CHAPTER XVIII
SHOTS FROM AMBUSH
Standing near the seat where, but a moment before, Gorro had sat practically at their mercy, Tom Swift and Ned Newton looked at each other, a little dazed by the suddenness with which it had all happened. They had been so confident of their prisoner, and now he was gone and his secret with him. But the situation was not as easy as it appeared on the surface.
"Make everything snug!" exclaimed Tom, pulling himself together and getting ready for action. "Look sharp!"
"What's the idea?" Ned wanted to know. "Are you going after this fellow?"
"Indeed I'm not! But we're going to pull out of here as soon as we can. I think it isn't a very healthy place. First, though, we've got to make sure everything is all right, that the engine hasn't been damaged, and look to make certain we haven't any more stowaways on board. Some one may be hiding here."
It did not take long to ascertain that Gorro had been alone in his short occupancy of the House on Wheels. None other of the gang was in the place. A test which Tom and Ned then applied to the motor showed that it was in good working order. The men had run the House a short distance, but, unless morning should disclose some damage to the outside of the vehicle, it seemed to be as it was when the two young men left it to examine the deserted mansion.
As they hurried to and fro, making ready for a continuation of the trip, Tom and Ned talked over what had occurred and speculated on what it all could mean.
"It sure is mysterious," declared Ned. "They seem to have been waiting there for you, Tom."
"Yet that couldn't be, for until I decided to come to Chesterport to see Mary, not even you knew I contemplated such a trip. As a matter of fact, I did not contemplate it until then."
"That's right."
"And we didn't mention Dismal Mountain to anybody that I know of."
"We told Mary we were coming here."
"Yes. But she isn't the kind of girl to broadcast such news. She never talks of my plans."
"Her friend, Grace Winthrop, might have," suggested Ned.
"Nonsense! As if either of those girls would be in communication with Gorro and his gang!" scoffed Tom.
"Oh, I didn't mean it that way!" Ned made haste to say. "But they might have been talking our trip over between themselves while downtown in Chesterport, and some of this gang might have overheard them and decided it would be a good chance to get a fine new car easily."
"It's possible, but not very probable," answered Tom.
"Then there's that fellow," suggested Ned.
"What fellow?"
"Floyd Barton—the one who was showing Mary so much attention. She might have let the object of our trip slip out to Barton and he may have talked."
But Tom Swift shook his head.
"He's one of those rich chaps who don't care about anything but hanging around girls and having a good time," said the young inventor, and Ned surmised that there was little love lost between Tom and Floyd Barton.
"Well, maybe we'll get at the bottom of this some day," went on Ned. "But those fellows, whoever they were, must have known we were coming and been on the lookout for us."
"It seems so," admitted Tom. "And I wonder who the boss is! If we could put our hands on him we'd have the key to unlock the whole mystery. But, meanwhile, let's get going."
"Which way?" asked Ned. "Do you mean to say you're going to keep on in this storm?"
"I certainly am!" declared his chum. "The House was built for rough work, and this will be a good test. Besides, I have an idea that staying round here isn't going to be exactly healthy. There was another fellow with Gorro you know, and now that our late prisoner has gotten away and met him, the two, in conjunction with the unknown boss, may decide to make another attempt to capture our House."
"That's so," agreed Ned. "The quicker we get down off Dismal Mountain the better."
"Down!" exclaimed Tom in a surprised voice. "I'm going on up!"
"Up!"
"Up, yes, to the top."
"Whew!" whistled Ned.
"Why, what's wrong with that?" Tom wanted to know. "Isn't that what we planned to do—cross Dismal Mountain and find out the truth of some of these weird stories?"
"Yes—But the danger?"
"There's more danger trying to turn around and go back down that steep slope on a dark night and in a pouring rain when the roads may be washed out than there is in going ahead," said Tom.
"I can't quite see that," and Ned shrugged his shoulders. "The roads up ahead may be even worse than those we came up, as far as washouts go."
"Well, it will be awkward turning around, anyhow," Tom decided. "There isn't any too much room to maneuver, and it will be safer to go ahead, I think."
