Free New Adventures of the Mad Scientists' Club by Bertrand R. Brinley, Charles Geer Page A

ninny!"
           
"Oh, that secret passage! That's none of your business," said
Freddy, pulling his arm loose and running after us.
           
"Yes, Mulligan. What is it now?" said Mayor Scragg wearily, when
Henry tapped him on the shoulder.
            "We
know of a way to get those kids out of there," Henry said simply, and he
went on to explain how we had gotten the submarine into the cavern through a
subterranean channel that ran under the cliff beside the falls and connected
with the pool in the cavern.
           
"It's only about two hundred feet long," Jeff explained. "We
discovered it one day when we were skin diving. The entrance is about ten feet
underwater, and it's right where you want to dump all that rock to make a pier
for the shovel. If you dump a lot of rock in there you'll probably block it
up."
            Mayor
Scragg looked at them quizzically. "Every time I listen to you kids I get
into more trouble!" he moaned, holding his hand to his forehead.
"Isn't it enough that you've got half the town out here in the middle of
the night?"
           
"Don't listen to a word they say, Mr. Mayor," said Freddy tersely, as
he elbowed his way into the group. "It's all a big fat lie!"
            "I told
you to keep out of this!" said Jeff, pushing him in the face again. Freddy
bounced right back and kicked Jeff in the shins. Mortimer grabbed him by the
shoulders and pulled him off to the side.
           
"Cool it, Freddy!" he said, dumping him like a sack of potatoes.
"Jeff knows what he's doing."
           
"He's a big blabbermouth!" Freddy blubbered. "He's giving away
all our secrets."
           
"Secrets, huh?" said Mayor Scragg. "You mean you really do have
a submarine down in that cave?"
           
"Yes, we do!" said Jeff. "You can ask Zeke Boniface. We brought
it here in his truck."
           
"And you got it in there through an underground channel?"
            "We
didn't carry it in!" said Jeff.
            The
Mayor thought this over for a while. Then he turned to talk with Seth Emory.
Chief Putney and Chief Pixley joined them, and the four held a whispered
consultation near the head of the path leading down to the water's edge.
Finally the Mayor beckoned to Henry and Jeff.
           
"We've got to do something and do it soon," he said. "You think
you can swim in there and bring those boys out through that channel. Is that
right?"
           
"Right!" said Jeff. "If they know how to use scuba gear, we'll
get them to swim out. If they can't we'll try the submarine."
           
"It's worth a try," said the Mayor, "but I'm going to send two
men from the sheriff's rescue unit with you. We don't want any accidents."
           
"That's a good idea," said Jeff. "We can show them the way. But
we'll have to go back to town and get our tanks. We keep all that stuff in my
barn."
            "No
need for that," said Chief Pixley. "The rescue unit has plenty of
diving gear and everything else you'll need."
           
"Good deal," said Jeff. "That'll save time." And he and
Mortimer started stripping down to their shorts. We didn't know it at the time,
but if Jeff and Mortimer had gone to the clubhouse for their scuba outfits it
would have saved us a lot of trouble.
            Now that
some definite action was being taken, the atmosphere along the creek bank
changed abruptly. You could feel the excitement generated in the rescue workers
and onlookers as word spread among them that two kids had volunteered to swim
into the blocked cavern through an underground waterway that nobody knew
existed. Everybody crowded around the mobile rescue unit to watch the
preparations.
            The two
sheriff's deputies fitted tanks and face masks on Jeff and Mortimer, and then
the four of them linked themselves together with a piece of nylon line. It was
decided that Jeff would lead the way and Mortimer would bring up the rear and
feed out communication wire from a reel, so they would have