CHAPTER IV
_Captive_
Linda and her companions stopped in front of a large tent that wasdimly lighted within by a lantern. Two men were standing inside--onebending over an oil cook-stove, the other at the door.
"We got Linda!" announced "Slats" triumphantly. "Without even smashingher plane!"
He pushed through the doorway, past the other man, and deposited Susieon a cot by the wall of the tent.
The man at the stove, a big, fat, repulsive looking brute, turnedaround and uttered an ugly, "Hah!"
"Susie hurt?" inquired the tall, thin man who had been standing at theedge of the tent.
"Yeah. Crashed her plane. I've got some scratches meself, but I ain'twhinin'!"
"My ankle's broken!" sobbed Susie, unable to suffer any longer insilence. "Hurry up and get some bandages, Doc!"
Linda, who had been standing perfectly still during this conversation,was startled by the use of the name "Doc." Was it possible that thisman was a physician? If so, wouldn't he perhaps be above the level ofthe others--and might she not expect, if not sympathy, at least fairplay from him? But "Slats" instantly shattered her hopes with hisexplanation.
"This is the 'Doc,' Linda," he said. "We call him that because he fixesup all our aches and cuts for us. In a profession like our'n, it ain'tsafe to meddle with 'saw-bones' and hospitals. They keep records."
Linda smiled at the idea of calling robbery a "profession," but shemade no comment.
"So long as you'll be with us fer a while," continued her captor, "I'llinterduce you to everybody. That there cook is 'Beefy.' Ain't he a goodad for his own cookin'?"
Linda nodded; she could hardly be expected to laugh at such a poor jokeunder the circumstances.
"You can go over and wash--there's water in Susie's tent--if you wantto, while the 'Doc' fixes Susie up. Then we'll eat."
Glad to be alone for a moment, Linda stepped across to the tent whichthe man had indicated, hidden behind some pine trees a few yards away.Guiding herself by her flash-light, she found the entrance, and droppeddown on a cot inside.
Letting the light go off, she sat, dry-eyed and utterly hopeless,staring into the darkness. What terrible fate was hanging over her,she dared not imagine. Would they torture her, perhaps, if her fatherrefused to raise the ransom, and called the police to his aid?
In these last few hours she had learned to realize how infinitelycrueler human-beings were than the elements of nature. The ice andsnow, the cold winds of Canada, or the vast, trackless depths of theAtlantic could never bring about such untold agony as these fiendsin human form. She almost wished that she had gone down, like BessHulbert, in the ocean, before she had lived to learn how evil men couldbe.
A call from the mess-tent, as she supposed the larger one to be,aroused her from her unhappy meditations, and she hastily turned onthe light and washed from a pitcher of water on a soap-box in Susie'stent.
When she returned to the group, she found them already seated about aboard table, plunging into the food like hungry animals. Susie, whosat with her bandaged ankle propped up on a box, was the only one whoate with any manners at all. But it had been a long time since Lindahad tasted food, and she was too hungry to be deterred by the sight of"Beefy" putting his fingers into his plate. So she sat down next toSusie, and silently started to eat.
She found the meal exceedingly good, and was surprised at her ownappetite, for she hardly expected to be able to enjoy anything underthe circumstances.
The lantern threw a weird, ghastly light over the strange, ugly facesabout her, and the silence was unbroken, except by the noise andclatter of eating. A tenseness took possession of her; she wisheddesperately that somebody would say something. It was exactly like ahorrible dream, whose spell could not be destroyed. And still no oneuttered a word until the meal was concluded.
"You girls can go to bed now," Slats announced, finally. "I'll carryyou over, Susie, and give you a gun, in case Linda tries to sneak offin the night." He smiled with vicious triumph.
"I'm afraid that wouldn't do me any good," replied Linda, trying tomake her voice sound normal. "I haven't an idea where I am."
"On Black Jack Island, in the Okefenokee Swamp," he again told her."With water all around you. Get that! You can't get away, without aboat or a plane. And I'm tellin' you now, I seen to it that your Bug'sbone-dry!"
With a conceited grin, he leaned over and picked up his wife so roughlythat she cried out in pain.
When they were alone, the girls took off some of their outer garments,and lay down on their cots. Linda longed to talk, but she was afraid tobegin, for fear it would only lead to some sort of punishment. So shelay still, trying to forget her troubles, to believe everything wouldcome out right in the end, when her father paid the ransom.
