Читать книгу: «Frank Merriwell's Triumph: or, The Disappearance of Felicia», страница 17

CHAPTER XXV.
HOW WAS IT DONE?

What had happened to Dick? Intentionally he had permitted Felicia to keep the lead in the race through the chaparral. It is possible he might have overtaken her had he tried. He had no thought of danger, and he was wholly unprepared when out from the shadows of the chaparral shot a twisting, writhing coil, the loop of which fell over his shoulders and jerked him like a flash from the saddle. The shock, as he struck the ground, drove the breath from his body and partly stunned him. Before he could recover he was pounced upon by two men, who quickly dragged him into the edge of the thicket, where a third man – a half-blood Mexican – was coiling the lariat with which the boy had been snatched from the horse’s back.

These men threatened Dick with drawn weapons.

“Make a sound or a cry, kid,” growled one of them, “and we sure cuts you up!”

The boy’s dark eyes looked fearlessly at them, and he coolly inquired:

“What’s your game? I have not enough money on me to pay you for your trouble.”

“Ho, ho!” laughed one of the trio. “We gits our pay, all right, younker. Don’t worry about that. Tie his elbows close behind him, Mat. Mebbe we best gags him some.”

“No, none of that,” declared the one called Mat. “If he utters a cheep, I’ll stick him sure.”

But the other insisted that Dick should be gagged, and this they finally and quickly did. With his arms bound behind him and a gag between his teeth, he was lifted to his feet and forced into the depth of the thicket. The Mexican, who was called Tony, seemed to know a path through the chaparral, although it was dim and indistinct, and this they followed.

Thus it happened that when Felicia missed Dick and turned back she found no trace of him. On through the thick chaparral they threaded their way, now and then crouching low to push through thorny branches, their progress necessarily being slow. For a long time they tramped on, coming finally to an opening.

Several horses were grazing there. No time was lost in placing the captive boy on the back of a horse and fastening his feet together beneath the animal’s belly. Already it was growing dusky, but those men knew the course they would pursue. The Mexican and Mat mounted one animal and followed Dick, while the biggest man of the party, who had once been addressed as Dillon, now took the lead.

Starry night came as they still pushed on, but they had left the chaparral behind and were on the trackless plain. Finally it was decided that the captive should be blindfolded. By this time his jaws were aching, and he was greatly relieved when the gag was removed. They seemed to think there was little danger of his cries being heard should he venture to shout for help. Dick did not shout; he felt the folly of it.

Long hours they rode, and the bandage over the boy’s eyes prevented him from telling what course they followed. At last they halted. The cords about his ankles were released, and he was unceremoniously dragged from the saddle to the ground. Following this, he was marched into some sort of a building. There at last the bandage was removed from his eyes, and even his arms were set free. Dillon and Mat were with him. The Mexican had been left to care for the horses.

“Now, kid,” said the big man, “you makes yourself comfortable as you can. Don’t worry none whatever; you’re all safe here. Nothing troubles you, and we looks out for you. Oh, yes, we looks out for you.”

“Why have you brought me here?” asked Dick.

“We lets you guess at that a while. It amuses you perhaps, and passes away the time.”

“If my brother finds out who did this – ”

“Now, don’t talk that way!” cried Mat. “We don’t bother with your brother any. We does our business with other parties.”

“So that’s it – that’s it!” exclaimed Dick, “My brother’s enemies have paid you for this piece of work.”

“That’s one of the little things you has to guess about,” hoarsely chuckled Dillon. “Thar’s a bunk in the corner. I sure opines this place is stout enough to hold you, and all the while Mat or I sits in the next room. If we hears you kick up restless-like, we comes to soothe you. We’re great at soothing – eh, Mat?”

“Great!” agreed Mat.

“If you has a good appetite,” continued Dillon, “in the morning we gives you a square feed. Oh, we treats you fine, kid – we treats you fine. We has orders to be ca’m and gentle with you. We’re jest as gentle as two playful kittens – eh, Mat?”

“Jest so,” agreed Mat.

