77CHAPTER IXTHE ENEMY STRIKES
In the middle of the night, Jack awoke with a start, and lay silent a moment, listening, wondering what had aroused him. The next moment he heard a cry outside his window of “Jack, Jack, wake up.”
It was Frank’s voice. Leaping from bed, Jack sprang to the upflung window overlooking the side lawn nearest the Temple house. Outside in the moonlight stood Frank, a pair of trousers pulled over his pajamas, hands cupped to his mouth. He was preparing to yell again.
“What’s the matter?” called Jack.
“The hangar’s afire. Tom Barnum saw the blaze from your radio station and called the house. I’m off. Come as fast as you can.”
Turning, Frank plunged away toward the airplane hangar, clutching at his trousers as he ran. Jack could not help laughing a little at the ridiculous spectacle which his chum provided. Then he turned back to the room and started feverishly to dress, ignoring78everything except trousers, shirt and shoes. While he was thus engaged, the voice of Captain Folsom hailed him sleepily from next room.
“You up, old man? Thought I heard voices. Anything the matter?”
“Yes, there is,” replied Jack, going to the communicating door. “Tom Barnum, the mechanic-watchman in charge of our radio plant, which isn’t far from the Temples’ airplane hangar, says the latter is afire. Frank and Bob already are on the way down, and stopped to warn me.”
“Afire?” cried Captain Folsom, leaping from his bed, and reaching for his trousers. “That’s bad. Just when we need the airplane, too, to spy on these rascals. Half a minute, old man, and I’ll be with you. Not so devilish easy to get into trousers with one arm.”
“Can I help you?” proffered Jack. “I’m all fixed. Here, let me lace your shoes.”
“Well, if you insist,” said Captain Folsom.
As Jack deftly laced up the other’s shoes, he said in an anxious tone:
“Do you think, sir, those people set the fire? It would be a catastrophe if the plane burned just at this particular time, wouldn’t it? There. All ready.”
“Mighty good of you,” said Captain Folsom. “Lead on, then, and I’ll follow. As to the fire, I’ll reserve79opinion until I get the facts. But these liquor smugglers are unscrupulous, and if they feared the airplane was being used against them, they would have no compunctions about burning it.”
From the side of the house on which their rooms were located, Jack and his guest were unable to see anything of the fire, as the hangar lay in an opposite direction. But the moment they emerged outdoors, the blaze showed dully against the sky above an intervening grove of trees.
Without wasting breath in further speculation, Jack and Captain Folsom started running for the scene. The hangar stood a considerable distance away, and so fast had they covered the ground that they arrived pretty well blown.
They found the airplane standing like a singed bird on the sands in front of the hangar, and gathered about were Frank and Bob, Tom Barnum, and Old Davey, Mr. Hampton’s gardener.
“The wings are gone, Jack,” said Bob, turning as his chum approached. “But, thanks to Tom’s rapid work with the extinguisher, the fire did not reach the tank, and the old bus will be able to fly again after she sprouts new wings.”
Jack turned his gaze to the hangar. The sides and roof were of corrugated iron. Practically the only80wood in the construction was that employed in the skidway. It needed only a glance to tell him the latter had been torn up and piled inside the hangar where it was still smouldering.
“What happened?” he asked.
There were excited answers from all, but presently the story was made clear. Some miscreant apparently had forced open the doors of the hangar, torn up the wooden planks and flooring of the skidway, piled them inside and then set them afire. Probably whoever was guilty employed this method in order to give himself time to escape before the fire should attract attention. He had overlooked, however, the presence of a large tank of chemicals with which to fight fire stored at the rear of the hangar, and Tom Barnum, after telephoning the Temple home, had appeared so quickly at the hangar that, by employing the chemical extinguisher, he had managed to save the airplane from being blown up. Old Davey, a light sleeper, had hurried over from his cottage and the pair were in the act of pushing apart the burning brands in order to wheel out the plane, when Bob and Frank arrived to help them.
“Et’s mighty cur’ous,” said Old Davey, shaking his head dolefully; “mighty cur’ous, the trouble you boys hev with thet airyplane. D’ye think now et was them Mexicans comin’ back?”81
“No, Davey,” said Jack. “Not this time. Some other set of rascals was responsible.”
“What does he mean, may I ask?” inquired Captain Folsom, his curiosity aroused.
Briefly, Jack related to him how the previous summer two representatives of a faction of Mexican bandits engaged in making war on a group of independent oil operators headed by his father in New Mexico, had appeared at the quiet Long Island home, stolen the airplane, and flown with it to Old Mexico where they had employed it in kidnapping Mr. Hampton. The boys, said Jack, not only had effected Mr. Hampton’s release but also had recovered the plane, as related in “The Radio Boys On The Mexican Border.”
