the left here, fellows, and go
right along this way."

The other two, after a look along the trail that led to the lake camp,
were just starting to follow Jerry when they heard a muffled cry. Looking
hastily around, to their great astonishment no Jerry was in sight! And in
the trail they discovered a gaping hole which was partly covered with a
layer of slender sticks, thickly strewn with dead leaves!

CHAPTER XXI

DOWN THE OLD SHAFT

"He's gone!" cried Will, aghast.

"What sort of a trap has he dropped into?" exclaimed Frank.

He was a lad of action, and throwing himself down flat he crawled to the
very edge of the gaping hole.

"Hello, Jerry!" he shouted.

"I'm all right, fellows; only bruised a little, and my feelings
considerably hurt. I deserve something for forgetting this hole," came a
voice from out of the depths.

Frank looked down. His eyes being accustomed to the sunlight he could not
see anything but darkness there. But even as he was trying to pierce
this, a match flamed up, and he discovered his chum kneeling on a pile of
dirt, holding up his improvised torch as though curious to look around.

"What is this place, Jerry?" demanded the one above.

"Why, Will must remember if he once gets his mind off that miserable old
camera of his. It's the shaft of what was intended to be a mine," replied
Jerry, with disgust plainly marked in his tones.

"A mine--and here? I never heard of it!" echoed Frank.

"That's because you are a newcomer in Centerville. Years ago--oh! I
couldn't say how many--a crank lived in the little hut close by, now
occupied by the family of a lumberman. He believed there was gold in this
region. For nearly a year he dug down and made this shaft. Then he died
in his cabin, and no one else ever had faith enough in the thing to
continue the work," said Will, chiming in.

"What! do you mean to say this hole in the ground has gone all these
years as a trap, ready to swallow any pilgrim who walked along this
trail?" demanded Frank.

"Why, of course not. The boys from town often used to come up here. Will
has been down in this hole, and so have I before. It was covered with
heavy planks then. Somebody has removed those boards and laid a fine
trap. Just like we were over in Africa, among the wild-beast catchers.
And I fell in, worse luck," grumbled the boy at the bottom of the shaft.

"I see. And you think those fellows in the other camp had a hand in it?"

"Don't doubt i