The Mercer Boys at Woodcrest

by Capwell Wyckoff

  “As I had thought the mine absolutely worthless I naturally wanted to know why he was so anxious to buy, and he told me that he and his partner wanted to hold the land for future speculation. I knew that there was some flaw in the story somewhere and refused to sell to him, although he did get pretty warm about it. I determined to have the place looked up and reported upon, but I let the summer slip by without attending to it, and so I lost a valuable opportunity.

  “I had wired Tireson the date of my arrival here and he put his plans together well, the scoundrel! I was just about to board a train at my home town when a messenger boy ran up to me and gave me a brief note. It was from Tireson, asking me to stop off at Spotville Point and see this man Dennings, who lives there. So I dropped off the train at that town and went up to the home of Morton Dennings. He entertained me all evening, and just before I was ready to go to bed late in the night I heard an automobile drive alongside the house. Dennings and two men promptly seized me and told me that I would be kept a prisoner until I turned over my share in the mine to Tireson and himself. I told him that I would be a prisoner forever before I would do that. They took me out of the house and to my surprise brought me here, where I found these quarters fitted up for me.”

  “And you have been here, right under our noses, while detectives have hunted for you all over the country!” said Don.

  “Oh, yes, that was the point of their idea. No one would think of looking for me right at my own school. Tireson has been here time after time, trying to make me reveal the hiding place of my papers, but he hasn’t arrived any place yet. He isn’t going to, either. But they are both getting tired of the game, and I’m afraid they are planning some new move with me.”

  “But what can they do?” inquired Don, anxiously. “They can’t turn you loose and they can’t keep you a prisoner forever.”

  “No,” said the colonel, getting up and pacing the floor. “But there is always violence and the possibility of dragging me off on some ship and dropping me in some Far Eastern port!”

  “They won’t dare resort to violence!” flashed Don.

  The colonel shrugged his shoulders. “We don’t know what they will do. Remember, they are pretty deep in this thing right now. To allow me to get loose and tell a few things would ruin them both. They can’t afford to mince matters.”

  “I must get out of here somehow and get help,” cried Don.

  “We’ll see about that,” returned the colonel, returning to his seat on the arm of the chair. He dropped one arm around Don’s shoulder. “Let me hear how you came to be mixed up in this business, Mercer.”

  Don related everything from the beginning and the colonel was an interested listener. He was able to explain something that had puzzled the boys.

  “Dennings didn’t come here himself, as a regular thing,” he said. “He made the old farmhouse his headquarters and waited there for news. I guess one of the men used a mirror to flash his ‘No progress.’ There never was any progress. Major Tireson has pleaded and coaxed and threatened, and he finally did admit that the mine had turned out to be one of the best of its kind and that he and his partner were determined to get my share of it. That time we had the fire was when the cook, the old man, left a lid off the stove and a curtain brushed over it. I thought something might come of that, but they had someone watching me all the time and I couldn’t make any signals.”

  “Was there no way of signalling out of that window?” asked Don, nodding to one of the two in the room.

  “They are all too high,” answered the colonel. “I would have tried if—Listen!”

  Footsteps were heard on the floor below and then a shrill whistle rang out. Someone shouted something. The colonel jumped up.

  “They have discovered that you are gone!” he cried. “I must hide you at once, and I have just the place. I’m sure these fellows don’t know of it, and I’ll risk it. Come here.”

  He led the way to the other side of the room to where a dusty map hung. Brushing this to one side he disclosed the opening of a ventilator with a black iron frame. He thrust his fingers into the openings in the frame and pulled the iron work out.

  “Here,” gasped the colonel. “Get into that hole. It doesn’t go very far, but it will hold you all right. Don’t make a sound.”

  The opening was large enough for Don to get his body into, an awkward job, as he went in backward. The passage of what had once been an air-shaft extended back for a distance of about seven feet, and he lay flat on his stomach, finding plenty of room in the shaft. The colonel replaced the grating, dropped the map into place and hurried back to the center of the room, where he picked up his paper and sat down, pretending to read.

