Part 14 (1/2)
”I pretended I was still out. He dragged me down a pa.s.sageway, past a room with a barred door, then under the low door to this room, and dumped me on this cot. I've been here ever since. My only hope has been that your father had received my letter and would try to find me.”
”And all the time Dad was working on the same case over in New Jersey!” Joe marveled.
Quickly Frank informed the captain of the boys' own sleuthing, including Webber's claim that Maguire owed him money.
”A lie,” said the captain in disgust. ”Just an excuse to spy on you boys at the cabin.”
162 Frank concluded his account with the boys' suspicion that the owl sounds were being made by humans and used as signals.
”You're right there,” confirmed Maguire. ”I've learned that much since I've been here. Donner warns the hijackers not to come by faking the screech of the barn owl. I guess he's been using it a lot since you boys got here!”
”Then the wailing of the screech owl means that the coast is clear. It's okay to deliver the goods,” Joe finished.
”That's absolutely right!” came a deep, familiar voice from the door leading to the cabin.
Whirling, the Hardys found themselves facing the long, silver barrel of Walter Donner's pistol. The gang leader had quietly pushed open the door to the cell and heard the last part of the conversation. He was followed by a big, rough-looking man and the lawyer, Wyckoff Webber.
54 ”My congratulations,” said Donner in a mocking tone. ”You've solved the case very cleverly through the clue of the screeching owl. By the way, I did the screeching and wailing myself. Pretty good, eh?”
Then the big man's voice took on a tone of menace. ”But it won't do you any good. Your reward will be to meet the screaming witch herself!”
Wondering, Frank and Joe were prodded by the muzzle of Donner's gun down the rock pasFrank and Joe were prodded by Donner's gun down the rock pa.s.sageway 164 sageway toward the cabin and into the cell with the barred door that Captain Maguire had mentioned.
”Socky!” called Donner harshly to the rough-looking man. ”Go get that third kid!”
Meanwhile, Frank and Joe looked around the rock-walled room by the feeble light of Donner's flashlight. They noticed that the rear wall was covered by a tarpaulin. The air was heavy and moist, as in most underground chambers, but there was also a strange, rank odor.
”Like your new quarters?” taunted Donner, indicating the rock walls. ”All these chambers and pa.s.sages were hewn out of natural caverns by the Abolitionists when they built the cabin against the front of the rock wall.
”Very clever people,” he went on affably. ”They were the ones who revived the witch legend by stealing dogs and faking screams to keep people away from the hollow while they hid runaway slaves. Don't you admire my extensive historical research?”
”At least they had a good motive,” said Frank defiantly. ”They didn't steal dogs to cover up a hijacking racket. By the way, we know where Bobby Thompson's Skippy is.”
Donner looked startled for a moment, then said, ”I don't know what you're talking about.” He went on mockingly, ”I fooled you boys with the hideous face in the woods. It wasn't Si165 mon. I wore a rubber mask and a black wig.”
”Skip the talk!” snapped Joe. ”What are you going to do with us?”
Realizing that he could not shake the boys' nerve, the tall man abruptly crossed the room to the tarpaulin-covered wall.
”Meet the witch!” cried Donner, ripping away the canvas. The faint light showed the bars of a cage, and behind them, the fierce green eyes and powerful body of a big, tawny-brown puma!
”Some of the screams were his,” said Donner. ”When I heard that my brother William-Colonel Thunder-was going to have this beast destroyed because it almost killed him, I sent Socky to get the animal from him. I felt that such a 'pet' would be helpful in reviving the witch legend. But William wasn't told / wanted it, nor why.
”The puma knows who's master here, at any rate,” the gang leader added in a cruel voice. ”William and I don't have anything to do with each other, but he did warn my lawyer that some snoopers said I was stealing dogs.”
”And then Webber set Captain Maguire's cabin on fire and tried to burn us to death,” said Joe, looking sharply at the lawyer's ragged left shoe. But the youth did not reveal his clue as to the telltale prints found near the scene of the razed cabin. He was sure Sheriff Ecker's casts of the footprints would be conclusive evidence.
166 ”I deny that!” cried Webber. ”You can't prove it!”
”Oh, yes, we can,” Joe told him.
Frank interrupted. ”This puma was loose in the hollow tonight, wasn't it?”
”That's right,” Donner admitted. ”I sometimes let him out through the door you see at the rear of his cage. It leads out onto the rocks. But I only let him out after I've put a sleeping pill in his food. He usually comes back quietly.
”However,” he added meaningfully, ”tonight the effects of his last pill wore 55 off sooner than I expected. That's why I had to warn my men to lie low right after I'd given them the all clear. Fortunately, my pet came back without harming anyone.
”By the way, the grating between yourselves and this animal can be raised-just yank the chain here. At the same time, the puma's outside door will be raised.
So if you want to escape, the way out is very simple. All you have to do is get past the puma!”
Walter Donner stepped back into the pa.s.sage, slammed the door to the boys'
prison, and shot the heavy bolt into place.
”Oh, I forgot to tell you,” came his mocking voice from the corridor, ”there is another chain, with which I can raise only the grating between you and the puma. I'll get around to it sometime tonight.”
167 Luckily, Joe had hidden his flashlight inside his s.h.i.+rt. Now, left alone, the brothers carefully examined the walls of their prison.
”No way out,” concluded Joe. ”Our only hope is that Chet got away all right and can return with the State Police before Donner lifts that grating!”
Switching off the flashlight, the two boys waited tensely in the pitch darkness. A few feet away the big cat could be heard pacing nervously. After a long silence, Frank and Joe heard voices in the corridor outside.
”Did you get that fat kid?” asked Donner.
”You can forget him, boss,” came the rough voice of the strong-arm man, Socky.
”I see him pull out in this yellow convertible. So I take off after him in the truck. Pretty soon I see his lights, pretty far ahead, goin' round a turn.
Then in a couple minutes I hear this terrific crash-like a car goin' right over the edge and down in the hollow. I come up, and there's the wreck way down below-burning up like mad. n.o.body could've lived through it.”
”Good!” snapped Walter Donner. ”That takes care of him!”
Frank and Joe stood as if frozen, in utter horror!
CHAPTER XX.
Triumphant Sleuths for one long moment the Hardy brothers were too stunned to speak.
”Not Chet! It can't be true!” Joe faltered at last.
”We mustn't believe the story,” Frank told him, his voice trembling. ”We must get out of here and learn the truth!”
Together the two boys moved up to the grating to study the only possible escape route: past the dangerous puma and out the far door. The beast gave a menacing growl as it stalked to the bars.
”Let's take off our socks, s.h.i.+rts, belts, and sweaters,” Frank commanded. ”I have a plan.”