THE VOYAGE OF THE ANN.
“I wouldn’t call that much of a joke!” Carl replied. “Turn out the light
and perhaps they won’t see us!”
“What’s the use?” the boy answered. “They’ve seen our light before this,
and they’ve heard us talking.”
“That’s right, kiddo!” a voice said in the darkness. “We’ve seen your
light and we’ve heard you talking. Now, if you’ll lay your revolvers on
the head of the barrel where you are standing, you’ll save us mussing up
the floor.”
“You win!” exclaimed Jimmie.
The boys deposited their automatics on the barrel and stood waiting for
the speaker to advance out of the darkness. When at last he made his
appearance the boys noted that he was exactly the type of the man who
had visited the camp on the previous day.
“We didn’t expect company here to-night!” the fellow said, taking the
electric from Jimmie’s hand and directing the circle of light on the
boy’s face. “Why didn’t you send in your cards?”
“Wasn’t any one to take them in!” grinned Carl.
The big fellow chuckled softly to himself and pointed to two casks not
far away. Following the motion the boys seated themselves.
“Where are your machines?” was asked.
“Say,” Jimmie broke in without answering the question. “Are you the man
who shot the bear yesterday?”
“I’m the man who shot the bear!” was the reply.
“I thought so!” answered the boy.
“You didn’t tell me where you left the machines,” insisted the other.
Jimmie explained that two were at the camp and one somewhere near the
peak unless the thieves had again removed it.
“What did you boys come over here for?” was the next question.
“To look up the red and green signals.”
The captor laughed softly to himself for a moment and then asked:
“Did you look them up?”
“We didn’t get a chance!” was the reply.
“What did you come into the country for?” asked the captor.
“To have a good time hunting.”
“You said something like that yesterday,” the man continued, “but I
didn’t believe it! I’ve less reason to believe in the truth of it now!
Boys out on hunting trips don’t travel in expensive aeroplanes, nor do
they wander about in the night, trying to read signals not intended for
them to understand. You’ll have to come again, boys!” he added.
“That’s all there is to it!” Jimmie returned. “We came here hunting.”
“For smuggled goods?” asked the other with a laugh.
“Never heard of smuggled goods in this section of the country!”
“I’m sorry you blundered in here, lads,” the man said, after a short
silence. “You’ve made us a lot of trouble. We’ve got to do one of two
things. Either get rid of you boys for good and all, or change our
entire system of operation.”
“I should advise the change!” grinned Jimmie.
“Look here!” Carl demanded whimsically, resolved to mislead the man if
it were possible to do so, “can you give us a line on a country where
there’s nothing but mountains and rivers and blue sky? This is the
fourth mountain trip we’ve made, and every time we’ve run into a lot of
people where none were supposed to exist.”
“That’s right!” Jimmie cut in. “When we landed in the valley we thought
we’d have the whole place to ourselves. Then you come along and rolled
the bear down on us, and asked a lot of impertinent questions. Then
three men steal our aeroplane so we can’t return to camp from our
midnight joy-ride. Then we see two men in front of a fire and hear
others coming down the gully. How many people are there around here,
anyway?”
“Quite a few!” laughed the captor. “In fact,” he went on, “I don’t think
you can find any spot on the American continent where you won’t find
more or less human beings.”
“What are you going to do with us?” asked Carl.
“Tell you what,” Jimmie cut in before the man could answer the question,
“if you’ll get the _Louise_ away from the thieves and go back to camp
with us, we’ll cook you the biggest bear steak you ever saw, and cook
you a cup of coffee that will hold up an iron wedge!”
“If you only hadn’t entered this storehouse,” the man said thoughtfully,
“your proposition might be worthy of consideration.”
“We’ll never say a word about the smuggled goods,” said Carl.
The man seemed inclined to consider this statement, but in a moment the
two figures who had been seen before the fire came into the cavern on a
run. They conferred with the big fellow for a few moments and then went
out.
“Now, boys,” said the man, who appeared to be custodian of the cavern,
“there’s trouble outside, and we’ve got to take you into the other arm
of the cavern and make sure that you don’t get away from us.”
“I don’t know who could be making you trouble,” Jimmie retorted. “You
mounted police fellows seem to have everything your own way up in this
country. Only,” he went on with a whimsical smile, “I never knew that
mounted policemen stood guard over caves full of smuggled whiskey.”
“That story about being mounted policemen did sound rather thin, didn’t
it?” asked the fellow.
“It was too thin for us to take stock in,” replied Carl.
“Well, come on, boys!” the captor said. “We may as well be moving back
to your private suite. You’ll be well taken care of for the next few
days. You fed me well and I’ll feed you well!”
“Are our friends outside?” asked Jimmie.
“That’s just it!” cried Carl. “I thought a short time ago that I heard
the motors of the _Ann_.”
“The sparking you heard probably came from the _Louise_,” suggested the
man. “All motors sing the same song.”
“Not much!” exclaimed Carl. “I can recognize the song of the _Ann_ as
far as I can hear it!”
“Well, come on!” the man exclaimed rather gruffly, “I’ve got to get you
boys out of sight! You’ll be safer farther in, anyway, for there may be
shooting. I’ll see you a little later on.”