She was just dozing off, when she was abruptly aroused by agonized sobsfrom her tent-mate. She sat up and asked her companion whether therewas anything she could get her. But Susie did not answer; she continuedto cry wildly like a child of six.
"Oh, my ankle! My ankle!" she moaned. And then she used worse languagethan any Linda had ever heard--from man or woman.
Linda was sorry for her, but she could not help contrasting this girl'scowardice in the face of physical pain with Dot Crowley's, when thelatter had met with a similar accident, and had smiled bravely at thehurt. She thought, too, of Ted Mackay's courage in the hospital, andSusie suffered by the comparisons.
"Is there anything I can do?" she asked, again.
"No. Only take me to a _real_ doctor--or a hospital."
"I'd be glad to, if your husband would let me fly my plane!"
"Well, he won't!" There followed more oaths. "What does he care--solong as he ain't the one that's hurt?" She continued to cryhysterically, until a snarling order came from without the tent.
"Shut up your noise!" bawled her husband, and Susie softened hersobbing.
Linda lay very still, thinking. Dared she suggest that the other girldeceive her husband--or would she only be punished for such an idea?She decided to give it a try.
"You must know where the men keep the gasoline," she whispered."Wouldn't you rather have your ankle fixed right, and not run thechance of being a cripple for life?"
"What do you mean?" demanded Susie, raising her head from her pillow.
"I mean--wait till the men are asleep, and then you tell me wherethe gas is, and we'll sneak off. I'd take you to a hospital, and I'dpromise never to tell on you."
"And lose all that ransom money? Slats'd never forgive me!"
"But what good's money, if you're a cripple?" countered Linda.
"Yeah--I see what you mean," agreed Susie. "Only we'd never getaway with it. They'd hear us gettin' out--remember I can't walk bymyself.... No, Linda--it's no go."
Disappointed, Linda dropped back on the cot, seeing that furtherargument was no use, and, fortunately, fell quickly asleep. Had shenot been so tired, she would probably have been disturbed duringthe night, for Susie tossed and moaned without any regard for hercompanion. But Linda slept the sleep of exhaustion.
Just as dawn was beginning to show a faint light through the door ofthe tent, Linda was rudely awakened by a gruff voice. Startled, shelooked into the unpleasant face of Susie's husband, and she shudderedas she recalled where she was. The thought flashed into her mind thatsoldiers and criminals were usually shot at sunrise, and her handsshook with fear. What was the man going to do to her?
"Get up, Linda!" he commanded. "You're working today."
"Working?"
"Yeah. Flying."
"Where?" she demanded, with a trace of hope. If she were allowed tofly, there might be some hope of escape.
"Across the swamp. To an island out in the ocean."
"Oh!"
An island! It sounded like imprisonment. She thought of Napoleon on St.Helena, and she remembered the stories of the cruelties to the Frenchconvicts, sentenced to die on an island. Terrible climate, probably,reeking with disease. A slow death that would be far greate
r torturethan being shot--hours of lingering agony, when she would think of herfather and her aunt, and of the suffering that she was causing them!And, worst of all, no one to rescue her, as Ted had twice saved herfrom disasters that were not half so dreadful!
But she did not cry; she was disgusted with tears after the way thatSusie had carried on the night before, over her sprained ankle. Afterall, it was no one else's fault that she had selected this job; she hadtaken it on, and she must see it through, no matter what the outcome.
When she had washed and dressed, she walked over to the big tent, whereshe found breakfast ready. Bacon and eggs and coffee--and even oranges!Evidently they meant to feed her well--for this much she could bethankful.
She ate in silence with the three men, for Slats did not carry Susieto the table. When they had finished, and the men were lighting theirpipes, Slats pushed back his tin plate and began to talk.
"Our idea in running you down was to get a neat little ransom, Linda,"he repeated, with the same triumphant grin which she had grown toloathe. She winced, too, at each repetition of her first name, thoughthere was no way that she could stop him from using it.
"We figgered your old man could come across with a couple hundredthousand to get you back. When we get ready, we'll let him know. But inthe meantime, we ain't ready."
He winked knowingly at Beefy, and a cold shiver of fear crept overLinda. If they would only get the thing over quickly! Anything would bebetter than the awful suspense.
The speaker laughed at her expression of terror.
"Don't be scared, Linda. We ain't a goin' a hurt you.... It justhappens we need you for a couple days in our business."
"Your business?" she faltered.
"Yeah. We got some jewelry right here in this tent worth about ahundred grand. We fly across to an island with it, where a steamerpicks it up and gets it to our agent in South America."
