“We know some fellows who are looking for a lady who was abducted—at least, that is the story they told,” answered Koswell.
“Where did you see those fellows?” asked the stranger, and now he was plainly excited.
“They were here awhile ago.”
“Here—on this island?”
“At the dock—but they didn’t land—we didn’t let ’em,” said Larkspur.
“Humph!” The stranger was thoughtful for a moment. “No, I don’t know anything about a lady who was abducted,” he said slowly. “I am just roaming around a bit. As soon as my friend comes back with the motor boat I’ll leave the island. If I had known it was private property I shouldn’t have come ashore at all.”
“Oh, I don’t mind a fellow roaming around a little,” said Alfred Darkingham, loftily. “But we came here to camp out, and of course we prefer to have the island to ourselves.”
“I see. Well—er—I shan’t disturb you. I—er—left my fishing outfit on the opposite shore. I’ll go and get it, and then I’ll be ready to leave as soon as my friend comes for me.”
“Oh, you needn’t be in such a tremendous hurry, Mr.—”
“Smith—plain John Smith,” filled in the stranger. “I’m stopping at Peak’s Island.”
“My name is Alfred Darkingham. These are my friends, Jerry Koswell and Bart Larkspur.”
“Koswell!” cried the stranger, in considerable surprise. “Did you say Jerry Koswell.”
“Yes.”
“Did you—were you a student at Brill College?” asked the man who had given his name as John Smith.
“Why, yes,” was the reply. “But I don’t remember you.”
“No, for you never met me. But I have heard of you, and I think I have heard of your friend, Mr. Larkspur. Didn’t you once have some trouble with some fellow students named Rover?”
“Yes,” answered Larkspur, and his brow darkened.
“Pretty bad trouble, too, wasn’t it?”
“Bad enough,” growled Koswell. “Are you a friend to the Rovers?” he added, suspiciously.
“Oh, no, I don’t know them. But I heard of the trouble.”
“It was the Rovers’ fault,” said Jerry Koswell, sourly. “They put it off on us, but they were to blame. We might have gone back to Brill, but we didn’t think it was worth while; did we, Bart?”
“No, we had enough of the grind as it was,” answered Larkspur, glibly.
“Great Scott! just listen to that!” whispered Tom to his brothers. They were behind some nearby bushes and could catch every word that was spoken.
“Hush! or they may hear you,” was the warning, from Dick.
“Didn’t you once get a letter or two from a party named Tad Sobber?” went on the fellow who called himself John Smith.
“I did!” cried Jerry Koswell. “Then you know Sobber?”
“Supposing I told you that I did?” And the strange man eyed Koswell narrowly.
“Sobber wanted me to help him get square on the Rovers,” went on Jerry Koswell.
“But you didn’t want to help him, is that it?”
“Yes, I did want to help him. I sent him a long letter to that effect, but he never answered it.”
“A letter that you would help Sobber?”
“Sure. The Rovers treated me dirt mean, and I’d go out of my way a good deal to get square.”
“So would I!” cried Larkspur.
“I don’t believe Sobber ever got your letter,” went on the stranger. “He told me he had waited to hear from you but you hadn’t answered.”
“Then the letter got lost,” answered Jerry Koswell. “I am sorry if it did, for I wanted to fix the Rovers.”
“And so did I,” echoed Larkspur.
“Well, maybe you can fix them yet,” went on the fellow who had called himself John Smith. “You say you are going to camp out here?”
“Yes.”
“Then I may see you again in the near future. I am going to Peak’s Island and then to Portland, and I may see Tad Sobber, and if I do, I’ll tell him what you’ve said.”
“Do it!” cried Koswell promptly. “And tell him I am willing to help him all I can against the Rovers.”
“And tell him that Bart Larkspur will help him, too,” supplemented that individual.
“All right,” answered the stranger. “Of course you know it might be a—er—a little risky, getting the best of those Rovers.”
