"Where you been, gopher?" he demanded sternly.
"I fell in," stammered the boy.
"Where?"
"Some kind of a well. It was in the bushes just outside the back door. I went there to hide. I fell down to the bottom and went to sleep."
"Just like him. Have anything to eat down there?" jeered Ned Rector.
"When I woke up it was dark. Then I found another hole—a passage. It went both ways. Guess one end went under the church. I followed it the other way, and came out near where the steers are bedded down."
"Hold on a minute. Let's get this straight," interrupted Curley. "You mean you found an underground passage at the bottom of the old well? Is that it?"
Chunky nodded.
"And the opening was near the spring at the point of rocks just above the herd?"
"Yes. But I had to dig out through a brush heap."