"There are four of us and all armed," answered d.i.c.k. "So you had better not do any shooting. But you have got to open that door. We will do you no harm."

"What do you want in here?"

"We want to see who is in there with you?" answered Tom, boldly.

"Don't you know that I am alone?"

"You are not alone," said Sam.

"Well, I know best," was the hesitating answer. "If I was sure you wouldn't hurt me I'd let you in."

"We will not harm you in the least," answered d.i.c.k.

There was a moving around in the cabin and what seemed to be the dropping of a door. Then old Derringham came forward again.

"You are sure you won't rob me if I open the door?" he asked.

"We mean you no harm--if you will do what is right," said Tom.

Then the door was thrown open and the Rover boys and Jack Ness were confronted by a man at least seventy years of age. He had snow-white hair and a snowy beard that reached to his waist.

The boys and the hired man went hastily into the cabin and looked around. n.o.body but Derringham was in sight. d.i.c.k looked at the floor under the table and saw something which looked like a trap door.

"He must have gone into the cellar," said he to the others, and made a movement forward.

"Stop, do not touch that table!" cried the old man, in alarm.

"Mr. Derringham, listen to me," said the eldest Rover boy firmly. "We are after a criminal--a man who for years robbed the railroad company of valuable freight. We know he is somewhere around your place. If you shield this criminal, or aid him in getting away, you will be guilty of a crime."

At this strong a.s.sertion the old man began to tremble, and he looked from one to another of those before him in alarm.

"I--I Bill Dangler said it was not true--that it was a plot against him," he murmured.

"It is true, and there is no plot against him, excepting to make him pay the penalty of his crimes," put in Tom. "If you have hidden him you had better give him up."

"I know you," said old Derringham, turning to Jack Ness. "You used to pay me good prices for what you bought of me. Can I trust you?" he went on, pleadingly.

"Certainly you can, and you can trust these boys, too," was the hired man's reply. "If you want to keep out of trouble you had better help us all you can."

By this time d.i.c.k had the table shoved to one side. Under the bottom of one of the legs he found a small iron ring, connecting with the door in the floor. He pulled on this and the door came up, showing a small cellar below, used chiefly by the old man for the storage of winter vegetables and the roots he gathered.

"Dangler, you might as well come up!" called out d.i.c.k. "It won't do you any good to try to hide."

"What do you want of me?" came in a sullen voice from below.

"You know very well what we want."

"I haven't done anything."

"You can tell that to the police, after you are locked up. Come up."

Slowly and with downcast face Bill Dangler crawled from the small cellar and pulled himself up to the floor of the cabin. He gazed reproachfully at the old man, who was again trembling.

"I'll fix you for going back on me," he muttered.

"They say you are a thief," answered the old man. "If you are, I want nothing more to do with you. I am poor, but I am honest--everybody who knows me knows that."

"He shall not harm you," put in Tom. "He'll soon be behind the bars."

A glance at the party of four, with their shotguns, convinced the freight thief that escape was out of the question.

"I suppose I'll have to give up," he growled. "But I ain't as guilty as you may think I am."

"You are guilty enough," said Sam.

"I didn't plan those freight robberies."

"Who did then?" questioned Tom.

"Merrick and Pike. I don't mind telling on them, for they have gone back on me."

"Is Merrick the head of the gang?" asked d.i.c.k.

"Yes."

"Where is he now?"

"If I tell will you let me go?"

"I can't do that, Dangler."

"Well, I don't care anyway. Merrick hasn't treated me right, and he ought to suffer. He has a hangout a few miles from the city of Ithaca, if you know where that is."

"Yes, on Lake Cayuga."

"That's it."

"You say a few miles from the city," pursued Sam. "What do you mean by that?"

"He and some of his friends, Pike among them, have a meeting place along the lake. It's an old house, unpainted, and with very narrow windows, so I've been told. You find that house and likely you'll find Merrick and Pike."

"I thought those chaps were from the city?" said Sam.

"They are, but every once in a while they find it convenient to disappear, and then they go to that place on Lake Cayuga. It's an old homestead that used to belong to Merrick's sister."

"We ought to be able to find that place," said Tom to his brothers.

"Especially if it was a homestead."