It seemed to Scott that he had scarcely closed his eyes when he heard
the screen door bang and Mr. Graham was standing in the doorway.
“Well, well,” he laughed, “still pounding your ears? I guess you did not
get even as much sleep as I said.”
Scott glanced curiously at his watch and then listened to see if it was
running. It was three-thirty. “Thirteen hours,” he gasped in
astonishment.
“Humph,” Murphy grunted, “that’s nothing. I’ll bet I could do it again
right now.”
“Might as well try it if that is the way you feel about it,” Mr. Graham
laughed. “It’s so late now that there is no use in our starting till
morning.”
“Oh, that is not the reason,” Mr. Graham assured Scott when he noticed
his crestfallen look. “I’m mean enough to have called you at five
o’clock if I had been here to do it, but I just this minute got back.
The sheriff was not at home and I thought I’d better escort our friend
straight to the jail myself. I did not feel as though I wanted to trust
anybody as slick as he has proved himself to be to any sheriff’s
woodshed for safe-keeping. That is what the sheriff’s wife suggested.”
“There will not be any chance of his getting word to those other
fellows, will there?” Scott asked anxiously.
“No, I think not. I impressed it on the warden pretty hard that he was
not to be allowed to communicate with any one in any way. I hinted that
Uncle Sam was very much interested in his guest’s welfare and he seemed
to take it very seriously.”
“Wouldn’t it be a good idea to go down there on the train this afternoon
so that we would be on the ground early in the morning?” Scott asked. He
was anxious to be doing something now that he was awake.
“I thought of that,” Mr. Graham said, “but I do not want to take the
chance. They might have some spies out who would take them the news and
we would find the nest empty when we got there. I am not afraid of their
running away so soon as this. You said they were planning on lying low
there for a couple of weeks. They did not get there till yesterday
afternoon, and they would hardly be getting nervous so early. Just how
far is that cabin from the railroad station?”
“Must be about seven or eight miles, isn’t it, Murphy?”
“About that, I should say. I hope our swiping that boat did not scare
them out.”
“By the way, what did you do with that boat?”
“Left it on the edge of the swamp where we landed.”
“Well, it may make them suspicious, and it may possibly have been the
only boat they had, but I do not think so. If they were long-headed
enough to rig up that cabin in the swamp against a possible emergency
like this I think they probably arranged some pretty sure way of getting
to it and the loss of a boat would not be likely to stop them.”
“They had some boats over in the canal,” Scott said, “because I saw them
there. They could carry them over there if they had to.”
“We cannot do anything now but hope, anyway,” Mr. Graham remarked.
“There is no use in worrying about it. But if you fellows are not going
back to sleep right away I wish you would explain to me the exact
location of that cabin and all its surroundings so that I will be
familiar with the ground when we get there. Are you sure that you will
be able to find it again?”
“I don’t think there will be any trouble about that,” Scott answered
confidently. “We ran a compass course straight north from it to where we
left the boat and while it was not a very accurate course it ought to be
straight enough to find a house. I think that I can draw you a pretty
good sketch of the whole layout.”
So Scott, with occasional suggestions from Murphy, sketched the cabin
and described it as accurately as he could. With this sketch as a basis
Mr. Graham planned his campaign for the next day. He pored over it for
several hours and it was not till some time after they had finished
their supper that he seemed satisfied that it was complete in every
detail. He then folded the sketch up thoughtfully and arose with a yawn.
“We shall have to catch that train at four in the morning,” he said,
“and if you fellows have any more sleep to make up you better be about
it. I am going to bed now.”
“So am I,” said Murphy. “I am not square with the world yet by about ten
hours, but if we are not going till morning I am going home to let my
wife know that I am still alive. I’ll meet you at the train. Anything in
particular you want me to bring along?”
“No, nothing except a shooting iron of some kind. You may have some use
for that before we get those other rascals in the jug.”
“There’s where I’ll miss my old Luger,” Murphy said sadly. “I wish I had
it out of the bottom of that quicksand, but I guess I can manage. I feel
as though I could hit one of those scoundrels with almost anything after
the way they were longing for a shot at me.”
With that Murphy started for home and Mr. Graham went in to bed. Scott
sat on the porch for a little while alone and thought over the events
which had crowded themselves so rapidly into the past few days. It was
only a little over a week since he had been sitting on that same porch
wondering how he would ever accomplish what seemed to him then the
almost impossible task which had been assigned him. Now almost as if by
magic it had come suddenly to a successful conclusion. It would be an
eminently successful conclusion if they could only capture the rest of
the gang in the morning, but even if they did not get them they had
discovered their secret, broken up their operations and jailed the
ringleader. It could not exactly be called a failure. It had been a most
interesting experience and promised to be even more so in the morning,
but he hoped it would not lead him into any more assignments for
detective work. He had made good twice largely through what he
considered remarkably good luck, but he was afraid that he might fall
down on the next one.
He did not feel at all nervous at the prospect of going under fire the
next day, but he was worried for fear Roberts and his gang would not be
in their hiding place. He felt that he would always reproach himself
with his lack of foresight in taking that boat and possibly scaring them
away. Under the circumstances there was not very much choice left to
them, but he forgot that now and thought only of the possible results.
“Oh, well,” he exclaimed at last, “we shall know pretty quick in the
morning and there is no use in worrying about it now,” and he followed
Mr. Graham to bed. That gentleman evidently was not losing any sleep
over the possibilities of the next day’s work. He was sound asleep and
snoring like a trooper. Scott soon joined in the chorus and any one
passing by the cabin would have found it hard to believe that the two
occupants knew they had to dislodge a band of desperate men from a
fortified cabin in the morning.
Had they known what was going on in the county jail at about that time
they would probably have not been quite so contented, at least they
might not have snored quite so loudly.