CHAPTER XX
SHOOTING ON THE MOUNTAINSIDE
Bradley smiled cynically as he looked down toward the tent. He couldnot, of course, distinguish the figures as plainly as Jimmie couldwith the glass, but he knew from the excited manner of the boys thatsomething unusual was taking place.
"You have visitors at the camp?" he asked cooly, as the lads motionedto him to move on. "I shall be glad to meet them, you may be sure."
He held out his manacled hands suggestively as he spoke.
"You're not invited!" Jimmie grunted. "We've got private date withthose people. You might muss things up, if we permitted you to gowith us!"
"Very well," Bradley replied. "They'll know where I am. But, for fearthey'll not recognize me, at this distance, I'll just give themnotice that I'm here."
Jimmie and Frank both sprang forward to prevent the promised outcry,but Bradley proved too quick for them. The cry that rose from hislips was long, shrill and significant in its insistance. It wasfinally stopped by Bradley being thrown to the ground, where he laywith the old sarcastic smile on his face.
"You've done it now!" Frank gritted. "You ought to be shot."
"You are none too good to commit a murder--to kill an unarmed anddefenseless man."
"If you don't keep that twirler of yours reefed I'll tie it up!"Jimmie declared, with a threatening motion.
He might have gagged Bradley there and then only that Frank calledhis attention to the camp. The two men who had been seen inside werenow hiding on the west side of the tent, and Teddy was coming up theslope from the corral. Oliver was nowhere to be seen, and thesupposition was that he had been captured by the outlaws.
"We've got to tie this robber hand and foot and gag him!" Frankcried. "We've got to get down to the camp right away!"
"Perhaps," Bradley observed, with a provoking laugh, "you'll also tieand gag the men who are coming up the hill from the canyon."
The four men were now nearly half way up the slope from the cut, andhaving heard the cry, were making good time in the ascent. Thesituation looked anything but peaceful!
The boys were anxious and excited, and Bradley counted on this whenhe made the next move. The men on the west slope had of course heardhis call, he reasoned, and were hastening up to his rescue.
Believing this, he took a desperate chance when he sprang away fromthe boys, dropped to the ground and went bumping over the brokenslope, handcuffed as he was. Jimmie had his automatic out in amoment, but by that time Bradley was concealed by one of the boulderswhich lay on the declivity.
It was useless to try to recapture the fellow, for the men coming upthe slope had seen something of what had taken place, and were now onthe run wherever the nature of the ground permitted. Besides, theywere already within shooting distance, and the boys would be directlyunder fire if they sought to bring Bradley back.
"It is a hopeless case!" Frank cried. "We can't get him!"
"The best thing we can do, then, is to get to the camp," Jimmieobserved.
"Then duck low and cut away to the north!" Frank cried. "Perhaps wecan make most of the distance under cover. Say," he added, as theymoved along, northward on the slope toward the east, "did you eversee anything like that? That Bradley is some wise guy when it comesto a pinch!"
"He's daring!" Frank commented. "He will make us trouble yet!"
"I believe," Jimmie went on, "that he's the fellow that got into theattic over the clubroom of the Black Bear Patrol. When he was down onthe ground, sitting looking over the country, I saw a scar on hishead, a sharp cicatrice, three-cornered. You know how he got that?"
"The maid threw a large pair of shears at some one that night," Franksaid. "You remember we found blood and a blonde hair on one of theblades."
"Just the sort of hair that gink carries on his dome!" Jimmie added.
The men coming up the west slope had not yet reached the summit, andthe men below were still hiding behind the tent. Teddy wasapproaching the fire.
"They'll get the kid in a minute!" Jimmie said.
"I don't know about that," Frank replied. "He seems to me to begetting suspicious. Notice how he stops and looks around--probablylooking for Oliver or Dode."
It was clear that the men waiting behind the tent were becomingimpatient, for they moved along and made ready to spring upon theboy. Teddy, however, was not advancing.
Something about the tent had warned him that it was in the hands ofthe enemy. With a shout of warning to Oliver and Dode, if theychanced to be free and within hearing, he turned and dashed towardthe corral.
While the two men were getting under way in pursuit, Frank and Jimmiecame out on an easier slope and moved rapidly downward. Teddy wassoon out of sight, and then the men turned back.
At that moment a shot came from the summit, and the boys turned tosee the four men whom they had observed on the slope heading down forthe camp.
"They've found Bradley, of course!" Frank said.
"Yes," answered Jimmie, "there's no use of playing double now, forthey know that we are next to their game."
"Shall we rush for the camp?" asked Frank.
