“I know that whoever did it is going to settle accounts with me if I ever find him out,” Bob said and a look into his eyes told Rex that he was uttering no idle threat.
Criscrossed on the old man’s back were many broad whelts, evidently made by a heavy piece of rope.
“Oh, the brutes,” Bob groaned, as he carefully turned the Indian back. “Who did it, Kernertok?”
“Injun no know. No see um.”
“You mean that you didn’t see anybody?”
“No see um.”
“But what happened?”
“Injun walk along, him heap dark. No see um, no hear um. Bag drop on head. Two three men jump on Injun. No chance fight, heap too many.”
“But did they keep the bag on your head while they beat you?”
“No take bag off. Beat heap lot, then bang on head an’ no more.”
“I should say you did get a bang on the head,” Bob declared, as he felt a big lump on the back of the old man’s skull. “If I ever find out who did it I’ll, well he’d better look sharp, that’s all.”
After resting for about a half hour Kernertok declared that he was able to start back.
“Now you take it easy,” Bob cautioned him. “Remember, you are not as young as you were once.”
“Injun heap tough,” the old man grunted. “Take heap lot to kill him.”
“I’ll say it will,” Rex laughed.
Rex was astonished at the quick recovery of the old man and at his endurance. Indeed he was panting, when about an hour and a half later they got back to where Jack was waiting for them. The latter was overjoyed to see his old friend safe once more and was loud in his expression of indignation, as Bob told him what had happened.
“We’ll get those brutes sometime,” he declared, “and when we do, look out.”
While they had been away Jack had caught a good mess of trout and had picked several quarts of raspberries, so it took them but a short time to prepare dinner.
“Hadn’t we better rest the remainder of the day and start out good and early in the morning?” Bob asked Kernertok.
“We go now,” the Indian replied. “Injun all right. It only twenty mile more more down river, then twelve mile through woods to little lake.”
“All right, you’re the doctor,” Bob said.
“We’re sure traveling light, all right,” Rex laughed as they shoved off.
“Light is right,” Jack agreed. “A little too light for comfort. Hope we strike some grub soon.”
For the remainder of the distance down the stream the current was rapid, and they made splendid time. It was only a little after two o’clock when the Indian guided the canoe to a sandy spot and informed them that they were at the end of their trip, so far as travel by water was concerned.
“We better hide the canoe in a safe place,” Bob declared, as he stepped onto the shore.
“You bet,” Jack agreed. “We don’t want to come back here and find it gone. We sure would be in a pickle then.”
“We find um good place hide him,” Kernertok assured them.
Bob and Rex insisted on carrying the canoe, although Jack declared that he was getting tired of being treated like a baby and Kernertok insisted that he was all right.
“Injun heap tough,” he said several times, but the boys would not give in to him.
So with the Indian leading the way, they plunged at once into the dense forest of spruce and pine. For fully a quarter of a mile they carried the canoe before they found a hiding place which satisfied them. A thick clump of cedars, growing so closely together that it was impossible to see more than a few feet into it, offered what seemed to all of them, a secure place.
Using the utmost care to break no branches, they dragged the canoe into the center of the clump. After they emerged, Kernertok carefully removed all traces of their presence.
“Nobody find um now,” the Indian assured them, as he looked toward the cedars.
“I’ll say they won’t,” Rex declared. “But are you sure that we can find it again?”
“Trust Kernertok for that,” Bob reassured him.
Their way led through a forest more dense than Rex ever seen. The immense pines and spruce grew so closely together that at times it was only with great difficulty that they were able to make their way.
“I should think that there was lumber enough around here to supply the world for the next thousand years,” Rex declared, as they stopped for a short rest.
“There won’t be any great shortage for the next few years at any rate, I reckon,” Jack agreed.
“Is this what you call virgin forest?” Rex asked.
“How about it, Kernertok? Ever been any lumbering here?” Bob turned to the Indian.
Kernertok shook his head.
“No think so. Injun no remember it.”
After they had been walking about two hours the ground began to rise and the boys noticed that the trees were a little farther apart.
“How high is this hill, Kernertok?” Jack panted, after they had been climbing for some time.
“Him big hill, heap high.”
“Is the lake on the other side of it?” Bob asked.
“Lake on top, ’bout two three mile long.”
“How big is it?”
