CHAPTER XXVII
THE CHAUFFEUR OF THE TOURING CAR
“Let us run the biplane down the road a way and then into another field and down among the trees,” suggested Tom. “No use of leaving it too near here—some of that gang might come and ruin it.”
Tom’s advice was considered good, and once more the three Rover boys hurried to the Dartaway. As there was still no wind, it was an easy matter to roll the machine along on its wheels. They found a field where the fence was down, and ran the biplane across this and in among some trees and bushes.
“Are you going to take the lantern?” asked Sam. “It seems to me it won’t be wise to let them see us, at first.”
“I’ll take it along unlit,” answered his big brother. “It may come in handy later.”
“Let us get some clubs,” suggested Tom. “They may come in handier than the pistols.”
“Right you are!” cried Dick. “We don’t want any shooting if it can be avoided.”
“Evidently you think they are close at hand,” remarked Sam, while they were cutting stout sticks from among the brushwood.
“They can’t have gone so very far, in that dense woods,” answered Tom. “Why, the auto couldn’t get through.”
At last the boys were ready to continue the search, and stick and lantern in hand, Dick led the way, with Tom and Sam close behind. They had to bend close to the ground, to make sure that they were following the tracks of the touring car.
The trail led among the trees onto what was evidently a road used for hauling out timber. Following this for about a quarter of a mile, the youths discovered a dark object, resting near what looked to be the end of the road.
“It’s the auto!” whispered Dick.
“Anybody around?” questioned Tom, in an equally low voice.
“I don’t know. Be careful and we’ll see.”
With extreme caution the boys walked closer to the touring car and then all around it. Nobody was at hand, and not a sound broke the silence of the night.
“Deserted!” whispered Sam. “Where did they go to, I wonder?”
“Hush!” returned Dick. “They may be close enough to hear you.”
With strained ears, the Rover boys listened for some sound that might indicate the presence in that vicinity of those they were after. But they heard nothing but the call of a night bird and the far-off hoot of an owl.
“They have gone on,” said Dick, at last. “We’ll have to find the trail and follow. Maybe I’ll have to light the lantern.”
“Say, let us fix the auto first—so they can’t use it, if they come back!” exclaimed Tom.
“A good idea, Tom,” answered his big brother. And, as soon as Dick had lighted the lantern, Tom and Sam set to work to render the touring car unusable for the time being by turning off the flow of gasoline from the tank and disconnecting the spark plugs.
“That will keep ’em guessing for a while, if they try to run it,” was Sam’s comment.
In the meantime Dick was examining the ground, and soon he found the mark of many footprints in the moss and leaves. They led along a well-defined footpath running through the woods and up something of a hill.
“They went this way,” he said. “The fact is, I don’t see how they could go any other,—the brushwood is so thick.”
“Maybe there’s a house back there,” suggested Tom.
“I shouldn’t be surprised. That path must lead to somewhere.”
The boys had just started to move along the footpath when from out of the darkness came an unexpected hail:
“Hello, there! Who are you?”
The call came from ahead, and at a turn of the trail the lads saw, by the dim rays of the lantern, the form of a man, wearing a fur coat and an automobile cap.
“The driver of the car!” burst out Dick.
“I say, who are you?” called the man, coming to a halt. Evidently he was coming back to take care of the automobile, or run it away.
“Hello, yourself!” answered Dick, boldly. “What are you doing here this time of night?”
“Humph! Is that any of your business?” growled the man. He was evidently a rough customer and not pleased at being thus surprised.
“I don’t know; perhaps,” answered Dick, drawing closer. “Don’t let him get away,” he whispered to his brothers.
The boys made a rush forward, raising their sticks as they did so, and before the man could think of retreating they had him surrounded.
“Say, look here, what does this mean?” demanded the fellow, trying to put on a bold front, although he was much disturbed.
“You’ll find out what it means before we are done with you,” cried Tom, hotly. “More than likely it means state’s prison for you.”
“State’s prison!” The man shrank back. “Why—er—I haven’t done anything wrong.”
“Oh, of course not!” returned Dick, sarcastically. “Abducting two young ladies isn’t wrong I suppose!”
“I didn’t abduct anybody,” growled the man. “Somebody hired my car, that’s all I know. Now the job is done, and I’m going about my business.”
“Not just yet,” said Dick, quietly but firmly. “Tell me, what have they done with the two young ladies?”
“That ain’t my business,” commenced the chauffeur, savagely. “You let me go, or I’ll— Oh!”
He stopped short and let out a yell of pain and fright. He had tried to push Dick out of his path. The oldest Rover boy had dropped the lantern and struck out fairly and squarely with his fist, and the blow had landed on the man’s jaw, nearly taking him from his feet.
“Now behave yourself and come along!” cried Dick, and caught the man by the arm. “Don’t let him escape!” he cried, to his brothers. “Use your sticks, and your pistols, too, if it is necessary.”
The boys closed in, and the sight of the sticks and the pistols frightened the chauffeur greatly. He saw that he was trapped, and that resistance might put him in a worse hole.
