THE SECRET HIDING-PLACE.
When the two machines reached the camp they found Mr. Havens very
anxious over the long delay.
“I thought I had lost you all this time!” the aviator said. “I had
company for a time, but he’s gone now.”
“You came very near losing me, don’t you know!” DuBois exclaimed.
“And I did lose Carl!” Jimmie confessed.
“And I came near losing the _Louise_!” Ben added.
“And Terry here,” Jimmie cried pushing the crook forward, “lost his
stock of wet goods when he left the cave!”
Terry, who had been very nervous during the ride through the air, and
who now lay sprawled out on the ground as if he never intended to leave
solid earth again, gravely took two pint bottles filled with brandy from
his pockets and set them out on the grass at his side. Then he rolled
over and took a bottle of whiskey from another pocket. This he ranged
with the others standing them all in a row so that the firelight gave
their contents deep ruby tints.
“It’s a cold day when I get left for a drink!” he exclaimed, with a
cunning leer, as he pointed to the three bottles.
After the boys had related their adventures they proceeded to cook
supper, and while this was being consumed they discussed the situation
at the camp which DuBois had deserted.
“What’s the idea of accusing you of stealing that burro?” asked Jimmie
turning to the Englishman.
“That’s a beastly shame, don’t you know!” exclaimed DuBois.
“You didn’t steal the burro, of course?” asked Mr. Havens.
“Look here!” exclaimed the Englishman. “Do I look like a person who
would be apt to steal a mountain burro?”
“You certainly do not!” replied the aviator.
“Of course, it’s a frame-up!” declared Jimmie.
“What’s a frame-up?” asked DuBois innocently.
“When a man’s jobbed,” answered Jimmie, “they call it a frame-up!”
This explanation was no explanation at all to the Englishman, and so the
boys explained that in their opinion, the hunters were, for reasons of
their own, trying to send an innocent man to prison or cause him to be
lynched. When at last DuBois understood he nodded his head vigorously.
“That’s the idea, don’t you know!” he said. “It’s a frame-up, and they
want to job me! I’ll remember those terms, don’t you know!”
“Why?” asked Mr. Havens. “Why should they want to job you?”
“They think I know too much!”
“If you do,” cried Jimmie, “you haven’t told it to us!”
“Besides,” DuBois continued, “this Neil Howell caught sight of me bag
one day, don’t you know.”
“Now, it’s all as clear as mud!” cried Jimmie. “I know all about it now!
You ran away to escape being robbed of the bag!”
“Something like that, don’t you know!”
“I guess if you hadn’t run away,” Ben put in, “you would have been
dropped down a precipice some dark night!”
“Do you know,” asked DuBois innocently, “that that is just the way I
figured it out?”
“Well, you figured it out right,” Mr. Havens answered.
“What will they be apt to do with Carl?” questioned Jimmie.
“They won’t be apt to injure him,” DuBois replied. “They’ll get all the
information they can from the lad and turn him loose just before they
get ready to leave the country.”
“You think they’ll leave the country right away?” asked Mr. Havens.
“I think they will!” was the answer.
“You remember the sick man in the stateroom?” asked Jimmie.
“I never saw him, don’t you know.”
“You suspected there was something mysterious about the manner in which
he was being carried across the continent, didn’t you?”
“Indeed, I did!” was the reply.
“Did you know at that time, or have you learned since, that a
post-office inspector named Colleton had been abducted from the
post-office building in Washington?” continued the boy.
“I read about it in the papers at San Francisco.”
“Did you see in the newspapers in San Francisco a description of the
younger man who stood in the corridor at the door of Colleton’s room?”
“I think I did!” answered DuBois.
“When you found the sporty coat, the false beard, and the dickey with
the wing collar and the red tie, and the hat in the valise you bought of
the porter, did that remind you of anything?”
The Englishman nodded and waited eagerly for the boy to go on.
“You knew those things were in the valise you bought before you came to
our camp, didn’t you?” asked Ben.
“Indeed, I did,” was the reply, “although I tried to make you boys
believe that I had then discovered them for the first time.”
“I understand,” Jimmie said, “and I think,” he went on, “that I
understand your motive in telling that little white lie at that time.
You wanted to see what effect the production of the articles would have
on us, didn’t you? You suspected that we were here on some mission
connected with the disappearance of Colleton, but you weren’t sure!”
“That’s exactly right, don’t you know.”
“And you knew that if we were on such a mission, the appearance of the
articles in our camp would create a sensation!”
“Very cleverly stated, don’t you know!”
“Isn’t Jimmie the cute little Sherlocko, though?” asked Ben winking at
Mr. Havens.
“I’m going to get that kid a job on the New York police force!” laughed
the millionaire aviator.
“Don’t you do it!” advised Ben. “Let the boy lead a respectable life as
long as he can!”
“Before you came here,” Jimmie asked turning to the Englishman, “you
doubtless understood the motive of this man Howell in getting you away
on the hunting trip. You understood that he wanted to keep you out of
sight for a while?”