The boys were conducted to a low, tunnel-like place leading out of the
south arm of the cavern. It was not a desirable apartment, by any means,
but the boys stepped inside without expressing the disgust they felt.
The walls were damp as if underground springs existed not far away.
“Now,” the big fellow said, “I’m going to leave a man here to guard you
boys. You’ll find he’s a pretty good sort of a chap, if you don’t try
any funny business with him. If you try to get away, you’ll probably
make the acquaintance of a clip of bullets!”
The guard referred to made his appearance in a moment. The boys saw
little except his face by the flashlight, and they were not at all
pleased with that. He motioned them farther back and sat down at the
entrance.
“Cripes!” whispered Jimmie. “He looks like he’d been eating something
that had caused a misery in his tummy!”
“Looks mad enough to bite nails!” agreed Carl.
The guard, sitting with the finger of light from the electric pointing
down the passage, turned it for an instant on the boys’ faces and
favored them with a most malignant scowl.
“Keep still, now, you fellows,” he demanded.
“All right,” laughed Jimmie, “we’ll be good!”
“I know what’s the matter with that fellow!” Carl declared in a moment.
“He’s got a hangover! He was probably spiflicated last night, and he’ll
be picking bumble-bees out of the wall in a minute if he don’t get a
couple of drinks. Do you see anything significant in that, kid?” he
added giving his chum a nudge with his elbow.
“He’s a tank, all right!” Jimmie agreed. “And he’ll be looking for the
joy water in about ten minutes. When he gets good and gay, we’ll make a
sneak! What do you think of our being down here in a hole like this,
anyhow, when we came out to ride on flying machines?” the boy added, in
a tone of disgust. “It’s just rotten, that’s what it is!”
“And we’ll get the razzle-dazzle from Ben, too!” complained Carl.
“Do you really think it was the _Ann’s_ motors you heard?” asked Jimmie,
in a moment. “If the boys are up in the machine, they ought to soon find
out what’s going on here.”
“If Ben is up in the machine, you mean. Mr. Havens isn’t able to take a
trip in the air and won’t be for several days.”
“That’s a fact,” Jimmie answered gravely, “and I’m afraid Ben can’t do
very much alone.”
In ten minutes the boys heard footsteps proceeding stealthily down the
cavern. The searchlight still showed at the entrance to the dungeon-like
place where the boys sat, but Jimmie seemed to think its round eye
remained too steadily on one point.
“Look here,” he said in a whisper to Carl, “this lovely guard of ours
has propped up the electric so as to make us think he’s holding it and
gone out after some of the funny stuff in the barrels!”
“Then we don’t need any one to tell us what to do!” Carl answered.
The boys moved forward and looked out into the passage. The electric was
propped against the wall and the retreating figure of the guard could be
seen at the point where the cavern was divided by the wall of rock.
“Put out the light and we’ll sneak along!” whispered Carl.
“Nix!” answered Jimmie. “We’ve got to let it burn until he turns into
the passage where the whiskey is. If he sees there’s no light where he
left one, he’ll come chasing back on the run.”
Directly the man turned into the north passage and then Jimmie shut off
the light. Together the boys moved softly toward the entrance. They
passed the junction of the two corridors with extreme caution for they
had no means of knowing how far into the interior the guard had
wandered.
When they came nearer to the entrance they saw a mist of daylight. They
moved faster now, for they knew very well that their figures were
outlined against the dawn. Should the guard suddenly make his appearance
he would not need to travel back to the dungeon in order to inform
himself of their escape.
“Do you hear the motors of the _Ann_ now?” whispered Jimmie.
“Not a sound!” was the answer.
“If we only had our automatics,” Jimmie wailed, “we could step out into
the gully with some confidence.”
“I don’t believe there’s any one out there!” declared Carl.
The boys, however, were not permitted to remain long in doubt as to the
situation in the gully outside the cavern. While they waited the guard
came running down the cavern shooting wildly as he advanced.
“Me for daylight!” shouted Jimmie.
When the lads reached the gully, they saw the _Ann_ hovering over the
mountainside. Her planes glistened in the sunlight, and she seemed to
the anxious boys to represent everything that was desirable, freedom,
breakfast, and the chance to sleep!
While they looked, however, the aeroplane shot away toward the valley. A
moment later the _Louise_ rose over the summit to the east and followed.
The report of a revolver brought the boys’ eyes back to earth again and
they saw three men rushing down the gully toward the camp-fire, which
still blazed dimly in the light of the morning sun. As they came nearer
to the boys, they leveled their weapons as if determined to prevent
further escape. Then additional shots came from somewhere. The boys
hardly realized the exact location of the shooters, and two of the men
crumpled down and rolled along the bottom of the gully.
The third man threw up his hands and faced about. The two aeroplanes
again circled over the gully and the boys saw Ben looking down from the
seat of the _Ann_. They could not distinguish the face or figure of the
aviator on the _Louise_ for she was now making for the summit.
What followed took place so unexpectedly and with such rapidity that the
boys hardly knew what was going on until three men sprang out of a
shallow depression on the east side of the gully and moved toward the
burly fellow who had been their captor a short time before.
They saw one of the men slip a pair of handcuffs over the wrists of the
man they had talked with in the whiskey cavern and point toward the
summit, over which the aeroplanes were now moving.