CHAPTER XVIII.--HEADED OFF.
After what he had heard, Will was most anxious to remain unseen, for heknew that Night Hawk Jerry would recognize him very quickly, and thatwould spoil all.
So he feigned sickness, had his breakfast brought to his state-room thenext morning, and then, as the boat landed at the town where the twoconspirators were to leave it, he grasped his gripsack and cautiouslywent forward.
The men leaped ashore, when the gangplank was run out, and Will followedthem at considerable distance up into the village.
There were quite a number of passengers, so that the boy was unable toselect the one against whom the robbers had plotted.
But he watched his men, saw them go to a livery stable, and soon afterride out of town at a gallop. Instantly he went to that same stable, anda few minutes afterward was in a buggy with a driver, going on the roadwhich the robbers had taken, for the livery man told him how he haddirected them.
By fast driving he came in sight of them, and then he told his man todraw rein and wait, while he got out and went ahead on foot.
By keeping close in to the woods he kept out of sight of the robberpair, and saw them turn into a thickly-wooded point at a bend in theroad, where the underbrush was very dense.
"That is their ambush," he muttered to himself, and he returned to thebuggy, getting in just as a horseman appeared coming along the road.
As he drew near, Will saw that he was a fine-looking man, with anathletic form, and a kindly yet strangely stern face. He was welldressed and appeared to be a well-to-do country gentleman, and the boyremembered having seen him on the Chesapeake steamboat.
As he drew near to where the buggy was waiting, he said pleasantly,recognizing the negro driver: "Well, Hercules, out for a drive?"
"Yas, Massa Lomax, I is takin' dis young gemman on a leetle drive, sah,"answered Hercules, who had gained his name from his great strength.
"Pardon me, sir, but may I have a word with you?" said Will, politely.
"Certainly, young man," replied the farmer.
"You came down the bay on the steamer last night with me, sir."
"I came down on the steamer, but I do not remember to have seen you,though your face is strangely, so _strangely_ familiar to me," and thefarmer gazed fixedly into the face of the boy.
"We have not met, sir; but may I ask if you did not take up to Baltimorea cargo of cattle and sell them there?"
"I did."
"Well, sir, I overheard a plot between two men last night to rob you onyour way home this morning. My state-room adjoined theirs, and a knot inthe wooden partition had fallen out, or been pushed out, just at myhead, and I saw the men and heard their plot.
"One of the men is a noted New York crook, and I am anxious to capturehim, while his companion is doubtless a Baltimore thief."
"You surprise me, young sir, and I thank you most sincerely, for I havewith me a large sum of money, and taken at disadvantage I might loseboth it and my life, though I am armed."
"These are desperate men, sir, or at least I know one to be, and I amdetermined to capture him if possible, for I can get him held until arequisition from the Governor of New York can be obtained."
The farmer smiled at the words of the youth, and said: "You are a pluckyfellow, and we had better send for a constable from the village, forHercules will go."
"I am an officer, sir, and I have formed a plan to capture them," andWill opened his coat and showed his badge, not only to the farmer'ssurprise, but to Hercules's great awe and admiration.
"Well, my young friend, what is your plan?"
"To tie my handkerchief about my face, and muffle up, laying back in thebuggy as though I was sick, while I drive by the point of ambush, whichis at the bend in the road above here.
"When I get by, I will leave the buggy with Hercules, and we can getclose back to the place of ambush, and you can come along, and as themen approach you, we will be close on their tracks."
"A good plan, my lad; but let us know each other, as we are to acttogether.
"My name is Kent Lomax; I am a farmer, and live not far from here."
"My name is Will Raymond, sir."
"Raymond!" and the farmer started.
"Yes, sir."
"Where are you from?"
"New York, sir."
"Ah, me! Your name recalls the strange resemblance your face bears toone I once knew, and it is strange, indeed, that face and name should beso alike," and the farmer spoke in a voice that was full of sadness; butin an instant he continued in a different tone: "Well, Master Raymond, Iam glad to be associated with you in this little affair, and you are thecaptain, so go ahead with your plan."
