dly an hour passed before Gus remarked to tired and sleepy Bill:
"Somebody's coming. I'll bet it's 'Swamp.'"
It was, and he reported the exact carrying out of the plan. Two men,
young fellows, one very dark-skinned, the other light, and both carrying
guns, had started to the Point to wait for him. The other man,--there
had been three along the wood road--had headed up into the nearer woods
along the ocean side.
"You go back and wait for Dan," said Gus to Bill. "I'm going to make one
more try for Tony."
CHAPTER XXIX
AT THE CRACK O' DAY
"Tony!"
There was no reply. Gus called again, more sharply, but still fearful of
being heard. Silence. There could be no delay in action. With his nerves
still a-tingle, the boy seized a stout bit of wood, evidently cut for
the fireplace, inserted it between the window bars, bore down and with a
low squeak of protest the nails came out. Another pry, with the sill for
a fulcrum, and there was a hole big enough for a body to get through.
The bit of wood now acted as a step and in a moment Gus was inside the
cabin.
At the extreme end, lying against the logs, lay a figure. Gus instantly
stooped to shake it. Tony waked up with a cry of alarm.
"Don't, don't yell, Tony, it's Gus! Get up and come quick!"
Nothing more was required of Tony. He was instantly awake and in action.
Not another word passed between the boys--but was that cry heard by the
kidnapers?--the rescuer wondered--and with reason. They must be off
instantly.
To the window! As Tony drew near it, pulling Gus by the hand across the
dark room, he paused. Outside there was the faint sound of a step. Tony
uttered a faint "sh," and grabbed Gus by the arm. It was the elder
Malatesta.
"Ah! So? You make get-away. I fix that." The next instant the muzzle of
a rifle was poked through the broken place--poked well through, and
possibly this shrewd defier of law and order never made a greater
mistake, which he recognized when he felt the muzzle seized and bent
aside.
He pulled the trigger, but the bullet buried itself harmlessly in the
wall of the cabin. Malatesta attempted to jerk the gun away, but Gus,
fortified by the leverage against the sill and the window bars, held on,
his own weapon crashing to the floor. How Tony managed to dive through
that hole as he did, landing squarely on his enemy neither he nor Gus
ever could figure out, but when Gus found
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