A Dangerous Hike -Part Two

                                                           A Dangerous Hike (Part Two)

                                          by

                                               Austin Mitchell

            Meanwhile Bull and three men had reached where the boys had stopped to have their meal. They had two Alsatian dogs with them.

            “Looks like they stopped to have a meal here,” Bull said as he examined the ground.

            “Damn those boys, why is Lloydie out to catch them?” Neville asked.

            “He figures that they might have seen something and he is not sure that their parents are not rich and could pay us to release them if we told them that we had kidnapped them,” Bull said.

            “So which way do you think they went?” Nully asked.

            “Those boys are not fools, they’d know that dogs can’t pick up their smell in water so more than likely they will be walking in the river,” Bull said.

            “That still doesn’t answer my question as to which direction those boys went,” Nully remarked.

            “Why did we bring those dogs with us if we know that they can’t help us?” Neville asked.

            “They will come in handy. Those boys must come out of the water and then we can use the dogs to track them,” Bull said.

            “Neville, you and Tonto take one of the dogs and go up the river, if you sight them call us. Those boys are not to be harmed. Based on the information Juvert got about them, their parents are wealthy. They might be willing to pay a million dollars each for those boys. Nully, you come with me,” Bull said.

            “Suppose those boys attack us, what do we do?” Tonto asked.

            “Attack us with what? You are grown men, don’t tell me that you are afraid of some kids,” Bull said impatiently as he took one of the dog chains and he and Nully started down the river.

            “Sure like to see these dogs rip those boys apart,” Tonto said as he and Neville moved up the river.

            “There will be no more of that talk from you fool,” Neville shouted and as an afterthought. “You wouldn’t want me to report you to Juvert.

            At the mention of the gang leader’s name, Tonto shut up and started after Neville.

***

            The youths had come out of the river. They had climbed a tree near the river’s edge and had jumped off on to the other side of the river into some bushes. They then decided to climb a steep bank. From up on this bank, they could see far down the river. They looked, but there was no sign of pursuit.

            They went through some thick bushes and climbed a steep hill and were looking down at a road. They were looking down at the road when an old car drove up and stopped. A man came from the car. To the boys’ surprise it was Jonas Ward and he was coming in their direction.

            “I know you boys are around so come out of your hiding

place. I won’t hurt you,” the man said.

            The boys were hesitant and were trembling with fear.

            “You’d better come out, boys, I’m the only one who can help you. Bull might be just half an hour behind you,” Jonas said.

            The three boys came out of their hiding place to face Jonas.

            “Come with me, boys. I’ll drop you in Brooklyn. You’ll be safe there,” Jonas said.

            “How are we sure that you are not going to deliver us to those men?” Rog asked.

            “As I said we don’t have much time to waste. If those men  see me here with you I will be in as much trouble as you are.”

            Reluctantly the three boys got into the back seat of Jona’s car after putting their gears in the trunk of his car.

            Jonas drove off the car and they were headed for Brooklyn.

            “Why are you not one of those men? They were mighty friendly to you that day we saw you up in the village,” Rog said.

            “You boys are lucky I showed up. Those men are real bad men, they control that village. I have to act drunk most of the time so that they don’t do me anything.”

            “Exactly what is it that goes on in that village?” Rog asked.

            Jonas was silent.

            “Are you afraid to tell us, Mr. Jonas?” Brett asked.

            “Just be glad that I am helping you boys to escape. They find out that it was me who helped you escape and they’ll kill me.”

            “We would surely like to know exactly what we are running away from,” Russell said.

            The other two boys nodded in agreement with Russell.

            “You boys are mighty curious, but I have to get a guarantee from you that you will never return to the village.”

            “Okay, if you tell us we will just go about our business and forget we ever saw this village,” Rog said.

            “Bad men run this village. Their leader is Juvert; he carries a steel club. Likely to split your skull at a mere wink. They do kidnappings, bring their victims into the village and after the ransom is paid they release them. They also hide wanted men, both from Jamaica and other countries. Give them new identities and then ship them back out.”

            The boys were listening intently.

            “You boys are lucky. Juvert finds out that you are worthless he just orders his men to shoot you down in the village.”

            “We hardly saw anybody in the village?” Rog asked.

            “Juvert has them working on his plantations. He might use you boys on his plantation.”

            “We saw cars coming and entering the village,” Brett said.

