"Am not!" retorted Billiard angrily.
"Then why don"t you take my dare?"
"It"s all tommy-rot," insisted Billiard, with a fine show of scorn.
""Fraid cat!"
"Oh, I"ll take you up," cried the other, stung into recklessness by Toady"s taunts. "We"ll go to-night."
"To-night?" stammered Toady, much abashed at his brother"s sudden acceptance of the dare.
"Yes, to-night!"
"What"s your hurry?"
"Who"s the "fraid cat now?" taunted Billiard.
"Not me! To-night"s the time. We"ll set the alarm-clock for half-past ten."
"Suppose it wakes the rest of the bunch?"
"They"ll think it"s a mistake, and in a few minutes will be asleep again, and we can steal outside without their hearing us at all."
So it was decided, and though each boy, deep down in his heart, hoped that the other would back out before the hour set, both resolved not to show the white feather, and as the alarm-clock pealed forth its summons in the silence of the night, two sleepy lads crept stealthily out of bed, drew on their clothes, and without exchanging a word, started for the haunted house at the other end of town.
Never, it seemed to the quaking boys, had the desert night seemed so black. The stars were shining, to be sure, but the very heavens seemed further away, and the silence was appalling. Nervous, excited, dreading the ordeal, each boy waited for the other to propose that they give up their wild-goose chase; but neither was willing to acknowledge his cowardice first, so they stumbled fearfully on, clutching each other"s hands to keep from falling, they told themselves, but really to feel the nearness of another human being.
At length, however, they reached the old, abandoned shack, where they were to keep their ghostly vigil, and with bated breath they opened the sagging door and crept trembling over the threshold into the black shadows of the interior. Fear held them tongue-tied, and they crouched upon the dusty floor as close to the door as they could get. The silence was intense, terrifying.
Then the stillness was sharply broken by a hoa.r.s.e whisper, "What was that, Bill?"
Billiard, thinking Toady had spoken to him, was about to reply when a second voice answered, "Only the wind, I reckon. Shut up."
"But it sounded like someone opened the door."
"You"re as bad as an old woman with the fidgets," said the second voice crossly. "Go to sleep, can"t you? At least, let me sleep. I tell you we"re safe enough. The fools will never think of looking for us here.
This is a _haunted_ house and no one ever comes here. When they get tired of scouring the desert and give up hunting for us, we"ll light out, but until then we"ve _got_ to lie low; and we might as well spend our time snoozing as to be worrying all the while."
"The bank robbers!" thought each boy to himself. What should they do?
It would be impossible for two small boys to capture such desperadoes in the dead of night, especially as neither lad was armed, they argued.
Their only course was to steal noiselessly away, rouse the sheriff, bring back a posse and surprise the men in hiding.
With one impulse, the terrified boys clasped hands, slipped cautiously out of the house, hardly daring to breathe for fear of being heard, and raced off along the road toward the sleeping town with all the speed they could muster. Once they fancied they heard a voice call to them, but this only increased their head-long flight. Their feet seemed fairly to skim over the ground, and when they reached the main street of the town they were breathless, exhausted and frightened almost past speaking.
"Where--does--the sheriff--live?" panted Billiard, as they tore down the last steep slope.
"Dunno," gasped Toady.
"Then how"ll we find him?"
"Drug-store."
"It"s shut."
"Ring the night bell."
And ring they did, sending peal after peal echoing through the silent building until the sleepy proprietor, dishevelled and wrathy, stumbled through the doorway, and demanded fiercely, "What the deuce is wanted?"
"The robbers--" half sobbed the boys.
"Well, they ain"t here," snarled the angry druggist, not catching the meaning of their words. "Now you hike for home and the next time you want to play a practical joke----"
"Oh, this isn"t a joke!" cried Toady imploringly. "We"ve found the sure "nough robbers, but----"
"We aren"t big enough to capture them," finished Billiard.
"Aw, come off!" said the man, beginning to see from the boys" demeanor that something was really wrong. "You are having a bad dream. How do you happen to be wandering around town this time of night?"
"We dared each other to visit the haunted house to see if there was a really ghost, like Susie said."
"And you found one, did you?" the druggist laughed sarcastically.
"Oh, this ain"t a ghost. It"s burglars, truly! They talked and we heard what they said," cried Toady with convincing earnestness.
"And what _did_ they say?" persisted the druggist, though in a different tone of voice.
Briefly they recounted their adventure in the vacant house, and as the man listened he took down the telephone, said a few words which the boys could not hear, and hung up the receiver again. Almost immediately there was a sound of footsteps without, and an armed citizen of Silver Bow appeared in the doorway, then another, and another, until a score or more had gathered just outside the building.
There was a hasty consultation one with another, then the boys were bidden to repeat the story they had told the druggist, and after the men had heard the meagre details, the posse separated, vanishing one by one in the blackness. But instinctively the boys knew that they would attempt to surround the haunted house, and taking its occupants by surprise, would compel them to surrender.
They wanted to remain at the drug-store until the capture was effected, but the keeper ordered them home to bed, and they reluctantly obeyed, listening every step of the way for the sound of shots. But nothing occurred to mar the stillness of the night, and they wondered if the desperadoes had after all escaped. So anxious were they, and so nervous over their unusual experience that it seemed as if sleep would never come to close their eyes, as they lay once more in their bed at the Eagles" Nest; and they were astonished to find themselves waking up the next morning at the sound of someone knocking at their door.
"Who is it?" called Billiard, vaguely wondering if he could have dreamed all that had transpired during the past twelve hours.
"Susie," answered a voice from the hall. "The sheriff wants to see you."
"The sheriff?"
"Yes. Hurry up! The bank robbers have been caught and you have to go to the justice of the peace"s office."
"Then it"s really so," sighed Billiard in relief.
"Course it is!" retorted Toady, now thoroughly awake. "But what do you s"pose the _sheriff_ wants us for?"
"Dunno. Quickest way to find out is to go down and see."
Susie and the twins were waiting for them when they emerged from their room, and ecstatically announced, "We"re all going, too. They want you to be _witnesses_, and Tabitha to take notes. No one else in town writes shorthand."
"But what is it all about?" demanded Billiard. "Ain"t the robbers in jail?"