“Oh, we’ll take a little risk,” answered Koswell. “But, say!” he almost shouted. “I begin to smell a mouse!”
“Eh?”
“It was the Rovers who were here—looking for that lady who was abducted!”
“Well?”
“Did you and Sobber bring her here? Is she here now?” went on Koswell, quickly.
“If—er—if Sobber was here, would you like to meet him?”
“Sure I would. And the lady who was abducted—”
“I can’t tell you anything about her. But—well, I might as well admit it—Tad Sobber is on this island with me. He—er—he came on rather a peculiar errand and he didn’t want anybody to know it. But I rather think, as you are going to camp out here, he would like to meet you and talk to you.”
“Where is he?”
“Up the shore a distance. If you’ll wait for me here I’ll hunt him up and bring him to you.”
“Bring him down to our camp yonder,” put in Alfred Darkingham. “We are going down there to get something to eat.”
“All right, I’ll bring him to your camp just as soon as I can locate him. We’ll be there in less than an hour. So long!” And with a wave of his hand, the stranger turned and hurried across the rocks and into the bushes.
“I think I know that man!” whispered Sam, excitedly. “His name is Pally, Jim Pally. He was one of the freight thieves who was in league with Sid Merrick and Tad Sobber. He got away when the gang was rounded up,” he added, referring to a happening, the particulars of which were related in “The Rover Boys on the Farm.”
“And now he is aiding Sobber again,” said Tom. “Maybe he is the fellow who helped in carrying Mrs. Stanhope off.”
“I think he is the rascal who got the fortune at the lumber company office,” whispered Dick. “His appearance tallies with the description Mrs. Stanhope left. Come on, let us follow him. I think he will lead us directly to where Sobber and Crabtree are, and Mrs. Sobber and Mrs. Stanhope, too.”
And Dick led the way with the others at his heels.
CHAPTER XXVII
WHAT HAPPENED IN THE CAVE
The man ahead hurried along over the rocks so quickly that the Rovers and Larry Dixon had difficulty in keeping up with him.
“He’s a bird for moving,” was the old sailor’s comment. “Splice my main brace! but I wish he’d put a reef or two in his legs!”
The man ahead suddenly made a turn around some rocks. The boys and the tar followed cautiously, so as not to be surprised.
“Wait here, I’ll look ahead and investigate,” said Dick. And he shoved some bushes aside.
A surprise awaited him—but not of the sort he had anticipated. The man had disappeared!
Vainly did Dick look in all directions for him. He was as completely gone as if the earth had opened and swallowed him up.
“Can he have entered some opening in the rocks?” the youth asked himself.
With added caution he moved forward a few steps further. Then, between some dense bushes, he saw a slit in some high rocks. The slit was irregular in shape but not over a foot wide in any one place.
“What do you see?” asked Tom, who, growing impatient, had followed his big brother.
“He seems to have disappeared, Tom,” was the low reply.
“Did he go in there?”
“That is just what I was wo
ndering.”
Dick looked into the slit. It was of uncertain depth and looked dark and uninviting. Then the whole crowd searched the neighborhood. Not a trace of the stranger was discernable anywhere.
“Well, he didn’t fly up in the air,” said Sam. “He must have gone somewhere. Why not look into that opening, Dick?”
“You look out that you don’t get shot!” warned Tom. “That fellow, if he is one of the old freight thieves and the rascal who robbed Mrs. Stanhope of the valise with the fortune, must be a desperate character.”
“If I go in, it will be pistol first,” answered Dick, grimly.
He drew the weapon Captain Wells had loaned him, and slowly but cautiously wormed his way between the rocks. It was so dark he had to feel his way along, and, fearing that he might fall into some hole, he did not advance a step until he was sure of his footing.
“Shall we come?” called Tom, softly.
“Not yet,” answered Dick.
He passed along a distance of fifteen or twenty feet. Then the passageway widened, and he found himself standing on a rocky flooring that was comparatively smooth.
