The Rover Boys on the Farm; or, Last Days at Putnam Hall
"I thought I heard somebody walking around upstairs. There it is again!"
All gave attention, and heard the unmistakable sounds of footsteps on
the stairs leading to the second story.
"Who is up there?" called out Dick, and turned to leave the cellar,
followed by his brothers and chums.
"Stay where you are!" came back in a harsh voice. "Don't any of you dare
to come out of that cellar!"
"It is Merrick!" burst out Tom.
Hardly had he spoken when they heard a door shut sharply and a bolt
dropped into place. Then the footsteps retreated.
"He has shut the door to the cellar!" cried Dick, flashing the light
upward. "We are locked in!"
"Hark! I heard more than one person running from the house," said Larry.
"That Pike must be with him."
"Or else Tad Sobber."
As quickly as he could, Dick ran up the old stairs and tried the door.
It was in fairly good condition and refused to budge.
"Smash it down!" called out Tom, and went to his brother's assistance.
"We must get out and collar those rascals," said Sam. "Can't you get the
door open?"
"We ought to be able to," answered Dick. "Here, catch the light and take
the gun."
In a few seconds Dick, Tom and Songbird were pressing on the door with
all their strength. All stood on the top step of the cellar stairs.
"Now then, all together!" cried Dick, and they shoved with might and
main. Then came a crack below them, and an instant later the cellar
stairs collapsed, carrying them with it. As they went down in a confused
heap the stairs struck the electric light and smashed it. It also
knocked the shotgun from Sam's hand.
Bang! went the firearm, with a report in the narrow confines of the
cellar that was deafening.
"I'm killed! I'm killed!" came from Larry, an instant later. "You've
shot my hand off!"
CHAPTER XXIX
A WRECK AND A CAPTURE
"Get off of my fingers!"
"Please let me get out of this hole!"
"Say, how can I get up if you're going to sit on my legs?"
These and a few more utterances came from the boys as they endeavored to
clear themselves of the wreckage of the fallen stairs. The small cellar
was filled with smoke from the shotgun, and Larry was dancing around
flipping his hurt hand in the air. All was pitch dark, for the small
windows were covered with dirt and cobwebs to such a depth that no light
penetrated through them.
"Beware of that gun!" called Dick, when he could speak. "Only one barrel
went off, remember."
"Larry, are you really killed?" questioned Sara, who, somehow, felt
responsible, since the weapon had been in his hands.
"N--no, but I'm hit in the fingers," came from the wounded boy. "The
shot went right past my head, too!"
"Make a light, somebody," called out Fred. "Songbird, you've got some
matches."
The poet of the Hall lit a match, and by this faint light the boys first
of all looked at Larry's damaged hand. Fortunately the charge of shot
had merely grazed the thumb and middle finger, and it was found that
Larry was more frightened than hurt. The hand was bound up in a couple
of handkerchiefs.
"When we get back to the boat you'll want to wash the wounds well," said
Dick.
Tom had picked up the electric pocket light, but found he could not make
it work. Again they were in darkness until another match was lit.
"We can't reach that door, with the stairs down," was Dick's comment.
"Let us break out a window."
This was easily accomplished, and one after another the cadets crawled
forth from the cellar. It was a tight squeeze, especially for Fred, who
was rather large at the waist line.
"I guess those fellows who ran away thought we couldn't get through that
window," said Songbird.
"If it had been an inch smaller I should have been stuck," answered
Fred.
They looked all around the old building, but nobody was in sight. The
front door stood wide open, and they rightly surmised that the others
had taken their departure that way.
"The question is, Which way did they go?" came from Dick.
"Do you think they went on foot?" asked Sam. "They might have a
carriage."
"Or a boat," added Larry. "Oh, I hope we can catch them, just to make
'em pay for these hurt fingers of mine!" And he shut his teeth hard, for
the wounds pained him not a little.
"Larry, I trust you don't think it was my fault," observed Sam.
"Not a bit of it, Sam. It was simply an accident, that's all. I am glad
those on the stairs didn't hurt themselves."
"Well, my knee doesn't feel any too good," came from Tom. "I guess I
scratched it quite some."
"Shall we try to find those fellows first or go upstairs and look
around?" asked Songbird.
"Let us try to find them first," said Dick. "We can come back here any
time."
"I have a plan," said Tom. "Let us scatter in all directions. If anybody
sees anything of them, give the school whistle."
"Good! that's the talk!" exclaimed Sam. "The sooner the better."
In a minute more the six cadets were hunting in as many different
directions for those they were after. Larry, Songbird and Fred took to
the lake shore, while the three Rover boys went up and down the roadway
and into the woods beyond.
Nearly half an hour was spent in the search when the other lads heard a
whistle from the lake shore. The signal came from Larry, and was
repeated several times.
"He wants us in a hurry," said Sam to Dick, when they met, and started
on a run. They met Larry coming towards them, beckoning wildly.
"Hurry up!" he called.
"What's up?" asked Dick.
"They just went past in a sailboat and they are bound across the lake."
"The two men?" asked Sam.
"Yes, and Tad Sobber, too."
"Tad!"
"Yes. Their boat couldn't have been very far from mine. I saw the two
men get on board and then Tad came from a cabin, and all three hoisted
the sails as quickly as they could and stood over in the direction of
the point with the three rocks--you remember the spot?"
