Boy Scouts Mysterious Signal | Page 4

to be in that spot. The location of the debris favored the quick plan that had formulated in Ned's fertile brain. He rose to his feet and gave a quick glance about the room.
Without wasting time or effort in conversation, the lad quickly pointed toward a table that lay upturned not far from the trap door. Signalling to his comrades for assistance, he darted toward the object and began dragging it to a position directly over the trap door.
Jack and Harry, divining his intention, hastened to assist Ned. Their united efforts soon placed the table in position. It was the work of but a moment to raise the trap door and prop it up with a short piece of wood from the wreckage strewn about. Making the well-known signal used by railroad men in the United States as a sign for a fireman to shovel more coal into the firebox, Ned urged the others to descend into the darkness that yawned mysteriously at their feet.
Jack was first through the opening. He clung to the rim for a moment with his hands. Then he released his hold and dropped.
Harry and Ned, impatiently waiting for Jack to pass through the door, heard him drop to a floor below and give a startled cry. Then they prepared to follow just as the tramp of many feet resounded through the passage outside the room. Harry slipped into the opening and in turn dropped out of sight. Ned followed feet first and for an instant hung from the sill.
Grasping the stick that had been used as a prop, Ned gave a mighty wrench backward and fell. He said afterward that it seemed as if he had taken a full week to drop from his position to the floor below. In reality the drop was not a great one. The distance was, however, greater than the height of any of the three boys, and explained their inability to gain a foothold before releasing their hold upon the floor above. For a moment Ned was unable to regain his breath.
Presently he sat upright and began to search for his comrades.
"Jack, Harry!" he called softly. "Where are you?"
"Here we are, Ned," came a whisper from the darkness that shut the boys in on every hand. "Can you see us?"
"Can't see a thing!" declared Ned. "Where are you, anyway?"
"Stay right where you are and we'll be there in a moment," was Harry's answer. "This is one horrible place or I'm a Dutchman!"
"Come on, then, and be quick about it," urged Ned. "I wonder if we have dropped out of the frying pan into the fire," he added.
"Impossible," chuckled Jack, in spite of the seriousness of their predicament. "Where there's fire there's light, and I can't see a single ray of light in this miserable place!"
"Hush, Jack!" cautioned Harry. "Not so loud or they'll find us. Can't you hear them tramping about in the room above?"
Harry's question brought Ned and Jack to a realization of the fact that the room they had so recently quitted was occupied by the soldiers from whom they had tried to escape. Footsteps echoed along the stout floor, and the boys could hear sounds indicating that pieces of furniture were being hurriedly overturned.
"Uh!" grunted Jack as he suddenly bumped into Ned. "Wonder you wouldn't blow signals when you're going to cross ahead of a fellow."
"Hush!" whispered Ned. "They may hear us! Let's wait a bit!"
All three boys drew close together. They instinctively clasped hands in the darkness, looking for some degree of comfort in the act.
The noises above them gradually lessened. Presently they ceased altogether, and the boys could hear footsteps clattering along the floor in the direction they assumed the door to be. Directly quiet reigned in the place.
"They've gone, I guess," Ned said after a moment's wait. "Now what shall we do? Shall we climb back into the house?"
"I move that we explore this apartment first," said Jack.
"Oh, no!" urged Harry. "This isn't a nice place to go poking around in. We have troubles enough already without hunting more."
"What's your objection to looking the place over?" asked Ned.
"Rats!" was Harry's brief but expressive explanation.
"Rats?" queried Ned. "What do you mean? Are there rats here?"
"There certainly are, and lots of them," was the positive answer. "When I dropped into this place I think I dropped onto one, and must have crushed him before he had time to squeal. I heard others running."
"We really ought to make a light," returned Ned. "We can't tell what the place is like without some way of seeing it."
"There's a light!" was Jack's sudden exclamation. "See it over there to the right. Why," he added, "there are two lights!"
"And I see others!" cried Harry. "I believe it's the eyes of the rats. Perhaps they were frightened away and are