A MIDNIGHT MARAUDER
Meanwhile the boys and girls left behind in Jerry Sheming's old camp began
to find the absence of Ruth and her two companions rather trying. The time
which had elapsed since the three explorers started to find the eastern
outlet of the cave seemed much longer to those around the campfire than to
the trio themselves.
Before the searching party could have reached the brookside, had the
tunnel been perfectly straight, the nervous Belle Tingley wanted to send
out a relief expedition.
"We never should have allowed Ruthie to go," she wailed. "We all should
have kept together. How do we know but they'll find the cave a regular
labyrinth, and get lost in it, and wander around and around, and never
find their way out, or back, and----"
"Oh, for the goodness sake!" ejaculated Mary Cox, "don't be such a
weeping, wailing Sister of Misery, Belle! You not only cross bridges
before you come to them, but, I declare, you build new ones!"
"She's Old Man Trouble's favorite daughter," said Heavy. "Didn't you know
_that_? Now, Miss Fuss-Budget, stop croaking. Nothing's going to happen to
Ruthie."
"Not with Tom on hand, you can wager," added Helen, with every confidence
in her twin brother.
But at last the watches of the party could not be doubted. Two hours had
crept by and it was getting very late in the evening. Some of the party
were, as Ann said, "yawning their heads off." Lluella and Heavy had camped
down upon the old buffalo-robe before the fire and were already more than
half asleep.
"I do wish they'd come back," muttered Bob Steele to Isadore Phelps. "We
can't tell in here whether the storm has stopped, or not. I don't just
fancy staying in this cave all night if there's any possible chance of
getting to Mr. Tingley's house."
"Don't know what can be keeping those folks. I believe I could have crept
on my hands and knees through the whole hill, and back again, before this
time," returned Busy Izzy, in a very sleepy voice.
"Now, you can talk as you please," said Ann Hicks, with sudden decision,
"but I'm going a short distance along that tunnel and see if the lantern
is in sight."
"I'm with you!" exclaimed Bob.
"Me, too," joined in Helen, jumping up with alacrity.
"Now, some more of you will go off and get lost," cried Belle. "I--I wish
we were all home. I'm--I'm sorry we came to this old island."
"Baby!" ejaculated her brother, poking her. "Do be still. Ralph isn't
going to get lost--what d'ye think he is?"
"How'll we see our way?" Helen asked Bob and Ann.
"Feel it. We'll go in the dark. Then we can see their lantern the
quicker."
"There's no wood here fit for torches," Bob admitted. "And I have plenty
of matches. Come on! We sha'n't get lost."
"What do you really suppose has happened to them?" demanded Helen of Bob,
as soon as they were out of hearing of the camp.
"Give it up. Something extraordinary--that's positive," declared the big
fellow.
They crept through the tunnel, Bob lighting a match occasionally, until
they reached the first crack in the roof, open to the sky. It was not
snowing very hard.
"Of course they wouldn't have tried climbing up here to get out," queried
Helen.
"Of course not!" exclaimed Ann. "What for?"
"No," said Bobbins. "They kept straight ahead--and so will we."
In five minutes, however, when they stopped, whispering, in a little
chamber, Ann suddenly seized her companions and commanded them to hold
their breath!
"I hear something," she whispered.
The others strained their ears to hear, too. In a moment a stone rattled.
Then there sounded an unmistakable footstep upon the rock. Somebody was
approaching.
"They're coming back?" asked Helen, doubtfully.
"Hush!" commanded Ann again. "Whoever it is, he has no light. It can't be
Ruth."
Much heavier boots than those the girl of the Red Mill wore now rattled
over the loose stones. Ann pulled the other two down beside her where she
crouched in the corner.
"Wait!" she breathed.
"Can it be some wild animal?" asked Helen.
"With boots on? I bet!" scoffed Bob.
It was pitch dark. The three crouching together in the corner of the
little chamber were not likely to attract the attention of this marauder,
if all went well. But their hearts beat fast as the rustle of the
approaching footsteps grew louder.
