Radio Boys Loyalty Part 20

And there, the morning light just beginning to show in the eastern sky, the boys found an odd-looking fellow busily getting ready to cast off a fis.h.i.+ng skiff. He was one Pepperman, commonly called "Swamp" for short.

He was something of a crony of Dan's and the boys had seen him before.

As they headed in they made out the ident.i.ty of "Swamp." Gus suddenly had one of his ideas. He conveyed it to Bill in few words:

"We'll get 'Swamp' to go to those Malatestas and tell them he can steal them a boat. Then we'll get Tony away if he's still there. You talk to 'Swamp.'"

"h.e.l.lo, Mr. Pepperman! Going fis.h.i.+ng?" began Bill, as they made fast and lowered sail. "Yes? Expect to catch much? No? Well, I know something that will bring you in two hours more money than in three weeks of the best fis.h.i.+ng you ever had."

"Swamp" wanted to know how such a thing could be done. Said Bill:

"Dead easy! You take a walk right away down through the pines toward the Point. Know how to whistle a tune? Sure; well then, come over all the tunes you know. Let on you're hunting for special fish bait or something. Sheer off toward the big pine and keep through toward the ocean. You'll meet somebody likely. Don't get curious, but talk fis.h.i.+ng and boats. Tell them you take folks fis.h.i.+ng and that you have a dandy boat all ready--a fast one. They'll probably want to see her. Tell them you keep her up here, but if they'll hang off sh.o.r.e at the Point you'll sail her around there. Then, when they leave for the Point and you're sure of it, you come up the bay side road and tell us. We'll be waiting.

How much is there in it? Twenty-five dollars, Mr. Pepperman, if your errand turns out successfully. Is that enough?"

"I reckon hit air," remarked the sententious "Swamp." "When do I git the money?"

"Any time--to-day," said Gus, and without another word the lanky fellow, laying aside his tackle and bait of crab meat, was off into the woods.

Hardly an hour pa.s.sed before Gus remarked to tired and sleepy Bill: "Somebody's coming. I'll bet it's 'Swamp.'"

It was, and he reported the exact carrying out of the plan. Two men, young fellows, one very dark-skinned, the other light, and both carrying guns, had started to the Point to wait for him. The other man,--there had been three along the wood road--had headed up into the nearer woods along the ocean side.

"You go back and wait for Dan," said Gus to Bill. "I'm going to make one more try for Tony."

CHAPTER XXIX

AT THE CRACK O' DAY

"Tony!"

There was no reply. Gus called again, more sharply, but still fearful of being heard. Silence. There could be no delay in action. With his nerves still a-tingle, the boy seized a stout bit of wood, evidently cut for the fireplace, inserted it between the window bars, bore down and with a low squeak of protest the nails came out. Another pry, with the sill for a fulcrum, and there was a hole big enough for a body to get through.

The bit of wood now acted as a step and in a moment Gus was inside the cabin.

At the extreme end, lying against the logs, lay a figure. Gus instantly stooped to shake it. Tony waked up with a cry of alarm.

"Don't, don't yell, Tony, it's Gus! Get up and come quick!"

Nothing more was required of Tony. He was instantly awake and in action.

Not another word pa.s.sed between the boys--but was that cry heard by the kidnapers?--the rescuer wondered--and with reason. They must be off instantly.

To the window! As Tony drew near it, pulling Gus by the hand across the dark room, he paused. Outside there was the faint sound of a step. Tony uttered a faint "sh," and grabbed Gus by the arm. It was the elder Malatesta.

"Ah! So? You make get-away. I fix that." The next instant the muzzle of a rifle was poked through the broken place--poked well through, and possibly this shrewd defier of law and order never made a greater mistake, which he recognized when he felt the muzzle seized and bent aside.

He pulled the trigger, but the bullet buried itself harmlessly in the wall of the cabin. Malatesta attempted to jerk the gun away, but Gus, fortified by the leverage against the sill and the window bars, held on, his own weapon cras.h.i.+ng to the floor. How Tony managed to dive through that hole as he did, landing squarely on his enemy neither he nor Gus ever could figure out, but when Gus found the weapon free in his hands, picked up his own gun and followed Tony he found the insensible miscreant, who had received a sufficient smash in the jaw from Tony's heel.