“Him no heap big. Mebby one mile long.”
As they neared the top their way became more and more steep, as the trees gave way to large rocks and cliffs, many of them so steep that they were obliged to make long detours to get around them.
“I’d call this a big hill,” Jack panted, as he pulled himself up by a bush.
“More like a mountain,” Rex declared.
“We near top now. Better keep heap still,” Kernertok cautioned.
“Mum’s the word,” Bob whispered.
There was no more talking as they struggled upward, now clinging to friendly bushes and then creeping carefully around an immense rock. Finally they reached a small plateau only a short distance from the summit, and here Kernertok advised that they eat their supper and wait until after dark before going farther.
“No want man see us first,” he said.
“Righto,” Bob agreed.
Eating supper was a very simple affair, as they had only fish and raspberries left from dinner.
“The larder’s pretty near the vanishing point,” Jack groaned.
“Well, I guess we can catch some more fish in that lake, but I don’t think we’ll be able to find any berries up here,” Bob declared.
The sun was sinking like a big ball of fire in the west as they ate, and soon the shades of night began to steal over the forest, while a new moon gave promise of a small amount of light. They had not heard a sound since stopping, save the gentle rustle of the wind, as it swept through the branches of a tall pine which grew a little to their right.
“We go now, heap still,” Kernertok announced about eight o’clock.
On the mountain top the moon gave sufficient light to enable them to see for some distance, and they were only a few minutes in reaching the top.
Rex happened to be next to the Indian and suddenly he started with a gasp of surprise.
“It’s fairyland.”
“You’re not far off,” Bob whispered, as he seized his friend by the arm. “Did you ever see anything more beautiful?”
There in a hollow, seemingly about twenty feet from where they stood, lay the lake. It was nearly circular in shape and bordered by a fringe of trees, and at that moment the moon shed a silvery pathway directly across the center.
For some minutes not another word was spoken as they looked on the scene.
“I’m afraid it’ll vanish if I speak,” Jack finally whispered.
At that moment Rex caught his arm in a firm grip.
“Look.”
Jack drew in his breath sharply, as he gazed out over the little sheet of water.
“What is it?” he asked.
It was no wonder that he asked the question, for out there seemingly floating in the air about three feet above the surface of the lake was the dim outline of a canoe, and in it was a figure in white, lazily wielding a paddle. The light was not sufficient to afford them more than a hazy outline of the strange craft and its ghostly occupant, and soon it passed out of the moon’s path and vanished in the shadow of the tall pines at the edge of the water.
“White Flower,” Jack whispered.
“White Flower your eye,” Bob mocked. “I’ll bet a thirty-eight would make short work of that ghost.”
Rex looked anxiously at Kernertok to see how he took the vision, and was relieved to note that there was an expression of contempt on the old man’s face.
“But that canoe was floating above the water,” Jack insisted.
“Seemed to be, you mean,” Bob replied. “Refraction of light could cause that.”
“I suppose so, but, believe me, it looked spooky, all right.”
“And no doubt that’s just the effect whoever’s doing it wanted to produce.”
“Well, I congratulate him on his success,” Jack laughed. “He’s sure got the goods, all right, when it comes to effects.”
“What’ll we do, Kernertok?” Bob asked.
“We go round where white canoe went. Go heap easy.”
The point where the canoe had vanished was about half way to the other side of the lake from where they were standing. They started, Kernertok leading the way, and had gone perhaps a little over a mile when he stopped.
“White boys stay here, Injun go see what to see,” he whispered.
“Look out you don’t get another crack on the head,” Bob cautioned.
“Injun look heap sharp,” he grunted, as he disappeared in the darkness, which, now as the moon had set, was intense.
“That guy in that canoe was never John Stebbins,” Rex whispered, as they stretched out close together beneath a large spruce.
“What makes you think so?” Jack asked.
“Because he hasn’t got enough originality in his makeup to plan a thing like that. He’s the most prosaic fellow you ever saw. Steady and all that, but I don’t believe he ever doped out a scheme of any kind in his life. It simply isn’t in his make-up.”
“And yet he got all that money,” Bob suggested.
“I know, but I’ll bet my hat that some one else planned it.”
“Any idea who?”
“Nary an idea, but it must have been some one besides him. You’d say the same thing if you knew him as I do.”