“It’s too long a story to be told now, however,” he concluded, after giving the above bare outline. “Some other time I’ll give you the details if you are interested.”
“I certainly am interested,” said Captain Folsom, regarding Jack with increased respect. “To think of you boys having done all that!”
“Oh, it was fun,” said Jack hastily, embarrassed by the other’s praise. “Come on, let’s see what the fellows are doing.”
The others proved to be engaged in spraying the last of the chemical on the expiring embers of the82blaze, and in stamping and beating out the last of the fire. As the light died out, Bob fumbled for and found the switch in the hangar and the electric lights sprang on.
“Whoever did this made a hurried job of it,” said he. “I wonder––”
“What?” asked Jack.
“Oh, I was just wondering why the job was left uncompleted? Tom,” he added, turning to Tom Barnum; “how big was the blaze when you saw it?”
“Nothin’ much,” answered the other, his round, good-natured face shining through a fog of pipe smoke. “I was restless. Somethin’ I et for dinner, I guess. So I got up to smoke a pipe an’ stroll around outside the station a bit, to see if I couldn’t get myself sleepy. My room’s back o’ the power house, ye know. Well, as I come outside I see a light over here. Not much bigger than a flashlight. But it was 2 o’clock in the mornin’ an’ I knew none o’ you could be there. So I thinks either that’s fire or some rascal, an’ telephoned you, then hustled over here.”
“That’s it,” said Bob. “That explains it. I was wondering why whoever set this fire didn’t make a more complete job of it, but I see now. You probably scared him away.”
“Might be,” said Tom. “He might a heard me callin’ to Old Davey as I run past his cottage.”83
“Well,” said Frank, “let’s push the bus inside. She’s not much good till we get new wings, but we don’t want to leave it out here all night.”
All lent a hand, and then as he started to swing shut the doors Bob examined the lock and gave an exclamation.
“Not even broken open,” he said, disgustedly. “I must have forgotten to lock up when we left. Good night.”
This time, he fastened the lock, and then fell in with his comrades and the party started for their homes.
“Whoever did that wasn’t far away,” Captain Folsom said, thoughtfully. “If we had made a search we might have gotten some trace of him. But it is too late now. I imagine, of course, as I said to Mr. Hampton here earlier, that our bootlegger friends set the fire. When they discovered your airplane in their neighborhood, they feared it would interfere with their plans and decided to get rid of it.”
“Well, they got rid of it, all right,” said Bob, “for to-night, anyhow, as well as for some time come.”
They proceeded in gloomy silence for the most part, although the voice of Old Davey, an incorrigible conversationalist, floated back to them from where he led the way with Tom Barnum. Where84their courses diverged, the pair waited for them to call “Good nights.”
“I say,” said Jack suddenly, to his companions as Tom and Old Davey departed; “I have an idea. Let’s go over to the radio station, just for luck, and listen in on the ether to see whether we can pick up the interference on the 1,375-meter wave length. Maybe, we can get some of those dots and dashes, too, of which Captain Folsom spoke. It’s only a step or two out of our way.”
Bob yawned sleepily but stumbled ahead for the station, without a word, and Frank fell in with him. Jack called to Tom Barnum and ran ahead, leaving Captain Folsom to proceed with his chums.
When the others arrived, the door of the station’s transmitting room stood open, the lights were turned on, and Jack already was seated at the instrument table, a headpiece clamping the receivers to his ears while he manipulated the tuner.
Bob slumped down on the outside step, and Frank took a seat beside him, with an arm flung over his shoulders. The damage to their airplane was felt keenly by both. Captain Folsom, with a pitying glance at them, entered the station.
“Put on that headpiece,” said Jack, motioning.
The other complied.
“By George,” he cried, a moment later.
85CHAPTER XA NIGHT EXPEDITION
For several minutes Jack and Captain Folsom listened with strained attention while through the receivers came to their ears a series of dots and dashes which to one corresponded exactly with the similar sounds picked up by the prohibition enforcement officials on other occasions, and which to the other were meaningless and, therefore, significant.
That statement is not difficult to explain. Jack was familiar with the Morse and Continental codes. What he heard in the receivers represented neither. Therefore, either the station he had picked up and was listening-in on was sending in some mysterious code or, as was more likely, it was radiating control. And, all things considered, the latter was the more likely supposition.
Meanwhile, Bob and Frank, unaware of what was forward, sat disconsolately on the stoop outside in the warm night air, glooming over the damage to their airplane.86
Finally Captain Folsom took off the headpiece and, seeing that Jack had done likewise, turned to him with an air of exasperation.
