The Night Riders
CHAPTER V.
"Now, boys, to business!" cried the captain, briskly, as some of Milt'sacquaintances gathered around him to give him a welcoming hand. "We havea little work before us tonight."
Soon the sound of a small cavalcade, riding rapidly along the countryroads, broke into the quiet of the night, perchance arousing some lightsleeper as it passed, who, after listening drowsily to the retreatinghoof-beats as they died away in the distance, would turn and mutter,"The Night Riders," then drift into slumber again.
"Where are we going?" asked Milt, who rode by the side of Steve.
"To make one less toll-gate."
"Which one?" asked Milt, with an interest he did not care to betray.
"It's the Cross-Roads Gate, I think. You can look for a lot o' funtonight if it's that one, an' we get Maggie O'Flynn stirred up. She's aregular circus in herself." Steve chuckled audibly at the prospectiveentertainment.
"It will be something like stirring up a den of wild-cats, not countingin Pat at all," Milt admitted.
"Pat don't count; he's a coward, through and through. The fun will allbe furnished by Maggie."
"And we fellows had better look sharp," cautioned Milt. "Maggie's apretty good shot, I've heard."
"We've seen to it that she won't have a chance to draw a bead on any ofus," admitted Steve. "She keeps a rifle at the gate, but one of theneighbors borrowed it this very mornin' to shoot a hawk, an' somehowforgot to carry it back. He won't think of it till in the mornin'.Maggie's tongue is all that's left to guard the gate."
"And under ordinary circumstances that's sufficient," admitted Milt.
The raiders soon came out upon a turnpike, and after a ride of a mile ortwo they reached a spot where the pike was intersected by another,crossed at right angles. At the juncture of the two roads stood thetoll-house which had been chosen for the night's raid.
A raider was stationed about a hundred yards from the gate to guard theapproach from that direction, while the rest rode forward to where thedouble poles were now raised at this mid-hour of the night. Three of thehorsemen passed through and took positions on the farther side of thetoll-house, at about equal distances from it along the two roads.
In the meantime the captain selected a man from among the members of theband, who was least known to the locality, to act as spokesman, andwhile the remaining raiders grouped themselves about the gate, aresounding knock was given at the toll-house door.
"All roight! I'm afther comin'. Ye needn't break the dure down,"answered a sleepy man's voice, deeply tinged with Celtic brogue. "Whatthe divil do ye want, anyway? The poles are raised!" the voice demandedimmediately after.
"We want these poles cut down," announced the spokesman of the band.
"Begorra! an' it's the raiders!" Pat said in a husky voice to hisawakened spouse.
"The phwat?" asked Maggie, in a shrill tone, evidently raising up inbed.
"Whist, honey! The raiders!" repeated Pat, in more cautious tones.
"An' phwat do they want?" asked Maggie, in a still higher key.
"They want the poles cut down," faltered Pat.
"Indade! An' phwat do they mane wakin' up honest people this dead o' thenight, axin' the loike o' that?" demanded his wife, shrilly. "Get thegun, Pat, an' shoot the dirty thaves!"
Pat, shaking with excitement or fear, in a low, tremulous voice,inaudible to those without, reminded his spouse that the gun had beenloaned out and was no longer there.
"An' bad luck to the man that borrowed it!" cried the undaunted Maggie."It's betther used to shoot raiders with thin hawks."
"Get us an axe!" commanded the spokesman of the band, rapping sharply onthe door.
"It's out at the wood pile beyant the house," answered Pat, meekly.
"Hush, you fool!" cried his wife, shrilly. "Phwat did ye tell 'em for?I'd 'a' seen the last wan o' thim to the divil first, where they'll goquick enough."
Two of the raiders went in search of the axe, and soon its dull blowswere heard on the hard, seasoned wood of one of the poles, while thesound of the cutting seemed to infuriate Maggie as nothing else haddone.
She sprang out of bed like a wildcat in nimbleness, and it took all thestrength and persuasion that Pat could muster to keep her from openingthe door and coming out into the midst of the raiders.
"Whist, darlint! Be aisy, for the love of hiven!" implored herfrightened spouse. "Ye'll bring down the wrath o' the whole gang on uswid sich wild cacklin'. Be quiet!"
"Be quiet, indade! An' let thim prowlin' thaves cut down the poles an'take away our livin'? Not much!" cried Maggie, fiercely. "If I only hada gun, I'd loike to shoot the last wan o' thim--the dirty blackguards!"