“I didn’t do it!” he whined, as the boys hurried him back towards the automobile. “I was hired for a certain job, that’s all. The men said they had a right to carry the young ladies off—that one of ’em was the old man’s stepdaughter, and that both of ’em had run away from a girls’ school and wouldn’t learn their lessons.”
“And you mean to tell me that you believe such stuff!” snorted Tom.
“Well, that’s what they told me,” answered the man doggedly. “They hired the car first without telling me what sort of a job it was. Then they told me they wouldn’t give me a cent if I didn’t do what I was told to do. I’m a poor man, and—”
“You tell it well, but I don’t believe a word of it,” interrupted Dick. “You have committed a serious crime, and the only way in which you can help yourself at all is by helping us.”
“Will you let me go if I help you?” demanded the chauffeur, eagerly.
“We’ll see about that later,” answered Dick, briefly. “For the present we intend to keep you a prisoner.”
“A prisoner! You haven’t any right—”
“We’ll take the right.”
“That’s the talk!” put in Tom.
By this time the party had reached the automobile. As Dick had surmised, several straps and ropes lay in the box under the back seat, and with these they bound the man’s hands behind him. Once he started to resist, but when Tom raised his shining pistol he wilted.
“Now you tell me where they took the young ladies,” said Dick, after the fellow had been strapped fast to his own automobile.
“They took ’em up to the house.”
“What house?”
“The old mansion back there on the hill.”
“Who was in the crowd?”
“The old man and the old lady, and the two young ladies, and the three young me
n, and the doctor.”
“The old lady!” cried Dick. “Who was she? What was her name?”
“I think they called her Sobber, same as one of the young fellows. They had her along to look after the girls.”
“It must be the one from Boston!” cried Sam. “Tad’s aunt, or whatever she is.”
“Where did they pick her up?” asked Dick.
“Down at Fremville. She was waiting with one of the young men, a chap they called Koswell.”
“Are they all up at that old mansion now?”
“I suppose so. They were there when I left.”
“Who lives at the place?”
“I don’t know,—I didn’t see anybody.”
CHAPTER XXVIII
AT THE OLD MANSION
After that the chauffeur became more communicative, and in a few words told how he had been engaged by Koswell and Larkspur to do a certain job that they said might take the best part of the afternoon and night. They had told him that a certain college professor at Brill had a wayward stepdaughter and that the daughter and her school chum had grossly insulted a lady teacher and were in danger of being arrested. The old professor wanted to get the two girls away and place them under the care of an old lady, a distant relative, who would know how to manage them. He had been promised fifty dollars if he would do the work and say nothing about it to anybody, he being informed that the old professor wanted to avoid all publicity and also wished to shield his stepdaughter.
“They told me first there were three girls,” went on the man. “And so there were, but one got away somehow, so then we took only the two.”
“But you heard what the girls said, didn’t you?” asked Dick, sharply.
“I was paying attention to running my car,” mumbled the chauffeur.
“How about when I and my brother came after you on horseback? Why didn’t you stop and find out what we wanted?”
“The young fellow, Sobber, said you were from the school where the young ladies attended and that maybe you wanted to arrest them. They made me go on.”
“That sounds pretty fishy to me,” returned Dick. “Still, I won’t condemn you until this whole thing is cleared up. Just now we’ve got to find those young ladies.”
“Going to leave me tied up?” cried the chauffeur.
“Yes, until we get back.”
“That aint fair nohow!”
“Well, fair or not, that’s the way it is going to be,” put in Tom. “My own opinion is, you are almost as guilty as anybody. You didn’t plan this thing, but you were perfectly willing to do your share in carrying it out.”
The chauffeur begged and pleaded, but the three boys would not listen to him. All were eager to go on, to ascertain what had become of Dora and Nellie. They felt that the girls must be suffering intensely even though Mrs. Sobber was with them.
“No use of taking the lantern, we can easily find the way,” said Dick. “I’d rather have the stick handy, and my pistol.”
Leaving the chauffeur grumbling roundly, the three Rover boys hurried along the woodland trail. It made half a dozen turns, the last around a spring of pure cold water, which the tired-out lads could not resist. Each got a good drink and felt much refreshed. All were too excited to notice their hunger, even though they had not tasted a mouthful of food since the noon lunch.
“I see the house!” whispered Sam, presently, and pointed ahead, and his brothers nodded.
Set in a cleared space was an old stone mansion, two stories high, and with several wings. The porch was badly rotted, the chimney top gone, and the whole structure showed signs of decay. Around the place was what had once been a well-kept flower garden, now overrun with a tangle of dead flowers stalks and untrimmed rose bushes. Evidently no one had done any work around the place for several years.
“Just the kind of a place those chaps would pick out,” whispered Dick to his brothers. “They never suspected anybody would trace ’em. I suppose they found out the old mansion was not being used, and they either hired it or took possession without asking.”
“I begin to think this was all a well-laid plot,” said Sam.
