But they had reckoned on a weakness that Jeek did not have. They figured he was leaving them alone. He was, but not for long. Just as the boys made their first move to scale the walls of the hole, Jeek and Fallon came into the place, dragging a log. From where the boys stood at the bottom of the pit they saw the men stand the log on end for a moment and then drop it with a dull thud across the top of the hole. Leaves and twigs showered down upon them when the heavy log fell into place.
It had happened so quickly and so unexpectedly that the boys had entirely forgotten the advantage they had in using their rifles. Jeek and Fallon had their bodies in sight long enough to have brought both of them down wounded—but the prisoners had let the opportunity get away from them.
“That won’t stop us,” whispered Frank. “If they drop another one, have your rifle ready and we’ll plug them both in the legs. Shoot carefully and don’t kill—just shoot at their legs so we can cripple them enough to keep them from covering this over.”
Once again they figured without an accurate knowledge of this wily Jeek. The two men staggered in under the load of another large log, but this one was set up at an angle, after the door had been carefully closed, shielding them in the darkness, and the plunking sound of the log told the boys that it had dropped in place across the hole.
Still another was brought, and a fourth was laid over. They were well and quite securely fastened down in their prison.
“Well, boys,” Jeek’s voice came to them in a mock politeness, “I am very sorry to be called away, but Mr. Fallon and I have to go back further into the mountains to another cabin where we have some private articles we need. We’ll be by this way this evening and we’ll drop in to see if you’re going to pay for the dog. So long, boys, and don’t get lonesome.”
The slam of the heavy door above told the prisoners that the men had really gone. Whereupon without a moment’s hesitation, Frank planned the scaling of the walls of their pit.
Lanky Wallace had the bottom position, Buster atop of him, and then came Frank at the very top, Paul helping to brace at the bottom.
Frank first felt the logs carefully to see whether they moved easily and which way to move one of them. He figured on rolling one of them to the side, thus leaving enough room to crawl between.
The effort was a failure. He tugged at the next one, but it failed to roll. He tried to force it upward, but to no avail. Jeek had laid the fourth log across the other three at right angles, thus placing a heavyweight on those which formed the ceiling to this hole.