Jerry jumped up. “Show it to me,” he says. “Do you know how Sanders got out of the tunnel?”
Robby smiled. “I think I do,” he says. “Look at this map. See here, I have drawn the tunnel that leads away from the rotten tree. It runs dead here.”
He pointed his pencil to a mark.
“I know that,” says Jerry with a sigh. “He couldn’t have gotten out there.”
“No,” says Robby, “so that is why there must be some other way out. Now, we know that Long Tom often came out of the bushes on the north point of the island and got in his barrel, which lay hidden there. Does that give you fellas any new idea?”
Jerry shook his head.
But I says, “I believe I know.”
Robby smiled as I walked over to the map. “There must be another tunnel,” I says, “branching off from the main tunnel, and coming out in the bushes on the north point.”
Robby slapped me on the back and says, “Good old Hawkins, you always was the best detective in this crowd; you sure have guessed it.”
Then he pointed his pencil along another line that led from the main tunnel to the bushes on the north point. As he did so, a shadow fell over the doorstep. It was the Skinny Guy. He was all excited.
“I heard Sanders all night,” he told us. “Seem like he was crying to himself, and calling for Jerry, but I couldn’t make out where the sound come from, and I was afraid to go out alone. I feared Long Tom might be watching for me.”
We didn’t say another word, but the four of us hurried to the river where the Skinny Guy’s longboat was waiting. We hopped in and rode for the island. The Skinny Guy led us to the place where the trees grow thick on the north point.
As we reached the place we heard a splash in the water. We hurried forward and saw a barrel, Long Tom paddling away as he always did, hidden in his barrel, with his arms and legs sticking out.
“The big coward,” says Robby. “Oh if I ever meet him fair fist.”
But the Skinny Guy held up his finger. “Listen,” he says.
We all stood still. We heard a whimpering, like some poor kid in trouble.
“That’s it,” whispered Link. “I heard it that way all night; it made me feel creepy.”
But Robby didn’t listen. “The mean sneak,” he muttered under his breath. “Come on, fellas.”
He turned and picked his way through the bushes. When we came up to him he was shading his eyes with his hands. “Look there,” he said, pointing up.
And we looked; away up in the branches of a dead tree was Sanders, tied with a rope to a dead limb. The sun was beating down into his face, and his arms were stretched out wide and tied to limbs that branched out on either side.
“LOOK THERE,” HE SAID, POINTING UP.
Robby Hood was up the tree like a squirrel, and Jerry right up after him. They got Sanders loose and carried him tenderly down from his awful place. The poor kid was dead to the world. Skinny Link was crying like a baby. We reached up and took poor little Sanders from Jerry and Robby. Nobody knew what to say. We helped to take Sanders back to Jerry’s house, and just told Jerry’s maw the poor little kid had an accident. But while we was carrying him upstairs he murmured, “Long Tom.” And Robby Hood looked at me, and I nodded my head.
When we got outside again, Robby says, “Believe me, I am going to get Long Tom for this. You boys keep quiet about it.”
Which we did.
CHAPTER 30
Trapped in the Tunnel
MONDAY.—Us boys felt awful sore at Long Tom now. Poor little Rags Sanders got enough of his strength back yesterday to tell us how Long Tom had caught him in the island tunnel and tied him up in the old dead tree, where he stayed all night until we found him next day.
It was bad enough to be stretched out up there on that limb of a tree, tied hand and foot, but what made it terrible was that it began to rain during the night. The poor kid’s clothes were soaked, and then the next day when the sun began to beat down on his dirty little head it made him awful sick. His arms and legs were so stiff he could hardly move all day yesterday.
Today right after school we went down to Jerry’s house to see poor Sanders, before we held our meeting. He began to talk and tell us about it then. He seemed glad that we came. But he seemed afraid, too, that Long Tom or Stoner would get him yet, and hurt him because he gave away their secret tunnel on the island.
“Long Tom knows,” he says, “he caught me just when I was bringing you fellas into Stoner’s tunnel. He has told Stoner by this time.”