“Still waters run deep,” Jack reminded him.
“Not always,” Rex declared. “Stebbins was still enough, goodness knows, but he absolutely was not deep.”
“Well there’s some one connected with this affair who’s deep enough,” Bob said. “You know as well as I that somebody has been trying to scare us away from here. There’s that arrow and those tracks. It’s mighty lucky for us that Kernertok knows enough to be above superstition. I’ll bet there’s not another Indian in the state that wouldn’t have turned back long ago.”
“I dare say you’re right,” Rex agreed. “But I still insist that John Stebbins is not the one who is managing the fracas.”
“I wonder,” Bob mused.
“That idea’s been in the back of my mind ever since he skipped,” Rex continued. “I’d have banked on his honesty and I know that Father felt the same way about him.”
“Well, if we have any luck and if he’s up here we ought to clear the mystery up pretty soon or—”
“Or go hungry,” Jack interrupted.
“You said it,” Bob added.
“It’s about time Kernertok was getting back, I should think,” Jack said a little later.
“Hope he hasn’t gotten into trouble again,” Rex declared.
“I don’t think he has,” Bob assured him. “He got caught once and he won’t be likely to let ’em put it over on him a second time.”
As if in confirmation of Bob’s words the Indian, without making a sound, was at their side.
“What did you find?” Bob asked in a whisper.
“Little log cabin close to lake ’bout three four hundred feet away. Injun creep up close. No hear sound. Injun wait close under window. Pretty soon hear breath. Injun listen. No more sound. Injun come back.”
“Then you don’t know how many there are?”
“Injun no tell.”
“Sure no one saw you?”
“Heap sure. Injun no make noise.”
“I’ll bet you didn’t,” Jack muttered.
“What’s next?” Bob whispered.
But before the Indian could reply a sound broke the silence.
“What in the world was that?” Jack gasped.
“Listen,” Bob whispered.
Again the sound came to their ears. Beginning with a low rumble it grew louder until it ended in a piercing shriek.
“What is it, Kernertok?” Bob asked.
“Injun no know,” he replied.
“It’s only some more of their attempts to scare us,” Jack declared.
“And we don’t scare worth a cent,” Bob added.
Four times the cry rang out over the lake, and then all was still.
“Does a lalapaloosla make a noise like that?” Bob asked, as the last strain of the weird cry died out.
“Only the red ones, and they don’t raise that kind in Maine.”
“But what’ll we do next?” Bob turned to the Indian once more.
“We find good place watch cabin,” he replied.
“That’s a good plan, I should say,” Jack agreed. “We may find out just what we’re up against.”
Led by the Indian, they crept softly toward the lake, until they reached the edge of the forest.
“Here heap good place,” Kernertok announced in a loud whisper.
It was so dark where they stood that they could scarcely see each other when standing close together, but Kernertok told them that the cabin was only a few yards from them.
“White boys go sleep, Injun and Sicum keep watch.”
“Not so you’d notice it,” Bob insisted. “I know you haven’t got over that beating and you need the rest.”
Kernertok insisted that he was all right, but Bob wouldn’t listen to him. However, it was only after he told the Indian that he wouldn’t go to sleep anyhow and that if he sat up he would do the same that the old man finally yielded the point. Both Rex and Jack tried to get him to let them watch, but he was firm, and as usually the case, made them give in to him.
“Now stop your fussing and get to sleep like good children,” he said.
“But you’ve got to promise to call me at one o’clock,” Jack persisted.
“And me too,” Rex broke in.
“All right, I’ll promise.”
“I could eat a bit more supper if I had it,” Jack said, as he stretched out on the ground.
“That’s all right,” Rex added. “But how about breakfast?”
“Sufficient unto the day is the food thereof,” Bob grinned.
“Yes, but there wasn’t sufficient,” Jack growled.
“Well, there’ll be less to-morrow unless we strike something,” Bob assured him.
“There can’t be very much less than there is right now,” Jack retorted with a long sigh.
Bob called Rex and Jack according to his promise at one o’clock and reported that everything had been quiet.
“No more lalapalooslas howling around?” Jack laughed.
“Haven’t heard any.”
“Well, here’s hoping they will keep quiet for the rest of the night.”
“How still it is,” Jack whispered a little later, as he and Rex sat with their backs against a spruce tree.