"But what has that to do with me?" asked Linda. Did they mean to leaveher on the island, or send her to South America?
"Just this: we're usin' your Bug and you as pilot fer the job. Susie'sthe only one of our gang can fly, and now she and the Jenny are busted,we'll use you. Get me?"
Linda nodded, sadly. So she was to be made to play a criminal part intheir ugly game! How she wished they would be caught!
"And you needn't scheme to get away," Slats added. "Because I'll beright behind you, with me gun loaded!"
Linda made no reply; after all there was nothing to be said. She musttake his orders, or be instantly killed.
"Ready now?" he inquired, satisfied with her silence. "We always workearly in the day. Maybe you better come over with me and take a look atyour plane, and I'll give you some gas. See if she's O.K."
Dutifully Linda accompanied the man to the edge of the island, andthere was the autogiro, safe and sound as ever--her only friend in theworld, it seemed!
She looked about her at the marshy water, the trees and vegetation ofthe swamp, and then up into the sky, which she searched vainly for anairplane. But except for the birds, there was no sign of life in thatdesolate, vast expanse of land and sky. Not a human habitation in sight!
Desperately, she wished that she could think of some plan to outwitthis lawless gang, but everything seemed hopeless, as long as Slatscarried that pistol aimed at her head. So she meekly inspected theautogiro and climbed into the cock-pit.
Her companion was in a good humor; he was enjoying the whole situationimmensely, pleased at his own cleverness. He liked to fly, and headmired the autogiro; he even went so far as to say he believed he'dkeep this one for Susie.
Linda said nothing, but she was thinking what a mistake that wouldbe for him to make. Much as she would hate to lose her autogiro, sherealized that its possession would give the gang away to the police. Itwas one thing to steal jewelry and money, and another to take a plane,of a make of which there were only perhaps a hundred in existence.
They flew over the trees, eastward to the prairie land, and then onthrough the coastal plain to the Atlantic Ocean. Whether they werecrossing Florida or Georgia, Linda did not know, and for once she wasnot interested in the country. The sun rose as they came to the water,but that beautiful sight, too, made no impression upon the unhappygirl. Nothing but the sight of a plane or a boat--the promise ofrescue--could have any meaning for her.
On and on she went, leaving the land behind them, until finally theysighted an island possibly five miles out. The man behind her shoutedto her to land, and she circled about, finally coming down on the beach.
As she brought her autogiro to earth, she was once more impressed bythe loneliness, the barrenness of it all. No habitation of any kind,not even a tent! Motionless she sat in the cock-pit, wondering whethershe couldn't get away while this thief was unloading his treasure.
Slats, however, was too wise for any such trick; he commanded Linda toget out of the plane, and help him carry a heavy box across the islandwhere a growth of bushes concealed a hole in the ground, which wasevidently the pre-arranged hiding-place. In silence they buried thetreasure and returned to the autogiro.
Retracing their course under his direction, Linda flew back to theencampment. Here they found the others finishing their lunch, and Susiewas sitting with them, apparently much brighter and better, for she waslaughing and talking to her companions.
As Linda and her captor finished their meal, a stranger put in hisstealthy appearance at the door of the tent. He was well-dressed, inriding-breeches, and clean-shaven. Linda's heart gave a wild bound ofhope. Was it possible that this man was an officer of the law, and thecriminals were caught?
But Beefy's greeting to the visitor instantly dispelled her hopes.
"Hello, Jake!" he exclaimed. "What's new?"
"Everything ripe for tonight," announced the new-comer, briefly. "Readyto start now?"
Slats stood up. "O.K. with me," he said. "Want some grub first, Jake?"
"No--I just ate." The stranger turned smilingly to Linda. "And how'sthe most famous girl-pilot in the world?"
Linda recoiled in horror. So he too knew all about the plot to catchher! Another member of this terrible gang!
As she did not answer, he shrugged his shoulders.
"Got the lines out about her yet?" he inquired, of the other men.
"No," replied Slats. "We had a smash-up--wrecked Susie and the Jenny,so we'll need Linda to fly her plane for us till this job's overtonight. I'll give you the high sign when I'm ready to let her old manknow."
The four men stood together at the door of the tent.
"We're leaving for a day--maybe two," Slats informed Linda. "ButSusie's watching you, with a gun. And your plane's dry, so I wouldn'tadvise to try any get-away. There's swamps everywhere....
"So long...."
A moment later the girls heard the men tramp away to the boat that thenew-comer had brought to the edge of the island.