Chapter XV: Dead in the Forest

When Alex and Jule were seized they naturally put up a hard fight, but the men who had attacked them were muscular, and, besides, had the advantage of taking the lads by surprise, so they were compelled to submit to the indignity of being searched.

After they came to their feet again, and after their heads had stopped whirling, Alex's first motion was toward his pistol pocket. Then he remembered that the automatic had been left on board the _Rambler_. They were absolutely without weapons of any kind.

The outlaw saw the motion and smiled grimly.

"So," he said, "you carried weapons. Some fancy little toy, I presume. What would you say to a weapon like this?"

As he spoke he displayed a revolver of enormous size. It was, however, patterned after an old model, and not at all similar to the improved automatics carried by the boys.

Alex, however, pretended great admiration for the gun and asked the privilege of taking it into his hands.

"I'd like to have one like it," he declared. "How much do they cost?"

All this, of course, to draw the attention of the outlaws away from Jule, who was getting ready to spring Peter Pratt.

"What does this mean?" asked Jule, in as hoarse a voice as he was able to assume.

The outlaws, who had seated themselves on the turf, instantly sprang to their feet.

"Throw up your hands!" went on the voice.

But, instead of obeying this command, the men dropped to the earth again and prepared to fight. The attempt was a failure.

The boys, however, were on their feet, and the instant the outlaws crouched down they were off, being closely followed by the bulldog, who had all along looked with disfavor upon the proceedings. Captain Joe hesitated for a second, looking longingly at the exposed leg of one of the outlaws and then sprang forward.

In a minute the outlaw was on his feet, thundering great oaths at the dog, and doing his best to release his leg from the teeth of the animal. His efforts proved ineffectual, serving only to throw him to the ground again, where he lay foaming with rage.

"Call off the dog!" he shouted, writhing about on the turf in agony. "He is killing me!"

Hour after hour Jule had spent teaching the dog to obey his Peter Pratt, and now it came into play.

"Let go, you cur!" he cried. "Don't kill the man! Let go, or I'll have your hide for a foot rug!"

By this time the outlaws, regardless of their companion's oaths and cries for help, were crouching lower in the bushes, mindful only of that first command to "throw up your hands!"

Captain Joe, in obedience to the command, released his hold on the outlaw and started after the boys. No sooner was the man released from the jaws of the dog than he drew a weapon and fired, the bullet cutting a long furrow in the dog's side.

"I wish I had a gun with me," said Alex in a rage. "I'd teach that robber better manners!"

"Come here, Joe!" Jule exclaimed. "I don't think he is seriously hurt," he added, as Joe came limping to his side.

"Find out as quick as you can," advised Alex, "while I see that the men in front keep in the underbrush. They won't hold the position long."

As the man who had ordered them to throw up their hands did not appear, the outlaws were already growing suspicious. They cast inquiring glances at each other and moved about restlessly.

In the meantime Jule was making as close an examination of the dog's wound as it was possible to make under the circumstances.

"There's an ugly cut in his side, but that will soon heal," he reported. "The thing to do now is to get away from here--quick! We are without weapons, and the outlaws will soon begin to smell a rat. They are getting suspicious already, and the fellow Joe bit is prowling about with blood in his eye."

Owing to the underbrush which obstructed the view, the fellow could not locate the boys for a moment, but he was soon on the trail, vowing vengeance at every bound. Of course the boys took to their heels, but the blood from the dog's side furnished a clew which was not to be mistaken.

"Something must be done or the man will catch us!" Alex panted. "Suppose you try Peter Pratt again?"

"Nothing doing!" Jule answered. "Do you want the other outlaws to know that they have been tricked?"

"That's a fact," replied Alex. "They would know that the man had shifted his position, even if they did not suspect trickery. But something must be done and done quick! Poor old Captain Joe is nearly all in."

Although the lads were running at a swift pace, they were still hampered by the dog, who appeared to be growing weaker with every leap he took. The footfalls behind came on regularly and swiftly.

"Go on ahead with the dog," Alex whispered at last. "I'll stop that fellow! Judging from the way he acts, he is running blindly, and it ought to be easy to trip him. He'll see the trail of blood and follow that."

Without waiting for Jule to give his consent to this plan, Alex dropped down in the shrubbery. The outlaw came forward on a run, passing the boy without a knowledge of his presence there, which was not at all to the liking of the lad.

The boy had planned to trip the fellow as he went by.

The next best thing was to take after the fellow, and so divert his attention away from the wounded dog. Captain Joe must be saved in spite of everything!

The other outlaws, becoming suspicious that they had been tricked, were now on their feet, running toward the point which was the goal of Alex, the fourth outlaw and the dog.

It looked pretty serious for Alex, situated as he was between the three men at the rear and the one man in front. For a moment he trailed the man ahead, not knowing what course to pursue.

Then a plan came to him--a plan which might result in placing weapons in the hands of Jule and himself. It was a desperate chance to take, but it appeared to be the only one worth considering at the time.

He slackened his pace so as to permit the three in the rear to approach, and then dropped into the underbrush. The men came on at good speed and were promptly tripped.

