CHAPTER XVII
FLIGHT
"Wink!" he cried. "Ossie! Come quick! Help here!"
The robber, having uttered a stifled cry of alarm at the instant of theunexpected attack, was now thrashing mightily about on the thick rug.
"Help!" he shouted. "Who are you? Let me go!"
"S-sh!" commanded Perry sternly, as the others plunged to his aid,overturning a chair on the way. "Be quiet! Sit on his legs, Ossie!"Perry was astride the man's chest, holding his arms to the floor. "Punchhim if he makes a noise, Wink!" Perry, breathing hard, surveyed hiscaptive in triumph. "Now then," he asked, "what have you got to say foryourself? What were you doing at that safe?"
The man glared in silence for an instant. To Wink it seemed that theemotion exhibited on the robber's countenance was amazement rather thanfear.
"Come on," urged Perry. "What's the game?"
"Game!" choked the man, finding his voice at last. "Game? You--you youngruffians! You--"
"Cut that out, or I'll hand you something," growled Wink. "Answerpolitely."
"Let me up!"
"Nothing doing!" answered Perry. "Come across. What's your name andwhere do you come from? As you didn't get anything out of there, maybewe'll be easy with you if you talk quick."
"Let me suggest, if I may," said the man in a strangely quiet andrestrained tone, "that you get off my stomach. This conversation canjust as well be conducted under more comfortable conditions."
Perry blinked and Wink viewed the captive doubtfully.
"Promise not to try to run?" demanded Perry.
"I have no intention of running, thanks." The robber carefully dustedhis clothes as he arose and then felt anxiously of a bruised elbow."Now, if you will inform me what this--this murderous assault means Ishall be greatly obliged to you."
"Suppose you tell us what you were doing at that safe?" said Perrysternly.
"Is that any of your business?" asked the other. It was evident that hewas losing his temper again, and Wink drew a step nearer. "I presume Ihave a perfect right to open my own safe! What I wish to know--"
"Your own safe!" gasped Perry. "Oh, come now, you needn't try to tell usthat you--you live here. You're a cracksman, my friend, that's what youare--"
Ossie tugged at Perry's sleeve, but Perry failed to notice it.
"One look at that face of yours is enough, old top," continued Perry."It's got crook written all over it!"
"It has, has it?" gasped the man. "Let me tell you that my name isDrummond, sir, and that this is my house, and that is my safe, and--andif you'll mind your own business--"
"What!" asked Perry weakly. "You mean that you--that this--you meanthat--"
"I mean," interrupted the man angrily, "that I was about to deposit somemoney in that safe, some money I'd been carrying around in my pocket allthe evening and feared I might lose, when you--you young thugs set on meand knocked me down! Knocked me down right in my own house, on my ownhearth-rug! Why, you--you--"
Mr. Drummond's wrath got the better of his speech and he only sputtered,waving an accusing finger at the retreating Perry. Wink was alreadyglancing about for a means of escape and Ossie was frankly deserting.
"I--I didn't know!" gasped Perry. "I--we saw you come in--and you lookedlike--like a--"
"You've said that already!" said the man, "Never mind my criminal looks,young man!"
"No, sir, we don't--I mean I was mistaken, sir! But, you see, it lookedso--so queer, you coming in like that--"
"Queer! What was queer about it!" demanded Mr. Drummond irascibly, "Noone but a parcel of young idiots would think it queer!" He took anenvelope from his pocket, tossed it into the safe, closed door and paneland faced them again. "Who are you, anyway? I don't remember you."
"Er--my name--my name--" stammered Perry, "my name--"
"Well, well! Don't you know your name? Who invited you here?"
"Yes, sir, oh, yes, sir! It's Bush. We--you see, we were on the porchthere, and we wanted to get back to the--the front of the house--"
"Who invited you here, tonight? Who--" The host's expression changedfrom indignation to suspicion. "Huh!" he ejaculated. "Robber, eh! Well,what were you doing in this room? Seems to me--hm! We'll look into this,I think!" He stepped back and touched a button in the wall. "We'll havethis explained! We'll see who the robber is! We--"
"_Good night!_" Perry spurned the table against which he was leaning,hurdled a chair and plunged down the room. Ossie was at his heels andWink was a good third. They fled at top speed and from behind them camethe irate commands of their host:
"Stop! Come back! Stop, I say!"
But they didn't stop. They only ran faster. Wink beat Ossie to the firstwindow easily and passed out even with Perry. And as they landed on thestone flagging outside they heard Mr. Drummond excitedly directing thepursuit.
"Quick, Wilkins! Get them! They tried to rob the house!" Mr. Drummond'svoice pursued them along the verandah. "Help! Robbers! Head them off!"
The boys took the stone steps in two bounds, crashed at the bottom intoa hedge, went tearing through and emerged beyond in a service yard,dimly lighted by one struggling electric bulb over a back doorway. Itwas Ossie who fell into the clothes basket and Wink who collided withthe clothes reel and sent it spinning wildly and creakingly around inthe darkness. Perry fortunately avoided all pitfalls and was leading bysix yards when he reached the top of another flight of steps and saw themarquee and the dancing platform and the gay lights at his right. Tomake their way in that direction would be sheer folly, while in front ofthem lay a tangle of shrubbery and trees. Into this they hurtled, asfrom behind them came cries of "Stop, thief!" and the crunching of manyfootsteps.
