The logs at the end of the cabin afforded a precarious foothold, and Frank began making his way up toward the window. Once he almost fell, but recovered himself in time and managed to grab at a jutting log. From there he swung himself over to the window-sill, and peered through the gla.s.s.
What met his eyes was an attic room, spa.r.s.ely furnished with two cots, a small table, and some empty boxes. .On one of the small beds someone lay sleeping.
102 Two men were standing beside a table. One of them was coloured; the other, who was just putting down a supper tray, was white. Frank had never seen him before but he thought he recognized the Negro as the driver of the van.
"Ah wants to go home," he was saying. "Fse gettin" tired of stayin" in dis yeah place."
"But your boss doesn"t want yuh yet," the other man objected. "No use goin" back until he sends for yuh."
"Ah wants to get back t" mah horses," wailed the Negro. "No fun settin" aroun" heah day after day. Cain"t understan" why mah boss don"t want me."
Frank was so excited that he raised his head well above the level of the sill to get a better view of the interior of the attic room.
"Well, you"re going to stay here and that"s all there is to it," said the white stranger.
"What are yuh kickin" about? You"ve got a place to sleep and enough to eat, haven"t yuh?"
"Ah doan" believe mah boss knows about me bein" heah at all," returned the Negro suspiciously.
"Mean to say I"ve been lying to yuh?"
The stableman nodded.
"Ah is gwine get out of heah and get to de race-track, dat"s what Ah is gwine do," he announced. He made a step toward the head of the stairway, but the other fellow quickly barred his way.
"No, you don"t!" he growled. "You"re not leavin" this cabin, see!"
The coloured man was powerfully built. He brushed his white antagonist aside and sent him staggering. Instantly there was a fight in progress, the attendant trying to restrain his prisoner from reaching the head or the stairs.
Frank was highly excited. He was oblivious to the fact that his shadow against the lighted window would be visible to anyone approaching the cabin.
Joe, on the other hand, was vainly trying to attract his brother"s attention. For several moments he had heard the distant rumble of an approaching machine. It appeared to be coming through the woods in the direction of the clearing.
He could not call out to attract Frank"s attention, for he realized there was another man downstairs in the cabin. Several times the silhouette of the individual resembling Vilnoff had appeared at the window.
The truck was now close at hand. Joe saw the headlights swing toward the clearing. He did not know what to do. Frank was completely absorbed by the fight going on in the attic, his head and shoulders plainly visible above the window-sill.
The beam of the truck"s headlights fell directly on him. There was a yell from the driver.
Frank turned suddenly, saw first the vehicle, then his brother gesturing frantically below.
He ducked beneath the level of the window-sill. At the same time one of his feet slipped and he lost his balance. He grabbed wildly at the sill for support, but missed.
"Oh gee 1" gasped Joe.
At that moment there was a terrified scream.
CHAPTER XIV.
DID VILNOFF SAIL?.
when Bill Morton heard that terrible scream from the heart of the woods he uttered a low groan.
"Somebody"s being murdered I" he said in a quavering voice to his cousin. "I wish I were home."
"I"d kinda like to be somewhere else myself," remarked Chet, sitting up among the leaves. "Gosh, I hope nothing has happened to Frank and Joe."
"We"ll never see them alive!" predicted Bill dolefully.
"They"ve been in some pretty tight places before this and they"ve always managed to wriggle through," said Chet, but he was nervous. "I-I suppose it"s our duty to go and see what has happened-----"
Bill Morton positively quaked at this suggestion. "What good would that do?" he demanded. "If they"ve been slaughtered in cold blood we couldn"t help them now."
Chet and his cousin were in a dilemma. They were none too enthusiastic about climbing the gate and going up the road to investigate.
"Maybe we"d better wait a little while. Then, if they don"t show up, we can go and get help," decided Chet.
In about ten minutes they heard the rumble of the 104.
105.
truck again. They crouched down beside the road well out of range of the advancing headlights.
The van halted. The driver got out, unlocked the gate and drove the machine through.
Again he got out, this time to fasten the iron gates. Then he returned to his seat at the wheel and started the truck going.
During the delay Chet had noticed something moving in the back of the van. Just as the driver resumed his place the stout lad saw that two figures were in the rear, gesturing to him.
"The Hardys! "he cried.
So relieved was he that he forgot the need of caution. Fortunately the noise of the engine drowned out his involuntary shout, otherwise the man at the wheel would have heard him.
The huge vehicle was slowly moving away from the gate when Chet and Bill scrambled hastily out of the ditch and gave chase. The latter made a flying leap and hauled himself up into the van. Chet, fat and pudgy, would have had a difficult time getting inside, had not his friends reached out, grabbed him by the shirt and the slack of the trousers, and hauled him in.
Frank then closed the doors at the back and put his fingers across his lips for silence.
As they did not dare to be overheard by the driver, they sat still while the machine jolted down the rough road through the woods.
Finally the going became easier and the truck bowled along at a good rate of speed.
The boys did not know in what direction they were being taken, but Frank felt convinced that they were now out on the Spurtown 106 road. Whether they were bound for that place or Bayport he was unable to make out.
At length the vehicle came to a stop. The boys heard the driver step down. Frank opened the door a trifle and peered out.
"This is luck," he thought.
A short distance away he could see a service station and lunch room. The place looked familiar to him. Then he recognized it as the one where he and Joe had encountered Gus and his friend Pete, the truck-driver.
"This is great," he told his companions. "We"re out on the Bayport road now, and can catch a bus for home. Let"s get away from here."
He watched closely as the driver went into the service station. Beyond the window he could see the burly form of Gus, the proprietor. He and the other fellow disappeared into the rear of the establishment, so Frank nastily flung open the doors of the truck and the boys scrambled out.
