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The boys walked faster until they came to the cross-passage and then turned to the right. Just as they left the main gangway, they heard the sound of running feet and directly the distant creaking the ladder rungs. "Some one's making a hot-foot for the surface!" exclaimed Tommy. "That's Ventner!" declared Sandy. "How do you know that?" "Because he wears heavy boots.
"If the attorney had written to him in regard to the matter at all, he would have posted him so fully that when he cross-examined me such a proceeding would have been unnecessary." "Has this man Ventner visited the mine often?" asked George. "Yes, quite frequently." "Does he always go alone?" "Yes, he always goes alone," was the answer.
Canfield introduced the new-comer as the detective, Joe Ventner, of New York, and the boys greeted him courteously. He accepted their proffered hands with an air of condescension which was most exasperating. He puffed out his chest, and at once began talking of some of his alleged exploits in the secret service of the government. "How did you pass the night, boys?" ask Canfield.
"Jimmie will talk again in a minute." The boys waited patiently for some moments, and then the wig-wag figures came again. Will read slowly: "There's a 'V', and an 'E', and an 'N', and a 'T', and an 'N', and an 'E', and an 'R'," he said. "Now the boy's starting it again. He says, 'Ventner is here. Now wait a minute, there's more coming!" "The next words are: 'With two others."
"There goes Ventner," whispered Will, pointing to a figure moving swiftly through the half-light of the place. "He's going to see what the shot brought down!" suggested Tommy. The Boys rushed forward in a little group. When they gathered at the scene of the explosion, the detective was not there. "If he got hold of the cash, he knew what to do with it all right!" exclaimed Tommy.
"When you say that Ventner probably caused you to dig in the wrong place, you admit that he must have known something about the right place. Now, how could he have known anything about where to look for that money?" "I don't know," replied Sandy.
Will crawled to the edge of the shaft with Dick and whispered as he lowered him into the dark opening below: "Remember, that Ventner may have discovered the money. If so, we must secure it before we leave the place! It will be just like him, to stow the bank notes away in some chamber like the one you are about to enter.
"Were you boys out there a few moments ago?" asked Canfield. "Nix!" replied George. "That was Ventner. We saw him from the weigh-house. He was trying to sneak his way into the mine!" "But he has full permission to enter at any time he sees fit!" urged the caretaker. "It doesn't seem as if he would attempt to steal his way in during the night. You must be mistaken!"
"No one," was the reply. "Why do you ask?" "Because," Will answered, "there's some one skulking off down that passage, and it looks to me like that bum detective!" "What makes you think it's Ventner?" asked the caretaker. "Did you see his face? I don't think he is here." "I didn't see his face," answered Will, "but I saw the shape of his shoulders and the hang-dog look of him."
And now the trick is to get it away from him!" "I'd like to know whether Ventner got up the shaft or not," suggested George, "and I believe I'll take a run up there and see." "That's a good idea!" advised Will. "If he didn't get up the shaft he's surely imprisoned in the gangway. He may be between this cross-cutting and the shaft, or he may have gone further in!"
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