"We're going on into the mine."
"In the face of my warning?"
"It's just this way," answered Will. "We left two of the boys on guard in this passage, not so very long ago, and they have disappeared. We suspect that Ventner and the two men to whom you refer have good reason to know something of their whereabouts."
"They won't injure the boys!" pleaded Canfield.
"We don't mean to give them a chance!" insisted Elmer. "We're going to jerk those boys out so quick it'll make their heads swim!"
"But it's positively dangerous!" urged the caretaker.
"If there wasn't an element of danger in the situation, we wouldn't be here!" replied Will. "I don't see as we need to run away from two hold-up men, anyway," the boy went on. "Here are five boys and one full grown man in the gangway. We ought to give a pretty good account of ourselves, in case some one starts anything!"
"Where's the fifth boy?" asked Canfield. "It seems to me that you're getting quite an accumulation of boys in here!"
"Two of the boys are Jimmie Maynard and Dick Thompson!" answered Will. "You know you informed me quite positively not long ago that the two lads were hundreds of miles from this place by this time."
"You might barricade the hold-up men and starve them out," suggested Canfield, "that is, if you're sure they're in there!"