“You bet he does. And when he is hot we wants to keep our eyes peeled for a ruction.”
“That’s whatever.”
Although Dick listened a long time after this, the conversation of the ruffians seemed of no particular importance. Finally they ceased talking, and evidently one of them at least prepared to sleep. Dick arose and returned to the bunk, where he lay trying to devise some possible method of escape. Scores of wild plans flittered through his brain, but he realized that none of them were practical.
“If I could get word to Frank,” he thought. “But how can it be done—how can it be done?”
Such a thing seemed impossible. At last he became drowsy and realized that he was sinking off to sleep, in spite of his unpleasant position. He was fully awakened at last by sudden sounds in the outer room. There came a heavy hammering at the door, followed by the voice of one of Dick’s captors demanding to know who was there. Dick sat upright on the bunk, his nerves tingling as he thought of the possibility that the ruffians had been followed by a party of rescuers, who were now at hand.
The one who was knocking seemed to satisfy the men within, for Dick knew the door was flung open. He swiftly crossed the floor and lay again with his ear near the crack beneath the door.
“Well, you two are a fine bunch!” declared a hoarse voice that seemed full of anger. “You keeps your dates a heap well, don’t yer! Oh, yes, yer two nice birds, you are!”
This was the voice of the newcomer.
“Howdy, Dan?” said Mat. “We thinks mebbe yer comes around this yere way.”
“Oh, yer does, does yer?” snarled the one called Dan. “Why does yer think that so brightlike? Why does yer reckon that when you agrees ter meet me at Win’mill Station I comes here to find you five miles away? That’s what I’d like to know.”