“It’s so still you can almost feel it,” Rex agreed. “I’d give a good bit to know who’s in that cabin,” he added in a whisper.
“Well, we’ll probably find out before many hours. It’ll be light now in about three hours.”
“And I’ll bet they’ll seem like three years.”
“What did you think of that spook out on the lake?” Jack asked a few minutes later.
“It did look spooky for a fact, but I imagine that Bob’s explanation was about right. Things often look displaced in the night and especially in the moonlight, you know.”
“But what would anyone be doing out there at that time?”
“Ask me something easy. It’s quite evident that someone knows we are up here and is trying to throw a scare into us, and—”
“No doubt about that,” Jack interrupted.
“And there are two questions in my mind regarding it.”
“And I’ll bet I can guess them both first time.”
“All right, go ahead.”
“First you’d like to know who it is and second you’d like to know what they know about us, or rather what they think they know. How’s that?”
“You’re pretty near right on both counts. The main thing that’s puzzling me is whether or not Stebbins is mixed up in it.”
“What makes you think he isn’t?”
“I didn’t say I did think so, but as I was saying awhile ago, he’s not that kind of a guy.”
“Well, it seems to me—” Jack began, when he was interrupted by a sound which seemed to come from the direction of the lake.
“Listen,” he whispered.
“Sounds like a groan,” Rex replied after a moment.
“Let’s get up a bit nearer the cabin,” Jack suggested.
Followed by Rex he crept carefully forward on his hands and knees. It was very dark now, as the moon had set some time before and they had to feel their way as they advanced foot by foot.
“I think I can see the cabin,” Jack whispered, after they had gone a few yards.
The groaning had been repeated several times since they had first heard it, and now they were certain that the sound came from the cabin.
“Sounds as though someone was having a nightmare,” Rex whispered.
“What had we better do?” Jack asked, as he stopped a moment later. “We’re only a few feet away from the cabin now.”
“We want to be mighty careful for one thing,” Rex cautioned in a low whisper. “If we should get caught now all our work would probably go for nothing.”
“Let’s camp right here then.”
They stretched themselves flat on the ground behind a small clump of small cedars and listened.
“That’s no nightmare, if you ask me,” Jack declared, after a few minutes had passed and the sound still continued.
“Guess you’re right,” Rex agreed. “Who ever’s making that noise would have waked up before this if he was asleep.”
“My idea exactly. But somebody in there’s pretty bad off, unless it’s being done for our special benefit. The trouble is, we can’t tell which is right.”
“What do you think we’d better do?”
“I think we had better get back, if you ask me. It’ll be light in a short time now, and if we stay here much longer we may spill the beans, and it’s too much of a risk to do any investigating in the dark.”
So they crept back to their former position and waited with what patience they could summon until daylight stole over the forest.
“I hate like the dickens to wake Bob and Kernertok so early,” Jack whispered. “But I feel it in my bones that something is going to happen before long.”
“What you call a hunch, eh?”
“Something of the sort.”
“You did just right, son,” Bob declared a few minutes later, after Jack had apologized for calling him and Kernertok so early. “We don’t want to lose a single bet now.”
After a brief whispered conference it was decided to separate two and two and keep a close watch at both the front and back of the cabin.
“Jack, you and Kernertok stay here where you can see the rear, and Rex and I’ll get round where we can see the front. If either sees anything the whip-poor-will call will be the signal. All right?” Bob asked.
“All right is right,” Jack nodded his head.
Bob and Rex crept slowly toward the lake and soon found a position where they had a fair view of the front of the cabin without much risk of being seen. They could hear nothing of the groans and Rex whispered that he hardly thought they would be able to hear them at that distance. For over an hour they watched, and both boys were beginning to get uneasy, when suddenly the door opened and a man stepped out, and a moment later he was followed by two others.
“I thought as much,” Bob whispered. “You remember them, don’t you?”
“Sure; it’s Jacques Harbaugh and his two friends.”
“And the plot thickens,” Bob whispered, as he bent slightly forward to get a clearer view. “But I must signal the others.” And the clear shrill call of the whip-poor-will floated out in the still air.
For ten minutes or a little more the three men stood in front of the cabin talking in tones too low for the boys to catch any of the conversation. Then they went inside and a few minutes later smoke began to pour from the chimney.
