  “You younkers are certain you are telling me the truth?” Dugan, the treacherous private, paused, and, from his immense height, looked down into the faces of Jack Curtiss and Freeman Hunt. “As sure as we stand here,” Jack assured him, “I’ve told you how we came to overhear what was said. If you want those plans, now is your chance to get them.” “And don’t forget to beat Rob Blake up good and proper,” chimed in Hunt, who had lost all prudence in his eagerness to have his grudge avenged. “You bet I won’t,” Dugan grunted. “I guess if he’s the sort of boy you describe him to be, he won’t give them up without a struggle.” “You could break him in two with one hand tied behind your back,” struck in Jack, gazing at the immense frame and loosely hung, ape-like arms of Dugan. “Leave that to me, kid,” Dugan assured him, with an ominous grin, “and—hullo, here comes Hashashi now. That’s lucky. I may need him if there are three of them.” Turning in the direction in which the soldier had spied the newcomer, the lads saw a small, slightly-built figure approaching them. It was the Japanese with whom Dugan had been seen conversing in the hut when the unsuspected listeners had overheard. “Guess we’ll be going,” said Jack Curtiss uneasily. “Hold on!” exclaimed Dugan, clutching him with a grip of iron, as he spoke. “You’ve got to promise me that you don’t tell nothing of this.” “Of course,” Jack assured him; “we’ve promised you once.” “And I guess you’ll keep your word,” said the man, grimly compressing his lips till they formed a narrow line. “If I ever suspect you of telling a thing about it, I’ve got you two ways. In the first place, I’ll reveal your part in the plot, and, in the second, I’m a bad man to have for an enemy.” Dugan drew his low forehead into a dozen horizontal puckers, as he spoke. With his lowering brow and ape-like face, he looked indeed, as he had said, “a bad man to have for an enemy.” “D’ye understand?” he grated harshly, glaring at Jack grimly. Curtiss, who was as big a coward as he was a bully and reprobate, felt his knees knock together under that ferocious gaze. “Y-y-yes, sir,” he said. “You, too!” hissed Dugan, switching suddenly on Freeman Hunt, who was looking nervous and ill at ease. He began to think that perhaps they had let themselves in for something more serious than they had bargained for. “I won’t breathe a word of it,” Hunt hastened to assure him. “You’d better not,” snarled Dugan, more savagely than ever, “now, git!” Without further loss of time, Jack Curtiss and Freeman Hunt “got.” To their surprise, as they turned to hasten off, no sign of the Jap was to be seen, yet an instant before he had been in the road, not more than ten yards from them. There were no hedges at this point, and salt meadows stretched out to the sea on one side, and stubble-fields, flat and level, on the other. “Where on earth did that Jap go to?” asked Jack in a mystified tone, as they hurried away. “Don’t know,” rejoined Freeman, with a trembly feeling. “There was something uncanny about it. “I—I begin to wish we hadn’t met those fellows or had anything to do with them,” he burst out, in a complaining tone. “There you go, sniveling like a baby,” sneered Jack Curtiss. “Why, a short time ago, you were only too pleased to have found such an easy way of getting even on Rob Blake and those other young whelps.” “I know,” rejoined Hunt timidly, “but—but I don’t like the look of that fellow Dugan. He scared me. If he ever suspects us of betraying him, he’ll take a terrible revenge. I wish we hadn’t meddled in the thing at all, I wish——” “Say, you make me tired,” broke in his companion angrily, “we’re not going to tell about it, are we? We won’t be foolish enough to let on that we had anything to do with the beating Rob Blake is bound to get.” “No, but——” quavered Hunt. “Oh, tell it to your grandmother,” scoffed Jack. “Come on. Hurry up; we want to get away from here before the fun begins.” Hastening on, they soon were out of sight and earshot of the spot in which their momentous colloquy had taken place. In the meantime, from behind a large rock, not far from where Dugan was standing, the lithe form of the Jap suddenly upreared itself. “Wow! You gave me a scare that time!” exclaimed Dugan, as his ally came into view. “How did you vanish like that, a few minutes ago?” “Simple, my dear friend. I simply took advantage of a large rock by the roadside, and dodged behind it. There was nothing of Oriental mystery in it, I assure you.” “Huh!” rejoined Dugan, as if only half convinced. “You’re a queer fellow, Hashashi. What did you come after me for, anyhow? Not but what I’m mighty glad to see you right now.” “I hastened after you to give you some final instructions I had forgotten,” was the reply. “But what were you talking to those boys about?” “Something mighty interesting to us both. Listen.” Dugan rapidly related all that Jack had told him. “Of course,” he concluded, “there is a chance that they may not come down this road, but, in any event, we know now where the plans are, and if the worst comes to the worst——” “The vaults of country