THE MAN-TRAP IS SET
Ned, Oliver and Teddy remained in camp all the afternoon--waiting.
They were not, of course, anticipating the immediate return of Jack
and Jimmie, but they were looking every moment, after a couple of
hours had passed, for some signs of the boys who had been sent out in
the wake of Bradley.
"I'll bet a cookie," Teddy exclaimed, as the sun set over the ridge
to the west, "that Frank and Dode have bumped into something hard!"
"I may have made a mistake in not going on that trip myself," Ned
mused, "but I had an idea there would be business for me at the camp.
I don't know what to make of this lack of attention on the part of
our enemies!"
"It may be," Oliver suggested, "that they have taken alarm and ducked
with the prince."
"That is just what I fear," Ned answered. "It will spoil all my plans
if they move now; still, I admit that they've had enough unpleasant
experiences here to make them long for a quieter retreat!"
The boys prepared supper, taking pains to provide enough food for
Frank and Dode, but they did not come. The meal over, Ned made ready
for a trip down the mountain.
"I'm going to Chimney rock," he said to the boys. "I should like to
have one of you with me, but two ought to remain here. I'm going to
take some rockets with me. If I do not return before midnight, one of
you advance along the summit to the south, provided with rockets. If
one of my rockets is seen, the watcher must send one up to notify the
boy in camp. Then both must make a run for Chimney rock, traveling so
as to come upon it from the up-hill side. Is that clear?"
"Perfectly," Oliver declared. "You are going to bring this prince
back with you?"
"Perhaps!" laughed Ned. "I may have to bring Frank and Dode back with
me!"
There was only the light of the stars when Ned reached the vicinity
of Chimney rock, coming in from the slope to the north and moving
with extreme caution. There was a dull glow in the dip back of the
rock, the glow of coals nearly burned out.
The men who had captured Jimmie at the cave of the counterfeiters had
fled before the shooting, and Ned had no idea that they had returned,
or would return. Any fire built by them would have long since turned
to ashes.
"The party having direct charge of the prince has been here," the boy
mused, "though why they should come here is a puzzle to me, as they
have, or had a camp of their own not far away. Still, the theory of
hiding in a place which has been searched is an old one, and these
fellows may have adopted it.
"They certainly adopted a theory something like it," the lad thought,
as he watched the dying embers from a distance--from the secure
shadow, if the stars may be said to have cast a shadow that night, of
a great rock--"when they decided to remain here after the disguise of
the widow's grandson had been discovered. They took it for granted
that no one would look for the real prince where the disguised one
had been found! They might better have taken him away!"
Ned knew very well that the men having charge of the abducted boy had
hidden farther up the slope. His idea was that at the time the
pictures were taken the men in charge were watching the two who had
ran away.
From what Bradley had said, it was not likely that he, Bradley, had
been permitted to associate with the actual custodians of the stolen
lad. This had been the main source of his complaints.
Ned believed that a portion, at least, of the men sent into the hills
as custodians of the prince had followed Jack and Jimmie out While
trembling for the safety of the two boys, Ned had figured on cutting
the force of the enemy in two before making an attempt to seize the
little prisoner.
Even now, he figured, the force left on the ground had been again
divided, for he was positive that the camp was being watched. For
this reason he had caused the packing to be done, thus giving the
impression that his party was going out at once.
The boy lay in the dark spot under the boulder for a long time,
watching, listening, for some indication of human life in that
vicinity. He had a half notion that Bradley would head that way, and
that the boys would follow him.
"If Bradley does come here," Ned thought, "my trap will be set right!
That is, if the dusky little chap from over the sea has not been
taken away. If he has, the trap will not serve; still, I shall be
able to console myself with the thought that it was at least well
set!"
Every clue the boy had gained pointed to the spot where he lay. That
had undoubtedly been the point of communication between the leader
and his subordinates--with Bradley and the men who had taken Jimmie
prisoner.
"That was rather clever," Ned mused, "taking the boy while at the
cave of the counterfeiters in order to give the impression that the
coiners had seized him!"
Ned realized, too; that the capture of the grandson just at that time
had been a master stroke on the part of the conspirators. The lad
would have talked too much when he became satisfied that he was safe
from all coercion.
Ned lay in his hiding place for what appeared to him to be a long
time before he heard anything to indicate that his man-trap had been
set in the right spot. Then the voice he heard caused him to spring
quickly up to his feet. It was the low, soft, plaintive voice of Mary
Brady.