Off went Wink's hat as he fled after the scurrying Perry. Ossie wentdown in a tangle of briars and prickly things with a grunt, rolledsomehow clear and was off again. "This way!" shouted a voice. "I seen'em! They went in here! Come on, men!"
Perry was running alongside a wall now, as he hoped, in the generaldirection of the street. Behind him came Wink and Ossie, crashingthrough shrubbery with a desperate disregard for noise. Then suddenly,the wall turned abruptly to the right. Perry stopped short, looked anddecided.
"We've got to get over!" he gasped, as Wink ran blindly into him. "Giveme a leg-up!"
Wink leaned weakly against the wall and Perry set a foot on his cuppedhands and was just able to reach the top of the wall. But that wasenough. Up he climbed. Then up came Ossie, and together, while thepursuit drew instantly closer, they pulled Wink to safety. For a briefmoment they sat there and caught their breath while wondering what laybelow them in the gloom of the further side. But there was scant timefor conjectures, for the pursuit was in sight. Three bodies launchedthemselves into space, there was a frightful, devastating sound ofbreaking glass and the boys disengaged themselves from a cold-frame andsped on again into the darkness.
A house loomed suddenly before them, a house with lights and folks aboutthe porch and a panting automobile curving its way down a drive. Theyturned to the right and kept along a lawn in the shadows of the trees.The automobile passed them with a purr and a sweeping flare of whitelight. Then Perry was after it and in another moment they were allthree huddled somehow on the gas-tank at the rear and going withincreasing speed out of the grounds and along a road. For a few minutesthey hung there, breathing hard, and then Wink gasped:
"We've got to get off, Perry! It's going the wrong way!"
"If we do, we'll get killed," answered Perry. "Wait till it slows up."
They waited, but it seemed that it never would slow up. It went fasterand faster. It passed houses and stores and a church. It went like thewind. Ossie groaned as they left the village behind.
"I can't stay on much longer, fellows!" he said hopelessly. "I'mclinging by my t-t-teeth!"
"You've got to!" answered Perry above the noise of the exhaust. "You'llbreak something if you don't! Wait till it slows up!"
_Toot! Toot! To-o-oot!_ said the horn. And then, so suddenly thatPerry's head coll
ided with something particularly hard, the brakessqueaked harshly, the car slewed into an avenue and the boys, making themost of the opportunity, fell off. Ossie rolled a full half-dozen yardsbefore his progress was stayed by a tree, and Wink, or so Perrydeclared afterwards, described a beautiful and quite perfect circle.Bruised, breathless and dizzy, they got to their feet and staggered tothe side of the road and subsided on the turf.
After a long minute Ossie said feebly: "Where--do you--suppose--we are?"
"About ten miles--in the country," answered Wink.
There was silence then, silence long and profound. At last they climbedto their feet and, without speaking, walked off in the darkness in thedirection from which they had come. Perhaps ten minutes later there camethe first sound to break the silence. It was a choking sort of gurglefrom Wink.
"What's the matter with you?" inquired Perry listlessly.
"I was just--just thinking," replied Wink. "It was so--so--" But wordsfailed him and he began to laugh. After a dubious instant Perrychuckled, and then Ossie, and presently they were clinging to each otherconvulsively in the middle of the unknown road and sending shrieks oflaughter up to the starlit sky.
Over an hour later they reached the landing. Both tenders were gone. The_Follow Me_ was dark, but a faint light still burned aboard the_Adventurer_. Perry cupped his hands and sent a hail across the water. Asleepy response was followed by the sound of someone tumbling into thedingey and then by the measured creak of oars. Han was grumbling as hedrew to the float.
"A fine time to be coming back," he said. "Where the dickens did youfellows get to, anyway? We looked all around the shop for you. Did youget any grub?"
"N-no," answered Perry, as he sank wearily into a seat. "We got tired ofsticking around there and--and went for a ride."
"A ride? Where to?"
"Oh, just around a bit. Out in the country a ways. Was--was the grub anygood?"
"Was it!" Han grew quite animated. "It was the best ever! They had abouta dozen kinds of salad, and cold meats all over the place, andsandwiches and cakes and ice-cream and ices and coffee and--"
"Oh, shut up!" begged Ossie almost tearfully.
"It was bully! Were you there when we chased the burglars?"
"When you--what?" asked Wink.
"Chased the burglars, I said. Mr. Drummer, or something--I never didget the name of the folks--found three of them trying to break into hissafe, and they knocked him down and half-killed him, and the servantschased them, and then everyone took a hand! It was fine and exciting, Itell you! Had you gone off before that?"
"Why--er--seems to me we did hear something," said Perry. "When--whenwas this?"
"Oh, about a quarter to ten, I suppose. We were dancing--"
"_You_ were dancing?" ejaculated Wink.
"Sure! All of us danced. Didn't you?"
"Who with, for the love of Mike?"
"Oh, lots of girls. Mrs. Thingamabob happened to find Joe standingaround and made him tell her his name, and then she took him off andintroduced him to some girls, and then he introduced the rest of us. Itwas a peachy floor. Some of the girls were all right, too."
"You seem to have got on fairly well," said Wink, "considering youweren't invited."
"We were invited just as much as you were," responded Han indignantly.
"Maybe, son, maybe," answered Wink, as he climbed aboard the darkened_Follow Me_, "but I'll bet they weren't half as sorry to see you go asthey were to see us!"
With which cryptic remark Wink stumbled into the cockpit anddisappeared.