The Hunniwell boys and the platinum mystery
“But what are we going to do?” Gordon demanded.
“Why, go after that fellow of course. What did you think we were going
to do, sit down and cry about it?”
“But——”
“He can’t be very far off unless he had a car and he didn’t have one,
that’s sure.”
“I guess you’re right about that,” Rogers agreed. “He couldn’t get very
near here in a car unless it had a caterpillar tread.”
“And if he had that he’d not be very far off yet,” Bill declared. “He
can’t have more than a couple of hours start. But come on, we don’t want
to give him any more.”
“Maybe there’s more than one of them,” Rogers suggested as they took
their seats.
“Doesn’t make any difference if there’s an army,” Gordon told him.
“We’ve got to get ’em back just the same. In the first place they don’t
belong to us and in the second we need ’em.”
“I’ll tell the world we do,” Bill added, as he started the elevator.
“Now use your eyes as you never used them before.”
“Or ever expect to again,” Gordon added.
They had two field glasses and he handed one pair to Rogers as the plane
left the ground. Almost as soon as they were in the air Bill started the
forward propeller and the plane headed inland. They had decided to fly
at an altitude of about 100 feet which would give them a fairly wide
vision and at the same time permit them to make a thorough search. The
one thing to be feared more than any other, Bill had explained, was that
the fugitive would see them before they saw him and find a hiding place.
“And, believe me, that wouldn’t be a hard thing to do most anywhere
around here,” he declared.
“Good thing the plane doesn’t make a noise,” Gordon said.
“We’d be helpless if it did,” Rogers told him.
Bill had headed the plane toward the north deeming it best to zig-zag
across the island so as to cover the entire area. The character of the
ground beneath them changed but little as they flew along. Very rocky
and rough there was but little vegetation and but few trees except the
fringe just back of the cliffs.
“No wonder they picked this island for a leper’s colony,” Gordon said a
few minutes after they started. “No man would live here if he could help
it, that is if he had any sense.”
They had flown across the island three times and were about half way
across again before they sighted their quarry.
“There he goes,” Gordon suddenly cried pointing off to the right of the
direction they were going. “See him Steve?”
“Not yet,” Rogers replied. “Where do you mean?”
“Right over there by that big tree there. Don’t you see that fellow
running as though the old boy himself was after him?”
“Now I do.”
Bill had stopped the forward propeller and started the elevator at
Gordon’s cry and now the plane had nearly lost its momentum.
“Think he’s seen us?” he asked.
“Don’t believe so,” Gordon told him. “He hasn’t looked this way.”
“Well, keep your eyes on him and don’t lose him,” Bill ordered as he
again started the forward propeller.
Slowly the plane started forward and in a very few minutes was only a
few yards behind the man who was running with the easy swing of the
trained athlete. They could see now that he was either Chinese or
Japanese and the loose blouse which he wore sagged heavily as if
weighted at the bottom.
“He’s got the cells all right,” Gordon declared. “See how that blouse
hangs.”
“No doubt of it,” Rogers agreed.
“And we’ve just the same as got him,” Gordon chuckled.
“But we want to be careful,” Rogers whispered, for they were now very
close. “Some of those fellows are pretty slippery customers.”
Just then the man looked up and saw them.
CHAPTER VI
THE CELLS RECOVERED
When the Japanese, for that was the nationality of the man, caught sight
of the plane, only a few feet over his head, he gave vent to a startled
grunt of mingled surprise and fear and stopped in his tracks. The
ground, where he was standing, was not so rough as they had so far
encountered and Bill had no trouble in selecting a good landing place
only a few feet away. Hardly had the plane struck the earth when Gordon
was over the side of the cockpit and after the Jap.
“Easy, Gordon,” Rogers called.
But Gordon was mad and paid no attention to the warning as he came in
front of the man who was standing with a look of incredulity on his
face.
“Hand ’em over,” Gordon demanded.
The Jap held out his hands. “Me no unstand,” he said.
“Well, I reckon you’ll understand this,” Gordon snapped as he leaped for
the man.
But in that he showed poor judgment as he afterward acknowledged. He
never did understand just what happened but he did know that hardly had
he touched the Jap when he was flying through the air to land on his
head and shoulders fully six feet away. Fortunately he struck in a soft
spot or he would undoubtedly have been severely injured if not killed
outright. As it was he was severely shaken up and for a moment was too
dazed to move.
“Are you killed, Gordon?” Bill demanded, as he rushed to him.
“I——I don’t know,” he stammered. “What was it?”
Bill pulled him to his feet and a sigh of relief escaped him as he saw
that he could stand. “All right?” he asked.
“I——I guess so, but what was it?” Gordon again asked. “Something hit
me.”
“I’ll say it did,” Bill chuckled as he pointed to the Jap who was now
standing with both hands held high above his head, his eyes fixed on an
automatic in the hands of Rogers.
“I told you to go easy,” the latter grinned as the boys stepped to his
side.
“I——I didn’t think he——”
“Well, you know now,” Rogers interrupted. “One of you see if he’s got
them while I keep him covered. No monkey business, now,” he ordered as
Bill stepped forward.
He had no trouble in finding the six cells in the voluminous pocket of
the Jap’s blouse, and as he drew them out one by one he chuckled with
satisfaction.
“W-what we going to——to do with him?” Gordon asked. His head was still a
bit dizzy and his shoulders ached.
“Me no——” the Jap began, but Rogers interrupted:
“Shut up.”
