Chapter XVII
"THE TOMBS"
Dorothy's vigorous motion forced her assailant to relax his grip uponher throat, and as she felt his weight upon her shoulders, she lungeddown and backward. There was a dull, cracking thud, and the sound of abody falling. The back of her head struck one of the timbers thatsupported the ceiling of the tunnel. The place seemed to whirl round andround and glittering sparks danced before her eyes. When this sensationceased, Dorothy leaned back against the post into which she had flungherself in her apparently successful effort to shake off her opponent.
With the realization that the attack had halted and that her assailanthad either made his escape or was incapacitated, she fumbled in herpocket for a match.
"Where are you, Dorothy?" Bill's voice called from the dark void.
"Right here, old thing--by the wall."
She struck a light.
"All right?"
He looked pale and shaken in the flicker of the tiny flame. She saw thathe grasped the crowbar.
"A bit woozy," she replied, and lit the candle on the table. "Cracked myhead on a beam or something."
"That bearded guy didn't hurt you?"
"He didn't get a chance. Which way do you think he went?"
Bill laughed softly. "You put him out of business. Look!"
He pointed toward an upright and Dorothy saw a crumpled figure lyinghuddled at the base of the post.
"Goodness! You don't think I've finished him?" she breathed in horrifiedalarm.
"No such luck," he affirmed callously and bent over the man's body. "Sitdown until you feel better. This chap is only stunned. I'll take care ofhim."
Dorothy stumbled over to the table. Near-by was a chair. She droppedinto it.
"He bumped his skull on this post," Bill went on. "No great damage, Iguess. Funny--whenever there's a rough-house in the dark, somebodyinvariably gets a broken head. The three of us are even now."
"What are you going to do with him?" Her dizziness was passing.
"Oh, I'll give him as good as he gave me, and lash him to this upright."
He busied himself tying up the unconscious smuggler. When he hadfinished, he looked up and beckoned to Dorothy.
"Come over here. He's plenty secure now. This rope held me, I guessit'll hold him."
"What are you going to do now?"
"Find out who this chap really is."
His fingers peeled off the false beard and Dorothy cried out inastonishment.
"Mr. Tracey!" she gasped.
"It's Tracey, all right!"
"But who'd have thought that sleek pussy cat was mixed up in this?Aren't you surprised, Bill?"
"Not very. When his car had the breakdown this morning I began tosuspect. The whole thing was too darn opportune. He was part of theirsystem of watchers, of course. Probably wanted to find out how we'dtaken their warning."
"But surely Mr. Holloway can have nothing to do with it! He's such asweet old man."
Billy transferred two revolvers from Tracey's belt to his own.
"If you want my candid opinion," he said, "Old Holloway is the leaderand brains of the gang. Only it's going to be the dickens and all toprove it in a court of law."
Dorothy stared at him incredulously. "Why, Bill--are you _sure_?"
"Why not? He's just a double-dealer, that's all. That wise old bird iscertain to have a flock of cast iron alibis up his sleeve. He must havemade more than enough money out of this diamond smuggling to keepTracey's mouth shut--and the mouths of any others who may be corralled."
"I've got a hunch," said Dorothy.
"Let's have it."
"Not yet. I want to chew it over a bit. Let's go back now and get help."
"That's for you to do. I'm going on to the Castle and surprise whoever'sthere. I don't think they have a suspicion of what has happened downhere. Tracey never got that far, I'm sure of it."
"Well, you can take it from me that you're not going alone. I'm comingwith you."
Bill hesitated.
"Well, perhaps that's the best way, after all," he admitted at last. "Itwill take some time to get the proper people over here--and by thensomebody in the Castle might spot the crumpled plane and start toinvestigate. Time's more than money now--let's go."
"But do you think you can make it?"
"Can do," he said grimly. "I've got a sweet headache, but it might beworse. How about you?"
"Ditto," she smiled. "Are you going to drag that heavy crowbar?"
"Think it might be wise. Lucky I found it by that camouflaged dump. Ihad to bash the lock of the door to the main tunnel with it. And theremay be another door farther along."
"Then I'll take the candle," she said. With the light held well over herhead, she followed him out of the chamber.
The tunnel from here on was concreted, walls, roof and floor. Passingquickly along for possibly a hundred yards, they approached a steepflight of steps. At the top they found a closed door. Bill turned thehandle and it swung inward.
"Guess I won't need this any more," he said and braced the door openwith the crowbar. "If they're too many for us, we may have to leave in ahurry. Just as well to keep the way clear."
By the feeble light of the candle they saw that they stood in a smallwhitewashed cellar. Leading off this to the left, was an open corridor,and from some distance down this passage came the glow of electriclight. A large safe, painted white, was built into a corner of thecellar wall.