“Gracious! can this be one of the entrances to the smugglers’ cave they told about?” he mused.
He continued to advance, and presently caught sight of a flicker of light, playing over the uneven rocks that formed the roof of the cavern.
“That must come from a campfire!” he murmured. “And if it does. I must have struck the right spot. Maybe this is where they are holding Dora’s mother a prisoner!”
He continued to go forward, and the light of the fire grew brighter. Then of a sudden, he heard a step behind him.
“Will spy on me, will you!” cried a voice, vindictively, and in a trice he was struck a blow on the back of the head. He went down in a heap, and a man leaped on top of him and held him fast. Then commenced a fierce struggle, in the midst of which Dick’s pistol went off, making a tremendous report in that confined space. The bullet struck the rocks, doing no damage.
The pistol had been close to Dick’s head and the discharge caused the smoke to get into his face, choking and blinding him. Then he received another blow, and for a minute or two knew no more.
“Listen!” cried Tom, as the pistol went off. “Dick must be in trouble! Come on, Sam!”
“Yes, but be careful,” was the answer.
“Want me?” asked the old tar, anxiously.
“You had better stay on guard here, for the present,” replied Tom.
“Just as you say, messmate.”
Tom wormed his way between the rocks and Sam followed. The pistol shot was followed by silence, and the two Rover boys did not know what to make of it.
“Shall I call?” asked Sam.
“Might as well,” was Tom’s reply, and both called Dick’s name as loudly as they could.
“Help! help!” came back faintly.
“We are coming!” yelled Tom, rushing forward. “Where are you?”
“I am her—” was the answer, and then of a sudden all became quiet again, as a hand was placed over Dick’s mouth.
With their weapons ready for use, Tom and Sam ran through the cavern. But all was silent, and the flickering rays from the campfire beyond were too faint for them to see much.
“Dick! Dick! Where are you?” called out Tom.
“To the left!” was the faint reply. “Turn to the left!”
The voice sounded muffled, as if the speaker was being strangled, and with their hearts in their throats, Tom and Sam advanced and at a break in the rocky wall, turned to the left. Hardly had they gone a dozen steps when they plunged downward into space.
“Oh!” came from both, and then followed a mighty splash, as the pair struck the water. Each went down over his head, and on coming up had to strike out to keep from drowning.
“Sam! Sam!” cried Tom.
“I’m here!” was the spluttered-out reply. “Are you hurt?”
“Not much, but I went over my head in water!”
“So did I.”
“Where is Dick?”
“I don’t know.”
“Can he be drowned?”
“Oh, don’t say that!”
It was pitch dark, and only by calling to each other did the two lads manage to get together. Both swam around until their feet touched a rock and on this they stood to catch their breath. The water was all around them.
“Which way did we come, Tom?” asked Sam, after a moment of silence, during which both did what they could to get back their breath.
“I don’t know. I can’t see a thing, can you?”
“No.”
“I don’t believe Dick is here.”
“Neither do I, Tom. I believe somebody fooled us.”
“That’s it! And we fell right into the trap!”
“But where can Dick be?”
“Most likely a prisoner of our enemies,” muttered Tom, bitterly.
Tom’s surmise was correct, Dick was indeed a prisoner of their enemies. He had his hands and his feet bound tightly, and he had been dragged, by Tad Sobber towards the campfire that was burning at the further end of the big cave. In the meantime the fellow who had been followed by Dick went off to make sure that Tom and Sam would turn to the left and fall into the water.
“Well, Dick Rover, this is what you get for following us!” cried Tad Sobber, in tones of triumph. “Perhaps, some day, you’ll learn enough to keep your hands out of my affairs.”
“Sobber, tell me, what have you done with Mrs. Stanhope?” asked Dick, quickly. Even though he felt bruised and shook up, the welfare of Dora’s mother was uppermost in his mind.