“This is maddening,” he declared to Jack. “Evidently, if I know anything about it, the smugglers are landing liquor somewhere along the coast by means of a radio-controlled boat or boats.”
Jack was thoughtful.
“Do you know what I think?” he asked. “I believe they are landing the liquor somewhere near us. For one thing, the sounds in the receivers are very clear and distinct. That, however, does not portend a great deal. The night is exceptionally good for sending, clear and with practically no static. But there is another thing to be considered, and it’s that I have in mind.”
“What do you mean?” asked Captain Folsom.
“I am thinking of the attempt to destroy the airplane, and the probable reason for it.”
“Hm.”
“You see,” continued Jack, “if the smugglers planned to operate to-night, and were made fearful by recent events that we either had learned anything about them or suspected them, they might decide it would be unwise to have us at large, so to speak. Suppose we were to swoop down on them in our airplane, they might think, what then? This man Higginbotham,87now. He might not have been deceived by our explanation of how we came to be on hand when he was flying in his radio-controlled plane and fell into the water. Besides, and this is the biggest point of all, we had appeared at his office to try and find out who had bought the Brownell property. Oh, the more I consider it, the more I realize that he could not help but suspect that we were on the track of the liquor smugglers.”
Captain Folsom nodded.
“Sound sense, all of it,” he declared; “especially, your deduction that they are landing liquor near us. Look here,” he added, with sudden resolution; “where does that man, Tom Barnum, sleep?”
“He has quarters opening from the power house here,” said Jack, in a tone of surprise. “Why, may I ask?”
“Well, I think so well of your supposition that I want to do a bit of investigating. Barnum looks like a stout, reliant man. Besides, he knows the neighborhood. I’ll ask him to accompany me.”
Jack’s eyes glittered.
“What’s the matter with us?” he demanded.
“Oh, I couldn’t think of drawing you boys into this. It might involve some little danger.”
“Well,” said Jack, “danger would be nothing new to us. If you do not actually forbid our accompanying88you, we’ll go along. I’m keen to go. And I can say the same for Bob and Frank without questioning them. Besides, you must remember it was their airplane which these rascals damaged. They’ll be eager for a chance to even scores.”
Captain Folsom still looked dubious.
“You are unarmed,” he objected. “And we might, just might, you know, stumble into a situation where we would need to protect ourselves.”
“Oh, if that’s all that stands in your way,” said Jack, rising, “you need not worry. Tom Barnum keeps a whole armory of weapons here. He has at least a half dozen pistols and automatics. As for us, we are all pretty fair shots and used to handling weapons. Now, look here, Captain Folsom,” he said, pleadingly, advancing and laying a hand on the other’s arm; “I know what you are saying to yourself. You are saying how foolish it would be for you to encumber yourself with three harum-scarum boys. But that is where you make a mistake. We have been through a lot of dangerous situations, all three of us and, I can tell you, we have been forced to learn to keep our wits about us. I can promise you that we would not be a hindrance.”
Captain Folsom’s face cleared.
“Good,” said he, heartily; “spoken like a man. I’ll be only too glad to have you fellows.”89
“We’ll take Tom Barnum, too,” said Jack. “He can be relied on in any crisis. Wait here until I stir him up and tell the boys.”
Leaving the other, Jack went outside and apprised his chums of the new plan. It was just the thing they needed to rouse them from the despondency into which contemplation of the damage to their airplane had thrown them. Then he went to Tom Barnum’s quarters. Tom had not yet returned to sleep. He was eager to join in the adventure. Bringing three or four pistols, Jack and Tom quickly rejoined the party.
“What is your idea, Captain Folsom?” Jack inquired, when all were ready to depart and everything had been made tight about the station.
“First of all, how far is it to Starfish Cove?”
“Between two and three miles,” answered Bob. “But the tide is out, and we shall have good going on the hard sand, and ought to make it under forced draught in a half hour or a little more.”
“Is there any other place where small boats might land conveniently, any other place reasonably near?”
The boys and Tom Barnum shook their heads.
“That’s far and away the best place,” said Jack.
“Well, then, I propose that we make our way close to the Cove, and then take to the cover of the90trees, which you have given me to understand, come down there close to the water.”
“They fringe the beach,” Bob explained.
“Good. With reasonable care we ought to be able to make our way undiscovered close enough to see what is going on, supposing a landing such as I have in mind is taking place.”
“There’s armed guards on the Brownell place nowadays,” interjected Tom Barnum, to whom Jack had given a brief explanation of things. “Maybe, them fellers have sentries posted.”
“Well, we’ll have to exercise caution when we get close to the Cove,” said Captain Folsom. “And now, if we are all ready, let us start. Every second’s delay is so much time lost. They’ll be working fast. If we are to gain any information, we must hasten about it.”
