CHAPTER XXVII.
_IN HIDING._
That the incidents may be related as nearly as possible in the order oftheir occurrence it is time to return to the spot where the burglars arein hiding.
It will be remembered that we last saw Sam after Phil had fallen asleep,and he was feigning unconsciousness lest Long Jim, having nothing elseto do, should take it into his ugly head to administer the promisedflogging.
Although Sam's eyes were apparently closed, he took good care to keepstrict watch on the burglar; but for what seemed a very long time he sawnothing to cause any apprehensions, and was just on the point of goingto sleep in reality when Jim asked, as he gave the boy a vicious kick onthe side:
"Where's the grub?"
"I don't know. You put it away after finishing your dinner."
"Oh, I remember now," and the burglar, still considerably more than halfstupefied by the amount of liquor he had drunk, arose to his feet sounsteadily that it seemed as if only the lightest touch would benecessary to send him headlong.
After a short search the man found that which he wanted, and proceededto make a hearty meal, regardless of the hungry glances which the boybestowed upon him.
"Don't think I'm goin' to give you any," he said, with a leer, as heconcluded the repast, "You're lucky to be alive, an' that's enough forsich a duffer. I'll put this stuff back, an' you'll have every bone inyour body broken if you so much as smell of it."
Sam made no reply. He had already learned that there are very many timeswhen silence is indeed "golden."
"I've made up my mind to see what can be done at the fair," Jim said, ashe lighted his pipe with great deliberation. "Phil thinks he's the onlysmart man in the world, an' it's time to show him what a mistake he'sbeen makin' all his life. Why don't you say something?" he cried,angrily, as Sam continued silent.
"I don't know what you want me to say. If you're goin' that settles it;I sha'n't be any better off."
"You can stake your life on that, for while I'm a gentleman an' behavemyself as such, Phil is a reg'lar brute, an' will make things mightyuncomfortable for a sneak like you."
Sam thought, but was very careful not to say, that it was hardlypossible for a boy to have a worse master than the alleged gentleman infront of him, and the burglar continued, as he arose to his feet:
"I want to leave without wakin' Phil, but you must do it as soon as Ipush off from the shore, for we don't intend to give you a chance ofslipping away. I shall watch mighty close, an' if he isn't on his feetbefore I'm a dozen yards out into the creek you'll get a reminder fromthis," and the man ostentatiously displayed a revolver.
"I don't count on runnin' off," Sam, replied, thoroughly frightened bythe threat. "I can stay here till you get ready to let me go, becauseI've got to, an' I'm not sich a fool as to git into any worse scrape."
"Now you're talkin' somethin' like sense, an' if you keep on in this wayI'll see to it that you don't have any harder time than a detectiveoughter expect; Phil will be on his ear when he knows I've gone, an' youmust tell me all he says. Remember that if he isn't on his feet beforeI've got beyond range, I'll use your head for a target."
With this threat the burglar staggered out of the thicket, and Sam beganto speculate as to whether he should make one supreme effort to escapebefore his other captor awakened.
A second glance at the weapon decided him in the negative, however, andhe meekly stepped to the edge of the woods in order to obey theinstructions given.
Despite Jim's apparent intoxication he watched the boy closely, stillholding the revolver ready for use, and after pushing the boat into thestream he cried:
"Now go ahead, an' let me see him in about two minutes, or I'll fill youfull of bullets."
If Sam had been a brave boy he would have made a dash for liberty atthis moment; but he was in nearly every sense of the word a coward, andobeyed the order literally.
"Who's there?" Phil asked, angrily, as the boy shook him vigorously.
"Jim told me to make you get up, or he'd shoot," Sam replied, meekly.
"Make me get up? What time is it?"
"I don't know; but it doesn't seem to be more than three o'clock."
"Where's Jim?"
"Jest startin' for the fair grounds, an' if you don't show yourselfpretty soon he's sure to shoot me."
"There wouldn't be any particular harm in that, for you deserve it; butit can't be possible the fool is goin' to show himself in daylight whenmore than one is lookin' for him."
"That's what he said," and Sam, fearing lest the half-drunken burglarwould begin his pistol practice, seated himself behind the largest treethat might protect him from the bullets.
Now that Phil was awake, he did not lose any further time in talking,but ran out to where he could command a view of the creek, and once moreSam had an opportunity for escape which he did not dare to embrace.
"Come back here, an' don't make a fool of yourself," Jim's partnercried, angrily, as he saw the man pulling leisurely from the bank.