  The noise downstairs continued and in a few minutes someone could be heard running up the stairs. A shout was raised outside the colonel’s door.

  “The boy is in with the colonel!” Dan’s voice shouted.

  Others ran up the stairs and the old man, Dan and Major Tireson rushed into the room. The colonel jumped to his feet, the picture of alarm as he faced his captors.

  “What’s the matter?” he cried. “Are you going to hurt me, Tireson?”

  “I’m not going to touch you,” shouted the major, in disgust. “We want that boy. Where is he?”

  “What boy?” asked the colonel, blankly.

  “You know very well what boy!” snorted the major. “We found the lock on your door open when we came in, and we know he is in here!”

  “Oh, I see!” cried the colonel, as though a light had suddenly appeared to him.

  “What do you see?” snapped Tireson, halted by the colonel’s tone.

  “Somebody was working at my lock up until the time you started to run around and yell downstairs,” related the colonel. “I thought it was one of you trying to get the padlock unlocked so I didn’t pay any attention. Who was this boy you are talking about? What is he doing here? Why——”

  “Never mind all that,” Major Tireson cut him short. “Dan, go out in the hall and see if you can find that boy. He must not get out of the place!”

  The major then made a thorough inspection of the room, even going so far as to hastily brush aside the map, but did not find Don and he began to believe seriously that the boy had not entered the colonel’s room. The old man had hurried out of the room and the major was now alone with Colonel Morrell.

  “Look here, Elmer,” said the major, sharply. “I’m going to give you one last chance to speak up and tell us where your papers are. You have until tomorrow night. If you haven’t spoken by then you will have to suffer the consequences. Dennings is more than tired of your stubbornness, and we won’t stand for any more of it. You will be moved tomorrow night, so you had better come across with the papers before then, or you will probably go for a long sea voyage.”

  “Going to kidnap me and take me for a sail, eh?” inquired the colonel.

  “As far as kidnapping is concerned I think that has happened already. I can’t help it about the sea voyage. You must realize that we can’t let you loose and if you won’t talk you can take what is coming to you.”

  “You’ll suffer for this, you scoundrel!” roared the colonel.

  “Maybe,” the major shrugged. “We will if you ever get loose, and we are going to see that you don’t. There is only one sensible thing to do, Morrell, and you know what that is.”

  “You’ll never get those papers,” affirmed the headmaster.

  “Then you may take what is coming to you, you stubborn old idiot!” shouted the major, leaving the room. He closed the door after him and turned a key in the lock. His footsteps were heard going down the stairs a few minutes later.

  When the colonel thought that it was safe he let Don out of the ventilator and brushed him off. The cadet’s uniform was covered with dust from the shaft.

  “Too bad that shaft was ever boarded up,” remarked Don.

  “Yes, but it was. Well, you heard what our friend the major said. I am to be carted off tomorrow night and bundled
to sea.”

  “I heard it all right,” said Don. “We must find out some way to prevent it. But if we can’t do that I might lie in the ventilator, find out where they are taking you, and as soon as they are gone, I can probably get help before you have been carried very far.”

  “That is true,” agreed the colonel. “That may be the best thing to do. I presume we had better be ready to hide you at a moment’s notice. You can share my food with me today and at night we’ll sleep together. The bed is wide enough for both of us. We’ll play the game of hide and seek tomorrow and when they come to take me away at night you can carry out your plan.”

  Twice again through the day Don was forced to take to the ventilator and hide, once when food was brought to the colonel and once when the major paid a visit to the room. It was evident that Tireson was worried, and the colonel asked if the boy had been found. The major refused to answer but it was evident from his manner that he had not been. Finding all in order in the room the major retired, and late in the afternoon the padlock was repaired and snapped in place.

  Don and the colonel spent a contented day, during which they became well acquainted. Don told his superior of the events of the past three months and the colonel talked to him of a variety of subjects. When night came on the colonel lighted a lamp he had and they talked again.

