CHAPTER VII

On the Spy Trail

"help!" Chet shouted, flinging out both arms as he fell. The camera flew from his hands.

Frank, Joe, and the general, still mapping their strategy in front of the old headquarters, heard the cry and glanced up the knoll.

"Chet's in trouble!" Frank yelled, and started running.

The others kept close behind him and arrived on the scene almost at the same moment. There was not a sound.

oiChet! Chet! Where are you?" Frank called.

When there was no answer, the Hardys became alarmed, The general suddenly moved forward into the woods. In a moment he called:

"Here he is!"

The officer dropped to his knees beside a deep

On the Spy Trail 51

hole- the onening of which was nearly concealed by a prowth of low bushes and grass.

"'I've eot one of his legs. Give me a hand with the other, bovs."

joe leaned far over and grasped the other leg. To-getner they pulled Chet to a sprawling position on the level ground.

"Wha-what hit me?" Chet spluttered, still a bit dazed.

"Nothing hit you," General Smith replied. "You fell into a dry well."

"You knew about it?" Frank asked the officer.

"Yes. A log cabin stood on this site years ago. This old well is all that's left of the homestead."

As Cnet rubbed his head ruefully, he told how he haa tumbled in while trying to get a picture of a fleeing figure.

"Where'd he go?" Joe asked excitedly.

"That way." Chet pointed to the right. "He- Heyl Where's my camera?"

It suddenly dawned upon the boy that his telescopic camera \\zs gone. He dropped flat on his stomach and peered into the well. Only a few rocks and a shred from the seat of his trousers lay on the bottom.

"Help me find it," he pleaded frantically, getting to his feet.

52 The Secret of the Lost Tunnel

Frank and Joe were already on the job. They beat the tall grass near by and probed into the brush.

As the general joined in the search, Frank said, "It probably flew out of your hands when you dropped down into the wellhole. How about holding a light rock and going through the motions of your fall, Chet?"

"What? Not me!" the boy protested, eying the well.

"Oh, you don't have to fall into the hole again," Frank said, grinning.

Chet picked up a small stone. Keeping a wary eye on the hole, he went through the motions of his spill.

Frank watched the stone sail over Chet's head. When it landed, he was on the spot immediately. He patted the long grass with his hands.

"Here it is!" he shouted, lifting the camera up. "And not a scratch on it! Luckily it fell into that patch of soft grass."

Chet took the camera into his hands, caressing it as he would a kitten.

"What about the man you saw?" Joe persisted. "Are you sure you saw one?"

"Sure I'm sure," Chet replied, a little hurt by the implication.

"What did he look like?" Frank asked.

On the Spy Trail 53

"I didn't get a good focus on him."

"And he's far away by this time," Joe said ruefully.

"Gee, I'm sorry," diet apologized.

As the group started out of the woods, Frank noticed diet was limping a little and asked if he wanted to go home.

"I'll be okay," the boy answered. "Well, I got in trouble trying to figure out where that spy Bing-ham went. What do you fellows think?"

Frank and Joe shrugged. "I'd like to hear the story of the battle first," Frank said. "General Smith, will you explain just where the troops were stationed?"

The officer turned to a hill beyond the one from which they had come, and with a sweep of his arm, said, "That ridge was held by the Northern troops. They had three lines of riflemen, backed by a strong force of artillery."

"They pushed down the hill and captured your grandfather's headquarters?" Joe surmised.

"Not exactly. It was in sort of a no man's land. The Southern troops were in this valley when the ittack began. They retreated to that ridge over there." He pointed to another hill a mile distant which was higher and steeper than the one the Federals had held.

54 The Secret of the Lost Tunnel

"If Bingham got into your grandfather's headquarters," Joe continued, "all he'd have to do would be to hide until the battle was over."

"It wasn't as easy as that," the general said, smiling at Joe. "Grandfather had a force of cavalry in reserve. They counterattacked on the left flank and cut a wedge into the opposing forces."

"Then Bingham was checked from going straight back to his own lines," Frank said eagerly.

"It seems to me he wouldn't have had a chance to get through that line of cavalry," the officer said. "It was led by Colonel Stone, the Old Mud Fox, and did sufficient damage to turn the tide of the fight."

"Then Bingham would have had to go around Stone's men and along the Rocky Run," Frank reasoned, "until he could contact his own forces again."

"If he tried that," the general said, "he probably ran into more trouble, because artillery, which was rushed to my grandfather's aid, opened up from the opposite ridge. Their cannon fire blasted Bing-ham's possible escape route. From all accounts, it was a terrific fight."

"He might not have come out of it alive," Joe said, "but if he did, I think he'd have gone in the direction Frank indicated."

"True enough," the officer said.

On the Spy Trail 55,

"Then let's follow that trail!" Joe exclaimed.

"Remember one thing," General Smith said. "A good soldier makes the most of natural cover. Bing-ham would have made his way behind trees, boulders, along depressions in the ground, and behind slight rises to afford protection from the artillery. Well, let's start!"

"Gosh," Chet said, "I never thought of that. I think I'd go in a beeline just as fast as I could!"

"What a target you'd be!" Joe remarked as they started on the once harrowing trail which Bingham might have taken.

Frank led the way, and the general nodded approvingly as the boy picked a route which provided the least exposure to cannon which years before had thundered from the ridge across the valley.

"You're a natural soldier, Frank," the officer said, smiling.

The trek was hot and arduous. Finally they came to the bank of Rocky Run.

"I think Bingham would have followed the stream here," Frank surmised.

"Right," the general agreed. "He'd put the water between him and those daredevil horsemen of Old Mud Fox."

"Why did they call him Mud Fox?" Chet asked. "Did he look like a fox?"

56 The Secret of the Lost Tunnel

"Not at all. He was a very mild-looking gentle man about five feet tall, but as wiry and foxy as any cavalryman who ever lived. One night he led his men across a mud flat that nobody else dared enter, and attacked a much larger enemy force. He cut down half of them and captured the others. That's when he got his nickname."

Joe whistled. "We could use a fox in this case right now."

"Hey!" Chet shouted suddenly. "There's a bridge Bingham could have hidden under 1"

"Let's investigate it," Joe suggested as they came in sight of a span which carried the main highway over the Rocky Run. "Only that's a concrete bridge. It must have been built long after the Civil War."

"So it was," the officer concurred. "But there was an old bridge around here somewhere. My grandfather ordered it destroyed to stop the main drive of the enemy."

By this time the four were within a stone's throw of the span. Suddenly a black sedan whizzed over it, the driver glancing down in surprise at the three boys and the officer. Its brakes jammed on, bringing the automobile to a screeching halt out of sight of the searchers.

"Maybe it's the game warden," Chet said nerv

On the Spy Trail 57

ously. "I'll bet he thinks we're fishing and wants to see our licenses."

"More than likely it's the fellow who tried to wreck our car," Frank said. "Well, I'm going to get a look at him."

He made his way up the side of a steep embankment to the edge of the bridge. Just as he spotted the back of the man's head, the car's gears meshed furiously, the back wheels spun, and the automobile streaked down the highway with a roar! There was no license plate on the back of the car.