But he mastered his emotions, and slowly and delicately began to haul in his "catch." Hiram, fascinated, crept close to his side. Perhaps it was this fact that was responsible for the disaster that occurred the next instant.
Without the slightest warning, save a sharp, cracking sound, the roof caved in under their feet. In a flash, both boys were projected in a heap into the room below. As they hurtled through the rotten covering of the hut, shouts and cries resounded from the aroused occupants.
CHAPTER VI.
IN DIREST PERIL.
The wildest confusion ensued. Fortunately, the drop was a short one, and beyond a few scratches and bruises, neither boy was hurt. The lamp, by some strange fatality, was not put out, but rolled off the table. As Stonington Hunt sprang at him, Tubby seized it. He brandished it threateningly.
"The Boy Scouts!" shouted Stonington Hunt, the first to recover from his stupefaction at the sudden interruption to their slumbers.
He dashed at Tubby, who swung the lamp for an instant--it was his only weapon--and then dashed it, like a smoky meteor, full at the advancing man"s head.
It missed him by the fraction of an inch, or he would have been turned into a living torch.
Crash!
The lamp struck the opposite wall, and was shattered into a thousand fragments. Instantly the place was plunged in darkness, total and absolute. At the same instant a sharp report sounded. It seemed doubly loud in the tiny place. The fumes of the powder filled it reekingly.
"Don"t shoot!" roared Stonington Hunt. "Guard the door and window. Don"t let them get away."
"All right, dad," the boys heard Freeman Hunt cry loudly, as he scuffled across the room.
"Keep the doorway and the window," shouted Stonington Hunt. "I"ll have a light in a jiffy. We"ve got them like two rats in a cage."
As he struck a match and lit a boat lantern that stood on a shelf, a low groan came from one corner of the room. Hiram was horrified to perceive that it was Tubby who uttered it. The shot must have wounded him, fired at haphazard, as it had been. The man who had aimed it, the bearded member of the gang, stood grimly by the doorway.
Almost beside himself at the hopelessness of their situation, Hiram gazed about him. All at once he noticed that on Tubby"s chest a crimson stain was slowly spreading. The stout boy lay quite still except for an occasional quiver and groan. Without a thought as to his danger, Hiram disregarded Stonington Hunt"s next injunction: "Don"t move a step."
Swiftly he crossed to his wounded comrade. He sank on his knees beside him.
"T-T-T-Tubby," he exclaimed, "are you badly hurt, old man?"
To his amazement, the rec.u.mbent Tubby gave him a swift but knowing wink, and then, rolling over on his side again, resumed his groaning once more.
Mystified, but comforted, Hiram was rising, when a rough hand seized him and sent him spinning to an opposite corner. It was the burly form of the bearded man that had propelled him.
"Not so rough, Jim Dale," warned Stonington Hunt. "We"ve got them where they can"t escape. Lots of time to get what we want out of them."
"The pesky young spies," snorted Jim Dale, "I wonder how much they overheard of what we said."
"It don"t matter, anyhow," put in his beardless companion of the afternoon. "They won"t have no chance to tell it."
"Guess that"s right, Pete b.u.mpus," struck in the bearded man. Suddenly Hiram felt a stinging slap across the face. He turned and faced young Freeman Hunt.
"How do you like that, eh?" snarled the youth viciously. "Here is where I pay you out for what you Scout kids did to me when we lived in Hampton."
He was stepping forward to deliver another blow, when Hiram ducked swiftly, and put into execution a maneuver Rob had shown him. As Freeman, a bigger and heavier lad, rushed forward, Hiram"s long leg and his long left arm shot out simultaneously. The leg engaged Freeman"s ankle, and the Yankee lad"s fist encountered the other"s chin with a sharp crack.
Freeman Hunt fell in a heap on the floor. Hiram braced himself for an attack by the whole four. But it didn"t come. Instead, they seemed to think it a good joke.
"That will teach you to keep your temper," laughed the boy"s father roughly; "plenty of time to punch him and pummel him when we have them tied up."
"Maybe I won"t do it, too," promised Freeman, gathering himself up, with a crestfallen look.
Stonington Hunt stepped up to Hiram.
"Tell me the truth, you young brat," he snarled; "are the police after us?"
Hiram pondered an instant before answering. Then he decided on a course of action. Possibly it was a bad one, judging by the immediate results.
"Yes, they are," he said boldly, "and if you don"t let us loose, you"ll get in trouble."
Stonington Hunt paused irresolutely. Then he said:
"Get the sloop ready, boys. We"ll get out of here on the jump."
A few moments later Hiram"s hands were bound and he was led on board the craft the boys had noticed lying in the creek. A plank connected it with the sh.o.r.e. Tubby, still groaning, was carried on board and thrown down in the bow beside Hiram.
"We"ll attend to him after a while," said Hunt brutally; "if he"s badly wounded it"s his own fault, for meddling in other folks" affairs."
One of the men went below. Presently there came a sharp chug-chug, and the anchor being taken in, the sloop began to move off down the creek. As Tubby Hopkins had surmised, she had an engine. Hunt, Jim Dale and Peter b.u.mpus stood in the bow. Hiram leaned disconsolately against a stay, and Tubby lay at his feet on a coil of rope.
The sh.o.r.es slipped rapidly by, and pretty soon the creek began to widen.
Freeman Hunt was at the wheel, and from time to time Jim Dale shouted directions back at him.
"Port--port! Hard over!" or again, "Hard over! Starboard! There"s a shoal right ahead!"
A moon had risen now, and in the silvery light the darker water of the shoals, of which the creek seemed full, showed plainly.
"This crik"s as full of sand-bars as a hound dorg is uv fleas," grunted Jim Dale. "It won"t be full tide for two hours or more, either. If----"
There came a sudden, grinding jar.
"Hard over! Hard over!" bellowed Jim Dale.
Freeman Hunt spun the wheel like a squirrel in its cage. But it was too late. The sloop had grounded hard and fast. Leaving Peter b.u.mpus to guard the boys, Jim Dale and the elder Hunt leaped swiftly aft. They backed the motor, but it was no use. The sloop was too hard aground to be gotten off till the water rose.
"Two hours to wait till the tide rises," grumbled Jim Dale; "just like the luck."
Slowly the time pa.s.sed. But never for an instant was the watch over the boys relaxed. Tubby lay still, and Hiram, almost carried out of himself by the rapid rush of recent events, leaned miserably against the stay.
At last, just as a faint, gray light began to show in the east, they could feel the sloop moving under their feet. With reversed motor, she was backed off the sand-bar, or mud-shoal, and the journey resumed. As the light grew stronger, Hiram saw that they were dropping rapidly down toward the sea. Right ahead of them could now be seen the white foam and spray, where the breakers of the open sea were shattering themselves on the bar at the mouth of the creek.
The channel was narrow and intricate, but Jim Dale, who seemed to be a good pilot, and who had a.s.sumed the wheel, brought the sloop through it in safety. Before long, under her keel could be felt the long lift and drive of the open Atlantic.
By gazing at the sun, Hiram saw that the sloop"s head was pointed west.