At a nod from Bill, Dorothy blew out the light and placed thecandlestick on the stone floor. Then as she straightened up he broughthis lips close to her ear.
"I'll bet that's where they keep the loot! Follow me, and hold your gunhandy."
One after the other, on tiptoe, the pair crept across the cellar, theirrubber-soled shoes making not the slightest sound. When they came to thecorridor, Bill slackened his pace but continued to stalk steadilyforward. On their left the whitewashed wall led straight on in anunbroken line. In the right wall, they saw the iron grills of cells.They passed the first, which was dark, and evidently empty. From thesecond came the glow of light.
Bill turned and placed a finger on his lips. Then he got down on hishands and knees and crawled forward to the door.
"Good heavens!" Dorothy heard him gasp. "So that's where they had you!"
He stood up and she hurried toward him.
"_Terry!_"
Her cry was one of absolute amazement. Through the grating she saw herlong lost friend, starting up from his cot where he had been readingwhen Bill's exclamation caused him to look around. Terry advanced to thedoor and greeted them.
"Well, by all that's wonderful! Dorothy! Bill Bolton! What--"
"Are you all right? You're not hurt or anything?" Dorothy's excitedwhisper broke in upon his incoherent surprise.
"No, I'm safe and sound, except that I'm pretty tired of reading--coopedup in this hole. But say, how did you two manage to get down here?"
"Through the tunnel," replied Bill with a grin.
"Gee, is there a tunnel, too? Never heard of it. How about that ladPeters and the others--you didn't see them?"
"No, we came through the cellar. Have you any idea where they are?"
"Upstairs, probably--in the house--playing cards. Since Peters came herea few days ago he's been bringing me my grub. He's quite chatty; likesto boast about how he trims those others at poker."
"How many men are there altogether, do you know?" asked Dorothy.
"I've never seen more than three at a time, unless you count theirbe-whiskered pilot I mixed it up with at the beach club. Remember him,Dorothy? But he doesn't come around much, so Peters says. He doesn'tlike him--thinks he's high-hat."
"Well, he's out of the picture, now," declared Bill. "We got him in thetunnel."
"Yes--and Terry, do you know that he is Mr. Tracey?" Dorothy could notcontain the exciting news any longer.
"Great grief! You don't say so! I never could stand that fellow
--didn'tthink he had sense enough to come in out of the rain. But then, younever can tell which way a cat will jump." He stepped closer to thegrill and looked anxiously from Bill to Dorothy. "Say, do you think youtwo could find a way of getting me out of here?"
"We left a grand crowbar in the cellar! Don't you think we could bashthe lock with it, Bill?"
"Might pry it open. But I'm afraid the noise would give us away--"
"Not a chance of that--if you mean it might disturb the poker players,"Terry interrupted. "There's a perfect whale of a sound proof door at thehead of the stairs. I was brought down that way. They always keep itshut."
"Good!" Bill hurried off to get the crowbar.
"What's all this about, Dorothy?" asked Terry. "All I know is that theselads held up my car the night of the Sillies. Some bird in a mask drew agun on me--my eyes were bandaged and I was popped into another bus andbrought over here. Where am I, anyway?"
"Why, you're in that old stone Castle--near North Stamford. This is adiamond smuggling gang we're up against. The local and the state police,not to mention Secret Service agents, have been scouring the country foryou. Wait till you see the newspapers! You're nationally famous! Butyour mother and father and the rest of us have been terribly worried."
Terry nodded. "I've been thinking of that," he replied. "But diamondsmugglers, eh! No wonder--" he whistled softly. "You've no idea what itwas like to be caged up here--thinking of the family and how terrible itwas for them--not knowing why I was here, or if I'd ever be set free.Yet they've not tried any rough stuff. Gave me plenty of books andmagazines, and enough decent food, thank goodness!"
Bill reappeared, carrying the bar.
"Now get back from the door, Terry," he cautioned. "I'm going to have ago at it with this."
He placed the end of the crowbar through the grating and behind thesteel disk which held the lock. Then he shoved it forward and sidewaysuntil that end was jammed between the inner edge of the door and theframe.
"Lend me a hand, please, Dorothy, and we'll see what a bit of leveragewill do."
Together they seized the crowbar and pulled. There was a sharp snap andthe door flew open.
"Good enough!" cried Terry. He sprang into the corridor and graspedtheir hands.
"You said it," laughed Bill. "That's the second time this bar has comein handy since we started this job. If we ever get out of here I'm goingto keep it as a souvenir."
"I'll take the diamonds," Dorothy added enthusiastically.
"What's on deck now?" inquired Terry.
Bill grew suddenly serious.
"Have you any idea where they keep themselves above?"
"It's ten to one they'll be playing poker in the kitchen. They'venothing else to do now, except to feed me--or so Peters says."
"Where's the kitchen? I mean, how do we get to it from here?"
