WHAT HAPPENED IN THE CAVE
The man ahead hurried along over the rocks so quickly that the Rovers and
Larry Dixon had difficulty in keeping up with him.
“He’s a bird for moving,” was the old sailor’s comment. “Splice my main
brace! but I wish he’d put a reef or two in his legs!”
The man ahead suddenly made a turn around some rocks. The boys and the
tar followed cautiously, so as not to be surprised.
“Wait here, I’ll look ahead and investigate,” said Dick. And he shoved
some bushes aside.
A surprise awaited him—but not of the sort he had anticipated. The man
had disappeared!
Vainly did Dick look in all directions for him. He was as completely gone
as if the earth had opened and swallowed him up.
“Can he have entered some opening in the rocks?” the youth asked himself.
With added caution he moved forward a few steps further. Then, between
some dense bushes, he saw a slit in some high rocks. The slit was
irregular in shape but not over a foot wide in any one place.
“What do you see?” asked Tom, who, growing impatient, had followed his
big brother.
“He seems to have disappeared, Tom,” was the low reply.
“Did he go in there?”
“That is just what I was wondering.”
Dick looked into the slit. It was of uncertain depth and looked dark and
uninviting. Then the whole crowd searched the neighborhood. Not a trace
of the stranger was discernable anywhere.
“Well, he didn’t fly up in the air,” said Sam. “He must have gone
somewhere. Why not look into that opening, Dick?”
“You look out that you don’t get shot!” warned Tom. “That fellow, if he
is one of the old freight thieves and the rascal who robbed Mrs. Stanhope
of the valise with the fortune, must be a desperate character.”
“If I go in, it will be pistol first,” answered Dick, grimly.
He drew the weapon Captain Wells had loaned him, and slowly but
cautiously wormed his way between the rocks. It was so dark he had to
feel his way along, and, fearing that he might fall into some hole, he
did not advance a step until he was sure of his footing.
“Shall we come?” called Tom, softly.
“Not yet,” answered Dick.
He passed along a distance of fifteen or twenty feet. Then the passageway
widened, and he found himself standing on a rocky flooring that was
comparatively smooth.
“Gracious! can this be one of the entrances to the smugglers’ cave they
told about?” he mused.
He continued to advance, and presently caught sight of a flicker of
light, playing over the uneven rocks that formed the roof of the cavern.
“That must come from a campfire!” he murmured. “And if it does. I must
have struck the right spot. Maybe this is where they are holding Dora’s
mother a prisoner!”
He continued to go forward, and the light of the fire grew brighter. Then
of a sudden, he heard a step behind him.
“Will spy on me, will you!” cried a voice, vindictively, and in a trice
he was struck a blow on the back of the head. He went down in a heap, and
a man leaped on top of him and held him fast. Then commenced a fierce
struggle, in the midst of which Dick’s pistol went off, making a
tremendous report in that confined space. The bullet struck the rocks,
doing no damage.
The pistol had been close to Dick’s head and the discharge caused the
smoke to get into his face, choking and blinding him. Then he received
another blow, and for a minute or two knew no more.
“Listen!” cried Tom, as the pistol went off. “Dick must be in trouble!
Come on, Sam!”
“Yes, but be careful,” was the answer.
“Want me?” asked the old tar, anxiously.
“You had better stay on guard here, for the present,” replied Tom.
“Just as you say, messmate.”
Tom wormed his way between the rocks and Sam followed. The pistol shot
was followed by silence, and the two Rover boys did not know what to make
of it.
“Shall I call?” asked Sam.
“Might as well,” was Tom’s reply, and both called Dick’s name as loudly
as they could.
“Help! help!” came back faintly.
“We are coming!” yelled Tom, rushing forward. “Where are you?”
“I am her——” was the answer, and then of a sudden all became quiet again,
as a hand was placed over Dick’s mouth.
With their weapons ready for use, Tom and Sam ran through the cavern. But
all was silent, and the flickering rays from the campfire beyond were too
faint for them to see much.
“Dick! Dick! Where are you?” called out Tom.
“To the left!” was the faint reply. “Turn to the left!”
The voice sounded muffled, as if the speaker was being strangled, and
with their hearts in their throats, Tom and Sam advanced and at a break
in the rocky wall, turned to the left. Hardly had they gone a dozen steps
when they plunged downward into space.
“Oh!” came from both, and then followed a mighty splash, as the pair
struck the water. Each went down over his head, and on coming up had to
strike out to keep from drowning.
“Sam! Sam!” cried Tom.
“I’m here!” was the spluttered-out reply. “Are you hurt?”
“Not much, but I went over my head in water!”
“So did I.”
“Where is Dick?”
“I don’t know.”
“Can he be drowned?”
“Oh, don’t say that!”
It was pitch dark, and only by calling to each other did the two lads
manage to get together. Both swam around until their feet touched a rock
and on this they stood to catch their breath. The water was all around
them.
“Which way did we come, Tom?” asked Sam, after a moment of silence,
during which both did what they could to get back their breath.
“I don’t know. I can’t see a thing, can you?”
“No.”
“I don’t believe Dick is here.”
“Neither do I, Tom. I believe somebody fooled us.”
“That’s it! And we fell right into the trap!”
“But where can Dick be?”
“Most likely a prisoner of our enemies,” muttered Tom, bitterly.
Tom’s surmise was correct, Dick was indeed a prisoner of their enemies.
He had his hands and his feet bound tightly, and he had been dragged, by
Tad Sobber towards the campfire that was burning at the further end of
the big cave. In the meantime the fellow who had been followed by Dick
went off to make sure that Tom and Sam would turn to the left and fall
into the water.
“Well, Dick Rover, this is what you get for following us!” cried Tad
Sobber, in tones of triumph. “Perhaps, some day, you’ll learn enough to
keep your hands out of my affairs.”
“Sobber, tell me, what have you done with Mrs. Stanhope?” asked Dick,
quickly. Even though he felt bruised and shook up, the welfare of Dora’s
mother was uppermost in his mind.
“I am not here to answer your questions.”
“You won’t tell me?”
“Not a word.”
“Do you realize that you and Josiah Crabtree have committed a big crime?”
“We have done nothing wrong.”
“Don’t you call stealing and abducting wrong?”
“I haven’t stolen anything. The fortune from Treasure Isle belonged to my
uncle and me—the Stanhopes had no right to it whatsoever.”
“I think otherwise—and so did the courts.”
“Bah! Your side didn’t treat me fairly, you bought up the judges! I know
you!” stormed Tab Sobber. “The fortune was ours! Now I’ve got it—and I
mean to keep it!”
“And what of Mrs. Stanhope?”
“Mrs. Stanhope has acted like a sensible woman.”
“Acted like a sensible woman? What do you mean?”
“She has done what she should have done years ago—she has given her heart
to the man who loves her.”
“Sobber, you don’t mean——” Dick could not go on, for the lump that came
into his throat.
“I do mean it.”
“What?”
“I mean that she has become the wife of Mr. Josiah Crabtree!” cried Tad
Sobber. “So if you ever marry Dora Stanhope you’ll have Mr. Crabtree for
your father-in-law.”