They reached the cellar bottom and started away from the foot of the stairs. The dim light was growing brighter, the light used by some intruders in their search.
A few seconds later Luke and Hal caught sight of two men bending over a hole they had dug in the cellar bottom. They were near one of the walls, and on the ground beside them was an electric flashlight turned on. The forms of the men were plainly visible, though their faces were in the shadow.
“They’re the same ones!” whispered Luke, meaning the same twain who had been in the cellar before and the same men Luke had heard talking in the railroad train.
Suddenly the silence of the cellar was broken as one of the men remarked:
“Nothing here!”
“No,” agreed the other, “we’ll have to——”
At that instant one of them either caught sight of Luke and Hal or else heard some noise made by the lads, for the man who had first spoken cried:
“Look out! We’re caught! Come on!”
In an instant the two intruders leaped up, and one picked the light from the floor. Then, to the surprise of Luke and Hal, the men, instead of dashing toward the outer door of the cellar, sprang toward the front, inner wall.
“Come on!” cried Luke, for further concealment was useless. “They can’t get out that way. It’s a solid stone wall! We’ll have them!”