“Righto,” said Bob, striding off. “And just let me get my hands on the sneak that tried to burn the airplane,” he added, vindictively. “I’ll give that gentleman a remembrance or two of the occasion.”
The others fell in, and with long strides started making their way along the sand left hard-packed by the receding tide, under the moonlight.
Bob set a terrific pace but, fortunately, all members of the party were young men and accustomed to physical exercise, and none found it any hardship91to keep up with their pacemaker. On the contrary, three at least enjoyed the expedition and found their spirits uplifted by the zest of this unexpected adventure undertaken at 2 o’clock in the morning.
When they drew near the first of the two horns enclosing the little bay known as Starfish Cove, Bob pulled up, and the others came to a halt around him.
“Just ahead there,” said Bob, pointing, and addressing Captain Folsom, “lies our destination. I expect it would not be wise to make our way any farther along the sands.”
Captain Folsom nodded.
“Right. We’ll take to those trees up yonder. I’ll go first with Jack.” Unconsciously, he had taken to addressing the boys by their given names. “Do you others keep close behind.”
In this order they started making their way through the grove, just inside the outer belt of trees. The moonlight was bright on the water and the sands, and illuminated the aisles of the grove in fairylike fashion.
“Keep low and take advantage of cover,” whispered Captain Folsom, as he saw how the matter stood. And crouching and darting from tree to tree, they worked their way forward until a low exclamation from Jack halted his companion who was a bit behind him. The others came up.92
“Fence,” whispered Jack, succinctly.
Sure enough. There it was, just ahead, a high wire fence, the strands barbed and strung taut on steel poles.
“We can’t see the Cove yet from here,” whispered Jack. “Our first glimpse of it won’t come until we move forward a bit farther. We’ll either have to try to climb over this or go out on the beach to get around it. It doesn’t go down to the water, does it, Bob?”
“No, and I didn’t see it when I was here several days ago,” Bob replied in a low voice. “I suppose it must have been here then, but I didn’t see it. There was no fence on the beach, and I was following the water’s edge.”
“There’s a big tree close to it,” said Frank, pointing. “And, look. There’s a limb projects over the fence. We might shin up the tree and out on that limb and drop.”
“I’m afraid I couldn’t do it,” said Captain Folsom, simply. “This arm––”
“Oh, I forgot,” said the sensitive Frank, with quick compunction, silently reproaching himself for thus reminding the other of his loss.
“I’m not sensitive,” said Captain Folsom, and added grimly: “Besides, the German that took it, paid with his life.”93
There was an awkward silence.
“Anyhow,” said Jack, breaking it, “it would be ticklish work for any of us to get over that fence by climbing the tree. The fence is a good ten feet high, and the strands of barbed wire curve forward at the top. That limb, besides, is twelve feet or more from the ground, and not very strong, either. It looks as if we would have to make our way around the fence and out on the beach.”
“Let’s go, then,” said Bob, impatiently. “Now that I’m here I want a look at Starfish Cove. I have one of Frank’s hunches that there is something doing there.”
He started moving forward toward the edge of the grove, which here was out of sight, being some distance away, as Jack had led the way well within the shelter of the trees because of the radiance cast by the moon.
“Wait, Bob, wait,” whispered Frank, suddenly, in a tense voice, and he restrained his companion. “I heard something.”
All crouched down, listening with strained attention.
In a moment the sound of voices engaged in low conversation came to their ears, and a moment later two forms appeared on the opposite side of the fence, moving in their direction.
94CHAPTER XIPRISONERS
“I heard a fellow shouting and beat it, or I’d’a done a better job. Anyhow, that’s one plane won’t be able to fly for a while.”
One of the two men dropped this remark as the pair, engrossed in conversation, passed abreast of the party on the outside of the boundary fence and not ten feet from them. The speaker was a short, broad, powerfully built man in appearance, and he spoke in a harsh voice and with a twang that marked him as a ruffian of the city slums. He wore a cap, pulled so low over his features as to make them indistinguishable. And he walked with a peg leg!
The moonlight was full on the face of the other, and the boys recognized him as Higginbotham. There was an angry growl from Bob, farthest along the line toward the beach, which he quickly smothered. Apparently, it did not attract attention, for Higginbotham and his companion continued on their way oblivious to the proximity of the others.95
“The young hounds,” said Higginbotham, in his cultivated, rather high voice. And he spoke with some heat. “This will teach them a lesson not to go prying into other people’s business.”
The other man made some reply, but it was indistinguishable to those in hiding, and the precious pair proceeded on their way, now out of earshot. But enough had been overheard. It was plain now, if it had not been before, where lay the guilt for the attempt to destroy the airplane. Plain, too, was the fact that Higginbotham was engaged in some nefarious enterprise.
