“Yes. I found it several days ago. There is nothing for you boys to gain by looking further.”
“Then why,” asked Joe, “did you come back here to-day?”
Hanleigh licked his lips, and was silent.
“You’re bluffing again, Hanleigh,” said Frank. “If you had found what you were looking for, you wouldn’t have kept coming back to the cabin. You found yourself up against the same problem that we did. We searched that chimney, high and low—and found nothing. Neither did you.”
Hanleigh shrugged.
“I’ve talked too much. You won’t get any more out of me. I wish I had kept my mouth shut.”
“Just as you wish, Hanleigh,” remarked Frank casually. “I think we’re all in the same fix. You don’t know any more than we do. But I warn you that we will keep an eye on you. If you do learn the secret of the chimney, you won’t keep it.”
Hanleigh laughed sneeringly.
“Then you’ll wait a long time——”
He was interrupted by a startling sound.