JESSE W. IS SENT FOR HELP
All was quiet in a few minutes after the man with the white mustache had
left the boys in the room with the barred windows, and presently Percival
said, half apologetically, but with the greatest kindness:
"You know I did not mean to call that man any relation of yours, Jack, but
the sudden recollection of the last time you met him when I did not see
him at all made me blurt out suddenly. I did stop, though."
Jack had come unexpectedly upon his stepfather during his first term at
the Academy, several months previous, the man at that time being concerned
in the robbery of a bank near the Academy, but escaping capture and
suddenly disappearing, Jack had hoped, forever.
He felt nervous and discouraged now that the man had again come into his
life, and he sat in a corner of the room on a chest and thought deeply,
Percival presently saying to him in cheery tones:
"Brace up, Jack. It is not like you to give way to despondency. What are
we going to do? We can't stay here even if that fellow with the white
mustache has given orders that we are not to be harmed."
"I tell you what," whispered young Smith. "That window is small, but not
too small to put me through. You have done that before, you know. If you
can get that bar loose it will be easy enough to put me out, and then I
will go straight to the vessel and get the captain, old Ben Bowline, and a
lot of sailors to come and get you out."
"You know the way, do you, Jesse W., you won't get lost!" asked Percival,
catching at the idea. "You are a plucky little fellow, but I don't want
you to take any risks."
"They are nothing but what I can take easy enough," answered the other
quickly. "Don't you suppose I would do anything for Jack? And for you,
too. You have both done a lot for me, and this isn't much. You get me
through the window, and I'll do the rest."
Jack arose quietly, crossed the room, took hold of the iron bar put across
the window and tested it.
"I believe we could pull it loose, Dick," he said in a low tone, not
knowing if there were any one outside who might hear him. "It is only
driven into the frame, and I believe we could pull out frame and all."
"Let me look at it," said Percival, and, taking hold of the bar, he
suddenly swelled up his muscles, gave it a quick, sharp wrench, and had it
out with a part of the frame as well.
"H'h! great protection that was!" he laughed. "I suppose they thought the
window was too small for any one to get through, and it is for most folks,
but Jesse W. is only half size and we can put him through all right."
"And I'll put through the other part," said the younger boy. "I am glad I
can do something for you two, for you have both of you done a lot for me
at one time or another."
"But see here, J.W., do you understand that there is considerable danger
in getting away?" asked Jack in a serious tone. "These fellows may be
watching, and they would handle you roughly if they caught you. And then
it is dark going through the woods, for the moon does not rise till pretty
late, and you might fall down some----"
"And I might not!" interrupted the other in a decided tone. "I have a
pocket light with me. I always carry one now, whether I think I am going
to need it or not, and I can find my way easy enough. Besides, I have a
pocket compass as well, and I know which way the vessel lies, and I am
going to get you boys out of here and that's all there is to it!"
"All right!" and Jack smiled at the smaller boy's determination. "But I
wouldn't let you go if I didn't think you had the pluck to carry it out,
and that the only difficulties are at the outset. Listen at the door,
Dick, and I'll see how the land lies in this direction," and Jack pulled
the chest to the window and looked out.
He could not see very far, but he saw that there were no huts on that
side, and that it was not far to the woods, and calculated that the boy
could get to them without being observed.
"All right, J.W., the coast is clear," he said. "You are sure you know the
way and the general direction? What is it, in fact?"
"About south, and I will get in sight of the water as soon as I can. It
will not be dark for some little time yet, and I ought to get to the yacht
before sunset or a little after at any rate."
"Very good. Keep in the open as much as you can after you get away from
here, and don't run too fast."
"All right. Are you ready?" and the boy stood on the chest beside Jack,
looking up into the latter's face with such an air of determination that
he laughed and said:
"Yes, I'm ready, up with you!" and Jack lifted the little fellow to the
window level, and put him through, Percival saying in a low tone:
"It's all right. I don't hear a sound. I imagine they are all away
somewhere, for I can neither see nor hear anything."
"Out you go!" said Jack, dropping the boy to the ground, and looking out
to see that he was all right. "Now then, cut!"
He watched the boy till he disappeared in the woods, and then as he
neither saw any one nor heard anything of an alarming nature, he said in a
tone of great relief:
"He is all right, and I believe he will get there without trouble. I had
an idea he would, or I would not have let him go."