“Sure thing,” muttered Tom. “The only trip-up they made was when they didn’t catch Grace as well as Nellie and Dora.”
“And when old Crabtree dropped that visiting card,” added Dick.
The boys saw that lights were burning in one of the lower rooms of the old mansion and in two of the upper rooms.
“I guess they are all there,” said Dick.
“Can’t we get closer and make sure?” pleaded Tom.
“We don’t want them to see us, Tom.”
“Why not?”
“Because it might spoil everything. Remember they are four or five strong, not counting the woman, and she would probably fight as hard as anybody, if cornered.”
“Five?” queried Sam.
“Yes, counting that fellow the girls took for a doctor.”
“Oh, yes, I’d forgotten him. The machine certainly had a load coming to the place.”
“If the girls are there—and safe for the time being—I know what I’d like to do,” went on the big brother, after a pause.
“What?”
“Go to the nearest town and notify the authorities, and make that whole crowd prisoners.”
“That would be fine!” cried Tom. “But can we do it? They might try to slip away.”
“That is true, although I doubt it. I think their plan is, now they are here, to lay low. They’ll think they are perfectly safe here. Most likely they’ll send some kind of a letter to dad, and to Mrs Stanhope and Mrs. Laning, asking for money, and then they’ll wait for answers. They’ll want us to pay a big sum for the release of Dora and Nellie.”
“If only we could capture them ourselves!” murmured Tom, his eyes glistening. “Don’t you think we can do it, with the sticks and pistols?”
“We might, Tom,—but it would be a big risk. Those fellows are desperate, Sobber especially, and they must be armed, too. There is no use of our getting shot if it can be avoided.”
With extreme caution the three boys walked around the old mansion. In one of the upper rooms, the curtains of which had been drawn, they could make out several forms moving about.
“There, I think that was Nellie!” cried Tom, as a shadow appeared on the curtain.
“And there is that woman!” added Sam, as another form appeared and vanished.
“I’d like to know if Dora is there,” murmured Dick.
They waited for a minute and saw several shadows pass and repass the curtain. They were sure Nellie was there but were not so certain about her cousin. The woman was Mrs. Sobber beyond a doubt.
“If they leave the girls in that room and alone—with that window unlocked—” began Dick.
“The woman may stay with them,” interrupted Tom.
“Get back—somebody is coming!” whispered Sam, and dragged his brothers down, behind some rose bushes.
Two persons were coming out of the old mansion. One carried a lantern and what looked to be some bed slats and the other a ladder. They were Tad Sobber and Jerry Koswell.
“Do you think the ladder is long enough?” they heard Koswell ask.
“I guess so—I’ll soon see,” answered Tad Sobber.
The pair walked around to the side of the house and the ladder was placed in position under the window of the room the boys had been watching. Then Sobber went up with the slats, and some nails and a hammer, and commenced to nail the slats across the window.
“He’s going to make a regular prison cell of the room!” whispered Tom. “Oh, if only I dared to run in and yank that ladder from under him!” he added, with grim humor.
“Hush, or they’ll hear you,” warned Dick. “I am glad to see this,” he went on, in a low whisper. “It shows that they think they have
n’t been followed and are safe. Now to get to the nearest town, notify the authorities, and bag the bunch of them!”
“If we could only get some word to the girls,” murmured Tom.
“Yes, Tom, that would be very nice. But we can’t afford to take the chance. If some of those rascals get away, sooner or later they’ll make more trouble for us.”
“I know that.”
“I think one of us might remain here on guard, while the others go to town for help.”
“How are you going to get to town?”
“I’ve got a plan for that,” and Dick smiled faintly. “I’ll make our friend, the chauffeur, do us a good turn.”
“What, will you go in that touring car?” cried Sam.
“Why not? It’s a big, roomy car, and can carry a lot of officers of the law. And we know it can make speed.”
“All right, Dick, go ahead. I guess you know the right thing to do.”
After a few words, it was decided that Tom should remain on guard while Dick and Sam went for assistance. Dick cautioned Tom not to show himself.
“If you do, you may spoil everything,” said he.
“All right, I’ll lay low,” answered Tom, “that is, unless I find out that the girls actually need me,” he added. “I won’t stand it if that old woman, or Crabtree, illtreats them.”
“No, if they try that, sail in and do what you can to save them,” said Dick.
CHAPTER XXIX
THE ARM OF THE LAW
Soon Dick and Sam were on the way to where they had left the chauffeur and the big touring car. They fairly ran down the woodland trail, stumbling over the rocks and tree roots in the darkness. Once Sam went down, and scratched his hand, but he got up without complaining.
They were almost in sight of the machine when they heard a peculiar sound. Dick’s heart gave a bound.
“Listen!” he cried. “He’s trying to crank up! He must have gotten free of his bonds!”
The oldest Rover boy was right, the chauffeur had worked at the straps and ropes until he had liberated himself. Now he was working at the crank of the touring car, hoping to get away in the machine.
“He won’t get started,” muttered Sam, remembering what he and Tom had done to the automobile.
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