CHAPTER XXV INTO THE LONELINESS
"Have you the time?"
It was the voice of one of those who were approaching our hero and his two chums, they having come to a halt at the request for information.
"Oh, what does it matter?" some one else asked, and then Dick could see that three men were hurrying toward them out of the darkness.
"I just wanted to see how late it was," went on the one who had apparently spoken first. "Sorry to trouble you," he added, "but we're strangers here, and we seem to have lost our way."
"It's no trouble—if we can direct you," said the young millionaire. "We're strangers here ourselves."
"It's a little after eleven," announced Paul, looking at his watch as well as he could by the starlight. As he spoke one of the men made a sudden motion toward him.
"Not him! The other!" some one exclaimed sharply.
Before the three knew what was happening they were seized by the three men—seized and roughly mauled.
"Here! What does this mean?" demanded Dick, hotly, as he struck out vigorously.
"It's a hold-up!" yelled Innis. "Lay into 'em, fellows!"
"Let go of me!" insisted Paul, as he swung himself loose from his antagonist and dealt him a stinging blow that staggered the fellow.
The man, with a smothered exclamation, recovered himself, and rushed back at Paul. In the meanwhile Innis and his assailant were having a tussle. As for Dick, after that first outcry, he had held his voice, but he was struggling desperately with the man in the darkness. He could feel hands moving over his body, inserting themselves in his various pockets.
"They're thieves!" he cried. "Help! Help!"
There was no answer save the echo of his own voice, broken by the panting breaths of the three men, who seemed to want to do their work in silence.
By a powerful right-hand swing Paul sent his man to the ground with a thud that knocked the breath from his body, and the fellow did not get up again immediately.
"Let go of me!" yelled Innis. "Keep your hands out of my pockets!"
He tore himself loose from the man's grip, and shoved the fellow aside, so that he fell on top of the one Paul had knocked down.
"Help! Help!" yelled Innis. "Thieves! Grit! Grit!"
"Grit isn't here!" panted Dick, wishing with all his heart that his pet had not been left in the garage to keep watch and ward over the auto. Our hero was struggling fiercely with his man.
By this time the one Paul had knocked down was getting up, being assisted by the fellow Innis had pushed from him. Dick managed to get one arm free and he dashed his clenched fist full into the face of his attacker.
He could feel the force of the blow, and he knew he must have caused the footpad considerable pain, for there was a grunt of protest.
"Here they come again!" said Innis, fiercely. "Back to back, fellows, and we can stand 'em off!"
Now that the first instinctive fear at the attack in the dark had passed off, the three youths felt a fierce joy in the coming conflict. It was like a battle on the football gridiron, only with greater odds.
Dick, Paul and Innis moved close together, being free for the moment from their assailants. Then from down the road could be heard the sound of footsteps running rapidly. The men paused, listened a moment, and then the one who had attacked Dick exclaimed:
"Come on. He hasn't it with him!"
At once the three men turned and raced off in the darkness, away from the sound of the approaching footsteps. For a moment the three chums remained in a sort of triangular posture of defense, hardly knowing what it was all about, since it had taken place so quickly.
"Are—are we all here?" Dick finally managed to gasp.
"It seems so," replied Paul. "What happened, anyhow? Was it a joke?"
"My nose doesn't feel that way," said Innis.
"No, and I guess I gave one of those fellows something that he'll remember for a day or so," went on Paul. "But what in the world were they after?"
"Something that I left back in the auto," replied Dick, grimly.
"What! Those papers?"
"That's it. The fellow who had me went all through my pockets while he was rough-housing me. First I thought he was after my watch and money, but when he didn't take them, I knew what he wanted."
"They went through my pockets, too," confessed Innis.
"Same here," added Paul.
"Did they get anything?" asked Dick, quickly.
The lads made a hasty search, and both reported that they had lost nothing. At that moment a man came running up.
Instinctively the three chums got ready for a renewal of hostilities, but they soon saw they had nothing to fear, even had not the man spoken, for he was an honest-appearing chap.
"What—what's the matter?" he panted. "Did you call for help?"
"We did," replied Dick, "but we don't need any now; thank you."
"What was it?"
"Somebody tried to hold us up," went on the young millionaire, not caring to go into all the details. "But we beat 'em off."
"That's good. Were they three rough-looking fellows?"
"There were three of 'em, all right," said Paul, "and I guess they're a little more rough-looking than they were at first; eh, boys?"
