The Speedwell Boys and Their Ice Racer: or, Lost in the Great Blizzard

CHAPTER XX
“NEVER SAY DIE!”

It was, of course, Billy who first found his tongue after the three robbers had left the trio of boys bound in the cavern on Island Number One.

“We got into a nice mess this time; didn’t we?” he complained.

Dan was silent; and it was not strange that the tongue-tied youth was likewise dumb.

“We’ll have a nice time getting away, too,” growled Billy. “Dad will have something to say about it, Dan. He’ll have to go on the milk route in the morning – ”

“Is that all that’s worrying you?” demanded Dan, in his quiet voice.

“Well!”

“If the storm continues, and nobody gets out here to the island to find us, it looks to me as though we’d be in quite a pickle. What do you think? Getting the milk to the customers around Riverdale isn’t bothering me.”

“Crickey! we’ll be hungry bye and bye, I suppose,” admitted Billy.

“We must find some way of getting out of this place, or we’ll be more than hungry. Can you stretch those cords a little bit, Billy?”

“Crickey!” exclaimed the younger lad again. “I’ve done all of that I want to. Don’t you see my wrists are bleeding?”

“I know, Billy. So are mine. And Dummy – ”

He rolled over with an effort to look at the strange lad. The latter was weeping softly, the tears running unchecked down his dusty face. His legs still hurt him most woefully, without doubt.

“Well,” grunted Dan, “I guess we needn’t look to him for much help. If we are going to get out of this mess, Billy, we’ve got to do it ourselves.”

“I have a sharp knife in my pocket, Dannie – ”

“So have I. Sharper than yours. But how’ll we get at either of them – and how use them?” demanded Dan.

“Well! what else is there?”

“Let me think,” said Dan.

“A lot of good thinkin’ will do us,” growled Billy.

“Never say die!” quoted Dan. “There’s got to be a way out of it.”

“Out of this cave? Sure!” snorted his brother. “The way we came in. And I wish to goodness we hadn’t come in at all!”

“They’d have burned Dummy badly if we hadn’t.”

“And is he any better off? Besides,” added Billy, “those scamps got what they were after, just the same. What do you suppose was in that box, Dan?”

“Ask Dummy,” suggested Dan, with a grim smile.

“Huh! And how far will they get with the box through this storm?”

“Maybe the storm has eased up,” said Dan. “If they try to walk to the shore – either shore – they’ll have a job; for I fancy there is a lot of snow on the ice by this time.”

“They said they’d take our boat,” declared Billy.

“And they’ll have a nice time sailing her through the drifts.”

“Just the same, they are better off than we are right now,” declared Billy.

Dan only grunted. He had been at work during the past few minutes, and was rolling himself over and over on the floor.

“My gracious!” exclaimed his brother, “do you expect one part of this hard floor is any better than another?”

Dan made no reply. Billy and the dummy watched him. Dan was gradually working himself near to the hearth.

The overturning of the forge with the live coals in it had done no harm, after the smoke had cleared away. There was nothing for the coals to set afire. But the heap of ash-covered coals was still hot underneath.

Dan was very well aware of this; yet Billy saw him rolling quite close to the embers. He called out:

“Look out, Dan! You’ll be burned!”

“Never mind yelling about it,” growled the older youth, between his set teeth.

He knew he had a peculiarly unpleasant job to perform; but Dan was just brave enough to do it. Once he had won a motorcycle race with flames eating into his leg while he covered the last lap – and he bore the scar of that yet.

He judged his distance well, gritted his teeth, and rolled close to the heap of embers. He could feel them scorching his back, while his tied wrists were right over the stirred embers.

At once a flame sprang up. There was the smell of scorching flesh. Billy, suddenly understanding what his brother was about, screamed aloud as though it were he who was being burned.

He tried to throw himself across the floor of the cave to reach Dan, by his action forcing the cords deeper into his own flesh.

And then Dan Speedwell flung himself over and over on the floor, still silent but in evident agony. His hands, however, were free!

“Oh, Dan! Dan!” sobbed Billy. “What have you done?”

