CHAPTER XXVIII--PRISONERS
Walter and Paul stood close beside Jack Kimball, as he turned over thepackage which had dropped from the automobile--Cora's automobile, to beexact.
"What is it?" asked Walter.
"Just what I'm going to find out," answered Jack. "Feels like a packageof money, if I'm any judge."
"Whew!" whistled Paul. "Counterfeiters, do you think?"
"I'm not so rash as to do any thinking after the queer things that havebeen happening," retorted Jack. "I'm going to make sure before I do anyguessing. Here goes!"
He cut the string of the packet. It was well wrapped in stout brownpaper, and when Jack, sitting down on a wayside stone and resting thebundle on his knees, had folded back the covering, there was revealed tothe boys bundles of tickets tied in little packets.
"What in the world is this?" asked Paul, picking up one of the littlepackages. "Tickets?"
"Railroad and theatrical," added Walter, as he examined some moreclosely. "Say, this is a queer find!"
Jack whistled shrilly and then cried out:
"It fits in! It all fits in!"
"What does he mean?" asked Paul.
"I don't know," Walter answered. "Tell us, Jack. Can you see through thepuzzle?"
"Part of it. Don't you see? These tickets--some railroad and the othersfor theatres and opera houses--they're counterfeit--bogus--no good! They'rejust like those that girl in the Spinning Wheel tea room bought. Don'tyou remember, she purchased two of a couple of young fellows. It wasthought at the time they might have been the ones who went off withCora's auto. Now we reverse the process. We find the bundle of ticketsthat dropped out of Cora's car, and we see two men running away in it.They're the same ones, or in the same gang, I haven't a doubt. It's upto us to get after them."
"You seem to have struck it," commented Walter. "Do you mean these menhave gone into the business of counterfeiting tickets on as big a scaleas this?"
"I'm thinking that," Jack answered. "You see it wouldn't pay to print afew tickets. They'd have to make a whole lot of them, and in the case oftheatrical coupons, sell them quickly, for the fraud would soon bediscovered. Railroad tickets might take a little longer to proveinvalid, for they would have to go to the head offices, and there therailroad men could tell by the consecutive numbers that there wasduplication somewhere. And the tickets would have to be pretty welldistributed--only a few in each city."
"That's what they wanted of Cora's auto," suggested Paul. "They wantedto cover a big area."
"Yes," Jack went on. "And they probably have accomplices in many places.Once the tickets were printed, they had to distribute them over a wideterritory. Boys, I think we've discovered a daring band ofticket-counterfeiters."
"But where do they do their work--their printing?" asked Walter.
"Why not in the cave?" asked Jack. "It would be the most natural placearound here."
"What's the matter with looking in that shack where the auto came from?"asked Paul, nodding back toward the field against a hill in which theshed was built.
"I was going to suggest that," Jack went on. "Perhaps that is anotherentrance to the same cave Cora found. Come on, we'll have a look,anyhow. We've got this for evidence, in any case," and he held up thebundle of tickets.
"Are you sure they are bogus?" asked Paul.
"Well, not positive, of course," Jack said. "But you'd hardly find somany kinds of railroad and theatrical tickets, the latter for a numberof different cities, all in one bundle unless something were wrong. Iput these fellows down as counterfeiters of tickets, and you'll see I'mright."
"Well, we'll take a chance," decided Walter. "Now what are we going todo about getting Cora's car back?"
"We can't do much right away," said Jack. "But those fellows will comeback, I'm sure. Let's explore a bit in that shack, and then we'll go andrip out that door in the secret passage."
The doors of the shack which stood against the hill in the big fieldwere fastened with a cheap padlock, and Jack, after a moment ofhesitation, smashed it with a stone.
"Come on in, boys!" he called, swinging back the doors.
"It's as dark as pitch," complained Walter. "Did any of you bring yourflash lamps?"
"Left 'em at the bungalow," Paul answered. "I have some matches though."
By the glimmer of one he struck, the boys saw that the shack was a sortof vestibule to a cave, for a big hole extended under the side of thehill.
"Jack was right!" Walter exclaimed. "This is a cavern, and it looks tobe a good-sized one. I wish we had a light."
"Here's a lantern," said Paul, who had lighted another match. "We'llexplore a bit."
