IN THE SMOKE-HOUSE.
“IF ANY one on board that flatboat is crazy it is Jack Bowles. He might
have known that I wouldn’t stay there long after my hands were untied.
Didn’t I tell him that I would never go back to that camp and give him
my money with my own hands? I am free now, and if he ever captures me
again I shall deserve to be obliged to remain under his roof for the
rest of my days. The cabin can’t be more than ten miles away. I can
easily walk there in three hours, and it will be no trouble for me to
slip into the house and obtain possession of my rifle and blankets
without awakening Jake and Tom. Then I’ll catch my horse, go back to my
camp on the bluffs after my money, and by daylight I’ll be twenty miles
away.”
While these thoughts were passing through Julian’s mind he was striking
out lustily for the shore. The flatboat was still in plain view, for
the current carried both her and him down the river at an almost equal
rate of speed. Julian kept close watch of her, expecting every moment
to hear an uproar on her deck, telling him that his absence had been
discovered. He little dreamed that his escape, which he had so easily
accomplished, had been brought about by the assistance of his dreaded
enemy, who was at that very moment creating a diversion in his favor;
and he little thought, too, that the pursuers he feared were not coming
from the flatboat, but from another quarter altogether. Had he looked
up the river occasionally, instead of keeping his gaze so steadily
directed across the stream, he would have discovered something.
A dug-out was coming swiftly down the river, its prow being pointed
directly toward Julian. In the stern sat Tom Bowles vigorously plying
a paddle, which he used with so much skill that it made not the
slightest sound as it rose and fell in the water. Stretched out flat in
the bow was Jake Bowles, who kept his eyes fastened on Julian’s head,
now and then signaling to his brother with his hands, and showing him
what course to steer. Julian discovered his enemies before he had swam
a third of the distance to the shore, but then it was too late to make
even an attempt to avoid them. He heard a hissing sound, made by the
sharp bow of the dug-out as it cleft the water, and turned quickly,
only to find himself in the grasp of Jake Bowles, who seized his collar
with both hands and held fast to it.
“I reckon ye thought ye was gone, didn’t ye?” he cried, in a triumphant
tone; “but ye hain’t, be ye? Yer ketched agin, an’ this time ye’ll stay
ketched, I bet ye. Balance the boat, Tom, an’ I’ll haul him in.”
“I thought I left you at home, Jake Bowles!” exclaimed Julian. “How
came you here?”
“I guess we’ve got as much right on this yere river as anybody, hain’t
we? We come arter ye, that’s how we come here, an’ we’ve got ye, too.”
For a moment Julian was too astonished to move. The approach of his
enemies had been so noiseless, and their appearance was so sudden and
unexpected, that he was utterly bewildered. Not until Jack had dragged
him half-way into the dug-out did he begin to comprehend the situation.
“Let go!” he exclaimed, “or I’ll capsize the boat.”
“Nary let go,” replied Jake. “I owe you a good poundin’ fur stealin’
them $100 from me, an’ fur knockin’ me into that hole last night, an’
I’m goin’ to give it to ye afore I let ye go. Come in here.”
“No, you come out here,” said Julian. “I’ll duck you sure if you don’t
let go my collar.”
This was the second time the two boys had measured strength, and
although our hero was fighting at great disadvantage, he tested the
endurance and muscle of his antagonist most severely. He strove to the
utmost to drag Jake into the water; but the latter had wrapped his
legs around one of the thwarts and thrown his left arm over another,
and Julian could not break his hold. Nor could he overturn the boat,
for Tom watched the contest closely, and frustrated all Julian’s
attempts by throwing the weight of his body on the opposite side of the
dug-out.
Jake, in the meantime exerted himself to drag his prisoner out of
the water; but finding that it was a task beyond his strength, he
held firmly to Julian’s collar, determined to wait until the latter,
exhausted by his furious struggles, should be obliged to surrender
himself. But Julian’s endurance seemed to have no limit. He resolutely
continued the contest, and all this while the canoe was floating down
the river side by side with the flatboat, which was scarcely more than
a hundred yards distant.
“We’re fightin’ fur money now, _we_ are,” said Jake—“for the $145.
It’s no use fur ye to kick about so, ’cause we’ve got ye, an’ we’re
goin’ to hold fast to ye.”
“You’ll not get the money, even if you succeed in making a prisoner of
me,” replied Julian, with as much spirit as ever.
“We’ll see about that when we’ve got ye hum. I guess if ye go a few
days without eatin’ or sleepin’, an’ have the rawhide laid over yer
shoulders ten or twenty times every hour, ye’ll be glad to tell us all
we want to know. Come here, Tom, an’ hit him a clip with yer paddle. I
guess that’ll fetch him to his senses.”
“Souse him under,” replied Tom; “that’s the way to make him give in.”
Jake was prompt to act upon the suggestion.
Julian resisted him desperately, but one or two severe blows on the
fingers with the edge of Tom’s paddle broke his hold on the side of the
canoe, and his head was forced under the water. Jake held him there a
few seconds, and then pulled him to the surface, and after giving him
time to draw a breath or two, and clear his eyes of the water, asked
him if he would abandon the struggle and allow himself to be drawn into
the boat.
