CHAPTER XXII Barry's Great Discovery
Barry jumped from the sled and took out the keys while the others weredismounting from the sleighs. Tim and Mac lifted a large oil can fromthe vehicle they had come in. The others stood in the snow and stampedtheir feet, glad to move about once more after sitting so long. CoachJordan helped some of the boys tie the horses to the back-porch rail.
The sun had gone down in an angry red haze, and the darkness wasspreading rapidly, accompanied by a cold that nipped and penetratedthem. Although they knew that the lodge would be cold, the visitors wereglad to follow Barry and the twins inside. Kent made a quick trip aroundthe big log building to see if everything was all right, and he returnedsatisfied.
The twins lighted the lamps that were already in the big living room,and in the meantime Barry collected some wood, soaked it with oil, andtouched the flame of a match to it. After the flames were leaping up thechimney he got some coal and put it on the burning wood. The room beganto get warm slowly.
The girls and boys roamed around admiring the place, and at last theybegan to take off coats and hats as the room warmed up. From the livingroom Kent and Barry moved into the two bedrooms and lighted fires inthem, so that they would be able to stay there all night withoutdiscomfort. Soon the grates in those rooms were glowing and the lodgehad become comfortable. They decided to do their cooking in the kitchen,and accordingly a fire was kindled in the big range there. This wassomething more of a task because the stove was rusty and clogged withashes and tin cans, left by some careless and untidy campers. The boyscleaned the stove out, and after this was done, the fire burned well.
Some of them favored using the dining room, but the majority vote wasthat they eat in the living room, by the light and warmth of the largegrate there. All of them were hungry, and so the girls took charge ofthe supper preparation under the expert leadership of Mrs. Jordan. Theboys sat in the living room with the coach and chatted about wintersports. In a very short time the delightful smell of things cookingreached them. The coach smiled as he heard the murmurs of appreciation.
"That's a tempting smell, boys," he said. "This Lake Arrowtip air is agreat hunger-producing tonic!"
"We found it that way," Tim grinned.
Charlie was seldom able to sit still long at a time, and he bounded offto the kitchen, followed by the faithful Castor Oil. Before long he wasback, rigged out in an apron and a paper hat, obviously in the capacityof a waiter. Disregarding the jokes of the boys, he began to set thingsin order for supper.
It seemed to the hungry boys that the meal was a long time coming, butthe girls declared with spirit that it hadn't taken much time except tothose who sat around waiting for it. The time finally came when theywere all sitting close to the fire eating steak and potatoes, talkingand enjoying themselves. All lamps had been put out, and only the redglow of the fire illuminated the room. But by this time the fire was asolid mass of glowing coals, and a sufficient light was rendered forall. Their shadows clustered on the wall back of them.
"And you four boys camped here for a few days, just like this?" a seniorgirl asked the four chums. "Wasn't it delightful?"
"We enjoyed it," Kent nodded. "We weren't here all the time, though. Atfirst we camped over in that smaller cabin that you could see as wedrove up."
"What made you leave it?" Mrs. Jordan asked.
This was getting close to things that the boys did not want to reveal,but before Kent could answer, Barry broke in. "That little cabin wascold, and the floor was hard to sleep on," he said. "Then one night alimb dropped on the roof and scared us quite a bit, so we decided tomove in here. Tim and Mac did the moving, and Kent and I got lost in astorm that day."
"But what about all the ghost stories we hear?" another girl asked. "Isthere a ghost around?"
"Pretty cold for a ghost," Barry smiled. "We've been here two hours ormore and haven't heard anything yet."
"I hope we don't!" said another girl, looking around the room uneasily.
"It will be all right," Charlie Black assured her. "We'll let Castor Oilloose all night and he'll sic the ghost. He's a fine sic-er!"
"The spook will run if he ever finds out the dog's name!" said Mac, amida general laugh.
"Coach, how about telling us a good ghost story tonight?" Bill Jeffersonasked. "The atmosphere is just right."
"The atmosphere is all right," the athletic instructor smiled. "But I'mafraid of some nerves around here. I know a ghost story wouldn't botherthe boys, but I don't want to upset the girls."
But the girls themselves begged him to tell at least one after the mealwas over, and at length he agreed to do so. Coach Jordan was a goodstory teller, and many times he had spun some lively yarns while onovernight hikes with the boys of Cloverfield. He excelled in creepymystery stories, and the young people looked forward with eageranticipation to a good one after supper.
"How about some boy volunteers to dry dishes?" Pearl asked, as they gotup to carry plates back to the kitchen. "We did all the work ofpreparing supper. I know that most of you boys camp out, so you mustknow how to wash and dry dishes!"
"How about letting Castor Oil lick all the plates and then drying themover the stove?" Charlie shouted, but an indignant chorus of voicesanswered him, and he went off chuckling.
"All right, the men will take charge of the kitchen from now on," criedCoach Jordan. "No ladies allowed out there except to bring your plates."
"That's the spirit!" commended Ruth Carrier, the leader among thehigh-school girls. "We'll start to toast some marshmallows for you."
"Agreeable all around," Kent nodded, and the boys took over the kitchenwork, while the girls went back to the living room to toast themarshmallows.
