But Pete had seen. The undersheriff was a man of medium stature; this large masked person was about the size of the larger of his lately made acquaintances, the brothers Poole.
"Come on!" whispered the rescuer huskily. "Mitch.e.l.l sent me. He"ll take you away in his car."
"Wait a minute! We"d just as well take these cigars," answered Pete in the same slinking tone. "Here; take a handful. How"d you get in?"
"Held the jailer up with a gun. Got him tied and gagged. Shut up, will you? You can talk when you get safe out of this." He tip-toed away, Pete following. The quivering searchlight crept along the hall; it picked out the stairs. Halfway down, Pete touched his guide on the shoulder.
"Wait!" Standing on the higher stair, he whispered in the larger man"s ear: "You got all the keys?"
"Yes."
"Give "em to me. I"ll let all the prisoners go. If there"s an alarm, it"ll make our chances for a get-away just so much better."
The Samaritan hesitated.
"Aw, I"d like to, all right! But I guess we"d better not."
He started on; the stair creaked horribly. In the hall below Pete overtook him and halted him again.
"Aw, come on--be a sport!" he urged. "Just open this one cell, here, and give that lad the keys. He can do the rest while we beat it. If you was in there, wouldn"t you want to get out?"
This appeal had its effect on the Samaritan. He unlocked the cell door, after a cautious trying of half a dozen keys. Apparently his scruples returned again; he stood irresolute in the cell doorway, turning the searchlight on its yet unawakened occupant.
Peter swooped down from behind. His hands gripped the rescuer"s ankles; he heaved swiftly, at the same time lunging forward with head and shoulders, with all the force of his small, seasoned body behind the effort. The Samaritan toppled over, sprawling on his face within the cell. With a heartfelt shriek the legal occupant leaped from his bunk and landed on the intruder"s shoulder blades. Peter slammed shut the door; the spring lock clicked.
The searchlight rolled, luminous, along the floor; its glowworm light showed Poole"s unmasked and twisted face. Pete s.n.a.t.c.hed the bunch of keys and raced up the stairs, bending low to avoid a possible bullet; followed by disapproving words.
At the stairhead, beyond the range of a bullet"s flight, Peter paused.
Pandemonium reigned below. The roused prisoners shouted rage, alarm, or joy, and whistled shrilly through their fingers, wild with excitement; and from the violated cell arose a prodigious crash of thudding fists, the smashing of a splintered chair, the sickening impact of locked bodies falling against the stone walls or upon the complaining bunk, accompanied by verbiage, and also by rattling of iron doors, hoots, cheers and catcalls from the other cells. Authority made no sign.
Peter crouched in the darkness above, smiling happily. From the duration of the conflict the combatants seemed to be equally matched. But the roar of battle grew presently feebler; curiosity stilled the audience, at least in part; it became evident, by language and the sound of tortured and whistling breath, that Poole was choking his opponent into submission and offering profuse apologies for his disturbance of privacy. Mingled with this explanation were derogatory opinions of some one, delivered with extraordinary bitterness. From the context it would seem that those remarks were meant to apply to Peter Johnson. Listening intently, Peter seemed to hear from the first floor a feeble drumming, as of one beating the floor with bound feet. Then the tumult broke out afresh.
Peter went back to his cell and lit his lamp. Leaving the door wide open, he coiled the rope neatly and placed it upon his table, laid the hacksaw beside it, undressed himself, blew out the light; and so lay down to pleasant dreams.
CHAPTER XIV
Mr. Johnson was rudely wakened from his slumbers by a violent hand upon his shoulder. Opening his eyes, he smiled up into the scowling face of Undersheriff Barton.
"Good-morning, sheriff," he said, and sat up, yawning.
The sun was shining brightly. Mr. Johnson reached for his trousers and yawned again.
The scandalized sheriff was unable to reply. He had been summoned by pa.s.sers-by, who, hearing the turbulent clamor for breakfast made by the neglected prisoners, had hastened to give the alarm. He had found the jailer tightly bound, almost choked by his gag, suffering so cruelly from cramps that he could not get up when released, and barely able to utter the word "Johnson."
