A MINUTE TOO LATE
“Of all the rascals!” murmured Tom, as the light faded from sight.
“They are the worst!” supplemented Sam. And then he added: “How do you
feel Dick?”
“Oh, I—I guess I’ll come around!” murmured the oldest Rover boy. “But I
came pretty close to being drowned!” he added, with a shudder. “I struck
something and it about stunned me, and I swallowed a lot of water.”
Tom and Sam continued to hold up their brother until Dick had recovered
sufficiently to support himself. As they stood on the submerged rocks,
they listened for some sound from their enemies, but none came.
“Maybe they have left the cave,” suggested Sam, after ten or fifteen
minutes had passed.
“This is a fierce place,” was Tom’s comment. “It’s just like a great big
well!”
“And we are like the frogs at the bottom of the well!” added Dick,
grimly. He felt a little weak, but otherwise was all right.
“I looked around when we had the light of that torch,” said Tom, “but I
didn’t see any place where a fellow could climb out, did you?”
“Nary a spot, Tom,” answered Sam. “The walls were all as smooth and as
slippery as glass.”
“Do you think they mean to leave us here to die?” asked Dick.
“I shouldn’t think they’d be as heartless as all that,” came from Tom.
“They’d be afraid of consequences.”
An hour went by—just then it was an age—and at last the boys saw a
glimmer of light approaching. It flickered and flared over the walls for
fully a minute and then commenced to fade.
“Somebody went past, through the main cave!” cried Tom. “Wonder who it
was?”
“The Sobber crowd most likely,” returned Dick.
“But it might be somebody else!” cried Sam. “I’m going to yell and find
out.”
He raised his voice in a loud call, and Tom and Dick joined in. Several
minutes went by, and they called again. Then they saw the flickering of
the light once more.
“Who is there?” came faintly to their ears.
“This way! This way!” shouted one Rover boy after another.
“Be careful of where you step!” cautioned Tom.
“Where are you?”
“This way!” they answered, and kept calling until the light of a ship’s
lantern came into view, and they saw Captain Wells and Larry Dixon
approaching.
“Well, I never!” ejaculated the captain of the steam tug, as he came to a
halt on the brink of the blackish pool. “How in the world did you git
down there?”
“Help us out first, and then we’ll tell you,” replied Dick, quickly.
“Didn’t you meet our enemies?” asked Tom.
“Nary a soul have we met since we landed,” answered the captain.
“Which way did you enter the cave?” asked Sam.
“By the slit in the rocks—where you came in,” answered Larry Dixon. “I
watched you disappear, and afterwards I heard some yelling. Then I got
scared and ran down to the shore and signalled for the steam tug to come
in. I told the cap’n all I knew, and he came ashore with a lantern to see
what was wrong—and here we be.”
“You’ve come in the nick of time,” said Dick. “Our enemies, the Sobber
crowd, are here, and they left us as you see us. I rather think they have
Mrs. Stanhope and that fortune here, too, but I am not certain. Help to
get us out of here, and we’ll get after ’em without delay.”
“Don’t know how we are going to help you without a rope,” said the
captain.
“I saw some rope, down in the big part of this cave,” said Larry Dixon.
“Let me have the light an’ I’ll fetch it in a jiffy!”
He took the light and was off on the run. When he returned he was out of
breath. In his hands he held several pieces of good, stout rope, parts of
the same rope which had been used to make Dick a close prisoner.
“We can splice these,” said the old tar, and while Captain Wells held the
lantern, he tied the bits together. Then both he and the captain allowed
one end of the rope to dangle down into the hole, while they braced
themselves and held on to the upper portion.
“Is it long enough?” asked Captain Wells.
“I think so—I’ll see,” cried Tom, and leaving the rocks he swam over to
the rope. He was just able to reach it, and being something of an
athlete, went up the rope hand over hand, with his feet against the rocks
for added support.
“Now you go, Dick!” cried Sam. “If you are weak and fall, I’ll catch
you.”
It was quite a task for Dick to gain the rocks at the top of the pool and
once he came close to giving up and slipping back into the water. But he
was gritty, and Tom assisted him by leaning down on his breast and
extending a helping hand. Then Sam came up, and the three Rovers stood
beside the two men who had come to their rescue.
“Phew! I am glad we are out of that!” murmured Sam, as he looked back at
the cold and gruesome waters.
“We don’t want to stay here!” cried Dick. “We want to get after the
Sobber crowd—before they have a chance to leave the island!”
“How can they leave the island?” questioned Sam. “I don’t think they have
a boat. I haven’t seen any.”
“But Jerry Koswell’s crowd has a boat, Sam—that swift motor craft.”
“Do you think they would aid such criminals as Sobber and Crabtree?”
“They might—just to get the best of us.”
“Then the sooner we get after our enemies the better.”
“Where are your pistols?” asked the captain of the steam tug.
“Mine was taken from me by Sobber,” answered Dick.
“And ours are at the bottom of the pool,” added Sam. “We both dropped ’em
when we plunged into the water.” And then he and his brothers acquainted
Captain Wells and the old sailor with the particulars of their adventures
since entering the cavern.
“Well, I still have my pistol!” cried Captain Wells, grimly.
“And I’ve got a good club,” came from Larry Dixon.
“We can arm ourselves with clubs,” said Dick. “But the main thing just
now is to keep those rascals in sight. If they slip us, there will be no
telling where they will go to.”
With eyes and ears on the alert, the whole party made its way through the
big cave, coming out of the main opening, not far from where the campfire
still lay smouldering.
“They certainly left in a hurry,” remarked Tom, as he gazed around. “They
didn’t wait to pick up all of their provisions.”
“I guess they got scared,” murmured Dick. “Well, they’ll get more scared
when they find we are so close on their heels.”
“Where do you suppose they went to?” asked the captain.
“I don’t know. But I think the best thing to do is to go down to where
that motor boat was tied up. I don’t think they can leave unless they use
that boat—unless, of course, they have some craft we haven’t as yet
seen.”
There was a well-defined path running from the cave down to the shore of
the island. This they followed, through the patch of woods and over some
rocks. Then they came to an opening where were located several
dilapidated buildings. Not far from one building were the remains of a
recent camp.
“I believe this was the camp Darkingham and those with him made!”
ejaculated Dick. “They have gone—maybe they have left the island!”
“Come on, I don’t like this!” put in Tom, and broke into a run for the
old dock, and the others followed on his heels.
They were still a hundred yards from the dock when Tom let up a shout:
“There they are!”
“Where?” asked Dick.
“In the motor boat!”
“Who?” questioned Sam.
“The Sobber crowd—and they have Mrs. Stanhope with them.”
“Stop! stop!” yelled Dick, at the top of his voice. “Stop, I tell you!
Mrs. Stanhope!”
“Oh!” came from the lady, as she espied the Rovers. “Save me! Save me!
Don’t let them take me further away!”
“Put on all speed!” roared Tad Sobber, to Pally, who was at the engine.
“Crowd her to the limit! They are after us!”
“Here we go! Hold fast everybody!” answered Pally, and the next moment
the motor boat shot out into the waters of Casco Bay.