As the propeller began to whirl, Tom took another step or two forward.
An airplane was a new puzzle to him, and he was so interested in
watching it get under way that he forgot his trust, forgot he had
prisoners to watch, forgot everything but the mystery of that piece of
mechanism, that gigantic bird, running bumpily now over the ground and
now beginning to lift into the air, and now----
Tom whirled about. The old instinct of the man who lives much in the
open, telling him danger is close at hand, was stirring at the roots
of his hair. But he was just a trifle too late. As he faced about, a
form shot out of the cave and Tom, totally unprepared for attack, was
bowled over.
As he fell he let out a great wordless cry, thinking to warn Frank and
Roy Stone. Then the butt of a revolver descended on his head.
CHAPTER XXIII
THE TABLES TURNED
"What was that?" asked Frank, turning to Roy Stone, as the airplane
bearing Jack and Bob on their romantic adventure dwindled in the
darkening sky. "I thought I heard a shout."
"Guess you did," said Stone. "I heard it, too. It came from the cave."
Both turned to stare upward toward the distant cave. There was no sign
of movement. Only the dim bulk of the rock obscuring the entrance
could be distinguished.
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