The Call of the Beaver Patrol

V >> V. T. Sherman >> The Call of the Beaver Patrol

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17

"He fell over in that direction when a rock struck him," he said.

Will and George made a thorough examination of the slope where the
cavern had been before wasting any time on their injured enemies.

They called loudly to George and Sandy but received no answer.

"I'm afraid," Ed said, "that the boys were crushed under the falling
rocks! If they were, we ought to leave the men responsible for their
death where they are! They are not deserving of human help!"

"And yet," Will replied, "I can't find it in my heart to leave them in
such a plight. We ought at least to see if we can get them out of their
present cramped quarters."

After much exertion the boys managed to manufacture something like a
handspike from one of the broken saplings, and with this they began
prying at the heavy rock. It gave, but slowly.

While they worked away, hoping every instant to be able to draw Fenton
from under the stone and so lessen his sufferings, they saw the hand of
the man they were so unselfishly assisting stealing toward his hip
pocket.

"Watch him!" whispered Will. "He means to shoot us as soon as he is
released! That shows what kind of a dirty dog he is!"

As the rock was lifted by slow degrees and propped so that its weight
was not so heavy upon the unfortunate man the boys saw that his hand was
creeping closer to his hip pocket.

When at last the weight was removed, Fenton's first act was to attempt
to draw his weapon. Ed kicked it from his hand and then proceeded to tie
the fellow's wrists together behind his back.

"You're a dirty sneak," the boy exclaimed, "or you wouldn't try to kill
the people who have saved your life! From this time on, you get no
assistance from us!"

"I didn't mean anything!" whined Fenton.

"Don't lie about it!" fritted Will. "Where's Cameron?"

"You'll find him lower down!" was the reply.

"I hope he's broken his neck!" Ed cut in.

But Cameron had not broken his neck. Instead, he had broken an arm, and
one foot had been badly bruised by a falling stone. He was unconscious
when the boys lifted him and laid him in an easier position.

The two men were at once searched for weapons and left for the time
being to take care of themselves. There was no fear of their escaping,
for one of Fenton's legs had sustained a compound fracture and Cameron's
foot was badly injured.

"What next?" asked Will as the two boys stood facing the spot where they
believed George, Sandy and Bert to be buried under many tons of rock.
"It seems as if we ought to do something for the boys!"

"I'm afraid it's too late!" replied Ed, dejectedly.

"We never can dig under those rocks without help," commented Will,
"therefore, I think we'd better be on the watch for Tommy and Frank and
the surgeon. They surely ought to be somewhere near the cottage by this
time, if not already in it."

"If they've had such blooming bad luck as we have," Ed observed,
"they're probably in jail somewhere! I don't think I ever saw anything
in a worse mess! The very Old Nick seems to be after us!"

"This," Will observed with a grave smile, "is what we call a quiet
little Boy Scout excursion! We have visited the Pictured Socks, the
Everglades, the Great Continental Divide, the Hudson Bay country and got
trapped in an anthracite mine in Pennsylvania since we started out on
our quests for adventure."

"You seem to have found adventure all right!" smiled Ed.

"You bet we have!" replied Will.

The boys made still another inspection of the spot where the cliff had
fallen, and thought that they heard a faint call from the inside.

"They are there!" cried Will. "I'm sure they're there, and alive!"

"But they can't live there very long!" suggested Ed. "So we'd better be
doing something to get them, out!"

"The first thing to do," Will stated, "is to signal to the other
fellows. I'm sure Tommy and Frank must be in with the surgeon before
this!"

"There'll be plenty of work for the surgeon, I imagine," Ed added.

"I'm afraid so," Will admitted.

"But how are you going to signal to the cabin?" asked Ed.

"Indian smoke signals!" was the reply.

Almost before the words were out of Will's mouth, Ed was gathering both
dry and green branches from the thicket.

"If the boys are at the cabin, or even on their way there," Will
continued, "they'll be sure to see the signal, for the night is not so
very dark now, and the land where we are is considerably higher than the
moraine upon which the cabin is built. We'll have to get a blazing fire
of dry wood and then pile on green branches."

"That ought to make a smudge visible ten miles off!" said Ed.

"Not quite so far as that!" smiled Will, "but it's a sure thing the
signals ought to be seen as far as the cabin."

"Perhaps this earthquake shook the cabin down," suggested Ed. "I heard a
racket over to the south which seemed to indicate that the moraine was
being crumpled up like a piece of leather in a blaze."

