TRAPPED.
When Adrian started out to carry through the scheme proposed by his
chum, he knew what chances he was taking. If those three renegade
cow-punchers were hiding in the ranch house they would be in rather a
desperate frame of mind, knowing that they were in the bad graces of Mr.
Comstock. Hence, they would not be apt to treat the young owner of Bar-S
Ranch with any particular degree of tenderness should they chance to lay
hands on Adrian.
He had figured the whole thing out, and determined just how he ought to
go about entering, and exploring the house. And on the whole he made up
his mind that his best chance would be to crawl through the very window
which had figured so largely in Broncho Billie's adventure, at the time
he had such a narrow escape.
Once through this, and Adrian found himself in the office which Uncle
Fred had used as his den. Beyond was the apartment which Mrs. Comstock
called her own private property, a sort of sitting-room, through which
the man of the house was compelled to pass every time he came and went;
and in this way his spouse could keep "tabs" on his movements, which was
doubtless her motive in making these arrangements.
All was as dark as midnight in there, though he could see a faint shaft
of light under the connecting door, and knew from this that there must
be a candle in the adjoining room, or else a lamp that was turned low.
He listened as well as he could, expecting that he might catch even a
whisper, if the other apartment happened to be occupied. But not the
faintest sound reached his eager sense of hearing.
Judging from this that there could be no one there, Adrian commenced to
open the connecting door. He used the utmost care in doing this, and
pushed it back an inch at a time, holding his breath with anxiety while
the process was going on.
When he was finally able to take a look beyond the door he found that,
as he had suspected, there was no one in the room.
His next step was to pass through and seek beyond for signs of those
Donald imagined had taken refuge in the ranch house, probably with an
understanding in connection with the mistress that they were to remain
hidden until the time came to take the defenders of the stock in the
rear, and create a diversion in favor of her relatives, who might be
cutting the corral at the time to free the cattle.
Adrian crept along through another room.
It was a good thing that he did know the interior arrangements of that
rambling building, for otherwise he might have missed his way; because
it was very much cut up, and a newcomer would almost need a guide to
keep from being lost.
All the while the boy was straining his hearing in hopes of catching
some sound that would tell him he was getting "on a warm scent," as a
trailer might say.
The bellowing of the cattle, and other noises of the night, did not
penetrate in here to such an extent as they had come to his ears when he
was outside; and here were also little intervals of silence, when he
could listen with some hope of hearing low conversation near by.
Then again Adrian could give a pretty shrewd guess at to just about
where these three deserters would be apt to be hidden by Mrs. Fred,
should they really be in the place.
He drew near this part of the building with growing hopes of meeting
with success. The mere fact that as yet he had seen nothing of the lady
of the ranch added to his belief that she must be in communication with
the trio of punchers who really belonged to the Walker crowd, although
masquerading under the colors of the Bar-S outfit.
Of course it might be that Mrs. Fred had decamped altogether, preferring
to be with her brother while the question of ownership of the herds was
in progress; but Adrian believed that he was a pretty good judge of
character, and what he had seen in her determined face told him she was
hardly the one to run away just because circumstances had temporarily
blocked her despotic will.
And presently he found that this was exactly so, for he caught the sound
of low voices ahead; and pushing on silently was soon able to
distinguish a few words, evidently spoken by one of the punchers who
were in hiding.
He listened long enough to make up his mind that they were all lying low
in the store-room, where the supplies of the ranch were kept. Then a
bright idea flashed into the mind of the boy, which he determined to
carry out.
As he well knew, that store-room had been built with a view to its being
proof against light-fingered persons, who might think to profit by the
fact that on a ranch like the Bar-S an abundance of edible supplies were
always kept on hand, because it was a long way to town, and time counted
for much during the busy seasons.
If Mrs. Fred were in there instructing her three followers as to what
they must do in order to turn the fortunes of the affray, when the
critical moment came, it looked as though fortune had indeed placed
things in the hands of Adrian, so that he could turn the trick
unassisted.
Thrilled with the thought he crept still closer to the partly opened
strong door, and tried to make sure that he could distinguish her voice.
If the woman happened to be somewhere else about the house it was folly
to think of trying to make the concealed punchers prisoners by simply
closing that door, and turning the key in the lock, for chances were she
could open the same at her pleasure.
