PAUL GETS INTO TROUBLE
Ken and Jack came to Paul’s house but they saw their friend nowhere
around. “You think he is in the house?” asked Ken.
“No. He would be waiting for us on the porch.”
“What will we do, then? Where will we wait for him?”
“Let’s wait for him in front of your gate, Ken. He ought to be coming
any minute, I suppose.”
The boys leaned against the fence, talking in low tones to while
the time away. They were impressed before with how hard it is to be
patient, but now it was doubly hard. For it seemed that Paul was not
coming. They waited thirty minutes, an hour, an hour and thirty minutes
and still no Paul. Jack was actually becoming worried that something
had happened to his chum. Ken suggested several times, “Perhaps he is
home. Do you think we ought to try to find out? Though it’s a little
too late to ring the bell.”
But Jack knew better; he knew his chum. If Paul had returned before
they did, he would have waited for them on the porch; that was a
certainty. He would not have gone to bed until he had seen and spoken
to his friends and made sure that they were all right. Finally Jack
could not bear it any longer and he muttered, “I’m going to look for
him.”
“I’m going with you,” said Ken with determination. “Where will we look
first?”
“There are only two places where we can look—at Jones Street and then
that empty house.”
“Where will we go first?”
“What do you think?”
They went down to Main Street, then they were undecided as to which
direction to take. Jack said, “Let’s toss a coin.” He drew a nickel out
of his pocket. “Heads we go to Jones Street; tails we go to that empty
house.”
He tossed the coin into the air, caught it with his right hand and
slapped it down on his left wrist. Ken put his head close to see. Jack
removed his hand—it was tails up. “The empty house,” he whispered.
When Paul started out early in the evening, he leisurely strolled along
Main Street until he came to his destination. There, he examined the
house on the corner from every possible view. It was a two story frame
house with the grocery occupying most of the ground floor; the rest of
the floor, Paul figured, were either closets or some form of storage
places. He was pretty sure there were no living quarters on the ground
floor. The people who occupied the house lived above the store. By
counting the windows—there were seven—he reasoned that there must be
either three or four rooms. The grocery man and his wife most likely
occupied one room, Mr. Grey another, and the children, if there were
any, the other one or two rooms.
By now it had become dusk and Paul thought that it was time to take up
some hiding position and watch. The next moment he changed his mind.
Instead of hiding anywhere, he nonchalantly took up a position across
the street and pretended that he was waiting for someone. He didn’t
have to wait long. Pretty soon he saw Mr. Grey emerge from around the
corner and walk up Main Street. He wondered where the man was going and
what he might be up to. For several seconds he debated with himself
whether to follow him or to wait, as he had previously decided, for the
grocery man. He chose to wait. About fifteen minutes later he saw his
man come out from the rear of the house. “Very clever,” he thought to
himself.
The grocery man came to the corner and stopped, looked around and then
walked off down Jones Street. Paul wanted to follow but on second
consideration he realized that the street was deserted and he would
instantly be noticed. He had a hunch, however, that the man’s walking
down Jones Street was done on purpose to detect anyone following. Paul
ran to the next parallel street and raced to come to the corner first.
He hid in a doorway and saw his man round the corner and continue
walking on the street parallel to Main Street. This part of the town
was rather empty and deserted. He therefore decided to let his man walk
at least two hundred and fifty yards ahead of him.
Soon the street became busier, with many people strolling up and down.
Paul gradually narrowed the distance between himself and his man. They
came to about the centre of the town. Suddenly he caught his breath
and his heart began to beat rapidly. He saw Mr. Grey walking the other
way, and as the two men passed each other, there was a slight movement
of the head on the part of both of them. So they did know each other!
So there was some connection between the two! Paul thrilled with the
excitement of it.
At the next corner, the grocery man turned in and headed for Main
Street, where he turned right and walked straight ahead for several
blocks. At about the middle of the street he joined a group of three
men who were standing to one side and talking quietly among themselves.
Paul crossed to the other side of the street. Pretending that he was
looking at a window display, he was actually studying the group of
four men. As far as he could tell, they were not native townspeople;
everything about them looked as though they came from somewhere else;
possibly from a large city. Two of them were very ordinary looking—of
average size and wearing the usual summer clothes. The third person
was a tall, fat individual, with a big head and a double chin. One
thing was common for all three; they all were rather hard looking. Such
was the trio that the grocery man had joined.
It was evident that they had a lot to say to each other, for they
talked for some time, while people passed up and down and paid no
attention to them. Paul decided on a bold step. Walking down a bit, he
crossed over and, falling in behind a group of strollers, he passed
close to the group of conspirators. But they talked in such low tones
that he could not overhear a word they said.
Not seeing any other opportunity of overhearing their conversation,
Paul crossed over again, pretended that he was looking at a window
display and walked down to the corner and back again. But every second
he kept an eye on that group. Finally after about half an hour,
the group broke up into twos. The big, fat fellow with one of his
companions walked south, while the grocery man and the third of the
trio walked north on Main Street. Paul decided to follow the grocery
man and his companion.
They walked straight ahead for several blocks, then, very nonchalantly
rounded the corner and disappeared. Paul felt the thrill of excitement
grow on him; something hot and exciting bubbled inside of him. They
had turned into the street on which the empty house was situated. He
thought of Ken and Jack and their being on guard. But just then Jack’s
well founded hunch occurred to him; perhaps there was a secret entrance
and they would not use the front door of the house. He peeked around
the corner and saw his men turn off at the next crossing. “Good!” he
thought to himself. They were not fooling him; it was their intention
to take a roundabout route to throw anyone off their trail if they
happened to be followed.
