don stepped into the room, his eyes and nerves alert for whatever emergency which might arise. he found himself facing a short and slightly stout man, who was standing beside an easy chair, a newspaper in his hand and a curved pipe in his mouth. the pipe seemed to have gone out and the man was staring toward don intently.
the room was furnished with a bed, a table upon which rested a few books, and a large armchair. an iron stove took up one corner of the room, and a fire had been lighted and was crackling in it. two small high windows gave light in the room, and the windows had been heavily barred. don took in the room in a sweeping glance and looked once more at the man.
an expression of mingled relief and anxiety was on the man’s face and he stepped forward, dropping his paper.
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“who are you, boy?” he asked, his voice slightly hoarse. “what are you doing here?”
“are—are you colonel morrell?” gasped don, a flash of inspiration sweeping over him.
“yes!” replied the man, eagerly. “have you come to rescue me at last? is the story out?”
“i’m sorry to say that i may not be able to help you much, colonel,” returned don, closing the door behind him. he looked searchingly at the colonel, the subject of so much thought and conjecture for the last two months. “i’m a prisoner here myself, and i just escaped from a room on the second floor. i guess i stumbled on their game and they took me in, too.”
“just the same, i’m very glad to see you,” cried the colonel, seizing his hands. “what is your name, my boy?”
“don mercer, sir. i’m a fourth class man, and we’ve been greatly concerned about your absence at the school. have you been right here all along, colonel morrell?”
“every bit of the time,” nodded the stout colonel. “clever piece of business, wasn’t it, that of hiding me where no one would have thought of looking for me?”
“it certainly was,” don agreed. “shall we try and make a dash for it, colonel morrell?”
but the colonel shook his head, running his hand through his thick gray hair. “i’m afraid it is no use, my boy. that old man’s never left alone, and we would waste time by trying it. let’s think up a better plan. have you had anything to eat?”
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“no,” said don.
the colonel hurried to the center table and opened a drawer, from which he took a sandwich wrapped in paper. “here is a sandwich that was left over from my supper,” he said, handing it to don. “sit down here and eat it while i talk to you.”
don sat down in the arm chair and gratefully ate the sandwich. the colonel seated himself on the arm of the chair.
“of course all you boys wondered what had become of me,” he began. “i’ll tell you the whole story. some years ago i was in business with major tireson and a man named morton dennings. i never cared for dennings, who was a close friend of the major’s, but we got along fairly well and things went smoothly. we all bought shares in some mines in the west in those early days, but they turned out to be worthless and i filed my papers away. i didn’t think anything more about them until this summer, when major tireson called on me and asked me to sell him my share in the mine.
“as i had thought the mine absolutely worthless i naturally wanted to know why he was so anxious to buy, and he told me that he and his partner wanted to hold the land for future speculation. i knew that there was some flaw in the story somewhere and refused to sell to him, although he did get pretty warm about it. i determined to have the place looked up and reported upon, but i let the summer slip by without attending to it, and so i lost a valuable opportunity.
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“i had wired tireson the date of my arrival here and he put his plans together well, the scoundrel! i was just about to board a train at my home town when a messenger boy ran up to me and gave me a brief note. it was from tireson, asking me to stop off at spotville point and see this man dennings, who lives there. so i dropped off the train at that town and went up to the home of morton dennings. he entertained me all evening, and just before i was ready to go to bed late in the night i heard an automobile drive alongside the house. dennings and two men promptly seized me and told me that i would be kept a prisoner until i turned over my share in the mine to tireson and himself. i told him that i would be a prisoner forever before i would do that. they took me out of the house and to my surprise brought me here, where i found these quarters fitted up for me.”
“and you have been here, right under our noses, while detectives have hunted for you all over the country!” said don.
“oh, yes, that was the point of their idea. no one would think of looking for me right at my own school. tireson has been here time after time, trying to make me reveal the hiding place of my papers, but he hasn’t arrived any place yet. he isn’t going to, either. but they are both getting tired of the game, and i’m afraid they are planning some new move with me.”
“but what can they do?” inquired don, anxiously. “they can’t turn you loose and they can’t keep you a prisoner forever.”
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“no,” said the colonel, getting up and pacing the floor. “but there is always violence and the possibility of dragging me off on some ship and dropping me in some far eastern port!”
“they won’t dare resort to violence!” flashed don.
the colonel shrugged his shoulders. “we don’t know what they will do. remember, they are pretty deep in this thing right now. to allow me to get loose and tell a few things would ruin them both. they can’t afford to mince matters.”
“i must get out of here somehow and get help,” cried don.
“we’ll see about that,” returned the colonel, returning to his seat on the arm of the chair. he dropped one arm around don’s shoulder. “let me hear how you came to be mixed up in this business, mercer.”
don related everything from the beginning and the colonel was an interested listener. he was able to explain something that had puzzled the boys.
“dennings didn’t come here himself, as a regular thing,” he said. “he made the old farmhouse his headquarters and waited there for news. i guess one of the men used a mirror to flash his ‘no progress.’ there never was any progress. major tireson has pleaded and coaxed and threatened, and he finally did admit that the mine had turned out to be one of the best of its kind and that he and his partner were determined to get my share of it. that time we had the fire was when the cook, the old man, left a lid off the stove and a curtain brushed over it. i thought something might come of that, but they had someone watching me all the time and i couldn’t make any signals.”
