“He’s half frozen. We’ll have to get him warm.” Jerry had meanwhile noted a small pile of wood heaped under the eaves of the narrow shelter, at the side of which lay the small ax which Ellick had missed after the raid on his kitchen. “It won’t matter now if anybody sees the fire.” Leaving his place at the man’s side, he stirred up the dying flames and placed a few more sticks upon them. “It’s stopped raining for a while, I think. We’ll bring him over here, where he can get warm.”
Skillfully they brought their prisoner, still wrapped in the poncho, to a sitting position at the mouth of the lean-to, close to the reviving fire. The man’s breath was coming more easily now. His eyes were open, and he watched their every move, without attempting to speak.
“Think of it, Jake,” Jerry went on; “he’s been in the woods now for four or five days, without any decent clothes, and only a little food to eat, scared every minute that he will be caught again. It’s no wonder he’s worn out.” He turned to the man. “When did you eat last?”
The one addressed shook his head. “I—don’t know. Last night—got some food—dropped it——”
“That was Stunt Night!” put in Jake. “Sherlock and I found some cans of tomatoes he dropped when you chased him. Say, if we only had—— By jiminy, I just thought!” He reached in his breast pocket. “I got a couple bars of chocolate to eat to-night on the picnic, and just remembered them now.”
The paper-wrapped candy he drew out was sodden and melted by contact with his body, but the man’s eyes fastened themselves on them with mute pleading as Jake tore away the tinfoil about the sticky mass.
“Here—help yourself. Don’t eat it too fast, though, or it may make you sick.”
With shaking fingers, their starving captive seized the proffered food, and wolfed it ravenously.
“Feel better?”
“I—I—— You boys are all right. Guess it’s no use. But—how did you find me?”
“We’re from Camp Lenape, across the lake. We’ve seen you before,” answered Jake; “once when I ran into you the time that crazy Sherlock Jones shot off his flashlight powder down by Tent Fifteen——”
The man nodded. “I got some food over there. I remember. I tried to find some clothes in a tent, but a big light went off, and——”
“—And you tangled up with me in the woods,” finished the boy. “Guess we were both pretty scared. Then, last night, Jerry here spotted you, coming down from the kitchen——”
“You know who I am?”
“Sure,” said Jerry. “You’re Burk. But say, you don’t look much like a thief and a jailbird. What did you do it for? I mean, how did you get in trouble in the first place?”
A smouldering fury came into Burk’s eyes. “I didn’t do it!” he cried. “Do you hear me? I’m not guilty! And for more than a year I’ve been penned up in that place—like an animal—an innocent man!” His voice had risen to a high scream which echoed through the dripping darkness of the forest.
“Say! You mean you——”
The man fell back, exhausted by his short outburst. “I don’t expect you to believe me,” he said wearily. “Nobody believed me. Nobody. But it’s true. There was a mistake, and everything was against me. Guess they were justified—I couldn’t prove I didn’t take the necklace. The evidence was too strong——”
“What necklace?” asked Jake with interest. “They said you stole a necklace somewhere?”
“Don’t bother him now, Jake.”
Burk sat up again. “I’m all right.” The warmth of the fire and the food they had given him seemed to have bestowed fresh energy. “I want to tell you, even if you don’t believe me. If I had been able to get away this time, I think I could have proved my innocence, but it was no use. But you boys, whoever you are, have been decent to me, and I want you to know I wouldn’t lie to you. By the way, what are your names? I’d like to know. Brothers, aren’t you?”
“Twins. I’m Jerry Utway, and this is Jake. But what about the necklace?”
Both boys had forgotten that they sat in the wet woods in the dead of night, far from their friends, who might miss them at any moment. They were intent only on hearing the story of this strange man.
“It was about a year ago,” began Burk. “I’d always spent most of my time in these mountains—my father was a hunting guide, and I became one, too, after I went through high school. I had a pretty good job as steward and caretaker of a place down on Canoe Mountain, west of Wallistown. It was a sort of hunting lodge, belonging to a club of sportsmen. I lived in the lodge all year round, and took out parties of deer-hunters and fishermen during the season. Well, at this particular time there was only one man staying at the lodge—a man named Collinge, a banker in the city. He was going out fishing that afternoon by himself, and asked me to take care of an expensive pearl necklace he had brought up with him. His daughter was driving up next day with some friends—it was her birthday, and he was giving her the necklace as a present. A party was planned, and I had to get things ready. As it happened, I had a touch of ’flu at the time—I didn’t say anything about it, as I thought it was just a bit of a cold, but I must have had a high fever that day. I took the necklace. He told me to guard it carefully, as it was quite valuable. That’s all.”