“Of course, you being young, it disturbs you some to be introduced to us so sudden-like. Still, you seems to have a lot of nerve. You don’t git trembly any, and you looks a heap courageous with them fine black eyes of yours. By smoke! I almost believes you has it in yer ter tackle us both, kid; but you’d better not – you’d better not. It does no good, and it ruffles our feelings, although we is so ca’m and gentle. When our feelings is ruffled we are a heap bad – eh, Mat?”

“Sure,” agreed Mat.

“That’s about all,” said Dillon. “Now we bids you a pleasant good night, and we hopes you sleeps sweet and dreams agreeable dreams – eh, Mat?”

“We does,” nodded Mat.

Then they backed out through the door behind them, which led into the front room of the building, leaving Dick in darkness, as the door was closed and barred.

Dick knew there was very little chance for him to escape unaided from the clutches of those ruffians. Still, he was not the sort of a boy to give up, and he resolved to keep his ears and eyes open for any opportunity that might present itself. Left without a light, there was no hope of making a satisfactory examination of his prison room until the coming of another day.

He flung himself down on the couch and meditated. But for the fact that he was in fine physical condition, his fall when jerked from the saddle might have injured him seriously. As it was, he had simply been somewhat shaken up. He felt a slight soreness, but regarded it as of no consequence. Of course, he understood the game the ruffians were playing. Beyond question he was to be held as a hostage in order that Frank’s enemies might force Merry into some sort of a deal concerning the mines.

His one satisfaction lay in the belief that Felicia had escaped. As he lay there on the bunk, he could hear the mumbling voices of his captors in the next room. After a time his curiosity was aroused, and he felt a desire to hear what they were saying.

Silently he arose and stole over to the partition between the rooms. This partition was strangely thick and heavy for a building in that part of the country. Seemingly it had been constructed for the purpose of safely imprisoning any one who should be thrust into that room. Although he pressed his ear close to the partition, he was unable for some time to understand anything the men were saying. He moved softly about, seeking a place where he might hear better, and finally found it in a crack beneath the massive door, through which shone a dim light.

Lying flat on his back, with his ear near this crack, the boy listened. To his satisfaction, he was now able to hear much of the talk that passed between the men. Plainly but two of them, Mat and Dillon, were in the outer room.

“This piece of work certain pays us a good thing, Mat,” said Dillon. “The gent what has it done is rotten with coin, and we makes him plank down a heap liberal.”

“What does yer know about him, pard?” inquired Mat. “Whoever is he, anyhow?”

“Why, sure, I hears his name is Morgan, though I deals with him direct none at all myself.”

“Well, partner, this is better and some easier than the railroad job.”

“All the same, Dan gets a heap sore when he finds we has quit t’other job. And, as for this being less dangerous, I am none certain of that.”

“Why not?”

“Well, this yere Frank Merriwell they say is a holy terror. Dan hisself has had some dealings with him, you know. He knocks the packing out of Dan down at Prescott not so long ago.”

“Down at Prescott,” thought the listening boy; “down at Prescott. Why, I supposed it was up at Prescott. If it’s down, Prescott must be to the south. In that case these fellows doubled and turned north after scooping me in.”

This was interesting to him, for one thing he desired to know very much was just where he had been taken. As he was meditating on this, Dick missed some of the talk between the men, for in order to understand what they were saying it was necessary for him to listen with the utmost intentness.

“Do you allow, Dillon,” he finally heard Mat say, “that Dan will stick to his little plan to hold up that train?”

“I opine not. He won’t be after trying it all by his lonesome. One man who holds up a train and goes through it has a heap big job on his hands.”

“So that’s the kind of a railroad job they were talking about!” thought Dick. “They surely are a tough lot.”

“Mebbe he comes searching for us,” suggested Dillon.

“Mebbe so. Ef he does, we has to deceive him.”

“He gits a whole lot hot, I judge.”

“You bet he does. And when he is hot we wants to keep our eyes peeled for a ruction.”

“That’s whatever.”

