CHAPTER XXI
"I TOLD YOU SO!"
Directly Elmer, Sandy and Mr. Buck heard the banker shouting at the top of his lungs and dashed on toward the mysterious tunnel.
"He'll get his head shot off in there!" exclaimed Sandy.
"I don't care if he does!" declared Elmer.
"Your uncle isn't such a bad old fellow, after all," Mr. Buck exclaimed.
"He has plenty of courage, at any rate!"
"But I don't understand why they don't open fire on him!" exclaimed Sandy. "The robbers certainly were in there not very long ago. We heard the scuffle when they geezled Jimmie."
"Who fired that shot?" asked Mr. Buck.
"Uncle Stephen did," replied Elmer. "I saw the flash spring out from the spot where he stood!"
"Well, what do you know about that?" exclaimed Sandy. "The old chap is actually making his bluff good! He's getting into Tunnel Six single handed and alone! I guess we'll have to advertise for those three outlaws if we find 'em in here! He's a nervy old follow, isn't he?"
The three now followed fast on the heels of the banker, and soon came to where he stood swinging his searchlight at the end of a short drift which ended, after sliding under a dip, in a chamber which, at first glance seemed to be piled high with a with a mass of shale.
While the three looked on, Carson dropped on his knees beside a crevice in the wall and began an eager exploration of the opening.
Directly he sprang to his feet with rage and disappointment showing on every feature of his face. He raved about the cluttered chamber for a moment, almost dancing up and down in his anger and chagrin, and then sat limply down on the pile of shale.
"It's gone!" he said. "The money's gone!"
"So it wasn't hidden back there in that cross cutting at all?" asked Sandy. "We thought sure we had a cinch on the coin several hours ago!"
"It was hidden here in this chamber!" declared Carson wearily. "The minute I entered the place I remembered where I had hidden it. And now it's gone! I've had all my trouble for nothing."
As he ceased speaking, he glanced suspiciously at Sandy. And Sandy, in turn, made a most provoking face.
"I believe you know something about my money!" Carson said.
"Sure I do!" replied Sandy.
"Then where is it?"
"The robbers got it!"
"That's a nice story to tell," howled Carson. "If you think I'm going to be defrauded out of my money in this way, you're very much mistaken!"
Without paying any further attention to the threats of the banker,
Sandy stepped over to Elmer's, side and pointed up the deserted shaft.
"There's where the robbers went," he said, "and they doubtless took Carson's money with them. I don't understand why Will didn't stop them."
"Will and George probably released their friends and went away," complained Elmer. "I don't think they showed very good judgment in doing that, either. The result is that the money has disappeared entirely. A short time ago, Uncle might have reclaimed it."
"We don't know whether the money has gone beyond recall or not," replied Sandy. "I don't believe Will and George ever left the old shaft unguarded. They are still somewhere in this vicinity!"
Carson now blustered up to Sandy and pointed an accusing finger into the lad's face. Sandy regarded him with indifference.
"Now that your story of the robbers has been disproved," Carson shouted, "you may as well tell me who took my money. If I had not the courage to make this investigation in person, that cheap story of the robbers would have held good for all time!"
"That's a horse on me, all right!" admitted Sandy. "I don't know where the robbers are, unless they went up through that old shaft, and it doesn't seem as if the boys would permit that!"
"Too thin! Entirely too thin!" declared Carson. "A moment ago you tried to tell me that the money wasn't hidden near Tunnel Six at all, but was hidden back there near the cross-cutting."
"We had good reason to believe it was hidden there!" replied Sandy. "We found a burned ten dollar banknote there just after a dynamite explosion had taken place."
"That would naturally lead to the supposition that the money had been hidden there!" Mr. Buck exclaimed.
"Come to think of it," Sandy went on, "I believe that was one of Ventner's tricks. I believe he blew down those pillars and burned the banknote for the express purpose of making us search two or three weeks in the wrong place. I guess we have underestimated that fellow's ability. He's a keener man than I supposed!"
"I don't quite see the point to that," Elmer suggested. "When you say that Ventner probably caused you to dig in the wrong place, you admit that he must have known something about the right place. Now, how could he have known anything about where to look for that money?"
