THE TABLES TURNED
Negotiation of the entrance of all into the passageway was made
without accident, Tom Barnum staying until next to last and then, with
a number of belts buckled together, aiding Frank to gain the opening.
Meanwhile Jack, who was in the lead, found on closer investigation
that the slatted shutter obscuring the air port was on hinges and
caught with a rusted latch. To open the latch and unhinge the shutter
and then, by turning it sideways, pull it back into the passageway and
place it noiselessly on the floor, was a comparatively simple matter.
Whispering to Captain Folsom, next in line, to pass the word along
that all should stay in the passageway while he investigated the
situation outside, Jack squirmed partway through the opening, faced
upward, took a good clutch on the shingled edge of the rooftree and
gradually drew his body out and over the edge of the roof. When,
finally, he lay extended on the roof, clutching the saddle for
support, he was of the opinion that Captain Folsom with only one arm
to aid him, certainly could not negotiate the exit in similar fashion,
and examined the shingles to see whether they could be torn up
sufficiently to admit of his friends climbing through.
The moon shone brilliantly. On that side of the house were no lights
in any windows. No sounds of any human activity came to him. The house
was large, with numerous gables that prevented Jack from seeing
seaward.
Leaning over the edge of the roof, he called in a low voice to Captain
Folsom who looked up from the little window. Jack told him to wait,
and explained he was going to try to rip off a number of shingles.
"But the crosspieces to which the shingles are nailed are close
together," Captain Folsom objected. "They are too close to permit of
our crawling through. And, while they are light and might be broken,
yet we would make considerable noise doing so and might give the
alarm."
Jack considered a moment.
"That's true," he replied. "But, if I break off the shingles around
the peak of the roof, here at the very end, you will have a better
chance to climb out, then, because you will have the exposed
crosspieces to cling to."
Working rapidly, Jack managed to remove a patch of shingles over a
space of several square feet, in short order. By the exercise of
extreme caution, he was enabled to complete the work without making
other than very slight noise.
"Now," he said, speaking through the bars made by the crosspieces,
"come ahead, Captain. Put your head backward out of the window, and
place your hand just where I tell you. I shall hook my feet under
these crosspieces to brace myself. That will leave both hands free to
aid you."
Captain Folsom followed directions, and with Jack lending his support,
he managed to gain the roof. Then Bob, Tom Barnum and Frank followed
in quick succession. To make room for them, Jack and Captain Folsom
had worked their way along the rooftree, which was not the main
rooftree of the house, they had discovered, but that of one of the
side gables, with which, as Jack phrased it, "the house was all
cluttered up."
This particular rooftree was blocked ahead by the cupola, to which
Jack earlier had referred. It was a square, truncated tower with a
breast-high wooden balustrade around it. Jack climbed up this
balustrade, and Captain Folsom, with Bob aiding him from the rear and
Jack giving him a hand in front, followed.
Then, while the others were clambering up, Jack cast a quick look
around from this eminence. He found, however, that the trees of the
grove cut off any view of the beach. But he was enabled to see the
grill-like towers of the radio station some distance to the left of
the house. With satisfaction, he noted not a light was shown, and
apparently the place was deserted.
Still not a sound of human activity of any sort reached him, and Jack
was puzzled. Had their captors departed, and left them bound, in that
apparently impregnable cell, to die? He could not believe it. No,
surely they were not to be killed. Either the house was to be
abandoned by the smugglers, and their friends and families would be
notified where to find them, or else, the smugglers intended to return
for them presently.
If this latter supposition were correct, then, thought Jack, it
behooved him to act quickly. For, if the smugglers returned and found
they had escaped from the cell, there would be only one conclusion to
draw as to their method of escape, and that would be the right one.
Bending down, he saw at once in the bright moonlight the outlines of a
big trapdoor under his feet. A ringbolt at one edge showed how it was
raised. Seizing it in a firm grip, Jack started to raise the trap.
His heart beat suffocatingly. What would he find underneath?
An inch at a time Jack raised the trap, while the others knelt at the
sides, peering through the growing opening. Only darkness met their
gaze, and the smell of hot air imprisoned in a closed house came out
like a blast from a furnace door. The hinges, apparently long unused
and rusted, creaked alarmingly despite all the care Jack exercised.
But not a sound came up from below.
At length Jack threw back the door, and the bright moonlight pouring
down the opening in a flood of silver revealed a narrow, ladder-like
stairway descending to an uncarpeted hall. Jack started down with the
others at his heels.
