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"No fear o' Tolly," said Flinders; "he's a 'cute boy as can look after himself. By the way, where's Muster Tom?" The reason of Brixton's absence was explained to him by Betty, who bustled about the house packing up the few things that could be carried away, while her father and Fred busied themselves with the cart and horses outside.
There isn't a chance of an alarm from the house. I'll cut all the wires the last thing before I leave. Good-bye." All at once it dawned on me what they were planning the kidnapping of Brixton's only daughter, to hold her, perhaps, as a hostage until he did the bidding of the gang. Wachtmann's chauffeur was doing it and using Wachtmann's car, too. Was Wachtmann a party to it? What was to be done?
A sharp knife, however, had touched his bonds, and he knew that he was free. A few minutes later, and the same hand touched Tom Brixton's arm. He would probably have betrayed himself by an exclamation, but remembering Drake's "Be ready," he lay perfectly still while the hands, knife, and lips did their work. The latter merely said, in broken English, "Rise when me rise, an' run!"
"Connected up with something, too, by George!" he ejaculated. Evidently some one had tapped the regular telephone wires running into the house, had run extensions into the little storeroom, and was prepared to overhear everything that was said either to or by those in the house. Further examination disclosed that there were two separate telephone systems running into Brixton's house.
Yes, the scoundrel has followed you up, Tolly, as Paul Bevan said he would, and, havin' come across Brixton's track, has gone after him, from all which I now come to the conclusion that your friend Mister Tom is a prisoner, an' stands in need of our sarvices. What say you, Tolly?" "Go at 'em at once," replied the warlike Trevor, "an' set him free." "What! us three attack fifty men?"
"Then possibly you can inform me whether the Big Hickory is fordable at Deer Gap." "Not for infantry at high water, sir; but there is another ford two miles north where it is never over waist deep." "That would be at Brixton's Mill?" "No, sir; the other way." Lee smiled, and rested his hand almost caressingly on the trooper's knee.
"I'll do it best alone; leastwise I'll take only little Tolly Trevor an' Leapin' Buck with me, for they're both smart an' safe lads, and are burnin' keen to learn somethin' o' woodcraft." In accordance with this determination, Mahoghany Drake, Leaping Buck, and little Trevor set off next day and followed Tom Brixton's trail into the mountains.
Rather than seeming to be offended at our notice of his condition he seemed to take it as a good evidence of Kennedy's keenness that he had at once hit on one of the things that were weighing on Brixton's own mind. "I feel pretty badly, too.
Quickly he made one test after another. I sniffed. There was an unmistakable smell of garlic in the air. "Arseniureted hydrogen," commented Craig. "This is the Marsh test for arsenic. That wall-paper in Brixton's den has been loaded down with arsenic, probably Paris green or Schweinfurth green, which is aceto-arsenite of copper. Every minute he is there he is breathing arseniureted hydrogen.
Knowing full well the fate that awaited him if he stood to wrestle with a bear, the youth turned to run, but the bear was too quick for him. It struck him on the back and felled him to the earth. Strange to say, at that moment Tom Brixton's ill-gotten gains stood him in good stead.
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