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diff --git a/76621-0.txt b/76621-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..46b7cf2 --- /dev/null +++ b/76621-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7473 @@ + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 76621 *** + + + + + +SERGEANT DICK OF THE ROYAL MOUNTED POLICE + +[Illustration: SERGEANT DICK TOOK IN ALL THESE PARTICULARS.] + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +SERGEANT DICK OF THE ROYAL MOUNTED POLICE + +A Thrilling Story of the Canadian Woods + +By JOHN G. ROWE + +AUTHOR OF “CRUSOE ISLAND,” “LIGHTSHIP PIRATES,” +“THE MYSTERY OF THE DERELICT,” ETC. + +NEW YORK + +CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +SERGEANT DICK OF THE ROYAL MOUNTED POLICE + +By JOHN G. ROWE + +Large 12 mo. Illustrated. Jacket in Full Colors. + +ROWE BOOKS FOR BOYS + + CRUSOE ISLAND + THE ISLAND TREASURE + THE MYSTERY OF THE DERELICT + THE SECRET OF THE MYSTERY IDOL + THE LIGHTSHIP PIRATES + +CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, New York + +Copyright, 1929, by + +Cupples & Leon Company + +Sergeant Dick of the Royal Mounted Police + +Printed in U. S. A. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +CONTENTS + + I. The Hooded Rustlers + II. Muriel Arnold + III. The House in the Lake + IV. Inside “Water Castle” + V. A Running Fight + VI. The Trapper and His Sons + VII. Howling Wolf + VIII. The Siege of “Water Castle” + IX. The Ark in Danger + X. An Unexpected Illumination + XI. The Defense of the Ark + XII. Saved by a Woman’s Wit + XIII. Sergeant Dick’s Determination + XIV. The Ambush + XV. Lost in the Woods + XVI. A Startling Discovery + XVII. A Surprise, and a Rescue + XVIII. Back at “Water Castle” + XIX. The Second Siege of “Water Castle” + XX. A Cooler for the Invaders + XXI. The Dash for the Ark + XXII. The Rout of the Besiegers + XXIII. The Plan to Round up the White Hoods + XXIV. In the Hands of Merciless Foes + XXV. On the Track + XXVI. The Threatening Letter + XXVII. The Clew of the Lamp + XXVIII. The Return to “Water Castle” + XXIX. The Failure to Surprise “Water Castle” + XXX. The End of the White Hoods, and of the Story + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +SERGEANT DICK OF THE ROYAL MOUNTED POLICE + + + + +CHAPTER I--THE HOODED RUSTLERS + + +Sergeant John Dick, of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, was +leading his horse up a steep and rugged gorge in the great southwest +region of Canada. It was close by the United States border, and +practically in the shadow of the Rocky Mountains. + +A fine, military-looking figure, Sergeant Dick cut, in his scarlet +tunic, riding-breeches, and “Stetson” or broad-brimmed, bell-crowned +hat. He carried his rifle at the trail in his left hand, and had the +bridle of his horse looped over his right arm. + +The animal was limping painfully. It had got a thorn in its hoof +lower down the trail, where this was on the open prairie, and had +gone dead lame before its master discovered its injury and could +extract the thorn. + +The accident was particularly annoying to Sergeant Dick, for it was +almost imperative he should be at the Paquita Island Reservation, +just over the United States border, by sundown, and the lord of day +was already well down the western sky. + +A howling hurricane of wind made progress still more difficult, +blowing dead in his teeth as it was. No ordinary gusty gale was +this, but a ceaseless avalanche of wind tearing with a terrific howl +along the gorge, raging against man and beast in insensate fury. + +At times Sergeant Dick would turn his back to the storm, and the +horse, with head also turned, would sidle along almost broadside to +it, the better to keep its feet and hold its own. + +Man and horse were thus maneuvering one of the turns in the gorge +when, high above the howl of the hurricane, rang the sharp, +air-splitting crack of a rifle close by--just in front--and +simultaneously Sergeant Dick staggered and nearly fell, feeling a +sudden numbing, burning pain upon the right side of the head, above +his ear. + +His Stetson hat, which had so long resisted the tugging of the wind, +was whirled from his head, and went rolling like a wheel, on its +brim, away down the pass before the gale. + +With a thrill of anger, rather than of any bodily fear, the sergeant +promptly dived behind his horse, drawing it by the reins at the same +time fully broadside across the rocky pass. + +As he did so, he beheld for the first time a startling tableau or +drama being enacted ahead, round the bend in the gorge. + +The track still ascended, but the precipitous, seventy to two +hundred feet high cliffs, which shut him in and almost excluded the +westering sun, became at the scene gentle acclivities, thickly +covered with dense undergrowth and forest trees from the edge of the +road to their summits. + +It was an ideal spot for an ambuscade, and such was what had taken +place. The stage-coach from Settleford, to Paquita Springs over the +border, was halted in the dim twilight of the leafy avenue, and the +driver and passengers were all lined up at one side of the road, +with their hands in the air--women as well as men--under the menace +of two _ghost-like_ bandits or “rustlers,” pointing an automatic +pistol in either hand and with rifles on backs. + +Ghost-like indeed the bandits were. There was no other word for +their bizarre and spectral appearance. + +There were four others, likewise attired, busy around the coach, +from which they were taking bags and boxes, and loading up a round +dozen of horses. Two of the horses had evidently been taken from the +traces of the coach, which was always drawn by four. + +All six “rustlers” were clad in loose white linen frocks, which +descended to mid-thigh or even lower, and had great white peaked +hoods, like monks’ cowls, drawn completely over their heads and +faces! + +Only two holes for the eyes showed in each hood; so the reader can +well imagine how weird and ghostly they looked in the twilight of +the leafy archway, in spite of the rifles slung across their backs +or the Browning automatic pistols in their hands, and the top boots +showing under the white frocks. + +Sergeant Dick took in all these particulars--the whole thrilling +tableau before him--at a single glance of course. And, even as he +did so, he comprehended that it was not one of the six hooded, +ghostly figures beside the stage-coach who had shot at him and so +narrowly missed ending his career. + +The marksman was clearly a seventh member of the gang--on the +look-out, and without a doubt perched upon the rocks at either hand. + +Sergeant Dick swiftly removed his eyes from the tableau under the +storm-tossed trees ahead, and ran them over the two bold cliffs +forming the jaws of the pass at that end. He caught sight of a small +cloudlet of smoke, still hanging limply in the air above a ledge +just below the summit of the right-hand rock. + +The rock behind the ledge acted as a wind-screen, and, although a +hurricane was shrieking overhead and sweeping the rocky pass below, +the air at the point was as still as if there were no wind at all. + +Just as the Sergeant sighted the cloudlet of smoke, a jet of flame +darted from behind a boulder on the ledge, the gorge rang again to +the echoing detonation of a rifle, and he felt the noble animal +shielding him give a convulsive shudder, which told him it had been +hit. + +It yet stood stockstill and upright before him, however, and so he +was satisfied that it could not have been struck in a vital spot. + +Swift as the thought itself, Dick brought his own rifle to his +shoulder, and leveled it across the saddle at a white triangular tip +of cloth, showing above the boulder on the ledge, alongside the new +cloudlet of smoke. That white triangular tip he knew was the peaked +headgear of another of the dreaded White Hood Rustlers. + +He got that triangular tip of white cloth dead in front of his +sights with the quickness of considerable practice and rare skill; +and simultaneously he pressed the trigger. + +As the report of his rifle, blown along by the furious wind, went +echoing down the rocky pass, a white-clad, hooded form leaped up +from behind the boulder and went scuttling into a little cleft +beside the ledge, vanishing as swiftly as a rabbit diving into its +hole. + +Sergeant Dick smiled a little grimly. He was used to seeing well +entrenched foes skedaddle--vacate their quarters as a little too +warm--under his straight shooting. + +He knew for a certainty that his bullet had gone clean through the +white hood of the fugitive rustle-sentinel, within an inch or two of +its rascally wearer’s skull. The bullet would have bored a hole +through _that_ if only a little more than just the tip or peak of +the white hood had been showing. + +It was a splendid shot, like hitting a card torn in half and stuck +on the chimney pot of a three- or four-story house. + +Besides, the shot was such a swift reply to the one preceding it. No +wonder it scared its recipient from his strong position--“shook him +up some,” to use the language of the country. + +The six bandits in the leafy avenue in front of Sergeant Dick had +all turned in his direction at the first shot. The four who had been +removing the loot from the coach were now making warily for +him--scattered in a line across the avenue, with rifles at the +ready, like hunters stalking game. + +He turned his attention to them, wondering not a little why they did +not pour a volley into him or his breastwork of horseflesh. It was +evident they considered him their “meat”--a “dead goner” already, +and were anxious to take his horse, if not himself, alive. + +A live horse is always desirable property in the Far West. + +But the ghostly, white-robed and hooded ruffians speedily discovered +that they were reckoning without their host. Their attention was +somewhat distracted by the sudden appearance of the comrade they had +posted as “look-out man” upon the bluff, and +then--crack--crack--crack! + +Sergeant Dick’s rifle pealed out sharply, and as many of the four +rustlers advancing upon him staggered or stumbled. + +But to the police officer’s amazement, none of the three fell, +although he believed he had hit all three badly. + +Recovering immediately from the effects of their hurts, the fellows +rushed forward, firing wildly and furiously at the plucky young +policeman. Then, suddenly, in a lull of the hurricane, came the +clatter of rapidly approaching hoofs _behind Sergeant Dick_, and +immediately afterwards two shrill, sharp whistles from the bluff or +cliff above him. + +He caught a fleeting glimpse of the hooded sentinel within the cleft +in the rock, evidently returning to that coign of vantage, with a +view to helping to shoot him down--saw the fellow put his left hand +under his hood. + +It was this man, undoubtedly, who had uttered those two warning +whistles, for he now immediately vanished again inside the cleft. +Simultaneously the four rustlers firing at Dick wheeled about, and +ran for the shelter of the woods on either hand. + + + + +CHAPTER II--MURIEL ARNOLD + + +With only one cartridge remaining in the magazine of his Mauser, +which he preferred and was allowed to carry instead of a Ross rifle, +Sergeant John Dick was thinking of falling back upon his revolver, +when the unexpected retreat was beaten by the rustlers. + +With the rapidly approaching hoofs hardly sounding now in his ears, +with the hurricane again tearing past him, Dick turned his head. He +beheld a two-horse top-buggy whirling swiftly up the pass toward him +in the teeth of the storm. + +These vehicles generally have only a single seat, capable of +accommodating two persons, however; and this one contained two young +women--mere girls, both of them, the elder not more than twenty +years of age! + +Dick saw that the girls were not unaware of what was transpiring. +The one who was not driving, the younger and--even in that moment of +excitement he could not help noticing--by far the prettier, held a +rifle at the ready, with a grim, determined look upon her charming +face, while her companion was urging the horses to their fastest up +the rocky and broken incline. + +“Say! Who are they? Why should we cut and run?” came a shout borne +on the wind from the direction of the four rustlers to Sergeant +Dick’s ears. + +“They’re the--” + +He did not catch the end of the answer from the fellow on the cliff. +The word, whatever it was, was lost on the raging wind. + +But apparently it was heard by one or more of the gang in the road, +for they immediately communicated the tidings to one another, and +then shouted and waved to the pair guarding the driver and +passengers of the stage-coach. + +Sergeant Dick had edged his horse partly against the angle of the +cliff. He now dived under the animal’s head and, rushing round the +rock, fired at the fleeing quartet with his revolver. + +He hit one in the broad of the back, he was certain. The fellow only +stumbled, however, and, promptly recovering and wheeling about, sent +a shot back at him with lightning speed, but fortunately with +nothing like accuracy. + +Then all four plunged into the thicket out of his sight, and he +could hear them trampling and bursting through the thick growth in a +line parallel with the road, bawling as they ran, and +unintelligibly, so far as he was concerned. + +The pair guarding the people of the coach backed hurriedly to their +horses, what time the sergeant hurriedly slipped another clip of +five cartridges into the magazine of his rifle. + +Gaining their horses’ sides, the two rustlers bounded into the +saddle, firing a couple of shots apiece from their pistols over the +heads of their late prisoners, to overawe them still. Then digging +their spurs deep into their mounts’ flanks, away into the wood on +the windward side they tore, dragging the other horses after them by +a long lariat which had been passed through all the bridles. + +Seeing the pair thus making off, Sergeant Dick threw all further +prudence to the winds, and, running forward, pumped two shots with +swift accuracy into the leafy covert, even as it closed over their +retreating forms. + +[Illustration: THEN DIGGING THEIR SPURS DEEP, AWAY THEY TORE.] + +The shrill, almost human-like scream of a horse badly stricken came +out of the thicket. Sergeant Dick ran on along the woods, pelting +two more shots into these at random in the direction he knew the +fugitives were taking. + +Then, suddenly, all became red and blurred before him. He reeled +blindly and fell upon his hands and knees, his rifle flying far out +of his hands. + +He had forgotten his wound in the excitement of the fight, had been +losing blood profusely from it all the time, and the consequent +weakness came suddenly and unexpectedly upon him. + +When he opened his eyes again, he looked into the most beautiful +face he believed he had ever seen--the face of the younger of the +two girls who had come, in so surprising and plucky a manner, to his +reënforcement. + +He was lying on the ground, and she was kneeling beside him, binding +up the injury to his head, while some one supported his shoulders +behind. On the other side of him was kneeling the elder girl, with +her face buried in her hands, and sobbing bitterly, great salt tears +oozing through her fingers and dropping to the ground. + +Around were standing the robbed passengers of the stage-coach, +rueful and vindictive-looking, none of them in their bitter +resentment against Fate taking any notice of the weeping girl. + +“Thank you--thank you! You are very kind,” murmured Dick. “But--but +I’m all right now, and the rustlers--they mustn’t be allowed to get +away. My horse, quick! Men, who’ll follow me? Any of you?” + +The weeping girl lifted her head with an ecstatic cry. + +“He will not die--he will live? Oh, Heaven be praised! Ah, and you +have hidden the blood upon his face, Muriel! I cannot bear the sight +of blood. It--it always makes me feel sick. But, then, of course, I +am weak-minded, you know--not like other people, or like Muriel +here, who is as good as she is brave.” + +“Be quiet, Jenny,” said the younger girl, flushing hotly. “It is +impossible, sergeant, for you to follow the robbers. Your horse is +lame, you sure forget.” + +Sergeant Dick rose to his feet with the aid of the two men who had +been supporting his head. He saw that two horses remained in the +traces of the rifled coach. + +“Lend me one of your horses, driver,” he cried. “I must follow these +ruffians without delay.” + +“Sorry, sergeant, but one horse ’ud be no power o’ use in pulling +the coach from here to Paquita Springs; and, asides, you yourself be +in no fit condition I guess to go man-trailin’ arter seven rustlers +of their type. You are noo to these parts, that’s plain, or I reckon +you’d have heard of the White Hood Gang--the worstest, most desp’rit +gang this region has ever yit seen, I calculate.” + +“I _have_ heard of the gang. But its notoriety would not deter me +from following it, only spur me on, if I had my strength back, and +my horse, too, were equal to the call I should have to make upon it. +Driver, you have been robbed of the gold you were carrying to the +Indian Reservation on Paquita Island?” + +“Sure,” was the characteristic reply, with a doleful nod. + +“Then I must let the gang go, even if I were equal to following +them, and accompany you in the coach with all speed to the +Reservation. What the result will be when the Indians learn that the +gold sent them has been stolen, I shudder to think of--judging from +the frame of mind they have been lately showing.” + +“Guess they’ll go on the war-path, and jist raise Cain around here,” +growled the stage-coach driver, amid horrified ejaculations from all +the passengers. + +“I know of a quicker means of reaching the Reservation than by the +stage,” said the girl Muriel, her lovely face flushing again at thus +once more attracting the attention of all. “My cousin here and I +live near by on Lake Paquita, as some of these people may know--the +coach-driver certainly does--in a house built on piles over a shoal +out in the middle of the lake. We keep a large sailing scow, which +my uncle calls his ‘Ark’; and we can convey you in it to Paquita +Island at the lower end of the lake in the shortest time possible.” + +“Why--why! Your uncle has surely taken the idea of his lake-dwelling +and his scow or ‘ark’ from Fenimore Cooper’s famous novel, the +‘Deerslayer,’” gasped Sergeant Dick. + +“That is so. My uncle was so charmed with the idea of the +lake-fortress in Fenimore Cooper’s tale, the ‘Deerslayer,’ that he +determined to adopt the same mode of living when he first came here. +We have the book at Water Castle, as we call our lake-home, and it +is the most-read book in our little library, I believe, except as +regards Jenny, who, just like poor, half-witted Hetty Hutter in the +novel, is always reading her Bible. Uncle Alf has said that having a +half-witted daughter like Hetty Hutter also helped to put into his +head the idea of living like ‘Floating Tom Hutter’ in ‘The +Deerslayer’; and poor Jenny herself models her life on Hetty +Hutter’s, reading the Bible regularly, and trying to do good always +in her own simple way. You will come with us in the buggy? Uncle Alf +contrived an extra seat at the back, on which we might carry extra +marketing. Our name, by the way, is Arnold.” + +“Thank you. I shall be glad to avail myself of your kind offer, Miss +Arnold. Certainly I must reach the Indian Reservation before news of +the robbery of the stage, and the gold they were to receive by it, +gets to their ears.” + +Sergeant Dick was helped on to the back seat of the buggy, all the +marketing being disposed under it inside a kind of locker; and then, +parting from the stage-coach people, away the two girls and he +whirled at top speed along the leafy avenue. His lame horse, of +course, he left behind, to be brought along in the rear of the +stage-coach, which would perforce proceed at a walk as far as the +next stopping-place. + +At the speed it traveled, the buggy was soon out of the gorge, and +at a point where the road forked, the coach road continuing on in a +straight line, and the other--a mere grass-grown cattle track, +barely perceptible--leading away at right angles through dense +woods. + +Along this second leafy avenue the two girls and the sergeant bowled +more rapidly still. They presently came out on the shores of a +lovely lake, lying placidly in the bosom of the mountains, which +dense woods covered from the water-line to their rounded summits. + +“Behold our lake home--Water Castle!” cried the younger girl, +pointing out across the storm-ruffled water to a most +strange-looking structure--a house like a huge Madeira-cake standing +on innumerable legs, about a quarter of a mile from the shore. + + + + +CHAPTER III--THE HOUSE IN THE LAKE + + +“It is certainly a most admirable situation for safety and defensive +purposes,” said Sergeant Dick, regarding the distant lake-dwelling +with great curiosity and interest. + +“You will find it even stronger than it looks,” laughed Muriel +Arnold. “My uncle has been quite ingenious, I consider, in the way +he has fortified it. He has improved on Fenimore Cooper’s idea; and +I am sure that you will say that the place is almost impregnable +when you have seen over it. We keep our horses and the buggy on that +little island you see just behind the castle.” + +“Signal to mother, Muriel,” said her cousin Jenny, a little +impatiently. + +They had all three alighted from the buggy. Muriel drew an automatic +pistol from her belt, and fired three shots into the air. + +At the southern end of the strange dwelling out in the lake appeared +to be a kind of platform; and, quickly on the echoing reports of the +pistol shots--which would carry far in the light mountain air and +across the water at any time, but were now blown directly towards +the house by the strong wind--the figure of a woman appeared on the +platform. + +She seemed to regard them through a spyglass, and remained gazing at +them a long time, so long, in fact, that Jenny Arnold asked: + +“What ails mother? Surely she can see that it is you and I, Muriel, +through the field-glass. And the sergeant’s red coat ought to +reassure her. She knows the uniform of the Mounted Police.” + +Muriel was waving her long white scarf vigorously to the distant +figure. + +“Naturally she does not know what to make of you being in my +company,” said Sergeant Dick. + +“Of course,” said Muriel, “she is concerned, and fears something +terrible must have happened to us or to my uncle and cousins.” + +The figure on the platform of “Water Castle” turned and hurried to +the farther end, where she evidently stepped into a boat of some +kind, concealed by the house. + +A minute later Sergeant John Dick saw a long, low craft, not unlike +the ordinary conception of Noah’s ark, slowly emerging into view +round the far side of the platform and house. + +As it came round the corner of the “castle” into full view, Sergeant +Dick saw it was furnished with a short, stumpy mast, upon which a +ridiculously small leg-of-mutton sail was being hoisted by the only +apparent occupant. + +Small though the sail was, it served its purpose well, and, bellying +before the wind, caused the great, clumsy-looking craft to slip with +considerable speed through the choppy little waves caused by the +moaning wind. The figure aboard ran aft, and, taking a long sweep +which was rigged astern to act as tiller and rudder combined, +brought the ark’s broad nose steadily round almost into the eye of +the wind, and headed the craft for a point close to where the two +girls and the police officer stood. + +Leading the horses, Muriel made along the shore for the point the +ark was steering towards. Her cousin and Sergeant Dick followed +leisurely, the last-mentioned feeling his wound very slightly now, +to his great satisfaction and surprise. + +As they went, his eye traveled up and down Muriel Arnold’s trim, +graceful figure with increasing interest and approval, and finally +rested with evident admiration upon her sunny brown hair, drawn back +in many a clustering curl and knotted so charmingly in the nape of +her lovely white neck. + +Her simple blue print dress, belted at the waist with a broad +leathern cincture, supporting a pistol holster, became her well, as +did the exceedingly small and dapper Wellington boots which were +shown almost to their tops beneath the rather short dress, and the +great broad-brimmed, flapping “wide-awake” hat, set so rakishly upon +her head and ornamented with a single upright eagle’s feather. + +About her shoulders and her neat little waist was wound a long +flimsy white veil or muslin wrap. + +Her cousin’s costume was very much the same, save that there was no +feather in the hat, and this was not set at a rakish angle, but as +squarely as that of the inmate of an orphanage, while the print +dress was a pale, washed-out pink. + +“Gee!” muttered Sergeant John Dick. “She’s almost as lovely a +creature as the novelist, Fenimore Cooper, described Judith Hutter +to be in his story, ‘The Deerslayer.’” + +Of course he referred to Muriel, not to poor, uncomely, dowdyish +Jenny, whose Wellington boots were squaretoed instead of round-toed +like her cousin’s and fully twice as large in the feet. + +“What a curious chain of coincidences or circumstances,” Dick went +on musing; “here we have almost exactly what the American author, +Cooper, imagined; two girls--one quite a beauty and the other +half-witted and otherwise rather poorly favored, certainly not as +pretty--living in a wonderful lake-dwelling, built to resist a +siege. I wonder what sort of a man the uncle and father of the +girls, this ‘Floating Tom Hutter,’ of real life, will be. He ought +to prove a rather interesting old fellow.” + +And then, with sparkling eyes, his thoughts ran again on the girl in +front of him; and he nodded and murmured: + +“Yes, she’s the sort of girl I’d like. She’s not tall, but she +strikes me as being just the right height a girl should be, and +she’s just as plump, too, as I like them. I owe them both a debt of +gratitude. It was plucky of them and no error, to come to my help as +they did, and not turn and bolt as most girls would have done.” + +They reached the little spit of land for which the scow or “ark” was +making; and, while they stood waiting for it to come in, Muriel drew +Dick’s attention to the scenery around them--the lovely wooded +shores of the lake. She asked him, with enthusiastic eyes, if he had +ever seen finer views. + +He had to admit that he had not. + +The sun was throwing a golden, glittering track now across the +waters of the lake, which were gradually subsiding into their usual +peaceful serenity as the gale dropped to mere fitful, ragged gusts. + +It was about a mile across the lake where they stood, but both +higher up and lower down, that is to northward and southward of +them, the water was much broader, then narrowed again, and curved +round prettily out of sight. + +All around, the trees grew close to the water--in some places they +overhung it and dipped their branches in it--and on the farther +shore the woods, rising steeply to the crests of the low but gently +rounded hills behind, were faithfully mirrored in the stiller pools +and backwaters. + +Sergeant Dick and Muriel were still pointing out the more charming +prospects to one another when the ark drew within hail, and its +occupant called out: + +“What’s that policeman doing with you, Muriel--Jenny? Anything +wrong?” + +“No, Aunt Kate, there’s nothing wrong,” Muriel answered, with her +hand held trumpet-wise beside her mouth. “Nothing, that is, so far +as we are concerned. But the sergeant was wounded in the head, as +you may see, in a fight with the White Hood Gang, who held up the +stage-coach in Crooked Gulch. As his horse was lamed, and he must +get to the Indian Reservation on the island at the south end of the +lake as quickly as possible, we brought him along. Jenny and I have +promised to take him to Paquita Island in the ark.” + +“Oh, indeed!” her aunt responded, in a rather ungracious tone. +“Allow me to tell you, Muriel Arnold, that it is not for you, or +Jenny either, to make use of the ark without first consulting _my_ +wishes, or those of your uncle and Jenny’s father. However, as you +are a police officer, sir, I don’t suppose my husband ’ill object to +the girls taking you down to the Reservation, and I’m sure I shan’t. +But you must first come to the ‘castle,’ and get your wound dressed +properly. Reckon, too, you could do with something to buck you up.” + +“You had better do as mother says,” whispered Jenny, the half-witted +girl, “that is, come to the ‘castle’ first, and take something and +have your wound redressed. She doesn’t like any one not to do as she +says, and, asides, you might just as well humor her.” + +Dick looked at Muriel and capitulated. + +“I’m rather pressed for time,” he said, “but still, I don’t suppose +just visiting your home for a few minutes will delay me much; and I +never believe in crossing old ladies if it can be avoided--or +anybody else for that matter, I may add.” + +The ark came sailing in, and softly grounded her forefoot on the +spit. As her square bow projected fully five feet over the bank, +Muriel was able to leap on board dryshod. + +She swiftly cast free a wide, sliding gangway in the bow, and thrust +it out, so that, as it dropped outboard, it formed a gentle +gradient, up which her cousin at once led the two horses in the +buggy. + +Behind the sliding gangway, and covered by it when it was inboard, +was another gentle, boarded slope; and the space between it and the +cabin or “house” was sufficiently long, as well as broad to +accommodate the vehicle and the two horses abreast. + + + + +CHAPTER IV--INSIDE “WATER CASTLE” + + +As Sergeant John Dick followed the buggy aboard the ark, a big, +powerful woman of middle-age and rather unprepossessing looks came +hurrying out of the door of the fore-cabin. + +“Are you badly hurt, sergeant?” she asked, in a voice like a ship’s +siren, but not in an unkindly tone. + +Dick answered in the negative, and said that he was ashamed that his +injury had even been mentioned. + +Aunt Kate gave him a swift, searching glance, then, evidently +satisfied by her scrutiny, emitted a non-committal grunt and turned +to help her niece to draw the gangboard in again and hook it in +place. + +Sergeant Dick would have helped them, but Muriel smilingly waved him +back, and the operation was easily and quickly performed. + +Mrs. Arnold then pushed the scow off the spit with a boat hook, and, +sending her daughter to the sweep astern, turned the sail again to +the wind, and they swung round and headed for the “castle.” + +As they slipped along towards it, she eagerly and curiously +questioned her niece as to what had actually transpired in Crooked +Gulch. + +“This White Hood Gang of road-agents and rustlers is fast creating a +panic in these parts, sergeant,” she said, when Muriel had finished +her recital. “You may consider yourself lucky that you have come +through your meeting with ’em as well as you have. I guess you’ve +been sent down here to try and round ’em up. But are the Government +mad, to send you by yourself--to only send one man?” + +“Oh, it was more with regard to the trouble with the Indians of the +Paquita Island Reservation than anything else I was sent along. But +you may take it from me, Mrs. Arnold, that this last exploit of the +gang’s will be about their last. Government is bound to send a +strong force to put ’em down after this.” + +Mrs. Arnold said that the sooner that happened the better, and then +she turned to the stores in the carrier of the buggy, and was +speedily discussing with her niece what the latter and Jenny had +paid for the things--and should have paid in her estimation. + +This discussion lasted until they were almost at “Water Castle,” +which Sergeant Dick surveyed, as they approached, with the greatest +interest. + +A shoal existed or had been contrived at the spot, and into this +Alfred Arnold, Jenny’s father, aided by his four grown sons--all +big, powerful men like himself, as Dick was subsequently to +learn--had driven stout piles, upon which they had erected their +dwelling. + +It was square in shape, and built of tree-trunks, each two feet +thick, and squared on three sides, so that they made a smooth inner +wall and rested solidly on one another without any chinks between +them. + +In each of the four exterior walls were six windows, set equidistant +apart; and before the front door, which was plated with iron an inch +thick, inside and out--to make it as strong as the walls--was a +platform or verandah, seven or eight feet wide, running the whole +length of that side of the building, and covered by the projecting +roof. + +The roof itself was a flattened cone, that is, with very little rise +in it, and consisted of strips of corrugated iron, bolted down +securely, to resist high winds, upon an inner roof of timber, almost +as thick as the walls. + +Surmounting it was an iron stove-pipe, and a skylight was set in +each of the four gentle slopes. + +All around the house were set palisades--stout trunks of trees +driven firmly into the shoal, like the piles supporting the building +itself. + +These palisades completely ringed the “castle” round, and were not +more than nine inches apart anywhere, while they all stood about +three feet above the water. Consequently they formed an outer +rampart or stockade, which would prevent possible assailants in +canoes or rafts getting in under the windows. + +There was a wide gateway, fastened by a strong padlock and chain, in +these palisades, just in front of the platform or landing stage, and +the space within the enclosure was large enough to admit of the ark +being kept inside. + +All the piles under the edges of the house, moreover, were +strengthened, as well as made into an inner ring of defense, by +braces and cross-timbering closing up the spaces between them. Thus +a boat could not pass under the house except through another, +smaller gateway contrived in them, and also secured by a padlock. + +Mrs. Arnold had, of course, on this occasion left the outer +gateway--that in the palisades--merely hooked to; and, freeing it +with a pole, she and her niece and daughter, amid Sergeant Dick’s +loudly expressed admiration, deftly maneuvered the ark within, and +ran its bow up to a short wooden ladder hanging from the verandah. + +Muriel sprang nimbly up the hanging ladder on to the verandah of the +house, and the sergeant mounted quickly after her. Then Mrs. Arnold +pushed the scow backwards with so vigorous and dexterous a push with +her pole, that the stern of the craft was carried well out again +through the gateway in the palisades. She and Jenny meant to convey +the horses and buggy to the islet, and stable them there. + +“I knew you would be keenly interested in our lake home,” said +Muriel, as she lifted the latch of the door of the building, and +ushered her companion into the living-room. “Now if you will sit +down in that easy chair of Uncle Alf’s, I will soon get you +something to put new life into you, and then re-dress your wound.” + +“No, no, there is no need, I assure you. My hurt is so slight it +will do very well dressed as it is, until I reach the Indian +Reservation, and can have it attended to at my leisure. And as for +alcoholic refreshment I never take anything of that nature. A glass +of cold water or a cup of milk will be all sufficient, thank you. I +am really more curious to be shown over your wonderful lake-home, +than I am thirsty or exhausted.” + +“Oh, I will soon gratify your curiosity then,” Muriel laughed; and, +going to a cupboard or pantry at one end of the living-room, she +reappeared promptly with a jug of milk, from which she filled a +tumbler she took off a rude dresser, standing at the back of the +apartment. + +As she did so, Sergeant Dick looked around this, and saw that, with +the pantry, it took up the whole front of the house. + +It showed signs, however, of being regularly divided into three +compartments, for two rods ran across the ceiling at about the same +distance from either end, and on these rods were hung thick, rather +shabby curtains, on rings. + +Right round the three outer walls of the room ran a “bank,” almost +as high as the sills of the windows--that is breast high. + +“You are wondering what that high bank all around is for?” asked the +girl, as he drank off the glass of milk, and just as if she had read +his thoughts. “That is to form an additional breastwork against shot +penetrating, in case of a siege. We keep it filled, you will see, if +you peep in, chiefly with firewood for the stove.” + +Dick looked the astonishment he felt; and Muriel now led him through +a door, which stood between two others. + +“The other two doors,” she said, “lead into bedrooms. This door, as +you see, leads into a central passage or hall, from which all the +other rooms open. You will notice it is lighted by a skylight. It is +here that we women would be placed in case of a siege so as to be +out of danger--I don’t think,” she added, laughingly. + +John Dick saw that there were no less than six doors around him, +including the one he had just come through. + +“This is--” Muriel was beginning, advancing to the first door on her +right, when there dully resounded in their ears two gunshots in +rapid succession, evidently fired some distance away. The shots were +followed after a momentary pause by two more. + +Muriel started violently, and gasped hoarsely: + +“_There is something wrong!