CHAPTER XI
THE MYSTERY DEEPENS
They stood together for a moment, puzzled and silent, trying to figureout what it could mean. The two women were quiet. So far they had hadnothing to do with the attack on Jack. In the distance, perhaps ahundred feet or so away, they could hear the men, whose clothes Jackand Pete had taken, cursing and demanding that their property bereturned.
"Keep quiet, you!" Dick Crawford called to them. "You'll get yourthings when you've given some account of yourselves and we're ready togive them to you. If you make any more disturbance around here, youwon't get them at all. Remember that!"
A deep silence followed, and Pete laughed.
"Guess that scared them some, Dick," he said. "I don't think they'dfancy the idea of going back to the city that way. In funny papers, ifa man loses his clothes, he always fetches up with a barrel. But Ialways did wonder where he found the barrel!"
Dick looked doubtfully at the little heap of clothing.
"I don't suppose we ought to leave them out there without any clothesat all," said he. "But I do think, after the way they've acted, thatwe've got a right to look and see if there are any weapons. They wouldbe useless, in any case, after the wetting they've had, but--"
He picked up the coats of the two men and shook out the pockets. Sureenough, a pistol fell from each, and from one there also dropped ablack mask.
"That doesn't look very well for them," he said. "I think, Tom, you'dbetter go to a telephone and see if you can get Captain Haskin to meetus here. He or some of his railroad detectives may know somethingabout these people."
Tom hurried off at once to obey the order, for such it was, thoughDick, as he almost always did, had put the order in the form of asimple request. Then Dick looked more carefully at the things that hadfallen from the pockets.
"Hello!" he cried, suddenly. "Say, Jack, look here! Here's a letterpostmarked from Woodleigh. That's where you came from, isn't it?"
"Yes, it is!" cried Jack, on the alert, as always, at a sign of anysort from the town where he had spent his boyhood.
"I think we've got a right to open this," said Dick, "though looking atletters that aren't addressed to one is pretty small business, as arule. However, when people do the sort of thing that these fellows sonearly got away with tonight they don't have a right to expect decenttreatment from others."
He looked grave when he had finished reading.
"This letter seems to concern you, Jack," he said. "It's from a lawyerup there, and it's addressed to a man called Silas Broom, at theGeneral Delivery window of the post office in the city here. It saysthat the boy Jack Danby, about whom Mr. Broom was making inquiries,left Woodleigh some months ago, and has since, it is supposed, beenworking near here. Now why does anyone want to know about you? Andwhy does this fellow Broom, if that is really his name, have to hearthis? He is a great scoundrel, whatever his name is."
"You quit callin' my husband names. Who are you, I'd like to know?"
The older woman emerged suddenly from the hut, in time to hear Dick'slast words, and she faced him now like a fury, her arms akimbo, and hereyes snapping. She looked around suspiciously, too.
"Where's Silas?" she asked, angrily. "What have you done with him?Ain't those his clothes there?"
She snatched the clothes up in an instant. Before Dick, who wasastonished by her appearance, could check her she had torn the coatfrom his hands.
"Silas!" she yelled. "Where are you, honey?"
"Here I am--out in the woods," cried her husband, frantically."They've stolen my clothes, Carrie. Get 'em, and bring 'em here, willyou?"
"Comin'!" she called, and darted off with surprising speed, consideringher weight and the terrible exhaustion that had seemed to afflict herwhen she was being brought ashore from the launch.
Dick and the two Scouts were laughing, although a bit ruefully, as shevanished.
"I can't touch a woman," said Dick, sadly. "I'm afraid I'll have toadmit that I'd like to--but I guess she could lick me at that, if shewas put to it. Is that the one you dragged ashore, Jack?"
"That's the one!" said Jack. "It's a wonder she didn't drown the twoof us. But she certainly seems to have recovered pretty completely."
"It's bad business," said Dick, frowning. "Those fellows will get awaynow. The only hold we had on them was that they didn't have anyclothes. Now they'll make tracks, and all ye can do is to tell CaptainHaskin what they looked like and what they did. I think we look prettyfoolish, myself."
Just then the girl, who had won Jack's admiration by her courage whenshe was in real danger and by her reproof of the others when they hadshown their ingratitude, stepped into the firelight, fully dressed.She did not look at all as if she belonged with the others. She wasmore refined, gentler, and sweeter in every way. Dick Crawford staredat her in astonishment. Jack had told him about her, but, since seeingthe others, he had thought that Jack had made a mistake in praising her.
"I beg your pardon," he said, speaking to her as she stopped and lookedabout her, evidently puzzled by the absence of her companions. "ButI'm afraid we'll have to ask you to tell us what you can of the peopleyou were with. You are not related to them, are you?"