"It seems to me," Will agreed, "that the earthquake did change the map
of Alaska in some particulars. Now, if you've got enough dry wood, we'll
start the fire and in five minutes we'll be ready for the green boughs!"

Two roaring fires were soon going on the mountainside, and then both
Cameron and Fenton pleaded to be assisted nearer to the circle of
warmth. They were both shivering with the cold.

"We ought to give you a swift toss into the blaze!" exclaimed Will. "And
we may do it, too," he went on, "if we find that our chums have been
brought to their death by your abducting them!"

"We had nothing to do with their being in the cave!" lied Cameron.

"What were you doing in the edge of the thicket?" asked Ed.

"We were watching you and your friends," was the reply. "We thought that
you were in quest of our mine!"

"Did you see those red and blue lights?" asked Will.

"Certainly we did," replied Cameron.

"Well, they told the story of what has taken place since the boys left
the cabin to follow your footsteps last night, so you may as well save
your breath. Lies won't help you any!"

However, the lads managed to bring the two men closer to the fire and
then set about piling on more green boughs.

"Now," Will said, as he stood regarding the two columns of smoke with no
little satisfaction, "if our friends are within five miles of us, they
ought to understand that we are in need of a little friendly
assistance."

Time and again the two boys went back to the place where the cavern had
been and listened patiently for some further indication that their
friends were still alive. Several times they heard the rumbling of a
voice but they could not distinguish the words of it.

Finally Will went back to where Cameron lay on the ground by the fire
and asked abruptly:

"Is your name Garman, Cameron or Brooks?"

The fellow gave a quick start of surprise but made no answer.

"Is this man Fenton the clerk who stole the machine drawings?" was the
next question. "Where are the plans now?"

"I don't know anything about any plans!" declared Cameron.

"What do you fellows expect to do with the plans?" asked Will.

"We haven't got them!" was the surly reply.

"Don't lie about it!" Will advised. "We know that the plans were sent to
Fenton's employer and that Fenton stole them."

"How do the plans concern you?" demanded Cameron.

"We don't want the plans because they are alleged to represent a
valuable invention," Will replied. "We want them because they are needed
in the criminal court of Chicago."

"I suppose you boys planned this costly and dangerous expedition for the
purpose of seeing how the plans look!" sneered Fenton.

"That's about the size of it!" replied Will.

"Well, we don't know anything about the plans!" declared Cameron, "and
we wouldn't give you any information on the subject if we did!"

"All right," Will replied. "We can tie you up out here and the mosquitos
will do the rest!"

Before Will could ask the question which was on his lips, three quick
pistol shots came from the south.

"There!" the boy said excitedly, "the signals have brought a response!"

"Friend or foe?" asked Ed.

"That's more than I know!" Will replied.

CHAPTER XX

DOWN IN THE CHASM

When Tommy, Frank, Sam and the doctor started toward the bottom of the
chasm in order that they might reach the spot from which the smoke
signal was ascending on the other side, they anticipated rough going,
but the actuality was much worse than anything which had been expected.

The soil extended only six or eight feet. Passing this they came to a
point where the solid glacier had been opened by the earthquake.

The break was uneven, there being little shelves and ledges upon which
the feet might rest, but the going was uncertain for all that.

The roaring of the fast-lifting torrent prevented conversation, and the
darkness made signalling impossible except when the searchlights were
held in position.

It was very cold at the bottom of the break, too, and the boys felt
their hands growing numb.

However, they proceeded with good speed until they came to a point where
the current had swept the tree trunks far apart and parallel with each
other. Here it became necessary for them to take the chance of a long
jump. When it came Sam's turn to make the leap, the log upon which he
struck rolled under his weight and he went down under the wreckage and
rush of water.

Frank and Tommy sprang to his assistance at once, reaching down in the
hope of getting hold of his hand, but the swift current carried the boy
along until he was beyond their reach.

They saw his head come to the surface and saw him strike out for the
floating logs on the north side of the chasm.

Then the bushy top of a tree drifted down upon him and he went under.

The boys stood for a moment as if paralyzed at what had taken place, and
then Tommy sprang into the mass of floating boughs and, clinging to one
which sustained his weight, called out to Frank to turn his searchlight
on the place where he stood.

Frank did as requested, but it showed only a half-frozen and dripping
boy clinging to the boughs of a tree which was already beginning to drop
down beneath his weight.

The lads had about abandoned all hope of rescue when Sam's head once
more appeared above the surface. He was within a short distance of Tommy
and the boy, dropping his searchlight, sprang toward him.

He succeeded in getting hold of the boy's arm.

