Mystery of the Glowing Eye Part 7

The startled girl landed in the pitch darkness on something soft. It moved under her. She heard a groan.

"Dave!" Bess murmured. "Oh, I must have hurt you!"

"You sure knocked the wind out of me. Good thing I'm used to tackle football!"

"Where are we?" Bess asked.

"At the bottom of a clothes chute," Dave answered. "It was lucky there were some things in it to cushion my fall."

Bess asked how they were going to escape. "Besides, I don't want to get caught by that person who comes here. He might be dangerous."

Dave admitted he had not yet found an opening, but was sure there was one.

The two captives felt every inch of the wall and floor of their prison. When they could find no doork.n.o.b nor a bolt, they began to push and press the wood.

"I'm sure of one thing," said Dave. "We're below the first floor in a cellar. There must be an opening in this wooden chute."

"Sh!" Bess whispered as he finished. "Listen!"

She had heard the front door slam. Now there were footsteps overhead.

Bess clung to Dave's arm. "We'll be found!" she whispered tensely.

"In here? I doubt it," he said, trying to rea.s.sure her with a little hug.

The two waited in silence. Floorboards creaked as the heavy stepping person trudged all through the house. Bess and Dave a.s.sumed he had spotted the car in front and had come to investigate. Evidently satisfied the place was vacant, the man slammed the front door again. In a few moments Bess and Dave heard an automobile drive off.

"Probably a policeman," Dave suggested. "At first I thought he might be the person who's using this place."

Once more he and Bess began to push on the walls of the clothes chute. Finally Dave put his finger in a small knothole and was able to move a concealed door to one side. The couple stepped out into a cellar dimly lighted by the sun streaming through a small window. The place was empty except for two musty washtubs and a stack of dusty newspapers.

"How do we get out of this prison?" Bess asked Dave, after glancing around. No door or other exit was visible.

While she searched for a hidden exit in a wall, Dave's eyes roved back and forth across the ceiling. It was thick with dirt and cobwebs, but he thought he could detect a movable section under the kitchen. He mentioned his discovery to Bess.

"Climb up to my shoulders and try to open this," Dave said. "The people who lived here must have used a ladder."

Dave leaned over. Bess pulled herself onto his shoulders and stood up. She quickly found that a section of the ceiling could be pushed upward. With a little effort Bess eased herself through.

"How are you going to get out?" she asked Dave.

"Don't worry. The first thing I want to do is examine these clothes in the chute. There might be a clue for Nancy to work on."

Bess quickly looked for a stepladder and found one in a closet.

Dave reported with a laugh, "All men's clothes in the chute and nothing in them but a penny in a shirt pocket."

Bess giggled. "Bring it up here. Might be a good-luck penny. Here's a ladder. I'll hand it to you."

Dave took it and in a moment he was beside Bess. Then he reached down and pulled up the ladder.

"We'd better go," Bess said. "Nancy and George and Burt may be back and wondering where we went."

The two hurried outside without meeting any one and drove back to the airfield. Their friends were waiting.

"Where have you been?" George said petulantly. "We thought you'd been kidnapped too."

"Try to open it," Dave said.

Dave replied, "We were prisoners. It's lucky we got back here. Bess, shall we tell them where we were being held?" There was a twinkle in his eye.

Bess smiled. "After they tell us where they went."

Nancy knew there was no use coaxing, so she briefed the couple on the helicopter trip, and mentioned the 1923 S penny she had found in Jerry Faber's big copter.

"I found a penny also," said Dave. He took the coin out of a pocket in his jeans. After looking at the date on it, he exclaimed, "This is a 1923 S penny too!"

CHAPTER VI.

Mysterious Burglary

FINALLY Nancy said, "I have a hunch that Zapp Crosson owns both pennies." After hearing Bess and Dave's story, she said, "He could have dropped the first one in the copter on his trip to look over River Heights, and left the other one at the farmhouse."

George spoke up. "In other words, you think he put the second penny in the pocket of his shirt and then changed clothes."

Nancy told her she thought Crosson had done more than this. "I believe the farmhouse is a hideout for him."

Bess was sure the suspect was not carrying on any kind of experiments at the house. "Dave and I looked over the place thoroughly and didn't find anything unusual until we fell down the clothes chute."

George laughed. "I'll bet he doesn't go there just to wash his clothes."

Burt said, "More likely he goes there to put on a disguise of some kind to fool the police. For one thing, he'd want to cover that fiery red hair of his."

There was a great deal of discussion among the young people as Burt drove along. Nancy said she thought the farmhouse should be guarded. "But I don't like to notify the police until we know for sure that Crosson is our man."

Dave said he had a suggestion. "How about Burt and me staying at the house for the night? I saw plenty of canned food. If there's no car around, Crosson won't suspect anyone is there. When he comes in, we'll give him a football rush before he can escape."

Burt turned the car and headed toward the farmhouse. When they had almost reached it, he said, "You girls go on back to Emerson and pick us up at the farm early in the morning."

They agreed. Half a mile from the house the two boys got out and to keep from being seen approached the building from the rear.

Meanwhile, Nancy had taken the wheel and the girls had gone on. When they returned to the fraternity house, students crowded around and asked many questions.

"Any news of Ned?"