Part 29 (1/2)
”Keep those feet quiet now,” whispered Tom in the little fellow's ear.
”We've got to the point where nonsense won't be safe for you. Now open your mouth!”
Ted firmly pressed his lips together, gritting his teeth. Yet Tom knew a trick of wrestling that forced the young man to open his mouth. Plump into that mouth went one of Halstead's wadded handkerchiefs, stopping the youngster's tongue down and holding his jaws apart.
Satisfied that Ted was gagged, Tom forced another handkerchief between the teeth, knotting it behind the smaller boy's head. Then, with abrupt suddenness, the young skipper bent the little fellow's hands behind him, though not too roughly, and bound the wrists in the best sailorman's fas.h.i.+on. Now Tom turned about, using more of the cord in his pockets to lash the heels of the Dunstan heir securely together. This accomplished, Captain Tom examined all his knots to make sure that none of them was so poorly tied as to cause him regret later on. Then, on tip-toe, he stole over to the door. There was a bolt on it unsecured. Tom softly slipped the bolt into place. There was now no danger of unannounced interference from that direction.
Going back to the angry and astounded Dunstan heir, Halstead knelt beside him.
”Master Ted, I know you feel ugly about me and you hate me just at this minute. You think I'm your enemy and your father's. The scoundrels you've been running with have told you that. The truth is, your father, though not an old man, is aging fast on account of the agony your disappearance has caused him. The time isn't far away when you'll know that we've all been doing our best, in the face of many dangers, to serve a boy who was foolish enough not to want to be served.”
Captain Tom had raised young Dunstan's head and had looked into the latter's eyes while telling him this. But Master Ted glared back only a message of distrust and defiance.
”I've got you now where you can't stand in the way of your own good luck, if only I can once get you away from this house,” Tom went on in a whisper, his mouth close to one of the youngster's ears. ”_You_ can't hinder, anyway.”
Then, with one hand resting heavily on Ted, to prevent any slight possibility of movement by that youngster, Halstead continued kneeling and listening.
At last there came to him the sound for which he had waited-the crunching of feet on the gravel outside. Now Halstead became busy again.
Uncoiling the rope at his waist he rigged a secure slip-noose at one end. This he made fast around Ted's body, under his bound arms. When the sounds without indicated that the eight men were again leaving for the sh.o.r.e, the young captain raised his light human burden, stealing toward the window.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Tom Pushed the Heir Through the Window.]
There was not a sound outside. Tom Halstead pushed the Dunstan heir through the window, lowering him swiftly to the kitchen annex. The young motor boat captain then descended by the lightning rod. He carried Ted, naturally unresisting, to the edge of the annex, lowering him to the ground. Halstead went down himself at a bound, landing on his feet. In a fever of anxiety he found his shoes, swiftly lacing them on.
Now slipping off the noose, Tom loosely coiled the rope about one arm.
Lifting Ted Dunstan, Captain Halstead fled straight across the rear yard and in among the trees.
”There, I hope we've got you away from that crowd,” panted Tom, putting his unwilling companion down. ”But we've got to hustle, so you'll have to use your own feet a bit. Woe unto you, though, if you try any tricks on the stranger who happens to be your best friend at this moment!”
Hiding the rope in a thicket near by; Halstead quickly slashed away the cord at Ted Dunstan's ankles.
”Now you'll come along with me and you'll come mighty fast!” breathed Captain Tom resolutely, as he seized one of the boy's arms.
At first Ted acted as though he intended to drag, but the quality of muscle in the young motor boat skipper's arms must have shown him the folly of such tactics, for presently he trotted at the older boy's side.
Yet they had not gone more than two hundred yards before something else happened. Out from behind a tree shot a human figure. Its owner sprang at Tom Halstead, locking him in a st.u.r.dy embrace. Down to the ground went Halstead and his a.s.sailant, rolling over and over in fierce, battling embrace.
Ted Dunstan lost not an instant in seeing and seizing his opportunity.
His feet, at least, free and able, that youngster whirled and dashed back toward the farmhouse.
CHAPTER XX-BLIND MAN'S BUFF IN FEARFUL EARNEST
For a few seconds the two combatants fought strenuously in the darkness.
”Now, I've got you!” growled the a.s.sailant, wrapping his arms around young Captain Halstead.
But that astounded youth only gasped: