"I don"t know. Excuse me; I must go," exclaimed Tad. "The boy is in trouble again. I knew it--I knew he couldn"t keep out of it," he added, hurrying away from them.
Ned sprang down the steps after Tad and together they disappeared through a rear door in the auditorium.
CHAPTER XXII
LOST IN THE ADOBE CHURCH
Those up in the gallery could hear the two boys calling to their companion. There was no answer to their hails, and one by one the little party left the gallery.
"I tell you he is playing tricks on us," said Ned, after they had searched all over the place without finding any trace of Stacy.
"No; I don"t agree with you," answered Tad. "Something has happened to him."
"What shall we do?" asked Walter.
"Keep on looking. That is all we can do just now."
Once more they began their search, but with no better results than before.
"Have you looked outside?" asked Miss Brayton.
"Yes; we looked out. No use in hunting there, for we can see all around the place from the side door here," answered Tad. "He has gotten into some place that we know nothing about. We"ve got to find it, that"s all."
"I would suggest that one of us ride to camp and get some of the men to come out and help us," advised Walter.
"I"ll ride home, and have father send some of his own men," suggested Margaret.
"Yes; that would be best," agreed Miss Brayton.
"I wish you wouldn"t," replied Tad. "It would alarm them, and Professor Zepplin would be frightened. Ned, suppose you hustle for camp and tell Mr. Stallings the fix we are in. We shall need some help, that"s sure."
"All right. I"m off."
Big-foot Sanders and Curley Adams responded to the call on the run, the foreman being out with the herd at the time.
"I knew it," was Big-foot"s first words as he rode up and threw himself from his pony where Tad was standing. "Now tell me all about it."
Tad did so, the cowman nodding his head vigorously as Tad told him all he knew about Chunky"s mysterious disappearance.
"Which way did he go?" asked Curley.
"That we do not know," answered Miss Brayton.
"His cry seemed to come from the back of the church somewhere," spoke up Ned.
"We"ll go in and look around, then," decided Big-foot, striding into the church. "Whew! smells pretty musty in here. What"s that up there?"
"That"s where we were eating our lunch when we heard Chunky call,"
Walter informed him.
"How long since you had seen him--was he up there with you?"
"No; he had left us twenty minutes before we began eating lunch,"
answered Ned.
"Humph!" grunted the cowman, gazing about him in perplexity. "Sure it isn"t a trick?"
Tad shook his head.
"No. He was in trouble. I knew that from his tone."
"Then he must have fallen in some place," announced Big-foot. "He couldn"t fall up, so there"s no use looking anywhere but on the ground floor here," he decided, wisely. "Anybody know of any holes that he might drop into?"
"Not that I have seen," answered Ned. "The floor is as solid as stone."
"Well, that beats all. You boys scout around outside, while Curley and I are looking things over in here. Besides, I want to be alone and think this thing over."
"What do you make of it, Big-foot?" asked Curley Adams, after the others had gone outside.
"I ain"t making. When it comes to putting my wits against a spook place, I"m beyond roping distance. We"ll look into these holes in the wall around here, first," he said, referring to the niches and cell-like rooms that they saw leading off from the auditorium. "You make it your business to sound the floor. We may find some kind of trap door."
Curley went about bringing down the heels of his heavy boots on the hard floor, but it all sounded solid enough. There was no belief in the mind of either that the lad could have disappeared in any of the places they had examined--that is, that he could have done so through any ordinary accident.
Like most cowboys, both Curley and Big-foot possessed a strong vein of superst.i.tion in their natures. To them there was something uncanny in Stacy Brown"s mysterious and sudden disappearance.
"Here"s a door, but it"s closed," called Curley.
"That"s so," agreed Big-foot, hurrying over to him. "The thing is sealed up with mortar. Hasn"t been used in fifty cats" lives. Wonder what"s behind it."
"Not the boy; that"s certain."
"Nope. He didn"t fall through there."
"Find any other doors open or closed?"
"Nary a one."
"Well, that seems to settle this part of the ranch; we"ve got to look somewhere else. What bothers me is that we don"t hear him call. If he was anywhere near, and had his voice, he"d be yelling for help," decided the big cowboy.
"Don"t think he"s dead, do you?"
"I don"t think at all. I don"t know," answered Big-foot.
"It"s my idea that the gopher isn"t in here at all," announced Curley, with emphasis.