The Submarine Boys for the Flag by Victor G. Durham
CHAPTER X
"MR. GRAY" MAKES NEW TROUBLE
Had Jack Benson started down the slope two or three seconds later hemust have been killed.
As it was, the fearful force of concussion sent him sprawling headlongon the ground.
A shower of small fragments of rock and of loose dirt fell about him.
Yet Jack was up again, like a flash, never stopping to inquire whetherhe had been hurt.
"O-oh!" came the groan, from Hal Hastings.
"There, in a second!" panted Captain Jack, beginning to run again.
A blow sounded, then a fall.
Captain Jack raced into a little, bush-lined hollow, just in time tosee Millard leap up and take to his heels.
Hal Hastings lay on the ground, as though badly hurt.
"Oh, you would, would you?" raged Captain Jack Benson, making a swiftspurt after Millard.
He caught the long-legged one, too, by the back of the fellow's coatcollar.
Yank! Millard was pulled over backward. Down he went, Benson pilinga-top of him.
"Down!" cried Skipper Jack, exultantly. He found, however, that Millardpossessed strength enough to put up a stiff fight.
"Come on, Hal--if you can!" called Jack Benson, sharply.
"Can't--just yet," came, in muffled tones, from the usually prompt HalHastings.
"Let go, you young hound!" ordered Millard, striking out savagely.
Jack hung desperately. Yet the trouble was that the young submarineskipper had tackled a man who was at least fifty per cent. strongerand fully as agile.
While Hal still hung back, Millard gave a heave, then rolled himselfover on top of Jack Benson.
"I'll give you just a short lesson!" snarled the long-legged one.
He raised a fist, intent on bringing it down like a sledge-hammeracross Benson's face.
That blow, however, wasn't the one that landed. Biff! whack! Twosturdy, hard fists registered on Millard's head from behind. Then aboy shot himself forward, battering-ram fashion, hurling Millard overto the ground. The boy went with the fellow, landing on top of him.
And that boy was Eph Somers!
"Come on, Jack, if you want some of this!" offered Eph, generously.
Truth to tell, there was need of both the submarine boys, for Millardnow fought more fiendishly than before.
Millard was a powerful fellow, when aroused, but he had pitted againsthim two of the doughtiest, gamest boys to be found along the Atlanticcoast. He was pretty well beaten up, in fact, by the time that Hal camelimply upon the scene.
"Want any help?" demanded Hal, in a still somewhat breathless voice.
"Nope!" answered Eph, sturdily. "Not unless you want exercise."
As Somers spoke he landed another blow, this against the "wind" atMillard's belt-line. In the same instant Jack Benson managed to knothis hands in the fellow's coat lapels, and to press the backs of hishands against the wretch's throat.
"I sur--ug-g-gh!--er--render," gurgled the long-legged one, weakly.
"You'd better, unless you want to discover that we haven't yet startedin with rough handling," retorted Eph valiantly.
Young Benson eased his hold on Millard's wind-pipe. Yet all three ofthe submarine boys watched their prisoner, cat-like, for any newoutbreak.
"Now, roll over on your face, if you want us to believe you're going tobe good," ordered Jack.
Though he swore, under his breath, Millard obeyed. Then somethingflashed in the night--handcuffs that Jack had brought away from hismeeting with Lieutenant Ridder at the hotel.
Click! The steel band snapped into place around Millard's right wrist.
"Hold on--not that!" protested the prisoner, hoarsely.
"Yes; even that!" mocked Eph, picking up a fragment of rock. "And keepquiet, unless you want me to batter your head in!"
It was this rough, vigorous sea-talk, backed by a belief that youngSomers would prove equal to his threat, no doubt, that made Millardallow his left wrist to be brought over to meet the right.
"You've got those things on too tight," complained Millard, sullenly.
"No-o-o, I don't think so," retorted Captain Jack, after looking. "Weneed 'em as tight as we can have 'em, without causing pain, when wehave a fellow like you to deal with. Now, what was that explosion?"
"Wait a second!" broke in Eph, in a low voice. "Millard had a pal here.It was the pal I shadowed here. And that pal is running, now, with afair-sized bundle that he came here to get."
"He was running when you jumped into this business?" demanded Benson.
