THE ENEMY'S MOVE.
Roy's first feeling was one of indignation at the fellow's impudence.
"What do you mean by such conduct," he blurted out angrily. "Take me to
the aviation grounds at once, or----"
"That's just where we are taking you away from, young fellow," sneered
the man behind the pistol. "Ah! Don't move. I'm very nervous and if I get
excited this pistol might go off. It's very light on the trigger."
As he spoke the auto slowed down almost to a standstill, and the man who
had evidently been waiting for it, swung himself on the running board and
joined the others on the front seat. Like the driver, he wore a motoring
mask and goggles which effectively concealed his features, and yet to Roy
there was something familiar even about the muffled up figure. Once the
third man was aboard, the auto plunged forward once more at breakneck
speed. It rocked from side to side on the rough road as it flew along.
But the man with the pistol kept his weapon levelled at Roy throughout
all its jouncings and joltings.
Like a wise boy, Roy had concluded that it would be worse than foolish to
attempt any resistance to his abductors. So he sat motionless and silent
as the car tore onward through the night. He had not the least idea where
they were, nor for what place they could be bound. Nor had he yet had
time to think over the reason for this bold kidnapping.
Now, however, it was plain that the object of the trip was to take him to
some place and hold him prisoner till the aero race was over. It struck
him with cruel force that, unless he could manage to escape, the object
of the expedition seemed very likely to prove successful.
All at once the car struck a bump in the road with a violent wrenching
thud. It leaped into the air like a live thing while a frightened shout
burst from the throats of the men on the front seat. Mechanically Roy
gripped the sides of the tonneau to avoid being thrown out like a missile.
The next instant, with a rasping grind and a sickening swaying and
jouncing the car tore full tilt down the side of the road, which, at this
point, was banked, and fetched up motionless and hub-deep in a pool of
dark water.
"Don't let the kid escape," came a shout from the man who had boarded the
car on the roadside, as the auto ceased to move.
But before the words had left his lips Roy had perceived that the water
in the pond was not much more than knee high. Quick as a cat he was out
of the tonneau before any of the others had time to collect their wits.
As the man shouted his warning the lad struck out through the oozy
ground, seeking, with every ounce of his strength, to shroud himself in
the darkness at the pond edge before the pistol wielder could locate him.
But he had not gone more than a few steps when--
Bang!
A red flash cut the night behind him and a bullet whistled by his ear.
"Look out, you fool, you don't want to kill him," came a voice behind him.
"Gid Gibbons," flashed through Roy's mind. He was almost at a thick clump
of alders now. As he heard the splashing of the bodies of the abductors,
as they took to the water after him, he plunged into the coppice and
pushed rapidly on into its intricacies.
Shouts and cries came from behind him, and suddenly a blinding shaft of
white radiance cut through the blackness. They had turned on the
searchlight of the car in a determined effort to locate their escaped
prisoner.
As the light penetrated among the maze of alder trunks, Roy threw himself
flat. While his pursuers hunted about, muttering and angrily discussing
the situation, he crouched in his shelter, hardly daring to breathe.
After what seemed an eternity of suspense he heard one of the men, whose
voice he seemed to recognize as that of the pistol carrier, angrily
declaiming.
"Aw, what's ther use, ther kid is a mile off by this time, worse luck."
"Hush, don't talk so loud," came another voice. "You don't know who may
be about."
"Well, we'd better be getting that car out of the mud and making
ourselves scarce," came in the tones which Roy was certain were those of
Gid Gibbons. "If there's a hue and cry raised about this and they find
that car stranded here they can easy trace us."
"That's so," was the response in the voice of Jukes Dade. "Come on, boys,
we'll get her out of this confounded slough if we can, and get back to
town."
The voices died away as they retreated, splashing like water animals
through the mud and ooze.
As silence fell once more Roy straightened up from his unpleasant
situation and looked about him. The night was starry, and above his head
he could see The Dipper. He knew that the outside stars of this
constellation pointed to the North Star and he soon had the latter
located. This gave him the points of the compass, and figuring that
Acatonick must lie to the east of his present position, he struck out in
that direction as nearly as he could.
He had no idea of the time, to his great chagrin, for in his haste to
obey the forged summons to the flying track he had forgotten to bring his
watch. In fact, in his hurry, he had slipped into an old coat, the
pockets of which contained nothing more useful to him than a packet of
chewing gum. He slipped a wad of this into his mouth to "keep him
company" as he expressed it to himself, and grittily went forward.
The wood ended presently, and he found himself in a field with woods on
all three sides, except that on which the swamp impinged. Little as he
liked the idea of plunging into pathless woods, with nothing to guide him
but the stars, as he glimpsed them through the trees, there was no help
for it. Go on he must. Crossing the field rapidly he soon reached the
border of the tangle and entered its black shadows. Keeping as straight a
line as he could he hastened forward, and to his great delight, soon saw
that the trees were beginning to thin out, and that beyond lay,
apparently, open country.
"Hooray, I'm bound to strike a road before long now," thought Roy
gleefully and quickened his pace.
He had not gone more than a few paces, however, when through the trees he
heard a strange sound. It was a clinking sound like the rattling of a
chain.
The boy was bold enough, but the mysterious sound on the edge of that
dark wood caused his pulses to beat a bit quicker. What could it be?
Gradually, as he stood still among the trees, the sound drew closer.
"Ghosts in story books always clank chains," thought Roy, to himself.
"Now if I believed in such things, I----"
He stopped short abruptly, as, from behind a clump of brush in the
direction from whence the clanking had proceeded, there suddenly emerged
a tall form all in white.
"Good gracious!" cried Roy, considerably startled by the sight of this
sudden apparition. "I do believe----"
But at the sight of the white form he had involuntarily given a backward
step. Without the slightest warning he felt the ground suddenly give way
under his feet, and his body shot down through space.
Down, down he shot, a hundred mad thoughts twisting dizzily in his head.
All at once his progress was arrested. Before he could realize what had
happened he felt a flood of icy cold water close over his head and a
mighty ringing and roaring in his ears.
But Roy was used to diving, and he automatically, almost, held his breath
till he shot to the surface again. Then he extended his hands and found
that his fingers encountered a rough stone wall of some kind.
"I'm in an old well," gasped the boy as the truth suddenly flashed across
him. He looked upward. Far above him, as if seen through a telescope, he
could see the glittering stars. They were reflected, also, in the
agitated water about him.
Somewhat to his astonishment, for the thought of death itself had been in
his mind as he hurtled downward, Roy found that he was unhurt. But his
present position was by no means one to invite congratulations. At the
bottom of an old well in the midst of lonely fields he might stay a long
time before rescue would arrive.
And in the meantime,--but Roy bravely put such thoughts resolutely out of
his head, and began to feel about him to see if it was not possible to
find some rough places in the sides of the excavation by which he might
clamber to the surface. But his fingers only encountered stonework set
far too smoothly to be of any service to him.
Then he suddenly noticed what he had not observed before, and that was
that a rope depended from above, trailing its end down into the water. It
was too thin to bear his weight, but the boy thought he could utilize it
to keep himself above the surface without effort.
Tying a loop knot in it he thrust an arm through the noose and found that
he could sustain himself very comfortably. Then he began to shout. Loudly
at first--and then more feebly as his voice grew tired. But no answering
sound came back to him.
For the first time since he had found himself in his predicament cold
fear clutched at the young aviator's heart.
What if nobody heard him and he was compelled to remain at the bottom of
the old well?
As this thought shot through his mind Roy noticed, too, that a deadly
chill was beginning to creep up his limbs. He shivered waist deep in the
chilly water as if he had an ague.