CHAPTER XII. CAPTURED.
But silently as the attack upon Rob had been made, it had not taken placewithout causing some disturbance. Moreover, the sharp crack of thesnapping twig which had attracted Rob's attention to his trailers, hadalso reached Merritt's sharp ears. In the silence of the night-enwrappedforest sounds carry far.
Merritt was all attention in a flash. The snap of the twig might havebeen caused by some prying animal or----
"Gee whiz! That's the scuffling of feet!" exclaimed the young sentry thenext moment as the sounds of the tussle came to him.
His first act was to fire a shot. It should have been aimed in the air,but in his excitement Merritt fired low. The bullet whizzed in thedirection of the camp, struck a tin kettle which was piled up with anumber of other tin utensils, and brought the whole pile down with acrash. Now Jumbo's chosen sleeping place was right behind this barricadeof tin hardware. When it fell it came crashing about the colored man inan ear-splitting avalanche. Jumbo leaped to his feet with a howl. He wasattired in his shirt, trousers and shoes, not having bothered to removethese when he retired.
"Fo' de lan's sake what dat gum gophulous racket?" he yelled. In a flashhis long legs began to move.
"Ah'll bet a pint uv peanuts dat's Injuns!" he shouted as he sped along,"mah goodness, ah wish ah had mah uncle's gun. But as ah ain't ah's jes'a gwine te trus' ter mah laigs."
Jumbo, in great leaps and strides, arrived at the lake-side in a fewinstants. In the meantime, the camp behind him was in an uproar ofexcitement over the midnight alarm.
The negro had already reached the waterside before he felt himselfknocked flat by a heavy blow on the head. Now Jumbo's head, like allnegroes', was about as hard as a bit of adamant. But the cowardly fellowdeemed it better to lie perfectly still when he was knocked flat.Presently he felt himself being picked up and thrown into something thatthe next instant began to move off. He realized in a flash that he waslying in the bottom of one of the canoes.
"Hailp! Hailp!" he began to yell, but was silent instantly as a harshvoice breathed in his ear:
"You shut up if you don't want a bullet in your black head."
Jumbo lay silent after that. But his thoughts were busy.
"Bullet in mah haid, eh?" he mused, "mah goodness, ah don't want nuffin'lak dat. Mah cocoanut feels now laik ah'd done tried ter butt alocusmocus off'n de track. Wondah what deportentiousness uv all disunusualauness done mean?"
His meditations were interrupted by a shout from the shore.
"Bring back those canoes at once!"
"Mah goodness, dat am de majah," exclaimed Jumbo, but to himself. "Heshuh am po'ful mad. Wondah if dem boys is playin' pranks. If dey isdey'll be sorry fer it."
The black ventured to raise his head a little and peep up to see who wasin the canoe with him. In doing so his eyes fell on another figure lyingbeside him. In the moonlight he could see the cords that bound it. Theradiance of the moon also revealed the Boy Scout uniform.
"Gabriel's Ho'hn! Dat's one of dem Boy Scrouts!" he exclaimed, "an' mahgracious, ah wondah who dat fierce lookin' man am whose paddlin' dis yarboat. Reckon ah'd better lay quiet. He looks pretty frambunctious."
In the meantime, the aroused inmates of the camp had rushed to the shore.They reached it just in time to see their entire flotilla of canoes beingpaddled swiftly off across the smooth, moonlit waters. Tubby and Hiramraised their rifles when a hoarse laugh of defiance greeted the major'scommand to the marauders to halt. But in a flash the officer saw whatthey were about to do.
"None of that, boys," he ordered sharply, "put down those rifles."
"No use for them now," grumbled Tubby, "see, they've disappeared roundthat point."
"Let's get after them," suggested Hiram.
The major shook his head.
"Over this rough ground they could easily outdistance us," he said, "isanyone missing?"
It took but a few minutes to ascertain that both Rob and Jumbo were notamong them.
"This is even more serious than the theft of the canoes," exclaimed theprofessor, "do you suppose that it was Hunt's gang that took them?"
"I don't doubt it," said the major, "who else would be interested inannoying us? But let's hear Merritt's story. What did you hear, my boy?"
Merritt soon told his narrative of the crackling twig and the struggle. Avisit to the beach showed that there had, indeed, been a struggle beforeRob had been landed in the canoe. A disconsolate silence fell on thelittle party.
"What are we to do now?" wondered Hiram.
"Get in pursuit of them as quick as possible, I should think," opinedTubby.
The major shook his head.
"Not much use in that," he decided, "we would not be likely to find them.No, the best plan is to wait right here. If Rob escapes he will be ableto find his way back again."
"Do you think they mean him harm?" inquired little Andy Bowlestremulously.
"I hardly think so," responded the major, "they wouldn't dare to do muchmore than keep him prisoner. But even that's bad enough."
"But what object can they have in all this except to annoy us?" asked theprofessor.
