CHAPTER XXIV
A MIDNIGHT MARAUDER
Meanwhile the boys and girls left behind in Jerry Sheming's old camp beganto find the absence of Ruth and her two companions rather trying. The timewhich had elapsed since the three explorers started to find the easternoutlet of the cave seemed much longer to those around the campfire than tothe trio themselves.
Before the searching party could have reached the brookside, had thetunnel been perfectly straight, the nervous Belle Tingley wanted to sendout a relief expedition.
"We never should have allowed Ruthie to go," she wailed. "We all shouldhave kept together. How do we know but they'll find the cave a regularlabyrinth, and get lost in it, and wander around and around, and neverfind their way out, or back, and----"
"Oh, for the goodness sake!" ejaculated Mary Cox, "don't be such aweeping, wailing Sister of Misery, Belle! You not only cross bridgesbefore you come to them, but, I declare, you build new ones!"
"She's Old Man Trouble's favorite daughter," said Heavy. "Didn't you know_that_? Now, Miss Fuss-Budget, stop croaking. Nothing's going to happen toRuthie."
"Not with Tom on hand, you can wager," added Helen, with every confidencein her twin brother.
But at last the watches of the party could not be doubted. Two hours hadcrept by and it was getting very late in the evening. Some of the partywere, as Ann said, "yawning their heads off." Lluella and Heavy had campeddown upon the old buffalo-robe before the fire and were already more thanhalf asleep.
"I do wish they'd come back," muttered Bob Steele to Isadore Phelps. "Wecan't tell in here whether the storm has stopped, or not. I don't justfancy staying in this cave all night if there's any possible chance ofgetting to Mr. Tingley's house."
"Don't know what can be keeping those folks. I believe I could have crepton my hands and knees through the whole hill, and back again, before thistime," returned Busy Izzy, in a very sleepy voice.
"Now, you can talk as you please," said Ann Hicks, with sudden decision,"but I'm going a short distance along that tunnel and see if the lanternis in sight."
"I'm with you!" exclaimed Bob.
"Me, too," joined in Helen, jumping up with alacrity.
"Now, some more of you will go off and get lost," cried Belle. "I--I wishwe were all home. I'm--I'm sorry we came to this old island."
"Baby!" ejaculated her brother, poking her. "Do be still. Ralph isn'tgoing to get lost--what d'ye think he is?"
"How'll we see our way?" Helen asked Bob and Ann.
"Feel it. We'll go in the dark. Then we can see their lantern thequicker."
"There's no wood here fit for torches," Bob admitted. "And I have plentyof matches. Come on! We sha'n't get lost."
"What do you really suppose has happened to them?" demanded Helen of Bob,as soon as they were out of hearing of the camp.
"Give it up. Something extraordinary--that's positive," declared the bigfellow.
They crept through the tunnel, Bob lighting a match occasionally, untilthey reached the first crack in the roof, open to the sky. It was notsnowing very hard.
"Of course they wouldn't have tried climbing up here to get out," queriedHelen.
"Of course not!" exclaimed Ann. "What for?"
"No," said Bobbins. "They kept straight ahead--and so will we."
In five minutes, however, when they stopped, whispering, in a littlechamber, Ann suddenly seized her companions and commanded them to holdtheir breath!
"I hear something," she whispered.
The others strained their ears to hear, too. In a moment a stone rattled.Then there sounded an unmistakable footstep upon the rock. Somebody wasapproaching.
"They're coming back?" asked Helen, doubtfully.
"Hush!" commanded Ann again. "Whoever it is, he has no light. It can't beRuth."
Much heavier boots than those the girl of the Red Mill wore now rattledover the loose stones. Ann pulled the other two down beside her where shecrouched in the corner.
"Wait!" she breathed.
"Can it be some wild animal?" asked Helen.
"With boots on? I bet!" scoffed Bob.
It was pitch dark. The three crouching together in the corner of thelittle chamber were not likely to attract the attention of this marauder,if all went well. But their hearts beat fast as the rustle of theapproaching footsteps grew louder.
