The Mystery of the Death Trap Mine - M. V. Carey [12]
“Stop that!” Thurgood seized her arm and pulled her back away from the pit.
Allie trembled and pointed toward the pit. “D-dd-down there!”
The boys went cautiously to the edge of the shaft and Thurgood shined his light down.
The pit was not deep — only ten or twelve feet — but the walls were sheer, straight up and down.
At the bottom of the hole was something that
looked like a heap of old clothes. But then, in the
light of the torch, they could all see what had once been a hand — a human hand. There was a
body inside the clothes, a body that lay strangely
twisted on the rocky floor of the shaft. They saw
hollow eyes and a dusty, matted tangle of hair.
“Dead!” cried Allie. “He’s … it’s dead! Dead!”
“Stop that!” snapped Thurgood again.
Allie gulped and was quiet.
“Now get out!” ordered Thurgood. “All of
you!”
Jupiter and Bob grabbed Allie’s arms. With
Pete stumbling behind them and Thurgood
herding them along with his flashlight, they
made their way back to the main mine tunnel
and then out through the entrance to the
sunlight.
The dog barked, but it seemed to Jupe that
the sound was unreal — part of a nightmare. In
his mind Jupe kept seeing the crumple of
clothing at the bottom of the shaft, the head with
the staring eyes, and the skinny, leathery hand.
“You kids get home!” said Thurgood. “Get home and stay there, all of you. If I ever catch you in my mine again, I’ll personally break your necks!”
He slammed into his cabin. Allie and the boys moved off slowly, past Thurgood’s shiny red Chevy Suburban “truck,” which was now parked near the mine, past Uncle Harry’s pickup, which they left standing in the field.
By the time they reached the ranch house, colour had come back to Allie’s face. “We’ll call the sheriff,” she said. “That Thurgood! I knew there was something spooky about him!”
“I am sure he has already called the sheriff,” Jupe told her. “I am also sure that you’d better not accuse him of anything.”
“Why not?” said Allie. “There’s a dead man in his mine!”
“And at the moment we have no idea how that dead man got there,” Jupe pointed out.
A cloud of dust soon appeared on the road to town. A second later a tan sedan sped past. The word “Sheriff” was on the door. The boys glimpsed the driver, a big man wearing a Stetson. The car turned in toward Thurgood’s cabin and halted.
Jupe smiled. “You see?” he said to Allie.
Allie smiled back, but her smile was malicious. “I wonder what Thurgood’s going to tell the sheriff.”
“What are you going to tell your uncle?” Jupe nodded toward the road. The station wagon was approaching, with Uncle Harry and Magdalena in the front seat. Uncle Harry turned in at the gate, and Jupe could see that he looked concerned.
“Allie!” he called. The car came to a stop in the drive and Uncle Harry leaned out the window. “Sheriff Tait passed me on the road. Is anything wrong?”
“There’s a body in Thurgood’s mine,” said Allie smugly.
“A body? In the mine?”
Allie nodded.
“Madre de Dios! ” Magdalena got out of the station wagon. “Allie, how do you know this?”
There was an uncomfortable silence. Harrison Osborne looked at his niece. “Allie, were you in that mine again?”
Jupe took a step forward.”Yes, we all were, Mr. Osborne. I was curious about those shots last night, and …”
“I don’t want to hear any explanations!” said Uncle Harry. “I want you all to go in the house and stay there, do you understand?”
Uncle Harry stamped away across the fields, heading for Thurgood’s property. As he went he was joined by Mrs. Macomber, who had come out of her house when the sheriffs car passed.
The Three Investigators and Allie prowled from window to window on the second floor of the ranch house, trying to catch a glimpse of any action. After a time an ambulance drove up to Thurgood’s property and backed up to the mine entrance. It was more than an hour before it left and disappeared toward town. In the meantime several other cars arrived. One of them belonged to the highway patrol. At three, Harrison Osborne returned to the ranch house