ATTACKED FROM BEHIND
Lew Flapp watched Sam's departure with much anxiety. As my old readers
know, he was a coward at heart, and the thought of being put under
arrest for the robbery of Aaron Fairchild's shop made him quake in
every limb.
"I must get out of here, I really must," he told himself, over and over
again.
He shook the door violently, but it refused to budge. Then he tried to
reach the catch by putting his hand through the grating, but found it
was out of his reach.
"It's a regular prison cell!" he groaned. "What a fool I was to come in
here!"
He tried to reach the catch by using his stick, but that was also a
failure.
"Wonder if I can't find a bit of wire, or something?" he mused, and
struck a match he had in his pocket.
Now it chanced that the widow who had given the new vault to the
cemetery association had a horror of allowing supposed dead folks to be
buried alive. As a consequence she had had the vault furnished with an
electric button which opened the door from the inside. It had been
stipulated that a light should be placed close to the button, but as
yet this was not in place.
By the light of the match Lew Flapp saw the button, and these words
over it:
To Open the Door and Ring
the Bell Push This Button.
"Good! that just suits me," he chuckled to himself, but immediately had
something of a chill, thinking that the button might not yet be fixed
to work.
With nervous fingers he pushed upon the object. There was a slight
click, and he saw the big iron door of the vault spring ajar.
"The trick is done, and I am free!" he murmured, and sprang to the
door. But here he paused again, to gaze through the grating. Sam was
out of sight and not another soul could be seen. The coast was clear.
"Now good-bye to Oak Run," he muttered to himself. "I was a fool to
come here in the first place, even to meet that Dan Baxter!"
In a moment more he was out of the vault and running to the rear of the
cemetery as fast as his legs would carry him.
In the meantime Sam made his way as quickly as possible to a house
situated at the front corner of the cemetery, where the keeper of the
place resided.
A knock on the door brought the keeper's daughter. She knew Sam and
smiled.
"What can I do for you, Sam?" she asked.
"Where is your father, Jennie?"
"He just went down to the village to buy a new spade."
"Oh, pshaw! that's too bad."
"What is the matter? I hope you're not going to have a funeral in your
family."
"No funeral in this, Jennie. I met a thief in Oak Run and tried to have
him arrested. He ran into the cemetery and hid in the new vault and I
locked the door on him. Now I want your father or somebody else to help
me take him to the lock-up."
"A thief! What did he steal?"
"Some jewelry. It's a long story. Do you know where I can find somebody
else?"
"Jack Sooker is working over to the other end of the cemetery--cutting
down an old tree. You might get him."
"Where?"
"I'll show you."
Jennie ran to get her hat. She was just putting it on when a bell began
to ring in the hall of the cottage.
"Gracious me!" gasped the girl.
"What's the matter now?"
"That's the bell to the new vault."
"I don't understand."
"There is an electric button in the vault. When you push it, it unlocks
the door and rings this bell. It was put there in case somebody was in
the vault in a trance and came to life again."
"What!" ejaculated Sam. "Then that rascal must have pushed the button
and opened the door from the inside."
"Yes."
"I'm off. He is not going to escape if I can help it." And so speaking,
the youngest Rover dashed off the porch of the cottage and in the
direction from whence he had come.
It did not take him long to reach the new vault and a glance through
the open doorway showed him that his bird had flown.
"What a dunce I was not to think of that electric button!" he mused.
"I knew Mrs. Singleton had stipulated it should be put in. She has a
perfect horror of being buried alive."
Sam looked around in all directions, but could see nothing of Lew
Flapp.
But not far away was a pile of loose dirt and in this he saw some fresh
tracks, pointing to the rear of the cemetery.
"That's his course," he thought, and set off in that direction. He
still carried the stick he had picked up and vowed that Lew Flapp
should not get away so easily again.
The end of the cemetery bordered on the Swift River, a stream which has
already figured in these stories of the Rover boys. It was a rocky,
swift-flowing watercourse, and the bank at the end of the burying
ground was fully ten feet high.
"Perhaps he crossed the river," thought the youngest Rover. "But he
couldn't do that very well unless he had a boat and then he would run
the risk of being dashed on the rocks."
The edge of the river reached, Sam looked around on all sides of him.
Lew Flapp was still nowhere to be seen.
"I've missed him," thought Sam. "What next?"
As the youngest Rover stood meditating, a figure stole from behind some
bushes which were close at hand. The figure was that of Lew Flapp, who
had been on the point of turning back when he had seen Sam coming.
"He will raise an alarm as soon as he sees me," reasoned the bully.
"Oh, if only I could get him out of my way!"
He gazed at the youngest Rover and when he saw how close to the water's
edge Sam was standing, a sudden thought came into his mind. As silently
as a wild beast stealing on its prey, he crept up to Sam.
"There! how do like that, Sam Rover!" he cried, triumphantly, and gave
the youngest Rover a shove which sent him over the bank and into the
rocky stream below.
Sam gave out one yell and then, with a loud splash, sank beneath the
surface.
Lew Flapp gazed for a second in the direction, wondering when Sam would
reappear. But then a new fear took possession of him and off he ran,
this time harder than ever.
His course was along the river bank for a distance of a hundred yards,
and then he came out on a road leading to a small place called
Hacknack.
"To Hacknack!" he muttered, after reading a signboard. "That's the
place I'm looking for. One mile, eh? Well, I had better lose no time in
getting there."
The bully was a fair walker and now fear lent speed to his limbs, and
in less than fifteen minutes he reached the hamlet named. He gazed
around and presently located a small cottage standing near the edge of
a sandpit.
"That must be the cottage," he told himself, and walking to it he
rapped on the door four times in succession and then four times again.
There was a stir within and then an old woman, bent with age and with a
wicked look in her sharp, yellowish eyes, came to answer his summons.
"Is this Mother Matterson's place?" he asked.
"Yes, I'm Mother Matterson," squeaked the old woman. "Who are you and
what do you want?"
"My name is Lew Flapp. I'm looking for a fellow called Si Silvers," he
added, for that was the name Dan Baxter had assumed for the time being.
"It's all right, old woman; tell him to come in," said a voice from
inside the cottage, and Lew Flapp entered the house. Immediately the
old woman closed the door after him and barred it.