The pane was so encrusted with dirt that for a moment it was impossible to see what was within the room. Then one by one objects began to stand out more clearly.
Tom and Chess were lying on the floor, hands bound behind them. Their clothing was disheveled, their faces encrusted with dirt. Grouped about them in various attitudes were three men—Sol Bloomberg, chewing his inevitable unlighted cigar and evidently taking huge delight in the proceedings; Joe Rumph, scowling, grotesque, hideous in his deformity; and—Charlie Reid!
Then, Charlie Reid had followed them all the way from New York! It had been Charlie Reid, then, and no other, whom Eben Howe had seen furtively leaving the door of Knockout Inn! It was Charlie Reid, too, in all probability, who had stolen the films, acting, as always, as the tool of Sol Bloomberg!
“So!” the girls heard Bloomberg say, his oily voice thick and gloating with triumph, “you thought you would be so smart, didn’t you? What good has it done you to find the films? I ask you that?”
Ruth’s heart leaped at the words and she gripped Helen’s arm.
“By the time your friends find you,” Bloomberg’s mocking voice went on, “those films will be where you cannot touch them—and me also. Where will your great Ruth Fielding be then, I ask you——”
“Right here, Sol Bloomberg!” Ruth spoke from the open doorway, her head held high, eyes flashing. Behind her stood Layton Boardman and several of the miners. “And now,” her voice rang through the place, “where are my films?”
Bloomberg stared as though he had seen a ghost. His cigar hung limp from flaccid lips. Then with a roar like a wounded bull, he sprang to his feet and dashed for the window.
The move was so sudden and catlike that the rascal was fairly through the window before any one could move to stop him.
The next moment there came a report, followed by a cry of rage and pain. Ruth and Helen rushed to the window. Bloomberg was prostrate on the ground, blood streaming from a wound in his leg. Above him stood Kid Curry, the smoking revolver still in his hand.