“Well, we must get help to him quickly if he’s alive!” decided the contractor, and he led his hurrying men while the girls followed.
“How long were you in the cellar, Betty?” asked Arden.
“Only a few minutes. I couldn’t find the box of books at first. It must have been moved. And then I saw—him!”
“And you didn’t hear anything of the search we have been conducting for the last half hour?” asked Sim.
“Not the least sound. But then I was away down cellar, and the floors are very heavy.”
“And we were searching the upper floors,” said Terry. “Of course you couldn’t hear, Betty.”
Up out of the cellar, sliding and slipping on the crumbling stone steps, came the men carrying an apparently lifeless form. They had found it by means of Betty’s electric torch.
“Is it the missing man?” called Arden.
“Yes, it’s Jim Danton,” someone answered.
“Is he—dead?”