THE CRY FOR HELP
After the fight in the cave Dan and Billy were sore and tired, and their
wrists and ankles very painful. But it seemed to them both that it was
their business to follow the outlaws, if they could, and learn what
disposition was made of the “treasure box,” as Billy insisted upon
calling the chest that had been hidden under the hearthstone in the
cave.
Besides, the boys were very anxious about their new iceboat. The
robbers, if they used it to get to the mainland, as they evidently
intended, might hide the _Follow Me_ where Dan and Billy would be unable
to find it before the races, a week away.
“Though right now,” Billy remarked, as they crept out of the passage
leading into the cavern, “it doesn’t look as though we’d hold iceboat
races next week on the Colasha. Goodness, Dan! did you ever in your life
see so much snow?”
“It’s worse on this side of the island, don’t you see?” said his
brother. “The snow is drifting this way. The high back of the island
breaks the wind and the snow piles up here in drifts.”
“But our _Fly-up-the-Creek_ is on this side of the island,” complained
Billy. “She’s buried a mile deep, I bet!”
The boys started up the hill, but the snow beat down upon them so
heavily, and the wind was so boisterous, they were glad to lock arms.
Although Dummy made a “bad botch” of talking, as Billy said, he proved
to be pretty muscular and the trio got along famously until they reached
the summit.
They had come in this direction because Dan pointed out that it was not
likely the three robbers, burdened with the heavy box, would face the
gale either with the _Follow Me_, or afoot.
“And I don’t believe they will go towards Riverdale,” he observed. “You
see, they knew old John Bromley was stirring things up over the ’phone
when they burst into his house and captured him. Although they left him
bound, they realized that whoever John was ’phoning to would look the
old man up pretty quick.
“Now, naturally, the whole of Riverdale would be aroused by the
robbery—and it sure would be if we hadn’t started right out after the
_Follow Me_. Even now perhaps Bromley has called people up on the ’phone
because we are out in the storm so long.
“So, it seems to me,” concluded Dan, with an effort, “that the three
robbers are more likely to try for Meadville and the railroad.”
Dummy nodded violently and tried to speak his agreement with this
statement. Billy only grunted. He had all he could do to plow through
the drifts without wasting any breath in discussion.
They got over the ridge and slid down the steep rocks for several feet
until the island itself broke the force of the gale. The wind did not
blow directly across the island, but the slant being from up stream the
heights acted as a windbreak.
“Now where?” asked Billy, with a sigh.
“Listen!” commanded his brother, unexpectedly.
Dan held up his hand and all three strained their ears for several
moments. Then, simultaneously, the trio heard again the sound that had
startled Dan. It was the distant explosions of the motor—the motor of
the _Follow Me_!
“They have taken her,” growled Dan. “There they go,” and he pointed up
stream.
“But they’re not so far away,” returned the surprised Billy. “And it’s
more than an hour since they cleared out and left us in the cave.”
“I guess they had trouble in digging the boat out of the snow and
getting her started. It’s a wonder the motor wasn’t frozen up on a night
like this.”
It was in a sort of lull of the blizzard that they heard the explosions
of the engine. Now the wind and snow swooped down again, and muffled the
sound. But Dan started straight down the hill.
“Are you going after them?” yelled Billy.
“Surest thing you know!”
“I believe we’re crazy! We’ll be lost in this snow.”
“Not much we won’t,” declared his brother. “I’ve got a compass.”
He showed it—a very delicately adjusted instrument which he kept in a
case in his pocket. At the edge of the ice (there was not so much snow
on this side of the island) he waited to hear the sound of the engine
again. Then he took his bearings, and at once set forth into the storm.
This time Dan led, Billy hung to his coat-tail, and Dummy brought up the
rear. Thus, keeping literally in touch with each other, they would not
be likely to drift apart while battling with the elements. And battle
they actually had to.
The moment they got from under the shelter of the island the snow and
wind almost overwhelmed them. Never had the boys experienced such a
gale. Sometimes they were beaten to their knees, and had they not clung
together, one or the other surely would have been driven away and lost.
“No wonder those men have gotten no farther from the island!” yelled
Dan, with his lips close to Billy’s ear.
“Right-O!” agreed the younger boy. “And can we catch up with ’em?”
“We don’t want to; we want to trail ’em,” returned Dan.
On they pressed, taking advantage of every flaw in the gale. Had it not
been for Dan’s compass they would have become turned about and lost
their way ere they had left the island behind them ten minutes.
The wind blew between the points of Island Number One and the next above
it with such force that the boys made very slow progress. When at last
they got in the lee of the second island, they stopped to breathe, and
to listen.
They did not at once hear the exhaust of the engine on the _Follow Me_;
but they _did_ hear something else. Voices were shouting—seemingly far
out on the frozen river.
Again and again they heard the sounds. “Ahoy! Ahoy!” came plainly to
their ears. Then—and much to the Speedwells’ amazement—the boys heard
their own names called—and in accents whose note of peril was not to be
doubted:
“Dan! Billy! Help us Dan and Billy Spe-e-e-dwell! He-e-e-lp!”
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