Edward Stratemeyer

“ They were soon on the way, Dave on one side of Shadow to support him and Roger on the other. Phil and Ben ran ahead, and by the time the youth who had taken the tumble arrived, more wood had been placed on the campfire, and it was blazing up merrily, sending out considerable warmth.
“That’s an adventure we didn’t count on,” remarked Phil, while Shadow was drying out his clothing in front of the blaze.
“Well, something is bound to happen when we get together,” answered Roger. “It always does.” ”

“ Why can not we ride away in the automobile?” asked Mother Domoza, in sudden panic.
“We can’t use it! That other auto will block the road!” answered Nick Jasniff.
By this time a shouting was heard from the narrow 302roadway as the first automobile came closer, quickly followed by the second car.
“Hello, Uncle Dunston! is that you?” yelled Dave at the top of his lungs.
“Yes, Dave!” came the answering cry. “Where are you?”
“We are all here in a tree in the woods,” answered Roger.
“Are the girls safe?”
“Yes,” returned Dave. “Never mind us—go after those gypsies and after Nick Jasniff.” ”

“ You see, I am getting old, and my eyesight ain’t none too good,” concluded the storekeeper.
When Dave and Roger returned to the automobile and headed the car in the direction of Frytown, both were in a meditative mood.
“I think I can begin to figure this out, Roger,” said Dave slowly. “It looks to me as if Jessie and Laura were being held prisoners somewhere in this vicinity, and that that fellow who ran the car, whoever he is, came down here to buy supplies for the crowd.” ”

“ Especially with a young fellow,” he declared. “That term in prison will hang over him like a cloud all the rest of his life. Kind-hearted people may talk all they please and do all they possibly can—the fact remains that if a man has once been in prison, unless he can prove that he was innocent, very few people will care to have anything to do with him.”
“If Jasniff were a different kind of fellow I’d have a different feeling for him,” said Dave; and his face showed his earnestness. “If he had been led into crime by others it would be a different story. ”

“ The more I see of civil engineering, the deeper it grips me. I’m hoping some day we’ll be able to get together and put over some piece of work that is really worth while,” answered Dave earnestly.
Two weeks slipped by without anything unusual happening. Their brief vacation at an end, Dave and Roger plunged into their work with vigor, just to show Mr. Obray and Frank Andrews that they appreciated all that had been done for them. During that time the weather was far from fair, and the young civil engineers were more than once drenched to the skin while at work on the mountainside. ”

“ Jessie was clinging to Dave’s arm, and Roger had a protecting hand on Laura’s shoulder. Each of the young civil engineers had his pistol ready for any emergency which might arise. They heard a movement below as if either Nick Jasniff or one of the gypsies was starting to climb the tree. ”

“ The youths scattered to the right and the left behind the rocks and brushwood, and as the bear came lumbering forward, it looked as if for the time being he would have the place entirely to himself. Then, however, he caught sight of Roger and made a savage leap for the senator’s son.
Fortunately for the youth, the rifle he carried was a repeating weapon, and now he let drive once more, sending a ball along bruin’s flank. But this attack only served to increase the rage of the animal, and with a ferocious snarl he sprang forward and made a pass at Roger with one of his heavy paws. ”

“ But all thoughts of the gypsies and of what they might do were forgotten by our hero and Roger when they came to peruse the letters sent by Phil, Ben and Shadow.
“Hurrah! They are on their way at last!” cried Dave, his face beaming with satisfaction. “Ben writes that they were to start within forty-eight hours after this letter was sent.”
“And that is just what Shadow and Phil say, too,” announced the senator’s son. “That being so, they ought to arrive here within the next two days.”
“Right you are, Roger! Oh, say! when they come, won’t we have the best time ever?” exclaimed Dave. ”

“ On the outskirts of Crandall they came upon a little country home where several children were enjoying themselves at a swing in the open dooryard. Here Dave stopped the car.
“I suppose you play here nearly every day,” he said to the oldest of the girls, a bright miss of nine or ten years of age.
“Oh, yes; whenever the weather is good.”
“And we have lots of fun,” broke in another of the happy group.
“We are trying to find out something about a big automobile that came along here about ten days ago,” said Roger. “It was a great big enclosed car, and one of the mud-guards was smashed.” ”

“ On the way to Frytown they stopped at six or seven farmhouses, but without learning anything that was to their advantage. Two farmers had seen the big touring car with the battered mud-guard go by a week or two before, but could give no definite information as to who had been driving it or what passengers the automobile had contained.
“So many machines comin’ and goin’ these days, a feller don’t pay much ’tention to ’em,” was the way one farmer expressed himself.
“I know it,” answered Dave. “But we are very anxious to find that car, so I thought it wouldn’t do any harm to ask.” ”