But we tried to make Sanders think different. “They won’t bother about you any more,” said Dick Ferris. “Us boys will see to that.”
TUESDAY.—Robby Hood came to our meeting today. I said to him, “Us fellas were looking for you to show up here yesterday. It’s the first day you missed since you came here.”
Robby looked sad and smiled. “I can’t stand it around here anymore,” he says. “It don’t seem the same place since the twins are gone, especially Harold.”
I says, “It doesn’t make any difference if the twins are here or not; we’ve got to keep after Stoner.”
Robby nodded. “He’s back here again,” he said. “I wouldn’t be supprised if we had to run into Stoner and Long Tom together.”
I looked worried. “How do you know Stoner is back?” I asked.
“Because,” said Robby, “I saw Long Tom has my fancy arrow box, and I know Stoner brought it, because Stoner likes it so well he would not—”
“Shucks,” I says, “he might of given it to Long Tom before he left.”
But Robby shook his head.
At this minit Jerry Moore came up to us. “Hello, Robby,” he says, “I guess you are going with us to the tunnel on the island.”
“Going with you?” says Robby. “Why, boy, I’m going to lead this search myself. What do you think I came for?”
“For your ivory arrow box,” I says, laughing.
Robby laughed too. “Oh, I’ll get that, all right,” he says, “even if I don’t get Stoner.”
We all went up to the houseboat and talked to Dick Ferris for a while.
“Come on,” says Robby. “Let’s go down to the shack in the hollow and make our plans there.”
We went down to the shack.
Robby Hood got out his big map of the island. “I found out a few more things about the island,” he says. “That little Sanders kid told me a whole lot, and I marked it on this map. Look here.”
We followed the point of Robby’s pencil as he traced the different lines of the tunnel. “The main tunnel always was there,” says Robby. “I guess some river pirates had their headquarters there many years ago. But Stoner and his pals dug a few branch tunnels out of the main line. Let me show you exactly how they run, so you will know what we are up against when we make our next trip down there.”
It was so interesting, the way Robby explained it, that we stayed a long time, listening to him and studying the map. It was too dark to go down anymore today, and we all promised to meet tomorrow.
WEDNESDAY.—It seemed an awful long time since we had seen or heard from Stoner. In fact, it began to make some of us fellas feel nervous. We knew that he wasn’t gone for good, and every one of us was afraid that the gray ghost would turn up anywhere, any time. Every time I walked down the river path, I watched both sides of the way, thinking that Stoner might be waiting for me. But he didn’t turn up. However, it wasn’t much of a supprise to me today when I came down to the houseboat and found Dick Ferris and Jerry Moore and Robby Hood reading a note.
“Ha!” I says. “A word from Stoner at last.”
Dick nodded his head. “Long Tom left it. Robby saw him as he was running away from the houseboat. It was stuck under the door.”
I took the note and read it. Here’s what it says:
Seem like you guys ain’t satisfied with all the trouble you got, you are always looking for more, believe me, you are going to get it, I know you found our tunnel on the island.
I heard all about it, but that little sneak Sanders is going to be sorry he turned traitor on me. This will warn you to KEEP OUT of the tunnel on the island. It won’t be safe for you.
Like all of Stoner’s notes, it was not signed, but us fellas knew the handwriting.
“Well,” says Robby, “what do you think about it?”
I laughed. “We know, Stoner,” I says. “He’s a big bluffer, if he can get by with a bluff, but if he can’t he will fight.”
“Yes,” says Jerry, “but always behind your back.”
“You’re right,” says Robby Hood. “The best thing for us to do will be to wait a little, and don’t be in a big hurry. I am going down to meet the Skinny Guy now, and look things over. You fellas lay low till I see you again.”
THURSDAY.—Doc Waters was standing on the houseboat steps when I came down. “Hello, Hawkins,” he says, “come on in.”
I followed Doc inside. I saw another man sitting by the table, and Jerry Moore and little Sanders were there, too.
“This is Mister Sanders,” says Doc, and the strange man got up. He looked like a poor man, and he talked in a low voice.
“They come after Rags,” says Jerry to me.
