“Go on!” yelled Hal.
At the same time he switched on his own flashlight, since it was necessary to show a gleam on the path he and Luke were to take, and the men were now using their own little torch.
It was now an open pursuit, with the intruders speeding toward the front wall of the cellar and Luke and Hal after them.
But Luke was mistaken when he cried out that the men could not get out the way they were going. Piled up in the front of the cellar of the Corner House were some old boxes. Dodging in around and among these the two men were lost to sight for a moment.
Daringly Hal and Luke followed and, to their surprise, they saw where the boxes had been pulled away from the wall, showing an old door, the existence of which was unknown, at least to the present owners of the Corner House.
It was out of this door that the men fled. Evidently it was by this way they came in, rather than the back door, and they seemed to be familiar with the egress.
Undaunted, Luke and Hal followed. Outside the newly disclosed door was a short flight of stone steps. They led up beneath what Luke recognized as the front porch, and the situation was now clear to him.
In years past there had been a front areaway entrance to the cellar. This had gone out of use and the porch had been built over it, a lattice work around the lower part of the porch concealing the door leading into the cellar.
Up the steps ran the two men. A quick motion served to throw down part of the lattice work, which, doubtless, had been previously loosened by the intruders, and in a few seconds they were out in the open, speeding away in the moonlight.
But Luke and Hal were close behind them, for they, too, ran up the steps and scrambled out beneath the front porch.