CHAPTER III

The Culprits

"Ship ahoy!" shouted the coatless stranger between his palms.

"Surrender or we'll fill you full of lead!" called Anderson Crow.

"Who are you--pirates?" responded the fugitive with a laugh that chilled

the marrow of the men on the raft.

"I'll show you who we are!" bellowed Anderson Crow. "Send her ashore,

boys, fast. The derned scamp sha'n't escape us. Dead er alive, we must

have him."

As they poled toward the bank the woman grasped the man by the arm,

dragging him back among the trees. It was observed by all that she was

greatly terrified. Moreover, she was exceedingly fair to look

upon--young, beautiful, and a most incongruous companion for the bloody

rascal who had her in his power. The raft bumped against the reedy bank,

and Anderson Crow was the first man ashore.

"Come on, boys; follow me! See that your guns are all right! Straight up

the hill now, an' spread out a bit so's we can surround him!" commanded

he in a high treble.

"'But supposin' he surrounds us," panted a cautious pursuer, half way up

the hill.

"That's what we've got to guard against," retorted Anderson Crow. The

posse bravely swept up to and across the greensward; but the fox was

gone: There was no sight or sound of him to be had. It is but just to

say that fatigue was responsible for the deep breath that came from each

member of the pursuing party.

"Into the woods after him!" shouted Anderson Crow. "Hunt him down like a

rat!"

In the meantime a coatless young man and a most enticing young woman

were scampering off among the oaks and underbrush, consumed by

excitement and no small degree of apprehension.

"They really seem to be in earnest about it, Jack," urged the young

woman insistently, to offset his somewhat sarcastic comments.

"How the dickens do you suppose they got onto me?" he groaned. "I

thought the tracks were beautifully covered. No one suspected, I'm

sure."

"I told you, dear, how it would turn out," she cried in a panic-stricken

voice.

"Good heavens, Marjory, don't turn against me! It all seemed so easy and

so sure, dear. There wasn't a breath of suspicion. What are we to do?

I'll stop and fight the whole bunch if you'll just let go my arm."

"No, you won't, Jack Barnes!" she exclaimed resolutely, her pretty blue

eyes wide with alarm. "Didn't you hear them say they'd fill you full of

lead? They had guns and everything. Oh, dear! oh, dear! isn't it

horrid?"

"The worst of it is they've cut us off from the river," he said

miserably. "If I could have reached the boat ahead of them they never

could have caught us. I could distance that old raft in a mile."

"I know you could, dear," she cried, looking with frantic admiration

upon his broad shoulders and brawny bare arms. "But it is out of the

question now."

"Never mind, sweetheart; don't let it fuss you so. It will turn out all

right, I know it will."

"Oh, I can't run any farther," she gasped despairingly.

"Poor little chap! Let me carry you?"

"You big ninny!"

"We are at least three miles from your house, dear, and surrounded by

deadly perils. Can you climb a tree?"

"I can--but I won't!" she refused flatly, her cheeks very red.

"Then I fancy we'll have to keep on in this manner. It's a confounded

shame--the whole business. Just as I thought everything was going so

smoothly, too. It was all arranged to a queen's taste--nothing was left

undone. Bracken was to meet us at his uncle's boathouse down there,

and--good heavens, there was a shot!"

The sharp crack of a rifle broke upon the still, balmy air, as they say

in the "yellow-backs," and the fugitives looked at each other with

suddenly awakened dread.

"The fools!" grated the man.

"What do they mean?" cried the breathless girl, very white in the face.

"They are trying to frighten us, that's all. Hang it! If I only knew the

lay of the land. I'm completely lost, Marjory. Do you know precisely

where we are?"

"Our home is off to the north about three miles. We are almost opposite

Crow's Cliff--the wildest part of the country. There are no houses along

this part of the river. All of the summer houses are farther up or on

the other side. It is too hilly here. There is a railroad off there

about six miles. There isn't a boathouse or fisherman's hut nearer than

two miles. Mr. Bracken keeps his boat at the point--two miles south, at

least."

