CHAPTER XI
TOM ON THE TRAIL
In spite of the fact that his sister thought it hard that Tom Cameronhad not returned to the stalled auto by dark, the lad was having no easytime.
In the first place, he had not run a mile on the road to Severn Cornerswhen he stepped on a pebble, turned his ankle sharply, and had to hobblethe rest of the way at a much slower pace than he had expected.
All the time, too, Tom was troubled about the uncertainty of there beingat the Corners any repair shop. He knew it was a small settlement. Atmost, the repair garage would be very small, and perhaps the mechanic amere country "jack-of-all-trades," who would fumble the job.
To obtain a car to drag his own into the town was beyond the boy'shopes, and when he came at last to a comfortable looking farmhouse somehalf a mile that side of the settlement, he determined to see if hecould not obtain a pair of horses from the farmer, to get the car tothe hamlet.
He approached the back door of the house without seeing anybody about.It was already growing dark, he had hobbled so slowly on the road. As hestepped upon the porch, Tom heard a sudden furious barking inside thehouse.
"Welcome to our city!" he muttered. "If nobody's at home but _that_savage beast, I'm likely to fare about as Roberto did at that farmhouse'way back on the road by Culm Falls."
But he ventured to rap upon the door. It was one of those old-fashioneddoors which opens in two parts. The upper half swung outward, but thelower remained bolted.
Lucky for Tom Cameron this was so. A great, shaggy beast, with gleamingfangs and slobbering jaws, appeared over the ledge, scratching with hisstrong claws to get out at the intruder.
"What do you want?" demanded a shrill voice from somewhere behind theexcited brute. "We ain't got nothin' for tramps."
"I should say you most certainly _had_ something for tramps, Madam,"said Tom, when he could make himself heard. "Any tramp would run fromthat fellow."
"I don't see _you_ running. But you better," advised the woman, who wasthin-faced, scant of hair, and had a voice about as pleasant as awhip-saw going through a knot.
"But _I_ am not a tramp, I assure you, Madam," said Tom, politely.
"Huh! ye look it," declared the woman, without any politeness at all.
And the boy _did_ look rather dilapidated. He had gotten more than alittle wet in the first of the shower, and he had pawed around among the"internal arrangements" of the balky auto to such purpose, that he wasdisheveled and oil-streaked from head to foot.
"I'm in disguise just now, Ma'am," laughed Tom, cheerfully. "But really,I have not come begging either food or lodging. Is your husband athome?"
"Yes, he is. And he'll be here in a minute and chase ye off theplace--ef ye don't scat at once," said the woman, sourly. "_He_ wouldn'thold back this dog, now, I tell ye."
"Please believe me, Madam," urged Tom, "that I am better than I appear.Our car broke down on the road yonder, and I have come to see if I canhire a team of horses to drag it into the Corners."
"Car? What kind of a car? Ain't no railroad here," she said,suspiciously.
The dog had barked himself breathless by now and they could talk alittle easier. Tom smiled, as he replied:
"Our motor car--automobile."
"Huh! why didn't ye say so?" she demanded. "Tryin' to fool me. It's badenough ter drive one o' them abominations over people's roads, buttryin' to make out ye air on a train--though, land o' Goshen! some of yemake 'em go as fast as airy express I ever see. Wal! what about yourortermobile?"
"It's broken down," said Tom, feeling that he had struck the wronghouse, after all, if he expected help.
"I'm 'tarnal glad of it!" snapped the farmer's wife. "Nuthin' couldplease me better. Las' time I went to town one o' them plagued nuisancescome hootin' erlong an' made the old mare back us clean inter theditch--an' I broke a dozen an' a ha'f of aigs right in the lap of my newbombazeen dress. Drat 'em all, I say!"
"I am very sorry, Ma'am, that the accident occurred. But I can assureyou I was not the cause of it," Tom said, quietly, and stifling a greatdesire to laugh. "I wish only to get your husband to help me with histeam--and I will pay him well."
"Huh! what d'ye call well?" she demanded. "A boy like you ain't likelyto have much money."
Thus brought to a "show down," Tom promptly pulled out his billcase andopened it in the light that streamed out of the doorway. The woman couldsee that he carried quite a bundle of notes--and that they were not allsingle dollar bills!
"Land o' Goshen!" she ejaculated. "Where'd you steal all that money, yeyoung ruffian? I thought there was suthin' mighty bad about you when Ifust set eyes on ye."
This was a compliment that Tom Cameron had not been looking for! He wascertainly taken aback at the woman's words, and before he could make anyresponse, she raised her voice and began to shout for "Sam!"
