The Secret Of The Old Mill thb-3

by Franklin W. Dixon

  "Oh, great!" Joe groaned. "They're using axes!"

  "We won't have long to figure a way out," Frank said wryly.

  "Way out!" Joe scoffed. "There isn't any!" Frank's mind raced. "Hey! They said something about leaving through a tunnel! It must be in here."

  Frantically the Hardys searched for another exit from the secret room. They crawled on the

  floor, and pried up one brick after another looking for a ring that might open a trap door.

  "Nothing!" Joe said desperately. All the while the men in the cellar kept battering away at the door. "Good thing that old lumber is such hard wood," Frank thought. "But they'll break through any minute." "Look!" Joe pointed.

  "Under the bench!" Frank noticed a shovel lying beneath the work-table. The boys pushed it aside, and saw that the wall behind the table was partially covered with loose dirt. On a hunch Frank grabbed the shovel and dug into the dirt.

  "This dirt might have been put here to hide the entrance to the tunnel!" he gasped.

  "It better be!" His brother clawed frantically at the dirt.

  At the same moment there was a loud splintering noise. The Hardys looked around. A large

  crack had appeared in the bolted door.

  One of the men outside yelled, "A couple more blows and we'll be in."

  Frank dug furiously. Suddenly his shovel opened up a small hole in the crumbly dirt. Joe

  scooped away with his hands. Finally there was a space big enough for the boys to squeeze

  through. Without hesitation, Frank wriggled in, then Joe.

  From behind them came a tremendous crash and the sound of ripping wood. Markel's voice

  shouted, "Into the tunnel! After 'em!"

  The Hardys heard no more as they pushed ahead on hands and knees into the damp darkness

  of an earthen passageway.

  Joe was about to call out to his brother when he became aware that someone was crawling

  behind him.

  "No room here for a knockdown fight," he thought, wondering if the pursuer were armed.

  The young detective scrambled on as fast as he could in the narrow, twisting tunnel. He

  managed to catch up to Frank, and with a push warned him to go at top speed.

  "Somebody's after us!" Joe hissed. "If only we can outdistance him!"

  The underground route was a tortuous, harrowing one. The Hardys frequently scraped knees

  and shoulders against sharp stones in the tunnel floor and walls. They had held onto their

  flashlights, but did not dare turn them on.

  "This passageway is endless!" Frank thought. The close, clammy atmosphere made it

  increasingly difficult for him and his brother to breathe.

  Joe thought uneasily, "What if we hit a blind alley and are stuck in here?"

  The boys longed to stop and catch their breath, but they could hear the sounds of pursuit

  growing nearer, and forced themselves onward faster than ever.

  Frank wondered if Chet and Tony had seen the men enter the mill and had gone for help.

  "We'll need it," he thought grimly.

  Suddenly the brothers came to another turn and the ground began to slope sharply upward.

  "Maybe we're getting close to the end," Frank conjectured hopefully.

  Spurred by possible freedom, he put on a burst of speed. Joe did the same. A moment later

  Frank stopped unexpectedly and Joe bumped into him.

  "What's the matter?" he barely whispered.

  "Dead end," reported his brother.

  Squeezing up beside Frank, Joe reached out and touched a pile of stones blocking their path.

  The boys now could hear the heavy breathing of their pursuer.

  "Let's move these stones," Frank urged.

  Both Hardys worked with desperate haste to pull the barrier down. They heaved thankful sighs

  when a draft of fresh air struck their faces.

  "The exit!" Joe whispered in relief.

  The brothers wriggled through the opening they had made and found themselves in a rock-

  walled space.

  "It's the cave by the river, Joe!" Frank cried out. "Someone put back the rocks we removed!"

  The boys clicked on their flashlights and started toward the entrance of the cave.

  "We beat 'em to it!" Joe exclaimed.

  "That's what you think!" came a harsh voice from the entrance.

  The glare from two flashlights almost blinded the Hardys. Docker and Markel, with drawn

  revolvers, had stepped into the cave.

