No Moss Part 20

The first thought that pa.s.sed through Johnny's mind was, that he had again fallen into the hands of the burglars; the second, that they could not manage him as easily as they had done before. He would fight as long as he was able to raise a finger. But the clerk did not have time to act on this resolution, for his a.s.sailant threw him down with as much ease as he had prostrated Tom Newcombe in the store, and caught him by the throat, and, at the same instant, a second man appeared, who quickly confined his hands behind his back, and gagged him by forcing a handkerchief into his mouth. His captors handled him very roughly, and Johnny would have yelled with pain, but the gag and the strong grasp on his throat rendered it impossible for him to utter a sound.

Having satisfied themselves that their prisoner was securely tied, the men jerked him to his feet, and then Johnny got his first good look at them, and was astonished to discover that they were not the burglars.

They were two young farmers, whom he had often seen in the village--the same who had captured Tom Newcombe a few hours before. They were searching for Jed, and when they saw Johnny prowling about the cove, they hastened to secure him, believing him to be one of the Crusoe men.

The clerk knew there was a mistake somewhere, but the gag effectually prevented him from explaining matters. If he tried to free his hands, in order to remove the gag, the farmers would think he was endeavoring to escape, and they might treat him even more harshly than they had done before. The only thing he could do was to submit quietly, and make himself known to them at the first opportunity.

"You young rascal!" said Bill, shaking his fist in Johnny's face.

"We'll show you how to rob potato-patches and cut down cellar doors,"

said Josh. "If you don't pay for this night's work, it will be because there is no law in the land."

The farmers grasped his arms, and Johnny walked submissively between them toward the house. He was satisfied, from what they had said, that the exciting events of the night had not been confined to the village.

The people on the island had evidently come in for a share of the trouble, and Johnny, who was blessed with more than an ordinary amount of curiosity, wondered what had been going on, and grew angrier every moment, because he could not speak to his captors. He thought of the time he was wasting, too, and wished Josh and Bill had been a thousand miles from there before they attempted his capture.

Johnny was astonished at the sensation he created when he was led into the house. Every one present looked at him with curiosity, and wondered that so honest-looking a boy should belong to a band of young robbers.

When he had taken the chair pointed out to him, Josh stationed himself near the door to prevent his escape, and Bill removed the gag. The rough treatment he had experienced had sadly ruffled his temper, and as soon as he was able to speak he looked fiercely at Bill, and exclaimed:

"I'd like to know what you are about!"

"Would! Well, I can soon tell you," replied Bill. "You are one of those fellows who robbed our potato-patches, aint you?"

"Do I look like a boy of that kind?" demanded Johnny, indignantly. "I never saw your potato-patch, and I don't know that you have one."

"Now, just look a here," said Bill, "what's the use of telling that?"

"It's the truth," protested the prisoner. "My name is John Harding, and I am clerk in Mr. Henry's grocery store, which has just been robbed of seven thousand dollars. I was in pursuit of the burglars when you caught me. I am not in the habit of telling lies," he added, more angrily than ever, noticing that the young farmers smiled derisively as they listened to his story. "All you have to do is to go back to the beach with me, and I will soon convince you that I am not trying to deceive you."

"You want us to take you there, so that your friends can release you, I suppose," said Josh. "We gagged you to prevent you from giving the alarm."

"You need not have put yourselves to so much trouble, for I haven't a friend on the island. I came here alone. Let me loose, can't you? I don't want to be confined here like a felon."

The farmers had been so nicely outwitted by the Crusoe men that they were very suspicious, and, believing that Johnny's story had been invented for the occasion, they did not put the least faith in it. They had caught him prowling about in the vicinity of the potato-patch, and that, in their eyes, was evidence strong enough to condemn him. Johnny said every thing he could to induce them to believe that he was really what he represented himself to be. He told how the burglars had effected an entrance into the store, described the operation of blowing open the safe, and even mentioned the fact of having heard somebody shouting for help while he was standing on the cliff. Then the farmers, for the first time, became interested.

"Perhaps it's Jed," said Bill. "He is our brother," he added, in answer to an inquiring look from Johnny. "He went out with us after the fellows who cut down the cellar door, and he hasn't come back yet. We had better go down there, for he may have fallen over the cliff."

"You will take me with you, will you not?" inquired Johnny.

"No, I guess not; we don't think it would be safe. You see, the way you fellows got those two prisoners out of the cellar makes us think we can't be too careful of you. We'll leave you here, and for fear that you might escape, or be rescued while we are gone, we'll take you up stairs and tie you fast to something."

Johnny protested loudly against this arrangement, but his words fell upon deaf ears, and he was obliged to submit to his captors, who conducted him into the garret and bound him to the chimney, which came up through the middle of the floor.

"There," said Josh, "I'd like to see your friends find you now. You'll be likely to stay here until we come back, unless you can pull the chimney down, and I don't think you are strong enough to do that."

Johnny was astonished at the care exhibited by the farmers in providing for his safe-keeping, and it led him to the conclusion that Tom and his band had been doing something desperate. He was impatient to learn the full particulars of the robbery of the potato-patch, and the rescue of the prisoners, but he was much more anxious to regain his liberty, and continue the pursuit of the burglars. He did not doubt that the students would capture them, and, as that would be a big feather in their caps, Johnny wanted to a.s.sist in the work, in order that he also might enjoy the honors of the exploit.