“They’re getting breakfast, and I guess we might as well go back and tell Jack and Kernertok who’s here,” Bob suggested.
“I had a good-sized hunch that those fellows were mixed up in the case,” Jack declared, as soon as he learned of the presence of the three men. “What do you make of it?”
“Well, of course, it’s largely guesswork, but my guess is that they have Stebbins in that cabin and are holding him prisoner for some reason or other, hence the groans which you heard,” Bob said.
“And I’ll say you’re some guesser,” Jack replied, casting a questioning glance at Kernertok.
“Him heap good at guess,” the Indian agreed.
“What’s the next move then?” Rex whispered.
“I guess it’s their next move,” Bob said. “You see, they’re all powerful as well as desperate men, and we don’t want to come to a showdown with them if we can help it, until we have bigger odds on our side. I tell you those fellows would put a bullet through one of us as quick as lightning if he thought his safety depended on it.”
“Then you think—”
“That we’d better lay low for a while in the hope that they’ll go away and give us a chance to see what’s inside that cabin without meeting them,” Bob interrupted.
“That heap good plan,” Kernertok nodded his head.
“Then we’d better get back where we were, I suppose,” Rex suggested.
“Right away I should say,” Bob agreed.
It was nearly eight o’clock before the three men again emerged from the cabin. This time they did not hesitate, but made their way at once down to the shore of the lake, and by parting the bushes in front of him, Bob saw that they got into a canoe and started swiftly down the lake.
“Come on,” he whispered to Rex. “Let’s get back and tell Jack and Kernertok.”
“So you think the coast is clear,” Jack said, as soon as they had told what they had seen.
“It is, so far as those three are concerned.”
It was quickly decided that Kernertok should stay outside and keep watch while the three boys went into the cabin.
“Me an’ Sicum keep heap good watch,” the Indian assured them, as they started off.
They paused to listen, as they were close beside the cabin, but all was still. The tiny windows were too high to permit them to peep in from the ground, and besides they were so covered with dirt that Bob declared it would be impossible to see through them even if they got up high enough. So they quickly made their way around to the front. The door was closed and fastened with a heavy padlock.
“No getting in here without breaking that lock,” Bob declared. “Let’s see what it looks like around back.”
But the prospect was not much more promising, as the small door evidently was fastened with a bar on the inside, and although they pushed against it with all their strength, they were not able to make the slightest impression on it.
“Guess we’ll have to try the windows after all,” Bob declared, as he stepped back after a final push.
“All right, let’s make it snappy,” Jack agreed, as he started around to the side.
Here there were two small windows, each of a single pane of glass about twelve by fourteen inches. Bob took a stand under one of them and in an instant Jack was on his shoulders.
“Can’t see a blamed thing,” he declared a moment later.
“Is it puttied on the outside?” Bob asked.
“No; it’s just set into the frame from the inside.”
“Then we’ll have to smash it, I reckon.”
“How about cutting it with this diamond ring?” Rex asked, as he pulled the ring from his finger and passed it up to Jack.
It was but the work of a moment to make a deep scratch on the four sides of the glass close to the edge. Then by hitting it lightly with his pocket knife, he soon started a crack, and a moment later the pane fell in with a loud smash. Eagerly the boy pushed his head in and looked about.
“What about it?” Bob whispered loudly.
“Not much,” Jack replied, as he withdrew his head and leaped to the ground. “It’s about the same as you’d expect. An old stove, a table and a few old chairs and lots of dirt.”
“There’s no one there?”
“I didn’t say that. There are some bunks on the other side of the room, but it’s not light enough to see whether there’s any one in them or not.”
“Can you squeeze through?”
“Mebby, but it’ll be pretty close.”
“We’ll pull you out if you get stuck,” Rex assured him, as Jack again mounted to Bob’s shoulders.
It was but a minute’s work to pick out the thin strips of glass from the frame, and this accomplished, he began the task of squirming through. It was, as he said, a mighty close squeeze, but he was an adept at squirming through small openings. Indeed, Bob had often declared that he believed Jack could squeeze his way through a key hole if he had to. Once he thought he was stuck, but he managed to free himself, and after a few minutes he dropped lightly to the floor. In another moment he had unbarred the back door and admitted the others.
