As Ramsey crossed the causeway to his camp that evening, came an under-breath, caught-in-the-throat cough and a bullet glanced off a tree overhead and went winging its way into the swamp. Another and another followed, humming baleful tunes as they were deflected. From the shelter of a rock, Ramsey realized that his assailants were using a silencer on their gun and were shooting wild. In all, he counted twenty bullets. A return fire would have betrayed his position in the darkness and made it a target. In silence he crouched low.
Suddenly he saw the sharp, bright gleam of an electric flashlight. It disclosed the outlines of two men moving toward him across the causeway—
In an instant the light was gone. But Ramsey’s eyes had marked his target. His gun spat fire. A startled, muttered curse told him that his bullet had reached its mark. Again his gun barked. He heard his assailants floundering in mud and water as they retreated. The combatants settled themselves for a term of vigilant waiting.
Jack realized that the encircling swamp made his island camp a prison as well as a refuge. His assailants knew this too and were keeping the only exit, along the causeway, covered. Ramsey’s back was to the wall!
That he should admit defeat and return to Honesdale was unthinkable. The plight of Mary Gage prevented. He would risk his life with these unseen foes, without fear or hesitation, to insure her safety. With this conviction came the overwhelming certainty of all she meant to him. Life without her would hereafter be a leaden thing, halting and incomplete. For her he was here!
He must see Mary and confront her father, the only one of his enemies whom he knew. He must go at once! But how? His wits, sharpened by the contest, devised a means of escape from the island prison.
While building his new camp, he had salvaged some planks from an abandoned saw mill. Noiselessly feeling his way toward them, he chose two of the larger ones and crossed to the opposite side of the island. Here he slowly crawled forward on the planks, relaying them from hummock to hummock above the mud and stagnant water. It was slow, uncertain work, but he finally reached the further shore and started northward.
He approached Gage’s cabin with the utmost caution. Two windows, bright with light, stared at him as if enraged. Creeping close to one of them, which was partly open, his back against the wall and face hidden by the shadows of a vine, he could see a section of the interior and hear the murmur of low-pitched voices.
One was that of the skulking fellow with the black beard.
“Take it from me— They’re on!” he declared. “Someone has played the yellow dog! They have been told all about us; details they could only get by living here and being one of our bunch—”
“And because you think I’m the yellow dog, you won’t pay my wages— That it?” snapped Gage.
“Hold on— We would have finished the job and been out of here last week except for this blunder. The fresh kid comes along and learns enough here to put Cox wise. So we stand to lose much more than we owe you. Your girl has queered the deal—”
“Indeed! — Indeed I told Jack nothing!” Mary pleaded. “He was wide-awake, learned things for himself—”
“She did as you said, didn’t she?” protested Gage. “Tried to drive Ramsey away — she and Jimmie — till he put his gun on her. No, I worked hard for my money and intend to get it!”
“When you’ve earned it! That’s my last word!” snapped the other. “Now if you could get Ramsey—”
“What d’ye want?” asked Gage slowly. “You’d have me rid ourselves of the boy by cold-blooded murder?”
“If it means your money, our safety—”
“Murder!” whispered the girl; then her voice shrilled in protest: “You shan’t harm him — I’ll prevent that! I won’t keep secrets any longer for a crook like you! — No, not even for my father! I’ll find this man, Cox! I’ll tell him everything!”
“From the way the girl talks,” sneered the visitor, “I’d say she wants to marry this Jack Ramsey—”
“Yes! I would marry him—” The impulsive words died breathlessly. Her eyes opened wide as she stared at the window. For Jack, unable to control his eagerness, had thrust forward to hear her reply. In paralyzing fear at sight of him, she sat as one entranced.
Gage’s mocking laugh had drawn attention from the girl. The bearded man watched him as he crossed to a shelf, filled his pipe and lighted it. In that brief moment, Jack’s face disappeared; Mary’s body relaxed.
“You realize, Gage,” came the visitor’s even tones, “that after what your daughter has just said, we can’t let her go free till our job is done?”
“Hum! Keep her prisoner? Where? She’s safe enough here.”
“No, Cox knows of this cabin — thanks to Ramsey. It’s the first place he’ll come. We must keep her in the workshop—”
“No! No! I won’t go!” cried the girl.
“You’ll do as I say, Mary—”
“Not even for you, Dad!”
“You go to the workshop!”
“Then I’ll get word to Jack! He’ll have to know only a little, will guess the rest.” Her voice rose high that Jack might hear; beyond the window, he heeded; “I’ll say — ‘Lean Jaw: Under the ash tree on the rocks, lift the hollow stump’—”
An oath, the girl’s muffled cry— Silence!
Ramsey could endure no more. Like a tiger, he moved swiftly and softly to the door. He flung it open, stood before them!
“Jack—” In the girl’s agony she sank, weeping, before him.
The three men confronted each other silently. The boy was now a tiger biding his time to kill. Gage’s fists opened and closed, ready to strike.
“The tail of the yellow dog,” murmured he of the black beard, as his fingers sought a shining weapon in his coat.
“Mary! You must come with me!” Jack commanded.
“Must? I like that!” Gage’s laughter was savage with menace.
“You mean more to me than I can tell you, Mary!” the boy pleaded. “The thought of you a prisoner, at the mercy of these beasts — I can’t bear it! Come! I’ll take you to my mother—”
“I prayed that you might escape them!” sobbed the girl. “I prayed that you’d not come here, that you’d be kept safe till my need was great—”
“Your need is great now! I heard them— They’d hold you prisoner— What more, who can tell? How can you be safe with these crooks—”
“I’m her father!” thundered Gage.
“I’ve seen what you can do; you and your gang!” Jack sneered. “Robbing me, wrecking my camp, trying to murder me tonight with a muffled gun! Come, Mary!”
The girl rose unsteadily. She studied Jack’s face, then stared at her father — Freedom and tenderness in the boy’s waiting arms; or, with the other, restraint, worse—
She moved toward Jack. Gage’s outstretched arm restrained her.
“Ramsey’s going another way,” remarked the bearded one. “He thought he was cunning enough to queer our job. So he’s got to pay—”
His weapon flashed from a pocket. He raised it deliberately and fired.
The world seemed to go to pieces in a vast upheaval as Ramsey sank down, down to oblivion—
VI
“Brace up! Take a nip of this! It’s bootleg, but the real stuff.”
Ramsey felt the sting of the liquor in his throat, radiating warmth throughout his body. He tried to shake off the evil dream, but could not. After untold effort he opened his eyes. He was lying in the tonneau of a touring car. Cox bent over him, regarding him anxiously.
“Lucky he only ripped open your scalp,” he said. “Half an inch lower and it would have been the end of you. Pull yourself together, sonny.”
“Mary—” gasped the boy.
“Show me where she is and we’ll get the whole outfit.”
“She’s a prisoner, in the cabin—”
“I guess not! We got there just too late. The bunch had flown the coop. Threw you out at the roadside. Thought they could shift the blame or hide their trail, maybe. Feel better now? Good. Let’s go!”