The place whence the men had emerged was a portion of the
old factory farthest removed from the walls the tank had
crunched its way through. Consequently, that part was the
least damaged.
Tom and Ned came to what seemed to have been the office of
the building when the factory was in operation. A door, from
which most of the glass had been broken, hung on one hinge,
and, pushing this open, the two chums found themselves in a
room that bore evidences of having been the bookkeeper's
department. There were the remains of cabinet files, and a
broken letter press, while in one corner stood a safe.
"Maybe they were cracking that," said Ned.
"They were wasting their time if they were," observed Tom,
"for the combination is broken--any one can open it," and he
demonstrated this by swinging back one of the heavy doors.
A quantity of papers fell out, or what had been papers,
for they were now torn and the edges charred, as if by some
recent fire.
"They were burning these!" cried Ned. "You can smell the
smoke yet. They came here to destroy some papers, and we
surprised them!"
"I believe you're right," agreed Tom.
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