“You’re who?” asked Garry, so astonished that he almost stuttered.
“Simmons, I told you; but first, have you any water?”
Garry had been so flustered by Ruth’s fainting that he had forgotten his canteen, which lay outside with his knapsack. He dashed out of the shack and in a moment returned with it.
He gave the man a little, cautioning him to be careful and not drink too much. The man realized the sense of this, and drank sparingly.
The boy then turned his attention to Ruth, and after spattering some of the water on her face, forced a small quantity of it between her lips, and then fell to chafing her and hands and wrists. In a few moments the color returned to her face and she opened her eyes.
She cast a frightened glance around, and then seeing that Garry was standing over her, laughed weakly.
“Guess that’s the first time I ever fainted in my life. Oh, I’m so glad to see you, but I kept up hope all the time that you and the boys would come. Are they with you?”
“No, I’m here alone; but that doesn’t matter as long as you’re safe and sound. Just tell me one thing. Who brought you here?”
“It was Jean LeBlanc,” answered Ruth.
“I was pretty sure it was,” said Garry, “I just wanted corroboration.”
The man who called himself Simmons was stirring around, easing his cramped muscles and restoring the circulation to his arms and legs.
Now he approached Garry and said:
“Look, young chap, have you anything to eat with you? I haven’t had a bite since yesterday noon, and neither has this girl here.”
“Yes, I’ve plenty. Just wait until I get my knapsack outside.” And Garry was about to get it, when he was interrupted by Ruth.
“I’m hungry, too; but you aren’t going to stay in this dreadful place another minute, are you? Can’t we get away from her right now?”
“Guess that would be the wisest course, Miss,” said the man. “But I’m pretty weak, and you must be also. We couldn’t do much unless we had something to fortify ourselves with. We must be a good many miles away from civilization.”
“Yes, we’re about eight or nine miles all told from the river, and it’s getting too dark to go wandering back through the woods,” answered Garry. Then as an afterthought he asked:
“Can you handle a gun, Mr. Simmons? I’m calling you Simmons because you say that’s your name; but later on I’m going to ask a lot of questions.”
“You bet I can,” was the quick response, “and the first time I see that snaky Frenchman I’m going to handle one if it’s handy.”
“Well, there’s seemingly only one plausible entrance to this place, and that’s by the mouth of this ravine. You take the rifle and stand guard there, and I’ll get some supper. After that we can decide on the next move. From the mouth of this ravine here you could pick off a half a dozen men should they approach, and so we’ll be safe enough.”
This being settled, Garry went out, to return a few moments later with his knapsack.
“Do you know if there’s any water anywhere around here?”
“Why, the old Indian woman used to be gone only a few moments and she’d come back with some in that old tin pail there,” answered Simmons.
“The old who? But never mind; questions can wait for a while,” and Garry took the pail and went out. He found that there was a spring outside the entrance. He filled his pail and hastened back to the shack.
In a little while he had coffee, bacon and spider bread cooking in the crude fireplace. A great log had been thrown on that morning, he found, and it was this that burned and smouldered through the day, making the smoke that guided him to his destination.
Simmons kept watch while Garry prepared the supper, and then Garry took his turn at watching while the others ate. In turn he was relieved by Simmons and made his own supper.
The meal over, they gathered at the mouth of the ravine, and discussed the situation. First Garry asked for an account of what had happened.
Simmons told his story.
“As I told you, my name is Simmons, and I’m a postal inspector. I was detailed from Washington several days ago to go to Hobart to investigate alleged irregularities in the mail there, and reached the town by nightfall. I got my supper at a restaurant there, kept by a French chap, and was taking a walk around just to get the lay of the land.
“I walked out of the town just a ways, and next thing I knew, I was set on by three men, and though I fought as best I could, I was overpowered. They hustled me to a farm not very far from the town, and kept me there for a couple of days. Then one night I was bundled into an automobile and carried some miles.
“When the auto left me, my captor made me march at the point of a gun to the bank of a river. My hands were tied behind me, and I could make no break for liberty. It was night, and there was never a person to be seen. The chap who was leading me, a big, burly, black-haired Frenchman, tripped me up when I got to the river bank and proceeded to tie my feet and gag me. Then he disappeared and came back after a while, and picked me up as though I were a child—I’m not a very hefty person anyway—and carried me to a canoe on the water’s edge.
“He paddled over the river. I’m going to call this chap LeBlanc. Isn’t that what you said his name was, Miss? The same one that brought you was the one that guided me here.”
“Yes, that was LeBlanc,” said Ruth.
“Well, to make a long story short, I was brought here and kept tied hand and foot. There was an old Indian man and woman here, and they guarded me. When they fed me, one hand would be untied, and the old man kept me covered with a rifle. I’ve worn my wrists raw trying to work out of my bonds, but never with any success.
“Then yesterday afternoon the Indian went away, and about two hours later this LeBlanc arrived here with the girl. She was tied up, and the old woman was given some instructions in French. I don’t speak the language, so I don’t know what it was all about.”
“He told her to wait until morning and then go back home,” put in Ruth. “I can understand French enough to know what he was talking about.”
“Well, the woman went this morning after cooking her breakfast and eating it in front of us without even giving us a bite, and that’s all there is. Nothing happened until you came here and saved us from what was probably certain death, for I believe it was meant that we should be left here to starve to death.”
