“Empty,” he declared. “Too bad. I should have filled it before I started.”
“Never mind, I’ll lead and you can follow,” answered Andy. “I don’t believe there is anything the matter with the road, anyway.”
Andy dashed ahead and Pepper followed him at a distance of fifty feet. Thus another half-mile was reeled off. Then Andy slowed up, calling upon his chum to do the same.
“My front tire is flattened out,” declared the acrobatic cadet. “I hope I haven’t got a bad puncture.”
“If it was bad I reckon you would have heard the air hiss,” answered Pepper.
The lamp was loosened from the wheel and turned on the flat tire, and both boys got close to find the puncture. Presently Pepper detected a small, sharp thorn sticking in the rubber. It had made a hole like that of a pin.
“I’ll wind a piece of tape around it,” said Andy. “That will hold till we get to the Hall, I guess,” and he brought out the bicycle tape from his repair bag.
Both boys were hard at work, bending over the wheel in the dim light of the lamp, when they were startled by hearing voices close to them. On both sides of the road were trees and bushes and the spot was certainly a lonely one.
“Somebody is coming—” began Pepper, when two figures stepped into the road and confronted the cadets.
The boys were amazed and alarmed, and with good reason. The figures were those of big boys or men, and each wore a green hood and a green mask which entirely concealed his face and head. More than this, each wore gloves with the finger-tips missing. Both carried heavy clubs in their hands.
For the moment the boys were so astonished they neither spoke nor moved. Then both leaped up and confronted the newcomers.
“We have them!” said one of the masked figures. “We have them at last.”
“Do you surrender?” demanded the first speaker of Andy and Pepper.
“Surrender? What for?” Pepper managed to ask.
“You shall know in due time. If you surrender, hand over your pocketbook.”
“Yes, you have, and it has exactly two hundred dollars in it,” said the second masked fellow.
“We want both of your pocketbooks,” went on the first one who had spoken.
“I haven’t any pocketbook, either,” said Andy. “You’ve made a mistake in tackling us.”
“Let us take them to the cave for ransom!” cried the second fellow, and began to march around, waving his club over his head.