Link shook his head and started to cry.
I says, “For Lord’s sake, you went through a whole lot for Red-headed Monk Bridges, and you wasn’t a’scared. That’s the way with you, Link; you ain’t never a’scared when you are doing something for somebody else.”
He didn’t answer me. He rubbed his fist in his eyes as he walked away. Dern if I didn’t feel sorry for that skinny kid as I watched him go down to his pop’s houseboat. “Poor fella,” I says to myself, “poor little skinny kid. Dern if he ain’t always getting himself into trouble for somebody else.”
Lew Hunter called me from the houseboat. “Come up here, Hawkins,” he says.
I went up quick.
“I got a new song,” he says.
“Aw, shucks,” I answered. “I thought you had some news about Stoner’s Boy.”
Lew bit his lip. “My goodness,” he says, “ain’t we ever going to get rid of Stoner’s Boy?”
“I hope so,” I says.
WEDNESDAY.—Lew Hunter is a sure enough music teacher. The new song we are practicing is called “I Hear You Calling Me,” and none of us fellas can sing high enough for it, except Lew himself. He got kinda sore at me when I tried to reach the high note today. He says, “Golly Moses, Hawkins, don’t strain your voice like that.”
Just then the door opened. We looked around to see who come in. It was the Skinny Guy’s pop. He looked worried. He stood by the door and took off his hat. “Excuse me,” he says, in a low voice. “Excuse me, I hope you boys won’t mind me coming in without knocking.”
I says, “Come in, Mister Lambert, sit down and rest yourself.”
He shook his head and turned his hat around in his hand like he was nervous. “Thanks,” he says, “thanks, but I ain’t got time to sit down. I just want to know if Link is here.”
Nobody said a word. Link’s pop looked around at all of us fellas in the houseboat. He seen that Link wasn’t with us. His face got more wrinkled. “No,” he says, “he ain’t here.”
Lew Hunter stormed off the organ platform and says, “What’s wrong, Mister Lambert?”
Link’s pop tried hard to smile at Lew. “Thanks,” he says again, “thanks, boy, I want to know where my boy Link is.”
I walked up to him and says, “What’s happened, Mister Lambert?”
“I don’t know,” he answered. “Link wasn’t to home last night. I was getting worried about him staying away from me; seems like he don’t care much about his pappie no more.”
Jerry Moore got up out of his chair and stepped up. “Ain’t no use telling a lie, Mister,” he says. “Your boy is in bad with the fella we call Stoner’s Boy. Most likely he is a prisoner by now.”
Link’s pop got red in the face. “It ain’t fair,” he says. “It ain’t no fair for that Stoner’s Boy to pick on my Link because he been helping the Red Head; it ain’t fair.”
None of us fellas said a word. “Listen,” I says, “Stoner’s Boy has been laying around here waiting for a chance to get Link, and maybe he got him, but leave it to us, Mister Lambert. We will bring him back to you safe and sound.”
The Skinny Guy’s pop shook his head. “I knew his daddy,” he said. “He was a bad man. Stoner’s Boy ain’t no better; he will do something to my Link. I ain’t gonna stand for it. I am gonna tell the sheriff right now.”
Jerry Moore says, “Don’t whisper a word to the sheriff about it; we will take care of it.”
The Skinny Guy’s pop turned without another word and walked out.
“Well,” says our captain, Dick Ferris, “what you boys got to say now?”
Jerry Moore hit his fist on the table. “Say,” he says, “I guess we got enough to say. We are going to get Link back right away. Oscar Koven will watch the river till somebody comes and takes his place. Hawkins will watch next, and I’ll be there after Hawkins, and by that time we can fix up some plans.”
“All right,” I says, “get down to the river quick, Oscar, and if you see the gray launch or the sailboat, hoot like an owl and we will save him.”
A step sounded outside. “Who’s that?” asks our capt.
It was Briggen and Ham Gardner. “Link’s gone,” says Briggen, coming into the houseboat.
“We know it,” says our capt. “You Pelham fellas keep a sharp watch on your side of the river, and stop that gray motor-boat if you get a chanst.”