“But what happened?” prompted Jake.
“What happened!” repeated Burk in despair. “That’s the question I’ve been asking myself a hundred times a day, back yonder in the prison.” He shivered. “Mr. Collinge came back that evening and found me lying on my bed, raving with fever. The necklace was nowhere in sight. I couldn’t tell him a thing—I couldn’t remember what I had done with it; I’d been out of my head most of the time. Well, I don’t much blame him for getting angry and thinking I had hidden it, stolen it to sell later. He gave me until morning to produce the necklace or take the consequences of being a thief. When morning came, I was better—but no matter how I hunted all over the place, I couldn’t find the necklace.”
“And you couldn’t remember?”
“It was gone—that’s all. I was innocent—but how could I prove it? At the trial, Mr. Collinge was decent enough, even if he had lost a great deal of money; he asked the judge to deal with me leniently. But naturally everybody thought I had yielded to temptation, and was refusing to confess. Once in a thousand times, a jury will convict an innocent man. This was the one unlucky time. I went behind the bars.”
Burk stared at the flickering fire for several minutes, lost in unspeakable thoughts.
“Boys, don’t ever do anything that might lead to a prison cell. It’s—it’s—— Well, never mind that. I stood it, and I must stand it again, now you’ve caught me.”
“Where were you going?” asked Jerry curiously.
“Didn’t I tell you? I’ve had a feeling, all the time I was in jail, that if I could only get back to the Canoe Mountain Lodge, I might be able to—to find the necklace and prove I wasn’t guilty. I had a feeling I might remember——”
Jerry’s eyes were alive with enthusiasm. “You think if you got to the lodge, it might all come back to you?”
“That’s what I hoped. As far as I know, the necklace was never found. If that’s true, it must still be there. If I could only——”
“What do you say, Jakie?” Jerry Utway looked over at Jake, who nodded back.
The convict stared from one to the other. “What do you mean?”
Jerry jumped up, pounding his fist in his palm. “We’ll give you your chance—Jake and I will help you prove you’re not a thief! No matter what happens, you’re going back to Canoe Mountain and try to find that necklace! And we—we’ll go with you!”
The astonishing proposal of the twins took the man completely aback. He turned his head away. A choking rose in his throat, and he rubbed his eyes with the back of one hand. “Boys——” He swallowed several times before he could go on. “Boys, nobody’s ever had as much faith in me as you two are giving—— No use trying to tell you what it means to me, or trying to thank you—— But I couldn’t ask you to do it. Any help you give me will put you in reach of the law. No, I couldn’t do it. The game’s up, and I’ll just have to make up my mind to go back——”
“Here, that’s no way to talk!” put in Jerry with assumed roughness. “Now, forget everything, except that from now on, we’re going to do all we can to make you a free man.”
The twins were glowing at the prospect of new and more daring adventure. To protect Burk, to risk everything in a dash across country, in order to prove him guiltless of the crime for which he was condemned—here was a deed the thought of which set their hearts beating wildly!
Jake outlined their campaign. “You can’t travel until you’re fed and rested, Mr. Burk. And you can’t stay here—the prison guards will be through here in a few hours. We’ll have to hide you, somewhere near camp, where you can rest up for a while. To-morrow night we’ll start! Just leave everything to us!”
“The trunk room!” Jerry burst out. “That’s the place! Nobody ever goes in there—he can sleep all day to-morrow, and even the police wouldn’t think of looking right in the camp lodge!”
“Good idea, Jerry. Now, if you think you can move, Mr. Burk, we’ll start. Here it’s raining again, which is good—it’ll wash out our tracks.”
The boys helped the dazed man to his feet, and Jerry hung his poncho over his new friend’s shoulders before helping Jake to try and remove all traces of the little camp in the woods. The small fire was soon buried in mud and brush; the lean-to was pushed over and pulled apart, and the branches scattered as far as possible. Taking the ax, Jake led the way back along the muddy trail to the boat.
