CHAPTER VI
HEAVY ODDS
Although feeling rather uneasy because of the man's rough manner, theboys hardly saw what they could do but accept the invitation, and theywent inside. The next moment they wished they had not.
There were two other men within the hut besides the one who had openedthe door. They were seated at a bare pine table, and on the table therewas a bottle of liquor. There seemed to be no other furniture in themiserable room, except a rusty wood stove, which was at white heat, twoor three stools and a pile of hay in the corner, which evidently servedas a bed.
The heat inside was stifling, and the room was rank with the fumes ofliquor. The unshaven faces of the men were flushed, their eyes red andbleared, and a greasy pack of cards told of their occupation when theyhad been interrupted.
"Tramps," whispered Bobby to Fred, who was nearest. "Let's get out ofthis."
"You bet," returned Fred, as he made a motion toward the door.
But the man who had let them in now stood with his back against theclosed door, looking at them with an ugly grin on his face, a face whichwas made still more repellant by a livid scar up near the temple.
"What do these young buckos want here?" asked one of the men at thetable, rising and coming toward them. As he did so, Bobby noticed thathe limped a trifle.
"We stopped in for a minute to ask if we were on the right road to thestation," said Bobby in a tone which he tried to render as careless aspossible.
"You did, eh?" said the man. "Well, just wait a minute and I'll tellyou."
He and his companion approached their comrade at the door, and for a fewmoments there was a whispered conversation. Then the man with the scar,who seemed to be the leader of the gang, turned to Bobby.
"You're on the right road all right," he said.
"Thank you," returned Bobby. "Then I guess we'll be getting on."
The man laughed at this.
"Guess again, young feller," said one of them.
"What's your hurry?" asked the lame man.
"We don't often have such nice young kids drop in to keep us company,"sneered the man with the scar. "Take off your hats and stay awhile."
The boys' hearts sank. They no longer had any doubts of the evilintentions of the men who held them virtually prisoners. They had falleninto a den of thieves.
"We're going now," declared Bobby, in a last desperate attempt to bluffthe matter through, "and if you try to stop us it will be the worse foryou."
The men laughed uproariously.
"A fine young turkey cock he is!" croaked one of them. "We'll have tocut his comb for him."
"You'll get your own cut first," shouted Fred, who was blazing withanger. "Don't forget that there are policemen and jails for just suchfellows as you are."
"Shut up, Redhead," commanded the scar-faced man, adding insult toinjury.
Then his jocular manner passed and was replaced by a wicked snarl.
"Hand over what money you've got in your pockets," he commanded, "andturn your pockets inside out. Do it quick too, or we'll skin you alive."
There was no mistaking the menace in his tone. He was in deadly earnestand his eyes shone like those of a beast of prey.
There was nothing to do but to obey. His victims were trapped andhelpless. They were only eleven year old boys, and were no matchphysically even for one such burly ruffian. Against three, resistancewould have been ridiculous.
Boiling with inward rage, they slowly and sullenly handed over thecontents of their pockets. None of them had any great amount ofmoney--only a few dollars for spending allowance. But taken altogetherit made quite a respectable sum, over which the robbers gloated withevident satisfaction. Probably their chief calculation was the amount ofliquor it would buy for their spree.
But even with this the thieves were not content. Bobby's silver watch, ascarf pin of Mouser's, Fred's seal ring and Pee Wee's gold sleevebuttons went to swell the pile. They even carried their meanness so faras to rob the lads of their railroad tickets. Then when they found thatthere was nothing else worth the plucking, the leader opened the door.
"Now beat it," he growled, "and thank your lucky stars that we didn'tswipe your clothes."
Half blinded with wrath, the crestfallen boys climbed out of the hollowand into the road which they had left in such high spirits a few minutesbefore. They had been stripped clean. If their outer clothing had fittedany of the rascals they would have probably lost that too. They wereutterly forlorn and downhearted.
If they had lost their possessions after a hot resistance against thosewho were anyway near their age and size, there would at least have beenthe exhilaration of the fight. But even that poor compensation wasdenied them. The odds had been too overwhelming even to think of astruggle.
At first they could not even speak to each other. When they attempted tofind words they were so mad that they could only splutter.
"The skunks!" Fred managed to get out at last.
"The low down brutes," growled Mouser.
"Every cent gone," groaned Pee Wee. "And those sleeve buttons were aChristmas gift from my mother."
"And that silver watch was one my father gave me on my last birthday,"muttered Bobby thickly.
"If they'd only left us our railroad tickets!" mourned Fred.
"That was the dirtiest trick of all," put in Mouser. "You can understandwhy they took the money and jewelry. But they probably don't have anyidea in the world of using the tickets."
"Likely enough by this time they've torn them up and thrown them intothe fire," Pee Wee conjectured.
"Don't speak the word, 'fire,'" said Bobby. "If we hadn't seen the lightof it through the window, we wouldn't have gone in there at all."
"It was all my fault," moaned Fred. "What a fool stunt it was of me towant to stop there anyway."
Bobby could easily have said, "I told you so," but that was not Bobby'sway.
"It wasn't anybody's fault," he said. "It was just our hard luck. Wemight have done it a thousand times and found only decent people thereeach time."
"Lucky I gave that dime to Betty this morning anyway," grunted Fred."That's one thing the thieves didn't get."
The remark struck the boys as so comical that they broke into laughter.It was the one thing needed to relieve the tension. It cleared the airand all felt better.
"Talk about looking on the bright side of things," chuckled Pee Wee.
"You're a wonder as a little cheerer-up," commented Mouser.
"That's looking at the doughnut instead of seeing only the hole in thedoughnut," laughed Bobby.
After all they were alive and unharmed. The thieves might have beatenthem up or tied them in the cabin while they made their escape.
"Things might have been a great deal worse," said Bobby cheerfully,putting their thoughts into words. "The money didn't amount to so muchafter all, and our folks will send us more. And we may be able to havethe tramps arrested and get back our other things. We'll telegraph justas soon as we get to--"
But here he stopped short in dismay.
"We haven't even money enough to pay for the message!" he exclaimed.
"Perhaps the station man will trust us," suggested Fred.
"I think there's a way of sending messages so that the folks who getthem pay on the other end," said Pee Wee hopefully.
None of the boys were very clear on this point, but it offered a ray ofcheer.
"We won't need to send more than one message anyway," said practicalBobby as they trudged along. "Some of our folks might be away and theremight be some delay in getting to them. But I know that my father is athome and I'll just ask him to send on enough money for the bunch of us.Then you fellows can square it up with me afterwards."
They had reached the outskirts of a village now and the walking hadbecome easier. They quickened their pace and soon came in sight of thestation.
"There it is!" cried Fred, and the boys broke into a run.
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