“Guess we know whose work this is, ma’am,” he said, and added as he sprang to his horse and wheeled it about: “I’ll fetch the boys.”
“Meet me at Knockout Inn,” gasped Ruth. “I want to get Mr. Boardman, too.”
The miner nodded and was off in a cloud of dust.
Ruth hurried back to the inn, her mind awhirl with confused and torturing thoughts.
How had Tom and Chess stumbled into the lion’s den? Had it been a trap set for them by Bloomberg? Or had they actually discovered the hiding place of the films and because of this been captured and held by the enemy?
Useless to ask herself these questions now. The thing to do—the only thing to do—was to reach the boys at once, to rescue them before the vindictive Bloomberg and his confederates, thinking perhaps that Tom and Chess knew too much concerning the whereabouts of the films, might do their prisoners some serious injury.
The films! The films! Her precious films! Ruth clenched her hands against the hope that she might recover them after all. She must not torture herself with hopes for which there was, as yet, no real foundation.
Tom and Chess were in trouble, perhaps desperate trouble. She must think of them exclusively now.
Arrived at Knockout Inn she found that Kid Curry, the lad who had brought her the message from Tom, had already arrived with “the boys.” Curry was explaining the situation to Layton Boardman in curt, gruff sentences when Ruth came up to them.
Helen flew down the steps of the inn and flung her arms about her chum.