They were running almost breast and breast, so they fell in a heap. Before they could get to their feet again Alex had the huge revolver out of the pocket of the leader and had the three covered.

"That's right! Hands up! That's the game you made us play a short time ago!"

Alex could hardly conceal a grin of triumph as the outlaws hastened to obey the command.

"Take the weapons from your pockets and throw them on the ground!" was the next order.

"Oh, see here, kid, isn't this going too far?" said the leader, with a smile. "We were only joking with you."

"That's all right," was the reply. "But, you see, I'm not joking with you. Throw the weapons down!"

The words were spoken so peremptorily that the outlaws lost no time in complying, and the weapons clattered to the ground together. Alex at once took possession of them.

In the meantime Jule was making as good time as was possible, hampered, as he was, by the dog, who insisted on stopping every few rods to note the progress made by his pursuer. The fight was not yet all out of the dog.

At last he stopped abruptly and refused to budge. While Jule was doing his best to force him along the sound of pursuing footsteps ceased. The boy listened intently, but could hear nothing of either Alex or the men he believed to be in pursuit.

"What's coming off now?" he mused. "If this is a trick, I'm in bad, being without weapons and with this confounded dog on my hands. Captain Joe, why can't you behave yourself?"

Captain Joe gave an extra tug at the collar and broke away, disappearing almost immediately in the thick underbrush, with Jule in hot pursuit and a trail of blood showing where the dog had gone.

The dog was out of sight in a second, but the trail of blood, instead of leading directly to the rear, wound off to the right. The trail was growing fainter every minute, which demonstrated that the wound was closing, or that it was becoming filled with clots.

While Jule hesitated about following on after the dog, thinking that he had gone crazy, the sound of a revolver came to his ears, and the pursuit was taken up again.

The lad reached an opening in the shrubbery just in time to see the dog and the outlaw in what seemed to be a death struggle. The man had evidently fired one shot at the dog and been too late to fire again. He had been seized by the dog and thrown to the ground.

His revolver lay by his side, just beyond his reach. The fellow was already in the agonies of death.

Jule sprang forward, but it was too late. The blood which was scattered liberally over the rank grass told him that. The dog had severed the jugular vein.

"I don't blame you, Captain Joe," the boy said, kneeling by the side of the fast-failing outlaw, "not a little bit! He shot you while you were running away from him, and you got even in the only way you knew; still, I wish you had let him live."

There came a gurgle of blood at the throat, the wounded man struggled for a second for breath, and all was over.

Jule laid the head of the man back reverently. Whatever he had been in life, death had canceled. The record was of his own making and must be judged by One wiser than the combined wisdom of earth.

Captain Joe, to tell the truth, did not appear in the last downcast by the manner in which the incident had terminated, for he frisked about the boy as if expecting to be praised for what he had done. Seeing that words of commendation were not likely to be forthcoming, he darted away down the river.

Jule followed on behind, leaving the dead outlaw to be cared for later on. He reached an opening in the tangle of underbrush just in time to witness Alex's capture of the three outlaws.

When he approached the spot where Alex stood the lad was facing the three men about.

"What's doing?" he asked. "Likely pair and a half you have there! How did you manage it--the capture, I mean?"

"They just came and gave themselves up!" was the reply. "Got a rope or anything to tie 'em up with?"

"Nothing doing in that way," answered Jule. The leader of the outlaws now appealed to the newcomer for release.

"This lad," he said, "is inclined to take the incident which took place recently rather seriously. I can't make him understand that it was all a joke."

"Joke, was it?" asked Jule. "Well, the joke cost the life of your chum!"

And the boy related the scene he had just witnessed.

Just how it was done the boys never knew. One minute the three men stood facing the lads, the next they were crunching their way through the underbrush. And Alex had not fired a shot. He had been too busy listening to Jule's recital of the scene in the forest.

The boys knew the outlaws would lose no time in making an effort to regain possession of the weapons, so they took to their heels.

"Why didn't you shoot?" demanded Jule.

"I was too much interested in the story you were telling," was the panting reply. "I think I must be a chump!"

The river was not far away, and the boys struck out for it with all the running ability they possessed, halting only when they stood on its southern bank.

The outlaws had not yet made their appearance, and the boys fancied they, too, were running only in an opposite direction.

"Now what?" asked Jule. "We can't swim across, can we?"

"I should say not!" was the reply, as Alex threw himself down on the turf. "To tell the truth, I'm about all in! Do you see anything of Captain Joe?" he added. "I presume the fool dog followed the outlaws away."

Jule grinned, thinking of the figure cut by Alex as he stood with the huge revolver, threatening the three men.

"I wonder if the gun is loaded?" he said, taking it into his hand. "I have known men to carry empty weapons. For the love of Mike, it sure is empty!"

The boy rolled over and over on the grass, making faces at his chum and laughing softly.

"Nice time you would have had if they had turned on you!" he said tauntingly, but just at that moment the chum was too busy watching the dog to pay the slightest attention to him.

The dog had again made his appearance on the bank of the river showing all his teeth, and back of him came the outlaws!

They were laughing uproariously, because they, too, remembered that the weapons were empty, all save the one in possession of the outlaw who had set off in pursuit of the dog. They had discharged them and forgotten all about it.