CHAPTER XXVI.THE CHASE.
I came to my senses with a start. The cooling waters were dashing over my right arm. A wave broke over my face, and I sat up in a dazed fashion.
I was on a rock some distance from Rock Island. How I had come to the spot I did not know, nor did I at that moment give the matter a thought. There was a strange ringing in my ears and an ache in my head.
Slowly I arose and gazed about me. It was early dawn, and I judged it was four o’clock, or a little after.
My first thought was of the man who had deprived me of my senses. I looked towards the island, and then over the expanse of the lake, but Mr. Norton was nowhere to be seen.
The Catch Me, too, had disappeared, and I at once concluded that the three men had taken the craft and made for the mainland.
I upbraided myself for having allowed my guardian to discover me and treat me as he had. Through thisthe trio had escaped, and there was no telling where they had gone to.
The distance to the island was fully a hundred feet. During the time I had been lying upon the rocks the lake had been growing rougher, and it was with great difficulty that I made my way to the shore, and even then the wading covered me pretty well with water.
Once on the island again, I sat down on a fallen tree to review the situation. Both the boat and the robbers were gone. What was to be done next?
I wondered if Ford had got back from Bayport or the Bend, and I was just on the point of going on a tour to find out, when there was a noise behind me, and the mill-hand appeared.
“So I have found you at last!” he exclaimed, as he rushed up. “Where have you been? and what has become of the men?”
“The men have gone, and I don’t know where,” I replied. “It’s a long story. Did you bring any one with you?”
“Yes; here is Pointer, and Captain Harley from Bayport.”
“I’ve found him!” he called.
And the next instant the Bend constable and the Bayport captain of police appeared upon the scene.
I told my story in all its details. It was listened to with close attention, and all joined in asking me a great number of questions.
“We have lost much time in hunting you up,” said Pointer. “Those fellows have had the chance of a fine start.”
“Have you any idea which way they headed?” asked Captain Harley.
“Which way is the wind?”
“North-east,” replied Ford.
“Then that’s the way they went. Their one idea was to reach shore as soon as possible, and that’s the way to do it.”
“I believe that you are right, Reuben,” responded Pointer. “I move we get aboard of the Mary, and steer in that direction.”
“I agree,” said Captain Harley.
Ford led the way at once to the cove in which the boat lay at anchor. The sail was hoisted, and a quarter of an hour after the party had found me we were on the move.
“The question now is, which way did they go?” said Ford, as he took the tiller. “Did they steer for Hammer’s Point or Loadhead?”
“One is as near as another,” said Pointer.
“My idea is that they steered for some point between the two places,” I ventured to suggest. “They knew better than to sail right for any town on the lake; for the news has spread, and they would be likely to be captured as soon as they set foot on shore.”
“That’s so,” said Captain Harley. “Most likely they landed in the woods, and came into town by a back way.”
“I advise that we look for the boat at a point equally distant from both places,” I went on. “If we can find the craft, we may get on the trail at once.”
This was deemed the best thing to do, and Ford changed the course accordingly.
“Perhaps they didn’t go to any town at all, but struck the road for Chester,” said Pointer. “Of course they wish to get away as far as possible.”
It took us all of an hour and a half to come within easy sight of the north-east shore of Rock Island Lake. We had hardly done so before Ford uttered a cry.
“That is where they landed! See, there is the Catch Me now!”
Everybody looked, and we saw that he was right; for there, in an inlet, was the sloop tied to a clump of bushes. In two minutes we had reached the spot, and jumped ashore.
“Here are the marks of their feet,” said Pointer; “but see, they seem to spread out, as if the three of them separated.”
“That was their intention,” I answered.
“Most likely. It is rarely that criminals keep together after having committed a crime,” put in CaptainHarley. “To hunt them down, we, too, will have to divide into three parties.”
“Suppose I go to Hammer’s Point?” said the constable.
“All right,” replied the captain. “I will go to Loadhead, while you, Stone and Ford, can keep a watch along the roads just beyond these woods.”
“I am willing,” I said.
“And so am I,” put in Ford.
“If either of you discover anything, report it to Pointer or me at once.”
This we agreed to; and a moment later Ford and I picked our way through the rank undergrowth to the main road some two or three hundred feet beyond.
“I’ll bet a new hat that one of the chaps came this way,” said my helper to me when we were some distance on our way.
“What makes you think so?”
“Because the bushes are pushed aside in a number of places.”
“That might have been done by a stray cow, Dan.”
“Cows don’t stray away as far as this,” he laughed.
“Perhaps not. Well, let us hope we are on the right track.”
It did not take us long to reach the main road. We looked up and down. Not a soul was in sight.
“I did not expect to see any one,” I said. “They have several hours’ start of us.”
“Which way shall we go?”
“I hardly know. If I am not mistaken, there is a farmhouse just beyond the bend. Let us ask for information there.”
“By all means.”
It did not take us long to reach the place mentioned. We found an old man hard at work in a field beside the shed, which also stood near the road.
“Good-morning,” said I. “We would like a little information.”
“Morning, young man. Well, what’s it ye want to know?”
“Did you see or hear any one passing down the road some time after three o’clock this morning?”
“Reckon I did, about four o’clock.”
“Did you see or hear the party?”
“Both, young man,” and Farmer Holden grinned.
“What time, please?”
“Close onto five o’clock. It was a tall, slim man. He stopped at the shed just while I was milking the cows.”
“A tall, slim man!” I cried. “And did he wear a funny shaped hat?”
“Well, I reckon the hat was the first thing I noticed,” was the reply. “It was the oddest thing I had seen in these parts for quite a spell.”
“It must have been Mr. Norton!”