by Morgan Scott
CHAPTER XXV
INTO THE OLD QUARRY.
For a double reason they did not call to Hooker; not only was itunlikely that he would heed them, but the men on the Barville road woulddoubtless hear their cries. So Osgood, who had been gauging his speed bythat of the crippled Shultz, immediately shot forward, leaving Charleylimping behind, but doing his utmost.
Realizing how difficult it would be to run down the deranged lad in thedark depths of the heavy pines, Ned strained every nerve to reach himbefore he could plunge into the woods. To his dismay, he quicklyperceived that this would be impossible, Hooker being very fleet offoot. At the last moment Osgood ventured to call, suppressing his voicein a measure, and hoping against hope that the unreasoning fugitivemight give heed.
"Roy--Roy Hooker!" he cried. "We're friends. We won't hurt you. Stop,Roy--stop! Wait for us!"
Had Hooker been stone deaf, the words would have had no more effect. Nota particle did he relax in his flight, and Ned was some rods away whenRoy was swallowed by the black shadows of the timbers.
Into the woods Osgood dashed, still hoping that through some chance hemight overtake the fleeing lad. There was not much undergrowth amid thepines, yet for a time the persistent pursuer was guided by the sounds ofthe other boy, who turned and twisted and zigzagged here and there in amost baffling way.
"We're friends, Roy--we're friends!" Osgood called again and again."Don't be afraid of us! Wait a minute!"
It was useless. The guiding sounds grew fainter, and at last, unable tohear them, Osgood stopped to listen. Then he realized that behind himShultz was calling, begging not to be abandoned.
"We were so close, so close!" muttered Ned, in deep disappointment. "Ifwe'd only got a little nearer before he started, I could have run himdown."
He answered Shultz, and presently Charley came hobbling and pantingthrough the darkness.
"Did you catch him?" was his first question.
"No, he got away; but he's somewhere in these woods, and, knowing thatmuch, we may be able to find him yet. If we could only take him safelyback to Oakdale, it might seem to square up a little for what we'vedone."
"I was afraid you'd leave me," Shultz almost whimpered. "I was afraid tobe left alone again. Don't do it, Ned--please don't. If you hear him orsee him, don't run away from me."
Only yesterday Osgood could never have dreamed it possible for anythingso completely to break the nerve of his companion. There was little leftof the old stubborn, defiant, bulldozing Shultz; in his abject terror ofbeing left alone, he was more like a timid child.
"We ought to get searchers, a whole lot of them, and bring them here,"said Ned. "That would be the right thing to do."
"But if we could only find him ourselves without other aid," arguedCharley, "it would give us a better show with the people who'll be readyenough to jump on us when they know the truth. We might find him, youknow. He can't be far away. Which way was he going the last you knew?"
"Toward the lake, I think, but he kept dodging about, so that there isno real certainty of it. Probably he hasn't any objective point in hismind. He just ran in any direction that happened to be the easiest."
"The ground slopes toward the lake," reasoned Shultz. "He'll keep ongoing that way."
"There may be some logic in that, and there's a bare chance that we maycome upon him again. Let's make as little noise as possible. We don'twant him to be warned or frightened by hearing us a long distance away."
Down through the black woods they went, Shultz seeking to keep so closeto Osgood that he could put out his hand any time and touch him.Presently through the trees they saw the moonlight silvering the placidwater. Reaching the shore, they discovered they were close to PinePoint, which, projecting into the lake, cut it there to its narrowestwidth. On the opposite shore lay the railroad, over which Shultz hadfirst thought of making his escape from Oakdale.
"It's something like searching for a needle in a haystack," said Nedhopelessly. "There's not one chance in a hundred that we, unaided, canfind Hooker in these woods."
But Charley still clung to the tattered skirts of hope. "Let's go outupon the point. From the end of it we can get a look at a long sweep ofshore in both directions."
"That will simply make us walk farther, and your ankle must be----"
"Confound my ankle! Don't you worry about that."
"You shouldn't be crippling around on it. It's liable to lay you up fora long time, and every step you take makes it worse."
"What do I care? What do I care how long I'm laid up? That's nothingnow. I'm going out on the point."
He would not have gone had Ned refused, but Osgood decided to humor him.
At the outer extremity the point took a curve, so that on one side itsheltered Bear Cove, into which Silver Brook emptied. As they reachedthat curving outer shore, a small boat--a punt--issued from the cove,passed that hook-like nose of land and appeared in the moonlight whichbathed the surface of the lake. The occupant of the punt, who waspropelling it with a paddle, was Hooker!
