The Secret Of Skull Mountain Part 16

The boys had hoped that a few last wisps of smoke would be curling from the crest when they arrived there-but the air was clear of smoke.

"Not a trace of it left," said Joe.

"We'll wait," Frank decided. "If the smoke starts up again, we'll be here to spot it."

They made themselves comfortable on the ground. Overhead the stars were out, and a full moon was rising above the hill on the other side of the reservoir. The moon made it almost as light as day. The night air was cool and fresh.

As they sat there, they suddenly saw a figure emerge from the trees beyond the clearing.

158 "Duck!" Frank whispered. "He's coming this way!"

They hid behind the rocky ledge at the top of the narrow mountain trail.

From this shelter they could see the figure clearly now in the moonlight. He looked more like a scarecrow than a man-a tall, gaunt, barefooted creature with s.h.a.ggy hair. It was the mountain hermit!

The man came into the clearing, and Frank and Joe watched him closely. He was carrying an armful of fresh-cut firewood which he dumped beside a tangle of blueberry and thorn bushes. Then he looked around the ridge to make certain he was un.o.bserved.

The boys shrank under the ledge as the bony, bearded creature went to the top of the trail and looked down. For a moment, it seemed inevitable that he would see them, but the black shadow thrown by the ledge screened their bodies.

Satisfied, the hermit went back to the patch of brush where he had dropped his load of wood. He seemed to be tugging at something, and in a moment the boys saw him lift upright a slab of rock about the size of a card table.

He pushed the slab to one side, exposing a narrow cleft in the mountaintop.

Then, cradling the wood in his arms, the hermit jumped into the fissure-and vanished from the boys' sight!

CHAPTER XVIII.

The Escaping Stream.

frank and Joe ran to the spot and peered down the cleft in the mountaintop.

After a slight drop, the fissure appeared to turn sharply parallel with the surface of the ridge. Then the crack widened, and sloped gradually downward inside the mountain!

The boys looked at one another. Could this be the spot they had seen the smoke coming from?

"It must be," Frank said slowly. "The old man was carrying firewood."

"Zowie!" Joe exclaimed. "To think of the times we've walked past this crack and never knew it was here!"

"No wonder," Frank said, pointing to the rock slab.

They studied the slab closely. They saw that it could be lowered from the inside to close the crevice in the rocks. This obviously was what had occurred when they had trailed the hermit on the last occasion. It was easy to see why one could pa.s.s this innocent-looking slab a hundred times without noticing it. This, too, must be the answer to the dis appearance of Hawkins and his helper earlier in the day.

Obeying an impulse, Frank lowered himself to the landing formed by the cleft as it veered parallel with the mountain surface. He lifted his arms over his head and tugged the slab back into place. Then, waiting until Joe had a chance to see how it looked, he pushed the flat stone away from the opening again.

"It was perfect!" Joe told him. "n.o.body could see the slab under all those bushes. Yet the rock covers the cleft completely!"

"But for the smoke to come out, the crack has to be open," Frank said. "In that case, the cleft could be spotted easily."

"Sure," his brother admitted. "But who's to see it? Since the squatters moved out, there's n.o.body on this part of the mountain except Bob and d.i.c.k and you and I-"

"And the hermit and Klenger's gang," Frank finished for him.

But Joe wasn't fazed.

"Klenger and his gang know about the cleft," he pointed out. "Hawkins uses it, and the others must know about it, too."

161 Frank laughed. "You win, Joe."

With his flashlight, Frank stepped down into the rocky fissure and shot the beam into it.

The light revealed a gradually widening pa.s.sage which sloped downward toward the heart of the mountain.

"Let's have a look," Joe said, dropping down beside his brother. He borrowed Frank's torch and played it on the walls of the irregular pa.s.sageway. They were grimy with smoke smudges.

"Come on!" he urged.

One behind the other, the boys squeezed through the slit. Then, crawling on their hands and knees, they started slowly down the tunnel.

Even with Joe's flashlight casting its rea.s.suring beam in front of them, both boys experienced a sudden dread of this descent into the unknown.

Their vivid imaginations pictured danger lurking beyond every twist and turn in the tunnel-Klenger or a member of his gang, a wild beast, a cave-in which would snuff out their lives and bury them in a mountain tomb!

Joe's fingers encountered a cold, clammy object, half imbedded in the floor of the pa.s.sage. He drew back his hand with a startled gasp-and the flashlight went skittering along the tunnel, then came to a stop with its beam s.h.i.+ning directly on the object.

It was a human skull.

joe let out a sigh of relief.

"It's easy to see the hermit has traveled up and 162 down this shaft. Here is his trade-mark," he whispered with a grin.

Frank grinned back.

"But for Pete's sake hold on to that flash," he warned. "If we lose it, we'll be in a pretty fix!"

Joe retrieved the flashlight, and they crawled on.

Fifty feet farther, the low, narrow shaft turned sharply and a sudden gust of air struck the boys.

