CHAPTER XXIX
AT THE CRACK O’ DAY
“Tony!”
There was no reply. Gus called again, more sharply, but still fearful of being heard. Silence. There could be no delay in action. With his nerves still a-tingle, the boy seized a stout bit of wood, evidently cut for the fireplace, inserted it between the window bars, bore down and with a low squeak of protest the nails came out. Another pry, with the sill for a fulcrum, and there was a hole big enough for a body to get through. The bit of wood now acted as a step and in a moment Gus was inside the cabin.
At the extreme end, lying against the logs, lay a figure. Gus instantly stooped to shake it. Tony waked up with a cry of alarm.
“Don’t, don’t yell, Tony, it’s Gus! Get up and come quick!”
Nothing more was required of Tony. He was instantly awake and in action. Not another word passed between the boys—but was that cry heard by the kidnapers?—the rescuer wondered—and with reason. They must be off instantly.
To the window! As Tony drew near it, pulling Gus by the hand across the dark room, he paused. Outside there was the faint sound of a step. Tony uttered a faint “sh,” and grabbed Gus by the arm. It was the elder Malatesta.
“Ah! So? You make get-away. I fix that.” The next instant the muzzle of a rifle was poked through the broken place—poked well through, and possibly this shrewd defier of law and order never made a greater mistake, which he recognized when he felt the muzzle seized and bent aside.
He pulled the trigger, but the bullet buried itself harmlessly in the wall of the cabin. Malatesta attempted to jerk the gun away, but Gus, fortified by the leverage against the sill and the window bars, held on, his own weapon crashing to the floor. How Tony managed to dive through that hole as he did, landing squarely on his enemy neither he nor Gus ever could figure out, but when Gus found the weapon free in his hands, picked up his own gun and followed Tony he found the insensible miscreant, who had received a sufficient smash in the jaw from Tony’s heel.