here are no cross passages. I guess the coal wasn't very
good here. At least, they never spread out the drive."

"Then we've got him bottled up unless he got out of the shaft!" declared
Sandy. "We'll soon know whether he got out or not!"

"I don't believe he would try to get out," suggested Elmer. "The chances
are that he'd make for the back of the mine, thinking to hide away with
the plunder, provided he had any plunder to hide away with."

"I'm afraid he found the hidden money," Will said, taking a scorched
ten-dollar bill from a pocket. "I found this back there, where the
pillar fell. I guess he found the cash all right!"

"And that's a nice thing, too!" exclaimed Sandy. "You boys kept saying
that Ventner was helping you find the coin. You were right about that,
for he did find the coin. And now the trick is to get it away from him!"

"I'd like to know whether Ventner got up the shaft or not," suggested
George, "and I believe I'll take a run up there and see.

"That's a good idea!" advised Will. "If he didn't get up the shaft he's
surely imprisoned in the gangway. He may be between this cross-cutting
and the shaft, or he may have gone further in!"

"It'll take a long time to find out about that," suggested Jimmie.

Directly Tommy and George were heard returning from the shaft. They came
through the gangway flashing their lights in every direction.

"He never went up the shaft!" Tommy exclaimed as they came near. "We've
got him canned in the mine all right. If he's got the money, we'll take
it away from him! He wouldn't know what to do with it, anyway!"

"First," suggested Will, "we'd better make sure that the fellow got the
money. The bank note I found may have never been in the possession of
Mr. Carson. And even if it was, it may be the only one to be blown out
of its hiding place by the explosion. It strikes me that we'd better
give the place a thorough search before we waste much time looking for
Ventner. If, as Tommy says, he never left the mine by way of the shaft,
we've got him blocked in, all right!"

The boys now began a careful examination of the cross-cutting where the
explosion had taken place. As has been stated, more than one pillar had
been blown out. There was a great heap of debris on the floor, and this
the boys attacked with a vim.

Tommy and George were now standing guard at the mouth of the
cross-cutting so that no one could pass down the gangway toward the
shaft.

"Suppose that fell