“Yes, I understood all that!”
“And now here’s the big question!” grinned Jimmie. “As the attorney for
the defense says in the criminal courts, I want you to consider well
before you answer. Do you know whether Colleton was brought into this
country or not?”
“I haven’t the slightest idea, don’t you know!”
“You believe with us that the man who was killed in the race was the man
who left the post-office building with Colleton, and that Colleton was
disguised in the articles you now have in your valise?”
“I think that’s quite plain,” answered the Englishman.
“But you don’t know whether Colleton was left in San Francisco, or sent
out on a voyage across the Pacific, or brought into British Columbia.”
“There has never been a hint of Colleton in the camp, so far as I know.
In fact,” he went on, “the men in the camp, as a rule, are business men
who know nothing about the abduction of Colleton or the motive of Howell
in bringing me here. That is the reason why I say that your chum will
not be injured in the camp.”
“I’m glad to know that they’re not all crooks!” Mr. Havens declared.
“At the time of the abduction of Colleton, don’t you know,” the
Englishman went on, “according to the reports in the newspaper, several
valuable documents were taken from his office.”
“Some very important documents,” Mr. Havens commented.
DuBois arose and walked swiftly to the tent to which he had been
assigned. In a moment he reappeared with the bag in his hand. He took
the articles it contained out one by one and laid them carefully on the
grass. His own possessions made a small heap, but the sporty coat, the
false beard, the hat, and the dickey with the wing collar and the red
tie made quite a pile.
“Did we miss something on the first search?” asked Jimmie.
“You didn’t make any search at all, don’t you know,” replied the
Englishman. “You didn’t look through the bag.”
The articles being all removed, he opened the mouth of the bag to its
full width and drew out a false bottom. Under the bottom lay several
folded papers which he proceeded to remove one by one.
“I can smell iodoform now, can’t you?” asked Jimmie.
“What do you mean by that?” demanded the Englishman.
“Didn’t they use iodoform in the private stateroom where the sick man
was?”
“How did you come to know that?” asked the Englishman.
“Smell of the papers!” advised Jimmie. “They used iodoform in the
stateroom, and these papers were opened and examined there! Do you begin
to see daylight?”
“Do you know why they used iodoform in the stateroom?” asked Mr. Havens.
“Is it possible that they wounded Colleton and found the use of the drug
necessary?”
“I don’t know about that,” DuBois answered, “but I do remember now that
there was a smell of iodoform whenever the man in brown opened the
stateroom door.”
“Now, let’s see the papers,” Mr. Havens suggested.
Jimmie got one look at the documents as they were being passed to the
aviator and jumped about four feet into the air!
“That’s pretty poor, I guess!” he shouted.
“What is it?” asked Ben.
“Looks to me like the papers stolen from Colleton’s office!”
The aviator took the papers into his hand and examined them intently for
a moment. Then he turned to Jimmie with a smile.
“You’re right!” he said. “These are the papers described in my
instructions! And they’re all here—every one!”
“Look here!” chuckled Jimmie. “If some guy should come down to New York
some day and steal the Singer building, and you should be sent out to
find it, and should get into a submarine and dive down to the bottom of
the China sea, you’d find the Singer building right there waiting for us
to come and get it!”
“That’s the kind of luck we’ve had in this case!” admitted Mr. Havens.
“Luck?” repeated Jimmie. “There ain’t any luck about it! We’ve just
loafed around camp, and taken joy-rides in flying machines, and the
other fellows have brought all the goods to us.”
“It strikes me,” Mr. Havens suggested, “that we ought to get rid of Mr.
DuBois and his hand-bag just about as soon as possible. I have no doubt
that the fellows over in the other camp recognized the hand-bag lost by
the man in brown.”
“And that means that they’ll knock DuBois’ head off if they get a
chance!” Jimmie cut in.
“It means that they’ll murder every person in this camp,” Mr. Havens
continued, “rather than permit the papers in the bottom of that bag to
get back to Washington. Mr. DuBois ought not to remain here another
hour!”
“What’s the answer?” asked Jimmie.
“How far is it to the nearest railway point?” asked the aviator.
“Field is not more than a couple of hours’ ride away,” replied Ben.
“Let me take him there to-night and dump him on board a train for the
east, bag and all!” exclaimed Jimmie.
“That’s what I was about to suggest,” Mr. Havens answered.
“But, look here!” interrupted the Englishman. “I’d rather stay and see
the bloody game to the finish, don’t you know!”
“I don’t blame you for not wanting to run away,” Ben declared.
“Think it over,” the aviator suggested. “At least the bag and its
contents must be taken out of the camp to-night. Mr. DuBois can go out
with it if he wants to.”
It was decided that the Englishman should accompany Ben out to Field and
make up his mind on the journey whether he would return to the camp.
They started away immediately, Ben promising to be back before daylight.
When he returned just before sunrise DuBois was with him and he bore an
astonishing piece of information.
“Here’s another extract from my dream-book!” exclaimed Jimmie.