For several seconds longer, after Higginbotham and his companion had gotten beyond earshot and were lost to view among the trees, Jack remained quiet but inwardly a-boil. Then he turned to Captain Folsom and Tom Barnum, crouching beside him.
“What an outrage,” he whispered, indignantly. “Poor Bob and Frank. To have their airplane damaged just because that scoundrel thought we were prying into his dirty secrets. I wish I had my hands on him.”
Suddenly his tone took on a note of alarm.
“Why, where are Bob and Frank?” he demanded. “They were here a moment ago.”
He stared about him in bewilderment. The others96did likewise. But the two mentioned could not be seen. With an exclamation, Jack rose to his feet.
“Come on,” he urged. “I’ll bet Bob decided to go for the fellow who burned his plane and take it out of his hide. When that boy gets angry, he wants action.”
He started striding hastily down toward the beach, alongside the wire fencing. The others pressed at his heels. Presently, they caught the glint of water through the trees, and then, some distance ahead, caught sight of two figures moving out from the grove onto the sands on the opposite side of the fence. Jack increased his pace, but even as he did so two other figures stole from the woods on the heels of the first pair.
Involuntarily, Jack cried out. The second pair leaped upon the backs of the first and bore them to the ground. The next moment, the air was filled with curses, and the four figures rolled on the sands.
“Come on, fellows,” cried Jack, breaking into a run, and dashed ahead.
He broke from the trees and discovered the boundary fence came to an abrupt end at the edge of the grove. It was here Bob and Frank, he felt sure, had made their way and leaped on Higginbotham and the thug. For so he interpreted what he had seen.97
As he came up the fight ended. It had been bitter but short. Frank was astride Higginbotham and pressing his opponent’s face into the sand to smother his outcries. Bob had wrapped his arms and legs about the city ruffian and the latter, whose curses had split the air, lay face uppermost, his features showing contorted in the moonlight. Bob knelt upon him. As Jack ran up, he was saying:
“You want to be careful whose airplane you burn.”
An exclamation from Captain Folsom drew Jack’s attention from the figures in the immediate foreground, and raising his eyes he gazed in the direction in which the other was pointing. Some fifty yards away, on the edge of Starfish Cove, a half dozen objects of strange shape and design were drawn up on the sand. They were long, shaped somewhat like torpedoes and gleamed wet in the moonlight.
Not a soul was in sight. The moonlit stretch of beach was empty except for them.
“What in the world can those be?” asked Captain Folsom.
“They are made of metal,” said Jack. “See how the moonlight gleams upon them. By George, Captain, they are big as whales. Can they be some type of torpedo-shaped boat controlled by radio?”98
“This is luck,” exclaimed Captain Folsom. “That’s just what they are. Probably, those two scoundrels were coming down here to see whether they had arrived, coming down here from their radio station. Come on, let’s have a look.”
He started forward eagerly. Jack was a step behind him. An inarticulate cry from Tom Barnum smote Jack’s ears, and he spun about. The next instant he saw a man almost upon him, swinging for his head with a club. He tried to dodge, to avoid the blow, but the club clipped him on the side of the head and knocked him to the ground. His senses reeled, and he struggled desperately to rise, but to no avail. A confused sound of shouts and cries and struggling filled his ears, then it seemed as if a wave engulfed him, and he lost consciousness.
When he recovered his senses, Jack found himself lying in darkness. He tried to move, but discovered his hands and feet were tied. He lay quiet, listening. A faint moan came to his ears.
“Who’s that?” he whispered.
“That you, Jack?” came Frank’s voice in reply, filled with anxiety.
It was close at hand.
“Yes. Where’s Bob?”
“He’s here, but I’m worried about him. I can’t get any sound from him.”99
“What happened?” asked Jack, his head buzzing, and sore. “Where are the others?”
“Guess we’re all here, Mister Jack,” answered Tom Barnum’s voice, out of the darkness. “Leastways, Captain What’s-his-name’s here beside me, but he don’t speak, neither.”
“Good heavens,” exclaimed Jack, in alarm, and making a valiant effort to shake off his dizziness. “Where are we? What happened? Frank, do you know? Tom, do you?”
“Somebody jumped on me from behind,” said Frank, “and then the fellow I was sitting on, this Higginbotham, squirmed around and took a hand, and I got the worst of it, and was hustled off to the old Brownell house and thrown in this dark room. I had my hands full and couldn’t see what was going on. I heard Tom yell, but at the same time this fellow jumped on me. That’s all I know.”
“There was a dozen or more of ’em come out of the woods,” said Tom. “They sneaked out. We was pretty close to the trees. I just happened to look back, an’ they was on us. Didn’t even have time to pull my pistol. They just bowled me over by weight of numbers. Like Mister Frank, I had my own troubles and couldn’t see what happened to the rest of you.”
