less when you get below. It's beautifully damp and musty."

"You're a cheerful brute, Dan," answered Tom.

"Hi! don't you call me a brute!" stormed Baxter.

"Oh, excuse me, I didn't mean to insult the dumb creation," responded
Tom. "Baxter, you are the limit. I suppose you have joined this gang."

"What if I have?"

"I am sorry for you, that's all."

"Oh, don't preach!"

"I am not going to, for it would be a waste of breath."

"You'll sing pretty small by the time we are through with you,"
growled the bully; and then Tom was led below and placed in the cell
with the others.

CHAPTER XXVI

TOGETHER ONCE MORE

"Tom!"

"Dick and Sam!"

"How in the world did you get here?"

"Where are the others?"

These and a dozen other questions were asked and answered as the
three Rover boys shook hands over and over again. Even though prisoners,
they were delighted to be together once more, and doubly delighted
to know that each was well.

"Oh, these chaps are first-class rascals," said Dick after they had
settled down a bit. "They have treated us most shamefully. At first,
they gave us pretty good eating, but now they are starving us."

"Starving you?" cried Tom.

"Yes--they want us to tell all we know," put in Sam. "They are very
suspicious."

"Didn't you try to get away?"

"No use of trying. The walls are too solid and so is the door," said
Dick. He caught Tom by the arm and added in a faint whisper in his
brother's ear: "They are listening. We have a hole."

"Then we'll have to stay here," said Tom loudly, catching his cue
instantly.

"Yes, and it's a shame," added Sam in an equally loud voice. "I
suppose the others have gone on?"

"Certainly," said Tom calmly. "I was a chump to remain behind--only
I wanted to find you. I got hold of a letter by accident."

A moment later, they heard the guards walk away, and then Tom told
the truth about the letter, and Sam and Dick led him to the hole in
the wall.

"It is not quite big enough to use, yet," whispered the eldest Rover.
"But we hope to have it big enough by to-morrow. It's slow work, when
you have got to be on your guard all the while."

"I'd like to know what became of the detective," returned Tom.

"He must have run away as soon as he saw how affairs were shaping,"
put in Dick. "I hope he rounds up the whole gang."

"So do I, and Dan Baxter with them," answered Tom.

Overhead, they could hear a constant tramping of feet and murmur of
v