"Put out your light!" said Paul, suddenly. His voice was tense. "Keep
still a moment! See if you can hear anyone moving around near us."
They were absolutely still for a full minute, but there were only the
familiar sounds of the night.
"All right," said Paul. "Now you watch and listen while I dig down
here and see what this is about."
"Why can't I dig, too?"
"Because it's better for you to watch. Besides, I want to dig so that
I can put the earth back in a hurry, and fix this place so that it
won't look as if it had been disturbed."
Then he fell to, working silently and quickly, like a mole, digging
with his hands until his nails were torn and his fingers were raw and
bleeding. But Paul did not mind that. He had already made a guess,
and a shrewd one, as to the meaning of this strange discovery that they
had made. It was not long before he found that the steel plate
extended for only a short distance. Around this, and spreading beneath
it, was a bed of cement. As soon as he had satisfied himself of that,
using Arthur's flashlight, Paul stopped digging, and began carefully to
replace the earth. Then, calling on Arthur to help him, he trampled
down the earth.
"There!" he said. "I don't believe anyone would know we had been here,
unless they were suspicious already."
"But what is it?" asked Arthur. "Paul, tell me!"
"I'm going to, Arthur.
Pages:
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29