Part 33 (1/2)
CHAPTER XXII
A ROUT AND A CAPTURE
The intruder had halted. Harriet knew that from his position he could see the camp. From her position it was not visible. She saw the man halt, peer, then suddenly straighten up and glance about him apprehensively. Being now between her and the light shed by the campfire, the girl was able to observe his movements quite clearly.
”He suspects something,” quivered Harriet. But being at a loss as to what to do next the girl dropped swiftly to the ground, rising almost the next second. She was leaning well forward, peering at the figure with all the concentration she could bring to bear. The intruder had by this time again directed his attention to the camp. There was now in the man's hands something that he seemed to be leveling over the tops of the bushes amid which he was standing.
Harriet Burrell drew her right hand cautiously above her shoulder.
That hand held a stone. Suddenly the stone cut through the bushes about a foot to the right of the intruder's shoulder. He jumped, but before he could decide upon what his next move should be a second and larger stone smote him between the shoulders. Then followed a perfect rain of stones. Some hit him, others did not.
There was but one way by which the man could get away without turning back and facing this unseen peril. That way was almost straight toward the camp. He hesitated. A large stone grazed his cheek. The fellow leaped through the bushes. Something was swept from his hands by the bushes and fell to the rocks with a clatter. The girls in camp heard the sound.
”Harriet, what are you doing?” called Jane.
”Look out!” shouted Harriet. She started in pursuit of the fleeing man, sending a shower of missiles after him. Some of the stones dropped to the rocks back of the camp, rolling into the camp itself.
Then, to the amazement of the Meadow-Brook party, a man darted across a corner of the lighted s.p.a.ce, which he cleared in half a dozen leaps and bounds, Harriet still hurling stones after him and shouting her warnings to her companions.
The girls fled from the campfire, crying out in alarm. Ja.n.u.s, for the instant, was overcome with surprise, but he pulled himself together sharply, running to his pack and s.n.a.t.c.hing up his revolver.
”It's our man!” cried Harriet. ”I made him run.”
”Thave me!” wailed Tommy, throwing herself flat on her face behind a rock.
Ja.n.u.s had clattered down the rocks after the intruder. The guide's revolver began to speak. He was firing wildly, not being able to see the man, who either had got safely away, or else was in hiding behind one of the many rocks and projections. It did not seem as if he could have run down the mountainside at the rate he was going without falling and breaking his neck. The guide fired his revolver into every dark recess that he thought might afford a hiding place for the fugitive.
Then he loaded up and emptied his revolver a second time.
By this time the camp was almost in a state of panic. Miss Elting spoke sharply to the girls, commanding them to stop their shouting and to come back.
”Mr. Grubb, if you keep on shooting you will have no ammunition left,”
the guardian warned him. ”Besides, I would rather you wouldn't shoot any more. We don't know that this man is the one we suspect.”
Ja.n.u.s broke his smoking revolver and ejected the exploded sh.e.l.ls, after which he recharged the cylinder and put the weapon back in his pocket.
He returned to the campfire, holding his hat in one hand, with the other hand brus.h.i.+ng the perspiration from his forehead.
”Well, I swum!” he muttered. ”I swum!”
”Harriet, we will hear your explanation. Why didn't you tell Mr. Grubb in time, so he could look after this fellow?” demanded Miss Elting.
”You knew there was some one about some time before you got up and walked away, didn't you?”
”I thought I heard some one. That was the reason I strolled off by myself.”
”So I supposed,” commented the guardian.
”Had I said anything the person would have cried out and given the alarm. I wanted to satisfy myself that I was right, and I was.”