LITMIR.BIZ

Скачать книгу

told a few minutes later. His face at once showed his concern.

      "It mustn't be allowed!" he said, earnestly. "I don't care so much on my own account, but think of Mrs. Wadsworth and the girls! Yes, we must keep our eyes open, and if anything goes wrong----" He finished with a grave shake of his head.

      "What are you boys plotting about?" asked Laura, as she came up. "Come, it won't do to stick together like this, with all the girls arriving. Dave, go and make folks at home,--and you do likewise," she added, with a smile at Phil and Roger.

      The boys dispersed and mingled with the arriving guests. Dave did all he could to make everybody feel at home, but all the while he was doing it he kept his eyes wide open.

      Presently, chancing to look in the direction of the automobile house, Dave saw somebody skulking along a hedge. The person was visible only a second, so the youth could not make out who it was.

      "Maybe it's all right, but I'll take a look and make sure," he told himself, and excused himself to a girl to whom he had been talking. As he hurried across the lawn he passed Phil.

      "Come with me, will you?" he said, in a low voice.

      "See anything?" demanded the shipowner's son.

      "I saw somebody, but I am not sure who it was."

      Taking care not to make his departure noticeable, Dave walked toward the automobile house and Phil followed him. Soon the pair were behind some rose bushes and then they gained the shelter of the heavy hedge.

      "There he is!" said Dave, in a low voice. "It's Nat Poole, sure enough!"

      "What's he doing?" asked Phil.

      "Nothing just now. But I guess he is up to something."

      Keeping well out of sight behind the hedge, the two boys watched the son of the money-lender. Nat was sneaking past the automobile house and making for a washing-shed adjoining the kitchen of the mansion.

      "I think I know what he is up to," murmured Dave. "Come on after him, Phil."

      As silently as shadows Dave and Phil followed the money-lender's son to the shed. Once Nat looked around to see if the coast was clear, and the followers promptly dropped down behind a lilac bush. Reassured, Nat entered the shed, and Dave and Phil tiptoed their way up and got behind the open door.

      The hired help were in the kitchen, so the shed was empty. On the floor stood an ice-cream freezer full of home-made ice-cream, and on a shelf rested several freshly baked cakes, all covered with chocolate icing, set out to harden.

      "Now I'll fix things," Dave and Phil heard the money-lender's son mutter. "Salt in the cream and salt in the layer cakes will do the trick! Some of the boys and girls will think they are poisoned!"

      Nat took up a bag of salt that was handy,--used for making the cream,--and proceeded to open the can in the freezer. Dave watched him as a cat does a mouse.

      Just as Nat was on the point of dumping some of the salt into the ice-cream he felt himself jerked backwards. The salt dropped to the floor, and Nat found himself confronting Dave, with Phil but a few steps away.

      "You contemptible rascal!" cried Dave, his eyes flashing.

      "Why--I--er----" stammered the money-lender's son. He did not know what to say.

      "Going to spoil the cream, eh?" came from Phil. "It was a mighty dirty trick, Nat."

      "On a level with what you did to Professor Potts," added Dave.

      "I--er--I wasn't going to do nothing!" cried Nat, with little regard for grammar. "I--er--I was looking at the ice-cream, that's all."

      "A poor excuse is worse than none," answered Dave, grimly. "You were going to put salt in the cream and spoil it, you needn't deny it."

      "See here, Dave Porter, I want you to understand----"

      "Don't talk, Nat, we know all about it," broke in Phil. "You planned to come here yesterday, and we can prove it. We were on the lookout for you."

      At this assertion the face of the money-lender's son changed. He grew quite pale.

      "I haven't time to waste on you--I want to enjoy this party," said Dave. "Come along with me."

      "Where to?" demanded Nat.

      "I'll show you," answered Dave, and caught the money-lender's son by the arm. "Catch hold of him, Phil, and don't let him escape."

      CHAPTER V

      AT NIAGARA FALLS

      "See here, I want you to let me alone!" stormed Nat Poole, and he tried to jerk himself free.

      "Listen, Nat," said Dave, sternly. "If you make a noise it will be the worse for you, for it will bring the others here, and then we'll tell about what you tried to do. Maybe Mrs. Wadsworth will call an officer, and anyway all the girls and the boys will be down on you. Now, if you want Phil and me to keep this a secret, you've got to come along with us."

      "Where to?" grumbled Nat, doggedly.

      "You'll soon see," returned Dave, briefly, and with a wink at his chum.

      Somewhat against his will, Nat walked toward the end of the garden. He wished to escape from Mrs. Wadsworth and the others, but he was afraid Dave and Phil contemplated doing something disagreeable to him. Maybe they would give him a sound thrashing.

      "Don't you touch me--don't you dare!" he cried, when the barn was readied. "Remember, my father can have you locked up, Dave Porter!"

      "Well, don't forget what Professor Potts can do to you, Nat," answered Dave.

      "What are you going to do?" asked Phil, in an aside to his chum.

      Dave was trying to think. He had been half of a mind to lock Nat in the harness closet until the party was over--thus preventing him from making more trouble. Now, however, as he heard a locomotive whistle, a new thought struck him.

      "Come on down to the railroad tracks, Nat," he said.

      "What for?"

      "Maybe you can take a journey for your health--if the freight train stops at the water tank."

      "I--er--I don't understand."

      "You will--if the train stops--and I think it will."

      The three boys pushed off across the fields to where the railroad tracks were located. Here was the very spot where Dave had been picked up years before. Not far off was a water tank, where the locomotives usually stopped for their supply. A long freight train was just slowing down. Many of the cars were empty and the doors stood wide open.

      "Up you go, Nat!" cried Dave.

      "Me? Where?"

      "Into one of the empty cars. You are going to have a ride for your health."

      "Not much! Why, that train don't stop short of Jack's Junction, twelve miles from here!"

      "I know it. You can walk back--the exercise will do you good."

      "I--er--I don't want to go!" And Nat made as if to run away. But Dave and Phil held him.

      "But you are going!" cried Dave. "In you go!"

      He and Phil forced the money-lender's son toward one of the open cars. Still protesting, Nat was shoved up and through one of the open doors. The door on the other side was closed. He ran to it, but found it locked from the outside.

      "Hi, you let me off!" he cried, as the train gave a jerk and commenced to move.

      "Don't jump, you might

Скачать книгу