BUT THE BIRDS HAD FLOWN.
As they were on the way back to the house, Jack turned to Bob, who was
walking beside him and said:
"I hope to goodness that our adventures for today are about through. I
tell you what, coming so near to death twice in one day is a bit too
strenuous to suit me."
They soon reached the house and entered by the front door, which they
found unlocked, with drawn revolvers. The room smelled strongly of
gas, but they quickly opened the windows, and it was soon nearly all
driven out. They searched the house as before, but with no success and
finally came to the laboratory. Here the gas was pretty bad, but one
of the officers soon found where it was turned on and shut it off.
They were, however, unable to find the secret hiding place of the
counterfeiters, although they searched for some time. At last the
captain said:
"Well, I guess we'll have to give it up for now, but I'm going to
leave two of you men here to keep watch, and I'll send some one to
relieve you as soon as I get back to the station." Then, turning to
Mr. Golden, "We might as well be going now, I'm not going to have that
stuff down there removed till tomorrow."
On their way back Bob said that they must take the night train for
home, as their parents would be anxious to see them, but Uncle Ben
said:
"Your Aunt Lucy and I intended to run down to Skowhegan in a few days
anyway, and if you'll wait till morning, we'll all go together in the
car. We'll telephone as soon as we get back to the house and then
we'll get an early start tomorrow. What do you say?"
The boys eagerly agreed to this plan, and by the time it was settled
they were at the ferry where they said goodby to Captain Long.
The latter went at once to the station house and sent out a general
alarm for the apprehension of the counterfeiters, but we will say here
that they were not caught.
On their way to Winthrop, Uncle Ben asked the two boys to say nothing
to Aunt Lucy regarding their narrow escape, as it would worry her, and
they promised to be careful and not let it out in her hearing.
It was nearly suppertime when they reached home, and Jack at once
called up his father and told him of their plans, while Bob gave his
aunt an account of their afternoon's trip, carefully avoiding,
however, any mention of their being locked in the counterfeiter's den.
"It's too bad they escaped," she said when he had finished.
Uncle Ben then told her of their plans for the morrow, and she said
she guessed she could get ready in time, although it was pretty short
notice.
As the boys were very tired after such a strenuous day, they were in
bed before nine o'clock.
"We want to be off by six o'clock," shouted Uncle Ben, as they went up
stairs, "and I'll have to pull you out by five."
"All right," answered Jack, "we'll be ready."
After they were undressed they did not forget to kneel down by the bed
and thank their heavenly Father for His care over them.
"George, but this has been some exciting day," declared Jack as he
tumbled into bed, closely followed by Bob. "I don't think I would care
to go through that mess again."
"I should say not," agreed Bob, "we might not get off so lucky next
time. I don't believe we'll ever be any nearer death again, till our
time comes, than we were this afternoon."
"I guess you're right there," then suddenly, "Say, Bob, do you suppose
we've seen the last of those two fellows?"
"Hard to tell, but I sure hope so. I'd feel a good bit better if we'd
caught them this afternoon."
"Same here," came sleepily from Jack.
They were too tired to talk any longer and were soon fast asleep.
They were still sleeping soundly, when a little before five o'clock,
their uncle awoke them.
"It's too bad to wake you, boys," he said, "but breakfast is almost
ready, and we've got to be off in about an hour."
They were soon dressed and running downstairs found a hearty breakfast
awaiting them, to which they did full justice.
Mr. Golden's car was a big roomy Lozier, and by six o'clock they were
off. They took the chauffeur with them, although the boys, taking
turns, drove the greater part of the way. They reached Portland by
eleven o'clock, and stopped there for dinner. When nearly to
Waterville, about twenty-five miles from the cottage, a tire blew out,
but as this was their only mishap, they did not complain, and a new
one was quickly substituted. The run up from the latter city was made
in a little over an hour, and they reached the cottage shortly after
six o'clock. The boys were greeted as heroes by their parents and the
girls, and there was great rejoicing over their safe return, old Mike
coming in for his share, the tears fairly rolling down his cheeks as
he grasped their hands saying:
"Begorra and I always did say you byes had more lives nor a cat, and
all ways were sure to land on your fate."
While eating supper, Bob and Jack in turn, gave a full account of
their adventures, except that they said nothing about being so nearly
killed by gas, and their mother's face paled as she realized how
nearly she had lost one, if not both of her boys. When they had
finished, their father said:
"We must keep a sharp lookout for those rascals, although I hardly
think they will dare to show up here again."
