41

XXII--Conclusion 148

Boy Scouts in the Coal Caverns

Or, The Light in Tunnel Six

CHAPTER I

CAMPING IN THE BREAKER

"And so I says to myself, says I, give me a good husky band of Boy
Scouts! They'll do the job if it can be done!"

Case Canfield, caretaker, sat back in a patched chair in the dusky,
unoccupied office of the Labyrinth mine and addressed himself to four
lads of seventeen who were clad in the khaki uniform of the Boy Scouts
of America.

Those of our readers who have read the previous books of this series
will have good cause to remember George Benton, Charley ("Sandy") Green,
Tommy Gregory and Will Smith. The adventures of these lads among the
Pictured Rocks of Old Superior, among the wreckers and reptiles of the
Florida Everglades, in the caverns of the Great Continental Divide, and
among the snows of the Hudson Bay wilderness have been recorded under
appropriate titles in previous works.

The four boys were members of the Beaver Patrol, Chicago. Will Smith was
Scoutmaster, while George Benton was Patrol Leader. They wore upon the
sleeves of their coats medals showing that they had passed the
examination as Ambulance Aids, Stalkers, Pioneers and Seamen.

Instructed by Mr. Horton, a well-known criminal lawyer of Chicago, the
boys had reached the almost deserted mine at dusk of a November day.
There they had found Canfield, the caretaker, waiting for them in a
dimly-lighted office. The mine had not been operated for a number of
months, not because the veins had given out, but because of some
misunderstanding between the owners of mines in that section.

The large, bare room in which the caretaker and the Boy Scouts met was
in the breaker. There was no fire in the great heater, and the tables
and chairs were black with dust. A single electric light shone down from
the ceiling, creating long, ghostlike shadows as it swayed about in a
gentle wind blowing through a broken window.

"Well," Tommy Gregory said, as the caretaker paused, "you've got the Boy
Scouts, and it remains for you to set us to work."

"And a sturdy looking lot, too!" grinned the caretaker.

"Oh, Mr. Horton wouldn't be apt to send a lot of cripples!" laughed
Sandy Green. "He's next to his job, that man is!"

"I presume he told you all about the case?" suggested Canfield.

"Indeed he did not," replied Will Smith.

"Not a thing about it?" asked the caretaker.

"He only said tha