"There he is, only half a boy, you might say," said Percival, "but ready
to undertake anything for us, no matter how dangerous and there are those
big overgrown bullies, Herring and Merritt, who would go all to bits if
they had the half of this to do. I tell you, Jesse W. Smith is worth both
of them in a lump, and with considerable on his side of the ledger after
that, Jack."
"Yes, so he is," agreed Jack.
"And now we will simply have to wait, I suppose?"
"I don't see anything else. The window is too small for us and the door
seems to be very strong and heavy, and securely locked. No, I considered
these points before I let the boy go."
"But suppose our man with the white mustache should return and miss him?"
asked Percival.
"Well, we will put the bar back in its place, put the chest in the corner,
and place our coats in a neat pile over there where it is darkest. There
are things that we can put under them, and there is the boy fast asleep
after his tramp through the woods."
"A good idea, Jack! You are full of resources. Now I would never have
thought of a way out of the trouble, but only of the trouble itself."
They replaced the bar so that no one would know by a casual glance that it
had been tampered with, put the chest back where they had taken it from,
and, gathering up a few loose articles from the floor, made a bundle of
them and spread their coats over it.
"A mere reference to the boy being asleep will be enough," said Jack. "The
look of the thing is enough to carry out the idea, and they will accept it
without question."
"To be sure, and in the meantime the plucky young fellow is hustling to
get back to the vessel and bring us help."
Having settled all this the boys sat down and waited, now and then
conversing, and occasionally listening for any sound that would denote the
return of the so-called Rollins and the men with him.
It was getting on toward sunset when Jack heard Rollins and another man
talking outside, although he could not see them when he went to the little
window and looked out.
"You say there is a vessel in the bay?"
"Yes, inside the reefs."
"Government vessel?"
"No, private yacht, the one these boys belong on. It's a school on a
vacation or tour or something."
"Do they know the way through the reefs!"
"I guess not. They were washed in the other night when there was a cyclone
or tidal wave."
"They did not come here after us?"
"No, they didn't know anything about us. They have been here for some
time, a week I guess, and can't get out."
"H'm! let them stay here then!" growled the man with the white mustache.
"They can't bother us any. If they don't know the way out, which very few
do, they'll have to stay here for all I can see."
"But suppose we want to get in on that side ourselves?"
"They could not make us any trouble. We don't want to get in there at this
time, although it is a better hiding place than this."
"Then you're going to let them stay there?"
"Certainly. They can't do us any harm. After we get away with our cargo we
don't care what happens to them."
The men went away or stopped talking, at any rate, and Jack did not hear
any further conversation between them.
"They will probably let us out as soon as they are ready to go," he said
to Percival, "but we don't want to stay here till they get ready to let us
out, and then there is just a chance that they may forget us altogether.
It was just as well that we sent Jesse W. off on his errand."
"I think so myself, and I don't doubt that he will carry it out."
"If Rollins knows the way out through the reefs," said Jack presently, "we
might either force or persuade him to pilot us out. If we should capture
him we might force him to do it. Otherwise, I might persuade him to do it
on consideration of allowing him to escape after we were perfectly safe
outside. Very few know of the way out, and it is not likely that the
vessel which they are sending to our relief will have any good pilot for
these waters on board."
"You don't know positively that this man knows the passage!"
"No, I do not, but he does know some one who does, to judge by his talk,
and if he cannot be bargained with perhaps the other man can. I am averse
to having anything to do with the man, as you can readily understand, but
I do not want to see the whole Hilltop Academy kept prisoners here for an
indefinite time."
When it began to grow dark one of the men who had brought them to the
place came in with some food and a bottle of wine, and said, as he put it
on a chest:
"There's something for you to eat. Other boy asleep, h'm? Well, there is
all the more for you then."
Then the man went away, never noticing the little bit of deception which
the boys had practised, locking the door after him.
"The things to eat are all right," said Jack, after the man had gone, "but
we would better not touch the wine. I never do, anyhow. This is likely to
be drugged to make us sleep, so that we will give no trouble."
"I don't want it anyhow," said Dick.
The boys ate a supper, and then, as it grew dark, sat and waited for some
sign of their friends, and at last when it was quite dark hearing a
peculiar whistle somewhere outside.
"That's the Hilltop signal!" whispered Percival "Aid is at hand!"