“Ah,” I says, “I am sorry. We would like to keep him around here if we could.”
Mr. Sanders coughed. “We must go home,” he says. “His maw didn’t give me no peace till I went to hunt him.”
Doc Waters laughed. “And then the little beggar wouldn’t go until he had seen you, Hawkins,” says Doc.
I smiled at little Sanders. He jumped up off his chair and came over to me. “Here,” he says, handing me a bunch of papers. “I wrote everything I could think of about Stoner and his gang and their hiding place. Give it to Robby Hood; I promised him I would do it.”
I held his hand a minit. “Do you know what this might mean?” I says. “Those Stoner fellas would be awful sore if they knew you did this.”
He shook his head. “They can’t hurt me no more,” he says. “My pop says we are going to move to Cincinnati; they won’t find me there.”
I shook his hand. “Don’t forget us, Rags,” I says. “Us boys like you.”
It seemed to me that there were tears in his eyes as he turned and walked to his daddy. “I’m ready, Pop,” he says.
Us boys watched him walk away up the bank with his pop and Doc Waters.
Then Jerry said, “It’s too bad. I wished he could stay. I got to like the little rag-picker:”
“So did I, Jerry,” I says, “but I am glad he is with his folks again. They will take him away. The gray ghost will never find him now.”
FRIDAY.—Us boys had our meeting right after school, and I looked anxiously for Robby Hood, but he wasn’t around. “Have you seen him?” I asked Dick.
“No,” says Dick, “he and the Skinny Guy are together, but they haven’t been around for two days.”
I was worried, because I still carried in my pocket the bundle of papers little Sanders had given to me for Robby. I knew that if I was caught by Stoner or Long Tom or one of his fellas it wouldn’t be good for me if they found these papers in my pocket. So I made up my mind to go down to the island and find Robby, and if he wasn’t there to turn over the papers to Skinny Link. While all the other fellas started down to the hollow for a game of ball I snuck down to the river and pulled out my canoe. I had paddled down past my old fishing place and was passing the cliff when I saw Long Tom’s swimming barrel coming straight for my canoe. “Good night,” I says to myself, “he knows.”
I paddled faster, but the barrel swimmer cut me off, and just as I reached the bend he laid hold of the gunwale and tried to upset the canoe. I struck the top of the barrel with my paddle, and it broke in half, and then I saw a knife in Long Tom’s hand. He ripped at the side of my canoe, and I lifted the butt of the paddle and brought it down time and again on the top of his barrel where I thought his head must be. He let go then, and I paddled with what was left of my paddle and with my one hand till I ran into the shore.
Water was coming into my canoe fast, and I just reached the shore in time. I was glad I had not got a ducking.
THEN I SAW A KNIFE IN LONG TOM’S HAND
I looked down the river and could see the barrel floating down with the current. “I’m glad he’s gone,” I said aloud. I heard a laugh behind me.
“You don’t know how quick I can get out of that tub,” said a voice. It was Long Tom. I swung around quick and faced him.
“Come on,” he says. “I was peeping in the window when Sanders gave you them papers; hand ’em here, quick.”
I didn’t answer; Long Tom was two heads bigger than me. I knew I didn’t have a chance. But I can do one thing good, and that is running. So before he knew what I intended to do, I cut away from him and dodged through the bushes. He came right after me, but I gave him a merry chase. I heard him fall once, but he was on his feet again in a minit. I led him right into the Pelham shacks, and as soon as I saw Ham Gardner and Dave Burns, I began talking loud to them.
“Long Tom’s coming!” I shouted. “Be ready to catch him.”
And the trick worked. Long Tom didn’t follow me any further. He knew that Pelham was laying for him too. He probably snuck off to try to get his barrel back.
SATURDAY.—There being no school, we held our meeting early, so the fellas could have some fun. I felt like fishing, and so I went down to my favorite place and had purty good luck.
Along about noon I sighted the Skinny Guy coming up the river in his longboat. He grinned when he came up to me. “Where are the fellas?” he asked.
“Playing ball in the hollow,” I answered.
