Jack was waiting in his hiding place, wondering what would next take place, and he was getting rather tired of his cramped position, when he heard footsteps coming back.
“Here’s where I do a sleuthing act and follow them,” he decided. But he was hardly prepared for what followed. The footsteps broke into a run, and there were excited voices calling one to another. There was the crash of falling boxes, and above everything came a strange unearthly yell, like that of some animal in pain.
“What in the world——” began Jack.
There was a rush of several bodies past his hiding place. Jack looked up over the head of the barrel in time to see four men, one carrying a lantern, dash along the cave, and behind them came another with abnormally long arms.
Pausing a moment to allow the fleeing ones to get a little ahead, Jack followed. His brain was excitedly thinking.
“There’ll be a grand ruction in a minute,” Jack chuckled to himself. “Things will happen with a vengeance.”
He heard cries of rage from the shack at the mouth of the cave. Advancing into it, but keeping himself concealed, Jack peered out. He noted that the automobile was gone, and from the absence of Paul and Walter he argued that they had driven away in it.
The talk of the men confirmed this.
“They’ve dished us!” exclaimed one, angrily.
“The car’s gone!” faltered another. “We were too slow!”