CHAPTER XXI
EVARTS HEARS A NOISE
"I won't shut up," proclaimed Evarts.
"I don't care who hears me."
"But I care," protested the president, in a trembling voice.
"Then you'll have to reward me for whatever silence you want," snarled thewretch.
"Is this blackmail never to cease?" groaned Mr. Bascomb.
"Yes, when you've used me right," declared Evarts harshly.
"Didn't I come forward promptly on your bail?" demanded Mr. Bascomb.
"Sure, for you didn't dare do otherwise. But that only gave me liberty.It didn't put any money in my pocket."
"Are you going to jump your bail, and leave me to pay the bond?" askedBascomb.
"Perhaps," said Evarts lightly. "You can stand losing the money."
"I suppose so."
"But when I jump," continued Evarts, "I'll have to stay out of the countryafter that. It'll take money---and you'll have to furnish me with it."
"How much?"
"Well," continued the foreman, craftily, "I wouldn't leave the country withless than enough to set me up elsewhere. I'd need---well, let me see. Icouldn't start in a new country on less than ten thousand dollars."
"That would make fifteen thousand dollars, in all." Mr. Bascomb finishedhis remark with a groan.
"Well, what are you howling about?" demanded Evarts unfeelingly. "You'vegot the money."
"It will lower my holdings in the Melliston Company," complained Mr.Bascomb bitterly "I'm not a rich man, and I haven't any too much stockin the company at the present moment."
"You'd have to sell it all out, if I gave the directors a chance to findout that you're a jailbird---that you did time as a younger man," sneeredEvarts.
"For goodness' sake hold your tongue, man!" gasped Mr. Bascomb in accentsof terror.
"Just think," grinned Evarts heartlessly, "how delighted your directorswould be to know that you had done time in prison."
"Silence, man!" implored Bascomb. "It wasn't altogether my fault, as youknow. And the governor of the state discovered that I wasn't as bad asthe jury thought me. It all came through trying to help a worthlessfriend. Why, man, the governor pardoned me, when I had yet two years toserve and restored me to liberty."
"But you're a jailbird, just the same," jeered the discharged foreman."Let the directors find _that_ out, and how quickly they'd drop you fromyour office!"
Mr. Bascomb buried his face in his hands and sobbed aloud.
"So," continued Evarts, "I'll give you forty-eight hours to raise the tenthousand dollars---in good cash, mind you---no checks! Then I'll call onyou to hand the money over to me. If you don't, I'll write a note to thedirectors, telling them to look up your name in the court records atLogville, Minnesota. Now, do you understand?"
"Yes," nodded Mr. Bascomb brokenly.
"And you'll have the money?"
"I---I'll try."
"You'll have the money---by day after tomorrow!"
"Yes."
"Now clear out---fast!"
"Eh?" inquired Mr. Bascomb, looking wildly at the wretch.
"Get out! Go back to the hotel in Blixton, and don't try to slip away fromme at any point in the game. Start---now!"
"Good night!" said President Bascomb in a choking voice.
"Oh, cut out the civilities!" grunted Evarts turning on his heel.
Mr. Bascomb then silently left the spot. His footfalls made so littlenoise that their sound was soon lost to Dick and Tom.
Evarts appeared in no hurry to leave. On the contrary he drew out a pipe,filled it and lighted it. Then he threw himself down on the ground,puffing slowly.
"From the fact that he sent Mr. Bascomb away, and is himself remaining,"thought Tom Reade, "it is rather plain that this scoundrel, Evarts, isawaiting some one else."
The same thought had occurred to Dick Prescott, though, as they lay withinthirty feet of where Evarts reclined on the ground, the chums did not deemit wise to exchange even whispers.
After another half-hour Dick pressed Tom's arm. Other footsteps were nownear. Then Mr. Sambo Ebony slouched on to the scene.
"Hullo, Tar!" was the ex-foreman's careless greeting.
"Now, doan' get too prescrumptious wid me," warned the black man, with anevil grin that displayed his big, white teeth. "Yo' an' me hab done beengood frien's, an' pulled togedder. But Ah want yo' to undahstan', Mr.White Man, dat I doan' allow yo' to call me Tar Baby."
"Oh, come, now, don't get huffy," yawned Evarts, who had not taken thetrouble to rise. "I'm not afraid of you, Tar."
"Stop dat!" cried the black angrily. "Yo's takin' big chances, yo' is."
