A HOT CHASE.
"Oh, wait a minute!" exclaimed Scudder, struck by a sudden, thought as
he was turning away. "That letter."
"What letter?"
"The one I wrote you."
"What about it?"
"Better let me have it."
"What for?"
"Well, you know it might happen to fall into the hands of somebody who
would make trouble."
"No danger of that."
"All the same, I’ll feel better if you pass it over. You can’t have any
use for it now."
"Why, of course not; but I hope you don’t think I’d throw you down by
giving it up?"
"Certainly not," said Uric, as he rubbed his chin and assumed a smiling
air; "but it’s best to be safe."
"I don’t believe I have it here," said Glennon, feeling in his pockets
and bringing out some letters and papers. "If I have, you are welcome to
it. I’ve got a lot of trash here that don’t amount to anything."
He commenced running the letters and papers over, tossing some of them
aside in a careless manner.
"Of course," said Scudder, "I didn’t sign my name to the letter, and I
did disguise my handwriting; still, I’d rather see the thing burned, and
then I’ll feel safe, for my word is as good as anybody’s."
"Well, here it is," said Glennon, handing the letter over.
Uric drew a breath of relief as he seized it.
"We’ll soon fix that," he said, producing a match. "I’ll burn the thing
right here."
As he struck the match and prepared to apply the flame to the letter the
head of a ragged, freckled-faced lad of fourteen rose and peered down
over the edge of the lumber-pile. The boy was lying flat on his stomach
on top of the timber, where he had listened to all that passed between
Scudder and the fellow from Hudsonville.
The eyes of the boy glistened and seemed to be measuring the distance
from the pile of lumber to the spot where the worthy pair were standing.
With a look of longing he gazed at that letter, while his fingers worked
nervously.
"Confound it!" exclaimed Scudder, as a gust of wind blew out the match.
He struck another, and just then a rough-looking man appeared in the
yard, saw the two young boys, and instantly cried:
"Here, there! what are you fellows doing? You have no business smoking
or lighting matches in this yard. Get out of here, or I’ll have you both
arrested!"
While the attention of Scudder and Glennon was turned toward the man,
the boy rose softly, slipped over the edge of the pile of lumber,
dropped like a cat to the ground, and darted forward.
In a twinkling he had snatched the letter from Scudder’s hand and was
off as fast as he could run. Uric uttered an exclamation of astonishment
and dismay.
"Here! here!" he shouted. "Stop, you young rascal!"
"Stop me!" invited the boy.
"I’ll stop you!" snarled Uric, as he started after the lad. "Come on,
Glennon! I’ll give you five dollars to help me catch that brat!"
It may be this offer tempted Glennon, or perhaps the fellow thought it
best to get out of the yard before the man could get hold of him;
anyhow, he started with Scudder in hot pursuit of the running boy, who
was making off as fast as his legs could carry him.
"I know that young whelp!" grated Uric, remembering his experience with
the boy and the dog in the woods. "I owe him a score, and I’ll willingly
give five dollars to settle it."
The boy looked back at them and whooped gaily, kicking up his heels. He
waved the letter over his head, tauntingly yelling:
"Don’t you wish you had it?"
"I’ll get it!" panted Scudder. "Run, Glennon—run! I’ll surely give you
five dollars if you catch him!"
"Then he’s my meat!" said the Hudsonville chap, as he sprinted after the
boy, who had reached the road and was making off toward The Harbor.
Glennon was a swift runner, and he soon led Scudder, whose wind had been
impaired by cigarette-smoking.
The boy quickly realized that it would not be an easy thing to get away
from one of his pursuers, and he set his teeth and ran as if his life
depended on the effort. Over the crest of the rise they went, and
started down the road toward The Harbor, a huddled collection of old
buildings and decaying wharves.
At one time this had been the main part of Fardale village, but with the
advent of the steam railroad there had come a change, and the
respectable portion of the town had "moved over the hill."
Straight for the old wharves ran the lad with the letter, Glennon
seeming to gain on him each moment. A few rough people about the old
huts looked on in languid interest. An old woman, with her apron thrown
back over her shoulder and her hands on her hips, stood by a rickety
gate and laughed.
Straight to the nearest wharf Glennon and Scudder pursued the boy. An
old vessel lay at the pier, and the lad leaped onto her deck. Glennon
followed, and Scudder was not far behind.
"Now we’ve got you!" cried Glennon triumphantly.
"In your mind!" flung back the boy, as he dodged round the cabin of the
vessel.
The Hudsonville chap pursued him round, the boy laughing tauntingly.
"Head him off the other way!" cried Glennon to Scudder.
"All right," said Uric. "Let me get my hands on him! Won’t I make him
sick!"
But the lively lad darted away from the cabin, avoiding both of his
followers.
"You fellers are too slow!" he grinned, as he thumbed his nose at them
from the forward deck.
"I’ll show you how slow I am if we ever catch you!" grated Uric.
As they charged for him, the boy suddenly ran up the shrouds like a
monkey. The shrouds were rotten, however, and threatened to break
beneath his weight.
"Come on!" invited the freckled youngster. "Come on up!"
"Come down!" snarled Scudder.
"Come up and bring me down!"
"I’ll bring you down without coming up!" declared Uric savagely, as his
hand went round to his hip pocket. He drew a revolver.
"If you don’t come down," he said, pointing the weapon at the boy, "I’ll
shoot you!"
The boy was frightened now, but he went yet higher on the shrouds.
"Stop!" cried Scudder. "I’m not fooling! By the blazes! if you don’t
come down, I’ll begin shooting!"
