CHAPTER IX

BOB HAS A LIVELY FIGHT

Barker was alone, and no sooner had he disappeared over the high board fence, than Bob made up his mind to follow him.

It was quite dark by this time, and perched on the top of the fence Bob could see little or nothing. He listened intently, but nothing save the hissing of escaping steam reached his ears.

The yard was one attached to a planing mill and box factory. It was filled with boards and packing cases, and affording a number of excellent hiding-places.

Bob dropped inside the yard and stole cautiously forward until he reached a sort of driveway which divided the yard into two parts.

Nothing was yet to be seen of Barker, and Bob was puzzled to know what had become of the robber.

Stepping to a nook near a high pile of lumber, Bob stopped once more to listen.

Was he mistaken, or had he heard the faint creaking of a board to his left?

He bent in the direction and waited. No; he was not mistaken; there was the noise again.

Feeling around, Bob found a billet of wood. It was two feet long, and more than an inch thick, and would answer very well as a club.

With the stick in his hand, he made his way cautiously to the spot whence the sound had proceeded.

Suddenly something brushed past him, and a second later he found himself confronted by Barker, who caught him by the arm.

“What are you following me for?” demanded the man.

Instead of replying Bob raised the stick and struck the fellow on the head.

“Stand where you are, Barker!” he cried.

“What, Bob Pe----” began Barker, and stopped short.

“You know me, I reckon,” returned the youth. “Stand where you are, unless you want another taste of this stick.”

“Was it you in the hall-way of that building?” demanded Barker, in astonishment.

“It was. Where are Casco and Grogan?”

“Skipped the town,” returned the robber. “Are you alone?” he went on, anxiously, as he tried to pierce the darkness behind Bob.

“Never mind about that,” returned the youth.

“You come along with me.”

“Where to?”

“I’ll soon show you.”

“I don’t think I will be such a fool.”

“If you don’t come along, I’ll knock you over with this stick,” returned Bob, decidedly. “I don’t propose to stand any more fooling.”

“You talk mighty big for a boy,” sneered Barker.

“Perhaps I do, but I mean what I say. Come, move along.”

Instead of complying, Barker made a spring for the youth.

Bob retreated, and the next instant the stick descended on the robber’s head with such force that the man was knocked flat on his back.

“Now will you mind?” demanded the youth, standing over him with the stick upraised.

“The old Nick take you!” cried Barker, in a rage. “Let up there!”

“Will you promise to go along if I do?”

Barker hesitated. His head ached from the blow Bob had administered, and he did not wish such a dose repeated.

“Answer me.”

“Yes, I’ll go. But, Bob, you are making a great mistake.”

“I don’t think so.”

“You are. Do you know me?”

“I know you are the man who said my father was a thief,” was the bitter answer.

“I was only fooling, Bob.”

“I knew you wasn’t telling the truth.”

“I thought I could get you to join in our little plan to make money.”

“And you found out I wasn’t built that way, Barker.”

“That’s so. But you are making a big mistake by handing me over to the police.”

“I think it will be a first-class job done.”

“You want to learn something about yourself, don’t you?” went on Barker, significantly.

Bob breathed hard. Barker had touched the subject dearest to his heart.

“It’s natural that I should, isn’t it?” was the slow response.

“Well, you will never learn anything by having me locked up.”

“Don’t be too sure about that.”

“I am dead positive, for nobody knows anything about that matter but me.”

“You are mistaken, Barker.”

“No, I am not.”

“There is a woman knows about it.”

Barker started.

“What, has Sarah Blake dared to tell you----” he began, and stopped short.

Bob caught the name and remembered it. Little did he dream of the peculiar circumstances under which he would meet Sarah Blake.

“Never mind, Barker. I am not so much in the dark as you think.”

“Sarah doesn’t know it all,” grumbled Barker. “I am the only one that has all the facts.”

“And you won’t tell if I have you arrested?”

“That’s the size of it.”

“And if I let you go, what will you tell me?”

“A good deal that will be to your interest.”

Bob looked at the man and smiled grimly.

