or better,
After going into the basement, they found the cocaine stored beneath a heap of rags.
152. Dangling Participles.—Another detail for careful attention in the use of the participle is the necessity of having a definite noun or pronoun in the sentence for the participle to modify. It is wrong to write,
Having arrived at the county jail, the door was forced open,
because the sentence seems to say that the door did the arriving. The sentence should be written,
Having arrived at the county jail, the mob forced open the door.
153. Agreement of Verbs.—One should watch one's verbs carefully, too, to see that they agree in number with their subjects. One is sometimes tempted to make the verb agree with the predicate, as in the following:
The weakest section of the course are the ninth, tenth, and eleventh holes.
But English usage requires agreement of the verb with the subject. If the subject is a collective noun, one may regard it as either singular or plural. But when the writer has made his choice, he must maintain a consistent point of view. One may say,
The mob were now gathering in the northeast corner of the yard and yelling themselves hoarse,