Page:Amazing Stories Volume 01 Number 04.djvu/44

332 Lhat rose to his lips. Ho remained staring through the hole for several minutes without uttering a word. Presently I noticed that the lenses of his eye were illuminated by a ray of light coming through the hole, but he did not stir. After a long inspection he suddenly applied hia ear to the hoJe and listened intently for at least five minutes. Not a sound was audible to me, but, by an occasional pressure of the hand, Hall signified that some important disclosure was reaching his sense of hearing. At length he removed his ear. "Pardon me," he whispered, "for keeping you so long in waiting, but what I have just seen and over- heard was of a nature to admit of no interruption. He is still talking, and by pressing your ear against the hole you may be able to catch what he says." "Who is 'he'?" "Look for yourself." I placed my eye at the aperture, and almost re- coiled with the violence of my surprise. The tun- nel before me was brilliantly illuminated, and with- in three feet of the wall of rock behind which we crouched stood Dr. Syx, his dark profile looking al- most satanic in the sharp contrast of light and shadow. He was talking to one of his foremen, and the two were the only visible occupants of the tun- nel. Putting my ear to the little opening, I heard his words distinctly: — "end of their rope. Well, they've spent a pretty lot of money for their experience, and I rather think we shall not be troubled again by artemisium- aeekers for some time to come." Spying On Dr. Syx THE doctor's voice ceased, and instantly I clap- ped my eye to the hole. He had changed his position so that his black eyes now looked Btraight at the aperture. My heart was in my mouth, for at first I believed from his expression that he had detected the gleam of my eyeball. But if so, he probably mistook it for a bit of mica in the rock, and paid no further attention. Then his lips moved, and I put my ear again to the hole. He seemed to be replying to a question that the fore- man had asked, "If they do," he said, "they will never guess the real secret." Thereupon he turned on his heel, kicked a bit of rock off the track, and strode away towards the en- trance. The foreman paused long enough to turn out the electric lamp, and then followed the doctor. "Well," asked Hall, "what have you heard?" I told him everything. "It fully corroborates the evidence of my own eyes and ears," he remarked, "and we may count ourselves extremely lucky. It is not likely that Dr. Syx will be heard a second time proclaiming his de- ception with his own lips. It is plain that he was led to talk as he did to the foreman on account of the latter's having informed him of the sudden dis- charge of my men this morning. Their presence within ear-shot of our hiding-place during their conversation was, of course, pure accident, and so you can see how kind fortune has been to us. I expected to have to watch and listen and form de- ductions for a week, at least, before getting the in- formation which five lucky minutes have placed in our hands." While he was speaking my companion busied himself in carefully plugging up the hole in the rock. When it was closed to his satisfaction he turned on the light in our tunnel. "Did you observe," he asked, "that there was a second tunnel?" "What do yon say?" "When the light was on in there I saw the mouth of a small tunnel entering the main one behind the cars on the right. Did you notice it?" "Oh yes," I replied. "I did observe some kind of a dark hole there, but I paid no attention to it be- cause I was so absorbed in the doctor." "Well," rejoined Hall, smiling, "it was worth considerably more than a glance. As a subject of thought I find it even more absorbing than Dr. Syx. Did you see the track in it?" "No," I had to acknowledge, "I did not notice that. But," I continued, a little piqued by his manner, "being a branch of the main tunnel, I don't see any- thing remarkable in its having a track also." "It was rather dim in that hole," said Hall, still smiling in a somewhat provoking way, "but the railroad track was there plain enough. And, whether you think it remarkable or not, I should like to lay you a wager that that track leads to a secret worth a dozen of the one we have just overheard." "My good friend," I retorted, still smarting a little, "I shall not presume to match my stupidity against your perspicacity. I haven't cat's eyes in the dark." Hall immediately broke out laughing, and, slap- ping me good-naturedly on the shoulder, exclaimed: "Come, come now! If you go to kicking back at a fellow like that, I shall be sorry I ever undertook this adventure," CHAPTER VI A Mystery Indeed WHEN President Boon had heard our story he promptly approved Hall's dismissal of the men. He expressed great surprise that Dr. Syx should have resorted to a deception which had been so disastrous to innocent people, and at first he talked of legal proceedings. But, after thinking the matter over, he concluded that Syx was too powerful to be attacked with success, especially when the only evidence against him was that he had claimed to find artemisium in his mine at a time when, as everybody knew, artemisium actually was found outside the mine. There was no appar- ent motive for the deception, and no proof of ma- licious intent. In short, Mr. Boon decided that the best thing for him and his stockholders to do was to keep silent about their Josses and await events. And, at Hall's suggestion, he also determined to say nothing to anybody about the discovery he had made. "It could do no good," said Hall, in making the suggestion, "and it might spoil a plan I have in mind." "What plan?" asked the president. "I prefer not to tell just yet," was the reply. I observed that, in our interview with Mr. Boon, Hall made no reference to the side tunnel to which he had appeared to attach so much importance, and I concluded that he now regarded it as lacking sig- nificance. In this I was mistaken.