There was a momentary silence, broken by Jack.100
“It’s easy to see what happened,” he said, bitterly. “What fools we were. Those things on the beach were radio-controlled boats which had brought liquor ashore, and a gang was engaged in carrying it up to the Brownell house. We happened along when the beach was clear, and Higginbotham and that other scoundrel were the vanguard of the returning party. When they shouted on being attacked by you and Bob, and Frank, the rest who were behind them in the woods were given the alarm, sneaked up quietly, and bagged us all. A pretty mess.”
A groan from Bob interrupted.
“Poor old Bob,” said Jack, contritely, for he had been blaming the headstrong fellow in his thoughts for having caused their difficulties by his precipitate attack on Higginbotham. “He seems to have gotten the worst of it.”
“Look here, Jack,” said Frank suddenly. “My hands and feet are tied, and I suppose yours are, too. I’m going to roll over toward you, and do you try to open the knots on my hands with your teeth.”
“Would if I could, Frank,” said Jack. “But that clip I got on the side of my head must have loosened all my teeth. They ache like sixty.”
“All right, then I’ll try my jaws on your bonds.”
Presently, Frank was alongside Jack in the darkness.101
“Here, where are your hands?” he said.
After some squirming about, Frank found what he sought, and began to chew and pull at the ropes binding Jack’s hands. It was a tedious process at first, but presently he managed to get the knot sufficiently loosened to permit of his obtaining a good purchase, and then, in a trice, the ropes fell away.
“Quick now, Jack,” he said, anxiously. “We don’t know how long we’ll be left undisturbed. Somebody may come along any minute. Untie your feet and then free Tom and me, and we can see how Bob and Captain Folsom are fixed.”
Jack worked with feverish haste. After taking the bonds from his ankles, he undid those binding Frank. The latter immediately went to the side of Bob, whose groans had given way to long, shuddering sighs that indicated a gradual restoration of consciousness but that also increased the alarm of his comrades regarding his condition.
Tom Barnum next was freed and at once set to work to perform a similar task for Captain Folsom, who meantime had regained his senses and apparently was injured no more severely than Jack, having like him received a clout on the side of the head. Tom explained the situation while untying him. Fortunately, the bonds in all cases had been only hastily tied.102
“Bob, this is Frank. Do you hear me? Frank.” The latter repeated anxiously, several times, in the ear of his comrade.
“Frank?” said Bob, thickly, at last. “Oh, my head.”
“Thank heaven, you’re alive,” said Frank fervently, and there was a bit of tremolo in his tone. He and the big fellow were very close to each other. “Now just lie quiet, and I’ll explain where you are and what happened. But first tell me are you hurt any place other than your head?”
“No, I think not,” said Bob. “But the old bean’s humming like a top. What happened, anyhow? Where are we? Where are the others?”
“Right here, old thing,” said Jack, on the other side of the prone figure.
Thereupon Bob, too, was put in possession of the facts as to what had occurred. At the end of the recital, he sat up, albeit with an effort, for his head felt, as he described it, “like Fourth of July night—and no safe and sane Fourth, at that.”
“I don’t know if you fellows can ever forgive me,” he said, with a groan. “I got you into this. I saw red, when I discovered it was Higginbotham and that other rascal who had set the plane afire. There they were, in the woods, and I set out to crawl after them. Frank followed me.”103
“Tried to stop him,” interposed Frank. “But he wouldn’t be stopped. I didn’t dare call to the rest of you for fear of giving the alarm, so I went along. Anyhow, Bob,” he added, loyally, “I felt just the same way you did about it, and you were no worse than I.”
“No,” said Bob. “You weren’t to blame at all. It was all my fault.”
“Forget it,” said Jack. “Let’s consider what to do now? Here we are, five of us, and now that we are on guard we ought to be able to give a pretty good account of ourselves. I, for one, don’t propose to sit around and wait for our captors to dispose of us. How about the rest of you?”
“Say on, Jack,” said Frank. “If Bob’s all right, nothing matters.”
“You have something in mind, Hampton, I believe,” said Captain Folsom, quietly. “What is it?”
104CHAPTER XIITHE WINDOWLESS ROOM
“I have no plan,” said Jack, “except this: We have freed ourselves of our bonds, and we ought to make an effort to escape. And, if we can make our escape,” he added, determinedly, “I, for one, am anxious to try to turn the tables.”
“Turn the tables, Jack?” exclaimed Frank. “What do you mean? How could we do that?”
