And it was man that had built the fire. The two boys crept a little way into the passage and listened. In a moment they heard a high pitched voice—a voice shrieking, it seemed, in pain and fright. But the words—if words the person uttered—were quite unintelligible.
“What d’ye know about that?” whispered Billy, forgetting at once his own misfortunes. “There’s trouble up there——”
Again and again the shrieks echoed down the passage. Then followed the rough tones of a deeper voice. The man spoke in anger—there was no doubt of that—and instantly the shriller voice cried out again.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
“It’s the dummy!” Dan exclaimed, in an awed voice.
“He’s in trouble,” agreed the trembling Billy. “Whatever will we do? There! hear him?”
“I wish we had a gun,” muttered his brother.
“We’re going to get into a fight in about half a minute,” Dan declared. “That is—if we stay here.”
“Let’s get out then,” said Billy. “Whatever it is——”
Again the piercing cries of the unfortunate dummy broke out.
“My goodness! I can’t stand that,” gasped Dan.
“Can we help him—do you think we can?” demanded Billy. “But let’s not get into trouble ourselves——”
Again the shrieks. Dan scrambled forward up the passage, with Billy right after him. The boys could not remain quiet when a helpless human being was being tortured.
In a few moments they came out into a roomy cavity. The roof was high and dome-shaped. At the far side was a huge fireplace of rock and mortar, with a forge set into one side of it. There was a fire of charcoal in the forge as well as a heap of burning cordwood on the wide hearth.
At a glance the boys saw the whole picture. There were three rough looking men. Both Dan and Billy believed they were those who had robbed them of the _Follow Me_ and had so ill-treated old John Bromley. But they were not masked now.
Two were holding the wildly shrieking lad the Speedwells knew as Dummy. The noise the unfortunate boy made drowned that made by the Speedwells in getting into the cave.
The back of the third man was toward the entrance. He was in command. “Give him another taste of it!” he ordered, just as Dan and Billy scrambled to their feet.
At once the other two swung the screaming boy up, and held the calves of his legs over the glowing coal on the forge.