CONCLUSION
Through the nearer passages under the leaning rocks, approaching footsteps
were heard, hurried steps, that even Murky had to heed. Then came Link
Fraley, followed by Phil, Dave, Billy--the Auto Boys. Behind those was
Mr. Beckley, breathing heavily as if tired by undue haste.
No sooner had Murky seen who they were than he sprang up from the scramble
wherein he, the Swede and Paul were engaged, and made a break for another
passage. But Link, who happened to be nearest, thrust out one long leg.
With another cry of rage Murky went prostrate.
For a few minutes--or was it seconds?--a struggle went on. But Murky's
day of probation was at last over. Actually weeping with anger, Anderson
strove to reach his late opponent. Paul, though somewhat bruised from his
own struggles, also tried to do his bit in securing the scowling man.
But it was not necessary. In another short space of time Murky lay there
helpless. His arms were bound behind his back, his legs and feet also
secured.
One of the first things Mr. Beckley did was to walk up to Anderson and
shake his nerveless hand with great vigor. Then he did the same thing to
Paul, who was also being congratulated by the other boys. Then Beckley
turned to Anderson, saying:
"It was brave and faithful of you, Nels, to start out all by yourself.
But it was you and this--this lad who really rounded up the rascal."
"You forget Chip Slider, Mr. Beckley, don't you?" Paul Jones liked to be
fair, though at times he was too forward. "Chip was along--why, where is
Chip? I'd forgot him for the moment."
Link Fraley and Phil Way were bending over Chip's still prostrate form
where he lay after being so maltreated by the scowling villain who now
lay bound not more than ten feet away.
Attention thus drawn, the entire party devoted themselves to the task of
reviving young Slider, who it appeared was only stunned and bruised by
his treatment at the hands of the robber.
Presently Mr. Beckley again took the lead in questioning. "Of course I--we
feel deeply grateful. The Longknives will do almost anything for those
who were most active in securing this fellow and his ill-gotten booty.
He'll have to face a murder charge too, as there is little doubt but that
he dragged Grandall to his death inside that burning building. And now
that we have the thief and the money--"
"Are you sure we've got the money, sir?" It was MacLester who asked this
for, Scotch-like, Dave was always ready to cast doubt upon most anything
that was not proved before all men. "I don't see any money!"
"Of course we may not see it right now, yet I don't doubt but that you
and Murky know where it is?" This to Nels and Paul, who both looked rather
nonplussed. "Where is it, Nels?"
"I--I--" Anderson was stammering and confused in manner. "I bane not sure
I can tell. That feller, he know." He pointed at Murky who glared evilly
at the crowd in general.
"Ye needn't look for me to tell anything," he snarled. "I got no money!"
"If you had, you'd lie about it," was Beckley's comment that seemed to
meet the general opinion among his captors.
Murky relapsing into sullen silence, Beckley resumed his queries.
"Do you mean that having gotten this scoundrel here," indicating Murky,
"you don't know where his plunder is?"
"Wish I did, sir," said Paul Jones, turning from Chip who was just
beginning to be conscious of outward things.
"And you, too, do not know where the money is?" Beckley turned again to
Anderson, who squirmed rather uneasily.
"Wush I did," the latter muttered. "I bane coom after the boys. Ven I coom
oop wid 'em, dey vass in mix-oop wid heem," pointing at Murky.
"That fellow must 'a' had the money hid out somewhere," said Paul. "We
followed him for miles. Finally we lost the trail, then we came on him
by accident, as it were. He was about to get the best of Chip and me when
in came Nels, here, and Murky disappeared. It was in the night. In the
morning we struck his trail again. But he never seemed to have the money
with him. It is all a mystery to me. Isn't that the way of it, Nels?"
Nels gave a sheepish nod of assent.
"Well, it's something big to have apprehended this fellow. Before we are
through with him I dare say we will know where that stolen money is."