Josh and Bill were gone fully half an hour, and during every moment of that time Johnny's impatience increased, until at last it seemed to him that he could not possibly endure his captivity an instant longer. Of course he tried hard to free himself, but his captors, remembering the prisoners who had escaped from the cellar, had taken especial pains to make his bonds secure, and Johnny finally abandoned his attempts in despair, and awaited his release with all the fort.i.tude he could command. At last, to his immense relief, he heard footsteps on the porch, and after a few minutes' delay Josh and Bill came up the stairs, accompanied by Jed. They all seemed to be very angry about something, and if Johnny had known what Jed had experienced at the hands of the Crusoe men, he would not have been at all surprised thereat. When Jed's eyes rested on the prisoner, his countenance fell, and he seemed to be very much disappointed. He took the candle from Bill's hand, held it close to Johnny's face, examined his clothing, and finally shook his head. "You'll know me the next time you see me, won't you?" asked Johnny.

"Yes, and I would know you now, if I had ever seen you before. He don't belong to the crowd," he added, turning to his brothers. "I took a good look at every one of them, and I can't be mistaken. You had better let him go."

"I think so too," said the prisoner.

"It's lucky for you that you aint one of the robbers," continued Jed, shaking his head in a threatening manner, "for I had made up my mind to give you a good drubbing. Let's return to the cove and watch for them.

Perhaps they will come back."

"Do you mean the Crusoe men?" asked Johnny. "I know they will come back.

They are blockaded, and they can't get out of the bay."

Josh and Bill were quite ready to go back to the cove, but they were not willing to release their captive. They could not be made to believe that he was not in some way connected with those who had plundered their potato-patch, and Johnny began to think them the most unreasonable men he had seen for many a day. There was Jed, who had had some adventure with the Crusoe men, and who repeatedly affirmed that he had never met Johnny before, but still Josh and Bill would not be convinced. "You see," said the former, "it does not follow that you ain't one of the robbers because we did not see you with them. If you had nothing to do with what has been going on here for the last week, what were you sneaking around the farm for? That's what I want to know."

"I wasn't sneaking around at all," replied Johnny, impatiently. "I was going about my business openly and above board, and I didn't care who saw me. I was looking for the men who stole Mr. Henry's money."

"Now, that's a funny story, aint it? A boy like you wouldn't be in any hurry to put himself in the way of two robbers, armed with revolvers. We are going back to the cove, and we shall take you with us. The men folks are all out looking for Jed, and we are too sharp to leave you long in the house with n.o.body but women to watch you."

"Wouldn't it be a good plan to obtain a little more a.s.sistance?" asked Johnny. "If you will collect half a dozen men, you can capture every one of those fellows if they come back."

"That's just what we intend to do," replied Josh, "but I think we three can manage them, and watch you besides."

"But you forget the robbers."

Josh smiled and shrugged his shoulders, intimating very plainly that he was not yet prepared to believe that the robbers existed, only in Johnny's imagination. "If you will agree not to make any fuss we won't gag you," said he.

That was something gained, and Johnny readily gave the required promise.

Although his hands were still bound behind his back, his captors seemed to be very much afraid of him, and during the walk to the cove they kept a firm hold of his arms, and looked about them suspiciously, as if they every instant expected to be called upon to resist an attempt on the part of the Crusoe men to rescue their prisoner.

But Johnny _was_ released; not by the governor and his band, however, but by the crew of the Storm King, and Josh and Bill never once thought of offering any resistance to them.

It did not take Harry Green long to come to some conclusion respecting the mysterious disappearance of the pirate vessel, and, after his conversation with the boatswain's mate, he astonished his second lieutenant with an order to call away a company of small-armed men.

While the jolly-boat was being lowered, the plucky mids.h.i.+pman Richardson, who commanded the company, reported for orders, and was instructed to go ash.o.r.e and explore every nook and corner of the bluffs on that side of the island. He left the vessel as fully determined to effect the capture of Tom Newcombe as he had been before, and, when the party from the farm-house came up, he had stopped with his company on the cliffs above the cove to reconnoiter. When he heard them approaching, he ordered his men to conceal themselves. Of course he was not sure that they were the ones he had been sent out to capture, but he argued, as did Josh and Bill in regard to Johnny, that if they were honest people they would not be roaming about the island at that time of night.

"Halt!" shouted Richardson, when the farmers, with their prisoner, had advanced fairly within his ambush. "Close up around them, men, and punch the first one that tries to escape."

Bill and Josh were so astonished that they did not think of flight or resistance until it was too late. The young tars arose from their concealments on all sides of them, and they suddenly found themselves surrounded by a wall of gleaming bayonets, every one of which was held so close to them that the least forward or backward movement on their part would have brought them in contact with the cold steel.

"Well, look here! I swan to man!" said Jed, shrinking away from the bayonets in front of him, only to receive a slight p.r.i.c.k from three or four behind.

"I say, fellows," stammered Bill, "you've made a mistake."

"Is that you, Richardson?" asked Johnny.

"Harding!" exclaimed the mids.h.i.+pman, excitedly, "and a prisoner, too.

We've got the burglars. Put your hands above your heads," he added, sternly, addressing himself to Josh and Bill; "quick, or you'll feel the points of those bayonets."

"Hold on, Dave," cried Johnny, when he saw that the bayonets were drawn back for a thrust. "These men are not the robbers."

"They are not? How does it come, then, that you are a prisoner?"

demanded the young officer.

"Untie my hands, somebody, and I'll tell you all about it."