"Crickey!" thought the boy, "I hope Sam will have a better opinion of methan she does, or I'm likely to get into trouble."
He began to back off the porch, and had his ankle not pained him so, hecertainly would have set off on a run. Perhaps it is well he did not trythis, however, for the woman cried:
"You move a step off'n thet platform before Sam Blodgett comes an' I'llopen the lower ha'f of this door and let the dawg loose on ye!"
Then she bawled for her husband again, and pretty soon a shoutedresponse came from the direction of the barns. Then a lantern flickeredand swung, and Tom knew the man was coming toward the house.
He appeared--a short, heavy-set man, barefooted, and with a pail of milkin one hand and the lantern in the other.
"What's the matter, Sairy?" he demanded.
"Who's this?"
"Thet's what _I_ wanter know," snapped the woman. "It 'pears like he'sone o' these runaway boys ye read about in the papers--an' he's stolesome money."
"I haven't either!" cried Tom, in some exasperation. "I don't have tosteal money--or anything else, I hope. I showed her that I had somemoney, so that she would believe I could pay you for some work I wanteddone----"
"What work?" interposed the farmer.
Tom told him about the stalled auto and what he wanted.
"How much'll ye give?" shot in the farmer, right to the point.
"What do you ask to drag the machine to town--to the Corners, I mean?"
"If it's where ye say it is, ten dollars!"
"All right," agreed the boy. "Your wife knows I have the money. I'll payyou when we get to the Corners."
"I know ye got the money," said the woman. "But I don't know _how_ yegot it. And if you've got an ortermobile, too, I bet ye stole _that_!"
"You hesh up, Sairy," advised Mr. Blodgett. "No need of your sp'ilin' atrade. Gimme my supper. I'll hafter eat b'fore I go with ye, youngman."
"Oh, all right," sighed Tom, remembering how the girls must be very muchfrightened by this time.
The man tramped into the house with the milk and the lantern. Neither henor his wife asked Tom inside--or mentioned supper to him. The woman putit steaming on the table and Tom--like the dog--might stand and look on.
At last the farmer was finished. "Guess the team's eat by now," heremarked, and came out with the lantern hung on his arm. All this timethe dog had had "fits and starts" of wanting to get at Tom and eat himup. Now he slipped past his master and ran at the visitor with a savagegrowl.
The boy had no idea of being made the supper of the brute, no matter howhungry Fido might be. So he kicked out and barely touched him. Instantlythe brute set up a terrible "ki-yi-ing!" and shot off the porch anddisappeared into the darkness. Evidently the Blodgetts kept the animalfor its bark, for it did not have the pluck of a woodchuck!
"Come on," advised Sam, as the woman began to rail again. "She's woundup an' ain't likely to run down again for a week. You sure you wanterpay ten dollars for this job?"
"I'm sure I _will_ pay that for it, whether I want to or not," declaredTom, with confidence.
"Aw right. We'll be movin'. Maybe another shower by'm'by, an' I sha
'n'twanter be out in it."
"We'll go just as fast as you want to," said Tom, hobbling along to thestables. "I won't keep you back, Mr. Blodgett."
"You're lame, I see," said the man, not unkindly. "You kin straddle oneof the hosses if you like."
Tom was glad enough to do this, and in a few minutes they were goingback over the dark track Tom had come, the harness jingling from thehorses' hames, and Mr. Blodgett trudging sturdily along by the animals'heads.
They came to the top of the ridge from which the stalled car had lastbeen seen by Tom. "There are the lights!" he cried.
He was glad to see them. They shone cheerfully in the dark, and he hadno idea that the girls were in any trouble.
But when they got down to the bottom of the hill there was neither signnor sound of the two girls. Tom shouted at the top of his voice. Hesearched the car all over for some written word. He saw that the girlshad carried off only their own personal belongings and nothing else.
What could it mean? Surely no thieves had come this way, or the carwould have been stripped of everything portable, and of value. Atleast, so it seemed to Master Tom. He was not wise enough to suspectthat the goods in the car had been left alone to mislead him. TheGypsies had been after bigger game than a few dollars' worth of autofurnishings.
"Come now!" exclaimed Sam Blodgett. "I can't wait here all night. I onlyagreed to drag the car ter town."
"But where could those girls have gone? My sister and Ruth Fielding?"
"Ye ain't payin' me ter be no detectif," drawled the man. "Come! Shell Ihitch on?"
"Oh, yes! I don't know what else to do," groaned the boy. "I've got toget the car fixed first of all. Then I will find help and follow thegirls."