Mr. Jordan and Kent did the washing, and the other boys dried thedishes. After a time they looked around for a pail to put scraps in, butthere was none in the kitchen. Barry seized a lantern.
"I think I remember seeing one in the tool house," he said, as he openedthe back door. "I'll be right back."
The horses tied to the rail of the porch moved restlessly as he passedby them on his way across the board platform. Fodder had been broughtfor them, and as soon as the dishes were dried the boys planned to movethe horses to a big shed back of the lodge which served as a combinationbarn and garage. Barry arrived at the tool house and went inside,peering around in the feeble light from the lamp. At the far end of theplace he saw a tin can.
"There it is. I thought I remembered seeing it in here. This is just----Ouch!"
He had tripped on something, and he flashed the light down to see whatit was. He was close beside the bale of hay that stood there, and as heexamined the floor he saw that it was slightly raised. This interestedhim, and he put his hand down and pulled the raised boards toward him.To his surprise several of them came up a few inches.
"What the dickens is this? Why----"
With a single motion of his arm he pushed the bale of hay aside andstared at the floor. A long trapdoor was revealed, and with tremblingfingers he raised it, looking down into a deep well of darkness. A pairof wooden stairs ran down to the floor of a passage.
"An underground passage!" Barry breathed. "Now I'm beginning to see afew things!"
For several seconds he stood staring down into the tunnel, rememberinghow the black shadow had disappeared from the interior of the shed. Manyconflicting thoughts crowded his mind, and his impulse was to go downand explore the passageway. But the severe cold made him think better ofit, and, closing the trap and replacing the hay, he picked up the tincontainer he had come to get and went back to the lodge.
"I'll get my hat and coat on and get some of the boys to go with me," hethought, as he opened the kitchen door and went in.
Coach Jordan and his helpers were nearly finished. Barry left the canand went into the living room, picking up his coat and hat. Kent and thetwins were not around at the time, and so Barry slipped out of the frontdoor alone. His chums were in the bedroom attendi
ng to the fire there.
"I'll just take a peek along that corridor myself," he decided, feelingin his pocket for his flashlight and noting with satisfaction that itwas there. "Then maybe I'll take the whole crowd for a tour of it,providing it is safe to do so!"
Arriving once more in the tool house, he moved the bale of hay aside andraised the trapdoor, listening keenly before making a descent into thenewly found passage. No sound came to him as he stood in perfectsilence, and at last, thinking that it was safe to proceed, he turned onthe beam of his light and carefully walked down the steps. There wereseven steps, and when he reached the bottom he turned the light down thetunnel. He had closed the door of the opening and now stood alone underthe earth.
The passage was long and sloped away farther than the shaft of lightwould reveal. With a rapidly beating heart he began to advance, walkingslowly and quietly, his eyes alert and his nerves drawn tight. Thethought came to him that he was drawing farther and farther away fromhis companions and that he ought to go back and get some of them, butthe impulse to go on was too strong, and he kept advancing.
The tunnel was well made. He was able to walk upright and had to bendlow only at one place where a tree root broke through and crossed theunderground way. It was a dry place and not very cold. The sides of thetunnel had been carefully cut, and it seemed to him that it had beenbuilt for some definite purpose.
"But what can it be for?" he wondered. "Does Mrs. Morganson know that itis here? Maybe I'll know more about it all when I get to the end."
The end was near. He could see some boards before him, and a few momentslater he stopped, playing the beam of the light against the boards thatclosed the tunnel. They seemed to be fairly new ones, and they simplyfitted into the soil. He put out his hand to push against them and thenthought better of it, pausing to listen once more, his flashlight out.The blackness seemed to crush in on him.
"No telling what is on the other side of that boarding. If I can't pushit open, I'll go back and get the others."
No sound came to him, and so he again turned on the light and thenpushed against the partition. To his astonishment it turned outward likea door, and his light showed him the interior of a small shed. Steppingthrough and closing the boards after him, he was surprised to see thatit was on hinges and formed part of the wall of the small building inwhich he found himself. There were two windows and a door to the place,but otherwise the interior was perfectly bare. A conviction came to him.
"By George, this is the quarry shed where Kent and I saw the man withthe black gloves go in! No wonder no one answered our knocks and kicks.The man had gone up the tunnel to the lodge, and when we got over thatway, we saw him run into the tool house! I'm learning so much that itmakes me dizzy!"
He opened the door of the quarry shed and stepped out. The wind, comingin from a break in the rock wall, had swept the snow away from the door,and the ground was hard and the snow at that particular placehard-packed. He closed the door and looked around. It was much the sameas it had been the night he and Kent had stood there demanding shelter,except that the snow was not driving. He wondered where the black shadowcame from, and he began to wander toward the far end of the quarry. Fora while he did not use his light, and it was not until he was at thevery base of the quarry wall that he flashed the light around. There wasnothing to be seen.
"No house or anything down at this end," he reflected, turning. "I'dbetter go the other way."
Then his eyes fell on a figure crossing the bowl of the quarry, andinstinctively he crouched down. It was the same black-clothed figurethat they had seen once before, and the man went boldly into the quarryshed. Barry watched him with wildly beating heart.
"There he goes now!" he breathed. "On his way to the lodge to startsomething, I'll bet! And as sure as I'm a foot high, he'll discover thatsomeone has been in his tunnel! Then what will happen?"