CHAPTER V.--THE REVELATION OF A TRAGEDY.
"Smugglers!" Frank exclaimed, dropping an armful of unopened opium tinson the floor of the cavern. "Smugglers, all right, all right!"
Ned looked the tins over carefully. They were well covered with Chinesecharacters, and were dirty, as if they had been hidden away in the earthfor a long time.
"Who would have suspected it?" Frank continued. "We are close to theBritish frontier, but, all the same, this seems to me to be an awkwardplace to land and store the dope stuff."
"Where did you find it?" asked Ned.
"There is a false back to that cupboard in the north wall," Frankreplied. "When I knocked on the boards they gave forth a hollow sound,and so I tore one away. Hence the opium. And there are pipes there,too--just such pipes as one sees in the joints on Pell street, in littleold New York."
"You remember what Jimmie said?" asked Ned.
"I remember a good many things the little rascal has said," was thelaughing reply. "He's always saying something."
"Well," Ned continued, "the boy was right when he expressed his opinionof the heelless footprints in one word."
"Chinks!" grinned Frank. "Of course!"
The boys now went over to the cupboard in the niche and began tearingaway the boards. After a few had been displaced Ned stopped and beganexperimenting in fitting them in position again.
"What's doing now?" demanded Frank.
"We must remove them so as to be able to return them as we found thembefore we leave," Ned replied. "It is important that the inhabitants ofthis robber den do not know that we have discovered it."
"Don't you ever think they don't know it right now," Frank said. "Wehaven't seen any of them since they rowed around the point, but they'restirring about, just the same. We may see more of them before we get outof this cavern."
"Well," Ned said, "we must take all the precautions needful, and if theyare of no avail we shall not be to blame for what takes place. Even ifthey know that we have found the cavern, they need not know that we havepenetrated into the office chamber. Now, draw that last board awaycarefully, and we'll see what there is behind the false bottom."
Frank drew the board away and was confronted by a long, low tunnel--anuncanny, narrow tunnel which had evidently been enlarged from a fault inthe rock, and which appeared to penetrate far into the bulk of themountain.
"See!" he cried. "The cupboard was built at the mouth of a cross faultin the rock, and there is no knowing what is behind it. Hold yourflashlight higher and I'll crawl in and look about."
"Be careful," Ned warned. "I have seen great holes at the bottom oftunnels like that. Don't break your neck, or tumble down so far that Ican't fish you out."
Frank grinned and crept through the opening made by the removal of theback of the closet. The place was not high enough for him to standupright, and so he proceeded on hands and knees.
"This is a bedroom," he shouted back to Ned. "There's lots of ticks andblankets here."
There was silence for a moment, and then the boy's voice came fromfarther in the tunnel. "And here's kegs of whisky," he cried. "It smellslike a Bowery saloon. Come on in!"
"I think one of us would better remain outside," Ned replied. "Iwouldn't like to be surprised while in there and fastened in withrocks."
Frank went on down the tunnel for some distance, calling back, now andthen, to report his discoveries. There were weapons stored there,barrels of gasoline, packages of dynamite.
Then, for several long minutes, there came no voice from the interior,and Ned put his head inside and called out softly:
"Frank!"
There was no reply, and Ned was about to advance into the opening whenthe sound of a footstep came on the rocky floor of the chamber justbehind him. The footstep was a stealthy one, halting, as if some personwere listening between the steps. Ned's first act was to shut the lightoff from his electric candle.
Then he moved away from the niche in the wall where the cupboard hadbeen built in and waited. His greatest fear was that Frank would turnabout and show his light, and so expose them both to danger. While helistened, almost holding his breath, the steps came nearer to thecupboard and halted.
But the halt was only for an instant, for the unseen figure moved onagain, this time back toward the entrance. Directly the footsteps wereheard no more, and then the crash of falling rocks reached the boy'sears. He did not have to think long in order to understand what thatsound portended.
He knew that they had been observed by some of the outlaws who made thecavern their home and their storehouse as well, had been followed intothe inner chamber, and were now to be fastened into the cavern, probablyleft there to starve, with tons of rock bulking before the entrance tothe third chamber. It was not a pleasant situation.
