CHAPTER XIX
CAPTURING THE CAPTORS
All was quiet above them in the cabin for a few seconds, except for the shuffling of feet to evidence the movement of the two crooks, Jeek and Fallon, toward the door.
“They’ll stay there without a bit to eat until they rot, or they’ll pay for that dog,” Jeek’s angry words came to the boys as the door was reached. Then they heard the slamming of the door and even heard the latch fall into place.
“All of which means,” said Frank, “that we’ve got to find a way of getting out of here as soon as we can.”
The boys were huddled close together at the bottom of the hole, but all of them knew well enough that ten feet was as nothing, for they had practiced often enough at wall-scaling to lift one man out of this place in a minute.
Talking in very low tones of voice, fearing lest they might be heard outside the cabin by Jeek, they laid their plans for scaling, waiting for several minutes in the hope that Jeek and Fallon might get well out of hearing.
But they had reckoned on a weakness that Jeek did not have. They figured he was leaving them alone. He was, but not for long. Just as the boys made their first move to scale the walls of the hole, Jeek and Fallon came into the place, dragging a log. From where the boys stood at the bottom of the pit they saw the men stand the log on end for a moment and then drop it with a dull thud across the top of the hole. Leaves and twigs showered down upon them when the heavy log fell into place.
It had happened so quickly and so unexpectedly that the boys had entirely forgotten the advantage they had in using their rifles. Jeek and Fallon had their bodies in sight long enough to have brought both of them down wounded—but the prisoners had let the opportunity get away from them.
“That won’t stop us,” whispered Frank. “If they drop another one, have your rifle ready and we’ll plug them both in the legs. Shoot carefully and don’t kill—just shoot at their legs so we can cripple them enough to keep them from covering this over.”
Once again they figured without an accurate knowledge of this wily Jeek. The two men staggered in under the load of another large log, but this one was set up at an angle, after the door had been carefully closed, shielding them in the darkness, and the plunking sound of the log told the boys that it had dropped in place across the hole.
Still another was brought, and a fourth was laid over. They were well and quite securely fastened down in their prison.
“Well, boys,” Jeek’s voice came to them in a mock politeness, “I am very sorry to be called away, but Mr. Fallon and I have to go back further into the mountains to another cabin where we have some private articles we need. We’ll be by this way this evening and we’ll drop in to see if you’re going to pay for the dog. So long, boys, and don’t get lonesome.”
The slam of the heavy door above told the prisoners that the men had really gone. Whereupon without a moment’s hesitation, Frank planned the scaling of the walls of their pit.
Lanky Wallace had the bottom position, Buster atop of him, and then came Frank at the very top, Paul helping to brace at the bottom.
Frank first felt the logs carefully to see whether they moved easily and which way to move one of them. He figured on rolling one of them to the side, thus leaving enough room to crawl between.
The effort was a failure. He tugged at the next one, but it failed to roll. He tried to force it upward, but to no avail. Jeek had laid the fourth log across the other three at right angles, thus placing a heavyweight on those which formed the ceiling to this hole.
“No use,” muttered Frank in a stage whisper. “I’ll get down for a little while and then we’ll try again.”
After ten minutes they re-formed the scaling position, with Frank again at the top. Success did not smile any more pleasantly on them the second time than the first.
“I can’t move either of those logs a single inch,” said Frank as he climbed down to the floor of twigs and leaves. “They’ve got them laid on tightly. In the first place, I don’t see how those two fellows got the logs in and dropped them over the hole so neatly. They must be awfully heavy.”
In the darkness of the hole the four boys stood close together, each breathing hard as a result of the exertions, each trying to think of a plan by which they might thwart the schemes of these crooks.
“When it comes right down to the last,” said Buster, “we can promise to pay for the dog when they come back this evening, and we can then get out.”
“We’ll be out of here somehow this very day, and we don’t pay that crook anything for anything! But if I get out of here in time to run him down, I’ll make him pay for the dirty trick he has played on us!” Frank was determined, and he was thoroughly angry over the affair.
“We surely missed our——”
Just as Lanky started to say something there came a shrill whistle outside the cabin, and all the boys listened intently. Again came the whistled signal, this time one that all the boys recognized.
It was the peculiar whistle of their former high school chum, Jack Eastwick—it could be no other! No one else had ever whistled like that!
