CHAPTER VIII.
BOY AVIATORS TO THE RESCUE.
"They are murdering some one in there!" cried Frank, bringing the car toa stop.
Indeed, the piercing cries indicated that some one was being maltreated,if not actually murdered.
"Come on, we'll save him," cried Harry, drawing his revolver, for allthe boys had thought it best to carry arms on such a trip as they wereundertaking.
"Be careful. We had better peek through that window first, and see withwhom we have to deal before we announce our presence," breathed Frank,as the boys tiptoed up the path.
"That's a good idea," agreed Billy. "There might be a lot of them andthen we should have to get help."
Cautiously they crept up the path and peered in at the window of thedeserted hut. A strange scene met their eyes.
In one corner of the bare room a rugged man with a grizzled beard wastied hand and foot, while another man with a red-hot poker seemed aboutto burn his eyes out. His cries for help were pitiful.
His captors, however--for beside the man with the poker there were twoother men in the room--seemed to have no pity for him. The man with thepoker was exclaiming in a fierce voice:
"Sign the title to the mine or we will kill you," as the boys peekedcautiously into the room, which was lighted by a lamp detached from theauto. On the tumble-down hearth the fire in which the poker had beenheated smouldered.
The man with the poker had his back to the boys, but even about thatthere seemed something strangely familiar. The appealing words nextuttered by the bound man soon apprised them with whom they had to deal.
"I will never do so, Luther Barr," declared the victim in a tremblingvoice.
The boys all started with amazement at encountering their old enemy insuch a surprising manner in this out-of-the-way hut at midnight.
"Your attempts to get the papers from me are of no use. Kill me if youmust, but don't torture me."
"So you won't tell where they are," cried Barr angrily.
"I will not," said his victim firmly.
"Then take that," cried Barr, in a cruel tone.
The horrified boys saw him lunge forward with the red-hot iron. Hisvictim gave a loud cry of pain as he felt the red-hot metal approach hiseyes to burn them out; but even as Barr raised his arm Frank had decidedwhat to do.
"Stop that!" he cried in a loud, clear voice.
As Frank had expected, this sudden interruption so startled themiscreants that they at once left their victim and started for the door.As they rushed toward the portal, Frank, with a cry of "Come on," leapedthrough the window frame, from which the glass sash had long ago beenbroken, and followed by the others, was in the room the next instant.
"Quick, Harry; cut him loose," he ordered, handing the other boy a bighunting knife.
It was only the work of a few seconds to free the man. But before theropes had fallen from him Luther Barr and the two other men had rushedback from the door and made a dash at the boys.
"Stay where you are, Mr. Barr," said Frank, leveling his revolver; "Idon't want to hurt you."
"What, you interfering whelps, have you crossed my path again?" shoutedBarr, who had recognized the boys instantly. "This time I'll fix you forinterfering with my plans."
He suddenly whipped out a revolver and fired point-blank at Frank. Thebullet whistled past the boy's ears and buried itself behind him.
The next instant the room was plunged into sudden darkness. One ofLuther Barr's companions, in stepping backward to get a rifle thatleaned against the wall, had knocked the light over.
"Quick, boys, run for the auto," shouted Frank, taking advantage of thissudden diversion.
Before the others could recover their wits, the boys, half dragging theman they had rescued with them, reached the door, and the next minutewere in their auto.
"Shoot at their tires," they heard old Barr shout, as they whizzed offdown the road.
A shower of bullets followed, some of which struck the tonneau. But noneof the missiles, fortunately, either wounded them or hit the tires, inwhich latter case they would have had to come to a standstill.
Frank put on full speed, and with the start they already had they soonoutdistanced the auto which held Barr and his two companions. Itfollowed them for a short distance, however, old Barr shoutingmaledictions after them.
"Oh, how can I ever thank you boys?" exclaimed the rescued man, as hegratefully clasped Frank's arm. "That terrible man, Luther Barr, wouldcertainly have blinded, and perhaps killed me, if you had not arrived intime."
"How did you come to get in his power?" asked Frank.
