CHAPTER IX.--THE THREE INTRUDERS.
The lads did not have long to wait. Scarcely had they recovered breathfrom their rapid running when the three intruders appeared. The one inadvance carried the lantern, and all carried gripsacks.
"They have come to stay," whispered Budd.
Then he asked, softly:
"Are the doors locked, Judd?"
"Yes, and windows fastened," was the answer, given in the same lowwhisper. "I fortunately attended to that when I came over with thesloop."
The men reached the house and tried the kitchen door, but it withstoodtheir most vigorous blows.
"I don't understand this," remarked the man with the lantern. "Youcould get in easily enough when I was over here early in the spring."
"Perhaps some one is living here now," suggested one of his companions,cautiously. "There is a wood-pile just beyond the corner."
"So there is," assented the first speaker, holding up his lantern sothat its rays fell on the heap; "but if there is anyone here, I shouldhave thought our knocking would have aroused him."
"It may be some fisherman who has not yet come home," remarked the thirdman.
"We'll try a window," said the leader; and he stepped to the one just atthe left of the door.
"It is also fastened," he added, after trying it, "but it is with astick just above it. Tom, hand me your cutter, and I'll take out aglass and remove the stick."
The man addressed opened his gripsack. For a moment the listening ladsheard the ring of metallic tools striking together; then the searcherseemed to find what he wanted, and handed his companion the instrumenthe had asked for.
There was now heard for an instant a sharp scratching sound, followed bya jingle of glass, and then the window was raised up.
"We can get in now," remarked the one who had opened the window; andtossing in his gripsack, he sprung in after it, followed by hiscompanions.
Budd and his partner rose and crept under the window, listening eagerlyyet apprehensively for the next words the men should speak, for they nowsuspected the character of their visitors, and knew it would go hardwith them if they were discovered.
"Some one does live here, boys, sure enough. These things weren't hereat all a few months ago," said the leader, a moment later.
"Well, whoever they are, evidently they are not here just now, and we'lllook around. Perhaps we'll find something worth taking, even if we haveto leave," said the man who had been called Tom.
As his voice reached the listening boys, Budd caught Judd's armconvulsively.
"I believe I know that man," he whispered into his astonished comrade'sear.
"All right," was the response of the other men to Tom's suggestion, andthey passed on into the sitting-room.
Budd nudged his chum, crept around to the east end of the house, andstood up by the sitting room window. The curtain was lowered, but notquite far enough to reach the sill, and through this narrow opening hegave a quick look at the three men. Then he pulled Judd, who hadfollowed him, back into the shadow of the building and said, hoarsely:
"It is as I thought. The man they call Tom is Thomas H. Bagsley, whoworked in the same office with my father for several years, and he is asbig a rascal as there is outside of prison-walls. If I only had him inmy power I'd wring a confession out of him that would change my wholefuture life;" and there was a bitterness in the lad's words that wasakin to hatred.
As though to substantiate Budd's declaration, a singular thing happenedwithin the house. There came a sharp exclamation that led the boys toagain look through the window into the room. The man called Tom stoodby the center-table, with Budd's Bible open in his hand, staring at thefly-leaf, and it was he from whom the exclamation had come.
"What's the matter?" asked his companions.
"I want you to read that name," he said savagely to them; and lookingover his shoulder they read:
"Budd Boyd. From his mother, Mary Boyd."
"Well, what of it?" asked one of the men.
"He's the son of Henry Boyd," answered Tom, shrilly. "I knew he'd leftBoston, but didn't suppose he had come down this way. We'd better leavebefore he gets his eyes on me."
"Why?" asked the same man who had spoken before.
"Because," answered the leader of the trio, "Tom played a little trickthat sent the father to prison, where he is to-day, and he is afraid theson will take revenge on him should he catch sight of him."
Tom swore a fearful oath.
"Not if I know myself," he replied, fiercely. "Let me see the son, andI'll serve him worse than the father. All I fear is he may see me andrecognize me; then the little job we contemplate will have to be givenover. He'd set the authorities to watching us, and the sooner we gotout the neighborhood the better."