"What's crawlin' on you? Don't I know my business?"
"Not if you count on goin' up there before dark."
"That's jest what I intend to do, so don't screech so much."
"Come back, I tell you, or it'll be all up for both of us!"
"I've been in this business long enough to know it," was the reply, asJim continued to row, increasing each instant the distance betweenhimself and the shore.
"Now, don't spoil a good thing," Phil said, pleadingly, and,understanding that this conversation might be continued for a shorttime, Sam plucked up sufficient courage to make an attack upon theprovisions.
He took from the general store a large piece of cheese, some crackersand as much meat as he believed would suffice to make a hearty meal,after which he hid the lot near the tree behind which he was hiding.
Then he crept back to his former position, and listened to theconversation between his captors.
Phil alternately coaxed and threatened his partner; but all to nopurpose, as could be told by the tones of the latter's voice while hepulled up stream, and the baffled burglar returned to the camping placeabsolutely furious with rage.
"This comes of my bein' so foolish as to bring that fool liquor," hesaid half to himself. "It's mighty lucky he didn't know I had more thanone bottle."
Then he took from one of his pockets a second flask, refreshing himselfwith a portion of the contents before asking:
"What did he say to you?"
"Nothin' except that he was goin' up to the fair," Sam replied, timidly.
"But what made him tell you to waken me?"
"I s'pose that was so I couldn't have a chance to run away."
"What else did he say?"
"That I was to tell him jest how you took his leavin'."
"Well, if he's lucky enough to get back, tell him I said he was thebiggest fool that ever walked on two legs. Them chums of your'n are sureto spot him, an' it's ten to one he's pinched before sunset."
Sam did not understand what the man meant by the term "pinched," butunder the circumstances he hardly thought it safe to inquire, and theangry burglar continued:
"We'll make ready to get out of this if he isn't back by daylight, an'while there's nothin' else to do you'd better put that stuff underground, for there's no knowin' now when we'll be able to take it away."
The spade was near at hand ready for use, and while Phil alternatelysmoked and drank from the bottle, Sam set about burying the plunder.
This man was quite as hard a taskmaster as the one who had justdeparted, and the boy was forced to work as he had probably never donebefore, until sufficient of an excavation had been made to conceal thegoods.
Under the direction of the burglar Sam covered the different packageswith earth; did his best to hide all traces of his work, and when it wasso dark that he could no longer see to move about was allowed to rest.
During this time Phil had been drinking and smoking, with the resultthat he could hardly speak plainly when
the task was accomplished, andso intoxicated did he appear to be that Sam thought it safe to eat thefood he had concealed.
"Keep on talkin' so's I'll know where you are, or on goes the ropes an'gag again," Phil cried, and the boy obeyed, repeating over and over thesame words in order to satisfy his suspicious captor.
After eating a hearty meal, Sam succeeded in mustering sufficientcourage to admit of his thinking about attempting to escape.
From the manner in which the burglar spoke he knew it could not be verymuch longer before the man would be so completely under the influence ofliquor as to render him helpless, and he said to himself:
"If I could get the rope around his hands an' legs I'd soon be out ofthis place."
"What's that you are saying?" Phil cried, angrily.
"Nothin'; I was only doin' as you told me, talkin' so's you'd know whereI was."
"I'll save all that trouble," and the man lurched to his feet as hepicked up the rope.
"Please don't tie me ag'in," Sam pleaded. "I won't try to git away."
"I'll go bail that you don't after I'm through with you. Put out yourhands."
Phil was yet capable of mischief, even though his brain was clouded, andSam did not dare to disobey.
He suffered himself to be tied without making any remonstrance, and asthe burglar staggered to his former resting place, the boy tested thebonds.
Previously he had been lashed in such a manner that it was impossible tomove hand or foot, but now he soon realized that he could do both, andthe happy thought came that he might free himself with but littledifficulty if a favorable opportunity for escape should present itself.
"Now you're fixed," Phil said, half to himself, "an' I may as well takethings comfortable till we're certain that that fool of a Jim issettled."
"Are you goin' to leave here to-night?" Sam asked, more for the purposeof learning how far the man was on the road to intoxication than forinformation.
"If he ain't here by twelve o'clock we'll know the jig is up, an' skipso's to be out of the way before any one can come sneakin' around forthe stuff."
"Then if Jim isn't back by that time, an' he keeps on drinkin', I'lltake all the chances," Sam said to himself, and from that instant hestrained every nerve to learn how nearly the burglar had succeeded inmaking a worse brute of himself than nature intended.