CHAPTER XVII
IN THE DEN
“It’s the dummy!” Dan exclaimed, in an awed voice.
“He’s in trouble,” agreed the trembling Billy. “Whatever will we do?There! hear him?”
“I wish we had a gun,” muttered his brother.
“What for?”
“We’re going to get into a fight in about half a minute,” Dan declared.“That is—if we stay here.”
“Let’s get out then,” said Billy. “Whatever it is——”
Again the piercing cries of the unfortunate dummy broke out.
“My goodness! I can’t stand that,” gasped Dan.
“Can we help him—do you think we can?” demanded Billy. “But let’s notget into trouble ourselves——”
Again the shrieks. Dan scrambled forward up the passage, with Billyright after him. The boys could not remain quiet when a helpless humanbeing was being tortured.
In a few moments they came out into a roomy cavity. The roof was highand dome-shaped. At the far side was a huge fireplace of rock andmortar, with a forge set into one side of it. There was a fire ofcharcoal in the forge as well as a heap of burning cordwood on the widehearth.
At a glance the boys saw the whole picture. There were three roughlooking men. Both Dan and Billy believed they were those who had robbedthem of the _Follow Me_ and had so ill-treated old John Bromley. Butthey were not masked now.
Two were holding the wildly shrieking lad the Speedwells knew as Dummy.The noise the unfortunate boy made drowned that made by the Speedwellsin getting into the cave.
The back of the third man was toward the entrance. He was in command.“Give him another taste of it!” he ordered, just as Dan and Billyscrambled to their feet.
At once the other two swung the screaming boy up, and held the calves ofhis legs over the glowing coal on the forge.
The sight was too much for Dan Speedwell. He let out a yell, picked up aheavy stick of wood and charged the men. One he brought down at hisfirst blow.
They dropped the dummy, who fell partly in the fire, screaming andstruggling. He overturned the forge as he fell. The two other men sprangat Dan.
Billy had found a shovel. He used this with good effect upon one of themen; but the other got Dan down and was choking him on the floor of thesmoke-filled cavern.
“Come on, Dummy! Help us!” shouted Billy, whanging away with his shovel.
But either the scorched boy was too hurt, or too frightened, to assistthose who had come to his rescue. Dan and Billy had all the fighting todo themselves.
And they had a very poor chance when the three men recovered from theirsurprise. The one first knocked down rose, kicked the weeping dummy outof the way, and dived for Billy with a roar of rage.
He tore the shovel out of the boy’s hands and hit poor Billy just onceacross the shoulders. It nearly knocked the wind out of the lad and hestaggered across the cave and fell against the wall.
Dan was by this time overpowered. The fight was over almost as soon asit had begun.
“What d’ye know about these kids buttin’ in this way?” demanded one ofthe roughs. “Ought to give ’em both a taste of the fire, too.”
“No! go easy!” advised the man who seemed to be the leader, in acautious tone. “There must be somebody else near.”
“Why so?”
“These kids wouldn’t have been ’way out here alone. Maybe we’re in bad,boys——”
But a cry from the third man stopped the other’s mouth. The excitedindividual was hauling away the broken forge.
“Here we were trying to find out from Dummy where the box was hid, an’here she be! Look a’ here, boys! What d’ye know about this?”
The others left Dan and Billy where they lay and rushed to thefireplace. Under the legs of the forge had been a loose stone in thehearth. One of the fellows pried it up. A cavity was revealed.
“We’ve got it! we’ve got it!” yelled one of the men.
“Shut up, I tell you!” exclaimed the leader of the three. “I tell youthere must be somebody on this island besides these kids.”
“Aw, don’t be so scared, Tom. The kids just butted in. Friends of Dummy,proberly. Didn’t know no better.”
“They’ll know better now,” grumbled the cautious one. “We gotter beatit.”
“You bet,” agreed one of his fellows.
Meanwhile two of the men were lifting out what the hollow under thehearthstone contained. This was a heavy box, some two feet square, boundwith iron bands, and padlocked.
“Knock off the lock and let’s see ’em!” exclaimed the more excitablefellow.
“No, we won’t,” declared the leader. “We gotter beat it.”
“How’ll we get away in this storm?”
“The wind’s all right. We can get away just the way we come—sure.”
“And these kids?” growled the other, eyeing the panting and bruisedSpeedwell boys with much disfavor.
“Leave ’em here with Dummy.”
“They’ll set the officers after us in short order.”
“Not if these two lads were foolish enough to come here to the islandalone,” growled the first speaker.
“Huh! Going to tie ’em up—eh?”
“You bet. And Dummy, too. They can stop here a while and be company foreach other,” and the fellow laughed in anything but a comforting way.
Dan and Billy were badly frightened, whether the dummy was, or not. Thelatter nursed his scorched legs in one corner. The Speedwell boys layside by side in another. There wasn’t the first chance for them toescape, and the brothers knew it.
“We butted in where we had no call to, this time,” muttered Billy, indespair.
They had not long to wait. The three robbers had come to the island forjust one thing, and they had found it. Whatever was in the padlockedbox, they seemed delighted to have it.
Dan had joked about there being treasure buried on the island; but thatis exactly what there was—so Billy thought. Dummy had been left to guardit, and was to show the hidden box to somebody. But these three ruffianswere not the people who had any right to it.
This was easy to understand. And Dummy, although he had screamed andwould not put up a fight, was brave in his way. He had suffered torturerather than show these men where the box had lain.
Now two of the fellows seized him once more, and the poor chap screamedagain. They only bound him, however—but they bound him so tightly thathe had good reason to cry out.
It was so with Dan and Billy, in turn, as well. At wrists and ankles thethree boys were lashed with strong fishline, that cut into the flesh. Itwas impossible to stretch their bonds at all without lacerating theirwrists and ankles.
Dan and Billy were thankful the scoundrels did not gag them as they hadJohn Bromley earlier in the evening. Yet, who would hear them shout downhere in the bowels of the island?
They saw the three men leave the cave, dragging the heavy box with them.One of them came back after a moment, made sure for the last time thatthe bonds of the trio of captives were all right, and then he, too,disappeared.
The boys were alone in the cavern.
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