Then Frank, appreciating the situation, dropped in and, while retaining
hold of a reasonably firm log on the west side of the chasm, caught the
rescuer by the hand. Doctor Pelton, who had been creeping nearer to the
point of danger, now seized Frank by the arm and slowly and with great
effort the human chain drew the half-drowned boy to the little platform
of logs and brush upon which the doctor stood.

Sam lay there for a moment panting and shivering, and then sprang to his
feet. The north wall was still to climb.

The slope here was more gradual and all four soon found themselves at
the top of the chasm, wet and cold, but on the side where the Boy Scout
signal had shown.

"We ought to tell the boys we are coming, hadn't we?" asked Tommy.

He drew his automatic from his pocket as he spoke and pressed the
trigger, but there was no explosion.

"Try mine!" advised Doctor Pelton. "I guess I'm the only person who
didn't get wet."

As he spoke the doctor fired three quick shots.

"I wonder if they'll answer?" asked Tommy.

"They will if they can," replied Sam. "I don't know your chums, of
course, but when a Boy Scout sends up a signal for help and shots are
fired, it is only good manners to acknowledge the courtesy."

No answering shots came for a moment, however, for Will and Ed were at
that moment some distance away from the place where their automatics had
been thrown after having been taken from Cameron and Fenton.

The shots came before long, however, and the party of wet and shivering
boys pressed on.

"I'd like to know what the boys are doing so far away from the cabin,"
Tommy grumbled. "They ought to have sense enough to stay put!"

The party was met just beyond the illumination of the fire by Will and
Ed, who greeted their chums with such cordiality that a rather perilous
situation was at once suspected.

"What are you boys doing out here in the scenery, anyhow?" demanded
Tommy. "You ought to be at home in the cabin with a hot supper ready for
us! You always go wrong when I go away!" he added with a grin.

"There's no time to tell long stories now," Will hastened to say. "The
thing we've got to do is to pry open that mountain and dig George, Sandy
and Bert out."

"Are they dead?" asked Tommy, turning very white.

"There's some one alive in there," replied Will. "We hear something
which sounds like the human voice but we can't distinguish any words."

"Earthquake?" asked Tommy.

"Earthquake!" replied Will.

"But how----"

Will cut Frank off with a gesture and pointed to the cliff.

"We've got to get to work!" he said.

Just then a low groan reached the ears of the members of the group and
Doctor Pelton sprang toward the place where Cameron and Fenton lay.

Tommy dashed after him and looked down on the two men.

"Where did you get 'em?" he asked.

"We didn't get 'em," was the reply. "The earthquake got 'em."

"Then I'll bet they were trying to do something to Bert!" Tommy
declared.

"Right, little man!" replied Will. "But we haven't got time to talk
about it now. This, I suppose," he added, turning to the surgeon, "is
the doctor you brought from Cordova?"

"That's Doctor Pelton," Tommy answered, "and this," he continued,
pointing to Sam, "is Sam White, Bulldog Patrol, Portland, Oregon. He
isn't as hungry as he looks to be, for we fed him up good and proper on
the way out!"

During this brief introduction, Sam and Ed had been eyeing each other
with half concealed grins.

"You boys seem to know each other," Tommy said.

"That's my chum," Sam replied, pointing to Ed. "I saw fit to seek my
fortunes in town while he made a break for the mines."

The boys greeted each other warmly and then all turned their attention
to that portion of the cliff where the caverns had once stood.

"They're still alive," Frank exclaimed as he reached a little fissure in
the rock and bent downward. "I can hear some one talking!"

"Did you say that George and Sandy and Bert were all in there?" asked
Tommy, turning to Will. "How did they get in there?"

"They were all in there just before the earthquake," replied Will. "I
can't stop now to tell you how it all happened. They were signalling to
us when the shock came."

"Signalling, how?" asked Tommy.

"Morse code, red and blue lights!" replied Will. "It's all the work of
the miner and his bum friend," Will continued. "The boys were barricaded
in the cave when the earthquake stirred things up, and the same
convulsion which wrecked the cave injured the two men who were
responsible for the condition the boys were in. Now you know all about
it that I'm going to tell you until we get the lads out and get back to
the cabin!"

"They're not dead, anyway," Frank exclaimed "I can hear Sandy's voice!"

CHAPTER XXI

EXPLAINING CORDOVA INCIDENTS

"I've found the door to the hole in the ground!" shouted Tommy, a few
moments later, as he sent a great rock rolling down the slope.

The boys rushed to the opening so made and were overjoyed at seeing a
light in the cavity thus exposed.

