Chapter 3

THE KIDNAPPERS

Jet's captor appeared to be perfectly contented after binding the boy, and assuring himself that it was impossible an alarm could be given.

He seated himself by the side of the berth, lighted a cigar, and began to read a newspaper, although the light in the room was far from good owing to the blinds being closed.

Jet was lying in such a manner that he could see the fellow's face plainly, and was now able to understand why he had not recognized him before.

At the saloon he had a heavy moustache and rather long hair. Now his face was smooth and his head closely shaven.

His face had then been so white as to be pallid, whereas it was now bronzed deeply. In addition the man's clothing was of the most fashionable make, while in the morning Jet had seen him clad in coarse, badly fitting garments.

"There's a big difference in his looks," Jet said to himself, "but yet I don't understand why I was such a fool as not to know him when he first spoke."

Messenger number forty-eight had ample time for reflection, for fully an hour passed without any change in the relative position of affairs, and then came a low, quick tap at the door.

When it was opened the tall man, now without a beard, and wearing a pair of green spectacles, came quickly into the room, locking the door carefully behind him.

"I see you've got the cub," he said, bending over Jet to make certain of his identity.

"Yes, had him here an hour."

"Have any trouble?"

"Not a particle. He was the first to answer my call, and I took that as a sign we should get away without leaving a trail."

"We can't lug him around the country with us."

"You're right but we can drop him after he's where it'll trouble him to get back."

"There's a safer way."

"I know what you mean, Joe, but I don't like to do any more of that business than's necessary. The last one couldn't have been avoided, but this can."

"It's a big risk to carry him up the river, and he'd better be dropped."

"We'll talk about that later. Have you heard anything new?"

"Not much. After this cub came from headquarters a detective was sent down to the Bowery, and by this time it is known pretty well what we looked like. The afternoon papers say the police are following a good clew, but you know what such talk means, Bob."

"Is the stuff salted away?"

"All except what we need for a couple of months. The boys can send us more if we conclude to leave the quiet little place we're bound for."

Then the two men had recourse to the flask, and after taking a hearty drink the one who had been called Bob proposed to go outside for a moment.

"You must be a fool to think of such a thing," Joe said angrily. "You are not done up so well but that some body would be able to recognize you. We are lucky in getting under cover without trouble, and here we stop till morning."

"It's going to be mighty dull work staying in this coop all that time."

"Not half so bad as a cell in the Tombs."

The two men relapsed into silence for a time and Jet lay watching them as he tried to devise some way out of a position which was fraught with danger. It seemed impossible that he could aid himself, bound as he was, and exceedingly improbable any one would come to his assistance.

Study as he might Jet could think of no way to extricate himself and he said mentally after racking his brain in vain:

"I don't see any way out, but there's no use in giving up hope till a fellow is obliged to."

The men alternately drank and smoked during the remainder of the afternoon, but said very little more regarding their flight.

When the steamer started Jet expected to hear them decide what was to be done with him, but in this he was mistaken.

As the hours wore on he fell into an uneasy slumber, despite the painfulness of his position, and during this time of unconsciousness the matter must have been settled.

It was yet dark when the steamer arrived at Albany, and, very much to the prisoner's surprise, the two men left the room, fastening the door behind them. Then Jet heard a noise as if something was being done to the lock, after which a deep silence reigned.

"They're going to leave me here, and have put something into the lock so the door can't be opened in a hurry," he said to himself, and during the next ten minutes he struggled desperately to free himself.

The bonds had been adjusted by an expert, and he might as well have tried to fly as to hope to remove them unaided.

He was both thirsty and hungry, and every limb ached from being so long in one position.

It seemed an almost endless time before the sounds of people moving proclaimed that the passengers were leaving the steamer.

Then another long interval, during which he could hear the noises of the city, and finally some one knocked on the door of the room.

If he could have cried out then his term of imprisonment would have been speedily ended.

"Some fool has broken the key in the lock," he heard one of the servants say after trying several times to open the door. "We may as well wait till the engineer can come up."