At a rapid pace, he took a direct route to his destination. He did not
intend to go to the house; if anything happened there, it was up to
Jack and Ken to take care of that and he knew that he could trust them.
His intention was to take up such a position that they would have to
pass him. If they did not head for the house, then he would follow them
and spy out the secret entrance to the house.
There were only three possibilities for a secret tunnel to the house,
Paul reasoned with himself. It might be on either side or to the rear
of the house. The most probable one was at the rear of the house
because that afforded a direct connection with very little space
intervening between the two cellars. It would be a simple thing, he
thought to himself, to dig and fortify such an underground passage.
Paul hid in a doorway and waited for his quarry to come along. In time
they did and passed within two feet of him. They were silent and
walked as though they were out for an evening stroll. Paul hesitated
ere he ventured out of his hiding place. The neighborhood was still
and dark. If he dared to follow and keep them in sight, he would very
easily be detected; he might have a running chance to escape, but that
would give him away and they, on the other hand, would then realize
that they were being suspected.
But it was not necessary for him to follow within sight of them. He had
a pretty good idea where they were heading for. He waited for them to
round the corner and immediately he ran after them. He peeked around
the corner and saw them stop in front of a house at about the middle of
the street. They stopped and looked all around them. The next moment
they were gone.
Paul flushed with excitement. He had discovered their secret means of
approach to the house. Now all he had to do was to thread together
all the details of the mystery, put together the puzzle into a single
whole, and choose a time when they would most probably be in the cellar
for the police to descend upon them. Paul already foresaw the moment
when the gang would be captured and locked away where they belonged.
He decided to walk down the street, get a glimpse of the house and then
join his friends. What he saw put him in a jovial mood, as he walked
back to the corner with every intention of joining Jack and Ken.
But he did not have quite enough foresight. He had seen the group of
four break up into two pairs; he should have taken into consideration
the missing pair. Might it not be possible that these two had headed
for the same destination by a longer route. At any rate, his not
considering that angle proved disastrous for him.
Very innocently he rounded the corner and suddenly found himself facing
the protruding, round stomach of the man he had seen as one of the
trio. Looking up into the man’s brutal face, Paul felt himself becoming
confused. In the meanwhile, he noticed the second man take his place
directly behind him. “What are you doing around here?” the fat man
demanded in a gruff, husky voice. “Don’t you know it is dangerous to be
roaming around at this time of night?”
Paul hesitated, trying hard to keep his voice from shaking. He said, “I
just took a walk, that’s all. I live only a couple of blocks from here.”
“So you were just taking a walk, eh? Well, then what were you spying
around for, huh?”
Paul felt himself become tense. He wondered if they would attack him.
He answered, “I wasn’t spying, Mister. I was just walking.”
“Then why did you look goggle eyed at every house as you passed down
the street?”
“Just looking as I was walking.”
The man squared his jaw and gritted his teeth. “Some day,” he hissed,
“you’ll go blind for seeing things you ain’t supposed to. Who are you?”
Paul began to edge away so that he would not have the second gangster
directly behind his back. But he was cornered and he had no way to
move. He answered, “My name is Morris Paulson.”
“Do you have any friends who have been snooping around lately? They had
better watch out or they will get into heaps of trouble.”
Pretending that he was ignorant of the reference, Paul said, “I don’t
know what you are talking about, Mister. My friends are nice fellows
who mind their own business.”
The gangster gorilla grinned mischievously. “That’s a swell idea,
everybody minding his own business,” he remarked. “And you too.”
“Yes, sir,” Paul agreed meekly. Feeling that the questioning was over
and that he was being dismissed, he stepped out of the way and took a
step forward to walk away. For a fraction of a second he congratulated
himself on his luck. The next instant, however, he felt a crash on his
head. His whole body trembled, his knees began to wobble. As he fell
to the ground he turned half way and noticed the cruel grin on his
attacker. Then everything went dark and he knew nothing more.
Paul lay unconscious at the feet of the fat gangster. The man poked
his toes into the boy’s ribs and turned him over on his back. “You
shouldn’t have hit him so hard,” the fat fellow said, addressing his
henchman. “He’s only a kid.”
“I didn’t hit hard, Boss. I only tapped him nice and easy.” He looked
pleadingly at his chief. “What’ll we do with him?” he asked anxiously.
“Bind his hands and feet and throw him in one of the empty lots.”
“You want me to dump him, Boss?”
“No!” was the snarling answer. “Do what I say and be quick about it.”
Bending down, the henchman used Paul’s tie and handkerchief to tie the
boy’s hands and feet. When that was done, he picked up the inert body
under his arm and crossed the street to an empty lot and then dropped
it to the ground. Rejoining his boss, the two walked off. “That’ll
teach him a lesson,” muttered the fat fellow.
Paul did not know how long he lay there, but he imagined that it must
have been a very long time. He tried to rise, but couldn’t. His head
ached terribly. He fell back and closed his eyes. Gradually he regained
consciousness. With difficulty, he sat up and discovered his hands and
feet bound. At first he could not recollect exactly what had happened
to him and how he came to be in this predicament. But little by little,
events came back to him.
Frantically, Paul began to work on his bonds to free himself. But he
felt weak and every time he moved his wrist, he felt the bonds cutting
his flesh. But at last, after about twenty minutes of tiring work,
he freed his hands and it took him but a few seconds to untie his
feet. Rising, he felt himself trembling all over. He could barely keep
himself steady on his feet. Walking, he wobbled from one side to the
other.
At the corner, he leaned against the wall of a house. Suddenly he
heard some shouts. He looked to see who it might be, but his sight was
blurred and he could only see dim shadows running toward him. Who are
they, he wondered, and what do they want from me? Was he going to be
again attacked? He wanted to run but there was no will nor effort to do
so.