CHAPTER XV
A NIGHT ON THE SUMMIT
"Now," Ned said, as the signal columns died down, "we'll hike back tocamp with our pictures and get supper! How does that strike you?"
Jack turned toward Ned impatiently. There was not light enough forhis face to show clearly, but Ned knew how the boy was scowling!
"And go off and leave Jimmie here?" Jack said. "I'd like to know whatyou're thinking of! Why have you changed your mind? I'm going to stayhere until it gets good and dark and then go up there."
"You may spoil all my plans if you attempt to reach him to-night,"Ned replied, in a matter-of-fact tone. "On the way back I want tostop at the cabin a moment."
"All right," Jack grumbled. "I suppose I'll have to go with you! Whenare you thinking of rescuing Jimmie? After they send us one of hishands?"
"Don't be sarcastic," laughed Ned. "You'll understand it all beforelong."
Jack was not at all pleased with the idea of returning to camp, andsaid so repeatedly as they walked along both keeping in the thicketas far as possible, but Ned seemed to take no offense at his remarks.
"What I can't get through my head," Jack finally said, changing thetopic of conversation, "is why they let us travel through herewithout nipping us."
"I have an idea," Ned answered, "that they are pretty busy just now."
"Well, what was the use of our going at all if we sneak away as soonas we get where we might accomplish something?" demanded the boy,reverting to the old subject.
"You did a good job in finding and following them," Ned replied,ignoring the question, "and another good job in showing me the way.We have accomplished more than you think! I'm anxious for the end tocome, so you'll know just how much you have accomplished! There isthe cabin light," he added.
The boys walked boldly up to the door and Ned knocked. Mrs. Bradylooked out with a welcoming smile on her faded face. She invited themin and tried to appear pleased at their visit, but Ned saw that shewas under a great mental strain.
Judd Bradley sat by the hearth, with the child by his side. He smiledwhen Ned nodded to him and pointed to a chair.
"Pardon my not arising," he said. "The fact is that I'm a bit leg-wearyto-night. This little chap ran away to-day, and I had a long chaseafter him!"
"We were worried about him," Mrs. Brady added.
"Aw, what's the matter wid youse folks, anyway?" demanded the boy, ina strident tone. "I didn't promise to sit in a chair an' play wid acat all day!"
"I've had quite a busy day myself," Ned observed, "for one of theboys has been abducted by the counterfeiters, as I suppose, and we'vebeen looking for him."
"Have you found him?" asked the old lady, anxiously.
"No," was the reply. "He must be securely hidden."
"The poor little fellow!"
Ned glanced casually at Bradley and saw that he was all interest.
"It seems," he went on, "that the counterfeiters blame us for whattook place last night, and want us to leave the district. If we dothey will send the boy out to us unharmed, at least that is what theypromise."
"I don't see how they can blame you for the trouble of last night,"Bradley said, and Ned caught a tone of irony in his voice.
"That's what I can't see," Ned went on, "but it seems that they do."
"And so they have ordered you out of the hills?" asked Bradley."That's too bad, just as we were getting well acquainted. But, then,you don't have to go!"
"I think we'll go," Ned replied. "There are other localities where wecan take pictures, and we can't afford to take any chances on the boybeing injured."
"Sorry to have you go," Bradley remarked, "but that may be the wisestcourse."
"We think so," Ned replied. "Anyway, we're going day after to-morrow,in time to meet Jimmie at Cumberland. I think we can get packed upand out by that time."
"Shall we see you again before you go?" asked the old lady,anxiously.
"Oh, I presume so. I am going now to leave a note in the cave, sayingthat we are going out, and then on to camp."
When the boys stepped outside the cabin the old lady followed as faras the threshold standing with her gray head outside.
"I'm sorry," she said. "If there is anything I can do--"
Jack stood a couple of yards away, whistling shrilly. At a word fromNed the old lady stepped out into the open air, half closing the doorafter her. From the inside came the heavy tread of Bradleyapproaching the door.
But before the visitor gained the threshold Ned and Mrs. Bradley hadexchanged half a dozen short sentences, and when Bradley looked outshe was saying.
"I shall look for you if you ever come this way again."
"I'll surely be back, some bright day!" laughed Ned, and the two boyswalked on.
"Well," Jack said, as they left the cabin behind, "of all the fire-proof,enthusiastic, gilt-edged, slicky-slick members of the Ananiasclub I ever heard mentioned, you certainly take the bakery! What didyou go and tell Bradley we were going out for?"
"Because," Ned answered, "we are going out."
"Not by day after to-morrow?"
"I hope so! We ought to get ready by that time!"
"I don't ask any more questions!" grumbled Jack. "I don't know hotfrom cold! I'm deaf and dumb and blind from this minute on. Uncle Ikehas a classical education in comparison with what I know. Go to it,Neddie, boy!"
