CHAPTER XIII.
SOUTH AMERICAN JUSTICE.
Aided by the rascally guide, who had been employed for the expresspurpose of decoying Nat, the three men carried the lad’s limp form intothe doorway. Inside they ascended a steep flight of stairs, and atlength arrived in a room on the upper story.
A lamp was smoking and flaring on a table, which, besides one chair,appeared to be all the furniture there was in the place.
“Fling him on the floor,” ordered Captain Lawless brutally, and poorNat was chucked into a corner with as scant ceremony as if he had beena sack of potatoes.
The appearance of both Lawless and his rascally mate was materiallychanged since we last saw them leaving their crew marooned on thetropic island. Both had shaved off their beards, and wore the SouthAmerican style of dress, so that it would not have been an easy matterto recognize them.
The two rascals had arrived in Callao a week before, and at Lima hadexchanged their pearls for substantial sums, so that they were wellprovided with money. They made no long stay at Lima, but hastened toSanta Rosa, where Durkee fell in with two old acquaintances, to wit,the two South Americans who were now leagued with them.
As soon as the news of the approach of the Motor Rangers’ craft spreadalong the water front, Lawless and Durkee engaged a sailboat. Theywanted to look the craft over, and ascertain the lay of the land, as itwere. But, as we know, darkness fell before the _Nomad_ was anchored,and they were chagrined to find no easy way of getting close to thevessel. But they saw the professor and Nat leave her for the shore, andmade the cowardly attempt to run them down that we have related.
When this scheme failed, they hastened back to the port, landing at awharf not far distant from the one at which Nat and his companion haddisembarked. Having found their satellites, they deputed one of them totrack Nat and lure him into the alley where they lay in wait for him.How easily and unsuspectingly the lad had walked into the trap, we know.
“What are we going to do with this cub, now that we have him?” askedLawless, as Nat was thrown into the corner.
“Better put him in Manuello’s pit downstairs,” said Durkee. “He’ll cometo in a minute or so and may make us a lot of trouble.”
Lawless bent over Nat and examined him carefully.
“You must have hit him a terrible crack, Manuello,” he said to one ofthe South Americans, who stood by, impassive and indifferent, whilethis dialogue was carried on.
The man shrugged his shoulders.
“What would you?” he said. “You told me to knock him senseless, and Idid so.”
“You certainly did,” said Lawless, with a brutal laugh.
“Well, if we are going to keep him in the pit over night, we had betterput him there now,” remarked Durkee.
“All right. Bear a hand in packing him down stairs again, then.Confound it, I wish we hadn’t brought him up here. He’s a heavyyoungster.”
“He is that,” agreed Durkee. “And he’s got muscles like iron. He’d bean ugly customer in a rough-and-tumble fight, all right.”
“No danger of such a thing as that occurring,” said Lawless, as helifted Nat’s feet, while Durkee took his head.
Followed by the South Americans, one of whom held the lamp, theydescended the stairs, and opening a trap-door in the passage, theyclambered down another flight leading into a damp, earthy-smellingcellar. In the centre of this cellar, the light revealed a deepish pit.Into this pit Nat was lowered. All this time he had given no sign ofconsciousness and was as limp as a rag-doll.
“Now, get the dogs, Manuello,” ordered Lawless.
In obedience to his commands, the South American approached a smalldoor at the rear of the cellar and opened it. He whistled softly, andtwo ferocious, half famished looking blood-hounds came leaping out.Their dripping fangs were drawn back, exposing sharp, white teeth.
“Watch that boy carefully,” said Manuello in Spanish to the brutes.
They seemed to comprehend him instantly. They uttered a low growl andcrouched close to the edge of the pit. Their red-rimmed eyes were fixedon the boyish form lying at the bottom.
The creatures were vicious to a degree; in fact, Manuello used them infighting, the scene of the brutal sport being the pit in which Nat nowlay.
“Humph!” said Captain Lawless, as he regarded the two dogs, “thosefellows are better than human guards. If that boy ever escapes fromthem, he’ll be——”
“Look out!” yelled Durkee suddenly.
An astonishing thing had happened. Nat’s limp form had suddenlygalvanized into aggressive, fighting life.
He sprang erect like a flash, and in one bound was out of the pit.Another instant, and his fist was crashing into Lawless’s face. Theman, taken utterly off his guard, reeled backward, waving his armswildly.
He fell into the pit with a crash and lay still.
Before Durkee could recover from his amazement, he, too, had joinedhim. There remained only the two Spanish-Americans for Nat to face. Butthey had had more time to prepare themselves. Both brandishedwicked-looking knives as the boy came at them.
Moreover, the dogs had now awakened to the situation. With frantic yapsand snarls, they sprang at Nat.
The lamp which had lighted their progress to these lower regions stoodon the ground. Nat saw in it a weapon of necessity. Snatching it up, heswung it round his head and then sent it crashing at the brutes as theyleaped for his throat.
As the crash of splintering glass resounded, the place was plunged indarkness, but the howls of the two savage brutes showed that theburning oil had singed their skins.
Without waiting an instant, Nat plunged off through the darkness, inthe direction in which he judged the door lay. As he dashed forward, hecollided with a body, no doubt one of the South Americans. Down wentthe fellow before Nat’s onrush, just as if he had opposed him on thefootball field.
But in the meantime, Durkee had recovered his wits and scrambled out ofthe dog-pit. His rough voice came bawling through the darkness withappalling ferocity.
Fear of this ruffian lent Nat winged feet. He found the door, dartedthrough it and then down the passage and out into the dark street. Atthe far end of it he could see lights gleaming. He made for these attop speed and found himself in a well-lighted plaza opposite thecathedral.
He knew that the ruffians would not dare to pursue him there, and,spying an _alguzil_, or native policeman, he made his way to him. InSpanish Nat explained the outrage that had been perpetrated on him, anddemanded that the police investigate instantly.
To his astonishment, the man merely shrugged his shoulders, and twistedhis little black moustache. He said that nothing could be done thatnight.
“To-morrow, perhaps, but not to-night, señor,” he replied, and turnedaway to strut off on his beat once more.
“Gee whiz!” muttered Nat, as he watched this competent conserver of lawand order, “what wouldn’t I give for a good American cop with a bignightstick, right now. However, it’s no good trying to wake that chapup, and those rascals must have decamped by this time, anyhow. Wonderif they meant to rob me, or what? Funny thing that two of the voicessounded so familiar. If it hadn’t been for the impossibility of theirbeing here, I could almost have sworn that they were the voices ofLawless and Durkee.”
As it was past the hour at which he had promised to return to theconsulate, Nat set off at a brisk pace. Once he had to ask his way. Theman he inquired of, a woe-begone looking personage in a long cloak anda cone-shaped hat, replied with great volubility.
“I will guide the señor there,” he declared.
“I guess not,” rejoined Nat, with such vigor that the fellow fell backa pace, “I’ve had all I want of guides in this place.”
As Nat walked along, he felt the back of his neck, where he had beenstruck, for it was becoming quite painful.
“Good thing the force of that blow was mostly wasted on my shoulder,”he said to himself, “or I might have been knocked unco
nscious in goodearnest. As it was, it was a lucky thing I shammed insensibility, or Imight have got another tap.”