“What could he have hidden?” thought Tom. “I’ve got to get out of here soon, or the fellows will be waiting for me.”
He saw a small wooden clock on the mantle over the stove. An idea came to him.
“Maybe that clock hides a secret hole in the wall,” he thought. Stepping on a chair he moved the timepiece. As he did so the door came open, and in the lower part, where swung the pendulum, he saw several bits of paper. There was no hole in the wall, but, wonderingly Tom picked up the papers. Then he started.
“Pawn tickets!” he cried, “and some of them for silver cups! I’m on the trail at last!”
[CHAPTER XXIII]
TWO MISSING MEN
“Well, what do you know about that?”
“So that’s where you sneaked off to when we went after the shell?”
“And that’s why you didn’t bake the cake?”