As they stood in the open doorway, a low groan reached their ears. Bob quickly ran to the side of the room where the bunks were. After a single glance he started back in amazement. Then, recovering himself, he stepped forward again and bent over for a closer look.
Bound hand and foot, his mouth tightly gagged, lay the form of a man. His eyes were closed and his face, covered with a stubble of several days’ growth, was gaunt almost to the point of emaciation. It was evident to Bob that the man was unconscious, if not at the point of death.
“Is this Stebbins?” he whispered to Rex, who was close behind him.
“I—I think so,” Rex stammered. “But it’s hard to tell, he’s so changed. Let me see his right hand. Yes, it’s he all right,” he declared a moment later, as he held up the man’s right hand. “See that middle finger.”
The first joint of the finger was gone and the fact settled the identity of the man beyond all question.
“See if you can find some water, Jack,” Bob ordered, as he drew out his knife and cut the ropes.
Jack was back almost immediately with a pan of water, and dipping his handkerchief in it, Bob proceeded to wet the man’s forehead, while Jack and Rex rubbed his wrists. In a few minutes their efforts were successful. The man groaned, and a moment later opened his eyes. At first there was no recognition in them, but as he glanced from one to the other, his eyes finally rested on Rex.
“Do you know me, old man?” Rex asked.
The man was too weak to reply, but from the look in his eyes they knew that he had recognized him.
“Don’t try to talk now,” Rex said bending over him. “It’s all right and we’ll have you on your feet in no time.”
“He’s nearly starved to death,” Bob whispered to Jack. “See what you can find. Some condensed milk mixed with water will be all right if you can find it.”
In the back of the room was a small closet, and Jack was delighted to find it well stocked with provisions, including several cans of milk. He quickly opened one of the latter with his knife, and pouring the contents into a dipper, he thinned it with water.
“Drink a little of this,” Bob cautioned. Then turning to Jack he ordered: “You get the fire going and I’ll see if I can find some oatmeal or something to make some gruel of. He’s got to have something a bit more substantial than that condensed milk.”
“But how about those fellows seeing the smoke?” Rex asked.
“We’ll have to take a chance on that. This man will die if we don’t get something inside him, and if they return we’ll have to do the best we can. Anyhow Kernertok’ll give us the word so they can’t take us by surprise.”
An hour later, after the man had taken as much of the gruel as Bob dared to give him, he seemed considerably stronger and the boys began to remember that they had had no breakfast themselves. Thanks to the provisions in the cabin this condition was soon remedied and a goodly portion taken out to Kernertok and Sicum. Stebbins was sleeping quietly as they returned to the cabin.
“What’s the next move?” Jack whispered.
“That’s the big question,” Bob replied. “That man won’t be fit to move for two or three days at the most, and they’ll probably be back before night at the longest.”
“That’s a safe bet at any rate,” Jack agreed. “And it’s another safe bet that they’ll make mince meat of us if we give them the chance.”
“Well we mustn’t give them the chance, that’s all,” Bob said, shaking his head.
“I think we’re unanimous on that point,” Rex broke in. “The only question seems to be how we’re going to help it.”
“We’ve got three good persuasive automatics, which will help some if it comes to a show down,” Bob declared. “I wish we had the rifle, but there’s no use worrying over that.”
“And there’s food enough here to stand a siege for two or three weeks if we have to,” Jack said slowly.
“Well it seems to me about the only thing we can do,” Rex said in a tone of resignation.
About eleven o’clock Stebbins awoke and Bob fed him some more of the gruel, and he seemed much stronger and inclined to talk.
“Better wait a little longer,” Bob continued. “You want to get your strength back as soon as you can, you know, and it will tire you to talk now.”
With a sigh, the man lay back on the bed and closed his eyes.
“He’ll be strong enough to tell us his story when he wakes up again and has had one more feed,” Bob whispered.
They prepared a good dinner, with the help of some trout which Jack got from a little brook a short distance up the lake. They had just finished cleaning up when Stebbins again opened his eyes and asked for food. As soon as he had finished eating, he declared that he was much stronger and insisted on talking.
“All right, but take it easy and stop as soon as you begin to feel tired,” Bob cautioned.
