“Not for a good many years, I reckon,” the detective said dryly. “You’ll be the state’s star boarder for some time to come.”
“Maybe, but I’ve seen sicker cats than this get well,” the man smiled.
Leaving the three deputies to guard the prisoners, the sheriff accompanied by the detective and Bob made a search of the shack and cave. Bob showed them the trap door in the corner and, after they had descended and squeezed through into the second chamber, he showed them how he and Jack had made their escape.
“But there must be another room or something of the sort here,” the detective insisted when they had returned to the upper cave. “They must have some food here and I haven’t seen a sign of it.”
For some time they searched going over every foot of the walls and floor and were about to give it up when Bob discovered the secret. He was on the side of the cave opposite the door which opened into the shack and suddenly his quick eye caught sight of a crack in the rock. Playing his flash up and down on the wall he could trace it from the floor to a point about even with the top of his head. Then it turned sharply at right angles. It was such a small crack that it was little wonder that it had eluded him when he had searched the cave before.
“I think I’ve found something,” he called and the others hastened to his side.
“See that crack?” he asked eagerly.
“Yes, but—”
“Wait a minute,” Bob interrupted as he darted across the cave and passed through the door into the shack.
He was back in a minute with a screw driver which he remembered to have seen in the shack. This he inserted in a place, he had noticed, about two feet from the floor and carefully using it as a pry, he gave a cry of satisfaction as a small door swung open, a door so cunningly constructed and closely fitted that probably not one man in a dozen would ever have found it. It was made of boards, the side facing the cave being covered with thin slabs of rock so skillfully cemented together and to the door that it was practically impossible to distinguish between it and the rest of the wall.