The Young Acrobat of the Great North American Circus by Jr. Horatio Alger (world of reading TXT) 📕

Dick Hayden caught sight of his intended victim sitting under the tree.

His eyes gleamed with a wicked light.

"There's the kid, Stubbs!" he said. "Stir your stumps, old man, and we'll collar him!"

The two miners started on a run, and when Kit caught sight of them they were already within a few rods. The young acrobat saw that his only safety, if indeed there was any chance at all, was in flight. He started to his feet, and being fleet of limb gave them a good chase. But in the end the superior strength and endurance of the men conquered. Flushed and panting, Kit was compelled to stop. Hayden grasped him by the collar with a look of wicked satisfaction.

"So I've got you, my fine chap, have I?"

"Yes, so it seems!" said Kit, his heart sinking.

"Sit down! I've got a few questions to ask."

There was a broad flat stone by the roadside. He seated Kit upon it with a forcible push, and the two men ranged themselves one on each side of him.

"What time did you leave the cabin, boy?"

"I don't know what time it was. It must have been two hours since—perhaps more."

"Did any one let you out?"

"Yes."

"Who was it?"

"I don't know the person's name."[Pg 157]

"Was it a man?"

Kit began to feel that he must be cautious. He knew that she was the daughter of the man who was questioning him, and that she would be in danger of rough treatment if her father should find out that she had thwarted him.

"I cannot tell you," he answered, though he well knew that the answer was likely to get him into trouble.

"You can't tell? Why not? Don't you know whether it was a man or not?"

"Yes, I know."

"You mean that you won't tell me, then?" said Hayden, in a menacing tone.

"I mean that I don't care to do it. I might get the person into trouble."

"You would that, you may bet your life. I can tackle any man round here, and I'd get even with that man if I swung for it."

"That is why I don't care to tell you," said Kit. "How can you tell that the man knew you put me there?"

"Didn't you tell him?"

"No."

"It was a man, then!" said Hayden, turning to Stubbs. "Look here, young feller, if you tell me who it was, you may get off better yourself."

"I would rather not!" answered Kit, pale but firm.

"Suit yourself, kid, but you may as well know that you'll be half killed before we get through with you. Get up!"

As he spoke, Hayden jerked Kit to his feet, and began to drag him toward the rail fence.

"Take down the rails, Stubbs!" he said.

"What's your game, Dick?"[Pg 158]

"I'm going to give the kid a drubbing that he won't be likely to forget, but I can't do it in the road, for some one may come along."

"I'm with you, Dick."

At the lower end of the field which they had now entered was a strip of woods, which promised seclusion and freedom from interruption. Poor Kit, as he was dragged forward by his relentless captor, found his spirits sinking to zero.

"Will no one deliver me from this brutal man?" he exclaimed inwardly.

He felt that his life was in peril.

CHAPTER XXXII.
KIT'S DANGER.

The men reached the edge of the woods and halted.

"I'd like to hang him!" growled Dick Hayden with a malignant look.

"It wouldn't do, Dick," said Stubbs. "We'd get into trouble."

"If we were found out."

"Murder will 'most always come out," said Stubbs, uneasily. He was a shade less brutal and far less daring than his companion.

It can be imagined with what feelings Kit heard this colloquy. He had no confidence in the humanity of his captors, and considered them, Dick Hayden in particular, as capable of anything. He did not dare to remonstrate lest in a spirit of perversity the two men might proceed to extremities.[Pg 159]

Kit was not long in doubt as to the intentions of his captors.

"Take off your coat, boy!" said Hayden, harshly.

Kit looked into the face of his persecutor, and decided that it would be prudent to obey. Otherwise he would have forcibly resisted.

He removed his coat and held it over his arm.

"Lay down the coat and take off your vest," was the next order.

This also Kit felt compelled to do.

Dick Hayden produced from the capacious side pocket of his coat a cord, which he proceeded to test by pulling. It was evidently very strong.

"Stubbs, tie him to yonder sapling!" said Dick.

Stubbs proceeded, nothing loth, to obey the directions of his leader. Kit was tied with his back exposed. Dick Hayden watched the preparations with evident enjoyment.

"This is the moment I have been longing for," he said.

From his other pocket he drew a cowhide, which he passed through the fingers of his left hand, while with cruel eyes he surveyed the shrinking form of his victim.

Meanwhile where was Achilles Henderson?

He and Stover bowled as rapidly over the road as the speed of a fourteen year old horse would permit. He looked eagerly before him, in the hope of catching a glimpse either of Kit or of the miners. When they started they were far behind, but at last they reached a point on the road where they could see Kit and his two captors making their way across the fields.

"There they are!" said Stover, who was the first to see them.

"And they've got the boy with them!" ejaculated Achilles. "Where are they going, do you think?"[Pg 160]

"Over to them woods, it's likely," replied Stover.

"What for?"

"I'm afraid they mean to do the boy harm."

"Not if I can prevent it," said Achilles, with a stern look about the mouth.

"They're goin' to give him a floggin', I think."

"They'll get the same dose in larger measure, I can tell them that. Mr. Stover, isn't there any way I can reach the woods by a short cut so that they won't see me?"

"Yes, there is a path in that field there. There is a fringe of trees separatin' it from the field where they are walkin'."

"Then stop your horse, and I'll jump out!"

Mr. Stover did so with alacrity. He disliked both Dick Hayden and Bob Stubbs, whom he had reason to suspect of carrying off a dozen of his chickens the previous season. He had not dared to charge them with it, knowing the men's ugly disposition, and being certain that they would revenge themselves upon him.

"Do you want me along, Mr. Giant?" he asked.