Acting on that hint, Barton had rushed up-stairs, ignoring the shouts of his mutinous prisoners as he went through the second-floor corridor, to find on the third floor an opened cell, with a bunch of keys hanging in the door, the rope and saw upon the table, Mr. Johnson"s neatly folded clothing on the chair, and Mr. Johnson peacefully asleep. The sheriff pointed to the rope and saw, and choked, spluttering inarticulate noises.
Mr. Johnson suspended dressing operations and patted him on the back.
"There, there!" he crooned benevolently. "Take it easy. What"s the trouble? I hate to see you all worked up like this, for you was sure mighty white to me yesterday. Nicest jail I ever was in. But there was a thundering racket downstairs last night. I ain"t complainin" none--I wouldn"t be that ungrateful, after all you done for me. But I didn"t get a good night"s rest. Wish you"d put me in another cell to-night. There was folks droppin" in here at all hours of the night, pesterin" me.
I didn"t sleep good at all."
"Dropping in? What in h.e.l.l do you mean?" gurgled the sheriff, still pointing to rope and saw.
"Why, sheriff, what"s the matter? Aren"t you a little mite petulant this A.M.? What have I done that you should be so short to me?"
"That"s what I want to know. What have you been doing here?"
"I ain"t been doing nothin", I tell you--except stayin" here, where I belong," said Pete virtuously.
His eye followed the sheriff"s pointing finger, and rested, without a qualm, on the evidence. The sheriff laid a trembling hand on the coiled rope. "How"d you get this in, d.a.m.n you?"
"That rope? Oh, a fellow shoved it through the bars. Wanted me to saw my way out and go with him, I reckon. I didn"t want to argue with him, so I just took it and didn"t let on I wasn"t comin". Wasn"t that right? Why, I thought you"d be pleased! I couldn"t have any way of knowin" that you"d take it like this."
"Shoved it in through a third-story window?"
Pete"s ingenuous face took on an injured look. "I reckon maybe he stood on his tip-toes," he admitted.
"Who was it?"
"I don"t know," said Pete truthfully. "He didn"t speak and I didn"t see him. Maybe he didn"t want me to break jail; but I thought, seein" the saw and all, he had some such idea in mind."
"Did he bring the keys, too?"
"Oh, no--that was another man entirely. He came a little later. And he sure wanted me to quit jail; because he said so. But I wouldn"t go, sheriff. I thought you wouldn"t like it. Say, you ought to sit down, feller. You"re going to have apoplexy one of these days, sure as you"re a foot high!"
"You come downstairs with me," said the angry Barton. "I"ll get at the bottom of this or I"ll have your heart out of you."
"All right, sheriff. Just you wait till I get dressed." Peter laced his shoes, put on his hat, and laid tie, coat, and vest negligently across the hollow of his arm. "I can"t do my tie good unless I got a looking-gla.s.s," he explained, and paused to light a cigar. "Have one, sheriff," he said with hospitable urgency.
"Get out of here!" shouted the enraged officer.
Pete tripped light-footed down the stairs. At the stairfoot the sheriff paused. In the cell directly opposite were two bruised and tattered inmates where there should have been but one, and that one undismantled.
The sheriff surveyed the wreckage within. His jaw dropped; his face went red to the hair; his lip trembled as he pointed to the larger of the two roommates, who was, beyond doubting, Amos Poole--or some remainder of him.
"How did that man get here?" demanded the sheriff in a cracked and horrified voice.
"Him? Oh, I throwed him in there!" said Pete lightly. "That"s the man who brought me the keys and pestered me to go away with him. Say, sheriff, better watch out! He told me he had a gun, and that he had the jailer tied and gagged."
"The d.a.m.ned skunk didn"t have no gun! All he had was a flashlight, and I broke that over his head. But he tole me the same story about the jailer--all except the gun." This testimony was volunteered by Poole"s cellmate.
Peter removed his cigar and looked at the "d.a.m.ned skunk" more closely.
"Why, if it ain"t Mr. Poole!" he said.
"Sure, it"s Poole. What in h.e.l.l does he mean, then--swearin" you into jail and then breakin" you out?"