  “No one will be here again,” observed the colonel. “We’ll turn in soon and get some sleep. I’m a very light sleeper and if anyone comes to the door I’ll hustle you into the ventilator. Lucky thing they gave us a lot of food.”

  The colonel explained that the men generally gave him enough food for three meals and left him alone until the following day. Then the colonel brought out a checker board and some checkers and he and Don had some good games. The colonel won them all and was in high spirits.

  “Well, I guess we had better turn in,” the headmaster decided, after he had won the fourth game. He swept the checkers toward him.

  Then both of them started and turned. The padlock opened with a snap, and before they could move the door was flung open.

  CHAPTER 19

  Vench Is Mysterious

  The three boys had scoured the entire lake front without obtaining any clues as to the whereabouts of the missing cadet. On the way back a sudden thought occurred to Terry.

  “Look here,” said the red-headed boy. “Don was seen to be going in the direction of the boathouse. Perhaps he took out a boat. Hadn’t we better go back there and find out?”

  “That’s a good idea,” Rhodes agreed. “I don’t see why he would take a boat ride, but we had better look into it.”

  When they arrived at the boathouse they found the keeper of the boats there. Jim asked him if Don had come to him the day before to request the use of a boat.

  “No, he didn’t,” answered Ryan, the keeper. “I wasn’t around the boathouse until late in the afternoon. But one of the boats is gone. The one that was in that rack.”

  He pointed to the empty rack and went on: “When I got down here yesterday I noticed that boat was gone and I looked around the lake for it. It wasn’t until this morning that I heard Mr. Mercer was missing, and even then I didn’t think that he might have crossed the lake in my boat.”

  “I suppose it is useless to think of crossing the lake and making a search in the dark?” Jim advanced.

  Rhodes looked out of the boathouse window. “I’m very much afraid that it would be out of the question,” he answered gravely. “It is growing quite dark and it has begun to snow again. But in the morning we’ll ask for permission to cross the lake and search the woods and that old farmhouse over there.”

  “That’s so!” exclaimed Terry. “I never thought of that old place. Perhaps it has something to do with the whole thing.”

  “It’s possible,” agreed Jim. “What if Major Tireson will not give us permission to skip classes in the morning?”

  “If he doesn’t,” said Rhodes, grimly, “we’ll just wire your father to come down here and take charge of things. Then I think he won’t refuse your request.”

  Jim chafed against the falling darkness and the snow which had begun to fall. The snow itself would not hold up his search, but the darkness delayed everything in a way that was maddening. There was nothing left to do, however, but to wait until another day.

  At supper time Cadet Vench signalled him to wait for him after the meal, and when it was all over the little cadet walked to his room with him. Rhodes was in the room talking with Terry as they went in.

  “What did you want to see me about?” asked Jim.

  “I wanted to see all of you,” Vench replied. “Look here, Rhodes, can you sleep in Don’s bed tonight?”

  “Here, in this room?” asked Rhodes, astonished.

  “Yes. I want you three to sleep together tonight and to be right where I can get ahold of you. You don’t need to ask permission to do it. Just wait until the Officer of the Day passes by on his rounds and then come in here, with your clothes. You can get out early in the morning. I want you all together, because I may have some work for you all before morning.”

  “What is up, Vench?” inquired Terry.

  “Well, I’m not even certain enough to tell you what I have in mind,” confessed the little cadet. “I think I have run across a valuable tip and I’m going to look it up alone. Not because I want to be selfish or anything like that, but it will mean some cold and dangerous work, and as it may be a wild goose chase I want to saddle no one but myself with it. You’ll sleep here tonight, won’t you, Rhodes?”

  “Why, yes, I’ll do it,” nodded the cadet captain. “I suppose you must have some very good reason for asking it and I’ll try to help out.”

  “Thanks,” said Vench.

  “Has all this business got anything to do with Don?” asked Jim, eagerly.

  “I think that it has, but I’m not dead sure. As I told you, I received a valuable tip and I want to work on it. Now, we must arrange some kind of a signal. I may be out most of the night, and I want to signal you fellows to join me outside. If I do I don’t want to have to come back inside the building to get you.”