“If we could capture the smugglers’ radio plant,” Jack suggested, “and call help, we could catch these fellows in the act. Of course, I know, there is only a slim chance that we could get immediate aid in this isolated spot. But I’ve been thinking of that possibility. Do you suppose any boats of the ‘Dry Navy’ about which you spoke are in the vicinity, Captain Folsom?”
In the darkness, the latter could be heard to stir and move closer. All five, as a matter of fact, had drawn together and spoke in whispers that were barely audible.105
“That is a bully idea, Hampton,” said Captain Folsom, with quickened interest. “Yes, I am certain one or more of Lieutenant Summers’s fleet of sub chasers is along this stretch of coast. From Montauk Point to Great South Bay, he told me recently, he intended to set a watch at sea for smugglers.”
“Very good,” said Jack. “Then, if we can gain possession of the smugglers’ radio plant and call help, we may be able to catch these fellows and make a big haul. For, I presume, they must be bringing a big shipment of liquor ashore now. And, as the night is far advanced, doubtless they will keep it here until, say, to-morrow night, when they would plan to send it to the city in trucks. Don’t you fellows imagine that is about what their plan of procedure would be?”
All signified approval in some fashion or other.
“Our first step, of course,” said Captain Folsom, “must be to gain our freedom from the house. Are any of you familiar with the interior? Also, has anybody got any matches? My service pistol has been taken, and I presume you fellows also have been searched and deprived of your weapons?”
General affirmation followed.
“But about matches? Will you please search your pockets, everybody?”
The boys never carried matches, being nonsmokers.106Tom Barnum, however, not only produced a paper packet of matches but, what was far more valuable at the moment, a flashlight of flat, peculiar shape which he carried in a vest pocket and which his captors had overlooked in their hurried search. He flashed it once, and discovered it was in good working order.
“So far, so good,” said Captain Folsom. “Now to discover the extent of our injuries, before we proceed any further. Mine aren’t enough to keep me out of any fighting. How about the rest of you?”
“Frank’s been binding up my head with the tail of my shirt,” said Bob. “But I guess he could do a better job if he received a flash from that light of yours, Tom. Just throw it over here on my head, will you?”
Tom complied, and it was seen Bob had received a nasty wound which had laid the scalp open on the left side three or four inches. The cut had bled profusely. With the light to work by, Frank, who like his companions was proficient in first aid treatment of injuries, shredded a piece of the white shirting for lint, made a compress, and then bound the whole thing tightly. Jack’s blow was not so serious, but Frank bound his head, too.
None of the boys nor Tom Barnum ever had been inside the Brownell house before, although all were107more or less familiar with its outer appearance. Tom now made a careless survey of the room by the aid of his flashlight. He would flash it on for only a moment, as he moved about soundlessly, having removed his shoes, and he so hid the rays under his coat that very little light showed. This he did in order to prevent as much as possible any rays falling through cracks in the walls or floor, and betraying their activity.
The room, Tom found on completing his survey, was without windows and possessed of only one door, a massive oaken affair with great strap iron hinges and set in a ponderous frame. From the slope of the ceiling at the sides, he judged the room was under the roof. Walls and ceiling were plastered.
Not a sound had penetrated into the room from the outside, or from the other parts of the house, and at this all had marveled earlier. Tom’s report of the survey supplied an answer to the mystery. There was little chance for sound to penetrate within.
“But a room without windows?” said Jack. “How, then, does it happen the air is fresh?”
“There’s a draught from up above,” answered Tom. “I cain’t see any skylight, but there may be an air port back in the angle of the roof tree. Say, Mister Jack, this room gives me the creeps,” he108added, his voice involuntarily taking on an awed tone. “A room without windows. An’ over in the far corner I found some rusted iron rings fastened to big staples set deep into a post in the wall.”
“What, Tom? You don’t say.”
“Yes, siree. Ol’ Brownell, the pirate whaler’s, been dead for a long time. But there’s queer stories still around these parts about him an’ his house; stories not only ’bout how he was killed finally by the men as he’d cheated, but also ’bout a mysterious figure in white that used to be seen on the roof, an’ yells heard comin’ from here. You know what?” He leaned closer, and still further lowered his voice. “I’ll bet this room was a cell fer some crazy body an’ ol’ Brownell kept him or her chained up when violent. Some people still say, you know, as how that white figure wa’n’t a ghost but the ol’ man’s crazy wife.”
“Brrr.”
Frank shivered in mock terror and grinned in the darkness. “Some place to be,” he added.
Nevertheless, light though he made of Tom’s story, the hour, the circumstances in which they found themselves, the mystery of the windowless room, all combined to inspire in him an uncanny feeling, as if unseen hands were reaching for him from the dark.
“Getting out is still our first consideration,” Captain Folsom said. “What Barnum reports makes it109look difficult, but let’s see. Have you tried the door? Is it locked?”