Instantly Lanky’s fingers went to his mouth and he sent out a blast from his lips calculated to awaken the dead.
For a second all was still. Then the boys in the hole heard the door open, and a voice called out:
“Frank! Are you in here?”
“Sure! Who is it? Is that Jack Eastwick?” cried Frank, his heart welling up with joy.
Jack answered that it was, and then there went up a series of wild yells from the four boys in the hole. This was followed by exclamations, questions, and a rush of feet through the door of the cabin.
“We’re down here in a hole! There are logs over the top. Be careful. Try to lift those logs off one at a time—how many fellows up there?” called Frank.
The reply told them there were four—Jack Eastwick, Tom Budd, Herman Hooker and Ralph West, all former students at Columbia High.
Frank gave instructions for the removal of the logs, but these young fellows needed no instructions. All they needed was about five minutes of Father Time, and they had all four of the logs rolled out of the way.
At the end of the next five minutes the four boys in the hole stood outside the door of the cabin with the four boys who had saved them.
“Here, fellows, let’s get inside this place. We’ll tell you all about it. One fellow look through this crack and watch the trail, while we tell you about it.”
With this remark Frank started the story, interrupted now and again by the other three as the story ran along, until the four newcomers knew what had happened.
“How did you fellows know we were here?” asked Frank when he had ended his recital.
“Well, we got to the cabin late last night, and found no one there and the place looking as if you had moved out, except that we saw several pieces of your clothes. We stayed there over night, and this morning, seeing the tracks in the snow, we followed your trail. We didn’t know where you were going, nor why; but we followed what seemed like an army walking in the snow,” was Jack’s explanation of their proceeding.
“Did you meet any one on the way?” Frank asked.
“No, we never saw a human being from the time we started. We were about to stop, but decided that we’d keep on just to see where the end would be—and yet we were never sure it was you fellows,” went on Jack Eastwick.
Now that they were out of the hole and reinforcements were at hand, the boys commenced to make plans.
“Those two tramps, Snadder and Blinky, ought to be here shortly, and we ought to capture them,” said Frank. “Then, the next thing, is to get Jeek and his pals.”
Lanky suggested that they look around the cabin, so, each one bringing from his pockets the matches he had, they began carefully striking these, the while one of the boys stood guard at the crack.
The first match flared up, and they got their bearings in the cabin. When the second match was lighted they spied a bundle lying in one corner of the place. Buster Billings got it, opened the package, which was done up in a towel, and found all their knives, forks and spoons!
In a few minutes more they found more of the stuff which had been stolen—accounting for everything except the two hanging lamps and the dishes. These were missing. The boys searched the cabin thoroughly, striking one match after another, but to no avail.
“Well,” remarked Frank when the fruitless search was ended, “let’s get things ready for these two tramps when they come in. Naturally, they won’t expect us to be out, and they’ll enter very bravely. We’ll just land them in the hole——”
“No, indeed,” interrupted Jack Eastwick. “There are enough of us fellows to grab both of them and truss them up nicely. Let’s tear that towel to pieces, tie the ends, make some nice ropes, and tie them securely.” Jack’s plan was accepted by Frank at once.
Every boy had a weapon, including Buster and Paul, whose firearms were standing in one corner of the cabin.
“When will they be here?” was asked by some one.
This none of them could answer. It became just a game of waiting. Jeek had sent the tramps back to the camp, and he had expected them to return to guard these boys for the day.
The boy at the crack, Herman Hooker, was relieved by Tom Budd. Everything was ready for a rousing welcome.
The four boys first on the scene, forgetting their troubles now that they were out of the hole, stood in a circle making plans for the days to follow and also telling of their experiences up to the present time.
“Ps-st!” suddenly came from Tom Budd’s lips, as he turned and motioned the others to keep still. “Here they come! They are about a quarter of a mile off yet.”
With this the boys took their places, closed the door carefully, allowed the latch to drop into place, and kicked the pile of leaves over so that it would appear as if they had never been disturbed by the crowd.
They watched the signals and caught the whispered warning from Tom Budd as that young man looked through the crack at the oncoming Snadder and Blinky.
Up to the door the tramps came, and, just as the two opened the door and walked guilelessly in, two pairs of arms reached out from each side, each pair grabbing one tramp!