CHAPTER XXVI.
FORCED TO WRITE.
Dick's daring and reckless break for liberty might have been successfulbut for the fact that the outer door had been closed and securelyfastened after the entrance of Spotted Dan.
Dan went down with a shock that jarred the whole building, and the boyleaped toward the door. Both Dillon and Mat uttered cries ofastonishment and grabbed at him. He avoided their hands and reached thedoor, but as he was trying to unfasten it they fell on him.
Young Merriwell's fighting blood was up, and for at least five minuteshe gave the ruffians the hardest sort of a struggle. Using hands andfeet in unison, he made them howl as he repeatedly hit and kicked them.With all his force, he drove his knee into Mat's stomach and doubled thefellow up like a jackknife.
At this juncture the boy had nearly whipped both the men. Dillon waspanting and dazed, but he had drawn a pistol and reversed it in hishand, so that he gripped the barrel. With the butt of the weapon hestruck a blinding blow at the fighting boy's head, and by chance theblow landed full and fair.
Down Dick dropped and lay stunned on the floor. Dillon stood lookingdown at the lad, muttering savagely, while Mat gasped for breath andheld both hands on his stomach. Spotted Dan had recovered from the firstshock, and now stood, with his hands on his hips and his feet wideapart, watching what transpired. He had not even lifted a hand to takepart in the struggle.
"Well, drat the kid!" snarled Dillon. "He sure comes nigh slipping rightthrough our fingers."
"Confound him!" panted Mat, still gasping for breath. "He soaks his kneeinter my solar plexus and pretty nigh puts me out."
"Haw! haw! haw!" laughed Spotted Dan, throwing back his head. "Well, youtwo gents sure has a highly interesting time of it. So that was why yerdidn't want me to go for my blanket! So that's what yer had in the backroom yer didn't want me ter see! Well, I reckons I has clapped mypeepers on this yere youngster before. I opines I smells your littlegame. I rather jedge I understands why you drops the railroad job. Youseems ter strike another job that interests you a heap more."
Without paying any attention to the pockmarked fellow, Dillon bent overthe motionless boy, muttering:
"I wonder if I cracks his skull? That certain was a good rap I gavehim."
Blood was trickling down from Dick's hair, and on one side of his headwas a cut.
"I don't care ef you did finish him!" grated Mat.
"Well, I does," asserted Dillon. "We knocks ourselves out of a goodthing ef that happens."
"A good thing," laughed Spotted Dan. "Well, gents, you counts me in onthat good thing. You plays no game like this on me, none at all!"
Dick stirred and opened his eyes.
"He is all right," said Mat.
The boy looked up at the two ruffians near him and then struggled to hiselbow, his black eyes full of defiance.
"Give me a fair show and I'll try it again!" he weakly exclaimed. "IfI'd a fair show then I wouldn't be here now. I was weaponless. You werethree to one against me, and still you had to use a weapon to put medown and out."
"Haw! haw! haw!" again roared Spotted Dan. "These yere Merriwells sureis fighters."
Mat turned on him hotly.
"I reckon you found that out in Prescott the first time you met FrankMerriwell," he said.
Dan suddenly stopped laughing and scowled blackly.
"Don't git so personal!" he cried. "Mebbe I don't like it any!"
Dick lifted his hand to his head and saw blood on his fingers when helooked at them. Then from his pocket he took a handkerchief, which heknotted about his head.
"Better put your bird back into the cage," advised Dan. "Ef yer don't,mebbe he flutters some more. When he flutters he is dangerous."
"That's right," nodded Dillon, laying hold of Dick. "We will chuck himback there in a hurry."
"Take your hands off me, you brute!" panted the boy. "I will go back ofmy own accord. Let me alone."
Dillon dragged him to his feet, but, with a wrench, he suddenly torefree. If the ruffians expected him to resume the effort, they soon foundhe had no such intention, for, with a remarkably steady step, he walkedacross the floor to the open door of his prison room.
In the doorway he turned and faced them, the handkerchief about his headalready showing a crimson stain on one side. His dark eyes flashed withunutterable scorn and contempt.
"I know you all three!" he exclaimed. "Wait till my brother finds outabout this business. The whole Southwest won't be large enough to hideyou in safety."
Then he disappeared into the room, scornfully closing the door behindhim.
"Gents," said Spotted Dan, "for real, genuine sand, give me a kid likethat!"
Then the bar was once more slipped into its socket, and the door wasmade secure. With throbbing head and fiery pulse, Dick lay on the bunkin that back room as the remainder of the night slipped away.
With the coming of another day he heard the faint hoofbeats of a horseoutside, and knew some one had ridden up. Then the muttering of voicesin the next room came to him, and his curiosity, in spite of his injury,caused him to again slip to the door and listen at the crack beneath it.
He heard the voice of a strange man saying:
"I am to take the letter back myself. The youngster must be forced towrite it. Leave it to me; I will make him do it."
"Partner," said the hoarse voice of Spotted Dan, "I opines you takes amighty big contract when you tries to force that kid inter doinganything of the sort."
"Leave it ter me," urged the stranger. "Let me in there, and I will turnthe trick."