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“was there no way of signalling out of that window?” asked don, nodding to one of the two in the room.
“they are all too high,” answered the colonel. “i would have tried if—listen!”
footsteps were heard on the floor below and then a shrill whistle rang out. someone shouted something. the colonel jumped up.
“they have discovered that you are gone!” he cried. “i must hide you at once, and i have just the place. i’m sure these fellows don’t know of it, and i’ll risk it. come here.”
he led the way to the other side of the room to where a dusty map hung. brushing this to one side he disclosed the opening of a ventilator with a black iron frame. he thrust his fingers into the openings in the frame and pulled the iron work out.
“here,” gasped the colonel. “get into that hole. it doesn’t go very far, but it will hold you all right. don’t make a sound.”
the opening was large enough for don to get his body into, an awkward job, as he went in backward. the passage of what had once been an air-shaft extended back for a distance of about seven feet, and he lay flat on his stomach, finding plenty of room in the shaft. the colonel replaced the grating, dropped the map into place and hurried back to the center of the room, where he picked up his paper and sat down, pretending to read.
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the noise downstairs continued and in a few minutes someone could be heard running up the stairs. a shout was raised outside the colonel’s door.
“the boy is in with the colonel!” dan’s voice shouted.
others ran up the stairs and the old man, dan and major tireson rushed into the room. the colonel jumped to his feet, the picture of alarm as he faced his captors.
“what’s the matter?” he cried. “are you going to hurt me, tireson?”
“i’m not going to touch you,” shouted the major, in disgust. “we want that boy. where is he?”
“what boy?” asked the colonel, blankly.
“you know very well what boy!” snorted the major. “we found the lock on your door open when we came in, and we know he is in here!”
“oh, i see!” cried the colonel, as though a light had suddenly appeared to him.
“what do you see?” snapped tireson, halted by the colonel’s tone.
“somebody was working at my lock up until the time you started to run around and yell downstairs,” related the colonel. “i thought it was one of you trying to get the padlock unlocked so i didn’t pay any attention. who was this boy you are talking about? what is he doing here? why——”
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“never mind all that,” major tireson cut him short. “dan, go out in the hall and see if you can find that boy. he must not get out of the place!”
the major then made a thorough inspection of the room, even going so far as to hastily brush aside the map, but did not find don and he began to believe seriously that the boy had not entered the colonel’s room. the old man had hurried out of the room and the major was now alone with colonel morrell.
“look here, elmer,” said the major, sharply. “i’m going to give you one last chance to speak up and tell us where your papers are. you have until tomorrow night. if you haven’t spoken by then you will have to suffer the consequences. dennings is more than tired of your stubbornness, and we won’t stand for any more of it. you will be moved tomorrow night, so you had better come across with the papers before then, or you will probably go for a long sea voyage.”
“going to kidnap me and take me for a sail, eh?” inquired the colonel.
“as far as kidnapping is concerned i think that has happened already. i can’t help it about the sea voyage. you must realize that we can’t let you loose and if you won’t talk you can take what is coming to you.”
“you’ll suffer for this, you scoundrel!” roared the colonel.
“maybe,” the major shrugged. “we will if you ever get loose, and we are going to see that you don’t. there is only one sensible thing to do, morrell, and you know what that is.”
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“you’ll never get those papers,” affirmed the headmaster.
“then you may take what is coming to you, you stubborn old idiot!” shouted the major, leaving the room. he closed the door after him and turned a key in the lock. his footsteps were heard going down the stairs a few minutes later.
when the colonel thought that it was safe he let don out of the ventilator and brushed him off. the cadet’s uniform was covered with dust from the shaft.
“too bad that shaft was ever boarded up,” remarked don.
“yes, but it was. well, you heard what our friend the major said. i am to be carted off tomorrow night and bundled to sea.”
“i heard it all right,” said don. “we must find out some way to prevent it. but if we can’t do that i might lie in the ventilator, find out where they are taking you, and as soon as they are gone. i can probably get help before you have been carried very far.”
“that is true,” agreed the colonel. “that may be the best thing to do. i presume we had better be ready to hide you at a moment’s notice. you can share my food with me today and at night we’ll sleep together. the bed is wide enough for both of us. we’ll play the game of hide and seek tomorrow and when they come to take me away at night you can carry out your plan.”
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twice again through the day don was forced to take to the ventilator and hide, once when food was brought to the colonel and once when the major paid a visit to the room. it was evident that tireson was worried, and the colonel asked if the boy had been found. the major refused to answer but it was evident from his manner that he had not been. finding all in order in the room the major retired, and late in the afternoon the padlock was repaired and snapped in place.
don and the colonel spent a contented day, during which they became well acquainted. don told his superior of the events of the past three months and the colonel talked to him of a variety of subjects. when night came on the colonel lighted a lamp he had and they talked again.
“no one will be here again,” observed the colonel. “we’ll turn in soon and get some sleep. i’m a very light sleeper and if anyone comes to the door i’ll hustle you into the ventilator. lucky thing they gave us a lot of food.”
the colonel explained that the men generally gave him enough food for three meals and left him alone until the following day. then the colonel brought out a checker board and some checkers and he and don had some good games. the colonel won them all and was in high spirits.
“well, i guess we had better turn in,” the headmaster decided, after he had won the fourth game. he swept the checkers toward him.
then both of them started and turned. the padlock opened with a snap, and before they could move the door was flung open.
