Once in the spacious cellar, with the door above closed, Chick announced that it would be safe to use a light.
“Bring out your electric flash, Patsy, and I’ll use mine. That’s right. We’ll take a general observation down here. There are three or four cellars opening out of each other. We’ll go over into that one next to the other house.”
Many empty bottles and some wooden boxes that had held bottles of beer were scattered about.
“Help me pile some boxes over in this corner against the wall, Patsy. I want to stand on them.”
The work was soon done. Then Chick told Patsy to turn out his light and stand still, keeping his ears open the while.
The roof of the cellar was formed by the floor above, and the heavy joists, crossing from side to side, rested upon its walls. This left spaces between each pair of joists at the top of the wall.
“If I’m not entirely mistaken,” thought Chick, “I’ll be able to see something through those spaces.”
Standing on top of the piled-up wooden cases, he peered through the opening. All was blackness on the other side, and he decided that it would be safe to use his electric flash.
The white glow of his flash showed him that there was another cellar on the opposite side of the wall, very much like the one which Patsy and he were in.
“I’ve got to get through there, Patsy,” he announced, as he came down to the floor. “But it’s going to be tough. I couldn’t squeeze through that hole, nor come anywhere near it.”