The Hilltop Boys on Lost Island Part 19

The men were much stronger than the boys, and Jack saw the futility of a struggle during which the younger boy might be hurt, and he, therefore, submitted to being led away, hoping to escape at some later time.

The boys were led some little distance to a little opening where they saw a number of small crudely built houses, several dark-skinned men, who were neither Indians nor negroes, but perhaps a combination of both, and a number of domesticated animals, calves, pigs, a sheep and several fowls.

There were people on the island, therefore, as they had supposed, and these men visited the place on occasion as in the present instance.

There was a strongly built house somewhat larger than the rest on one side of the little village, and here the three boys were taken and locked in a small square room with one window, this being small and protected with an iron bar, evidently to make it safer, Jack noticing several cases in one corner opposite the window.

"Make yourselves comfortable, young gentlemen," laughed Rollins, as he called himself. "You will be set free, but not at present," and with that he went away, and the door was stoutly locked.

CHAPTER XV

JESSE W. IS SENT FOR HELP

All was quiet in a few minutes after the man with the white mustache had left the boys in the room with the barred windows, and presently Percival said, half apologetically, but with the greatest kindness:

"You know I did not mean to call that man any relation of yours, Jack, but the sudden recollection of the last time you met him when I did not see him at all made me blurt out suddenly. I did stop, though."

Jack had come unexpectedly upon his stepfather during his first term at the Academy, several months previous, the man at that time being concerned in the robbery of a bank near the Academy, but escaping capture and suddenly disappearing, Jack had hoped, forever.

He felt nervous and discouraged now that the man had again come into his life, and he sat in a corner of the room on a chest and thought deeply, Percival presently saying to him in cheery tones:

"Brace up, Jack. It is not like you to give way to despondency. What are we going to do? We can't stay here even if that fellow with the white mustache has given orders that we are not to be harmed."

"I tell you what," whispered young Smith. "That window is small, but not too small to put me through. You have done that before, you know. If you can get that bar loose it will be easy enough to put me out, and then I will go straight to the vessel and get the captain, old Ben Bowline, and a lot of sailors to come and get you out."

"You know the way, do you, Jesse W., you won't get lost!" asked Percival, catching at the idea. "You are a plucky little fellow, but I don't want you to take any risks."

"They are nothing but what I can take easy enough," answered the other quickly. "Don't you suppose I would do anything for Jack? And for you, too. You have both done a lot for me, and this isn't much. You get me through the window, and I'll do the rest."

Jack arose quietly, crossed the room, took hold of the iron bar put across the window and tested it.

"I believe we could pull it loose, d.i.c.k," he said in a low tone, not knowing if there were any one outside who might hear him. "It is only driven into the frame, and I believe we could pull out frame and all."

"Let me look at it," said Percival, and, taking hold of the bar, he suddenly swelled up his muscles, gave it a quick, sharp wrench, and had it out with a part of the frame as well.

"H'h! great protection that was!" he laughed. "I suppose they thought the window was too small for any one to get through, and it is for most folks, but Jesse W. is only half size and we can put him through all right."

"And I'll put through the other part," said the younger boy. "I am glad I can do something for you two, for you have both of you done a lot for me at one time or another."

"But see here, J.W., do you understand that there is considerable danger in getting away?" asked Jack in a serious tone. "These fellows may be watching, and they would handle you roughly if they caught you. And then it is dark going through the woods, for the moon does not rise till pretty late, and you might fall down some----"

"And I might not!" interrupted the other in a decided tone. "I have a pocket light with me. I always carry one now, whether I think I am going to need it or not, and I can find my way easy enough. Besides, I have a pocket compa.s.s as well, and I know which way the vessel lies, and I am going to get you boys out of here and that's all there is to it!"

"All right!" and Jack smiled at the smaller boy's determination. "But I wouldn't let you go if I didn't think you had the pluck to carry it out, and that the only difficulties are at the outset. Listen at the door, d.i.c.k, and I'll see how the land lies in this direction," and Jack pulled the chest to the window and looked out.

He could not see very far, but he saw that there were no huts on that side, and that it was not far to the woods, and calculated that the boy could get to them without being observed.

"All right, J.W., the coast is clear," he said. "You are sure you know the way and the general direction? What is it, in fact?"

"About south, and I will get in sight of the water as soon as I can. It will not be dark for some little time yet, and I ought to get to the yacht before sunset or a little after at any rate."

"Very good. Keep in the open as much as you can after you get away from here, and don't run too fast."

"All right. Are you ready?" and the boy stood on the chest beside Jack, looking up into the latter's face with such an air of determination that he laughed and said:

"Yes, I'm ready, up with you!" and Jack lifted the little fellow to the window level, and put him through, Percival saying in a low tone:

"It's all right. I don't hear a sound. I imagine they are all away somewhere, for I can neither see nor hear anything."

"Out you go!" said Jack, dropping the boy to the ground, and looking out to see that he was all right. "Now then, cut!"

He watched the boy till he disappeared in the woods, and then as he neither saw any one nor heard anything of an alarming nature, he said in a tone of great relief:

"He is all right, and I believe he will get there without trouble. I had an idea he would, or I would not have let him go."

"There he is, only half a boy, you might say," said Percival, "but ready to undertake anything for us, no matter how dangerous and there are those big overgrown bullies, Herring and Merritt, who would go all to bits if they had the half of this to do. I tell you, Jesse W. Smith is worth both of them in a lump, and with considerable on his side of the ledger after that, Jack."

"Yes, so he is," agreed Jack.

"And now we will simply have to wait, I suppose?"

"I don't see anything else. The window is too small for us and the door seems to be very strong and heavy, and securely locked. No, I considered these points before I let the boy go."

"But suppose our man with the white mustache should return and miss him?"

asked Percival.

"Well, we will put the bar back in its place, put the chest in the corner, and place our coats in a neat pile over there where it is darkest. There are things that we can put under them, and there is the boy fast asleep after his tramp through the woods."

"A good idea, Jack! You are full of resources. Now I would never have thought of a way out of the trouble, but only of the trouble itself."

They replaced the bar so that no one would know by a casual glance that it had been tampered with, put the chest back where they had taken it from, and, gathering up a few loose articles from the floor, made a bundle of them and spread their coats over it.

"A mere reference to the boy being asleep will be enough," said Jack. "The look of the thing is enough to carry out the idea, and they will accept it without question."

"To be sure, and in the meantime the plucky young fellow is hustling to get back to the vessel and bring us help."

Having settled all this the boys sat down and waited, now and then conversing, and occasionally listening for any sound that would denote the return of the so-called Rollins and the men with him.

It was getting on toward sunset when Jack heard Rollins and another man talking outside, although he could not see them when he went to the little window and looked out.

"You say there is a vessel in the bay?"

"Yes, inside the reefs."