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138 "You'd never suspect it was there unless you knew of it."

"Knew of what?" asked Rockley. "What sort of a mystery are you running us into now?"

"Just wait and see."

Pender stepped from the path they had been pursuing and pushed aside some overhanging bushes. Beyond was a small clearing, backed up by a high, rocky wall. In the wall was an opening, blocked up by a heavy door secured by a rusty iron chain that was passed through a ring in the rocks.

"Well, this is certainly odd," exclaimed Flapp. "What kind of a place is it?"

"It's a den of some sort," said Hurdy. "Maybe some counterfeiters belong here."

"Bosh, you talk as if you were in a dime novel," came from Jackson. "More than likely some old hermit lived here. When some men get queer in the head they come to just such a spot as this to end their days. They hate the sight cf other human beings."

"I reckon it is a hermit's den," said Pender. "But if so the hermit left it years ago, for every thing inside is covered with dust and cobwebs and mildew."

Pender walked up to the stout wooden door,