            “Cars you see coming out of the village will certainly contain kidnap victims whose ransom has been paid or wanted men who have been given a new identity. Cars coming into the village will contain new kidnap victims and wanted men seeking a change of identity.”

            They took a dirt road Jonas told them that he did not want to go on to the main road for fear of being seen.

***

            Bull and Nully had found the spot where the boys had come out of the river. They had climbed up on the bank of the river and had walked up to the hill overlooking the road as the dog had picked up the boy’s scent. Bull took out his cell phone and called Neville and Tonto. He told them to turn back as they had picked up the boys’ tracks.

            “You think they went across the road, Bull?” Nully asked.

            “How would I know, you want to take the dogs and chase those boys all over this blinking country. I want a car, I am not used to this walking,” Bull said.

            He rang up Gully, another of their associates and told him to bring the car as they had located the boys. Meanwhile, he and Nully took a rest by sitting on a wall.

***

            “We have only a mile to go boys after I let you out. You can camp anywhere for Juvert does not operate so far and the people down in Brooklyn are enemies of the Juvert organization.”

            “So what will happen to all those people whom they have kidnapped? And why didn’t they want us to go to Brentwood Gap?” Rog asked.

            “That’s where the heart of their organization is. Stonewall is used as a bulwark because it’s where you have to pass through to go to Brentwood Gap. You can’t go to the Gap without their permission.”

            “We should be able to do something to help those people, Mr. Jonas. Why do you want us to run away?” Russell asked.

            “You boys are young, you think you could be a match for hardened criminals like those men. I just want to get you out of harms way,” Jonas said as he brought the car to a stop.

            “This is Brooklyn, boys. You can camp out tonight and in the  morning you can get a taxi to take you out of the village. I will be sure glad if you boys acted sensible and take my advice and not venture into that village again.”

            Jonas helped the boys take their gear out of his car trunk.

            “I’m going through that back road. I don’t want anybody to know that I left the village. You boys keep off the road, although I told you that they and the people of Brooklyn are enemies, Juvert  has spies all around and if they get wind that you are up here they might try to snatch you.”

            “You told us to take a taxi out of the village, how will we know that it won’t be Juvert’s men operating those taxis,” Rog asked.

            “Don’t take any taxis in which there are already passengers. You can go down to the village centre and get a taxi there.”

            Jonas got back in the car and drove off. The boys made their way into some bushes and began walking in search of a safe place to bed down for the night.

            “What do you reckon we should do in the morning,” Rog asked.

            “Boy, I am feeling so weary and I’m dying to sleep,” Russell said.

            “It’s near eight o’clock. I think we should get out of here as quickly as possible. We can report what we saw when we get to somewhere friendlier,” Brett said.

            They had come to a grove of trees.

            “This seems a good place for us to rest up for the night,” Rog said, throwing down his gear and dropping into the grass. The others followed his example.

            They were hungry, but they knew that they daren’t make a fire.

            Presently they took out some biscuits and canned soda and had their supper.

            “Do you think that man was telling the truth about what they are doing up here?” Rog asked.

            “I don’t see why not, and we have seen them in action. I think they were following us and remember they were using dogs,” Russell said.

            “Well, if Jonas is to be believed they are not coming into this village, but they have spies so we still have to be careful,” Brett said.

            “Doesn’t seem as if they have any type of law in these parts,” Rog said.

            “Remember what Jonas said. If we had gone to report them we would have been captured,” Russell said.

            The three boys crawled into their sleeping bags and in a few minutes were fast asleep.

***

            Bull had a stern look on his face as he drove into Norris Hills that night. They had driven all over and had not found the youths or any sign of them.

            “They came out of the river and the dogs picked up their sign, but we lost them at the top of the road,” he said as Lloydie, and Jack greeted them as they came out of the car.

            “Do you think they got help from somebody to hide from us?” Lloydie asked.

              He was Juvert’s chief operative in Norris Hills and he was far from pleased at Bull’s failure to capture the three youths. Information  had reached them that the three youths if kidnapped could fetch a million dollars each. The Organization was not about to give up this amount of money and no effort would be spared to capture the boys and hold them for ransom.

            “Anyway, you let our spies in the adjoining districts know. We might even be willing to offer a reward for their capture,” Lloydie said. To be continued. Please visit the Austin G Mitchell pages at Amazon for a look at my books.