“ Thinking of Orella put Dave in mind of his mission, and he quickly thrust his hand into his pocket to see if the envelope Mr. Obray had given him to deliver was safe.
The next instant his heart almost stopped beating. The envelope was gone!
Frantically he searched one pocket after another; and then he made another discovery equally dismaying. Not only was the envelope the construction camp manager had given him missing, but likewise the letters he had received from Jessie and his Uncle Dunston, and also his pocketbook which had contained upward of forty dollars. ”

“ He came back at night, and his friends asked him if the hunting was good. ‘Sure, it was good!’ he declared. ‘I hunted all day long, and not a bit of game came anywhere near me to disturb my fun!’”
“One thing is certain,” broke in Dave. “You’ve got to be quieter if you expect to find any game at all. You don’t suppose a bear is going to come out on the rocks just to listen to stories.”
“That’s right! He couldn’t bear to do it!” cried Roger gayly.
“My, my, but that’s a bare-faced joke!” cried Phil ”

“ Now that the young civil engineers had found the two girls they were loath to separate from them. The young folks had many hours of happiness together, which the older heads did not have the heart to interrupt.
“They certainly think the world and all of each other,” said Mr. Porter to Mr. Wadsworth, referring to Dave and Jessie.
“So they do, and I am not sorry for it,” answered the jewelry manufacturer. “And I notice that Roger thinks a good deal of your daughter Laura.” ”

“ There was a cynical sneer on his face as he read the communication from Jessie to Dave.
“It’s enough to make a fellow sick to think such a rich girl as that should take to a fellow like Dave Porter,” he murmured to himself. “Wouldn’t I like to put a spoke in that fellow’s wheel! I wonder if I couldn’t do something to come between Porter and the Wadsworths? I owe old man Wadsworth something for sending me to prison.”
Then Nick Jasniff turned to the letter written by Dunston Porter. ”

“ And I’ve no doubt but he’ll do his best to make trouble for us,” replied Dave seriously. “It’s too bad! I thought we were done with that fellow forever.”
“Do you suppose he really has a job at the Double Eight Ranch?” queried the senator’s son, after a pause, during which they noted Jasniff’s disappearance around a bend of the trail.
“He must be working somewhere. Or else somebody has supplied him with funds. He can’t live on nothing.”
“Perhaps he got his funds as he got those stolen jewels, Dave.”
“That might be true too. They say very few men reform after they have once been in prison.” ”

“ Speaking of a needle in a haystack puts me in mind of a story,” burst out Shadow.
“What! another?” groaned Roger in mock dismay; and all of the others present held up their hands as if in horror.
“This is just a little one,” pleaded the former story-teller of Oak Hall. “A man once heard a lady speak about trying to find the needle in the haystack. ‘Say, madam,’ said the man, very earnestly, ‘a needle in a haystack wouldn’t be no good to nobody. ”

“ Then, if nobody comes to rescue you, you can starve to death. Do you get me?”
“Oh, Dave! don’t let them do anything like that!” pleaded Jessie, who had been listening over his shoulder to what was said.
“Don’t worry about their binding and gagging us—at least not while we are armed,” put in Roger.
“See here, Jasniff, you can talk all you please, but we do not intend to let you carry out your threats,” said Dave. “Both Morr and I are well armed, and we know how to shoot. In a very short time this place will be completely surrounded and you will be made prisoners.” ”

“ Here the story about the reptile soon spread; and that evening all the men connected with the camp came in to view the rattlesnake.
“I’m very thankful that you got out of this as luckily as you did,” remarked Mr. Obray to Roger. Then he told all of his men that they must be very careful when they went among the rocks and through the bushes. “Because, you know,” he explained, “where there is one rattlesnake there may be more. I was told by those who made the first survey for the railroad that they saw no snakes of any kind in this vicinity. ”

“ The two young civil engineers had been in Montana now for about three weeks, and during that time they had gone on numerous errands to places ten and even twenty miles away. On arrival they had hoped to visit Star Ranch, but had learned that this place was nearly a hundred miles off. They had looked at some of the local mines with much interest, and had likewise visited several ranches.
“We’ll get to know this whole district like a book before we get through with it,” had been Roger’s comment. ”

