Chapter XI: Mr. Antis Forgets the Bell-Rope

WHEN Eben came back from seeing home his mother and the girls, and shut himself into his room, with no company but his lamp and his little stove, he did not find the solitude so pleasant. He could not but own that the voice of the water as it rushed and moaned and gurgled under the mill, and the sound of the wind around the corners of the large building, were rather airy and lonesome. The room itself was as bright and cheerful as possible, but he did not quite like to think that it was the only inhabited corner in the great rambling old building, where ever so many people might hide and never be found out.

"But this will never do!" said Eben, rousing himself from the mood that was stealing over him. "I shall be seeing robbers next. I am just as well off here as if I were at home, and I am not going to be afraid, now that I have undertaken the job. So come down here, old Carpenter, and let's have a grind at you before bed-time, if you have no objection."

Old Carpenter made no objection, and by the time Eben had mastered the subject of insect respiration his fancies had vanished, and his dreams that night were haunted by nothing worse than the persuasion that he was obliged to breathe through holes in his sides, like a caterpillar, and found himself sadly embarrassed by his clothes. After a few nights, he grew accustomed to his solitude, and liked it, and he never had a thought of being afraid.

"So, Fairchild, you have fitted up a very snug place here?" said Mr. Francis, surveying Eben's room with approbation on the occasion of his first visit. "The old books look very well. I had no notion there were so many. Where is the first volume of that set of Hume?"

"I took it home to read aloud to my mother and the girls," replied Eben. "I will be very careful of it."

"Very good, very good!" said the old gentleman. "So you spend your evenings at home? Very right! Always a very good sign to see a young man attentive to his mother and sisters. But I thought you had only one sister?"

"Mary Clarke boards at our house this winter," said Eben, blushing a little, he hardly knew why.

"Oh ho!" said the old gentleman, smiling. "So she's 'the girls,' is she? And I suppose she's a very nice girl—all the same as your sister, eh? Very good! I am pleased with you, Fairchild. You seem to be doing well in every respect, and I am much pleased with you. I have suggested to Mr. Antis that the rope from the mill bell be carried into this room, so that you can reach it in a moment if anything happens. Yes, yes, I am pleased with you, and especially that you are so dutiful to your mother. Very nice thing to have girls at home to read to, eh?"

And the old gentleman departed chuckling, leaving Eben not quite certain whether he was much pleased or vexed.

Day after day passed by, and still the bell-rope was not altered. It could not be done without making some changes which involved a half day of carpenter's work, and the one Boonville carpenter was a man of consequence, and not to be easily obtained. Jeduthun more than once asked Mr. Antis to let him do the work, declaring that if it were not fixed before the old gentleman came again he would make them all see sights, but Mr. Antis said Jeduthun had enough to do now, and the carpenter had promised to come the first of next week to set glass and do a good many odd jobs, and there was no use in doing his work for him. But a good many things were destined to happen before the first of next week came round.

Eben had had a very fatiguing day, and had gone to bed early, too tired even for the hour's "grind" with Carpenter which he usually permitted himself after returning to his hermitage, as the girls called his room at the mill. It seemed to him that he had only just fallen asleep when he was awakened by some sudden noise below, as he thought at the mill door. He sat up in bed and listened. There was certainly something going on below. He could hear steps, and even whispers, and then some one in the office.

"Oh, that bell-rope!" was his first thought as he sprang to his feet, and striking a light, proceeded to hurry on his clothes. "If it was here at the head of my bed, as it ought to have been, I could have given the alarm by this time, and now, there it hangs by the office door, as much out of my reach as though it were in China. What will the old gentleman say? But I will have a try for it, or at least for the front window, where I can make somebody hear. There would be no use in shouting from this one. If it were summer, I could drop out into the water and take my chance, but the water is too cold now to run the risk. Lord, help me to do what is right!"

All these thoughts passed through Eben's mind in much less time than it has taken to write them down. He opened the door of his room, and was disagreeably met by a hand on his throat which thrust him into a chair, while the owner of the hand, a stout, rough-looking man in a mask, stood over him.

"Now, look here, young man!" said he. "You just keep quiet and answer questions, and I won't hurt you. I know Mr. Antis got a thousand dollars at the bank yesterday. Where is it? Here in the safe or at his house?"

"Here, I suppose," said Eben. He was not certain about the matter, but judged it best to keep on the safe side, and spare Mrs. Antis, who was very delicate, the alarm of a visit from burglars.

"Have you got the keys of the safe?" was the next question. Eben would not answer at first, but in reply to repeated threats, he said, "I'll get them for you, if you'll let me get up."

"No, you don't!" said the robber. "I know a trick worth two of that. Where are they?"

"All my keys are in that little upper drawer," was the answer. "The key to that is in my pocket."

Eben could not see, but he could hear, the drawer opened and the keys taken out. The robbers then proceeded to tie his hands and feet, and to put a gag in his mouth. They then left him and went down stairs.

Eben might have been excused for being a good deal scared, for his position was far from being agreeable. He was entirely in the power of a set of ruffians, who might kill him on the spot, or, worse still, set the mill on fire and go off, leaving him helpless to perish in the flames. A good deal to his own surprise, however, he found himself perfectly cool and collected, and able to consider clearly all the details of his situation and all the chances of escape. In giving up the keys, he had not thought it necessary to say that they belonged to an old safe in the loft filled with account books, and it was even with a feeling of amusement that he heard the robbers below in the office working at the lock.