He wouldn’t have cried for himself; but that his brother should have sacrificed himself in this way cut Billy to the heart.

“I know what I’ve done,” said Dan, shakenly, at length sitting up and trying to get a hand into his trousers pocket. “I know what I’ve done. I’ve made a chance for us to get free. Shut up your bawling, Billy! Somebody had to do it.”

He got out the knife, despite his burned wrist – and the burn was deep and angry. The skin of both wrists for at least half the way around was scorched.

Dan’s face worked with pain as he opened the blade, then cut the cords that bound his own ankles, using both hands. It hurt him dreadfully to use his hands at all.

But he was free, and he proceeded at once to free the other boys. Billy fairly hugged him, when once his arms were loose again.

“Oh, Dan! you’re the best fellow – the very best one! – who ever lived,” he cried. “I wouldn’t have had the pluck to do that – ”

“Shucks!” grunted Dan. “Yes, you would. You didn’t just happen to think of it. We’ve got to get out of here quick, it seems to me; we couldn’t wait for rescue.”

“But in this storm – ?”

“Well, if those fellows dared venture out into the blizzard, I guess we can follow them; can’t we?” the older Speedwell demanded.

“Follow them!”

“Of course. I’m not going to lose the Follow Me if I can help it. And that box, too – ”

“We don’t know what’s in it!” cried Billy.

“Whatever it was, it didn’t belong to them,” cried Dan, his eyes flashing with anger.

“Ask Dummy,” suggested Billy, as Dan bent over the other boy to cut his lashings. Dan did so. But all they got was a mumble which meant nothing, and many head shakes.

“Oh!” cried Dan, “I don’t believe he knows.”

“And yet he had charge of it?”

“Of the box?”

“Well, didn’t he? Remember that paper he dropped at our house? He was taking that message to somebody – and it wasn’t to any of those three who got the box – not much!” exclaimed Billy.

“He did his best to keep the place secret from those who shouldn’t know, I reckon,” Dan agreed. “I bet something big depends upon that box.”

“Money in it!” exclaimed Billy, his eyes sparkling.

“Never mind what. Those fellows oughtn’t to have it. Let’s find out where they’ve gone.”

“Oh, I’m with you, if you’re bound to try following them,” agreed Billy. “But not before you’ve had those wrists bound up. I’ve a clean handkerchief in my pocket.”

“Guess your own wrists need a little attention, too,” returned Danny, making a grimace of pain. “And how about Dummy’s legs?”

The kettle, hung on the hook over the open fire, was steaming cheerfully all this time. Dan threw on some more wood, and Billy unhung the kettle and poured some water into a pan. They laved the burns with just as hot water as they could bear, to take the sting out.

Dummy’s trousers were burned in great holes between his ankles and his knees. His legs were merely scorched and blistered, however; his burns were not as deep as Dan’s.

Billy had crawled out of the cave for some snow with which to fill the kettle and reduce the temperature of the water poured into the pan. He reported the snow as blinding and the wind howling in the higher trees like a pack of wolves.

“If those fellows got away from this island, they’ve got pluck – that’s all I got to say,” he grunted.

“You bet they got away,” Dan returned, quickly. “Otherwise they’d be back here to the cave – don’t you see? No other place of shelter; is there, Dummy?” he asked the third boy.

The latter shook his head vigorously. He watched Dan with the eyes of a devoted dog. Evidently he was ready to fall down and worship Dan Speedwell.

It had been Dan who interfered and saved him from his captors. Dan had released him from his bonds. And now, it appeared, he was ready to follow the Speedwells in their attempt to trail the three robbers who had borne away the ironbound chest.

“You understand, Dummy?” demanded Billy. “We’re going to chase those men. Mebbe we’ll have another fight with them.”

He was whittling a handle on a husky stick of firewood, and showed by his motions what he purposed to do with the weapon if he caught up with the men who had so abused them.

It did not, however, shake Dummy’s determination. He was ready to start when the Speedwell boys were ready.