Mr. Beckley spoke with grim purpose which, however, did not belie his
apparent disappointment that the stolen twenty thousand dollars was
not forthcoming, or at least some knowledge gained as to its present
whereabouts.
Here Chip Slider, reclining against Link Fraley, who was still
solicitously supporting the boy's dizzy head, blinked and strove to
raise himself. Clearing his throat, he asked in a shaky voice:
"Is it the money they want to know about?" This, apparently, to Link.
"Why, yes, boy! We've got hands on the thief," meaning Murky. "But what
Mr. Beckley wants to know now, is what's become of the swag, the boodle,
the stuff Murky stole. He won't tell, and you chaps don't seem to know."
"Yes, we do!" replied Chip unexpectedly. Then he sat up unaided.
"What do you mean, my lad?" queried Beckley, a quizzical smile on his face
for he had not fully determined the reason of Chip's being here except in
a casually superfluous way.
"I mean that--" glancing at Paul and Nels, "--that we know where the
money is. At least it looks like the money and Murky seemed mighty anxious
to get his paws on it."
Giving little heed to the wonder in the faces of the Swede and Jones, the
boy tried to get to his feet. "Help me up, please. I'll be all right in a
minute. There! Now if you will all go with me, I'll show you what I mean."
Still supported by Fraley, though Chip was almost himself again, he led
the party to a deep crevice where some dirt had been hastily pawed out.
"Right here I saw Murky on his knees trying to pull out something from
this hole. About that time he saw us again, and the way he went for us
kep' him busy with Nels and Paul. It flashed through me what Murky was
after. I left them fightin'. It was two to one, anyhow. When I got to
this hole I pulled out a wet bundle that I took to be the money. Seemed
like I could see the bills or the corners of them in bundles."
"Yes, yes!" exclaimed Beckley eagerly. "They would be apt to be in
packages. You were right; I feel sure you were right!"
"But where are those bills now? Where is the bundle?" asked Link.
Without a word Chip, unaided, led the group to the nearby recess where
he had hurriedly stowed them. Pointing, he continued:
"That there is what I drug out of yonder hole, sir. I guess it's the
money, or Murky wouldn't 'a' been so anxious about gittin' it."
It was the missing money, of course. Practically intact, too, although
it was wet and in places mud-soaked. The bags of coin were there. One had
a small rip in the seam, doubtless where the coin had escaped that Paul
found near the dilapidated suit-case.
Here Paul's enthusiasm at last broke loose.
"Oh, you Chip!" he cried. "You're the goods, ain't you? That then was the
reason you didn't stop and help us fight Murky!"
"Yah--he had good reesons--heh!" This from Nels, now rejoicing like the
rest. "I bane like you, Cheep; zat I does!"
After that nothing apparently was too good for young Slider. Even Mr.
Beckley, dropping his previous air of good-humored toleration, declared
that Chip deserved real commendation.
"You have showed pluck and perseverance, for you were about to start
after that skunk Murky alone when our young friend Paul Jones joined you.
And Nels, our good old Nels, crippled though he was, came swiftly on
the trail of you both, arriving just when help was needed."
"Yes, Paul," remarked Phil, "our crowd came just in time too; but if it
had not been for you three, I guess we would not have both prisoner and
money in our hands right now."
"That reminds me," interrupted Link, starting off on a run. "Who stayed
behind to watch that devil Murky?"
As with one accord the others, except Mr. Beckley and Chip Slider, started
after Fraley, leaving those two to bring along the money. A moment later
they broke into the passage where Murky had been left, and found that
the wily rascal had already loosed his hands by rubbing the cords that
bound his wrists against a sharp edge of the rocks, and was at work upon
the bindings that held his feet. These were only partially freed. Seeing
his captors approach, he jumped up, made a reckless bolt for freedom, but
fell sprawling on the earth. In a trice the others were upon him and
after a brief struggle had him tied hard and fast again.
"You'll not get away again, old chap," was Billy's comment as he tied the
last knot. "There's a thing called law and justice you've got to face
before you're done with this crowd!"
