Part 8 (1/2)
”Not the way you tried it, Fred; you'll have to excuse me,” laughed Bristles. ”But I think I can feel the rough rocks here, and seems as if a fellow as spry as Colon might manage to shuffle down. Anyhow, I'm going to try it. I've got a few matches of my own in my pocket, that we could use to look around with.”
”Take it slow, and no hurry, boys,” warned Fred, at the same time moving out of the way, so that if a stone were dislodged in their pa.s.sage, it would not come in contact with his head.
For a couple of minutes there could be heard a sc.r.a.ping noise, as the two boys lowered themselves down into the opening. Fred struck another match, which he held up in order to give them the benefit of the feeble illumination. a.s.sisted by this light, both of the newcomers managed to reach the side of their chum without encountering any serious difficulty.
”Well, here we are, fellows, all down!” Bristles declared, with a sigh of relief. ”I only hope that when we try to climb up again, it won't be an all day job.”
”Much easier than coming in,” Colon told him. ”It always is, when you're mounting a steep cliff; because then you can see just where you're going.
When starting down you hardly know where to put each foot, and when you look to see, it makes you giddy to find how far below the bottom lies.”
”Did you see anything when you looked around, that made you want to take a second peep, Fred?” asked Bristles, still clinging to his suspicion.
”I don't know,” replied Fred. ”It's like this. The match was going out when I thought I glimpsed something on the rocky floor that looked like the ashes of a dead fire! And after that I thought I'd like to make sure before I left here,---just to satisfy my curiosity, you know, boys.”
”A fire, eh?” ventured Bristles. ”Well, since no wild animal was ever known to start such a thing, that tells us this same cave must have sheltered human beings some time or other.”
”Hoboes, most likely,” observed Colon; ”trust them for finding such a snug hiding-place, after they've gone and robbed some country postoffice, or a farmer's chicken coop.”
”I'll strike a light, then, and Fred, you show us where the ashes lie,”
and with these words Bristles drew a match hastily along the seat of his trousers, causing it to burst into a bright flame.
”Over this way, boys,” Fred told them, as he stepped across the rocky floor of the cave that had been found in such a queer way.
It was just as he had said, for there on the stones they could see the plain marks of a fire. Colon knew a thing or two about woodcraft, and the very first indication of this was when he thrust his hand into the ashes.
”As cold as they can be,” he observed, immediately.
”Which shows that the fire hasn't been burning lately at all,” Bristles hastened to add, to prove that he understood what Colon meant to infer.
”Whoever camped in here cooked a meal or two, that's plain,” Fred remarked, as he pointed to some chicken bones that were strewn around.
”Tramps, as sure as anything, and they've been raiding the hencoops around this region, too,” Colon ventured to say.
”And that poor old wild dog had to stand the blame for it all,” said Bristles. ”It's nearly always that way; give a dog a bad name, and everybody condemns him. For all we know, some of the sheep that have been killed might have been pulled down by an innocent looking s.h.a.ggy dog belonging to the farmer himself, but it's so easy to saddle the blame on the wicked one. What was that you picked up, Colon?”
”As near as I can make out it looks like one of those tin biscuit boxes you see at the store,” the tall boy replied, holding the object up.
”It's got a rubber band around it. Queer thing for tramps to buy. Only imported biscuits are put up this way, Miss Fletcher told me, and she ought to know because she's English, and won't eat any other kind.”
”Let me see that tin, will you please, Colon?” asked Fred, suddenly.
After he had looked sharply at it, inside and out, he nodded his head.
”I thought it might be like that,” Fred remarked, mysteriously. This manner of talking caused his comrades to stare, and Colon cried out:
”Now, whatever is there about that old tin to make you speak like that, Fred? If you'd picked up a clue to some robbery, you couldn't look more pleased.
”Perhaps we have,” said Fred, meaningly. ”Take another look at this tin box, both of you. Notice how the heavy rubber band has been fastened underneath, so it couldn't get lost. You never heard of such a thing being done where there were just plain crackers in a tin, did you? Of course not. Well, don't you see that this would make a splendid receptacle for papers, or securities? And just before your match went out, Bristles, I thought I could see a little sc.r.a.p of paper sticking in a corner. That would prove it had held such things.”