"You're big and powerful, I know that," grinned Evarts. "But I havesomething with me that makes me just the same size as you are, or perhapsa little bigger. See this!"
The ex-foreman drew from one of his pockets a formidable-looking automaticrevolver.
"Huh!" grunted the negro, producing a similar pistol, "yo' ain' no bettahfixed dan Ah be."
"We're quits," laughed Evarts easily, returning his weapon to his pocket."Put up your rain-maker."
"Den yo' won't call me Tar Baby no mo?"
"No more."
"All right, den." Ebony put up his weapon.
"Now, what's the programme?" asked Evarts. "You've seen the leader?"
"Yah. Ah's done see de right man. De orders am simple."
"What are they?"
"Misto Reade am to be killed de fust time he show himself," declared SamboEbony. "He to be shot down ez soon ez Ah can lay eyes on him. Maybe Ahhave to shoot from ambush, but in any case he must be daid befo' de sun godown to-morrow. Our big men am tired to def dat Massa Reade stop do menfrom havin' a little liquor and playin' cairds evenin's."
"Fine!" thought Tom, with a start. "If Sambo knew how close I am he'dcarry out his orders right now! He has his pistol with him."
"An' den, if dey's any fuss made," the black went on, "Misto Hazelton, hedone gottah go nex'. Maybe Ah get cotch' w'en I do fo' Misto Reade. Efdat happen, den dere's anodder man ready to do fo' Misto Hazelton."
"And maybe the second man will get caught, too," suggested Evarts. "Thenthere'll be two of you with nooses around your necks."
"We maybe get cotch', an' put in de jail," smirked Sambo Ebony, "butdoan' yo' beliebe nothin' worse happen. Dere ain' many guards at de jail,an' do gang is on de way. De jail guards done be shot up, an' ouah folksturn' loose. Den we all strike out fo' new place, an' begin all oberagain. Den a new gang come in heah and operate to get de money away fromde breakwatah gangs. Dere's so much money in dat camp yondah dat ouahfolks done gottah hab it ef a dozen men has to be kill'."
"For cold-blooded, systematic villainy I believe I am listening to thelimit!" quivered Lieutenant Dick Prescott under his breath.
"They're insane, these people," was Tom's inward comment. "Let this crowdof scoundrels shoot up the jail guards, and do they think the citizenswould ever allow the gang to operate in camp? There'd be more likelihoodof the known members of the gang being lynched!"
"I won't go back to jail if I can help it," laughed Evarts, speaking tothe negro. "As soon as I even up one or two grudges I'm going to slipaway."
"Break yo' bail?" asked the negro, showing his teeth.
"That's about the size of it," nodded Evarts.
"Den de w'ite gemman who done fu'nish yo' bond will be feelin' bad, won'the?"
"Let him---he's no friend of mine," grunted the discharged foreman.
"Maybe yo'd like de job ob tendin' to Boss Reade yo'so'f?" hinted Sambodarkly.
"Oh, I'm going to settle with Reade in some fashion," boasted Evarts witha leer. "I don't know that I want to kill him. I'd rather cripple himand let him live a life of misery."
"Thank you!" thought Tom from his hiding place.
"There's another chap we'll have to deal with, too, I'm thinking," Evartswent on. "Reade and Hazelton have a friend of theirs here, and he'slikely to make som
e trouble for us. He's an army officer."
"I done heah'd ob him," nodded Sambo. "We can settle wid him, too."
"We ought to, for he helped arrest me, and he's to be a witness on thetorpedo matter."
"W'ate's his name---de ahmy man's?" inquired Sambo.
"Prescott. He's---"
The speaker stopped suddenly, looking about him.
"What was that, Tar?" Evarts demanded.
"W'at yo' talkin' 'bout?"
"I heard a noise, and it was right over there," replied Evarts, pointingto where Tom and Dick lay hidden.
"I didn't heah nuffin'."
"I did, I tell you, and it will have to be looked into," insisted theex-foreman, drawing his automatic revolver.
"Go ahaid, den," encouraged Sambo, also drawing his weapon. "Ef anybodybeen a-lis'enin', den shoot him full ob holes!"
Evarts darted at the bushes ahead of his companion. Then an exultant yellcame from him.
"Hustle, Tar---and shoot straight! Here are the very people we want---Icaught sight of them!"
"Den watch me!" chuckled Sambo Ebony, flourishing his weapon and dashingforward in the tracks of Evarts.
There was no time for the chums to rise and dart away.
The Young Engineers on the Gulf Page 21