“Well, what do you demand?” was the millionaire’s next question.
Donald Judson drew ‘Bully’ Broom aside and whispered to him. The other
nodded.
“The least we will take is one hundred thousand dollars,” he said.
The millionaire grew purple.
“What?” he almost shouted.
“That is for the liberty of both,” said ‘Bully’ Broom coolly. “Fifty
thousand for the boy and fifty thousand for you. If you don’t want to
take the boy, you can pay up fifty thousand and we will keep him.”
“What would you do with him?”
“Well, the river is full of hungry alligators——” grinned the wretch.
“You scoundrel,” thundered Mr. Jukes, “do you suppose I’d leave him
behind, anyway?” Jack cast him a grateful look. “But what have you done
with my brother, you ruffian?”
“Ah! I was coming to that,” said the rascal with an insolent smile, “but
you can also have him for the very insignificant sum that I have already
mentioned as being the price for you and the boy.”
“You’re worth a whole lot more than that, Jukes,” put in Judson, with an
equally insolent air. “You’re a regular old money-bags, you know.”
“You’ll never get my money,” raged the millionaire.
“We won’t, eh?”
“Never.”
“Hunger makes a lot of difference, Mr. Jukes,” smiled Broom.
“So you mean to starve us into submission, eh?” demanded Jack. “I don’t
see how such rogues can exist. Judson, you are the worst young hound I
ever heard of.”
In high rage the boy’s enemy stepped up to him and deliberately struck
him a heavy blow in the face, which Jack was, of course, powerless to
return.
“Yes, a cowardly trick like that is in perfect accordance with what I
know of your nature,” said Jack with menacing quietness.
“You dare say that again,” screamed Donald, beside himself with anger,
“just you dare and I’ll——” He ended with a shake of his fist.
“Oh, you can’t scare me, even if I am tied,” said Jack scornfully.
His perfect calmness added fuel to the fire of Judson’s rage.
“I’ll fix you,” he yelled, “I’ll——”
“Judson, be quiet,” ordered Broom, and the boy subsided. “Now,” went on
the free-booter to Mr. Jukes, “your best plan, if you don’t want to lose
a few pounds, will be to make out a check for that money. Of course,
we’ll have to keep you here till it’s safely cashed, otherwise you
might, and probably would, stop the check. But——”
“Don’t pay a cent, Mr. Jukes,” interrupted Jack.
Judson stepped suddenly forward and struck the helpless lad another
stinging blow. It was such a hard one that Jack’s senses swam for a
minute.
“Shame on you, you young villain,” cried Mr. Jukes. “He is helpless,
otherwise you wouldn’t dare lay hands on him.”
“Who says so? I could lick him any day,” swaggered Judson imprudently.
“Have you people no sense of right and honesty in your compositions?”
demanded Mr. Jukes.
But this appeal had no more effect on Broom than it would have had on
adamant.
“We’re no worse than you millionaires, if all the papers say is true,”
he retorted. “You rob in your way, we rob in ours. We’re not quite so
refined about it, perhaps. That’s the only difference, Mr. Jukes.”
“You ruffian! Do you compare business,—legitimate business,—with your
rascally trade?”
“My rascally trade, as you please to term it, is business,—legitimate
business,—to me,” returned Broom.
“Are we to have any food?” demanded the millionaire abruptly.
“When you listen to reason, yes.”
“And your idea of reason is that I consent to pay that preposterous
ransom?”
“Your insight does you credit, Mr. Jukes. Sign that check and you shall
have all you want to eat within the poor limits of my larder, and
reasonable liberty till it is cashed. After that you are free to go
where you will.”
“Our friends will raise a hue and cry for us,” declared Jack. “They’ll
find us and put you where you belong, behind the bars.”
Broom and young Judson turned away and left the hut by another door from
the one by which they had entered.
“You think they will pay?” asked Broom, with some anxiety in his voice.
“I’m sure they will. Even a tight-wad old millionaire will pay up when
it comes to a choice between that and starving.”
“Then you think they are sure to give in?”
“Without a doubt. Then it is only a question of waiting for the money
and getting out.”
“I don’t mind that. But I didn’t like what they said about their friends
following us here.”
“Why you said nobody knew the way here through the swamps but yourself
along that path we came last night.”
“That’s true, but then there’s the river. However, it would be
impossible to see the old fort from below and anyhow the cliff is fifty
feet high and easily guarded.”
“Of course you are foolish to worry. However, perhaps if they don’t give
in in a day or two we had better be moving along. That young Ready’s
chum, Billy, has given me trouble before.”
“Well,” said Broom, “we’ll see how things come out. If they don’t want
to perish in the swamps they’ll have to come by the river. From now on
I’ll have that cliff guarded.”
“Yes, and if any rescue party comes they’ll get a big surprise,” was
young Judson’s reply.