Tom Swift and His House on Wheels by Victor Appleton

Stunned and bruised by their unexpected fall into the gully and manhandled by their captors, Tom Swift and Ned Newton were in a bit of a daze as they were roughly pulled along. The men -- there were at least four of them now, as two were on each side of the prisoners -- walked their captives down the gulch in the middle of which ran a stream of water, swollen by the heavy rain.

One of the four bandits -- Tom and Ned mentally called them this -- had a flashlight which he used to pick out the path when the gleams of lightning failed, as they did every so often.