CHAPTER XIV.A HOT CHASE.
"Oh, wait a minute!" exclaimed Scudder, struck by a sudden, thought as he was turning away. "That letter."
"What letter?"
"The one I wrote you."
"What about it?"
"Better let me have it."
"What for?"
"Well, you know it might happen to fall into the hands of somebody who would make trouble."
"No danger of that."
"All the same, I’ll feel better if you pass it over. You can’t have any use for it now."
"Why, of course not; but I hope you don’t think I’d throw you down by giving it up?"
"Certainly not," said Uric, as he rubbed his chin and assumed a smiling air; "but it’s best to be safe."
"I don’t believe I have it here," said Glennon, feeling in his pockets and bringing out some letters and papers. "If I have, you are welcome to it. I’ve got a lot of trash here that don’t amount to anything."
He commenced running the letters and papers over, tossing some of them aside in a careless manner.
"Of course," said Scudder, "I didn’t sign my name to the letter, and I did disguise my handwriting; still, I’d rather see the thing burned, and then I’ll feel safe, for my word is as good as anybody’s."
"Well, here it is," said Glennon, handing the letter over.
Uric drew a breath of relief as he seized it.
"We’ll soon fix that," he said, producing a match. "I’ll burn the thing right here."
As he struck the match and prepared to apply the flame to the letter the head of a ragged, freckled-faced lad of fourteen rose and peered down over the edge of the lumber-pile. The boy was lying flat on his stomach on top of the timber, where he had listened to all that passed between Scudder and the fellow from Hudsonville.
The eyes of the boy glistened and seemed to be measuring the distance from the pile of lumber to the spot where the worthy pair were standing. With a look of longing he gazed at that letter, while his fingers worked nervously.
"Confound it!" exclaimed Scudder, as a gust of wind blew out the match.
He struck another, and just then a rough-looking man appeared in the yard, saw the two young boys, and instantly cried:
"Here, there! what are you fellows doing? Youhave no business smoking or lighting matches in this yard. Get out of here, or I’ll have you both arrested!"
While the attention of Scudder and Glennon was turned toward the man, the boy rose softly, slipped over the edge of the pile of lumber, dropped like a cat to the ground, and darted forward.
In a twinkling he had snatched the letter from Scudder’s hand and was off as fast as he could run. Uric uttered an exclamation of astonishment and dismay.
"Here! here!" he shouted. "Stop, you young rascal!"
"Stop me!" invited the boy.
"I’ll stop you!" snarled Uric, as he started after the lad. "Come on, Glennon! I’ll give you five dollars to help me catch that brat!"
It may be this offer tempted Glennon, or perhaps the fellow thought it best to get out of the yard before the man could get hold of him; anyhow, he started with Scudder in hot pursuit of the running boy, who was making off as fast as his legs could carry him.
"I know that young whelp!" grated Uric, remembering his experience with the boy and the dog in the woods. "I owe him a score, and I’ll willingly give five dollars to settle it."
The boy looked back at them and whooped gaily,kicking up his heels. He waved the letter over his head, tauntingly yelling:
"Don’t you wish you had it?"
"I’ll get it!" panted Scudder. "Run, Glennon—run! I’ll surely give you five dollars if you catch him!"
"Then he’s my meat!" said the Hudsonville chap, as he sprinted after the boy, who had reached the road and was making off toward The Harbor.
Glennon was a swift runner, and he soon led Scudder, whose wind had been impaired by cigarette-smoking.
The boy quickly realized that it would not be an easy thing to get away from one of his pursuers, and he set his teeth and ran as if his life depended on the effort. Over the crest of the rise they went, and started down the road toward The Harbor, a huddled collection of old buildings and decaying wharves.
At one time this had been the main part of Fardale village, but with the advent of the steam railroad there had come a change, and the respectable portion of the town had "moved over the hill."
Straight for the old wharves ran the lad with the letter, Glennon seeming to gain on him each moment. A few rough people about the old huts looked on in languid interest. An old woman, with her apron thrown back over her shoulder and her hands on her hips, stood by a rickety gate and laughed.
Straight to the nearest wharf Glennon and Scudder pursued the boy. An old vessel lay at the pier, and the lad leaped onto her deck. Glennon followed, and Scudder was not far behind.
"Now we’ve got you!" cried Glennon triumphantly.
"In your mind!" flung back the boy, as he dodged round the cabin of the vessel.
The Hudsonville chap pursued him round, the boy laughing tauntingly.
"Head him off the other way!" cried Glennon to Scudder.
"All right," said Uric. "Let me get my hands on him! Won’t I make him sick!"
But the lively lad darted away from the cabin, avoiding both of his followers.
"You fellers are too slow!" he grinned, as he thumbed his nose at them from the forward deck.
"I’ll show you how slow I am if we ever catch you!" grated Uric.
As they charged for him, the boy suddenly ran up the shrouds like a monkey. The shrouds were rotten, however, and threatened to break beneath his weight.
"Come on!" invited the freckled youngster. "Come on up!"
"Come down!" snarled Scudder.
"Come up and bring me down!"
"I’ll bring you down without coming up!" declaredUric savagely, as his hand went round to his hip pocket. He drew a revolver.
"If you don’t come down," he said, pointing the weapon at the boy, "I’ll shoot you!"
The boy was frightened now, but he went yet higher on the shrouds.