After a few other arrangements the boy drove on in the buggy withHercules, his face tied up, a scarf about his neck and his hat drawndown over his eyes.
But his keen eyes were watching the road as they drove along, and hedetected in the bushes the two men in ambush.
As agreed upon with Kent Lomax, Hercules dropped his whip and sprang outto get it, so that he, watching back down the road, should know just thespot where the robbers were.
Then the buggy drove on, and once around the bend they turned into asecluded spot and at once sprang out and hitched the horse, while theycrept up a ravine, which Kent Lomax had told them would lead them almostto the bend in the road.
"They could not have chosen a better place for us to surprise them,"said Will as he hurried on with the negro.
"No, massa, dat am so, and I awful glad I cum with you, for maybe I gitsuthin' out o' dis scrimmage," returned Hercules.
"You shall, Hercules, and I hope it will be gold rather than lead."
"I don't want no lead, massa," and, Hercules picked up a stick, to serveas a club, as they went along.
Soon they came to the end of the ravine, and, creeping up to the top ofthe bank, Will looked over. He quickly drew back his head, for the twomen were not sixty feet from him, standing behind a clump of bushes onthe edge of the road.
"You see um, massa?" whispered Hercules.
"Yes; and Mr. Lomax is already coming, and, but a couple of hundredyards away;" and Will took from his pocket a small revolver, but oflarge calibre, and glanced at it carefully.
"Now I'll watch, Hercules, and you be ready to run out with me."
"Yas, massa."
In silence then they waited until, suddenly, the words were heard:
"Halt! Your money or your life!"
"Come!" and with the word Will and Hercules bounded from the ravine.
They saw farmer Lomax at a halt in the road, one man grasping the reinof his horse, and the other holding a pistol up in his face.
The farmer sat perfectly quiet, and the men each had an handkerchiefover his face, with holes cut to see through.
"Come, out with your money, and lose no time, if you value your life!"sternly ordered Jerry, the Night Hawk.
The farmer thrust his hand into his pocket, drew out his well-filledwallet, and tossed it upon the ground, just as clear and sharp came thecry: "Hands up, Night Hawk Jerry!"
The two men uttered a cry of alarm and turned, to see the boy and thenegro almost upon them; and recognizing Will, Night Hawk fired.
The bullet clipped a hole in Will's hat-brim, and at that moment the boypulled trigger, just as the robber fired a second shot.
Down, dropped Night Hawk, a dead man, for Will's bullet had pierced hisbrain, while at the same moment Kent Lomax had hurled himself upon theother robber and held him at his mercy.
"I was sorry to have to kill him, but he shot me through the hat, for Ifelt it turn on my head, and his second bullet clipped my arm, but Iguess did no harm," said Will.
"My boy, you are worth your weight in gold; let me see if you are hurt,"and Kent Lomax turned his man over to Hercules, while he drew off theboy's jacket and rolled up his shirt sleeve. There was a slight gash onthe left arm that was not of much consequence, and Kent Lomax quicklybound a handkerchief about it, while he said:
"Yo
u will need no requisition for your man, Master Raymond, while thisone we will give into the hands of the village constable.
"Hercules, mount my horse and ride back to the village for the constableand the coroner, and I will remain here with this young man."
The negro departed, while Will said: "My errand here, sir, was to seeMr. Rossmore upon an important matter, and I am anxious to catch theboat back to-night, so that I might drive on to his farm and get backhere by the time the constable arrives, if you do not mind."
"Certainly not, and Mr. Rossmore lives on the road a mile from here.
"You will come to a bridge crossing a stream with a mill upon it, andthe Rossmore place is just beyond on the hill in full view."
Thanking the farmer Will sprang into the buggy and drove on.
As he reached the bridge he came to a halt, while he said: "Why, this isthe very scene that mother painted and gave to Colonel Ivey.
"How strange her painting should be so like a real scene way down hereon the eastern shore of Maryland," and, wondering at the coincidence,Will drove on up to the handsome country home on the hillside.
Wizard Will, the Wonder Worker Page 19