“But——”
“I told you to shut up,” Rogers again snapped. “We’re running the show
just now.”
“Guess we’ll have to let him go,” Bill suggested.
“How about shooting him?” Rogers asked and the Jap’s face took on an
ashen hue.
“Well, I don’t know but it would be a good plan,” Bill said, catching on
to Rogers’ plan.
“Me no want to be shooted,” the Jap pleaded.
“What do you mean by stealing those things?” Rogers demanded.
“Me no steal ’em.”
“Cut out the lying. I suppose you just borrowed them, eh?”
“Yes——yes, me borrow ’em.”
“What were you going to do with them,” Bill asked him.
“Me goin’ bring ’em right back.”
“I suppose so,” Bill laughed. “Now see here if we let you go you going
to keep away from us?”
“Yes——yes, me no come again, never.”
“Well, you’d better not. You won’t get off so easily the next time. Now
get,” Rogers ordered.
And he got, as Gordon laughingly declared a moment later.
“Say,” he grinned as the Jap, running for dear life, disappeared, “that
fellow certainly knows how to defend himself. Did you see him toss me?”
“We saw him all right,” Bill laughed. “And let me tell you one thing,
you’re mighty lucky you didn’t get hurt. If your head had struck a
stone——but I don’t know though,” he hesitated. “I guess it would have
taken a pretty hard stone to make a dent in that skull of yours. But
seriously, Gordon, you should have used better judgment. Those fellows
are past masters when it comes to rough and tumble stuff.”
“You don’t have to tell me anything about it,” Gordon grinned. “I know
it. But I was a fool, there’s no doubt about that part of it, but you
see, I was so anxious to get those cells back that I didn’t stop to
think. Anyhow, I guess we’ve seen the last of that guy.”
“I’m not so sure of that,” Rogers mused. “Some of those Japs are the
very dickens when it comes to pertinacity. But one thing I can’t
understand and that is why he took the cells and passed up our grub and
other things.”
“If he saw us hide them, and of course he must have, he probably got the
idea that they were valuable,” Bill suggested.
“Funny what he was doing away out there anyhow,” Gordon said. “He must
have been pretty near us when we landed as we hid them soon after.”
“That’s very true,” Rogers told him. “He was there all right, but it’s
pretty hard to guess what for. Maybe we’ll find out later.”
“You really think we’ll see him again?” Bill asked.
“Oh, I don’t know. I guess we gave him a pretty good scare,” Rogers
replied. “But a bad Jap is a mighty bad hombre. I know because I’ve had
dealings with them before. Once one of them sets his mind on a thing
it’s mighty hard to persuade him that he’d better give it up.”
“Anyhow it means that we’ll have to be on our guard from now on,” Gordon
suggested.
“Every minute,” Rogers told him.
“Well, if he gets us again it’ll be our own fault,” Bill added.
“Forewarned is forearmed,” Rogers told them.
“Sure is, but I guess we might as well get back. I’m getting——”
“Hungry,” Bill finished the statement.
“And I don’t mean maybe,” Gordon laughed.
“Now,” Rogers began as soon as they were back in camp, “the first thing
to do is to find a new hiding place for those cells.”
“How about hiding them in different places?” Gordon suggested.
“That’s an excellent idea,” Rogers agreed.
It took the better part of an hour to find three satisfactory hiding
places but it was finally accomplished to their satisfaction and then
Gordon suggested that it was time to get dinner.
“You know that blow on the head has made me hungry,” he told them.
“As if you were ever anything else but,” Bill laughed.
“But I mean more than usual,” Gordon grinned.
“Then you must be hungry,” Bill told him.
“Now you’re talking.”
“I don’t believe anyone will find those cells again,” Rogers declared an
hour later as they started eating.
“Unless he was watching us hide them,” Bill said.
“Well, that Jap wasn’t, that’s certain,” Gordon told them. “He never
could have got back in time.”
“No, I don’t think he could have,” Rogers agreed. “But he isn’t the only
Jap on the island, you know.”
“You mean you’ve got a hunch?”
“No, I don’t think so, only I wish that fellow hadn’t been here.”
“I’d feel a bit easier myself if he hadn’t,” Bill said soberly.
“I believe you two fellows are getting the heebie jeebies,” Gordon
chuckled. “Just because that guy happened to be out here when we landed
you conjure up a deep laid plot against us. I’m here to tell you that we
scared the life out of him and he won’t bother us again.”
“Well, I sure hope you’re right,” Rogers told him.
“Of course I’m right,” Gordon declared. “But we’ll not be caught napping
just the same.”
“Which means that one of us will have to stay right here all the time,”
Rogers said.
“I suppose that’s the best thing to do,” Bill agreed.
“It’s the only thing,” Rogers told him.
After the meal they drew lots to see who would stay behind while the
others continued the search along the cliffs. The lot fell to Bill and
he told them that he would do the dishes and for them to start at once
as the tide would be out far enough to allow them to go on. “And mind
you keep an eye on the kid and don’t let him do anything foolish,” he
added.
“I’ll look out for him,” Rogers promised.
“Guess I’m old enough to look out for myself,” Gordon grumbled.
“Didn’t look like it this forenoon,” Bill reminded him.
“You’d be surprised,” Gordon laughed.
“Keep your gun handy,” Rogers advised as they started off.
“You bet,” Bill called after them.
Rogers and Gordon found that the tide had receded enough so that they
could walk along close to the bottom of the cliffs and hurried along at
a smart pace until they had reached the place where they had turned back
that morning.