as it happened, joe had been coming back along the shore when the two men had emerged from the woods at the left of the cabin. they had not, he was certain, seen him, for he had instinctively swerved behind a clump of brush. his instant suspicion had become certainty when, watching, he had seen the strangers peer cautiously about them before slinking hurriedly to the front door. when they had entered, joe stood for a long minute, his thoughts racing. he visioned his friends robbed and beaten, perhaps murdered. his first, not unnatural, impulse, was toward flight, but it was brief, and after that he set himself to find a practical means of helping the others. several more minutes went by and the twilight deepened. at last joe approached the cabin, keeping to the shadows. the windows were warmly lighted by the flickering flames of the fire as he crept across the porch toward the nearer one, and he could hear the low murmur of voices; sometimes could distinguish a word. his first hurried glance over the sill brought a sigh of relief. the scene inside[140] was reassuringly different from what he had feared to find. yet he was sure that the elements of tragedy were there, and he was striving desperately to think of some plan to circumvent the intruders when, looking again, he found hal’s eyes on his. then came hal’s voice, suddenly raised, in the words: “i don’t know how good it’ll be, though, for, you see, the fellow that’s our regular cook has gone to north pemberton, and i guess he won’t be back yet awhile.”
an instant later joe was tottering cautiously over the frozen ground to the lake, his skates catching in hidden roots or colliding with snow-covered snags. fortunately the distance was but a dozen rods, and he covered it without misadventure. then he was skating along the deeper blackness of the margin, slowly that the sound of the steel blades on the ice might not be heard back at the cabin. and as he skated he thought hard. from the little he had seen and heard he had gathered a very correct idea of the situation back there. the robbers, who had doubtless been in hiding in the hills between north pemberton and the lake since last night, had arrived at the cabin chilled and hungry. doubtless they had demanded food and hal had agreed to cook supper for them. then he had happened to see the face at the window and had sent his message. “hurry to north pemberton and give the alarm,”[141] was the way joe had construed it. “we’ll keep them here as long as we can.”
and now, past the curving point of the land, joe set his thoughts on the far end of the lake and put every bit of effort into his swaying body. just when the plan to follow rat brook on skates instead of seeking road or trail came to him he could not have told. it was there, suddenly, in his mind the moment he reached the turn of the shore. he no longer sought concealment nor smooth ice, but headed as straight as his sense of direction pointed. the farther shore leaped out at him from the darkness suddenly and he had to check his speed to duck under the little bridge. then he was off again, the ice-roofed brook stretching ahead of him plainly discernible in the faint early radiance of the stars. his skates seemed to awake hollow echoes, but the ice was firm beneath its occasional crust or light blanket of snow. rat brook had little current, so little that it froze almost as soon as the lake, and while the water moved sluggishly beneath the ice it did not weaken it. there was a straight stretch, like a canal, for nearly a quarter of a mile, and then the brook turned to the right, following the base of little rat mountain, and after that curved continuously. often the forest closed in on both sides and joe must perforce trust to luck rather than to vision, yet save once or twice he held his course.[142] branches slashed at him, and now and then a protruding root or fallen tree strove to trip him. but somehow, in some instinctive fashion, he passed them all safely and without decreasing his speed. had he stopped thinking of his errand long enough to consider that speed he would have been tremendously surprised, for he was skating just about twice as fast as he had ever skated in his life, and, moreover—which, if hal was right, was possibly the reason for it—doing it without conscious thought!
the brook had been turning slowly to the right for some minutes when, reaching a clear stretch, joe saw trouble ahead. the brook broadened where a second stream entered and a blacker path there told him that he was looking at open water. he might stop, with difficulty, and veer into the inhospitable arms of the trees and shrubs, or he might keep on, trusting to luck to find ice along the margin. he chose the latter. then there was a gurgling and murmuring of water in his ears, a wide pool of moving water at his feet and the swift realization that for at least three yards the ice was gone from bank to bank!
he had frequently seen bert leap over a fairly high obstruction set on the surface of the ice, such as a barrel or a low hurdle, and he had witnessed other fellows make broad-jumps on skates, but how these feats had been accomplished he had no very[143] clear notion. nor had he time to consider the matter now, for almost as soon as he had sighted the crisis he was up to it. his heart did a little somersault about under his front collar button, as it seemed, and then he had brought his gliding skates together, had bent at the knees, had snapped his body straight again and was flying through air.
he landed in darkness, yet on a solid surface. his left foot, trailing, caught its skate point on the edge of the ice and brought him to his knees, but, by sweeping his arms wildly, he somehow kept his balance and somehow got both feet beneath him once more and again struck out. a moment later a sudden sharp bend found him unprepared and he had to spread his skates wide apart and throw his body hard to the right, and even so he almost came a cropper and only saved himself by a complete spin that must have looked more surprising than graceful. yet that was the only time he really slowed down from lake to town, the town that scarcely a minute later shot its lights at him through the trees. even the bridge failed to halt him, for there was headroom if one skated low, and after that the trees, and even the bushes, were gone and he was speeding through a flat meadow, with the church and houses of north pemberton standing sharply against the winter sky ahead.
his journey by ice ended where a wagon bridge[144] crossed the brook near where the town’s one illuminated sign proclaimed “telegraph and telephone.” he climbed the bridge abutment and floundered across the roadway. in the telegraph office a girl blinked startledly at the sound of his skates as he waddled from door to counter.
