footsteps pounded overhead.
'Docker!' a man's voice called. 'Markel! Where are you!'
The Hardys listened tensely, hoping for a chance to escape unseen. When they heard the man
cross the ground floor and go upstairs, Joe whispered, 'Let's make a break for it!'
The boys dashed to the steps. They could see a crack of light beneath the closed door to the
kitchen.
Suddenly the light vanished, and the rumble of the mill wheel ceased.
The Hardys stopped in their tracks. 'Somebody else is coming!' Frank muttered. 'Probably Docker and Markel. We're trapped!'
Again the brothers heard the mill door open. Two men were talking loudly and angrily. Then
came the sound of footsteps clattering down the stairs to the first floor.
'Peters!' The boys recognized Docker's voice. 'Where in blazes were you?'
Frank and Joe nudged each other. Victor Peters was in league with the gatehouse men!
'What do you mean? I told you I'd meet you here at eleven,' snarled Peters.
'You must be nuts!' retorted Markel. 'You called here an hour ago and said there was trouble and to meet you at the Parker Building.'
Peters' tone grew menacing. 'Something's fishy. I didn't phone. You know I'd use the two-way radio.
What's the matter with you guys, anyway?'
'Listen!' Markel snapped. 'Somebody called here and said he was you. The voice did sound sort of fuzzy, but I didn't have a chance to ask questions-he hung up on me. I thought maybe
your radio had conked out.'
The Hardys, crouched on the cellar stairs, could feel the increasing tension in the room above.
Docker growled, 'Something funny is going on. Whoever phoned must be on to us, or suspect enough to want to get in here and snoop around.'
'The Feds! We'll have to scram!' said Markel, with more than a trace of fear in his voice. 'Come on!
Let's get moving!'
'Not so fast, Markel!' Docker barked. 'We're not ditching the stuff we've made. We'll have a look around first-starting with the cellar.'
The men strode into the kitchen. Below, Frank grabbed Joe. 'No choice now. Into the secret room!'
Quickly the brothers ran back into the workshop. Frank pulled the door behind him and slid the heavy bolt into place.
Tensely the brothers pressed against the door as the three men came downstairs into the
basement.
Frank and Joe could hear them moving around, searching for signs of an intruder.
'I'd better check the rest of the mill,' Docker said brusquely. 'You two get the plates and the greenbacks. Go out through the tunnel, and I'll meet you at the other end. Well wait there for Blum to pay us off, then vamoose.'
'We're in a fix, all right,' Joe said under his breath. 'What tunnel are they talking about?'
'And who's Blum?' Frank wondered.
The boys heard the hum of the motor that opened the secret door. But the bolt held it shut.
'The mechanism won't work!' Markel rasped.
'Maybe it's just stuck,' said Peters.
The men began pounding on the wood.
'What's going on?' Docker demanded as he returned.
'We can't budge this tricky door you dreamed up,' Peters complained.
'There's nothing wrong with the door, you blockheads!' Docker shouted. 'Somebody's in the room!
Break down the door!'
In half a minute his order was followed by several sharp blows.
'Oh, great!' Joe groaned. 'They're using axes!'
'We won't have long to figure a way out,' Frank said wryly.
'Way out!' Joe scoffed. 'There isn't any!' Frank's mind raced. 'Hey! They said something about leaving through a tunnel! It must be in here.'
Frantically the Hardys searched for another exit from the secret room. They crawled on the
floor, and pried up one brick after another looking for a ring that might open a trap door.
'Nothing!' Joe said desperately. All the while the men in the cellar kept battering away at the door. 'Good thing that old lumber is such hard wood,' Frank thought. 'But they'll break through any minute.' 'Look!' Joe pointed.
'Under the bench!' Frank noticed a shovel lying beneath the work-table. The boys pushed it aside, and saw that the wall behind the table was partially covered with loose dirt. On a hunch Frank grabbed the shovel and dug into the dirt.
'This dirt might have been put here to hide the entrance to the tunnel!' he gasped.
'It better be!' His brother clawed frantically at the dirt.
At the same moment there was a loud splintering noise. The Hardys looked around. A large
crack had appeared in the bolted door.
One of the men outside yelled, 'A couple more blows and we'll be in.'
Frank dug furiously. Suddenly his shovel opened up a small hole in the crumbly dirt. Joe
scooped away with his hands. Finally there was a space big enough for the boys to squeeze
through. Without hesitation, Frank wriggled in, then Joe.
From behind them came a tremendous crash and the sound of ripping wood. Markel's voice
shouted, 'Into the tunnel! After 'em!'
The Hardys heard no more as they pushed ahead on hands and knees into the damp darkness
of an earthen passageway.
Joe was about to call out to his brother when he became aware that someone was crawling
behind him.
'No room here for a knockdown fight,' he thought, wondering if the pursuer were armed.
The young detective scrambled on as fast as he could in the narrow, twisting tunnel. He
managed to catch up to Frank, and with a push warned him to go at top speed.
'Somebody's after us!' Joe hissed. 'If only we can outdistance him!'
The underground route was a tortuous, harrowing one. The Hardys frequently scraped knees
and shoulders against sharp stones in the tunnel floor and walls. They had held onto their
flashlights, but did not dare turn them on.
'This passageway is endless!' Frank thought. The close, clammy atmosphere made it
increasingly difficult for him and his brother to breathe.
Joe thought uneasily, 'What if we hit a blind alley and are stuck in here?'
The boys longed to stop and catch their breath, but they could hear the sounds of pursuit
growing nearer, and forced themselves onward faster than ever.
Frank wondered if Chet and Tony had seen the men enter the mill and had gone for help.
'We'll need it,' he thought grimly.
Suddenly the brothers came to another turn and the ground began to slope sharply upward.
'Maybe we're getting close to the end,' Frank conjectured hopefully.
Spurred by possible freedom, he put on a burst of speed. Joe did the same. A moment later
Frank stopped unexpectedly and Joe bumped into him.
'What's the matter?' he barely whispered.
'Dead end,' reported his brother.
Squeezing up beside Frank, Joe reached out and touched a pile of stones blocking their path.
The boys now could hear the heavy breathing of their pursuer.
'Let's move these stones,' Frank urged.
