THE SEARCHING PARTY
"Hugh, it looks like we mightn't need those lanterns after all,"
remarked Horatio, after they had gotten well started along the dimly
seen quarry road.
Indeed, the brilliant headlights of the big car illuminated a radius
of considerable size ahead of them and around. Every tiny twig was
thrown out into bold relief, as though a powerful sun had found a way
of forcing ingress through the canopy of leafless branches overhead.
"Not just at present, perhaps," replied the driver at the wheel; "but
they may come in handy yet. We'll wait and see."
Owen sat beside Hugh, the other three occupying the tonneau of the
car. There was abundance of room for all, and some to spare. Owen
held his new shotgun in his hands and he kept a close watch upon the
road ahead, just as though that idea connected with a ferocious
wildcat might have taken hold on his mind, and he believed there was
a possibility of such a thing coming to pass.
Hugh drove with exceedingly great care, and made no attempt at speed.
Indeed, such a thing was utterly out of the question, with that rough
road to follow and the necessity of keeping a constant vigilant
outlook, lest they collide with some tree. When the quarry was in
full operation automobiles were an unknown luxury; and certainly no
provision had ever been made for such a contraption passing along
that crooked trail, with its numerous sharp curves intended to avoid
natural obstacles. Three separate times already had Hugh brought the
car to a full stop, and even caused the engine to cease its
throbbing. This was done in order that all of them might strain
their hearing, in hopes of catching some faint sound to tell that the
missing boy whom they sought was close at hand.
But only disappointment succeeded each attempt to pick up
information. They caught the dismal hooting of an owl in some dead
tree not far away, but certainly such a doleful sound did not raise
their spirits materially. Several times while they were moving along
Owen had seen a movement amidst the brush that gave him a little
thrill; but the glimpses he obtained of the disappearing animal
convinced him in one instance that it was a red fox that scurried off
in alarm; while on the second occasion he rather imagined it was only
a ring-tailed raccoon scuttling away and badly frightened by the
intense white glow that had suddenly penetrated his dark quarters.
If there was a wildcat within twenty miles the spot they certainly
never knew of it, because no such beast of prey disclosed its
presence to them while they continued on their way.
But then there were plenty of thrills for the boys. Not only did the
weird hooting of that horned owl come to make their flesh creep, but
now and again they detected strange sounds that may have been caused
by limbs of the trees rubbing together in the night breeze, but which
had a wonderful resemblance to human groans.
They had been pursuing their way along for some little time without
much attempt at conversation; but it is pretty hard for a parcel of
boys to remain long silent, no matter what the provocation. And
Horatio, for one, felt urged to free his mind of certain fancies that
had taken lodging there.
"I say, fellows, doesn't this beat everything you ever saw all
hollow?" he went on to say, for there was really no need of their
keeping quiet, since they had not started out to steal a march upon
any enemy,--only to find poor lost K. K. "Just listen to that awful
groaning sound, will you? If I didn't know it was caused by the
limbs of trees sawing across each other in the wind I'd think
somebody was almost dying."
"At another time I guess we wouldn't bother our heads about such a
silly thing," observed Julius Hobson; "but, of course, our minds are
full up with what may have happened to our comrade, and all that
noise makes us shiver a heap; it's so suggestive, so to speak."
"Oh! what did you think you saw then, Owen?" gasped Horatio, as,
chancing to fix his gaze on the other, he noticed him suddenly
elevate his gun, as though tempted to shoot the same.
Owen chuckled.
"It was only a frisky rabbit, after all," he announced calmly enough.
"I was just covering him to find out how easy I could nail the
rascal, if only I was out hunting game instead of a lost boy. And
we'd have had rabbit stew at the Dugdale home to-morrow, let me tell
you, Horatio, if I'd cared to let fly, for I had him covered
handsomely."
"Well, please don't do it in a hurry again, Owen," asked Horatio,
settling back once more, and hoping his throbbing heart might not
beat so loudly that any of his comrades could hear it pounding
against his ribs. "Remember this is no ordinary patch of woods we're
in right now. All sorts of stories have been told concerning the
country up here; and in passing through after nightfall we're doing
what a big bribe couldn't tempt any farmer's help to try. But, Hugh,
don't you think we must be getting pretty near that place by this
time?"
"Just about two-thirds of the way, Horatio," he was informed. "That
leaning tree we passed is exactly three hundred and thirty-seven
paces from the place we left the road."
"Well, what do you think of that for looking ahead, fellows!"
ejaculated Horatio. "Hugh here took all the trouble to count the
steps while passing through, the day he came up to examine the
ground. That's what I call preparedness, and I guess it counts in a
race, just as much as in getting ready for war."
Hugh laughed as though momentarily amused.
