THE SECRET DOOR.
frank and Joe were stunned by their impact with the solid ground. Fortunately for them it was nothing but earth, so no bones were broken. Moreover, the younger boy had not landed on top of his brother, so any injury on that account had been avoided.
Joe was the first to regain his wits. "Frank, are you all right?" he asked in a tense voice.
There was no answer for a few moments. Then Frank murmured, "Joe? Oh, I"m glad you"re here. But where are we? Gosh, my head hurts."
"Badly?" questioned Joe with a sinking feeling.
"No. Be O.K. in a few minutes. But where are we?"
"At the bottom of a hole in VilnofFs enclosure," replied Joe.
"Oh, yes!" said Frank, suddenly in full possession of his faculties. "I remember now. He said he is going to blow up the place. We must get out of here and report him!"
"Wish I had a light," complained Joe. "Come to think of it, I guess I have some matches."
"Don"t strike any!" begged Frank. "You recall Vilnoff admitted munitions are hidden here. Right now we may be next to some."
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His surmise was well taken. As the boys began to feel around in their dark prison, their fingers came into contact with boxes piled up. Suddenly Frank"s hand, feeling along a stone wall, touched a switch. Immediately the place was lighted up.
"An a.r.s.enal!" cried Joe, looking around.
The boys found themselves standing at the entrance to a wide subterranean room. On either side of a narrow aisle cases of bullets were piled to the ceiling, which was about six feet high. They were plainly labelled "Machine Gun Bullets," "Rifle Bullets," "Revolver Bullets," with various numbers to indicate their size.
"Let"s get out of here," urged Joe.
But how were they to do it r The entrance by which the boys had come in so unexpectedly was no longer open. To their horror they found that an iron door covered the hole. It had been securely fastened from the outside, making escape impossible.
"Trapped! "yelled Joe. "
"Maybe there"s an exit at the other end," exclaimed Frank, racing along the narrow pa.s.sage between the boxes. "Here"s a door," he cried in exultation.
On the side wall he found a lever, which he pushed. The iron door slid open noiselessly, revealing a long, narrow pa.s.sage. To the disappointment of the Hardys they saw no opening to the outside.
"Wonder what"s ahead of us?" queried Joe as he hurried along after his brother.
Frank was already moving a lever, which controlled the exit.
"More ammunition," he called over his shoulder, as he stepped into a storeroom beyond.
iyO The place was filled with wooden cases of rifles, but the boys did not stop to examine them. Their minds had but a single thought: to escape and if possible stop the mad inventor from carrying out his plans. After racing through another storage place filled with bombs, both lads held unvoiced ideas too fearful for words.
But a surprise awaited them at the end of a third narrow tunnel. As the door which led from it opened, a bell began to ring.
"Shut it quick 1" cried Joe.
Frank did so, but his action made no difference. In a moment the door opened again.
Framed in the opening, and looking at them with a sardonic smile, was Vilnoff! He gave vent to a cackling, demented laugh when he saw the boys.
"So!" he gloated. "You still try to stop me I But it is too late 1"
With that the door closed quickly. Hurriedly Frank pushed the wall lever on his side, but this time it did not seem to work. Joe groaned. In a moment, however, the mechanism slowly responded.
"He"s gone! "cried Frank.
The boys found themselves in a large room filled with machinery which was set firmly in a concrete floor. A brilliant electric light illuminated every corner of the place.
Vilnoff was nowhere in sight. The Hardys saw a. a. closed steel door at the other side of closed steel door at the other side of the room, but at first their attempts to open it were futile.
"He must have gone through there, I"m sure," Frank declared thoughtfully.
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A row of push-b.u.t.tons beside the door attracted Joe"s attention.
"Perhaps one of these controls the opening and closing," he suggested.
Joe pushed the first b.u.t.ton. Instantly all the lights in the chamber went out, leaving the boys in total darkness. Hastily the lad switched them on again.
He tried toe next one. A giant motor at the far end of the room began to hum, throwing off blue sparks. Joe turned it off and pushed the b.u.t.ton below.
Slowly the big steel door began to move. On well-oiled hinges it slid open silently before them, revealing another room beyond.
The boys hurried through the doorway. They were scarcely over the threshold when the big hinge began swinging back, thudding shut softly behind them.
"Caught!" cried Frank in alarm.
"Automatic electric control, I guess," said Joe. "There must be another device for re-opening the door."
Vilnoff was not in the second room. The place was filled with switches, a great maze of electric wiring, several dynamos, transformers and similar equipment. A safety rail ran around the formidable array.
Like the previous place, this one, too, was equipped with a steel door controlled by an electric b.u.t.ton. The boys debated whether they should go ahead.
"No use turning back," declared Frank. "If Vilnoff went through that door we"ll follow him and track him down if we can. It"s too late to get help from the outside."
"O.K.," said Joe. "I"m with you."
He found the proper switch, and the door swung 172 open before them. The moment they were in the next chamber it closed automatically.
This compartment was smaller, and contained only a switchboard and a telephone. A hasty examination revealed the fact that all the signs, alarms and charged wires guarding the forbidden territory could be controlled from this one centre.
