CHAPTER XIII
THE KIDNAPERS
Phil, it appeared, was the only one to think out two reasons why therewas little necessity for being exact about measurements. Coster haddrawn his rough diagram on the envelope probably from memory. It was,according to Coster, somewhere near a half mile from the tavern to thesplit hemlock. The main thing was to keep the proper direction, ifanything like strict obedience was due to the pencilled chart. Thereforehe took upon himself the sole task of going south, and when he hadconvinced himself that he was somewhere in the neighborhood of that halfmile, he began to look about for the big split hemlock.
None could he then see. There were other hemlocks, but all of a younger,second-growth variety. So he ranged to and fro, but no such tree couldhe find. The undergrowth was not thick, yet it prevented clear vision ofanything more than a few yards away. He was about to give up, feeling afirst sense of coming despair, when he caught sight of a high bulgeupward through the tops of some clumps of bushes. He sprang on a nearbylog and his pulse thrilled a bit when he saw that what was in view wasthe rounded top of a big rock.
Impetuously he leaped on through the bushes, but when nearly there hestumbled and fell over a tree root. Following the fallen trunk he notedan enormous split, extending from where the trunk divided halfway downtowards the upturned root.
"By hokey! Can this be it?"
Plunging through the thick bushes, he reached the place where thebranches spread out over the ground, first noticing that the witheredleaves, like needles, still sharp and pointed, were undoubtedly of thehemlock variety. Moreover, the big rock which had first caught hisattention seemed to be about the proper distance from where the rootsshowed the hemlock must have stood before the storm, or whatever causedit to fall, had done its work.
About this time he heard calls from his partners, for Phil was yethidden from them by intervening bushes. Moreover, he was some distanceaway, which confirmed one of two facts. Either the two lads had measuredor counted wrong in their advance with the tapeline or, as Philconcluded, the distance was only approximate. A prisoner, trustinglargely to memory, Coster could not be exact, unless by sheer accident.
"Hullo! Here I am, boys! Come this way!"
They came, Phil assisting their progress by calling out now and then.When they arrived, no hemlock being in sight, the boys stared first atPhil seated on the trunk of an upturned tree, then at the boulder closeby.
"How'd you get way out here?" demanded Paul.
"Followed my nose! How would you think?" Phil looked amused. "What'sthat you got--a tapeline?"
"Yep," replied Dave. "Wanted to be exact as possible."
Phil laughed. Said he:
"Do you reckon Coster was very exact when he drew that map--frommemory?"
"Oh--stuff! I don't see any big split hemlock."
"You're looking at it, stupid! I'm sitting on the butt of it, and rightthere is the rock, I think."
At first inclined to scoff, both lads now saw Phil's side of it at once.Dave looked about again.
"It's a thick place here," he ventured. "You were lucky to stumble on itthis way, Phil."
"Didn't stumble on it. I was particular about keeping my compass right.When I got where I thought I might have gone half a mile or so I beganto look round a bit. I couldn't see any big split hemlock, but I didmanage to find this big rock. After that it was easy to find the tree,even though it had been blown down."
After some further talk it was agreed that the first step would be toreturn to the car. Then they would decide upon what to do next.
"I think we should visit that old tavern while we are here," remarkedPaul. "No knowing what we might find there. If there's an old shovel oranything, we might come back and dig under that rock for a starter."
Phil and Dave also had their theories as to what should next be inorder, but nothing conclusive was determined on. Meanwhile the three,threading the trail Phil had first followed and which Dave and Paul hadmade more distinct, they finally reached the clump of shade trees wherethey had left Billy on guard over the Big Six.
But in the place of the glistening car with Billy Worth still on guardthere was only a vacant place. No glimpse of either was anywhere to beseen.
"Look here--on the ground," exclaimed Paul, pointing here and there."Somebody else has been here! Looks as if there had been a scuffle!"
Where Paul was pointing there were signs of many footsteps, inextricablyintermingled, with sundry deep gouges in the loose soil as if those whomade them were in a struggle of some kind.
