"Whew! This is getting worse and worse!" exclaimed the hunter. "I guess you'd better begin at the beginning, boys, and tell me all there is to tell. Old Mr. Addison a counterfeiter! I can't believe it."
"This is the way it was," began Sammy, and then he told of the exploration of the old house, after the hunt of the day before, and how, most unexpectedly, he had pressed on the spring that opened the panel or door of the secret room.
"And you should see the things in it!" put in Bob, as by turns the boys described the queer instruments.
"And then that flash and boom!" cried Frank. "It was terrible!"
"It must have been," admitted the hunter. "But I own up that I am puzzled. I never knew there was a secret room in the old house, and I thought I'd been all over it. As for those things you tell about—well, I guess I'll have to look at 'em myself."
Mr. Jessup did not say so, but the truth of the matter was that the boys had talked so fast and so excitedly, and had interrupted each other so often, that they had not given a very clear account of the things they had seen. Then, too, as is the case not only with boys, but with grown-ups, no one ever sees the same thing the way another person would.
The boys gave as good descriptions as they could of the queer objects in the secret room, but each one put in something a little different, until it was no wonder that Mr. Jessup was puzzled.
"Now I'll tell you what," he said. "We'll go back to Camp Mystery and figure this thing out. I guess I didn't name it out of the way when I called it 'Mystery,' for it's more mysterious than ever now.
"But we'll get to the bottom of it sooner or later. I'll have a look at the things in that room. Maybe I can find out who has been taking my grub. You weren't troubled while I was away last night! were you?"