The farmer was as unsympathetic as a man possibly could be. He startedthe car and let Tom ride in it. But he had no word of advice to giveabout the absent girls.
Perhaps, like his wife, he believed that Tom was not honest, that thecar was stolen, and that Tom's companions were mythical!
They rolled into Severn Corners at ten o'clock. Of course, in a hamletof that kind, there was scarcely a light burning. Tom had learned fromBlodgett that the local blacksmith sometimes "monkeyed with ortermobilesthat come erlong busted."
So he had the farmer draw the car to the door of the blacksmith shop.
"Sim lives right next door, there," said Blodgett, preparing to depart."Mebbe ye kin wake him up an' convince him he'd oughter mend yercontraption in the middle of the night. But Sim Peck is constable, too,so mebbe ye won't keer ter trouble him," and the farmer drove away witha chuckle.
This news was, however, important to Tom. A constable was just about theman he most wanted to see. It had dawned on the boy's mind that hissister and Ruth had gotten into trouble, and he must find help for them.
The street of the village was dark. This was one of the nights when themoon was booked to shine, but forgot to! The town fathers evidently litthe street lights only when the almanac said there was to be no moon.
Tom removed one of the headlights and found his way to the door of thecottage next to the smithy. There was neither bell nor knocker, but hethundered at the panel with right good will, until he heard a stir in achamber above. Finally a blind opened a little way and a sleepy voiceinquired what he wanted.
"Are you the blacksmith, sir?" asked Tom.
"Huh? Wal! I should say I was. But I ain't no doctor," snarled the manabove, "and I ain't in the habit of answering night calls. Don't ye seeI ain't got no night bell? Go away! you're actin' foolish. I don't shoehosses this time o' night."
"It's not a horse," explained Tom, near laughter despite his seriousfeelings. "It's a motor-car."
"Naw, I don't shoe no ortermobile, neither!" declared the man, andprepared to close the blind.
"Say, Mister!" shouted Tom. "Do come down. I need you----"
"If I come down thar, I won't come as no blacksmith, nor no mechanic.I'll come as the constable and run ye in--ye plaguey whipper-snapper!"
"All right," cried Tom, fearing he would shut the blind. "Come down asconstable. I reckon I need you in that character more than any other."
"I believe ye do!" exclaimed the man, angrily. "If you air there when Igit on my pants, you'll take a walk to the callaboose. None o' you youngcity sports air goin' to disturb the neighborhood like this--not if Iknow it!"
Meanwhile, Tom could hear him stirring around, tumbling over the chairsin the dark, and growling at his boots, and otherwise showing his anger.But the boy was desperate, and he stood still until the manappeared--tin star pinned to his vest.
"Wal, by gravey!" exclaimed the blacksmith-constable. "Ain't you areckless youngster ter face up the majesty of the law in this here way?"
Tom saw that, after all, the constable was grinning, and was not such anill-natured fellow, now that he was really awake. The boy plunged intohis story and told it with brevity, but in detail.
"Why, I see how it is, youngster," said the man. "You're some scartabout your sister and that other girl. But mebbe nothing's happened 'emat all."
"But where have they gone?"
"I couldn't tell you. We'll make search. But we've got to have somethingto travel in, and if it don't take too long to fix your auto, we'lltravel in _that_."
Of course, this was good sense, and Tom saw it, impatient as he was. Theconstable laid aside the vest with the badge of office upon it, and theblacksmith proceeded to open his forge and light a fire and a lantern.Then he listened to Tom's explanation of what had happened to the car,and went to work.
Fortunately the damage was not serious, and the blacksmith was not a badmechanic. Therefore, in an hour and a half he closed the smithy again,removing his apron, and the constable donned his vest and got into thecar beside the troubled Tom.
"Now let her out, son!" advised the official. "You've got all the lawwith ye that there is in this section, and ye kin go as fast as yeplease."
Tom needed no urging. He shot the repaired car over the road at a pacethat would have made his sister and her chum scream indeed!
Once at the bottom of the hill where the car had been stalled, theystopped and got out, each taking a lantern by the constable's advice.Blodgett and his horses had done their best to trample out the girls'footsteps, but there had been no other vehicle along the road, and thesearchers managed to find footprints of the girls at one side.
"Sure them's them?" asked Mr. Peck.
"You can see they are not the prints of men's shoes," said Tom,confidently.
"Right ye air! And here's another woman's shoe--only larger. They wentaway with some woman, that's sure."
"A woman?" muttered Tom, greatly amazed. "Whoever could she be--andwhere have they gone with her?"
Ruth Fielding and the Gypsies; Or, The Missing Pearl Necklace Page 11