banks are not proof against Shimose,” grinned the Jap. “Hark!” exclaimed Dugan suddenly. “I hear voices—boys, too,” he went on, after a minute’s listening; “get behind that rock yonder. I’ll stop them and ask the time of day or something, and you make your appearance when you think you are needed.” “All right, my honorable comrade,” chuckled the Jap, sliding like a gray-suited shadow toward the rock, and vanishing from view behind it. On came the three unsuspecting boys, chatting and laughing, and little dreaming of what lay in store for them round the turn of the road. Dugan, an evil expression on his countenance, drew back a little, and then, as they drew closer, started forward. “Got the time, young fellow?” he asked in a natural, easy tone, as the three lads came up to him. “It’s the man we saw in the hut!” exclaimed Tubby, in a rather affrighted tone, but so low that Dugan did not hear him. “Well, he can’t possibly know what we have been doing,” rejoined Rob, in an equally cautious voice. Thinking it best not to give the man even a slight excuse for suspicion, he drew out his watch. “It’s just three-thirty,” he said. “Thanks,” said Dugan, who all this time had been carefully sizing up the three lads. Rob he recognized by description as being the one who was likely to carry the plans of the equalizer. “Phew!” he remarked to himself. “They’re three husky youngsters for fair. Glad I’ve got a revolver, or I might get the worst of it.” The boys were starting on again when Dugan stepped back a pace or two and spread his immense bulk across their path. “Hold on a minute, boys,” he said. “I’ve got something to say to you. You’ve been calling on Lieutenant Duvall.” “We’ve been for a walk,” rejoined Rob boldly. “I don’t know who this Lieutenant Duvall is you’re talking about.” “You don’t, eh, you young mucker?” Dugan had decided that his best chance lay in scaring the three lads. “Well, I do. Don’t try to lie to me.” He contorted his face in hideous fashion. This was a trick he had found very successful in intimidating other persons he wished to bully or oppress. But in the three boys before him, as we know, Dugan was up against boys out of the ordinary run. Instead of being impressed, Rob simply took a step forward, turning to his chums and saying in a natural, unshaken voice. “Come on, fellows.” “Yes, come on, fellows,” sneered the other. “Not so fast, my young buckos. I want a word with you. You’ve got some plans in your pockets. Are you going to give them up peaceably, or do you want a taste of Bill Dugan’s fists?” Rob could not repress a start, not of fear, but of astonishment, as the fellow spoke. How could he know anything about the plans he was carrying to the safe deposit vaults? Dugan misinterpreted his hesitation. “Come on now,” he grated, coming closer, with an ugly leer on his face; “fork over!” As he spoke his hand crept back toward his hip. He might have to use his revolver. These boys were proving more obstinate than he had imagined. To his amazement, no trace of fear or alarm appeared on their faces for all his blustering. “See here,” exclaimed Rob boldly, “I don’t know who you are and I don’t think I want to better the acquaintance. I do know this, however, that you wear the uniform of a United States soldier. Let us pass at once, and stop this nonsense, or——” With a bellow of rage, Bill Dugan leaped forward. At the same instant he aimed a powerful blow at Rob’s head. The lad could hear the ponderous fist whistle as it cut through the air. But somehow, when the blow landed—or reached the point where it should have landed—Rob wasn’t there. The boy had nimbly sidestepped. With a bellow of rage Bill Dugan leaped forward. “That won’t do you no good,” bellowed Dugan, assuming furious rage, both to impress the boys and to conceal his astonishment. “I’ve got you where I want you. Are you going to give up them plans?” “I am not!” The reply came swift as a bullet. Rob realized that in some way the rascal before him knew that the precious designs were in his possession. He determined that they would not leave his person without a struggle. Somehow he felt that the three of them, all clean-lived, healthy, muscular boys, should prove a match for the hulking, bloated, blustering brute before him. He was totally unprepared for the fellow’s next move, however. With a gliding motion of one hand, so swift as to be almost imperceptible, Dugan suddenly produced a gun. At the same instant he gave a shrill whistle, and from behind his rock the serpentine form of the Jap appeared. His almond shaped eyes glittered balefully as he took in the scene before him. Dugan took quick advantage of the temporary distraction of the lad’s attention. With an agility which would hardly have been expected from his huge proportions, he suddenly sprang forward. Rob, totally unprepared as he was for such a move, could not defend himself. Down he toppled into the dust, before the savage onslaught of the giant Dugan’s great form falling on top of him and pinning the lad securely to the ground. |
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