"well, the die is cast one way or the other," thought bob, as he ate the last scrap of his dinner; "that sure did taste good." then as a sudden thought struck him, he began hurriedly to search his pockets. as good luck would have it, he found a small note book, containing several blank leaves and a stub of a lead pencil. hastily, he tore out a page and wrote the following note:
"i am confined in a house in the woods, have no idea where, but it must be within twenty or thirty miles of skowhegan. king and reed are taking me to boston tonight, in a car. secret still safe."
bob golden.
folding the paper, he wrote on the outside, "will the finder of this paper please send it to mr. golden, skowhegan?" he made several copies of the note, thinking as he did so, "if i can only get a chance to throw these out of the car, one of them, at least, may get to father. i don't know as it will do me 71much good, but it will let the folks know that i'm still alive."
supper was brought to him at five o'clock, and at seven, king came up to tell him that they were about to start. "now, see here, boy," he said, "we don't want to be any harder on you than we can help, and if you give me your word that you won't try to get away, or make any trouble, we won't tie you."
bob thought he might as well promise as he knew they would make it impossible for him to escape if he did not, and he dreaded being tied, so he gave his word.
"all right then," said king, "but mind now, that you keep it, because if you make any trouble, i'll have to tie you up and gag you."
"are we going all the way tonight?"
king laughed. "i guess not; if we drove too fast, it would excite suspicion, and we'd have to drive like the dickens to make it in one night. no, we'll make portland by daylight and lie low there till dark. but come on, now; there's bill with the car. i shall have to blindfold you for awhile, for i suppose you are pretty well acquainted round here and i don't intend to let you know where this place is."
he took a large handkerchief from his pocket as he spoke and tied it tightly over bob's eyes.
"now mind, you don't take that off till i give 72you permission," he ordered, as he led him from the room and down the stairs.
as they came out on the porch, bob could hear a powerful car purring close at hand. he and king got into the rear seat.
"have you got the suitcases and the rest of the stuff, bill?" asked king.
"yes, they're all in back there."
"all right, then, let her go."
darkness was just falling as they started, and at first, their pace was very slow, as the road was too rough for any but the very slowest speed, at which a car could be run. in about twenty minutes, they came to the end of the woods road and the car turned into a much smoother highway, and reed sent her forward at a lively clip.
"now, kid, you get down on the bottom of the car till it gets a little darker," ordered king, and bob had to obey.
they continued in this way for half an hour or a little more, when king said, "i guess it's dark enough now; you can get up on the seat again, and i'll take that rag off." as soon as this was done, bob strained his eyes to see if he could tell where they were, but it was too dark to see much, and he was unable to so much as guess their location for some time. in about an hour, however, they passed a large house, which stood very near the road, and 73he at once recognized it as being but a few miles from oakland. he was well acquainted with the road, as he had several times driven his father's car to boston.
reed was running at about twenty miles an hour most of the time, and instead of passing through the towns, he choose roads, for the most part, which led around them. they lost considerable time in this way, but bob figured that they, would probably get to portland before daybreak.
about one o'clock, they were passing over a particularly rough piece of road, when, bang, went one of the rear tires. "hang it all, there's a blowout," growled reed, bringing the car to a stop. "but it won't take long to slip on the extra rim."
while they were waiting, bob noticed that king did not watch him quite as closely as he had been doing, and he managed to slip his hand into his pocket and take out one of the notes he had written. in less than fifteen minutes, reed announced that the job was finished, and just as they were about to start, bob, carelessly hanging his hand over the edge of the car, let the note fall to the ground, unnoticed by either of the men. nothing more worthy of note happened, except that he managed to drop a second note as they passed through the little town of brunswick, and at about half past four, just as the dawn was beginning to light up 74the east, reed drove the car into the yard of a house standing well back from the road.
"here we are," he announced, and king at once gave a peculiar whistle, which was soon answered by the raising of a window on the second floor.
"hello, frank, is that you?" asked king.
"yes," was the answer. "what do you want?"
"come down here, and we'll tell you," answered king, and the window was at once shut. in a few moments, they were joined by a short man, about forty years old, who reed greeted as frank, shaking his hand cordially.
"we're on our way to boston, and we've got a young fellow here, who don't like our company any too well," explained king with a slight laugh, "and we want you to put us up till night, as it isn't good for our complexions to travel in the daytime. no one here, is there?"
"no, it's all right. just drive the machine into the barn and come in. i'll have breakfast ready in a few minutes, and then you can turn in. been riding all night, hain't ye?"
"yes, and i guess we can do a little something in both the eating and sleeping line," answered king. "we haven't had any eats since we started."
they had a fairly good meal, after which the man called frank said, "you and the kid can go up in the south room, on the third floor, you know which 75one, and bill can sleep on the lounge in the parlor."
"all right," replied king, "come on, kid."
the room which they entered was small, and contained but a single bed. it was lighted by two small windows, about eight inches square, placed nearly six feet from the floor.