"No," she said. "No, indeed! I came with them because they promisedto show me how to reach a certain person for whom my father has beensearching for a long time. Then, of course, there was the fire on thelaunch. But even before that they had kept putting me off, and Ididn't like the way they were acting at all. Where are they now?"
"I wish I knew!" said Dick. "However, we can talk more about themlater. I think that now the best thing we can do is to get you back tothe city. Your father will meet you there, I suppose, won't he?"
"Yes," she said. "My father is not at all well, and he is quite an oldman. We are staying at the Hotel Lincoln. I came with them alone,though father didn't want me to, because they were so very positivethat our chase was nearly over."
"I think it's my duty to tell you," said Dick, "that these people whowere with you seem to be a very bad lot. They made an attempt tokidnap this boy, who helped to save the lives of your whole party, andwe have every reason to suppose that they are associated with a gang ofthieves who have a grudge against him. I think you had better let ustake you back to your father. And if you will follow my advice, youwill have nothing more to do with any of them. They will only lead youinto danger and trouble."
Dick was anxious to question the girl further, but she was much shaken,and in no condition to tell him anything more. So they all went backto town together, and Dick himself acted as Miss Burton's escort to herhotel.
"I will follow your advice," she promised him. "If any of those peopletry to see me again, I will refuse to have anything to do with them.But won't you come to see us, and perhaps you will be able to help usin our search?"
"I'll be glad to do that," said Dick. "But if those people approachyou again, it might be better to pretend that you still trust them.Don't put yourself in their hands in any way, but try to get them totalk to you. In that way you may be able to get valuable informationthat would otherwise not be available at all."
Captain Haskin, the head of the detective service of the railroad onwhich Jack Danby's bravery had averted a terrible wreck, was muchconcerned when he heard the story of the rescue and the ungratefulconduct of those whose lives had been saved.
"We've got to look after Danby," he said. "He's an important witnessfor us, and if he turns up missing, it's going to be more difficult toget a conviction, though perhaps not impossible. But I think there'smore than that in their attempt to get rid of him."
"What do you mean, Captain?" asked Dick Crawford.
"Why, I don't know, my boy. But these people are not loyal enough toone another as a rule to lead them to run such risks as these villainshave encountered just to get rid of a witness who may be damaging tosome of them who have been captured. When one or two of them arecaught, those who escape are usually so g
lad to get off free themselvesthat they disappear and make no effort to help those who were not sofortunate. The fact that they have kept after Danby this way is verysuspicious."
"Well, I happen to know," said Dick, "that there are people who seem tohave a grudge against Jack, or at least who have an interest inmaintaining a mystery that exists as to his birth. I don't like totalk about that as a rule, because it's his own-business, but I'dbetter tell you. He does not know his real name, or who his parentswere, and it is the ambition of his life to discover them. Since hecame away from Woodleigh, attempts have been made to find out what hasbecome of him, and a man who was concerned in an attempt to rob me of aconsiderable sum of money that I was carrying for my employer is one ofthose who seems most anxious to find out all about Jack. He knows thesecret of his birth."
"That would explain," said the detective, "the whole business at once.Now, you see, you've given me something to work on. The railroad can'tfeel at ease until all the men concerned in that plot that so nearlywrecked the Limited the other night are safely in jail. It isn't thatwe're vindictive, but when men are ready to imperil the lives of thepassengers on the trains we run, it isn't safe for us to let them be atlarge. They may make another attempt, and there is no way of beingsure that the next time we shall be able to stop them. It was all amatter of luck that blocked their plan before--and we can't trust toluck in such matters. It might cost a hundred lives to do so."
"Well, if we can help you in any way, you can depend on us to doanything in our power, Captain. I think any of our boys in the Scoutswould do anything for Jack Danby, and, of course, we want to doanything we can to help the railroad safeguard its trains, for the sakeof all the people who have to ride on them."
"The most important thing right now is to see that nothing happens toDanby. They have been so bold and so determined in their efforts toput him out of the way already that I am afraid they are not likely tostop at the two attempts. One thing seems very curious to me. The manwho carried him off from the camp was entirely willing to killhim--planned to do so, didn't he?"
"So Jack says. And he is not the sort to be scared by idle threats."
"Just so! But now here is a queer thing. These people that tried tocarry him off to-day used the same boat as the man who took him fromthe camp. Presumably they would have served him the same way as theother scoundrel would have done. And yet they seem also to want to getin touch with Jack himself--and not for the purpose of killing him..It looks as if they were working at cross purposes--as if they did notknow that the boy who foiled the train-wrecking plot and the one theyhave lost are one and the same. Don't you see?"
"I certainly do! Say, this is a confused affair, isn't it?"
"It's like a Chinese puzzle. But we'll work it out somehow."