_ That’s our danger-signal--four shots +fired like that!” + +She wheeled and darted back into the living-room, followed by the +sergeant. + +They flew to the nearest window, which was open to admit the air, +and looked out. + +The ark, which could not possibly have had time to get to the islet, +was only a short distance from the “castle.” Mrs. Arnold stood in +the stern with a rifle in her hands. + +She saw their faces at the window, and immediately stabbed her +finger excitedly towards the southern end of the lake, and bawled +with all the strength of her lungs: + +“Your uncle and the lads--chased--_chased by Indians_!” + +With a half-stifled ejaculation, Sergeant Dick flung open the front +door beside him, and sprang out on to the verandah. + +Muriel was immediately beside him; and, looking in the direction her +aunt had pointed, they saw two canoes, containing three or four +white persons apiece, paddling madly for the “castle,” while behind, +just rounding the bend in the shore of the lake, appeared several +more canoes full of Indians, all half-naked and bedecked in +war-paint and feathers. + + + + +CHAPTER V--A RUNNING FIGHT + + +“It is what I expected and feared,” groaned Sergeant Dick; “the +Indians of the Paquita Reservation have revolted over the delay of +the Government in sending them the promised compensation for the +wrongful arrest of their chiefs last year in regard to these White +Hood outrages.” + +“Pray Heaven that my uncle and cousins will be able to gain the +shelter of the ‘castle,’” panted Muriel. “My two cousins-in-law, the +wives of my cousins Abel and Aaron, are with them. What can we do to +help them?” + +“Nothing as yet that I can see,” rejoined Dick; “they are too far +off for the carry of a rifle. Ah, they can hold their own, and will +win here safely, I think.” + +Seven puffs of smoke had spurted from the two leading canoes. +Evidently the shots had found human billets in the pursuing crafts, +for two of these yawed wildly, and were run foul of by two of their +fellows with such force that all four canoes were upset, and their +occupants flung into the water. + +And then from the right-hand side of the pair on the “castle” +verandah--from a point on the western shore, somewhat to the +northward--came the echo, loud and distinct, of the fusillade from +the fugitive canoes--seven separate reports in quick succession. + +Sergeant Dick was surprised at the sharp-cut clearness of the echo, +and could almost have believed that it was no echo, but that seven +shots had been fired at the point whence the sound came. + +But for that wonderful echo the reports of the fugitives’ rifles +would have been unheard by the two on the verandah of “Water +Castle,” and the pair in the ark. It accounted also for their +hearing the alarm-signal fired so far away down the lake. + +Muriel read in the young trooper’s face his amazement at the echo, +and said: + +“It is a curious phenomenon, and was known long before my uncle +built this house. A shot fired anywhere round the margin of the lake +is repeated from that shore and tossed to our ears here as if the +sound came directly from there.” + +“Wonderful!” + +“That was one of the reasons why my uncle chose this particular site +for his fortress. Of course, he and his sons, aided by some of the +other settlers and their cowboys, made the shoal by dumping into the +lake at the spot boatloads of rock blasted from the hills behind the +woods yonder.” + +She pointed to the shore whence the echo had come. + +“There are a lot of great cliff-like rocks over there. You can see +some of them peeping above the trees, and it is supposed that the +echo comes from them. The Indians used to call this lake ‘The Lake +of the Wonderful Echo.’” + +A ringing chorus of derisive laughter now came across from the +western shore, clearly the echo of that with which Trapper Arnold +and his four sons and two daughters-in-law, in their canoes, had +hailed the temporary discomfiture of their red-skinned foes. + +Sharp on the laughter came the echoing crash of rattling volley +after volley, broken occasionally by a stray shot or two. + +Sergeant Dick and Muriel, even while they had been discussing the +wonderful echo, had seen the two fugitive canoes simply spouting +smoke and flame for several seconds, pouring in a ceaseless fire +from every rifle they contained into the embarrassed Indians, who +could be seen thrown into the utmost confusion. + +Only one or two redskins replied to the devastating fire of their +white adversaries, and they were quickly silenced. + +All the pursuing canoes fell behind; and, amid triumphant hurrahs +and more derisive laughter borne to the ears of those in the ark and +on the castle-verandah by the remarkable echo, the fugitives came on +again with redoubled speed in their direction. + +In a few minutes the fleeing whites had put a considerable distance +between themselves and their red foes, who, making no further +attempt to pursue, fired after them in a desultory, enraged way. + +“Hurray! Hurray! Your uncle and the lads and their wives have beaten +them off, Muriel!” roared Aunt Kate from the ark. + +And she and Jenny now, having put that clumsy craft about, stood +away at full speed, with the wind abeam, to meet the fugitives. + +“Yes, thank Heaven they have beaten them off!” cried Muriel. “The +red ruffians will probably now abandon the chase. My uncle and +cousins are safe.” + +“The Indians are not in any great numbers,” said Sergeant Dick, +shading his eyes from the dazzling rays of the setting sun as he +peered in the direction of the fighting. “That means, I suppose, +that most of the bucks are raiding and murdering elsewhere. God help +the inmates of the more lonely ranches that the painted demons may +attack.” + +The police officer and the girl remained on the verandah, watching +the ark and the two fugitive canoes rapidly approach each other, and +the discomfited redmen gradually evolve some order among themselves +again, and follow more warily, keeping up a dropping but impotent +fire at long range. + +Slowly the red sun sank from sight behind the cliffs from which the +wonderful echo came; then rapidly the red streaks died out of the +western sky and dusk began to settle down over the lake and the +woods enclosing it. + +It was almost dark, and the ark and the two leading canoes had +nearly met, when Muriel Arnold suddenly uttered a startled cry. + +She had brought a pair of binoculars from the living-room, and was +attentively watching the ark and the canoes of her people through +it. + +“More Indians! A great fleet of canoes has just come round the +southern bend, sergeant,” she gasped, handing Dick the glasses. + +He looked through them and saw, as she had said, a great flotilla of +canoes--fully forty or fifty--rounding the bend and paddling swiftly +to join the half-dozen craft which had originally been chasing the +trappers. + +“By Jove!” he murmured. “We are in for it with a vengeance. Thank +goodness your people have almost met, and the ark sails swiftly with +the wind on her beam. She’ll have it the same coming back, of +course. I wouldn’t have given her credit for so much speed. She can +outstrip a canoe no matter how fast it is paddled.” + +“That is so, sergeant,” gleefully exclaimed Muriel. “We have often +run races, Jenny and I, or one of my cousins-in-law in the ark +against the canoes, manned by as many as they could hold. Some of +the cowboys and ranchmen from the nearest ranches have occasionally +taken part in the race--helped man the canoes. And the ark has +always won; that is if anything like a fair wind were blowing, of +course.” + +Somehow, Sergeant Dick was not altogether pleased to hear that the +cowboys and owners of the nearest ranches came to “Water Castle” at +times, and were so friendly with its occupants. + +He fell to wondering, even while he watched the exciting scene +transpiring upon the southern end of the lake through the +binoculars, whether any of the said cowboys or ranchmen came on +account of the lovely girl beside him, attracted by her beauty and +charm of manner. And he pictured, with a certain twinge of +heartburning and jealousy, her graceful form sitting on the verandah +with several handsome, dare-devil young cow-punchers bending +admiringly over her. + +An awful, piercing, long-drawn-out yell or screech rang suddenly in +the ears of the pair on the verandah. It was the echo of the +war-whoop of the newly-arrived redmen. + +Much has been written and told of the terrible battle-cry of the +American Indian, but one who has never heard it can have no +conception really of its terror-inspiring and nerve-shattering +shrillness and duration. + +It has been likened to the shriek of “some maddened steam-engine,” a +long-drawn piercing screech, modulated by the fingers placed as +stops over the mouth. And it has been said that buffaloes on hearing +it have been known to sink in terror to the ground, and bears to +topple from a tree. + +The effect of such a scream issuing in chorus from the throats of a +hundred or more painted savages, deservedly dreaded for their +ferocity and their cunning, might well strike panic to the hearts of +the first white settlers in the wild and woolly west. Especially +when such knew it was but the prelude to the fiercest of bloody +warfare, which, if successful, meant worse horrors--torture in the +most fiendish way before death came as a happy release. + +No wonder then that Muriel Arnold shuddered, trembled from head to +foot, and clapped her hands over her ears, with agonized horror upon +her face, to shut out that horrible, ringing, thrilling scream +echoed from the western shore. + +“Quick!” cried Sergeant Dick, “we must barricade the windows--put +the house everywhere in a fit state to resist a fierce siege. Those +hundred and more redmen are not going to quit here without a furious +and determined effort to capture or destroy this place and all +within it. We can do nothing as yet to succor your relations, Miss +Arnold, but we can get all in readiness, before their arrival, to +beat off the savages, or at any rate hold the wretches well at bay. +Ah, see!” + +And he pressed the binoculars into the hands of the girl. + +“The ark has met your uncle and cousins, and they are getting aboard +her. You may count them safe now from all pursuit so long as the +wind lasts; and it is not likely to drop for some time, blowing as +hard as it is. Come! We’ll see to all the windows--make preparations +for a possibly long and determined siege by the craftiest enemies +ever known.” + +The first war-whoop of the more distant body of redskins was +answered by another from the half-dozen leading canoes--the original +pursuers, who now concentrated a heavy fire upon the ark as she took +aboard the fugitives. + + + + +CHAPTER VI--THE TRAPPER AND HIS SONS + + +Muriel waited to dart a glance through the glasses in the direction +of her relatives before following the police-sergeant into the +house. + +She saw the ark lying almost broadside on, in the act of putting +about, with her cousins and cousins-in-law helping each other on to +the stern-quarter from the two canoes. + +A sufficiently wide and high screen had been put up by her aunt to +cover Jenny at the tiller; and, from behind this shelter, Aunt Kate +herself was rapidly firing at the Indians in the leading canoes, +holding them well in check. + +The strange echo from the western shore wafted the sounds of the +brisk exchange of shots to Muriel’s ears. + +The screen her aunt and Jenny used was as big as two cabin doors +placed side by side. Several inches thick, and covered on both sides +with sheet iron, it was as much as two ordinary men could lift, yet +Aunt Kate had moved it with ease by herself. + +It had two collapsing or folding legs on one side, like the back +legs of a pair of steps, so that it would stand upright. Furthermore +it was loopholed for rifle-fire. + +Uncle Alf and his sons and daughters-in-law, as they scrambled +aboard from the canoes, were sheltered by the cabin from the fire of +their red enemies. Some of them, rushing inside the two +compartments, at once replied to it briskly--aided their mother in +keeping the assailants back while the canoes were got in. + +Then round the scow was turned, the screen astern being moved with +the tiller to keep it or rather those at it still covered, and back +the craft came bowling, with bellying sail, towards the “castle” +again. + +Muriel, half-laughing, half-crying with relief and satisfaction, now +ran inside the house after Sergeant Dick. + +“Where are you, sergeant?” she called, and he answered from one of +the back bedrooms. + +“My uncle and cousins are all safe aboard the ark, and are making +here as fast as the wind can blow them,” she called back. “Of course +they could not hope to hold their own in the ark against so many +canoes. The only thing is to defend the ‘castle’ to the bitter end.” + +She passed through, as she spoke, into the central passage, from +which the six rooms of the “castle” all opened, and joined the +sergeant in the left-hand back bedroom. + +That apartment contained four small square windows, two in the rear +wall, and two at the side. + +Sergeant Dick had already secured two out of the four windows by +letting down sliding shutters set within the embrasures. These +shutters were, like the tiller-screen used on the ark, of stout wood +faced and backed by iron plating, and they were fastened in +position, when let down, by strong bolts, so that they could not be +easily forced from without. + +The windows, being of the casement type, opened inward, and could be +hooked back against the wall. In each shutter was a loophole for +firing through. + +Sergeant Dick noticed that the corner forming the outside angle of +the house was rounded off by an extra vertical balk of timber, +fitted triangular-wise into it, thus greatly increasing the +thickness of the two outer walls just there. + +As the window on either hand was only a mere step from the corner, a +man stationed there could with ease defend both the back and side of +the house; and the extra thickness of the rounded angle would render +his position still more snug and safe. + +“This is my married cousin Abel’s bedroom,” explained Muriel, as she +let down one of the shutters and shot home the two bolts on it. +“You’ve seen to all the windows in--which other room?” + +“The one through that door,” replied John Dick, pointing towards the +front of the house. + +Another door, alongside the one the girl had come in, led into a +bedroom between that they were in and the living-room. + +There were no fewer than three doors in every room in the house, so +that it was possible to make a complete circuit of this without +utilizing the central passage, the idea being to enable the inmates, +in case of a siege or other emergency, like fire, passing quickly +from one room to another. + +“Aaron and Deborah’s room,” Muriel said. “Come then, the bathroom +must be our next concern.” + +She led the way through the third door into a room somewhat smaller, +fitted up with a large enameled iron bath--a piece of furniture +which considerably surprised Sergeant Dick to find in a Wild West +home of such limited dimensions, especially when built over a lake. + +This apartment had its three doors like all the others, one in each +of the inner walls, and having shuttered and bolted the two windows +in it, the sergeant and Muriel went on into the next room. + +“This is the room my cousin Jenny and I share,” explained the girl. + +Had she not told him, Sergeant Dick would have guessed as much from +the female articles of dress and finery hanging around, as well as +the general subtle atmosphere of daintiness that prevailed. + +Pictures hung on the walls here, including a pretty water-color +sketch of a lovely woman in evening dress. + +There were _four_ windows in this room, and they had all to be +shuttered and made fast in like manner to the others. Then the man +and girl entered Uncle Alf and Aunt Kate’s bedroom adjoining, +secured the two windows there, and, passing through yet another +door, found themselves back in the living-room, the windows of which +they likewise secured. + +“Now there only remains the front door,” said Muriel, adding, with a +laugh, “and we can’t very well fasten that up until my uncle and +aunt and the others are all safe inside with us.” + +She stepped out again on to the verandah. And Dick, following her, +saw that the ark was coming on fast to the “castle,” and was not a +quarter of a mile away now, while the Indian canoes, although +paddling their swiftest in her wake, were fully half a mile off. + +Laughing softly and yet tremulously over the escape of her relations +from their pursuers, Muriel remained at the front door with the +sergeant, while the ark drew nearer and nearer, until at last it was +close enough for its occupants to exchange greetings with her and +Dick. + +These greetings were naturally curt and scant. + +Sailing up to the open gateway in the palisades, Uncle Alf and his +sons warped the ark in by means of boathooks. Then the gate was +padlocked behind the craft, and she was drawn by a rope, which +Sergeant Dick threw from the verandah, alongside the hanging-ladder. + +“Glad to have ye here, sergeant,” greeted Uncle Alf--a huge, +grizzled Hercules of a man--as he sprang up the steps and grasped +Dick’s hand cordially. “The more pairs of eyes behind the sights of +rifles, and hands to use the weapons, the better, in the face of +that crowd of painted, blood-thirsty rips. Ye’re more’n welcome, +sergeant.” + +“’Specially if ye can shoot as straight as most of you troopers +can,” grinned the eldest son, Abel. + +The rude witticism was received by all with a merriment that spoke +volumes for their dauntlessness, in the face of the red peril coming +on so fast behind them. + +The ark was hurriedly moored alongside the verandah, the cabin doors +being locked with ordinary keys and then padlocked as well, so that +they might not be easily burst in if the savages got aboard. + +The iron-plated tiller shield was brought into the house, and all +withdrew within this. Then the door was not only locked and bolted, +top and bottom, but also barricaded with stout logs, put +transversely across it, at intervals of only a few feet, within iron +sockets screwed on to the doorposts. + +Sergeant Dick and the four women did the barricading, while the old +trapper and his four stalwart sons--all big, powerful men like +himself--hastily arranged as to where each of them should be +stationed. + +Bella and Deborah Arnold, Muriel’s two cousins-in-law, had both of +them a certain amount of flamboyant beauty allied to a +devil-may-care air, well suited to the rather picturesque, if +unconventional, costumes they wore. + +They were dressed like cowgirls, in short skirts, “wide-awake” hats, +and top boots; and round their waists they had cartridge-belts +supporting cases containing automatic pistols, while slung on their +backs were heavy Winchester repeaters. + +“The pelts will be safe enough in the ark,” said old Alf. “The +painted rips are not likely to get inside the palisades ag’in our +rifles. If they do they’re more welcome to the pelts than to our +scalps. Now, sergeant, you and me ’ull defend this ’ere room, the +front of the house, with the old woman and Muriel. Abel, my eldest +son, will go to his bedroom, and hold the back and the right side of +the house with his wife. And, Amos, you will take your stand in the +middle room on the right-hand side--your brother Aaron’s room. Aaron +and Deborah, you two will take Muriel and Jenny’s room; and, Abner, +your mother’s and my room. Jenny, you will remain in the central +passage with all the doors open, and be ready to go to the aid of +any one who needs you, take round fresh ammunition, or refill the +water-buckets if necessary.” + +Sergeant Dick, used as he was to the giving and receiving of +commands, as well as to prompt decision and arrangement in crises +like the present, was surprised in no small measure at the +military-like precision of the old trapper, as the latter thus +ordered the defense. + +He had fully expected that all would look to him to do this. + +But, doubtless, Dick told himself, Old Man Arnold had planned the +defense of the place repeatedly, and all his sons and daughters were +well schooled in the _rôles_ they were to play in it. + +They had not long been at their posts--with jugs of drinking water +and water-buckets, in case of fire, placed handy--when the Indian +flotilla came within gunshot in the rapidly deepening darkness. + +It at once divided into two parties, each taking opposite sides of +the lake, clearly so as to surround the “castle.” + + + + +CHAPTER VII--HOWLING WOLF + + +“They will land on Stable Islet, sure, and try and carry off the +horses there,” growled Uncle Alf. “They’ll tow the beasts off, +swimming, behind a canoe.” + +“Better that,” said Muriel, “than that they should kill the animals +or burn them alive in the stable. Poor old Dobbin and Betty. I’ll +never see you again, I expect.” + +“Wait,” said Sergeant Dick. “I will speak to the Indians. It is my +duty to. Perhaps I can pacify them--prevail on the mad fools to +abandon the warpath and return peacefully to the Reservation.” + +Alf Arnold guffawed derisively. + +“Mout as well try to reason with tigers that hev tasted or smelt +blood,” he said. “They’ll not listen to you, sergeant, but be far +more likely to give ye a volley. You’ll never be so dodrotted +foolish as to put your nose outside the door?” + +“It is my duty as an officer of the law to try and avert bloodshed +and reason with them, and I mean to,” answered Dick quietly. “I am +going to unbar the door again.” + +“Don’t show yourself, sergeant, for Heaven’s sake,” implored Muriel, +“or if you must, display a white flag first, and--and stand just +within the door, ready to skip behind it if they show any signs of +firing on you.” + +She ran to the table-drawer, as Dick started unbarring the door, and +took out a folded, newly washed and ironed white tablecloth. + +“Your blood ’ull be on your own head, sergeant,” said Uncle Alf. +“You are asking for it if you go outside that door. Still, in this +darkness you’ve a chance--just a chance--of coming in again unhurt, +mebbe.” + +“What’s that? The sergeant going out to talk to ’em?” called the +youngest son, Abner, from his station in his parents’ bedroom. “He +must be dotty.” + +“There’s one thing you’ve forgotten, father,” sang out the other +unmarried son, Amos, from the room opposite. “The skylights.” + +“Jumping snakes, so I had! Jenny and Muriel--no, Amos, you’d better +see to ’em. You can be spared from your loophole long enough to, +sure, ’specially as the sergeant here’s agoin’ to hold ’em in talk +an hour or two. Ha, ha, ha!” + +His sons within hearing and Jenny echoed his laughter; and Amos came +out into the central passage, and, opening a cupboard door in it, +passed inside. + +Within the cupboard was a sloping ladder leading up to a trap-door +in the flat ceiling or inner log-roof. + +As soon as he had unfastened the front door, Sergeant Dick stepped +out onto the verandah or landing-stage, and waved the tablecloth to +and fro. Muriel had tied the improvised flag of truce to the muzzle +of his rifle. + +Putting his open left hand to his mouth trumpet-fashion, he roared +at the top of his voice: + +“My redskin brothers, I want speech with you. I am a policeman, a +sergeant of the Royal Mounted Police. Can you hear me?” + +It was so dark now that he could hardly make out the black smudges +the canoes made upon the water; and he feared that the Indians would +not be able to discern his figure against the background of the +“castle,” in spite of his red coat. + +No answering hail came back from the canoes; but he was satisfied +that his voice had carried to the ears within them. + +And the Indians could hardly fail to observe his white flag, if not +himself. + +“Miss Arnold,” he called within the doorway, “will you take this +electric torch from me and shine it upon me so that they may be able +to see me plainly?” + +“Oh, no, no! That will be to make a target of yourself--to show you +up plainly as a mark for their bullets.” + +“Do as I ask. They are coming in; they see the white flag.” + +“I can’t have that there door open too long, sergeant,” called out +Uncle Alf. “You know redskin cunning, and I ain’t agoin’ to allow +’em to come in too close with that door open, nor without afirin’ on +’em neither.” + +Muriel, without further demur, tremblingly took the proffered +electric torch from Dick and, standing inside the doorway, flashed +it upon his red-coated figure. + +“You see and hear me, my redskin brothers,” John Dick shouted again. +“Go back to your wigwams and squaws and papooses, like sensible men, +and give up your foolish idea of going on the warpath, and so +bringing down upon you the terrible vengeance of Government. What is +your quarrel with us white men? It was not the fault of the fathers +of this land, of the Canadas, that the money was not paid before. It +was the delay of our brothers over the frontier--of the Fathers of +the United States. And the money has been sent you now, as I can +swear. My redskin brothers know that they can believe the word of an +officer of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.” + +“The chief, Howling Wolf, will speak to the redcoat officer,” came +back a faint shout. + +“Mind yourself, sergeant. Howlin’ Wolf’s a chief with no good +reputation to lose. He’s the wickedest of the hull boilin’ lot of +’em red-skinned varmint on Paquita Island, though he ain’t there +now, more’s the pity; for he’s to be dreaded more’n all the others +yonder.” + +“Yes, be on your guard, sergeant, for Heaven’s sake. We’ve all heard +of Howling Wolf’s ferocity and cunning,” added Muriel. “I feel sure +you are only risking your life to no good. You’ll not turn them from +their purpose after my uncle and cousins killing some of their +number.” + +“That’s right,” chimed in Aunt Kate in her deep, siren-like voice. +“You and the lads, Alf, just now down the lake, sent some on ’em to +the happy hunting-grounds, didn’t ye? It looked so to us, anyways.” + +“Sure we did, a good half-dozen on ’em; and more carry the marks of +our bullets on ’em, if they haven’t got the lead still under their +skins. Haw, haw, haw! You’ll never pacify them now, sergeant. They +thirst for our blood in revenge, and they’re not to be turned away +by mere words, as you may find to your cost. But a willful man will +have his way; and, as I said afore, if anything happens to ye, your +blood is on your own head.” + +All the canoes remained as stationary black smudges afar off, except +one, which came speeding swiftly towards “Water Castle.” + +It came on without a word from any of its occupants, who Sergeant +Dick was soon able to discern were four in number, to all +appearances. + +And then suddenly a jet of flame leaped like a fiery bowsprit from +the curved prow of the canoe; and, even as the report of a rifle +rang over the silent waters, waking echoes far and near out of the +black night, Sergeant Dick heard the “zip” of a bullet, felt the +wind from it fan his right cheek, and heard it clang against the +iron-plated tiller-screen which had been set just within the +doorway. + +Rebounding upwards on account of the backwardly slanting angle at +which the screen stood, the leaden messenger ended its flight by +burying itself in the wooden ceiling of the living-room. + +Muriel screamed, and Sergeant Dick was within the house at a bound. + +“Miss Arnold, are you hurt at all?” he asked, anxiously, catching +her in his arms as she reeled against the door. + +“No, no; but you?” + +His reply that he was untouched was drowned to all other ears but +hers by the sharp “crack-crack-crack!” of the rifles of Uncle Alf +and Aunt Kate as they returned the treacherous shot, concentrating a +ceaseless fire for several seconds upon Howling Wolf’s canoe. + +But the four paddlers had promptly thrown themselves prone in its +bottom, and in the thickening darkness the craft presented but an +indifferent mark, so that it was doubtful if a single shot struck +it. + +Instantly the dreaded war-whoop of the savages pealed forth, awaking +still greater echoes than the rifle-fire. And, like a pack of hounds +let loose, all the black, indistinct smudges behind the chief’s +canoe came racing for “Water Castle.” + +“Quick, secure the door there!” roared Uncle Alf. “Ye see, sergeant, +the folly of your attempt to palaver with ’em.” + +Amos came rushing from the ladder-cupboard in the central passage, +and roughly jostled Sergeant Dick aside from the rebarring of the +door. + +“Get to your loophole,” he snarled, resentfully, “and show your +mettle wi’ your rifle. You mout hev bin the death of the gal. +Muriel, you take another window! I’ll see to the securing o’ the +door.” + + + + +CHAPTER VIII--THE SIEGE OF “WATER CASTLE” + + +Though inwardly resenting Amos Arnold’s behavior and words, Sergeant +Dick at once went to one of the windows in the front of the house, +and thrust his rifle through the slit in the armored shutter. + +Not a rifle “barked” now; all the shooting had ceased. The inmates +of the “castle” were reserving their fire until the canoes should +draw near enough to allow of their taking fairly accurate aim in the +darkness; and the Indians, after that first wild whoop of the onset, +gave their whole attention to getting close in. + +There were six windows in the front, and two more to either side, of +the living-room, which therefore contained ten loopholes, as well as +the door. + +Uncle Alf had posted himself in the west front corner, and his wife +was in the corresponding corner on the east side. + +Sergeant Dick and Muriel took a window on either side of the door; +and Amos, having quickly made this fast again, rushed back to his +prearranged station in his brother Aaron’s bedroom. + +Howling Wolf and his four companions, lying prostrate in their +drifting canoe, were the first to resume firing. Five streams of +fire spurted simultaneously from the shapeless smudge their craft +now appeared in the gloom, and as many bullets thudded harmlessly +against the logs of the “castle,” and buried themselves in the thick +walls. + +At once all four whites in the front room focused their rifles upon +the canoe and poured in volley after volley. + +In the hope of putting a swift termination to the revolt by killing +Howling Wolf, who was evidently, from what he had heard of the man, +the chief promoter and fomenter of it, Sergeant Dick aimed at the +prow where he believed the Indian chief lay. + +All his shots flew true to their mark, and on his third shot +striking the craft four dark figures were seen to jump up in it and +literally throw themselves overboard. + +Such was their mad haste to get into the comparative safety of the +water that they overset the canoe, and it floated bottom upwards. + +“Hurray! One of ’em’s settled, that’s pretty sartin,” yelled Old Man +Arnold, gleefully. “Only four leaped out. The fella in the bows +didn’t, and that should be Howling Wolf hisself.” + +“Do you think he’d be fool enough to remain in the bows arter giving +himself away with his first shot?” asked his wife, contemptuously. +“I thought you knowed Indian cunning better nor that, Alf.” + +“Anyways, one on ’em’s settled, and it’s as likely to be him as +not,” returned the old man testily. + +All the defenders could now be heard firing rapidly--from every +quarter of the house. The Indians on the east side were the first to +reply to the fusillade, and those on the west side and in front +quickly chimed in. + +But it was so inky dark now that only the flashes of the redmen’s +rifles revealed their whereabouts to their white foes, who were thus +firing almost at random. + +Thud, thud, thud! The besiegers’ bullets rattled like hail against +the stout walls of the castle; but so thick were these that not one +entered. + +Clang! An occasional shot found the iron-plated door or a shuttered +window. + +On the other hand, the defenders, sighting swiftly in the direction +of a rifle-flash, were gratified again and again by hearing the +death-shriek or scream of pain from a stricken enemy; and Sergeant +Dick’s companions were quick to note that he never fired a single +shot but there came such an answer. + +He had realized that it would be madness to hold his hand or seek to +spare the redmen, in the circumstances. It was their lives or the +lives of all in the “castle.” + +Under cover of the now pitchy darkness the Indians were likely to +reach the house; and, once they were swarming about it in their +canoes, in such numbers as they were, nothing could prevent some of +them getting upon the roof or bursting in the windows and door. + +They must be kept at bay at all costs. + +Putting all pitying thoughts for the misguided wretches, therefore, +out of his heart, he grimly watched the successive rifle-flashes in +front of him, and shot back straight for one or another. + +None of the other inmates of “Water Castle” knew of the fame and +nickname he had won among his fellow-troopers of the Mounted Police +for his deadly skill with the rifle, but “Sure-shot Jack Dick” never +deserved his reputation and _sobriquet_ better than he did now. + +“Jumping snakes, sergeant, but you seem to be makin’ ’em squeal!” +shouted Old Man Arnold delightedly. “Dang me if I don’t hear a yelp +every time you fires!” + +“That’s so,” cried Muriel, almost proudly. “I don’t believe he has +thrown away a single shot.” + +“Good boy! Keep it up,” roared the lion-like old woman. “He has +cat’s eyes, sure. I wish I had. This blamed darkness beats me. Peg +away, lads! Keep it up or we’ll have the devils on us with this +blamed darkness. I wish them palisades outside were higher, Alf.” + +“Reckon they’ll not get over ’em easy all the same, old woman. Say, +wish I had put up a searchlight or somethink of that kind on the +peak of the roof, so as to show up besiegers at night.” + +But the hot fire maintained by the defenders, and particularly the +amazingly deadly shooting of Sergeant Dick, checked the onset of the +Indians. Canoe after canoe ceased paddling forward and turned about, +its occupants no longer caring to risk bringing a bullet out of the +darkness into their midst by shooting at the black shadow which +represented the stronghold of their enemies. + +So many of their number had been hit that it seemed as if the +pale-faces could see in the dark, and, in their superstition and +ignorance, the redmen were inclined to believe that there was +witchcraft in such swift retribution whenever they fired a shot. + +Their firing dwindled. Instead of pressing on to the storm of their +enemies’ stronghold, they began to circle futilely round it, firing +only an occasional shot and then paddling swiftly away to escape the +expected bullet in return. + +“We’ve checked them. They’re keeping off, father,” yelled Aaron from +Jenny and Muriel’s bedroom, in the north-east corner of the house. + +The words were still ringing in the ears of the four in the front of +the house, which, as already explained, faced southward down the +lake, when Sergeant Dick saw three or four large, roundish black +objects, like pumpkins--or, rather, like Swedish turnips with the +leaves sticking up in the air--suddenly appear as if by magic on the +edge of the verandah! + +The strange spectacle was impressed as it were forever on the retina +of his eyes. Ever afterwards he could call up the strange vision at +will of those three or four large round, turnip-like, apparently +leaf-crowned objects, growing, as it seemed, along the edge of the +verandah. + +As his startled eyes rested upon them, a horrified gasp burst from +Muriel at the window on the other side of the door, and a curse and +a roar of rage respectively from the lips of Old Man Arnold and his +wife. + +The four turnip-like objects were the feather-crowned heads of four +Indians, who had swum silently in through the palisades up to the +house and had climbed up as many of the piles supporting the +verandah. + +Even as the four defenders in the living-room of the “castle” +discovered them they swung themselves up like cats, by means of the +pillars of the verandah, on to this and made a dash at the windows. + +Muriel, Aunt Kate, and Sergeant Dick had their rifle-barrels +clutched by the invaders. Old Man Arnold managed to whip his back +inside his loophole in time. + +The assailants would not, of course, have been able to retain hold +of the rifle-barrels had the defenders not slackened their fire some +time before and allowed the metal to cool. + +Swift upon their grab at the protruding tubes, the redmen hurled in +with unerring aim through the loophole-slits a knife or a tomahawk. + +It was assuredly only because Providence was watching over the fates +of Sergeant John Dick and Muriel Arnold in that hour that they did +not have a knife apiece buried to the haft in their faces, standing +looking out of the loopholes as they were. + +As it was, Sergeant Dick had his left cheek gashed open by one knife +in its passage; and Muriel felt the missile directed at her pass +through her hair. + +As for Mrs. Arnold, a tomahawk cleft her gray forelock short off +close to her scalp. Flying onward with the force of its fling, the +weapon struck and bit deep into the pantry door behind her, where it +stuck, quivering from blade to handle-butt. + +Her husband, too, had a narrow escape. The tomahawk hurled in at him +whizzing close past his head, as he stumbled sideways after pulling +in his rifle. + +As all four in the living-room stood for the moment appalled by +their own narrow escapes, and the belief that one or more of their +number must have been struck down, their assailants outside emitted +the bloodcurdling war-whoop in chorus. + +Then, swift upon it, or, rather, while still giving vent to it, the +four daring braves wheeled, abandoned the rifle-barrels they had +grabbed, and, darting to pillars, began swarming up these to the +sloping roof like monkeys. + +At either end of the verandah there was a low railing, and, by +stepping on this, two of them were clambering on to the roof almost +before the sergeant and his three companions in the living-room +could recover from the sudden attack. + +The whoops of the quartet just outside were promptly answered by a +tremendous yell from the darkness all round about; and it was plain +the Indians in the canoes were again tearing towards the house, as +fast as they could ply their paddles, to help their intrepid and +crafty chief to rush the place. + +For, perhaps needless to say, the four braves on the verandah were +Howling Wolf and three of those who had been with him in his canoe. + +Aunt Kate had been right. The wily young sagamore had withdrawn from +the prow of the canoe, and wriggled aft, after firing his +treacherous shot at the police-sergeant. And Sergeant Dick might +have fired the three shots he put into the canoe’s prow uselessly +had his third bullet not struck a rifle left there and been +deflected sideways, so that it grazed the head of the fifth warrior +in the craft, stunning him. + +On that, at the sagamore’s order, the others had jumped overboard, +and, when the canoe overset, Howling Wolf aided the unconscious man, +supported him on his shoulder, and suggested the daring move of +swimming silently up to the “castle” and taking the defenders in the +front of the house by surprise. + +The four, as we have seen, brought off the stratagem fairly +successfully. They had put their senseless companion softly across +one of the ties of the gate in the palisades, had consulted and laid +their plans in the faintest of faint whispers as they had swum up to +these, then slipped through them. And only the proverbial white +man’s luck had saved the four defenders of the living-room from +being struck down, dead or dying, by their deftly in-flung tomahawks +and knives. + + + + +CHAPTER IX--THE ARK IN DANGER + + +Had the four defenders of the front of the “castle” been slain or +disabled through the loopholes by Howling Wolf and his three +companions, these would have got on the roof safely enough, and +might have been able to cause a sufficient diversion, and hold their +own there long enough, to enable their fellow-braves in the canoes +to come up. + +But Sergeant Dick, quick to recover from the startling _coup de +main_, promptly thrust his rifle out through his loophole again, and +trained it on the brave nearest him. The man was in the act of +clambering up one of the middle pillars of the verandah. + +Crack! The weapon spoke almost simultaneously, and, with a shrill +howl of pain, the Indian--none other than Howling Wolf himself--let +go his grip of the verandah roof, which he had just seized with one +hand, and slid down the pole as swiftly as if it were greased. He no +sooner touched the verandah again with his heels than he either +flung himself or fell headlong off it into the water. + +Sergeant Dick swerved his rifle quickly on the man’s plunge, and let +fly at another of the invaders swarming up a pillar. A second +scream, of even bitterer agony, told every ear within hearing that +that shot also had found a true billet. + +On that, one of the two remaining braves, who had gained the +comparative safety of the roof--thanks to the assistance of the side +railings and the consternation and unreadiness of the other three +defenders of the living-room--took a flying jump or dive into the +lake astern of the ark, evidently too scared to take advantage of +the situation he had won. + +And a second or two later, the fourth Indian, not caring to remain +behind by himself, followed suit. + +Then, even as Bella and Deborah, the two daughters-in-law of the +squatter, came rushing after Jenny into the living-room from the +back of the “castle,” to learn if their father and mother were hurt, +the rifles of the four brothers rang out and partly drowned the mad +yelling of the redmen paddling frantically for the spot. + +“It’s all right, gals. Me and the old woman air not a bit hurt.” Old +Alf reassured his daughters-in-law and the weeping Jenny. “The old +woman’s had her forelock shorn off, but her scalp’s safe, and she +can wear a false front till the ’air grows ag’in. How are you, +Muriel, gal, and you, sergeant?” + +“I’m unhurt, uncle,” gasped Muriel. “The knife only went through my +hair. It’s brought some of it down, and cut some of it; but that’s +all right. Did you escape scot free also, sergeant?” + +“Not altogether, I must admit. It is nothing, however; the knife +blade just grazed my left cheek. Never mind that. Back to your +loops, every one of you, quick, or we’ll have the whole band of +redskins clambering over the palisades or breaking open the gate in +them. Ah! quick! Howling Wolf and the braves with him are trying to +make off with the ark!” + +He was the only one of the four defenders of the living-room who had +not quitted his post or loophole. + +The squatter, on hearing his wife cry out as the tomahawk shore away +her hair so close to her scalp, had at once turned his eyes in her +direction. He saw her fall heavily backwards, for so startled and +horrified was she that for the moment she did not quite comprehend +the narrow escape she had had and almost believed the top of her +skull had been cleft clean away. + +The ax tore some of the hairs out by the roots in its passage as +well as cut others clean asunder, and the sudden wrench and sharp, +poignant pain of it, on top of her surprise and the horror of seeing +the ax flashing apparently straight for her forehead, practically +deprived her, strong, masculine woman though she generally was, of +the power of her limbs, and bowled her over like an actual blow. + +Fully believing her killed--brained by the weapon--her husband and +Muriel had uttered cries of horror and grief unutterable, and flown +to her side. This accounted for Sergeant Dick being the only one to +fire upon the four daring invaders of the verandah. + +At Dick’s fresh admonition and alarm, Aunt Kate, Uncle Alf, Muriel, +and the two sisters-in-law, with Jenny--all six--at once rushed to +the three loopholes before them--that is on the east side of the +front door--and peered out through these. + +Before they could do so, there rattled out, above the firing from +the other quarters of the house, the sharp incessant popping of +Sergeant Dick’s service revolver. + +Old Alf was the first of his party to look forth, and he saw--first, +the brave whom the sergeant had killed while climbing up the pillar, +lying stiff and motionless upon the verandah, and then the ark, in +the thick darkness, slowly swinging round her stern away from the +“castle.” + +The craft was still fast by her head to the verandah, but she was no +longer lying parallel alongside this, but turning her stern away, so +as to lie at right angles to it. + +Hanging head downwards over the stern bulwark, still in sight, was +the form of