  “You may be outside most of the night!” cried Rhodes. “You’ll freeze, Vench.”

  “I may be too active to freeze,” grinned the cadet. “Has anyone of you fellows got a long cord?”

  “I have a ball of string in my trunk,” Terry offered.

  “Fine. Let’s have it.”

  Terry procured the ball of string and handed it to Vench. The little cadet looked from one to the other.

  “Which of you is the lightest sleeper?” he asked.

  “I’m a fairly light sleeper,” said Rhodes.

  “All right.” Vench tied the string to the end of Don’s bed and then hid the ball under the mattress. “Now, as soon as the Officer of the Day has made his inspection you drop that ball of cord out of the window and let it hang there. If I want you guys during the night I’ll yank that cord and wake you up by shaking the bed. If I don’t pull it at all during the night pull it up again in the morning. Is that understood?”

  “Yes,” the boys nodded, completely mystified.

  “All right. Now, if I do pull the cord, you three fellows dress and slip out of the side door and join me there. Is all that clear?”

  “Almost,” laughed Terry. “Be a sport, Vench, and tell us what is up?”

  “Nothing doing,” Vench returned, firmly. “This may all be a false alarm, and if it is I don’t intend that anyone but myself shall pay the penalty for it.”

  “But if it has anything to do with Don we ought to have some hand in it,” urged Jim.

  “If it turns out as I expect and Don is concerned in it, you will have a hand, maybe both hands in it,” countered Vench. “Now, I must get back to my room. Don’t forget to drop that string out of the window, and whatever you do don’t keep on sleeping if I pull it. So long.”

  “So long,” they returned, and Rhodes added, “And good luck to you in whatever it is you are doi
ng.”

  Vench went out of the room, chuckling at Rhodes’ parting shot. Terry looked at his companions.

  “Mr. Vench is getting very mysterious!” he said.

  “He certainly doesn’t mean to bother anyone else with his ideas,” commented Rhodes.

  Mr. Vench returned to his own room and picked up a book. After a few moments he put it down and turned to his roommate, who was studying at the same table.

  “I want you to help me out,” he said. “After the Officer of the Day comes around I’m going out of the building on some very special business, something which may keep me out all night. I’ll tell you what it is when it is all over. What I want you to do is simply not to worry your head if I seem to be a bit unusual in my movements tonight.”

  “All right,” agreed his roommate in some astonishment.

  Before long the warning bell sounded and Vench and his roommate undressed and got into bed. The Officer of the Day visited the room and made his inspection. Then the lights went out and the dormitory became still. In another fifteen minutes the footsteps of the Officer of the Day sounded on his return trip. And when Vench was sure that the temporary officer had gone to bed he got up quietly and dressed.

  His roommate heard him but made no comment, and Vench finished his dressing and put on his overcoat. Very carefully he opened the door and looked out into the hall. It was totally deserted and the little cadet left his room and walked quietly down the corridor, down the stairs, and soundlessly let himself out into the cold night. He had no hat on, but Vench was used to going without one and did not mind in the least.

  He stood for an instant in the gloom of the building and looked out over the campus. Clinton Hall was the last of the dormitories and he was in no danger of being seen from Locke, where the major had his rooms. The night was cloudy and quite dark, with occasional flurries of snow. The air was slightly damp and very cold. Vench thrust his hands into his pockets and looked from right to left.

  A short distance before him, directly across the campus, was a fringe of trees and snow-covered bushes behind which lay Clanhammer Hall. It was to this thicket that Vench now directed his attention, and he made his way toward it, keeping as much as possible in the shadows. It was a lucky thing, he reflected, that it was not a moonlight night, for that would have made his already difficult job more dangerous, since he was compelled to cross open ground to gain the woods just before the old hall. To be seen by anyone as he flitted across the snowy campus would have seriously hindered his objective, and he was more than thankful for the obscurity of the stormy night.