"i guess you'll be safe here with me," declared king, as he locked the door, and put the key in his pocket. "i'm a very light sleeper, and i told frank to keep his eyes peeled, so you'd better not try to get away."
as bob made no reply, king, removing only his coat, threw himself on the bed, telling bob to do the same. as the boy was very sleepy, and somewhat tired from his long ride, he was not long in obeying. although he did not feel that he was bound by his promise, while they were there, he realized that the chances of escape were so small, that it would be foolish to make the attempt, and deciding to await a more favorable opportunity, he was soon fast asleep.
when he awoke, it was nearly three o'clock, and he was alone in the room. jumping up, he tried the door, but, as he expected, it was locked. "gee, but this sort of thing is getting on my nerves," he thought. "when we get to boston, i'm going to do something desperate, if i have to, to get away."
he could hear some one moving about, on the 76lower floor, from time to time, but no one came near him till nearly six o'clock, when king came up and told him to come down to supper. after the meal, they waited till it was fairly dark, and then started off again. nothing of importance happened during the trip, and bob found chances to drop two more notes as they passed through small towns.
about three o'clock, they reached the outskirts of boston, and king said, "now i shall have to blindfold you again, and you will have to lie down on the bottom of the car."
"what for?"
"never you mind what for," replied king, and then added, "you don't suppose i'm fool enough to let you see where we're going, do you?"
bob was forced to obey, but fortunately, for his position was far from comfortable, they were not far from their destination, and in less than a half hour the car stopped.
"we're here at last," announced king, as he opened the door of the car, and taking bob by the arm, led him up some steps into a house. once inside, the blindfold was removed, and bob saw that he was in, what appeared to be, a fairly good-sized, but poorly furnished house. the opening of the door had evidently aroused some one, for the stairs creaked, and glancing up, bob saw a very small man, with a huge hump on his back, coming down.77
"well, nip, how's things?" asked king.
"all o. k., sir," replied the hump-back, "but i didn't expect you back so soon."
"no, i suppose not, but we're here and mighty hungry. can't you give us a cold bite, quick?"
"i guess i can find something. you wait here a minute," and the hump-back went toward the rear of the house.
"we'll go in here and sit down till he's ready," said king, motioning bob to precede him, into what seemed to be a small sitting room.
they had not waited more than ten minutes, when they heard from the rear room, "all right, sir," and going through a long hall they entered a room, where they found a table set with a plain, but generous lunch of cold meat, bread and butter and apple pie. bob did full justice to the meal and, as soon as they were through, king said, "now we'll go upstairs and get a little sleep, but i want to get to work as soon as we can."
he led bob up some bare stairs, ushered him into a small room on the second floor and told him to make himself at home.
"you'll occupy this room while you're our guest, and as it has been fitted up for just such guests as you, i hardly think you'll leave till we get ready to let you go," king laughed, as he left the room.
the room was lighted by electric light, which 78king had turned on as they entered, and bob proceeded at once to take account of stock, as he expressed it. the room contained only a bed and a single chair. it had but one window, and that was heavily barred. on examining the door he was surprised to find that it was made of steel.
"i guess king was right when he said that guests in this room stayed till they were invited out," he thought. "oh, well, i suppose i must get some sleep while i can, so here goes."
it seemed to bob that he had hardly fallen asleep, when he was somewhat rudely shaken, and opened his eyes to find king standing by the bed.
"come," he said, "it's seven o'clock, and i want to show you the laboratory and get to work."
bob rose sleepily and followed him downstairs. king led the way down to the basement, and into a large room. bob needed but a glance to tell him that it was a fairly well-equipped laboratory.
"now, i want you to take a careful look around, see what we've got that you can use, and then, make out a list of what else you want. i'll get them this forenoon, and you can begin work right after dinner. oh, by the way, how long will it take you to do the job?"
"well," replied bob thoughtfully, "in my laboratory at home, i could probably make one in a 79week, but here, where i'm not used to things, it will probably take me ten days or more."
"ten fiddle sticks," cried king angrily, "you're trying to fool me. you've got to do it in much less time than that i can tell you."
bob knew that he could probably make one of the cells in a couple of days at the outside, but he intended to take all the time he could, and watch for a chance to escape, so he said calmly, "all right, if you can do it in less time, you'd better do it."
"well, well, hurry and get your list made out," demanded king testily.
bob walked around examining the laboratory and equipment for about a half hour and then asked for paper and pencil. they were quickly supplied, and sitting at a desk in one corner of the room, he soon handed king the following list:
two pounds of lead nitrate.
one-half pound lead.
one-half pound antimon.
one-half pound copper.
one-half pound tin.
ten or fifteen pounds of fine sand, suitable for making a mold.
one copper cylinder, eight inches long by 1 and one-half inches in diameter.
"how are you fixed for electrolysis?" he asked, as he handed king the list.80
"guess we can fix you up all right. we've got a good storage battery and two or three glass tanks and considerable platinum. now we'll go up and see if breakfast is ready," he said, putting the pager in his pocket.
