CHAPTER XII
A BROKEN DOOR
Fred took charge of the combined forces. Somehow the others appeared to look to him to do this.
"Seems to be all boarded up across the windows," he remarked.
"I told you I'd heard the owner did that a long time ago," said Sid, at his elbow.
"And the doors look like they might be locked tight, too," Fred continued.
"Oh! we can bust one in; that's easy," chuckled Bristles, who was always ready to proceed to extreme methods; where Fred might think to try strategy, he would attempt force.
"But they must have found some way to get in; and unless we made sure to guard that point, they'd have a way to escape handy," the leader went on.
"Say, wouldn't that be hard luck, though?" Corney exclaimed; "for us to rush in one door, and have the bunch of kidnappers pop out another."