CHAPTER XXI
THE CRY FOR HELP
After the fight in the cave Dan and Billy were sore and tired, and their wrists and ankles very painful. But it seemed to them both that it was their business to follow the outlaws, if they could, and learn what disposition was made of the “treasure box,” as Billy insisted upon calling the chest that had been hidden under the hearthstone in the cave.
Besides, the boys were very anxious about their new iceboat. The robbers, if they used it to get to the mainland, as they evidently intended, might hide the Follow Me where Dan and Billy would be unable to find it before the races, a week away.
“Though right now,” Billy remarked, as they crept out of the passage leading into the cavern, “it doesn’t look as though we’d hold iceboat races next week on the Colasha. Goodness, Dan! did you ever in your life see so much snow?”
“It’s worse on this side of the island, don’t you see?” said his brother. “The snow is drifting this way. The high back of the island breaks the wind and the snow piles up here in drifts.”
“But our Fly-up-the-Creek is on this side of the island,” complained Billy. “She’s buried a mile deep, I bet!”
The boys started up the hill, but the snow beat down upon them so heavily, and the wind was so boisterous, they were glad to lock arms. Although Dummy made a “bad botch” of talking, as Billy said, he proved to be pretty muscular and the trio got along famously until they reached the summit.
They had come in this direction because Dan pointed out that it was not likely the three robbers, burdened with the heavy box, would face the gale either with the Follow Me, or afoot.
“And I don’t believe they will go towards Riverdale,” he observed. “You see, they knew old John Bromley was stirring things up over the ’phone when they burst into his house and captured him. Although they left him bound, they realized that whoever John was ’phoning to would look the old man up pretty quick.
“Now, naturally, the whole of Riverdale would be aroused by the robbery—and it sure would be if we hadn’t started right out after the Follow Me. Even now perhaps Bromley has called people up on the ’phone because we are out in the storm so long.
“So, it seems to me,” concluded Dan, with an effort, “that the three robbers are more likely to try for Meadville and the railroad.”
Dummy nodded violently and tried to speak his agreement with this statement. Billy only grunted. He had all he could do to plow through the drifts without wasting any breath in discussion.
They got over the ridge and slid down the steep rocks for several feet until the island itself broke the force of the gale. The wind did not blow directly across the island, but the slant being from up stream the heights acted as a windbreak.
“Now where?” asked Billy, with a sigh.
“Listen!” commanded his brother, unexpectedly.
Dan held up his hand and all three strained their ears for several moments. Then, simultaneously, the trio heard again the sound that had startled Dan. It was the distant explosions of the motor—the motor of the Follow Me!
“They have taken her,” growled Dan. “There they go,” and he pointed up stream.
“But they’re not so far away,” returned the surprised Billy. “And it’s more than an hour since they cleared out and left us in the cave.”
“I guess they had trouble in digging the boat out of the snow and getting her started. It’s a wonder the motor wasn’t frozen up on a night like this.”
It was in a sort of lull of the blizzard that they heard the explosions of the engine. Now the wind and snow swooped down again, and muffled the sound. But Dan started straight down the hill.
“Are you going after them?” yelled Billy.
“Surest thing you know!”
“I believe we’re crazy! We’ll be lost in this snow.”
“Not much we won’t,” declared his brother. “I’ve got a compass.”
He showed it—a very delicately adjusted instrument which he kept in a case in his pocket. At the edge of the ice (there was not so much snow on this side of the island) he waited to hear the sound of the engine again. Then he took his bearings, and at once set forth into the storm.
This time Dan led, Billy hung to his coat-tail, and Dummy brought up the rear. Thus, keeping literally in touch with each other, they would not be likely to drift apart while battling with the elements. And battle they actually had to.
The moment they got from under the shelter of the island the snow and wind almost overwhelmed them. Never had the boys experienced such a gale. Sometimes they were beaten to their knees, and had they not clung together, one or the other surely would have been driven away and lost.
“No wonder those men have gotten no farther from the island!” yelled Dan, with his lips close to Billy’s ear.
“Right-O!” agreed the younger boy. “And can we catch up with ’em?”
“We don’t want to; we want to trail ’em,” returned Dan.
On they pressed, taking advantage of every flaw in the gale. Had it not been for Dan’s compass they would have become turned about and lost their way ere they had left the island behind them ten minutes.
The wind blew between the points of Island Number One and the next above it with such force that the boys made very slow progress. When at last they got in the lee of the second island, they stopped to breathe, and to listen.
They did not at once hear the exhaust of the engine on the Follow Me; but they did hear something else. Voices were shouting—seemingly far out on the frozen river.
Again and again they heard the sounds. “Ahoy! Ahoy!” came plainly to their ears. Then—and much to the Speedwells’ amazement—the boys heard their own names called—and in accents whose note of peril was not to be doubted:
“Dan! Billy! Help us Dan and Billy Spe-e-e-dwell! He-e-e-lp!”