AN UNEXPECTED ENCOUNTER
The instant the tension relaxed the boys drew the coat up.
"All right!" came Ned's voice from the darkness. "Put the plank back in
place now and keep very quiet. Wait a moment," he added quickly.
"Something just occurred to me. I may be right and I may be wrong, but
at all events don't you fellows be scared if you hear a big splash."
"We won't," whispered Randy.
Then the plank was dropped noiselessly over the hole.
Ned straddled the rafter--it was too dark to risk an upright
position--and made his way to the nearest end, which terminated in one
of the walls of masonry that formed the sides of the sluiceway, and on
which the mill partially rested. Then he turned around and crept to the
other end, where he found the same state of affairs.
His fears were now confirmed. The mill rose fairly from the two stone
walls, and there was no way of escaping overhead, even had the other
rafters been within reach. His only chance lay in the flooded waterway
underneath.
Ned had more than half expected this, and was therefore prepared for the
emergency. Without hesitation he swung from the rafter and dropped
through eight feet of space into the turbid flood.
He went clear under, but came to the surface quickly, and swam with
vigorous strokes down the wasteway. Both the air and the water were
warm, and he felt little discomfort.
Between the reflex current from the creek on top, and the undertow from
the sluiceway beneath, he was buffeted about considerably before he
succeeded in emerging on the spit of land between the mill and the
creek. He squeezed the water from his clothes as well as he could, and
started up the slope through the stones and bushes. A misty drizzle of
rain was still falling.
He redoubled his caution as he neared the upper end of the mill.
Creeping on hands and knees to the door, he peeped cautiously over the
threshold. He was hardly prepared for what met his gaze.
He had confidently expected to find Moxley sound asleep, and instead of
that the fellow was sitting upright with his gun across his knees, and
his bottle in one hand. Perhaps the splash made by Ned's drop into the
wasteway had wakened him without arousing his supicions. He had no
present intention of going to sleep, for he moved a little closer to the
light of the lantern, and filled his pipe.
For a moment Ned felt the disappointment keenly. He knew what a severe
blow it must be to his companions. It was out of the question to rescue
them now, for Moxley was directly between the door and the closet.
Ned had been so sure of effecting his plan without hindrance, that it
had not occurred to him what step to take in case of failure. But a
brief consideration of matters raised his spirits, and he resolved to
seek the nearest farmhouse and obtain help.
"That is a far better plan anyhow," he reflected with satisfaction.
"Moxley will be captured, and we will recover our watches and money. And
we won't have to start down this flooded creek in the dark, either, I
must be quick, though, for Moxley might happen to open the closet and
discover my absence. I wish there was some way of letting the boys know
what I am going to do."
This was manifestly impossible, so Ned crawled away from the door and
crossed the sluice to the foot of the hill. He could not withstand the
temptation to go up the creek and have a look at the canoes.
He found them all safely out of reach of the flood, for Moxley was too
shrewd a man to let them go adrift, and perhaps cause an investigation
that would frustrate his plans.
As Ned was turning away his eye caught a sudden gleam from the cockpit
of Clay's canoe, and on making an investigation he was surprised to find
Randy's gun. Moxley must have overlooked it.
The weapon was useless, for the ammunition had been carried off, but Ned
shouldered it and started briskly down the creek. At the sluiceway he
found a well trodden footpath, and followed it along the rear side of
the mill, and thence by the base of the hill to a wagon road which began
abruptly at the edge of the wasteway, where there was no doubt a fording
to the opposite neck of land.
Ned concluded that the road led to the home of the man who owned the
mill, and he was about starting off in haste when his eyes fell on a
boat that protruded from a clump of bushes a few yards down the shore.
On going close he recognized it instantly by the peculiar arrangement of
the seats. It was Mose Hocker's boat. Moxley had carried it off when he
stole the gun.
"I say, young fellow, don't be quick with that shootin' iron; I want to
talk to you."
The voice came from a thicket a few feet up the bank, and as Ned stood
still with fear and amazement, a man slipped out and stood before him.
Ned instantly guessed the identity of the newcomer.
"You are Bug Batters?" he asked quickly.
"Yes, I'm Bug Batters, and I reckon you are one of them canoein' chaps.
I took you fur some one else at first--fur the man what put this boat
here."
"You mean Dude Moxley," said Ned. "Well, I can tell you where he is. In
spite of your warning we all fell into his hands, and I'm the only one
that's free so far."
He went on with his story and quickly made the situation clear.
Bug was amazed to learn how close his old companion was.
"It's a purty bad fix," he said slowly, "but I reckon we can't get your
friends out of it. It's a pity you have no loading fur that gun. You
see, Moxley is a bad man and won't listen to argument. We'll have to
think over the matter a little bit, and meanwhile I'll tell you how I
come to be here."
Both sat down on the boat, and Bug began his narrative.
"I'm a purty rough customer, but I've got a heart like other men, and
I'm grateful to you because one of you saved my brother from drowning.
Moxley was awful mad when you gave him the slip, but he didn't think of
going after you at first. Two or three days later he heard accidentally
that you fellows was camping some place along the creek--I furget the
name of it now--and knowin' from this that you weren't in any hurry he
got into his head to go after you.
"I tried to talk him out of it, but it weren't any use, so then I let on
I was agreed to it, meanin' all the time to stand by you fellows. Well,
we traveled down the creek fur a couple of days until a rock knocked the
bottom out of our boat and sunk it."
Bug hesitated briefly, and then resumed in a faltering voice: "We
picked up another boat that night, and started off again, but I reckon
Moxley must have suddenly got suspicious of me, for when morning came he
gave me the slip and that was the last I seen of him. Knowin' that he
meant mischief, and knowin' that you chaps couldn't be far away, I
follered the creek on down.
"Before daylight this morning I found the boat here. I went up the creek
then lookin' fur Moxley, and that's when I met two of your party and
warned them."
"But where have you been all day?" interrupted Ned. "We thought you had
gone off in some other direction."
"I'll tell you where I've been," muttered Bug angrily. "I had a streak
of hard luck this morning. After I left your fellows I struck over the
hill to the nearest farmhouse, thinkin' Moxley might be prowlin' around
for something to eat. I reckon he'd been there before me, because the
first thing I knew a big ugly farmer and his hired man had me fast. They
swore I'd been stealin' chickens an' corn, and wouldn't let me say a
word. They penned me up in an outbuilding, intending to lug me to
Carlisle jail in the morning. But I broke out about an hour ago, and
came straight down here, and when I seen the boat I knew Moxley must be
somewhere around yet."
"That _was_ hard luck," said Ned, smiling at the recollection. "Moxley
had a whole bag of chickens, and corn, and fruit in the mill. The farmer
thought you were the man that stole it. It was awfully kind of you to
go to all this trouble and risk on our account. There are not many men
who would have done it."
"You saved my brother's life," replied Bug doggedly. "It takes a good
deal to square a debt of that kind. There's one thing I'd like to say
though. It goes agin the grain to serve an old pal an ill turn--no
matter how bad a man he is. I'm willing to get your friends free, an'
save your money, and watches, an' everything else, but I ain't goin' to
be the means of puttin' Moxley in jail--if I can help it. I'm afraid,
for one thing, because he'd hunt me down as soon as he got out."
"Well, I'll leave the whole affair in your hands then," replied Ned. "I
was just on my way to the farmhouse when you stopped me. What do you
think we had better do? Wait for Moxley to go to sleep again, or try to
capture him with this empty gun?"
Before Bug could open his lips to reply a slight noise was heard in the
bushes, and three men suddenly appeared on the other side of the boat.
"We have you at last, you scoundrel," cried a harsh voice.