The little party found the shore of the lake without mishap, and pushed off through a steady drizzle. Burk seemed lost in a daze. Only once did he speak on the return journey.
“Did—didn’t you say something, back there, about a reward?”
“Sure,” the boy whispered. “You must have guessed they would offer some money for your capture. That’s why we’ll have to keep you out of sight all the time, until you find that necklace. Now, better not talk any more—that prison guard might spot us.”
The campus was undisturbed; no light showed anywhere through the rain. It was probable that the twins had not been missed, and stood a good chance of returning to their bunks undetected. Both boys were busily planning their new adventure, and first and foremost in their thoughts was the safety and comfort of the man they had promised to aid.
Between the pillars supporting the downhill end of the lodge, a loosely-boarded structure had been built next to the dark-room. This large space was used for storing the trunks, suitcases, and warbags which had served to transport the outfits of the campers from their homes. The trunk room was seldom entered during the season. Jerry’s idea of hiding Burk in this place, directly beneath the feet of the campers as they assembled for meals, was not in reality such a dangerous scheme. Unless he took to the open woods again, there was no other place on the Lenape campus which afforded such secrecy and protection. All the man had to do was to lie here snugly, resting and regaining his strength, and unless he made a suspicious noise, he might go undiscovered for some time.
Jake pushed the door open a crack and tiptoed softly inside. The others entered behind him, and Jerry snapped on his light. Their shadows stretched gigantically across the rough floor and scaled the heaps of piled trunks and suitcases. Dry, warm, protected, and seldom entered, here was a good refuge for the outlaw.
“If you hear anybody coming, you can hide behind a pile of trunks,” pointed out Jerry. “You can easily stay here until to-morrow night. Jakie, you see if you can make him comfortable. I’ll be right back.”
Jerry left them, and went to the kitchen. His hunch was a good one. On one of the tables he located a pile of pans and dishes which had been brought in by the late-returning hikers that evening. His guarded flashlight revealed that much unused food had also been returned. He found a pan half full of beans, an untouched loaf of bread, some butter and jam, and a can of pineapple which he opened before returning with his trove to the trunk room.
“Food,” he announced. “This will hold you down for a while, Mr. Burk. We’ll try to bring more to-morrow, if we can do it safely. In the meantime you can be having a long sleep.”
“I found a good place,” said Jake. He pointed to a far corner of the room, where an old, patched canvas, the remains of a worn-out tent, was folded to form a rough bed. Burk wore Jake’s sweater over his wet garments. The man had seized eagerly upon the food, and was stowing it away in short order.
“These boards may not be the softest bed in the world, but at any rate, it’s better than the wet ground on a night like this,” Jake went on. “I guess you’ll be able to sleep. But be careful not to stir around too much. All day to-morrow, until taps, there will be at least a dozen fellows around within a few feet of this place. And to-morrow night, when everybody’s asleep, we’ll come and get you.”
“And to-morrow, some time, we’ll smuggle in some decent clothes, and a razor, and everything,” added Jerry. “Anything else you want?”
Burk, his mouth full of food, shook his head.
“Well, then, good night! And to-morrow——”
The two boys went to the door. Burk rose and ran to them, seized their hands. His voice shook, and he made no effort to hold back the tears that welled in his eyes.
“Good night, boys—and God bless you! God bless you!”
When Sherlock Jones awoke in the cold, gray morning, a few minutes before Reveille, he had a feeling that something tremendous was going to happen that day. The first thing his prying eyes lit upon was one of Jake Utway’s boots, lying carelessly on the floor of the tent. The boot was caked with sticky black mud almost to the knee. He pondered this mysterious circumstance at odd moments during the morning, without any satisfactory conclusion as to what Jake might have been doing in the dead of night that would put his footgear into such a state.
His feeling that great things were impending returned to him again and again as the morning passed. The customary line-up for the flag-raising was held on the lodge porch, as the rain was still dripping from low-lying banks of cloud; but along toward morning swim-time the sky cleared slightly, and by lunch a watery sun had appeared, to dry up the muddy campus.
All the time Sherlock had been on the job. Not once had the Utway twins been out of his sight.
At lunch, however, he came upon another clue. Jake appeared to be unusually hungry; it seemed almost impossible for him to satisfy his appetite. The long-nosed detective did not link this fact with the further fact that Jake’s blouse, when he rose from table, bulged suspiciously in front.