"There he is!" shouted Charley.
He turned his face toward them, and they were so near that they almostfancied they could see the wild expression in his eyes. They called tohim again and again, begging him to come back and seeking to give himevery assurance of their friendly intentions. He did not answer;changing the course of the boat somewhat, he drove it with powerfulstrokes toward a small island which lay off the mouth of the cove.
"It's no use," muttered Osgood; "he'll give up only when he's caught,and then he'll probably make a fight of it."
"But how are we going to catch him?"
"I wish I knew. If we had another boat----"
"I know where there's a raft," exclaimed Shultz. "We might follow himwith that."
"We never could overtake him on a raft."
"But he's going on to Bass Island. If he doesn't see us coming, we mightcatch him there."
Ned was extremely doubtful, but the insistence and eagerness of Charleyfinally led him to agree to look for the raft. Fully half an hour passedbefore they found it lying partly on the shore of the cove not far fromthe mouth of Silver Brook. It was a rather long, narrow affair, built ofsmall logs fastened together by cross-pieces. When it was launched theytested its buoying capacity and found it would barely support them both.Nevertheless, with pieces of board for paddles, they pushed off upon itand made their way slowly toward the mouth of the cove. Both knelt asthey wielded the board paddles, and their knees were soon wet with thewater which occasionally washed across the almost submerged logs.
Although they could not see the punt on the shore of the island, theyfelt certain Hooker had landed there, and, hoping he would not discovertheir approach, they exerted their strength in the effort to reach theplace as soon as possible.
The island was not more than thirty yards distant when they again sawthe punt, headed this time for the farther shore of the lake. It seemedthat Hooker must have been watching, and, with almost tantalizingcunning, he had waited until they were near before he put out from theopposite side of the island.
"Let's not give up," pleaded Shultz. "Let's follow him."
Although the pursuit seemed discouragingly hopeless, they were nownearly half-way across the narrow part of the lake, and Osgood did notinsist on turning back.
The punt was slow enough, but it moved faster than the raft, even thoughthe latter was propelled by two persons instead of one, and gradually itdrew farther and farther away. With their eyes on Hooker, they watchedhim reach the shore, leap out, abandon the punt and run toward therailroad. Still watching, they saw him, later, making his way down thetrack toward Oakdale station.
As soon as the raft touched the low, flat shore, they left it to floatwhither it might and followed Roy.
"I'm glad he went toward town," said Osgood, as they reached therailroad.
Shultz's ankle seemed to have grown much worse while he was on the raft,and it was in great pain and with the utmost difficulty that he crippledalong over the
ties. At times he caught his breath with a hissing soundor groaned aloud as the swollen limb gave him an extra sharp twinge.
"It's no use for me to follow Roy any farther," he finally admitted."I'll be lucky if this old prop doesn't give out completely before I getto the village."
"If it does," promised Ned, "I'll get you there. Leave it to me. I'mready to pack you on my back any time."
Presently they approached the old lime quarries, which had beenpractically abandoned until Lemuel Hayden came to Oakdale, bought them,opened up new and unsuspected deposits, and revived the industry of limeburning. They could see the deserted workings, a tremendous black holein the ground some thirty or forty rods away, when from beneath theshadowy bank of the graded roadbed, Hooker, who may have been restingthere, sprang forth. Shultz saw his first movement, and shouted toOsgood:
"There he is, Ned! Catch him--you can catch him now!"
Ned did not need to be urged; he was off like a shot. Shultz followed,setting his teeth and trying to forget his injured ankle. Down the bankhe leaped, mainly upon one foot, and on he ran, limping across the roughand stony field. He could see Osgood straining every nerve to overtakeHooker, who was running straight toward the old quarry.
"He's got him! Ned's got him!" panted Shultz. "The quarry will stop him!He can't get away!"
But, as they drew near that mammoth hole in the ground, a differentthought leaped into Osgood's mind. Hooker seemed to be fleeing blindlyand totally heedless of anything. What if, in his distraught state ofmind, he should not realize the danger that lay in his path? What if heshould not see the quarry until it was too late to stop?
Horrified, Ned shouted a warning; and at that shout Hooker, stillrunning, turned his head to look back.
Shultz, seeing all this, gulped to keep his heart from choking him. Sickand weak with apprehension, he stopped, his arms outflung, his handswide open, his fingers spread apart.
Over the brink and into the quarry plunged Hooker. As he fell, a wildand terrible scream rose from his lips. Shultz clapped his hands to hisears to shut out that dreadful cry.
"Oh! oh!" he groaned. "It's all over now! That's the end! He's dead!"