"Your door isn't big enough!" laughed Frank. "A good-sized cat couldn't
get through there!"

"What are you boys talking about?" came a voice from the inside.

"Another one of those foolish questions!" laughed Tommy. "We're not
talking at all, little man!" he continued. "We're getting our shoes
shined! What are you doing in there?"

"We're not in here at all!" replied Sandy. "We're up on the Masonic
Temple, watching a Columbia Yacht Club regatta!"

"Aw, cut it out!" advised Will. "Are you boys all safe?"

"Sure we're all safe!" answered Sandy, "George has a grouch because he
hasn't anything to eat here, but the rest of us are all right!"

"Where's Bert?" asked Frank.

"In here!" was the answer.

"We brought a surgeon for him," Frank went on.

"He doesn't need a surgeon now!" replied George. "What he needs more
than anything else is a cook!"

"We'll give him two cooks!" shouted Tommy.

"Why don't you hurry up and get us out?" demanded Bert, in a weak voice.

"If you remain in there a few weeks," Tommy laughed, "perhaps you'll get
so thin you can crawl out of this crack!"

"Well, get to digging!" replied George.

"And for the love of Mike," exclaimed Sandy, "when you get to digging,
don't drop any rocks on top of us! We have a little hole here now about
four feet square!"

After making a study of the situation and advising with Doctor Pelton as
to the proper course to pursue, the boys began prying at a large rock
which lay almost on top of the shelf upon which the boys had ridden to
the thicket. The rock moved, but grudgingly.

"If you can move that rock," the doctor said, "I think the one just
above it will slide down and leave an opening large enough for the boys
to pass out of. It ought not to be much trouble to move it!"

Notwithstanding the doctor's predictions, the boys worked at the rock
with their home-made handspikes for an hour before it broke loose and
rattled down upon the shelf just above the fire.

"Come out of that now," cried Tommy stooping down and looking into the
cavern. "Come on out, now!"

Sandy was not long in obeying instructions. George came next and then
the two lads turned about and lifted Bert out of his cramped position.

"That pigeon hole we've been occupying is about four inches square!"
Sandy declared. "And I'm just about dead for a good long breath of fresh
air! I never knew before how good air tasted."

Bert glanced around the circle of faces and smiled amusedly as he saw
that his chum was there with the rest.

"Where'd you go, Frank?" he asked.

Frank hastened to the lad's side and bent over him.

"I headed for the cabin," he answered, "and missed it. The Indian smoke
signal brought the boys out and they fed me up."

Will now approached the spot where the two boys were talking and pointed
to Cameron and Fenton now sitting with their faces illuminated by the
blaze. They both scowled at the inspection.

"Which one of those men gave you the clout on the head?" Will asked.

"That fellow with the alfalfas," replied Bert.

"And he stole the code message you were carrying?"

"I don't know!" replied Bert. "I had it when he came into the cabin and
began talking with me and I haven't thought of it since. Was it stolen?"

"You bet it was!" replied Frank. "But we've been to Cordova and got a
duplicate of it!"

Cameron and Fenton scowled fiercely as they listened to the
conversation.

"Have you got the code message with you now?" asked Will.

"Sure I have!" answered Frank.

"Suppose you read it, then."

Frank took an envelope from his pocket, tore off one end, and brought
out an ordinary sheet of letter paper bearing the heading of the
wireless company. The boys gathered about him eagerly.

"It isn't very much!" Frank said with a laugh. "Say, you two fellows,"
he added, waving the paper in the direction of Cameron and Fenton,
"would, you like to hear this code despatch read?"

"You bet they would," cut in Sandy. "That's all they've been thinking
about for the last two days!"

"Well, it's short and sweet and very satisfying!" Frank laughed.

"Aw, read it!" demanded Tommy. "What's the use of making a monkey of
yourself? Let's see what it has to say for itself."

Frank bent a searchlight on the paper and read:

"Will Smith, in camp near Katalla, Alaska: The machine plans have been
traced to the cabin to which you were directed. Make close examination
there before looking elsewhere. Horton."

"What do you know about that, Cameron?" asked Will with a smile. "Are
the plans really hidden in our cabin?"

"Your cabin!" sneered Cameron.

"I guess the cabin belongs to us as much as it does to you!" Tommy cut
in. "Are the machine plans hidden there?"

"What do you want of the machine plans?" demanded Cameron.

"They don't belong to you!" roared Fenton.

"We have no claim upon them," replied Will. "In fact, we have no use for
them at all, except that we want to identify the mark of a human thumb
which soiled one of the papers."