After the meal, Sherlock moodily retired to the dark-room, his favorite spot in which to think over his information, and to “deduce” results therefrom. So far, he had little to go on.
He listened idly for a few moments to the song of the care-free black boy up in the kitchen. That brought to mind the recent robbery of the pantry. Might this have something to do with the Utway case?
A great light suddenly burst upon Sherlock Jones. A convict might be badly in need of food. And an escaped fugitive might well serve as a secret accomplice——
A creaking noise near him in the darkness brought him to wide-awake alertness. Sherlock strained his ears, eager to catch any further sound. Absolute silence followed. For a few moments the boy stood motionless; then he softly tiptoed to the door, and flung it open. The Utway twins were in sight, strolling easily down toward their tents.
They had come from the trunk room! It had been their footsteps he had heard. But what was their business there? Had they hidden something? Perhaps the swag of some midnight burglary, something that might incriminate them surely and swiftly?
Yes, the trunk room was assuredly the key to all the problems that confronted the amateur sleuth. Without making a sound, he stepped to the door of the trunk room.
It was a foolish step for young Detective Jones to make. Yet, whatever his other failings, Sherlock could not be accused of lack of courage. He turned the knob and pushed cautiously inside.
At first he could see little; it was not until his eyes were accustomed to the dimness of the room that he made out a heap of food on the floor, piled high on a paper napkin. Food! For whom? For what? He allowed the door to swing behind him, and bent forward to look more closely. He was not aware of a shadowy body that crouched at his side, tense, ready to spring on him from behind a heap of stacked trunks.
Sherlock Jones did not have a chance to cry out. A muscular arm circled his throat with a choking clasp. A bit of cloth was rammed into his open mouth; wiry arms clutched his own with a grip like that of a steel trap. His wild struggles were of no avail. He fell to the floor of the room, borne down by a strength greater than his own. As he fell, he saw—or did he dream?—that he was caught in the power of a stranger whose face was invisible, but on whose arm was tattooed the design of a flying eagle.
It was past ten o’clock that night when Jerry and Jake Utway tapped softly on the door of the trunk room. The door opened a crack.
“It’s us—the twins!” Jerry whispered urgently. “Are you all right?”
“Yes. Come in,” responded a familiar voice. The two boys, with a backward look into the starlit night, slid through the doorway, and Jake snapped on his flashlight.
They saw before them a stranger. No, it was Burk—but a different Burk, a man new-made in the few hours since they had seen him. Now, they could see that he was quite a young man, a being entirely different from the haggard, bearded fugitive they had rescued. During siesta hour, as they had promised, they had smuggled into the hiding-place not only food, but also a razor with which Jake methodically scraped his upper lip every two weeks or so. They had also made up a bundle of clothing extracted from their camping outfits. But they had not expected such a transformation as that which had produced this likeable young fellow who now smiled back at them in the rays of the lantern.
Burk had shed his drab convict’s clothing, torn and stained as it was. He was now attired in garments contributed by the twins, and wore a flannel shirt, black sweater under a Norfolk jacket, and Jake’s corduroy trousers. A pair of stout army shoes had replaced his sodden prison footwear. A cloth cap concealed his tell-tale cropped head; he would not dare to remove that cap where others might see him. His shaving operations had left a small, neat mustache on his lip, which gave him a cocky, cheerful look. In fact, the food and rest he had taken had done much to restore him to his old, care-free outlook upon life. This was a surprising Burk; he was actually grinning at them, as though his whole future did not depend upon the outcome of the adventure upon which they were about to embark.
“Is everything ready?” he asked.
“Well,” answered Jake slowly, “we’ve had to make a few changes in our plans. It’s this way. A goofy kid named Jones, in my tent, has gone and gotten himself lost somewhere. Our leader is worried to death about what might have happened to him—this kid is a nosy bird we nicknamed Sherlock, and is always fussing around trying to detect things. He didn’t show up for supper, and everybody’s been chasing all over the place ever since, trying to find him. We’re supposed to be looking for him now ourselves.”
“I think, from what you say, that I know the boy you mean. Well, he detected himself into some trouble.”
“You’ve seen him? You know where he is?”