"Hadn't we better keep watch here till the lad returns, and then drophim off the island?" suggested the leader, coolly.
"Yes, if we were sure he was alone," answered Tom, readily. "But Idon't believe he is. Likely as not there is a family living here, andthey may have gone over to one of the villages for something, and whenthe moon is up will return. Before that time we must be gone."
"Well, perhaps you are right," the leader answered. "We can row over toHope Island and make a stay there over Sunday, or until we have formedour plans. I believe there is no one there as yet."
"That is old Johnson's summer residence, isn't it?" asked Tom.
"Yes. Are you afraid of him, too?"
"No more than I am of the boy. In fact, I'd like to ransack the houseover there, if the way is clear to do so."
"All right; we'll go over there pretty soon, then. But let us first seewhat there is for us here. Jed had better run down by the boat,however, and keep watch, while you and I pick up the things."
Jed departed, at his leader's suggestion, and the two lads deemed itwise for them to keep out of his way, and so worked cautiously back tothe west side of the island, where they could embark upon their boat atthe first evidence of their being discovered by the intruders.
As they sat down near the wharf Judd said, in low tones:
"I wish we had some way to scare those fellows off before they make avery extended search of the house. I'm afraid they may find our money."
Before Budd could answer there was a sound of steps coming down the pathtoward the wharf. It was evidently one of the robbers, but he came onlya short distance.
"Jed! Jed!" he called in low but distinct tones. "We have found justthe jolliest supper! Come on up and help us eat it."
Jed, who was down by his boat, immediately joined the speaker, and thetwo went hurriedly back to the house.
"I wish we had something to eat, too," commented Judd, as the two mendisappeared. "I confess, after working as we did this afternoon, I'mhungry."
"We'll have something in a few minutes, and those fellows will leave thehouse a good deal quicker than they got into it--see if they don't,"answered Budd. "You just stay right here a few minutes;" and then heran down the wharf, jumped into the yawl, and sculled quietly over tothe sloop.
It was not over five minutes before he returned with an old gun, thathad belonged to Judd's father, and which the boys kept on the sloop,having an occasional use for it, as they went about the bay, to shootsea-fowl with, or the more voracious denizens of the sea.
"Come on!" he said to Judd; and again the boys approached the house.
Taking their station once more behind the wood-pile, Budd called out, instern tones:
"Hello, Judd! There is some one in the house! Hurry up with the gun!"
A great commotion in the house instantly followed his words. Therobbers evidently were at the kitchen-table eating when he cried out,and each grabbing up his gripsack, sprung for the window. As theytumbled, one over the other, out onto the ground, Budd raised the gunand fired one barrel into the air.
Not a sound save that of running followed the report, and it wasapparent that the intruders were making the best time possible for theirboat.
The two boys followed them to the shore, and Budd again firedinto the air as the light craft swiftly disappeared in thedarkness--not, however, until there had been two or three quick flashesfrom the boat, followed by sharp reports, and some pistol-balls hadwhistled harmlessly above the lads' heads.
Hurrying back to the house, the boys made a careful examination of theirrooms. In the bedroom and sitting-room nothing had been disturbed; andin the kitchen the broken window, the lighted lantern, and thepartially-eaten food upon the table, were the only evidences of therobbers' visit.
Somewhat excited, and very watchful lest the intruders should return,the boys ate their long-delayed supper, and then entered thesitting-room. Budd sat down by the center-table and took up the Biblethat had caused the robber Tom so much surprise. His face flushedgreatly, and he seemed deeply moved by the emotions with which he wasstruggling. At length he said:
"Judd, you heard enough from Thomas Bagsley's lips to-night to prove hewas the man I had declared him to be. You also heard him allude to myfather. In justice to that father's memory, and also that you may knowwho I am and how I came to be here, I will now tell you what I havenever before disclosed to a single person."
With these words Budd began a story which explained the mystery that hadhung over him ever since he had appeared in that neighborhood, andrevealed the tremendous burden that was weighing down his young life.