"Have you come to the bars?" she asked presently.
"I guess so. We"ve come against something like a fence."
"Well, then," she replied, "when we get through, take the road to the left. That will bring us to the house."
"You are certain?"
"That is what Henry wrote in the cipher beneath the map. The house must be only a few hundred yards away."
The bars were there, and I lifted the wet and soggy boards with an anxious heart. Were we, after all, so near the hiding-place? And what were we to find?
I mounted the seat again, and we drove forward. The road was scarcely distinguishable, but the horses followed it without hesitation as it led behind a tall hedge and among scattered oaks.
My heart beat fast. What if the enemy were before us?
"Have you got your revolver handy?" I whispered to d.i.c.ky.
"Two of "em," he chuckled. "There"s a double dose for the man that wants it."
On a sudden turn the house loomed up before us, and a wild clamor of dogs broke the stillness of the night.
"I hope they are tied," I said, with a poor attempt to conceal my misgivings.
"We"ll have a lively time in a quarter of a minute if they aren"t,"
laughed d.i.c.ky, as he followed me.
But the baying and barking came no nearer, and I helped Mrs. Knapp out of the carriage. She looked at the house closely.
"This is the place," she said, in an unmistakable tone of decision. "We must be quick. I wish something would quiet those dogs; they will bring the whole country out."
It seemed an hour before we could raise any one, but it may not have been three minutes before a voice came from behind the door.
"Who"s there?"
"It is L. M. K.," said Mrs. Knapp; then she added three words of gibberish that I took to be the pa.s.swords used to identify the friends of the boy.
At the words there was the sound of bolts shooting back, and the heavy door opened enough to admit us. As we pa.s.sed in, it was closed once more and the bolts shot home.
Before us stood a short, heavy-set man, holding a candle. His face, which was stamped with much of the bulldog look in it, was smooth-shaven except for a bristling brown mustache. He looked inquiringly at us.
"Is he here--the boy?" cried Mrs. Knapp, her voice choked with anxiety.
"Yes," said the man. "Do we move again?" He seemed to feel no surprise at the situation, and I inferred that it was not the first time he had changed quarters on a sudden at the darkest hour of the night.
"At once," said Mrs. Knapp, in her tone of decision.
"It will take ten minutes to get ready," said the man. "Come this way."
I was left standing alone by the door in the darkness, with a burden lifted from my mind. We had come in time. The single slip of paper left by Henry Wilton had been the means, through a strange combination of events, to point the way to the unknown hiding-place of the boy. He was still safe, and the enemy were on a false trail. I should not have to reproach myself with the sacrifice of the child.
Yet my mind was far from easy. The enemy might have been misled, but if they had followed the road marked out in the diagram I had brought from their den, they were too close for comfort. I listened for any sound from the outside. The dogs had quieted down. Twice I thought I heard hoof-beats, and there was a chorus of barks from the rear of the house. But it was only the horses that had brought us. .h.i.ther, stamping impatiently as they waited.
In a few minutes the wavering light of the candle reappeared. Mrs. Knapp was carrying a bundle that I took to be the boy, and the man brought a valise and a blanket.
"It"s all right," said Mrs. Knapp. "No--I can carry him--I want to carry him."
The man opened the door, then closed and locked it as I helped Mrs.
Knapp into the carriage.
"Have you got him safe?" asked d.i.c.ky incredulously. "Well, I"ll have to say that you know more than I thought you did." And the relief and satisfaction in his tone were so evident that I gladly repented of my suspicions of the light-hearted d.i.c.ky.
"Have you heard anything?" I asked him anxiously.
"I thought I heard a yell over here through the woods. We had better get out of here."
"Don"t wait a second," said the man. "The south road comes over this other way. If you"ve heard anybody there, they will be here in five minutes. I"ll follow you on a horse."
With an injunction to haste, I stepped after Mrs. Knapp into the carriage, the door was shut, d.i.c.ky mounted the seat, and we rolled down the road on the return journey.
"Oh, how thankful I am!" cried Mrs. Knapp. "There is a weight of anxiety off my mind. Can you imagine what I have been fearing in the last month?"
"I had thought a little about that myself," I confessed. "But we are not yet out of the woods, I am afraid."
"Hark! what"s that?" said Mrs. Knapp apprehensively.
The carriage was now making its way through the bad stretch in the lane, and there was little noise in its progress.
"I heard nothing," I said, putting down the window to listen. "What was it?"
"I thought it was a shout."
There was no noise but the steady splash of horses" hoofs in the mud, and the sloppy, shearing sound of the wheels as they cut through the wet soil.
As we b.u.mped and groaned again through the ruts, however, there arose in the distance behind us the fierce barking of dogs, their voices raised in anger and alarm.
There was a faint halloo, and a wilder barking followed. Then my ear caught the splashing of galloping hoofs behind, and in a moment the man of the house rode beside us.
"They"ve come," he said, "or, anyhow, somebody"s come. I let the dogs loose, and they will have a lively time for a while."
At his words there was another chorus of barks and shouts. Then a shot rang out, and a fusillade followed with a mournful wail that died away into silence.
"Good Lord! they"ve shot the dogs," cried the man hotly. "I"ve a mind to go back and pepper some of "em."
"No," said Mrs. Knapp, "we may need you. Let us hurry!"
A few yards more brought us to the main road, and once on the firm ground the horses trotted briskly forward, while the horseman dropped behind, the better to observe and give the alarm.
"We were just in time," said Mrs. Knapp, trembling.