, which was not the main
rooftree of the house, they had discovered, but that of one of the
side gables, with which, as Jack phrased it, "the house was all
cluttered up."

This particular rooftree was blocked ahead by the cupola, to which
Jack earlier had referred. It was a square, truncated tower with a
breast-high wooden balustrade around it. Jack climbed up this
balustrade, and Captain Folsom, with Bob aiding him from the rear and
Jack giving him a hand in front, followed.

Then, while the others were clambering up, Jack cast a quick look
around from this eminence. He found, however, that the trees of the
grove cut off any view of the beach. But he was enabled to see the
grill-like towers of the radio station some distance to the left of
the house. With satisfaction, he noted not a light was shown, and
apparently the place was deserted.

Still not a sound of human activity of any sort reached him, and Jack
was puzzled. Had their captors departed, and left them bound, in that
apparently impregnable cell, to die? He could not believe it. No,
surely they were not to be killed. Either the house was to be
abandoned by the smugglers, and their friends and families would be
notified where to find them, or else, the smugglers intended to return
for them presently.

If this latter supposition were correct, then, thought Jack, it
behooved him to act quickly. For, if the smugglers returned and found
they had escaped from the cell, there would be only one conclusion to
draw as to their method of escape, and that would be the right one.

Bending down, he saw at once in the bright moonlight the outlines of a
big trapdoor under his feet. A ringbolt at one edge showed how it was
raised. Seizing it in a firm grip, Jack started to raise the trap.
His heart beat suffocatingly. What would he find underneath?

An inch at a time Jack raised the trap, while the others knelt at the
sides, peering through the growing opening. Only darkness met their
gaze, and the smell of hot air imprisoned in a closed house came out
like a blast from a furnace door. The hinges, apparently long unused
and rusted, creaked alarmingly despite all the care Jack exercised.
But not a sound came up from below.

At length Jack threw back the door, and the bright moonlight pouring
down the opening in a flood of silver revealed a narrow, ladder-like
stairway descending to an uncarpeted hall. Jack started down with the
others at his heels.

In the hall he pa