"Why two tunnels?" Rick asked. "I doubt that there were two veins of ore."
Scotty reminded him of the good ore they had seen in the ceiling of the lower tunnel. "There might have been just one vein, about two tunnels high. They were limited to pick and shovel for tools in those days, remember, maybe with a little powder for blasting. It would have been more convenient to work within range of tools like shovel and pick. So the ceiling is as high as a man with a pick can reach, and as wide as the ore vein was wide. That's a little confused, but I'm sure you follow me."
"Sounds reasonable," Rick agreed. "Only this tunnel can't go on much farther, or we'll be in the middle of the picnic—Hey! Scotty, take a look!"
Ahead in the tunnel was a box, and on the box was metal that reflected the flashlight's beam. In a second the boys stood over it.
Rick's heart pounded rapidly. Here was the proof. Here was Missing Fact Number One. Here was verification of at least part of their speculation.
An eight-millimeter motion-picture projector!
Rick motioned to the front of the machine with a trembling hand. "Look, there's a film in place, and it's a continuous loop. Once it's threaded it will repeat over and over unless cut off."
Scotty was probing into the box. "Batteries. Two of them, twelve volts each. And I'll bet the motor in the projector is designed to operate on twelve volts. There's even a hydrometer for testing the batteries."
Rick took a look. As Scotty had said, there were two automobile batteries, their cables running up into the projector.
"Simple enough," he commented. "Let's see what's on the film."