While he studied the peril over in as optimistic a mood as was possibleunder the circumstances, he heard Frank calling to him from the narrowtunnel behind the cupboard. The boy was evidently excited, for his voicerang high.
"Ned!" he cried. "Come on in!"
The noise of falling, rolling rocks stopped at the sound of Frank'svoice, and Ned thought he heard a half-suppressed chuckle in thedarkness.
"Hurry!" came Frank's voice once more. "There's something in here thattakes the nerve out of me."
There was a low exclamation of rage at the entrance, where the stoneswere piling up, and then the grind of falling rocks was continued. Nedhad, of course, no idea as to how many persons were engaged in buildingup the wall which threatened to shut him in until life was extinct, orexactly how it was being done, but he knew that the correct thing forhim to do was to prevent the completion of the work.
If only one man had arrived at the cavern he might be frightened anddriven away by a little shooting. With bullets whizzing through what wasleft of the opening, the man who was building the crude wall would notbe likely to present his body before the space still uncovered. Thisreasoning brought the boy to a consideration of the matter ofammunition, but he decided that, with the cartridges carried by Frank,they could defend the place for a long time.
But another question intervened. The rocks which, though unseen, he knewto be blocking the space where the rug had hung were undoubtedly fallingfrom a distance. They might have been stored above the natural doorwayfor the very purpose to which they were now being put.
If this were true, then the building of the trap would continue,regardless of his bullets. While he studied over this problem, slowlymaking up his mind to put it to the test, Frank's voice came from thetunnel again.
"What's doing out there?" the boy asked. "Why don't you come in here?"
"Shut off your light!" ordered Ned, as a glimmer showed inside.
"Not me," replied Frank. "I need all the light I can get in here!"
"What have you found?" asked Ned anxiously.
Frank did not reply instantly, and Ned heard the rattle of stones whilehe waited for his answer. The task of piling up the wall was progressingrapidly, and it seemed to the boy that the stones were all falling froma distance.
"Shut off your light and come out," Ned said, impatient at thehesitation.
"I wouldn't stay here in the dark for a thousand dollars a second,"Frank replied, "but I'll come out. Why don't you show a light?"
"I'm not looking for any chance bullets," Ned replied, coolly. "We'recaught, my boy, and it is up to us to move cautiously. Why don't youturn off your light?" he added, half angrily.
"Oh," Frank replied, "you're getting it out there, too, are you? Well, Iwas trying to save you a shock. There's a dead man in here, and I'mgoing to keep my light going until I'm out of the hole. I did shut itoff once, and felt the grasp of a hand on my neck--and there wasn't anyhand there either."
"A dead man?" repeated Ned.
"Sure," Frank replied. "And he's not been dead very long, at that."
Again the boy heard that vicious chuckle at the entrance. Then a voicecame out of the mouldy darkness:
"How are you getting on in the Sec
ret Service, Ned Nestor?" the voiceasked.
"Finely!" Ned called back, but it seemed to him that his voice shookwith the peril of the situation. He was known, his mission there was nosecret, the enemies of the government were already on the ground, readyto combat him in his work. Just how far their hostility would extend wasevidenced by the fall of rocks outside. It seemed to the boy that thestruggle would be to the death.
"Who are you talking to?" Frank asked.
Ned did not reply to the question, for there came the sound of a scuffleoutside, then a shot, a cry of pain, and the cavern was still as agrave.
In the silence Frank's movements were heard, and Ned knew that he wasbacking out of the tunnel, with his light still burning. Entirely at aloss to account for the fracas outside, Ned awaited his approach with afast-beating heart. When at last he shut off his electric searchlightand dropped from the tunnel through the old cupboard Ned seized his handand drew him away.
"Did you fire that shot?" Frank whispered.
"No," was the reply. "There's fighting outside, and the shot was firedthere. Now, I had a notion of sending a stream of bullets through thedoorway, but the persons who are fighting the man who came upon us heremay be our friends, so we must be careful what we do. Here. Take myflashlight. Open the two at the same instant and turn the rays on thedoorway. I'll be ready with my gun."
