Read Ebook: The Auto Boys' Vacation by Braden James A James Andrew Furman E A Illustrator

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Ebook has 106 lines and 7761 words, and 3 pages

m to be where things would go smoothly.

"Well then," remarked Phil in low tones, "when Billy and I are gone, it falls on you, to help Feeney when anything happens."

Just then the wounded man suddenly sat up in bed, clapped a hand upon his forehead and began to mumble to himself.

"No--good--" he began. "Metal--dies--all there. Then--Dippy--tries to kill--me--"

"Who are you anyway?" suddenly demanded Phil, spurred by a sudden hope that in his delirium the wounded man might let out something as his now disordered brain appeared to connect the present with what he remembered of the past.

"Me?" The man stared vacantly past Phil at the wall. "I--I'm Jimmy--Horr. I'm--I'm--" His voice trailed off into a mumble.

Phil bent forward close as he demanded:

"If you are Jimmy Horr, who is Dippy? You've been calling him often enough. We want to find him."

"D-Dippy--he--he's my partner. He's--he's Dippy Quinn--he--" Again he stared, straight now at Phil. "Wh--who be you?"

Still staring, he fell back, trembling as if in pain, muttering:

"My head--my--he--head!" Then his eyes closed and he was off in another apparent swoon.

"Come on, Billy," said Phil. "Let us be off! Are the things out of the car?"

"Most of them," replied Dave. "I put 'em in the porch. Don't be gone longer than you can help."

In they jumped, Phil at the wheel, and the car purred softly down the old woods road towards the Ghost Tavern. Whether either of them knew their departure was observed by the Feeneys was not important, and gave them no concern. Both now felt that no time should be lost in finding out if the partner of Horr was yet in that vicinity. Despite the improbability, Phil could not help feeling that if those two had been doing wrong in the old inn, it might be that the survivor, as he probably deemed himself, might wish to pay a final visit there before taking his stealthy departure.

In fact, so mysterious was the whole series of adventures which the boys had gone through that almost anything might happen. In due time the Big Six drew up near the old tavern, and the boys cunningly hid the car behind a screen of shrubbery, where it would hardly be seen if any one should pass by. Still Phil, in view of what had happened to the car, made a suggestion.

"You stay here, Billy; at least until I call you or you see something is happening. If I find anyone or anything that's dangerous, I'll let you know."

"Will you--sure?" queried Worth anxiously.

Before Phil, now out of the car and heading for the porch could answer, there came the muffled sound of something inside the inn being moved. At the sound Billy seized a heavy walking stick from the driver's seat, which no one ever used, but which was carried simply because it might some time come handy. Giving this to Phil, he himself took a short thick rubber tube used at times when gasoline was transferred from a tank to the machine reservoir.

"I'm going with you, Phil," he whispered. "No use to say no!"

AT THE OLD TAVERN

Phil offered no objection, but took the walking stick and at once entered the porch, making as little noise as possible. Billy came close behind, feeling the rubber tube to make sure that it could stun, if not kill, when handled with due precision and force.

As has been stated before, portions of the porch floor had been previously broken in, where the elements had too heavily tested the wood. Phil finally passed into the office without making any noise but Billy was not so lucky. Despite his care, he misjudged where he trod when he was near the doorway, when there was an ominous crackling sound under his last footstep.

"Cr-r-r-r--a-c-c-k!" Down went his leg, clear above his knee. In the effort to rise, down went the other leg with a similar crunching crumble, and there was Billy submerged, so to speak, to the waist. Nor did it stop there, for under the porch was a cellar that extended pretty well under the fore part of the ancient building.

For half a moment Billy's form remained waist deep under the porch, when from below there came another crackling, crunching sound, and Billy began to descend at first slowly, as the rafters over the cellar began to collapse. Then down he went amid a cloud of dust from the rotting woodwork, as with a feverish exclamation he vanished from sight. Just at this instant Phil wheeled, startled by the noise Worth was making and started to whisper a cautionary "Silence!"

At this juncture Billy vanished from sight, though Phil heard him, as he struck the earth of the partially filled cellar, give voice as follows:

"Hullo, Phil! I'm gone!" And that was all Phil then heard from Billy.

Just then there came a scuffling noise from the interior, where a door, partially open, led from the old office to the rear room. Knowing that someone must be inside, for the noise was not from where Billy had gone down, Phil grasped his cane harder and dashed through the open door into the back room where he had before seen the forge and the tools, which he had not been able to understand at the time.