"Look here, boys!" Dave was holding up a soiled handkerchief that he hadfound underneath a jumble of twigs and leaves evidently kicked togetherby those engaged in the scuffling, signs of which were more thanplentiful. "By jimminy! That's Billy's handkerchief or I'm blind!"
Sure enough, it was Billy's, for in one corner were his initials whichthe boys had often seen on many of his belongings.
Phil meanwhile had been taking a comprehensive survey of the wholescene. Presently he noted that while the struggles had gone on mostly inone spot, there were, at one side, clear markings of the car wheels asit was steered in a semicircle towards the very road along which theboys had traveled not more than an hour or so before.
"Boys," said he, "I hate to acknowledge it, but Billy must have beensurprised by somebody. Probably outnumbered, too. These tracks show thatBilly must have put up a good fight; but they were too many for him,whoever they were. Come on! We've no time to lose!" And straightway hebegan following the tracks through the straggly undergrowth until hereached the road.
The others, catching the significance of Phil's suspicions, ploddedafter, taking in as they went where the car, avoiding the more openspaces, had plunged through the thicker growth. Evidently those on boardwere bent on gaining the road by the nearest route, and at a pointsomewhat beyond where the car had turned off when the boys first reachedthat place.
To the right was the old tavern, and at one spot the car had stoppedwhere there were signs that a path had been crushed out in travelingthrough the brush towards the tavern.
"Look here," said Phil. "What does this mean?"
The signs were plain that something or someone had been half dragged orcarried along towards the old Ghost Tavern.
"What had we better do?" exclaimed Dave. "Follow the car or take a lookinto that old ramshackle building?"
"Gee! Why, Billy may have been carried there--hark!"
At this from Paul all listened intently. There were certainly queersounds to be heard somewhere ahead. Phil dashed boldly forward, calling:
"Dave, you go back and see which way that car went! Then come back toPaul and me. Get a hustle on now!"
Paul, dashing on after Phil, heard Dave grunt a dubious acquiescence ashe turned back towards the road. They could trust Dave. He was oftendoubtful, even dubious, but he had sharp eyes and good judgment in themain.
A minute or so later Phil, followed closely by Jones, reached a moreopen space, though overgrown with straggly weeds and grass.
"This must be the yard of the old inn," remarked Phil. "Look, Paul!"
He was pointing where the woods trail on entering the yard showeddistinct signs where some hard objects had been half dragged. It was asif boot-heels had dented the soft places in a steady imprint.
Just then came sounds from inside the house that might have been gruntsor groans of pain. Without a halt Phil dashed over the porch, whereheavier weights had partially crushed the rotten flooring. Avoidingthese places, the two boys--Phil still in the lead--entered a shorthallway, where was a doorless opening that led into what once haddoubtless been the tavern office.
On the floor of the porch and hallway were fresh tracks, with the trailof shoe or boot-heels dragging along. The office room looked darkinside, though a couple of sashless windows let in some light which was,however, little more than shadowy gloom from the overhanging branches ofthe trees without. While they stared, listening, something stirred andscraped the dusty floor in a far corner, w
here a short counter toppledoutward as if in danger of falling over.
"What's that?" echoed Phil. "Is it anybody?"
Muffled, jerky noises issued from the recess under the half tumblingcounter. With an exclamation Paul darted forward, reached under thecounter and felt an object that at once electrified the boy.
"Let's pull it out, Phil!" he urged. "It may be--"
Aided by Phil, Paul dragged forth a bound form, tied hand and foot withimprovised shreds of cloth, the mouth tightly gagged with a couple ofkerchiefs--in a word, Billy!
"Why, Billy, you poor boy!" exclaimed Phil, whipping out his knife andin another minute releasing the cords that bound him and cutting loosethe cruel gag that had been so tightly forced into the lad's mouth thatthe corners of his lips were bleeding.
They bore him out of the porch to a grassy place, where with a suddenwriggle Billy sat upright, twisted his neck about, gulped a time or two,then stared at his comrades as if astonished.
"D-didn't you hear me holler?" he asked. "But of course you didn't.Before I was half awake they had me down out of that car trying to gagand bind me."