“Tried it?” said Tom. “Ain’t possible. There ain’t neither handle nor knob inside, to pull on. No lock nor keyhole in it, neither. Must be barred on the outside. That’s another reason for thinkin’ it was built for a prison cell.”
“And if the old pirate kept a crazy woman in here when she was violent,” supplied Jack, “you can bet he built the walls thick to smother her yells. That’s why we hear no sounds.”
There was silence for a time. Each was busy with his own thoughts. The prospect, indeed, looked dark. How could they escape from a cell such as this?
Jack was first to break the silence.
“Look here,” said he, “fresh air is admitted into this room in some fashion, and, probably, as Tom surmised, through an air port in the ceiling. It may be the old pirate even built a trap door in the roof. Obviously, anyhow, our best and, in fact, our only chance to escape lies through the roof. It may be possible to break through there, whereas we couldn’t get through walls or the door. Let’s investigate.”
Eager whispers approved the proposal.
“Come on, Tom,” Jack continued, “we’ll investigate that angle in the roof tree. You brace yourself against the wall, and I’ll stand on your shoulders.”110
The two moved away with the others close behind them. Jack mounted on Tom Barnum’s shoulders. He found the ceiling sloped up to a lofty peak. Running his hands up each slope, he could discern no irregularity. But, suddenly, nearing the top, where the sides drew together, he felt a strong draught of air on his hands.
Their positions at the time were this: Tom was leaning against the end wall, with Jack on his shoulders, and facing the wall. The ceiling sloped upward on each side and it was up these slopes Jack had been running his hands. Tall as he was, and standing upright, his head still was some feet from the roof tree above, where the sloping sidewalls joined.
When he felt the inrush of air on his hands, which were then above his head, Jack reached forward. He encountered no wall at all. But, about a foot above his head, instead, his fingers encountered the edge of an opening in the end wall and under the roof tree. Trembling with excitement, he felt along the edge from side wall to side wall, and found the opening was more than two feet across.
Not a word had been said, meanwhile, not a whisper uttered. Now, leaning down, and in a voice barely audible, Jack whispered to the anxious group at his feet:111
“Fellows, there’s an opening up here under the roof tree. I can’t tell yet what it is, but if you hand me up Tom’s flashlight I’ll have a look at it.”
Frank passed the little electric torch upward, flashing it once to aid Jack in locating it in the darkness. Again Jack straightened up carefully. Holding the flat little flashlight between his teeth, he gripped the edge of the opening and chinned himself. Then, holding on with one hand, with the other he manipulated the flashlight.
One glance was sufficient. It revealed a tunnel-like passage under the roof tree. This passage was triangular in shape, with the beam of the roof tree at the peak, the sloping, unplastered sides of the roof and a flat, solid floor. It extended some distance forward, apparently, for the rays of the flashlight did not reveal any wall across it. The floor was solidly planked, probably a yard wide, instead of two feet-plus of Jack’s original estimate, and the height from floor to roof tree was all of two and a half feet.
Laying down the flashlight, Jack drew himself over the edge of the opening. Then, moving cautiously forward in the darkness, not daring to throw the light ahead of him for fear of betraying his presence, he crawled on hands and knees. The draught of air through the passageway was strong, and he had not proceeded far before he saw ahead112faint bars across the passage, not of light but of lesser darkness.
He decided there was some opening at the end of the passage, but could not imagine what it might be. When he came up to it, however, the solution was simple. Immediately under the peak of the roof tree, in a side wall, was an opening in which was set a slatted shutter. This admitted air, yet kept rain from beating in.
And in a flash, Jack realized to what ingenious lengths the original owner of the house had gone in order to provide for his prisoner a cell that would be virtually soundproof, yet have a supply of fresh air. So high, too, was the opening of the passage in the cell that one person could not reach it unaided.
Jubilant at his discovery and with a plan for putting it to use as a means of escape, Jack, unable to turn about in the narrow passage, worked his way backward until the projection of his feet into emptiness warned him he had reached the room. Then he let himself down and, when once more with his companions, explained the nature of his discovery.
“We can lift that shutter out,” he added, “and swing upward to the roof tree. There is a cupola, an old-fashioned cupola, on this house, as I remember it. Once we are on the roof, we can work our way to that cupola and probably find a trapdoor leading down113into the house. If we decide that is too dangerous, we may be able to slide down the gutters. Anyhow, once we are in the outer air and on the roof, we’ll be in a better position than here. Come on. I’ll go up first, and then help Captain Folsom up. Do the rest of you follow, and, as Frank is the lightest, he ought to come last. The last man will have to be pulled up with our belts, as he will have nobody to stand on.”