“i want to get the sheriff’s office in pemberton,” gasped joe, his breath just about all gone now. “i—it’s important!”
the girl came to life quickly. “sheriff’s office?” she asked briskly. “if you want the sheriff he’s here at the hotel. one block to your left!” the last sentence was in a higher voice, for joe was already clanking through the doorway.
camp resthere’s uninvited guests did full justice to the meal that hal finally set before them, the more so, doubtless, because hal had encountered all sorts of difficulties and delays. one thing after another had, it appeared, been mislaid, so that it required both his and bert’s most earnest efforts to find it. at such times there were opportunities for hurried conferences. then hal cut his finger while slicing bread. at least, bert spent fully ten minutes bandaging it, although, strangely enough, there was no scar in sight the next day. the visitors, especially slim, displayed more or less impatience, but the fire was comforting, they were fairly certain of a long respite from unwelcome[145] attentions on the part of sheriff collins and they contented themselves with grumbling. in the end even hal’s resourcefulness in the matter of inventing delays was exhausted and supper was served. it was a good supper, as it should have been since hal had cooked up about everything in sight and practically left the larder bare. but there was none too much for the half-famished guests. they ate fast and wolfishly of everything and displayed no hesitation in asking for “seconds” or “thirds.” yet, instead of displeasing their hosts they did just the opposite, and hal beamed and urged them on in most hospitable fashion. in fact, if slim and his partner had been less absorbed in the pleasant operation of satisfying twelve-hour appetites they might easily have become suspicious at hal’s insistence.
the meal ended at last, however, by which time hal’s watch indicated ten minutes past six. it had been twelve minutes before five when he had stood at the window and seen that dark form speed away down the lake. of course, sheriff collins couldn’t by any possibility reach the scene until well after the robbers had gone on, but there was snow on the ground now and it ought not to be hard to trail them. there was no telling how long it would take joe to reach north pemberton, but, with luck—
a low ejaculation from bert, across the table,[146] aroused him from his conjectures and he looked up into the muzzle of a revolver in the hands of the big man. he felt much relieved when the muzzle turned to the right and covered the disturbed bert again. the big man was talking.
“sorry to trouble a couple of decent guys like you fellows,” said the spokesman in gruff apology, “but slim and me are a little short of the ready. get me? and we could do with a couple of coats, too, and maybe a couple of pairs of shoes if you happened to have any to fit. don’t bother to move, friends. just sit easy and slim’ll take up the contribution. if you did happen to move you’d be mighty sorry for it, believe me!”
there was such a grim tone in the last utterance that neither hal nor bert doubted the truth of its assertion. they remained absolutely motionless while slim’s fingers explored pockets and, afterwards, rummaged bags and all likely places of concealment. the net result was some eighteen dollars in coin and three return tickets to central city. hal hoped that the latter would be rejected, but not so. the big fellow seemed very pleased with them. then there was a thorough examination of the boys’ wardrobes and slim and his companion took a fancy to some underwear, two pairs of shoes—though hal doubted they’d fit—bert’s and hal’s mackinaws and four pair of woolen hose. hal hoped that the men[147] would prolong their visit to change into their new clothes, but they didn’t. they put the mackinaws on, to be sure, but the rest of the plunder they took with them, or started to. that they didn’t was only because just at the moment they were ready to depart the door opened most unexpectedly and a burly, red-faced man who chewed an unlighted cigar said pleasantly:
“stick ’em up, and stick ’em up quick!”
it was somewhere about midnight that night when camp resthere settled down to normalcy. the three boys had then been in bed for more than an hour, but that hour had been, like the several hours preceding it, devoted to excited conversation. now, at last, the excitement had abated. they had re-lived the whole experience, discussed and re-discussed every incident. bert had told his actions and re-actions, hal had explained in full detail his every thought and intention and joe had, more briefly sketched his part in the successful affair. for it certainly had been successful. the boys had recovered their property, sheriff collins had in his keeping the money and bonds stolen from the now convalescent mr. robbins and the robbers were doubtless by this time safely ensconced in the pemberton jail. there seemed absolutely nothing left to discuss or explain, and silence had lasted for quite four minutes when hal broke it.
[148]
“say, joe,” he observed out of the warm darkness, “you must have made quick time to north pemberton. how long did it take you, do you think?”
“i don’t know,” replied joe. “it was eleven minutes past five by the church clock when i went into the hotel down there.”
“what? why, you didn’t leave here until twelve minutes of! that makes it—makes it—er—why, that makes it twenty-three minutes! and it must be all of five or six miles! gee, joe who told you you couldn’t skate?”
“maybe your watch and that clock aren’t alike,” offered the somewhat sleepy voice of bert. “how many times did you fall down, joe?”
there was a moment’s silence. then joe answered in tones charged with incredulity and wonder; “not once!”
“there!” exclaimed hal triumphantly. “what did i tell you? didn’t i say you could skate if you didn’t—didn’t try?”
