“What — how” — Laspar paused. Spluttering in astonishment as he saw Harry also coming forward — “where in the world have you come from?”
Before Rex could reply, Laspar saw Vic Marquette. Sight of the bearded man added to his amazement.
Laspar’s face was ludicrous as the others viewed it. The lumber magnate stared at the scattered cordwood. He leaned forward over an old dusty table in an effort to see what lay beyond.
“We’ve found a passage into your cellar,” explained Rex, hastily. “We’ll tell you all about it later. Right now, we’ve got to guard ourselves. We’re being followed.”
“Let’s get that slab shut,” suggested Harry, turning to Vic Marquette. “Come on — we can block it up.”
“With cordwood?” queried the fake hermit.
“An opening in the wall!” put in Laspar. “Why — why — it looks like a door! Was that the cordwood that I heard crash?”
“Yes,” acknowledged Rex. “Listen, Harry” — he turned to The Shadow’s agent — “don’t mind about that slab. It won’t hold unless we barricade it. But that door at the top of the stairs will hold back the mob that’s after us.”
“That’s right,” accorded Harry. He and Vic had already shoved the slab shut. “Come on, Vic. We’re safe enough. Let’s get upstairs.”
Laspar was eyeing the bearded man. He turned to Rex and delivered a puzzled question.
“Is that Old Absalom?” he inquired. “Has the man really exhibited signs of sanity?”
“It’s Old Absalom, all right,” chuckled Rex, “and it isn’t. We’ve got a lot to tell you, Mr. Laspar. But the first thing I want to know is this: Do you have a telephone to the lumber camp?”
“Yes.” Laspar was moving up the stairs with Rex. “Do you want to communicate with someone there?”
“I want you to bring men over here,” returned Rex. “There’s trouble, plenty of it, and we’ll need all the help we can get! Go ahead and put in the call. I’ll lock the cellar door.”
Laspar nodded. He reached the top of the stairs and turned right, to the room where the telephone was kept. As soon as Harry and Vic had reached the hallway, Rex closed the heavy door and locked it. He motioned the others into the living room.
“We’re getting help from the lumber camp,” Rex told his comrades. “Laspar is putting the call in right now. He’ll be with us shortly. Then we can give him the details. We hit a lucky break tonight.
“No wonder someone went to all the trouble of stacking up those logs and piling that furniture before Laspar took this lodge. They wanted to keep him out of the cellar; and they did.
“We’ve found the old Quest mine. We’ve spotted a phony connection with the Chalice mine. This lucky passage was the oddest break of all. But it’s left us so we can turn the tables on Jubal and the rest.”
Rex concluded. Cortland Laspar entered. The lumber magnate caught the last words that Rex spoke. His eyes showed immediate interest. With quizzical gaze, Cortland Laspar turned to Rex Brodford to gain an explanation of the amazing events that had brought the three fugitives to this house of refuge.
CHAPTER XVIII. DEFENDERS PREPARE
“INCREDIBLE!” exclaimed Cortland Laspar. “Utterly incredible!”
The lumber magnate had heard Rex Brodford’s story, terse but complete. He had learned how Harry and Rex had gained a new ally following the fight in the shack. He had been told the details of the flight through the mine shafts.
“Incredible,” repeated Rex, “yes. But it is true.”
“I do not need your word for that,” smiled Laspar. “Your appearance in the cellar of this lodge stands as proof of these astounding events. The identity of this man” — he indicated Vic Marquette — “is but another amazing point in the sequence. Yet there are details which still need clearing.”
“There are,” agreed Rex. “To begin with, our first trouble in the shaft. Who was it that opened fire from up by the mouth of the Quest mine? Who followed us down into the uncovered shaft?”
“I can answer that,” put in Vic Marquette. “Jubal and his outfit must have come up to the shack. Not finding you fellows, they looked about and spotted that open mine shaft.”
“But what brought them up to the shack?” quizzed Rex.
“They probably went to my island first,” replied Vic, in a rueful tone. “They found me missing. They thought they’d better start up the hill.”
“Do you think they found your skiff?” inquired Harry.
“No,” returned Vic, “because I buried it under some bushes in a cove near the landing. I don’t think they could have discovered it.”
“What about the crew from the Chalice mine?” queried Rex. “What brought them into the game?”
“They heard the firing on the hill,” responded Vic. “That’s why they decided to take a step.”
“But they went underground—”
“Yes — to stop us.”
“Then they must have known that we would be in the mine—”
Rex paused, puzzled. It was Cortland Laspar who took up the theme. The millionaire raised his hand for silence.
As the others quieted, he listened, to make sure there was no noise from below. Then he spoke in a quiet tone.
“THE situation appears quite clear to me,” he stated. “Let us analyze it from the beginning. First of all, how did Jubal and Firth, coming here, learn where you two were?”
“I don’t know,” admitted Rex.
“They must have visited Trebold,” asserted Laspar. “They could well have been hiding in the vicinity of the Chalice mine. There is every reason to suppose that Jubal and Trebold would be in league. Jubal was a promoter of the Chalice mine; Trebold a hireling.”
“But how,” asked Rex, “did Trebold figure that we were in the mine shaft?”
“Very easily,” replied Laspar. “Apparently, workers in the Chalice mine drove a shaft off their own property and struck the old Quest shaft. You say that the Quest mine showed signs of ore. Trebold, the supervisor, must have known it.
“Jubal learned it through Trebold. That was why Jubal tried to block your efforts to find the shaft of the Quest mine. It also tells us why he wanted to buy your stock. By adding the Quest property to the Chalice property, he would have a paying mine.
“But Jubal, from all that we have learned of him, was a rogue. Probably he was trying to keep his discoveries from the investors in the Chalice mine. He wanted that new enterprise to go broke. He planned thievery of a big sort.
“The tunnel drilled into this lodge was an example. This place was empty until I took it. Jubal probably had Trebold put through the submarine corridor so that this building could be used as a rendezvous or a mode of getaway.
“I understood, when I bought this property, that unknown persons had already been dickering for it. Jubal, I suppose, was trying to purchase it by proxy. When I made the buy, the old owners wanted to hold off until they heard from the other buyers. I settled that argument by putting up spot cash.”
“And in that way,” chuckled Rex, “you put Jubal in a hole.”
“Without knowing it,” added Harry.
“Exactly,” nodded Cortland Laspar. “I presume that Jubal decided to forget the lodge for the time. His chief task, Rex, was to eliminate you. But he failed. Right now, gentlemen, it is Jubal and his men who are in the bad spot.”
Laspar paused for emphasis; then he explained.
“PROBABLY,” he stated, “Jubal and Trebold have met within the connected mines. They are trying to decide what to do. Whether to attack here, or to retreat. They can either follow your path or they can go back to their outlets. To the Chalice mine or the Quest mine. Either one.”