CHAPTER IX.
ON THE ROAD TO BOSTON
"Well, the die is cast one way or the other," thought Bob, as he atethe last scrap of his dinner; "that sure did taste good." Then as asudden thought struck him, he began hurriedly to search his pockets.As good luck would have it, he found a small note book, containingseveral blank leaves and a stub of a lead pencil. Hastily, he tore outa page and wrote the following note:
"I am confined in a house in the woods, have no idea where, but it must be within twenty or thirty miles of Skowhegan. King and Reed are taking me to Boston tonight, in a car. Secret still safe."
BOB GOLDEN.
Folding the paper, he wrote on the outside, "Will the finder of thispaper please send it to Mr. Golden, Skowhegan?" He made several copiesof the note, thinking as he did so, "If I can only get a chance tothrow these out of the car, one of them, at least, may get to father.I don't know as it will do me much good, but it will let the folksknow that I'm still alive."
Supper was brought to him at five o'clock, and at seven, King came upto tell him that they were about to start. "Now, see here, boy," hesaid, "we don't want to be any harder on you than we can help, and ifyou give me your word that you won't try to get away, or make anytrouble, we won't tie you."
Bob thought he might as well promise as he knew they would make itimpossible for him to escape if he did not, and he dreaded being tied,so he gave his word.
"All right then," said King, "but mind now, that you keep it, becauseif you make any trouble, I'll have to tie you up and gag you."
"Are we going all the way tonight?"
King laughed. "I guess not; if we drove too fast, it would excitesuspicion, and we'd have to drive like the dickens to make it in onenight. No, we'll make Portland by daylight and lie low there tilldark. But come on, now; there's Bill with the car. I shall have toblindfold you for awhile, for I suppose you are pretty well acquaintedround here and I don't intend to let you know where this place is."
He took a large handkerchief from his pocket as he spoke and tied ittightly over Bob's eyes.
"Now mind, you don't take that off till I give you permission," heordered, as he led him from the room and down the stairs.
As they came out on the porch, Bob could hear a powerful car purringclose at hand. He and King got into the rear seat.
"Have you got the suitcases and the rest of the stuff, Bill?" askedKing.
"Yes, they're all in back there."
"All right, then, let her go."
Darkness was just falling as they started, and at first, their pacewas very slow, as the road was too rough for any but the very slowestspeed, at which a car could be run. In about twenty minutes, they cameto the end of the woods road and the car turned into a much smootherhighway, and Reed sent her forward at a lively clip.
"Now, kid, you get down on the bottom of the car till it gets a littledarker," ordered King, and Bob had to obey.
They continued in this way for half an hour or a little more, whenKing said, "I guess it's dark enough now; you can get up on the seatagain, and I'll take that rag off." As soon as this was done, Bobstrained his eyes to see if he could tell where they were, but it wastoo dark to see much, and he was unable to so much as guess theirlocation for some time. In about an hour, however, they passed a largehouse, which stood very near the road, and he at once recognized itas being but a few miles from Oakland. He was well acquainted with theroad, as he had several times driven his father's car to Boston.
Reed was running at about twenty miles an hour most of the time, andinstead of passing through the towns, he choose roads, for the mostpart, which led around them. They lost considerable time in this way,but Bob figured that they, would probably get to Portland beforedaybreak.
About one o'clock, they were passing over a particularly rough pieceof road, when, bang, went one of the rear tires. "Hang it all, there'sa blowout," growled Reed, bringing the car to a stop. "But it won'ttake long to slip on the extra rim."
While they were waiting, Bob noticed that King did not watch him quiteas closely as he had been doing, and he managed to slip his hand intohis pocket and take out one of the notes he had written. In less thanfifteen minutes, Reed announced that the job was finished, and just asthey were about to start, Bob, carelessly hanging his hand over theedge of the car, let the note fall to the ground, unnoticed by eitherof the men. Nothing more worthy of note happened, except that hemanaged to drop a second note as they passed through the little townof Brunswick, and at about half past four, just as the dawn wasbeginning to light up the East, Reed drove the car into the yard of ahouse standing well back from the road.
"Here we are," he announced, and King at once gave a peculiar whistle,which was soon answered by the raising of a window on the secondfloor.
"Hello, Frank, is that you?" asked King.
"Yes," was the answer. "What do you want?"
"Come down here, and we'll tell you," answered King, and the windowwas at once shut. In a few moments, they were joined by a short man,about forty years old, who Reed greeted as Frank, shaking his handcordially.
"We're on our way to Boston, and we've got a young fellow here, whodon't like our company any too well," explained King with a slightlaugh, "and we want you to put us up till night, as it isn't good forour complexions to travel in the daytime. No one here, is there?"
"No, it's all right. Just drive the machine into the barn and come in.I'll have breakfast ready in a few minutes, and then you can turn in.Been riding all night, hain't ye?"
"Yes, and I guess we can do a little something in both the eating andsleeping line," answered King. "We haven't had any eats since westarted."
They had a fairly good meal, after which the man called Frank said,"You and the kid can go up in the south room, on the third floor, youknow which one, and Bill can sleep on the lounge in the parlor."
"All right," replied King, "Come on, kid."
The room which they entered was small, and contained but a single bed.It was lighted by two small windows, about eight inches square, placednearly six feet from the floor.
