Boy Scouts in the Coal Caverns | Page 6

heard no
more.
"I'll bet it's some trick!" exclaimed Sandy after waiting in the chamber
for a long time in the hope of hearing another call from the boys who
were hidden somewhere behind the cribbing.
"What do you mean by trick?" demanded Tommy.
"Why, I mean that some of the breaker boys, out of work because of the
stoppage of operations, may have sneaked into the mine on purpose to
produce the impression that there are ghosts here."
"But ghosts wouldn't be giving signals of the Wolf Patrol, would they?"
asked Tommy.
"Not unless they were Scouts," replied the other.
"Oh, well, of course the kids would want to test us, wouldn't they,
seeing that we were only boys?"
"Well, we've discovered one thing by coming down here," said Tommy,
"and that is that there really are people in the mine who have no
business here."

"Then we may as well go back to bed," advised Sandy.
"Do you know how many corners we've turned since we came in here?"
asked Tommy.
"About a thousand, I guess," replied Sandy.
"Yes, and we'd have a fine old time getting out if you hadn't brought
that ball of twine!"
"Tell you what we'll do," Sandy said, as the boys turned their faces
down the gangway, "we'll pass around the next shoulder of rock and
then shut off our lights. Perhaps, the kids who gave the cry of the pack
in there will then show their light again."
"That's a good idea, too!"
The boys came at length to a brattice, which is a screen, of either wood
or heavy cloth, set up in a passage to divert the current of air to a bench
where workmen are engaged, and dodged down behind it, after turning
off their lights, of course,
"Now, come on with your old light," whispered Tommy.
As if in answer to the boy's challenge, the light showed again,
apparently but a few yards way from their hiding place.
A moment later the call of pack sounding louder than before, rang
through the passage. The boys sprang to their feet and switched on their
lights.
"Why don't you come out and show yourselves?" shouted Tommy.
"I don't believe you're Scouts at all!" declared Sandy.
There was no answer. The boys could hear the drip of water and the
purring of the current as it crept into a lower gang-way, but that was all.
"That settles it for tonight!" exclaimed Tommy. "I'm not going to hang

around here waiting for Boy Scouts who don't respond to signals!"
"That's me!" agreed Sandy. "We'll go to bed and think the matter over.
There may be some way of trapping those fellows."
"Suppose it should be Jimmie Maynard and Dick Thomson?" asked
Tommy.
"Then we'd have the case closed up in a jiffy!" was the reply.
Before leaving that particular chamber, Tommy selected a large round
piece of "Gob," placed it in the center of the open space, and laid
another small piece of shale on top of it.
"What are you doing that for?" demanded Sandy.
"Don't you know your Indian signs?" demanded the boy. "This means,
'this is the trail.' Now I'll put one stone to the right and that will tell
these imitation Boy Scouts to turn to the right if they want to get out."
"I guess they can get out if they want to," suggested Sandy.
Thirty or forty feet further on, where, following the string, the boys
turned again, this time to the left, Tommy laid another signal which
showed the direction to be taken.
"There," he said with a grin, "we've started them on the right path. If
they don't want to follow it, that isn't our fault!"
"We must be getting pretty near the shaft," Sandy said, after the boys
had walked for nearly half an hour on the backward track.
"Pull on your string," suggested Tommy, "and see if it stiffens up like
only a short length of it remained out."
Sandy did as requested, and then dropped to the floor with his
searchlight laid along the extension of the cord.
"The other end is loose!" he said in a tone of alarm.

"Loose?" echoed Tommy. "How did it ever get loose?"
Sandy sat down on the floor of the passage and began drawing the cord
in, hand over hand.
"I'm going to see if it's been cut!" he said.
Tommy stepped on the swiftly moving cord and held it fast to the floor.
"You mustn't draw it in!" he exclaimed. "As long as it lies on the floor
as we strung it out, we can follow it without taking any chances. If you
pull it in, then it's all off."
"I understand!" Sandy agreed. "I didn't pull much of it in."
The boys started up the