Jet was rapidly losing heart. He counted the minutes, as if such a course would make the time pass more rapidly, and was so thoroughly exhausted when, at nearly three o'clock in the afternoon, the work of picking the lock was begun, that he could not have made himself heard even had the gag been removed.

The engineer was not a skillful locksmith, and half an hour elapsed before the door was opened.

Even then it was several moments before the bedroom stewards perceived the prisoner, and instead of unbinding him at once they ran in search of the purser. When that officer arrived Jet was released from his uncomfortable position, but his mouth was so dry and parched that he could not speak.

The boy realized that he would be questioned closely, and remembering the inspector's caution, he resolved to tell no more than was absolutely necessary. Therefore when the officers of the steamer insisted on being told how he chanced to be a prisoner, he simply related the story of the capture, without entering into particulars as to why the men should do such a thing. His account was looked upon with suspicion, and after questioning him yet more closely the purser said:

"The boy is lying for some purpose, probably to get a free passage. Why would two men want to steal a fellow like him?"

"I've told the truth," Jet replied earnestly. "Don't you suppose I could have stowed away easier than by being tied up till I couldn't wink, an' waiting for you to come an' find me?"

"That sounds reasonable enough, but at the same time I don't believe the story," the purser said severely. "Get ashore now, and if I catch you on this boat again you'll have considerable trouble."

It was with difficulty Jet could walk, owing to the cramps in his limbs, but he hobbled ashore at once, thinking that for a boy who had simply tried to do his duty he had been badly used.

It was necessary he should return home at once, but he had no money.

He was hungry, and yet had nothing with which to purchase a meal.

His entire hoardings were in a box at Mammy Showers' house, and he did not have the value of a penny about him.

"It's a mighty tight fix," he said reflectively, as he walked up from the river front, "and what makes it worse is that the inspector will be certain I've run away because I had something to do with the murder."

There could be no question but that he was in a bad scrape, and the more he thought of it the more serious did the whole affair appear.

"Hello, Johnny! Whater you doin' up here?"

Without really thinking he was the one addressed, Jet looked around, and saw a small boy in district messenger's uniform beckoning vigorously to him.

"Was you calling me?" he asked, as he crossed the street.

"Sure. Ain't that a New York cap?"

"Yes."

"Whater you doin' here?"

"That's what I'd like to know," Jet replied ruefully.

"Well say, what's crawlin' on you? Run away, eh?"

Jet was in that frame of mind when to confide in some one is a relief, and he told him the same story the purser of the steamer refused to believe.

His new acquaintance listened attentively, and when Jet had concluded, asked:

"What do you s'pose they wanted with a feller like you?"

"I don't know."

"Hadn't anybody's else money, eh?"

"Not a cent, an' I'm no richer now."

"What kind of lookin' duffers was they?"

"Dressed pretty well, the short one was."

"Did the other one wear green spectacles, an' was he tall?"

"Yes, have you seen 'em?"

"There was a couple of duffers hangin' round the other depot waitin' for the train, an' I wouldn't wonder if they was the ones. The short feller bought two tickets for Cooperstown Junction."

"How did you happen to hear all that?"

"I went after some parlor car tickets for our boss."

"Has the train gone yet?"

"It oughter left at seven this mornin'."

"An' it's most night now, so they've got off."

"Was they runnin' away from somebody?"

Just for an instant Jet was on the point of telling this brother messenger the whole story, but he checked himself in time and replied:

"I should think they'd want to after playin' such a trick on me. Say, how am I goin' back to New York?"

"I dunno 'less you walk; I don't reckon you wanter stow away on the boat?"

"You bet I don't."

At this moment the Albany messenger remembered that he had been sent on an important errand, and said as he turned to go:

"I'll be through work at six o'clock. Come around by the office an' we'll have another talk."

Food, not conversation, was what Jet most wanted just then, and as his new acquaintance departed in great haste he walked aimlessly along the streets wondering what could be done.

"The inspector thinks by this time that I lied to him, and---- By gracious, why can't I follow those fellows? That's jest what he told me to do!"

This seemed like a lucky thought, and without realizing that he had no means to prosecute even the shortest search, Jet went rapidly toward the depot.