CHAPTER XXI
THE CRY FOR HELP

After the fight in the cave Dan and Billy were sore and tired, and their wrists and ankles very painful. But it seemed to them both that it was their business to follow the outlaws, if they could, and learn what disposition was made of the “treasure box,” as Billy insisted upon calling the chest that had been hidden under the hearthstone in the cave.

Besides, the boys were very anxious about their new iceboat. The robbers, if they used it to get to the mainland, as they evidently intended, might hide the Follow Me where Dan and Billy would be unable to find it before the races, a week away.

“Though right now,” Billy remarked, as they crept out of the passage leading into the cavern, “it doesn’t look as though we’d hold iceboat races next week on the Colasha. Goodness, Dan! did you ever in your life see so much snow?”

“It’s worse on this side of the island, don’t you see?” said his brother. “The snow is drifting this way. The high back of the island breaks the wind and the snow piles up here in drifts.”

“But our Fly-up-the-Creek is on this side of the island,” complained Billy. “She’s buried a mile deep, I bet!”

The boys started up the hill, but the snow beat down upon them so heavily, and the wind was so boisterous, they were glad to lock arms. Although Dummy made a “bad botch” of talking, as Billy said, he proved to be pretty muscular and the trio got along famously until they reached the summit.

They had come in this direction because Dan pointed out that it was not likely the three robbers, burdened with the heavy box, would face the gale either with the Follow Me, or afoot.

“And I don’t believe they will go towards Riverdale,” he observed. “You see, they knew old John Bromley was stirring things up over the ’phone when they burst into his house and captured him. Although they left him bound, they realized that whoever John was ’phoning to would look the old man up pretty quick.

“Now, naturally, the whole of Riverdale would be aroused by the robbery – and it sure would be if we hadn’t started right out after the Follow Me. Even now perhaps Bromley has called people up on the ’phone because we are out in the storm so long.

“So, it seems to me,” concluded Dan, with an effort, “that the three robbers are more likely to try for Meadville and the railroad.”

Dummy nodded violently and tried to speak his agreement with this statement. Billy only grunted. He had all he could do to plow through the drifts without wasting any breath in discussion.

They got over the ridge and slid down the steep rocks for several feet until the island itself broke the force of the gale. The wind did not blow directly across the island, but the slant being from up stream the heights acted as a windbreak.

“Now where?” asked Billy, with a sigh.

“Listen!” commanded his brother, unexpectedly.

Dan held up his hand and all three strained their ears for several moments. Then, simultaneously, the trio heard again the sound that had startled Dan. It was the distant explosions of the motor – the motor of the Follow Me!

“They have taken her,” growled Dan. “There they go,” and he pointed up stream.

“But they’re not so far away,” returned the surprised Billy. “And it’s more than an hour since they cleared out and left us in the cave.”

“I guess they had trouble in digging the boat out of the snow and getting her started. It’s a wonder the motor wasn’t frozen up on a night like this.”

It was in a sort of lull of the blizzard that they heard the explosions of the engine. Now the wind and snow swooped down again, and muffled the sound. But Dan started straight down the hill.

“Are you going after them?” yelled Billy.

“Surest thing you know!”

“I believe we’re crazy! We’ll be lost in this snow.”

“Not much we won’t,” declared his brother. “I’ve got a compass.”

He showed it – a very delicately adjusted instrument which he kept in a case in his pocket. At the edge of the ice (there was not so much snow on this side of the island) he waited to hear the sound of the engine again. Then he took his bearings, and at once set forth into the storm.

This time Dan led, Billy hung to his coat-tail, and Dummy brought up the rear. Thus, keeping literally in touch with each other, they would not be likely to drift apart while battling with the elements. And battle they actually had to.

The moment they got from under the shelter of the island the snow and wind almost overwhelmed them. Never had the boys experienced such a gale. Sometimes they were beaten to their knees, and had they not clung together, one or the other surely would have been driven away and lost.

“No wonder those men have gotten no farther from the island!” yelled Dan, with his lips close to Billy’s ear.

“Right-O!” agreed the younger boy. “And can we catch up with ’em?”

