CHAPTER XXII THE DEN
No sooner were the words out of Don's mouth than a burst of flame camefrom the interior of the cairn and a shot whistled uncomfortably closeto their heads. They made all haste to retreat, Ned dragging Jim asidesomewhat roughly.
"He's in there, all right," said Jim, grimly.
"Yes, there must be a regular hiding place in there," responded Ned."The question is: how are we going to get him out? We certainly can'trush him in there."
"We can starve him out," suggested Don.
"That will take too long," said Ned. "However, if there isn't anythingelse to do, we'll do that."
"I have another plan," put in Jim. "We'll smoke him out!"
"Smoke him out!" echoed Don and Ned.
"Sure, why not? I doubt if there is any other outlet to that cairn,except maybe some small air-hole, so we can easily smoke him out. Let'sgather some of this green wood and set it afire."
Keeping a vigilant lookout toward the mouth of the uncovered tunnel soas to guard against a sudden dash or shot the three boys gathered somefairly green wood, with which they mixed some dry dead wood, and afterpiling it near the mouth of the tunnel, pushed it into place with thebutts of their guns. They knew that the tunnel was straight and not wideenough to allow the penned outlaw to fire on them unless they stooddirectly before the opening, so they took excellent care to keep out ofrange. When the wood was piled Ned leaned cautiously forward and lightedthe pile.
The dry wood caught fire and blazed up, touching the green wood andcausing it to smoke. The boys stood with guns in readiness to fire ashot into the entrance of the cave if the bandit tried to make a thrustat the fire with a view to scattering it. The flames mounted higher,causing a heavy pall of smoke from the green wood.
"Take off your hats and fan it down the opening," said Ned, suiting thewords by the action. All three of the boys fanned the smoke vigorously,causing it to go into the tunnel.
They did not have long to wait for results. After a few moments theyheard a violent coughing and then at last Sackett staggered out into theopening, still coughing and wiping his streaming eyes. Before he coulduse the gun which he held in his hands they were upon him and haddisarmed him.
"Well, Squint Sackett," said Ned, grimly, as they bound his hands with apiece of rope which was on his own horse. "We have you at last."
The bandit replied by a fit of coughing that made him red in the face.Seeing that he was quite safe Don scattered the fire and stamped it out.The quest was now over and the bay pirate securely bound.
"You kids'll pay for this!" the man said, hoarsely. "You can't proveanything against me!"
"No, not at all," said Don cheerfully. "Just stealing, breaking into aranch, kidnapping, and a few other trifles. I guess we can put you whereyou belong this time. It was an unlucky day for you when you decided toattack Professor Scott."
"Suppose we take a look through this cairn and see what it looks likebefore we go?" suggested Jim.
"All right," agreed Ned. "But first we'll tie this slippery gentlemanup. He mustn't be allowed to get away again."
Sackett was tied to a convenient tree and then the boys made a torch ofa dry stick of wood. With this in hand Ned took the lead and theyentered the mouth of the tunnel, bending low to keep from scraping theirheads on the roof of the passage. They went down on a slight slope for adistance of about four feet and then came to a single cave-like roomhollowed out under the rocks.
"I see the whole business now," remarked Ned, as they peered about thelittle cave. "This place was evidently some pirate's den years ago, andin some way Sackett learned of it. You can see that the place was builtfor no other purpose, and the slab outside is a plain blind."
Ned was right in what he said. Some forgotten pirate had purposely builtthe cairn retreat for a refuge in time of storm, when the law washunting him along the coast. The room was large enough to contain ablanket and a low table that had evidently been constructed in theplace. Overhead there was a concealed opening between the rocks, so thatair could get into the place and the inmates could breathe. Once insideit was an easy matter to place the rocks before the opening in such away that no one except a careful observer would ever discover it.
"It is a pretty clever hiding place," remarked Don. "Anyone would haveone chance in a hundred of finding it. I only stumbled across it becauseI was curious about the whole mound."
"It pretty nearly stood Sackett in mighty good stead," Jim said.
They left the cairn and went back to the thicket, to find the outlawtugging frantically at his bonds, but when he saw them he sullenlyceased and became quiet. They untied him from the tree, leaving hishands tied, however, and helped him mount his horse. Then they left thethicket and started back for the ranch of the senorita.
Three miles from the ranch they were joined by the professor, thecaptain and Terry, who had become anxious because of their long absenceand who had mounted and set out to find them. The meeting between thereunited friends was warm and they were glad to see that the author ofall their troubles was taken at last.
"Well, Sackett," said the professor, with a twinkle in his eyes. "It iscertainly time that we took you. You had your inning at taking most ofus and now it is our turn."
"You won't keep me long," snarled the man.
"No, we won't," struck in Captain Blow. "But the big house with the barswill hold on to you for a good long time, my bucko!"
"Who are you?" demanded the bay pirate. "I never did anything to you!"
"No, but your friend Captain Ryan took a couple of my sailors with himwhen he sailed on his last voyage. He's taking another sail right now,down to San Francisco to the jail."
"Tryin' to be funny, aren't you?" retorted the river pirate.
"All of your gang is in custody, Sackett," said Professor Scott,quietly.
They went back to the ranch, to find the senorita taking care of fourwounded men, all of whom had slight wounds in the legs or shoulders. Theoverseer was one of them and he pleaded for mercy with the boys. Jim andTerry were undecided but Captain Blow and the professor were not.
"Can't let these fellows go, any of 'em," said the old captain. "Hewould have left you two boys' bodies out there in the desert withoutthinking about it, according to Terry's story, so you can't let him go.Maybe he wouldn't ever turn up to harm you again, but he's a potentialmurderer and he's better off behind bars."
It was now late at night and the whole party accepted the invitation toremain at the ranch until morning, at which time they were to take theprisoners to Quito and see that they were taken from there to SanFrancisco. The night passed without incident and in the morning thewhole party, with the wounded men in a wagon which belonged to thesenorita, started for the sea coast.
The journey to Quito was a long one and all of them did not make it. Theprofessor dropped off at the Scott ranch and the others kept on with thecargo of dangerous rascals. In due time they reached the town, made outthe proper papers, and then waited two days for a government boat tocome and take the prisoners away. When this was done they went back tothe Scott ranch.
Subsequently Sackett, who was wanted for many types of crime, was placedbehind the bars for the rest of his life and his crew of men eachreceived all that was coming to them from their lives of dishonesty. Theriver pirates and bay pirate gang, of which Ryan and his crew formed themain branch, was broken up once and for all, and it was a good manyyears before any of them ever became free again.
Captain Blow left a message at Quito for his mate and then joined theparty that was going home. He had been invited to go with them on theirgold hunt and was eager to do so. But this time all stories had beentold and the boys in particular were impatient to go and dig for it.
"Well, now we'll go have a look at that Spanish gold," said the captain,as they started on the return trip. "And I want to have a look at thatship moored in the sand for so long! They say some of those old-timerswere pretty good sailors, but I
don't think much of a skipper who runshis windjammer under the ground!"