Although Dick listened a long time after this, the conversation of the ruffians seemed of no particular importance. Finally they ceased talking, and evidently one of them at least prepared to sleep. Dick arose and returned to the bunk, where he lay trying to devise some possible method of escape. Scores of wild plans flittered through his brain, but he realized that none of them were practical.

“If I could get word to Frank,” he thought. “But how can it be done – how can it be done?”

Such a thing seemed impossible. At last he became drowsy and realized that he was sinking off to sleep, in spite of his unpleasant position. He was fully awakened at last by sudden sounds in the outer room. There came a heavy hammering at the door, followed by the voice of one of Dick’s captors demanding to know who was there. Dick sat upright on the bunk, his nerves tingling as he thought of the possibility that the ruffians had been followed by a party of rescuers, who were now at hand.

The one who was knocking seemed to satisfy the men within, for Dick knew the door was flung open. He swiftly crossed the floor and lay again with his ear near the crack beneath the door.

“Well, you two are a fine bunch!” declared a hoarse voice that seemed full of anger. “You keeps your dates a heap well, don’t yer! Oh, yes, yer two nice birds, you are!”

This was the voice of the newcomer.

“Howdy, Dan?” said Mat. “We thinks mebbe yer comes around this yere way.”

“Oh, yer does, does yer?” snarled the one called Dan. “Why does yer think that so brightlike? Why does yer reckon that when you agrees ter meet me at Win’mill Station I comes here to find you five miles away? That’s what I’d like to know.”

“Windmill Station,” Dick said to himself. “Five miles from Windmill Station, and Windmill Station is some twelve or fifteen miles north of Prescott.”

“You seems excited, Dan,” said Mat, in what was intended to be a soothing manner. “Mebbe we has reasons why we didn’t meet you any.”

“Reasons! If you has, spit ’em out.”

“Yes, we has reasons,” quickly put in Dillon. “Dan, we finds we is watched a whole lot. We finds somebody suspects that little game we plans.”

“Is that so?” demanded the newcomer, with a sneering doubt in his voice.

“That’s what it is,” asserted Mat. “We don’t have a chance to move much without being watched, and so we reckons we does best to drop this little job for the time being.”

“Is that so?” sneered Dan.

“Didn’t we say it was?” indignantly demanded Dillon. “You hears us, I judge.”

“Now, who is it what watches you so closelike?” questioned the dissatisfied man. “Mebbe you tells me that.”

“We don’t know just who it is, but we has been followed for the last two days. You know a hold-up down on the Southern Pacific gits people suspicious. Mebbe they thinks we had a hand in that.”

“Which we didn’t have any at all,” hastily put in Mat.

“So you two fine chaps takes water?” contemptuously cried Dan. “You throws up a chance to make a good thing? Why, it was a snap! We could ’a’ stopped the train, gone through her, and then hiked it for Mexico hot foot, and the Old Boy hisself wouldn’t ’a’ ketched us.”

“Mebbe not,” admitted one of the other men. “But we opines it would ’a’ been a whole lot bad for us if the holding up had been expected. Look here, Dan, we thinks it right and proper to put this thing off some. We thinks mebbe in a week or so we is in fer it.”

“Oh, that’s how you figgers. Why didn’t you let me know about it any? That’s what I’d like ter have yer explain. You leaves me a-waiting and a-watching fer yer while you bunks down yere all ca’m and serene-like. That’s what sores me to the limit.”

“We thinks,” said Mat, “if we goes to meet you, mebbe we is seen, and that makes more suspicions. We thinks the best thing to do is to lay low. We’re right sorry that we couldn’t keep the app’intment, but it happens that way, and there is nothing else fer it.”

“Well, it is evident ter me that you two are squealers. You both lack nerve, and I quits you cold. The whole business is off, understand that.”

“Well, if you gits hot and quits us that way, we can’t help it,” said Dillon.

“Well, I does quit. What I wants is my blanket I leaves in yar. I takes that an’ gits out, and you two goes to blazes for all of me.”