"Nothing doing," Jimmie answered. "We can't do a thing there, and weare under cover here! Bradley has, of course, told them that we arehere, but they won't be able to find us for a long time. If they gettoo gay with the things at the camp we'll send a few bullets down.Looks like things were coming their way now, eh?" he added.
"We can't hold the top hand all the time," Frank grunted. "Ned willcome along directly and even things up a little. I wish he was herenow!"
The four men were now scrambling along the slope, looking for the twoboys as they walked, slid and jumped down. The two men who were atthe camp had turned back from the pursuit of Teddy at the sound ofthe shot, and were now awaiting the approach of their friends.
"I suppose they'll burn the tent and drive the mules off!" wailedJimmie. "I'd like to have a machine gun up here a little while!"
"I reckon they won't!"
This from Frank as a shot came from the slope to the south. The menwho were rushing from the camp paused and looked at each other.
While they waited, uncertain as to what they ought to do, anothershot came, this time from the corral. Teddy was evidently gettinginto action!
"Just for luck!" Jimmie shouted.
He fired two shots as he spoke, and two more came from the south andone from the corral. The four men beckoned to their companions at thetent--if such they were--and made a break for the summit which theyhad just left.
"Whoo--pee!" shouted Jimmie. "Look at the racers!"
At sound of the voice one of the men turned and fired a shot at therock against which the boy lay. It broke off a splinter but did noharm to the boys.
Frank left cover and ran up the slope.
"Come one!" he cried. "We'll get Bradley yet!"
Jimmie was not long in catching up with him. When they gained thesummit the four men were losing no time in their journey to thecanyon. They were on their feet only a part of the time.
The boys saw Bradley rise from a sheltering rock and start afterthem, but he fell in a moment. Handcuffed as he was, he could notkeep pace with them. The fugitives paid no attention to his calls forassistance. It was every man for himself at that moment. Bradley sathopelessly down to await the arrival of the boys.
Just as they gained the spot where he sat Ned and Jack came out ofthe jungle of broken rocks to the south and looked smilingly down atthe prisoner.
"Good day!" laughed Jack.
Bradley forced a smile and turned away.
"You took that trick!" he said.
Jimmie stepped forward and put his fingers into the blonde hair ofthe captive.
"Where did you get this scar?" he asked, and Ned at once bentforward.
"I fell down and stepped on it!" Bradley answered, still smiling.
"I'll tell you how you got it," Jimmie went on. "You sneaked into aroom in New York where you had no business to be and a girl threw apair of shears at
you!"
"That's a fine story!" snarled Bradley. "I never was in New York.
"Bring him along, boys," Ned said. "We'll go on down to camp and seewhat's been done to our tent and things by this man's friends."
When they once more came to the summit, Teddy was standing outsidethe tent with Oliver and Dode and the two outlaws were nowhere to beseen. After that Bradley complained at the rate of speed the boysinsisted on.
"Your friends must have thought they had butted into an ambuscade!"Jimmie said to the captive. "Have they had much training in running?They bobbed along like professionals, it seemed to me."
"You'll see how fast they can run!" Bradley growled. "They'll go fastenough to send you all over the road."
"Now about this grandson," asked Ned, falling back. "Mrs. Brady wantsto know where he is. No use for you to hide him, now that we all knowhe was disguised to look like the prince stolen from Washington. Whydid you paint him if not to imitate this other boy we speak of?"
"I don't know anything about the boy," was the reply. "He was takenwithout my knowledge, and that is on the level. I was ordered to dothe paint act."
They trudged on for some minutes in silence, and then Bradley asked:
"What is it about this prince you are always talking about? What isthere about the prince? Where is he? Why is he supposed to be in thissection?"
"You don't know a thing about him, do you?" asked Ned, laughing, "andyet you painted a boy to represent him?"
Bradley only scowled.
"When I find him," Ned continued, "I'll present him to you!"
When the boys reached the tent they found Oliver and Teddy mourningover the destruction of a large number of films and plates. Manypictures, developed and printed with great care, had also been tornor burned.
"Well," Jimmie declared, "they didn't get their hands on the films inmy baby camera. I've got a few good ones left."
"Now, Jack," Ned said, "suppose you connect with Uncle Ike and makefor the nearest telegraph office? Don't break your neck, and the neckof the mule, but get there as soon as you can. And get back as soonas you receive an answer."
"Why can't I go with him?" asked Jimmie. "I guess I want a muleride."
"Go it, if you want to!" Ned laughed. "That will leave us one mule torun away on if things get too hot for us here!"