BOB EMERSON'S STORY.
We have said that Tom Hallet was so anxious to help his unlucky friend
Bob in some way that he joined the very first squad that went out in
search of him.
The man who had the name of being the leader of it was the sheriff's
deputy; but the two stalwart young farmers who belonged to his party
were longer of limb than he was, and they pushed ahead at such a rate
that the deputy speedily fell to the rear, and stayed there during most
of the day.
"Me and Cyrus have come out to win that there reward," said one of the
young men, when Tom remonstrated with them for leaving the officer so
far behind, "and we can't do it by loafing along like that sheriff
does. We've got a mortgage to pay off on the farm, and we don't know
any easier way to raise the money for it than to capture one of them
rogues."
But this sanguine young fellow was not the only one who was destined
to have his trouble for his pains; and what made his disappointment
and his brother's harder to bear, was the reflection that if they had
left Tom's cabin half an hour earlier than they did, they might have
succeeded in earning a portion of the money of which they stood so much
in need.
They were not more than a quarter of a mile away, when Brierly's signal
guns announced that one of the robbers had been captured. They ran
forward at the top of their speed, hoping to reach the scene of action
before the arrest was fairly consummated, but in this they were also
disappointed.
When they came in sight of the successful party, they found the robber
securely bound, and Brierly wearing the belt that contained his weapons.
"Too late, boys!" exclaimed the guide, who was highly elated over his
good fortune. "You can't lay claim to any of our money, if that's what
brung you up here in such haste."
"We don't care for the money," panted Tom. "Where's Bob?"
"That's so," said Brierly, who had not bestowed a single thought upon
the prisoner during the whole forenoon. "Where is he? Say, feller, what
have you done with him?"
"I have not seen him for two hours," replied the prisoner. "As soon as
we found out that the hills were full of men, we set him at liberty,
and I suppose he made the best of his way home. We didn't want to keep
him with us, for fear that he would set up a yelp to show where we were
hiding."
Just then the deputy, who had been sitting on a log to recover his
breath, managed to inquire:
"What have you done with your partners?"
"There were only two of us, and the other man has gone off that way,"
answered the captive, nodding his head toward an indefinite point of
the compass.
Tom Hallet had no further interest in the hunt. He stood by and
watched the officer as he unbound the prisoner and substituted a pair
of handcuffs for the rope with which his arms had been confined, and
when Brierly's party started off with their captive, Tom fell in behind
them.
He went as straight to his cabin as he could go, and there he found Bob
Emerson, who was rummaging around in the hope of finding something to
eat.
"I haven't had a bite of anything since last night, and you'd better
believe that I am hungry," said Bob, after he and Tom had greeted each
other as though they had been separated for years. "But I am not a bit
of a hero. I haven't had an adventure worth the telling."
"There's nothing in there," said Tom, seeing that his friend was
casting longing eyes toward his game-bag. "I didn't take much of a
lunch with me, and I was hungry enough to eat it all. Can you stand it
till we get home?"
"I'll have to," replied Bob. "By-the-way, did you ever see that
before?"
As he spoke, he put his hand into his pocket and drew out a soiled and
crumpled letter, which looked as though it might have been through the
war.
It was the same precious document that he and Tom had left in Silas
Morgan's wood-pile.
"One of the robbers gave it to me last night," continued Bob, in reply
to his companion's inquiring look. "You will remember that Dan Morgan
lost the letter within a few feet of the log on which he sat when he
read it, and that when he and Silas went back to find it, they were
frightened away by something that dodged into the bushes, before they
could get a sight at it, and which they took to be a ghost. Well, it
wasn't a ghost at all, but one of the thieves, who had been to the
Beach after supplies. He found the letter and read it. Of course he
was greatly alarmed, and so was his companion; for they couldn't help
believing that some one had got wind of their hiding-place. They could
hardly believe me, when I told them that you and I made that letter up
out of the whole cloth, and that we never dreamed there was any one
living in the gorge."
"But we did know it," said Tom.
"Of course we did, after they frightened us, but not before. They spoke
about that, too. We took them completely by surprise the day we came
down the gorge. We were close upon their camp before they knew it,
and for a minute or two they didn't know what to do. Then one of them
conceived the idea of making that hideous noise, and when the other saw
how well it worked, he joined in with him."
"But didn't they know that we would be back sooner or later to look
into the matter?" asked Tom.
"Of course they did, and that was another thing that frightened them.
They saw very plainly that their hiding-place was broken up, and
were making preparations to leave it when Silas and Dan put in their
appearance. The robbers saw and heard them long before they got to the
camp, and the one who found the letter recognized them at once. It was
at his suggestion that that ghost was rigged up."