"We must fly, my dear friend Gus," said Tony, "for now they will come--those other two!"

"We will stay right here and give them a pleasant reception," said Gus.

"I will watch on the path, Tony. You take this gun. But first get a rope, quick! Tie that chap's arms behind him and search him for automatics, or anything."

It was but the work of a few minutes. Malatesta seemed to hesitate about coming to his senses. This was a good thing for the success of the subsequent capture; for the elder brother might have called out and warned his two confederates.

Gus told Tony to guard the far side of the cabin and arranged that either must come at the call of the other. They must shoot only when sure.

Back came the younger Malatesta, their better known enemy. From behind a bush Gus poked his shotgun muzzle into the fellow's ribs, told him to drop his rifle and stick up his hands. As he did this, he uttered a frantic yell of warning. Then he, too, was seized and bound.

They waited long and eagerly for the American accomplice. Would he sneak through the woods and try to surprise them? To guard against this, Gus left Tony with the two prisoners, thus reversing the conditions under which he had lately been held. There was no glee, no revengeful spirit shown by the fine-minded Italian youth, but a keen sense of satisfaction and determination glowed in his eyes.

Gus scoured the woods, hoping to find the accomplice, who would not recognize him as an enemy. But the fellow was gone. It was an easy thing for him to hide there--but not so easy to get away altogether, past the cordon of police now swarming over the peninsula. But he did get away, for he was never heard of again.

CHAPTER x.x.x

MORE MESSAGES

Oysterman Dan's little cottage became the scene of more than a reunion of old friends and of glad father and son. The news reporters also came, and, somewhat to his disgust, old Dan had to submit to his "pixture bein' took," along with the banker, Bill, Gus, Tony, and some of the insistent police and detectives who are often too eager for notoriety.

The Malatesta brothers, too, were not forgotten. Before they were taken off to a well deserved imprisonment, they were pictured and thus indelibly branded. Later they were returned to their native country.

All this business having been accomplished and Oysterman Dan rewarded utterly beyond his imagination, Mr. Sabaste took command with a lavish hand, and the return of the four princ.i.p.als, by yacht and motor car, became a gala affair. Bill and Gus refused beyond parley to accept the reward Mr. Sabaste had offered. What the boys had done was in friends.h.i.+p only. Expenses? The banker had the say as to that.

Tony, in spite of his long imprisonment, was speedily restored to his happy, kindly state of mind. A long, roundabout trip took them all back to the Marshallton Tech where the late unfortunate could again outfit himself from an ample wardrobe, while Bill and Gus restored, with the janitor's knowledge, the radio transmitting set and the portable receiver. A new receiving set was to be completed soon and set up for Oysterman Dan.

The Farrells were visited; Tony went to the room he had occupied, but he could not remember a thing that had occurred there in connection with his mysterious disappearance. The farmer's wife and daughter set them all down to a good, old-fas.h.i.+oned American dinner that the Sabastes laughingly declared did not need spaghetti to make it perfect.

Then, at the school again, the banker requested the use once more of the radio transmitter. Bill sat, listening in. Gus and Tony stood in the doorway, talking of school days.

"This is Angelo Sabaste speaking. I wish especially to convey a message to my old friend Guglielmo Marconi, on his yacht, the _Elettra_."

Then followed many words in Italian, interspersed only here and there with an American proper name.

At the end of the message there was the usual pause. The banker took up the phones, Gus and Tony rushed to others. Presently they heard, in quiet, even tones, the hoped-for reply in English, as Mr. Sabaste had requested it should be:

"Senatore Marconi sends congratulations to Signor Sabaste that his son is restored to him and that two criminals, though they are our countrymen, are to be sent from America, where too many such have come and belittled the name of Italy. But men like Signor Sabaste will lift that estimate.

"Senatore Marconi suggests, at your request, that the finest reward that could come to these young Americans who have shown such loyalty to your son, with such ingenuity and mechanical ability, is that they be encouraged to complete their technical education and then, with your son, to use their talents in a commercial way. Again congratulations for your son and those young Americans and--the best of success!"

How Mr. Sabaste, eager to carry out this suggestion from the famous inventor of wireless communication, joined with the boys' old friend Mr.

Hooper in the establishment of a company in mechanical and electrical engineering, under the name of The Loyalty Company, will be told in "Bill Brown, Radio Wizard."

THE END