“Well, get ’em together; we got Long Tom trapped in the tunnel. Robby is down there now, waiting.”
It was hard to get the fellas away from the ball game, but we got Dick and Jerry and Bill Darby, and we went down to the island in our canoes.
Link took us to the north point, where Robby Hood was waiting. A lot of boards covered the opening of the tunnel, and on the boards were piled a lot of stones and kegs and logs and things.
“He can’t get out,” said Robby. “We got the hole in the rotten old tree closed up too.”
“Well,” I says, “now that you got him, how you going to fetch him out?”
Robby smiled at me. “Why,” he answered, “you are going to chase him out, Hawkins.”
I frowned at Robby. “I kinda thought it would be me,” I says. “You always do give me the nice jobs.”
Robby was pulling away a lot of the stones and things, to open the hole. “All right,” he says. “I’ll go myself; you stay here.”
“Thanks,” I says.
Robby let himself down in the opening.
“Any of you boys coming along?” he asked.
Bill jumped in, and the Skinny Guy followed. Jerry was ashamed to stand back, I think, for he went in too.
Dick and me stayed out. “We will stay here and watch,” says Dick.
Robby laughed. “Don’t get hurt,” he called back, as he disappeared in the tunnel.
Dick and me waited awhile; then I thought I heard voices, and I told Dick to stay there, and I would go and see. I reached the clearing and peeped out of the bushes. My heart almost stood still. By the old rotten tree stood a person I knew very well, his face covered halfway with a gray handkachif. It was Stoner come back. He had all the boulders and logs pulled off, and was calling down through the hole in the tree. In a minit I saw him reach his hand down into the opening and lift out another fella. It was Long Tom.
Quickly they worked to put back the covering, and the heavy things to hold it down. I did not have time to go back before they were running toward me. They passed within a foot of the bush behind which I was hiding.
As soon as they passed I was up and skipping behind them. I saw Dick staring at the Gray Ghost and Long Tom. The next minit he yelled down into the hole, and then turned and ran. I watched the gray figger and Long Tom hurry the covering back over the hole, and p
ile up the stones and kegs upon it. Then they hustled to the north point, where they jumped in a boat and were gone.
I had to laugh. It seemed funny, for Robby to be trapped by the fella he thought he had trapped. But if I hadn’t been there to see it, I don’t suppose it would have been so funny.
While I was standing there laughing, Dick came sneaking back. “Are they gone?” he asked quietly.
“Sure,” I says, “I guess you and I will have to get our fellas out of there now, but there’s no hurry about it.”
“I believe we ought to get them out right away,” says Dick.
“No,” I says, “let’s keep ’em down there a little, and have the laugh on them.”
But just at that minit there came a thumping on the boards covering the opening.
“Have you got Long Tom?” I asked.
There came no answer, but I heard a choking sound like somebody was coughing. “Hurry, Dick,” I said.
Together we went to work dragging off the boulders and kegs and things. It wasn’t two minit’s work before we had the boards uncovered. I lifted one of the boards and threw it aside. At the same time a cloud of smoke puffed up in my face and nearly strangled me.
“Good Lord,” I said, “there’s a fire in the tunnel.” I jumped down into the hole. I stumbled over Robby Hood, who was on his knees groping his way.
“Hurry Hawkins,” he whispered, “get the others. I’m better off than they are.”
I boosted him up, and Dick was there to lend a hand. When I turned I saw a funny sight. At first I thought I was up against Stoner’s Boy again, but the next second I saw it was the Skinny Guy, with a handkachif tied around his mouth and nose, carrying Bill Darby in his arms. By this time the smoke, which was filling the tunnel, had got into my nose, and I hurriedly tied my handkachif around my face as I saw the Skinny Guy have it.
Then I went forward till I touched Jerry. “It’s blinded me, Hawkins,” he said when I spoke to him. “It’s gas or something. Lead me on; I can walk all right, but I can’t see where I am going.”
I put my arms around him, and finally we were all sitting around the north point of the river. The boys came around all right in a few minits, but Jerry’s eyes were very red.
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