“I do. If you’ll look over in the corner, there by my bed, you’ll find him safe and sound, though a little scared.”
The Utway twins pushed past the speaker, and tiptoed to the place mentioned. Sure enough; there on the canvas lay Sherlock Jones, flat on his back, his wrists pinioned behind him, a gag in his mouth held in place by his own handkerchief, above which a pair of pale eyes goggled through his thick glasses with a piteous, pleading look. For some hours past, the amateur sleuth had been expecting a gruesome death any moment from the mysterious stranger who had trapped him; now, at sight of the notorious Utway brothers, he thought his last hour had struck. He wriggled in his bonds helplessly. Through all the long time of his captivity, Sherlock Jones had come to the conclusion that he didn’t want to be a famous detective. If he ever got through this harrowing experience alive, he’d never shadow another suspect again.
“How—how did he get here?” gasped Jerry.
“I’m sorry for the poor chap, boys, but it couldn’t be helped. He was smart enough to find out where I was, and if I hadn’t tied him up, he would have had me caught in the wink of an eye! It was the only thing I could do.”
“Well, that’s not so good,” put in Jake. “Dog-gone it, why did he have to come snooping around right at this time? It’s a mess; it will make our getaway all the harder. I thought that all we would have to do would be to sneak out our stuff after Taps to-night, and hit the trail. But right now, half the camp is chasing all over the place, looking for this sap; if we try to get through now, they might easily spot us, and if we stay here, they might decide to look in here any minute. What’ll we do with him?”
“Yes, what?” Jerry echoed. “If we don’t leave pretty quick, we’ll be nabbed. Sherlock heard everything, and we don’t dare let him go now. Even if we leave him here, he’ll work loose sooner or later, and that will be even worse for us.” He glared at the prostrate Sherlock, the whole cause of this hitch in their carefully laid plans. “I guess we’ll just have to tie him tight and get as far away as we can before he’s discovered.”
“You two are ready to travel, then?” asked Burk.
“We couldn’t get our blankets, because everybody in the tent is awake and up,” said Jerry, “but that’s all right. We can start right away, sure.” Both twins wore khaki hiking breeches, woolen stockings, flannel shirts, and high shoes, and each wore a heavy mackinaw that would protect him well from the cold.
Burk’s tone was serious. “And you’re still determined to run away from your friends and go with me? Don’t you think it would be wiser to let me start off alone, and let me take my chance without involving you in my trouble?”
“Dead sure. We go with you. Honest, we can help you a lot—we know all the trails around here, and we can hike fine. We’re with you to see this through to the finish!”
Jake, during this whispered discussion, had been lost in thought. Now he broke out with the scheme that had occurred to him. “Listen! The only thing we can do with Sherlock is to take him with us! Sounds crazy, I know,” he went on, looking at their amazed faces, “but we can’t leave him here to let the cat out of the bag as soon as we’re started. If we can take him with us up the mountain and leave him somewhere, we’ll be far away before he can find his way back and break the news. What do you think? Anyway, we’ve got to do something right away; the longer we stick around here, the less chance we’ll have to get clear. The campers are buzzing all over the place like hornets; pretty soon the moon will rise, and we won’t be able to get ten feet without being spotted. Do we take him?”
“That might be the way out,” said Burk slowly. “It’s my fault that we’re in this fix, and I don’t want the poor fellow to suffer any more than he has to. Let’s go!” The delay was telling on the man’s nerves. He longed to get into the open, and start the dash for Canoe Mountain; each minute they lingered would bring them fresh difficulties. “Here, I’ll take the lad. You two lead the way.”
Without ceremony, Burk lifted the helpless Sherlock and slung him over his shoulder in the position known as “fireman’s lift.” The bound boy was too helpless to put up a struggle as he was borne away in this undignified fashion, and hung limply while Burk, with cat-like steps, made for the door in the wake of the Utway twins.
It was a fine night outside. The air smelled fresh and cool; later it would be edged with the chill of the mountains, but now it was soft and spicy with pine scents, and breathing it brought a recklessness to one’s senses. The lodge above the little party was dark, but several lanterns burned among the tents below them on the hillside, rivalling the far pale radiance of the constellations in the summer heavens. Taking care that not the slightest noise should disturb the watchful searchers scattered in the darkness about them, the twins led the way past the windows of the kitchen, scouted ahead as far as the side of the ice-house, and beckoned the burdened man to follow. A breathless dash, and they were in the cover of the low bushes that grew on the camp side of the wood-road, and here they paused a moment for breath.