Evidently Dan started for the back room at this moment, and the listening boy prepared to spring away from the door. At the same time Dick was seized by a sudden determination to attempt a dash for freedom the moment the door was opened. He knew he might not succeed, but there was a slim chance of it, and he decided to take that chance. Both the ruffians on guard, however, were startled when Dan proposed getting his blanket from the back room. Quickly Dillon interposed.

“Hold on, Dan!” he cried. “Never mind that blanket. We fixes that all right with you. Yere is mine. You take that.”

Had Dick been able to see them he would have beheld the newcomer, a huge, pockmarked individual, standing in the centre of the floor, staring at the men before him in no small surprise.

“Why, whatever is this?” asked Dan. “I opine I takes my own blanket.”

“But mine is worth more than yours,” hastily asserted Dillon.

“And you’re a heap anxious ter give it up in place of mine, I sees. That’s right queer. I don’t just understand your generosity. It seems mighty curious.”

“It’s all right, Dan,” declared Mat. “Take the blanket.”

“Not by a blamed sight,” roared the big man. “I takes my own blanket. I goes into that room. I sees what you has in there.”

As he said this, he suddenly whipped out a long revolver, with which he menaced the man who attempted to bar his progress.

“Get out of the way,” he commanded, “or I furnishes funeral stock for the undertaker.”

“He’s coming!” whispered Dick. “They can’t stop him!”

The boy rose to his hands and knees, where he listened a moment more. He heard the men on guard protesting, but their protestations availed nothing, and a moment later a hand was on the door.

Dick sprang up. The bar that held the door fell, and it was flung open. With a spring, Dick was out into the lighted room, bending low and striking the man with the revolver like a battering-ram full and fair in the pit of the stomach, bowling him over. As Dan went down, his fingers contracted on the trigger of the pistol, and a shot rang out.

CHAPTER XXVI.
FORCED TO WRITE

Dick’s daring and reckless break for liberty might have been successful but for the fact that the outer door had been closed and securely fastened after the entrance of Spotted Dan.

Dan went down with a shock that jarred the whole building, and the boy leaped toward the door. Both Dillon and Mat uttered cries of astonishment and grabbed at him. He avoided their hands and reached the door, but as he was trying to unfasten it they fell on him.

Young Merriwell’s fighting blood was up, and for at least five minutes he gave the ruffians the hardest sort of a struggle. Using hands and feet in unison, he made them howl as he repeatedly hit and kicked them. With all his force, he drove his knee into Mat’s stomach and doubled the fellow up like a jackknife.

At this juncture the boy had nearly whipped both the men. Dillon was panting and dazed, but he had drawn a pistol and reversed it in his hand, so that he gripped the barrel. With the butt of the weapon he struck a blinding blow at the fighting boy’s head, and by chance the blow landed full and fair.

Down Dick dropped and lay stunned on the floor. Dillon stood looking down at the lad, muttering savagely, while Mat gasped for breath and held both hands on his stomach. Spotted Dan had recovered from the first shock, and now stood, with his hands on his hips and his feet wide apart, watching what transpired. He had not even lifted a hand to take part in the struggle.

“Well, drat the kid!” snarled Dillon. “He sure comes nigh slipping right through our fingers.”

“Confound him!” panted Mat, still gasping for breath. “He soaks his knee inter my solar plexus and pretty nigh puts me out.”

“Haw! haw! haw!” laughed Spotted Dan, throwing back his head. “Well, you two gents sure has a highly interesting time of it. So that was why yer didn’t want me to go for my blanket! So that’s what yer had in the back room yer didn’t want me ter see! Well, I reckons I has clapped my peepers on this yere youngster before. I opines I smells your little game. I rather jedge I understands why you drops the railroad job. You seems ter strike another job that interests you a heap more.”

Without paying any attention to the pockmarked fellow, Dillon bent over the motionless boy, muttering:

“I wonder if I cracks his skull? That certain was a good rap I gave him.”

Blood was trickling down from Dick’s hair, and on one side of his head was a cut.

“I don’t care ef you did finish him!” grated Mat.

“Well, I does,” asserted Dillon. “We knocks ourselves out of a good thing ef that happens.”

