f the flooring above.

"Give me a boost, some one," he commanded, and Bob obligingly
administered the boost.

Joe was next. Bob went last, holding the trap door with his foot to keep
it from closing too quickly. Once upon the floor of the barn he took his
foot away and the door banged to with a snap, being balanced by a rope
and weight above.

"Well, there's that!" exclaimed Bob, eyeing the closed door with
satisfaction. "If Cassey thought he was going to fool us long, he sure
was mistaken."

"Maybe he's hiding around here somewhere," suggested Herb, lowering his
voice to a whisper.

"No such luck," replied Bob. "I'd be willing to wager that the moment we
struck bottom there, Cassey and his friends beat it away from here as
fast as their legs could take them."

"Don't you think we'd better look around a little bit, anyway?"
suggested Joe.

"It wouldn't do any harm," agreed Bob. "But first let's have a look
outside. We don't want to overlook any clues."

The boys thrashed around the bushes about the barn until they were
satisfied no one was hiding there and then returned to the barn. They
were curious to find out just how they had been shot through that trap
door.

They thought at first that it was perhaps worked by some sort of
apparatus, but they found that this was not the case. They found by
experimenting that the trap door yielded easily to their weight, and
decided that it had been their combined rush upon Cassey that had done
the trick. The weight of the four of them upon it had shot the door down
so rapidly that they had not had time even to know what was happening to
them, much less scramble to safety. Then it had shut on them.

"It couldn't have worked better for them," said Herb, as they turned
toward the door of the barn. "I bet they're laughing yet at the way they
put things over."

"Let 'em laugh," said Bob, adding fiercely: "But I bet you anything that
the last laugh will be ours!"

"I wonder what Cassey was doing here, anyway," said Jimmy, as they
walked slowly homeward. "It was lucky, wasn't it, that we happened along
when we did?"

"I don't see where it's so lucky," grumbled Joe. "We're no nearer
catching him now than we ever were."

"Except that we know he's around this locality," put in Bob. "I guess
the police will be glad to know that."

"Oh! are you going to tell the police?" asked Jimmy, whose thoughts had
been upon what he was going to get for dinner.

"Of course," said Bob