Chapter XIX: Holding Bluff in

Frank involuntarily tried to draw his hand back.

The grasp of the unknown, however, was too strenuous, and he could not do so unless he created such a disturbance as must have aroused any sleeper nearby. Besides, a wild suspicion had flashed through his mind. Perhaps this was his chum Jerry, trying to escape from his place of confinement.

He squeezed the fingers that clutched his. It was a sign manual used in the secret society to which both of them belonged in the Academy at Centerville. To his great delight the secret grip was returned immediately.

Then it _was_ Jerry! He was alive, and even at that moment endeavoring to get away from those who were holding him against his will!

Frank felt like shouting aloud, so great a sense of gratitude swept over him; but fortunately he did not give way to such foolishness.

He put his head deep down into the hole he had made and whispered, making just the faintest sound possible:

"Jerry!"

"Frank!" came back like the sighing of the wind up in some of those lofty trees that overhung the lonely cabin with such a bad name.

Then the last doubt vanished. It only remained to get Jerry out of that place as soon as possible. Why, left to himself he seemed able to force his way to freedom, and with what aid they could extend surely only a few minutes would be needed to accomplish it.

Even as he thought thus, he felt his hand violently thrust back. At the same moment there was the sound of heavy voices in the cabin. Evidently one or both of the tramps must have entered the second room and discovered Jerry on his knees engaged in tunneling out.

There was no sound of a blow struck. Had there been, Frank could never have contained himself, but regardless of consequences must have rushed around to where the door lay, and burst into the place.

As it was, he backed away and joined his comrades, who, it can easily be understood, were more than curious to know what all this meant.

"Is he in there?" demanded Bluff, close to the ear of his chum.

"Yes, I whispered his name and he answered by saying mine," came the thrilling reply.

"Good! good! let's storm the measly old rookery, and hold up those hoboes at the muzzle of our guns. We've got the men, and we've got the guns!" said Bluff; but his comrade drew him down again ere he could rush forth.

"Wait! Be cool. This is no time to make mistakes. I thought of that, but they've shut the cabin door. Perhaps they begin to suspect some of us are around. It may be they even heard Jerry whisper my name. All we want to do is to see that they do him no injury. After a while the sheriff will be along to take care of these jail-birds, all right," Frank went on.

He said no more, because they once again began to move farther away from the cabin walls. There was a chance, however, that one of the ferocious inmates might come out to investigate the conditions, so Frank did not want to go so far that he could not hold the fellow up and cause a surrender.

"What can we do now?" asked Bluff, as they crouched in a thick jungle, with the cabin lying on their left, and only some twenty paces off.

"Watch and wait. If one of them comes out we'll make him a prisoner. The door is there, and no one is likely to escape us. Keep ready for a quick move, both of you," whispered Frank in return.

"Oh! I saw something moving up in that big tree--the one that is half dead," came from Tom just then.

"Where at in the tree?" demanded Frank, ready to examine into anything that happened to come before their attention, no matter how odd.

"Say just where that gaping hole lies--about ten feet up. The blame thing's hollow, that's a cinch, and some critter's got a nest in it. Maybe an owl, but I'd rather believe 'twas a cat, or perhaps a real b'ar. Looky, there she is again!"

Each of them had his eyes glued upon the spot indicated in his low-toned communication by the ex-cowboy. There certainly was something moving, for while the light was not very strong at that particular place, still they could see an object projected from the gap.

Quickly it pushed farther out, and there dawned upon their startled vision the same ape-like creature that had terrorized the camp of Pet Peters' crowd on the previous night. It seemed, as near as they could judge in that uncertain light, to be covered with hair, just as a chimpanzee would be, and its face was in keeping with the remainder of its hideous form.

Bluff and Tom crouched there and shivered as they watched this awesome figure scramble down from its perch by the aid of the broken dead limbs. It dropped lightly on the ground with a grunt, and then scurried off through the undergrowth.

Tom gave a sigh of relief.

"It's gone, and I'm mighty near the stampedin' point myself," he admitted.

"Why, it was that wild man, as sure as fate. Oh! how Will must carry on when he knows I had such a _glorious_ chance to get him, and lacked the nerve," whispered Bluff, still shaking with excitement, or something else.

"It's just as good you didn't," snickered Frank; "for the sound would have betrayed us to the chaps in the cabin."

"You seem to be tickled about something--suppose you tell a fellow what you see funny about that awful monster? I'd like to laugh too, but I declare if my lips ain't frozen stiff. Is it a wild man, or a beast? Why, I tell you his body is covered with reddish hair, and his face, will I ever get it out of my mind?"

Bluff was plainly much excited, but Frank seemed quite cool.

"Never mind. Later on I may tell you something I've thought of. But he's gone, I suppose, and we can consider the cabin again," replied Frank.

"Why not rush it? Given a log, and I vow Tom and I can knock in that old door just like you'd smash an egg," pleaded the impatient Bluff.

"That would be poor policy. In the first place those are desperate men, who are wanted for robbery, and they know the jail is fairly itching to hold them. Consequently they're ready to take all sorts of chances before giving up. I wouldn't put it past them to fire on us, to wound, at least, if not worse."

"But look here, they haven't got any guns, have they?" demanded Bluff.

"We only guessed that they hadn't, but we can't be sure. Such ugly customers are hardly likely to go without some means of defense, and Tom here will back me up in that. Besides, they've certainly got our chum," declared Frank, seriously.

"Perhaps you're right, Frank, but I'd be willing myself to take all the chances in a mix-up with that crowd," grumbled poor Bluff, who always seemed to be close upon the border of an opportunity to do something, only to have the glorious prize snatched from his hands.

He looked longingly toward the lonely cabin, as though he yearned to have a shy at that ricketty door. According to his mind, once it was down those tramps would be only too glad to throw up their hands, just as Pet Peters and his crowd had done when he covered them on the lake.

Frank himself hardly knew what action to take.

"If I only thought they wouldn't take it out on poor Jerry, I'd be tempted to let Bluff work his bold little trick. But I'm afraid. I know what such men can do, with a long prison term staring them in the face. Some of them would just as soon he hung for a sheep as a lamb," he muttered.

"Do you really think they'd hurt Jerry?" asked Bluff, solicitously.

"What do you know of that Waddy Walsh?"

"He was always a cruel chap, that's a fact. I've known him to torture a dog in a terrible way. That was really why he was sent away. Nobody could do anything with him; even the town authorities had to give up the job," replied Bluff.

"There you are, then. Now, he's hitched up with a rascal much worse than himself, from all accounts. Think of those bold robberies all around. I tell you that pair make a desperate team, and I shiver to think of what they could do to Jerry if hard pushed. Perhaps, after all, we'd better----"

What Frank was about to suggest was never spoken. Tom Somers jerked his arm to signify that he had better cease whispering; and as Frank twisted his head around to see what had happened to alarm their new comrade, he discovered moving figures approaching from the same quarter they had themselves come out of.

His first thought was that Sheriff Dodd had arrived with his posse. Indeed, it was only with a supreme effort that he refrained from leaping to his feet and wildly beckoning. Then he was glad he had been guilty of no such foolish act, for he learned that this was far from being the truth.

"They've come back!" exclaimed Tom, in a low tone, yet plainly disturbed; "looks like they wanted to make sure of me, and had follered us here so as to corral me!"

Then Frank understood. The flight of Pet Peters and his followers had been, after all, something of a bluff, for they had again left the western shore and landed on Wildcat Island; more than that, they were even now creeping toward the cabin, as if bent upon some desperate undertaking!