"Let's give three cheers!" cried Herc.
"Better be careful about making a noise," counselled Ned. "No telling but some of those rascals may be hiding in the building somewhere."
"That's right," agreed Herc. "Another thing has occurred to me, too. All the windows of this delightful place are barred, and if the door has been locked and the place vacated, we're going to have a hard time to get out, even now."
"That's right. Well, we'd better start on our tour of exploration right away."
Guided by Ned, with his torch ready for instant darkening, the two lads began to thread the maze of corridors and passages. They had been doing this for several minutes, and were beginning to get rather bewildered, when Ned stopped suddenly just as they entered a long corridor pierced with doors, with the same monotonous regularity as the others. He extinguished the light in the wink of an eye, and drew Herc swiftly into the embrasure of a doorway as he did so.
Far down the corridor a footstep had sounded, and another light had flashed. As they crouched in the darkness, prepared for any emergency, a sudden voice sounded from the end of the corridor:
"Stop right where you are, or I'll fire!"