With a bound, his strong, athletic body thrown forward with all the agility of which he was capable, Frank Allen leaped to the center of the shack. His feet struck leaves and twigs, going through them.
One foot struck solid ground as it crushed the leaves downward, while the other struck nothing! He threw out his arms to catch his balance! Suddenly he felt a push, just as he fought to regain his balance, and his foot was thrown clear of the ground. Down, down he went, striking leaf-covered ground below!
Bang! A gun discharged just over his head, and another form came toppling into the hole, almost on top of him. Lanky had leaped into the cabin immediately behind Frank, striking on the covering of leaves, and he, too, had gotten a push. His finger being on the trigger of his weapon, it had discharged into the air.
Frank and Lanky both in a hole in the center of this shack—shoved in by unseen hands!
CHAPTER XVIII
PRISONERS IN THE SHACK
Frank Allen staggered to his knees, then to his feet, reaching out to grasp at the branches which whisked past his face, scratching him severely. Under him were also branches and twigs, put there in all probability to stop the force of the fall as they dropped in.
Hearing the single shot, waiting a moment to see some sign of life in the shack, Buster and Paul came on a run to the door, peered in, saw nothing, and leaped inside to help Lanky and Frank.
As they rushed into the shack, going as far as the camouflage of leaves and twigs, they were seized from behind and pushed forward. Each of them, throwing out his arms to save himself felt a grip on his weapon, and as the two boys went into the hole, barely missing the other two who were already there, the guns were jerked from their grasps.
By this time Frank was on his feet, his own rifle up so that he could use it, but there was no one in sight. The two boys who came hurtling into the pit disturbed things for the moment, so that he could not shoot, for he was determined to fire on those who had pushed him in. Frank realized he had been caught in a trap.
“You boys all safe down there?” came a question from one of the men above, a voice which Frank recognized at once as that of the tramp, Snadder. “We’ve got your guns now, so there ain’t no use trying any funny tricks.”