  CHAPTER XX

  Solid Evidence

  FOR a second the two armed men stared in disbelief at Frank and Joe. "The Hardy boys!"

  Docker snarled. "So you're the snoopers we've trapped!"

  There was a scuffling in the tunnel behind the boys. A stocky man, huffing and puffing, emerged from the tunnel. The Hardys recognized him instantly: the counterfeit passer, Victor Peters.

  The newcomer gaped at the Hardys. "What are they doing here?"

  "A good question!" Markel snapped at his accomplice. "You told us on the two-way radio you'd locked 'em up with the truck."

  Peters whined, "I did. They must've broken out."

  "Obviously." Docker gave him a withering look.

  Frank and Joe realized that Peters had not returned to the old farmhouse.

  Docker whirled on them. "How did you escape?"

  The boys looked at him coldly. "That's for you to find out," Joe retorted.

  "It's a good thing Markel and I decided to head 'em off at the cave," Docker added angrily.

  "Otherwise, they would have escaped again."

  The Hardys could see that the men were nervous and edgy. "I'm not the only one who made a mistake,"

  Peters growled. "I told you a couple of days ago to get rid of that kid Ken when these pests started asking about him, and then found the tunnel. We could have thrown 'em off the scent!"

  While the men argued, the Hardys kept on the alert for a chance to break away. Markel's eye

  caught the

  movement, and he leveled his revolver. "Don't be smart!" he ordered. "You're covered."

  Peters continued the tirade against his confederates. "Docker, you should've finished these Hardys off when you put 'em in the boat that night! And you"-Peters turned on Markel- "you could have planted a dynamite charge in their boat instead of just monkeying with the

  throttle."

  The Hardys, meanwhile, were thankful for the precious minutes gained by the men's

  dissension.

  "Tony and Chet might come back in time with help," Joe thought.

  Simultaneously, Frank hoped that Ken Blake had carried out his whispered instructions.

  Docker glanced nervously at his watch. "Blum ought to be here," he fumed.

  "Who's Blum?" Frank asked suddenly. "One of your counterfeiting pals?"

  Docker, Markel, and Peters laughed scornfully. "No," said Markel. "We're the only ones in our exclusive society. Paul Blum doesn't know anything about our-er-mill operation, but it was

  through him we got the jobs at the gatehouse. The whole deal really paid off double."

  Docker interrupted him with a warning. "Don't blab so much!"

  Markel sneered. "Why not? What I say won't do these smart alecks any good."

  Joe looked at the guard calmly. "Who paid you to let the green panel truck into Elekton?"

  All three men started visibly. "How'd you know that?" Markel demanded.

  "Just had a hunch," Joe replied.

  The former guard regained his composure. "We'll get our money for that little job tonight."

  Frank and Joe felt elated. Paul Blum, whom these men expected, must be the sabotage

  ringleader! "So that's what Markel meant by the deal paying off double," Frank thought. "He and Docker working the counterfeit racket on their own-and being in cahoots with the

  saboteurs."

  Frank addressed Markel in a
n icy tone. "You call blowing up a building a 'little job'?"

  The counterfeiters' reactions astonished the Hardys. "What!" bellowed Markel, as Docker and Peters went ashen.

  Joe snorted. "You expect us to believe you didn't know explosives were in that truck?"

  Victor Peters was beside himself with rage. "Fools!" he shrilled at Docker and Markel. "You let yourselves be used by saboteurs? This whole state will be crawling with police and federal

  agents."

  The gatehouse men, though shaken, kept their revolvers trained on the Hardys. "Never mind,"

  Docker muttered. "Soon as Blum shows up we'll get out of here and lie low for a while."

  Frank and Joe learned also that Docker and Markel actually were brothers, but the two refused

  to give their real names.

  "You, Docker, are known as The Arrow, aren't you?" Frank accused him.

  "Yeah. Next time I'll use you boys for targets!" the man retorted threateningly.

  The Hardys kept egging the men on to further admissions. Docker and Markel had been

  approached several months before by Blum who tipped them off to good-paying jobs at the

  Elekton gatehouse.