“I took the money,” he began slowly, looking at Rex, “but I want you to believe that I’m not so bad as you must think. It started the year before I went to work for your father. I was cashier in a bank in Waterville, and a large sum of money disappeared. No, I didn’t take it, but I knew that they suspected me and I was unable to prove that I was innocent. They never found out who took it, and after a time I resigned. At the time a big half-breed by the name of Jacques Harbaugh was janitor of the bank. He never liked me, as I had to reprimand him many times for poor work. Although Jacques is a half-breed, he is a pretty sharp fellow.”
Here Stebbins paused and the boys urged him to rest before telling more, but in a few minutes he insisted that he was strong enough to proceed.
“Well, I was happy in Philadelphia, and had nearly forgotten all about the matter, when suddenly, about three months ago, I met Jacques on Chestnut Street. He knew me at once. As a matter of fact, he had been hunting for me for some days. To make a long story short, he had found or made up a bit of evidence which seemed to prove conclusively that I had stolen that money so many years ago. I realize now that I was weak, but at that time I was scared so that I hardly knew what I was doing. Jacques promised that he would keep still about it, provided I paid him a large sum of money. Otherwise he declared that he would go back to Waterville and give me away. The sum, fifty thousand dollars, was entirely beyond my means, and I told him so. But he had learned in some way of my position and hinted that I could get the money all right. Finally I yielded, and it was arranged that we should meet up here, a place we both knew about.”
“But the amount you took was a good deal more than fifty thousand,” Rex interrupted.
“I know it, but as I had the chance, I thought I might as well take all I could get. As well be hanged for an old sheep as a lamb, you know. But I’ve got the money safe, and if possible, you shall have every cent of it back. You see, I got here first and had a day to think things over and made up my mind that I would give the money back and let Jacques do his worst. So I hid it in a place where no one can ever find it. I had just finished when Jacques and two other men arrived. I told them that I didn’t have the money and that they could do what they pleased about it. Of course, he was furious and insisted that I was lying and that I had the money. They have kept me here ever since and have done all sorts of things to make me tell where it is, but I made up my mind that I wouldn’t even if they killed me. If you hadn’t come just about when you did I’m afraid it would have been—”
Before he was able to finish the sentence the back door opened and Kernertok stole softly in.
“Men coming,” he announced. “Be here heap soon.”
“How far away are they?” Bob asked.
“Mebby quarter mile, no more.”
“All three of them?”
“All three.”
“All right. Bar that back door, Jack.”
“What are you going to do?” Rex asked anxiously.
“The only thing we can do. Just wait and see what they will do,” Bob replied.
“One thing’s on our side, and that is that we’ve got all the food and I reckon we can stand a siege longer than they can,” Jack declared.
“I’m not so sure about that,” Bob said slowly shaking his head. “Remember, they are skilled woodsmen, and I guess they can find plenty to eat such as is. They won’t starve.”
“They’re just landing,” Rex, who was watching from a little front window, announced.
“Quick! Get that front door barred,” Bob said. “I nearly forgot that.”
Fortunately the front door as well as the back was made to be fastened with a heavy bar of wood, and it was but an instant’s work to slip the bar in its place.
“Now keep quiet,” Bob cautioned, “and be sure to keep out of range of the windows. Remember, they would shoot us quick as a wink if they got the chance.”
The men were evidently in good humor, for they could hear them talking and laughing as they approached the cabin. Soon they heard one of them fumbling with the lock, and a moment later there came a heavy shove against the door, followed by an oath in French.
“We’ve got them guessing,” Jack whispered.
“Hush,” Bob cautioned.
For a moment all was still, then they could hear the man talking rapidly in broken French. Then came another push against the door, followed by more excited talking.
“They’re coming round back,” Rex whispered.
A moment later a shout from one of the breeds announced the discovery of the broken window. For several minutes after that they could hear no sound.
“Wonder what they’re up to,” Jack whispered.
“Guess they’re trying to make out what it means,” Bob replied.
Almost as he spoke there came the loud report of a revolver, and a bullet buried itself in a log on the side opposite the open window.
“They’re at a loss to know whether their prisoner has got free or some one has got in,” Bob suggested.
For another moment all was silent, then from directly beneath the open window came the voice of Jacques Harbaugh.
“You open dat door, oui, or we bust heem in.”
Bob held up his hand as a signal not to answer.
“When we geet in we keel you you no open door.”
Again Bob signaled for silence.
“Keep him guessing,” he whispered.