Here is the fourth and final part. Again, any comments are welcome.

Heather gave Glenn a long, tight hug. “Oh, I was so afraid something had happened to you.”

“We’ve had several things happen to us,” said Jack. “How about you?”

They lost no time telling the guys about their adventure with the bank robbers. Glenn and Jack listened quietly.

“Now where have you two been?” Nik concluded.

“I thought you’d never ask!” Jack began. “We met a couple of those goons too. We had just about reached the old sawmill when these two guys appeared on the trail in front of us. They were armed. Something must have distracted them. They weren’t looking our way. We turned tail and ran!

“They came after us and started yelling for us to stop or they’d shoot. I grabbed Glenn and pulled him off the trail. We had gotten around a bend where they couldn’t see what we’d done. We killed our lights and dropped down in some bushes a few steps away from the trail. We heard them walk by a few moments later. We didn’t even breathe!”

“They must have realized that we were off the trail, because they started beating the bushes,” Jack continued. “They were on the wrong side, though! We got off the trail to the river side. They headed toward the mountain side. Glenn pulled me up and started leading me down to the river. When we got down there we worked our way along the bank back toward our camp.

“Before we got there, we heard voices. It was two guys arguing. One of them was saying something about how dumb it was that he had scared the girls toward the sawmill instead of away from it. We knew they were talking about you. They took off headed for the sawmill.”

Glenn took up the story. “It sounded like there wasn’t anybody else there. So I decided to go check out where those guys had just been. We found two canoes and a bunch of gear. It looked like they had hidden them in the brush. They were loaded and just about ready to go. It looked like they were planning to get on the water soon.

“We went on down the bank a way to our camp and found everything deserted. I said to Jack that we ought to hide our canoes, in case those guys came looking for us. That way we’d have a way to escape if we had to. I remembered a little creek back upstream beyond the bend. We pulled the canoes into the water and started wading upstream with them.”

“That water was dadgum cold, too!” Jack interjected.

“When we got the canoes hidden, we climbed up on the bank and started back toward camp. We stopped when we heard voices from there. I sneaked a little closer to hear what they were saying. They thought we had taken off downstream in the canoes and were going for help. They were going to go straight for the sawmill and get the money and the other guys. One of them made some comment about there being an easier way to get away after a bank robbery. Then they left. I think it was the guys who chased us in the first place. That bank robbery comment made me realize they must be the gang that pulled that armored car robbery in Hot Springs a few weeks ago.”

“That’s when I got my big idea,” said Jack. “I said we ought to go back to their boats and damage them so they couldn’t get away. Glenn didn’t want to do it—he didn’t want those guys to stick around! I pointed out that there was a hiking trail that they could get away on. But it would slow them down a lot.

“So Glenn came around to my idea. We got back to the bad guys’ canoes. There wasn’t anybody there. They had conveniently left an axe among their gear. We pulled up the gear they had already put in the center of their canoes and chopped holes in them. Then we put the gear back in place. That way they wouldn’t notice something was wrong until they put the canoes in the water!”

“That was diabolical of you,” said Lindy admiringly.

“We had just gotten done when we heard them coming,” Jack went on. “We hid a little piece away. After a while we heard them dragging their canoes into the water. Then they found out what we’d done. They said things that would’ve set a barn on fire!

“We waited a while longer and heard them salvage their stuff and talk about what to do next. Like I had guessed, they said they’d take to the trail through the mountains. They’d start tonight and camp on the trail overnight. They were going to be met the next day by someone named Cindy. One of them made another one promise that they would leave an anonymous note somewhere to look for the girls locked in the cellar at the sawmill.”

“I had been there before, so I knew about the house with the cellar,” said Glenn. “We waited for the gang to clear out. Then we started heading back toward the mill as fast as we could.

“When we got there we saw a light by the old house. We didn’t know if you had somehow gotten out, or if the bad guys were back. That’s when I got the idea of doing a whippoorwill call. I taught Heather how to do one a while back. I knew she’d recognize who it was.”

“You guys are amazing!” Nik said. “I can’t believe you’ve been running around all over the place like that without getting caught!”

“Somebody upstairs has been watching out for us,” said Glenn. “We’ve just been in the right place at the right time over and over again.”

“We’ve both got pretty good night vision, too,” Jack added. “We’ve been able to see in the moonlight without needing to use our flashlights much.”

“You said the gang is moving out by way of the mountain trail?” said Lindy.

“Yeah. Glenn says they’ll have to move pretty slowly. It’s a steep trail. They’ve got a lot of gear and loot to carry.”

“And you know the name of the person they’re supposed to meet. If we leave first thing in the morning, we might be able to float out and alert the authorities before they can make it.”

They returned to their camp. By now it gotten very late. Nik felt almost ready to drop. Glenn reckoned that they had about five hours before dawn. He suggested setting a watch, just in case the gang tried to come back. Each of them would stand watch for one hour. Lindy volunteered to take the first turn. Nik would take the second.
Nik felt she had hardly gotten to sleep when she felt Lindy shaking her awake. She somehow managed to stay awake, if not all that alert, for her hour. Then she awoke Jack.

When dawn arrived the barely-rested group gulped down a cold breakfast, struck camp, and loaded their gear as quickly as possible. By the time they had finished, they had enough light to begin their journey.