"I guess you'll be safe here with me," declared King, as he locked thedoor, and put the key in his pocket. "I'm a very light sleeper, and Itold Frank to keep his eyes peeled, so you'd better not try to getaway."
As Bob made no reply, King, removing only his coat, threw himself onthe bed, telling Bob to do the same. As the boy was very sleepy, andsomewhat tired from his long ride, he was not long in obeying.Although he did not feel that he was bound by his promise, while theywere there, he realized that the chances of escape were so small, thatit would be foolish to make the attempt, and deciding to await a morefavorable opportunity, he was soon fast asleep.
When he awoke, it was nearly three o'clock, and he was alone in theroom. Jumping up, he tried the door, but, as he expected, it waslocked. "Gee, but this sort of thing is getting on my nerves," hethought. "When we get to Boston, I'm going to do something desperate,if I have to, to get away."
He could hear some one moving about, on the lower floor, from time totime, but no one came near him till nearly six o'clock, when King cameup and told him to come down to supper. After the meal, they waitedtill it was fairly dark, and then started off again. Nothing ofimportance happened during the trip, and Bob found chances to drop twomore notes as they passed through small towns.
About three o'clock, they reached the outskirts of Boston, and Kingsaid, "Now I shall have to blindfold you again, and you will have tolie down on the bottom of the car."
"What for?"
"Never you mind what for," replied King, and then added, "You don'tsuppose I'm fool enough to let you see where we're going, do you?"
Bob was forced to obey, but fortunately, for his position was far fromcomfortable, they were not far from their destination, and in lessthan a half hour the car stopped.
"We're here at last," announced King, as he opened the door of thecar, and taking Bob by the arm, led him up some steps into a house.Once ins
ide, the blindfold was removed, and Bob saw that he was in,what appeared to be, a fairly good-sized, but poorly furnished house.The opening of the door had evidently aroused some one, for the stairscreaked, and glancing up, Bob saw a very small man, with a huge humpon his back, coming down.
"Well, Nip, how's things?" asked King.
"All O. K., sir," replied the hump-back, "but I didn't expect you backso soon."
"No, I suppose not, but we're here and mighty hungry. Can't you giveus a cold bite, quick?"
"I guess I can find something. You wait here a minute," and thehump-back went toward the rear of the house.
"We'll go in here and sit down till he's ready," said King, motioningBob to precede him, into what seemed to be a small sitting room.
They had not waited more than ten minutes, when they heard from therear room, "All right, sir," and going through a long hall theyentered a room, where they found a table set with a plain, butgenerous lunch of cold meat, bread and butter and apple pie. Bob didfull justice to the meal and, as soon as they were through, King said,"Now we'll go upstairs and get a little sleep, but I want to get towork as soon as we can."
He led Bob up some bare stairs, ushered him into a small room on thesecond floor and told him to make himself at home.
"You'll occupy this room while you're our guest, and as it has beenfitted up for just such guests as you, I hardly think you'll leavetill we get ready to let you go," King laughed, as he left the room.
The room was lighted by electric light, which King had turned on asthey entered, and Bob proceeded at once to take account of stock, ashe expressed it. The room contained only a bed and a single chair. Ithad but one window, and that was heavily barred. On examining the doorhe was surprised to find that it was made of steel.
"I guess King was right when he said that guests in this room stayedtill they were invited out," he thought. "Oh, well, I suppose I mustget some sleep while I can, so here goes."
It seemed to Bob that he had hardly fallen asleep, when he wassomewhat rudely shaken, and opened his eyes to find King standing bythe bed.
"Come," he said, "it's seven o'clock, and I want to show you thelaboratory and get to work."
Bob rose sleepily and followed him downstairs. King led the way downto the basement, and into a large room. Bob needed but a glance totell him that it was a fairly well-equipped laboratory.
"Now, I want you to take a careful look around, see what we've gotthat you can use, and then, make out a list of what else you want.I'll get them this forenoon, and you can begin work right afterdinner. Oh, by the way, how long will it take you to do the job?"
"Well," replied Bob thoughtfully, "In my laboratory at home, I couldprobably make one in a week, but here, where I'm not used to things,it will probably take me ten days or more."
"Ten fiddle sticks," cried King angrily, "You're trying to fool me.You've got to do it in much less time than that I can tell you."
Bob knew that he could probably make one of the cells in a couple ofdays at the outside, but he intended to take all the time he could,and watch for a chance to escape, so he said calmly, "All right, ifyou can do it in less time, you'd better do it."
"Well, well, hurry and get your list made out," demanded King testily.
Bob walked around examining the laboratory and equipment for about ahalf hour and then asked for paper and pencil. They were quicklysupplied, and sitting at a desk in one corner of the room, he soonhanded King the following list:
Two pounds of lead nitrate.
One-half pound lead.
One-half pound antimon.
One-half pound copper.
One-half pound tin.
Ten or fifteen pounds of fine sand, suitable for making a mold.
One copper cylinder, eight inches long by 1 and one-half inches indiameter.
"How are you fixed for electrolysis?" he asked, as he handed King thelist.
"Guess we can fix you up all right. We've got a good storage batteryand two or three glass tanks and considerable platinum. Now we'll goup and see if breakfast is ready," he said, putting the pager in hispocket.