“You guard the door,” he called in a low tone to Joe. “See that Cassey doesn’t get out that way, and Herb and I will get after him in here.”
The barn was so dark that they could hardly see to move around. There was a window high up in the side wall, but this was so covered with dirt and cobwebs that it was almost as though there was none.
However, Cassey must be lurking in one of those dark corners, and if they moved carefully they were sure to capture him!
There was a loft to the barn, but if there had been a ladder leading up to it it had long since rotted and dropped away, so that Bob was reasonably sure the man could not be up there.
It was eery business, groping about in the musty darkness of the old barn for a man who would go to almost any lengths of villainy to keep from being caught.
Suddenly Bob saw something move, and, with an exultant yell, jumped toward it. Once more he almost had his hand upon Cassey when—something happened.
The floor of the barn seemed to open and let him through, and his chums with him. As he fell through the hole into blackness he had confused thoughts of an earthquake. Then he struck bottom with a solid thump that almost made him see stars.
He heard similar thumps about him and realized that Herb and Jimmy had followed him. Whatever it was they had shot through had evidently magically closed up again, for they were in absolute darkness.
“Well,” came in a voice which Bob recognized as Jimmy’s, “I must say, this is a nice note!”
“We’ve been pushed off the end of the world, I guess,” said Herb, with a sorry attempt at humor. “Who all’s in this party anyway? Are we all here?”