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Page 27
"Well, they were chased out of the car, and that covers both
statements," replied the detective somewhat nervously.
"Thank you very much for the information!" Will exclaimed as the train
the boys were to take came rolling into the station. "The pointer is
undoubtedly a good one, and we'll take a look at the country about
Nankin."
There was a crossing not more than six miles from the station where
the boys had taken the train and they were all ready to jump when the
engineer slowed down and whistled his note of warning. It was quite
dark, although stars were showing in a sky plentifully scattered over
with clouds and, as the boys dropped down out of the illumination of
the windows as soon as they struck the ground, they were not seen to
leave the train by any of the passengers.
In a moment the train rushed on, leaving the four standing on the
roadbed looking disconsolately in the direction of the town.
"Now for a good long hike!" exclaimed Tommy.
"It's for your own good!" laughed Sandy.
"I can always tell when something is for my own good," Tommy
contended.
"You don't look it!" chuckled Sandy.
"When anything's for my own good," the boy continued, "it's always
disagreeable! It makes me think of a story I read once where the man
complained that everything he ever wanted in this world was either
expensive, indigestible or immoral."
"Well, get on the hike!" laughed George. "You can stand here and
moralize till the cows come home, and it won't move you half an inch
in the direction of the mine!"
"And look here," Will exclaimed as the boys started up the grade,
"when we get within sight of the lights of the station, we must
scatter and keep our traps closed! We can all make for the mine by
different routes. Ventner thinks we are out of town now, and the
chances are that he'll be plugging around trying to accomplish some
purpose known only to himself. For my part I don't believe he is
employed on the same case we are! He's working for some outside
parties!"
"That's the way it strikes me!" George agreed. "If the detective had
been honestly trying to assist us, the mine wouldn't have been
flooded, the pumps wouldn't have broken down, and the electric motors
would have been found in excellent working order."
"Did you notice the suit he had on when he stood talking with us at
the station?" asked Will. "That was a blue serge suit, wasn't it?"
"It surely was!" Tommy declared, quick to catch the point. "And there
was a tear down the front of it which looked as if it had been made by
the scraping of a saw! I guess if you'll inspect the shreds we found
on the saw with the breaks in that coat front you'll find where the
saw got in its work, all right!"
"And there was a cut on his, hand, too!" Sandy observed. "Looked
like he had bounced the saw off one of the rungs on top of a finger."
"Oh, he's a clever little boy all right!" Tommy cut in. "But he
forgot to leave his brass band at home when he went out to cut into
that ladder! If he does all his work the way he did that job, he'll
be sitting in some nice, quiet state's prison before he's six months
older."
When the boys came within a quarter of a mile of the station lights,
they parted, Will and George turning off from the right of way and
Sandy and Tommy keeping on for half a dozen rods. When the four boys
were finally clear of the tracks they were walking perhaps twenty rods
apart, and at right angles with the right of way.
"Now, as we approach the mine," Will cautioned his companion, "keep
your eye out for Ventner and this third boy. They are both likely to
be chasing around in the darkness."
The route to the mine, taken by Tommy and his chum crossed a network
of tracks, led up to the weigh-house and so on into the breaker. As
they came to a line of empty cars standing on a spur they heard a
movement in one of the empties and crouched down to listen.
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