CHAPTER XXI
THE CRY FOR HELP
After the fight in the cave Dan and Billy were sore and tired, and theirwrists and ankles very painful. But it seemed to them both that it wastheir business to follow the outlaws, if they could, and learn whatdisposition was made of the “treasure box,” as Billy insisted uponcalling the chest that had been hidden under the hearthstone in thecave.
Besides, the boys were very anxious about their new iceboat. Therobbers, if they used it to get to the mainland, as they evidentlyintended, might hide the _Follow Me_ where Dan and Billy would be unableto find it before the races, a week away.
“Though right now,” Billy remarked, as they crept out of the passageleading into the cavern, “it doesn’t look as though we’d hold iceboatraces next week on the Colasha. Goodness, Dan! did you ever in your lifesee so much snow?”
“It’s worse on this side of the island, don’t you see?” said hisbrother. “The snow is drifting this way. The high back of the islandbreaks the wind and the snow piles up here in drifts.”
“But our _Fly-up-the-Creek_ is on this side of the island,” complainedBilly. “She’s buried a mile deep, I bet!”
The boys started up the hill, but the snow beat down upon them soheavily, and the wind was so boisterous, they were glad to lock arms.Although Dummy made a “bad botch” of talking, as Billy said, he provedto be pretty muscular and the trio got along famously until they reachedthe summit.
They had come in this direction because Dan pointed out that it was notlikely the three robbers, burdened with the heavy box, would face thegale either with the _Follow Me_, or afoot.
“And I don’t believe they will go towards Riverdale,” he observed. “Yousee, they knew old John Bromley was stirring things up over the ’phonewhen they burst into his house and captured him. Although they left himbound, they realized that whoever John was ’phoning to would look theold man up pretty quick.
“Now, naturally, the whole of Riverdale would be aroused by therobbery—and it sure would be if we hadn’t started right out after the_Follow Me_. Even now perhaps Bromley has called people up on the ’phonebecause we are out in the storm so long.
“So, it seems to me,” concluded Dan, with an effort, “that the threerobbers are more likely to try for Meadville and the railroad.”
Dummy nodded violently and tried to speak his agreement with thisstatement. Billy only grunted. He had all he could do to plow throughthe drifts without wasting any breath in discussion.
They got over the ridge and slid down the steep rocks for several feetuntil the island itself broke the force of the gale. The wind did notblow directly across the island, but the slant being from up stream theheights acted as a windbreak.
“Now where?” asked Billy, with a sigh.
“Listen!” commanded his brother, unexpectedly.
Dan held up his hand and all three strained their ears for severalmoments. Then, simultaneously, the trio heard again the sound that hadstartled Dan. It was the distant explosions of the motor—the motor ofthe _Follow Me_!
“They have taken her,” growled Dan. “There they go,” and he pointed upstream.
“But they’re not so far away,” returned the surprised Billy. “And it’smore than an hour since they cleared out and left us in the cave.”
“I guess they had trouble in digging the boat out of the snow andgetting her started. It’s a wonder the motor wasn’t frozen up on a nightlike this.”
It was in a sort of lull of the blizzard that they heard the explosionsof the engine. Now the wind and snow swooped down again, and muffled thesound. But Dan started straight down the hill.
“Are you going after them?” yelled Billy.
“Surest thing you know!”
“I believe we’re crazy! We’ll be lost in this snow.”
“Not much we won’t,” declared his brother. “I’ve got a compass.”
He showed it—a very delicately adjusted instrument which he kept in acase in his pocket. At the edge of the ice (there was not so much snowon this side of the island) he waited to hear the sound of the engineagain. Then he took his bearings, and at once set forth into the storm.
This time Dan led, Billy hung to his coat-tail, and Dummy brought up therear. Thus, keeping literally in touch with each other, they would notbe likely to drift apart while battling with the elements. And battlethey actually had to.
The moment they got from under the shelter of the island the snow andwind almost overwhelmed them. Never had the boys experienced such agale. Sometimes they were beaten to their knees, and had they not clungtogether, one or the other surely would have been driven away and lost.
“No wonder those men have gotten no farther from the island!” yelledDan, with his lips close to Billy’s ear.
“Right-O!” agreed the younger boy. “And can we catch up with ’em?”
“We don’t want to; we want to trail ’em,” returned Dan.
On they pressed, taking advantage of every flaw in the gale. Had it notbeen for Dan’s compass they would have become turned about and losttheir way ere they had left the island behind them ten minutes.
The wind blew between the points of Island Number One and the next aboveit with such force that the boys made very slow progress. When at lastthey got in the lee of the second island, they stopped to breathe, andto listen.
They did not at once hear the exhaust of the engine on the _Follow Me_;but they _did_ hear something else. Voices were shouting—seemingly farout on the frozen river.
Again and again they heard the sounds. “Ahoy! Ahoy!” came plainly totheir ears. Then—and much to the Speedwells’ amazement—the boys heardtheir own names called—and in accents whose note of peril was not to bedoubted:
“Dan! Billy! Help us Dan and Billy Spe-e-e-dwell! He-e-e-lp!”
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