All these reflections passed through Bob’s mind like a flash. And he too stopped for a moment while he pondered his course of action.
For less than a minute he hesitated. Then he moved forward. Anything was better than inaction. If his enemy was lying in wait for him and they came to handgrips—well, that was what he was looking for. All he asked was a chance to lay his hands on the villain who had assaulted and narrowly escaped killing his friend. Boy as he was, he was as tall and muscular as many a man, and he was willing to take his chance.
He had gone perhaps a hundred feet when nature came to his aid. There was a terrific clap of thunder, and the lightning flash that followed flooded all the landscape with light.
There at the side of the road, not ten feet from him, was Cassey, trying to climb a fence. His intent was obvious—to steal off through the fields while his pursuer was vainly hunting him along the road.
With a shout Bob leaped toward him. He covered the ground in two jumps, caught Cassey by the coat, and yanked him back to the ground
With a savage snarl the rascal drew a blackjack and aimed a blow at Bob’s head that would certainly have knocked him out had it landed. But with pantherlike swiftness Bob leaped aside, and as Cassey tried to regain his balance, Bob’s fist shot out with terrific force and caught Cassey right on the point of the jaw. Cassey went down in the mud, and in an instant Bob was on top of him and had wrenched the weapon from his hand.
“Now, Cassey,” Bob commanded, emphasizing his words by a tap with the blackjack, “keep quiet or I’ll give you a crack with this that will send you to the land of dreams. Understand?”
That Cassey understood was shown by the fact that he instantly ceased to struggle and lay limp beneath his captor, who sat astride of him.
Keeping the weapon ready for instant use and not taking his eyes from his captive, Bob lifted up his voice in the yodel call that had been agreed upon between him and Joe. The shrill call carried far, and Bob had no doubt that it would be heard.
Knowing that force was of no avail, Cassey resorted to pleading.