Part 10 (1/2)

Now the runners were close upon the spot.

”They're scattering!” called Lanky, as the shouts appeared to come from various localities.

”And I think Bones has got hold of the dog. I can hear someone speaking to him, and trying to quiet the brute!” gasped Paul Bird, who was also a keen runner, able to ”keep up with the procession”

as well as the next fellow.

”That's true. Hold on to him, Bones, old fellow!” Frank managed to shout.

A dozen seconds later, and they came upon the river bank. The half moon up in the western sky gave enough light to show them how matters stood.

”Hurrah! Kaiser cleared the decks! The last of the pirate horde has fled!” cried Amiel Tucker, whose reading was always along the old-time romances.

”And there's our friend Bones, all to the good, fondling that bristly terror! I say, three Bones for cheers!” shouted Red Huggins, known among his mates also as ”Sorreltop,” and who, when greatly excited, often became twisted in his mode of speech.

They cl.u.s.tered around, while Kaiser growled deeply, and licked the face of his young master. Jones was soaked to the skin, and already s.h.i.+vering, though possibly more from the nervous strain than the cold.

Frank immediately took off his own coat, and threw it over the shoulders of the boy who had been ducked again and again.

”What happened to you, Bones?” asked Lanky, who always wanted to know the full particulars, for he expected some day to branch out as a s.h.i.+ning light in the legal profession, and believed he ought to practice while young.

”They jumped me, that's all,” chattered the other, trying to laugh.

”When you went out to quiet your dog?”

”Yep. I hadn't gone half way when they pounced on me. Couldn't let out more'n a little peep when they covered my head with some sort of old horse blanket, and grabbed hold of me. After that it was all over. I heard good old Kaiser carrying on to beat the band.

Oh, how I did wish he could break loose! Wouldn't he have scattered the bunch, though!” observed Bones, as he calmly accepted a second coat offered by another sympathizer.

”Which he did in the end, anyway. Say, what did he do to those sharks?” demanded Buster, coming panting up at this moment.

”You missed the sight of your life. They were having a grand good time dousing me in the drink, you see, when, all of a sudden, Kaiser burst among them. Such whooping and howling I never heard in all my life! You'd sure thought a lunatic asylum had broken loose, boys,” and Bones laughed as well as he could between s.h.i.+vers.

”And then what?” persisted Lanky.

”Oh, they scooted like fun. Some went one way and others tumbled into the river, they were so badly scared. I think Kaiser nipped a few of the bunch before he ran over to lick my face, and I got a cinch hold on his collar. Only for that, he'd have gone back again, and mauled a few that couldn't run fast enough. But how did you come to think of putting him on the scent, fellows?”

”Give Frank here the credit for the bright thought,” said Paul.

”Yes, he's all to the good when it comes to a question of doing something in an emergency. The balance of us were jumping around like so many chickens with their heads off, when he suggested that Kaiser would lead us to the place where you were. It was a grand idea, and it worked, too,” remarked Lanky, warmly.

”Oh, piffle! Cut that out. If I hadn't thought of it, somebody else would have, in about a second. I just happened to get in first, that's all. But we must rush Bones home in a hurry, before he takes cold. A chill just now would knock him out of the game to-morrow, and hurt our chances of a win,” with which Frank a.s.sisted the wet victim of the kidnappers to his feet.

Bones protested, but they would not listen to him. He was rubbed down with many willing hands, and patted and pounded in a way to start his circulation going at fever heat.

Kaiser hardly knew what to think of all this good-natured tussling, and many times growled his disapprobation, so that a word from his master was needed to influence him not to sink those gleaming teeth in the limbs of Buster or Lanky.

All the while they were making for town. Fortunately, Bones did not live a great distance off, and by making haste, they presently reached his house.

Buster volunteered to remain over with him and see that he was properly looked after.