"Say, dad," asked Jack, "where's that detective?"
"We haven't seen or heard from him since you left," answered his
father.
Uncle Ben agreed with his brother that the boys should be very
careful, saying:
"There's been a lot in the papers about those fellows, that is if
they're the ones we think they are, and they have a reputation for
daring that has seldom been equaled."
"Well," remarked Bob, "I hope they keep away, as I've had all of their
company that I care about for a while at least."
"Same here," agreed Jack, "but I say, it's mighty funny what's got
that Sharp detective."
He had hardly spoken when the doorbell rang, and as the maid opened it
the detective walked in. When he saw Bob his eyes stuck out, as Jack
after expressed it, as large as saucers.
"Well, I'll be blowed," he cried, "where in the world did you come
from?"
And then the story had to be told over again.
"Well, I'll be blessed," uttered the detective, when they had
finished, "Guess I'm getting too old for a job of this kind. Here I've
been working night and day, and have scoured the country for a
distance of twenty miles in every direction, and didn't get a smell,
and you," turning to Jack, "find him first whack off the reel."
"I didn't find him," declared Jack, "He found me," and he added, "it
was a mighty lucky find for me."
Mr. Sharp seemed very much downcast, but Mr. Golden assured him that
he was sure that he had done all that any one could have done.
"You, of course, didn't know that he had been taken to Boston, and the
two boys meeting as they did was a coincidence, which wouldn't happen
twice in a thousand years. No, you needn't reproach yourself in the
least."
After this the detective felt much better, but remarked that it was
the third time in his twenty years as a detective that he had been
beaten.
Uncle Ben then proposed that they take a run across the lake in the
Sprite and get their trunk, which they had sent by express, and which
ought to be at the hotel. The women folks decided that they wouldn't
go, so Mr. Golden, Uncle Ben, Mr. Sharp, who wanted to catch the night
train for Boston, and the two boys, composed the crew.
"So that's the wonderful cell that all the trouble has been about, is
it?" asked Uncle Ben, as they started. "Well, it certainly is a big
thing and I'm proud of you boys."
On the way across, they told Mr. Golden of their narrow escape in the
counterfeiter's den, and why they had kept silent about it at the
table. He shuddered, as he realized how near death they had been and
said that they had done just right in not letting their mother and
aunt know about it, and Mr. Sharp declared that he was going to take
up the search for them as soon as he got to Boston.
They obtained the trunk, and saying goodby to the detective and
wishing him good luck, started back for the cottage, which they
reached about nine o'clock, and, as they were all tired, they soon
retired for the night.
The boys spent the next day sailing on the lake with the girls, while
their father and uncle went down to Skowhegan, having some business
to attend to. Late in the afternoon the four young people went fishing
and, in a short time, caught a good mess which they had for supper.
That night, as the boys were getting ready for bed, Jack suddenly
said:
"I say, Bob, what's the trouble with fitting up our motorcycles with
electric motors and running them with the cells?"
"Just the thing! Wonder why we didn't think of that before."
"Huh, that's easy, guess we've had our minds fairly full of something
else, lately."
"That's a fact, we have," agreed Bob, "We'll go down on the wheels,
first thing in the morning and see what we can do. I guess likely we
can get the motors at Watson's, and if we can make it a go, we'll have
some bikes."
Right after breakfast the next morning, they got their motorcycles out
and in less than fifteen minutes, were in Watson's store in Skowhegan.
Fortunately, he had two small motors, of ten horsepower each, on hand,
which seemed to the boys to be just what they wanted, and asking him
to send them up to the house at once, they were soon in the laboratory
hard at work.
"You start on a couple sets of caps, Jack, and I'll get the
electrolysis apparatus going and fill a few cylinders," Bob had said
as soon as they got there. By noon, Jack had the caps done, as he had
everything at hand to work with and knew how to do it, and by five
o'clock, they had taken the engines apart and had the wheels all ready
for the installation of the motors.
"Come on now and get washed up," called Bob, as he shut down the
dynamo and took out two cylinders, which, he was pleased to see, were
full. "That's eight we've filled today, but come get a move, we must
catch that five o'clock car or we'll be late to supper."
Edna and May met them at the wharf, in the Sprite, and by six-thirty
they were eating supper and telling the family about their day's work.