"It is a long story, young man, and begins in Arizona," said thestranger; "but first, I must tell you my name is Bart Witherbee, and Iam well known in the West as a prospector. I located a valuable mine,which seems abandoned, some time ago in the northern part of the state,and I have managed to keep the location a secret till I can file aformal claim to it. In some way the two men whom you saw with Barrto-night, and who are Hank Higgins and Noggy Wilkes, two bad men, andgamblers, heard of this. They formerly worked for Barr, who has miningproperty in Arizona. When they learned I was coming to New York to seemy daughter, they came along, too, and informed Barr of what they knewabout the valuable mine I had found. At that time I did not know Barr,and by these two men was tricked into meeting him on the pretense thathe had some real estate he was willing to trade for mines in Arizona. Ihave other claims beside the one I located recently, and I thought Imight trade one of them for some of Barr's property in the East.
"You can imagine my consternation when we arrived out here to findmyself in the hands of Hank Higgins and Noggy Wilkes. I tried to run,but they caught and tied me, and, as you saw, would have either killedme or maimed me for life if you hadn't saved me."
"What part of Arizona is your mine in?" asked Harry, deeply interested,as they all were, in the man's narrative.
"It is near to a place called Calabazos, in the northern part of thestate near the Black Canyon," replied the man. "I want to let you boyshave a share of it for what you have done for me to-night. It would beonly a slight return."
"Why, we are going near to Calabazos," exclaimed Billy. "I noticed it onthe map. It's near the Black Canyon."
"That's right, young feller," said the miner; "but what are youtenderfoots going to do out there?"
Frank explained about the transcontinental flight.
"Wow," cried the westerner, "that's going some, for fair. Well, boys,I'm going to get on the fastest train I can and get back to Calabazos,and file my claim, for you can call me a Chinese chop-stick if that tharLuther Barr isn't going to camp on my trail till he finds where the mineis located."
"I guess you are right," remarked Frank. "Luther Barr won't stop atanything when he starts out to accomplish a purpose."
"Why, you talk as if you knew him," exclaimed the astonished miner.
"Know him?" echoed Billy with a laugh. "I should say we do, eh, boys?"
The boys' previous acquaintance with the unscrupulous old man was soonexplained to Bart Witherbee, who interrupted the narrative at frequentintervals with whistles of astonishment and loud exclamations of, "Wall,I swan"; "Call me a jack-rabbit, now," "If that don't beat huntingcoyotes with a sling-shot," and other exclamations that seemed peculiarto himself.
"Wall, now, boys, you've got to have some part of that mine, if only forthe sake of getting even with that old man."
The boys tried to insist that they had no right to any of Witherbee'sproperty, but he was so insistent that finally they consented to visitthe mine with him when they reached Calabazos, that is, if they were farenough ahead in the race to be able to spare a few hours.
Witherbee told them some of his history. He was the son of a stage-coachdriver, who had been killed by robbers. The miner, after the murder, hadbeen adopted by somebody whose name he could not recollect. It seemedthat some years after his adoption he had been kidnapped by a travelingcircus, and ha
d sustained a severe blow on the head by falling from ahigh trapeze. This made him forget everything but his very early youth.After a while he escaped from the circus and joined a camp of miners. Hehad been a miner ever since.
"I've often thought I'd like to meet the man who cared for me when myfather was killed," he said, "fer he was good ter me, I remember.Sometimes I have a flash of memory and can almost recollect his name,but it always slips me at last. If he ever met me, though, he'd know meall right. See this?" He rolled up his sleeve and showed them a lividscar. "I was on the coach when it was attacked, and that's a souvenir Igot. They didn't mean to hit me, it was just a stray bullet."
"And your mother," asked Frank, "is not she alive?"
"She was killed, too, the night the robbers attacked the stage," saidthe miner softly. "She was sitting by my father when the attack came."
They reached their camp without further incident, and found that Mr.Joyce had sat up for them and had a hot supper ready. That they didjustice to the meal after their exciting adventures of the night, youmay be sure. The meal disposed of, the adventurers turned in for a fewhours of badly needed sleep.
"Our adventures seem to have begun with a vengeance," sleepily remarkedBilly Barnes, as he was dozing off.
"Do you think we shall see any more of Luther Barr?" asked Harry.
"It wouldn't surprise me," rejoined Frank. "He is not the kind of mannot to seek vengeance for the rebuff we gave him to-night."