"Simple enough," said the major, rather bitterly, "I guess they are goingto hold Rob as a hostage."
"What do you mean?"
"That if they manage to keep him prisoner we shan't see him again till Ihave given them the plans to the location of the Dangerfield treasurecave."
"They wouldn't dare----" began the professor. But the major interruptedhim.
"We have already had a proof of what they will dare," he said, "they areas desperate a band of ruffians as I have ever heard of."
"I guess that's right," agreed Tubby, "but I'll bet," he added stoutly,"that Rob will find a way out of it yet."
In the meantime the canoes sped on through the night. Rob mentally triedto keep some track of the distance traversed, but he was totally unableto do so. He judged, however, when the paddles finally ceased theirsplashing, that they must have come some distance, for it was day-breakwhen the canoes came to a halt.
Rob was roughly jerked to his feet and then, for the first time, becameaware of Jumbo. For his back had been toward the negro in the canoe.
"Mah goodness, Marse Blake," exclaimed the black, "ain' dis de mostes'parallelxillus sintuation dat you ever seen. Ah declar'----"
But further remarks on Jumbo's part were roughly checked by the man whohad paddled the two prisoners to their present situation. He was noneother than the big-limbed rascal, Jim Dale, who had played such aprominent part in the theft of the pocket-book.
"Shut your black head, nigger," he ordered gruffly.
"Ah ain't no niggah. Ah's a 'spectabilious colored gent"; protestedJumbo, "'nd I kain't shut mah haid nohow 'cos it keeps openin' an'shuttin' of its own accord whar you busted me on it."
But a fierce look from the man made even the garrulous negro subside. Asfor Rob, he disdained to talk to the fellow, or bandy words with him.Instead, he gazed around while the other canoes, filched from the BoyScout camp, were coming up. He noted that one was paddled by PeterBumpus, while the third one contained Stonington Hunt and his sonFreeman, the lad who had already given the Boy Scouts so much trouble.
It was a curious place in which the boy found himself. But Rob, with hisscout instinct, could not but admire the skill with which it had beenchosen as a retreat.
The spot was like a large basin with steep rock walls on all sides butone. On the open side a narrow neck of the lake led into this naturalfortress. Great trees and luxurious water growth masked the entrance andanybody, not knowing of it, might have passed by it on the lake side ahundred times without noting its presence. The canoes had been paddledthrough this natural screen of water maples and rank growth of all kinds,which had closed like a curtain behind them.
A beach, narrow except at the far end of the cove, ran round the water'sedge at the foot of the rocky walls. A small tent was pitched there, anda fire was
smoldering. Evidently the place had been occupied for somelittle time as a camp. Rob found himself wondering how the men, in whosepower he now was, had ever found the place. He did not know then that JimDale and Pete Bumpus had once been associated with a gang of moonshiners,whose retreat this had been before the officers of the revenue servicebroke the gang up and scattered them far and wide.
Hunt had gleaned enough knowledge from the plan, during his briefpossession of it, to divine which route the party would take to thehidden treasure trove. He had, therefore, sought out this place when Daleand Bumpus told him of it. The boys' enemies had made straight for it,and had been encamped there some days awaiting the arrival of the party.The notes of Andy Bowles' bugle floating out across the lake the nightbefore had apprised them of the arrival of the party, and plans hadimmediately been made for a hasty descent on the Boy Scouts' mountaincamp. How successful it had proved we already know. But of course, toRob, all this was a mystery.
The canoes were grounded at the end of the cove on the broad strip ofbeach. Rob and Jumbo were at once ordered to get out, and Rob's leg-bondsbeing loosened and gag removed, he followed Jumbo on to the white sand.Hardly had their feet touched it before Stonington Hunt and his rascallyyoung son, the latter with a sneer on his face, also landed.
"Fell neatly into our little trap, didn't you?" jeered Stonington Hunt,staring straight at Rob with an insolent look.
"Yo' alls kin hev yo' trap fo' all I wants uv it"; snorted Jumboindignantly, as Rob disdained to answer.
"Be quiet, you black idiot!" snapped Hunt, "we didn't want you, anyhow.I've a good mind," he went on with a brutal sort of humor, "to have youthrown into the lake."
"By golly yo' jes bring on de man to do it," exclaimed the negro withgreat bravado, "ah reckon ah kin tackle him. Ah'm frum Vahgeenyah, ah is,an----"
But Hunt impatiently checked him. He turned to Peter Bumpus. "Cook us upa meal," he ordered.
"For them, too?" asked Bumpus, jerking his thumb backward at Rob andJumbo.
"Of course. You may as well get used to it. I expect they'll make quite along stay with us."
Rob's heart sank. He was a lad who always schooled himself to look on thebrightest side of things. But no gleam of hope lightened the gloom oftheir present situation. Things could not have been much worse, he felt.