Jake felt his brother’s fingers clutch his arm with a swift start.
“Look!” breathed Jerry. Coming down the path were four or five dim forms, their legs showing in the yellow pool of light from the big lantern that marched with them. Burk also saw the advancing squad. Unceremoniously he dumped his bound burden among the bushes, and flopped down beside it, just in time. The lantern was swung high over the bearer’s head, and a voice challenged them.
“Who’s over there?”
Jake recognized the tall, spare figure of his councilor. “It’s Jake!” he called. “Did you find anything, Mr. Avery?”
Jim Avery left the group a few steps, to meet them. Already he was dangerously close upon the hidden figures. “No, not yet. We were just up to the hospital tent. No sign of him. We’re going down to the dock again now. Hadn’t you boys better get to bed?”
“We can’t go to sleep as long as old Sherlock is missing,” responded Jake truthfully.
“Well, better go to the tent soon, anyway. And don’t get too far away from camp!”
The councilor hurried off to catch up with the rest of the search party. Jake and Jerry breathed sighs of relief as the light was taken from their faces, and they watched it bobbing off down the hill toward the baseball field.
“Whew! That was a close call! Jerry, I thought I’d yell if he came an inch closer!” Jake drew his sleeve across his brow. “Guess we can start again now, Mr. Burk. Can we help you any with packing Sherlock?”
Burk was already on his feet again, lifting the inert body to his shoulders.
“I can manage, thanks,” he whispered. “But as soon as we get out of the danger zone, I’m going to untie the poor chap. This must be hurting him. He can’t do any damage now, if we untie him. I’m sure sorry I had to lash him up this way.”
He fell in behind the two boys, now striking through the patch of cleared woodland that led to the road. Their plan was to follow the road for about half a mile, circle the farm where it ended, and from there head through the mountains southward, along the Lenape range toward Canoe Mountain. The night was yet young, and they hoped to put some miles between the camp and themselves before morning would force them to stop, rest, and hide from any possible discovery. A sallow tinge on the eastern horizon told them that the moon would shortly be rising, to light them on their fleeting way. Behind them trudged the man Burk, his burden heavy but his heart lighter than it had been for many a day, and the taste of freedom on his lips.
As they topped a rising knoll above the road, Jake Utway looked back. He could still see a few dancing lights, like will-o’-the-wisps over the camp.
“So long, Lenape!” he said softly, and headed up the road, on the first leg of their dash for Canoe Mountain. Something told him that he would pass through many hazardous passages before he again saw the familiar scenes of the camp by the lake. Their daring venture had taken them outside the pale of law, now; every man’s hand would be against them. There would be no ease for them until somehow, somewhere, they could prove that the courts of the land had pronounced guilty an innocent man.
In the far corner of Farmer Podgett’s meadow the little party stopped. They stood knee-high in tall grass by the fence, their legs spattered with dew. Burk leaned his helpless load against the fence.
“Listen, Sherlock,” said Jerry into his tent-mate’s ear; “if we untie you, will you promise not to yell or try to get away? It won’t do you any good now—we’re too far from camp for them to hear you. We don’t want to hurt you unless you’re stubborn.”
The captive nodded his head vigorously. He would promise anything in the world to get free of those cutting ropes that bound him, and the gag that almost stopped his breathing. Without more ado, Burk untied the handkerchief that held the gag, and worked loose the knotted rope that pinioned the boy’s arms.
“There, son!” he said. “That feel better? Let me tell you, I didn’t want to tie you up this way; I’m sorry I had to do it. No hard feelings?”
For some minutes poor Sherlock could not speak. Had he not been leaning against the timber fence, he would have toppled over to the ground, so stiff were his cramped muscles. Jerry rubbed his arms briskly, and tears came into Sherlock’s eyes as circulation returned to his aching wrists.
“There, take it easy, old man,” counseled Burk. “We’ll hike along slow, and you’ll soon limber up.”
“Where—where are you taking me?” asked the boy fearfully.
“Never mind now; you’ll find out later,” said Jerry. “Here, put on my mackinaw; you’re cold. Now, let’s be on our way.” He helped young Jones into the warm garment, and guided him along the fence to the gate. The four passed through, and were soon lost in the shadow of the woods again, heading southward.