“You know we will,” says Briggen. “We got a lot to thank Skinny Link for.”
“All right,” says Dick. “Keep your eyes open.”
THURSDAY.—It was an exciting day for us yesterday, but we all felt purty blue today. No gray motorboat tried to go up the river. We never saw a sign of Stoner’s Boy, and not a sign of Skinny Link. Mister Lambert felt purty gloomy. He says he never worried about Link before, but he was sure this time there was something wrong. He says that Stoner’s Boy would try to pay Link back for coaxing Monk Bridges away from him.
We held our meeting at the houseboat, after school, and all of us fellas tried to find some trace of Link, but it wasn’t any use. We closed up our doors at dark and didn’t know anything more than we did yesterday.
FRIDAY.—Everybody was blue today. I felt so blue after I come down here to the houseboat that I can’t write in my seckatary book. It is funny; the only thing us fellas want now is to know what happened to Link. I says to Lew today, “Maybe he is gone up to see the Red Head.”
“Yeah,” says Lew, “let’s hope so.”
SATURDAY.—All of us fellas come down early today, there being no school today. We cleaned up the houseboat in the morning.
Dick Ferris gave a little laugh. “Lew,” he says, “what you think about Link, anyway?”
Lew didn’t act like he was much worried. “Oh,” he says, “I guess Link will be back soon. Maybe he only went up to Watertown to see how the Red Head was gitting along.”
“No, he didn’t,” says a voice. We all looked up quick.
There was a fella standing in our houseboat door. It was the Red Head, Monk Bridges. “I thought there might be trouble,” he says, “so I come back.”
I says, “Monk Bridges, where is Link Lambert?”
He held up his hands. “Why you ask me?” he says. “I come to ask you.”
I says, “We know Stoner’s Boy has got him.”
The Red Head looked around at all of us. “You don’t know where Stoner’s den is, do you?” he asked.
“No,” answers Dick Ferris. “If we did, we would have Link back by this time.”
“Well,” he says, “I know what I am up against. If you fellas will promise not to follow me, I will bring Link back safe to you. I ain’t got no feelings for Stoner’s Boy myself, but I ain’t gonna let you turn me over to the sheriff and send me back where I got away from.”
I stepped up to the Red Head. “Listen,” I says, “you go and bring Link Lambert back to us, and we won’t have a word to say to you.”
“That’s a bargain,” he says. “You wait here.” He turned quick and went out the door.
We waited. Lord, how we waited. Dick Ferris said we was being made fools of by the Red Head.
“He is playing with you,” says Dick.
But Lew Hunter says, “No, let the Red Head alone; he will be true to his word.”
And he was. We were all getting ready to lock up the houseboat and go home because it was getting late, but all at once little Frankie Kane give a cry and run out. We all followed and looked.
There was Link Lambert standing on the shore, waving a hand at somebody down on the river. “Good-bye, Monk!” he hollered.
Then he turned and come up to the houseboat. He had a hungry look on his face. He looked at me, like as if I was his only friend. “Hawkins,” he says, “you saved me from being starved up there in that dark place.”
I says, “Where?”
He says, “Up there in Stoner’s hiding place. Monk Bridges come up and took me out. Stoner had me tied hand and foot.”
“THERE WAS LINK LAMBERT STAND
ING ON THE SHORE WAVING HIS HAND AT SOMEBODY.”
I says, “Where is the hiding place?”
Link looked at me with fright in his eyes. “Don’t ask me, Hawkins!” he hollered. “Don’t go up there; you won’t get out alive.”
I walked over to Dick Ferris and says, “Dick, we got to find this place, and see what it is.”
“We will,” he says, “but first let’s take Link home to his pop. He will be worrying himself sick; we better go right away.”
Which we did.
CHAPTER 15
Stoner’s Cave Found
MONDAY.—Us boys met to-day after school to make plans to find the hiding place of Stoner’s Boy. We made the Skinny Guy tell us as much as he could about the place where Stoner’s Boy tied him hand and foot, and kept him a prisoner.
