CHAPTER XII.
AN EXHIBIT OF NERVE.
Ricker and his companion, however, took a route that relieved the warywatchers of the necessity of doing lively footwork to keep out of sight.The path followed was that across the platform toward the top of thestairway descending to the basement. Through the opening there the pairdisappeared.
The first thought then with the boys was to immediately release theprisoner in the counting house from his uncomfortable predicament, but asecond thought made this preceding one for debate. Through no fault oftheir own, and, unconsciously, the lads had been indirectly connectedwith recent Warsaw operations of Ricker, and to be well rid of him was amatter of self-protection. Having squared themselves with the Cossack,Nikita, the passing of the silversmith would be a final clearance of oldscores.
"Let's give them an hour's leeway, and then we'll cut his nobs loose,"suggested Henri; "the chap in there would start something mighty quickthe minute he got on his feet, and there's no telling what might becoming to us if Ricker was brought to bay. He'd surely think we hadbetrayed him."
"Yes, and come to think of it, as we did before, the authorities heremight not accept graciously our plea of innocence. We'd get it bothgoing and coming. Plenty of time to untie the policeman. He ought to bethankful that it is only one hour instead of twenty-four, and maybe agood sight longer than that, if we did not interfere."
Billy's conclusion would have stood as satisfactory but for a startlingdevelopment of the instant. Some intuitive process of the mind causedhim to cast a glance over his shoulder, and within twenty feet of him,coming with cat-like tread from the far front of the warehouse, was thethreatening shape of Hamar. It is doubtful if the hairy henchman ofRicker was then aware of the presence of the boys, and if he had anyspecial purpose for carrying an unsheathed knife in his hand, the reasonmust be accounted for in the person of the unfortunate policeman on thecounting house floor. Hamar was of the fiery brand of conspirator whoresented any application of law, and woe to the man who affronted him.The poisoned ring episode was an instance in point.
Henri, gazing in another direction, for the moment, was wholly obliviousof the new peril at hand until apprised by a hiss from Billy. Halfturning, the French boy was looking full into the malignant face of thevelvet-footed oncomer.
With a side leap that covered several feet, Henri dashed around thecabin, meeting his chum, who had jumped on the other side, at the frontentrance, both crossing the threshold at one step, and banging the doorbehind them. Billy grabbed at the bolt just over the latch, and sent itwith a snap into its socket.
"Gee whillikens," he panted, "that was some acrobatic act!"
The door creaked and cracked with the outside pressure that a powerfuland infuriated man was exerting against it.
The boys hastily dragged forward the several heavy benches in the roomand stacked them up for an additional and supporting barrier.
The next move was to free the policeman, who, though carrying a lot ofsurplus flesh, would apparently make a fair bid as a full hand in afight.
Relieved of the gag, what the officer had to say about his late captorswas red-hot Russian. When Henri had severed, with his pocket-knife, thelast strand of the confining cord, the big policeman regained his feetwith astonishing alacrity for such a heavyweight. He speedily worked thestiffness out of his joints by swinging his arms about like a windmilland vigorously stamping up and down the few feet of floor space.
Shrewdly surmising that his rescuers were not conversant with the nativetongue, he asked in French: "How many of them out there?"
The door was rattling ominously, and one of the hinges gave way with ascattering of screw fastenings.
"One," answered Henri, "but he's a corker--the fellow with the hairmattress around his ears."
"Oh, oh," exclaimed the policeman, "I gave him a rap with my stickbefore they downed me. He's of strange breed, not like the rest."
The thought came to both Billy and Henri that Hamar was here to exactblood atonement for the mentioned blow.
The policeman wrenched a heavy oak brace from one of the benches, testedits heft by a long arm swing over his head, and grimly remarked:
"This will drop him if he comes through."
The door gave way with a crash, the piled up benches toppling with theimpact, and on top of the whole mass the tiger man with dagger drawn.
Before the fierce intruder could recover his balance, the policeman withbench brace poised for action brought the oaken weapon down withterrific force on the raised right arm of Hamar, a muscle-numbingstroke, which relaxed the latter's grip on the haft of the glitteringblade and sent it spinning under the counter across the room. A secondblow cut into his forehead.
The men grappled, swayed to and fro in interlocked fury, rolled over thefallen door and out upon the platform. Hamar was at a disadvantage byreason of the blinding effect of blood from the forehead wound, and itwas evident that he was seeking to break away from his burly antagonist.
Billy and Henri, wildly excited over the fray, danced around thecombatants, narrowly escaping at times a bruising jab from whirlingheels.
The fight ranged closer and closer to the head of the basement stairway,the plain intent of the policeman's hairy adversary.
Here it was, by some cunning wrestler's trick, that Hamar broke the holdof the heavyweight, bounded through the opening and down the stairs withan agility that baffled interference.
The policeman, though winded by exertion, did not delay pursuit, and hewas not far behind his wily foe when the latter paused for a second asthough hesitating over the course to take.
The boys, in the immediate wake of the doughty officer, saw that thefugitive was making the run back in the same direction that they hadfollowed in coming. Speeding along with the policeman, their judgment asto this was verified in the passing under an arch out of which severallarge stones had fallen.
"He's making for the chimney grating," advised Billy.
The policeman, under ordinary conditions, might have yielded todetective instinct and asked the boy how he knew so much, but this wasno time for cross-examination by him, racing through a cellar after afight for life, and in eager pursuit of a desperate and dangerous enemy.
Hamar had climbed the spikes to the chimney base, and by the time thepoliceman got his head through the grating was shinning up the bigsmokestack like a monkey.
The trio in the rear swarmed up the handholds in close pursuit, the fatofficer puffing and growling at every reach.
From the wide expanse of the warehouse roof could be seen, quite near,the channel of the Vistula river. Hamar had reached the extreme westline of the elevation, and was looking down into the void thateffectually blocked further flight.
"I have him now," exulted the big policeman, hurrying forward.
But it was not a sure thing, after all.
Directly beneath the coping, over which Hamar was leaning, rose therigging of a great crane, the mighty arm of which was lifting withmechanical regularity to swing heavily weighted sacks from the wharfinto the hold of a waiting collier.
Hardly ten feet separated the pursuer and the pursued, when Hamarbestrode the coping--now he is over and hanging by his hands--now hedrops into the crane rigging--then crawling out on the swinging arm, heis swept in wide circle over the dizzy height--now he slides down thechains, now astride the sack just hooked--now lowered with the weight ofcoal into the vessel!
During the exhibit of daring, from the first sight of the perilousdescent on the chains to the final dump, the stevedores stood aghast andopen-mouthed.
As for the policeman and the boys, looking out and down upon theastonishing performance, none of them had a word to say for severalminutes after it was all over.
"Gee whiz, but wasn't that the limit?"
It was Billy who broke the breath-holding period.
When the policeman awakened from his temporary trance, he was very muchawake.
"There is still a live chance to nab him," he exclaimed, "if we can onlyget down there before the collier clears. Once out in the channel andthat fool is liable to drown himself."
If the officer had only known it, the man he most wanted, and upon whosehead was the far greater price, even now was a stowaway in the very shipinto which Hamar had been tumbled.