Part 59 (1/2)
It was not a pleasant thought, and therefore Hal did not allow his mind to dwell upon it.
He wondered if he could get open one of the doors of the coach, and leap, or rather tumble, to the ground. It would be a dangerous experiment, considering how he was tied up, but Hal was willing to a.s.sume desperate risks just now.
He fumbled around with his bound hands for fully five minutes, and at last succeeded in turning the handle to one of the coach doors, which immediately swung open.
Hal looked out. They were on an almost deserted road. It was quite dark, and still snowing.
”If I drop out here I may be frozen to death before I can free myself,”
he thought. ”I will wait until we pa.s.s a house of some sort.”
Hal had hardly reached this conclusion before the coach rolled past an elegant road-house, brilliantly illuminated from top to bottom.
”Now is my chance,” he thought. ”There ought to be somebody around to pick me up.”
Losing no time, for they had now pa.s.sed several rods beyond the road-house, the plucky boy wriggled his body toward the open door of the coach.
Watching for what he thought a favorable opportunity, Hal gave himself a lurch forward and tumbled out into the snow. But as he did so one of the rear wheels of the coach struck him on the side of the head, and the blow rendered him unconscious.
His body lay where it had fallen for several minutes. Then two young men in a cutter came driving from the road-house.
”Hullo, Ike, what's that?” cried one of them, pulling up.
”Looks like a tramp in the snow,” replied the other. ”Let's drive out of the way.”
”We can't leave him here. He'll be frozen to death.”
”By Jove, Will, you're right. Wait, I'll jump out and investigate.”
The speaker leaped out into the snow, and bent over the motionless form.
”By Jove! It isn't a tramp at all!” he burst out. ”It's a well-dressed young man. Go back and get help. He's hurt on the head.”
The young fellow remaining in the cutter at once did as directed, and returned with a negro and a white man.
Hal's body was lifted up, and he was carried to the road-house and placed on a lounge in the waiting-room.
Restoratives were applied, and presently Hal gave a gasp and sat up, the cords with which he had been bound having been cut.
”Where--where am I?” he asked, in bewilderment.
”You're safe indoors,” was the reply. ”What was the matter. How came you to be bound?”
”I was trapped, and a man was carrying me off in a coach.”
”What! A regular abduction, eh?”
”Yes, sir.”
”What's the matter? Did the fellow want to get your money?”