Part 26 (1/2)

The Final Fact

Rick and Scotty slept late the followingand were awakened for brunch by Dr Miller The boys took advantage of the few ive him the complete story of their adventure in the tunnel, after which they pledged hihost is a fake,” Rick explained ”It's another to dra on an idea that may do it, but only if we keep quiet and make our plans carefully”

”I'll keep the secret,” the scientist assured hi into an obviously unsafe mine because I hope the hours before you found your way out were lesson enough By the way, Belsely wants to talk with you Call him when you've eaten”

”Yes, sir And thank you”

During their combination lunch and breakfast, the boys had to put up with comments fro theirls were not so reticent The boys bore it stoically, but Rick resolved not to divulge their secret to Barby at any cost Let her get a shock with the rest of the ghost fanciers

Belsely was out when they phoned, but he called back a short tie of the orchard,” he requested ”Got to talk with you”

The boys excused theet a chance to talk with you last night,” the farmer said

”Didn't you wonder a little at how fast rescue got to you?”

”We did at first,” Rick explained ”Then we realized you had seen us We waved at you and you waved back So we guessed the mine was the first place you'd look”

”True, true But that's only part of the story I saw you go in the mine, you see Then I went back to fence makin' Pretty soon I heard the put-put of that scooter and along came the ice-cream man He parked the scooter and sort of sniffed around here and there, and then he walked over and went into the mine I did some sneakin'at footprints, like he was an injun trackin' the hero on a Western TV show”

”Those must have been his trackson the way in,” Scotty interjected ”Big feet, which he has, and a reason for wanting to kno far into the one the first time add up to Mr Frostola”

”I suppose Well, he went in a ways and stayed a bit, then he came out and went back to his scooter and just sat on it Pretty soon there was a rumble, and a cloud of dust caht away you was trapped in there Had to be, froh There was no explosion”

Rick explained about the rotted ti, or even cutting into the rotten ith a knife That would have done it Maybe he pushed until the beams started to crack and then hurried out, only it took a few o all the way”

”That could have been it Well, I wandered over and asked what the dust was, and he said cool as you please that he didn't know Probably a cave-in inside sooin' in and he pretended to get excited, too We went in, and I tell you it looked bad”

”Looked bad from our side, too,” Rick said

”I believe it It was a job for ht I hurried to the house and told Dr Miller, and we phoned town, but the man with the scoop was out on a job The Frostola in' around when I started for town, and he hadn't ot back I did nothin'

about him because I wanted to talk to you first Took soet there, but it certainly did the job”

”And we're rateful,” Rick told the farmer Scotty echoed hi ever said about a second tunnel in the mine?” Rick asked

The farmer considered ”Seems to me there was some mention about such a second tunnel, back when I was a boy, but I never heard about it since

I was born and brought up in this town, and I've never seen a sign of one Course that doesn't ht have fallen in”

Rick made a quick decision ”It didn't,” he stated He went on to tell Belsely what had happened the day before, pledging hiive them a chance to solve the puzzle that reive me a tale to tell from now on!

Once you say I' pipe has been there since Hector was a pup, and no one ever wondered about why it went in the hill sideways until you ca! Of course Collins must have known--him and Hilleboe, because they were the ones who replaced the pipe a few years back”