Part 24 (1/2)

”There you are!” Alf shouted triumphantly. ”Get 'em!”

Tom jumped to his feet. There was no time to warn Wilson and Shadrack. He could hear the boots pounding up the stairs. He sprang to the window and threw it open. To jump on that mess of farm tools below him would probably mean a broken leg. Leaning far out, he reached around and pushed up the window of the next room, climbed in and closed his own window. Through the wall he could hear them banging at his door.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

ESCAPING

Tom stood in the center of the dark room and listened to the tumult in the corridor. They were pounding at the door of the room he had just deserted, wrenching at the k.n.o.b.

”Open up there!” yelled Alf. ”Open up!”

Then came a crash as the door splintered. Alf's voice sounded in rage of fury: ”Gone!”

Tom heard him bolt from the room and up the corridor, screaming: ”Is he in there with the other two? Have you got them?”

Then the Judge's voice: ”We've got these two. Where's the other?”

”Gone!” answered Alf. ”Escaped! I told you....”

”Joe!” boomed the Judge.

”Here I am, sir.”

”Have you been here all the time?”

”Yes, sir.”

”The dirty rat let him escape....”

”Shut up, Alf! Have you been here all the time, Joe?”

”Yes, sir. I've been right here, sir. I didn't leave for a second.”

Alf yelled: ”Look out the window! He jumped out the window! Run around outside!” He came bounding down the hall again, entered the room, and threw open the window.

Tom could see his head in the candle light. He s.h.i.+fted back closer to the wall, his heart pounding. ”Look through them bushes,” yelled Alf to the men who had run into the yard. He let the window slam shut and went up the hall. Then: ”Where'd that other one go? Come on! Out with it! You know!”

”Don't try any of that,” said the Judge. ”You're wasting your time. These men don't know anything about it. Joe was here in the corridor.”

A few seconds later, Tom heard Alf's voice in the yard: ”He's got away. Get horses! If we only had a pack of dogs....” The noise in the corridor ceased, and the men clumped down the stairs, leading Wilson and Shadrack with them. The sound of voices in the yard grew indistinct and far away.

Tom began quietly to investigate his new room. It was on the corner of the house, and there were two windows-the one through which Tom had entered, and another which looked out to the rear. He felt his way along the wall and came to a wash-stand and a chair. He took the chair and wedged it silently under the door-k.n.o.b; then stole across to the rear window. It was black dark outside. After a few minutes, he raised the window and listened. Men were yelling in the distance. Apparently they were starting on a wild night chase in the hopes of finding him on the road.

”If you had more sense and less energy, Alf,” muttered Tom, ”you might get me.” The vision of Andrews' calmness during the raid flashed across his mind. ”Let them get excited,” he said to himself; ”you keep your wits.”

Then he heard the Judge's voice, booming in front of the hotel: ”Tell them to get that wagon around here in a hurry-we'll get these two engine stealers started for Chattanooga, and hunt down the other one when it's light.”

Tom left the window and s.n.a.t.c.hed up the bedclothes, knotted the blankets together and tied them around the leg of the bed. They would shorten his drop to a few feet, so that the noise would not be heard above the general commotion. Then he waited until he heard the wagon creak up before the hotel and stop. The crowd followed the prisoners and their guards out to watch the departure.

Tom opened the window and tossed the blankets down; then he squirmed to the sill, clutched the blankets with his hands and knees, and slid. He dropped to the ground noiselessly, and stood for a moment scanning the yard for obstacles. Thirty or forty yards ahead of him there was a row of bushes which led into the woods south of the village. That would be the best way, he decided.