"I do--the place we once went nutting," said Dick.
By this time the other cadets were coming up, and they listened with
keen interest to what Larry had to tell. In the meantime all ran to the
_Polly_, and the sloop was poled out of the cove and the mainsail and
jib were hoisted. As Larry was in no condition to steer, Dick took the
tiller.
"They will get away if they possibly can," observed Songbird. "Do you
think, if we get too close to them, they'll fire at us, or anything like
that?"
"There is no telling," answered Dick. "But I am going to load up that
empty barrel of the shotgun, and if they dare to shoot I'll shoot back,"
he added, with determination.
The other boat was in sight, but a good half mile away, and it was a
serious question whether the _Polly_ could get anywhere near the craft
before the point with the three rocks was gained.
"Well, if they go ashore we can capture the boat anyway," observed Sam.
"That will be something."
"Probably the boat was only hired. The owner may not know what rascals
those chaps are."
"The craft looked old and clumsy to me," said Larry. "If you sail the
_Polly_ with care perhaps you can catch her--if they don't play us some
trick."
The chase was now on in earnest, and the cadets on board the sloop did
all in their power to make speed. There was a fair breeze, the gale
having gone down while they were at the house.
"I don't think they know much about running a boat," said Tom,
presently. "What are they up to now?"
"They are turning back!" cried Sam. "See, they are headed for yonder
cove. They are not going up to the three rocks."
"What cove is that?" asked Songbird. "Is it the place we went fishing
the day we caught the turtle?"
"Yes."
"Then they had better look out! Don't you remember those sharp rocks,
right near the mouth of the cove?"
Those who had been fishing the day mentioned did remember the rocks, and
they watched the boat ahead with keen interest. The wind had freshened a
little and the craft had swung around swiftly and was rushing for the
cove. They could see one of the men trying to lower the mainsail.
"They are in dangerous water!" cried Dick.
He had just uttered the words when they saw the boat strike something,
shiver from stem to stern, and back away. Then she went ahead and struck
a second time. A second later she went over to larboard, throwing the
two men and Tad Sobber into the lake!
"They've struck the rocks!"
"The boat is sinking!"
"They are all in the water!"
"Lower the mainsail!" yelled Larry. "We don't want to get caught on the
rocks! Sheer off, Dick!"
Dick swung the tiller around, and in a few seconds the mainsail came
down with a bang and was secured by the others. The jib was still up,
and this drew just sufficiently to send them forward slowly, to the spot
where the catastrophe had occurred.
They found Pike floundering around in the water, yelling lustily for
aid. Sid Merrick and Tad Sobber had struck out for the nearest part of
the shore, about two hundred feet away.
"Here, catch hold of this and I'll pull you up," said Tom, reaching down
to Pike with a pole. The floundering man did as told willingly, and was
quickly hauled to the deck. Then the _Polly_ was turned toward the shore
and the jib was lowered.
It was no easy task to bring the sloop in, for they had to beware of the
rocks, and by the time this was accomplished Sid Merrick and Tad Sobber
had landed and were running for the woods with all possible speed. Dick
raised his shotgun and fired to scare them, but they kept on, and in a
few minutes disappeared from sight.
CHAPTER XXX
GOOD-BYE TO PUTNAM HALL
Leaving John Pike in charge of the others, the three Rover boys set off
after Sobber and Merrick. They followed the trail for awhile with ease,
for the fugitives were dripping wet from their involuntary bath.
"We have one advantage," said Dick, as they ran along. "Being wet they
will attract attention, and we'll be able to follow them up that way."
About a quarter of a mile was covered when they heard a crashing in the
brushwood not far ahead of them. Then came a yell of pain from both
Merrick and Tad Sobber.
"Ouch! I'm being stung to death!"
"Get off of me! Oh! oh! oh!"
"They are hornets, Tad! Run, or they'll be after us!"
"I--I can't run! Oh! one stung me in the eye!" screamed Tad Sobber.
Then the Rover boys heard the man and the boy plunge on, Tad screaming
with pain at every step.
"Wait! we can't go that way!" cried Tom, who had no desire to tumble
into the hornets' nest as the others had probably done. "Let's go
around!" And he leaped to the left.
As they progressed they heard Tad Sobber still crying wildly, and they
heard Sid Merrick urging him to run faster.
"I'm stung, too--in about a dozen places!" said the bond thief. "But we
mustn't be captured."
"Oh, it is awful!" groaned Tad. "I can hardly bear the pain!" And he
went on, clutching his uncle by the arm. Both were indeed in a sorry
plight.
But coming out on a road, fortune favored them. They met a colored man
running a touring car. He was alone and they quickly hired him to take
them to the nearest town.
"We fell into the lake by accident," said Sid Merrick. "We want to get
where we can change our clothing."
"And get something for these hornet stings," added Tad Sobber. "If I
don't get something soon I'll go crazy from pain."
As the three Rover boys ran towards the roadway Dick saw a big, flat
pocketbook lying on the ground. He darted for it and picked it up.
"Merrick must have dropped this," he said. "It's wet, and here is a dead
hornet stuck fast to it. Guess the hornets made him forget that he had
it."
Slipping the pocketbook into his pocket, Dick ran out on the roadway and
looked up and down. But Merrick and Sobber were gone, and what had