A few minutes later Dick hastily got away from the door and pretended tobe sleeping on the bunk, his ears telling him the bar was being removed.A flood of light shone in, for there was no window to that dark room toadmit daylight. The four men entered, one of them bringing a lightedlamp in his hand.
The boy pretended to awaken and then sat up. He saw that the newcomerhad a mask over his face, making it plain he feared recognition by thecaptive.
"Yere," said Spotted Dan, "is a gent what wants ter see you some, myyoung gamecock. He has a right important piece of business to transactwith yer, and I reckons it pays yer ter do as he tells yer."
The masked man came and stood looking at the boy.
"Kid," he said, in what seemed to be an assumed manner of fierceness,"you've got to write a letter to your brother, and you will write itjust as I tells yer. Understand that? If you refuse, we will stopbothering with you any by wringing your neck and throwing you out forbuzzard bait. We can't afford to waste time fooling, and we meanbusiness. Time is mighty important to us."
"What do you want me to write?" asked Dick.
"We wants you to write a letter telling your brother that you are in thehands of men who proposes to carve you up piecemeal unless he makesterms with a certain gent who wants to deal with him for some of hisproperty. No need to mention this gent's name, mind that. Don't put itinto the letter. You tells your brother nothing whatever about us savethat we has you all tight and fast. But you tells him that, onless hecomes to terms immediate, we sends him to-morrow one of your thumbs. Incase he delays a while longer, we sends him t'other thumb. Then, if heremains foolish and won't deal any, we kindly sends him your right ear.If that don't bring him around a whole lot sudden, we presents him withyour left ear. Arter that we gits tired when we waits twenty-four hours,and we shoots you full of lead and lets it go at that. Mat, pull overthat yere box right close to the kid's bunk, where he can sit allcomfortable-like and write on it."
A box was dragged out of a corner and placed before young Merriwell, whosat on the edge of the bunk. Then a sheet of paper was produced andspread in front of the lad, while the stub of a lead pencil was thrustinto his fingers.
"Now write," savagely ordered the masked man--"write just what I tellsyer to a minute ago!"
Dick hesitated, but seemed to succumb. Through his head a wild schemehad flashed. It bewildered him for a moment, but quickly his mindcleared and he began to
write. He did so, however, with the utmostslowness, as if the task was a difficult and painful one. Spotted Danwas surprised to see the boy give in so quickly. He had fancied Dickwould have obstinately refused until compelled to obey.
"Don't put in a thing but just what I tells yer to," commanded themasked man. "If yer does, youngster, you has ter write another letter,for we won't deliver this one any at all. If you wants to get free, youhas good sense and obeys all peaceful-like."
"All right," muttered Dick, as he slowly labored over the beginning ofthe message to Frank.
"Why, seems ter me this yer boy's eddication has been a heap neglected,"said Dillon. "He finds it a whole lot hard to write."
The masked man resumed his position where he could read what was beingwritten. Somehow it didn't seem to please him, for of a sudden he seizedthe sheet of paper and tore it up.
"Why for do you ramble around that yere way?" he demanded. "You puts itdown plain and brief, with no preliminaries. Understand that?"
Then he produced another sheet of paper and laid it upon the box.Immediately Dick flung down the pen and lay back on the bunk.
"You go to Halifax!" he exclaimed, his eyes flashing. "I will write itjust as I want to, or I won't write it at all."
The man instantly whipped out a long, wicked-looking knife.
"Then I slits your oozle!" he snarled.
"Slit away!" defiantly retorted the boy.
Spotted Dan broke into a hoarse laughter.
"What did I tell yer!" he cried. "I certain knowed how it would be."
The masked man seized Dick and held the knife menacingly before hiseyes.
"Will you do as I tell you?" he hissed.
"I will do as I choose," retorted the nervy lad. "I don't propose towrite anything save what you order, but I will write it in my own way.If I can't, then I won't write at all."
The man hesitated, then straightened up.
"Well, you sure has sand, or you're the biggest fool for a kid I eversaw," he declared. "Go ahead and write her out, and then I'll examineher and see that she's all right."
So once more Dick took the pencil and began to write. He preserved thesame deliberate slowness in constructing the early portion of themissive, but finally began to write faster and faster, and finished itwith a rush, signing his name.
"Well, the kid's eddication seems to be all right, arter all," observedMat, as he admiringly watched the boy speedily scribble the lastsentence. "Mebbe he is out of practice some, to begin with, and so hewrites slow till he gits his hand in."
The masked man took the letter and carefully read it over.
"Why were you so particular to say, 'No house shelters me?'" he asked."That yere is dead crooked. Is you trying to fool your brother up some?"
Dick actually laughed.
"I put that in just to help you out, gentlemen," he declared. "You havebeen so very kind to me I should hate to see anything happen to you."
The masked man wondered vaguely if the boy was mocking them, but decidedalmost immediately that he had really frightened Dick to such an extentthat the young captive had put those words in to show his willingness tohold to the demands made upon him.
"Well, this will do," nodded the wearer of the mask, folding the paperand thrusting it into his pocket. "Now, pards, just keep the boy allca'm and quiet, and mebbe his brother comes to his senses and settlesthe deal, arter which we evaporates and leaves them to meet up with eachother and rejoice."
Then he strode out of the room, and his three companions followed,closing the door and leaving Dick once more to gloom and solitude.