"They must be rather green hands," he thought, "or they would see in a minute that the keys don't fit. There! They have got tired of it. I wonder what next?"

One of the robbers now came up stairs and said to Eben:

"Do you understand the lock?"

Eben nodded.

"Then come down and show us the trick of it. We can't get it open."

"Better knock him in the head and blow the lock open!" growled the other man.

"Yes, and make no end of noise and take no end of time," said the first. "No, no, the shortest way is to make the boy do it. Now, I am going to untie you, young man, and take you down stairs, and, remember, my revolver is close behind you."

A thrill of joy passed through Eben's heart at these words. He thought he saw a chance for giving the alarm, if not for escaping, and he determined to run any risk in order to do so. The bell-rope hung in a dark corner just outside the office door, and he knew that the very first clang of the bell would bring Jeduthun to his aid. He uttered a short, fervent prayer for help, and then professed his willingness to go down stairs.

"I don't want to unlock the safe myself," said he, "but I can show you how to do it. There is a trick to the lock."

"Come along, then," said the least brutal of the men; "nobody wants to hurt you, if you'll be accommodating."

Never had the mill stairs seemed so long to Eben as on this occasion, but they reached the office at last, where another person was standing, engaged in transferring a box of Mr. Antis's choice cigars, a present from Mr. Francis, to his own pocket. The man was masked, but something about him seemed familiar, and Eben started to hear him say, half aloud, "Well, I wouldn't have believed Eben would give up so easy."

"Hold your tongue, you fool!" growled Eben's first acquaintance. "Now, young man, show us the trick of the lock, or unlock it yourself."

"I don't want to do that, but I can show you how it goes," said Eben, whose object was to keep near the door. "You must hold the plate back with one hand while you turn the key with the other. No, no! Push the plate back and up. The key always turns very hard."

The first robber did as directed. Insensibly, in his interest in watching the process of unlocking the safe, Eben's guard loosed his hold. In an instant Eben's hand grasped the bell-rope, which hung close by him, and he gave it three or four quick jerks, making the loud bell send forth an irregular peal, which he knew would arouse Jeduthun and Mr. Antis at once. Then, by a violent wrench freeing himself from his detainer, he darted round the corner, followed by a shot from a revolver. His object was to reach the lever by which the water was let on the wheel. He knew that the moment Mr. Antis opened his door, he would hear the sound of the mill and know that something was wrong.

He succeeded in finding the lever in the darkness, and made one desperate exertion of his fast-failing strength. He knew that he was wounded and bleeding terribly, but he hung on with desperate energy till he heard the dash of the water and the clank and hum of the machinery. Then a deadly faintness overcame him, and he dropped upon a heap of oats close by. He heard heavy feet, a shout from Jeduthun's trumpet voice, then more shots, and his own name called. He tried to answer, but his voice failed him, and he knew no more.

As Eben had anticipated, Jeduthun was awakened by the first sound of the bell, and before the echo had died away he had struggled into his clothes as only a soldier can, snatched his revolver, and was flying towards the mill. Mr. Antis was there as quickly as himself, only to be knocked down by a man issuing from the door. Crack! went Jeduthun's pistol, followed by a plunge into the water, and when Mr. Antis rose, he found Jeduthun holding down a prostrate figure, from which proceeded a voice begging for mercy.

"What's the matter?" asked Mr. Antis, stunned and half bewildered by the blow he had received, which was a heavy one.

"Lots of things," returned Jeduthun. "Are you hurt, boss?"

"No, I guess not," said Mr. Antis, only half comprehending the situation.

"Then take hold of this fellow and help me tie him. If you don't lie still, you rascal, I'll put a bullet through you!" said Jeduthun, whose wild blood was up with the excitement.

"Oh, don't! Oh, Mr. Antis, don't let him kill me!"

"Don't I know that voice?" exclaimed Mr. Antis.

"Of course you do," said Jeduthun, "but never mind now. I want to find out what they've done with Eben. I'm afraid they've made way with the boy."

"He got away," said Tom Wilbur, for it was no other. "Oh, Mr. Antis, let me go, and I'll never come near here again!"

"But where is the man that knocked me down?" asked Mr. Antis, still a little confused.

"He ain't far off, I guess!" replied Jeduthun, grimly. "I reckon he's got all he wants, and a little over. Here, Barton, do take hold of this fellow. Boss has got all the sense knocked out of him, I think."

"Not quite, I hope," said Mr. Antis. "I am all right now. Barton, is this you?"

"Yes, sir," said Mr. Barton, who, like Jeduthun, had been aroused by the bell, but who, living farther away, had only just reached the scene of action. "What has happened? Is anybody hurt?"

By this time Jeduthun had produced a light from somewhere. Tom was secured, and the party entered the mill. The office was examined first, and then Mr. Antis went up to Eben's room.

"He is not here," called he from the top of the stairs. "What can have become of him?"

At that moment Jeduthun discovered the trail of blood on the floor. Uttering an exclamation of horror, he followed it up till he found Eben lying on the pile of oats, senseless and apparently dead.