"But they must have known that they could not scare everybody with that
dummy," observed Tom.
"To be sure they did, and they were in a great hurry to get away from
there; but they needed provisions, and by stopping to get them they
fell into trouble. They took Joe Morgan's house for a woodchopper's
cabin and while we were robbing them, they were foraging on Joe. I tell
you, Tom, it's a lucky thing for us that we got out of that gorge when
we did. They were mad enough to shoot us on sight."
"I don't wonder at it," replied Tom. "It would make most anybody mad to
lose a hundred and fifty thousand dollars in money and securities, no
matter how he came by them. Where did they catch you? Did they treat
you well?"
"They treated me well enough," was Bob's reply, "but I believe that
if they had not stood in fear of immediate capture I should have a
different story to tell, if, indeed, I were able to tell any. I told
you nothing but the truth in the postscript I added to their note."
"I knew they made you write it, and that you did not express your
honest sentiments when you told us to be in a hurry about giving back
that valise."
"I was sure you would understand it; but what could a fellow do with a
cocked revolver flourished before his eyes by a man who was in just the
right humor to use it on him?"
"He would do as he is told, of course," answered Tom. "But do you
suppose they thought they could get that valise back by threatening
you?"
"I don't know what they thought, for they acted as if they were crazy.
They caught me in less than half an hour after I left you, and it was
through my own fault. I ran on to them before I knew it, and do you
imagine I thought 'robbers' once? As true as you live I didn't. I took
them for poachers, and told them, very politely, that these grounds
were posted and they couldn't be allowed to shoot there, when all on a
sudden it popped into my head what I was doing. They saw the start I
gave, and in a second more they had me covered. If I could have got
away without letting them see that I suspected them, they wouldn't have
said a word to me."
"Well, they covered you with their revolvers; then what?"
"Beyond a doubt, they made a prisoner of me before they thought what
they were doing, and when they came to look at it they found that they
had got an elephant on their hands. Then they would have been glad to
get rid of me; but they did not see just how they could do it with
safety to themselves, so they made up their minds to use me."
"At first they thought they would wait and see if anything would come
of the notice they left on the door of the cabin, and then they thought
they wouldn't--that they would hunt up another hiding-place as soon as
possible; so they ordered me to take them where nobody would ever think
of looking for them. And I could do nothing but obey."
"Were you acting as their guide when they released you?"
Bob replied that he was.
"Why didn't you veer around a bit, and lead them toward the railroad?"
"If I had I shouldn't be here now," answered Bob, significantly. "They
warned me to be careful about that, and they were so well acquainted
with the hills that I was afraid to attempt any tricks. We camped over
on Dungeon Brook last night, and set out again at an early hour this
morning, but before we had been in motion an hour, we found ourselves
cut off from the upper end of the hills, and that was the time they
made up their minds to let me go. They didn't say so, but still I had
an idea that they didn't want me around for fear I would make too much
noise to suit them."
"I know they were afraid of it," said Tom. "The robber that Brierly's
squad captured said so."
"Is one of them taken?" exclaimed Bob, who hadn't heard of it before.
"That's good news. Where's the other?"
"Don't know. They separated after they let you go, and Brierly captured
one of them. Perhaps we shall hear something about the other one now,"
added Tom, directing his companion's attention to a large party of men
who were at that moment discovered approaching the cabin. "We went out
in squads of four, and there are a dozen men in that crowd."
"But I don't see any prisoner among them," said Bob. "They have all
got guns on their shoulders, and that proves that they have not seen
anything of robber number two."
As the party came nearer, the boys saw that it was made up of citizens
of Bellville and Hammondsport, who had abandoned the search for the
day, and were now on their way home.
They were surprised to see Bob Emerson there, safe and sound, and
forthwith desired a full history of the letter which had been the means
of bringing about so remarkable a series of events.
Bob protested that he was too hungry to talk, but when he saw the
generous supply of bread and meat which one of the men drew from his
haversack, he sat down on a log in front of the cabin and told his
story.
His auditors declared that the way things had turned out was little
short of wonderful, adding, as they arose to go, that they were coming
out again, bright and early the next morning, to resume the search for
robber number two. They were not going to remain idle at home, they
said, as long as there were twenty-five hundred dollars running around
loose in the woods.
When the bread and meat were all gone, and the boys were once more
alone, Tom wrote the notice which Joe Morgan found pinned to the door
of the cabin, and then he and Bob set out for Uncle Hallet's.