CHAPTER XVII
A MEETING UNDER GROUND
"Some one's got the combination to this channel, all right!" Chesterrepeated as he joined Will in the larger cavern.
"Did you see them?" asked Will.
"Can't see anything," was the reply, "it's too dark!"
"Then how do you know there's some one coming?"
"We saw them coming toward the cave, didn't we?" asked Chester.
"Look here," Will exclaimed. "Did you see any one entering the mouth ofthis tunnel?"
"When the mouth of the tunnel is clear," Chester replied, "there's afaint mist of light visible. While I lay up there watching I heardwhispering voices and the entrance was blocked."
"Perhaps they've rolled the boulder in front of it," suggested Will.
"You don't like the idea of being caught like a rat in a trap any morethan I do," Chester said, "but I really believe that if we ever get outof here alive, we'll have to head toward the west and make our exit onthat side of the range."
"I'd like to know how many people know about this hiding place!" Willgrumbled. "If people walk out of the valley and drop down here, theremay, for all we know, be others in hiding further down."
"That's a fact," Chester admitted.
"I wish we knew who the people are who are entering the tunnel," Willsaid. "It may be the robbers, or the detectives, or the sheriffs. It mayeven be your father, for all we know."
"Well, shall we move on down to see if we can find an outlet?" askedChester. "That seems to me to be the best thing to do."
"It strikes me that that is the only thing we can do."
The boys were moving on down the almost level floor of the chamber inabsolute darkness, for they did not consider it safe to show theirelectrics when they heard a chuckle in the darkness.
They drew up instantly and listened.
"That's Tommy!" declared Will.
"It can't be," replied Chester.
"Don't you suppose I know that chuckle?"
"Well, the boys weren't with the men I saw near the mouth of thecavern," declared Chester.
The boys listened again for some moments, and then caught sight of afinger of light far up the slope of the tunnel.
"That's a searchlight!" declared Chester.
"It surely is," agreed Will.
While the boys stood in the darkness, waiting and listening, they hearda voice which they had no difficulty in recognizing as that of Tommy.
"This is some basement stairway," the boy said.
The next moment George's voice was heard.
"We must be about nine stories under ground by this time," he said.
There was silence for a moment and then Tommy was heard to ask:
"What's become of our chaperons?"
"There's something doing out in the lobby," the boys heard George say,"and I guess they went back to defend their home and fireside."
"I hope they'll get a couple of bullets in their domes!" declaredChester. "They've helped us out several times, but they've never done itbecause they wanted to do us a favor!"
"Keep still a minute," Will suggested. "Let's hear what those boys aresaying. I'd like to know who they're talking about."
"I haven't got much use for the detectives," they heard George saying,"but I hope they'll get these train robbers and get them good andplenty!"
"So it's the train robbers!" exclaimed Will.
"I don't believe the detectives will ever get within a mile of therobbers," the boys heard Tommy say. "If anybody catches the outlaws,it'll be the sheriff of Fremont county."
"The man at the head of the cowboys?" they heard George ask.
"That's the fellow!" Tommy replied.
"He hasn't got 'em yet," George declared.
"Oh, he's had hard luck, all right enough," Will and Chester heard Tommysay, "but he's a nervy sort of a chap, and he'll take them out with himwhen he goes."
"That's the fellow that wanted to lynch us!" George grumbled.
"That was a bluff!" Tommy said. "That's the kind of third degreebusiness they go into out in the mountains. I guess that was all aby-play, anyhow. You don't catch no western sheriff lynching his ownprisoners. And this sheriff of Fremont county will just get even withthose train robbers for that hold-up!" the boy added.
The boys listened intently for a short time, not daring to show theirlight yet. From the conversation they had heard they understood thattheir chums had been placed in the tunnel for safe keeping, and theyfeared that their captors might appear at any moment.
After a time two shots came from the cavern end of the dry channel, andthe close air of the place became almost stifling with the smell ofpowder smoke. Then the two watchers heard George and Tommy scramblingdown to the place where they stood.
Will flashed his light but instantly closed it.
"Did you see that?" they heard Tommy ask.
"Sure I did!"
"What do you think it is?"
"I give it up!" replied George.
No one spoke for an instant and then the call of the Beaver came out ofthe darkness.
"Slap, slap, slap!"
"Do you mind that, now?" asked Will.
"I don't see how I could fail to recognize that!" Chester said.
"Of course not," Will agreed. "That's the call of the Beaver."
Will answered the challenge, and presently Tommy and George cametumbling down the tunnel into the larger opening and landed almost atthe feet of their chums. In their joy at the meeting, the boys almosthugged each other, which they would not have done in daylight!
"So they got you, too, did they?" asked Tommy.
"I should say not," answered Will.
"But you're here, ain't you?"
"Yes, but we came here of our own free will," Chester cut in.
"How'd you ever find it?" asked George.
"Just blundered into it," was the answer. "We were looking for father,and thought we might find him in the cavern where the three men wereseen around the campfire."
"So that passage out there is really the place where the mysteriousdisappearance took place? Where the three men went up in the air?"
"Where the three men came down into this dry channel!" corrected George.
"Who were the three men?" asked Will.
"If they leave it to me," George replied, "two of them were trainrobbers and the third was Chester's father."
"That's about the way we had it sized up," Will agreed.
"By the way, Tommy," asked Chester with a slight chuckle, "where's thebear meat you left the camp to get for breakfast?"
"I've got it out here in the cavern!" replied Tommy.
"Is that right, George?" asked Chester.
"We sure have a lot of it out in the vestibule!" agreed George.
"Let's see," Will said, nudging George in the ribs, "you went afterTommy to bring him back, didn't you?"
"Sure I did," answered George. "And I brought him back, didn't I?"
"You didn't bring him back to camp," Will answered.
"And you're the fellow who wig-wagged to us to come and escort the twoof you home," continued Will, addressing George with a laugh.
"Sure I wig-wagged," replied the boy.
"Then why didn't you stay there until we came up and tell us what youwanted. You're a fine boy to wig-wag!"
"Circumstances over which I had no control intervened," replied George."I got pinched."
Then the story of the adventures of Tommy and George were told and Willtold of the doings of those who had left the camp in answer to the callfor help.
"Then the sheriffs and their men are not far away?" asked Will.
"Why, they must be in the cavern," answered Tommy. "When the trainrobbers chucked us down into this dry sewer the sheriffs were enteringthe audience chamber on the outside."
"And where did the detectives go?" asked Will.
"I don't think they've got done going yet!" replied Tommy. "The trainrobbers took away their badges, and gave 'em two days in which to
getout of town. Gee!" the boy continued. "That sounds like Harrison streetstation, don't it? Give 'em two days to get out of town. They make mesick!"
"So they're all centering around this little old ex-aqueduct," Georgesaid. "In about five minutes the two sheriffs'll be crawling into thisold drain and taking the train robbers by the scruff of the neck."
"I'd rather the sheriffs would lug the detectives out of the country,"Chester observed. "They're the people who are looking for father."
"You want to keep mighty quiet about any one looking for your father,"Will advised. "We are sure to bunt into these two sheriffs before longand if they know that your father is now regarded as a fugitive fromjustice, they'll get him and ship him back to Chicago, all right!"
"The sheriffs got held up by the train robbers," Tommy went on, "butthey can't be blamed for that, and they tried to put us through thethird degree when they thought we were in cahoots with the robbers, butthey're game all the same. If you ever see those fellows in actionyou'll know there's something going on."
"And we're going to see them in action right now!" cried George.
A succession of shots came from the entrance to the old channel, and theboys heard the defenders scrambling down toward the chamber where theystood.