"All lies!" shouted Cameron.

"I'm telling you the truth," declared Will.

"Then why didn't you come right to me and say so?" demanded Cameron.

"You didn't give us a chance!" replied Will.

"Are the plans hidden in the cabin?" asked Sandy.

"This is all a faked-up story you are telling me!" Fenton shouted.
"Whoever wired you that the plans were in the cabin didn't know what he
was talking about! We don't know anything about the plans."

"That doesn't agree with what Cameron just said," Frank laughed.

"Cameron doesn't know anything about the plans, either," raged Fenton.

"Are you the clerk who stole the plans from your employer?" asked Will.

"I tell you that I don't know anything about any plans!" stormed Fenton.
"Cameron and I are prospecting this moraine for gold, and we have no
interest in any plans whatever!"

"And yet Cameron gave Bert a crack on the coco and stole the code
message!" suggested Will.

"He probably thought the message referred to our mining properties!"
declared Fenton. "We had a right to suppose it had."

"Then you won't tell us where the plans are?" demanded Will.

"I tell you that I don't know anything about the plans," screamed
Fenton. "I never saw the plans."

"All right," Will replied. "We'll leave you fellows out here to think
the matter over. By morning you will probably know where the plans are
hidden. The mosquitos may be able to convince you."

"A little meditation may refresh his memory," Frank said.

"What have you got to do about it, anyhow?" demanded Cameron. "I don't
think you've got any right to butt in here!"

"Who is that freshie?" asked Fenton.

"Frank Disbrow," replied the doctor with a smile. "He's the son of the
military officer in charge of the military stations in Alaska."

The boys all turned and regarded Frank curiously.

"So that's why the walls all fell down when you knocked!" exclaimed
Tommy. "That's why the federal officer refused to make any arrests.
That's why Jamison returned the money and gave us the use of his motor
boat. I begin to understand some of the things that took place at
Cordova now. Why didn't you tell us something about it before we had all
that trouble?"

"Oh, I didn't want to mix father up in the combination," Frank replied
with a smile. "Besides," he added, "it did look something like piracy."

"It certainly did," observed Doctor Pelton. "If Frank hadn't been a
member of the pirate crew, I rather imagine that you boys would be
cooling your heels in some Alaska prison about now. Of course, you would
have been released in time, but the affair would have made you
considerable trouble."

"Who's Bert, then?" demanded Tommy.

"Bert is the son of a prominent federal official at Chicago," replied
Frank. "But we've had enough of this," the boy declared modestly. "I
didn't do any more than any other boy would have done."

"You undertook that long trip out to the cabin when you didn't have to!"
exclaimed Will. "That was good of you!"

CHAPTER XXII

THE PLANS AT LAST

With a parting glance at Cameron and Fenton, the boys, accompanied by
the doctor, turned away in the direction of the cabin.

"Wait!" shouted Fenton. "Don't go off and leave us in this plight! We'll
starve to death if you do!"

"What about those plans?" demanded Will.

"I'll help you find the plans!" screamed Cameron. "I'll see that you get
the plans; if you get us out of this scrape!"

"Keep still!" commanded Fenton.

"I refuse to keep still!" declared Cameron. "I'm not going to be left
here to be devoured by insects. Tell me the truth about the plans," he
went on, "what do you want of them?"

"We want to introduce the plans in evidence in the criminal court at
Chicago," replied Will.

"And that will betray our secret," commented Fenton fiercely. "Those
plans are worth millions of dollars to us! They represent the only
perfect mining machine ever invented."

"We don't care anything about your mining machine," Will answered.

"Have you noticed anything peculiar about the plans?" Frank asked.

"Nothing except that they are dirty!" was the reply.

"Marked up with thumb prints, for instance?"

"Yes, there are thumb prints," replied Cameron.

"Well, we want the thumb prints," Frank laughed.

"You're a fool if you listen to any such arguments!" screamed Fenton.
"Why should these gutter snipes want the papers for the thumb prints?"

"That's what we want them for!" insisted Frank. "Are you going to tell
us where the plans are?"

"I'll tell you!" replied Cameron.

Fenton turned his back on his friend and refused to discuss the question
further. When the lads started away carrying Cameron on a rude litter,
they left his follow conspirator lying by the fire.

"Please bring him along," pleaded Cameron. "He'll die if you leave him
there! I can tell you where the plans are, and I'll do so, whether he
likes it or not. This has been a misunderstanding all around. We were
only trying to protect our interest in the mines which we believed to
exist in this neighborhood, and in the plans, which we believed to be
very valuable!"

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17