"Who, Billy? Just what do you mean?"
"I mean those two chaps that caught me fast asleep under Paul's rug onthe back seat, taking forty winks when I ought to have kept wide awake."
"Two men?" Instantly Phil's thoughts ran back to the two strangers theyhad seen at Feeney's who seemed so anxious to get away as soon as theboys arrived with Nan.
"Would you know them if you saw them? Were they the two strangers we sawat Feeney's? Think hard, Billy!"
"Confound 'em--they had on handkerchiefs that covered their faces, so Icould hardly tell. I didn't get more'n a glimpse or two along at first.Then they pulled something over my head after gagging me so tight ithurt. My mouth is sore now." Billy dubiously fingered the corners of hismouth. "One thing I'm sure of. One of the men we saw at Feeney's had ona visored gray cap and gray clothes. The other wore something darker. Ifeel sure the gray-clad man was one of 'em. Of course I never got half aglimpse of their faces."
"Recognize these handkerchiefs?" asked Phil, showing the ones used inbinding and gagging. "Two of 'em are bandanas: the others of a soiled,nondescript variety that might have belonged to tramps of any sort."
By this time Billy was more himself, being pretty well recovered fromhis recent manhandling. He was the first to think again of the Big Six.
"I'm all right now, fellows. Let's see what went with the car. Theystopped with me some distance from this old rookery. Gosh! If it wasn'tfor the car, I'd like to take a look around!"
But, like Worth, whom they were most glad to have with them again, allhated to feel that the pride of their hearts, their new car, was gone.But where?
At this juncture they were joined by MacLester, who after greeting Billyvery effusively for one who had seen him just two hours before, turnedto the others, interrupting Worth's brief recital of what had happenedto him.
"Boys," Dave began, "I followed those tracks about thirty yards or so;then they turned towards the railroad; right through the woods, too.Rough going for a car like ours. I bet she's all scratched up by now, ifnothing worse happens to her."
"Did you go any further, Dave?" This from Paul eagerly.
"Why, yes! Presently the car struck another old trail that led towardsthe road, and I picked up this."
Mac held out the visored cap Worth had mentioned to Paul and Phil. Atsight of it Billy grabbed it and turned it over in his hands as he said:
"That's the one the chap in gray wore, I'm sure."
"Must 'a' got knocked off going through the woods," said Dave. "I thinkthey were in a hurry or they'd never have plunged along the way they didover such rough places."
"Well, if we're through here, let's get on." Thus spoke Phil, evermindful of the lost car. "I took a look into a back room of the oldtavern, and I saw a queer outfit--looked as if they'd been camping andworking there. Saw tools, and what looked like a sort of forge orfireplace. But we've no time now for anything but to look after the car.Come on!"
Rapidly now the four lads pushed through the woods along the old road,then into the woods again along the open trail that led recklessly overrocks, through thick undergrowth and over fallen saplings, with here andthere uneven rifts and rises, showing that nothing but superior motorpower could have propelled the machine thus far.
"Bust their dirty hides!" said Paul wrathfully. "Those two ain't fit todrive cattle to water! Hello! What's that?"
Jones, being in the lead, was pointing at a tumbled mass of their ownoutfit that had been dumped overboard during a rapid downward course,the end of which was not in sight owing to the thicker screen of bushesbeyond, which the partially denuded car somehow had crashed through.
Paul and Billy paused to gather up the suitcases, bags of bedding, andthe wicker hamper containing their present supply of food, while Daveand Phil hurried ahead, their route roughly descending now until,reaching the thick screen where the car had crashed through, they cameunexpectedly to a low embankment. At the bottom was the dry bed of asmall brooklet, with a further shore that sloped gradually up intosecond-growth timber again.
But this was not all. Right below the two boys was the Big Six; notupright, but lying on its side, two wheels in the air, yet apparentlyuninjured. Uttering a shout of joy at sight of the beloved car, Davejumped down the declivity, the irregular projections of which haddoubtless caused the Six to turn over under the reckless driving it hadbeen subjected to ever since it had been seized.