A minute later and he plainly heard a low voice say:
"Now stay here till I give the signal, and then remember what I told you
to do. If you carry it out straight we'll throw them into confusion; and
before they get their heads clear the stock will all be running loose.
Understand?"
Adrian judged from this that she was giving her very last instructions;
and no doubt would be coming out of the store-room in another minute. If
that were the case he certainly had no time to lose. Already his groping
hand had come in contact with the door; and as he continued his
investigations he discovered with a thrill of solid satisfaction that
the key was in the lock!
It could hardly have been better for the successful carrying out of his
plan; and as soon as he had made sure of these things he started to
gently pushing the door shut.
When it came to with a little sound, he heard some one exclaim:
"What's that?"
Then the key turned in the lock, and the boy breathed easy for the first
time, because he felt that he had won out.
The door was shaken violently; then a man's voice cried excitedly:
"It won't give, missus; somebody's gone and locked us in here!"
Adrian did not wait to hear any more. Of course they would kick, and
rattle the door, but he chanced to know how strongly it had been built,
and that the chances of their breaking out might be reckoned very small
indeed.
He walked straight through the house now, and emerged by way of the
front door. As he stepped on to the long piazza that ran the length of
the rambling building he heard a quick exclamation:
"Hold up your hands there!" came in tense tones.
"Why, hello, Donald, you wouldn't think of filling me full of holes, I
hope?"
That brought out another exclamation, this time filled with
astonishment.
"What! is it you, Adrian, and coming right out of the front door as if
you didn't care a cent whether school kept or not? Whatever does this
mean, tell me?"
"Oh! well, I've been all through the house," commenced the other, in
what seemed to be a careless tone.
"Then the whole lot have skipped, have they?" queried Donald, in a
disappointed way; as though certain air castles that he had so carefully
erected were thrown down by this news.
"Well, not that I know of; and in fact I reckon they're not going to
leave us in such a hurry after all; if that door only holds out, and I
think it will," was the staggering way Adrian conveyed his information.
Donald was pawing for his hand the next moment, anxious to shake it
furiously.
"You don't mean to tell me you've gone and made prisoners of the whole
bunch?" he ejaculated, with his voice trembling in the excitement that
racked him.
"Just what I was lucky enough to do!" declared the other. "Why, it was
as easy as falling off a log. I just crept through from room to passage
until I heard the low sound of voices, and discovered that she had taken
the punchers to the store-room, to hide them there until she gave the
signal, when they were to rush out and do some sort of thing she'd fixed
up, that was going to demoralize the lot of us."
"And Mrs. Fred was there with them?" demanded Donald.
"Yes, I just heard her giving the last instructions, when my fingers
touched the key in the lock," Adrian told him. "After that all I had to
do was to close that door and turn the key; and thinking it best to keep
it, I put the same in my pocket, so that no one is likely to let then
out."
"Bully for you, Adrian! You're the fellow who can do things! I never
heard of such a smart trick!" said Donald.
"Oh! don't mention it," remarked the other; "why, even Billie could have
turned it, if he knew as much as I did about the inside arrangements of
that long house, and didn't get lost in the twisting passages leading
from one part to another."
"Listen! what's that I hear right now, Adrian?"
"Sounds like somebody might be trying to kick the toes off their boots
against a door, don't it?" chuckled the other. "Let 'em go it while
they're young; but it'll take a heap of knocking to burst that stout
door open. My dad knew what he was doing when he picked the oak out that
it's made from. But who'd ever dream that I'd make such a use of it as
to shut up three treacherous punchers, as well as my own aunt by
marriage, in that place."
"One thing sure, they won't die from starvation," remarked Donald, as he
continued to listen to the medley of sounds that came from the interior
of the building but which could not keep up long.
"Let's find Uncle Fred," suggested Adrian.
"Wonder what he'll say when he learns that you've gone and clipped the
talons of his wife," remarked Donald; "and if the marks on his face
stand for anything I reckon now that poor old Uncle Fred has felt those
same talons more than a few times, when the lady wished to make her
words more forceful."
"Yes, and how it's going to end I can't for the life of me see," added
Adrian; "because she's his own wife after all, so that the only escape
for him would be running away, and that would lose me my manager, which
I wouldn't like a bit; but perhaps it may all come out right in the end;
you never can tell, Donald."