Dirk drew himself up on one elbow, choking. His mouth was filled with powdery dust, and every bone ached. Frenziedly, he thrashed about, and found he had shaken free of the rope that had bound his hands together. He reached up and tore off his blindfold.
In the light of the waning crescent moon, he looked up. A few inches above his head lay the bank from which he had leaped into the unknown. Standing there, doubled with silent laughter, were the three figures of his torturers. Instead of jumping to death from a precipitous cliff, he had plunged dramatically from a ledge barely a foot high!
He knew where he was now. To his scattered senses came the knowledge that he had landed sprawling in the dirt road that led to camp. The tents could not be far away, although, blindfolded, he had thought that Ryan and his gang had led him for miles through the woods. He scrambled painfully to his feet and ran up the road.
Behind him rose an alarmed, muffled shout from Brick Ryan. “Head him off, Kipper! He’s goin’ back to camp! Get him, Ugly!” The shout only made him run faster. Up the rutted road he sped, flying to security—anywhere, away from the clutches of those who had so brutally mistreated him. His pursuers scattered, seeking to head through the woods and cut him off from the tent. Dirk lost a slipper, but did not pause. If they got their hands on him again——!
A shape darted out at him from behind a tree. He dodged, and raced ahead, gasping for breath. Now he could see the gray sheets of canvas that marked the tents close beside the dark silhouette of the lodge. Behind him hammered the running feet of Brick Ryan. He was almost upon him!
Dirk stumbled into Tent One, and fell upon the bunk where Sax McNulty slept the sleep of the weary councilor.
“Save me! They’re after me!”
The leader started up open-mouthed, blinking his eyes. “What—who——” he mumbled. “Get off!”
“Save me, sir! It’s Brick Ryan, and he made me jump over a cliff, and they chased me—— Don’t let him get me again!”
Others in the tent stirred. Slim Yerkes, in the bunk above the councilor, sat up and silently looked at the sobbing figure beneath him. Young Eddie Scolter woke and giggled uncomprehendingly at the scene.