"I don't know," replied Sandy. "But when you say that he might have known exactly where to look, you set him down as a fool, because he has been searching a long time and never came upon it until today."
"I think I can understand that," Mr. Buck said. "This man you speak of probably knew where to find the money provided he could discover the right drift, bench, chamber or tunnel. Like Mr. Carson, here, he could doubtless go straight to the cache if directed into the right apartment."
While the four stood together at the bottom of the chamber, their searchlights making the place as light as day, an exclamation came from the shaft above, followed by two pistol shots.
Carson dropped to his knees and began twisting at his automatic, which had in some way become entangled in the lining of his pocket.
"There are your robbers!" he shouted. "Put out your lights!"
"Don't you do anything of the kind!" argued Sandy. "Get out of range of the old shaft and keep your lights burning so you can shoot any one who drops down! I guess we have them hemmed in!"
"It's a scheme to get away with my money!" shouted Carson.
"I wish you had your old money chucked down your throat!" exclaimed
Sandy. "I'm getting sick of the sound of the word!"
All members of the party now drew back toward the dip, where they were entirely concealed from any one in the old shaft.
Directly there was a rattling of shale and slate, and then the lights showed the figure of Tommy sitting astride the peak of the pyramid.
"What are you fellows trying to do down there?" he asked.
"We're looking for Carson's money?" replied Sandy.
"Did you get it?" the boy demanded.
"Not yet!"
"That's the boy that's got my money!" shouted the banker.
"Money's a good thing to have!" grinned Tommy.
"What have you done with the highwaymen?" asked Sandy.
"Why continue this senseless talk about highwaymen?" demanded Carson, "when you know just as well as I do that there are no robbers here other than yourselves! Mr. Buck," he added, turning to Elmer's father, "I call upon you to assist me in restraining these robbers until the proper officers can be summoned."
"Where did that fat man come from?" asked Tommy.
"You impertinent rascal!" shouted Carson.
"Sure!" answered Tommy. "But where did you say you came from?"
"I'm president of this mining company!" screamed Carson, "and I'll have you all in jail if you don't produce my money!"
"Is this the gentleman who went batty and lost two hundred thousand dollars?" asked Tommy, sliding down from the slate pyramid and standing beside Sandy.
"That is believed to be the man!" laughed Sandy.
"Believed to be!" roared Carson.
"Does he know where he left the money?" asked Tommy.
"Sure I know where I left my money, you young Jackanapes!" declared Carson. "I pointed out the exact hiding place only a few moments ago!"
"You found it empty?"
"Yes, I found it empty!" roared Carson.
"Then," Tommy suggested, "we've all got to get busy."
"What do you mean by that?" demanded Carson.
Before Tommy could reply, Will came sliding down the rope and landed within a few feet of where the little group stood.
"Look here, Will," Tommy said, "Are you sure we made a good search of those three ginks? They've got the money all right!"
"How do you know they did?" demanded Will.
"That fat man over there who looks as if he was about to bust," Tommy grinned, "is Mr. Carson, the man who hid the money and couldn't find it again. He's just been looking in the place where he concealed it, and it isn't there! We've got to get busy!"
"I don't understand this at all," Mr. Buck interrupted.
"It's just this way," Will said, facing the speaker, "we caught the three men who were wandering about in the mine. We rescued our chums first, and then when the outlaws heard your party advancing they scrambled up the old shaft and took to their heels supposing, of course, that we had lost no time in getting out of the mine."
"And you geezled them all?" asked Sandy.
"The whole three!" replied Will. "All we had to do was to stretch a rope across a passage, trip them up, and do a little winding around their graceful forms before they could catch their breath. They are all tied up good and tight now."
"And you searched them for the money and didn't find it?" shouted
Carson.
"And we searched them for the money and didn't find it!" repeated
Will.
"I don't believe it!" shouted Carson. "You'll be telling me in a moment, when I ask you to produce your robbers, that they have broken their bonds and escaped!"
At that moment, George's voice was heard calling down the shaft:
"Break for the main shaft!" they heard him saying. "Head those fellows off. They cut their ropes and got away!"
"I told you so!" thundered Carson.