"Well, they're both in the same category, Horatio, if you look at
things from the right point of view; rival armies and rival athletes
contending for the prize which in both cases would mean victory.
Looking ahead is a useful hobby, and it's served me handsomely on
many an occasion. I consider no time wasted that is employed to
insure success; even if you never need the information you've picked
up it adds to your stock of knowledge; and no fellow can have too big
a fund of that."
"Then we ought soon to be getting there, at this rate," continued
Horatio. "Let's hope nothing happens to our old car. We'd have a
jolly walk back to town if we broke down here and couldn't fix
things. I'd prefer making a fire and spending the night in the woods
to taking such a tramp, which would debar us from all hope of making
that big run to-morrow."
"With K. K. out of the game the chances for Scranton High begin to
flicker some," admitted Julius. "He was showing unusual stamina
right now, and secretly I was backing K. K. to bring home the bacon
for our school. Of course, with Hugh and Horatio and 'Just' Smith
still in the ring it isn't hopeless by any means; but they do say
those Allandale chaps have unearthed several wonders at long-distance
running, and they are dying to knock Scranton down this time."
Again Hugh stopped the car and bade the others listen.
"It isn't that I thought I heard anything suspicious, fellows," he
went on to explain, when they manifested a certain amount of
excitement; "but, on general principles, I think we ought to stop
oftener, and find out if there's anything doing."
After testing their combined hearing to the limit, and without any
success, Hugh again started up. It was Thad who spoke next, and
apparently he had been considering something that he would like to
have made clear.
"What if we pass all the way through to the other road, without
learning a single thing, Hugh?" he went on to say; "do you mean to
give it up, and head for home then and there?"
"Well, I should hope not, Thad!" burst out Horatio; "we're none of us
built that way. Because a fellow gets a single knock-down in a fight
ought he to throw up the sponge right away, and own himself beaten?
Why, we started out to find K. K., and sleep isn't going to visit my
eyes this night until we succeed. That's the way I look at it, and I
reckon the rest of you are in the same boat."
"If such a thing should happen, Thad," said Hugh, sturdily, "we'll
simply turn around and come back again; only, under the new
conditions, some of you will have to turn out with the lanterns, and
search alongside the road as we go slowly along."
Horatio gave a gasp that was plainly audible.
"Do you really mean, Hugh," he went on to ask, in a voice that
trembled more or less despite Horatio's effort to control the same,
"that you half expect to find K. K. lying alongside the road, either
dead, or else insensible from the pain of his broken leg?"
"Well, I wasn't just thinking things would be as bad as all that,"
Hugh hastened to say. "What I had in mind was the chance of coming
on his footprints, and then trying to follow the same. We could
easily tell them, for K. K. had on his running shoes, you remember.
By tracking him, step by step, don't you see, we could tell just
where he met with his trouble, even find out, perhaps, the nature of
his accident, and continue to follow him up."
"That would suit me first rate," said Julius, promptly; "and my fine
electric hand-torch might come into play with a vengeance. There's
nothing better going for following a trail in the dark, because the
light is focussed, you see, on a small compass. Why, you can pick up
night-walkers like everything when the fishing season's on, by using
a flashlight. I could even find a needle in a haystack, I believe,
with one of these jim-dandy contraptions."
"All right, Julius, we'll appoint you head tracker, then," chuckled
Horatio. "But, after all, perhaps we'll run across our comrade yet,
before we get out of this tangle. We're about to come to the most
critical point of the entire trip, remember, for the old quarry is
just ahead of us."
Horatio chanced to be on the side of the car toward the quarry. He
was not spending nearly so much time now looking ahead, leaving that
task to his chums; even while talking he kept his eyes fixed upon the
dark expanse that represented the surrounding woods, anticipating
catching a glimpse of something, he hardly knew what, at any moment
now. Doubtless all those silly yarns retailed by the ignorant
gossiping farm-hands in the market-place in Scranton, while they
tried to outdo one another in matching fairy stories, must have been
circulating through Horatio's brain just then. The heavy atmosphere
of the deserted stone quarry, and its lonely surroundings, added to
the mysterious disappearance of K. K., combined to make him
peculiarly susceptible to such influences as see ghosts in every
white object that moves in the darkness.
This being the case with the Juggins boy it was not to be wondered at
that there could be traced a vein of actual gratification in his
voice when he suddenly electrified his companions by exclaiming:
"Hugh! fellows, I tell you I saw it right then, just as that Swanson
farmhand vowed to me he did once on a time this last summer--it was a
light, waved up and down, back and forth, and just like they teach
you when you join the Signal Corps, and learn how to wigwag with a
flag or a lantern. It came from right over yonder, where we all know
the old quarry lies! And I'm not fooling, either; cross my heart if
I am!"