"Yes; that's where we were to have gone--by boat. Hang it all! Why did

we ever leave the boat? You can never scramble through all this brush to

Bracken's place; it's all I can do. Look at my arms! They are scratched

to--"

"Oh, dear! It's dreadful, Jack. You poor fellow, let me--"

"We haven't time, dearest. By thunder, I wouldn't have those Rubes head

us off now for the whole county. The jays! How could they have found us

out?"

"Some one must have told."

"But no one knew except the Brackens, you and I."

"I'll wager my head Bracken is saying hard things for fair down the river there."

"He--he--doesn't swear, Jack," she panted.

[Illustration: "'Safe for a minute or two at least,' he whispered"]

"Why, you are ready to drop! Can't you go a step farther? Let's stop

here and face 'em. I'll bluff 'em out and we'll get to Bracken's some

way. But I _won't_ give up the game! Not for a million!"

"Then we can't stop. You forget I go in for gymnasium work. I'm as

strong as anything, only I'm--I'm a bit nervous. Oh, I knew something

would go wrong!" she wailed. They were now standing like trapped deer in

a little thicket, listening for sounds of the hounds.

"Are you sorry, dear?"

"No, no! I love you, Jack, and I'll go through everything with you and

for you. Really," she cried with a fine show of enthusiasm, "this is

jolly good fun, isn't it? Being chased like regular bandits--"

"Sh! Drop down, dear! There's somebody passing above us--hear him?"

They crawled into a maze of hazel bushes with much less dignity than

haste. Two men sped by an instant later, panting and growling.

"Safe for a minute or two at least," he whispered as the crunching

footsteps were lost to the ear. "They won't come back this way, dear."

"They had guns, Jack!" she whispered, terrified.

"I don't understand it, hanged if I do," he said, pulling his brows into

a mighty scowl. "They are after us like a pack of hounds. It must mean

something. Lord, but we seem to have stirred up a hornet's nest!"

"Oh, dear, I wish we were safely at--" she paused.

"At home?" he asked quickly.

"At Bracken's," she finished; and if any of the pursuers had been near

enough he might have heard the unmistakable suggestion of a kiss.

"I feel better," he said, squaring his shoulders. "Now, let me think. We

must outwit these fellows, whoever they are. By George, I remember one

of them! That old fellow who bought the horse is with them. That's it!

The horse is mixed up in this, I'll bet my head." They sat upon the

ground for several minutes, he thinking deeply, she listening with her

pretty ears intent.

"I wonder if they've left anybody to guard our boat?" he said suddenly.

"Come on, Marjory; let's investigate! By George, it would be just like

them to leave it unprotected!"

Once more they were moving cautiously through the brush, headed for the

river. Mr. Jack Barnes, whoever he was and whatever his crime, was a

resourceful, clever young man. He had gauged the intelligence of the

pursuers correctly. When he peered through the brush along the river

bank he saw the skiff in the reeds below, just as they had left it.

There was the lunch basket, the wee bit of a steamer trunk with all its

labels, a parasol and a small handbag.

"Goody, goody!" Marjory cried like a happy child.

"Don't show yourself yet, dearie. I'll make sure. They may have an

ambuscade. Wait here for me."

He crept down the bank and back again before she could fully subdue the

tremendous thumping his temerity had started in her left side.

"It's safe and sound," he whispered joyously. "The idiots have forgotten

the boat. Quick, dear; let's make a dash for it! Their raft is upstream

a hundred yards, and it is also deserted. If we can once get well across

the river we can give them the laugh."

"But they may shoot us from the bank," she protested as they plunged

through the weeds.

"They surely wouldn't shoot a woman!" he cried gayly.

"But you are not a woman!"

"And I'm not afraid of mice or men. Jump in!"

