“Horace,” she said suddenly, “you can’t breathe a word of this story until we’ve talked it over with Peter and his office has released it. If that man is Dick Hartwell, he was in a Federal penitentiary. He forged his father’s signature to a government bond.”
“But he was out on parole,” Horace began.
“He’s right, though,” Judy interrupted. “They’ll put him right back in if they find him. A man is on parole only as long as he keeps out of trouble, and this man is in trouble—way in. I still feel sorry for him, but I know now what we have to do.”
“Name it and we’ll do it. Of course you’ll notify Peter—”
A rushing sound in the pipes overhead interrupted Horace in the middle of what he was saying. His face went suddenly white.
“He heard us!” cried Judy. “I think that man in there heard what we were saying and turned on the fountain!”
“Come on,” Horace exclaimed. “We have to get out of here fast, before the fountain fills, and report what he told us. Come on, Judy! The exit must be in this direction. There’s that drain cover you tripped on before.”
Judy beamed her flashlight toward it and saw that Horace had replaced it.
“Wait!” she called to him. “That drain is there to keep the tunnel from being flooded. If any water seeps in from the fountain it probably runs off down that drain. You shouldn’t have put back the cover!”
“I was afraid someone would fall down the hole. Either way, it’s a trap!”