“Same here, except the money,” reported Bemis, investigating the documents in the satchel brought from Stanley Junction by Bartlett. “Mostly railroad stock in the Great Northern. Private letters, lists of names of the strikers. Memoranda about some wire-tapping scheme. Say, these papers are enough to send the old skeesicks to the penitentiary. He’ll pay a fortune to get them back.”
Slump pocketed the ready cash in the satchel. Then he was silently thoughtful for a few moments.
“See here, I have my scheme,” he said finally. “We’ll carry these satchels down to the old barge at the creek, and hide them there. Then we’ll block out some plan to work Farrington for their return.” 163
“All right,” said Bemis. “Come ahead.”
They took up the satchels and started on again, and Ralph followed them as before. They came to a creek, and, after lining its shore for nearly a mile, to a large roughly-made scow. Both boarded the craft, disappeared in its hold, reappeared, and came to the shore again.
“We’ll just enjoy the ready cash for the time being,” said Slump, “and later find out a safe way to deal with Farrington.”
When they had gone, Ralph went aboard the scow. A scuttle led down into its hold. Its cover was closed with a strong spring bolt. Ralph drew this back and sat over the edge of the scuttle.
He peered down, prepared to push the cover clear back, when he slipped and went below head-long. The cover fell tightly shut, and he was a prisoner.
Ralph did not mind this much at the time. He believed he could readily force up the cover in some way when he wanted to leave the scow. He lit some matches and proceeded to search for the two satchels. He found them in a remote corner of the hold.
It was when he prepared to leave the hold that the young fireman discovered himself in a decided quandary. He could barely reach the 164 scuttle cover, and there was not an object in the hold that he could use to force it open. Finally Ralph decided that he could not hope for escape in that direction.