“We don’t want to; we want to trail ’em,” returned Dan.

On they pressed, taking advantage of every flaw in the gale. Had it not been for Dan’s compass they would have become turned about and lost their way ere they had left the island behind them ten minutes.

The wind blew between the points of Island Number One and the next above it with such force that the boys made very slow progress. When at last they got in the lee of the second island, they stopped to breathe, and to listen.

They did not at once hear the exhaust of the engine on the Follow Me; but they did hear something else. Voices were shouting – seemingly far out on the frozen river.

Again and again they heard the sounds. “Ahoy! Ahoy!” came plainly to their ears. Then – and much to the Speedwells’ amazement – the boys heard their own names called – and in accents whose note of peril was not to be doubted:

“Dan! Billy! Help us Dan and Billy Spe-e-e-dwell! He-e-e-lp!”

CHAPTER XXII
THE BATTLE IN THE SNOW

Both Mildred Kent and Lettie Parker believed with the latter’s father that the explosions of the engine near them in the storm meant that Dan and Billy Speedwell were near at hand.

The girls, tossing aside the sheltering robe and the accumulation of snow, stood up, too, and clinging to each other shrieked their boy friends’ names into the sounding gale.

Their own cries might not have carried very far, save in the lulls of the tempest; but with the voices of Mr. Parker and the sheriff, they raised a cry that was certainly heard by whoever was working the motor iceboat through the blizzard.

The “put-put-put” came nearer. A hoarse hail reached the ears of the quartette in the sleigh.

Mr. Kimball had brought his horses to a dead stop. Indeed, the beasts were glad to breathe, although they were far from exhaustion. No better pair of colts, as Mr. Kimball said, were to be found in the county.

“I don’t hear that engine now,” cried Mr. Parker. “Have they stopped?”

He called again, then waited for an answer. The snow seemed to have smothered the sounds. Again Mildred and Lettie shrieked the names of Dan and Billy. They had every confidence in the boys being able to help them if they only heard.

There was another answer – this time nearer. “Got ’em!” cried the delighted Mr. Parker.

“I don’t just see how they are going to help us,” grumbled Mr. Kimball.

“Dan will find a way,” asserted Mildred, now the most hopeful of the quartette.

The next moment a figure appeared in the swirling snow. But it was not Dan or Billy. It was much too tall for either.

“Hullo, there!” exclaimed the stranger, in a very hoarse voice. “What’s the matter here?”

A second figure appeared before either Mr. Parker or the sheriff could answer. The second man said, quite as roughly as the first:

“Gals, by thunder! And a fine pair o’ horses, Tom.”

“You hit it right, Jake,” said the first man. “And just what we want – hey?”

“I wouldn’t try ter go on in that blamed old scooter – not much! And we won’t have to lug the box.”

“Shut up!”

“Aw, it’s all right. This is luck – ”

The sheriff interposed suddenly. “I take it you fellows consider that your meeting with us is providential; don’t you?”

“Huh?” growled the first speaker. “You’re slingin’ fine language, I guess. What we means ter do is ter take the sled an’ the hosses. That’s all. And there won’t be room for youse gents – or the gals.”

“Why, you scoundrel!” exclaimed Mr. Parker. “What do you mean?”

“Cut that out!” commanded the man called Tom, stepping quickly to the county clerk’s side of the sleigh.

Lettie screamed. The man grabbed Mr. Parker by the collar and dragged him out of the sleigh. Mr. Parker shouted aloud in his anger, and tried to grapple with the man, but was struck a hard blow with a short club, or piece of gas pipe, by the other man. For the moment he was knocked almost senseless.

The sheriff was not frightened, however. He dropped the reins and leaped to the ice, where the snow was now almost knee deep.

“Get down in the sleigh, girls – down!” he commanded. “Look out for bullets! Hands up, you two fellows – put your hands up, quick! Quick, I tell you, or I’ll fire!”

He had drawn a pistol and his tone was so earnest that the men must have known that he would use it. They were amazed for the moment.