But before this movement could be carried out a voice the boys knew cameout of the darkness.
"Wonder you wouldn't give a fellow a lift," Jimmie said, in a pantingtone. "I've got to the limit with this big stiff."
The lights were on instantly, with Ned and Frank bounding toward theopening. The way was narrow, for many rocks had been dropped down from abroad ledge just above, but they managed to crawl through. But beforeNed could reach the struggling pair on the floor the under figurewiggled away, staggered for an instant, and then made for the outer airat good speed.
Jimmie sat upon the stone floor with a disgusted look on his freckledface.
"Now see what you've been an' gone an' done!" he cried. "You've let mepirate get away! But he took a bullet with him," he added.
"How many were here?" asked Ned, shutting off his light and tellingFrank to do the same. "How many men did you see?"
"Just that one," Jimmie replied, sorrowfully, "an' he got away!"
Ned advanced to the entrance and listened. At first he heard the soundof limping footsteps, then the sweep of oars. He ran down to the beachand swept his light over the waters of the lake. A slender boat wasspeeding far to the north, and a solitary rower was bending to his work.
Now, for the first time, Ned noted that a fierce gale was blowing fromthe west, and his thoughts went back to the plateau where the aeroplanelay exposed to the storm. He ran back to the cavern, barely escapingbeing blown off his feet on the way, and called to the boys.
"There's a stiff wind blowing," he said, "and I'm afraid for theaeroplane. We must get back to the camp immediately."
"The wind was on when I came in," Jimmie said, "an' it near blew me intothe lake, even if I did hold on to the trees. We can never make the hillin the storm."
"We've got to," Ned insisted.
"Besides," Jimmie continued, "we want to find out about the dead manFrank has been telling me about. We can't take him with us, an' he willnot be here when we come back. Whatever we learn about him, an' thecause of his death, must be learned now."
"Sometimes, Jimmie," Frank burst out, "you exhibit signs of almost humanintelligence!"
"The boy is right," Ned observed. "I'm so rattled that I hardly knowwhat I'm about. We ought to be in pursuit of that rascal who is rowingon the lake, we ought to be on the plateau, looking after the aeroplane,and we ought to be here, finding out if a murder has been committed."
"It is a murder, all right," Frank said, "for the floor in the tunnel issticky with blood."
"I'm goin' in there!" Jimmie exclaimed.
"Go if you want to," Frank grunted.
Ned laid a hand on Jimmie's arm as he started away.
"If you don't mind," he said, "I'd much rather you remained on guard.You have keen eyes, and may be of great service here."
"All right!" the boy said. "I'll do anything you ask me to if you don'tleave me out of the game."
"No danger of your getting into the dust heap," Frank laughed. "How longhave you been prowling about here?"
"Just a short time," was the reply. "I remained in the tent until Ithought Pat an' Jack were asleep an' then cut my lucky. Say, but thewind was blowin' when I slid down the slope toward the lake."
"It must be fierce up on the plateau," Frank admitted. "Say," he added,turning to Ned, "if you don't mind, I'll go on up the hill and help theboys with the aeroplane. It would be a tragedy if it should be destroyednow."
"All right," Ned said. "Get up there as soon as possible. The boys maybe having trouble with the 'plane. And Jimmie," he added, "suppose youkeep an eye on the plateau? The lads may signal."
"Too dark for that," the boy replied, "but I'll keep a sharp lookout,just the same. Go on and look over the man Frank found under themountain."
Frank moved on up the hill, clinging to trees as he advanced, andstooping low, even then, to escape the force of the wind, while Jimmiestationed himself in the opening and looked out on the lake. Neddisappeared in the cavern, and the boy saw his torch grow fainter as heclimbed through the narrow opening left in the rock which had beenthrown over the natural doorway.
It was getting late and the boy was sleepy, but he struggled manfully tokeep his eyes open. Directly, however, he had no trouble in this regard,for he started up with a strange, acrid odor in his nostrils. Thelow-lying sky was aflame.