"Stop!" cried Scudder. "I’m not fooling! By the blazes! if you don’t come down, I’ll begin shooting!"
"Better come down, kid." said Glennon. "He can’t fail to hit you there if he fires."
But the boy had mounted to the cross-trees, where he suddenly caught a dangling rope. Before the two fellows below were aware of his intentions, the lad had wound a leg round that rope, and down he came like a streak alongside the mast.
Glennon jumped for him, but the boy struck the deck and dodged the outstretched hand of the Hudsonville youth. Then he again ran the length of the vessel, dodged round the cabin, and escaped over the side to the old wharf.
But Scudder was hot after the fugitive now, and it seemed that the youngster must be captured in a few seconds.
"Ain’t got me yet!" panted the boy, as he darted round a corner of the old wharf-building.
Scudder uttered an exclamation of anger at this, but followed the lad closely.
Between two of the buildings the lad disappeared.Uric plunged in there, and a cry of satisfaction broke from his lips, for he had the lad penned, there being a huge opening in the rotten flooring between the buildings.
"Now, I’ve got you!" grated Scudder, in triumph. "And I’ll give you just what you deserve!"
He jumped for the boy, who was standing on the edge of the opening. The desperate lad had not given up, however, and he suddenly crouched and leaped to spring across the opening.
Uric saw the boy’s feet slip on the wet and rotten planking, saw the little fellow fail to land on the farther side of the opening, saw him strike heavily against the timbers, and then go whirling downward.
The whirling body of the boy struck in the water beneath the old wharf.
"Where is he?" asked Glennon, behind Scudder.
"Down there!" answered Uric, pointing through the opening.
"Then he——"
"Tried to jump across."
"Failed?"
"Yes; slipped."
"Fell in the drink, eh?"
"Struck on the edge over there. Dropped back limp as a rag. Never made a sound."
"Stunned?"
"I think so."
"Great Scott! Perhaps he’ll drown!"
Glennon was on his knees peering down through the opening.
"See him?" questioned Scudder.
"No."
Uric knelt and looked down; Beneath the old wharf it was dark and slimy, with the running tide swashing against the green spiles. The sound of the water sent a chill over Scudder.
"Hey, boy!" called Glennon. "Where are you?"
His voice echoed hollow and ghostly beneath the wharf. There was no answer.
"This is bad!" said the Hudsonville chap, showing alarm. "I’m afraid he’s gone!"
"I’m afraid so myself," confessed Uric, a sensation of horror coming upon him. "But we’re not to blame."
"We may be blamed, just the same."
"Why?"
"Because we were chasing him. Hey, boy! boy! Answer, and we’ll help you out."
They listened. Swish-swash sounded the water, creeping about the slimy timbers.
"He should have come to the surface," said Glennon. "If he hadn’t been stunned, he would have risen at once. It’s likely he was able to swim. Most boys of his age are."
"If he didn’t come up——"
"That settles it!"
"What can we do?"
"Nothing."
On their knees beside that opening they looked at each other. Scudder’s weak face was very pale, and his trembling fingers fumbled at his chin.
"It’s a bad piece of business," he said huskily.
"Decidedly so," admitted Glennon.
"We’re likely to be blamed for it."
"Likely."
"But we’re not to blame. That boy was a thief! He had stolen a letter from me."
"You made a bad break when you pulled that revolver on him," said Glennon. "If anybody saw that——"
Scudder gasped.
"They might think we murdered him," he whispered, his fears increasing.
"They might," admitted Glennon.
"Of course we can swear that we didn’t."
"But I don’t fancy this kind of a scrape!" growled the chap from Hudsonville. "You got me into it!"
He scowled at Uric.
"Don’t make that sort of an excuse!" exclaimed Scudder. "If you hadn’t wanted to, you didn’t have to meet me. I hope you’re no squealer."
"I was a fool to meet you, anyhow!" said the other. "What has it amounted to? All you told me was of no consequence. We’d found out for ourselves that Merriwell was dangerous, and then we could have put him out of the game without your advice. You’re a pretty cheap kind of a chap, to go back on your own team to ‘do’ a fellow you hate."
"Now, don’t begin calling names! That kind of business won’t go down with me!"
"It’ll have to go down!" sneered Glennon, rising to his feet. "What are you going to do about it? You must know you’re a cheap fellow. Of course, if you had anything to tell me about the secret practise of your team, I was ready to hear it; but that didn’t make me think anything of you. All the while I regarded you as a poor tool, and that’s just what you are. If that boy doesn’t turn up all right, I’ll tell everything concerning the affair."
"You’ll blow on me?"
"I’ll tell the truth, as the best way out of a bad scrape, that’s all."
Uric caught hold of his companion’s arm.
"But don’t blow till you have to!" he entreated. "Perhaps the boy is all right. Perhaps he jumped in there to dodge us. I believe he did. I am pretty sure of it now. That is just what he did, and he’s hiding down there, or he swam off. Ha! ha! We’refoolish to get all worked up over it. The young rascal! He played a slick trick on us."
Glennon looked at Uric suspiciously, but the latter continued the bluff.
"If I had time," he said, "I’d stay right here and watch for him; but I’ve got to get back to the academy, or I’ll have trouble. Come on; we might as well give it up. The boy has fooled us."
He urged Glennon away, and so they departed.
Beneath the dark old wharf the water whispered and gurgled around the rotting, barnacle-covered spiles. The sound of retreating footsteps died out overhead.