an Indian, and a great dark stain was growing in size +just below him upon the ark’s ribs. The hand of a second redskin +projected at a sharp, unnatural angle above the bulwark alongside. + +Sergeant Dick, keeping watchful vigil at his loop, when the others +in the front of the premises had deserted theirs, had suddenly seen +three dusky forms rise above the off stern-quarter bulwark of the +ark, writhe or bound aboard with the swiftness and silence of cats +or snakes, and make a combined rush for the mooring-rope aft. + +Before the sergeant had time to draw a bead upon any of the trio, +one Indian was slashing at the rope with a tomahawk, while the other +two were pushing hard, with their dripping rifles, upon the side of +the verandah, so as not only to tauten the mooring rope, and enable +their comrade the better to cut it, but also to get “way” or motion +on the craft’s stern, and force her round “head on” to the “castle” +as quickly as possible. + +The rope parted at the second slash. The first indeed might have +done the trick had the savage wielding the tomahawk only been a +little less excited and eager; for no doubt the weapon was as +keen-bitted as a razor. + +Even as the rope was severed, Sergeant Dick’s revolver began to +speak, and the two braves thrusting the craft away from the verandah +with their rifles crumpled up and fell dead. They dropped their +pieces over the side, and one of them nearly followed his weapon. + +The third Indian--he who had wielded the ax--did not give the +sergeant a chance to hit him. At the first crack of the revolver, he +wheeled and stooping low--almost double--bolted, jumping from side +to side as he ran, round the deckhouse, and got behind it. + +Along either side of the deckhouse ran a foot-board, about a foot +wide, on top of the bulwarks, with a handrail above to enable a +person to pass safely from stem to stern. Short ladders, fore and +aft, also gave easy access to the roof of the ark, which was not +high peaked or gabled like the conventional toy ark, but gently +rounded like a railway carriage-roof, or that of the cabin of a +small yacht. + +It was Howling Wolf, the intrepid and enterprising, if ferocious, +Indian chief, who had again escaped the deadly fire of Sergeant +Dick. He had been only slightly wounded in his attempt to scale the +roof of the “castle.” The bullet had grazed his thigh, but the +sudden smart had momentarily paralyzed the muscles of the leg, and +so brought him down at a run. + +The limb was now almost as good as his other leg--warmed up, as he +was with the battle fever, and thirsting to avenge the smart and the +loss of his braves. + +This was the position of affairs when the other occupants of the +living-room of the “castle” looked out of the loopholes. + +Before them was the ark, still held fast by the mooring-rope in the +bows, turning slowly at right angles to them with the drift of the +current, accelerated by the little “way” or push given to her stern +by the two Indians whom the sergeant had shot down. And round the +other side of the deckhouse, screened by it from the rifle-fire of +the rightful owners of the craft, was Howling Wolf, whose ax could +already be heard crashing upon the stout, sheet-iron-lined shutter +of the cabin window beside him. + +All around, in the inky blackness, invisible canoes were speeding +up, propelled by madly whooping redskins, none of whom was replying +save by shouting, to the wild random shooting of the besieged. + + + + +CHAPTER X--AN UNEXPECTED ILLUMINATION + + +Old Alf Arnold gave vent to a roar of anger when he saw the position +of the ark. + +“Thousand furies! That varmint will carry off the scow if he’s not +stopped. Help me unbar the door, quick, some of you! I’m going out +to purvent it. You two girls, Bella and Deborah, take your +brothers’, Amos and Abner’s, places in the side bedrooms, and tell +the lads to follow me. Sergeant, you’ll come too, won’t you? Kate, +Muriel, and Jenny, you three guard the loops here.” + +“Oh, no, no, father, don’t go out! You are bound to be shot if you +show yourselves outside!” cried Jenny, in the wildest alarm. + +“Yes. Let the ark take care of itself, uncle,” exclaimed Muriel, +also in the deepest anxiety. “The Indians in the canoes will pick +you off if you go out, and that one on the ark is powerless to run +off with her while she is fast by her head to the verandah. He will +not venture to show himself, to cut her loose.” + +“No, but it will shelter the riptiles behind it at the palisades, +and a dozen of ’em may git over and swim to it; and then where’d we +be?” growled Aunt Kate, who had quite recovered apparently from the +shock of the loss of her forelock. + +And the old woman rushed to the door with her husband, and began +hurriedly unbarring it. + +Bella and Deborah raced off to take the places of their +brothers-in-law in the side rooms; and Muriel turned and whispered +something in Jenny’s ear. + +“I’m with you, Arnold,” Sergeant Dick said quietly, though he still +stood at his loop, revolver in hand, refilling the discharged +chambers in the weapon, and, with his eye on the stern of the scow, +ready to fire if Howling Wolf showed himself. + +The front door was thrown open, and instantly out rushed the old +squatter, automatic in one hand and rifle atrail in the other; and +after him ran Sergeant Dick, likewise armed. + +Then, after a short pause, followed Abner and Amos, the two +unmarried sons. + +The instant Old Alf and the sergeant appeared upon the verandah, +there were infuriated yells from the canoes in front of the “castle” +and a scattered volley was fired at them. But all the bullets +imbedded themselves harmlessly in the stout logs of the “castle”; +and, racing along the verandah unscathed, the two white men gained +the head of the ark, which, however, was now a good six feet or more +from the verandah--the full length of the mooring-rope there. + +The squatter, balked, pounced upon the mooring-rope, and hauled +desperately upon it, bawling to the sergeant to lay hold also and +pull. + +Instead, John Dick backed quickly to the “castle,” took a run, and +leaped out beside the rope towards the broad bluff bow of the scow. + +He landed just within it on both feet. But he fell forward on his +hands and knees. + +Up again the next second, he dashed towards the deckhouse, and, +before the cheer that greeted his fine jump from all who witnessed +it, was bounding up the forward ladder to the roof of the cabin. + +He was now fully exposed to the fire of the Indians in the canoes, +but his form was not very distinct in the blackness of the night. +Moreover, the rapidity of his movements made him a still more +difficult target. + +Panning along the same side of the deckhouse on which Howling Wolf +had been sheltering, Dick peered over, revolver ready cocked and +presented for a shot. + +But the Indian chief was no longer on the side of the scow. + +The sternmost shutter, swinging loose and wide open, told Dick where +he was--that he had forced the window and got into the cabin. + +The ark was now at right angles with the verandah, and was slowly +swinging round into an obtuse angle with it. If permitted, the +current would eventually swing her right round, end for end--lay her +thus, parallel with the verandah again, but beyond it to the +southward. + +“He’s got inside the cabin,” shouted Dick. + +He sprang down the aft ladder, rushed to the door there, and +thundered upon it with his rifle-butt, on failing to burst it in +with his shoulder. + +There were two loopholes in the stern bulkhead of the cabin, one on +either side of the door. But the Indian chief inside had had his +ammunition and firearms rendered useless by his immersions, and so +could not fire out on his daring white foe. + +The deckhouse door was giving way before Dick’s frantic battering +upon it with his rifle-butt, and he could feel the ark moving +through the water up to the “castle,” as the old squatter and Amos +and Abner, lying prone on the verandah, pulled upon the bow-rope, +when there was a scrambling noise at the broken window, succeeded by +a loud plunge and splash in the water alongside. + +Realizing that his position was getting too warm for him, Howling +Wolf had leaped out through the window into the lake again. + +Sergeant Dick at once rushed to that side, but, filled with generous +admiration for the daring and persevering enterprise of the redman, +forbore to shoot at him when his head rose above the +surface--showing like a black ball upon the less dark surface of the +water. + +Howling Wolf dived again immediately, and the shots, fired at random +in his direction by the less chivalrous squatters, only hit the +water harmlessly. + +And now there burst a great flood of lurid light upon the scene--an +illumination which lit up the surroundings of the “castle” for a +considerable distance all round, beyond the palisading. + +Sergeant Dick, astonished beyond measure, turned his head swiftly in +the direction whence the light emanated, half expecting to see the +“castle” on fire. + +Instead, he saw, reared above the skylight on his side of the +apex-like roof of the “castle,” a great blazing tar barrel, +suspended by a small chain from a boathook stuck up through the +skylight. + +The glare cast an awe-inspiring ruddy glow on everything, and seemed +to strike fire itself from the dark water flowing within the “dock.” + +Not only did it show up the canoes, but their redskinned occupants +in the act, for the most part, of getting upon the palisades, and +lifting their light craft over into the “dock.” + +Some of the Indians had slipped through the palisades, and were +swimming everywhere, all round, for the “castle.” But by far the +great majority were trying to get the canoes over. The top of nearly +every palisade was crowned by a half-nude copper-colored, +befeathered human form, lifting and straining, while around him, +within and without the palisading, others were swimming or clinging +to the timbers and trying to help him. + +Two canoes had been lifted over and their late occupants were +clambering into them again, preparatory to following those swimming +for the verandah. + +Sergeant Dick was unable to do more for a moment or two than stare +helplessly at the thrilling spectacle. But he was speedily brought +to a sense of his own danger by the crackle of over a dozen rifles +from the canoes beyond the storming line, and the thudding of as +many bullets into the bulkhead of the ark’s cabin behind him. + +Muriel Arnold had bethought herself of the tar-barrel, faced as she +was with the problem how to provide an illumination which would show +up the besiegers--prevent them getting in their canoes within the +“dock,” and thus rushing the “castle” or ark. It was of the +tar-barrel she had whispered to Jenny; and, leaving Aunt Kate to +guard the partly open door of the “castle,” the two girls had rushed +to the ladder leading up to the loft. + +The tar-barrel was stored there with other lumber. They had +hurriedly looped a chain round it and through the bunghole, and put +it, on the end of the boathook, through the skylight on the verandah +side of the house. + +Jenny dropped a lighted match into the contents, and then she and +Muriel, exerting all their strength, thrust the boathook up, and +jammed it firmly so that it might not slip. + +They had raced back, down the ladder, to the living-room, little +suspecting how near they came to costing Sergeant Dick his life by +the sudden and wholly unexpected illumination. + +As the apex roof of the “castle” was covered with corrugated iron, +there was no risk of any fragments of the blazing barrel setting it +on fire; and the barrel swung well clear of the wooden staff of the +boathook, which was tipped with iron a good third of its length. + +Sergeant Dick saw and felt that the ark was being drawn back by the +squatter and his two sons into its late moored position alongside +the verandah; and so he at once ran round to that side of the +deckhouse. + +He stepped upon the narrow footboard bordering the cabin wall, and +was safe from the fire of all the Indians except those on the west +side of the “castle.” And as he sidled swiftly along the plank, +holding to the rail, like the driver or fireman of a locomotive +clambering round it, he presented a difficult mark again, +particularly in the dancing, uncertain glare of the tar-barrel. + +He could see Old Alf, Amos, and Abner pulling on the inside bow and +shifting their grip along as the craft swung her stern slowly in +towards the verandah again. + +But the sight of the swimmers making for the verandah, as well as +the two canoes within the palisading, told Sergeant Dick that the +best thing he and the three men heaving on the ark’s bow could do +would be to take refuge inside her. + +The hail of bullets now being poured upon the ark and the front of +the “castle” from the reserve canoes outside the palisades seemed to +forbid the smallest hope of him or the other three getting back +safely within the house. + +He therefore bawled at the top of his voice: + +“Bar the door, Mrs. Arnold--Muriel--Jenny! Never mind us out here! +Arnold, we four must get inside the ark, and hold it.” + + + + +CHAPTER XI--THE DEFENSE OF THE ARK + + +Sergeant Dick knew that the old squatter had the keys of the cabin +doors upon him; that there would be no necessity for them to force +an entrance. + +“Right you are, sergeant!” Arnold answered; and, as the side of the +ark bumped heavily against the verandah, the old man and his two +sons vaulted hurriedly aboard, and dashed at the door near them. + +Even as the key rattled in the lock, and Old Alf pushed the door in, +Sergeant Dick sprang round the corner of the “house” or cabin. +Nevertheless, inside he was within an ace of being shut +out--purposely or accidentally--by Abner Arnold, who was slamming +the door in his face, when he flung himself bodily against it, and, +by main force, thrust it open sufficiently to slip inside. + +“Did you want to shut me out?” he demanded, in fierce suspicion of +the young squatter. Then, without waiting for an answer, he turned +and helped to shoot home the bolts and put up the heavy wooden bars +which stood ready for the purpose. + +Old Alf and Amos were rushing through into the second cabin, to make +sure of the door and broken window there. + +The rattling of musketry continued unabatedly outside, and bullets +thudded against the door and the stout log-walls of the cabin like +hail. As soon as the door was secure, Sergeant Dick sprang to the +first loop on the south, or offside, of the craft, and looked forth. + +He saw the plumed heads of several savage warriors ranged along the +bulwark of the scow. They were in the very act of clambering aboard! + +As in the attack on the “castle,” he instantly decided to use his +automatic instead of his rifle, which, however, he had carried hung +upon his right shoulder, ready for instant use. While hurrying along +the footboard at the side of the cabin, he had seen to his +pistol--made sure that it was reloaded to its utmost capacity. + +With ten lives in the deadly little weapon, he thrust its short +barrel out through the loophole, and opened a merciless fusillade +upon the Indians clambering aboard. + +At every bark of the weapon there was an agonized scream outside. +Four of the redmen either lay head downwards over the bulwarks or +had fallen back into the lake, in less than as many seconds. The +others, with screams of dismay, whipped down again out of +sight--all, that is, in front of his loop. + +But in the scow’s waist, and at her far end John Dick could hear the +triumphant yells of the Indians mingled with the crackle of his +fellow defenders’ revolvers. + +Abner Arnold had remained at the door by which they had got in, and +was firing out through a loophole he had uncovered in it. A steel +slide was fitted into grooves over a horizontal slit, about two +inches wide, and six or eight long. Through this aperture the young +squatter had his revolver thrust, and was potting fiercely at the +Indians trying to climb over that end of the scow. + +“You can hold your own, Abner?” the sergeant asked. + +“Yes, curse you, yes!” was the fierce reply. + +“Right. Then I’ll go along to the next cabin and see if your father +and brother need me.” + +The cabin he was in was fitted up, in rather primitive style, as a +dining-compartment, or “saloon” and kitchen in one. A table-top was +hooked up within a couple of inches of the slightly rounded, +coach-like roof, and might be lowered by cords passing through rings +to the level of an ordinary table. + +On either side of the cabin ran a banked seat, which could be +converted into two beds or berths--that is four in all--while there +were hooks for hammocks if there were any call for additional +sleeping accommodation. + +Under the banked seats were lockers and drawers, most neatly made, +and on the four walls--over the doors and flanking these, as well as +on the two side walls--were little cupboards and all manner of +cooking utensils and other domestic equipage. + +In one corner of the apartment stood a small American iron stove, +the pipe of which passed out through a hole in the eaves of the +roof. + +Pursuant to his expressed intention, Sergeant Dick passed hurriedly +through the inner door into the other cabin, which was much better +furnished, and evidently reserved for the womenfolk. There was no +table hooked up, nor any stove, but there were banked seats for four +beds, as well as hooks for hammocks, a couple of +looking-glasses--the worse for frequent use--on the walls, a couple +of lift-up dressing ledges, etc., and four wardrobe cupboards, one +in each corner, for storage purposes, in addition to more lockers +and little cupboards. + +John Dick took in only the faintest idea of the apartment, of +course. Naturally his thoughts were elsewhere at that moment than +with the structure of Old Alf Arnold’s strange houseboat. + +He saw the old man firing out sideways, with a revolver, through a +loophole nearer him than the window with the broken shutter, and +Amos kneeling at the end-door, shooting through the lower loophole +in it. The younger man was casting anxious glances, ’tween whiles, +at the broken window, which gaped open--a square foot and more--for +any redskin foe to shoot in at. + +As a matter of fact, several bullets whizzed in through it and +buried themselves with loud thuds in the opposite wall. + +It was to prevent any of the Indians reaching the window that his +father was firing sideways, chiefly through the adjacent loops. Amos +had clearly run past the open window on hands and knees. + +Neither he nor his father, Sergeant Dick saw, could be spared from +their posts to try to cover the broken window. Both men had their +hands full, for the time being at any rate, keeping the assailants +from getting aboard. + +On the other hand it would not do for the sergeant himself to leave +Abner Arnold too long alone to hold the other cabin. Some of the foe +would be bound to return to the quarter left undefended, and if not +checked would smash in the two loops or shuttered windows at the +point. + +With his usual promptitude and decision, the young sergeant of the +Royal Canadian Mounted Police at once acted. He rushed forward to +where, by the light from without, he saw the dislodged shutter lying +upon the cabin floor, caught it up, and, stooping so as not to let +his head show above the sill of the opening, dashed up under this +and clapped the shutter, still fairly serviceable and intact, save +for its lack of fastenings, over the aperture. + +As he thus closed this several bullets rattled on the outside of the +shutter, almost knocking it out of his hands. But he kept it pressed +tightly over the opening with one hand, and turned and shouted to +Old Alf: + +“You run and help Abner in the other cabin, Mr. Arnold. I can manage +here.” + +He knocked up the hook which held the slide over the loop or slit in +the shutter, with his pistol muzzle, while he kept the shutter +pressed over the open window with his left hand. Then he pushed +aside the slide and thrust the weapon out, peering forth at the same +time. + +There came a loud shout of alarm from Abner, and Old Man Arnold, +wheeling, rushed back to the other cabin. + +“They’ve cut us loose, father--Amos!” Abner bawled. + +A redskin’s knife or tomahawk had slashed through the solitary +mooring-rope holding his end of the scow to the “castle” verandah, +and the craft began to drift on the current towards the southern +side of the “dock,” or palisaded enclosure. + +It was no easy task Sergeant Dick had set himself--to hold up the +heavy steel shutter over the window, and at the same time fire out +through the loophole in it. + +All the windows aboard the ark were constructed alike. They were +merely square casements, and in the ordinary way they would be left +open for light or air. The shutters--solid plates of steel an inch +or more in thickness--were fitted in grooves, which rose above them, +and could be dropped down easily over them on the inside and hooked +into position thus. + +Howling Wolf had, of course, beaten the steel plate bodily out of +its grooves, and burst the hook away--no light achievement in the +circumstances. + +Old Man Arnold had kept that quarter of the scow free of boarders, +but now, on the closing of the open window, which all the Indians in +the canoes opposite had been making their target, several redskins, +swimming alongside, attempted again to board. + +The two canoes within the “dock” at the same time closed up and +ranged alongside on that same quarter, and every warrior in them at +once stood up and gripped the side of the scow, making to draw +himself up and over into it. + +But in this intention the majority of them were frustrated by the +sudden and by them, as well as by the defenders, the unexpected +release of the scow. This, borne upon by the current as it was, +ceased merely turning or veering round as if pivoted at its bow, and +instead began to move away sidelong, bodily. + +How it happened the occupants of the canoes themselves hardly had +time to comprehend, but their dangling feet helped no doubt in the +catastrophe which followed. For coming in contact with the offside +gunwales of their frail craft, they helped to kick these under water +as the inside gunwales rose up with the scow pressing hard upon +them. + +In an instant both canoes had filled and sunk, leaving half their +late occupants clinging to the scow, and the other half struggling +in the water, into which they had dropped either from fright or for +lack of a secure hold on the bulwark over them. + + + + +CHAPTER XII--SAVED BY A WOMAN’S WIT + + +Sergeant Dick’s automatic at once spoke rapidly; and, shot through +the brain, three of the would-be invaders fell back from the +bulwark, while the others, fearing the same fate, voluntarily let go +and likewise disappeared. + +“Hooray!” shouted Amos. “We’ve done ’em yit again. Keep the shutter +up just a little longer, sergeant, and I’ll be able to help ye.” + +He vacated his kneeling posture at the door, slamming and hooking +the slide over the loop in it, and turned and looked wildly about +the cabin for a means of fastening up the shutter. But his dull wits +could think of none on the spur of the moment. + +“You’ll have to drop it and let it sweat, sergeant,” he said. “I +don’t see how we can manage it arter all. Look ahere, I’ll take the +loop beside it and guard it that way, and you can take the door +’stead o’ me. The women in the ‘castle’ will pick off all the red +varmints who try to board us on t’other side, you see.” + +Sergeant Dick could not help smiling grimly at the young man +resigning the post at the door to him. It was far the more perilous +position if the window he was at had to be left unshuttered. + +None of these young squatters commended himself very much to the +police officer. One and all, though fierce and plucky enough, he had +already had plenty of evidence, would prefer to save his own skin at +his (the sergeant’s) expense. + +Without a word, however, John Dick at once dropped the shutter again +to the floor, and almost heaved a sigh of relief at being thus rid +of its most tiring weight. + +Then he flitted to the door, and knelt by the loop Amos had just +left. Amos, however, redeemed himself somewhat now in the sergeant’s +eyes, for seeing from the loop his father had been so lately firing +through that that side of the craft was free of invaders or +boarders, he at once rushed across the cabin to the other, and +looked out on that side also. + +“Hooray! Hooray, sergeant!” he yelled. “There’s not a redskin aboard +on either side. I can see from end to end of the scow, and there +can’t be none at t’other end of cabin neither. I should say, Abner +and the Old Man air firing at the skunks in the water. Ay, give it +to ’em hot, now, sergeant! Don’t spare the skunks. Put a bullet +through every head in sight. Thunder! What’s that blaze out in the +middle of the lake? Cuss it! It’s on Stable Islet! The skunks have +landed a party there an’ fired the stables with the ’osses inside.” + +“No, they are carrying off the horses, I can see from here, on two +rafts they have evidently made from some of the timber of the +stables.” + +“We’ll have to let ’em go; we can do nothing to purvent ’em. We’ve +got our hands full with the varmints round us. Let ’em have it, +sergeant! Wipe out all who are inside the dock! Hooray! They’re +done, and air all trying to get away now.” + +It was true. From the upper loophole in the door, Dick could see all +the redmen in the enclosure before him swimming away desperately for +the palisades, or clambering over these into the canoes waiting +outside. + +Such of the Indians as had remained in the canoes were firing +through the palisades at both the ark and the “castle,” to try to +cover the retreat. But both these structures were bullet-proof, and +the excitement, flurry, and exasperation of the red sharpshooters +militated against any likelihood of their getting a shot home +through the tiny slits of loopholes in the shutters. + +Almost directly in front of him, the sergeant could see out upon the +lake two large rafts--made of beams and boards, and what had +evidently been partitions between stalls in the stable and the +buggy-house, as well as doors, bound roughly together with rawhide +lariats. + +The rafts were beyond Stable Islet, and so beyond the radius of the +illumination of the blazing tar-barrel hung out by Muriel and Jenny. +But a huge bonfire, composed of the flaming remains of the looted +and half dismantled stable and buggy-house lit up another great +patch of the lake, and showed the two captured horses, one on either +raft, surrounded by several Indian warriors paddling and steering +for the western shore. + +A couple of canoes were also towing each raft, which, therefore, for +all its clumsy make, moved fairly quickly over the lake. + +[Illustration: A HUGE BONFIRE SHOWED THE TWO CAPTURED HORSES.] + +Amos Arnold, sharp on his own last words, had thrust his Winchester +repeater through the loop he stood beside, and started vengefully to +take potshots at every plumed head bobbing upon the water before +him. + +Sergeant Dick, however, held his fire. He did not believe in such +cruel butchery as that, retribution though it might be called. + +“Let the misguided poor wretches go,” he cried. “They’ve had enough +of it. We’ve given them a drubbing--a thrashing they are not likely +to get over in a hurry.” + +He was pleased to note that only one rifle seemed to be firing now +from the front or verandah side of the house, although three rifles +had been until the besiegers turned tail. The single rifle could +only belong to the fierce old wife and mother of this tigerish +family. + +Muriel and Jenny had been firing out upon the assailants up to now, +but, seeing their foes fleeing, they too were humanely forbearing to +shoot. + +“What’s that?” howled Amos. “Let the wretches go! Spare ’em ’cos +they’re runnin’. Not much! Not me!” + +And he continued to pot away. But with indifferent success, for the +light from the blazing tar-barrel was getting very bad--very jumpy +and feeble. The barrel was falling to pieces and dropping in flaming +fragments with loud hisses into the water, or rebounding from and +sliding down the iron roof of the “castle.” + +Moreover, the swimmers dived incessantly or swam under water until +they reached the palisades, where many of them managed to slip +through instead of having to climb over. + +For all their vindictiveness, too, the squatter and his two sons saw +that the current was carrying the ark against the southern end of +the enclosure, and comprehended the peril of allowing this to +happen. Partly screened from the fire of those within the ark by the +palisades, the redmen outside these would easily be able to board, +if it drifted alongside them. The little craft would be bound to be +taken. The Indians, by mounting on the palisades, would be able to +leap aboard in overwhelming numbers, get on the roof where they +could not be reached, and break through with their tomahawks. + +“Quick!” shouted Sergeant Dick, on noting the danger simultaneously +with the other three. “We shall drift against the palisades if we +are not careful, and then it will be all up with us. Quick! The +other door! We must get out at all risks and use the sweeps, or we +are done for.” + +As one man, the four defenders of the ark rushed to the door by +which they had entered its “house”--which door was still the nearer +to the “castle,” and now almost directly facing it. + +Frenziedly the whole quartet flung themselves upon the bolts and +bars. One wrenched back the top bolt; another the bottom. Another +turned the key, and the fourth whipped out the top great wooden bar. +Then the other two bars were removed in like haste and the door was +thrown open. + +Out into that end of the scow the four men burst, and seized upon +the two big oars or “sweeps” lying to either side. The cabin +screened them from their nearest foes--those lining the palisading +at the point whither they were drifting. But they were wholly +exposed, save when they stooped double, to the Indians on either +side of them, and in order to use the “sweeps,” they would have to +expose themselves. Not only that. They were now so close up to the +palisading that they might not be able to overcome the inertia of +their craft, plus the resistance of the current, which was dead +against them, in time to avert the threatened calamity. + +Woman’s wit proved their salvation. But for it they must assuredly +have, all four, fallen victims to the fury of the already exulting +savages waiting for them. Using the sweeps, they would not have been +able to get back inside the “house” or cabin, and shut out their +foes before these were upon them, once they touched the palisades. + +A rope came sailing through the air from the direction of the +“castle.” It fell across both bulwarks of the scow, and in an +instant all four inmates of this had sprung upon it and grabbed it. + +As they did so a storm of bullets “criss-crossed” through the space +they had just been occupying. The Indians on the broken arc of +palisading in sight of them had opened a cross fire upon them. The +air above them, as they crouched on all fours, grasping the +rope--below the bulwarks of the scow--was alive with lead flying in +different directions. + +To stand upright again would have meant instant annihilation, for +the range was not twenty feet. + +“Back inside the cabin! Crawl on your hands and knees. We can haul +on the rope through the doorway!” cried Sergeant Dick. + +The four men scrambled madly back inside the open door behind them, +holding tightly, all, to the rope which was pulled hard against +them. It was an experience none of them would wish to go through a +second time. + +The leaden storm over their heads never abated for a moment, but +whistled past, thudded against the bulkhead, whizzed in at the open +door of the cabin or came smashing through the sides of the scow, +incessantly. + +But once inside the cabin door, they pushed this three quarters to, +and, standing behind it, heaved their hardest, in concert, on the +rope, which they passed around the foot of the mast in the middle of +the compartment. + +As the rope had come sailing through the air towards them, one and +all had seen that it emanated from the “castle” window nearest them, +looking out onto the verandah. + +Muriel Arnold had seen their imminent deadly peril, and with a +woman’s quick wit had realized that only a rope thrown them from the +“castle” could save them. + +“Aaron! Abel!” she had screamed to her two married cousins. “Quick, +here! Quick! Drop everything and come quick!” + +The two brothers came tearing from their respective posts and found +her gripping a coil of rope. She then thrust the rope into the +eldest brother, Abel’s, hands, threw up the shutter within the +embrasure of the window, and hurriedly explained that he must toss +the rope to his father and two brothers on the ark. + +An adept at throwing the lasso, it was the easiest thing in the +world for Abel Arnold to send the rope sailing out through the open +window into the near end of the scow. And the moment he and Aaron +felt it tugged upon, they began to haul with all their might upon +it, aided by their mother, Muriel, and Jenny, overcoming the “way” +on the craft, and drawing it back towards the verandah. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII--SERGEANT DICK’S DETERMINATION + + +The Indians howled with baffled fury and concentrated their fire +upon the open window of the “castle.” Several of their bullets +actually frayed the rope, while others entered the open window. + +But Abel and Aaron’s wives rushed in, and, from the other, +shuttered, windows looking on to the verandah, opened a dropping +fire upon the discomforted redmen. In less time almost than it takes +to tell it, the near end of the ark bumped against the verandah, and +the craft was safe. + +Hurriedly making fast the rope in the “castle” and the ark, the +occupants of both were able to man their loopholes again in full +strength. They fired into the besiegers with such effect that these +saw the hopelessness of continuing the struggle and broke and +paddled away for dear life out of the radius of the light. + +“We’ll have our horses back. If we are sharp we can manage it,” +roared the squatter inside the ark. “Quick! Amos, Abner, sergeant, +let us get up the sail.” + +“No, no, uncle, you’ll be captured--you’ll all go to your certain +capture or death!” screamed Muriel, inside the “castle.” + +“Not us!” cried Amos. “The Injins air all running like sheep. We’ll +chase ’em. The burnin’ stable will give us all the light we need.” + +“It would be the height of folly, squatter,” said Sergeant Dick +quietly. “Out in the open lake and darkness the canoes would be +buzzing round you immediately, like wasps around a jampot. Besides, +do you think for a moment the Indians would let you recover the +horses _alive_? No, they would cut the animals’ throats if they had +to abandon them. And, look at the distance the rafts are from us, +and how near to the shore. We couldn’t possibly do it, fast as I +know the scow sails, with the delay in opening and warping out +through your dock-gate.” + +“You hold your tongue until you are asked for your advice, me bold +policeman,” snarled Abner. + +“All the same it would be downright, dod-rotted madness, Alf, and +you’ll do no such thing!” bawled the squatter’s wife. “Let the +’osses go. They’re not wu’th my brave lads’ lives, if you don’t +vally your own. Ain’t you got the sense to know when to come in out +of the rain?” + +That settled it. + +Old Man Arnold grinned a little sheepishly at Sergeant Dick, then +faced sharply upon his son Abner. + +“You hold _your_ tongue, me lad, and l’arn a little more respec’ for +a man who’s proved hisself to be a man all through this ’ere night. +Never you mind him, sergeant. He allus had a spiteful tongue. Don’t +know why ’zactly. Didn’t get it from me, anyways, though he mout +from the old ’ooman.” + +The redmen were now in full retreat on all sides, and the majority +of them were already swallowed up in the inky shadows surrounding +the circle of light still feebly cast by the almost burnt-out +tar-barrel. + +Without fear of being shot at, therefore, Sergeant Dick, the +squatter, and Amos and Abner emerged from the open door of the ark, +and followed each other on to the verandah of the “castle,” to the +accompaniment of sounds of the door of this being hastily unbarred +and unbolted. + +Jenny was the first to rush forth, and greet her father and +brothers. She threw herself, sobbing and laughing together +hysterically, into the old man’s arms, while her cousin Muriel +advanced to the young police officer, and said: + +“Sergeant, on behalf of my uncle and aunt and cousins, as well as +myself, I thank you sincerely for the excellent help you gave us. I +am sure we are all very grateful to you.” + +“What did he do more’n the rest of us?” asked Abner. “Wasn’t it for +his own life as much as yourn or anybody else’s, he was fightin’. He +on’y done wot we all done, and had to do.” + +“You are ungenerous, Abner. At least have the decency to hold your +tongue if you can’t be grateful for the excellent service our guest +rendered us, and remember that he is our guest.” + +“Hoity-toity, gal! Can’t the lad speak in his own ’ome? Since when +did you put up to l’arn my sons manners?” + +This from the aunt and mother. + +“That’ll do--that’ll do, Kate! The gal was quite right, and Abner’s +an ungrateful young pup as wants l’arnin’ different. Come, let’s git +indoors. Mother, and you, gals, put the pot on, and let’s have +somethink to eat, and give us somethink to drink while it’s +a-cookin’. I’m that thirsty I could nigh drink the lake dry, and you +must be the same, sergeant.” + +Dick admitted that he was dry, but said that a glass of water would +serve him. Whereupon Muriel at once rushed off and brought him one, +to the scowling and muttered resentment of Abner. + +The old woman promptly put a big pot on an oilstove, and Muriel and +she proceeded to lay the table, while her husband and sons, throwing +themselves into chairs, were served with tin mugs of whisky by Jenny +and the two daughters-in-law, Bella and Deborah. + +Occasionally one of the young men would rise and look out through a +loophole in front or at the side, to see that all was well without; +and while they drank and filled and smoked their pipes, they agreed +that it was most unlikely that the rebellious Indians would renew +the attack upon them. + +“They’ve had their bellyful of fightin’ with us, there’s no doubt +aboot that,” guffawed Abel, the eldest brother. “They’ve gone off +right enough; they’ll not show up here again in a ’urry, though I +’spects they’ll carry on their devilish games elsewheres--range all +over the country, raisin’ Cain. But that don’t matter a red cent to +us s’long as they leaves us alone.” + +“It matters a lot to me, though,” said Sergeant Dick. “As one of the +custodians of law and order in the country, my duty demands that I +delay no longer here, but hurry at once back to the nearest +police-station, an’ put myself at the disposal of my +superiors--assist them in whatever measure they see fit to take to +cope with this revolt.” + +“You must stay the night with us, sergeant,” said the old squatter. +“Don’t go and say later on as ’ow we druv you away. You mustn’t take +no heed of that surly young pup, Abner, there.” + +“No, I don’t think I ought to wait until morning. It makes my blood +run cold when I think of the atrocities these rebel braves may be +guilty of all over the defenseless country while I am snug and safe +here. I couldn’t sleep comfortably in my bed, Mr. Arnold. My plain +duty is to get away back to my fellow-troopers, and help in checking +these redskin raiders--putting a stop to their wild work. And so you +must really excuse me for apparently running away from you and not +availing myself of your kind invitation. I will partake of your +hospitality, however, so far as to remain until after supper, for I +am just about famished, and it’s no use starting out on the +back-trail faint with hunger. But, after that, I will trouble one or +more of your sons”--he purposely did not look at Abner--“to put me +ashore somewhere, on the north shore preferably, when I will make +the best of my way on shank’s pony to Lonewater, the nearest of our +stations about here, I believe.” + +“Please yourself, sergeant,” responded the old man, “but, harkee! +You needn’t go on foot. There’s an old fellow lives wi’ his wife, +and no ’un else, back of the cliffs wot the echo comes from on this +lake. You heerd the echo, no doubt?” + +“I did.” + +“Waal, this old chap--name of Seymour--is an old shepherd on the big +sheep ranch that stretches for miles on miles t’other side of them +cliffs--the Lonewater Ranch it’s known as; and he keeps a couple of +horses allus for gallopin’ round looking arter stray sheep, and if +you tells him or his missus you comes from me they’ll let you have +one of the nags ’ithout a word.” + +He was frowning in a strange, deprecatory way at his four sons, who +had all looked quickly and suspiciously at him and one another