"Hush, me jewel, an' mebbe they'll only cut down the poles an' l'ave usin peace!" pleaded Pat.
"I _won't_ hush!" screeched Maggie, growing angrier each moment. "Ifye're skeert, ye c'n crawl under the bed an' hide, ye cowardly cur! I'llgo out an' run the last murdherin' wan o' thim away."
"Ye'll git the both of us kilt intoirely if ye don't dhry up wid yerclatter!" entreated Pat.
"I know ivery dhirty mother's son av ye!" screamed Maggie, putting hermouth close to the keyhole of the door, from which Pat had taken thekey, and hidden it. "I know ye all, an' I'll have ye in the pinitintiaryby termorrer night, ye bloodthirsty divils--ye--"
The rest of the sentence was suddenly muffled, as if Pat's hand hadinterposed, while a scuffling sound was heard inside the room thatsuggested he was trying to drag Maggie away from the door. The raiderscrowded around the platform of the toll-house, listening in an ecstasyof delight.
Presently a resounding whack was heard, followed by a howl of pain fromPat, whom Maggie had struck, and speedily she was back at the keyholeagain.
"Cut down the poles av ye want to, ye night-prowlin' rascals!" shebawled lustily. "I'll have 'em both up ag'in by daylight, an' I'd loiketo see any sneakin' dog av ye git by an' not pay toll, ye thavin'robbers!"
"She'll do it, too," muttered Steve, who was standing near the captain."She'll have bran'-new poles up almost before we can get home."
"The only way to get rid of this gate is to burn it, I think," said thecaptain, with an oath. "As she wants to come out so much, suppose wegive her a chance. Get an armful of straw from the stable an' bring ithere! We'll smoke her out."
While Steve hurried off to obey the order, two of the others gathered upsome of the dry chips and splinters of wood from the cut poles, and whenSteve returned with the straw a fire was kindled on the platform in asheltered corner, farthest from the door.
As the flames quickly leaped up the walls of the toll-house, ignitingthe dry timbers, the flash of light, the smoke, the crackle of burningwood, all speedily revealed to the two within the building what wastaking place without.
"I tould ye to shut up, ye screechin' varmint!" cried Pat, in aterror-stricken voice. "They're burnin' us up aloive. The howly saintsprotect us!"
Maggie gave a loud whoop, this time rather of fear than of rage, thoughthe two were strongly blended.
"Help! Murdher!" she shrieked.
"I thought she'd change her tune, the wildcat!" muttered the captain,grimly.
A few minutes later the back door of the toll-house was thrown quicklyopen, but as the two terror-stricken inmates of the burning buildingappeared in the doorway, ready to flee into the night, they wereconfronted by a couple of raiders with masks and drawn pistols.
"Go back!" the men sternly commanded.
"For the love o' hiven, don't shoot!" pleaded Pat.
"Go back!" the men repeated, leveling their weapons threateningly.
In silent terror the two obeyed and shiveringly drew back into theburning house. Dark spirals of smoke were by this time curling from theroof in several places, and soon little jets of flame thickly dotted it,shooting up from between the smoking shingles; then finally one broadsheet of flame overspread the top--a canopy of fire.
Milt looked on in a sort of spell-bound fascination. What did theraiders mean to do? Surely not to
burn these two helpless people withinthe toll-house. That were a crime far too serious for even this spiritof outlawry.
He stood silent, watching with a growing fear the smoke escaping fromthe roof, then the little spurting jets of flame, and when they unitedin a broad, livid sheet, he felt no longer able to restrain his pity,but started to where the captain sat on his horse, calmly watching theproceedings, intending to petition him for mercy toward the two haplessones within the doomed toll-house.
Before he reached the leader of the band, however, the captain blew asharp call on his whistle, and while the three outlying guards beyondthe gate dashed up in answer to the summons, two of the raiders, at asign from their leader, had broken in the front door, then, mountingtheir horses, the band rode swiftly down the road, after a shrill cry of"Free roads! Down with the toll-gates!"
When Milt looked back he felt a wave of regret surge over him, as hesaw, by the glare of the light, which was illuminating the landscapearound, Maggie's lank figure looming up, tall and straight, in themiddle of the pike, her long arms stretched out menacingly toward theretreating raiders, at whom she was doubtless hurling bitter,Celtic-tinged invectives, while Pat was rushing wildly in and out of theburning building, striving to save some of the few householdeffects--then a curve in the turnpike shut off a further view.