At least, it tried to. Frank went tumbling head over heels as the stranger collided with him. He still clutched the light in his hand, its beam illuminating the rock wall. His assailant lay about two arm lengths away. Rolling onto his stomach, Frank turned his light full on his opponent. Stocky, with blond hair, he heaved himself off the floor made as if to dash off again into the darkness. Frank gasped from his position on the ground.

"Chet?!"

In answer the stocky youth squinted against the light trying to make out the person behind it. His eyes widened. "Frank? We gotta get out of here!" He tugged the elder Hardy to his feet, but stopped as a second pair of footsteps sounded out of the darkness, accompanied by heavy breathing. In the beam of the flashlight, the little man looked sinister indeed and the gun in his hands belied the fact that he was indeed serious in this endeavor. "Freeze right where you are."

Belatedly the boys did as they were instructed. Somehow Chet stumbled into a hornet's nest, and now we've found it too! But where is Joe? Did the boys get separated? Frank's mind was whirling through the meager clues that he possessed, and the greater amount of questions - the foremost at the moment being how to get out of this encounter intact.

The small man cleared his throat and squinted against the beam of light. His finger wavered nervously around the trigger, and he motioned at Frank to take the light out of his face. The boy obeyed, eyeing the gun as he did so. The finger kept playing around, betraying the fact that he was out of his element.

"My name is Mr. Schteinze. I don't know how you boys got loose earlier, but we're going to have to lock you up to keep you safe until we're done here. Unlike my partner Buddy, I dislike having to use weapons, however, if you choose not to cooperate, I will shoot. Do I make myself clear?" He pointed down the tunnel behind them, indicating that they should walk in that direction. "You will please to turn and walk in that direction, the both of you keeping one hand upon the light. If at any time you deviate from this course of action, I will dispose of you."

In the next instant, several things occurred. There was a slight whisper of fabric, the sound of a pebble kicked out of place, then a blur of motion slammed Schteinze into the wall. Frank pushed Chet away and dropped to the ground, turning off his light. Breathlessly he waited for gunfire, but none came. Sounds of a scuffle still in progress reached him, and he flicked the switch to turn on his flashlight. TJ and Schteinze were rolling on the ground, fighting for control of the weapon.

Chet jumped up and went to help TJ. A solid punch to the jaw flattened Schteinze and he lapsed into unconsciousness. "Whew, I thought for sure that he was going to start taking potshots with that thing." The Hardy's stout pal was breathing hard.

TJ grimaced as he handed Frank the gun. "He tried. I managed to trigger the safety mechanism and hold it down, but he still managed to mash my fingers over it." His knuckles were scraped from being bashed against the wall. "I found out that my thumb is stronger than his forefinger."

Frank disengaged the clip and ejected the shell from the chamber. Placing the pieces of the weapon in his pack, he studied the unconscious man. "We need to figure out what is what here. Let's get him tied up and back in the side tunnel that we came out of. Then you can tell us what is going on here." This last part was directed to Chet, who tinged slightly red. The three youths soon situated themselves inside the tunnel with their prisoner behind them, tied and gagged. In hushed voices and without light, they traded stories and tried to come up with some explanation for what was happening.

"I don't suppose our prisoner would care to share his secrets at the moment." Frank shook his head. "But we can't risk it at this point. His buddies are out there, armed, and just as likely to shoot as ask questions. We wouldn't get off so easily in another confrontation."

"The mention of 'specials' is intriguing though. Chet, do you think that they may be manufacturing 'Saturday Night specials'? Or maybe a different type of illegal weapon?"

Chet shrugged in the darkness. "I suppose it's possible. I didn't see anything other than rifles and boxes, but never got a chance to examine either very closely."

"First order of things to accomplish is the locating of the other two, then getting out of this hole. Finding evidence of wrongdoing is a high secondary objective, but only secondary. We aren't much use to anyone if we get killed down here."

Chet gulped nervously at that statement, but bolstered his courage with the fact that they weren't dead yet. And still had the advantage of surprise on their side. Frank slipped towards the junction with the main corridor to check with TJ. He'd decided to play sentry and keep an ear open for any movement along that route.

"No movement that I could hear."

