CHAPTER XVI.
BUT THE BIRDS HAD FLOWN.
As they were on the way back to the house, Jack turned to Bob, who waswalking beside him and said:
"I hope to goodness that our adventures for today are about through. Itell you what, coming so near to death twice in one day is a bit toostrenuous to suit me."
They soon reached the house and entered by the front door, which theyfound unlocked, with drawn revolvers. The room smelled strongly ofgas, but they quickly opened the windows, and it was soon nearly alldriven out. They searched the house as before, but with no success andfinally came to the laboratory. Here the gas was pretty bad, but oneof the officers soon found where it was turned on and shut it off.They were, however, unable to find the secret hiding place of thecounterfeiters, although they searched for some time. At last thecaptain said:
"Well, I guess we'll have to give it up for now, but I'm going toleave two of you men here to keep watch, and I'll send some one torelieve you as soon as I get back to the station." Then, turning toMr. Golden, "We might as well be going now, I'm not going to have thatstuff down there removed till tomorrow."
On their way back Bob said that they must take the night train forhome, as their parents would be anxious to see them, but Uncle Bensaid:
"Your Aunt Lucy and I intended to run down to Skowhegan in a few daysanyway, and if you'll wait till morning, we'll all go together in thecar. We'll telephone as soon as we get back to the house and thenwe'll get an early start tomorrow. What do you say?"
The boys eagerly agreed to this plan, and by the time it was settledthey were at the ferry where they said goodby to Captain Long.
The latter went at once to the station house and sent out a generalalarm for the apprehension of the counterfeiters, but we will say herethat they were not caught.
On their way to Winthrop, Uncle Ben asked the two boys to say nothingto Aunt Lucy regarding their narrow escape, as it would worry her, andthey promised to be careful and not let it out in her hearing.
It was nearly suppertime when they reached home, and Jack at oncecalled up his father and told him of their plans, while Bob gave hisaunt an account of their afternoon's trip, carefully avoiding,however, any mention of their being locked in the counterfeiter's den.
"It's too bad they escaped," she said when he had finished.
Uncle Ben then told her of their plans for the morrow, and she saidshe guessed she could get ready in time, although it was pretty shortnotice.
As the boys were very tired after such a strenuous day, they were inbed before nine o'clock.
"We want to be off by six o'clock," shouted Uncle Ben, as they went upstairs, "and I'll have to pull you out by five."
"All right," answered Jack, "we'll be ready."
After they were undressed they did not forget to kneel down by the bedand thank their heavenly Father for His care over them.
"George, but this has been some exciting day," declared Jack as hetumbled into bed, closely followed by Bob. "I don't think I would careto go through that mess again."
"I should say not," agreed Bob, "we might not get off so lucky nexttime. I don't believe we'll ever be any nearer death again, till ourtime comes, than we were this afternoon."
"I guess you're right there," then suddenly, "Say, Bob, do you supposewe've seen the last of those two fellows?"
"Hard to tell, but I sure hope so. I'd feel a good bit better if we'dcaught them this afternoon."
"Same here," came sleepily from Jack.
They were too tired to talk any longer and were soon fast asleep.
They were still sleeping soundly, when a little before five o'clock,their uncle awoke them.
"It's too bad to wake you, boys," he said, "but breakfast is almostready, and we've got to be off in about an hour."
They were soon dressed and running downstairs found a hearty breakfastawaiting them, to which they did full justice.
Mr. Golden's car was a big roomy Lozier, and by six o'clock they wereoff. They took the chauffeur with them, although the boys, takingturns, drove the greater part of the way. They reached Portland byeleven o'clock, and stopped there for dinner. When nearly toWaterville, about twenty-five miles from the cottage, a tire blew out,but as this was their only mishap, they did not complain, and a newone was quickly substituted. The run up from the latter city was madein a little over an hour, and they reached the cottage shortly aftersix o'clock. The boys were greeted as heroes by their parents and thegirls, and there was great rejoicing over their safe return, old Mikecoming in for his share, the tears fairly rolling down his cheeks ashe grasped their hands saying:
"Begorra and I always did say you byes had more lives nor a cat, andall ways were sure to land on your fate."
While eating supper, Bob and Jack in turn, gave a full account oftheir adventures, except that they said nothing about being so nearlykilled by gas, and their mother's face paled as she realized hownearly she had lost one, if not both of her boys. When they hadfinished, their father said:
"We must keep a sharp lookout for those rascals, although I hardlythink they will dare to show up here again."