"Then I'm with you!" declared Ned.
Switching on the most powerful headlights, Tom Swift looked ahead as well as he could up the dark and rain-swept road along which he was soon guiding his vehicle. Back of him Ned was beating up the eggs and slicing and chopping the ham to make an omelet. Already the delicious aroma of boiling coffee permeated the House.
"Grub'll be ready soon now!" called Ned, as he slipped the omelet into the frying pan.
"Good for you!" called back Tom from the driver's seat where he was watching the road. It went on up the mountain in an easy slope and was a fairly good highway.
"Going to eat with one hand and drive with the other, or are you coming back and sit at the table?" asked Ned, when the meal was almost ready.
"Oh, I'll slow down and eat properly," Tom replied. "My coffee would slop all over me if I tried to drink it while going along here."
A little later Tom came to a wider place in the road. Here he pulled to the right and, putting on the brakes, but leaving the engine running, in case they had to get out in a hurry, Tom climbed back and joined his chum at the table.
"Not half bad, this, is it?" chuckled the young inventor, having tasted the omelet.
"It would be jolly if it didn't storm so," replied Ned, with a little shiver. "Listen to that rain, would you!"
It was dashing hard on the roof, sides, and windows of the House on Wheels.
"Can't get in, that's one consolation," Tom said. "And I never sleep better than when I hear rain on the roof."
"Do you intend to do any sleeping to-night?" Ned wanted to know, as he filled Tom's coffee cup a second time. "If you do, I'd advise you to reduce your quantity of coffee."
"I don't reckon we'll get much sleep to-night," said Tom, and his air was a bit anxious. "I want to get well away from this place, and if we do that and keep a lookout the rest of the night, we won't have much time for enjoying our rest."
"No, I suppose not," agreed Ned. "Then coffee is the best thing you can take. It will keep you awake," and he gave himself a second helping.
Under other circumstances Tom and Ned would have made the occasion of the night meal in their traveling auto a jolly affair. But now there was too much to think of. So, when they had satisfied their appetites, Tom climbed back to the driver's compartment and started the car again, while Ned cleaned up in the kitchen.
"Did you hear that?" Tom called to his companion after a period of silence, broken only by the racket of the wind and rain.
"Yes," answered Ned. "Sounded like a shot. What was it?"
"Thunder. It's beginning to lighten again, and I think we're in for a worse storm than any we've had yet."
"Maybe it will be a clearing-up shower," suggested Ned.
"Hope so," commented Tom.
He drove on, the lightning flashes coming more vividly and oftener now. Ned came forward to sit beside his chum, and once, during the period of a vivid flash, both of them saw something that caused them to start and Ned to cry:
"Did you see that man with a gun?"
"I did!" answered Tom. "Just ahead!"
The lightning had revealed a sinister face peering out from behind a bush.
"Better slow up, hadn't you?" asked Ned, straining his eyes through the added darkness that followed the flash to get another glimpse of the armed man.
"No, I think we'd better hasten on," was Tom's opinion. "He may have been only a hunter who has lost his way."
"I hope he isn't hunting us," said Ned grimly.
There came another flash, but they had gone on past the place where the man's face had been observed, and no other foes were now revealed by the glare from the sky.
"There's one thing we ought to do," said Ned, after the House on Wheels had rumbled on a little farther, the grade being steeper now.
"What is it?"
"Put out those lights back of us. They only show us up to those who may be watching."
"That's right," agreed the young inventor. "Go in and douse 'em!"
At the same time he reached forward and cut the switch that controlled the illumination of his dashboard. This left the auto with but the bright headlamps glowing, and they kept any one who might be in front of the auto from seeing anything of the occupants of the driver's seat.
In the darkness Ned sat beside his chum. The House on Wheels was being driven on. Ned was about to ask Tom if he did not want to be relieved for a while when there came a sudden sharp crack from the bushes on the left of the road. At first Ned thought it was a preliminary to a burst of thunder. A moment later he knew it had been a rifle shot.
Then came several more reports, and one bullet, fired from ambush, shattered a window back of the two who had dared to try to solve the mystery of Dismal Mountain.