CHAPTER XVIII

THE MEETING ON THE ROAD

There was an intense silence, following the announcement of Jason Sparr that he intended to send Dave and his chums to prison for attempting to blow up the hotel. In the meantime the hotel man and the constable got down from the seat of the covered wagon.

"I've got the warrants fer the arrest, boys," said Constable Hickson, somewhat importantly.

"Mr. Sparr, I'd like a word with you," said Dave, as calmly as he could speak under the circ.u.mstances.

"I ain't got no more to say than I've said," returned Jason Sparr, stubbornly. "You done it, and I can prove it! The constable is going to do his duty and arrest you!"

"Dave, I--I won't stand for it!" whispered Phil, hoa.r.s.ely. "It's terrible! I--I can't stand it!" And he began to back away.

"Hi, there! stop!" yelled the hotel man. "Stop him, Hickson! Don't let him get away!"

"You sha'n't arrest me for nothing!" cried the shipowner's son, and like a flash he turned around and started off on a run.

"Come back here, Phil!" called out Dave. "Come back! You are making a mistake by running away!"

But Phil did not hear, nor did Ben and Buster, who had also taken to their heels. Roger ran a few steps, then halted, and came back to our hero's side.

"You are right, Dave," he said. "It's best to face the music."

Phil, Ben, and Buster had turned towards Oak Hall. Phil was in the lead, but the others soon caught up to him.

"Wha--what are you go--going to d--do?" panted Ben.

"I'm not going to let them arrest me!" answered Phil. "I didn't do it, and I'm not going to jail."

"Let us hide until we can get our folks to help us," suggested Buster.

The thought of going to a lockup filled him with dread.

"I'm going to notify my folks, too," said Ben.

"The trouble is, I don't know where my folks are just now," came from the shipowner's son. "My father went on a trip on one of his vessels and mother is visiting relatives."

The boys had kept on running on the road. But now, as they saw the constable after them, they turned and dashed into a side-path leading to the river.

"A motor-boat!" cried Ben, a few seconds later.

"It's the Kingsley boat," added Buster. "I know Tom will let us use it--he said I could do it once. Let us go across in it."

All leaped on board, and Ben started up the engine while Buster took the wheel. There came a put! put! as the fly-wheel was turned over, and the little craft, which belonged to a boy living on the river-bank, headed out into the Leming River.

In the meantime, while Constable Hickson was running after the fugitives, Jason Sparr and the driver of the covered wagon confronted Dave and Roger.

"Don't you try to run!" bawled the hotel-keeper.

"I'm armed," added the keeper of the town lockup, suggestively.

"I don't intend to run, Mr. Sparr," answered Dave.

"Why should we run, since we have done nothing wrong?" added the senator's son. He tried to follow Dave's example and remain calm, but he was tremendously disturbed.

"Did those three fellows do it alone?" queried the hotel man, eagerly. "If they did, you had better confess to it, and clear yourselves."

"None of us are guilty," answered Dave.

"I know better."

"You do not. Since we didn't do it, Mr. Sparr, I don't see how you can prove that we did,--unless you have manufactured some evidence against us," went on our hero, pointedly, a new idea coming into his head.

"I ain't manufactured no evidence!" bawled Jason Sparr. "Didn't that young rascal of a Lawrence say he'd get square with me, and didn't all of you say the same? Wasn't you down to the blowing up of the bridge, right where they had all that dynamite stored? Wasn't some of the dynamite sticks stolen? Didn't you fellows come right by the hotel afterwards? Wasn't the blowing up done by clockwork, made to go off hours after it was set? You can't tell me! You are guilty. Besides, I got other evidence--I got a letter," added the hotel-keeper, shrewdly.

"A letter? About us?"

Jason Sparr nodded.

"Saying we were guilty?"

"Yes."

"Who wrote it?"

"Never mind that. You're guilty, and you know it. Just wait till Hickson comes back with them others and I'll show you a thing or two," continued the hotel man, harshly.

"Mr. Sparr, I said I wanted to talk to you, and I do want to," said Dave, after a pause. "You will find it to your advantage to listen to me. You have got this whole thing settled in your own mind, but you are dead wrong. You intend to have us locked up for something we didn't do. To have us locked up will blacken our characters and blacken the reputation of Oak Hall. My folks are respectable people, and so are the folks of the other boys. Do you think they will stand for this sort of thing? And do you think Doctor Clay will stand for it? If you do, you are greatly mistaken. If you have us arrested on this charge, which is absolutely false, I'll get my folks to sue you for false imprisonment and defamation of character, and I know the other fellows will do the same. And you can rest a.s.sured that the charges against you will be pushed to the limits of the law."

At this plain talk Jason Sparr's jaw dropped. Several times he was on the point of interrupting, but thought better of it.

"Well, now--er----" he stammered when Dave had finished.

"My father is a United States senator," said Roger. "You don't suppose he will let a matter like this pa.s.s unnoticed? If you do anything to besmirch our family name, you'll take the consequences."

"Your father is a United States senator?" faltered Jason Sparr.

"He is, and Dave's father is a rich man, and so is Phil Lawrence's father. Of course, our money has nothing to do with it, excepting that it will enable us to stand up for our rights in the courts, and get able lawyers to defend us. We are innocent of all wrongdoing. If anybody is in the wrong it is you, for you cheated Phil Lawrence out of the money he advanced to you for that spread we were to have at your hotel."

"Cheated him!" cried the hotel-keeper.

"That is what it amounted to, for you took his money and gave him nothing in return."

"He called the spread off----"

"He did not, and we can prove it," said Dave, following up what he thought looked like an advantage. "Why, if he wanted to do it, Phil could have you locked up for swindling."