“I am not here to answer your questions.”
“You won’t tell me?”
“Not a word.”
“Do you realize that you and Josiah Crabtree have committed a big crime?”
“We have done nothing wrong.”
“Don’t you call stealing and abducting wrong?”
“I haven’t stolen anything. The fortune from Treasure Isle belonged to my uncle and me—the Stanhopes had no right to it whatsoever.”
“I think otherwise—and so did the courts.”
“Bah! Your side didn’t treat me fairly, you bought up the judges! I know you!” stormed Tab Sobber. “The fortune was ours! Now I’ve got it—and I mean to keep it!”
“And what of Mrs. Stanhope?”
“Mrs. Stanhope has acted like a sensible woman.”
“Acted like a sensible woman? What do you mean?”
“She has done what she should have done years ago—she has given her heart to the man who loves her.”
“Sobber, you don’t mean—” Dick could not go on, for the lump that came into his throat.
“I do mean it.”
“What?”
“I mean that she has become the wife of Mr. Josiah Crabtree!” cried Tad Sobber. “So if you ever marry Dora Stanhope you’ll have Mr. Crabtree for your father-in-law.”
CHAPTER XXVIII
AT THE BOTTOM OF THE POOL
At the announcement of Tad Sobber, Dick could only stare at the speaker for the time being.
Was it really true that Dora’s mother had married the disreputable Josiah Crabtree after all? It made his heart sick to think of such a state of affairs.
“You are telling me the truth?” he asked at last.
“Certainly.”
“I don’t believe you, Tad Sobber.”
“Very well—you can ask Mr. Crabtree—and Mrs. Stanhope, when you see her.”
“If she married Crabtree she was forced to do it.”
“No, she married him willingly.”
“I’ll never believe it. Where is she now?”
“I am not here to answer questions, Dick Rover. You and your brothers came
here I suppose to get the best of us. Well, you are nicely caught.”
“What are you going to do with me?”
“You’ll find that out before you are many hours older,” answered Sobber, and turned away.
A quarter of an hour went by and the man who had met Koswell and the others outside of the cavern came back.
“Well, Jim, what about the other Rovers?” questioned Tad Sobber.
“Safe enough,” answered Jim Pally, with a grin.
“Where?”
“Down in the pool.”
“They slipped in?”
“They sure did.”
“I hope they won’t drown,” went on Sobber, uneasily.
“Oh, they are safe enough. I heard ’em swimming around until they found the rocks to stand on.”
“Good enough. Now, what do you think we had better do with this one?”
“Why don’t you make him join his brothers?” answered Jim Pally. And then he motioned Sobber to one side, out of Dick’s hearing. A conversation in a low tone followed. Pally was telling Sobber they had better be on guard, since the Rovers might not be alone. Then he told of the meeting with Koswell, Larkspur and Darkingham; and the two went off to consult with Josiah Crabtree.
Left to himself, Dick tried his best to free himself of the bonds that held him. But the work of making him a prisoner had been done well, and all he did was to cut his wrists and his ankles.
When Sobber and Pally came back they were accompanied by Josiah Crabtree. The former teacher and jailbird wore the same dictatorial look as of yore.
“Ha! so we meet again, Rover!” cried Josiah Crabtree, pursing up his lips.
“Mr. Crabtree, is it true that you have married Mrs. Stanhope?” asked Dick, bluntly.
“Well—er—we are as good as married, yes,” he stammered, taken somewhat off his guard by the suddenness of the question.
“As good as married? What do you mean?”
“I mean she has promised to be my—er—my bride as soon as we can obtain a—er—a minister to perform the ceremony.”
“You are forcing her into this marriage!”
“Not at all, young man, not at all! She is going to marry me of her own free will.”
“I do not believe it.”
“Ha! don’t dare to talk to me in this fashion, Rover!” stormed Josiah Crabtree, glaring at the helpless youth before him.
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