“It’s widening out!”
And, truly, the shaft became gradually wider until the boys could almost stand upright in it. The draft of cold air blew against them with great force and roared and whistled down the tunnel. Suddenly Joe stopped and waved the flashlight back and forth.
“There’s a drop here.”
Frank joined him. There was room enough now for them to stand side by side, and the wavering flashlights showed them that they stood at the end of the tunnel and that it opened into a chamber of rock similar to the mine working they had first entered.
“Look, Joe! I think I see a glow of light away over there. Turn off your flash.”
The flashlights were switched off and the brothers stood in total darkness. When their eyes became accustomed to the absence of the electric glow, they saw that almost directly across from them was a faint, bluish grey reflection of light.
“We’ve found our way into another mine,” said Frank. “That must be the light from the shaft. There’s a chance for us yet.”
He switched on his light again and flashed it into the rocky chamber into which the tunnel led. They found that they stood but a few feet above the floor of the mine working, so they promptly leaped down and then began a cautious walk across the cavern. The floor was rough and strewn with chipped masses of rock which showed that mining had once gone on there, and once they stumbled over a pick that someone had left behind when the working was abandoned.
They drew closer to the light that emanated from the shaft, and at last their flashlights revealed a crude ladder leading up the wall. Here they were met by another rush of cold air. The draft created by the tunnel leading into the other mine was severe and the wind whistled about the cavern. At the bottom of the shaft the Hardy boys looked up.
The ladder led up a distance of about twenty feet, and they could see the blue sky above. The sight made them sigh with relief. It was as if a heavy weight had been lifted from them.
“Up you go,” said Frank. “We’ll be out of here in no time, now.”
“I’ll say we’re lucky.”
“I never thought we’d see daylight again. The old sky looks pretty good, doesn’t it?”
“Never looked so good to me before.”
Joe put his foot on the first rung of the ladder. Although the mine had evidently been deserted many years before, the ladder leading down into the shaft still held firm. Slowly he began to ascend.
Frank came behind. Each was filled with relief that they had escaped imprisonment in the abandoned mine, imprisonment that might easily have meant a wretched death. The cold wind about their faces was like the breath of life to them.
Suddenly Joe stopped.
“Listen!” he whispered.
They remained still. Then, from above, at the top of the shaft, they could hear voices.
“That cave-in must have finished them,” someone was saying. “The whole shaft is gone.”
“They might have found their way out,” replied another voice. “These two mines lead into each other.”
“I didn’t know that.”
“Yes—there’s a tunnel leading down into their main drift.”
“Oh, those kids would never find it. Probably they were crushed to death by the cave-in, anyway.”
The voices died away as the men evidently moved back from the neighborhood of the shaft-head.
“Someone has been looking for us,” said Joe, in a low voice.
“They’ve given us up for dead. They’ll get a surprise when we pop up out of the ground. Evidently they weren’t going to try to dig us out. Go on up.”
Joe resumed his climb and in a few minutes he emerged above ground, stepping off the top of the ladder to a rickety platform covered with snow. Frank scrambled up beside him, and then the two brothers stared in amazement at what they saw.
Three rough-looking men were standing only a few yards away. One was a tall, surly chap in a short, fur coat. He was badly in need of a shave and his brutal chin and heavy jowls were black with a stubble of beard. The other two were short and husky of build. One was clean-shaven and thin-featured, the other had a reddish mustache. About the waist of one of the men, the thin-featured fellow, was a belt with a holster from which projected the butt of a revolver. The three were villainous in appearance.
As though some sixth sense warned the men that they were observed, they whirled about and confronted the Hardy boys.
The men were as surprised as the lads. Both Frank and Joe realized that there was something unsavory about the strange trio and when they saw the thin-featured man suddenly reach for his revolver they knew that they were confronting not friends, but enemies.
“That’s them!” shouted the man in the fur coat excitedly. “Grab them!” And with that he began to run toward the two boys. “No shooting!” he shouted to the thin-featured fellow, who promptly shoved his revolver back into the holster.
“Run for it,” muttered Frank.
He wheeled about and commenced to run down the hillside in the general direction of the town.
The snow was deep and it hampered their movements, but the pursuers also experienced this handicap. Frank and Joe were exhausted by their gruelling experience in the mine and they were unable to make good progress. The man in the fur coat came leaping after them, ploughing through the snow recklessly. He gained rapidly on them.
“Stop or we’ll shoot,” he roared.
This was but a bluff, and the Hardy boys recognized it as such. They raced madly on through the deep snow that clung to their limbs and held them back. Joe was lagging behind, unable to keep up the pace. The man in the fur coat was only a few feet back of him. The fellow leaped ahead and sprang at Joe in a football tackle that brought the boy down. The pair went rolling over and
