don't you make any racket if you hear
something doing there. The one thing to do at this time is to keep our
presence here a profound secret."

Will moved cautiously around the angle of the weigh-house just in time
to see a figure leaving the side of the building and moving toward the
breaker. There was a little side door in the breaker not far from the
weigh-house, and it was toward this that the prowler was making his way.

Half way to the little house the fellow stumbled over some obstruction
in his path and fell sprawling to the ground. He arose with an impatient
oath and moved on again, but not before the watcher had recognized both
the figure and the voice. Will turned back to where George stood.

"That's Ventner," he said.

"Are you sure?"

"Dead sure!"

There was a short silence.

"What can we do now?"

"I don't know of anything we can do, unless it is to watch the rascal
and see where he goes," answered the other. "The chances are that he's
trying to get into the mine!"

"That shows that the fellow's a crook," Will contended. "He has full
permission to enter the mine at any time he sees fit."

"Of course, he's a crook!" agreed George. "What would he be sneaking
around here in the night for, if he wasn't engaged in some underhand
game? You just wait until we get into the mine," the boy continued, "and
we'll give him a ghost scare that'll hold him for a while."

As Ventner approached the little side door leading into the breaker, a
light flashed in the window of the room which the boys had occupied, and
directly Canfield's voice was heard asking:

"Who's there?"

"Now if he's on the square, hell answer!" whispered Will.

There was no reply whatever, and in a moment the caretaker called again,
this time rather peremptorily:

"What are you prowling about the yard for?"

The detective dropped to his knees and began crawling away.

"If I see you around here again," the caretaker shouted in a braver tone
now that the intruder was taking his departure, "I'll do some shooting!"

Evidently giving over the attempt to enter the mine at that time, the
detective arose to his feet as soon as he gained the shelter of the
weigh-house, and walked away, passing as he did so, within a few feet of
where the boys were standing.

"That settles that bum detective, so far as we are concerned!" Will said
to his chum, in a whisper. "We knew before that he was playing a rotten
game on us, but we didn't know that h