"It's along this passage and up the staircase at the end. The door atthe top--the sound proof one--opens into the kitchen."
Bill handed Terry a gun. "Don't be afraid to use it," he commanded."They won't hesitate to shoot if they get a chance."
Terry looked at him in great disdain. "Say, just because I appear to bemy cheerful self and so on, don't get the idea that I've enjoyed thisrest cure. All I've been thinking about for days--and nights too--is thechance to get even with them. Now I have it." He patted the revolver.
"O.K. then, come along, both of you."
It was but a step to the turn in the passage. Directly ahead lay a steepflight of stairs. And at the top was the silent menace of the closeddoor.
Chapter XVIII
THE FLAGS
"Do you think it will be unlocked?" Bill dropped his voice to a whisper.The three were standing on the landing at the head of the stairs, facingthe door.
"Sure to be," returned Terry. "That is, if we can take friend Peters'word for it. He spilled all this dope when he'd had an argument with therest of the gang."
"Then let's go--" said Bill. "You stand to one side, Dorothy."
"Shucks!" With a twist of the handle, that young lady threw the doorwide and jumped into the room.
"Hands up! Stick 'em up!" she cried.
Two of the three men seated at the table complied at once with hercommand. Their hands shot above their heads with the rapidity oflightning. The third reached for a revolver that lay amongst thescattered cards.
"_Bang!_"
The man gave a cry of pain and caught at his shattered wrist with hisother hand.
Startled by the sudden detonation just behind her, Dorothy almostdropped her gun.
"Dog-gone it!" Terry seemed annoyed.
"What's the matter?" Bill still covered the men.
"Matter enough! Too much rest cure, I guess. Forgot to remove the safetycatch on this gat you gave me. Lucky you fired when you did."
"Well, never mind that now," Bill's words were crisp and to the point."Grab that clothesline and tie their hands behind their backs. That'sright! Dorothy, will you give first aid to that fellow's wrist? I'll seethat they don't play any tricks."
After securing the men, Terry searched their clothes and produced tworevolvers and a wicked looking knife. He also took a ring of keys fromPeters.
"Gee!" exclaimed that gentleman. "If it ain't the girl what blame nearkicked me teeth out I'll eat me bloomin' hat!"
"You'll eat skilly in Wethersfield Prison, or Atlanta, before you getthrough," Terry promised. "Shake a leg--both of you. Down to the cellsfor yours. Did you ever realize what a swell difference there is betweenthe titles of jailer and prisoner? March!"
"Wait a minute!" Dorothy cut in. "I'll help you take this man along,too. I've done all I can for him. It's a clean hole through his wrist.Bone's broken but the bullet missed the artery. He might be worse off."
Bill spoke from the doorway that led into the rest of the house. "Whileyou're gone I'll search this place for any other members that mightotherwise be overlooked!"
After housing the smugglers in cells, Dorothy and Terry returned to thekitchen and were surprised to find Bill speaking over the telephone.
"And that's that, Dad," they heard him say. "Spread the good tidings inproper places and make it snappy, please. Bye-bye!"
He placed the receiver on its hook.
"I guess you got that," he smiled. "Dad will phone the police andWashington. Then he's driving over here with Frank. And he will also letMr. Walters and your father know, Dorothy."
"Fine--I'm glad he thought of that!" Dorothy laughed in excitedapproval.
"Didn't take you long to search the place," said Terry.
"No--only a few rooms on this floor are being used. The staircase isthick with dust. Nobody up there--no footprints."
"Well, what's to do now?"
"We'll wait for Dad, of course," said Bill, "and then Dorothy and I canfly our respective planes home. How about it, pal? Feel able to dothat?"
Dorothy lifted her eyebrows in derision. "Well, I should hope so! Isuppose I do look pretty frazzled--but you don't seem in the bestcondition yourself. However--I've another plan."
"What's that?"
Terry had taken over the phone and was talking in low tones to hismother.
"Do you remember I told you I had a hunch, Bill?"
"Yes, I do. What about it?"
"We're going to follow my hunch."
"Where to?"
"Well, we'll start out of this house--by the front door this time, ifyou please--then across the meadow and through the wood to the fieldwhere our planes are parked."
"And--?"
"And then you're going to get into the rear cockpit of Will-o'-the-Wispand take a little hop with me."
Bill looked surprised. "What about my Ryan?"
"Oh, Frank can pilot her home."
"Yes? And then where are we going?"
"That's my secret. Tell Terry, and come along now. We're in a hurry,even if you don't know it."
"Well, I'm evidently not supposed to know any
thing of this new mystery!"
"Don't be stuffy! Come on, now. This is serious, Bill, really, I'm notleading you on a wild goose chase, I promise you."
"Humph! It must be hot stuff--not!"