when +he first mentioned about the shepherd. + +Abel, Aaron, and Amos nodded back at him, plainly reassured. But +Abner shrugged a shoulder and turned away, the gesture signifying, +as plain as plain could be, in the vernacular of the country, “Oh, +the old man’s fair dotty, and, as for me, I give him up as +hopeless.” + +Sergeant Dick did not fail to notice these strange looks and signs +passing between the father and sons. It was his business to be +observant, to keep his eyes about him and notice such little things. +But he could not understand the meaning of them, the reason for +them, and was considerably puzzled. + +He feigned, however, not to notice anything, to be absorbed in the +contemplation of the glass of milk which Muriel had insisted on his +having. + +He was to wonder afterwards why he was not sharper--why he did not +tumble to the significance of this wireless telegraphy. + +“Oh, thank you!” he said. “I shall be glad if you will direct me to +this Seymour’s cabin. But possibly the poor old man and his wife +have fallen victims to the Indians’ fury. The fiends are bound to +scour the country all round, and murder every living soul they come +across.” + +“They’ll not get hold of old Bill Seymour or his missus. You can lay +to that.” + +Again his sons frowned and shook their heads at him, and he frowned +back at them in a way that clearly meant, “Mind your own business, +lads. I know what I’m doing.” + +“I don’t mind a-tellin’ _you_, sergeant, that he’s had his cabin +burnt over the heads of his missus and hisself afore now by +redskins, and bad whites, an’ nary a ’air of either of ’em has been +singed. And for why? Waal, as I said I don’t mind a-tellin’ _you_, +but it mustn’t go no further, mind. Acause the cabin’s abuilt close +by the cliffs, not thirty yards from ’em, and he and his missus hev +a hunderground passage that they dug out a-runnin’ from th’ ’ut to a +hidden cave in the rocks--a cave that the redmen wouldn’t find if +they s’arched for donkeys’ years.” + +His sons on this, exchanged nods that implied, like Abner’s shrug, +that their father was clean crazy thus to give away Seymour’s +secret. Aaron jumped up quickly and noisily, and shouted, clearly in +order to put a stop to the old man’s confidences: + +“Come on, mother, Deb, Bella, Muriel, Jenny! What are you all so +long about? Let’s have something to eat for goodness’ sake. I’m just +starved. Hurry up, do!” + + + + +CHAPTER XIV--THE AMBUSH + + +Thus exhorted, the women, with many protests that they had been +getting the supper ready as quickly as they could, set an appetizing +stew on the table and all eleven of them sat round and fell to, with +exceeding relish after their late terrible fight for life. + +As before, one or other of the party from time to time rose during +the meal, and looked out upon the lake to guard against any surprise +attack by some of their late besiegers. Sergeant Dick sat between +Muriel and Jenny, and was scowled at the whole time by Abner, who +sat opposite him. + +The two girls did their best to dissuade the sergeant from starting +out before daylight, when, as they said, he might be able by a +little reconnoitering, to learn whether the Indians were still in +the neighborhood and likely to intercept him. + +“And if they were,” he answered, “I should then be stuck here until +nightfall again; it would be hopeless to think of getting away. But, +if I slip off now, I have everything in my favor, and should be able +to get ashore safely and reach Seymour’s cabin before daybreak.” + +All the men and the other women agreed with him; and, at his +request, old Alf Arnold, exchanging again sundry mysterious winks +and nods with not only his sons, but his wife and daughters-in-law +as well, proceeded to give him minute instructions how he would get +to the shepherd Bill Seymour’s lonely dwelling. + +And then, the meal being at an end, Dick asked which of the young +men would put him ashore in a canoe. + +“Oh, we’ll take you ashore in the ark, sergeant--me and three of the +lads--you, Aaron, Amos, and Abner. Abel, you and the women ought to +be able to hold the ‘castle’ until our return, although I doan’t for +a minute think as ’ow it’s likely to be attacked ag’in, or us +either, for that matter. So get ready you three, Aaron, Amos, Abner! +Buckle on your cartridge belts ag’in and let’s be moving, for I can +see the sergeant wants to be off.” + +John Dick offered his hand to each of the women in succession, and +he could not help noticing what flabby handshakes all save Muriel +and Jenny gave him. + +“Good-by! I hope to see you all again soon, under better +circumstances,” he said, as he followed the squatter and his three +sons out the door on to the verandah. + +It was quite dark outside now. The tar-barrel had long since burnt +itself out, as had also the stable and buggy-shed on Stable Islet; +and the light had been extinguished in the front or living-room of +the “castle,” so that any watchful eyes on the shores of the lake +might not see the door open, and what was ado. + +As all the adieux had been said inside the house, the five men did +not linger on the verandah, but ran at once to the near end of the +ark and sprang aboard. + +Old Alf unlocked the cabin door in case of a sudden necessary +retreat. Then while Abel, inside the “castle,” cast off the +mooring-rope secured through the window, Abner hauled it in, and +Aaron, Amos, and Sergeant Dick hoisted the sail on the mast, and got +out two long sweeps as well. + +As silently as possible the scow was worked towards the dock-gate, +which was found considerably the worse for the siege. + +One of the padlocks was smashed, and the other so battered that the +key would hardly fit the lock, while the stout oaken beams and pales +were all hacked and chipped from the free use of Indian tomahawks. + +Unfastening and opening the gate, they warped the ark out. Then +Arnold _pater_ secured the gate again and, spreading their sail +fully to what breeze there was, they shipped their sweeps and stood +silently away round the east side of the “castle,” so as to deceive +any Indian eyes that might have them under observation. + +They made as if for the landing-spit on the east side for a short +distance, then tacked and steered northward up the lake, and, when +they were approaching the narrow curving neck there, they shifted +sail again and headed at top speed for the western shore. + +By this erratic course they hoped to deceive and leave behind any +Indian canoes that might be out on the lake spying about. + +It yet wanted a good two hours to daylight, as they backed in slowly +to the western bank, and gently grounded their broad stern on a +little jutting point similar to the landing-place on the opposite +bank. + +All was still save for the low murmuring of the trees in the night +breeze, and an occasional ripple of the placidly lapping water +against the bank and the sides of the scow. The trees were very +dense at the point, the same as everywhere else round the lake, and +in the darkness they seemed to present an impenetrable wall. + +But as Old Alf had explained to the sergeant of mounted police, a +trail of blazed trees, which would show up white and thus be plainly +visible even on so dark a night, led right from the point to the +foot of the high cliffs behind the woods. On reaching the cliffs all +he had to do was to skirt their base northward, turn with them and +follow them round, and he could not miss Seymour’s hut on their +farther side. + +“Well, good-by, sergeant, I ’opes as ’ow you’ve enjoyed yourself +while you’ve bin ’ere,” said Old Alf, in grim humor, as he shook +Dick’s hand. “Now, your trail’s as cl’ar as daylight, and ye’ll only +hev yourself to blame if you go astray.” + +“He can’t go astray nohow, onless he doan’t know his right ’and from +his left,” growled Aaron. “So long, sergeant! Don’t forgit to give +us a call next time you are in these parts.” + +“Ay, don’t fail to drop in next time you’re passin’ the lake,” +grinned Amos, cracking an old chestnut which had done hoary service +in the family since one of their early visitors first cracked it. + +Abner was not present. He had purposely kept to the other end of the +scow. + +Sergeant Dick pressed the hands of the three men again, and sprang +lightly ashore. He turned and waved his hand, then plunged into the +bushes out of sight--to be seized suddenly by the throat with a +strangling grip by a dark form which appeared to spring out of the +ground itself! + +At the same time his arms were pinned to his sides by other shadowy, +plume-bedecked forms. + +Sergeant Dick was unable to utter a cry with that choking grip upon +his throat, and he was powerless to wrench his arms free. But he had +been in many a similar predicament before--in drinking saloons and +other wild places into which his profession took him in chase of the +malefactor, or the maintenance of law and order--and he had learned +certain tricks of defense even when taken at such a disadvantage. + +Quick as thought he jerked up his right knee with all his strength. +It came in contact with something soft and yielding--the chest of +the man gripping him by the throat of course. + +There was a gasp, and the Indian relaxed his grip upon his windpipe. + +Immediately he sent up a ringing warning shout to the occupants of +the ark. + +“Help! Redskins!” + +At the same time he ducked his head and drove it forward at the +winded savage’s face, while wrenching with all his strength to free +his arms, and curling one of his legs round in a sweeping motion +sideways and backwards. + +His maneuvers were highly successful. In fully a dozen cases he had +found them work just as well before. + +The winded savage was sent flying headlong backwards against a tree +with his nose nearly flattened by the top of the white captive’s +head; and another redman, with legs scooped clean from under him, +went down sidelong, amongst the bushes on the brave young police +officer’s right hand. + +With that hand thus released, Sergeant Dick promptly drove it into +the chest of the Indian, pinning his left hand. And as the man +staggered back, tripping over the bushes and nearly falling, the +thicket rang to the piercing war-whoop of the Indians, and became +alive with madly rushing, be-plumed shadows. + +Two of these aimed fierce blows at Sergeant Dick’s head, but, +luckily for him, in striking down the Indian on his left, he had +slipped upon a fallen twig. He fell heavily upon the broad of his +back, and the tomahawks of the two fresh assailants missed him. + +One of the pair, indeed, fell over him, and the second man, +satisfied that he could not escape with his late captors also to +reckon with, ran on after the others towards the ark. + +There came the sharp popping of revolvers from that craft, and +several screams of agony intermingled with the Indian whooping. + +Old Alf Arnold and his sons were not taken unawares. They had caught +the alarm from Sergeant Dick’s devoted shout, and instantly wheeled +about and dropped, crouching upon one knee in the stern, in the act +of pushing the craft off the point. + +All three had their holster flaps open, so that they might whip out +their automatics instantly. In fact, as they had approached the +shore every man had his pistol ready cocked in his hand. + +Partly screened, in their kneeling attitudes, by the high sloping +stern and sides of the scow, they met the onrush of the Indians with +a fusillade which quickly checked it. + +Old Alf, Aaron and Amos were in the stern, as already stated. Abner +was in the bows with the long, double-roomed cabin between him and +them. + +He was out of the fight so to speak, but, a quick glance round the +side of the “house” or cabin showed him the forms of his father and +brothers firing at the redskins ashore, and hurriedly he grabbed a +rope that came in over the bow and was attached to an anchor some +little way out in the lake. + +He heaved upon this rope quickly, hand over hand, with all his +might, and drew the light, easily moved ark, swiftly through the +water away from the shore. + +This was another of the many “wrinkles” or ideas that Old Alf Arnold +had taken from the famous American author, Fenimore Cooper’s story, +“The Deerslayer.” Like “Floating Tom Hutter” in that novel, Arnold +and his sons always dropped an anchor well away from the shore of +the lake when about to land from the ark, and paid out the rope. By +hauling on the rope a prompt retreat, if necessary, from the shore +could always be easily effected. + + + + +CHAPTER XV--LOST IN THE WOODS + + +Even as Sergeant Dick went down under the redskin armed with the +tomahawk, he had whipped out his revolver and retained a firm grip +of the butt. + +His antagonist aimed a furious stroke at his head, but the blow +missed through his falling, and the keen blade only bit deep into +the mold beside his left ear. + +Swift as thought the young police officer clapped the revolver to +the broad, naked, painted chest lying over him and pressed the +trigger. + +The crack of the weapon was instantaneously followed by the +death-shriek of the foeman, who rolled limply off him, and lay +spread-eagled, face upward, upon the ground alongside. + +John Dick was on his knees in a flash, pointing the revolver at the +Indian whom he had only sent staggering on his left hand, and who +was now rushing at him with clubbed rifle. + +A swift stab of flame, accompanied by the whip-like report, and the +redman crumpled up in his tracks, and tumbled on top of his dead +companion. + +Only one more enemy in sight remained to be dealt with--the man on +the right, whom Sergeant Dick had tripped up. The fourth savage, the +one in front of him, was still _hors de combat_--too winded and +stunned to take a hand in the fight as yet. + +A shot through the brain ended the life of the third man, while in +the act of sighting at him with a rifle. Then the sergeant scrambled +upright, and looked wildly about him, with smoking revolver ready to +pot at the first fresh assailant he saw. + +He meant to rush back to the aid of those in the scow, feeling that +to do so was his duty--that he could not consider his own safety and +leave them to be butchered possibly. + +But in the same instant, through an opening in the trees before him, +he saw the ark some fifteen feet away from the bank. The craft was +slipping swiftly out towards the middle of the lake, with three dark +figures in the stern--almost indistinguishable from the background +of the cabin--spitting fire rapidly, evidently with automatics, at a +howling pack of plumed forms waist-high, and deeper, in the water. + +The squatter and his sons were safe, and there was no hope of his +rejoining them. He must consult his own safety by immediate and +headlong flight in the opposite direction. + +Wheeling promptly, therefore, Sergeant Dick fled away through the +timber, and only in the nick of time. Half a dozen braves, alarmed +by the shooting and death-shrieks of their comrades in the rear, +were rushing back to learn the cause. + +They just caught sight of his vanishing red coat, and with yells of +rage sent a hasty, scattered volley after him, ere starting in hot +and furious pursuit. + +One of the bullets went through the skirts of his red tunic, but all +the other messengers of death only smacked against the trees behind +or around him, or went swishing, equally as harmlessly, through the +bushes. + +Sergeant Dick ran as he probably never ran before in his life. He +could not pick his way in the intense darkness of the woods, nor had +he time or the inclination to do so. + +He just hurled himself bodily at the thick, high-growing bushes, +burst through them anyhow, leaving fragments of his garments +attaching to them, and sustaining pricks and scratches all over his +body and legs, even through his clothing. + +He protected his face with his hands and rifle held up before him, +and his keen eyes were just able to discern the trunks of the +trees--a blacker black than the darkness itself. + +Guided by the crashing he thus unavoidably made, the Indians +followed hard on his heels, uttering the most blood-curdling +war-whoops and threats of vengeance, occasionally firing in the +direction of the sounds ahead of them. + +They were so close upon him he could hear what they threatened to do +to him quite plainly in the otherwise still night air; and he did +not need any better incentive to try and increase the distance +between them. + +Presently the dense, tangled undergrowth came to an end. Such is +generally found only on the outskirts of colonial forests. + +In the deeper depths there is hardly any, and the great boles of the +trees stand up nakedly like so many mighty poles stuck in the +ground, often rising to an immense height before a single branch +juts out. + +Now his boots made next to no noise on the soft pine-needles, and he +flitted as noiselessly as a shadow through the thick-growing trees +and the darkness. Even though running at top speed, he trod with the +caution and silence he had learnt to do on many a trail farther +north--the stealth his like and all backswoodsmen have picked up +from the redmen themselves. + +Here, therefore, his pursuers were at fault--could not longer follow +him by the sounds he made; and so they halted to make torches of the +pine wood around, with which to try and follow his tracks. + +This was so much loss of time, which the quarry made good use of in +covering ground; and very shortly he came to some hard and rocky +ground on which his feet would leave no impression. + +The trees here were fewer, but the night was so dark he felt he +might safely trust to its screen, and he ran forward at increased +speed, still as softly as possible, the ground all the time rising +under his feet and growing more rugged and difficult. + +He stumbled suddenly down a deep water-course, which he did not +discover until he was over its edge. + +It ran at right angles to the way he was making. But as he had +already lost all sense of locality, knew not in which +direction--north, east, west or south--that he was making, he +decided at once to keep to the stream and walk up it. + +To go down it, he knew would take him back to the lake, for no doubt +the stream ran into the lake. + +He wanted to put as wide a distance between himself and the lake as +he could before daylight, and run no risk of capture by the redmen. + +If he had no longer any real idea as to where he was, he had also +lost all trace of his pursuers, left them far in the rear; and he +could breathe more freely and take things more quietly. + +The stream did not reach to his knees, and so his service boots kept +him dry. But it was running very fast, its rocky bed rising steadily +in a steep incline. + +Soon he came to where the water boiled and frothed and roared in a +great cauldron-like basin, above which was a positive slide of +water, the stream pouring down a smoothly-worn slope of rock at +something like thirty degrees. + +Sergeant Dick could not see the top of this slope or slide of water +with the darkness, and the fact that the banks were shut in by trees +which completely over-arched it. + +The banks themselves, too, were high and rocky, in places beetling. +Just beside him they overhung the water to a height of twenty feet +or more. + +“I’ve come to the cliffs of the Wonderful Echo, that’s evident,” he +murmured; “but it would be madness to try and follow them to the +right now. Besides I’d have a job just here I should say, and I’m +dead beat--just about done up. And for another thing, I might only +blunder into the arms of the redskins I have escaped from. Better +stay where I am until the morning’s light, anyway. ‘Go farther and +fare worse’ is an old saying I believe in. Still, I can’t stay here +exactly. I’ll have to go back a bit and scale the bank.” + +He did so, and climbed out where the ground was easy. Then, +satisfied that he had thrown off all pursuit, he hunted about him +among the rocks for some sort of a niche or cave into which he might +crawl, and so be safe, while he slept, from any prowling bear or +equally to be dreaded bull-moose. + +By the greatest good fortune, he came across a kind of grot formed +by two mighty, tabular-shaped fragments of rock having been thrown +up against each other at some time in the world’s history. A +triangular shaped archway ran between the two rocks, and strewn all +round in front of it were a number of fair-sized boulders, some as +much as he could roll along, others smaller. + +“Eureka! The very thing,” he crowed jubilantly at sight of the +place, “it might have been made for me.” + +He crawled inside the archway, and found that it went back for about +twenty feet, then narrowed so much that nothing bigger than a rat +could possibly get in at that end. + +Delighted beyond measure, he returned to the entrance, and, rolling +some of the heavier stones in front of it, made himself a bed of dry +leaves and brushwood within it. + +He piled more stones on top of his barricade, and then, with his +rifle and revolver beside him, stretched himself comfortably on his +litter and composed himself for sleep. + +Dead tired as he was, hardly able indeed within the past quarter of +an hour or so to keep his eyes open or prevent himself sinking +exhausted to the ground, he was immediately in the land of +dreams--slumbering heavily and soundly. + +When he opened his eyes again, he lay for some minutes in a pleasant +half doze, unable to realize fully, and, in fact, careless of, where +he was, too comfortable to move. + +And then gradually, as his wits came together, he became conscious +of a bright reddish golden glow surrounding him. + +He opened his eyes again, saw the slanting rocks above, and +comprehended where he was, and that the reddish light filling the +cave must come from the sun _setting again in the west_. + +“Great Scott!” he exclaimed, as he pushed some of the stones of his +barricade over, and looked out for confirmation of his belief, “I +have slept the clock round nearly--been asleep, let me see, a good +sixteen hours at least.” + + + + +CHAPTER XVI--A STARTLING DISCOVERY + + +He crawled out of the cavity and looked about him. + +Away to the southeast he could see the lake gleaming like a sheet of +molten fire in the rays of the setting sun. Between him and it, as +well as stretching all round as far as he could see, were +densely-wooded declivities backed by equally densely-wooded heights. + +The view northward was cut off by a high ridge of splintered scaurs, +or cliff-like rocks, rising in terraces upon one another. + +“H’m!” he said, “my way to Bill Seymour’s hut lies over those rocks, +or else round them to west or east. Across the ridge, due northward, +I should say, would be the quicker route, if it can be done; and I +haven’t too much time to spare if I would do it before darkness is +on me again. But how am I going to get up those cliffs?” + +Piercing right through the ridge, he saw, was the tree-arched +water-slide. It cleft its way cleanly through all the rocky +terraces. From where he was standing close beside the water-course, +he could see the blue sky on the other side of the ridge through the +chasm or gorge it had carved or channeled for itself, probably +through countless ages. + +“If I could get up the water-course against the stream,” he +muttered, “I should be past those unscalable cliffs anyway, and +possibly on a plateau which I might easily get across to the farther +side, where I want to go.” + +He walked to the edge of the water-course, just where the first of +the terraced cliffs began and prevented him keeping on the bank +itself any longer. + +A tree overhung the swift flowing current below. He climbed out on +to the branches as far as he could in safety--until they began to +dip and crack under him. + +Parting the leaves around him, and craning his neck, he looked +up-stream. He saw that the slide went up--if such an expression may +be rightly used--about fifty more feet, overshadowed the whole way +by stunted trees clinging to the almost perpendicular sides of the +cleft. + +It would be impossible to try to walk up the bed of the stream. The +slope was too acute, the power of the current would sweep his legs +from under him, and he would have absolutely nothing to drag himself +up by. + +But there was nothing to prevent him clambering from tree to tree up +the cleft like a monkey, passing from one branch to another! The +trees all grew so close together and their branches were so +intertwined it would be easy enough. + +He had his rifle slung upon his back. He slackened the sling +somewhat, and gave it a twist round his left arm near the shoulder +so as to guard against its being knocked off his back by a branch or +creeper entangling it. Then, making sure that his pistol-holster was +securely buttoned, he started on the gorilla-like feat. + +It was, as he expected, the easiest task imaginable to swing himself +along and up, from branch to branch and tree to tree. He was quite +enjoying it, and telling himself laughingly that he was certainly +acting out the theory that men came from monkeys originally, when +his head rose above the top of the water-slide or sloped fall. + +He could see over it and through the cleft in the gorge on to the +plateau beyond. And what he saw filled him, at first, with the +greatest astonishment, and then with supreme satisfaction. + +The water-course continued on the level for only some ten feet; then +it swerved sharply to the right hand, and was a mountain torrent, +fed by several little rills around, tumbling from the greater +heights of the ridge in easy cascades. + +Beyond where the stream curves round, the ground rose suddenly again +for a few yards, consisting of bare and fairly smooth rock; then it +fell away apparently like a precipice. + +And across the wide valley, past this drop, on the gentle grassy +slopes of his opposite side, which rose considerably higher, _a +number of horses and cattle and sheep were peacefully grazing_! + +“I must have reached Lonewater Ranch; be close to it,” Sergeant Dick +muttered, delightedly. “I must have traveled much farther than I +thought I had last night, and I’ve saved myself the trouble of +calling on Bill Seymour, the shepherd, and borrowing his horse. + +“And yet--yet I can hardly credit that I’ve got so far--and I +understood Arnold to say that the ranch was northward--fifteen miles +or thereabouts northward of these cliffs. It can’t be Lonewater +after all that I have struck. But--but they did not mention any +other farm or ranch. In fact, they assured me there was no other +nearer than twenty miles.” + +Puzzled beyond measure, therefore, he clambered on through the +remaining trees until he was over the verge of the slide, when he +swung himself down lightly and dropped into the bed of the stream. + +In another minute he was standing on the rock at the edge of the +precipice, staring stupidly at what lay before him. + +It was a great cup-like valley, completely enclosed by the high +circular ridge upon which he stood. There seemed to be no outlet +whatever to it, and the only sign of a human habitation that he +could see was a lean-to shed, or log-hut, built against the face of +a scaur or cliff just below on his left hand. + +As he looked towards this hut, he discovered to his further surprise +that a zigzag track led down to it _from where he stood_. + +He turned and looked about him in quest of where the path began, and +he saw that rude steps had been cut in the rocky escarpment beside +the cascading torrent on his right hand to the top of the ridge. + +It was only on his side of the valley that the earth fell away +precipitously. The other three sides rose in the gentlest of slopes +to a greater height. + +All over the great cup were scattered horses and cattle. There were +fully two hundred head of cattle, twice as many sheep, and some +fifty or sixty horses. + +“Well, this is an enigma to me--a puzzling riddle if you like,” he +was murmuring, when, like light from heaven, came the startling +reading of the mystery, the true solution of the strange problem. + +His eye had rested inadvertently--casually--upon the brands of three +of the sheep closest to him--just below near the hut. Their brands +were plainly visible in the rarefied mountain air, and--_they were +not the same; they were different_. + +One was a circle with lines radiating from it all round--evidently +the sun in glory--with an eight-pointed star inside it. + +Another was B.E. in a triangle, all three angles of which were cut +by a circle. + +The third brand seemed much older and simpler than the other two, +and consisted merely of a triangle with P.F. within it. + +“My Heaven!” gasped Sergeant Dick, recoiling a step under the shock. +“The place is plainly a cattle-thieves’ ‘duffing-yard’ or +ground--the secret place where they conceal the stolen cattle, +sheep, and horses, and change the brands on these before taking them +to some other part of the country and selling them. + +“And--and there can be only one gang operating on such a scale as +this--the mysterious White Hood Bandits.” + +The thought had no sooner occurred to him than he realized the +danger he was in, standing there exposed upon the ridge to any of +the desperate band who might be in the valley or on the cliffs +around. + +Without a doubt the log-hut below was occupied by some of the gang. + +It was fairly commodious, and would contain at least three +apartments. A stovepipe protruded from the sloping roof, but there +was no smoke issuing from it. + +Sergeant Dick promptly whipped back into the cleft or little gorge +again, out of sight of any one who might possibly be in the valley. + +Flattening himself against the rock, he hurriedly freed the flap of +his holster and drew his revolver, looking anxiously the while to +either side and behind him towards the water-slide. + +No whistle or other alarming signal was heard. + +He breathed more freely again, but with all his pulses throbbing +excitedly, he removed his Stetson hat from his head and unslung his +rifle from his back. Carrying the revolver and his hat together in +his left hand, his rifle in his right, he crawled back on his knees +to the edge of the precipice. + +He close-hugged the side of the cleft as he went, and kept his eyes +ranging warily, searchingly, over the ridge down which the pathway +came. + +Reaching the precipice again, he crouched behind a convenient +boulder close to its edge, peering cautiously round the rock, so as +only to show the side of his face and one eye. He surveyed the hut +again, closely. + +“There can’t be any one at home!” he told himself presently, “or +else the gang deem themselves so secure as not to trouble about +keeping any watch. And really I don’t suppose any one but themselves +knows about this valley--has ever been inside it. + +“There must be some other way they use for the ingress and egress of +the cattle. It is probably on the extreme west or northwest side of +the valley; the ridges seem rather tangled over there. + +“Well, I can do nothing alone--single-handed. The gang are said to +number nine in full strength. I couldn’t possibly hope to tackle so +many at once. I’ll go back the way I came, and try in some way to +communicate with the Arnolds again. I shouldn’t be surprised that +the redskins have left the vicinity of the lake by this, realizing +the hard nut ‘Water Castle’ is to crack. The Arnolds, father and +sons, are five in number, and with myself would make six. + +“If we crept up this water-slide in the dead of to-night or at dawn +to-morrow we ought to have all the advantages of a surprise, and +wipe out or round up the entire gang. If not all at once, well, in +two affrays--by lying in wait for the rest of the gang after +settling the batch we catch at home.” + +With this design, he wriggled back to the edge of the water-slide +and, still keeping his chin on his shoulder and his eyes scanning +the ridges in sight, he climbed up into one of the trees overhanging +the water and began hurriedly to descend the side as he had ascended +it, that is, by clambering down from branch to branch and tree to +tree. + +“Yes,” he said, half aloud to himself, when about halfway down, +“that brand ‘B.E.’ in a triangle, with a circle cutting the angles, +was undoubtedly originally ‘P.F.’ inside a triangle--was faked from +it. + +“What could be simpler than to alter a ‘P’ into a ‘B,’ and an ‘F’ +into an ‘E,’ and then stamp a circle over the triangle. ‘P.F.’ is +plainly the Pelson-Fellowes ranch brand--the next ranch, as Arnold +told me, to the Lonewater. And I shouldn’t be surprised that the +other brand I saw was Lonewater’s, faked or altered in some similar +way so as to render it unrecognizable.” + +He was soon at the bottom of the water-slide again and then, with +the setting sun as his guide, he struck away down the mountain-side +and through the dense forest clothing it, due east. + +Keeping on long after the sun had sunk to rest and it was night +again, he at length saw the lake gleaming faintly through the trees +ahead of him. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII--A SURPRISE, AND A RESCUE + + +In another minute Sergeant John Dick was standing on the western +shore of the lake, looking across its dark waters at a bright light +shining out in the middle of these, almost directly opposite him. + +The light came, of course, from a window of “Water Castle.” It was +so small and ray-like that he knew it must be issuing from the open +loophole of a closed shutter. + +He was considering whether it would be quite safe to fire the three +shots that Muriel Arnold had told him was the signal “want to come +off shore,” when suddenly a guttural voice spoke quite close to +him--a word or two in the Indian tongue. + +Startled beyond measure, he faced in the direction of the sound, and +crouched down instinctively as he did so, pointing his revolver, +which he was already gripping in case of need, and breathing hard +and fast. + +A light flared, and became a great blaze of dancing flame, amid the +loud crackling of burning brushwood. Some one had lit a bonfire--no +ordinary camp fire that--within a hundred feet or so of him! + +The guttural Indian words told him that he had to deal with foes. He +thanked his stars that he had been prudent enough to approach the +lakeside with every caution of woodcraft. + +Softly parting the bushes beside him, he craned his neck round a +tree which partly stood in the way, and saw that the fire had been +made in a fairly open space abutting right on the lakeside--a sort +of wide glade or avenue extending some thirty feet or more back from +the water’s edge. + +The flames were shooting high into the air, lighting up the glade +and casting a ruddy glow out over the dark waters of the lake. + +And in the lurid, flickering glare, Sergeant Dick saw a sight which +filled him with consternation. + +Being set against three trees by a number of the rebellious redmen, +were Muriel Arnold, her uncle, and his son Amos, while just in +front, nearer the water’s edge that is, was poor half-witted Jenny +in the grip of several more hideously painted braves! + +Near by, evidently directing operations, was a most truculent +looking athletic young sagamore or chief! + +Some two score or more warriors stood, leaning on their rifles and +looking on, on the farther side of the glade. + +Muriel and her uncle and cousin were being bound to the three trees, +with their faces towards the lake and the distant light in “Water +Castle.” The fire being slightly to one side of them would reveal +them plainly to anybody looking out of “Water Castle” on that side. + +“Ugh! The white girl, beloved by Manito, and therefore sacred to all +true redmen, will now go in canoe to her home on the water, dat is +when I have fired my rifle to attract the attention of her friends. +She will then, on arriving at her home, say that all within ‘Water +Castle’ must come ashore in the ark and give themselves up, when we +will spare their lives and the lives of their friends here. But if +they do not agree to this--do not come ashore and surrender, then +they will see their friends here--that is the two white men, not the +beautiful white girl--put to the torture. The beautiful white girl, +the Lily o’ the Valley, she become my squaw. I have spoken--I, +Howling Wolf, the War Chief of the Ogalcrees.” + +The Indian chief made this declaration in a slow, deliberate, and +dignified manner, with his rifle-butt resting on the ground, and the +weapon held in his left hand at arm’s length. + +With the last word he caught up the piece, put it to his shoulder, +and, pointing it into the air and out over the lake, pulled the +trigger. + +Sharp on the report, a flood of light streamed forth from the +southern side of “Water Castle”--its front really--displaying part +of the verandah. And then out on to this, in the glare of the light, +rushed in a body the rest of the squatter’s family--his wife, and +three other sons, and his two daughters-in-law. + +The six stood as if transfixed, staring across the water at the +spectacle on the lakeside, which must have been plainly visible to +them. + +It was too far for even a modern rifle to carry with effect, and the +light on both sides, of course, was of the poorest for such long +range. Moreover, the men and women on the verandah were partly +screened by the waist-high, boarded-in end of this. + +“Put the child of the Manito in the canoe and let her depart with +the message of Howling Wolf,” said the chief, with a grim chuckle. + +The North American Indians have always considered persons of feeble +intellect as under the direct protection of the Almighty--“Manito” +as they call Him--and therefore invariably treat them with respect, +and a reverence that is half-pity, half-awe. What a lesson for our +own much-vaunted civilization, where the half-witted are too often +regarded as fair butts for all manner of rough practical joking! + +Jenny Arnold was led to the water’s edge, where Sergeant Dick now +saw a score and more canoes had been beached. His eye noted in the +same glance that some half-dozen of the canoes--farthermost from +him--which could not be drawn up on the limited strip of shelving +sand under the bank like the others, were floating, moored to trees +by their painters. + +Jenny was put in the nearest canoe and given the paddles. Then three +of the Indians pushed the craft off, and she paddled away +frantically across the lake towards “Water Castle.” + +Sergeant Dick racked his brains to think how he might effect a +rescue of the three prisoners. His heart was full of bitter grief +and anxiety as regarded the sweet girl before him, whom he now knew +he loved with all the strength of his deep-feeling, but not easily +moved, nature. + +“I would sooner see her dead before me--kill her with my own hands +than that she should become the squaw of that villainous young +chief, Howling Wolf,” he reflected, his heart surcharged with +poignant rage. “He would treat her worse than his dog after awhile, +and her life would be a misery to her. I will deliver her and her +uncle and cousin, or share their fate. But how to effect my purpose? +That’s the question.” + +He could think of no plan which at all held out a promise of +success, and he was still hopelessly regarding the scene in the +glade and ransacking his brains, when suddenly three spears of flame +darted from the thicket on the opposite side of the glade to him, +and the reports of as many rifle-shots rang out almost as one. + +Howling Wolf had been standing, leaning on his rifle, and peering +out under his shading left hand after Jenny. He reeled, clapping his +left hand to the back of his feather-plumed head, and then crashed +heavily upon his side. + +Two other redskins standing near, also fell and rolled over, then +lay still with feebly twitching limbs. And the forest aisles +promptly resounded with furious shouts of “Down with them! Give ’em +it, boys! Let ’em have it,” and the swift popping of revolvers. + +But the redskins, though taken so completely by surprise, were quick +to note that they had apparently only three foemen to deal with. +Even as they broke and scattered for the nearest trees, they shouted +this to one another. + +In a flash every redskin except the chief and some half-dozen others +who had been shot down by the first volley or by the quick +revolver-shots, had vanished behind a tree; and a brisk fusillade +now took place between the unseen trio in the thicket and the +Indians. + +Only a few seconds, however, did the fusillade last--just while the +redmen were reassuring themselves that they had but three foes to +deal with. Then with a ringing war-whoop one of them burst from his +tree and ran, doubled up, and jumping from side to side towards the +surprisers’ place of concealment. + +As one man the rest of the band followed him, yelling like so many +railway engines; and, to Sergeant Dick’s astonishment, Howling Wolf +bounded to his feet as if unhurt and raced after them, adding his +quota to the terrific whooping. + +The three men in the bushes fled incontinently before that +overwhelming rush. The police officer could hear them tearing away +madly through the undergrowth without waiting to shoot back. + +Quick as thought, he himself darted forward towards the open space. +He ran at full speed, and yet made hardly the slightest sound, on +account of his backwoods’ training, and with the firelight showing +him his path. + +Into the glade he burst, just as two of the Indians lying there +showed symptoms of life and struggled into reclining postures. + +Paying no heed to them, he flew to the prisoners, and hurriedly +began to slash through the ropes, which bound Amos, the nearest of +the trio. He used his clasp knife, which he had opened even as he +sprang into the glade; and the blade was as sharp as any razor. + +As the cords parted, and Amos stood free in body and limb, Sergeant +Dick handed him his revolver, exclaiming: + +[Illustration: HE FLEW TO THE PRISONERS, AND HURRIEDLY BEGAN TO SLASH +THRU THE ROPES.] + +“Get one of the redskins’ knives, and free your father, while I free +Muriel. If you are quick we should get away in one of their canoes.” + +Without a word, Amos grabbed the revolver, and, rushing to the +nearest dead Indian, snatched his scalping-knife from his belt, then +ran to liberate the old man; what time Sergeant Dick had sprung to +Muriel’s side, and was cutting the cords confining her wrists. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII--BACK AT “WATER CASTLE” + + +“Courage! Courage, Miss Arnold! You know me. It’s all right. Keep +silent, and we’ll get away in safety.” + +“Oh, thank Heaven--thank Heaven!” the girl breathed in tones of +ineffable relief, as he drew her free from the tree. + +Something bright and shining whizzed past his head, and struck with +a loud thud against the tree. + +It was a tomahawk, and it remained with the blade imbedded deep in +the tree-trunk, the haft quivering with the force with which it had +been thrown. + +Simultaneously, a shrill, peculiar, ear-piercing cry rang out close +behind him. He wheeled--to see one of the wounded Ogalcrees +kneeling, bleeding like a stuck pig from a wound in the chest, and +still in the final attitude of hurling the hatchet at him. + +The Indian made to catch up his rifle lying beside him. But, before +his fingers could close upon the weapon, there was a whiplike crack, +and he doubled up and fell forward, writhing, upon his face. + +Amos had shot him with the revolver. + +Sergeant Dick threw one arm quickly around Muriel to support her, +and, carrying his rifle “a-trail,” ran with her at full speed for +the nearest canoe. The police officer saw Amos finish freeing his +father in the same instant, and put a second well-aimed bullet from +the revolver through the head of the other wounded redskin, who was +weakly sighting at him with a rifle. + +All four fugitives reached the canoes practically together, for Old +Alf and Amos got over the ground more quickly than Dick, hampered as +he was with the girl. + +Amos brought up the rear, ready to fire the revolver again at the +first foeman to reappear. + +Sergeant Dick hurriedly lifted Muriel in, then pushed the craft off +the sandy strip, retaining hold of it, however, so as to enable the +other two to get in. + +“To the far end--to the bow, gal!” panted her uncle. And Muriel went +scrambling across the thwarts to the other extremity of the canoe. + +Then with a curt “Thank ’ee, sergeant,” he leaped in, and scrambled +after her. Amos clambered in on the other side; and, throwing one +leg in, Dick thrust off well with the other. + +Muriel and the old man had already caught up and dipped a paddle +apiece, and, propelled by their deft strokes, away the canoe shot +across the lake, just as there came a furious howl ashore, and loud +tramping of the bushes. + +Amos promptly shot with the revolver, twice in rapid succession, at +the dark, plumed figures he saw amongst the trees, and the sergeant +swung his rifle to his shoulder, and sighted it, but forbore to +press the trigger. + +“Fire--fire into them. Why don’t you?” screamed Amos. + +His question was drowned by the noise of the discharge of the police +officer’s piece a fraction of a second before that of one of their +enraged foes on the bank. + +Dick, who could see as well in the dark as any man--a matter of +practice always--had noted an Ogalcree about to shoot at them, and +had promptly anticipated the man. + +He was not in time to prevent the shot being fired, but his bullet +pierced the Indian’s brain even as the trigger was pressed, with the +result that the hostile bullet flew wide of them. + +Such deadly accuracy checked the ardor of the rest of the three or +four braves in the view of the fugitives. One hurriedly took shelter +behind a tree, and potted at the fleeing craft, while the others +rushed to launch more canoes and follow in pursuit. + +Both Amos and Sergeant Dick, however, banged away wildly in the +direction of the solitary marksman to distract his aim. The +first-mentioned fired off the two remaining cartridges in the +revolver, and then, catching up a paddle, assisted in propelling the +canoe. + +Light as a feather, and with next to no draught of water, it skimmed +along swiftly. It was speedily out of reach of the firelight in the +glade, and hidden by the dense shadows of the night from the +marksman on the bank. + +The three paddlers, however, did not relax their exertions. They +still paddled desperately on, and the sergeant now laid down his +rifle, no longer of any use, and likewise took up a paddle, and +plied it. + +“We all three owe you our lives, sergeant,” growled Old Man Arnold. +“You and the boys planned it well, and no error. You couldn’t hev +arranged it neater, nohow. But I do hope as ’ow the lads hev got +cl’ar as well, I much bedoubt that they hev. And yet if they hadn’t +a-gotten cl’ar we’d hev surely heerd the riptiles acrowin’ and +hooraying like, don’t ye think?” + +“Yus, that’s so,” said Amos. “They’ve got cl’ar right enough, or +we’d ha’ heerd the painted demons a-screechin’ with joy. Strange, +though, none of the riptiles seem to be coming off arter _us_. How’s +that?” + +“I should say the sergeant’s straight shooting is the deterrent,” +said Muriel, who spoke considerably better than her uncle and +cousins. + +“H’m! P’raps,” growled her cousin, “but I don’t hear the ark +neither--nor see anythink of her.” + +“You can hardly expect to see anythink of her in this darkness,” +said his father, adding no less anxiously, however, “I could wish it +weren’t quite so pesky dark now, so’s we might be able to look round +us and see if they’ve got cl’ar. How did you manage to get to the +‘castle,’ sergeant? And wot brought ye back ’ere again? Did ye lose +your way? Didn’t ye find Bill Seymour’s place, then?” + +“No, I only escaped last night from the ambush by the skin of my +teeth, so to speak,” John Dick answered. “I had to run my hardest +through the woods to get away from the Indians, who followed me hard +and long. When they abandoned the chase I was lost, and dead beat; I +crawled in between two rocks and I didn’t wake until near sundown +to-day. Then I climbed a height, and saw the lake, and something +else I will tell you about later, and so returned here. I haven’t +been to the ‘castle,’ and your rescue was none of my planning. Who +are the boys you mentioned as having planned it, you thought, with +me? Who are those you hope are in the ark?” + +“Who are them we hope are in the ark! Why, my other three sons, +Abel, Aaron and Abner,” replied the old squatter. + +“But I saw them on the verandah of ‘Water Castle’ just before the +attack, along with your wife and your two daughters-in-law,” was +John Dick’s rather astonished remark, for surely, he thought, the +three ex-prisoners must likewise have seen the six on the verandah. + +The police-sergeant’s astonishment was increased when his three +companions gave vent to subdued half-laughs and chuckles. + +“You _thought you saw_ my three cousins on the verandah with my aunt +and cousins,” said Muriel, softly, “but really you only saw Aunt +Kate and Bella and Deborah, with three dressed-up dummies to +represent my cousins Abel, Aaron, and Abner. It is an old dodge that +we often resort to when we don’t want undesirable parties on the +lakeside to know exactly how many are at home in the ‘castle.’” + +“I see. Well, well, I was completely taken in, as also it is evident +were all the redmen. A rare ruse, squatter! I congratulate you upon +it.” + +“Oh, it worn’t my idea; it wor Muriel’s,” chuckled Old Alf. “But you +say you weren’t actin’ in partnership with my three lads?” + +“No; or at least our partnership was quite accidental. I didn’t know +they were there, though it’s just on the cards that they may have +seen me on the other side of the glade, and have acted as they did, +knowing I would be bound to set you free if they succeeded in +drawing off the band in pursuit.” + +“That’s more’n likely,” grunted Amos. “I wish I was sure, though, +that they had got away all right ag’in, in the ark.” + +“How did you come to be captured by the Indians?” asked Dick. +“Before I made off into the woods last night, I saw you and your +sons had got clear of the ambush, Mr. Arnold.” + +“It was all on account of Jenny, confound her,” replied the old man. +“She thought she might do the same as Hetty Hutter did in that +blamed story of ‘The Deerslayer,’ you know, that we all think so +much of, and got the idea of our water-abode out of. What does she +do but slip off just at dusk in one of the canoes to have a talk +with the Indians and try and bring ’em to see the evil of their +ways--make them abandon their wicked designs upon the ‘castle’ and +our lives, and go back peaceful, like lambs, ag’in to their +Reservation. Muriel spied her when she was more’n halfway ashore. We +could see the redskins’ campfire towards the southwest of the +‘castle,’ and the foolish child was making for it. O’ course some of +us had to follow her, at once, and stop her; and so, Amos and Muriel +and me, we jumped into another canoe and started arter her for all +we were worth.” + +“My three brothers were to follow in the ark if we didn’t overtake +her,” Amos took up the narrative. “We didn’t; she was too near the +bank. But we were close behind her when she landed, almost right on +her, and so we all three risked jumping ashore and chasing after her +into the bushes, when we was immediately pounced upon and made +prisoners of by Howling Wolf and a good score or more of his bucks, +who had seen us a-chasin’ of her, and hurried along the bank to +ambush us, which they did neat enough, cuss ’em.” + +They had nearly reached the palisading around “Water Castle,” and +Muriel and the old man now hailed Aunt Kate and Jenny, who were +standing together in the doorway of the house. The girl’s mother +seemed to be abusing her roundly for what she had done. As Muriel +hailed her aunt, the old woman pushed Jenny angrily inside the +house, and called back anxiously to know if they were all there and +unhurt. + +“We are all here--all, that is, ’cept Abel, Aaron, and Abner, +mother,” answered Old Alf, “and nary a one of us ’as as much as a +scratch. The ark will be along presently, I’ve no doubt. The lads +worked it fine, though it couldn’t ha’ bin worked so well, and we +mightn’t ha’ got cl’ar, if it hadn’t bin for Sergeant Dick here.” + +“He’s come back ag’in, and he come just in the nick o’ time whar we +was consarned--jist in time to set us three free arter the boys had +drawn the redskins off. But you saw it all, like as not, from ’ere +in the light o’ the fire they’d lit, so’s ye might--the painted +varmints.” + +“Yus, yus, the gals and I seen it all from ’ere, but we didn’t +recognize the sergeant; we thought it must be Abner. The light was +so bad, and it was too far off. Ye’re doubly welcome this time, +sergeant, arter what father’s just told me.” + +They had passed through the gate in the palisading, which Jenny had +left open for them; and they in their turn also left it open in the +hope of the ark’s speedy arrival. Paddling up to the verandah, Dick +was giving his hand to Muriel, to help her to step on to the little +landing-ladder, when her aunt and uncle and Amos simultaneously +cried out in tones of relief and satisfaction: + +“Hooray! Here’s the ark. They got clear all right. Abel, Aaron, +Abner, are you all right?” + +Sergeant Dick followed Muriel quickly on to the ladder, and up it on +to the verandah. He turned then and saw the ark working in through +the stockade-gate in rather a clumsy way. + +Three dark forms in cowboy hats and long great-coats could be dimly +seen warping the craft in behind the cabin. + +No answer was returned from the ark, however, to the anxious +inquiries of the squatter and his wife, who now called out again to +know if all three aboard were quite all right. + +Again no answer was vouchsafed, but the ark, having cleared the +gateway, came shooting swiftly, still propelled by its sail, +straight for the verandah. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX--THE SECOND SIEGE OF “WATER CASTLE” + + +Sergeant Dick, in vague suspicion that all was not as it should be +on the ark, when no answer was returned to the second hail by the +squatter and his wife, hurriedly bundled Muriel and the old woman +inside the open door of the castle. + +Deborah and Bella and Jenny had run to the edge of the verandah to +greet the supposed occupants of the scow. + +The craft’s broad nose struck the landing-stage close by the little +ladder, just missing running into the canoe in which the old man and +Amos still were. + +In the same instant the rear door of the cabin of the ark was thrown +open and out poured a great throng of redskins, led by Howling Wolf +himself. + +Shrieking their war-whoop exultantly, they rushed _en masse_ for the +bow and bounded on to the verandah. The three women lining its edge +were nearly knocked down by the rush, and were promptly secured by +some, while the chief, with the main body, tore across to the door +of the castle. + +Half a dozen of the redskins leaped down into the canoe and seized +Old Alf and Amos, upsetting the frail craft, however, in their +eagerness and wild haste, and plunging them all, captors and +captured, into the water. + +Sergeant Dick, as may be supposed, was not taken so completely by +surprise as the others. As he stood in the doorway, suspicious and +alarmed at the strange silence aboard the ark, he held his rifle at +the ready. + +On the rush of the Ogalcrees he promptly aimed from the hip at the +foremost and pressed the trigger, then hastily retreated inside the +door--seeing the others outside taken and no hope of rescuing them. +He slammed it to, flinging his whole weight against it while he +turned the key. + +“Guard the left window, quick!” he yelled. “Muriel, you shoot the +bolts. Fire out on them, Mrs. Arnold, or they’ll be in.” + +He darted himself to the right-hand loophole, leaving the door only +on the lock. But Muriel at once sprang to it and thrust home first +the bottom bolt and then the top, while a dozen musket-butts +battered thunderously, but otherwise fruitlessly, upon its armored +iron plating outside. + +All the steel shutters had been drawn and secured over the windows, +and, thrusting open the loophole in his, Dick poked the muzzle of +his rifle quickly through. He pointed it at a sharp angle across the +doorway without, and pressed the trigger. + +Without waiting to hear the three simultaneous screams of agony that +followed the shot, he whipped back the bolt of his rifle, ejecting +his spent cartridge, then forced it home again, bringing another +cartridge into play from the magazine, and pressed the trigger +again. + +Two agonized howls answered the shot this time. And old Mrs. +Arnold’s revolver cracked rapidly out of the left-hand window, +eliciting more yells of pain and terror from the Indians attacking +the door. + +Through the narrow slit before him, the young police officer saw the +redskins give back from the door, some running to either side along +the verandah, ducking as they went; others--the greater +body--retreating across to the ark. + +Five of their number lay in their death-throes just outside the +door, and three more were dragging themselves after the others, +badly wounded. + +Not only had all the shots from the house told amongst the densely +packed assailants around the door, but Sergeant Dick’s first shot +through the window, being fired at such close range, went through +the bodies of two men and mortally wounded a third behind them, +while his second, in the same way, accounted for two more. + +His keen eyes, used to seeing in the dark and ranging quickly over +the retreating Ogalcrees, saw some of them carrying the body of +their chief, who lay as one dead in their arms. + +Howling Wolf had paid the penalty of his crimes at last--had been +shot dead by the sergeant’s hastily but well aimed shot from the +hip. + +Both Mrs. Arnold and Sergeant Dick held their fire the moment their +foes fell back from the door, for fear of hitting the three girls +taken prisoners, and who were being hurried by some of their captors +aboard the ark. + +“Oh, my cousins! Jenny, and Deborah and Bella! What has become of +them? Are they killed--murdered?” panted Muriel wildly, in horrified +accents. + +“No, and they won’t be. Calm yourself, Miss Arnold, and lend a +further hand. You can help by handing me a brace of revolvers or +automatics. They are better than a rifle for close quarters like +this.” + +“Yes. Help, gal! Help! Your cousins air taken prisoners, and--and +your uncle and my brave boys must--must be slaughtered. Oh, the +fiends--the cutthroat villains! I’ll have two Indian lives for every +one of theirs--ay, and more!” + +And the grief-frenzied old woman thrust the barrel of her +six-shooter out again through her loophole and blazed away whenever +she saw a foeman, turning her weapon upon the three wounded wretches +trying to drag themselves aboard the ark when the others had all +vanished behind shelter. + +She shot the three dead. One tumbled into the lake, another lay +across the bulwark of the ark, and the third just in front of its +fore cabin, inside which he was lugged by his comrades the next +moment. + +“Watch all the windows on your side, Mrs. Arnold,” said the +sergeant. “Some of the Ogalcrees have fled along the verandah to +either end. They may try and force one or other of our loop-holes. +I’ll be ready for them on this.” + +“And I’ll take the door,” said Muriel, quietly. “I’ll fire through +the lower loop in it if the Indians attempt a second rush.” + +“Be careful, and don’t unnecessarily expose yourself, Miss Arnold,” +cautioned Dick. “If they come on, strong, you’d better abandon the +loop and secure it, or they may, if they get up again, be able to +fire in through it on us.” + +“Oh, my man and our fine lads!” moaned the squatter’s wife. + +Then with a savage execration she blazed away again rapidly through +the loop before her. Three of the half-dozen Ogalcrees who had +jumped into the canoe to capture Amos and his father, and had been +soused into the lake with the pair by the craft capsizing, were to +be seen peering cautiously over the edge of the verandah where the +ladder was. + +All six had got upon the steps and were cowering there, dripping +wet, collecting their energies for another rush upon the door in +concert with their comrades cowering at either end of the verandah, +when those aboard the ark should return to the attack. + +The scow had not been made fast, of course, to the verandah. Being +run bow on against this, it had hitherto merely been kept in place +by the impulse of the sail. + +When, however, the assailants all came tumbling pell-mell aboard +again to escape the deadly fire from the house, the craft had +sheered off and was now a good ten feet and more from the platform. + +The death of their intrepid and resourceful leader--a host in +himself--as well as their being shut out of the “castle,” when they +had fully counted on being able to get in by their quick rush, +besides their fresh losses, had considerably damped the Ogalcrees’ +ardor. + +If it had not been that they could not very well abandon the men +left on the verandah, they were so heartily sick of the whole siege +by now, they would probably have raised this and cleared off in the +ark, satisfied with its contents and the prisoners they had managed +to secure. They would probably have paid no heed to the exhortations +of the Black Panther, the next in authority to the dead chief, and +who now assumed command and was all eagerness--as it was the first +of any importance he had ever held--to retrieve their previous +defeats and win glory for himself. + +As it was they decided upon another attack. One of their number, +without exposing himself, flung a rope out of a window in the cabin +to the gang on the landing-ladder. + +Drawing very little water, but just skimming along the surface, as +before explained, the ark was very easily moved. All six Ogalcrees +on the steps, keeping their heads well below the level of the +platform--out of sight and reach of Aunt Kate--began promptly +hauling on the rope. + +“They are returning to the attack. They’ve got a rope to the steps, +and the fellows there are pulling them in,” Sergeant Dick said. And +leveling his rifle again through his loop, he took steady aim at the +taut rope stretching between the ark and the verandah. + +As he was about to press the trigger there came a loud, persistent +knocking upon the floor of “Water Castle”--_somewhere underneath +it_. + +Muriel and her aunt uttered cries of astonishment, if not alarm, +likewise helping to distract his aim somewhat as he pulled the +trigger. Nevertheless, his shot struck the rope, severing a couple +of the strands. + +“Well done, sergeant!” cried Mrs. Arnold. “Shoot again and cut it in +two--foil ’em! Muriel, that must be your uncle and Amos knocking +underneath. They have swum below the house and are at the trapdoor +for sartin. Go and see girl, quick!” + +“Be careful, though, Miss Arnold. It may be some of the Ogalcrees,” +said Sergeant Dick, hurriedly ejecting his used cartridge and +bringing another into the breech. “Call out--ask who is +there--before you open the trap.” + +Muriel flew towards the central passage where the trapdoor was; and +Sergeant Dick again dwelt carefully upon his aim. + +Crack! His piece spoke and the rope parted, the severed ends flying +up and backwards, like black snakes in the darkness. + +“Hooray! You are indeed a dandy shot, sergeant,” cried Mrs. Arnold. +“To hit and cut a rope in this blamed darkness! But, look out! +You’ve not stopped the ark’s ‘way.’” + +The “way” or impetus the ark had, made that light though clumsy +craft come on towards the landing-stage, and the next moment it had +again bumped into this. + + + + +CHAPTER XX--A COOLER FOR THE INVADERS + + +The Indians, however, did not make another immediate rush, but +opened a terrific fusillade upon the two open loops from the door +and side-window of the ark’s cabin. The craft swung broadside on to +the verandah; and the gang on the steps, grasping the dangling rope, +made this fast again. + +Sergeant Dick and Mrs. Arnold blazed back fiercely with a brace of +pistols each, keeping well to the side of their loops, and so +escaping being shot down by the bullets that now occasionally came +winging their way in. + +The voice of the Black Panther rang out, issuing an unintelligible +order. + +Sharp upon it, the two doors of the ark, the one in the bow and the +other aft, were thrown open and out poured the Ogalcrees in two +dense crowds. + +Yelling and whooping, the one in the bows came swarming on to the +verandah, led by the six dripping braves from the stairs, who +brandished their wet and useless rifles and now more serviceable +tomahawks. + +Sergeant Dick and Aunt Kate concentrated the fire of their four +pistols upon this band--fired into it as fast as they could. + +The foremost red men stumbled and dropped rapidly, tripping up or +otherwise incommoding those behind, several of whom fell over them. +But, bounding over the fallen, others dashed up to the loopholes, +and the sergeant and Aunt Kate had only just time to slam the +sliding covers over these, to prevent being shot in at and the +apertures taken. + +Hastily the two defenders hooked the loop-covers, then ran to the +adjacent windows, which also commanded the verandah. + +Quickly, but cautiously, opening the loops there, the pair fired out +again at an inward angle, towards one another, so as to sweep the +doorway once more with a cross fire. + +But the angle at which they were both obliged to fire being greater +now, they could not hit the men attacking the door, only pot at +those farther back. The door was trembling and groaning under the +energetic onslaught being made upon it. + +And then, all at once, a rifle-barrel was thrust in at Aunt Kate’s +loop, and the deadly muzzle spurted a jet of flame and smoke almost +into her cheek. + +A second rifle was quickly beside the first. The brave old woman +managed to push both rifles aside and fire out and wound one of +their redskin owners. But she could not dislodge or thrust the +weapons back, nor close the loop cover altogether. + +“To the inner room! Retreat to the middle passage, sergeant,” she +screamed. “They’ve got my loophole.” + +She turned and ran for the nearest of the three doors behind her, +firing back as she did so at the loop she was thus forced to abandon +in order to distract the aim of the marksmen outside. + +Two bullets followed her, but the shots only imbedded themselves on +either side of the inner door, through which she vanished the next +moment. + +Sergeant Dick saw through his loop some half a dozen of the Indians +staggering up the landing steps from the ark, hugging between them a +stout spar--a spare mast-yard--with the evident intention of using +it as a battering-ram against the door. + +He turned his two revolvers upon the gang and shot down three men. +Then the same number of rifles were thrust in at _his_ loop, and a +knife and a tomahawk came whizzing in, just missing his face. + +Desperately he shot out, at the same time as he pushed the +rifle-barrels aside. All three of these discharged their deadly +contents in the same instant close past his head, the bullets +thudding into the logs of the roof. + +One of the rifle-barrels was withdrawn--fell out again, as its owner +slid down with a rubbing, scraping noise and a deep groan, shot +through the shoulder by Dick. But the other two remained, and their +owners strove to work their muzzles round towards him. + +“Come away! Run for the inner rooms, sergeant! We can hold them +there,” screamed Aunt Kate. “Quit, and leave ’em the loop!” + +Seeing the futility of trying any longer to hold it, the police +officer reluctantly obeyed her, wheeling and darting, crouched, for +the door just behind him. + +He fired back as _he_ ran and jumped from side to side, and the old +woman also covered his retreat by firing at his loop inside of the +one she herself had abandoned. + +She had closed and locked and bolted the door inside which she had +fled, and was now at the door of the central passage, looking out +through a loop in it. Needless to say, she had closed and was +fastening this door also. + +The reader, perhaps, may need reminding that there were three doors +in a line along the inner wall of the living-room of “Water +Castle”--all on the opposite side to the entrance. The middle one +led into the central passage or compartment, and the other two into +Aaron’s and the old couples’ bedrooms respectively, on either side +of it. + +Several shots were fired in through the two captured loopholes at +Dick as he darted for the inner door, but, thanks to his own tactics +and Mrs. Arnold’s covering fire, he gained it untouched. + +It had been left open for the convenience of passing quickly in the +defense of the house, if necessary, from one room to another--and, +in fact, all round this--and, darting within, he swung it to behind +him, then promptly locked and bolted it. + +He was about to open the loop in it--for every door in the house was +provided with such, covered over with a little steel slide that +could be hooked to when shut--when Mrs. Arnold, Muriel, and Old Alf +appeared in the door beside him communicating with the central +passage. + +“You are safe, sergeant? Oh, thank heaven!” cried Muriel. + +As she spoke, Sergeant Dick saw behind her, inside the central +passage, Amos Arnold on hands and knees in the act of dropping a +trapdoor in the floor into its place. + +The squatter and his son on being thrown into the water by the +capsizing of the canoe had contrived below the surface to throw off +the grasp of their coppery antagonists, and with sharpened wits, +and, strong swimmers as both were, they promptly struck away under +the water and rose beneath the verandah. + +Under there they were safe, of course, from being seen by their foes +in the ark or on the platform; and, being unpursued by their late +captors, the natural idea occurred to both to slip inside the piles +and braces below the house itself and try and gain admission to this +through the trapdoor. + +The darkness, of course, was also in their favor. Indeed, it was so +dark under the “Castle” that they both mistook each other for a foe +when they caught sight of one another crawling through the piles. + +Recognizing each other in time, however, they then swam silently to +one of the canoes moored under the house and the trapdoor, and, +clambering into it, tried the trap. As they expected, it was fast, +and they were unable to force it; so, waiting for a lull in the +fighting over their heads, they knocked to let the inmates know of +their whereabouts. + +“Sergeant, you’re a brick! The most dandy fighter and man I’ve ever +struck yet,” shouted the old squatter. “Let ’em break in, the +painted rips--the cutthroat varmints! They’ll get a reception they +don’t at all expect--one as ’ill rather cool their ardor and put a +damper on their spirits. Hee, hee, hee!” + +“But we’ve got to pay ’em,” screamed his wife. “There are the other +three lads and the three girls to avenge if we can’t rescue ’em.” + +“We’ll rescue ’em if they’re still alive, mother,” growled Amos. +“And if my brothers are not, the girls are sure to be.” + +He disappeared inside the door of his parents’ bedroom, while they +went to the door leading into the living-room. Muriel stepped inside +the room where Dick was and crossed to his side as he threw open the +loop in the door before him and hurriedly proceeded to reload his +two automatics to their fullest capacity. + +“You had better stand to one side, Mu--Miss Arnold,” he said, “so as +to be out of the way of any shots that may come through the door. It +will hardly keep shots out like the front one.” + +“The door’s stouter than you think. It’s double, with a plate of +steel between the two sheathings,” she answered. “And the Ogalcrees +will get the biggest surprise of their lives when they burst in.” + +Thunderous crashes were resounding through the house from the front +door, upon which the Indians were using the improvised battering-ram +with effect. A couple of their number at either of the captured +loops were firing into the castle, and the living-room was full of +smoke and the acrid fumes of burnt gunpowder. + +More of the assailants were trying to force the shutters upon the +other front windows. + +Crash! One of the hinges of the front door gave, and a long +triangular crack showed some of the Indians outside. + +Crack, crack, crack, crack! spoke the rifles of the four defenders, +and the bullets, surging across the intervening room, rattled upon +the window shutters or flew out the widening gap of the door. + +A scream of pain outside told that the sergeant’s shot, as usual, +had found its human billet. The Indians, using the spar--carrying it +by means of short ropes noosed round it--retreated until their +rearmost man was on the very edge of the verandah; then forward they +all rushed again and dashed the “ram” once more violently against +the door. + +With another splintering, rending crash the second hinge was burst +from its hold, and the door rolled open, precipitating the foremost +of the ram-bearers inside the living-room. + +Two of them were at once shot down by the sergeant and Amos, while +two more fell back, dropping their end of the log and clasping their +arms. + +With a united yell of triumph the rest of the Ogalcrees came +swarming in, however, and charged across the room for the three +doors opposite. Out rang six revolvers as rapidly as such weapons +can speak, and as many ceaseless streams of fire flew at different +angles through the rushing ranks of the foe. + +A man fell or staggered at every shot. Nevertheless, the intruders +were not to be checked by the hottest fire now, believing that +victory was within their grasp. + +They poured into the room, jostling each other, crowding upon one +another until the apartment was nearly full and there were not half +a dozen warriors left outside. + +The fast-speaking six revolvers, however, prevented the front ranks +from reaching the three doors within. And suddenly, as if by magic, +to the rattle of a bolt wrenched back, the whole floor of the +living-room _dropped like a trapdoor_, plunging all the surging, +tightly packed invaders, feet first, into the water below the +stronghold! + + + + +CHAPTER XXI--THE DASH FOR THE ARK + + +Sergeant Dick was as much astonished as the trapped Indians +themselves--so much so that he held his fire for some few moments +after their fall through the floor. + +Not so Amos or Mrs. Arnold, nor even old Alf. + +The first two, Amos yelling exultantly like any redskin, pumped +bullets thick and fast, automatic in either hand, into the huddle of +feather-plumed, half-shaven heads bobbing about helplessly in the +water-trap. + +And the old squatter, quitting his lever, darted back to the +trapdoor in the central passage, and, hurriedly unfastening it, +lifted it and bent down over it, firing at the swimmers near him. + +“Oh, oh!” wailed Muriel in deep distress and magnanimous pity. +“It--it is a horrid butchery now. Oh, let them go--let them get +clear, uncle, aunt, Amos!” + +It was indeed nothing short of butchery, as she said. The Ogalcrees +were caught in a terrible death-trap. + +Forced to swim for their lives and with their firearms no longer of +the slightest use, they were penned in under the house by the +fenced-in piles. These, as has before been explained, were +interlaced by cross braces all along the outside edge of the +premises, so that the Indians were shut in by so many closed gates, +as it were. + +It was, of course, possible to scramble out through this open-work +fencing, for had not Amos and his father got in that way? And the +Ogalcrees on the outside fringe of the mob trapped inside were quick +to start clambering out. + +The rest made to follow, that is, the great majority, but some clung +to the piles and cross-bracing under the middle of the house, and +tried to shelter behind the beams from the deadly and merciless +shooting of the defenders. + +At such close range nearly every shot of the latter told, for they +could coolly pick their targets and take steady aim. Moreover, the +swimmers were all so tightly packed, a miss was almost impossible. + +No wonder Muriel Arnold’s gentle nature revolted from the slaughter. +Redskin after redskin, shot through the brain, would throw up his +arms and slide, an inert mass, under water. + +Her kinsfolk paid no heed to her outcry--her prayer for mercy to the +trapped wretches--but continued their deadly shooting, sending +another and yet another copper-colored foeman to the bottom. + +Old Alf, at the trapdoor in the middle of the castle, was shooting +almost as many as his son or wife were from the loops in the +living-room inner wall, when--whiz! thud! A tomahawk shot past his +face like a streak of silver light, missing it by little more than a +hair’s breadth, the keen blade striking and sticking quivering in +the door-frame of Aaron’s bedroom alongside him. + +He whipped back, startled and just in time to escape being pierced +to the brain by a knife, thrown with equally unerring skill at his +head. The knife stuck, quivering like the tomahawk, in the frame of +his own bedroom on the opposite side of the central passage. + +Two of the trapped braves had swum to either side of him under the +bedrooms, where they were sheltered from his son’s and wife’s fire. +There, clinging to piles, and thus partially covered from his fire, +they had shied the hatchet and knife at him with the skill born of +continual practice. + +The old man thought it advisable to slam down the trapdoor and shoot +home the sunken bolts upon it. + +Sergeant Dick had not fired another shot after the plunging of the +invaders into the water; but he still stood by his loop in Aaron’s +bedroom, ready to shoot if any of the trapped redmen showed any +likelihood of scaling the living-room floor and attempting to +continue the attack on the house. Muriel stood by him, gazing also +through the loop and uttering groans of anguish, and clasping her +hands in horror at the slaughter going on. + +Then, all at once, Sergeant Dick woke from the trance that seemed to +possess him, and he shouted: + +“Arnold, put back the floor, quick, if you can, and let us attempt a +dash-out to recover the ark before it is too late. There can only be +a few Indians left on the verandah and the ark.” + +“You’re right, sergeant. I was nigh forgettin’ about the ark. +That’ll do, Kate--Amos. Get ready to rush out and seize the ark +now.” + +And the old man darted to the lever beside the ladder in the +cupboard and dragged it back, straining upon it with all his +strength. The trapdoor of the living-room rose slowly into place +again, but the only way the old man had of securing it in position +for the time being was by hooking a chain on to a ring on the lever, +and so keeping this forced back. The bolts that fastened the floor +in place could only be got at through little traps in the floor +itself. All these bolts were connected by a chain which passed +through an iron pipe in the thickness of the flooring to another +lever in the cupboard. + +As the floor of the living-room rose into place again, Amos and his +mother hastily wrenched back the fastenings upon the door in the +central passage. + +Sergeant Dick was about to unfasten the door before him when Muriel +exclaimed: + +“No, no, don’t open this door. One’s sufficient, in case we have to +retreat. We’ll go out the middle one.” + +She and Dick thereupon joined Amos and his mother at the middle +door, and as they got it open and were darting through on to the +trembling floor of the living-room, old Alf stepped out of the +cupboard and followed them. + +Across the living-room, its floor shaking and vibrating in its +insecure state under them, the five of them raced to the dismantled +verandah and open front door. + +The sergeant held the two women back for a moment while he put out +his head and reconnoitered. + +Some seven or eight Indians were at either end of the verandah, the +majority of them dripping with water and more or less exhausted. +More were clambering up all along the verandah front, and some four +or five were clustered on the steps, while as many more were +standing in the bow and stern of the ark, apparently making ready to +cast off. + +While the fight had been going on inside the house a nearly full +moon had risen and was now bathing the lake and its distant shores +with the most effulgent rays, lighting it up in an enchantingly +lovely way. + +Sergeant Dick was glad of that bright moon--although he had no eyes +at the moment for the beauties of the landscape--for it showed him +the positions of all his enemies. And he beheld outside the “dock,” +or outer ring of palisading, a great number of canoes, filled with +Indian warriors, as well as several great log-rafts. Some of the +occupants of the canoes were engaged in trying to force the gate in +the palisades, so as to admit the flotilla to the aid of their +comrades in front of the castle. + +The recapture of the ark, therefore, promised to be anything but an +easy task. It looked as if the defenders had waited too long--lost +too much time in slaughtering the wretches they had trapped by their +drop-floor. + +But Sergeant Dick and those with him were not the sort to be easily +daunted, flushed with triumph as they were. + +As the young police officer put his face out of the open door, some +of the redmen on the verandah saw it, and, yelling in terror, +immediately plunged off into the water. + +Encouraged by this evident sign of demoralization and panic, Dick +echoed their yells with a triumphant shout. And springing out on the +verandah, a revolver in either hand, he banged away right and left +as fast as he could pull trigger, hardly waiting to take aim. + +His companions poured after him pell-mell, automatics also in either +hand, and even Muriel seemed carried away by the battle-fever now +and fired right and left as fast and well as any of the others. + +The Ogalcrees upon the verandah howled in deadly fear, and one and +all followed the example of the first three or four--tumbled +helter-skelter into the water and swam away for the outer +palisading. Those on the ark broke and fled, in equally abject +dismay, round to the opposite side of the cabin, falling over one +another in their wild scramble. + +“Back to the central passage, Muriel, Mrs. Arnold, and you, too, +Squatter, and hold the house still. Drop the trap-floor again. Amos, +you and I will do to take the ark. Come on!” + +Sergeant Dick tore across the verandah, closely followed by Amos +Arnold, and jumped on to the bulwark of the scow and down into its +bows. + +The door of the cabin stood open. Both men were inside it, had +slammed it to behind them, and were shooting the bolts upon it, +before a shot could be fired at them by the Ogalcrees in the canoes +and on the rafts outside the “dock,” much less before the terrified +cravens who had fled round the cabin could pluck up courage and +oppose them. + +Muriel and her uncle and aunt had, in like manner, hastily retired +within the “castle” again, run back to the security of the central +passage, and closed the inner door there. + +Then Muriel and her aunt “manned” the loops again, commanding the +living-room as before, while old Alf rushed to the cupboard, to be +ready to drop the trap-floor again if necessary. + +A moment later, amid howls of baffled rage, the occupants of the +rafts and canoes poured in their shot at the “castle.” But the +bullets only imbedded themselves harmlessly in the thick logs. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII--THE ROUT OF THE BESIEGERS + + +Sergeant Dick and Amos had no sooner shot the bolts on the inside of +the bow door of the ark than they turned and made for the +after-cabin, glancing about them as they did so in quest of the +three girls. + +They saw, instead, Amos’s three brothers--Aaron, Abel and +Abner--lying, bound hand and foot and gagged, upon the seats running +along either side of the cabin. None of the three appeared to be +wounded or injured in any way. Rejoicing at the sight, but unable to +do anything for the trio just then, the two rescuers gained the door +between the two cabins and looked through. + +The aft door was open and there was no one outside it. They could +see the silvery moonlight streaming in and flooding the stern-sheets +of the scow without. + +By the same ghostly radiance they beheld Jenny and her two +sisters-in-law lying, like the three in the fore-cabin, bound and +gagged, in the berths to either side. + +The moon’s rays shot into both cabins, also, through the open loops +in the shuttered windows. The Ogalcrees had left the shutters fast, +but had opened the loopholes in case they had to besiege the +“castle” from the ark. + +“Stand there and guard the loops, Amos,” whispered the sergeant. +“Shoot at the first one that darkens, while I secure the aft door.” + +Amos, accordingly, remained in the doorway between the two cabins, a +foot in either as well as a hand grasping a smoking pistol, his eyes +ranging quickly along all four windows, ready to fire at any one of +them; and the sergeant of police ran towards the aft door. + +But as the young trooper and squatter believed, they had heard +splashes follow upon their leaping aboard the scow. All the +Ogalcrees who had run round the cabin were so scared, they had +jumped immediately, one after the other, into the lake, on hearing +the white men come aboard. + +They, too, were now swimming their hardest for the palisades, the +same as were all their exhausted fellow-braves who had escaped from +the water-trap in the “castle”--who had wriggled through the open +work fencing under it. + +It was a complete, panic-stricken rout this time. Black Panther, the +new war chief, and fully half of his leading and stoutest sub-chiefs +and braves, were floating--shot dead, or drowned--among the piles +supporting “Water Castle”; and the rest of the band had had quite a +surfeit of fighting for a time at least--had enough of the siege of +that impregnable lake-dwelling, anyhow. + +Unhindered in any way, therefore, John Dick, the dashing young +sergeant of Mounted Police, reached the aft door of the ark’s cabin, +or “house,” shut it, and bolted and barred it. + +Then he ran to the nearer window, on the side farther from the +“castle,” and peered out through the loophole. + +He could see no one on the footboard, or bulwark, of the scow +outside, but all the Ogalcrees swimming away for dear life--for the +safety of the canoes and rafts outside the palisades. + +“Hurrah, Amos! We have conquered. The Indians are in full flight +everywhere once more, and I don’t think they will come back again +for many a long day. They’ve had a defeat this last time that they +will not get over in a hurry. Release your brothers, while I attend +to your sisters.” + +But Amos thought his brothers could remain tied up a little longer. +He was not going to lose the opportunity of still further punishing +the assailants by the delay it would entail releasing them. + +And, as his fellow-rescuer turned from the window in the after +cabin, his rifle cracked out from one in the fore cabin. + +He fired again and again at the bobbing heads of the Indians in the +moonlight, and “crack, crack!” in rapid succession came also the +rifles of his mother and father from the front windows of the +“castle,” what time Sergeant Dick cut the cords which bound Jenny +and her sisters-in-law and removed the gags from their mouths. + +Leaving the three women, then, to pull themselves together and +restore the circulation of the blood in their cramped limbs, the +trooper hurried through into the fore-cabin and freed Amos’s +brothers. + +They all three at once began roundly abusing Amos for not having +released them before, and given them an opportunity of having a +parting and vengeful shot or two at the hated foemen. + +“Because I knowed it would only purvent _me_ having a shot,” he +grinned back at them, while slipping a fresh clip of five cartridges +into the breech of his smoking rifle, ere thrusting it again out the +loophole and sighting at the enemy. “And look at ye. Ye can’t use +your legs or arms yet, so what good would it ha’ bin? Ye couldn’t +ha’ done nothink sure.” + +“Confound it! My legs mightn’t belong to me, or my arms neither,” +growled Aaron, stamping and tumbling about and rubbing his arms +vigorously, with his face distorted with the pain the stagnant blood +caused him as it began to course again through his veins. + +Abel and Abner likewise indulged in anathemas, not loud but deep, +against their late captors for the discomfort and suffering they +were now enduring, and, with Aaron, stumbled towards the other +window and the door to get a shot at the Indians. + +But by the time they were able to poke their rifles through the +openings the last redman had swum up to the palisades, passed +through, and been drawn into a canoe or on to one of the rafts. The +Ogalcrees were soon in full retreat, paddling away to the nearer +shore, the eastern one. + +Abel and Aaron had armed themselves with the rifles of their wives. +The weapons had been placed in a corner of the cabin by the Indians +after capturing the women. + +Abner coolly appropriated Sergeant Dick’s rifle, for the police +officer had slipped the piece from his shoulder to free him and his +brothers. + +Sending a couple of shots apiece whizzing after the canoes and +rafts--without any success on account of the deceptive moonlight, +the distance the craft were away, and the pain and awkwardness still +of their limbs--the three baffled marksmen cursed their ill-luck and +their brother Amos again for denying them the better chance. Then +their father was heard hailing the ark. + +“Amos! Sergeant! Are the girls safe? And are the other lads there?” + +“Ay, ay, Squatter! They are all here, quite safe--none the worse, +any of them,” called back Dick, merrily, adding with a light laugh, +“Can’t you hear your sons cussing because they’ve been cheated by +Amos of having a last smack at the redskins?” + +“Ay, ay, we’re here, and all on us all right, dad,” shouted Abel, +the eldest of the sons, turning from the window to clasp his wife +Bella in his arms and exchange mutual gratulations with her. + +Aaron--the second and other married brother--greeted _his_ wife +Deborah in like manner; while Abner, the youngest of the four sons, +restored Sergeant Dick his rifle in a sulky way, without so much as +a “Thank you.” + +For that matter neither had he or either of the other two young +squatters in any way acknowledged the police-sergeant’s kindness in +setting them free. But their apparent ingratitude, or want of common +politeness, might be excused by their over-eagerness to have a slap +at their late captors. + +With the dread enemy in full retreat to the shore, there was no need +for them to linger inside the ark; and they all now made a move +towards the bow-door, Abner and Amos bringing up the rear after +closing and fastening the loops on all the windows, and then locking +the fore door. + +Muriel and her uncle and aunt came out of the “castle” on to the +verandah to greet them, and old man Arnold sent a parting shot with +his rifle in the direction of the Indians, who could be seen just +landing on the eastern shore, shadowy silhouettes against the less +dusky background. + +As they all reëntered “Water Castle,” chattering and laughing like +so many magpies, Muriel and the sergeant fell to the rear, and +clasped hands silently but eloquently. + +Muriel’s eyes shone brightly in the moonlight, and John Dick thought +he had never seen her look quite so lovely as in that silvery +radiance upon the white-bathed verandah with its clean-cut shadows. + +Neither noticed how Abner, the youngest son, watched them with +scowling, jealous-distorted face and fiercely gleaming eyes. + +“The painted rips’ll not come back ag’in,” declared old Alf, +decidedly. “We gev ’em their bellyful this last time, anyways. Ho, +ho! They don’t want another such gruelling, I’ll swar. Bust ’em! +They’ve sp’iled our front door, lads and lassies; but we’ll patch it +up just for to-night and make it all right, as good as ever, +to-morrow. Just see what you can do with it, Abel, Aaron, and Abner. +Amos and you girls, Muriel and Jenny, lend me a hand and help fix up +the drop-floor as it should be. Bella and Deb, mebbe you will aid +mother to get us all somethink to eat and drink, ’specially drink, +arter the hot and thirsty work we’ve had.” + +“Can’t I be of any assistance?” asked Sergeant Dick. + +“Ye’ve done more’n enough, I should say, sergeant, but ye can help +the gals and me and Amos to fix up the floor as ye’re such a glutton +for work.” + +The old trapper or squatter and his daughter and niece and Amos got +down on their hands and knees upon the strip of flooring which had +remained in position when the rest of the floor dropped. + +This strip, of course, was a mere ledge, only a couple of feet wide, +just inside the front door and bordering the front wall. + +Pressing upon a board, each, the quartet caused it to slide partly +out of sight under the front wall, and disclosed a solid steel bar, +some four feet long and more than two inches in diameter, lying in +the cavity. Attached to the back of the steel bolts was a chain +which ran out of sight into an iron pipe under the board. + +Opposite the other end of the bolt, in the thickness of the edge of +the portion of flooring which had dropped, was a socket, and Muriel +tried to push her bolt home in this. + +The sergeant promptly insisted on saving her the trouble. He forced +the bolt inside the socket as far as it would go, then helped Jenny +to push hers home, what time old man Arnold and Amos had shot theirs +and gone on to a fifth and sixth, and the other three brothers were +fixing the dismantled outer door in place again by piling all manner +of things against it, including the armored tiller-screen from the +ark. + +The drop-floor was still anything but quite firm under their feet, +even with the six great bolts shot, and the old man asked Sergeant +Dick to follow him through to the central passage and see him finish +fixing it. + +Full of curiosity, the young police officer accompanied him to the +cupboard where the levers were, and the old man explained that, by +wrenching back one, all six bolts they had just shot were drawn out +simultaneously, but that the floor in the ordinary way would not +give until six more pivoted iron buttons, also hidden in the +flooring, were drawn aside. + +A second lever contrived this, and a third would draw them back +again. This third lever was now pulled, while all in the living-room +were told to stand off the drop part of the floor. And then Arnold +went on to tell John Dick that he had contrived to raise the +trap-floor by means of yet a fourth lever, which dragged on a chain, +that always hung slacked under the house, attached to the edge of +the trap-floor and passing through a ring or socket in the +stationary part of the flooring opposite and round back to the +lever. + +“By pulling on this ’ere fourth lever, then, you see, sergeant, the +trap-floor is raised and kin be held in place until we can fix up +all the reg’lar fastenings. Come now, let’s join the others ag’in, +and have somethink to eat and drink.” + +“And I’ve got something to tell you all that will astonish you very +much, Squatter--something I discovered among the cliffs on the west +shore.” + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII--THE PLAN TO ROUND UP THE WHITE HOODS + + +Sergeant Dick did not notice the startled, anxious glance that old +Arnold gave him as they went back to the living-room. There they +found a substantial meal spread for them. + +Ere they all sat down to it, some of their number took a look out +through the loops on all four sides of the house. The lake was still +bathed in moonlight, and not an Indian canoe or raft was to be seen +anywhere. + +“Well, now, sergeant, what’s this astonishing news that you’ve got +to tell us?” asked the old squatter, with his mouth full. “What’s +this something that you said you had discovered among the cliffs on +the west shore, and which I presumes brought ye back so timely here +ag’in?” + +His sons and their mother all started and exchanged covert, alarmed +glances, then eyed the young police officer keenly and by no means +favorably. + +As it happened, he had his eyes bent upon his plate at the time, and +did not observe the strange, gloomy looks, which, after all, as +before, were most veiled. + +“I’ve discovered the ‘duffing-den’ of the White Hoods, I believe,” +he quietly replied. + +“What!” + +And Amos Arnold sprang up, nearly upsetting his chair. + +“Yes, I believe so,” said Sergeant Dick. And he went on to relate in +full his experiences of the previous night after his escape from the +Indian ambush; how he climbed the water-slide and found the +cup-shaped valley and saw several hundred head of cattle, sheep, and +horses grazing within it. + +His companions listened in silence, Muriel and Jenny in breathless +interest. None interrupted him, the young men only contriving to +steal questioning glances at one another behind their mugs, and +particularly at their father. + +Muriel and Jenny hung excitedly upon Dick’s every word; and when he +had told them all, the first-mentioned cried out: + +“Oh, uncle--boys, what a grand discovery! It must be the outlaws’ +secret duffing-den right enough. You and Sergeant Dick now can +capture the gang and claim the reward offered. What is it--five +hundred pounds, isn’t it?” + +“I had instructions to increase the reward to a thousand pounds,” +said Dick. + +“A thousand pounds; and not only that, but you will rid these parts +of these murderous robbers who have so long terrorized us. In fact, +I believe their plundering has helped to incite the Ogalcrees to +rebel and go on the warpath, for they, besides suffering heavily at +the gang’s hands, have been blamed for some of its misdeeds, as we +know.” + +“Yes, yes,” chimed in Jenny. “It will be a grand thing for all round +here when those awful White Hoods are put down; the poor farmers and +ranchmen will sleep more easily in their beds. You will be doing +humanity a service, father--brothers--if you help the sergeant to +lay the gang by the heels.” + +“We shall be doing ourselves a big sarvice, too, if we make a +thousand pounds over the job,” guffawed her father. “By thunder, +lads--mother, we’ll have a shot at it; we’ll help the sergeant to +capture these fellows. But only on one condition, sergeant, and that +is, that you let no one else into the secret; that we keep it to +ourselves. I don’t want no others to share the thousand quid, you +understand?” + +“That’s so--that’s so,” cried his wife. “A thousand pounds divided +equally between six on you--the four lads, you Alf, and the sergeant +here, ain’t two hundred apiece. Lemme see, how much would it be? Six +into a thousand goes what, Muriel--Bella?” + +“Oh, never mind, aunt. The reward is not ours yet to divide,” said +Muriel hastily, and blushing a deep crimson. “And don’t you think +that Sergeant Dick should have more than any one else, as he +discovered the gang’s lair?” + +“Come, come, we won’t discuss that,” laughed Dick. “In any case it +will be for Government to apportion the reward. All right, Arnold, +we’ll keep it to ourselves, and you and the lads will help me to lay +these white-robed rustlers by the heels, as Jenny put it. Let me +see, they are supposed to number either nine or ten at full +strength.” + +“That’s so. And we are six,” said Abel, the eldest son, “but then we +ought to catch ’em napping, and not in full strength.” + +“When shall we make the attempt?” asked Aaron, the second son. +“We’ve evidently routed the redskins for good and all this time. +They’re not likely to give us any further trouble. And the sooner we +go the better, say I.” + +And he exchanged a meaning glance with his father and mother. + +“Oh, there’s no immediate hurry,” said Dick. “With the Ogalcrees out +on the warpath, the gang will be bound to lie snug and not try to +remove their stolen cattle and sheep for fear of being attacked on +the march by the Indians. Besides, it will be as well, first, to +make sure that the redmen have abandoned the siege here for good and +all. We don’t want them to attack the house in our absence while +only the ladies are here, nor attack us, for that matter, while +landing, as they did before--nor yet in the woods. A day more or +less can’t make any difference one way or the other as regards the +White Hoods, while it may mean a great deal as regards your home +here.” + +“The sergeant is right,” observed Bella, Abel’s wife; and Deborah +and Muriel murmured approval. “And you all need a good night’s rest +before setting out on so risky an expedition.” + +“Wait till to-morrow night,” said Muriel, “then we’ll know for +certain whether the Indians have abandoned the warpath, and we may +be able to send word to the soldiers at the nearest fort, if word +has not already gone there, of the rising.” + +This was sensible advice, and it was unanimously agreed on; and, +shortly after, all declared for bed. The supper things were cleared +away; the living-room was divided off into three compartments by the +shabby curtains on the rods being drawn across, and a hammock slung +in each compartment for Amos, the sergeant, and Abner respectively. + +All the others then retired to their bedrooms, and silence and +darkness speedily enwrapped the stronghold in the lake. + +Sergeant Dick slept soundly in his hammock; but he was accustomed to +sleeping on a hair-trigger, as one might say, and from time to time +he awoke, rose, and went to the front door or the window on either +side of it and looked forth. + +All was still and peaceful. The lake and the woods south and east +and west seemed slumbering under the silvery moon. + +Thoroughly refreshed, he was up before the dawn, and went to the +bathroom at the back of the house to wash himself. When he returned +to the living-room he found that Amos and Abner had arisen, the +curtains had been drawn back, and Mrs. Arnold, Muriel and Jenny were +already preparing breakfast, with front door and windows open to +admit the sweet warm morning air. + +They all--even the surly Abner--greeted him cordially; and he +thought Muriel prettier than ever in the rosy light of the dawn. + +Bella and Deborah, the two married daughters-in-law, made their +appearance shortly, and then old Alf and their husbands. + +All the men went out on the verandah to smoke a morning pipe before +breakfast; and, seated upon it, looking out across the water and +scanning the shore in all directions for any sign of their late +besiegers, they discussed at length their plans for the +“rounding-up” of the White Hoods. + +They were at breakfast when they heard the plash of paddles and men +hailing the “castle.” + +As the morning was so warm and fine they had the door wide open and +all the windows, too, but no foes could have stolen on them unawares +very well. + +Rushing forth, they saw approaching the “castle” from the direction +of the landing-spit on the east shore four canoes carrying three +white men apiece. + +Through the field-glasses they recognized the new comers as Foulkes, +the Indian agent, a couple of the local police troopers, two of the +officers from the nearest fort, and some ranchmen and cowboys of the +neighborhood. + +All twelve visitors were warmly welcomed by the inmates of “Water +Castle,” who plied them eagerly with questions as to how matters had +gone in the district--the doings elsewhere, of course. + +The Ogalcrees, it appeared, had committed a few isolated outrages, +burning and plundering some half-dozen or more farms. But for the +most part they had spared the inmates, or these had escaped and they +had contented themselves with the drink and valuables they got. + +Word had been conveyed to the troops, however, and these had now +arrived at the Reservation on Paquita Island and were holding all +the chiefs who had not followed Howling Wolf on the warpath as +hostages for the good behavior of the rebels. + +These last had fled _en masse_ across the frontier into the United +States, and were expected to be shortly rounded up and forced to +submit by Uncle Sam’s troops. + +Sergeant Dick was wanted at the Reservation to help to satisfy the +Indians there that Government had acted in good faith by them, and +already sent the money due upon their claims, but that it had been +intercepted and stolen by the White Hood rustlers, or road-agents, +and that it would be made good later. + +Accordingly, he went off with the visitors in one of their canoes an +hour or so later, promising old Alf and his two elder sons quietly +aside, however, before he did so, that he would return at nightfall +and go with them to the gang’s secret lair, and in the meantime not +tell another soul about it. + +Sure enough, just as dusk was falling over the lake and the wooded +hills embosoming it, a canoe containing a single occupant was seen +by the inmates of “Water Castle” to be approaching from the southern +end of the sheet of water; that is from the direction of the Indian +Reservation. + +Old Alf and his sons had been out the best part of the day visiting +the traps that they had set the evening of the Ogalcree rising, and +had just got back. Most of their traps they had found interfered +with by the redskin raiders, but those which had not been so +molested had contained furred victims sufficient to repay them well +for the trouble and time taken in setting them. + +They had reset the traps for the night, and then returned home. +Bella and Deborah did not always accompany the men on their trapping +expeditions, though they frequently did so, as sometimes also did +Muriel and Jenny, and even Aunt Kate. + +The canoe coming from the south end of the lake was speedily near +enough for the squatters to see that Sergeant Dick was in it, and +soon after he was partaking of some light refreshments in the +“castle” living-room, preparatory to leading the expedition. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV--IN THE HANDS OF MERCILESS FOES + + +The sky was overcast and there was no moon, as they set forth in two +canoes, the one Sergeant Dick had come back in and one of the craft +kept beneath the house. + +Old Alf, Abel, and the sergeant went in the first canoe, and Aaron, +Amos and Abner in the second. + +Paddling softly to the western shore, they landed with equal +stealth, for there was no saying what watch the rustlers were in the +habit of keeping on the woods thereabouts. + +They hauled their two craft ashore, and concealed them amongst the +bushes. + +“I suggest,” said Abel, then, “that we march in single file, you +leading the way, sergeant.” + +“Very good,” answered the police officer. + +They threaded their way warily through the dense woods; and, in +spite of the darkness, Dick led them unerringly to the foot of the +waterslide. + +For that matter, they all of course knew where it was, had +frequently seen and passed it, but, according to their own story, +had never had the curiosity to climb it as he had done, or explore +the perpendicular, terraced rocks behind it. + +“We had better climb up in the same way as I did--by means of the +trees over-arching the water,” John Dick whispered. “Sling your +rifles securely now, and make sure your pistol-holsters are--” + +“Hands up, all, or you’re dead men!” + +The unexpected mandate made even Sergeant Dick jump. + +He whipped round and saw five awful, ghostly, white-hooded, +white-clad forms confronting him and his companions, with two +pointed automatics each. + +It would have been madness--certain death to have attempted +resistance or defiance in the teeth of those ten leveled little +tubes. Nevertheless, Sergeant Dick was the last of the punitive +force to put up his hands. + +The five squatters hoisted theirs promptly. + +None of the prisoners had his rifle unslung or a pistol drawn. + +“Tie them up, Bud,” ordered the leader of the White Hoods. + +And one of the five ghostly forms thrust his pistols into his belt +and advanced. The gang had clearly been posted behind a large rock +close by the water-slide. + +In their ghostly disguise the fellows did not look human. Their +high-peaked hoods, drawn down to their chins so as to conceal the +face, had only two holes cut for the eyes, and their long, white, +shapeless smocks descending to the tops of their knee-boots +completely concealed their figures, and added to their spectral +appearance. + +“Let’s see who they be,” said the leader in a voice which sounded +_feminine_ and also familiar to the sergeant’s ears. + +He flashed an electric torch, and shone it first upon Dick’s face +and form. + +“Curses! A trooper, and a sergeant at that! So the cops have tumbled +to whar we hang out, lads. That’s bad. Hullo! You are the squatter +of the lake, Old Alf Arnold, the father of ‘Water Castle.’ And +you’re his son, and you, and you,” as he flashed his torchlight in +turn upon the faces of the young men. + +“You dodrotted fools! What are you doing roving round here at this +hour of the night? Don’t tell me a lie, you were out arter us?” + +“Nothing of the kind,” lied old Alf. “’Ow should we know as ’ow we’d +run up agin you ’ereabouts? We are out a-settin’ of our traps, and +the sergeant’s come with us just acause he’s bin a-stayin’ wi’ us at +‘Water Castle’ durin’ this ’ere Injun risin’. Didn’t you ’ear ’ow he +helped us to beat ’em off? They besieged us hot and ’eavy in the +‘Castle’ several nights runnin’.” + +“Yus, I heerd all about that, but your comin’ here looks darned +suspicious-like, all the same, and so I’m not agoin’ to let ye go +yet awhile. Tie ’em up, Bud, and blindfold ’em, too. We can’t take +no risks.” + +“Bud” proceeded to bind the sergeant’s hands behind his back, and +then to blindfold him, after which he was relieved of all his +weapons and valuables. + +He was then kept waiting while his fellow-prisoners were, +apparently, likewise being attended to. + +“’Urry up, ’urry up, Bud!” the chief at last said, impatiently; and +a minute or two later a heavy hand fell on Dick’s shoulder and he +was told to step out. + +Almost immediately he felt the ground rising steeply as he was +conducted along, and he was climbing up a slope which obliged his +captors to give him a helping hand. The gang were now evidently +joined by as many more men, for he heard them moving in front and +around him as well as whispering to one another. + +Up and up the steepest of paths or rocky defiles they climbed, until +presently a halt was called, and the voice of the leader added: + +“Now put the rope round his neck, and throw it over the branch, and +I’ll jist scribble the message to pin on his breast. You kin remove +the bandage from his eyes, one of ye. I mout as well tell you, +sergeant, we’re a-going to hang you, as a hexample to your +fellow-cops, to show ’em what they’ve to expect from us if they try +to hunt us down. Your fellow-prisoners we’ve let go, without their +arms, watches, money, and other trifles. We’ve no great grudge agin +them, and we allus likes to keep in wi’ men like Squatter Arnold, as +ain’t got much to lose or tempt us, and who can be of great sarvice +to us by giving us information when the cops are arter us.” + +The cloth was removed from the young police officer’s eyes, at the +same time as a noosed rope was slipped round his neck. + +He saw that he was standing under a tree at the edge of a ravine, +some forty feet deep, through which ran a fairly wide and level +road. On either side of him were his captors, the dreaded White +Hoods--nine now in number. A tenth ghostly form was climbing into +the tree, to pass the rope over a stout branch. + +Not one of the Arnolds was to be seen. + +The chief put a paper flat against the tree-trunk, and, while a +companion flashed an electric torch, proceeded to write something +upon it. + +Sergeant John Dick gave himself up for lost. It was plain that the +murderous ruffians meant to hang him there above the mountain road, +where his dead body would be found on the morrow by the first +ranchman or homesteader who chanced to ride that way. + +Nevertheless, he scorned to ask for mercy from the villainous +gang--to beg for his life. + +“Ho! ho! me bowld trooper, your goose is cooked now, anyways,” +gloatingly jeered the White Hood above him--in the tree. + +Sergeant Dick could barely suppress a start, _for he knew that voice +also_. + +“You may hang me, you atrocious scoundrels,” he said, boldly and +fearlessly, “but, as sure as there is a heaven above me, you will +reap a terrible reward for such a crime. Heaven will not let you go +unpunished. You--” + +For the second time that night he was not allowed to finish a +sentence. There were startled cries in the ravine below--two +exclamations of horror and anger. And, as all eyes were turned in +the direction of the unexpected sounds, Sergeant Dick beheld, to his +infinite relief and joy, two police troopers, in the familiar +Stetson hats and red coats, sitting astride horses at the turn in +the road. + +Their sudden appearance there, without a sound having broken the +stillness, except their startled ejaculations at the sight of the +terrible drama about to be enacted above them, was quite spectral. +And so several moments the White Hoods stood staring aghast at them. + +The troopers, indeed, were the first to act. They had their rifles +at the ready in front of them. Promptly jerking the butts to their +shoulders, they fired upwards at the gang on the cliff. + +In spite of the haste of the marksmen, the bullets were well aimed. +Two of the White Hoods staggered and nearly fell, and Sergeant Dick +heard, he believed, _two distinct clangs_ as if the bullets had +struck against iron or steel! + +Flinging themselves from the saddles immediately on firing, the two +troopers sheltered behind their horses and let drive again up at the +gang. And the fellow in the tree over Dick’s head came clambering +down so hurriedly that his long white smock caught on one of the +branches and was lifted up, exposing a coat of dull, gleaming iron. + +He was unable to free the entangled garment for a moment or two, and +the amazed young police-sergeant saw plainly that he was wearing +under it a rudely made breastplate and backpiece of armor, fastened +together with straps at the side--a perfect iron corselet such as +knights or rather men-at-arms wore in medieval days! + +Furthermore, hanging from the lower edges of this coat of iron were +rounded pieces to cover the thighs, both back and front, almost to +the knees. + +Surprised beyond measure at the revelation that the gang wore armor, +Sergeant Dick remembered, however, at the same time that the +notorious Ned Kelly gang of bushrangers in Australia in 1880 wore +similar protection, and so were able for a long period to laugh at +the bullets of the Mounted Police. + +Without a doubt these White Hood rustlers had got the idea of +armoring themselves from the well-known story of the Kelly gang. + +Two more of the ruffians had staggered under the well-directed shots +of the two troopers in the ravine. But now the gang had got over its +surprise. It fired back in a volley, and one of the policemen’s +horses reared, plunged wildly, and, breaking away, tore off down the +road. + +Its master dodged quickly behind his companion’s horse. Some dozen +or more troopers, now, however, came galloping noiselessly, like so +many specters, round the bend in the ravine. They ranged themselves +alongside the first two and poured in a deadly fire at the bandits. + +It was plain that the hoofs of all the police-horses were muffled. + +“Furies! Fly, lads! Run! We can’t fight so many,” shouted one of the +White Hoods. + +The fellow hanging by his white smock from the tree wrenched himself +free with a desperate effort and a savage oath, leaving a strip of +the garment clinging to the branch. He made as if to spring upon +Sergeant Dick, but two of the others dragged him off. + +“Dead min tell no tales,” howled another bandit, however, rushing at +the prisoner with upraised knife in one hand and smoking rifle in +the other. + +The knife would have been sheathed in the young police-sergeant’s +breast; but, swift as thought, he raised his right foot and dashed +it with all his force into the chest of his would-be murderer, even +as the idea struck him that _the voice sounded strangely like a +woman’s_. Woman or man, the White Hood was sent reeling heavily +backwards, Sergeant Dick’s boot eliciting a ringing clang from the +concealed coat of iron under the white smock. The knife went flying +over the edge of the cliff into the ravine. + +Its owner went down flat on the back, but was promptly dragged +upright by another of the gang who snarled: + +“Cuss it! ain’t ye got no sinse, Martha? Afore their very eyes! We +must git, _woman_!” + +And then all ten fled, crouching, into the bushes, and were quickly +swallowed up by these and the darkness. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV--ON THE TRACK + + +“Up the rocks, men, quick!” cried the inspector in command of the +little _posse_ of police. + +Promptly the troopers swarmed forward from behind their horses, +rushed to the side of the ravine, and began clambering up it. The +majority of them chose a place where the cliff sloped gently back +and was broken up into shelves and ledges like a natural stairway. + +A couple remained entrenched behind the horses, with their rifles +leveled across their own animals’ backs, covering their comrades. + +The inspector led the rush up the rocks. No shots were fired at +them, and it was plain that the White Hoods had fled the scene. + +The inspector topped the cliff first, a revolver in either hand. +With eyes fiercely peering into the bushes and the darkness before +him, he sidled up hurriedly to Sergeant Dick. + +“Thank heaven, we came this way, sergeant. We were just in the nick +o’ time.” + +In another half-minute John Dick was free in body and limb again, +and the inspector was shaking him by the hand, while the troopers +could be heard beating the bushes all about and searching these with +bulls’-eyes and electric torches to find the trail of the rustlers. + +A pleased shout denoted a discovery, and the inspector and Sergeant +Dick at once made for the spot. + +“Inspector,” said Dick, quietly, as they went, “we needn’t trouble +about following their trail. I know who two of the band are, or, at +any rate, I believe I know who they are. And, what is more, I have +discovered the band’s secret duffing-den, and can lead you to it.” + +“You know two of them, and where their duffing-yard is? Excellent! +Who are the pair?” + +“Bill Seymour, the shepherd hereabouts on Lonewater Ranch, _and his +wife_. At least, as I said, I have reason to believe that they are +two of the gang.” + +“_And his wife!_” + +“Yes. And she’s not the only woman in the gang. There are several. +They disguise themselves as men, of course, and are the wives +and--and daughters, I believe, of the others.” + +“You suspect others than the Seymours, then?” + +“I do; but I will not name any others yet for fear I am making a +dreadful mistake. If you will allow me _carte blanche_ in the +matter, however, inspector, and not ask me to name these other +suspects right away, I will take means to verify my suspicions +within the next twenty-four hours.” + +“Do as you please, sergeant. I will not interfere with you,” replied +the inspector, whose name was Medhurst. “Now what we must do is at +once divide our forces, I suppose, and let one party make for the +Seymours’ hut, to lay them by the heels, and the other accompany you +to this duffing-yard you say you’ve discovered.” + +“I think we can kill the two birds with the one stone, inspector,” +replied Sergeant Dick, who had been studying the positions of the +stars while he was talking. “We are on the northwest side of the +cliffs of the Wonderful Echo, are we not? And not far from the +Seymours’ shanty?” + +“That is so. The Indians and trappers round here call these curious +terraced heights just along to our right the Cliffs of the Wonderful +Echo. Their name on the map, and of the whole range, is the Waikuta +Hills.” + +“Well, I believe the entrance to the secret duffing-yard of the gang +is close beside the Seymour shanty. Let us make a move thither at +once. If we lose no time we may find the entire gang at the shanty, +for they can have no idea, I think, that I suspect even the two +Seymours.” + +“You wouldn’t advise dividing our force--sending a few of the men +along the trail the fellows have left?” + +“No, for two reasons, inspector. First, because I must tell you the +band wear armor under their white smocks and hoods.” + +“What!” + +“It is true. They wear coats of mail, capable of stopping a bullet, +just like the Kelly Gang of bushrangers did in Australia. You’ve +read of Ned Kelly, the iron bushranger?” + +“Yes, yes.” + +“Well, this gang all wear a similar kind of armor. Evidently they +got their idea from the Kelly Gang. And with them thus protected, +we’ll need all the men we’ve got, inspector, if not more, to capture +or wipe them out.” + +“By Jove, yes, in that case.” + +“My other reason against your sending any of the troopers to follow +the trail is that the fellows are bound to blind it effectually, as +they have done before.” + +“Just so, or it might mean sending the men to their death; the White +Hoods might form an ambush, and, iron-clad as they are--” He broke +off, and added, “I will send a man on to Paquita for reënforcements, +and we’ll make for the Seymours’ place.” + +Without further delay, one of the two troopers with the horses in +the ravine was sent galloping on down the road, south towards the +Indian Reservation. Inspector Medhurst, Sergeant Dick, and the +troopers around them returned to the man’s companion; and, all +mounted, Dick being taken up behind the inspector, who rode a big, +powerful bay, strong enough to carry them both a good few miles +without turning a hair. + +Northward, then, they struck, back along the road leading towards +Lonewater, the way they had come. + +Only a short distance did the road skirt the line of hills, then +these turned sharply eastward, while the road continued on +northward. + +The hoofs of the horses, being muffled, had made no sound on the +road. And the party now quitted this and followed the cliff-line, +striking across an undulating meadow-like country, or prairie, +broken up here and there by wooded hills or “buttes.” + +As they rode at the gallop, it was not easy to carry on a +conversation. Nevertheless, Sergeant Dick and Inspector Medhurst +were able to exchange occasional remarks on account of the way they +were riding; and the former explained that he had heard the +ringleader of the White Hoods call one of the others “Bud.” + +“Bud!” exclaimed the inspector. “That’s Bill Seymour right enough. +He goes by the nickname of ‘Bud’ among his friends. He’s better +known as ‘Bud’ Seymour than Bill, as a matter of fact.” + +“That so? I didn’t know that, but when the Arnolds were directing me +as to my best way of getting to Lonewater, they mentioned Bill +Seymour--I was to make a half-way call at his place--and one of the +sons chanced to refer to him once as ‘Bud’ Seymour. His wife, too, I +understand, is named Martha, and one of the White Hoods, who was +certainly a woman, the fellow ‘Bud’ called ‘Martha,’ as he helped +her to her feet just before they vamoosed.” + +“That’s good enough,” gleefully crowed Inspector Medhurst. “Seymour +and his wife are members of the gang, sure enough.” + +Medhurst went on to explain that the foreman of the Lonewater Ranch +had been visiting the Seymours earlier in the evening, and, on his +way eastward to pay his respects to the Arnolds, had seen three of +the White Hoods riding towards him. + +“They did not see him,” said the inspector. “He had just pulled up +among some trees to light his pipe, and he hid himself and his +horse, and waited until they had passed by. Then he postponed his +call at ‘Water Castle,’ and made back to Lonewater at top-speed to +rouse us out after the fellows. From the direction the three were +taking, he concluded they were making round the hills for the +Paquita Road, and so we came this way. I thought they might be after +the Paquita and Lonewater stage, and so ordered the horses to be +muffled, and lucky for you, sergeant, that I did, eh?” + +“Yes, indeed, sir. The foreman of Lonewater saw only _three_ of the +gang. H’m!” + +Neither of the pair said anything further until, presently, the +inspector whispered that they were close to the Seymours’ shanty, +and silently signaled to the troopers behind to halt and dismount. + +“We’ll creep up to the place on foot and try to carry it at a rush, +in case they are all inside,” he added. + +As before, two troopers were left with the horses, and the pair were +instructed to prevent the animals from neighing. Ten in number, the +rest of the police were spread out in a long line, with the +inspector at one end of it and Sergeant Dick at the other, and they +crept forward through the darkness and the billowy grass. + +The pace was purposely slow, and each man put his heel on the ground +before the toe at every step, thus making no noise. + +The high, beetling cliffs on the right hand overshadowed them all, +but, before they had advanced fifty yards, Sergeant Dick saw the +blacker outline of the log-hut cutting the skyline. + +All was in darkness as if the inmates were asleep or absent. + +Stealthily the police deployed still more, so as to enclose the +hut--throw their line from one side of it to the other, and hem it +in against the cliff-wall at its back. Then the whispered word was +passed along from man to man to close in upon it, as they advanced +again. + +Not a sound broke the stillness of the night. The grass now was +short, and the ground hard and rocky in places, so the troopers put +their toes first to earth and raised their feet high with each step, +in accordance with the rules taught them for moving silently under +such conditions. + +They got up close to the hut--within half a dozen strides of it--and +then with a swift rush reached the door and windows--were around it. + +Unceremoniously, the troopers in front of the door immediately +battered at it with their rifle-butts, waking a hundred echoes from +the cliffs and hills while those at the windows thrust their +rifle-barrels in under the shutters to pry these open. + +In less time almost than it takes to relate it, a window-shutter at +either side of the premises had been forced open, and the assailants +were ready to pour as many volleys into the house. + +Everything remained silent within, however, and Sergeant Dick called +out, softly: + +“They are not back yet, inspector. The place is deserted, I should +say.” + +It was as he said, and, abandoning the assault on the stout, +strongly barred door, all the police flocked to the unshuttered +windows. These were forced in their turn, but with as little noise +as possible now, and the troopers climbed in and ranged through the +rooms. + +“There’s an underground passage leading from the hut to a secret +cave within the cliffs, inspector. Do you know?” Sergeant Dick said, +as he and the inspector met inside the kitchen, entering through +opposite windows. + +“Look for it, men. It will be in one of the inner rooms. There’s no +sign of it here.” + +“Here it is, sir!” immediately sang out one of the troopers from the +bedroom. + +Sergeant Dick and his superior officer ran in and saw the troopers +raising a trapdoor in the floor. It had been covered by a strip of +druggeting, and, moreover, by the bed. + +These had been dragged aside before the troopers entered, evidently +by the Seymours, who had gone out that way. + +A square, box-like hole, timbered all round, about four feet deep, +was uncovered. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI--THE THREATENING LETTER + + +“It was Alf Arnold, the squatter of the lake, who told me of this +underground passage,” said Sergeant Dick. “I see it has a concrete +flooring. As sure as a button, inspector, Seymour and his wife will +return this way, unless they have caught the alarm--heard us +breaking in, or, for some other reason, don’t intend coming back. +Will you remain here with half the men, and I will take the rest +through the passage to the cave and wait there for awhile in hopes +of their coming? Do you know, I’ve an idea, too, that that cave will +tell us something.” + +“You don’t think they were in the house and fled through the +passage?” + +“No, sir; they couldn’t have got here before us, I’m certain.” + +“Very good, sergeant! Select your men. I hope the pretty pair +haven’t given us the slip--_will_ return to their nest. Of course, +many of these log huts in the wilds, as you know, both here in +Canada and across the border in the United States, have underground +passages like this to provide a means of escape for the occupants in +case of attack by any desperadoes, so its existence proves nothing.” + +Sergeant Dick chose his five men, and they dropped down one after +the other through the trapdoor in the floor, and followed him on +hands and knees along the little tunnel under the ground. + +These subterranean galleries in the wild and woolly West are very +simply and easily contrived. A trench, some four feet deep and as +many wide, is dug in the soil from the house, the floor made hard +with concrete or something similar, and the sides boarded up and +over. Then the earth and sods of grass are replaced. + +As a rule, the exit is in the middle of a thick clump of bushes some +forty or fifty feet from the hut, and may be used as a rifle-pit, of +course, in case of an attack on the house, the inmates contriving +thus to take the assailants in the rear. + +Crawling along on all fours in the inky blackness of the tunnel, +Sergeant Dick came to a similar trapdoor to that he had descended. +Faint rays of light penetrated through cracks in it. + +He pushed upward upon it, and it rose on hinges. Standing upright +within the aperture, he flashed an electric torch he had been given +by Inspector Medhurst, and saw that he was within a small cave, the +mouth of which was covered over outside by a thick mass of creeper, +through which, however, silvery light faintly struggled. + +The moon had peeped out through a break in the clouds and was +flooding the plain outside with its ghostly radiance. + +Dick scrambled out of the hole, and, turning to the back of the +cave, proceeded to flash his torch over it. + +All at once he switched off the light, and, stooping over the trap +and the trooper getting upon his feet in it, whispered: + +“S’sh, I heard something. They are coming, I believe--our quarry! +Bid the others come out softly.” + +A noise as of heavily booted feet on hard rock had reached his +quick, trained ear. It came not from outside the cave, _but from the +roof at the back_. + +Or was it only his fancy that it did? + +Silently the troopers drew themselves up out of the hole in the cave +floor, and lowered the trap in place again behind them. The +moon-light, which entered through the interstices of the creeper +marking the entrance to the cave, was just sufficient to show each +man his neighbor’s dim silhouette or outline. + +The noise without or beyond the cave continued, and grew louder, now +changing to the sounds that a man makes in climbing a ladder--the +sound of heavy boots clumping up wooden rungs. + +And then to the amazement and momentary superstitious horror of the +troopers a bright light shot into the cave above a ledge close to +the roof at the back! + +The light grew stronger, and danced about, accompanied by a rubbing, +rustling noise, then resolved itself into a glowing orb, which moved +about on top of the shelf and almost immediately turned its back, so +to speak, on the cave. + +“I’m all right now, Martha,” said a gruff voice. “Here’s the torch +if you wants it, and shove the ladder along.” + +Sergeant Dick and his fellow-troopers were all standing around the +cave, with rifles at the ready and eyes riveted upon that lighted +shelf over their heads. They were invisible in the darkness to the +fellow on the ledge. He had his own light in his eyes for one thing, +and, as related, he did not flash his torch around the cave but +handed it back to his companion in the inner depths. + +His dark, shapeless figure could just be discerned in the halo of +the torch, squirming and pulling at something within another little +tunnel measuring about three feet in diameter. + +The end of a ladder protruded from this second tunnel. + +He and his companion were pulling it through, and he now proceeded +to lower it to the floor of the cave. + +As he placed it in position, Sergeant Dick sprang forward, revolver +in hand, and bounded swiftly up it. + +The young police officer’s swiftness, however, was almost a case of +more haste less speed. For the ladder, insecurely set half turned +under him. But he saved himself by clutching the shelf of rock with +his left hand, and luckily the ladder did not slip aside, so that he +was not thrown off it. + +He promptly grabbed then with his left hand at the man, even as the +latter uttered a yell of fright and made to wriggle back inside the +tunnel. + +Sergeant Dick caught the man by the collar, and, holding him +tightly, sprang up the remaining rungs of the ladder and thrust his +head, shoulders, and revolver into the tunnel at the second human +form he could dimly perceive within it by the light of the electric +torch. + +“Keep still, you in there, or I shoot,” he roared. “Keep as you are. +Put your hands in front of you. I’ve got the drop on you, as you can +see. Come up, men some of you, quick, and relieve me of the husband +here.” + +Three of the troopers sprang up the ladder behind him, while the +other two held it firm. Bill, or “Bud” Seymour, too amazed, +apparently, to be able to offer any resistance, was hauled down from +the shelf, neck and crop, and head first, by the three troopers, +allowing the sergeant to crawl into the narrow tunnel and lay hold +of Martha Seymour. + +Fierce and bold as the woman was in the ordinary way, she had not +dared to disobey John Dick’s mandate to lie still and keep where she +was. As a matter of fact, she, like her husband, seemed to have her +energies paralyzed--to be bereft of the power of volition or action +by the unexpected attack. + +Sergeant Dick, too, had promptly snatched the electric torch from +the outstretched hand and was shining the light blindingly in her +bewildered, horror-stricken eyes. + +The tunnel was so narrow the pair had had to wriggle along it on +their stomachs and her prone position was therefore also against +her. + +Leaning still farther in, Sergeant Dick grasped her by the wrist +now, and, backing and exerting all his strength, began to pull her +bodily out of the tunnel. + +He had got her half out of it when two of the troopers came to his +aid, and, between them, they dragged her helplessly forth on to the +shelf, then bore her down the ladder to the cave floor. + +She was dressed as a man, and in the dark it really would have been +hard to tell that she was not one. Like her husband, she was big and +burly, and her face was red and coarse, and bloated even worse than +his, while her eyes and mouth were hard and cruel-looking, whereas +his were weakly vicious. + +They both wore overcoats, “wide-awake” hats, and topboots. + +“So you’ve got us, have ye? Well, what are ye goin’ to do with us +now you’ve caught us?” asked the woman with an attempt at mockery, +as if she entertained some faint hope that their captors did not +associate them with the dreaded White Hood gang, or might very +easily be imposed upon. “Who do you think ye’ve got hold of, anyway? +What fules you all are! Don’t you know us? Yon’s Bill Seymour, and +I’m his wife.” + +“We are quite aware of that, Mrs. Seymour, and we also know you to +be two of the White Hood gang. You two are alone, I take it. There +are no more of you coming through that interesting little tunnel?” + +“Curse you! I recognizes you. You are the police sergeant we was--” + +The woman stopped and bit her tongue, in evident concern at having +so unequivocally betrayed herself. + +“Why don’t you finish, Mrs. Seymour? Whom you and your ruffianly +fellow-rustlers were going to hang, when my comrades here came up so +unexpectedly and timely.” + +“Curse you! Oh, curse you!” was all the infuriated and mortified +woman could find to say. + +Her husband broke out into bitter reproaches against her, for having +let her tongue run away with her and betray them both as it had +done. + +Sergeant Dick sent one of the troopers across the open space outside +the cave to the hut to fetch Inspector Medhurst, and that officer +came quickly. Needless to say, he was delighted over the capture. + +“Search their pockets, men,” he ordered. “We may find evidence upon +them of their own guilt and the identities of their late +companions.” + +A brace of automatic pistols was found upon either prisoner. The +pair had already been relieved of their rifles of course. + +And then one of the troopers, searching Bill Seymour, found in an +inner pocket a folded scrap of paper, which he handed to Medhurst. + +The inspector unfolded it eagerly, and flashed an electric torch +upon it. + +In a reddish fluid, presumably blood, was scrawled upon it: + +“To old Alf Arnold and his little lot at ‘Water Carstle,’--We was +fules to let you and your sons orf so light, and, now that cussed +policeman who was a-stayin’ wid you ’as escaped us, we believes some +of you set the traps on to us. So, look out! The White Hoods hev +sworn revenge upon all on you, and we ull burn the b’ilin’ lot on +you one night afore long in your bloomin’ ‘Water Carstle.’ Ef you +did beat orf the redskins, you won’t us, so, again we says, look +out!” + +Inspector Medhurst read this precious effusion out aloud. + +“H’m! Ha!” he observed. “We must take means at once, sergeant, to +protect the Arnolds and entrap the rest of these ruffians around +‘Water Castle.’ They may strike there at once when they learn of the +arrest of these two. Take your five men again, now, and explore this +second tunnel--see where it leads to. If you come upon the trail of +others of the band, let me know at once, and we’ll try to run the +wretches down. Let me know immediately in any case what’s on the +other side of this tunnel.” + +John Dick saluted without a word, and, bidding the five troopers +follow him again, mounted the ladder and wriggled head first, inside +the hole behind the rocky shelf. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII--THE CLEW OF THE LAMP + + +The tunnel in the rock proved to be some ten feet long. It was +blocked at the end by small-sized bowlders piled upon each other. + +Clearing them aside, Sergeant Dick put out his head. He saw a deep +gully, or dried-up water-course, ascending at right angles to him, +at a gentle gradient, between overhanging cliffs which only +permitted of a faint glimpse of the night sky. + +Sergeant Dick told the man behind him what he could see, and to pass +the word back along their line to Inspector Medhurst. Then he +proceeded to climb out of the tunnel. + +His men followed him; and they started searching the ground at their +feet for tracks. + +Where the ground was soft were innumerable cattle and sheep tracks, +and a few horse tracks. Nearly all of these led upwards. One or two +tracks, nearly obliterated by the others and by rain and wind and +dust, led downwards. + +“These downward tracks are weeks old, that’s plain,” said Sergeant +Dick. “The others are more recent, but still all the cattle tracks +are several days old. It’s plain to me--” + +“Dick!” It was the inspector’s voice. And, raising his head with a +respectful “Yes, sir,” Dick saw Medhurst wriggling out of the tunnel +mouth above them. + +“You’ve found tracks?” + +“Yes, sir. Mostly cattle tracks. It’s pretty evident, inspector, +that this gully is the secret way to and from the gang’s +duffing-yard, which is above us. Judging from the tracks they can’t +have taken any of the stolen cattle out for some time--several +weeks--so we ought to make a grand haul.” + +“I’m coming through with the rest of the men, except Morton and +Geddes, who are guarding our prisoners.” + +The inspector and the other five police troopers climbed down beside +their comrades; and Medhurst said they would first ascend the gully +to the rustlers’ duffing-yard. + +Falling into line, the troopers followed their two officers up the +winding water-course. It took them a good twenty minutes to come to +its upper end. Then they suddenly debouched upon a fairly level +expanse of ground, and, beyond a slight intervening ridge, they +looked into the same cup-shaped valley which Sergeant John Dick had +discovered from the other or southern side of the range. + +And his skill as a tracker was also verified; for there, sure +enough, were the horses, steers, and sheep he had seen before dotted +about the valley, darker blurs against the dark background in the +faint light of the stars and overclouded moon. + +“Excellent!” exclaimed the inspector. “This is a coup. The gang +evidently recognized the hopelessness of getting the beasts away +before our coming, and decided to consult only their own safety by +getting back to their homes as quickly as possible.” + +“We may find something that may tell us who the rest of them are in +the log-hut on the other side of the valley, inspector,” said +Sergeant Dick. + +“Quite so,” agreed Medhurst. “Yes, we’ll see what the hut contains. +Be in readiness for an ambush, men! There’s no saying that some of +the gang haven’t entrenched themselves in the valley, although I +don’t think it is likely. Spread out more, and walk stooping, +carrying your rifles at the ready!” + +But they crossed the valley to the other side without any +molestation, except that they disturbed some of the sleeping horses +and cattle. + +The moon shone out bright and full again from a fairly clear sky as +they drew near the “lean-to,” which, as its name explains, was built +up against the cliff. + +The door stood half open! But still, fearful that this might only be +a ruse to lure him and his _posse_ into some diabolically arranged +death-trap, Inspector Medhurst called a halt and asked for a +volunteer to go forward and make sure that the hut was empty. + +“I’ll go, inspector,” Sergeant Dick answered, promptly. + +Medhurst would have been exceedingly sorry to have lost his capable +young subordinate, but he did not like to pass him over for one of +the troopers. + +“Very good! I don’t need to tell you to be careful, I think.” + +John Dick advanced, bending nearly double, and ready to drop flat to +the earth at the first gleam of a rifle at either of the two windows +in sight, or any suspicious sign within the half-open door. + +He was within twenty feet of the hut when his keen sense of smell +detected the strong, unpleasant odor of an oil-lamp burning badly. + +For a moment he hesitated, half scenting in this a trap for their +destruction. Then he determined to risk it, and flew swiftly forward +to the door of the hut. + +But instead of at once thrusting it wide open, as five men out of +six would naturally have done in the circumstances, he did not touch +the door at all. He simply stepped half round it, and flashed his +electric torch about the room. + +And then he saw what a terrible trap had been laid for them--_how a +touch upon the door would have blown him to atoms_! + +Behind the half-open door was a barrel on end, three-parts full of +gunpowder, as he could see through a hole knocked in its top. And +balanced on a strip of wood across the hole was a vilely smoking +lamp screened about with a square of cardboard so that its light +only showed upon the roof. + +Just touching the cardboard screen was a short plank of wood resting +on heaped-up boxes, its other end set against the door. + +If the door had been pushed back, the plank must have been, and the +lamp overturned into the gunpowder, and any one entering would never +have known what had hurt him--not in this world at least. + +Sergeant Dick felt himself go cold all over, as he comprehended the +awful doom which might so easily have been his. + +He stepped forward promptly, however, gingerly lifted the lamp from +its dangerous position, and set it upon the table, turning it higher +to put an end to its vile aroma. + +It smoked badly, and the chimney was all black. He therefore took it +outside and blew it out, and called to his comrades to come up. + +When they did so, and he pointed out to Inspector Medhurst the +diabolical trap that had been laid for them, one and all the +troopers indulged in furious anathemas against the dastardly White +Hoods. + +“Look round the hut, lads, and see what you can find,” ordered their +leader. + +“The lamp, I think, will prove a clew, inspector,” quietly said +Sergeant Dick. “As a matter of fact, I have seen it before, and that +quite recently.” + +“You have--where?” + +“_At ‘Water Castle.’_ Inspector, I believe the Arnold family make up +the rest of the gang of White Hoods. I have believed so ever since +you rescued me from the gang’s hands this evening, but I had no real +proof beyond my own vague suspicions until now. The leader’s voice +it was that first made me suspect the family. I could take my oath +it was _Aunt Kate’s--Mrs. Arnold’s_! And I know that the fellow who +climbed the tree was Abner Arnold; while this lamp I can swear to +having seen in Aaron Arnold’s bedroom during the siege of the +‘castle’ by the Ogalcrees.” + +“Thunder! You don’t say! But--but what about the letter written in +blood we found on Seymour, threatening the gang’s vengeance against +all at ‘Water Castle’? And, again, weren’t all the male members of +the family with you when you were captured by the gang? Ah, I see, I +see! You think that the letter was only an artful ruse to avert +suspicion, and Old Alf and his sons promptly disguised +themselves--donned white hoods and smocks--when you were +blindfolded.” + +“Exactly, sir! And put on their primitive armor, too. It was +probably hidden, close by the scene of our hold-up by their +womenfolk.” + +“But--but, good heavens, you don’t mean to infer that all the women +of the family are also mixed up in this? That, that lovely girl--Old +Alf’s niece--and his daughter, that weak-minded, poor girl--Jenny I +think they call her--have helped in the atrocities the gang have +committed, and could lend themselves to--to such a diabolical scheme +of vengeance as you have just frustrated?” + +“Don’t ask me, sir--don’t ask me,” John Dick replied in such a +heartwrung voice as made Medhurst look surprisedly at him. + +Then a look of sympathetic intelligence swiftly crossed the +inspector’s face. + +“Some of the women of the family are in the gang, undoubtedly, as I +told you before, sir, but--but it is just possible that the--the two +you mention, the niece and the daughter, are innocent of all +complicity. God only grant it be so,” he added in tones not meant +for his superior’s ears. + +“Yes,” John Dick went on, “it’s pretty plain to me, now, how they +worked the oracle--how the gang worked matters to-night. As soon as +the male members of the family and I had gone off this evening, Aunt +Kate and the two daughters-in-law, I should say, took a canoe and +made for the north side of the hills or cliffs. The foreman of +Lonewater ranch told you that he saw _three_ White Hoods riding +round the north side of the range towards the Seymours’ place. They +were Aunt Kate and the two daughters-in-law, without a doubt. The +three had a hiding-place on the lakeside where they assumed their +ghost-like disguise, and, of course, the two Seymours made up the +five who held us up, round the other side of the range.” + +“And by riding this way, up the gully and across the valley here, +they might very easily get to the waterside before you. You +naturally moved slowly and warily, to guard against falling into an +ambush or warning any of the gang on watch.” + +“That is so, sir. And the squatter and his four sons would just +bring up the number of the bandits to what it was when they were +going to hang me.” + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII--THE RETURN TO “WATER CASTLE” + + +The “lean-to” consisted of two compartments, and the walls of both +were furnished with hooks, for slinging hammocks apparently, though +there were no hammocks now in the place. + +In fact, save for an old stove, which was evidently a home-made +contrivance, there was nothing to be found in either compartment, +until Sergeant Dick said he would take a final look-round. + +He peeped upon some shelves in the inner room and spied a fragment +of writing-paper, plainly overlooked. + +Opening it out and shining a light upon it, the inspector and +Sergeant Dick saw that it was apparently a scrap of a letter. + +This is what they read: + + “... be foolish to touch their stock, Bud, old chap. + Anyway, we will turn out in full force to-nite, the + eight on us, and you and your wife. Muriel and Jenny + be going to Paquita Springs this afternoon, so the + coast will be quite clear. We will not need to trick + them as usual. + + “’Till I see you, to-nite, at the hut. + + “Your true pal, + “Alf Arnold.” + +“That clinches it, sergeant,” said the inspector with grim +satisfaction, carefully folding the scrap of paper and putting it +away in his notebook. “This bit of paper would hang the Squatter of +the Lake, I should say, or at any rate get him a good stretch in +jail, even if you were unable to swear to the lamp, or we couldn’t +trace those who sold it.” + +“And--and it would seem to show that Muriel and Jenny--the niece and +daughter, I mean--are not concerned in the outrages of the gang, are +wholly innocent of all complicity in the lawlessness. ‘We will not +need to trick them as usual,’ the letter says, ‘and as they are +going to Paquita Springs the coast will be quite clear.’” + +“Yes, yes, it is evident those two girls are innocent and know +nothing whatever of the villainy of their relations and the +Seymours. Come now, we will hurry back the way we came, proceed at +once to ‘Water Castle’ and try to effect the arrest of Old Alf and +his lot.” + +“One moment, inspector! I have an idea by which we may capture them +without bloodshed--a thing that I have grave doubt we will achieve +unless we resort to some ruse. You know the strength of ‘Water +Castle,’ and the character of the squatter and his sons, to say +nothing of his wife?” + +“What is your plan?” + +“First that we do not disappoint them, in the hope of presently +hearing a big ‘boom’ from this quarter. Let us leave a time-fuse to +blow the hut up when we are back across the valley.” + +“A good idea. We will do it. If the Arnolds believe they have blown +us all to pieces, we ought to be able to capture them easily. They +will take no precautions against our coming.” + +“Exactly! I will tell you the rest of my plan for taking them, as we +go.” + +While Sergeant Dick and the inspector laid the fuse, the troopers +were all told to drive the cattle, horses, and sheep to the farther +side of the valley, well away from the force of the explosion. + +Sergeant Dick and Medhurst then quitted the hut, laying their powder +trail right across the valley. At the top of the gully the troopers +rejoined them. Then Sergeant Dick applied a lighted match to the +long, thin trail of powder. + +With a hissing splutter the tiny red flash ran down the slope of the +hillside and went zigzag-ging away across the valley until it looked +no more than a fast-traveling, tiny red star in the darkness. + +It neared the farther side, and all prepared for the detonation. + +Sure enough it came. + +A great, lurid sheet of flame lit the night under the opposite +cliffs, there was a thunderous roar, echoed and reechoed by the +hills around, and the solid rock under them shook and trembled. + +Then the police turned their backs on the cup-shaped valley, from +which it was not possible without human aid that any of the stolen +animals could escape; for the top of the gully, we have forgotten to +mention, was closed by a high gate, secured by a padlock. + +Descending past where they had first entered the gully, the party +came almost immediately--on just turning an angle in the cliff--to a +solid wall of rock through which the gully was continued in the +shape of a wide natural tunnel or cave. + +They passed inside this, and saw an opening before them not more +than four or five feet wide and six feet high. It was covered over +outside with a mass of an evergreen creeper, which effectually +masked it in like manner to the cave in which the Seymours had been +captured. + +Thrusting the creeper aside, Sergeant Dick and Inspector Medhurst +emerged on the prairie within not more than two or three hundred +yards of the Seymours’ hut. + +“Oh! ow! ow! Ye are ghosts come back from the grave to haunt us!” +was the yelled greeting they got, as they pushed open the door of +the hut, from the two Seymours, who squirmed and writhed in the +chairs they were tied to. + +“You see, inspector? They naturally concluded we had fallen victims +to their horrible trap and been blown to atoms, all of us,” said +Sergeant Dick, grimly. + +“Ah, they had laid a trap for you, then, sir. I suspected as much +from the way they were chortling to themselves after we heard that +explosion,” said one of the two troopers who had been left guarding +the prisoners. + +“They’ll chortle in a different way after their trial,” grimly +responded Medhurst. “Of course, had your murder-trap succeeded, you +vile wretches, there would have been nothing to prove that it wasn’t +an accident, precipitated by ourselves in searching the hut. As it +is, that little scheme will prove a very damning factor against you +all.” + +A start was soon made now for the lake, all quitting the hut and +mounting. The two prisoners were set upon their own horses, which +had been left in the stable all night. + +With their reins tied together and linked up on either side to a +trooper’s saddle-bow, the pair were placed in the middle of the +troopers. Then, at an easy trot, with the horses’ hoofs muffled, the +party rode round the hilly spurs on the northern side of the range, +and threaded their way through the woods down to the lake edge. + +Sergeant Dick explained his plan for the capture of the Arnolds, as +he and Inspector Medhurst rode at the head of the cavalcade. In +accordance with it, they were no sooner at the waterside and in view +of the lights of the “castle” and the ruddy reflection in the placid +surface of the lake, than he fired three shots into the air. + +As the reader may need reminding, three shots meant “Want to come +off shore,” and was the signal used by the Arnolds and all their +visitors. + +They had a full code of such signals, which all their friends knew +and employed as occasion demanded. Four shots--two rapidly, and +then, after a moment, two more in quick succession--for instance, +indicated that danger was to be apprehended from some direction. + +On his giving the signal, Sergeant Dick and his comrades of the +Royal Canadian Mounted Police dismounted, and hid themselves behind +trees and bushes. They had come to the identically same +landing-place where the Ogalcrees had ambushed him, on landing for +the first time on that shore from the ark. + +The two Seymours had been gagged to prevent them giving any alarm, +and moreover, tied to trees. + +Hardly had these measures been taken when, through his binoculars, +Inspector Medhurst saw the dark shadow of the ark slowly moving away +from the verandah of the “castle” and making its way out of the +palisaded “dock.” + +“There are sure to be some of the menfolk, if not all five, on the +craft, men,” whispered Medhurst, explaining his subordinate’s plan +now to the troopers. “The sergeant is a fine mimic, as I can bear +witness, and he is going to imitate ‘Bud’ Seymour’s melodious voice, +and thus lure whoever’s aboard right up to the landing-place. As +soon as the scow bumps, every man of you must rush forward, without +firing a shot, and get aboard. We don’t want the rest of the family +alarmed by a shot. You know the strength of the ‘castle,’ or, rather +you don’t know it as Sergeant Dick does, and he says it would be +almost impossible to storm it in the face of anything like a fierce +fire from within. The Indians found that out to their cost. The +sergeant says the floor of the front room drops like a trap on the +pulling of a lever, and any one bursting in recklessly may therefore +expect to be given a distinct cooler.” + +As already mentioned more than once, the scow, for all its awkward +build, sailed swiftly. It was soon within hailing distance of the +shore, and a man’s voice, the voice of Amos, bawled across the +water: + +“Who is it?” + +“Bud--Bud Seymour,” Sergeant Dick at once answered, mimicking that +old scoundrel’s mode of speech exactly. + +On that, the ark came on, and the peering eyes in the bushes made +out four human forms in the forepart of the craft--two men and two +women. + +Sergeant Dick’s heart beat faster. + +What if one of the women were she whom he loved--whom he loved still +in spite of his late ghastly fear that she might be implicated in +the awful outrages of the gang and even in their attempt to put him +out of the way by hanging! + +When close inshore, the quartet on the ark dropped an anchor astern, +and then, paying out the rope, proceeded to propel the craft, with +the two long sweeps, towards the shore. + +By this maneuver, as previously explained, in case of treachery they +could haul off-shore again quickly, by dragging on the anchor rope. + +Nearer and yet nearer glided the unwieldy craft, and Sergeant Dick’s +sharp eyes, trained by long practice to seeing well in the dark, +made out Muriel and her cousin Jenny standing just within the cabin +door. They were holding the anchor-rope, brought through the other +doors, ready to haul on it. The family’s isolation taught them to +expect treachery and alarms from the most unexpected quarters. + +Amos and his brother Abner were at the sweeps, of course. + +Sergeant Dick had assumed Bill Seymour’s hat and coat, and kept +behind a small bush so as to hide his lower man. He concealed his +face by turning the coat-collar up about his chin and drawing the +hat well down over his brows. + +Nearer, nearer! Not a yard separated the boat from the landing-place +now. + +Bump! + +Immediately, Sergeant Dick rushed forward, pointing a pair of +pistols at Amos and Abner. + +“Hands up, both of you!” he bawled. “You are our prisoners!” + +The pair stood as if petrified, and the two girls likewise; for all +four recognized him in spite of his disguise. + +He leaped into the scow, and, with a rush, his fellow +police-troopers swarmed after him, all with pointed revolvers. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX--THE FAILURE TO SURPRISE “WATER CASTLE” + + +Amos and Abner were each in the hands of half a dozen troopers in +less time than it takes to relate. Then, as terrified screams burst +from Muriel and Jenny, Abner gave vent to a howl that seemed hardly +human and gasped affrightedly: + +“They are ghosts, ghosts, ghosts! We are lost, Amos!” + +“We are indeed, you fool!” spluttered his brother, struggling +frenziedly now to free himself from the dozen muscular hands +clutching him, “for you ’ave betrayed us.” + +Then a gag was forced into the mouth of each of the two young +desperadoes, and their hands were dragged behind their backs and +handcuffed so. + +“Stop your screaming, girls! Hold your tongues or we shall be forced +to gag you also,” cried Inspector Medhurst. + +At this threat Jenny was silent, save for a loud, terrified panting. +Muriel had only uttered one involuntary scream upon the rush of the +police. + +“What is the meaning of this, policemen?” she now demanded, +hoarsely. “Sergeant Dick, have you all gone crazy that--that you +attack us--make prisoners of my cousins in this way and that +you--you have disguised yourself in that way--are personating old +Mr. Seymour?” + +“Miss Arnold, an explanation is certainly due to you and your cousin +Jenny,” replied Dick, sorrowfully, as he put his pistols back in his +belt. “You have both been cruelly deceived by your relatives. It +grieves me very much to have to tell you, Miss Muriel, that your two +cousins there, as well as their brothers and father, are members of +the dreaded White Hood Gang.” + +“Impossible!” gasped Muriel, while Jenny stood as if transfixed. +“Oh, that is too absurd!” + +“It is true, Miss Arnold,” put in Inspector Medhurst. “Your cousin +yonder took us for ghosts, and his brother cried out that he had +betrayed them. So he had, for it was fairly good proof--his taking +us for ghosts--that he believed we had all been killed by a horrible +trap set for us by him and his brothers and the two Seymours up +among the hills.” + +“Oh, it is impossible--impossible! I cannot believe it of them,” +panted Muriel, sinking helplessly upon the seat under the bulwark of +the scow. + +“You will oblige us, ladies, by going inside the cabin and keeping +silent,” continued Inspector Medhurst. “If your uncle and cousins +_are_ innocent, Muriel Arnold, they will be afforded every chance of +clearing themselves by the law of the land, provided they submit +quietly. Haverty and Leclere, bring the Seymours aboard. Then we +will draw out and make for the ‘castle.’ Sergeant, will you take the +tiller, and steer?” + +Gasping hard and staring wildly at each other, the two girls passed +inside the after-cabin, then stood embracing for mutual support, +while the police-troopers brought the Seymours aboard and hauled on +the anchor-rope, pulling the ark off-shore. + +Amos and Abner had been thrown helplessly handcuffed and gagged into +two of the bunks in the fore-cabin. Bud Seymour was put in another +bunk and his wife was bound to the mast inside the cabin. + +As the ark drew near “Water Castle,” Sergeant Dick and his +fellow-policemen saw that the gate in the “dockyard” palisading +stood wide, just as they expected it would be. The way in up to the +verandah or landing-stage was clear. + +But standing half within, half without the door of the “castle,” +peering out anxiously, was old Alf, rifle in hand, while faces were +visible at two of the windows facing them. There were no lights +showing in the place; all had been extinguished, and most of the +windows in sight appeared to be shuttered. + +“They heard the girls’ screams, and are on their guard, sergeant,” +Inspector Medhurst called in a low voice from the after-door of the +ark. + +“I’m afraid so, sir. Sound travels far over water, and this lake is +famous for its remarkable echoes,” Sergeant Dick answered as +cautiously, turning the ark’s nose a degree so as to skirt the +palisading to the open gate. + +“Ark, ahoy! Anything wrong? That you, Amos--Abner?” Old Man Alf +bawled to them. + +Sergeant Dick was still wearing “Bud” Seymour’s hat and coat, and +again mimicking that old reprobate’s voice, shouted back: + +“Of course, it’s Amos and Abner, and ‘Bud’ Seymour, too, a-comin’ to +see you, ole hoss! What do you think’s wrong?” + +Old Alf evidently consulted with others of the garrison, but he +still seemed suspicious as he called out again: + +“Amos, Abner, are you there? What did them there screams mean? We +heerd them right enough. Muriel--Jenny, is it all right wi’ you?” + +“No, father, it isn’t,” shrilled Jenny on the instant, rushing to +the edge of the squared bow. “The police are here, and they are +after you and the boys. They’ve got Amos and Abner, and the two +Seymours, prisoners in the cabin. Those you see are police wearing +their hats.” + +She shouted the words rapidly--all in one breath. + +Muriel gasped in dismay and ran and clapped a hand over her mouth, +too late. She fought to free her mouth and shout something more, as +Inspector Medhurst and three of the troopers rushed forth from the +cabin and seized and dragged her and Muriel within it again. + +“Oh, Jenny! Why were you so foolish? They will fight to the bitter +end now. I know they will--your father and brothers. You have sealed +their doom.” + +“She has that, for, as I said, if they resist, we will show no +mercy--we cannot show any,” exclaimed Inspector Medhurst. Then he +stepped to the door again, and called out: + +“Surrender, Arnold! Submit quietly, and you will all have the +benefit of a fair trial. Refuse, and resist us at your peril! You +know the penalty of defying us--the police.” + +Old Alf had vanished within the door, which was now closed, and the +other faces were no longer visible at the windows. All the windows +in sight presented only their armored, loopholed screens. + +Suddenly one of the screens was thrown open, and Aunt Kate’s voice +boomed forth, even as the bow of the ark scraped one of the gate +posts in the palisading, and the clumsy vessel swung slowly round to +enter the gate. + +“Let my two sons and daughter whom you have prisoners come on to the +verandah and talk to us, and we’ll think about surrenderin’.” + +Inspector Medhurst did not reply, but stepped back inside the +fore-cabin. He called through the after one for the two troopers +with Sergeant Dick to keep close behind the tiller-shield, with him. + +“Stand on up to the house and lay us alongside the verandah, +sergeant,” he added. + +“Do you hear me, you policemen?” roared the lion-like old woman +again. “Give my sons and daughter their liberty, let ’em join us, +and we’ll then talk about surrenderin’.” + +“Your two sons aboard with us are prisoners, and as such they will +remain,” Medhurst answered, after another moment or two’s pause +during which Sergeant Dick ran the scow swiftly and deftly alongside +the verandah. “I will hold no further parley with you than to ask +you once more, ‘Do you surrender or do you not?’” + +“Curse you, we will fight to the death!” roared out the voice of +Aaron. + +An automatic pistol cracked rapidly from the open window, and bullet +after bullet from the weapon clanged against and ricocheted off the +steel tiller-shield, behind which Sergeant Dick and Troopers Bell +and Watts were standing huddled, showing not as much as an elbow, +fortunately for them. + +“Hold your fire, troopers! Hold your fire!” bawled Inspector +Medhurst. “Within the ‘castle,’ there! Alf Arnold, listen to me. I +have no wish to fire on the house, as you have women with you. Let +them come out--your wife and two daughters-in-law--then, if you men +will not surrender, so much the worse for you. Send the women out, +anyhow, first of all.” + +Abel, the other son in the house, had been quick to join in the +firing at the ark. But both desperadoes now ceased shooting, and a +silence intervened, broken at length by Aunt Kate’s voice, calling +out: + +“No, no! Let Deb and Bella go, but my place is here. I will not +leave you, Alf, nor my brave lads.” + +“They only want you to open the door so’s they can make a rush in. +Don’t be gulled, men,” shrilled the voice of Bella, Abel’s wife. + +“We will take no such advantage of you,” the inspector bawled back, +“but, if you doubt my word, lower the women through your trapdoor +into a canoe.” + +Another longish pause, broken only by murmuring voices within the +“castle”; and then old Alf Arnold called out: + +“Very well, we will send the women out through the trapdoor.” + +Aunt Kate and her daughters-in-law could be heard still fiercely +protesting against quitting their husband’s sides. But the men’s +arguments evidently prevailed, for presently the occupants of the +ark could hear noises under the “castle,” which told them the women +were being put into one of the canoes. + +Sergeant Dick and Troopers Bell and Watts, by stooping and peeping +round the side of the tiller-screen, could see, through the piles +and cross-timbering under the verandah, the three women being +lowered in turn through the trap in the central passage of the +“castle” into a canoe drawn up under it. There were two other canoes +moored close by. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX--THE END OF THE WHITE HOODS, AND OF THE STORY + + +“Thank heaven for that mercy, Jenny. Your mother and sisters-in-law +will be out of the fighting,” panted Muriel. + +As the words left her lips there came a loud “view-hallo!” from the +direction of the southern end of the lake, and, glancing +thitherwards, Sergeant Dick and Inspector Medhurst saw a dozen or +more canoes and rafts making for them. + +For a moment the inmates of the ark believed that they were taken in +the rear by Indians, broken out on the warpath again. But the next +moment torches burst into flame in the leading canoes and revealed +that the new comers were cowboys and settlers from the surrounding +district. The red coat and Stetson hat of a police-trooper showed up +conspicuously in the foremost canoe under the bright torchlight. + +Medhurst and Sergeant Dick recognized the man as the trooper who had +been dispatched for reënforcements immediately after Dick’s rescue +from the White Hoods. + +Hails were exchanged between the troopers in the ark and the +would-be avengers in the canoes; explanations were called for, and +given freely. + +“It means that we’ve rounded up and cornered the last of the White +Hoods, men,” Inspector Medhurst shouted to those in the canoes. “Old +Man Arnold and his sons, his wife and two daughters-in-law with the +two Seymours, ‘Bud’ and his wife, formed the entire gang, as we +discovered. They tried to blow us up in the hills, where they’ve got +a secret duffing-yard stocked full of cattle, sheep, and horses, all +awaiting identification now. But we escaped the diabolical plot, +thanks be, and here we are with Amos and Abner Arnold and the two +Seymours prisoners, and just waiting for Mrs. Arnold and the other +women to come out before falling on and capturing or wiping out the +last three male members of the band--Old Alf and his two eldest +sons.” + +A yell of vengeful rage and fierce execration went up from the +canoes on the words; and the cowboys and settlers in the canoes were +all for attacking the “castle” from the other three sides in +conjunction with the police in the ark. + +But Inspector Medhurst again called out: + +“No, no, men, you must keep at a distance. This is our affair--for +us police to settle. And you wouldn’t rob us of any of the glory of +the capture of the place? We are strongly entrenched inside this +vessel, while you’d have no more chance in your canoes and on those +rafts than the redskins had in their late siege of the place. I +cannot allow you to throw away your lives in any such foolish +attack. You would all be wiped out and not be able to accomplish +anything.” + +The canoe containing Aunt Kate and her two daughters-in-law, Bella +and Deborah, now came up to the little gate in the timbering under +the “castle.” Unlocking the padlock upon it, the women opened it and +paddled out. + +“You had better come aboard the ark, Mrs. Arnold,” called the +Inspector. + +The women were nothing loath to do so, dreading with reason the +reception they would get from their infuriated neighbors in the +canoes and on the rafts. Every man’s hand was against the White +Hoods, and all belonging to them; their atrocities had enraged every +one, English, French, and Indian. + +As the three women stepped aboard and passed by Sergeant Dick behind +the tiller-screen, they each gave him a look of awful hate and +vengeful longing. + +Barely had the cabin door closed upon them than from three of the +front windows of the “castle” three rifles rang out and as many +bullets clanged again against the tiller-screen covering Sergeant +Dick and Troopers Bell and Watts. + +The police still held their fire, but Sergeant Dick saw the +after-door of the ark open cautiously a few inches again, and +Inspector Medhurst peep round it and beckon to him--indicate by +jerking a finger that he and the two troopers were to move the +tiller-screen close up against the door. + +This the trio promptly proceeded to do. They contrived to do so +without exposing themselves in any way, but caused two of the +outlaws in the “castle” again to blaze away furiously at their +shield. + +When it was alongside the after-door, Medhurst put into Dick’s hands +a small barrel or keg, with a candle thrust into the open bunghole. + +“Sergeant,” he whispered, “here is a keg of gunpowder. Slip under +the verandah in the canoe and put it just beneath the door, then +light the candle and get back as smartly as you can. We shall have +to push off promptly to escape the force of the explosion. Will you +do it?” + +“Certainly, inspector. Where did you find the keg?” + +“Inside one of the store-cupboards. The sight of it suggested the +idea.” + +“One moment, sir! Would it not be better to blow in the western or +eastern wall? You remember what I told you about the drop-floor in +the front room? The gap would want some getting over, if they let it +down, even if we got in the front as the Ogalcrees did, in the face +of their fire from the inner rooms.” + +“Just as you like, sergeant. Very well, let it be the western wall.” + +Sergeant Dick, hugging the keg of gunpowder under his left arm, +dropped on his knees and crawled round the farther end of the +tiller-screen. His head was below the level of the verandah, and so +he was hidden from the fierce, watching eyes at the “castle” +loopholes. + +Wriggling noiselessly and cautiously over the scow’s bulwark, he +stepped on to the cross-timbering between the piles supporting the +verandah, and the next moment he had dodged through the open gate, +by which the three Mrs. Arnolds had come out in the canoe, and was +under the verandah. + +The canoe was alongside the gate, but tied to the stern of the scow. +He stepped into it and cast off the painter; then, leaving the +paddles lying where they were in the canoe at his feet, he +soundlessly began to work the canoe along the inside of the piles by +shifting his hands along the timbering. + +In this way he worked himself under the house itself and over to the +west side. He set the little keg against one of the piles supporting +the western wall, immediately between the two bedrooms on that +side--Aaron’s and Abel’s, as it happened. The keg fitted neatly in +the crook formed by the pile and a cross-brace. + +Then he struck a match softly and lighted the candle in the +bunghole, immediately hurrying back diagonally in the canoe the way +he had come, for the gate. + +He gained the opening and wriggled noiselessly back over the bulwark +of the scow. That the candle-fuse was still burning all right he +could see through the piles. + +The next moment he was behind the tiller-screen and safe inside the +after-cabin, where, on hearing his report that the mine was set, +Inspector Medhurst at once gave orders for the ark to be thrust off +from the verandah. She had been hooked on to the piles with +boathooks, that was all, and the current, flowing southward, at once +began to drift her away from “Water Castle” back towards the gate of +the outer palisading or “dockyard.” + +Sergeant Dick saw that none of the prisoners were in the +after-cabin, and concluded that they had all been kept from the +windows and in ignorance of what had been done. + +Then it came--a great blinding, lurid flash, round and under the +house, a deafening bang! Bits of the roof and fragments of the +shattered wall and floor of the “castle” hurtled into the air and +fell splashing into the water around. + +“Round to the side blown in, quick, men!” yelled Inspector Medhurst, +while all the women in the fore-cabin screamed in terror, to know +what had happened. + +The troopers at the windows told them, and the three Mrs. Arnolds +indulged in the vilest abuse of Inspector Medhurst, Sergeant Dick, +and all the Royal Mounted Police in Canada. + +Paying no heed to the vituperation, the police-troopers under their +two officers sailed the ark hurriedly past the verandah to the west +side, where they beheld a great gaping hole blown in the wall of the +“castle.” The hole showed the partition between the two bedrooms and +their communicating door, and was high enough and wide enough on +either side of it to allow of two horsemen riding through abreast. + +A dense cloud of smoke was still pouring from the two rooms exposed, +and part of the flooring was gone, along with the piles and +cross-bracing that had supported it; so that, though the holes into +the bedrooms were so large, the aforesaid two horsemen would have +found it difficult to find any footing, to get inside. + +But the police-troopers made nothing of such a difficulty. As +Sergeant Dick ran the ark close up against the shattered wall, they +all swarmed out of the after-cabin door beside him, revolvers in +hand. Then, led by him and Inspector Medhurst, they crowded to the +bulwark immediately opposite the gap, like bluejackets boarding an +enemy ship. Sergeant Dick headed the intrusion into Aaron’s bedroom, +the inspector that into Abel’s. + +All the women, of course, had been shut up, without arms, in the +fore-cabin of the ark--locked inside it so that they could not get +out and interfere in any way. + +As Sergeant Dick sprang through the hole in the wall the door in +front of him, leading into the central passage, was thrown open, and +the three Arnolds appeared, reeling like drunken men under the +unexpected shock of the shattering of their stronghold, and mad with +fury and despair. + +Each of them gripped an automatic in either hand and looked more +like a demon than a human being, in the semi-gloom and dusty fog of +the place. + +Sergeant Dick promptly flung himself on his knees. Simultaneously +all six weapons in front of him spoke rapidly, and the bullets went +whizzing over his head. + +As by a miracle, none of the troopers behind him was struck down. +None, as it happened, was just in the line of fire, and, hurriedly +ducking and dodging to one side, they pelted back a quick return +fire, while Dick slipped swiftly to one side, dived out of the way +like a cat or some wild thing. + +There were two ringing screams, and Aaron and Abel fell heavily +against their father, throwing the old man down. Then with a rush, +the police under Dick disarmed and seized the trio. Sergeant Dick +had not fired a shot--had had no need to--and he was glad in his +heart that he had not been obliged to do so, on Muriel’s account. + +He did not wish to have the blood of any of her relatives on his +hands, even though shed in fair fight and in defense of law and +order. + +Inspector Medhurst and those following came flocking through the +intervening door. But their aid was unnecessary. Aaron and Abel had +both been shot dead, and Old Man Arnold was dying. + +“Inspector Medhurst, I would tell you something before I go,” Old +Alf exclaimed, with difficulty. “The girl Muriel is--is not my niece +at all, but--but your daughter. She is no relation of mine. You +believed your wife and child were killed by redskins. They were not. +It was I who stopped them, I and--and--Bud--I mean several others. +Your wife resisted us, and--and I shot her; and then we threw her +body over the cataract, and some of the others wanted to throw the +child after the mother. But my wife wouldn’t hear of that. Yes, she +was there--I’ve let it out now--but her saving the life of your +child should speak for her. She said she would adopt the +child--pretend it was my sister’s child, and we threw the little +thing’s hat and shawl after its mother, to make you believe it was +in the river too.” + +“Great heavens! Is this true? Your supposed niece, my daughter--my +little Agnes?” cried Medhurst, staggered by the revelation, as well +he might be. + +“It’s the gospel’s own truth, as I am a dying man, Medhurst,” +groaned the old bandit chief. + +The next moment he had breathed his last. + +His wife readily admitted that Muriel was Medhurst’s daughter, on +learning of her husband’s disclosure, and that he was dead and her +two eldest sons the same. The meeting between father and daughter we +shall not attempt to describe, beyond saying that both were too +stunned and affected by the dreadful happenings of the last hour, +their grim surroundings, to be very demonstrative. Indeed, Muriel +seemed too stunned by the news to quite grasp its import. + +So the dreaded White Hood Gang was no more--broken and rounded up to +its very last member. The difficulty of bringing home any actual +murder or atrocity to the prisoners, as none of them turned King’s +evidence, resulted in their all escaping the death penalty and +receiving various terms of imprisonment instead. + +Amos and Abner, however, within three months of their sentence, +attempted to break jail and were both mortally wounded by their +armed guards. As for “Bud,” or Bill, Seymour and Aunt Kate, they +both died in prison. + +Eighteen months after Muriel or Agnes Medhurst had been restored to +her father, she was led to the altar-rails in the little backwoods +church of Paquita Springs by Inspector John Dick, for he was +sergeant no longer, having been promoted to control of a +far-stretching territory adjoining Lonewater for the prominent part +he had taken in the detection and rounding-up of the dreaded White +Hoods. + +As for Jenny Arnold--the poor, innocent half-witted daughter and +sister of that evil family--Muriel or Agnes Medhurst had taken her +under her wing from the hour which witnessed the capture and ruin of +the stronghold on the lake, their joint home up to that hour. And +the two girls were not parted by Agnes’s marriage; Jenny went to +live with the married pair, and was as a sister to them both, under +their roof. + +The End + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +SEA STORIES FOR BOYS + +By JOHN GABRIEL ROWE + +Large 12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. Colored jacket + +Price per volume, $1.00 Net + +Every boy who knows the lure of exploring and who loves to rig up huts +and caves and tree-houses to fortify himself against imaginary enemies +will enjoy these books, for they give a vivid chronicle of the doings +and inventions of a group of boys who are shipwrecked and have to make +themselves snug and safe in tropical islands where the dangers are too +real for play. + +1. CRUSOE ISLAND + +Dick, Alf and Fred find themselves stranded on an unknown island with +the old seaman Josh, their ship destroyed by fire, their friends lost. + +2. THE ISLAND TREASURE + +With much ingenuity these boys fit themselves into the wild life of the +island they are cast upon in storm. + +3. THE MYSTERY OF THE DERELICT + +Their ship and companions perished in tempest at sea, the boys are +adrift in a small open boat when they spy a ship. Such a strange +vessel!--no hand guiding it, no soul on board,--a derelict. + +4. THE LIGHTSHIP PIRATES + +Modern Pirates, with the ferocity of beasts, attack a lightship +crew;--recounting the adventures that befall the survivors of that +crew,--and--“RETRIBUTION.” + +5. THE SECRET OF THE GOLDEN IDOL + +Telling of a mutiny, and how two youngsters were unwillingly involved in +one of the weirdest of treasure hunts,--and--“THE GOLDEN FETISH.” + +Send For Our Free Illustrated Catalogue + +CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, Publishers--New York + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +THE KING OF THE MOUNTAINS + +(Le Roi des Montagnes) + +By EDMOND ABOUT + +Translated by Florence Crewe-Jones + +Illustrated by George Avison + +12mo. Illustrated. Beautiful cloth binding, stamped in gold. Jacket in +colors. Price $1.50 Net + +Edmond About’s classic masterpiece of whimsical humor, romantic action +and wild surroundings, appeals to all classes and ages of readers. The +lawless, happy-go-lucky bands of the Grecian mountains, bargaining with +prisoners and government officials in a kind of uncivilized traffic, +affords the uncertainty in adventure which makes delightful reading for +boy or man. + +Hadji Stavros is the never-to-be-forgotten representative of the right +to get without limits. To him the only injustice or error in life was in +being weak, in which any unselfishness was weakness. And yet, he allowed +his love for his daughter to overthrow his system of life. To be +entertained by “The King of the Mountains” as a dramatic story is not +enough, it is a profound study of character and life. + +CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, Publishers--New York + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +TOM MARTIN + +THE BREAKER BOY + +By R. P. PHELPS + +Illustrated by Howard L. Hastings. + +Large 12mo. + +Beautifully bound in cloth, stamped in gold, jacket in full colors. + +Price $1.50 Net. + +Tom Martin is the story of a boy’s struggle to make the best of life, +though in the worst of circumstances. His experience has the interest of +a boy who had been lost to his family from babyhood and was brought up +in the hardships and abuse of a shiftless miner’s household. But he +could overcome difficulties and endure the hardships because of his will +to become an honorable and successful man. + +Tom Martin’s adventures and exciting experience were real events in the +work of the mines and the mistreatments of his supposed parents. How he +turned failure into success, righted his wrongs, and at last found his +own real friends and relatives, makes a strong story that any courageous +boy will enjoy reading. As the descriptions of life in the mines of West +Virginia and Pennsylvania are genuine, it is of great educational value +as to the coal-mining industry. Many improvements have been made in the +various methods of mining since Tom Martin’s experience, but the life of +the miners remains much the same. For interest in the life of a +courageous boy and the educational value as to the miner’s living, it is +a book that every boy should have joy in reading. + +CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, Publishers--New York + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +Everybody will love the story of + +NOBODY’S BOY + +By HECTOR MALOT + +The dearest character in all the literature of child life is little Remi +in Hector Malot’s famous masterpiece Sans Famille (“Nobody’s Boy”). + +All love, pathos, loyalty, and noble boy character are exemplified in +this homeless little lad, who has made the world better for his being in +it. The boy or girl who knows Remi has an ideal never to be forgotten. +But it is a story for grownups, too. + +“Nobody’s Boy” is one of the supreme heart-interest stories of all time, +which will make you happier and better. + +4 Colored Illustrations. $1.50 net. + +At All Booksellers + +CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, Publishers--New York + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +THE COLLEGE SPORTS SERIES + +By LESTER CHADWICK + +12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. Jacket in Colors. + +Price 75 cents per volume. Postage 10 cents additional. + +Mr. Chadwick has played on the diamond and on the gridiron himself. + +1. THE RIVAL PITCHERS + +A Story of College Baseball + +Tom Parsons, a “hayseed,” makes good on the scrub team of Randall +College. + +2. A QUARTERBACK’S PLUCK + +A Story of College Football + +A football story, told in Mr. Chadwick’s best style, that is bound to +grip the reader from the start. + +3. BATTING TO WIN + +A Story of College Baseball + +Tom Parsons and his friends Phil and Sid are the leading players on +Randall College team. There is a great game. + +4. THE WINNING TOUCHDOWN + +A Story of College Football + +After having to reorganize their team at the last moment, Randall makes +a touchdown that won a big game. + +5. FOR THE HONOR OF RANDALL + +A Story of College Athletics + +The winning of the hurdle race and long-distance run is extremely +exciting. + +6. THE EIGHT-OARED VICTORS + +A Story of College Water Sports + +Tom, Phil and Sid prove as good at aquatic sports as they are on track, +gridiron and diamond. + +Send for Our Free Illustrated Catalogue. + +CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, Publishers--New York + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +THE GREAT MARVEL SERIES + +By ROY ROCKWOOD + +12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. Jacket in Colors + +Price per volume, $1.00, postpaid + +Stories of adventures in strange places, with peculiar people and queer +animals. + +1. THROUGH THE AIR TO THE NORTH POLE or The Wonderful Cruise of the +Electric Monarch + +The tale of a trip to the frozen North with a degree of reality that is +most convincing. + +2. UNDER THE OCEAN TO THE SOUTH POLE or The Strange Cruise of the +Submarine Wonder + +A marvelous trip from Maine to the South Pole, telling of adventures +with the sea-monsters and savages. + +3. FIVE THOUSAND MILES UNDERGROUND or The Mystery of the Center of the +Earth + +A cruise to the center of the earth through an immense hole found at an +island in the ocean. + +4. THROUGH SPACE TO MARS or The Most Wonderful Trip on Record + +This book tells how the journey was made in a strange craft and what +happened on Mars. + +5. LOST ON THE MOON or In Quest of the Field of Diamonds + +Strange adventures on the planet which is found to be a land of +desolation and silence. + +6. ON A TORN-AWAY WORLD or Captives of the Great Earthquake + +After a tremendous convulsion of nature the adventurers find themselves +captives on a vast “island in the air.” + +7. THE CITY BEYOND THE CLOUDS or Captured by the Red Dwarfs + +The City Beyond the Clouds is a weird place, full of surprises, and the +impish Red Dwarfs caused no end of trouble. There is a fierce battle in +the woods and in the midst of this a volcanic eruption sends the +Americans sailing away in a feverish endeavor to save their lives. + +Send For Our Free Illustrated Catalogue + +CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, Publishers--New York + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +THE JACK RANGER SERIES + +By CLARENCE YOUNG + +12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. Jacket in Colors + +Price 75 cents per volume. Postage 10 cents additional + +Lively stories of outdoor sports and adventure every boy will want to +read. + +1. JACK RANGER’S SCHOOL DAYS or The Rivals of Washington Hall + +You will love Jack Ranger--you simply can’t help it. He is bright and +cheery, and earnest in all he does. + +2. JACK RANGER’S WESTERN TRIP or From Boarding School to Ranch and Range + +This volume takes the hero to the great West. Jack is anxious to clear +up the mystery surrounding his father’s disappearance. + +3. JACK RANGER’S SCHOOL VICTORIES or Track, Gridiron and Diamond + +Jack gets back to Washington Hall and goes in for all sorts of school +games. There are numerous contests on the athletic field. + +4. JACK RANGER’S OCEAN CRUISE or The Wreck of the Polly Ann + +How Jack was carried off to sea against his will makes a “yarn” no boy +will want to miss. + +5. JACK RANGER’S GUN CLUB or From Schoolroom to Camp and Trail + +Jack organizes a gun club and with his chums goes in quest of big game. +They have many adventures in the mountains. + +6. JACK RANGER’S TREASURE BOX or The Outing of the Schoolboy Yachtsmen + +Jack receives a box from his father and it is stolen. How he regains it +makes an absorbing tale. + +Send for Our Free Illustrated Catalogue. + +CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, Publishers--New York + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +The Boy Hunters Series + +By Captain Ralph Bonehill + +12mo. Illustrated. Price per volume, $1.00, postpaid + +FOUR BOY HUNTERS Or, The Outing of the Gun Club + +A fine, breezy story of the woods and waters, of adventures in search of +game, and of great times around the campfire, told in Captain Bonehill’s +best style. In the book are given full directions for camping out. + +GUNS AND SNOWSHOES Or, The Winter Outing of the Young Hunters + +In this volume the young hunters leave home for a winter outing on the +shores of a small lake. They hunt and trap to their heart’s content, and +have adventures in plenty, all calculated to make boys “sit up and take +notice.” A good healthy book; one with the odor of the pine forests and +the glare of the welcome campfire in every chapter. + +YOUNG HUNTERS OF THE LAKE Or, Out with Rod and Gun + +Another tale of woods and waters, with some strong hunting scenes and a +good deal of mystery. The three volumes make a splendid outdoor series. + +OUT WITH GUN AND CAMERA Or, The Boy Hunters in the Mountains + +Takes up the new fad of photographing wild animals as well as shooting +them. An escaped circus chimpanzee and an escaped lion add to the +interest of the narrative. + +CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, Publishers--New York + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +THE BASEBALL JOE SERIES + +By LESTER CHADWICK + +12mo. Illustrated. Price 50 cents per volume. + +Postage 10 cents additional. + +1. BASEBALL JOE OF THE SILVER STARS or The Rivals of Riverside + +2. BASEBALL JOE ON THE SCHOOL NINE or Pitching for the Blue Banner + +3. BASEBALL JOE AT YALE or Pitching for the College Championship + +4. BASEBALL JOE IN THE CENTRAL LEAGUE or Making Good as a Professional +Pitcher + +5. BASEBALL JOE IN THE BIG LEAGUE or A Young Pitcher’s Hardest Struggles + +6. BASEBALL JOE ON THE GIANTS or Making Good as a Twirler in the +Metropolis + +7. BASEBALL JOE IN THE WORLD SERIES or Pitching for the Championship + +8. BASEBALL JOE AROUND THE WORLD or Pitching on a Grand Tour + +9. BASEBALL JOE: HOME RUN KING or The Greatest Pitcher and Batter on +Record + +10. BASEBALL JOE SAVING THE LEAGUE or Breaking Up a Great Conspiracy + +11. BASEBALL JOE CAPTAIN OF THE TEAM or Bitter Struggles on the Diamond + +12. BASEBALL JOE CHAMPION OF THE LEAGUE or The Record that was Worth +While + +13. BASEBALL JOE CLUB OWNER or Putting the Home Town on the Map + +14. BASEBALL JOE PITCHING WIZARD or Triumphs Off and On the Diamond + +Send for Our Free Illustrated Catalogue. + +CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, Publishers--New York + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +THE JEWEL SERIES + +By AMES THOMPSON + +12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. Jacket in colors + +Price per volume, 65 cents + +A series of stories brimming with hardy adventure, vivid and accurate in +detail, and with a good foundation of probability. They take the reader +realistically to the scene of action. Besides being lively and full of +real situations, they are written in a straightforward way very +attractive to boy readers. + +1. THE ADVENTURE BOYS AND THE VALLEY OF DIAMONDS + +Malcolm Edwards and his son Ralph are adventurers with ample means for +following up their interest in jewel clues. In this book they form a +party of five, including Jimmy Stone and Bret Hartson, boys of Ralph’s +age, and a shrewd level-headed sailor named Stanley Greene. They find a +valley of diamonds in the heart of Africa. + +2. THE ADVENTURE BOYS AND THE RIVER OF EMERALDS + +The five adventurers, staying at a hotel in San Francisco, find that +Pedro the elevator man has an interesting story of a hidden “river of +emeralds” in Peru, to tell. With him as guide, they set out to find it, +escape various traps set for them by jealous Peruvians, and are much +amused by Pedro all through the experience. + +3. THE ADVENTURE BOYS AND THE LAGOON OF PEARLS + +This time the group starts out on a cruise simply for pleasure, but +their adventuresome spirits lead them into the thick of things on a +South Sea cannibal island. Send For Our Free Illustrated Catalogue + +Send For Our Free Illustrated Catalogue + +CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, Publishers--New York + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +THE BOMBA BOOKS + +By ROY ROCKWOOD + +12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. With colored jacket. + +Price 50 cents per volume. + +Postage 10 cents additional. + +Bomba lived far back in the jungles of the Amazon with a half-demented +naturalist who told the lad nothing of his past. The jungle boy was a +lover of birds, and hunted animals with a bow and arrow and his trusty +machete. He had a primitive education in some things, and his daring +adventures will be followed with breathless interest by thousands. + +1. BOMBA THE JUNGLE BOY or The Old Naturalist’s Secret + +2. BOMBA THE JUNGLE BOY AT THE MOVING MOUNTAIN or The Mystery of the +Caves of Fire + +3. BOMBA THE JUNGLE BOY AT THE GIANT CATARACT or Chief Nasconora and His +Captives + +4. BOMBA THE JUNGLE BOY ON JAGUAR ISLAND or Adrift on the River of +Mystery + +5. BOMBA THE JUNGLE BOY IN THE ABANDONED CITY or A Treasure Ten Thousand +Years Old + +6. BOMBA THE JUNGLE BOY ON TERROR TRAIL or The Mysterious Men from the +Sky + +7. BOMBA THE JUNGLE BOY IN THE SWAMP OF DEATH or The Sacred Alligators +of Abarago + +8. BOMBA THE JUNGLE BOY AMONG THE SLAVES or Daring Adventures in the +Valley of Skulls + +Send for Our Free Illustrated Catalogue. + +CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, Publishers--New York + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +THE WEBSTER SERIES + +By FRANK V. WEBSTER + +Mr. WEBSTER’S style is very much like that of the boys’ favorite author, +the late lamented Horatio Alger, Jr., but his tales are thoroughly +up-to-date. + +Cloth. 12mo. Over 200 pages each. Illustrated. Stamped in various +colors. + +Price per volume, 50 cents. + +Postage 10 cents additional. + + Only a Farm Boy or Dan Hardy’s Rise in Life + The Boy from the Ranch or Roy Bradner’s City Experiences + The Young Treasure Hunter or Fred Stanley’s Trip to Alaska + The Boy Pilot of the Lakes or Nat Morton’s Perils + Tom the Telephone Boy or The Mystery of a Message + Bob the Castaway or The Wreck of the Eagle + The Newsboy Partners or Who Was Dick Box? + Two Boy Gold Miners or Lost in the Mountains + The Young Firemen of Lakeville or Herbert Dare’s Pluck + The Boys of Bellwood School or Frank Jordan’s Triumph + Jack the Runaway or On the Road with a Circus + Bob Chester’s Grit or From Ranch to Riches + Airship Andy or The Luck of a Brave Boy + High School Rivals or Fred Markham’s Struggles + Darry the Life Saver or The Heroes of the Coast + Dick the Bank Boy or A Missing Fortune + Ben Hardy’s Flying Machine or Making a Record for Himself + Harry Watson’s High School Days or The Rivals of Rivertown + Comrades of the Saddle or The Young Rough Riders of the Plains + Tom Taylor at West Point or The Old Army Officer’s Secret + The Boy Scouts of Lennox or Hiking Over Big Bear Mountain + The Boys of the Wireless or a Stirring Rescue from the Deep + Cowboy Dave or the Round-up at Rolling River + Jack of the Pony Express or The Young Rider of the Mountain Trail + The Boys of the Battleship or For the Honor of Uncle Sam + +CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, Publishers--New York + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +THE BOB DEXTER SERIES + +By WILLARD F. BAKER + +12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. Jacket in Colors + +Price per volume, 65 cents, postpaid + +This is a new line of stories for boys, by the author of the Boy +Ranchers series. The Bob Dexter books are of the character that may be +called detective stories, yet they are without the objectionable +features of the impossible characters and absurd situations that mark so +many of the books in that class. These stories deal with the up-to-date +adventures of a normal, healthy lad who has a great desire to solve +mysteries. + +1. BOB DEXTER AND THE CLUB-HOUSE MYSTERY or The Missing Golden Eagle + +This story tells how the Boys’ Athletic Club was despoiled of its +trophies in a strange manner, and how, among other things stolen, was +the Golden Eagle mascot. How Bob Dexter turned himself into an amateur +detective and found not only the mascot, but who had taken it, makes +interesting and exciting reading. + +2. BOB DEXTER AND THE BEACON BEACH MYSTERY or The Wreck of the Sea Hawk + +When Bob and his chum went to Beacon Beach for their summer vacation, +they were plunged, almost at once, into a strange series of events, not +the least of which was the sinking of the Sea Hawk. How some men tried +to get the treasure off the sunken vessel, and how Bob and his chum +foiled them, and learned the secret of the lighthouse, form a great +story. + +3. BOB DEXTER AND THE STORM MOUNTAIN MYSTERY or The Secret of the Log +Cabin + +Bob Dexter came upon a man mysteriously injured and befriended him. This +led the young detective into the swirling midst of a series of strange +events and into the companionship of strange persons, not the least of +whom was the man with the wooden leg. But Bob got the best of this +vindictive individual, and solved the mystery of the log cabin, showing +his friends how the secret entrance to the house was accomplished. + +Send For Our Free Illustrated Catalogue + +CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, Publishers--New York + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +THE BOY RANCHERS SERIES + +By WILLARD F. BAKER + +12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. Jacket in full colors + +Price 50 cents per volume. + +Postage 10 cents additional. + +Stories of the great west, with cattle ranches as a setting, related in +such a style as to captivate the hearts of all boys. + +1. THE BOY RANCHERS or Solving the Mystery at Diamond X + +Two eastern boys visit their cousin. They become involved in an exciting +mystery. + +2. THE BOY RANCHERS IN CAMP or the Water Fight at Diamond X + +Returning for a visit, the two eastern lads learn, with delight, that +they are to become boy ranchers. + +3. THE BOY RANCHERS ON THE TRAIL or The Diamond X After Cattle Rustlers + +Our boy heroes take the trail after Del Pinzo and his outlaws. + +4. THE BOY RANCHERS AMONG THE INDIANS or Trailing the Yaquis + +Rosemary and Floyd are captured by the Yaqui Indians but the boy +ranchers trailed them into the mountains and effected the rescue. + +5. THE BOY RANCHERS AT SPUR CREEK or Fighting the Sheep Herders + +Dangerous struggle against desperadoes for land rights brings out heroic +adventures. + +6. THE BOY RANCHERS IN THE DESERT or Diamond X and the Lost Mine + +One night a strange old miner almost dead from hunger and hardship +arrived at the bunk house. The boys cared for him and he told them of +the lost desert mine. + +7. THE BOY RANCHERS ON ROARING RIVER or Diamond X and the Chinese +Smugglers + +The boy ranchers help capture Delton’s gang who were engaged in +smuggling Chinese across the border. + +8. THE BOY RANCHERS IN DEATH VALLEY or Diamond X and the Poison Mystery + +The Boy Ranchers track Mysterious Death into his cave. + +Send for Our Free Illustrated Catalogue. + +CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, Publishers--New York + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +The Speedwell Boys Series + +By ROY ROCKWOOD + +Author of “The Dave Dashaway Series,” “Great Marvel Series,” etc. + +12mo. Illustrated. Price per volume, 65 cents, postpaid + +All boys who love to be on the go will welcome the Speedwell boys. They +are clean cut and loyal lads. + +The Speedwell Boys on Motor Cycles or The Mystery of a Great +Conflagration + +The lads were poor, but they did a rich man a great service and he +presented them with their motor cycles. What a great fire led to is +exceedingly well told. + +The Speedwell Boys and Their Racing Auto or A Run for the Golden Cup + +A tale of automobiling and of intense rivalry on the road. There was an +endurance run and the boys entered the contest. On the run they rounded +up some men who were wanted by the law. + +The Speedwell Boys and Their Power Launch or To the Rescue of the +Castaways + +Here is an unusual story. There was a wreck, and the lads, in their +power launch, set out to the rescue. A vivid picture of a great storm +adds to the interest of the tale. + +The Speedwell Boys in a Submarine or The Lost Treasure of Rocky Cove + +An old sailor knows of a treasure lost under water because of a cliff +falling into the sea. The boys get a chance to go out in a submarine and +they make a hunt for the treasure. + +The Speedwell Boys and Their Ice Racer or The Perils of a Great Blizzard + +The boys had an idea for a new sort of iceboat, to be run by combined +wind and motor power. How they built the craft, and what fine times they +had on board of it, is well related. + +CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, Publishers--New York + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +The Saddle Boys Series + +By CAPTAIN JAMES CARSON + +12mo. Illustrated. Price per volume, 65 cents, postpaid. + +All lads who love life in the open air and a good steed, will want to +peruse these books. Captain Carson knows his subject thoroughly, and his +stories are as pleasing as they are healthful and instructive. + +The Saddle Boys of the Rockies or Lost on Thunder Mountain + +Telling how the lads started out to solve the mystery of a great noise +in the mountains--how they got lost--and of the things they discovered. + +The Saddle Boys in the Grand Canyon or The Hermit of the Cove + +A weird and wonderful story of the Grand Canyon of the Colorado, told in +a most absorbing manner. The Saddle Boys are to the front in manner to +please all young readers. + +The Saddle Boys on the Plains or After a Treasure of Gold + +In this story the scene is shifted to the great plains of the southwest +and then to the Mexican border. There is a stirring struggle for gold, +told as only Captain Carson can tell it. + +The Saddle Boys at Circle Ranch or In at the Grand Round-up + +Here we have lively times at the ranch, and likewise the particulars of +a grand round-up of cattle and encounters with wild animals and also +cattle thieves. A story that breathes the very air of the plains. + +The Saddle Boys on Mexican Trails or In the Hands of the Enemy + +The scene is shifted in this volume to Mexico. The boys go on an +important errand, and are caught between the lines of the Mexican +soldiers. They are captured and for a while things look black for them; +but all ends happily. + +CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, Publishers--New York + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 76621 *** |