"No; I'm more than a match for them both."

"Shouldn't wonder if you were," chuckled Stover.

He kept his place in the wagon and laughed quietly to himself.

"I'd like to see the scrimmage," he said to himself.

With this object in view he drove forward, so that from the wagon seat he could command a view of the scene of conflict.

"They're tying the boy to a tree," he said. "I reckon the giant'll be in time, and I'm glad on't. That boy's a real gentleman. Wonder what he's done to rile Dick Hayden and Bob Stubbs. He'd have a mighty small show if the giant hadn't come up.[Pg 161] Dick's a strong man, but he'll be like a child in the hands of an eight-footer."

Meanwhile Achilles Henderson was getting over the ground at the rate of ten miles an hour or more. His long strides gave him a great advantage over an ordinary runner.

"If they lay a hand on that boy I pity 'em!" he said to himself.

It was fortunate for Kit that Dick Hayden, like a cat who plays with a mouse, paused to gloat over the evident alarm and uneasiness of his victim, even after all was ready for the punishment which he proposed to inflict.

"Well, boy, what have you to say now?" he demanded, drawing the cowhide through his short stubby fingers.

"I have nothing to say that will move you from your purpose, I am afraid," replied poor Kit.

"I guess you're about right there, kid!" chuckled Hayden. "Are you ready to apologize to me for what you done over to the circus?"

"I don't think there is anything to apologize for."

"There isn't, isn't there? Didn't you bring that long-legged ruffian on to me?"

"I was only doing my duty," said Kit, manfully.

"Oho! so that's the way you look at it, do you?"

"Yes, sir."

"No doubt you'd like it if that tall brute were here now," said Hayden, tauntingly.

"Yes," murmured Kit; "I wish my good friend Achilles were here."

"So that's his name, is it? Well, I wouldn't mind if he were here. Stubbs, I think you and I could do for him, eh?"

"I don't know," said Stubbs, dubiously.[Pg 162]

"Well I do. He's only one man, while we are two, and strong at that."

"Oho!" thought Achilles, who was now within hearing. "So my friend, the miner, is getting valorous! Well, he will probably have a chance to test his strength."

By this time Hayden had got through with his taunts, and was ready to enjoy his vengeance.

"Your time has come, boy!" he said, fiercely. "Stand back, Stubbs!"

Bob Stubbs stepped back, and Dick Hayden raised the cruel cowhide in his muscular grasp. It would have inflicted a terrible blow had it fallen on the young acrobat. But something unexpected happened. The instrument of torture was torn from his hands, and a deep voice, which he knew only too well, uttered these words: "For shame, you brute! Would you kill the boy?"

Panic stricken the brutal miner turned and found himself confronting Achilles Henderson.

A fierce cry of rage and disappointment burst from his lips.

"Where did you come from?" he stammered.

"From Heaven, I think!" murmured poor Kit, with devout gratitude to that overruling Providence which had sent him such a helper in his utmost need.

CHAPTER XXXIII.
DICK HAYDEN MEETS WITH RETRIBUTION.

Dick Hayden and Bob Stubbs, large and strong men as they were, looked puny, compared with the[Pg 163] giant who towered beside them, his face kindling with righteous indignation.

"What are you going to do to the boy?" he demanded, sternly.

"I was going to flog him," answered Hayden in a surly tone.

"And you were helping him?" went on Achilles, turning to Stubbs.

"No, sir," answered Stubbs eagerly, for, big as he was, he was a coward. "I didn't want Dick to do it."

"You coward!" exclaimed Hayden, contemptuously. "You're as deep in it as I am."

"Is that true, Kit?" asked Achilles.

"He isn't as bad as the other," said Kit. "That man Hayden thought of killing me, but his friend protested against it."

"It shall be remembered to his credit. Why did you wish to flog the boy?" he asked of Hayden.

"On account of what happened at the circus."

"The boy didn't touch you."

"He brought you on me."

"Then I was the one to punish."

"I couldn't get at you."

"Here I am, at your service."

Dick Harden measured the giant with a vindictive eye, but there was something in the sight of the mighty thews and sinews of the huge man that quelled his warlike ardor.

"It wouldn't be a fair contest," he said sullenly.

"There are two of you, as you said just before I came."

"No, there are not," interposed Stubbs, hastily. "I hain't any grudge against you, Mr. Giant."

"You are willing to help me?"

"Yes."[Pg 164]

"Then untie that boy."

Stubbs unloosed the cord that bound Kit to the tree, while Achilles Henderson watched Hayden narrowly, for he had no mind to let him go free.

"Are you that man's slave?" asked Hayden.

"I am willing to oblige him," said Stubbs, meekly.

Kit straightened up on being released, and breathed a sigh of relief.

"Come along, Stubbs," said Hayden, with an ugly look at Kit and his protector. "Our business is through."

"Not quite," said Achilles, quietly, as he laid his broad hand with a detaining grasp on the shoulder of the ruffian. "I am not through with you."

"What do you want?" asked Dick Hayden with assumed bravado, but with an uneasy look on his lowering face.

"I am going to give you a lesson. I gave you one at the circus ground, but you need another."

"Touch me if you dare!" said Hayden, defiantly.

For answer, Achilles hurled him to the ground with less effort than Hayden would have needed to serve Kit in the same way. Then with the cowhide uplifted he struck the prostrate wretch three sharp blows that made him howl with rage and pain. Stubbs looked on with pale face, thinking that his turn might come next.

"Hit him, Stubbs! Kill him!" screamed Dick Hayden. "Would you stand by and see me murdered?"

"I can't help you," said Stubbs. "What can I do?"

Having administered justice to the