CAPTURING THE CAPTORS
All was quiet above them in the cabin for a few seconds, except for the
shuffling of feet to evidence the movement of the two crooks, Jeek and
Fallon, toward the door.
“They’ll stay there without a bit to eat until they rot, or they’ll
pay for that dog,” Jeek’s angry words came to the boys as the door was
reached. Then they heard the slamming of the door and even heard the
latch fall into place.
“All of which means,” said Frank, “that we’ve got to find a way of
getting out of here as soon as we can.”
The boys were huddled close together at the bottom of the hole, but
all of them knew well enough that ten feet was as nothing, for they
had practiced often enough at wall-scaling to lift one man out of this
place in a minute.
Talking in very low tones of voice, fearing lest they might be heard
outside the cabin by Jeek, they laid their plans for scaling, waiting
for several minutes in the hope that Jeek and Fallon might get well out
of hearing.
But they had reckoned on a weakness that Jeek did not have. They
figured he was leaving them alone. He was, but not for long. Just as
the boys made their first move to scale the walls of the hole, Jeek and
Fallon came into the place, dragging a log. From where the boys stood
at the bottom of the pit they saw the men stand the log on end for a
moment and then drop it with a dull thud across the top of the hole.
Leaves and twigs showered down upon them when the heavy log fell into
place.
It had happened so quickly and so unexpectedly that the boys had
entirely forgotten the advantage they had in using their rifles. Jeek
and Fallon had their bodies in sight long enough to have brought both
of them down wounded--but the prisoners had let the opportunity get
away from them.
“That won’t stop us,” whispered Frank. “If they drop another one, have
your rifle ready and we’ll plug them both in the legs. Shoot carefully
and don’t kill--just shoot at their legs so we can cripple them enough
to keep them from covering this over.”
Once again they figured without an accurate knowledge of this wily
Jeek. The two men staggered in under the load of another large log,
but this one was set up at an angle, after the door had been carefully
closed, shielding them in the darkness, and the plunking sound of the
log told the boys that it had dropped in place across the hole.
Still another was brought, and a fourth was laid over. They were well
and quite securely fastened down in their prison.
“Well, boys,” Jeek’s voice came to them in a mock politeness, “I am
very sorry to be called away, but Mr. Fallon and I have to go back
further into the mountains to another cabin where we have some private
articles we need. We’ll be by this way this evening and we’ll drop in
to see if you’re going to pay for the dog. So long, boys, and don’t get
lonesome.”
The slam of the heavy door above told the prisoners that the men had
really gone. Whereupon without a moment’s hesitation, Frank planned the
scaling of the walls of their pit.
Lanky Wallace had the bottom position, Buster atop of him, and then
came Frank at the very top, Paul helping to brace at the bottom.
Frank first felt the logs carefully to see whether they moved easily
and which way to move one of them. He figured on rolling one of them to
the side, thus leaving enough room to crawl between.
The effort was a failure. He tugged at the next one, but it failed to
roll. He tried to force it upward, but to no avail. Jeek had laid the
fourth log across the other three at right angles, thus placing a
heavyweight on those which formed the ceiling to this hole.
“No use,” muttered Frank in a stage whisper. “I’ll get down for a
little while and then we’ll try again.”
After ten minutes they re-formed the scaling position, with Frank again
at the top. Success did not smile any more pleasantly on them the
second time than the first.
“I can’t move either of those logs a single inch,” said Frank as he
climbed down to the floor of twigs and leaves. “They’ve got them laid
on tightly. In the first place, I don’t see how those two fellows got
the logs in and dropped them over the hole so neatly. They must be
awfully heavy.”
In the darkness of the hole the four boys stood close together, each
breathing hard as a result of the exertions, each trying to think of a
plan by which they might thwart the schemes of these crooks.
“When it comes right down to the last,” said Buster, “we can promise to
pay for the dog when they come back this evening, and we can then get
out.”
“We’ll be out of here somehow this very day, and we don’t pay that
crook anything for anything! But if I get out of here in time to run
him down, I’ll make him pay for the dirty trick he has played on us!”
Frank was determined, and he was thoroughly angry over the affair.
“We surely missed our----”
Just as Lanky started to say something there came a shrill whistle
outside the cabin, and all the boys listened intently. Again came the
whistled signal, this time one that all the boys recognized.
It was the peculiar whistle of their former high school chum, Jack
Eastwick--it could be no other! No one else had ever whistled like that!