Off from the weeds shot the light skiff. The water splashed for a moment

under the spasmodic strokes of the oarsman, and then the little boat

streaked out into the river like a thing of life. Marjory sat in the

stern and kept her eyes upon the bank they were leaving. Jack Barnes

drove every vestige of his strength into the stroke; somehow he pulled

like a man who had learned how on a college crew. They were half way

across the broad river before they were seen from the hills. The half

dozen men who lingered at the base of Crow's Cliff had shouted the alarm

to their friends on the other side, and the fugitives were sighted once

more. But it was too late. The boat was well out of gunshot range and

making rapid progress downstream in the shelter of the high bluffs below

Crow's Cliff. Jack Barnes was dripping with perspiration, but his stroke

was none the feebler.

"They see us!" she cried.

"Don't wriggle so, Marjory--trim boat!" he panted. "They can't hit us,

and we can go two miles to their one."

"And we can get to Bracken's!" she cried triumphantly. A deep flush

overspread her pretty face.

"Hooray!" he shouted with a grin of pure delight. Far away on the

opposite bank Anderson Crow and his sleuths were congregating, their

baffled gaze upon the man who had slipped out of their grasp. The men

of the posse were pointing at the boat and arguing frantically; there

were decided signs of dispute among them. Finally two guns flew up, and

then came the puffs of smoke, the reports and little splashes of water

near the flying skiff.

"Oh, they are shooting!" she cried in a panic.

"And rifles, too," he grated, redoubling his pull on the oars. Other

shots followed, all falling short. "Get down in the bottom of the boat,

Marjory. Don't sit up there and be--"

"I'll sit right where I am," she cried defiantly.

Anderson Crow waved to the men under Crow's Cliff, and they began to

make their arduous way along the bank in the trail of the skiff. Part of

the armed posse hurried down and boarded the raft, while others followed

the chase by land.

"We'll beat them to Bracken's by a mile," cried Jack Barnes.

"If they don't shoot us," she responded. "Why, oh, why are they so

intent upon killing us?"

"They don't want you to be a widow and--break a--lot of hearts," he

said. "If they--hit me now you--won't be--dangerous as a--widow."

"Oh, you heartless thing! How can you jest about it? I'd--I'd go into

mourning, anyway, Jack," she concluded, on second thought. "We are just

as good as married, you see."

"It's nice--of you to say it, dear--but we're a long--way

from--Bracken's. Gee! That was close!"

A bullet splashed in the water not ten feet from the boat. "The cowards!

They're actually trying to kill us!" For the first time his face took

on a look of alarm and his eyes grew desperate. "I can't let them shoot

at you, Marjory, dear! What the dickens they want I don't know, but I'm

going to surrender." He had stopped rowing and was making ready to wave

his white handkerchief on high.

"Never!" she cried with blazing eyes. "Give me the oars!" She slid into

the other rowing seat and tried to snatch the oars from the rowlocks.

"Bravo! I could kiss you a thousand times for that. Come on, you

Indians! You're a darling, Marjory." Again the oars caught the water,

and Jack Barnes's white handkerchief lay in the bottom of the boat. He

was rowing for dear life, and there was a smile on his face.

The raft was left far behind and the marksmen were put out of range with

surprising ease. Fifteen minutes later the skiff shot across the river

and up to the landing of Bracken's boathouse, while a mile back in the

brush Anderson Crow and his men were wrathfully scrambling in pursuit.

"Hey, Bracken! Jimmy!" shouted Jack Barnes, jumping out upon the little

wharf. Marjory gave him her hands and was whisked ashore and into his

arms. "Run into the boathouse, dear. I'll yank this stuff ashore. Where

the dickens is Bracken?"

The boathouse door opened slowly and a sleepy young man looked forth.

"I thought you'd never come," he yawned.

"Wake up, you old loafer! We're here and we are pursued! Where are

George and Amy?" cried Mr. Barnes, doing herculean duty as a baggage

smasher.

"Pursued?" cried the sleepy young man, suddenly awake.

"Yes, and shot at!" cried Marjory, running past him and into the arms of

a handsome young woman who was emerging from the house.

"We've no time to lose, Jimmy! They are on to us, Heaven knows how. They

are not more than ten minutes behind us. Get it over with, Jimmy, for

Heaven's sake! Here, George, grab this trunk!"