They stopped at the cave and Ned wrote a note to the effect that theywere going out inside the limit set, placed it in a conspicuous placeon the shelf with the dies, and then the two boys set out for camp.It was a long, hard climb, but they made it before the boys were intheir bunks.
"You're a nice party!" Frank exclaimed, as Ned came up. "We thoughtyou had been pinched! There's plenty of hot supper in the oven foryou, but you don't deserve a thing! Square yourself!"
"Don't ask him a single question!" grumbled Jack. "He won't tell youa thing! We've been within sight of a signal from Jimmie thisafternoon, and we've had a chance to tell the outlaws where they cango, but he's muffed every play! I'm going to eat and go to bed!"
Jack really was out of temper, so no objections were made to hisgoing to his bunk as soon as he had finished supper! Ned laughedgood-naturedly at the boy's remarks and thought no more about them.
Frank came and sat down by Ned while the latter was eating a heartysupper.
"The worry doesn't seem to affect your appetite!" the boy laughed."Have you solved the riddle, that you are so calm through it all? Ifyou have, just tell me this:
"Is it the prince, or is it Mike III.?"
"I've written the answer to that in my little red book," laughed Ned.
Frank eyed the other with a grin, but made no reply for a time, thenhe merely said:
"You are up to your old tricks! Well, what is on for to-night?"
"Why," Ned answered, "if you would like a stroll by moonlight, Ithink we might get a good view of the south country from the top ofthe mountain."
"I don't know what you're up to," Frank answered, springing to hisfeet, "but I'm game for anything. I've been eating my heart out allday."
"What about the prints?" asked Ned.
"They are remarkably good," Frank replied, "but there are no specialfeatures. In one picture, taken down in the canyon, there is a facethat we did not see, though."
"What sort of a face?"
"A strange one to me. But I'll show them all to you in the morning.When are you going out for that stroll in the moonlight?"
"In two hours. That will be about midnight. Between now and that timeI'm going to get a little sleep. Wake me at twelve, will you--and, bythe way, say nothing to the others about it. They'll all want to go!We can notify whoever is on watch when we get ready to start."
Ned hastened to his bunk and lay down. Five minutes later, when Franklooked in, he was studying a French dictionary by the light of hiselectric candle. Ten minutes later he was sound asleep. At twelve theboys were ready to start, and Teddy, who was on watch, was warned tokeep wide awake and listen for no
ises from the south.
"If you hear shooting," Ned said, "two of you jump on Uncle Ike andcharge along the summit to the south. Make all the noise you can!Don't go down the slope, but keep to the summit."
"Now where?" asked Frank, as they walked over the rocks and woundaround jutting crags. "If you'll give me time I'll take somemoonlight pictures for Dad's newspapers. He must be expecting some bythis time!"
"Poor old Dad!" laughed Ned. "By this time he must have given upsitting around the New York postoffice, waiting for your pictures tocome!"
"I'm going to send him some on this trip, sure!" declared the boy."He deserves them, you know, and his newspaper needs them! Besides,we are planning another Boy Scout trip, and I shall want a whole lotof money!"
"I see!" cried Ned. "You are casting an anchor to windward!"
"In other words," grinned Frank, "I'm laying the foundation foranother appropriation! I'm going to send on some of the pictures ofthe counterfeiters' den!"
The summit of the ridge was by no means a level pathway. There werepeaks, canyons, gulleys and twistings to east and west which causedthe boys to travel two miles or more for every mile they advancedtoward the point where the two men Jack had followed had takenrefuge.
It was about two o'clock in the morning when they came in sight ofthe chimney rock which Ned had noted on the trip of the afternoon. Itrose from the west slope of the mountain like a tower, tall, bulky,forbidding.
Looking down upon it from the east, Ned saw that there was a smallcanyon in between it and the slope, much the same as the formationnear the cave of the counterfeiters. It was evident that the rock hadbeen cast down from the summit, and had caught there--on a projectingridge of stone.
"Looks like a fortress!" Frank whispered as the rock sparkled in thelight of the moon. "Notice the campfire in the canyon?" "There weretwo there this afternoon," Ned said, "and we thought one of them wasthere simply to make the second column--the Boy Scout call forassistance."
"If Jimmie isn't tied up hand and foot," Frank suggested, "if he isallowed to move about, under guard, and help in the cooking, he couldeasily build two fires, and the outlaws wouldn't know what he was upto. That is how Dode came to signal to us, you remember. Thecounterfeiters never suspected that he was making Indian talk!"
"I think it was Jimmie," Ned declared. "He would find some way tomake the signal, if he wasn't tied hard and fast! Anyway," the boyadded, "I'm going down the slope right now to see if he is there!"