Frank Merriwell's Alarm Part 31

"Well, she is a fairy!" admitted Merriwell. "If you win that, you'll be a lucky lad, Rattles."

"Ha! ha! ha!" harshly laughed the man, without a trace of mirth in face or voice. "That is all they think of, the fools! That is what brings them here! They know you are rich, my dear--they know it! And they seek to win you! But you are dead to the world--dead and buried!"

"Mr. Morris," said Frank, speaking quietly, "we have a message for the young lady."

"Bah!" cried the man.

"It is from her brother," said Frank.

"Bah!" repeated the hermit.

But the girl started forward, crying:

"My brother--what do you know of him?"

The man put out his hand and held her back.

"It is a trick," he declared--"a shallow trick! They think to fool you that way. Don't listen to them, child! Let me talk to them."

Then he turned on the boys, his face dark with anger.

"Go away from here!" he cried. "Every moment you remain here your lives are in danger! If you care to live, go away at once!"

The girl looked frightened.

"We can't go away till we have delivered our message," said Frank, calmly, as he started forward.

"Back!" cried the strange old man, flinging out his hand with a warning gesture. "It means death if you advance another step!"

The girl looked more frightened than ever, and the boys halted again.

"The old pirate!" whispered Harry. "We must save her from him somehow, Frank! I know he is detaining her against her will."

Again that harsh, mirthless laugh.

"You know a great deal," sneered the man; "but you do not know enough to go away and save your lives! You do not know my power, but you shall feel it!"

The girl cried out and started to lift a hand. Then the man stepped to the right and touched the wall of stone.

To Frank and Harry it seemed that the mountains fell on them and beat them down with a great blow that stretched them helpless and senseless on the ground!

CHAPTER XV.

RECOVERY.

With a feeling of numbness and pain in every limb and every part of his body, Frank Merriwell stirred and tried to sit up. His strength seemed to be gone, and he wondered at his weakness.

"What--what does it mean?" he asked himself, puzzled.

There was a cloud on his brain, and, for the time, he did not remember what had happened. He realized he was lying on the ground, and he wondered if he had been there long.

After a time he turned his head a bit, and close beside him he saw Harry Rattleton, stretched on his back, his arms outspread, his face ghastly pale.

A chill of horror seized upon Merriwell's heart.

Why didn't Harry move? Why were his eyes closed? Why was his face so white?

There was something horrible and awe-inspiring about those rigid limbs and that ghastly face.

"He is dead!"

He succeeded in speaking the words aloud, although his voice was weak and faint. The sound startled him, and, with a mighty effort, he lifted himself to one elbow.

"Harry!" he panted, thickly--"Harry, wake up!"

Still no stir.

"Harry, Harry, are you asleep?"

Rattleton remained motionless.

Holding himself thus, Frank watched, but he could not see that the bosom of his friend rose and fell at all--he could not see that Harry breathed.

Surely that pallid face was not the face of a living person! It had the stamp of death upon it!

"Merciful goodness!" whispered Frank, as he dragged himself nearer. "I know--I am sure some frightful thing has happened to us! But I do not seem to remember."

He paused and stared about. Sunset light was on the snow-capped peaks of the Sierras, and away up there they were dazzling to the eye; but there were deep shadows below--black shadows in the heart of Frank Merriwell.

"The mountains!" he faintly murmured--"they are all around us! This is not the desert--no, no! We were not overcome by hunger and thirst.

Something--something else struck us down!"

He lifted one hand to his head, which was so numb and felt so lifeless. What was the trouble?

Concentrating all his faculties, he forced himself to think. Then he seemed to remember.

"The girl!" he faintly exclaimed--"we were searching for her! We were trying to find the cave, and--we found it!"

He remembered at last. He remembered the appearance of the old man of the white hair and beard; he remembered that the girl had come forth from the mouth of the cave; he remembered the warning of the strange man and the frightful shock that had followed.

"Jingoes!" he said. "I believe we were struck by lightning! I'm not completely knocked out, but Harry seems to be."

Then he reached Rattleton and touched his face, felt for his pulse, sought to discover if his heart beat.

Close to the breast of his friend Frank placed his ear, and what he heard caused him to utter a cry of satisfaction.