They thought at first that it was perhaps worked by some sort of apparatus, but they found that this was not the case. They found by experimenting that the trap door yielded easily to their weight, and decided that it had been their combined rush upon Cassey that had done the trick. The weight of the four of them upon it had shot the door down so rapidly that they had not had time even to know what was happening to them, much less scramble to safety. Then it had shut on them.
“It couldn’t have worked better for them,” said Herb, as they turned toward the door of the barn. “I bet they’re laughing yet at the way they put things over.”
“Let ’em laugh,” said Bob, adding fiercely: “But I bet you anything that the last laugh will be ours!”
“I wonder what Cassey was doing here, anyway,” said Jimmy, as they walked slowly homeward. “It was lucky, wasn’t it, that we happened along when we did?”
“I don’t see where it’s so lucky,” grumbled Joe. “We’re no nearer catching him now than we ever were.”
“Except that we know he’s around this locality,” put in Bob. “I guess the police will be glad to know that.”
“Oh! are you going to tell the police?” asked Jimmy, whose thoughts had been upon what he was going to get for dinner.
“Of course,” said Bob. “He’s an escaped criminal, and it’s up to us to tell the police all we know about him.”
“I only wish we knew more to tell,” said Joe disconsolately.
Since they had been flung through the trap door, Joe had called himself every unpleasant name he could think of for his carelessness. If he had stayed at the door where he belonged, there would have been one of them left to grapple with Dan Cassey. Probably the two men who had been with Cassey when they had surprised him had not been anywhere around. They belonged to the type of criminal that always thinks of its own safety first. Probably they had not been anywhere near the barn. And if it had been only Dan Cassey and himself, well, he, Joe, could at least have given the scoundrel a black eye—maybe captured him.