"Say, dad," asked Jack, "where's that detective?"
"We haven't seen or heard from him since you left," answered hisfather.
Uncle Ben agreed with his brother that the boys should be verycareful, saying:
"There's been a lot in the papers about those fellows, that is ifthey're the ones we think they are, and they have a reputation fordaring that has seldom been equaled."
"Well," remarked Bob, "I hope they keep away, as I've had all of theircompany that I care about for a while at least."
"Same here," agreed Jack, "but I say, it's mighty funny what's gotthat Sharp detective."
He had hardly spoken when the doorbell rang, and as the maid opened itthe detective walked in. When he saw Bob his eyes stuck out, as Jackafter expressed it, as large as saucers.
"Well, I'll be blowed," he cried, "where in the world did you comefrom?"
And then the story had to be told over again.
"Well, I'll be blessed," uttered the detective, when they hadfinished, "Guess I'm getting too old for a job of this kind. Here I'vebeen working night and day, and have scoured the country for adistance of twenty miles in every direction, and didn't get a smell,and you," turning to Jack, "find him first whack off the reel."
"I didn't find him," declared Jack, "He found me," and he added, "itwas a mighty lucky find for me."
Mr. Sharp seemed very much downcast, but Mr. Golden assured him thathe was sure that he had done all that any one could have done.
"You, of course, didn't know that he had been taken to Boston, and thetwo boys meeting as they did was a coincidence, which wouldn't happentwice in a thousand years. No, you needn't reproach yourself in theleast."
After this the detective felt much better, but remarked that it wasthe third time in his twenty years as a detective that he had beenbeaten.
Uncle Ben then proposed that they take a run across the lake in theSprite and get their trunk, which they had sent by express, and whichought to be at the hotel. The women folks decided that they wouldn'tgo, so Mr. Golden, Uncle Ben, Mr. Sharp, who wanted to catch the nighttrain for Boston, and the two boys, composed the crew.
"So that's the wonderful cell that all the trouble has been about, isit?" asked Uncle Ben, as they started. "Well, it certainly is a bigthing and I'm proud of you boys."
On the way across, they told Mr. Golden of their narrow escape in thecounterfeiter's den, and why they had kept silent about it at thetable. He shuddered, as he realized how near death they had been andsaid that they had done just right in not letting their mother andaunt know about it, and Mr. Sharp declared that he was going to takeup the search for them as soon as he got to Boston.
They obtained the trunk, and saying goodby to the detective andwishing him good luck, started back for the cottage, which theyreached about nine o'clock, and, as they were all tired, they soonretired for the night.
r /> The boys spent the next day sailing on the lake with the girls, whiletheir father and uncle went down to Skowhegan, having some businessto attend to. Late in the afternoon the four young people went fishingand, in a short time, caught a good mess which they had for supper.
That night, as the boys were getting ready for bed, Jack suddenlysaid:
"I say, Bob, what's the trouble with fitting up our motorcycles withelectric motors and running them with the cells?"
"Just the thing! Wonder why we didn't think of that before."
"Huh, that's easy, guess we've had our minds fairly full of somethingelse, lately."
"That's a fact, we have," agreed Bob, "We'll go down on the wheels,first thing in the morning and see what we can do. I guess likely wecan get the motors at Watson's, and if we can make it a go, we'll havesome bikes."
Right after breakfast the next morning, they got their motorcycles outand in less than fifteen minutes, were in Watson's store in Skowhegan.Fortunately, he had two small motors, of ten horsepower each, on hand,which seemed to the boys to be just what they wanted, and asking himto send them up to the house at once, they were soon in the laboratoryhard at work.
"You start on a couple sets of caps, Jack, and I'll get theelectrolysis apparatus going and fill a few cylinders," Bob had saidas soon as they got there. By noon, Jack had the caps done, as he hadeverything at hand to work with and knew how to do it, and by fiveo'clock, they had taken the engines apart and had the wheels all readyfor the installation of the motors.
"Come on now and get washed up," called Bob, as he shut down thedynamo and took out two cylinders, which, he was pleased to see, werefull. "That's eight we've filled today, but come get a move, we mustcatch that five o'clock car or we'll be late to supper."
Edna and May met them at the wharf, in the Sprite, and by six-thirtythey were eating supper and telling the family about their day's work.