The Mystery of the Blazing Cliffs - M. V. Carey [38]
The man with the gun removed his helmet with one hand. He was quite an ordinary-looking young man with longish dark hair. “You should have brought the loot with you, Pops,” he said. “But don’t worry. We’ll get it in the end.”
He moved close to Barron and thrust the gun almost into the millionaire’s face. “Of course, we don’t want it to take too long,” he said. “We’ve put too much time into the job already. Now don’t give us a hard time. If we have to search the whole ranch, we will. But if we do that, believe me, it will be over your dead body!”
Mrs. Barron let out a frightened gasp.
“Be kind to yourself,” said the gunman. “Be kind to the lady here. Tell us where you stashed the gold.”
Barron sighed. “The existence of my gold appears to be an ill-kept secret,” he said.
“Very well. It’s pointless to die for money. The gold is under the floor of the basement in the big house.”
The gunman stepped back and the second man vanished into the fog. After a moment there was a ringing sound, like the jingle of a defective doorbell.
“Aha!” said Barron. “A field telephone!”
The gunman didn’t reply. He stood watching the Barrons, and from the darkness came the voice of the second man.
“He didn’t bring it with him,” said the second man. “It’s buried under the floor in the cellar of his house.”
The man with the telephone paused for an instant, then said, “Right.”
When the man reappeared, Pete realized that the field telephone must have been hidden behind one of the boulders at the base of the cliffs.
“The gold had better be there,” said the gunman to Barron. “If those guys dig up a cellar and don’t find it, they’re going to put you under cement!”
“We shall see,” said Barron. He swung around towards his wife and shoved her so that she stumbled away and fell to the ground.
For a split second, the man with the gun turned towards Mrs. Barron. In that split second there was a spurt of flame and the sound of a shot. The gunman screamed and dropped his weapon.
“Don’t move!” snapped Charles Barron. His arms were outstretched and he held a gun.
“Ernestine,” he said, “would you pick up that man’s weapon?”
Mrs. Barron already had the gun in her hand. She handed it to her husband as she got to her feet. The man who had threatened Charles Barron sank to his knees. He held his injured hand close to his chest and sobbed.
“Where’d you get that gun?” demanded the man with the torch as Barron searched him for a weapon.
“My father’s pistol,” said Barron. “I always keep it under my pillow. Your accomplices overlooked it when they looted my arsenal today.”
Barron raised his voice. “Pete!” he called. “Konrad!”
“Here, Mr. Barron.” Pete started across the meadow with Konrad coming behind him.
“I think these must be the only two here,” said Charles Barron. “If there were others, they would have shown themselves by now.” He turned to his wife. “Ernestine, are you quite sure you will be able to climb that cliff?”
“As soon as I’ve bandaged this man’s hand,” said Mrs. Barron. “You have a clean handkerchief, Charles. May I have it, please?”
Barron sniffed, but he handed over his handkerchief, and Mrs. Barron knelt in the meadow and bandaged the gunman’s hand. As soon as she finished, Pete took the torch and went in search of the field telephone. When he found it, he yanked coils of wire from the instrument and bound the two men.
Mrs. Barron took her husband’s torch and tucked it into her belt. Then she held out her hand to Konrad. “We’ll go up over the cliffs and walk out to the highway,” she said to him.
“I hope you’re wearing comfortable shoes. We’ll get the police, and my husband and the boys will attend to things here. We won’t be back for at least two hours. Shall we go?”
Konrad nodded, and Mrs. Barron began a careful ascent of the cliff. Konrad followed her cautiously in the dim moonlight, moving as she did, putting his feet in the places where she had put hers. Barron and Pete watched the two go up. It seemed to Pete that it was hours before they reached the top of the cliffs and disappeared