But there was something about it that made Link too scared to talk. Ever since the poor kid got out of that place he has been nervous and scared. Every little sound frightens him. Every time we go walking in the woods and somebody steps on a twig or something and makes a noise, Link nearly jumps out of his skin. But we talked kinda nice to him and said we would stick close to him, and he never goes out alone after dark.
At the meeting today I says, “Link, tell us fellas just how you got caught, and where Stoner’s Boy took you.”
Link shook his head. “I can’t,” he says, “because after Stoner jumped on me and knocked me down, I didn’t have sense enough to watch where he took me, because he had my hands tied, and he held his gun up close to my back and made me walk in front of him.”
Lew Hunter says, “Well, Link, couldn’t you lead us to the place?”
Link shook his head. “No,” he says, “after we got up the cliffs Stoner tied his gray handkerchief around my eyes, and I was blindfolded.”
“Well,” says Dick Ferris, “we will make a trial tomorrow to find the place, and you try to remember what you can, and see if you can’t give us an idea where you were taken.”
“All right,” says Link, “give me the time to think.”
TUESDAY.—Right after school we all came down to the houseboat to have our meeting, but the Skinny Guy didn’t show up. Jerry Moore says, “I guess Link is scared out of his wits. I don’t think he will ever try to lead us to Stoner’s hiding place.”
I says, “Let’s go down to his pop’s houseboat, and see him.”
We all walked down to the purty houseboat on the river, where Link and his pop lived. But before we could get onto the gangplank Link’s pop came out and held his finger to his lips. “Don’t make no noise,” he says, “Link is sick in bed.”
We all backed up the bank a piece, and then the houseboat door opened again and out come Doc Waters. Doc stopped to talk to Link’s pop in a low voice; we couldn’t hear what he said. Then Doc came up the bank. “Hello, boys,” he says, “I am sorry to tell you your skinny playmate is in very bad shape. His nerve is gone; he must of had a terrible scare.”
Us fellers felt too sorry to speak. We walked up the bank with Doc, and when he left us he says not to bother poor old Link, and maybe he would be all right in a few days.
WEDNESDAY.—We had our meeting today after school, and Link’s pop come up to tell us that Link was some better. We says, “We are awful glad to hear that.”
Link’s pop says, “There was a strange man around your houseboat today. I saw him peeping in one of the windows.”
We thanked him for telling us, and as soon as he left we begun our meeting. Just about when we were finished there come a knock on the door.
“Come in,” hollers Dick.
The door opened and in come a tall man; none of us had ever seen him before. He took off his hat. He was bald headed. “I hope you will pardon me,” he says, making a bow to our captain.
Dick bowed too.
“It’s all right,” says Dick. “We like to have visitors.”
The man smiled. “I thought so,” he says. “I am looking for a boy who visited you not long ago. I was told I might find him here; they told me he used to play around this place.”
Dick says, “What is his name?”
“His name,” says the stranger man, “is William, leastways that is what he told me, but he never would tell me his family name.”
Dick shook his head.
“The only William we got is Bill there,” says Dick. “Stand up, Bill Darby, and show yourself.”
Bill stood up.
The man looked at him and shook his head. “No,” he says, “the boy I am looking for has red hair.”
No more than he said that, I saw Dick wink at Bill and Jerry and me to keep still and not say another word. Dick did all the rest of the talking himself.
“I guess you are in the wrong church, mister,” says Dick. “We ain’t got no Williams except Bill there.”
The man looked disappointed. “I was hoping you could tell me,” he says. “I am very anxious to get him back, but maybe the skinny boy could tell me. Do you know where the skinny boy is?”
Dick stood up. “He is sick, mister,” says Dick. “That skinny boy is too sick to talk to anybody.”
The man made another bow. “Good day,” he says, “sorry I had to trouble you.”
He put on his hat and walked out. Just as soon as the door shut Jerry Moore jumped up and says, “Dick, that man is after the Red Head to take him back to the School for Bad Boys where he broke out of.”
Dick gave the table a sharp crack with his wooden hammer. “Shut up,” he says, “shut up every one of you; the next fella what says anything about that Red Head breaking out of the School for Bad Boys is going to get fired out of this houseboat.”