There loomed up a man's figure. It looked too big to be either Tom orRalph, and it passed on with an assured step. He needed no lamp to find apath that seemed well known.
"Who--what----"
"Hush, Helen!" commanded Ann.
"But he's going right to the cave--and he carried a gun."
"I didn't see the gun," whispered Ann.
"I did," agreed Bob, squeezing Helen's arm. "It was a rifle. Do yousuppose there is any danger?"
"It couldn't be anybody hunting us, do you suppose?" queried Helen, in ashaken voice. "Anybody from the house?"
"Preston!" exclaimed Ann.
"How would he know the way to get into this tunnel?" returned Bob. "Comeon! let's spy on him. I'm worried now about Tom and the others."
"You don't suppose anything has happened to Ruthie?" whispered Helen. "Oh!you don't believe _that_, Bobbins?"
"Come on!" grunted the big fellow, and took the advance.
They were careful of their own footsteps over the loose stones. The personahead acted as though he had an idea he was alone.
Nor did they overtake him until they had passed the open crack in the roofof the tunnel. Somebody laughed in the cavern ahead--then the girls allshouted.
The marauder stopped, uttering an astonished ejaculation. Bob and the twogirls halted, too, but in a moment the person ahead turned, and camestriding toward them, evidently fleeing from the sound of the voices.
Ann and Helen were really frightened, and with faint cries, shrank back.Bob _had_ to be brave. He leaped forward to meet the person with therifle, crying:
"Hold on, there!"
"Ha!" exclaimed the other and advanced the rifle until the muzzle touchedBob Steele's breast. The boy was naturally frightened--how could he helpbeing? But he showed pluck. He did not move.
"What do you want in here? Who are you?" asked Bob, quietly.
"Goodness me!" gasped the other, and dropped the butt of his rifle to theground. "You sure did startle me. You're one of those boys staying withthe Tingleys?"
"Yes."
"And here's a couple of the girls. Not Ruth Fielding?"
"Oh, Jerry Sheming!" cried Ann, running forward. "You might have shot himwith that gun."
"Not unless I'd loaded it first," replied Jerry, with a quiet chuckle."But you folks scared me quite as much as I did you--Why, it's Miss Hicksand Miss Cameron."
"Where is Ruth?" demanded Ann, anxiously.
"And Tom?" joined in Helen.
"And how did you get back here to Cliff Island?" asked Bob. "We understoodthat you'd been railroaded out of the country."
"Hold on! hold on!" exclaimed Jerry. "Let's hear first about MissFielding. Where's she gone? How came you folks in this cave?"
Helen was the one who told him. She related all the circumstances verybriefly, but in a way to give Jerry a clear understanding of thesituation.
"They've wandered off to the right. I know where they must be," saidJerry, decidedly. "I'll go find them. And then I'll get you all out ofhere. It has almost stopped snowing now."
"But how did you find your way back here to the island?" Bob demandedagain.
"I ain't going to be beat by Blent," declared Jerry Sheming, doggedly. "Iam going to have another look through the caves before I leave for good,and don't you forget it.
"The engine on that train yesterday morning broke a piston rod and had tostop down the lake shore. I hopped off and hid on the far bank, watchingthe island. If you folks hadn't come over this way to fish this morning,I'd been across before the storm began.
"I was pretty well turned around in the storm, and have been traveling along time. But I got to the brook a
t last, and then worked my way up itand into the other end of this cave. I was going up there after mylantern----"
"Ruth and the others have it," explained Helen, quickly.
"Then I'll go find them at once. I know my way around pretty well in thedark. I couldn't get really lost in this cave," and Jerry laughed,shortly.
"I've got matches if you want them," said Bob.
"Got a plenty, thanks. You folks go back to your friends, and I'll huntout Miss Fielding in a jiffy."
Jerry turned away at once, and soon passed out of their sight in thegloom. As Helen and the others hurried back to the anxious party at thecampfire, Jerry went straightway to the most satisfactory discovery of allhis life.