On the day previous Tom Rover had received telegrams from both Mr. Renton and Mr. Parkhurst stating that they were with him in his actions against Peter Garrish and that they would come to Gold Hill as soon as possible.
“Maybe Garrish has got wind of what I’m up to and wants to head me off,” thought Tom as he sat down on a chair by the window and opened the communication.
He read the letter hastily and then uttered a low whistle as he read it a second time. The communication ran as follows:
“You and your family have done a whole lot toward placing us in a hole. Now we intend to get square. We have your twin sons and the other two boys prisoners a long distance from here. They are in a spot where you will never be able to find them. If you ever expect to see your twins alive again be prepared to pay us fifty thousand dollars in cash. This is a first notice so that you can get the money together and have it ready. You will soon receive another notice as to how the money is to be paid. Do not try to put the authorities on our track or you will regret it as long as you live.
“Davenport.
“Jackson.
“Tate.”
It would be hard to analyze poor Tom’s feeling when he had ascertained the contents of the letter. The news that the boys were prisoners of their enemies upset him fully as much as the boys had been upset when they had been told the twins’ father was injured.
“Dick was right, after all!” he groaned. “I thought he was overcautious when he had the women folks and the girls taken away. But he was right. Davenport must have been up around Colby Hall and Clearwater Hall for the express purpose of getting his hands on the boys, and the girls too. It was a deep-laid plot, no doubt of it. And that being so, they have probably done everything they could to cover up their tracks.”
What to do Tom hardly knew. He dressed with all possible haste and then went to talk the matter over with Cal Corning, who had not been away from home, as Nick Ocker had told the boys.
“It’s a villainous piece of business,” was Corning’s comment. “Why, those rascals have kidnaped the lads! They ought every one of them to be shot down!”