“I am the sheriff of this county. I believe you are two fellows for whom I have been looking. Tom Davis – Scar-Faced Tom – I recognize you from the warden’s description. You were discharged from the Meadville penitentiary only a week ago, and it looks very much to me as though you were going back there again.”

The man whom the sheriff addressed – the redoubtable “Scar-Faced Tom” – was not a little cowed by the sheriff’s speech – and extremely so by the business-like look of the revolver. But while Mr. Kimball kept this fellow under surveillance, and Mr. Parker was still lying stunned in the snow, the other fellow dived into the darkness and the storm, yelling for the third, who had remained with the motor iceboat.

The sheriff sent a pistol ball after him; but he would better have refrained. Tom Davis, seizing his opportunity (as he thought) made a great stride for the sheriff as the flame of the discharged revolver flashed right over his shoulder.

Davis would have had Kimball by the throat had it not been for the county clerk. The latter struggled to a sitting posture just at the right moment, and seized the villain’s ankle. He twisted it and, roaring, the man went down.

Sheriff Kimball tossed his pistol to Mr. Parker, and jumped on the fallen robber’s back. His attack was so unexpected that the other was helpless and it seemed as though the sheriff was going to make one capture, at least, without much trouble.

Mildred and Lettie were about as scared as they could be. The firing of the sheriff’s pistol, and the rough tones and fighting seemed terrible to both the doctor’s daughter and her chum.

Once Mildred had been troubled by tramps in the swamp up near Karnac Lake; but Dan had rescued her at that time. So it was not strange that now she should cry aloud:

“Oh, dear, me! I wish Dan were here.”

“And I’d like to know what’s got Billy Speedwell!” rejoined her chum. “Do you suppose these awful men have stolen the boys’ new iceboat?”

“Oh! they’re wicked enough to do anything,” gasped Mildred.

Mr. Parker was staggering to the sheriff’s assistance. But before he reached him he dropped the pistol in the snow. In the darkness and storm it was not easy to find the weapon again; and while he was scrambling about on all fours to obtain it, two figures dashed out of the smother and fell upon him. The second robber and his mate had returned.

They overpowered Mr. Parker in a moment. Then they hauled Mr. Kimball off the prostrate ex-convict; but in that minute the sheriff had choked the fellow into subjection.

He could not rise to help his comrades. Mr. Parker and the sheriff faced but two of the gang, but the latter had the advantage.

Mr. Parker was not used to such rough work. The sheriff, however, was a quick and agile man, ready for almost any emergency which might arise.

He was, too, one of those men who “never give up till the last gun is fired.” He kept on fighting, and the two robbers found him hard to subdue. Suddenly Mr. Parker went down under a swing of the blackjack that had previously felled him.

“Oh! my father! My father!” shrieked Lettie, who was peering over the back of the sleigh. “Billy! Billy Speedwell! Why don’t you help us?”

She screamed this last question at the top of her voice, and it did not go unanswered. First aroused by the explosions of the motor iceboat engine, and led on by the shouting of the girls and their guardians in the sleigh, the two Speedwell boys and Dummy had come near to the scene of the battle in the snow just as the sheriff fired his pistol.

The boys recognized the girls’ voices, and also Mr. Parker’s.

“Mildred!” exclaimed Dan, in amazement. “She’s in trouble.”

“And that’s Let – as sure as shooting!” agreed Billy. “And her father.”

Dummy said nothing, but he kept on with his new friends – and he had to travel some to keep up with them. For neither the wind nor the snow retarded the Speedwells just then.

As the two robbers sprang upon Mr. Parker and the sheriff for the second time, Dan, Billy, and Dummy appeared. The Speedwells gave a great shout and plunged into the affray, swinging their clubs. Dummy kept in the rear, but he helped some in the end. The man, Tom Davis, whom the sheriff had overpowered, began to stir. The Dummy ran to him and threatened him with the club he had brought from the cave on Island Number One.

The battle in the blizzard was soon over. The three rascals were down in the snow, rubbing their heads, and begging for mercy almost as soon as reinforcements in shape of the three boys appeared.