This move on Happenchance may be putting us clear off the scent." "I'll bet something it isn't," said Clancy, with supreme conviction.
Emerging from the pass, the boys descended into a circular valley, in whose center shapeless ruins covered all the old-time glories--such as they were--of a once bustling mining camp.
The searchlights pierced the vast heap of debris, and revealed the cluttered lane which had once been the town's main street.

Carefully Frank steered through the passage and came at last to a halt in front of the only four walls in the place that remained standing.

Here was the building in which they had discovered Professor Phineas Borrodaile, living alone in primitive surroundings and trying to imagine him self a troglodyte.
"Hello, professor!" shouted Clancy.
His voice echoed back and forth between the cliffs that rimmed the valley, but brought no answer.
"Not here!" he exclaimed, in a voice of profound disappointment.
"You really expected that yell would bring him ?" Frank asked.
"I really did.

Hang the luck! Say, Chip, I guess the theory won't hold water.

The prof is still mysteriously absent, after all." Merry had removed the lamp from his machine, and was standing in front of the old door.