Joe shot the flashlight's beam ahead. The pa.s.sage was greatly enlarged, being tall enough to stand uip in and wide enough for two to walk abreast.; The boy uttered a low exclamation.

"What's the matter?" Frank asked.

"There are two two tunnels aheadl" Joe told him. "'We've come to a fork!" tunnels aheadl" Joe told him. "'We've come to a fork!"

He crawled forward until he reached the enlarged section of the crevice, then stood up and pointed as Frank followed him.

"Which one shall we take?" Joe asked.

Frank studied the tunnels thoughtfully, carefully examining the rocky floor of their entrances for a possible clue. He straightened up and scratched his head. It was a toss-up.

"Let's go this way," he said, indicating the tunnel which forked to the left.

"Okay."

Their progress was much easier now, and far more rapid. The broad pa.s.sageway sloped cow-Btantly downward, until the boys became convinced 163 that they were in the very heart of the mountain.

The air in the pa.s.sage was damp but pure, and shey breathed it in gratefully.

"Wonder where it comes from?" Joe asked.

"Probably from the valley," Frank said, "although as near as I can figure, the tunnel doesn't seem to be sloping in that direction."

Down, down, they went. Suddenly the tunnel leveled off, and they came to what appeared to be a small landing place. Beyond the landing they could see that the shaft dropped sharply for several feet-and the boys felt a swift current of air.

Then they heard it.

Joe grabbed Frank's arm. "Listen!" he whis-pered.

From the depth below came the gurgle of running water!

The boys ran to the edge of the landing and Joe shot the beam of his flashlight at the foot of the drop.

Flowing through a narrow tunnel at the foot of their own shaft ran a swift, bubbling stream of water.

"It's the water from the reservoir!" Frank gasped, "How do you know?" Joe asked anxiously.

"It's got to be!" Frank told him. "It's flowing from the direction of the valley!"

"Directions don't mean much inside of a moun-tain," said Joe doubtfully.

"Well, there's one way to find out," Frank sighed.

164 "We'll come back here during the day. If the water isn't isn't flowing, we'll flowing, we'll know know the tunnel runs the tunnel runs from the reservoir!"

Excited over their discovery, the boys started back up the shaft. They climbed rapidly for they now were sure of their way.

When they reached the fork, Joe examined the floor of the right-hand pa.s.sageway carefully with the flashlight. About a dozen feet from the fork he tound a piece of bark. Here was all the proof they needed that the right fork led to the place where the wood was being burned.

Somewhere at the base of the shaft was a cavern, they believed, in which Klenger and his gang might even be holding Dr. Foster. But the boys felt it wiser to join forces with Bob and d.i.c.k before they undertook to investigate the right-hand pa.s.sage.

Dropping on their hands and knees, the two youths crawled into the narrow fissure which led to the mountaintop.

Joe went ahead with the flashlight, Frank following a few feet behind. The air was thinner in the narrow shaft, and they crawled upward as rapidly as the narrow walls permitted.

They were still some distance from the top when Frank stopped and began to sniff the air. Coming toward them from the pa.s.sage below was the odor of wood smoke!

In a flash, he remembered the open fissure at the top of the mountain-and groaned. In their eager165 ness to descend the shaft, he and Joe had completely overlooked the fact that the hermit had left the open^ ing exposed because he intended smoke to pour from it!

Frank saw Joe sniff the air, and knew that his brother also was aware of the odor.

"Hurry, Joel" he called throwing caution to the wind. "We've got to get out of here!"

The boys' fingers tore at the tunnel walls in their efforts to achieve greater speed.

The smoke was thicker now. It wreathed around them, stinging their eyes and making them cough.

"Put your handkerchief over your nose and mouth!" Frank shouted.

Joe nodded and obeyed.

They crawled on, praying that each turn in the narrow and tortuous shaft would be the last-and that they would see the starry sky and breathe the fresh mountain air.

Smoke now began to stream through the shaft in a dense cloud. The boys clutched at their throats and coughed until they thought their lungs would burst.

Frank stumbled and fell. He tried to rise, but the strength seemed to ebb from his legs.

"Keep going, Joe!" he called hoa.r.s.ely. "I can't make it!"

He saw Joe turn and stagger toward him. Then the flashlight fell from his brother's hand-and the smoke-filled tunnel was plunged into darkness!

CHAPTER XIX.

To the Rescue.

How long he had been unconscious, Frank tlH no? know.

His eyes still smarted from the smoke, and his throat was painfully sore. His eyelids fluttered weakly-and he saw a starry sky. Then a hand tilted a canteen toward his lips and cool mountain water dribbled into his parched mouth.

"Take it easy," a voice said. "You'll be all right."

Frank's eyes opened wide. It was Bob.

The youth raised himself on his elbows.

"Where-? What-?" Then he remembered, "Joe?" he asked anxiously. "Is he-?"