A Dangerous Hike

                             A Dangerous Hike by Austin Mitchell 
                                              (Part Two)

           Russell, Brett and Rog had set off on this hike to Brentwood Gap. They were on Summer holidays and it was usual for them to do a hike. For the past two years they had been hiking to other places and they had decided to hike up to Brentwood Gap this time around. They would start from Monday morning and reach home by Sunday evening. They had their camping gear with them and would take turns at cooking a meal. Last night they camped out in Lennox Hills and now they were passing through the village of Stonewall. As they passed through they saw a man sitting on a stool. They went up to him and Russell asked.

           “Sir, can you give us the directions to Brentwood Gap?”

            The man, whose clothes looked to be quite soiled and in need of a good scrubbing, acted as if he didn’t hear. But just as Russell was about to repeat the question a tall heavy set man sauntered over to them.

             “I hope you guys aren’t troubling Jonas?  Can’t you see that he’s drunk?”

            The man glared at them.

            “We were just asking him if he knew where Brentwood Gap is,” Rog replied.

            A short bald headed man joined them.

          “Who are these boys, Lloydie?”

           “They must be strangers, Bull. It’s the first time I’m seeing them.”

          “What do you, boys want in Brentwood Gap?” Lloydie asked.

           “We are on a hike there,” Russell replied.

         “You’d better keep away from there. It’s not a nice place for you to go,” Bull advised.

       “But we heard that it was such a wonderful place,” Brett said.

        From what they had heard about Brentwood Gap, it had a fall and a pool at the bottom of the fall.

       “Maybe once, but not again. Lots of bad people up there now.  You guys take my advice and stay away from there,”        Lloydie said before he made his way over to the other side of the road.

          Bull looked at them and nodded before he went in the opposite direction to which Lloydie had gone.

          The three friends found a seat on a bamboo bench near to the one on which the drunken man was now sleeping. It was about five o’clock in the evening.

           All three boys’ shoulders had dropped in disappointment at what they had just heard. It seemed as if their hike had been ruined. On the other hand, they could go somewhere else. They were adventurous and their past hikes had been full of danger. On their first hike they had caught a gang of goat thieves and handed them over to the police. Last year they foiled a kidnapping plot. Now as they sat and thought over what the two men had told them they had to decide on a new course of action fast.

          “Let’s draw lots,” Russell said.

            They then agreed among themselves that if a majority voted to continue the hike to Brentwood Gap then they just had to do it. Russell said that those who were in favour of going to Brentwood Gap should put up their hands and they all put up their hands.

            “What if those men see us going there, won’t they try to stop us?” Brett asked.

           “Unless they are following us they won’t know it’s there, we are going,” Rog replied.

           “I don’t like either of those two men. We just ask them for directions and they are saying a lot of bad things about the place,” Russell said.

          “I don’t see anything wrong with that, maybe they were just trying to keep us out of danger,” Rog replied.

        “Let’s get a move on,” Brett said as they all stood up.

          “You notice how deserted this village is,” Russell remarked.

            His remarks was true of Stonewall. For a Saturday morning the tiny village looked deserted and except for a few cars and some youngsters and oldsters there wasn’t much happening. The three youths loaded up their gear and prepared to set off when the drunken man fell off the bench. Before the youths could move, Bull, Lloydie and another man, ran to his assistance.

          Bull and Lloydie took Jonas inside the bar leaving the other man with the three youths. This man was of medium height and thin with a large beard.

          “I  head that it’s the Gap you, guys want to go. Bull and Lloydie said they’ve warned you about the place. What are you guys looking for?  We don’t like strangers up here so you’d better get out of here.”

           The man’s bluntness shocked the youths.

          “Mister, we’re just on a hike. We are not troubling anybody,” Russell stated.

          “You boys have been warned. Better for you to go back the way you came. You can go to Junction Village but we don’t want to see you in Brentwood Gap, so be off with you.”

         The man walked over to three other men. The boys noticed that the men were all looking in their direction and scowling.  There was no sign of Bull or Lloydie or the drunken Jonas for that matter.

          They all moved out of the village the way they had come.

        “Let’s walk until we reach Fordham then we can rest  there,” Russell said.

       “I wonder why they don’t want us in the village or to go to the Gap?” Brett asked.

        “Maybe there’s something up there they don’t want us to see,” Rog replied.