Instantly Lanky’s fingers went to his mouth and he sent out a blast
from his lips calculated to awaken the dead.
For a second all was still. Then the boys in the hole heard the door
open, and a voice called out:
“Frank! Are you in here?”
“Sure! Who is it? Is that Jack Eastwick?” cried Frank, his heart
welling up with joy.
Jack answered that it was, and then there went up a series of
wild yells from the four boys in the hole. This was followed by
exclamations, questions, and a rush of feet through the door of the
cabin.
“We’re down here in a hole! There are logs over the top. Be careful.
Try to lift those logs off one at a time--how many fellows up there?”
called Frank.
The reply told them there were four--Jack Eastwick, Tom Budd, Herman
Hooker and Ralph West, all former students at Columbia High.
Frank gave instructions for the removal of the logs, but these young
fellows needed no instructions. All they needed was about five minutes
of Father Time, and they had all four of the logs rolled out of the way.
At the end of the next five minutes the four boys in the hole stood
outside the door of the cabin with the four boys who had saved them.
“Here, fellows, let’s get inside this place. We’ll tell you all about
it. One fellow look through this crack and watch the trail, while we
tell you about it.”
With this remark Frank started the story, interrupted now and again by
the other three as the story ran along, until the four newcomers knew
what had happened.
“How did you fellows know we were here?” asked Frank when he had ended
his recital.
“Well, we got to the cabin late last night, and found no one there and
the place looking as if you had moved out, except that we saw several
pieces of your clothes. We stayed there over night, and this morning,
seeing the tracks in the snow, we followed your trail. We didn’t know
where you were going, nor why; but we followed what seemed like an army
walking in the snow,” was Jack’s explanation of their proceeding.
“Did you meet any one on the way?” Frank asked.
“No, we never saw a human being from the time we started. We were
about to stop, but decided that we’d keep on just to see where the end
would be--and yet we were never sure it was you fellows,” went on Jack
Eastwick.
Now that they were out of the hole and reinforcements were at hand, the
boys commenced to make plans.
“Those two tramps, Snadder and Blinky, ought to be here shortly, and we
ought to capture them,” said Frank. “Then, the next thing, is to get
Jeek and his pals.”
Lanky suggested that they look around the cabin, so, each one bringing
from his pockets the matches he had, they began carefully striking
these, the while one of the boys stood guard at the crack.
The first match flared up, and they got their bearings in the cabin.
When the second match was lighted they spied a bundle lying in one
corner of the place. Buster Billings got it, opened the package, which
was done up in a towel, and found all their knives, forks and spoons!
In a few minutes more they found more of the stuff which had been
stolen--accounting for everything except the two hanging lamps and the
dishes. These were missing. The boys searched the cabin thoroughly,
striking one match after another, but to no avail.
“Well,” remarked Frank when the fruitless search was ended, “let’s get
things ready for these two tramps when they come in. Naturally, they
won’t expect us to be out, and they’ll enter very bravely. We’ll just
land them in the hole----”
“No, indeed,” interrupted Jack Eastwick. “There are enough of us
fellows to grab both of them and truss them up nicely. Let’s tear that
towel to pieces, tie the ends, make some nice ropes, and tie them
securely.” Jack’s plan was accepted by Frank at once.
Every boy had a weapon, including Buster and Paul, whose firearms were
standing in one corner of the cabin.
“When will they be here?” was asked by some one.
This none of them could answer. It became just a game of waiting. Jeek
had sent the tramps back to the camp, and he had expected them to
return to guard these boys for the day.
The boy at the crack, Herman Hooker, was relieved by Tom Budd.
Everything was ready for a rousing welcome.
The four boys first on the scene, forgetting their troubles now that
they were out of the hole, stood in a circle making plans for the days
to follow and also telling of their experiences up to the present time.
“Ps-st!” suddenly came from Tom Budd’s lips, as he turned and motioned
the others to keep still. “Here they come! They are about a quarter of
a mile off yet.”
With this the boys took their places, closed the door carefully,
allowed the latch to drop into place, and kicked the pile of leaves
over so that it would appear as if they had never been disturbed by the
crowd.
They watched the signals and caught the whispered warning from Tom Budd
as that young man looked through the crack at the oncoming Snadder and
Blinky.
Up to the door the tramps came, and, just as the two opened the door
and walked guilelessly in, two pairs of arms reached out from each
side, each pair grabbing one tramp!