“A good thing,” laughed Spotted Dan. “Well, gents, you counts me in on that good thing. You plays no game like this on me, none at all!”

Dick stirred and opened his eyes.

“He is all right,” said Mat.

The boy looked up at the two ruffians near him and then struggled to his elbow, his black eyes full of defiance.

“Give me a fair show and I’ll try it again!” he weakly exclaimed. “If I’d a fair show then I wouldn’t be here now. I was weaponless. You were three to one against me, and still you had to use a weapon to put me down and out.”

“Haw! haw! haw!” again roared Spotted Dan. “These yere Merriwells sure is fighters.”

Mat turned on him hotly.

“I reckon you found that out in Prescott the first time you met Frank Merriwell,” he said.

Dan suddenly stopped laughing and scowled blackly.

“Don’t git so personal!” he cried. “Mebbe I don’t like it any!”

Dick lifted his hand to his head and saw blood on his fingers when he looked at them. Then from his pocket he took a handkerchief, which he knotted about his head.

“Better put your bird back into the cage,” advised Dan. “Ef yer don’t, mebbe he flutters some more. When he flutters he is dangerous.”

“That’s right,” nodded Dillon, laying hold of Dick. “We will chuck him back there in a hurry.”

“Take your hands off me, you brute!” panted the boy. “I will go back of my own accord. Let me alone.”

Dillon dragged him to his feet, but, with a wrench, he suddenly tore free. If the ruffians expected him to resume the effort, they soon found he had no such intention, for, with a remarkably steady step, he walked across the floor to the open door of his prison room.

In the doorway he turned and faced them, the handkerchief about his head already showing a crimson stain on one side. His dark eyes flashed with unutterable scorn and contempt.

“I know you all three!” he exclaimed. “Wait till my brother finds out about this business. The whole Southwest won’t be large enough to hide you in safety.”

Then he disappeared into the room, scornfully closing the door behind him.

“Gents,” said Spotted Dan, “for real, genuine sand, give me a kid like that!”

Then the bar was once more slipped into its socket, and the door was made secure. With throbbing head and fiery pulse, Dick lay on the bunk in that back room as the remainder of the night slipped away.

With the coming of another day he heard the faint hoofbeats of a horse outside, and knew some one had ridden up. Then the muttering of voices in the next room came to him, and his curiosity, in spite of his injury, caused him to again slip to the door and listen at the crack beneath it.

He heard the voice of a strange man saying:

“I am to take the letter back myself. The youngster must be forced to write it. Leave it to me; I will make him do it.”

“Partner,” said the hoarse voice of Spotted Dan, “I opines you takes a mighty big contract when you tries to force that kid inter doing anything of the sort.”

“Leave it ter me,” urged the stranger. “Let me in there, and I will turn the trick.”

A few minutes later Dick hastily got away from the door and pretended to be sleeping on the bunk, his ears telling him the bar was being removed. A flood of light shone in, for there was no window to that dark room to admit daylight. The four men entered, one of them bringing a lighted lamp in his hand.

The boy pretended to awaken and then sat up. He saw that the newcomer had a mask over his face, making it plain he feared recognition by the captive.

“Yere,” said Spotted Dan, “is a gent what wants ter see you some, my young gamecock. He has a right important piece of business to transact with yer, and I reckons it pays yer ter do as he tells yer.”

The masked man came and stood looking at the boy.

“Kid,” he said, in what seemed to be an assumed manner of fierceness, “you’ve got to write a letter to your brother, and you will write it just as I tells yer. Understand that? If you refuse, we will stop bothering with you any by wringing your neck and throwing you out for buzzard bait. We can’t afford to waste time fooling, and we mean business. Time is mighty important to us.”

“What do you want me to write?” asked Dick.