"Better come down, kid." said Glennon. "He can’t fail to hit you there
if he fires."
But the boy had mounted to the cross-trees, where he suddenly caught a
dangling rope. Before the two fellows below were aware of his
intentions, the lad had wound a leg round that rope, and down he came
like a streak alongside the mast.
Glennon jumped for him, but the boy struck the deck and dodged the
outstretched hand of the Hudsonville youth. Then he again ran the length
of the vessel, dodged round the cabin, and escaped over the side to the
old wharf.
But Scudder was hot after the fugitive now, and it seemed that the
youngster must be captured in a few seconds.
"Ain’t got me yet!" panted the boy, as he darted round a corner of the
old wharf-building.
Scudder uttered an exclamation of anger at this, but followed the lad
closely.
Between two of the buildings the lad disappeared. Uric plunged in there,
and a cry of satisfaction broke from his lips, for he had the lad
penned, there being a huge opening in the rotten flooring between the
buildings.
"Now, I’ve got you!" grated Scudder, in triumph. "And I’ll give you just
what you deserve!"
He jumped for the boy, who was standing on the edge of the opening. The
desperate lad had not given up, however, and he suddenly crouched and
leaped to spring across the opening.
Uric saw the boy’s feet slip on the wet and rotten planking, saw the
little fellow fail to land on the farther side of the opening, saw him
strike heavily against the timbers, and then go whirling downward.
The whirling body of the boy struck in the water beneath the old wharf.
"Where is he?" asked Glennon, behind Scudder.
"Down there!" answered Uric, pointing through the opening.
"Then he——"
"Tried to jump across."
"Failed?"
"Yes; slipped."
"Fell in the drink, eh?"
"Struck on the edge over there. Dropped back limp as a rag. Never made a
sound."
"Stunned?"
"I think so."
"Great Scott! Perhaps he’ll drown!"
Glennon was on his knees peering down through the opening.
"See him?" questioned Scudder.
"No."
Uric knelt and looked down; Beneath the old wharf it was dark and slimy,
with the running tide swashing against the green spiles. The sound of
the water sent a chill over Scudder.
"Hey, boy!" called Glennon. "Where are you?"
His voice echoed hollow and ghostly beneath the wharf. There was no
answer.
"This is bad!" said the Hudsonville chap, showing alarm. "I’m afraid
he’s gone!"
"I’m afraid so myself," confessed Uric, a sensation of horror coming
upon him. "But we’re not to blame."
"We may be blamed, just the same."
"Why?"
"Because we were chasing him. Hey, boy! boy! Answer, and we’ll help you
out."
They listened. Swish-swash sounded the water, creeping about the slimy
timbers.
"He should have come to the surface," said Glennon. "If he hadn’t been
stunned, he would have risen at once. It’s likely he was able to swim.
Most boys of his age are."
"If he didn’t come up——"
"That settles it!"
"What can we do?"
"Nothing."
On their knees beside that opening they looked at each other. Scudder’s
weak face was very pale, and his trembling fingers fumbled at his chin.
"It’s a bad piece of business," he said huskily.
"Decidedly so," admitted Glennon.
"We’re likely to be blamed for it."
"Likely."
"But we’re not to blame. That boy was a thief! He had stolen a letter
from me."
"You made a bad break when you pulled that revolver on him," said
Glennon. "If anybody saw that——"
Scudder gasped.
"They might think we murdered him," he whispered, his fears increasing.
"They might," admitted Glennon.
"Of course we can swear that we didn’t."
"But I don’t fancy this kind of a scrape!" growled the chap from
Hudsonville. "You got me into it!"
He scowled at Uric.
"Don’t make that sort of an excuse!" exclaimed Scudder. "If you hadn’t
wanted to, you didn’t have to meet me. I hope you’re no squealer."
"I was a fool to meet you, anyhow!" said the other. "What has it
amounted to? All you told me was of no consequence. We’d found out for
ourselves that Merriwell was dangerous, and then we could have put him
out of the game without your advice. You’re a pretty cheap kind of a
chap, to go back on your own team to ‘do’ a fellow you hate."
"Now, don’t begin calling names! That kind of business won’t go down
with me!"
"It’ll have to go down!" sneered Glennon, rising to his feet. "What are
you going to do about it? You must know you’re a cheap fellow. Of
course, if you had anything to tell me about the secret practise of your
team, I was ready to hear it; but that didn’t make me think anything of
you. All the while I regarded you as a poor tool, and that’s just what
you are. If that boy doesn’t turn up all right, I’ll tell everything
concerning the affair."
"You’ll blow on me?"
"I’ll tell the truth, as the best way out of a bad scrape, that’s all."
Uric caught hold of his companion’s arm.
"But don’t blow till you have to!" he entreated. "Perhaps the boy is all
right. Perhaps he jumped in there to dodge us. I believe he did. I am
pretty sure of it now. That is just what he did, and he’s hiding down
there, or he swam off. Ha! ha! We’re foolish to get all worked up over
it. The young rascal! He played a slick trick on us."
Glennon looked at Uric suspiciously, but the latter continued the bluff.
"If I had time," he said, "I’d stay right here and watch for him; but
I’ve got to get back to the academy, or I’ll have trouble. Come on; we
might as well give it up. The boy has fooled us."
He urged Glennon away, and so they departed.
Beneath the dark old wharf the water whispered and gurgled around the
rotting, barnacle-covered spiles. The sound of retreating footsteps died
out overhead.