“I wouldn’t trust you, Barker. I would rather hear what you had to say after you were behind the bars.”

“I won’t tell you a word, then. You can live and die the poor, miserable nobody that you now are.”

“We’ll see. Let me tell you something. Even if I could trust you to tell the whole truth, I wouldn’t let you go. You are a criminal, and your place is in prison.”

“You’ll never put me there,” cried Barker.

“Yes, I will. Now march along.”

“Where to?”

“Over to that gate.”

Barker moved on as indicated. He wanted to run for it, but Bob kept the club raised, and he did not dare.

Just as they neared the gate footsteps were heard, and a man appeared with a lantern.

“Vot’s der madder here?” he demanded, in broken English.

“This man is a robber,” said Bob. “I want him arrested.”

“By chimminy, vos dot so?”

“Yes. Are you the watchman around here?”

“Yah. I dinks me I vos hear somepotty by der yard.”

“Will you call a policeman?”

“Sure, I vill.”

The watchman hurried off, and presently returned with an officer. In a few words Bob told the policeman that Barker was one of the men who had robbed John Wright’s house.

The officer at once took the robber in charge, and Bob accompanied both.

The station was some distance from the lumber-yard, and Barker proposed that they take a horse-car, stating that he had slipped on a log in the factory yard and sprained his ankle.

To this the policeman consented, and smilingly added that if his ankle was sprained perhaps he wouldn’t feel much like trying to get away.

“No, confound the luck,” returned the robber.

The car was crowded, and all three were compelled to stand on the back platform.

They had scarcely gone a block, when the car stopped at rather a dark spot to take on a couple of passengers. There was squeezing on all sides, and for a moment Bob lost sight of both Barker and the policeman.

Then when the car started again Bob looked around with a cry of dismay. The officer and the robber had disappeared.

Bob forced his way inside of the car, thinking that the pair might have entered to get out of the crush outside.

But a thorough search failed to reveal either of the persons in whom the youth was interested.

“Gone!” ejaculated Bob, with a sinking heart.

“What’s that?” asked a bystander.

“Nothing. Did you see anything of that policeman and his prisoner?”

“They got off at the last stop.”

“Thank you.”

Bob lost no time in leaving the car and hurrying back to the place. All was dark, and nobody appeared in sight.

“Hullo there, officer!” he called out.

He repeated the call several times, and finally the policeman came running toward him, club in hand.

“Where is the man?” asked Bob, breathlessly.

“That’s what I want to know,” returned the officer.

“Did he get off with you?”

“No; he jumped off, and I followed.”

“Well, that’s a fine piece of business!” exclaimed Bob.

“I’m not to blame,” returned the officer, alarmed over the thought that he had in some way neglected to do his duty.

“Really?” asked Bob, sarcastically. He was angry.

“No. Why didn’t you watch him?”

“It wasn’t my business after I had delivered him to you.”

“Yes, it was.”

“It was not. You’re a fine officer to take charge of a man.”

“Come, don’t talk to me that way,” cried the policeman.

“You didn’t attend to your business.”

“Say another word and I’ll run you in for loafing,” cried the policeman, catching Bob by the arm.

“Let go of me!”

“Then don’t say it was my fault. I had nothing to do with it. It was your duty to keep watch of the man until you made a charge against him.”

The policeman thought he could hoodwink Bob by saying this, but the youth’s common sense told him better.

“It was all your fault,” said Bob, breaking away. “I have your number, and perhaps I’ll report you. Now, I am going to hunt for the man again.”

And before the officer could stop him, Bob made off, while the policeman went back to his beat, there to concoct some excuse for his failure to do his duty.

Bob hurried down the street, looking in all directions for Barker, but the robber was nowhere to be seen.

At the end of an hour the youth was discouraged, and slowly and thoughtfully he made his way to his boarding-house.

How much had been missed by the escape of Barker! Not only the chance of recovering the stolen goods, but also that of interviewing the robber concerning the shrouded past.

“But I’ll meet him again some day, and then I won’t trust him to any fool of a policeman,” said Bob to himself.