“ Ralph Obray, the manager of the construction gang, to ride up the trail and make sure that certain marks had been left there by the surveyors for the railroad. The work done by the railroad had been merely of a preliminary nature, but this preliminary work, crude as it was, was to be used as a basis for the more accurate survey by the engineers of the construction company.
“I don’t think we can make camp in such a downpour as this,” gasped Roger, after another half-mile had been covered.
“Maybe you’re right,” responded Dave. “It certainly is coming down to beat the band! ”

“ In some spots the trail was less than a yard wide, and on the outer edge the rough rocks sloped downward at an angle of forty-five degrees.
“If a fellow slipped down there I wonder where he would land,” murmured Roger, as he held back his steed so as to give his companion a chance to pick his way with care.
“If you went over there you’d probably tumble down several hundred feet,” answered Dave. 5“And if you did that, you and your horse would most likely be killed. You be careful and keep your horse as close to the cliff as possible.” ”

“ Something else may turn up sooner or later,” returned our hero.
And he was right. Something else did turn up, and what that was will be related in our next volume, to be entitled “Dave Porter Under Fire, or A Young Army Engineer in France,” in which book we shall learn how our hero and his chum “did their bit” for Uncle Sam.
“Becoming civil engineers has not been such a monotonous existence after all,” said Roger. “Think of those strenuous times we had along the Rio Grande and in Mexico, and then all those doings out in Montana, and when we went after the gypsies and Jasniff.” ”

“ On the afternoon of the fourth day following the killing of the rattlesnake, Dave and Roger were hard at work in Section Five when one of the general utility men around the camp came riding up on horseback and leading another steed by the halter.
“Mr. Obray sent me for you,” he announced to the chums. “You are to take these two horses and ride down to the office as fast as you can. Some young man is there that you wanted to see—the fellow who came here some days ago looking for a job.”
“It must be Nick Jasniff!” exclaimed Dave, and lost no time in leaping into the saddle. ”

“ By the time we reach camp we’ll feel like a couple of drowned rats.”
“Never mind. We’ll have a chance to change our clothing, anyway,” responded Dave lightly. “And we won’t have to take a bath or get under the shower.”
“Take a bath or get under the shower!” repeated Roger. “Wow! If I had a chance to do that I wouldn’t know myself,” he added with a grin. For neither of the chums had seen anything like a bathtub or a shower for several months. When they took a bath it was usually in a small stream that flowed not far from where the construction camp was located. ”

“ Then the journey in the automobile was resumed.
“What makes you think those fellows could not have been Bopeppo and Vazala?” questioned Roger, when they were once again speeding along the highway.
“I think this kidnapping was conducted in a much more high-toned fashion—if you can call it that, Roger. Those gypsies who used to camp on the outskirts of Crumville were far from poor. In fact, I have an idea that old Mother Domoza is really wealthy.”
“What! Wealthy, and live like that?”
“Exactly. I think she’s a first-class miser. A good many of the gypsies are—especially the older ones. ”

“ What we want to do just now is to find out where they took Jessie and Laura, and rescue them.”
“It certainly is a great search, Dave. What are you going to do next?”
“I think the best thing we can do is to work our way along to Frytown. That is quite a place, and it is barely possible that from there we can get into communication with Crumville on the long distance telephone. If we can do that, we can tell the folks at home all we have learned, and get them to send some first-class detectives out this way to assist us in the search.” ”

“ He was a tall, swarthy-looking fellow, with anything but a cheerful countenance.
“You know well enough why we have stopped you,” returned Dave. “What have you done with those two young ladies who belong in Crumville?”
“I know not’ing of any young ladies,” grumbled the gypsy. “You make big mistake.”
“You do know!” cried Roger. “Now tell us the truth! Have you hurt those young ladies?”
“I know not’ing,” was all the gypsy replied. 270And, try their best, that was about all the two chums could get out of him. ”

“ Morrison was much surprised to hear about the shooting of the two bears, but the youths did not wait to go into details, being anxious to get back to the construction camp, where they hoped a good hot supper would be awaiting them.
“And if they haven’t got anything cooked for us, we’ll make Jeff broil some of these bear steaks,” announced Dave.
“They’ll certainly be something in the way of a 164novelty,” said Phil. “Although, as a matter of fact, I never yet ate a bear steak that could compare to a beefsteak. The meat is usually coarser and tougher.” ”

“ In the present volume Dave is still pursuing his calling of civil engineering. He is at work in the mountains when he comes face to face with one of his old-time enemies. Later still word comes to the youth that his dearest girl friend, Jessie Wadsworth, and his sister Laura have disappeared from home. One surprise is followed by another, and the young civil engineer is confronted by many perils. ”