A bright half-moon was rising over the tree tops, and its beams slanted through the leafy arches overhead, lighting their path. They followed a trail which the twins knew ran along the foot of the range for some miles, well above the rich farmlands below Lake Lenape. Podgett’s hounds bayed afar as they passed beyond the sleeping farmhouse. Jake Utway was in the lead; Jerry followed, his arm about the shoulders of their captive; Burk brought up the rear guard, silent-footed, watchful, awake. The pace was not brisk, as Sherlock was still unable to travel rapidly. Thus, in silence, they threaded the trail through the woodlands.
It was past midnight when Jake halted on a spur of hill. By the side of the road was a spring he knew of, and all the hikers refreshed themselves with an icy draught of its water. Off to their left they caught a glimpse of moonlight glinting on the face of the lake. Jerry shivered slightly; without his mackinaw, he felt the chill of the night winds.
“This is a good place to ditch Mr. Tagalong,” he observed. “Old Sherlock won’t find his way home from here easily.”
Sherlock, who had maintained a terrified silence during the march through the woods, now cried out in horror. “You mean—you’d leave me here? Alone? Please, Jerry, I never meant to do you any harm! Don’t leave me!”
“We can’t take you with us any farther,” said Jerry, cold-bloodedly. “We’ve got enough trouble ourselves, without bothering with you. We’re travelling light this trip.”
“But—but—I’d be lost! I’m lost right now!” he pleaded. “There’s probably a lot of bears in these woods. Do you want me to be eaten up?”
“There’s no bears around here,” Jerry answered disdainfully. “Come on, brace up, Sherlock. We can’t take you, and that’s that!”
Sherlock turned pleadingly to Jake. “You and me are tent-mates, Jakie! You won’t desert me up here, will you? We’ve been pretty good friends, haven’t we? Just tell me what you want me to do, and I’ll do it. I can hike fast, honest!”
Jake shook his head. “Sorry, but we’ve got a long way to go, and a big job to do.”
“I know! I heard what you said back at camp—you’re going to help this man get away from the police. Well, if you only don’t leave me, why, I’ll help too! I swear I will!”
Jake considered. “Think we could do it, fellows? I admit I hate to leave him up here; he might hurt himself, and never get back. He’s not a bad guy. We don’t dare let him tell what he knows, and maybe it would work out all right if we took him along.”
Jerry gave in. “All right; but he’ll sure have to travel to keep up with us. What do you think, Mr. Burk?”
Burk shrugged. “I don’t very well see what else we can do. You know who I am, son?”
“I don’t care if you are a—a convict! You said you were sorry you had to tie me up, and I believe you! If I can help you get away, I’ll do it!”
“You don’t understand,” explained Jake. “Mr. Burk is not trying to make a getaway. He wants to get a chance to prove he’s not guilty.”
“Then——”
“We’ll tell you everything later. In the meantime, you can come along with us and take your chance like the rest. But if you make one move to give us away——” His unspoken words carried a threat that Sherlock did not dare ignore.
“I’ll come!” Young Detective Jones was feeling better already. After all, if he could not expose a desperate criminal, the next most exciting thing was joining that criminal’s band in an effort to baffle the forces of the law. “Here, Jerry, take your mackinaw. I feel warm enough.”
“Then let’s get going again,” urged Jake, rising. “We can’t stay here all night; we’ll get too stiff to move if we sit down any longer.”
Again they took the weary trail. Their steps now were slower; it took more effort for them to keep up a ringing, mile-eating stride. Down in his heart, the impatient Burk knew that he could not keep up the pace many hours longer; his brief rest at Lenape had not been enough to make up for the many days of starvation and exposure he had undergone. His prison life, too, had taken from him his old endurance; he was no longer the steel-muscled hunter he had been a year ago. And he realized that the twins, for several nights, had taken considerably less than their usual ration of sleep; their nightly forays had fatigued them, as he could tell by their actions, and no doubt the attendant excitement had also told upon them. One cannot live in an atmosphere of mysterious incidents and midnight captures without paying for them in physical strain. And Sherlock, the least hardy of them all, had been trussed up tightly for half a day, and was in no condition to endure the demands of a long hike in the dark.
