"Joe! Come here on the jump! It"s all safe, now!"
There was a sound of scrambling back at the thicket and hummock. Next, Dawson almost flung Ted Dunstan ahead of him, then sprang out, s.n.a.t.c.hing up the slight body in his arms and running toward them.
"Now, let us into your car, and let us get away from here," begged Tom, while Warren, staring at Joe"s burden, gasped:
"You"ve got--"
"The Dunstan heir!" Halstead finished for him. "And the Alvarez crew are thick about here. Don"t lose a moment."
Joe leaped into the tonneau, pa.s.sing up his burden ahead of him. The rest crowded in. The man at the steering wheel let out a few notches of speed, and the car shot ahead. For a few seconds nothing was heard from any hostile watcher. Then a rifle report sounded, crisp and brisk, and a bullet sang by close over their heads.
"I"m not going to have the law made a target of in that fashion,"
uttered Warren. "Stop the auto, and I"ll go back to give them all the fight they want."
"But wait until we get the Dunstan lad safe in Nantucket," begged Halstead.
"I guess you"re right about that," nodded the deputy sheriff.
Instead of stopping, the man at the steering wheel had put on a burst of speed.
Ted, bound and gagged, just as he had been, was being held on the knee of one of the men.
"What time is it!" inquired Captain Tom.
"Twenty-five minutes of four," replied Warren, hauling out his watch.
"Less than half an hour to fix up everything!" gasped Tom his face blanching. "Oh, we must do some tall hurrying!"
"Why, we can be in the village in ten minutes," replied Deputy Sheriff Warren, soothingly.
"Yes, but this young man"s father and lawyer must be in court, too, before four o"clock. Stop at the very first house where you see a telephone wire running in, will you?"
Within two minutes the man at the steering wheel began to slow down. He ran up before a cottage, stopping at the gate.
Tom leaped out before the car came to a full stop. Running to the door, he encountered a pleasant-faced young woman.
"Let me use your telephone, in a hurry, will you?" panted Halstead.
"It"s on the law"s business."
"Why, yes, of course," replied the woman, smiling at the youth"s flushed, excited face.
She pointed to the instrument in the hall.
"Give me Horace Dunstan"s place, on the _west_ sh.o.r.e, like lightning, will you, Central?" begged Tom, as soon as he had rung.
He got the Dunstan place. The butler answered that Mr. Dunstan was not at home, but at the Stillman House in Nantucket, with Mr. Crane.
"Oh, it"s you, is it, Captain Tom?" continued the butler. "You and Dawson being away, the master imagined that you might be on the track of the young gentleman. So, this afternoon, right after luncheon, Mr.
Dunstan and Mr. Crane went over to the Stillman House to wait for any news that might come."
"I"ve found Master Ted, and we"re trying to rush him to the court house in time. I"ll call up Mr. Dunstan, thank you."
With that he rung off, asking for the Stillman House. Nor did it need more than a few seconds to get that anxious father to the telephone. He had been waiting for such a call, hoping against hope.
In the fewest words possible Halstead told his employer the bare news of finding the Dunstan heir, adding that they were now on the way to the court house with him.
"Be over there, you and Mr. Crane," urged Halstead, feverishly. "We will do our best to reach you in time. Now-we"ve got to hustle-good by, sir!"
Again ringing off, then uttering a breathless "Thank you," and leaving a quarter of a dollar to pay tolls, Tom dashed out of the house.
Just as he had disappeared into the house, Warren turned to Joe, asking curiously:
"Why have you got the lad bound and gagged in this fashion?"
"Because he wouldn"t come any other way," retorted Joe.
"Can"t we just as well remove the cords and the gag, now?" insisted the deputy sheriff.
"Yes; if you"ll he responsible for his not getting away," agreed Dawson.
"Oh, I won"t let him get away, if he"s foolish enough to want to,"
promised Warren. He freed the young man. As soon as he could talk Ted broke forth, angrily:
"This is all a wicked shame! My father wanted me to keep out of the way for the present. These boys have been meddling from the start. My father will be awfully angry with them, and with you all."
"He will, eh?" queried Warren, good-humoredly. "Young man, do you know that your father is nearly distracted over your absence, and that he has had a lot of police officers and a small army of detectives hunting for you all these days?"
"I don"t believe it," retorted Ted, stubbornly. "Anyway, I haven"t broken any law, and you"ve no right to keep me here. I"m going to get out of this car."
"I"m very sorry to say that you"re not, at least not until I"ve seen your father," rejoined the deputy. "My boy, I believe you"ve been badly imposed upon by rascals. In any case, you"ll stay right here with me until some one older than you are changes the orders."
At this moment Tom came running down the path from the house.
"There"s the fellow who"s been the worst of the lot," cried Ted bitterly, tears of rage shining in his eyes.
"Has he?" smiled Warren. "Then I believe Halstead will come in for a pretty handsome reward from your father."
"Maybe," hinted Joe, "if you folks can get us into Nantucket and up at the door of the probate court before the minute of four."
"Start her up, please," begged Halstead, as his feet struck the running board and he squeezed in among the tightly-packed crowd. "What time is it now-exactly?"
"Twelve minutes to four," responded Warren.
"Whew! What if we miss?" quivered Halstead, his face again paling.
"We won"t," Warren a.s.sured him, as the car lurched forward.
Nor would there have been any danger, but about a mile out of Nantucket something went wrong with the gasoline flow. The man driving the car had to get out and crawl under. Two others got out and helped him. Halstead, who had wound and set his watch by the deputy"s, sat watching the fateful minutes slip by. In a very short time the car was ready to go on again.