  Docker had cleverly forged references and identification for Markel and himself.

  As soon as he and Markel had obtained the jobs, Blum had instructed them to buy the truck

  secondhand in another state, and told them only that Markel was to lend Blum the truck on a

  certain day when notified, let him through the gate, then out again soon after closing time. The guard would be handsomely paid to do this.

  When Markel and Docker had become settled in the mill, the two had discovered the secret

  room and tunnel, which once had been a settlers' escape route. The men had wasted no time in

  setting it up for their counterfeiting racket, and often used the nondescript green truck to sneak in the required equipment.

  "Who rigged up the electric-eye signal?" Frank queried.

  "My work," Docker replied proudly.

  As the boys had surmised, Peters, an old acquaintance of theirs, was "the old man" at the deserted farmhouse. When the boys had left the mill that morning Docker had radioed Peters,

  telling him if the Hardys showed up at the farm, he was to trap them.

  "No doubt you planned to finish us off when you came back," Joe said.

  Peters nodded.

  Frank said to Docker, "I must admit, those twenties are pretty good forgeries. The police think so, too."

  The counterfeiter smiled in contempt. "Your fat friend sure was fooled."

  He explained that his skill at engraving, which he had learned years ago, had enabled him to

  make the plates from which the bills were printed.

  "Which one of you rode Ken's bike and left the typed warning for our father?" Frank asked.

  "I did," Markel replied promptly.

  "Why? He wasn't involved with the counterfeiting case."

  We thought he was when we overheard a company bigwig say Fenton Hardy was 'taking the

  case.'"

  "Yeah," Docker said. "I wasn't kidding when I sent the warnings-on paper and by phone."

  He had acquired some sheets of bond paper from Elekton on a pretext; also the Manila

  envelopes used to deliver the bogus money to Peters. Docker admitted he had "unloaded" the counterfeit twenty at Pritos' yard by mistake.

  Peters broke in abruptly. "We'd better get rid of these kids right now!"

  The three men held a whispered conference, but Docker and Markel did not take their eyes

  from the Hardys. Suddenly the boys' keen ears detected the put-put of an approaching

  motorboat.

  One thought flashed across their minds-Chet and Tony were bringing help. But in a few minutes

  their hopes were dashed! A heavy-set, dark-haired man peered into the mouth of the cave.

  "Blum!" Market said.

  "Who are these kids?" Blum asked, squinting at Frank and Joe.

  "Their name is Hardy-" Docker began, but Blum cut him short.

  "Hardy!" he said sharply. "ListenI just gave Fenton Hardy the slip at the Bayport dock. He was on a police launch."

  "We've got to move fast!" Markel urged. "Docker and I caught these sons of his snooping. Pay us what you promised and we'll scram."

  Blum looked disgusted. "Stupid amateurs! You let kids make it so hot you have to get out of town?" The heavy-set man pulled out his wallet. "Here's your cut for letting me into the plant,"

  he continued scornfully.

  "I'm glad to get rid of such bunglers."

  "It's not just these kids that made it hot for us!" Docker stormed. "If we'd known you were going to blow up that lab, we never would've gotten mixed up with you."

  The Hardys noticed that Paul Blum appeared startled at Docker's words.

  Frank spoke up boldly. "Sure. We all know you're back of the sabotage. Who pays you for doing it?

  And who's your inside man at Elekton?"

  Blum glared, then in a sinister tone replied, "You'll never live to sing to the cops, so I'll tell you.

  Several countries that want to stop United States progress in missiles are paying me. My friend in the plant is a fellow named Jordan."

  The saboteur revealed that his accomplice had first carried out smaller acts of sabotage, the

  ones which Chet had heard about from his father. It had been Blum himself who had driven the

  truck into the grounds and placed the dynamite in the laboratory. "Jordan and I gave your father the slip, then, too!"

  "You guys can stand here and talk!" snapped Peters. "I'm going. You'd better take care of these Hardys." He backed out of the cave and raced off.

  The counterfeiters discussed heatedly whether "to get rid" of Frank and Joe immediately, or take "these kids" and dispose of them later.