[Illustration: “JAKE BOWLES SEIZED JULIAN BY THE COLLAR AND HELD
FAST.”—[Page 109].]
“No,” replied Julian, not in the least daunted; “I’ll never give up
while I have any strength left.”
“Stick him under agin,” said Tom, and down went Julian’s head for the
second time.
Jake held him under longer than before—as long as he dared, in
fact—and when he pulled him up again, Julian was incapable of any
serious resistance. He gasped for breath, and tried to lay hold of the
side of the canoe.
Jake, quick to improve the opportunity thus presented, exerted all
his strength, while Tom kept the boat trimmed in order to prevent a
capsize, and finally succeeded in dragging his prisoner out of the
water. In less time than it takes to tell it he was secured beyond all
hope of escape, and the canoe was shooting swiftly up the river.
It was fully half an hour before Julian moved or spoke. He lay so
quietly on the bottom of the dug-out that Jake and Tom began to be
alarmed, fearing that in their eagerness to take all the fight out of
their captive, they had gone too far, and taken the breath out of him.
But Julian was fast recovering from the effects of his ducking, and
as soon as he was himself again the brothers speedily became aware of
the fact, for he began to try the strength of the ropes with which he
was confined. He thrashed about at an alarming rate, rocking the canoe
from side to side, until at last the water began to pour in over the
gunwales, and Jake and Tom were obliged to cease paddling and trim
their craft in order to keep it right side up.
But they had done their work thoroughly, and Julian, finding his
efforts useless, ceased his struggles, and listened to the threats of
his captors, who tried by every means in their power to compel him to
tell where he had hidden his money.
During the progress of the conversation he heard some things he did
not know before, and one was that his escape from the flatboat and his
recapture by Jake and Tom were a part of the scheme Mr. Bowles had set
on foot for the finding of the concealed treasure. He was astonished to
know that while he imagined he was working for his own interests he was
playing into the hands of his enemy, and told himself that Jack still
had the most difficult part of the undertaking before him.
The prisoner suffered intensely during the journey up the river. The
night was cold, the wind keen and piercing, and seemed to cut through
his wet clothing like a knife. When at last the canoe reached the
landing he was so benumbed that he could scarcely speak.
Having made the dug-out fast to a tree on the bank, Jake and Tom pulled
their captive ashore, and finding him unable to stand alone, took hold
of his arms and led him toward the house.
Scarcely were they out of sight when a heavy yawl, rowed by a single
man, shot up to the landing and stopped alongside the canoe. The
occupant sprung out, and without waiting to secure his boat, crept
cautiously up the bank, and followed after Jake and Tom.
When the brothers reached the cabin they pushed open the door and
entered, dragging their captive after them. Mrs. Bowles, who sat
nodding on one of the nail-kegs, started up as they came in, and Julian
knew from the first words she uttered that she was expecting them.
“So ye’ve got him, have ye?” she exclaimed, gleefully. “This night’s
work will make rich folks outen us. An’ ye was goin’ to run away from
us, was ye—from me an’ Jack, who have allers treated ye like a son
ever since ye’ve been with us? An’ ye’ve got $145 hid away from us,
have ye? What business have ye got with so much money? Take him out
to the smoke-house an’ lock him up thar. I’m too sleepy to wollop him
to-night, but I’ll tend to him the fust thing in the mornin’.”
Julian had expected a terrible beating as soon as he was brought into
the presence of Mrs. Bowles, and was much relieved to know that his
punishment was to be postponed for a few hours. It was the first time
he had ever known Jack’s wife to be too sleepy to use the rawhide.
“An he ain’t got no business with them new suit of clothes, nuther,”
said Tom, who, while his brother was searching for a candle and the key
to the smoke-house, was taking some of his own ragged wearing apparel
down from the nails in one corner of the cabin. “He’s got to take ’em
off an’ give ’em to me. Pap said so.”
“Ye shall have ’em, Tommy,” said his mother. “Ye’ve been a good boy an’
ye desarve ’em.”
“An’ I’m to have his rifle an’ $10 besides,” chimed in Jake, angling
for a word of commendation.
“So ye are. Allers be good an’ ye’ll be sartin to prosper.”
When Jake had found the candle and key, and Tom had selected the
garments he intended to give to Julian in exchange for his own, the two
boys led their captive out of the cabin to the smoke-house.
The first business in order, after they had conducted Julian into his
prison, was to rob him of his clothes. Jake untied his hands and stood
close by his side, in order to seize him if he made any attempt to
escape, while Tom picked up a heavy club and stationed himself in front
of the door, ready to knock the prisoner down if he eluded his brother.
But Julian, shivering violently with the cold and utterly incapable
of any exertion, thought only of dry clothes and comfort and not of
escape. He felt much more at his ease after he had relieved himself
of his wet garments and put on those Tom had provided for him, and
told himself that if his captors would bring him the blankets Jack had
stolen from his camp on the bluff, he could obtain a night’s refreshing
sleep in spite of the cold and his bonds. But he soon found that they
did not intend to permit him to go to sleep at all; and during the next
few minutes he gained some idea of what was in store for him.
