Part 30 (1/2)

”It is more important than anything else could be that we should find the boy,” Tom heard the Honduran explain to Gambon. ”And daylight will show that they have not gotten away from here. It was here that the sounds of flight stopped. Somewhere, within a stone's throw or two we shall yet come upon the meddlers in hiding. I shall not give up.”

”Confound him,” whispered Joe, a little later, in his chum's ear.

”Before this I always admired persistency.”

Following the first dawn the light came in more strongly. Now, the two chums crouched more closely than ever, also seeing to it that Master Ted was forced to lie as flat as possible.

Joe Dawson, lying flat on his stomach, peering out beyond their retreat, moved one of his feet restlessly. Something made him turn to glance behind him. With that he began to slide slowly backward. His feet went further and further into a narrow hole. Then, after nudging Halstead in one leg, Dawson crept back until only his shoulders were exposed. Tom watched his chum in overjoyed wonder. Joe's next performance was to vanish from sight. Then, very soon, he wriggled silently out again, until his lips were beside one of his comrade's ears.

”There's a hole running into that hummock there,” Dawson explained. ”It is a crampy little bit of a hole, but it will conceal all three of us.

Let's work Ted in there first.”

This they proceeded to do, though with intense stealth and no hurry.

They got Ted out of sight under the ground, at last, then more speedily concealed themselves.

”Fine, Joe, fine!” cheered Halstead, in a chuckling whisper. ”Our chances of not being found have improved a hundred times!”

”If only Alvarez and his infernal crew will get away from this spot,”

Joe whispered, in answer. ”But the day that is beginning is absolutely the last day to save Ted's fortune to him. If we trip up to-day there isn't a chance of any kind left. He'll simply lose!”

Tom kept his face close enough to the opening in the ground so that he could see outside for some little distance, and yet was sure that he himself was enough in the shadow not to be seen from outside.

By the time that the sun was well up Don Emilio insisted on another keen search. This time French and Gambon even trod through the edge of the thicket that had concealed the boys during the darkness. But the mouth of the hole under the hummock was still hidden from their eyes by other bushes.

By the time that the sun had been up for some time quiet had fallen in these woods. Tom and Joe might have felt tempted to make a sudden break for freedom, but the scratch of a match, not far away, warned them that at least one watcher was still in hiding.

”I wonder what time it is,” thought tormented Halstead, his mind ever upon that fateful session of probate court over at Nantucket. He got his watch out, holding it before his face. Then he made an appalling discovery. He had forgotten to wind up the time-piece, and it had run down.

”Your watch going, Joe?” the young skipper asked.

”No,” Dawson whispered back, after a moment spent in investigation.

”This is a pretty fix. We can't even guess how much time we have left to get out of here and over to Nantucket.”

It was not long after that a gentle sound attracted Halstead's notice to his friend. Sleepless and worn out, Dawson had fallen into slumber.

”That'll be all right,” thought Tom, ”if only he doesn't snore. If he does, I'll have to hold his nose and pull him out of it.”

As for Ted, the idea of making a snoring sound didn't seem to have occurred to him, or he would have tried it. Tom moved closer to the little fellow, that he might be at hand to prevent any such attempt to send warning outside their cramped retreat.

Whizz-zz! It was an automobile going by at high speed. It pa.s.sed and was gone, almost at once, but the sound gave Tom a good idea how close they lay to the road. Yet it was surely a lonely road, little traveled, for time went dragging by without any other sound of travel.

”I'd feel starving if I weren't so fearfully anxious,” thought Tom. ”Joe is lucky that he can sleep. He'll forget how awfully hungry he is. As for poor Ted, his mixture of feelings must be something wonderful!”

In time, Halstead found himself fighting drowsiness. The very thought that he might fall asleep so filled him with fright that he became alertly awake. Slumber and a snore or two might be enough to break their last slim chance of winning out for the Dunstans.

CHAPTER XXI-THE LAST DASH TO WIN