CHAPTER XI.
JACK IN TROUBLE.
It seemed to Jack that he plunged down to a great depth, and when hefinally rose to the surface, he was gasping for breath. His firstthought was to free himself from his raincoat, and as soon as this wasdone, he struck out for the east side, as he thought he was a littlemore than half way across. Although a powerful swimmer, the choppysea, caused by a brisk wind, and his clothing, which seemed to draghim down, made his progress difficult. He weakened rapidly, and beforehe was half way to the shore, fear struck him that he might not beable to reach it. Raising himself as far out of the water as possible,he looked about him, but it was very dark, and he could see but a fewfeet. No help was at hand, and summoning all his strength, he startedto swim once more toward the lights, which now seemed farther awaythan at first. But his strokes were now very weak and his progressslow; still he kept doggedly on, for he was not a boy to give up solong as a particle of strength remained.
After what seemed to him hours of struggle, he felt that he could keepup but a few moments more, and a dread fear seized his heart as hegave up hope. He thought not so much of himself, but of the father andmother, who might never know what had happened to him, and the thoughtnerved him to one more last effort.
"It's no use," he thought, after taking a few feeble strokes, "I can'thold out any longer, I'm so tired."
He tried, but his arms seemed numb and utterly refused to obey hiswill, and he was about to go under, when he felt himself seized by thecollar and in another moment, found himself lying on his back on thebottom of a skiff, gasping for breath.
As he slowly began to recover his strength, he looked up and saw thatthe boat contained two men, but he was unable to see their faces inthe darkness.
"Well, here's a rum go," he heard one of them say.
"Right you are," replied the other. "That chap was about all in, Ireckon. Lucky for him we came along when we did."
"He'd sure gone down in another minute," declared the first speaker,"I'd never have seen him, it's so tarnational dark, if I hadn'thappened to hit him wid the oar."
"What'll we do with him?" asked the other.
"Dunno, guess we might's well take him to the hole; might havesomething on him worth while," was the answer.
They evidently thought that the boy was unconscious, and, in fact, sonearly played out was he, that he was unable to speak. The man at theoars, began to row again and soon the light boat was going at a livelypace, as they were rowing with the wind. Shortly, Jack becameconscious that they were passing under a wharf, as the pace becameslow, and occasionally the boat hit against the piling. The continuedin this way for perhaps ten minutes, and then he felt the bottom ofthe boat grate on the shore.
"See if he's come to, Jake," whispered the man who had been rowing.
His companion reached over and shook him roughly by the arm.
"I'm very much obliged to you for pulling me out," said Jack, weakly."I sure thought it was all up with me."
"That's all right," said the man in a low voice. "Think ye can standup?"
"I don't know, but I guess so. I'll try."
Helped by the man, he succeeded in getting to his feet and crawledover the side of the boat to the ground.
"I'm pretty wobbly," he gasped, "but I guess I'll be all right in afew minutes."
"Here, Pete, you take hold of one arm and I'll take the other, and Iguess we'll get him along all right."
Jack stumbled along between the two men, for what seemed a long ways,but which was in reality only a few rods. He was too tired to takemuch notice of his surroundings, but soon saw, by the light of a darklantern, which one of the men carried, that they were passing betweenheavy piles. Soon they came to a stone wall and it seemed to Jack thatthey must be at the end of their journey, but as they came closer, thelight of the lantern showed a small hole, just large enough for a manto creep through.
"I'll go first," said the man with the lantern, "then let the kidfollow."
He reached through and set the lantern down on the other side, and bydint of much squeezing and grunting, managed to push himself through.
"Now you go, kid," ordered the other man.
Jack was much smaller than the man who had gone first and crawledthrough without much difficulty, followed a moment later by the secondman.
"Now follow me, and mind you, keep close to the wall," whispered theman who carried the lantern, "and don't ye make any noise."
Jack began to fear that he had fallen into evil hands, but there wasnothing for him to do but to obey and follow where they led.
The light was turned off, and they crept along in the darkness, Jackkeeping one hand against the wall for some distance, when the man wholed whispered, "Now, ye wait here a minute." Jack stopped, and in aminute heard the man give four raps on what sounded like a door.Almost instantly he heard a bolt shot back, and the next instant adoor was flung open, letting out a flood of light. By its rays hecould see that they were in a narrow passageway between two stoneabutments.
"What ye got there, Jake?" asked a woman's voice.
"Dunno," was the somewhat surly reply. "Some kid we pulled out theharbor. Was about all in when we fished him out."
"Well, seems to me yer taking a mighty big risk fetching him in here,"said the woman somewhat sharply.
"Now don't ye go to butting in, old woman," snapped the man. "I guessme and Pete knows what we're about."
They had entered the room, and Jack tumbled into a chair, too tired tostand up. He looked about him and saw that he was in a small roomwith a low ceiling and dirty with what seemed the accumulation ofyears. The woman who had admitted them might have been anywherebetween thirty and sixty years old, but so dirty and slack looking wasshe, that it was impossible to guess her age any nearer. He now got agood look, for the first time, at the men who had saved him, and sawthat their appearance was wholly in keeping with their surroundings.The older of the two might have been sixty, while the younger was tenor fifteen years his junior. Both had hard rough faces, and his heartsank as he realized how completely he was in their power.
"Well, boy, have ye got yer wind back yet?" asked the older man.
"I guess so," replied Jack, "but I still feel pretty weak.
