Page:The Secret of the Caves.djvu/169

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
The Shotgun
163

"Break loose, Joe!" shouted Frank, "He means business."

But this was more easily said than done.

The trio sprawled on the floor of the cave, Frank and Joe fighting desperately to get out of the clutches of their captor, but the old man clung to their collars like grim death.

"I'll teach you!" he panted. "I'll shoot both of you."

His words sent a thrill of fear through the boys. They knew now that they were dealing with a maniac and they realized that in his present frame of mind, he was quite capable of carrying out the threat.

Joe had fallen in such a way that his collar had become twisted, and with Captain Royal still grasping it, he was almost choked. He could not turn without increasing the throttling pressure, so he was quite helpless. As for Frank, in spite of his struggles, he was unable to break the captain's hold.

"I have the better of you!" chuckled the old man fiendishly. "You can't get away from me. Try to kill me, would you! I'm going to shoot you both."

He began to struggle to his feet.

Captain Royal was eying something on the wall at the back of the cave. Following the direction of his gaze, Frank saw something that terrified him.

This article is issued from Wikisource. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.