Right in front of him was another open door, beyond the hastily constructed forge; and down what seemed to be a cellar stairway he could see the head and shoulders of a man. The stranger was struggling upward, impeded by some burden he was carrying with difficulty.

It was difficult in the half light that filtered through the overhanging shade trees without to distinguish anything distinctly. All Phil could see was that the man wore a slouch hat, combed with cobwebs from the cellar region below. All at once came the conviction to the lad:

"This must be Dippy, whom the other was calling for so often."

With this came Phil's resolve to boldly move up and prevent this mysterious fellow's escape. He dashed forward, calling out:

"Halt, you! Give an account of yourself! I--"

Here the stranger, dropping the bundle he was carrying, attempted to spring up the last two steps, at the same time reaching behind and pulling forth something small that glittered in the semi-twilight. What could it be--a pistol? At the mere thought, Phil leaped nearer, struck at the glittering toy, while the descending blow knocked the fellow's hat off and, partially stunning him, sent him back down the gloomy stairway. The lower end of this was shrouded in deeper gloom, though some light from a cellar window shed a little pale glow from the outside daylight.

Following closely, Phil began to stumble down the stairway, when he heard another's unmistakable advance below. For Billy, still armed with the rubber tube, had heard the mix-up going on above, together with Phil's loud tones and the succeeding fracas; and he saw dimly the tumbling of some bulky weight, followed by the heavier fall of a man's body.

"Great goodness!" thought Worth. "Can that be Phil?"

With the thought he scrambled forward over heaps of loose earth to the firmer floor of the main part of the cellar, until he stood over a figure trying to rise. At the same time down stumbled his comrade, saying:

"I'll get you yet--mind that!"

Satisfied now that it was not Phil at his feet, Billy brought down his heavy rubber tube over the man's head, who sank back uttering a groan of pain. At the same time Phil, reaching the bottom of the stairway, saw something twinkle in the dirt at his feet. He picked it up.

"Here is the pistol he was trying to shoot me with, Billy. Don't let him up while I feel for some cord I brought along."

Billy, standing astride the prostrate man, took the pistol, a small affair. As the stranger groaned and moved Billy gave him another sharp tap with the tubing that seemed to settle his hash, as the boys later expressed it.

Fingering the weapon, Billy found that it was loaded, all except one chamber. He looked up, saying:

"I bet a nickel against a cent that this is the same pistol that shot--what's his name?--Horr."

Meantime Phil, having produced several cords that he had taken from the tool box of the Six, proceeded to bind the stranger's wrists together behind his back as he lay half stunned by Billy's attack. While so doing, he stumbled against a heavy object that proved to be a cheap suitcase, filled by something that rattled metallically as it was moved. Having tied the man's wrists, they half carried him up the stairway, through the back room and into the old office. Here Billy stood guard armed with the tube and the pistol. This last they discovered was enough like the one Billy had at home to be its mate. Also one chamber being empty, Phil at once felt sure--with Worth--that they now held the very weapon that had been fired at Horr, the supposed comrade of the man now recovering his senses at their feet.

"Watch him close, Billy," cautioned Phil, "while I go below and get that suitcase, and look around a little before we go back to Feeney's."

"Don't be uneasy, Phil. I'll watch him all right. Ain't I just getting even for the way those two did me when they ran away with our car?"

While Phil was gone below the stranger, recovering his senses, and seeing only a boy standing over him, looked up with cunning, yet imploring eyes.

"Say, kid," he weakly began, "that was a bad blow you hit me. My head's about to bust. You've tied my arms too tight. Please loose me. I won't do anything."

"No, you won't! Not while I'm in sight! Remember how you and your pal, who's been calling on you constantly, did for me when you caught me fast asleep? Not much will you get away! Just bank on that, will you?"

"I mean all right, boy. 'Deed I do! Just came back here for a few things that belong to us. Be a good boy. Turn me loose. I'll go with you all right."

"No, you won't! We don't trust you. Besides that, your pal's begging us hard to fetch 'Dippy' back. Wants to see you and ask you why you shot him after stealing our car. Do you catch on?"

At this the man, whose head and shoulder was bruised and aching from the effect of Billy's rubber tube, seemed to give up. But Worth had one more arrow. He produced the pistol, showed the man the one empty chamber, and said:

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