Page:Fairview Boys at Camp.djvu/91

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
THE STRANGE HERMIT
87

"What happened?" panted Sammy.

"It was an explosion," decided Frank.

"No, those counterfeiters must have come back and shot at us," gasped Bob.

"Go on! You're worse than Sammy," said Frank, who was more calm than his chums. "It was some sort of explosion. Maybe it was powder the men left there, or it might have been some of the chemicals they use, in whatever they do, whether it's making bad money, or something else. Anyhow it was just an explosion. There was no one in that room but ourselves."

"Well, I guess that's right," agreed Bob, when he had thought it over a bit. "But who exploded it?"

"Maybe I did," admitted Sammy, slowly. "I know just before that flash and puff came, I touched one of the wires on those telescope things. There was a click, and it went off—all at once!"

"I should say it did," spoke Frank. "It went off fast enough."

"And there was an awful lot of smoke!" added Bob.

"Well, I'm glad we're out of the place," said Sammy. "Come on, now, it's getting late, and Mr. Jessup may be worried about us. We'd better go tell him about what we found."

"And then get the police after those counterfeiters," said Bob. "They had no right to explode stuff at us that way."

"Well, they may claim we had no right to go in their room," went on Frank, "but I guess they won't—that is if we get them. Well, come on."

"I'll tell you what let's do," proposed Sammy. "Let's see if we can locate the windows of that room from the outside. We might want to point out to Mr. Jessup where they are."

"That's a good idea," agreed Frank.