Dorothy made a face at him. "I want to tell you it's the hottest stuffof the whole business. And I just want you to be in at the finish, don'tyou see, stupid?"
"All right. As you insist--"
"That's right. Of course I do. And when we've done this thing up brown,I'll cart you back home to dinner--and if you are very good you can sitnext to me!"
Bill grinned. "You may be New England Yankee, but that line of blarneyyou hand out spells Ireland in capital letters! Come on then, we'llleave Terry to guard the fort."
After they had put that young man wise to their plans, the two left theCastle. They were both pretty nearly exhausted after their experiencesin the tunnel, but the success of their adventure was elating, and morethan made up for its bad effects.
"Well, here's the field just where we left it," announced Bill as hehelped Dorothy over the stone fence. "And there's that Willy plane ofyours, too. Whither away?"
"Hop in and you'll see."
Five minutes later, Bill looked down from his seat in the rear cockpitand saw that she was going to land near the tennis courts in the broadparking space behind the cabanas at the beach club. The members hadbecome used to seeing her land Will-o'-the-Wisp on the club grounds.Their descent therefore caused little or no notice. The plane stoppedrolling and a man in the club uniform of a beach attendant ran up.
"Hello, Jeffries," waved Bill. "I thought you might be here. How arethings?"
"We caught Donovan and Charlie Myers over at Babylon. But they're smallfry. Anything new, Bolton?"
Bill got out of the plane and helped Dorothy to descend.
"I should say there is! Tell you about it in a minute. Dorothy, let mepresent Mr. Arthur Jeffries, one of the very big men of the UnitedStates Secret Service. Arthur, this is the famous Dorothy Dixon!"
Arthur Jeffries said some polite things which caused Dorothy to blushmodestly, and in a few pithy sentences Bill told the story of theirafternoon.
"So you see, old man," he ended. "You won't have to wait around thisclub any longer disguised as a goldfish or what have you--because thebearded aviator won't fly the Mystery Plane over here any more--that isto say--not for twenty years or so at the soonest."
"He'll get all that or more," Jeffries commented crisply. "But the manhe worked for--sunning himself over there on the sand--old Holloway, Imean--he's the nigger in the woodpile! The boss of this gang of diamondsmugglers--but I can't arrest him on that evidence!"
Dorothy made an eager gesture. "Will you come with me--I want to showyou two something. We'll go around the far side of that big cabana onthe end of the boardwalk. We're going inside."
"Holloway's bath house?" This from Bill.
"Exactly. I don't want him to see us, though, so be careful."
The three rounded the gaily painted cottage and ducking under the redand black striped awning, entered the front room which was fitted outwith the usual wicker furniture and bright rugs.
"I wonder where he keeps them," Dorothy murmured to herself. "Ah--thislooks like it!"
She lifted the hinged lid of a handsome sea chest and pulled forth adozen or more colored flags.
"By jove! The goods!" cried Bill. "How did you ever guess it, Dot?"
Dorothy was so pleased by her find that she passed over his use of thedespised diminutive.
"I just happened to remember that he generally decked out his cabanawith a flock of these things. And though the club runs up flags onspecial occasions, Mr. Holloway did it nearly every afternoon. It cameto me when you pulled off Tracey's beard back there in the tunnel."
"Precisely," said Arthur Jeffries. "Holloway would get word in New Yorkat his office, probably, when a liner carrying contraband was expectedoff Fire Island light. Then he'd come out here and signal the time toTracey in his airplane, by means of these flags. I'll bet the old boynever went near that Castle. Some alibi! He and Tracey probably neversaw each other from the time he went to the city in the morning until hecame home for dinner at night."
"Are you going to arrest him now?" she asked breathlessly.
"As soon as I can get out on the beach. I'll do it as quietly aspossible, of course. No use in causing a disturbance with his friendsaround. So long, Bill. Glad to have met you, Miss Dixon--and manythanks. See you both later on."
They left the cabana with him, but turned back toward the plane as hewent down the beach.
"That ties it, I guess," she smiled.
"It certainly does!" agreed Bill.
"Now--didn't I tell you it would be hot stuff?"
He looked at her and they both burst out laughing.
"And the best of it is that the government will probably pin a medal onyou for it!" he declared.
"Oh, Bill! Do you really think that?"
Bill grinned at her excitement. "You get into that plane and take mehome to dinner. That was the bargain, and I'm famished!"
"Dinner!" exclaimed Dorothy in disgust. "My word! We've caught thosediamond smugglers when the whole of the Secret Service couldn't doit--and all you think of is food! Gee, I'm glad I'm not a mere man. Hopaboard. I'll give her the gun and fly you home to your dinner."
THE END
Those who enjoyed this story and the preceding one entitled DorothyDixon Wins Her Wings will find much to interest them in the next book ofthis series entitled Dorothy Dixon Solves the Conway Case.
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