smooth. He placed his fingers on the floor. It was dry.

He stood silent for some moments and then, becoming conscious of a
strange sound, he again touched the floor with his fingers. They came
away wet. Water was slowly trickling into the room.

The room was very small, and Hal realized that it would not take it long
to fill. Therefore he decided on instant action.

When Duval, before leaving the lad to his fate, had mentioned revolvers,
Hal had feared for the moment that he might be searched anew; but, when
Duval had said a second search was not necessary, the lad breathed
easier. His reference to blowing away the lock had not been lost on Hal,
but the lad had already thought of that.

"Well," he said to himself, "the sooner I act the better. If Duval has
left the house already I shall have but one to deal with. If I wait until
I am sure he has gone, I shall probably be drowned. Here goes!"

Quickly he produced his pair of automatics, and, running his hand over
the door, found the lock. He placed the muzzle of one automatic right up
against it, and holding the other in his other hand, ready for instant
use should he encounter a foe on the opposite side, fired.

In the narrow room the shot sounded like an explosion of a cannon, and
the force of it shook the lad from head to toe. Smoke filled the little
aperture, strangling him. He pressed his weight against the door. It did
not yield. Something had gone wrong.

Again he placed his revolver against the lock, and fired quickly twice,
and then hurled his weight against the door. It gave way before him, and
the lad staggered from the smoke into the damp but fresher air of the
open cellar.

There, inhaling great breaths of air the while, he listened for the sound
of his enemies. Not a sound was to be heard. The lad reasoned this out
for himself.

"The shots were probably muffled within," he said. "I doubt if they could
have been heard very far. Now to get out!"

He made his way to the end of the cellar where he had entered in the
night, and finally came upon the little window. Then he gave vent to an
exclamation of dismay.

"Great Scott!" he cried. "I can't reach it!"

It was true. The window was so high above the ground that there was no
way in which the lad could secure so much as a finger-hold. He looked
around for some object upon which to stand, but he could find none.

"Well, I'll have to go out through the house," he told himself. "There is
no help for