There loomed up a man's figure. It looked too big to be either Tom or
Ralph, and it passed on with an assured step. He needed no lamp to find a
path that seemed well known.
"Who--what----"
"Hush, Helen!" commanded Ann.
"But he's going right to the cave--and he carried a gun."
"I didn't see the gun," whispered Ann.
"I did," agreed Bob, squeezing Helen's arm. "It was a rifle. Do you
suppose there is any danger?"
"It couldn't be anybody hunting us, do you suppose?" queried Helen, in a
shaken voice. "Anybody from the house?"
"Preston!" exclaimed Ann.
"How would he know the way to get into this tunnel?" returned Bob. "Come
on! let's spy on him. I'm worried now about Tom and the others."
"You don't suppose anything has happened to Ruthie?" whispered Helen. "Oh!
you don't believe _that_, Bobbins?"
"Come on!" grunted the big fellow, and took the advance.
They were careful of their own footsteps over the loose stones. The person
ahead acted as though he had an idea he was alone.
Nor did they overtake him until they had passed the open crack in the roof
of the tunnel. Somebody laughed in the cavern ahead--then the girls all
shouted.
The marauder stopped, uttering an astonished ejaculation. Bob and the two
girls halted, too, but in a moment the person ahead turned, and came
striding toward them, evidently fleeing from the sound of the voices.
Ann and Helen were really frightened, and with faint cries, shrank back.
Bob _had_ to be brave. He leaped forward to meet the person with the
rifle, crying:
"Hold on, there!"
"Ha!" exclaimed the other and advanced the rifle until the muzzle touched
Bob Steele's breast. The boy was naturally frightened--how could he help
being? But he showed pluck. He did not move.
"What do you want in here? Who are you?" asked Bob, quietly.
"Goodness me!" gasped the other, and dropped the butt of his rifle to the
ground. "You sure did startle me. You're one of those boys staying with
the Tingleys?"
"Yes."
"And here's a couple of the girls. Not Ruth Fielding?"
"Oh, Jerry Sheming!" cried Ann, running forward. "You might have shot him
with that gun."
"Not unless I'd loaded it first," replied Jerry, with a quiet chuckle.
"But you folks scared me quite as much as I did you--Why, it's Miss Hicks
and Miss Cameron."
"Where is Ruth?" demanded Ann, anxiously.
"And Tom?" joined in Helen.
"And how did you get back here to Cliff Island?" asked Bob. "We understood
that you'd been railroaded out of the country."
"Hold on! hold on!" exclaimed Jerry. "Let's hear first about Miss
Fielding. Where's she gone? How came you folks in this cave?"
Helen was the one who told him. She related all the circumstances very
briefly, but in a way to give Jerry a clear understanding of the
situation.
"They've wandered off to the right. I know where they must be," said
Jerry, decidedly. "I'll go find them. And then I'll get you all out of
here. It has almost stopped snowing now."
"But how did you find your way back here to the island?" Bob demanded
again.
"I ain't going to be beat by Blent," declared Jerry Sheming, doggedly. "I
am going to have another look through the caves before I leave for good,
and don't you forget it.
"The engine on that train yesterday morning broke a piston rod and had to
stop down the lake shore. I hopped off and hid on the far bank, watching
the island. If you folks hadn't come over this way to fish this morning,
I'd been across before the storm began.
"I was pretty well turned around in the storm, and have been traveling a
long time. But I got to the brook at last, and then worked my way up it
and into the other end of this cave. I was going up there after my
lantern----"
"Ruth and the others have it," explained Helen, quickly.
"Then I'll go find them at once. I know my way around pretty well in the
dark. I couldn't get really lost in this cave," and Jerry laughed,
shortly.
"I've got matches if you want them," said Bob.
"Got a plenty, thanks. You folks go back to your friends, and I'll hunt
out Miss Fielding in a jiffy."
Jerry turned away at once, and soon passed out of their sight in the
gloom. As Helen and the others hurried back to the anxious party at the
campfire, Jerry went straightway to the most satisfactory discovery of all
his life.