They lost no time gaining the shelter of the darkness beyond the range of the service station"s lights. Joe looked at his watch and saw that they would have to wait about ten minutes for a bus, so they decided to walk slowly to its next stopping place.
"We thought something terrible had happened," confessed Chet. "Who let out that awful yell? If you hadn"t shown up we were going to set out for help."
"We were nearly caught," Joe said.
He and Frank told their companions about their discovery of the cabin in the clearing, and related how they had seen the shadow of someone who resembled 107.
Vilnoff. Frank informed them of the incident at the attic window.
"I"m sure the Negro saw my face," he said. "He was the one who screamed. Maybe because he saw me, maybe because the other fellow knocked him down. I don"t know."
"What happened then?" asked Bill, wild-eyed.
"When the headlights of the truck were turned on me, I was blinded for an instant,"
replied Frank.
"Then he saw me waving my arms up and down," went on Joe. "I hadn"t dared yell, for Vilnoff or whoever it was would have come out."
"Go on," prodded Chet, as the Hardys paused.
"I lost my balance," said Frank. "I grabbed for the sill, missed it, and-----"
"Fell to the ground," finished Joe. "Scared me to "death. But when I rushed over to Frank, he was all right. I helped him up, and we ran."
"We just got out of sight when the truck reached the cabin and stopped. Then someone came running through the woods."
"We were hiding behind some bushes and heard the driver tell the other man about Frank," explained his brother. "They started a search, so we were in a tight spot."
"Then you hid in the truck," laughed Chet. "Bright boys. Well, thanks for getting us safely away from that place."
"You bet," chimed in Bill. "And I"ve had enough detective work!"
"The driver couldn"t figure out where Frank had gone, for he was pretty sure he had seen someone when I08 the headlights swung past the cabin," Joe added. "Of course, the moment we saw our chance we climbed into the back of the truck. That was the last place they would ever think of searching. Finally they gave up and went into the building. One of them came out a few minutes later and drove away."
"It was lucky you fellows stayed near the gate," Frank remarked. "As it was, we all saved ourselves a long walk."
"Well, this sort of fun may be all right for some people," said Bill Morton, "but I can"t see it. I"m through with sleuthing. You walk for miles, you get half-scared to death, you endure a b.u.mpy ride in the back of a truck, you walk a couple of miles more in the dark, miss your supper, and come home on a bus."
"A little strenuous for you, Bill?" asked Joe.
"I guess I"m not cut out to be a detective, that"s all," returned Chet"s cousin good-humouredly. "As far as I"m concerned, that race-horse can stay lost."
When Frank and Joe reached home that night they received the customary reprimand from Aunt Gertrude because they were late to dinner. It disappointed them to learn that Fenton Hardy had not yet returned home. However, their mother had received a telegram that afternoon.
"Home tomorrow. Want boys to be there."
"Too bad Dad isn"t here tonight," said Frank. "I have a few hunches I"d like to talk over with him."
"This affair seems to be getting more complicated each day," returned Joe. "For instance, do you think that was Vilnoff in the cabin tonight?"
"We saw only his shadow, but it looked mighty like him."
"And you say the coloured fellow upstairs resembled the driver of the horse van?"
"Yes."
"Then maybe there"s a connection. I feel Vilnoff may be mixed up in some shady business at that house of his, but I never dreamed that he could be connected with the T of T of notch affair, did you?" affair, did you?"
"It doesn"t sound reasonable," admitted Frank, "that a man as wealthy as Vilnoff is said to be would stoop to horse-thieving."
"And what is the idea behind that strange mechanical tree? I can"t figure that one out at all," said Joe.
"Why is the Negro being kept a prisoner in the cabin? That"s another one for you."
"Where is Topnotch? Topnotch? And who has the ransom money?" And who has the ransom money?"
"There are so many whys in this case that I"m getting muddled," said Frank. "Maybe we can think more clearly when we"ve had a good night"s sleep."
Fenton Hardy returned home early next morning. He was in the dining-room when the boys came down to breakfast. The great detective greeted his sons affably but appeared thoughtful and preoccupied. When they told him about Mr. Prescott"s visit and the racing man"s request that Mr. Hardy take the Top notch Top notch case, their father had little to say. case, their father had little to say.
"We"ll talk about that later," he remarked quietly. "In the meantime I have something to show you. Come into the library after you have eaten your breakfast."
110 When they got there they found their father setting up a small home movie projection machine. On the table lay a circular tin of motion picture film.
"I picked this up at the Quickshot office in New York yesterday," Fenton Hardy explained. "They followed your instructions and took movies of all the pa.s.sengers that sailed on the Atlantis. Atlantis. I didn"t have time to look at them yesterday but we"ll run the film through now." I didn"t have time to look at them yesterday but we"ll run the film through now."
He pinned a white sheet to the wall, threaded the strips into the machine, drew the shades and snapped a switch. The motor of the projection machine began to hum and a bright square of light flashed onto the screen. Then the boys found themselves looking at the gang-plank of the Atlantis, Atlantis, which the pa.s.sengers were ascending to board the ship. which the pa.s.sengers were ascending to board the ship.
For about five minutes the film showed a steady procession of people. The pictures were very clear, and as the men and women walked up in single file not one of them had escaped the sharp eye of die camera.
Suddenly from the side of the screen the familiar figure of a man emerged. He strode up the gangplank, and in doing so evidently became aware of the camera, for he suddenly looked around and faced the machine. He said something, probably to the cameraman, and abruptly turned away, ducking his head and hurrying into die ship.
"Vilnoff!" exclaimed Frank.
"Looks like him, doesn"t it?" remarked Mr. Hardy.
"Then we"re wrong about his being at die cabin last night," murmured Joe.