"I haven't seen anything here I could talk about," the old lady was
saying. "I wouldn't think of betraying anyone who put my boy in my
arms. I've seen him with you--I've been waiting about here for a long
time. Bring him out to me and I'll go home and never trouble you any
more."
"Now," thought Ned, "how did the old lady manage to find the boy
here?"
"You shouldn't have come here," a low, well-modulated masculine voice
said. "You have put your own life and the life of the boy in danger
by so doing. How long had you been watching and listening before I
saw you?"
"A long, long time."
"And you heard much of what was said?"
"I heard a good many words, but I don't remember now what they
meant."
The voices came clearly from farther up the slope, and a little to
the south. The figures of the speakers could not be seen by the
watcher.
"Come up to the camp," the masculine voice said, presently. "I'll
turn the boy over to you, but you can't go back to your cabin
to-night."
"Are you going to keep me here against my will?" asked the trembling
old voice.
"You have seen and heard too much," was the almost brutal rejoinder.
There was a rattle of pebbles as footsteps moved along the rocky
surface of the slope. From above came the shrill cry of a child.
"I don't know of any better time to move up and take a peep at the
camp of the man who crossed the sea to steal a child," Ned mused. "I
wish Frank and Dode would come, but if they don't I'll have to take
chances on going alone."
Keeping those in front of him as guides, Ned crept along the slope.
More than once a loose pebble rolled with a great noise from under
his feet, but those ahead seemed to pay no attention to these
evidences of pursuit.
When, perhaps, two hundred paces up the slope the sounds above the
boy ceased. The night was still, save for the rustling and creeping
of the creatures of the air and the forest. For a long time not a
sound indicative of the presence of human life was heard, then a
woman's cry of fright came from above.
Ned was about to hasten forward when a voice came to his ears from
the darkness.
"We can't permit either of them to leave!" the low, well-modulated
voice he had heard before that night said. "Even if we get away with
the prince, their stories would ruin us. There is no knowing how soon
the gabblings of the old woman might reach the ears of the adherents
of the prince."
"Then you propose--"
"Nothing that will not come to them in due course of time! They can
go to sleep in the snug inner room and never wake again. They will
not know when the change comes. They will sleep forever in their
mountain tomb."
"I am opposed to murder," said another voice, harsher, more decisive.
"And so the trap was well set!" mused Ned. "The princeling is still
here! Well, the battle may not bring victory to me, but I will at
least know that I planned it right, acting on the best information at
hand."
It was plain, from what the first speaker had said, that the camp of
the conspirators was in a cave, for he had spoken of a snug inner
room. The entrance to this cave was undoubtedly closely guarded.
The boy crept along cautiously. The slope was steep, with here and
there a ledge which had to be surmounted or circled, always at great
risk. In a few hours the moon would be up, and then the work he had
before him would be more difficult.
"I must get into the cave before the moon rises!" he thought. "But
how?"
When he came to the precipice in the side of the mountain from which
the cave opened, he saw the black spot which marked the entrance. It
was not large, and, close in front, sitting with his back against the
rock, was a guard!
Ned lay down to wait. When the moon rose it would cast the shadow of
the mountain on that spot. For a few hours more he might wait for his
chance.
Directly he heard a call which brought him to an alert attitude in an
instant. It was the call of the wolf pack, sharp, vicious, warning!
There was a movement at the mouth of the cave, and a quick light
showed for only a second. Then came a sound of footsteps negotiating
the gravelly slope.
Ned dropped back to the west. The call had come from that direction.
It might have been uttered either by Frank or by one of the boys left
at the camp.
Presently the snarl was heard in a dark crevice toward which the boy
was descending. Ned dropped down faster then, and soon heard Frank's
voice.
"Are you alone?" he asked.
"Yes; and you?"
"Bradley and Dode are here."
Bradley moved forward and took Ned by the arm.
"Be careful!" he warned. "Those men would toss dynamite down here and
take their own risk of death if they knew."
"We've had a run for our money!" Frank panted. "We've been
everywhere. The cabin is deserted, and the lower camp and the
counterfeiter cave are bare of life. Bradley caught us following him,
and so we joined with him in his search for Mike III."
"Mike III.," Ned answered, "is up there in the cave with the
abductors, and Mrs. Brady is with him. We've got to act quickly."
"They'll be murdered!" Bradley whispered. "What can we do?"
"They'll be spared for a short time," Ned answered, "but we must be
on the move."