As soon as the exchange had been made, and Julian had again been
bound, Tom dropped his club, and catching up a long rope which he had
brought with him from the house, mounted upon a box and made one end of
it fast to a beam overhead. At the same time Jake pushed his prisoner
under the beam, and seizing the other end of the rope tied it to his
hands. Julian was now confined so that he could neither sit, lie nor
walk about. He must remain upon his feet and stand in one place during
the rest of the night.
“I don’t see any use in this,” said he, dismayed at the gloomy prospect
before him. “I can’t escape from this house as long as my hands are
tied.”
“Wal, we can see use in it, if ye can’t,” replied Tom. “We’re doin’
jest what pap told us to do.”
“An’ we don’t do it ’cause we’re afeared of yer gettin’ away, nuther,”
said Jake. “Ye’ve got to stand right here without a wink of sleep or a
bite to eat till ye tell us whar that money is hid. Mebbe ye’ll tell us
now.”
“No, I’ll not,” replied Julian promptly and decidedly.
“All right. Ye’ll think different in the mornin’, I tell ye. The ole
woman will be here bright an’ arly, an’ if ye ain’t ready to open yer
mouth, she’ll give ye a dozen or two as hard as ever she can lay ’em
on. When pap comes home to-morrer he’ll take the job outen her hands.
Ye’ve got into a hard row of stumps, feller.”
After carefully examining their captive’s bonds, and looking carefully
about the smoke-house to make sure that there was no opening in it from
which he could escape, even if he succeeded in freeing his hands, Jake
and Tom went out, locking the door after them.
When the sound of their footsteps had died away, and Julian began to
ponder upon what they had said to him, and to realize how powerless he
was in the hands of his enemies, his courage for the first time gave
away utterly. He took a step forward and threw his weight upon the
rope, but it was firmly tied to the beam above and too strong to be
broken, and the movement only pulled his hands between his shoulders,
thus “tricing him up” most effectually. He had never dreamed that his
enemies would endeavor to torture his secret out of him in this way.
He had expected to be beaten, and he believed that he could endure
that; but was his fortitude proof against such a test as this? In
order to save himself suffering would it not be policy to give Jack
the information he demanded, and when his liberty was restored to him,
resume his old occupation of trapping until he could earn enough to
purchase an outfit for his proposed journey? He had worked hard for two
winters to accumulate the little property he now possessed, and should
he surrender it at the command of one who had not the smallest shadow
of a right to it? Julian passed an hour debating such points as these,
and at the end of that time his decision was made.
“I’ll never do it,” said he to himself. “It belongs to me alone. Nobody
else has a claim upon it. The woods are as free to Jack Bowles as they
once were to me—much more so, in fact, for there is no one to dog
his steps, destroy his traps and steal his earnings—and if he wants
money let him work for it. That’s the way I got mine. He will find
that I am not to be starved or beaten into telling him where that box
is concealed. Jake and Tom are coming back again. I hope they have not
brought the rawhide with them.”
The footsteps which had attracted Julian’s attention drew nearer and
nearer, and presently a cautious hand laid hold of the padlock with
which the door was secured. Julian listened to hear the bolt turned,
but soon found out that his visitor, whoever he was, did not intend to
effect an entrance with the assistance of a key; for after shaking the
lock to assure himself that it was fast in the staple, he placed his
shoulders against the door and tried to burst it open. The prisoner
heard him panting and puffing as he applied his strength to the stout
planks. He heard, too, the angry words he muttered when he found that
his efforts were useless, and caught the sound of his footsteps as he
moved around the smoke-house.
Julian wondered greatly. Who was he? Was he some friend who, knowing
that he was confined there, had come with the hope of rescuing
him? There was scarcely a man in the settlement who would not have
hurried to his relief had it been known that he was in trouble, but
unfortunately no one was aware of his situation. Of course, then, the
visitor could not be a friend. Most likely he was some hungry prowler,
whose only object was to filch a ham or a side of bacon from the
smoke-house.
In spite of the unpleasantness of his situation, Julian became
interested in the man’s movements. He walked around the building and
finally came back and tried the door again, but with no better success
than before. Then there was silence for a few minutes, during which the
man was, no doubt, thinking what was best to be done, and at length a
noise at one corner of the house told the prisoner that he had decided
upon a plan of operations. He was using the projecting ends of the logs
as a ladder, and mounting to the top of the building. His success was
certain now. The roof was covered with narrow oak boards, laid on like
shingles, and held in place by small nails; and it would be a matter of
no difficulty for him to pull a few of them off and drop down on the
inside of the smoke-house. That such was the visitor’s intention soon
became evident. He attacked the shingles at once, using extreme caution
in removing them from their fastenings, and in a few seconds an opening
had been made in the roof, that was immediately filled by the head
and shoulders of the man, who lighted a match and held it up to take
a survey of things below him. Julian had a good view of him. Could he
believe his eyes? He stared hard at his visitor, and uttered a cry of
delight.