Dave Porter and His Rivals Part 42

There was no help for it, and sitting down to the table Dave began to eat and to drink. The sandwiches were fresh, and so was the pie, and as the ride in the keen air had given him an appet.i.te, he disposed of them quickly. The tea tasted rather bitter, but he was dry and speedily drained the cup. The man watched him drink, with evident satisfaction.

"Now you had better lie down and try and get a little rest," said the fellow of the mask. "When I want you I'll call you." And so speaking he left the room, locking the door after him.

As soon as the man was gone Dave tried to loosen the rope that bound his feet together. It was a hard task and took some time, and bending over seemed to make his head swim. When he straightened up his head grew even more dizzy, and almost before he knew it he was staggering around.

"What a queer sensation!" was his thought. "What in the world is the matter with me?" And then like a flash came the answer. "That tea! It must have been drugged!"

The captive was right in his surmise. The tea had been drugged, and soon poor Dave felt so dizzy he had to rest on the bed. He tried several times to rouse up, and then his senses forsook him completely.

Dave had been unconscious for about a quarter of an hour when the man came in, looked at him, and shook him. Then he went below.

"Well, we've got him," he said to the others. "He is practically dead to the world."

"Good!" was the answer. "Better bring him down right away. We want to get this job over."

CHAPTER XXVI

A DASH FOR LIBERTY

When Dave regained his senses he found himself in the tonneau of a big automobile that was speeding swiftly over a dark country road. On either side of him sat a person who was masked, and in front were two persons whose faces he could not see. His hands were tied behind him, and his ankles were made fast to the foot-rest in the bottom of the tonneau.

He wondered where he was being taken, but knew it would be useless to ask any questions. How long he had been unconscious he did not know, but felt it must have been a considerable time, for it was now night, and whenever they pa.s.sed a farmhouse it was without lights, showing the occupants had gone to bed.

Dave fully realized that he was in a position of peril. His enemies had treated him in an outrageous fashion, and what they proposed to do next there was no telling. He felt that he must escape if it could possibly be accomplished.

He had roused up a little, but now deemed it best to let the others think he was still unconscious. Accordingly, he uttered a deep sigh, and then slipped further down on the seat, and let his head fall forward on his breast.

"Pretty well dosed," he heard one of the party murmur, and now he was sure he recognized Nick Jasniff's voice.

"Say, Shime, I hope you didn't give him too much of the drug," said another of the party, and Dave felt certain it was Link Merwell who was speaking. "If he shouldn't recover----"

"Oh, he'll come around all right enough," growled the man called Shime.

He was running the automobile, and now Dave was able to place him as a fellow who worked around a livery stable and garage in Rockville. Shime was a drinking man, and his reputation was far from an enviable one.

"How much further have we to go?" asked Jasniff, after a few minutes of silence.

"Not far," answered the driver of the automobile. "We'll take to the side road now. Hold fast, it's pretty rough," and then the touring car turned off the main highway and began b.u.mping over the rocks and ruts of a narrow wood road. The way was uphill, and the driver had to throw in his second speed to gain the top of the rise. Then the car made a sharp turn, and halted in front of a stone building.

"Is this the place?" asked Jasniff.

"Yes," answered Shime. "Wait till I light a lantern, and then you can bring him in."

"I shall have to care for him when we are in the house," said the fourth person of the party who had carried Dave off. It was Doctor Montgomery, and his breath was thick from liquor.

Still thinking he might get a chance to escape if he made out that he was unconscious, Dave hung limp in the automobile, and allowed his captors to lift him out and place him on the ground. Then he was carried into the stone building and placed on a bench.

"You certainly dosed him strongly," said Hooker Montgomery. "I had better make an examination. Loosen up his hands and feet."

A little bit alarmed, Jasniff and Merwell set to work and released Dave from his bonds. In the meantime Shime had lit a lantern, and placed it on a rough table. Doctor Montgomery got out a medicine case, and began to mix up a potion in a gla.s.s.

"This ought to bring him around," he said, in a thick, unsteady voice.

Dave did not dare to look around, but by the draught in the room he knew that the door must have been left open, probably to give him more air.

He did not think the disreputable physician was in any condition to administer his medicines, and he did not propose to swallow any if he could avoid it.

"I must escape," he thought, and with a moan, as if in great pain, he twisted around, and opened his eyes for an instant.

That instant was long enough for him to locate the doorway, and beyond he made out a stretch of woodland, lit up by the lamps of the automobile. Between him and the doorway stood Merwell and Jasniff, with Shime and the doctor on the other side.

"Shall I hold his head, doctor?" asked Merwell. "Maybe he won't be able to swallow if----"

Merwell got no further, for just then Dave leaped to his feet with an agility that surprised even himself. Stiff though he was, he ran at Merwell, hurling him flat. Then he b.u.mped into Jasniff, who made a weak attempt to stop him. The two swung around, and Jasniff was sent crashing into the table, knocking over the lantern. Then Dave leaped for the doorway.

"Stop him!"

"He must not get away!"

"Ouch! Don't step on me!" came from Link Merwell. He was on his back, and Jasniff's foot had landed on his stomach.

The four rascals had been taken completely by surprise. As the lantern fell it went out, and in his endeavor to get to the doorway, Shime b.u.mped into Jasniff. The doctor ran into the bench, and his gla.s.s of medicine went splashing into Merwell's face, eliciting another protest from that bully.

Dave did not care about what happened in the building. His one thought was to get away, for he fully realized that in a hand-to-hand encounter he would be no match for his four enemies.

Had he had time he might have jumped into the automobile, and started up the machine. But he was afraid to risk this, and so ran down the wood road a short distance, and then plunged into the bushes. He did not stop there, but kept on, until he calculated that he was a full quarter of a mile from the stone building.

"I don't think they can follow me to here, at least not in the darkness," he told himself.

He stopped to rest and to consider what he had best do next. The effects of the drug were now entirely gone, and he felt once more like himself.

"I ought to have the whole crowd locked up," he reasoned. "But it would be the testimony of one against four, and they would most likely deny everything."

He went on again, and presently came out on the main highway. As he did this he saw the flash of some lamps in the distance. He crouched down behind some bushes, and a minute later saw the automobile whizz by, with his enemies in it.

"They are going back," he reasoned. "I suppose now I have gotten away from them, Merwell and Jasniff will return to the academy as fast as they can, and Shime and the doctor will return to Rockville; and they'll all play the innocent."

As he walked on, Dave wondered what the plot against him was. He felt convinced that carrying him off was only the beginning of it.

"Well, whatever it was, I nipped it in the bud," he thought. "Perhaps some day I'll find out all about it,--some day when I can corner one or another of that rascally bunch. I take it that Shime and Montgomery are simply in the employ of Jasniff and Merwell. Both of them are hard drinkers and willing to do almost anything to get a few dollars."

Not far down the highway Dave pa.s.sed a signboard which told him that Rockville was ten miles away.

"I can't walk ten miles," he thought. "I had better see if I can't get accommodations at some farmhouse, and then drive over to the school after breakfast."

With this idea in view he kept on, until he reached a spot where the railroad crossed the highway. As he did this he saw a freight train standing near a siding where a milk car was to be taken on.