The whispered reply to his query satisfied Frank for the moment. "Keep your ears open, we'll try to get out of this place soon. I'll get Chet and our prisoner and we'll make a break for it. I think it's safe to assume that Joe and Biff have gotten above ground at this point - at the very least, they've managed to get themselves hidden. Now we have to get free as well."

"Okay." TJ returned to his position at the opening of the tunnel, while Frank made his way back to Chet. "Alright pal, let's get him up and moving." Together the boys grasped Mr. Schteinze, pulling him to his feet and guiding him back towards the main passageway. Cautiously they entered, TJ scouting slightly ahead, Frank followed him, with Chet bringing up the rear behind Schteinze. The hall began to grow slightly lighter as they drew near the large room ahead.

* * * * *

Meanwhile, Joe and Biff chafed at their current predicament. While the men were away loading the truck they might be able to gain the safety of the hallway that led aboveground, but with the sudden appearance of the man who'd just run after Chet, they weren't confident that there wouldn't be anyone else making surprise visits. The sound of the forklift returning met their ears, and they tried to wait patiently, while shifting their positions quietly underneath the workbench.

The group returned and loaded a second pallet full of the boxes. The job seemed to be going smoothly until they finished with the pallet. For several moments the men spoke in low murmurs, then most of the group headed down to load the truck, while one man headed up the hallway to the surface. When the room was clear, Biff shifted to look at Joe.

"What can we do now?" He looked upset; their friend was in trouble, and they couldn't do anything to help him. "Do we take off after Chet?"

"You know we can't do that. The guy has a gun." Joe silently slammed his fist into the concrete surface that he lay on. "I hate it. I HATE IT! I feel so helpless laying here!" His hushed whisper came out more forceful than he intended, and immediately he glanced around the room. "I can't stand not doing. We're in over our heads, and Frank is going to freak out when he gets back to camp and we don't show. But he'll never find us down here unless he gets caught by a sentry up top." He finished glumly, nearly in despair over the situation.

Biff nodded grimly. "It's gotta break here sometime for us. I don't know how, but we're the only hope that Chet has of getting help. We can't let him down!"

The sound of running footsteps echoed from the hall and a pair of feet appeared in the room, then disappeared into the tunnel that led to the truck. The boys had just started to scoot their way towards the exit tunnel when another group popped into the opposite side of the room.

* * * * *

It hadn't taken very long to get to the doorway of the large room. Frank and TJ both took turns looking into the room, verifying that it was empty before they ventured to enter. Turning back into the dark behind him, Frank nudged Chet. "Which way out?"

Chet moved up beside him and pointed at the doorway opposite them. "There. We better hurry before they come back; they're still loading those boxes onto a truck somewhere." Frank nodded and spoke grimly to their captive. "We're going to try to get out of here. You're coming with us. Like you said before, we don't like the idea of shooting you or anyone for that matter, but if we have no other choice, we will." He nodded to other boys. "Let's go."

The little group moved swiftly into the large room, attentions fixated on the doorway that led out of the cave. They had to maneuver out towards the center of the room to avoid the boxes that still lined the wall. Just as they reached the half-way point, four men came running out of the loading passage.

"Hey you! Stop!"

Two of the men rushed to keep them from gaining the doorway. Barton Schteinze, seeing his friends, began to put up a fuss, keeping the boys from moving as fast as they wanted to. Ringed in by four men, Chet shoved Schteinze to the ground and threw off his pack. Grimly Frank sized up the situation. Though outnumbered, there was still a chance that they might make it to the doorway, and the hall beyond. Chet had mentioned the fact that they had to climb down a short ladder when they'd been brought into the cave and that the door was a little hard to open. No way to tell whether the man with the gun was still watching for intruders...

Dropping his pack, he dropped into a ready stance facing outward. Chet flexed his muscles and moved to stand beside him. TJ loosened his pack and turned to face the men blocking their escape. Removing it from his back, he set it lightly on the floor beside him. The whine of the returning forklift caused everyone to shift their gaze for a moment, but they soon resumed their stare down. The man on the forklift stopped it in surprise at the spectacle before him, then jumped off to join the emminent fight.

One of the loaders stepped forward and took a swing at Chet, who dodged and returned the blow. A satisfying smack sounded as the man toppled backwards, trying to keep his balance. Then Chet staggered as he was kicked in the leg from behind - by Schteinze. As he fell, the rest of the ring charged in!