CHAPTER XXX. RED RALPH'S SURPRISE.

Red Ralph and his companion slept soundly till after nine o'clock. The drug was only of moderate strength, or they would have slept longer.

When Ralph opened his eyes he saw the breakfast table spread, and his wife moving about the room. He looked around him half dazed.

"How does it happen that I am asleep on the floor?" he asked.

"You fell from your chair last night."

"Why didn't you rouse me, and make me go to bed?"

"I tried to, but you slept too sound."

"It is strange I should sleep so—and Conrad, too. What time is it?"

"Half-past nine."

"Has there been any noise in the room above, where the strangers are sleeping?"

"I have heard none."

[Pg 253]

"The potion kept them asleep. I must go up and rouse them."

"What are you going to do to them, Ralph? You won't injure them?"

"I must have their money. I may as well take Conrad with me. Here, Conrad, wake up!" and he shook his companion with no gentle hand.

Conrad opened his eyes, and looked sleepily around him.

"How came I here?" he asked.

"You took too much whisky and got stupid drunk," said Ralph, not mentioning that he, too, had been in the same box. "Is breakfast ready, Sarah?"

"Yes."

"Then we'll sit up and eat. I am famished. Come, Conrad."

"Won't you rouse the strangers first?"

"No. That will do afterward. If I get their money, you may give them some breakfast, too."

"Very well."

The woman spoke calmly, but she was inwardly excited. She knew that her husband would be enraged when he learned that the prisoners had escaped, but she hoped that her agency in the matter would not be suspected.

[Pg 254]

The two men ate heartily, and his breakfast made Ralph feel better natured.

When the meal was over, he said: "Come with me, Conrad. We have work to do."

He went upstairs, followed by his accomplice.

The key was in the lock, just as he had left it, apparently.

He turned the key, and opened the door of the chamber. What he expected to see was the two travelers in a profound slumber. What he did see was the bed disarranged and the chamber empty.

"What does all this mean?" he ejaculated, starting back in surprise.

"They're not here!" said Conrad, looking about him.

"Of course they're not, you fool! But how could they get away?"

Conrad pointed to one of the windows that was half open.

"That explains it," he said.

Ralph hurried to the window, and put his head out.

Stretching from the window to the ground was the bed cord.

This was a piece of strategy on the part of his wife. After the departure of Scott and the earl,[Pg 255] she had removed the bed cord, and fastened it to the window to mislead her husband into supposing that it was in this way their guests had escaped.

"Well, I'll be blowed!" ejaculated Ralph.

"They must have smelt a rat," said Conrad, sagely.

"What I can't understand is how a man of good weight could have been held up by such a slender cord. And it doesn't seem to be stretched at all."

"It may be stronger than you think," suggested Conrad.

"I suppose it was, but I wouldn't like to trust myself to it."

"I wouldn't mind."

"Try it, then."

Conrad was a man who inclined to be venturesome. He got out of the window, and tried to lower himself by the rope. The slender cord broke, and he fell and lay an inglorious heap on the greensward below.

"I told you so!" said Ralph, with a loud laugh.

"The man strained it," said Conrad, looking rather foolish.

"Here, Sarah," called out Ralph, "come and look here."

[Pg 256]

Outwardly calm, but with inward trepidation, Ralph's wife ascended the stairs.

"What's the matter?" she asked.

"What's the matter? You can see for yourself. The men have escaped."

"So they have," she said, in affected surprise. "How did they do it?"

"Climbed out of the window by the bed cord. Didn't you hear it?"

"They must have done it before I was up," she replied, evading a direct answer.

"Conrad," called out Ralph, with a sudden thought, "go out to the barn, and see if they have taken the horse."

"Yes, they have. The horse isn't there," reported Conrad.

"Then I've been taken in, and done for. What beats me is, how did they suspect anything?"

"You forget," said the wife, "that they may have missed the wallet."

"That's true. I should like to know how long they have been gone. I wonder you didn't hear the horse."

"I think I slept pretty sound myself. It was not till late that I went to bed."

"Well, there's no use in crying over spilt milk,"[Pg 257] said Ralph, philosophically. "At any rate we've got the five dollars."

"And that will pay for all they got here."

"Especially," chimed in Conrad, "as they went off without their breakfast."

"So they did," said Ralph, with a broad smile.

He seemed amused by the thought that their guests had, after all, been overreached, and this contributed to restore his good humor.

Sarah breathed a sigh of relief. Her stratagem had been successful, and there was no suspicion entertained by her husband that she had assisted the two to escape. Had he suspected it, she shuddered to think what would have happened.

When Scott and the earl reached the hotel at Niagara, they went up to their room to finish out a night's rest, their slumber at the farmhouse having been interrupted.

The consequence was that they appeared late at breakfast.

Meanwhile there had been an arrival at the hotel of two characters well known to the reader.

Two days previously, Ezra Little suddenly determined to go to Buffalo. By the failure of a large firm in that city a considerable stock of goods[Pg 258] had been thrown on the market. It was almost certain that the stock would be sold out for much less than its real value.

Ezra Little, among others, had received a notice from the assignee of the approaching sale. The goods were, many of them, in his line, and in several departments his own stock was getting short.

"I think, Mr. Allen," he said to his superintendent, "I shall run on to Buffalo, and examine the stock of Frost, Burks & Co., and if it is a sacrifice sale I shall probably make considerable purchases."

"It will be an excellent plan, I think, Mr. Little. We are running short in several departments. Besides, it will be a pleasant trip for you."

"That is true; I haven't been fifty miles from the city for three years. Three years since, I went to Philadelphia, and ever since then I have tied myself down to business."

"I will look after things while you are gone. I understand your system."

When Ezra Little announced at home that he was going to Buffalo, the news made a sensation.

"Isn't Buffalo near Niagara Falls?" asked Loammi.

[Pg 259]

"Certainly."

"You will go there, won't you?"

"Yes, I will try to get time. I shall never have a better opportunity."

"Oh, pa, won't you take me?" asked Loammi, eagerly.

"Take you? Why should I?"

"I should enjoy it so much."

"No doubt, but the expense will be too great. The car fare and hotel rates will amount to considerable."

"But, pa, as you were just saying, you will probably clear more than a thousand dollars by the purchase you propose to make."

"That is not certain."

"Oh, yes it is; you are so sharp and shrewd, pa."

Ezra Little's pride was flattered.

"Well, yes," he said, "I think I am fairly sharp."

"And my expenses won't be much."

Ezra looked undecided.

At this point his wife intervened.

"You had better take Loammi, Ezra," she said. "It will be a pleasure to him, and if you are sick he can take care of you."

[Pg 260]

"Well, Loammi," said his father, with unwonted good humor, "I think I will let you go. But you must be ready at six o'clock this evening."

"I'll be ready, pa, never fear."