Left—right—left! The quartette, strung along the trail in Indian file, lifted their feet more leadenly as one endless mile followed another. The moon was right overhead now; they were a long way from Lenape, marching somewhere on the flank of the mountains. Only the sound of their footsteps attended them, except now and then the rasping hunting-cry of an owl, that nocturnal marauder, and once, up the ridge, the short bark of a fox. Several times they crossed the beds of swift hill-streams, and once they floundered about in a spreading thicket of rhododendrons for some minutes before Jerry, in the lead, found the trail again.
Sherlock Jones felt that he could not go another step. He was shivering with the cold; if only they would stop this eternal, steady plodding, mile after mile, and light a fire! Left—right—— He wondered if the twins had brought any food on this mad trip; he could see that they were hampered neither by provisions nor blankets—travelling light, as Jerry had said. What would they eat? When would they stop? Were they going to keep on this way for a thousand years, forever, putting one foot in front of the other, with never a word—— A tear trickled down Sherlock’s grimy cheek. He kept on.
The strain of the past few days was putting its mark upon the twins. At last Jerry paused in a little clear space beside a brook. Jake marched past him, stumbled over a fallen branch, and almost fell. He turned his face to them, white in the moonlight, and muttered drowsily, “Guess I was asleep! I’ve heard of fellows falling asleep on their feet, but this is the first time it ever happened to me! Where are we?”
The rest of the party halted. “I calculate we’ve done about twelve miles since we left your camp,” said Burk. “If we’ve kept straight south, we should be a good distance away. I think you’ve been heading right, because we’ve kept to the side of the mountain all the time. Wallistown ought to be in striking distance, over that way; but I think we should try to keep to the hills—too dangerous to get closer to town. Now, I can see that you chaps are pretty well fagged out. You’ve stood the march like soldiers, and not a word of complaint; but it’s clear to me we can’t get any farther to-night. We’ll have to lay up until to-morrow evening. Naturally I want to get to Canoe Mountain as soon as possible, but it won’t do to start our trip with too big a jump. If we went much farther to-night, we’d bite off more than we could chew—we’d be sore and laid up with blisters and aches, and in no shape to put up a good race. I’m the least tired of any of us. What do you say if I push ahead and try to locate a place to stop?”
The twins agreed; Sherlock had no breath to spare for talk. Burk took a hitch in his corduroys, waved his hand, and springing across the brook, vanished beyond, up the trail.
The boys did not dare to sit down, for fear that their muscles would stiffen in that position and they would not to be able to rise and walk again. When their breathing became more regular, the Utway brothers roused Sherlock and pushed on. They had not gone five hundred yards when they made out a figure striding toward them in the moonlight. It was Burk.
“Good news!” he called. “Here’s a bit of luck! I happened to see the moonlight striking on a glass window over here. Come on through! There’s a little ramshackle hut here. Not a soul has been around for a long time, as near as I can see. Probably this cabin was built by some tie-cutters. Over this way!”
They followed him, warmed to the heart by this smile of fortune. Concealed amidst the trees, a hundred yards from the trail, was a low, one-roomed shanty of slabs, chinked with clay.
“There was no lock on the door,” explained the discoverer, “so I just walked in. There’s a fireplace and some wood; we ought to be warm enough, even if we have no blankets. And I guess we’re so tired that we won’t mind bedding down on the floor, eh?”
Jake threw his flashlight about the tiny dwelling. Dust rose from the slab floor; cobwebs everywhere seemed to prove that the place had indeed been deserted for some time past. It was a better refuge than they could have hoped for; a snug little cabin where they could lie up until the next evening brought them a chance to continue their long hike.
Jerry was already busy, kindling a fire on the narrow stone hearth. Welcome flames were soon leaping up to warm their numb bodies, and Jerry, like the rest, considered their luck in finding such a haven in the depths of the woods. But he had a more pressing matter in his head. There were four of them, and they would have to pass at least one day here, with nothing to eat but, perhaps, the few berries they could find in the forest. Four hungry mouths! No fun marching on an empty stomach—— The others were already stretched out on the floor, with their coats under them, close beside the glowing hearth. Jerry scratched his head; then fished in his pockets and drew out a handful of coins and counted them. Not very much, but it would buy a few cans of beans, some bread, and——