"What a layout 1" exclaimed Frank, taking stock of the situation. "This place is a regular fortress."
"But where"s Vilnoff ?"
"There is still another door."
Frank then examined the switchboard more closely. One of the signs was marked "Red Hand Sign Post." Another read, "Storage Vault No. i." A third controlled "Electric Wiring-East Side," and so on, covering all parts of the fence surrounding the property. One of them was labelled "Artificial Tree."
Joe tried the push-b.u.t.ton beside the opening to the control room. It clicked. The door swung open, revealing a room beyond. But it was in total darkness!
"He probably switched off the light as he went through," Frank suggested. "We"ll go on in."
"Be careful!" warned Joe. "Vilnoff is no doubt armed."
Frank stepped boldly across the threshold with Joe behind him. Then, echoing through the chamber, they heard a hideous, high-pitched laugh, that ended in a scream of exultation.
Abruptly the whole chamber was flooded with light. There, before them, stood Vilnoff!
He was standing with his back to the far wall, facing the boys. Directly before him was a row of formidable 173.
iron levers, on two of which his hands rested. The Hardys started forward and would have seized the man, but he snarled so menacingly that they halted.
"Back!" rasped the eccentric foreigner. "Stand back, you fools! Each von of dese levers is connected with switches. I am vaiting now-for de first explosion dat vill blow up dis place and make great trouble in your beloved Bayport!"
As the horrified boys watched, Vilnoff glanced at an electric clock on the wall.
"In twenty minutes," he said triumphantly, "dere vill be an explosion. At each succeeding ten minutes dere vill follow anodder."
Frank made an involuntary lunge toward the levers.
"Don"t touch dem!" yelled Vilnoff. "It is too late now. Dey are set. I am smart, but I must die. You are smart boys, but you must die with me!"
CHAPTER XXIV.
THE RIDE AGAINST DEATH.
the Hardy boys realized that there was nothing to be lost and perhaps everything to be gained if they would make a desperate effort to seize the mad inventor. Frank edged a little closer toward Vilnoff, at the same time trying to hold the maniac in conversation.
"The levers are all set, you say?"
"Ach yes, all set!" chuckled Vilnoff. "De connections have been made. No one can communicate with de outside vorld. Dere is no hope for any of us now. I shall die wid de rest."
Frank had edged a little closer, when he noticed that the man"s hands had relaxed on the levers. Joe saw his brother"s intention, but realized the s.p.a.ce between the lad and Vilnoff was dangerously wide. He had an idea.
"Vilnoff!" Joe shouted in a deep voice.
The inventor swung around, alarmed. He was momentarily deceived by the trick, and that period of hesitancy gave Frank the extra time he needed. He sprang across the open s.p.a.ce, flung himself against the man, and hurled him away from the deadly levers. Vilnoff, however, slipped out of the boy"s grasp like an eel.
"You shall never take me alive!" he shrieked. "I vould radder die."
Twisting about, he suddenly plunged into a tiny closet close to an instrument panel on the wall, and slammed the door behind himself.
"He"s escaped 1" shouted Joe.
The words were scarcely out of his mouth before there came a livid blue flash that seemed to leap from the closet door. Then it fell open, and the limp body of Vilnoff tumbled out, sprawling on the concrete floor.
"The end of a warped but brilliant brain," said Frank as the boys looked down at the huddled figure soberly. "Perhaps he had that wire rigged up for just this kind of an emergency."
"Maybe there"s a chance yet to save Bayport!" exclaimed Joe.
Frank looked quickly at the electric clock on the wall.
"Joe, it"s midnight! Dad and the police will be at the west gate! They must be warned!
You"ll have to do it, Joe."
"Warn them?" exclaimed his brother. "I couldn"t get there in twenty minutes if I should run every step of the way. We"re a long distance from that gate."
"Topnotch! Get the horse and make him race as he has never raced before!" Get the horse and make him race as he has never raced before!"
"But what of you?" quavered Joe.
"I took notes of things around here and maybe I can save the situation yet by crippling the machinery."
"You"ll be killed!"
"I"ll take that chance," said Frank with set jaws. "But if Vilnoff was telling the truth, this whole place will be destroyed, and Bayport badly damaged. We 176 can"t both run away from here and leave all this machinery set as it is. Hurry, Joe. If I come out of this alive I"ll go back to the Sleuth Sleuth and return home by water." and return home by water."
No one knew better than did Frank that the odds were strongly against him. Would he be able to foil the dead inventor"s diabolical schemes before the twenty and ten minute periods should be up? Every second was precious to him. He grabbed Joe"s hand.
"So long, Joe! Do the very best you can."
"Oh gee, Frank, I can"t let you do this." Joe"s voice was shaky.
"I must," said Frank. "And you must go!"
The Hardy boys knew they might never see each other alive again. Yet there was no use to delay. There was work to be done. Joe turned and went over to the door.
"If I can get above ground," he said, "I"ll be off!"
He pressed a push-b.u.t.ton in the wall. As he suspected, the switch controlled the door mechanism, which swung open before him. He hastened into the next chamber.
From room to room he went, doors opening before him in response to the controlling switches. At last Frank heard him climbing steps.
"I"ve found a way out," Joe shouted.