"Yes."
"Then the pal is too far away, by this time, for us to catch him byrunning after him," decided Skipper Jack. "Now, about that explosion!"
"This wretch had a mine planted up on the hill," explained Hal Hastings."I was watching, at the rear, you know, and it happened that I stoppedright close to the hollow where you found me. Then I saw Millard dropinto that hollow, and I took a look-in. I was just in time to see himbending over to reach for the handle of a magneto battery. Now, Ihappened to know that magneto batteries are made for the purpose oftouching off explosives at a safe distance. So I jumped in on him.Just at that second I heard you, Jack, old fellow, striking with theshovel up above there. I had to guess fast, so the whole thingstruck me like a flash. Millard had been digging, up there, just tolead on anyone who might be shadowing him. While you were bent overthe spot where he had been digging, he meant to touch off a mine thatmust have been planted and laid days ago. Millard, you rascal, if yoususpected that you were being watched, it was your idea to lead theshadow out here, get him over that mine and touch it off!"
The prisoner's eyes flashed.
"That was your game, wasn't it?" demanded Benson, angrily.
"Find out, if you can," growled the prisoner.
"You've guessed it, Hal," nodded Jack, then shuddered. "Had I followedthis villain out here alone, and then gone to digging, unwarned, whereI had seen him digging, my remains would have come down in four counties.But, you mean scoundrel, you never happened to think that you'd betrailed by three different fellows, all at different points along yourtrail."
"This is where my account comes in," interposed Eph Somers. "Youremember the village you sent me to, Jack? Well, all I could find outwas that, a few days ago, a chap named Gray had come along and hired alittle schooner that's about twice as fast as any other sailing craftin these parts. He hired two fishermen to sail it for him--when hegot ready. His crew have been wondering, since, when he'd be ready.Since he made the deal, Gray has just been hanging around and doingnothing."
"My informant pointed out Gray to me. Right after that, I vanished.But I kept an eye on Gray. When he left the village, so did I. Thetrail led up here. Gray went to a pile of dead brush that had beenheaped up. He prowled under the brush, brought out a wooden box thathad been hidden there, and, from the box, took a bundle. He startedoff with it. I figured that bundle was what we wanted. I didn't wantto take the chance of tackling him and having him get the best of me,so I started to follow. Just then I heard the rumpus up here. MaybeI did wrong, but I figured we could get Gray again, so I hustled uphere to help."
"This wretch, Millard, and I had a pretty rough-and-tumble time of it,"Hal broke in. "At last, though, he gave me a blow in the wind that putme right down and out, for a little while. Then he got the handle ofthe magneto and pumped it."
"Glad I started down the slope just when I did," nodded Skipper Jack,dryly. "If I hadn't--well, what's the use of talking about it?"
Forcing Millard to get upon his feet, the boys inspected, first themagneto battery, to which was attached wire buried in the ground.Then up the slope they went, to find a miniature crater, some ten feetdeep and at least fourteen feet across, where the mine had beenexploded.
"Say, it's hard, even yet, to understand why I wasn't killed," mutteredJack Benson. "But here we are, standing here, thinking about ourselves,when that fellow, Gray, is getting away with a package that
Thus warned, and realizing that his determined young captors were ina savage frame of mind, the long-legged one didn't try to lag. Allfour appeared in the village in which Eph had prowled for information.The appearance of the handcuffed prisoner stirred up a lot of curiosity.Eph, however, showed his written authorization for taking Millard inthe name of the United States government, so no one offered the captiveany aid or sympathy.
But the submarine boys met with disturbing news. They heard that alittle more than a half an hour before, Gray, still carrying a bigpackage, had embarked on his chartered schooner, and had put to sea.
"Had we better charter something and go in chase?" wondered Hal.
"What's the use?" demanded one of the fishermen. "The 'Juanita' isfour miles or more out to sea, by this time, and the night's dark youcouldn't see her. And there's no craft hereabouts fast enough to catchthe 'Juanita.'"
"Besides," whispered Jack, in his chum's ear, "we have no power tooverhaul a craft at sea."
So, making the best of the situation, the submarine boys hired a driver,horse and wagon at the village, and started on their return to town.