While Mr. Beckley, with Anderson's aid, and with sundry others looking
on, carefully counted over the wet, draggled, yet still good contents
of the package thus found, there came a rattle of wheels. Presently two
teamsters from Staretta appeared, with word that they had managed to
bring their teams thus far, but the mud and thickening tree trunks might
prevent their going farther.
"Guess you won't have to go farther, my men," spoke up Mr. Beckley. "Can
we get back to Staretta by night--with a prisoner, and also three more
of our friends who came on before?"
"Sure we can! We've broke such road as there is in comin'." The speaker, a
red-faced, burly looking man, was shaking hands with Nels, for he was one
of the old gravel road workers whom the Longknives had never paid as yet.
"Well then," remarked Beckley to whom all deferred as the leader in their
subsequent proceedings, "we will get a move on at once. I am anxious to
reach town where I can telephone. It is lucky that I changed my mind
and did not go on by rail, when I found that these boys were already
after the prisoner yonder," indicating Murky, "and that the other Auto
Boys, with Mr. Fraley, were going at once in pursuit. I may state here
that, though the clubhouse is gone and Grandall along with it, we have
recovered the twenty thousand dollars. If I know the Longknives Club,
they will now be more than willing to pay all claims against them by those
who trusted them. It was long delayed, yet it could not be helped. I
trust to put all things straight before I leave your hospitable little
town."
Needless to state good, clean Staretta beds were occupied by the
Andersons, the Auto Boys, the golfing man, his servant Daddy O'Lear,
and Chip Slider that night. Even Murky, though guarded in the village
lock-up, had a more comfortable place to sleep than he had enjoyed for
some time. Later, under a warrant duly drawn, charging him with murder
and robbery, he was conveyed to the jail at the county seat to await the
grand jury and the court.
Before Mr. Beckley left, and after he had wired particulars of these
recent events to the Longknives Club, he received by wire the hearty
acquiescence from them in the plan already formulated for the disposition
of the stolen and rescued twenty thousand dollars.
First, there was to be medical aid for Nels Anderson, and a restoration of
the money losses he had sustained in the building of that gravelled road.
Also Chip Slider was to be helped and aided for the plucky way he had
acted, especially in removing the money from where Murky, had he come
back in a hurry, would have found it. Next those workmen who had been
employed three years before must receive the money due them.
Lastly a new automobile should be provided without undue delay for the
Auto Boys. It certainly was due them. Had it not been for their bravery
and devotion to duty the tragedy making up the last chapter of the gravel
road's history would have been far, far more terrible.
It was not long until all Mr. Beckley's plans were carried out.
Legally the Longknives Club had never been disbanded and the funds
were unanimously voted as he proposed.
But how about poor Chip Slider?
There is today no more contented boy in Lannington, the home city of the
Auto Boys, than he.
Without loss of time the chums returned home, taking Chip with them.
He's working for Con Cecil in a newspaper office there and going to
night school. All his questioning if peace and plenty might not be found
somewhere, sometime, has been most pleasingly answered.
There was gladness and thanksgiving in the homes of all the boys' families
when the telegrams telling of their escape from the great forest fire
were received. A most happy homecoming it was for all, a day or so later.
Scarcely a week had passed when Henry Beckley and a committee of
Longknives drove up to the green and yellow garage the Auto Boys called
their own, and there delivered a truly splendid new car.
On part of the boys' families and their friends there was much ado about
it all. A dinner by the Lannington Automobile Club, and a great many more
fine speeches than the four chums relished hearing about themselves, was
one such thing.
"And I will venture to say," spoke Mr. Beckley, in the course of his after
dinner address, on this occasion, "that whatever the future has in store
for our friends, they will be found active and alert in time of play, in
time of work or in time of danger."
"The Auto Boys' Big Six," a book wherein the later experiences of the
chums will be reported, should in due time enable you to judge whether Mr.
Beckley was correct.
THE END
End of Project Gutenberg's The Auto Boys' Mystery, by James A. Braden