In the hall he paused, to once more accustom his eyes to the dimness
which now, however, was not impenetrable, as in their cell, because of
the moonlight. Presently he was able to make out a long hall with only
two doors breaking the double expanse of wall. One door, on the right,
was massive and over it was a huge iron bar in a socket.
"That's the door to the cell they had us in," said Frank, with
conviction, as they stood grouped before it. "Brrr. We'd have had a
fine chance to break that down."
Leading the way and walking on the balls of his feet, shoes in hand,
Jack moved forward to the other door and had just laid his hand on the
knob and was about to turn it, when he heard voices on the other side
and the sound of footsteps mounting upward.
His mind worked lightning-fast in this crisis. It was the door of a
stairway leading to the lower part of the house. Somebody was
ascending it, not one man but several. They could have only one
purpose. There was only one room up here on this upper floor--the
cell. Therefore, whoever was coming up intended to visit them,
thinking they still were in that room.
These thoughts flashed through Jack's mind in less time than it took a
man to mount a step. And, as quickly, he thought of a plan. Turning to
his companions, he whispered:
"Quick, get back to the cupola stairs, Frank, because you're nearest.
Then run up and lower the trapdoor, and crouch outside until I call
you. The rest of us can crouch down in this little space beyond the
door, and we'll be hidden by it when the door swings open."
Frank was off on noiseless feet, while the other four huddled into the
space indicated by Jack. By the time the men mounting the stairs swung
the door inward, Frank had succeeded in gaining the cupola. The noise
made by the rusted hinges, as the trap was lowered was covered up by
the voices of the men.
Fortunately, they did not close the stair door, but left it standing
open, thus hiding the four behind it. There were three in the party,
judging by the sound of voices and footsteps, and one at least carried
a powerful electric flashlight.
"Thought I heard a scratching sound," said a voice, which Jack and Bob
recognized as that of Higginbotham. "But I guess it was made by mice.
This old house is filled with them."
A few steps farther along the party paused, and Jack, looking from his
hiding place, saw three figures, shadowy and indistinct, before the
huge door of the cell, upon which one man had thrown the light, while
another was fumbling at the bar. The door swung open, and the three
walked in.
"Come on," whispered Jack.
Not waiting for the others, realizing it would be only a moment or two
before their disappearance from the cell would be discovered, he
leaped from hiding, tore down the little hall like a whirlwind, dashed
against the great door and swung it into place. Bob, who was close at
his heels, dropped the iron bar into place.
They were not a moment too soon. Shouts of amazement and alarm came
from the room even as the door was swinging shut. And hardly had Bob
dropped the bar into the socket than those within threw themselves
against the door. So tremendously thick and strong was the latter,
however, that with its closing all sound from within was reduced to
the merest whisper. As for trying to move it, as well attempt to push
an elephant over by hand. This those within must have realized, for
presently they desisted.
"Got 'em in their own cage," said Jack, triumphantly. And, pulling
from his pocket Tom Barnum's little flashlight, he reassured himself
the door really was barred, then mounting the stairway thumped on the
trapdoor as a signal to Frank. The latter at once raised the door.
"Come on down, Frank," said Jack. "There were three of them, and we
penned them in the cell."
Hastily he explained what had occurred.
"Now, fellows," said he. "Let's see who else is downstairs. Let's see
if we can't get out of here, so we can radio Lieutenant Summers for
help."
"But how about leaving these chaps behind, Jack?" protested Bob. "They
can get out the same way we did, and give the alarm. What we want to
do is to bring Lieutenant Summers to the scene without letting these
rascals get an inkling of what's hanging over them. If Higginbotham
and his companions escape, he'll start a search for us, and our plans
will stand a fair chance of being spoiled."
"You're right, Bob," said Jack. "But what can we do? They can't get
out of there in a minute. It will take them some time because, for one
reason, they will be fearful of our lying in wait for them, perhaps.
Meantime, we can be moving fast. Captain Folsom," he added, deferring
to the older man, "what do you think we ought to do?"
But the latter laid his sound arm on Jack's shoulder.
"Listen," he cautioned.
Muffled, but distinct, there came an outbreak of pistol shots,
followed by shouts faintly heard.
"What I feared," said Captain Folsom. "They are out on the roof
already, and shooting and calling to attract help. Come. We have no
time to lose."
Fumbling his way along the dark hall toward the stair door, he said:
"Quick, Hampton, with your light. I can't find the knob. Ah"--as the
light of the little torch winked on--"that's better."
He pulled the door open, and started down the stairs, Jack at his
shoulder and flashing the light ahead. The others crowded at their
heels.