“Not all of them,” said Nick, mystified for a moment. “Here is the box which must have contained some of them. Unless empty, it——”
Danny uttered a shriek, and Nick recoiled involuntarily.
A groan from within the box had fallen with startling effect on the ears of all. Then came a fierce kicking against the top of it.
“By gracious!” cried Nick, quick to guess the truth. “The rascals have been and gone. But they have entombed either Chick or Patsy.[Pg 40]”
He sprang into the tomb, shouting quickly and thumping on the long box:
“Keep cool! We’ll have you out in half a minute.”
It was done in less time, in fact. For Nick found that he could thrust his fingers under one corner of the cover, and, with the strength of a giant, he tore it off in an instant.
Patsy Garvan sat up in the box, in the glare of Nick’s searchlight, with his face wearing a look of relief that words could not possibly describe.
“By Heaven!” Nick muttered. “Those curs shall pay dearly for this.”
“Gee! that was some glad sound, chief, when I heard your voice,” said Patsy, after he had been liberated and the tomb relocked. “The rascals got me—but now we’ll get them.”