inter ther maountings from down below travel that way."
The boys looked around for the mute who had been guarding the mouth of the cave, but they saw nothing of him. He had slipped away into the bushes which grew thick all around the opening.
"Come on," said the girl, after seeming strangely interested in the barking of the dog. "We"ll git ter ther old mill as soon as we kin.
Foller me, an" be ready ter scrouch ther instant anything is seen."
Now that they could see her, she led them forward at a swift pace, which astonished them both. She did not run, but she seemed to skim over the ground, and she took advantage of every bit of cover till they entered some deep, lowland pines.
Through this strip of woods she swiftly led them, and they came near to Lost Creek, where it flowed down in the dismal valley.
There they found the ruins of an old mill, the moss-covered water-wheel forever silent, the roof sagging and falling in, the windows broken out by mischievous boys, the whole presenting a most melancholy and deserted appearance.
The road that had led to the mill from the main highway was overgrown with weeds. Later it would be filled with thistles and burdocks. Wild sa.s.safras grew along the roadside.