Wayne was a good worker and always reliable, but like lots of men he enjoyed a good laugh and often went to long ends to get it.
"Johnny," he said, "you engage the Mexicans in conversation. I'm going to fix up a ghost and we'll have a little fun with them."
While Johnny Queen was talking to the Mexican workers about everything he could think of, Wayne made a large paper man, then tied a string to it and dangled it from the roof of the cave in a dimly lit section which hadn't been explored too much.
The Mexicans were quite superstitious about the cave, and Wayne knew he would get quite a rise out of them when they saw this ghost-like figure rising out of the semi-darkness.
He didn't have long to wait. Signaling to Johnny that the scene had been set, the conversation stopped and the Mexicans were sent into the cave in the vicinity of where the ghost had been rigged.
Panic broke loose. Every Mexican in the group quit, scampering out of the cave and heading for Carlsbad. They were scared. But so were Johnny and Wayne. They knew how hard it was to get men to work in the cave and, with this mass exodus of workers, they would be in for a hard lecture from Victor when he returned and found what had happened.
They pleaded with the frightened men, but it was useless. They had seen that white figure with their own eyes. They had heard the cave was haunted; now they knew that what they had heard was true. Come back to work? Not in that cave! Some picked up their belongings, while the others were in too much of a hurry to get out of that section of the country.
When Victor returned and learned what had happened, he nearly fired John and Wayne on the spot. Needless to say, John and Wayne had learned their lesson, and they were much more careful about what they tried on the workers in the future.
On one occasion a man by the name of Priest came out from Carlsbad to see the cave and learn how guano was being taken out. The boys were always ready to oblige anyone like this, so they told him to get on the car and they would take him down.
The car hadn't gone very far when the steel cable on the drum slipped a bit and the car suddenly dropped about a foot.