"S'pose so," grunted the man. "Now how'd ye get into the wet?"
"I was crossing on a ferryboat and some one came up behind me andpushed me over."
"Pshaw, ye don't say so!" exclaimed the younger man. "Now what de yesuppose he did that for?"
"I'm sure I don't know," replied Jack, and then as nothing more wassaid for a moment, he continued, "I feel stronger now, and if you willkindly show me to the street, I think I'll go, and," he added, takinga pocketbook from his inside coat pocket, "if you'll take thisten-dollar bill for your trouble, I'll still feel very thankful to youfor saving my life." From the look on the faces of the two men, asthey saw the pocketbook, he realized that he had made a grave mistake,but it was too late now.
"Not so fast, sonny," said the older man, "don't ye think yer life isworth more than ten dollars? Anyhow, Pete," he said, turning to theother man, "I reckon we can make mor'n that out of him, eh?"
"Well, I'd hope so," was the reply.
"How much money ye got there, kid?" asked the man called Jake.
"About one hundred dollars," answered Jack, for he saw that theyintended to have it, "and I'll give it all to you if you'll let me gonow."
"What yer say, Pete?" asked Jake, but it was the woman who answered.
"Don't yer let him get away, Jake. Mebby his father'll think hislife's worth a lot mor'n one hundred dollars."
"Good for ye, old woman, mebby we can work that gag." Then, turning toJack, he asked, "Who's yer old man, boy?"
Jack hesitated a moment, and the man grabbed him roughly by the armand said, "Speak up now, and no funny business, we're not to be fooledwith."
Seeing that it would be useless to resist, he answered, "My father'sname is Golden, and he lives in Maine."
"Got any rock
s?" eagerly asked the woman.
"A little, I suppose."
"Huh," she grunted, "I guess when a kid like you runs round with onehundred dollars, and carrying a gold watch like this," she added,taking it from his vest pocket, "his old man's got plenty more."
"Well, what do you intend to do with me?" asked Jack more boldly, forhe was not easily scared, and, realizing that he was in the hands of agang of harbor thieves, he had made up his mind to put on a boldfront, trusting to his luck to get away. But no one answered him.
"Where's Jim and Joe?" suddenly asked Jake, turning to the woman.
"Gone over to the city."
"When'll they be back?"
"Not much 'fore morning, likely. The boss sent for 'em; said that hehad a job on hand that might take all night."
He then turned to Jack, "Hungry?"
"No," replied Jack, "I had supper, but I'd like to get these wetclothes off and lie down if you aren't going to let me go."
"Well, I s'pose they do feel kinder oneasy. Say, Mag, take himupstairs and lock him in the middle room. He can take his duds off,and they'll dry out by morning. I'm hungry's a bear and want supper,quick."
"Seem's if you're always hungry," she growled, as she motioned Jack tofollow her. "I'll be back in a jiff, and supper'll be ready's soon Ican git it."
She led him up a flight of dark rickety stairs and, passing along anarrow hallway, pushed him into a room, saying, "There's a cot there,and ye can strip and wring out yer duds and they'll dry by morning.But say, kid, don't yer try to get away, for take it from me, if Jakecatches ye trying anything, he'll do ye up for keeps."
She left him a small lamp with which she had lighted the way up, andgoing out, closed and locked the door.
"Guess they forgot all about that one hundred dollars," thought Jack,as he held up the light and looked about him. The room contained nowindow, but there was a small opening in the ceiling, which seemed toopen into a room above. The only thing in the room was an old brokencot.
"Well," he thought, as he set the light on the floor, "I wasn't longin getting into trouble after I landed in Boston, that's sure; still Idon't see how I could have avoided it. It must have been that man Reedwho threw me over. He probably followed me, but I don't see why hetried to kill me. Perhaps he thought I had a clue as to where Bob is,"he mused.
While these thoughts were running through his mind, he had been takingoff his wet clothes. Stripping to the skin, he wrung out what water hecould, and then spread them out on the floor. "Good thing it's sohot," he muttered, "or I'd get a fine cold, but I guess there's nodanger in here, as it's hot enough to fry eggs. Well, guess I might aswell take things as easy as possible."
The cot was covered with an old sheet, which, strangely enough, seemedto be fairly clean, and wrapping it around him, he threw himself onthe cot, too tired even to think any more, and in spite of the heat,was soon fast asleep.
He dreamed that he was in a baker's shop, where many workmen werebusily engaged baking bread. In some unaccountable manner, he waschanged into an immense loaf of bread, and although he tried his bestto tell the baker that he was a boy and not a loaf of bread, he wasthrown into the oven. The heat grew more and more intense, untilfinally, when it seemed that he must be about done, he suddenly awoke.
"Well," was his first thought, "that was a funny dream." Then he satup, trying to think where he was. Soon remembrance returned, and witha groan he sank back.
"Whew, but it's hot in here," he said to himself. "Don't believe I canget to sleep again; guess I'll turn up the light and see if my clothesare drying." As he stepped to the floor, the boards seemed almost hotto his feet.
"Wonder what makes it so awful hot," he thought, as he turned up thelight. Just then, he thought he heard a faint snapping sound frombelow, and an instant later, the odor of burning wood came to hisnostrils, while he saw thin puffs of smoke curling up through thecracks of the floor.
"My goodness," he thought as he realized his position, "the house ison fire and I'm locked in here!"