"Sure thing," remarked Innis, tenderly touching some of his bruises.
"I'm a watchman down the road a ways, at a new building just going up," the man went on. "I saw these fellows go past, and I didn't like their looks and actions. They were talking about getting something off some one, and——"
"I guess they were talking about us," interrupted Dick. "They probably saw us in the moving picture place, and followed us. They asked for the time, and pretended they had missed their way. That was only to get us to halt, of course. But we're well out of it, all right."
"Did they get much?"
"Nothing," said Paul. "We're much obliged to you for coming."
"I came as soon as I heard you call. Oh, you're the fellows with the big auto; aren't you?" he went on, as he came close and made out the faces of the three in the starlight.
"That's us," said Dick. "I guess we might as well go on, boys," he added to his chums. "I want some arnica for this bump I got."
"Which way did the men go?" the watchman wanted to know, and when the boys had indicated it, and had themselves started to go in the same direction, to reach the garage where the Last Word was waiting for them, the watchman went on: "Aren't you afraid they'll tackle you again? They may be waiting down the road for you."
Dick shook his head.
"They found out we didn't have what they wanted," he remarked, "and they won't bother us any more. Come on, boys."
"Huh! Queer robbers," observed the watchman, and he turned away after the boys had thanked him for his prompt response to their calls for help.
"Do you really think those men were after the papers, Dick?" asked Paul.
"I'm sure of it," answered his friend. "It was all part of the game Uncle Ezra is playing, but I'm getting tired of it. This is the limit! It's got to stop!"
"Are you going to tell him so?" asked Innis, as they walked along.
"No, but I'm going to make a change in our plans. We'll fool 'em—we'll get off the beaten track and go off into the unknown until we put plenty of space behind us. Then they'll have their own troubles tracing us."
"That does seem the best way," assented Paul. "It's no fun to be on the verge of an attack at any time. The game is too one-sided. We'll make it harder for them."
"That's my idea," said Dick, as they neared the garage, having seen no further signs of the three men.
They found the big car undisturbed, with Grit ready to give them a noisy welcome.
"I wish we'd had you along a while ago, old fellow," remarked Dick, as he patted his dog. "I guess those fellows wouldn't have been quite so fresh. But maybe it's just as well as it is, for I wouldn't want any of them chewed up."
"How do you figure it out?" asked Paul, as they got themselves a little lunch before turning in.
"Why, Uncle Ezra, or whoever he's hired to turn this trick, knew where we would be at a certain day, I suppose," said Dick. "The men were on the watch, and, when we arrived, they just kept tabs on us. The rest was easy enough."
"Only you didn't happen to carry the papers with you," added Innis.
"No, it was a good trick to leave 'em here," assented our hero, as he looked in the advertising envelope behind the mirror, to make sure that the documents were safe. "Well, they won't try it on again in a hurry. In the morning we'll figure out a new route that will bring us to 'Frisco in time to file the papers."
It was no very difficult task, with their road maps, to do this, and having seen the garage man start on the work of repairing the brakes, Dick and his chums strolled into town. They managed to find some points of interest, and also took in the ball game, and, though the repairs took three days, instead of two, they did not regret their little stop-over.
"We've got plenty of time," said Dick, "and from now on we'll shift about on our route. I'm anxious to get out in the West."
"So am I!" added Paul.
Once more they were under way, but they did not head for Chicago, as they had intended.
"Too much is likely to happen there," decided Dick. "We might as well have a brass band with us, as this big car. So the thing to do is to avoid the big cities."
This they did. As events of very little interest occurred during the next week, I shall skim over that period, only saying that the lads had no further trouble, except an occasional bad road to travel, and a storm to journey through.
Farther and farther west they worked their way, until one morning saw them in Salt Lake City, Utah. This was on their original schedule, but Dick and his chums figured that they had so shifted about that their enemies must have lost their trail by this time.
"Of course they may be waiting for us here," said Dick, "but they won't get much chance at us. We'll keep on the outskirts of town, and after we get what supplies we need we'll strike out into the desert."
"The desert!" exclaimed Paul. "That sounds lonely enough."
"It will be," asserted the young millionaire, "and we'll have to take along an extra amount of water and gasoline. But we'll keep near the line of the Western Pacific railroad, and in case of trouble we can get help."
That afternoon they started off, having stocked the big car well. They made a quick run to the Great Salt Lake, paused to wonder at it, and then headed for the great desert. Off into its loneliness they steered, wondering what lay before them.