Had Merriwell not been as tough as sole leather, that ugly fall might have had serious consequences. As it was, he was merely stunned, and in a minute or two he was sitting up on the ground, rubbing the side of his head and trying to guess what had happened.
Although he could not remember it, yet at the moment he was seized and thrown sideways, a startled cry had escaped his lips. Ears accustomed to hearing sounds through the clamor of the mill had caught that cry, and Merriwell was conscious of a dark form hastening in his direction.
“What’s the matter here?” demanded a voice, as the form halted at Merriwell’s side. “That you, Lenning?”
“No, Burke, it’s not Lenning,” Merry answered, recognizing the man as the recently appointed superintendent at the mine, “it’s Merriwell.”
“Merriwell! What the blazes are you doing here, at this time o’ night?”
“Looking for Lenning.”
“Well, he ought to be around the tanks somewhere.”
“I couldn’t find him,” said Frank, and jumped to his feet. He was dizzy for a moment and leaned back against the wall of the building. “He wasn’t anywhere around the tanks,” he went on, “and I started for the laboratory. When I got this far I stopped and looked through the window. Somebody grabbed me from behind, all at once, and jammed my head against the window sill. When I came to I was sitting up on the ground,
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 and you were hustling toward me. I haven’t the least idea how long my wits were woolgathering, but it couldn’t have been long.”
“It wasn’t,” answered Burke, his voice showing his concern. “You yelled, and I was prowling around and happened to hear. I wasn’t more than a minute in getting here.”
“What the mischief is going on, Burke?”
“Search me. Everything has been as quiet and peaceable around these diggings as a Sunday-school picnic, right up to now. You say you couldn’t find Lenning?”
“No.”
“You don’t suppose he was the one who came up behind you and——”
“Lenning? Great Scott, no! Why should he want to slam me into the laboratory wall?”
“He didn’t use to be a very warm friend of yours.”
“I know, but things are different, now. You see, I’m helping him to square away and——”
“Yes, yes, I’m next to all that. He wouldn’t have been taken on here, if it hadn’t been for you. I haven’t much use for the fellow, though, even if you have. That’s why I was strolling around the tanks when I ought to have been ‘hitting the hay.’ Thought it was just as well to keep an eye on Lenning for the first few nights. Say, Merriwell,” and the super smothered a laugh as he spoke, “is that why you’re out here to-night?”
“You’re too darned keen, Burke,” laughed Merriwell. “I heard you finished a cyanide clean-up, this afternoon, and were to have some bullion in the laboratory safe for overnight.”
“That’s correct. Four ten-pound bars were locked in the safe about eight o’clock.”
“Well,” Frank proceeded earnestly, “don’t think for a
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 minute that I’m not trusting Lenning. I just happened around to have a talk with him during his first night on duty.”
“He wasn’t on duty. If he had been, you’d have found him. How does that look—for a new hand?”
“There’s some reason for it, I’ll bet.”
“Yes,” said the super dryly, “there must be a reason; but, whatever it is, it’s no credit to Lenning. Come on and we’ll see if we can find him.”
Burke walked hurriedly along the side of the laboratory to the door, Frank following close at his heels. The bruise on the side of Frank’s forehead was not serious enough to bother him, and his head was as clear as a bell. The consequences of the fall had spent themselves on the first shock, and only the bruise remained to remind him of his disagreeable experience.
As his wits grew active, they picked up his interrupted chain of reflections where they had been broken off. He recalled the gleam of the bull’s-eye, and his suspicions of Lenning. Although he wanted to believe the fellow innocent of any treacherous work, yet his mysterious absence was the strongest bit of circumstantial evidence against him.
“The door’s unlocked,” announced Burke, halting at the entrance and drawing a long breath of relief, “and that means that Lenning is probably inside. Queer, though, that he hasn’t got a light.”
He pushed open the door and was about to step into the dark interior of the laboratory. Frank suddenly reached out a restraining hand and gripped his arm.
“Don’t be in a rush, Burke,” he warned. “When I was looking through the window I saw the gleam of a bull’s-eye lantern.”
“Thunder!” cried Burke, alarmed.
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Shaking Frank’s hand from his sleeve, he flung himself into the darkness of the big room. Frank, tremendously excited, posted himself in the open door and watched and waited.
The ray from the lantern had vanished. That was a disturbing fact in itself. Listening with all his ears, Merry tried to follow the movements of the super by the noise he made in moving around. This was difficult, owing to the loud roaring of the stamps.
At last, Burke struck a match. The gli............