"You forget this is long distance telephone rates I'll have to pay."

"We'll whack up on it," suggested Paul. "Go ahead, Walter, get all the information you can."

Walter's stay in the telephone booth was a lengthy one. His chums only caught disconnected murmurs of his talk, but they had glimpses of his face through the gla.s.s door and there was sufficient astonishment and satisfaction depicted to whet their curiosity to the utmost.

"Whew!" Walter exclaimed as he came out. "It was some hot in there!"

"Never mind about that!" exclaimed Jack. "Can we tear down that wall?"

"Sure!" gasped Walter. "Mr. Haight was as surprised as we were to hear about it. He's coming up to have a look."

"Do we have to wait until then?" asked Jack, in disappointed tones.

"Not at all. He said to go right ahead."

"And doesn't he know anything about the queer goings on, or who upsets the furniture?" came from Paul.

"Not in the least. It's all news to him, though he says Mr. Floyd did write a letter telling about some strange happenings. Mr. Haight didn't pay much attention-said he couldn't make head or tail of the letter. He intended to look into the matter when he had a chance, but now he authorizes us to do it for him."

"And couldn't he give even a hint as to why the sliding door was made in the floor, and who cut the pa.s.sage?" asked Jack.

"No, though he said something which may prove to be a clew. He said he bought the bungalow from a man who used to be a well-known actor. This actor gave up the stage, and it was rumored that he was slightly demented before he died. Now it occurs to me that this theatrical chap may have had this sliding door made to gratify his whim for sudden and unexplained comings and goings. Perhaps to frighten his servants. Any sort of theory might explain it. That's only a guess, but it's as good as any."

"It sounds reasonable," admitted Jack. "At least the actor may have had the secret door built, but the pa.s.sage, which leads to goodness knows where, looks more like the work of smugglers or a band of outlaws."

"Perhaps it may turn out to be that before we've finished," said Walter.

"Anyhow, we have permission to go ahead, and the sooner we get at it, and have that wall down, the sooner we'll know where we're at."

They hastened out of town, eager to begin work on the wall, and were soon on the same highway where they had seen the automobile marks.

"And this time we'll follow them in the other direction," said Jack. "We might as well spend a little time on this end of the game now as later, and it may be that this will fit in with the rest of the mystery."

"Good idea," commented Walter.

As the boys retraced their steps they took note of the fact that the mark of the big Z in the dust became plainer.

"We were wrong before," decided Jack. "We were going in the direction from which the auto had come. Now we're following it."

"To its lair, I hope," said Paul. "I'm anxious to get back to the bungalow and have a go at that wall."

"Same here," commented Walter.

The boys were walking along, their eyes on the ground so as not to lose sight of the marks, when Jack, raising his head, uttered a cry that attracted the attention of his companions.

"Look!" he cried, pointing down the road. "There's Cora's car now, and two men are in it!"

There was no doubt about it. Cora's car was of a peculiar purple tint with maroon tr.i.m.m.i.n.gs. It had been made especially for her, and that it was her machine was evident at a glance, especially to Paul who was in the automobile business.

"Come on!" cried Jack. "We've got 'em!"

But had they? The automobile had turned out of a field, against a side hill of which was built a wooden building, like a farmer's spring-house.

The men seemed to have been using it as a garage, and Cora's automobile, occupied by two strangers, was rapidly speeding down the road.

At Jack's cry one of the men looked around, and then the machine was speeded up, raising a cloud of dust.

"No chance of catching them!" cried Paul. "We've got to get another machine somewhere."

"We can't!" exclaimed Jack. "We'll have to follow until we see where they go. We mustn't lose sight of 'em now."

It seemed a hopeless chase, and it was, practically. Jack distanced his companions, who called to him to come back so they could examine the building in the lot.

"Maybe we'll find a clew there," cried Walter.

And finally even Jack gave up. Human legs, even those of an ambitious youth, are no match for an automobile. But as Jack slackened his pace he saw something which caused him to run forward again. For a bundle had been dropped from Cora's car, and the men did not stop to pick it up.

"Maybe that will prove the best clew yet," thought Jack, as he hastened forward to pick it up.

CHAPTER XXVII-THE GIRLS' DISCOVERY

"Why don't they come back?"

"What keeps them so long?"

"I declare this waiting is worse than--"

"Doing nothing," Cora finished for Bess. "Probably the boys can't find the kind of chocolates you ordered, pretty little plump maid, and they're afraid to come back without them."

"Silly," protested Bess.

"But they are a long time," said Hazel, she and Belle having uttered the two rather impatient sentences at the opening of this chapter.

The girls were in the bungalow, eating, not exactly bread and honey, but ice cream and cake, which Mrs. Floyd had made. And they were talking of the absence of Jack and his chums, who had gone to town to telephone to Mr. Haight.

It was now lunch time and the girls, after waiting in vain for the boys, had eaten, and were enjoying their dessert. Or rather, they were trying to enjoy it under the rather unappetizing influence of impatient worry.

"If they don't come back pretty soon I'm going down there myself and see if we can discover anything," Cora declared.

"Down where?" asked Belle.

"In the pa.s.sage, of course. I want to see if we can find where that queer noise came from."

"And who upset the furniture," added Bess.

"Well, we're on the track of it," said Hazel. "We are pretty certain, now, that whoever did it came up through that sliding door, and went down the same way. That accounts for our never seeing any one enter or leave the bungalow after the manifestations, and that's why, after the boys ran over so promptly the time we saw the dancing light, they couldn't find any one. Whoever it was just slipped down through the secret pa.s.sage, pulled the section of flooring back into place, and there was no trace."