By the greater light of the lantern, which was found near the doors, theboys saw that the cave was indeed a large one, extending well back underthe hill. They went in cautiously at first, not knowing what they mightfind, or what hidden pitfalls might lie in their path.
"Look!" exclaimed Jack, pointing to several boxes lying about. "Theymust have been doing, or else are getting ready to do, lots of business.Those boxes contain paper and cardboard by the looks and marks on them.And now----"
"Hark!" exclaimed Paul in a whisper. They all listened. From somewherefar back in the cave came a dull, rumbling, vibrating noise, and theground faintly trembled.
"There it is again!" said Walter--"that strange noise. Now we'll find outwhat it is. Come on."
He started forward, the others following, Paul in the rear with thelantern, for it had a reflector on and gave better light when carriedbehind the boys.
"Wait a minute!" cautioned Jack. "I don't seem to hear that noise now.It's stopped."
"So it has," concurred Paul.
They listened intently, then Jack said:
"I hear another sound, though. It's behind us, toward the mouth of thecave. Boys, it's those fellows coming back. Out with that light, Paul.We'll hide in here and surprise them. Quick! Down behind some of theseboxes!"
Paul extinguished the lantern, and he and his companions sought placesof concealment. They could now plainly hear footsteps approaching, whilethey also distinguished the murmur of excited voices.
Meanwhile, another part of the strange mystery was being enacted withthe girls as principal characters. They had entered farther into thesecret passage, beyond the queer swinging door which had closed afterthem.
"We're caught!" cried Belle. "Oh, Cora!"
"Perhaps not," said Jack's sister. "If that door opened once for us itwill do it again. But don't go back. Come on. We must see what is aheadof us. The boys will laugh if they hear we turned back when we had sucha good opportunity."
"Well, they shan't laugh at _me_!" declared Hazel. "I'm with you, Cora."
"And you may be sure we're not going to be left alone," cried Bess."Come on, Belle!"
The latter hesitated a moment, looked back at the closed door, and thenwent forward. Their lamps made the place fairly light, and they couldsee that the passage was planked here as it had been nearer thebungalow.
They had gone on perhaps fifty paces more and were wondering when thequeer tunnel would come to an end, when Cora, who was walking in advancewith Hazel, put her hand on her companion's arm, and cried:
"Do you hear it?"
"Hear what?"
"That strange, rumbling, trembling noise. Don't you _feel_ it?"
"Yes! Yes!" cried Belle. "Oh, what is it?"
There was no doubt of the noise. It seemed to fill the whole passagewith a dull, rumbling roar, and the ground vibrated and trembled.
"Come on!" cried Cora, resolutely. "It's just ahead of us. We will solvethe mystery now!"
Willing or unwilling, Belle, Bess and Hazel followed their leader. Withtheir electric lights showing the way the girls pressed forward.Suddenly the passage turned, and, making that turn, the girls came upona strange sight.
Before them was an open door, which gave entrance to a large cave withrocky sides and roof. Vaulted and large the cave was, and from longwires fastened somewhere in the roof hung a
number of incandescentlights. In the cave the girls saw several queer machines, and Cora, atleast, recognized more than one of them as printing presses. A gasolineengine was throbbing away in one corner, and it was this, Cora decided,which made the rumbling, the throbbing and trembling vibrations.
Hardly realizing what they were doing, the girls walked forward, and,passing through the open door, entered the cave which widened out at theend of the secret passage.
"What--what does it all mean?" asked Bess.
Low as her voice was it seemed to awaken strange echoes in the vaultedcave. And at the sound of it something stirred in one corner. From apile of boxes something arose--a something that resolved itself into anold man with white hair and a long, white beard. He peered from beneathhis bushy white eyebrows, with piercing eyes at the startled girls, andfrom his throat came a guttural cry.
"Ah, ha! Police spies--four of 'em!" he snarled. "I thought we'd be foundout!"
With surprising quickness in one seemingly so aged the man slippedbehind the girls. They turned, fearing an attack, but they need have hadno alarm on that score. With a quick motion the old man closed andlocked the door through which they had come.
"Now you're here--you'll stay!" he rasped out. "On guard here, Bombee!Hist! Watch 'em!"
And, as he called, a raw-boned, half-witted boy shuffled forward, andsquatted, with a horrible grin, in front of the terrified girlprisoners.