        “We could stop at the police station in Fordham and ask about Brentwood Gap. We should probably have done that before we came up here,” Russell said.

        They walked  for half a mile on the dusty road and only about four cars passed them; two going to Stonewall and two coming from that village.

       “That village looked creepy to me. It’s only old people and some youngsters we saw apart from those men. We didn’t see any middle-aged persons nor even any kids our age. I tell you something is wrong in that village,” Brett insisted.

        “When we get to Fordham we can ask around and find out what’s going on up here,” Rog said.

        “Maybe we should keep off the road, we aren’t sure what those men will do,” Russell said.

        “Well, at least two cars passed us coming from up there and they didn’t trouble us,” Brett replied as they rounded a corner and heard a car horn blew a few chains further back. The boys scrambled into the bushes.

        The car came to a halt and Bull and the three men, who were with him in Stonewall came out.

         “Nully said he saw them walking on the road,” Bull said.

           “Juvert is very angry that we did not capture them as he wants all the workers he can get,” another man said.

            “We’ll find them because they can’t have gotten very far,” Bull said as he got into the car. The others piled in after him and they drove off.

***

           The three boys remained in hiding. They were all too shocked at what they were hearing to say anything. After a while Rog said.

         “We have to get away from here. It’s a pity as none of us have any credit on our cell phones.”

         “We can’t walk on the road as we don’t know if they will be back searching for us,” Brett said.

          They were all mindful that they had not yet eaten lunch, but that was the farthest thing from their thoughts. They were going over in their minds what they had heard Bull say.

         “What did he mean that Juvert wanted all the workers he can get?” Brett asked.

        “I don’t know and we had better keep down our voices. We can go through those bushes and hide out until tonight. It will be easier to travel in the night,” Rog said.

         “Yes, let’s get out of here; I’m sure those men will be combing the area looking for us,” Brett said as they crawled down into a gully. They were not gone very far when they heard some men shouting.

***

          “Those boys were around here somewhere. I’m sure about that.”

          It was definitely Bull’s voice, they were hearing.

          “I tell you, Juvert will not be pleased with us for having let those boys escape,” one of the men said.

          “Who says they’ve escaped. Even if they get out I’ve told Bernie Green to look out for them,” Bull said.

          “I bet the fools will go to Bernie to tell him about us,” the same man said.

           “Let’s get back to base, we can get some more of those guys to come with us to help search for them,” Bull said.

           “Say, maybe we could bring the dogs with us. I’d sure like to see those boys running from those dogs,” another man said.

          “If you let those dogs injure those boys you might have to do their portion of the work for them,” Bull warned as he started the car and they drove off.

           The boys were listening to what the men were saying.

         “You heard what they said about dogs. Let’s get a move on, we daren’t go on the road again. Sounds to me as if they have some sort of labour camp,” Rog said as they began walking through the thick grass.

        “I feel hungry, we should stop and eat something,” Brett said.

        “We’ll stop at that river down there,” Rog said, pointing down to the river.

         “Maybe we could cook some food by the river,” Russell suggested.

         “No time for that now. We’ll just open a tin of beef and have it with some biscuits. That river gives me an idea. If those men are going to use dogs to hunt us then if we follow the river we could lose them as the dogs won’t be able to pick up our scent in the water,” Rog remarked.

          They sat by the river and had their supper. They filled up their canteens and made sure to hide their disposables so that their pursuers could not find them. They then started their journey once more.

        “We have to find somewhere to sleep; it  will soon be dark,” Russell said.

         “We probably won’t be able to sleep until we know what those men are up to,” Rog remarked. They had taken off their socks and shoes, rolled up their pants and were now walking down the river.

          They had gone  about half a mile down the meandering length of the river when they heard shouts and the barking of dogs.

           “They are coming after us, we had better keep on moving. Those dogs won’t be able to pick up our scent in the water,” Rog said as they stepped up the pace.

           “How do we know that we won’t end up back in that village?” Russell asked.

           “We are moving away from it; we have got to move faster. They won’t know if it’s up or down the river we went. So they might split up into two. That might give us a better chance against them,” Rog said.

             “Our empty hands against men with guns and dogs. I don’t fancy our chances against them,” Brett replied.
To be continued. Please visit the Austin G Mitchell pages at Amazon for a look at my books.