wall switch, had pressed a button. At once an electric light in the
ceiling flashed on, revealing that they were in a large pantry.
Bottles of liquor stood about and, on a tray, were a number of
sandwiches.

"That black butler was preparing to feed his boss," surmised Frank.
"Well, those chicken sandwiches look all right. I'm goin' to have one.
Hungry."

And without more ado, Frank took a sandwich and began eating.

"Great stuff," he said.

"Say, you, come on," called Jack, smiling a little, nevertheless,
despite his anxiety. "Think of eating at a time like this!"

"Why not?" said Frank, polishing off the first sandwich and taking
another. "Well, lead on, Macduff. Where you going?"

"There's no way out of this except by the cellar," Jack replied,
already having opened the other door of the pantry and shot the rays
of his searchlight down the stairway. "Shall we try it?"

"We can't stay here," answered Captain Folsom. "They're searching the
rooms above us right now, by the sound of it. Soon they'll be down
here. And we can't go out through the living room, because I've
withdrawn the key and peeped through the keyhole in the door and can
see two men on guard at the foot of the stairway."

Tom Barnum up to this moment had had little to say. Now, however, he
came forward with a remark that caused the others to stare in
amazement.

"There's said to be a secret passage from the cellar to Starfish Cove
or thereabouts," he said. "I don't know nothin' about it, but that's
what folks say. They say as how old Pirate Brownell was afraid his
sins would catch up with him some day, and hoped to escape by the
passage when the avengers came. He couldn't do it, however. He wasn't
quick enough."

"A secret passage?" said Jack. "Come on. Last man closes the cellar
door and locks it from the inside."

Frank was the last to go. Before quitting the pantry, he stuffed the
remaining sandwiches into his trousers pockets, seized on a tremendous
butcher knife which was lying on the butler's cabinet, and switched
off the light. Then he locked the cellar stairway door, and descended
to where the others awaited him at the foot.

They stood, as well as they could discern, in the midst of a huge
cellar piled high with cases upon cases of bottles and barrels, too.

"Whew," said Captain Folsom, "this looks like a bonded liquor
warehouse. If we could only raid this place right now, it would be the
richest haul in the history of the countr