Heather had just changed the dressings on Lindy’s hands. With the materials in the first aid kit she had been able to do a better job of cleaning and bandaging. “Bless your heart, I know those gashes must be sore! You’re one of the best people for not complaining that I know!”

“You said yourself when you examined them that they aren’t that deep. They’re just—painful.”

“That brings us to the question of who’s going to help me paddle,” said Nik. “Lindy can’t paddle with her hands like they are. You’ll have to do it, Heather.”

“Me? I’ve never paddled a canoe before!”

“First time for everything!” said Nik. “You’ll be okay. I’ll tell you what to do.”

Heather looked at Lindy. “She’s right, Heather. I just can’t do it. You’ll have to paddle.”

They donned their life jackets and pushed the canoes into the water. Heather floundered into the bow of the canoe and stared at the water with a frightened look on her face.

Nik began to give Heather instructions. It took several minutes for Heather to pick up a fairly good rhythm of paddle strokes. Nik tried to do as much of the work as possible. She forced herself to ignore how tired she felt.

Fortunately the rapids they encountered all proved mild. While they had a few scary moments—Nik thought they would go over for certain at least once—they avoided any real mishaps.

A few miles down the river they stopped for a rest and a snack. Nik dozed off before she could finish eating. When they woke her up Lindy told her she had slept a good half hour. She felt surprisingly rested.
The second wind wore off after a while. Just when she felt she could hardly force her exhausted arms to make another paddle stroke, Jack called from in front to say that he saw the take-out point. That gave Nik enough incentive to paddle a few minutes more.

It was still only late morning. There were no vehicles at the river access point apart from Heather’s car and a large crew-cab pickup. A woman sat on the ground beside it, smoking a cigarette.

“While the rest of you are securing our gear, I think I’ll go say hello,” Lindy said quietly. “Don’t say anything about what we went through last night.”

Lindy’s words barely registered with the exhausted Nik. She moved almost in a daze, having to think for a few moments before she could make each next move. She vaguely noticed Lindy coming back to the group. A little later Glenn, Heather, and Lindy were saying goodbye. They climbed into Heather’s car and drove away. Nik watched them go, barely noticing in her stupor of exhaustion. She lay down beside the canoes and immediately fell asleep.

That evening the group shared a late meal at a restaurant in Arkopolis. By now everybody had had a chance to change clothes, clean up, and rest a bit. Nik hardly remembered the trip back to campus. About all she recalled was being awakened when the others returned with the truck and the canoe trailer. She had helped to load the canoes and then fell asleep in Heather’s car.

“You really wore yourself out,” Heather told her. “You worked hard to try to keep me from having to do as much paddling.

“You ought to be even more worn out than me! You paddled too. And you did all that driving.”

“Lindy did a lot of it. It must have hurt, with her hands like they are. I was too tired to say no.”

“I was the most rested, since I didn’t have to paddle,” Lindy reminded them.

“It’s a good thing she was,” said Glenn. “She was the only one who had the presence of mind to go over to that woman with the truck that we saw when we got off the water. She asked her a few questions and found out her name was Cindy Grider. She knew she must be the one who was supposed to meet those crooks.”

“Cindy Grider hadn’t heard about the change of plans, of course,” Lindy said. “She was looking for them to arrive by canoe, not on foot. We headed straight for the nearest law enforcement office. The police were waiting for the gang when they made it back from the trail. They got there some time around mid-afternoon. They had been carrying packs of gear and had the money bags slung between them on a litter. In the meantime I went by a doctor and had my hands checked. He said they should heal quickly.”

“I’m surprised they made as good a time as they did,” said Glenn. “They must have been pushing hard to hike that many miles with that kind of load.”

“As hard as those guys worked—robbing that armored car, hiding out for three weeks, doing the werewolf act, and hiking out—you’d think they could have just stuck with making an honest living,” said Jack.

“Another case of crime not paying,” Lindy said.

Jack put an arm around her. “Good thing you’re honest, huh? You could make a pretty clever crook if you tried.”

Lindy sighed. “If only I had been able to be completely honest. I had to tell Cindy Grider a couple of fibs about why we looked the way we did and why my hands were in the condition they were. I said something about us having an accident.”

“It sounds like you had to do it to keep from tipping her off,” said Nik. “I don’t think anybody will hold it against you.”

“I told one more fib that I hope you won’t hold against me. Remember when you fell asleep during our rest stop on the river this morning?”

“Yeah, barely. I sure was glad you all let me have that half-hour rest.”

“All of you were. I’m the only one who didn’t doze off. Well, it wasn’t half an hour. It was more like fifteen minutes. I was hoping that if you thought you had slept longer, you would all feel more rested. I took a gamble that none of you would be keeping a good track of time with your watches.”

Nik laughed. “You and your knowledge of psychology! Are you really sure you didn’t fake that anxiety attack?”
“Trust me, Nik, I’m sure.”

I was sure the last line would be "and we would've gotten away with it if it weren't for those meddling kids"! Thanks for posting the story, DL.

Double post.

Yeah, one of the inspirations is pretty obvious! Glad you liked it.

This is one of a series I've written for my nieces. The others are "The Secret of Ross Mountain Inn," "The Phantom of Hammond Auditorium," "The Avenger's Ghost," "The Lady in the Lake," and "Clinic of Fear."

I've also written ghost stories with actual ghosts, and other stuff as well.

Triple post. Yikes!