The Call of the Beaver Patrol | Page 7

"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 gangway, one of them keeping a searchlight on
the white thread of cord.
They seemed to make a great many turns and once or twice Sandy
declared that they were walking round and round in a circle.
"I don't believe the passages run so we could walk around in a circle!"
argued Tommy. "That ain't the way they run passages in mines!"
"I don't care!" Sandy insisted. "We've been turning to the left about all
the time, and if you leave it to me, we'll presently come out in the
chamber where we heard the call of the pack!"
"That may be right," admitted Tommy. "It does seem as if we'd been
turning to the left most of the time. Besides," he went on, "we've been
walking long enough to have reached the shaft three or four times."
"And yet," argued Sandy, "we've been following the line of the cord
every step. It lies right in the middle of the gangway here, and we're
going the way it points all the time."
This bit of reasoning seemed to give the boys fresh courage, and they
walked on, expecting every moment to come in sight of the frame work
which surrounded the shaft. At length, after a long half hour, Tommy
stumbled over an obstruction lying in a chamber which somehow
seemed strangely familiar. He lifted his foot and gave the obstruction a
hearty kick.
"That's my Indian sign of the trail!" grunted Sandy.
"For the love of Mike!" exclaimed Tommy. "Have we been traveling

all this time to come out in this same old hole at last?"
"That's what we have!" replied Sandy. "If we had paid no attention to
the string whatever and followed the rails when we came to the main
gang way, we would have been home and in bed by this time!"
"But we didn't," grinned Tommy. "We thought we had a cinch on
getting out by way of this cord and so we followed that. I don't see,
though," he continued, "how we came back to this same old chamber
by following the cord. That looks queer to me!"
"I'll tell you how!" replied Sandy. "There's some gink been walking on
ahead of us stringing the cord out for us to follow!"
Tommy sat down on the bottom of the chamber and wrinkled his
freckled nose provokingly.
"We're a couple of easy marks!" he laughed.
"Easy marks is no name for it!"
"Well, what'll we do now to get out?" Tommy asked. "First thing we
know, it'll be daylight, and then Will and George'll be calling out the
police to find us. We ought to get home before they wake up."
"I'm willing!" declared Sandy. "I'd like to be in my little bed this
minute! I've had about enough of this foul air!"
The boys passed along until they came to the second trail sign and then
stopped. Tommy pointed down to it with a hand which was not quite
steady and looked up into his chum's face with frightened eyes.
"That's been moved!" he said.
"How do you know it's been moved?"
"Because you had the side stone on the other edge."
"I don't think I did!" argued Sandy.

The boys puzzled over the situation for a few moments, and then
proceeded down the chamber looking for the tramway rails.
They passed from chamber to chamber and finally came to a place
where the slope was upward.
"I guess we've struck it at last!" Sandy exclaimed.
"But there are no rails here!" Tommy argued.
"Then we're on the wrong track again," admitted Sandy.
He bent down to the rock with his searchlight and pointed out
evidences that the passage had once been laid with rails.
"When they strip a chamber or a counter gangway," he said, "they take
away the rails. It seems that we are now in a part of the Labyrinth mine
which has been worked out."
"I know what to do!" exclaimed Tommy. "I'll give the call of the
Beaver Patrol and tell those ginks who have been giving the call of the
pack that we're lost! That ought to bring them out of their holes."
The Beaver call was given time after time, but no reply came.
"Say," Tommy said after his patience had become exhausted, "I believe
it's daylight. Look at your watch. I left