Part 24 (1/2)

For a moment the gases which filled the chambers were overpowering.

The only wonder was that they were not ignited. The electric lights carried by the boys shone dimly through the smoke of the confined place.

”There goes Ventner,” whispered Will, pointing to a figure moving swiftly through the half-light of the place.

”He's going to see what the shot brought down!” suggested Tommy.

The Boys rushed forward in a little group. When they gathered at the scene of the explosion, the detective was not there.

”If he got hold of the cash, he knew what to do with it all right!”

exclaimed Tommy. ”He got away with it before we got a chance to see what he had. Now we've got to catch him!”

”May as well look for a needle in a load of hay!” grumbled Sandy.

”Look here,” Jimmie exclaimed. ”There's away to keep him shut up in the mine if we do the right thing. This cross-cutting runs out to a gangway on the north, and that, in turn, leads, of course, to the shaft. Now, one of you boys duck out to the shaft and see that he doesn't get up. You'll have to go some on the way there, because a man with two hundred thousand dollars in his pocket will put up some running match!”

”I'm off!” shouted Tommy. ”I know I can get to the shaft before he can! He's too fat-bellied to run, anyway!”

Tommy started away at a swift pace, and the other boys closed in on the gangway, Will alone stopping at the scene of the explosion.

”This gangway,” d.i.c.k explained, ”runs back into the mine for some distance, but there are no cross pa.s.sages. I guess the coal wasn't very good here. At least, they never spread out the drive.”

”Then we've got him bottled up unless he got out of the shaft!”

declared Sandy. ”We'll soon know whether he got out or not!”

”I don't believe he would try to get out,” suggested Elmer. ”The chances are that he'd make for the back of the mine, thinking to hide away with the plunder, provided he had any plunder to hide away with.”

”I'm afraid he found the hidden money,” Will said, taking a scorched ten-dollar bill from a pocket. ”I found this back there, where the pillar fell. I guess he found the cash all right!”

”And that's a nice thing, too!” exclaimed Sandy. ”You boys kept saying that Ventner was helping you find the coin. You were right about that, for he did find the coin. And now the trick is to get it away from him!”

”I'd like to know whether Ventner got up the shaft or not,”' suggested George, ”and I believe I'll take a run up there and see.”

”That's a good idea!” advised Will. ”If he didn't get up the shaft he's surely imprisoned in the gangway. He may be between this cross-cutting and the shaft, or he may have gone further in!”

”It'll take a long time to find out about that,” suggested Jimmie.

Directly Tommy and George were heard returning from the shaft. They came through the gangway flas.h.i.+ng their lights in every direction.

”He never went up the shaft!” Tommy exclaimed as they came near.

”We've got him canned in the mine all right. If he's got the money, we'll take it away from him! He wouldn't know what to do with it anyway!”

”First,” suggested Will, ”we'd better make sure that the fellow got the money. The bank note I found may have never been in the possession of Mr. Carson. And even if it was, it may be the only one to be blown out of its hiding place by the explosion. It strikes me that we'd better give the place a thorough search before we waste much time looking for Ventner. If, as Tommy says, he never left the mine by way of the shaft, we've got him blocked in, all right!”

The boys now began a careful examination of the cross-cutting where the explosion had taken place. As has been stated, more than one pillar had been blown out. There was a great heap of debris on floor, and this the boys attacked with a vim.

Tommy and George were now standing guard at mouth of the cross-cutting so that no one could pa.s.s down the gangway toward the shaft.