Chapter XIX: The Bone and Blood Club

“If it is Carey, and he is alone, we are in luck,” said Pepper.

“Do we want him to recognize us?” asked Andy.

“I don’t know as it will make much difference,” returned the young major, thoughtfully. “Perhaps we can scare him better by disguising ourselves.”

“Let us make certain it is Carey first and that he is alone.”

They walked up the brook a short distance and reached a bank that was several feet higher than that opposite. From this point it was an easy matter to clear the watercourse at a bound. Then they hurried down in the direction of the lake.

“There he is!” whispered Jack, a few minutes later, and pointed through the trees to where a youth lay sprawled out on the seat of a small rowboat. Beside him were the oars and some fishing tackle and also a long pole which appeared to have a drag-net attached to it.

“He is certainly alone,” said Pepper. “But he may be waiting for somebody.”

“Then the quicker we act the better,” returned Jack.

They decided to cut holes in their handkerchiefs through which to see and then tie the articles over their faces. Then they turned their cadet coats inside out, and rubbed a little dust on their necks and hands.

“He won’t recognize us very easily,” said the young major, “especially if we disguise our voices.”

“I move Jack be made our general spokesman,” said Pepper. “He knows just what we want.”

“We want to get Flossie Ford’s bracelet for her, that’s all,” said Andy. “Incidentally if we can scare Carey half to death for annoying Flossie, so much the better.”

“We’ll scare him right enough,” answered Jack, grimly.

Will Carey was dozing away when of a sudden he felt himself in the grasp of three strong pairs of hands. In a twinkling he was turned over and his hands were bound behind him with a piece of his own fishing line.

“Stop!” he cried out. “Help!”

“Silence, if you don’t want to get hurt!” was the command, in a deep, rough voice, and now he saw that his assailants were three masked persons. They jerked him to his feet, made him step ashore, and in a jiffy compelled him to march a short distance into the thickest of the woods.

“Wha—what do yo—you want of me?” he faltered. He was far from being brave and his present predicament filled him with terror.

“We want you to behave yourself,” was the answer, delivered in the deep voice previously employed by Jack.

“I—I am behaving myself.”

“You are not, Will Carey. You have done an innocent person a great wrong—and the Bone and Blood Club of Cedarville is going to see to it that you right that wrong.”

“Are you the—the Bone and Bone Club?” faltered the Pornell Academy student.

“We are some of the members of that club—chosen to right this great wrong you have done.”

“I—I hav—haven’t done any wrong.”

“You have—do not dare to deny it—or the vengeance of the Bone and Blood Club shall descend upon your head like a fiery serpent and a stroke of lightning,” answered Jack, making his voice as deep and menacing as possible.

“Wha—what have I done?” asked Carey. He was now shaking so he could scarcely speak.

“You have turned thief—yes, and you have told lies. Is it not so, Brothers of the Worthy Bone and Blood Club?” asked Jack, turning to his chums.

“It is so!” exclaimed Andy and Pepper, nodding slowly and solemnly.

“What? Me?” gasped Will Carey.

“Yes.”

“Wha—what did I steal?”

“You took from one of the fairest maidens of Cedarville a golden bracelet, and you have persistently refused to return the same.”

“Oh!” gasped the prisoner, and the others saw him turn pale.

“You must return the bracelet,” went on Jack. “Otherwise it will be our painful duty to chastise you severely and then hand you over to the police.”

“No! no! Don’t do that!” shrieked the Pornell Academy student. “Let me go! Please let me go!”

“Will you return the bracelet?”

“I—I did return it.”

“That is not true.”

“I put it in a box of chocolates and——”

“That story is absolutely false, prisoner. You have the bracelet still.”

“No, I have not,” and Will Carey began to tremble. “Oh, please let me go, please do!”

“You have the bracelet and must give it up,” continued Jack. He turned to his chums. “Is the fire burning well?”

“It is burning well, your Highness,” answered Andy and Pepper.

“Then take the prisoner and warm him up. He appears to be cold, for he is shivering.”

“No, no—you shan’t put me against any fire and blister me!” yelled Will Carey, trembling from head to foot. “Oh, please let me go, please do! I’ll—I’ll give you all I’m worth!”

“We want nothing but the bracelet you took,” answered Jack, firmly.

“And that we must and shall have!” came in a deep chorus from the others.

“I—I haven’t got the bracelet, I tell you,” said the prisoner, desperately.

“What did you do with it—sell it?”

“No, I—I gave it back.”

“You did not give it back, and if you say so again we’ll put you on the fire to roast.”

“Mercy! Mercy!” screamed the Pornell Academy student and fell on his knees. He thought he was in the hands of three rough persons who would be only too willing to carry out the dire threat made.

“What have you done with that bracelet?” demanded Jack, again. “Come, out with the truth at once.” And he raised a stick he had picked up, as if to strike Carey to the ground.

“Don’t hit me! I—I lost the bracelet!” screamed Will Carey. “Oh, don’t hurt me, please don’t! I couldn’t help it. I—I had the bracelet in a blue tin box in my pocket and I went for a ride on a sloop, and the wind knocked the sloop over and the box dropped out of my pocket. That’s the honest truth, I give you my word on it. I’d give anything to get the bracelet back.”

“You dropped it out of your pocket while on the lake,” said Jack, with deep interest. “Was that the day the _Ajax_ raced with the _Alice_?”

“Yes.”

“Have you hunted for the tin box since?”

“Half a dozen times. Why, I came out to-day to look for it. The water is rather shallow where the sloop went over, and I made a net and dragged the bottom, but I couldn’t find the box or the bracelet. The net is in my boat now.”

The chums were now convinced that Will Carey was telling the truth, for Jack and Pepper well remembered how concerned Carey had been over the loss of the blue tin box and how he had not told what it contained. The presence of the drag-net also added color to his tale.

“Why didn’t you give Miss Ford her bracelet long ago?” demanded Pepper.

“I—I wanted to—to tease her a little, that’s all,” answered the Pornell Academy student. “I wish I had given it to her now.”

“If you can’t find the bracelet, you’ll have to pay for it,” said Andy.

“I—I know that, but—but——”

“But what?” demanded Jack.

“I—I can’t pay for it right away. My father has cut me down—he says I am spending too much foolishly,—and I lost a lot on a bowling match we had with some Putnam Hall fellows.”

“Yes, we heard something about that bowling match,” said Jack, not to let the prisoner get a clue to his identity.

“Hullo! hullo!” came a shout from a distance. “Where are you, Jack? Where are you, Pepper? Hullo, Andy! Come this way, we have got on the trail of those two crazy men!”

A moment later Stuffer burst into view and came walking toward them.

“Keep back!” shouted Jack, quickly. “Keep back and don’t say anything. We’ll soon be with you.” And then he whispered something to his two chums.

“All right,” answered both.

“We’ll see you again soon, Carey,” said the young major, to the prisoner. “In the meantime, remember you must either find that bracelet or pay for it,” and so speaking he cut the line that bound Carey’s hands and rushed off in the direction of Stuffer, followed by Andy and Pepper.