  "That's your worry!" Blum said. "I'm taking off!"

  "Oh, no, you're not. You can't leave us in the lurch." Markel waved his gun meaningfully.

  At that instant there was a crashing noise outside the cave. The three men swung around.

  This was all the Hardys needed. They hurled themselves at their captors, forcing them

  backward onto the rocky beach. From the woods they heard Chet yell, "Here we come,

  fellows!"

  Frank had tackled Blum, and Joe was wrestling with Docker on the beach.

  Tony Prito yelled, "Got you!" as he took a flying leap at Markel and brought him to the ground.

  The older men, though strong, were no match for the agile Hardys and the furious onslaught of

  Chet and Tony.

  Finally the struggle ended. The saboteur and counterfeiters were disarmed and lined up before

  the cave, their arms pinioned behind them by Joe, Chet, and Tony. Frank took charge of the

  revolvers. "Good work, you two!" he said to his friends. Chet, out of breath, grinned proudly.

  "I'm glad Tony and I stuck around when we saw these guys high-tailing it through the woods."

  Now Frank turned to the prisoners. "Okay. March!" he ordered.

  But before anyone could move, footsteps were heard approaching through the woods. A

  moment later Chief Collig and another officer appeared. With them, in handcuffs, was Victor

  Peters.

  "Chief! Are we glad to see you!" Joe exclaimed.

  The chief stared in amazement at the boys and their captives. "I got your message from Ken Blake," he told Frank. "Looks as if you have your hands full!"

  "Oh, we have!" Joe grinned, then, puzzled, he asked his brother, "What message?" "Just before I left the house I told Ken to call Chief Collig if we weren't back by eleven, and tell him where we had gone."

  While Blum and the counterfeiters stood in sullen silence, the four boys learned that Ken had

  called the chief just minutes after Fenton Hardy had left in the police launch in pursuit of Paul Blum.

  "Whe
n we reached the mill we met this crook running out of the woods." Chief Collig gestured toward the handcuffed Peters. "I recognized him from Chet's description. When we found

  phony money on him, he told me where you were, hoping to get off with a lighter sentence."

  "You rat!" Docker's face contorted with rage.

  At that moment the group became aware of a police launch churning toward them, the beam

  from its searchlight sweeping the water. In the excitement, no one had heard the sound of its

  engine.

  "Dad!" cried the Hardys, spotting the detective's erect figure standing in the bow. Soon the launch was beached, and Mr. Hardy, with several officers, leaped ashore.

  "Well," Mr. Hardy said sternly when he saw Blum, "you won't be escaping again."

  The captured lawbreakers were handcuffed and put aboard the launch. Mr. Hardy looked at his

  sons and their friends proudly. "You've done a yeoman's job-on both cases, yours and mine," he said.

  After the police cruiser had departed, Frank and Joe led their father and the others into the mill cellar and showed them the secret room.

  "This is all the evidence you need against the counterfeiters, Chief," said Mr. Hardy. "I can see there are plenty of fingerprints on this equipment. We know some will match the one on the

  finger guard. Besides your evidence, boys, Ken's testimony should be more than enough to

  convict them."

  "What about Jordan, Blum's confederate at Elekton?" Frank asked.

  Mr. Hardy smiled. "He was my big prize and I'm glad to say he is in jail!" The detective explained that further sleuthing had led to Jordan -and through him, Paul Blum. Mr. Hardy's first break

  had come when he learned that one Elekton employee had seen Jordan going toward the

  laboratory building at closing time on the day of the explosion.

  A police guard was assigned to watch the counterfeiters' workshop and its contents. Then the

  four boys, Mr. Hardy, and the chief left the mill. Outside, they paused and looked back at the turning wheel.

  Frank laughed. "Its signaling days are over."

  "Sure hope so," Chet declared firmly. "No more mysteries for a while, please!"

  Tony chuckled. "With Frank and Joe around, I wouldn't count on it."

  His words proved to be true. Sooner than even the Hardy boys expected, they were called upon