“We wants you to write a letter telling your brother that you are in the hands of men who proposes to carve you up piecemeal unless he makes terms with a certain gent who wants to deal with him for some of his property. No need to mention this gent’s name, mind that. Don’t put it into the letter. You tells your brother nothing whatever about us save that we has you all tight and fast. But you tells him that, onless he comes to terms immediate, we sends him to-morrow one of your thumbs. In case he delays a while longer, we sends him t’other thumb. Then, if he remains foolish and won’t deal any, we kindly sends him your right ear. If that don’t bring him around a whole lot sudden, we presents him with your left ear. Arter that we gits tired when we waits twenty-four hours, and we shoots you full of lead and lets it go at that. Mat, pull over that yere box right close to the kid’s bunk, where he can sit all comfortable-like and write on it.”

A box was dragged out of a corner and placed before young Merriwell, who sat on the edge of the bunk. Then a sheet of paper was produced and spread in front of the lad, while the stub of a lead pencil was thrust into his fingers.

“Now write,” savagely ordered the masked man – “write just what I tells yer to a minute ago!”

Dick hesitated, but seemed to succumb. Through his head a wild scheme had flashed. It bewildered him for a moment, but quickly his mind cleared and he began to write. He did so, however, with the utmost slowness, as if the task was a difficult and painful one. Spotted Dan was surprised to see the boy give in so quickly. He had fancied Dick would have obstinately refused until compelled to obey.

“Don’t put in a thing but just what I tells yer to,” commanded the masked man. “If yer does, youngster, you has ter write another letter, for we won’t deliver this one any at all. If you wants to get free, you has good sense and obeys all peaceful-like.”

“All right,” muttered Dick, as he slowly labored over the beginning of the message to Frank.

“Why, seems ter me this yer boy’s eddication has been a heap neglected,” said Dillon. “He finds it a whole lot hard to write.”

The masked man resumed his position where he could read what was being written. Somehow it didn’t seem to please him, for of a sudden he seized the sheet of paper and tore it up.

“Why for do you ramble around that yere way?” he demanded. “You puts it down plain and brief, with no preliminaries. Understand that?”

Then he produced another sheet of paper and laid it upon the box. Immediately Dick flung down the pen and lay back on the bunk.

“You go to Halifax!” he exclaimed, his eyes flashing. “I will write it just as I want to, or I won’t write it at all.”

The man instantly whipped out a long, wicked-looking knife.

“Then I slits your oozle!” he snarled.

“Slit away!” defiantly retorted the boy.

Spotted Dan broke into a hoarse laughter.

“What did I tell yer!” he cried. “I certain knowed how it would be.”

The masked man seized Dick and held the knife menacingly before his eyes.

“Will you do as I tell you?” he hissed.

“I will do as I choose,” retorted the nervy lad. “I don’t propose to write anything save what you order, but I will write it in my own way. If I can’t, then I won’t write at all.”

The man hesitated, then straightened up.

“Well, you sure has sand, or you’re the biggest fool for a kid I ever saw,” he declared. “Go ahead and write her out, and then I’ll examine her and see that she’s all right.”

So once more Dick took the pencil and began to write. He preserved the same deliberate slowness in constructing the early portion of the missive, but finally began to write faster and faster, and finished it with a rush, signing his name.

“Well, the kid’s eddication seems to be all right, arter all,” observed Mat, as he admiringly watched the boy speedily scribble the last sentence. “Mebbe he is out of practice some, to begin with, and so he writes slow till he gits his hand in.”

The masked man took the letter and carefully read it over.

“Why were you so particular to say, ‘No house shelters me?’” he asked. “That yere is dead crooked. Is you trying to fool your brother up some?”

Dick actually laughed.

“I put that in just to help you out, gentlemen,” he declared. “You have been so very kind to me I should hate to see anything happen to you.”

The masked man wondered vaguely if the boy was mocking them, but decided almost immediately that he had really frightened Dick to such an extent that the young captive had put those words in to show his willingness to hold to the demands made upon him.

“Well, this will do,” nodded the wearer of the mask, folding the paper and thrusting it into his pocket. “Now, pards, just keep the boy all ca’m and quiet, and mebbe his brother comes to his senses and settles the deal, arter which we evaporates and leaves them to meet up with each other and rejoice.”

Then he strode out of the room, and his three companions followed, closing the door and leaving Dick once more to gloom and solitude.