Campfire Girls in the Allegheny Mountains
Page 19
CHAPTER XIX.
THE SUBTERRANEAN AVENUE.
For more than half an hour Mr. Stanlock waited upstairs nervously,eagerly, expectantly, apprehensively, for a report from Lieut. Larkinand the four men who remained in the cellar of the Buchholz house tomove the pile of scrap lumber, under which it was suspected might befound a clew as to the whereabouts of the missing twelve girls.Interest in the search within the building had suspended otheractivities in the neighborhood, as it was felt that further progressmust depend upon results at this point.
So the score or more of uniformed and citizen policemen waited aspatiently as they could in or around the house of mystery, becomingmore and more impatient as the minutes grew into the twenties and thenthe thirties, and still nobody came upstairs to announce indicationsof success or failure. The noise of the striking pieces of lumberagainst one another had not been heard for more than twenty minutes.In fact, no sound of any kind came up the cellarway following thefirst quarter of an hour of rapid labor on the part of the five activesearchers below.
At last one of the men, more nervously eager for information than therest, shouted down the cellarway to the lieutenant, inquiring how heand his helpers were getting on. There was no answer.
He shouted again. Still no reply. Then he announced his intention todescend into the cellar to investigate.
"Wait," said Mr. Stanlock. "There are some tracks in the dust on thesteps, and Lieut. Larkin doesn't want them disturbed. Let me go."
Although his apprehensions had not diminished, the mine owner's nervewas considerably strengthened by this time, perhaps as a result of hisreturn from a stuffy basement atmosphere into a region of betterventilation. As he started down the steps with the flashlight of oneof the policemen in his hand, he was surprised to feel a strongcurrent of wind blowing upward into his face.
"They must have opened one of the windows," he surmised; but hequickly dismissed the suggestion after flashing his light around thecellar. The pile of lumber had been moved to the opposite side and inthe section of the floor it had formerly occupied was a hole threefeet in diameter.
"That's where the wind comes from," Mr. Stanlock decided. "It's themouth of the old mine we used to hear about years ago. But where's theother opening? Funny nobody knows about that. This end has beencovered up with that old heavy door and concealed with a layer ofearth. When our men moved the pile of lumber, they observed that theearth had been disturbed recently and shoveled it away and found thishole."
Mr. Stanlock directed the rays of light into the hole and discovered aflight of steps cut in the hard clay.
"The lieutenant and his men are down in there," he concluded. "I thinkI'll follow them."
He descended cautiously into the hole. Half a dozen irregularly formedsteps brought him to a slope leading downward on an inclined plane ofsix or seven degrees. He was astonished at the degree of preservationof the walls, ceiling, and supports, considering the years that hadelapsed since the mine was last worked. The passage continued as adownward slope for about fifty yards and then became almost level fora like distance. Only in two places had the walls or ceiling fallen into any considerable extent, and in neither of those places was theobstruction so great as to constitute an impassable barrier.
As he proceeded, Mr. Stanlock peered ahead anxiously, in the hope thathe would discover the lights of Lieutenant Larkin and his companions.But he walked nearly 100 yards through an irregular andcharacteristically jagged passage before he caught sight of anythingindicating that there was anybody besides himself in the abandonedmine. Then suddenly, rounding a sharp point he came upon the advanceparty of searchers approaching him.
"What did you find?" the mine owner inquired before any surprisegreetings could be exchanged. "There's another outlet to this placesomewhere, isn't there?"
"Yes, there is," was the reply of the officer in charge. "This galleryruns on for another hundred yards, piercing Holly Hill right throughthe center. You know the bluff and the rocky slope behind the oldmill. Well, it seems that this mine was cut right through at thatpoint, but there was a cave-in that filled up that opening. Theserascals that kidnapped the girls evidently were associated with thepeople that rented the Buchholz place and cut the passage through. Thegirls have been here all right, but they're gone. They've been takenout of this end of the mine and spirited away in some manner. Thismeans that the scoundrels have a larger and more effectiveorganization than we have ever suspected. Such a case of wholesalekidnapping was never heard of before."
"How can you tell they passed through here?" Mr. Stanlock asked.
"By this principally," the lieutenant answered, holding up a woman'shandkerchief that he had picked up; "and by the fact that there is atrail in the snow from the opening of the mine to the alley behind theold mill."
Mr. Stanlock's face shone deathly pale in the glare of the flashlights. The new element of suspense had brought him again to thedanger-point of a collapse that had compelled him to withdraw fromthe active search nearly an hour before.
His voice reflected the distressing strain under which he was laboringas he put his next question:
"What became of them then?"
"That's the problem we've got to solve," Larkin replied. "Apparentlythey were loaded in automobiles and rushed off to some retreat of thescoundrels."
"How in the world could they do it without somebody's seeing orhearing what was going on?"
"Oh," said the lieutenant without a suggestion of doubt in his voice;"that wasn't very difficult if there were enough of them workingtogether. The evidence of cleverness and skill is not nearly so muchin the handling of this affair at the mill end of the mine as at thehouse end. That was a mighty smooth piece of work, getting all ofthose girls into that old house, however it was done. Mark my word,you'll find that a very clever trap was set for them. But come on,we've got to get busy before the snow makes it impossible to followthem."
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