testas get
desperate and mad enough to kill Tony? They're a bad lot. I've a notion
we ought to get Tony out of there before----"

"The iron gets too hot, eh? I guess you are right, Gus."

"Look, Bill, here's a scheme. What if we work it this way?" Gus
proceeded to outline a plan with every detail of which Bill agreed; and
it called for action.

Taking the revolver and some extra cartridges, Bill hobbled along by
Gus, who gave him a lift, now and then, piggy-back. The boys made their
way south for more than a mile along the thoroughfare swamp edge. Then
they turned sharply on a path across the wooded peninsula to the beach,
and went another half mile among the dunes. A very tall pine tree
against the sky-line gave Gus his bearings. A little below that they
stopped, and Bill found a comfortable hiding-place among scrub pines,
with the boom of the breakers in his ears and the sea breeze keeping off
the mosquitoes.

Gus cast about silently for the path that led in to the kidnapers'
cabin. Finding it with some difficulty in the darkness, he noted certain
landmarks and went back to Bill. Agreeing on signals in whispers, Gus
went back to the path and struck a match, whereupon Bill fired a shot,
and immediately afterward, another. Then Gus swiftly made his way
directly toward the cabin, and when near it, called softly:

"Hello, hello, you fellers! It's me, Sam."

There was a very profound silence for a few minutes. Gus called again:

"Hello! It's me, Sam. Don't shoot!"

And very much with his heart in his mouth, but still determined, he
advanced, crouching low so that a bullet would most likely pass high
over him. Suddenly a figure appeared directly in front of him and a
flashlight was thrown in his face for an instant. Gus knew that he had
been identified.

"Lay low," he whispered, not forgetting to keep up the dialect. "They're
out there, somebody--sneakin' along in the open. I seen 'em an' let fly
at 'em an' they shot back, but I run on down the woodses. Git yer gang
an' come along so's we kin head 'em off if they start in here."

"How we do that? We stay here an' fight 'em, eh?"

"An' that'll give 'em the lay o' this place. We want t' draw 'em up the
beach. Chase along up through the woodses an' come out 'bout a mile
above and shoot oncet er twicet. Two of us kin do that an' two kin lay
out yan at the end o' the path an' watch fer any of 'em startin' in this
away, an' then you kin lead 'em off. See? That's the