“He’s here, but I’m worried about him. I can’t get any sound from him.” 99
“What happened?” asked Jack, his head buzzing, and sore. “Where are the others?”
“Guess we’re all here, Mister Jack,” answered Tom Barnum’s voice, out of the darkness. “Leastways, Captain What’s-his-name’s here beside me, but he don’t speak, neither.”
“Good heavens,” exclaimed Jack, in alarm, and making a valiant effort to shake off his dizziness. “Where are we? What happened? Frank, do you know? Tom, do you?”
“Somebody jumped on me from behind,” said Frank, “and then the fellow I was sitting on, this Higginbotham, squirmed around and took a hand, and I got the worst of it, and was hustled off to the old Brownell house and thrown in this dark room. I had my hands full and couldn’t see what was going on. I heard Tom yell, but at the same time this fellow jumped on me. That’s all I know.”
“There was a dozen or more of ’em come out of the woods,” said Tom. “They sneaked out. We was pretty close to the trees. I just happened to look back, an’ they was on us. Didn’t even have time to pull my pistol. They just bowled me over by weight of numbers. Like Mister Frank, I had my own troubles and couldn’t see what happened to the rest of you.”
There was a momentary silence, broken by Jack. 100
“It’s easy to see what happened,” he said, bitterly. “What fools we were. Those things on the beach were radio-controlled boats which had brought liquor ashore, and a gang was engaged in carrying it up to the Brownell house. We happened along when the beach was clear, and Higginbotham and that other scoundrel were the vanguard of the returning party. When they shouted on being attacked by you and Bob, and Frank, the rest who were behind them in the woods were given the alarm, sneaked up quietly, and bagged us all. A pretty mess.”
A groan from Bob interrupted.
“Poor old Bob,” said Jack, contritely, for he had been blaming the headstrong fellow in his thoughts for having caused their difficulties by his precipitate attack on Higginbotham. “He seems to have gotten the worst of it.”