“Well,” hollers Jerry, “it’s the truth, ain’t it?”
Dick says, “It don’t make no difference if it is true or not. The Red Head helped to get the Skinny Guy out of Stoner’s den, and he was purty square with Link, and that’s why we ain’t got no right to give him away now.”
Nobody had a word to say after that speech. Dick says, “I hope all you fellas understand me.”
Which we did.
THURSDAY.—It was a funny noise up on the main road that started us fellas on a hunt today. “Listen,” says Dick Ferris, “what’s that?”
We all listened. It was the sound of a motorcycle or something. “Golly Moses,” I says, “there ain’t no automobile that makes a noise like that but one.”
“Yeah,” says Dick, “that’s what I thought when I heard it. It is the same one we heard the night Stoner was taking a message to the Red Head up in the cliffs.”
“Come on,” says Dick, “you and me and Jerry will follow it.”
But Bill Darby says, “Jerry ain’t here; he didn’t come down today.”
“Well,” I says, “you come with us Bill.”
We reached the main road just as the sound of the motor was dying out in the distance. We trotted through clouds of dust that nearly choked us. When we came to the place where the rocks start up the cliffs like steps, we heard somebody running, and looking up we saw Jerry Moore coming down the rocky steps two at a time, his hat gone and his hair all mussed up.
We stopped to wait for him. “Gee,” he says, all out of breath, “I am glad you come fellas. I got the scare of my life. Oh boy, what I saw in that cave.”
We tried to get him to explain, but he was out of breath, and he sat down on the rocks and breathed hard.
“Wait, he says, “now that you fellas have come I ain’t afraid. We will go back up when I get my breath.”
So after five minutes or so we started the climb. Jerry led the way. At the top we had to squeeze through a lot of prickly bushes that scratched our hands and stuck to our clothes. We passed through a place that looked as if lightning had struck the rock and split it, and it was all black and scorched.
I says, “Good-night, Jerry, I never thought there was a place like this up here.”
“Shut up,” he whispers, “every word you say makes an echo that you can hear a half mile down.”
&n
bsp; “Down?” I whispers.
“Yes,” he says, “come here.”
We tiptoed after him into the cave. The further we went, the darker it got. All of a sudden we saw Jerry make a sign, and get down on his stomach. We did the same. I was so supprised I nearly lost my balance. We were looking down into a hole in the rock, and it looked as if we were looking right through the hill, from the roof to the floor, and it was a cave.
It was not a wide cave, but it was like as if the rocks had all been split this way and that, and left a hollow place in the hill. But when our eyes got used to the place, and we could begin to make out figures and things in the half darkness, I heard Dick Ferris say, “Good Lord, look at that!”
I looked straight down through the hole, and I took a firmer hold on the edge of the hole, or I would have fallen down, from the scare I got. There was a big spider web. Big as a house, and right in the middle of it was a big spider, a giant spider if ever I saw one, and to us fellas it was like looking into a real fairy tale cave.
“Come on,” whispers Jerry Moore, “you don’t know what else is in this dern cave; we better get out while we got a chanst.”
Jerry started up and was flying out again as fast as we saw him when we first met him coming down the rocks. I guess he got scared all over again. Anyhow, we never caught up with him, and we ran purty fast ourselves all the way home.
FRIDAY.—Briggen and Ham Gardner and Dave Burns was waiting for us at our houseboat door when we come down to-day. “What you want, Briggen?” asks Dick Ferris.
“Git your fellas together,” says Briggen. “I got something to tell you.”
We all went in and took our seats around the table. “All right Briggen,” says Dick, “what’s on your mind?”
Briggen leaned on the table and says, “Stoner’s Boy and the Red Head were in this houseboat this morning; they searched your cheesehole.”
Dick laughed, and all of us laughed too.
“Good for Stoner,” says Dick, “we took our money can out last night.”
“Yeah,” says Briggen, “but you better watch out, they got something up their sleeve; they are gonna set fire to this houseboat.”
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