Simmons concluded his story, and then Garry asked Ruth to add hers.
“I don’t want to tell you, because I know now what a silly, foolish girl I was to do what I did; but I suppose you will find out eventually, so I might as well own up. I wanted to do something to help you boys find what you were after, and when I heard Lafe Green had come back to town, I felt sure he was mixed up in this. I remembered how you boys had gotten your information the time you got the smugglers. So I went over to the Crombie’s to see my girl friend, and made up my mind that when I left there I would go out to Green’s and go through the secret passage and discover what I could. I wanted to find some clue to show you boys that a girl could do things too, and everything would have been all right but for a sneeze. I got into the kitchen all right, and was going to go upstairs, as I remembered your telling about doing, and just as I got to the middle of the floor I sneezed.
“I knew that everything was all off then, and started to run for the back door, for I didn’t want them to know I had come through the passage, when Green and LeBlanc rushed out into the kitchen and caught me.”
Ruth stopped and shuddered.
“Then they tried to make me tell them why I came and how I got in, and LeBlanc twisted my arm till I thought he would break it, but I shut my teeth and wouldn’t say anything.
“Finally they locked me in a closet, and a little while later put a nasty old cloth in my mouth and brought me by automobile the same way they did Mr. Simmons. It was LeBlanc’s brother who came with him, and they hid in the woods with the machine while Jean went away. He came back with his arms full of bundles, and they put a pistol so it stuck in my ribs and warned me to make no sound and marched me to the canoe. When they got me in, I was tied up and then Baptiste went away and Jean brought me across the river and here.”
“How about the buttons and the locket that I found?” asked Garry.
“Why, I didn’t know about the locket for quite a few minutes after I lost it. It must have been while we were eating. We stopped and LeBlanc built a fire and cooked some food. Just as soon as I missed the locket I thought that someone might find it, and so I thought then about leaving other things behind. The only thing I could get at were those buttons, and there were only four of those on the side of my dress. I put them there for a little ornament, and when I did it I never thought that they would lead you to me. There, don’t you think I was very foolish?”
“Yes, I think you were,” said Garry with a laugh.
“That isn’t the right answer at all,” she pouted. “You should have said I wasn’t.”
“You should be mighty thankful that this young man had brains enough to find us, young lady,” said Simmons sternly. “By the way, there are two questions I should like to ask you, young man. First, how did you find us?”
Garry explained about the visit they had made to Lafe Green’s and the confession they had obtained from the tramp.
“The rest was just a hunch, and it turned out to be a lucky one,” concluded Garry.
“That’s all right, then. Now what made you look so funny when I told you my name, and what made you appear to doubt me?”
“Nothing very much, unless you can call it funny when I tell you that we have seen and talked with a man who says he is a United States postal inspector whose name is Simmons, and who is now at Hobart investigating the robberies.”
“What?” exploded the man. “Some one parading under my name?”
“Exactly,” answered Garry dryly. “One of the pair of you must be wrong.” Just then a thought struck Garry. “I guess you’re the right one, and something that puzzled me for a while has been explained.”
Garry had remembered the puzzling sentence that was broken off when the radio failed to work. What was it his chum had said? Yes, something about Simmons being arrested. Evidently the boys had detected the fraud—for fraud the man posing as Simmons must have been—and had him seized before he could do any more damage.
“Guess we’ll find the impostor safe in jail when we get back to Hobart,” he told the real Simmons. Then he related all that he knew of the supposed inspector, and concluded by giving him a description of the man.
“Why, I think I know who that is,” said Simmons excitedly. “That description fits perfectly a man named Sullivan, who was discharged from the service about a year ago. There was never anything proven on him, but circumstances surrounding certain actions of his were suspicious, and he was let go for the good of the service. In the post-office department, a man must be above even the breath of suspicion.”
“Well, we can’t tell what the outcome has been until we get back to Hobart,” said Garry. “Which reminds me, when are we going to start? I am afraid that we will have to stay here until morning. It would be a treacheorus job finding our way back through the woods, and besides I need some rest, and it is likely that you people do. You must be all cramped up from being tied the way you were. Now I suggest this: I have a blanket with me, and Ruth can have that and sleep in the cabin. And you can use our coats and sleep out here on some boughs that I will cut. If you go to sleep now, I will keep watch at the mouth of the ravine till about one o’clock. Then I will wake you and you do sentry till morning. When dawn comes, we will hike back to the river and get across. There we’ll telephone to Ruth’s grandfather and then get an auto to take us around the out of the way road that takes us to Hobart.”
This was accordingly agreed on, and soon Garry was alone with his thoughts. The minutes dragged into hours, and each snapping of the twigs or the fall of an occasional dry branch quickened Garry to the alert and prevented him from nodding, as he was fairly tired after his hike to the cabin in the ravine. It was about midnight, he thought, when he heard a crashing through the undergrowth, and he jumped to his feet. There was silence for a moment and then more noise.
Garry wondered whether it was one of the Indians or Le Blanc that was coming, and he gripped his rifle tensely, awaiting the approach of the intruder. For a time all was still, and he decided that it was some woods animal.
Some instinct must have warned him to look up to the edge of the ravine, and he saw a pair of eyes gleaming in the darkness. Just then a form launched itself from the overhanging rocks, straight toward him!