“Hello! Sheriff Badgely! Hello!”
When Tom Smith, the alligator-hide hunter, sent this hail out at the top of his voice, it seemed as though every other sound ceased like magic. Why, even the hounds stopped yelping, and seemed as though they might be standing there, sniffing the air in their endeavor to locate the one who had shouted.
“Who’s that callin’ me?” a voice was heard to say.
“It’s me, Sheriff, Alligator Tom Smith; I didn’t want yuh tuh be a takin’ a crack et me fust, an’ then beggin’ my pardon arterwards.”
“Oh! that’s it, hey? Whar are ye at, Tom?” came the sheriff’s voice.
“Out heah a space, in a boat. I done got a party o’ No’the’n boys along with me, as wanted tuh see what ole Alligator Swamp she looked like. Ef yuh kim right ’long ther ridge, Sheriff, yuh cain’t miss us. We-uns’d like tuh meet up with yuh right smart. These heah boys they hain’t never seen dawgs like them yuh got.”
“All right, Tom, we’ll be ’long thar in a jiffy. Glad ye spoke out when ye did, ’case some o’ my men they like as not air ready to shoot at the sight o’ a hat. Move along, Carson; hello, Mobbs, shove the boats on, and jine us t’other side o’ the p’int.”
Again the sound of voices, and also the fretting of the hounds, could be heard, as the advance was resumed. Then moving figures began to be seen amidst the bushes ashore; while at the same time several boats appeared in sight, turning the point which had been mentioned by the energetic sheriff.
Each boat had a number of men aboard, and all of them seemed to be heavily armed, as though they had not started out upon this undertaking without recognizing the fact that they might run across desperate characters, and be compelled to show their teeth in armed conflict.
As the guide paddled in a little closer to the shore so as to meet the officer when he arrived, those in the other canoes did likewise; although Bumpus viewed this movement with concern, doubtless not being able to get those dogs out of his mind.
“They’ve got the hounds in leash right now,” he heard Thad remark presently; possibly the considerate scout-master said this on purpose to ease the minds of those who might be feeling a bit nervous; at any rate it did comfort the fat member of the patrol not a little, for he was immediately heard to give vent to a sigh of tremendous volume, and allow his rigid clutch upon the pistol-grip of his gun to relax.
Thad had been prepared to see quite a numerous retinue following the sheriff; but even he was surprised at the multitude of men and boys who had gladly accepted of the chance to have a hand in the final cleaning up of the pest hole of the parish, that had been postponed year after year until this late day.
“Say, looks like a regular rag-tag army!” Bumpus was heard to mutter, as he stared at the Southern planters, business men from near-by towns and clerks in stores, all carrying guns of every possible description, from the ancient musket, handed down from Civil War times, to the modern repeating pump-gun.
And if Bumpus and his mates stared hard at the strange collection of butternut-clad natives, fancy the way they were in turn gaped at by these men and lads, most of whom had doubtless never even heard of a Boy Scout, and knew not what to make of their uniforms.
A small, nervous man came bustling forward, and Thad, noting his air of authority, rightly guessed that this must be the sheriff. And sure enough, he wore a long coat just as the boys had noticed so many of those wonderful Western sheriffs did in the moving pictures they had watched, of stirring scenes on the plains; while a wide-brimmed soft hat sat jauntily upon his bushy head of red hair.
“Hello! Tom Smith!” he called out, as he advanced; “I kinder expected to meet up with you befo’ we got through with this job, but not so soon. And, Great Jehosophat! what d’ye call them boys you’ve got along? Is the militia been called out to do my work fo’ me? I’d like to know what all this means, Tom Smith?”
The sheriff was really showing signs of being indignant, since he was supposed to be the peace officer of the parish; and according to law, the soldiers could not be called on duty until he had exhausted his powers, and made a demand upon the governor.
Of course the swamp hunter made haste to explain.
“Yuh see, suh, these is a party o’ No’the’n boys as belong to the scouts. They kim down thisaway on a matter o’ bizness, an’ wanted tuh see what a reg’lar Louisiana swamp she looked like. So I ’grees tuh pilot ’em round a bit.”
“Do you mean the Boy Scouts, Tom?” demanded the sheriff, eagerly; “because, while we ain’t got so far along down heah as to have a troop o’ the same, I know what they stand fo’, an’ I surely am glad to meet up with some o’ the lot. If so be ye come ashore, I’d like to shake hands with ye, boys.”
“And we’ll count it a great honor, Mr. Sheriff,” said Giraffe, just as quick as he could speak, and taking the words right out of Thad’s mouth as it were; but then it was an old trick with Giraffe, and one he never could be cured of.
No one offered the slightest objection to paddling close up to the land, and going ashore. Bumpus was heard to mutter something to himself, however, and might be expected to keep an anxious eye on the two hounds that were straining at their rope leashes, as though wanting to either go on, or else make a closer acquaintance with these newcomers.
So the friendly sheriff proceeded to shake hands all around.
“Even down in this neck o’ the woods we done heah more or less about what’s goin’ on all over,” he remarked, as he came to Thad, in whom he seemed to recognize the leader of the little band; “and I often thought I’d like to meet up with some o’ these heah Boy Scouts. I got the manual they drill by, an’ it meets with my unqualified approval, I wants to say right heah. I hain’t got nary a boy, but if my five gals was sech, I’d want to start a patrol right away in my town. An’ meetin’ you chaps thisaway gets me more’n ever in the notion to try an’ see if we cain’t have a troop o’ our own.”
“I’m glad to hear you say that, Mr. Sheriff,” declared Thad; “if you’d care to take my address, and I could do anything at all to help you in the matter, you can depend upon it I will. You’re in something of a hurry just now, but perhaps later on we may happen to meet again when things are a little more quiet; and I’d like to tell you dozens of things that have happened to the Silver Fox Patrol, that you’d like to hear; and also what a big difference it’s made with some of our members.”
“That’s sure kind of you, my boy,” said the sheriff, while the crowd listened eagerly to all that was being said, and some of the younger elements began poking each other in the ribs, as though they saw good times coming should the officer ever put his contemplated plan into operation; for things must have been pretty dull for boys down in that region so far removed from the hurly burly of metropolitan life. “I hope now I’ll meet up with that chant, beca’se there’s a heap o’ things I’d like to ask you. But jest as you say, I’m up to my ears in business right now, and it wouldn’t be just the thing to pull up before this old swamp has been run over east and west, no’th and south, with a fine-tooth comb, till we gits every law-breaker it hides, or else chases ’em into the open, where they’ll be easy to corral.”
“Tom Smith has been telling us considerable about the way this place has been used for years and years to hide runaway slaves, escaped convicts from the camps, and all sorts of bad men; and it’ll be a blessing to the whole community, sir, if you succeed in exterminating the vicious breed,” said Smithy, assuming his most important air.
Sheriff Badgely looked curiously at the speaker, as though he did not exactly sense all that he said in his pedagogue way; for Smithy was as exact in his manner of speech as long ago he used to be dudish in his dress, until the rougher element among the scouts cured him of that fault.
“Thank ye, son,” the officer finally remarked, thinking that this ought to cover the bill, and not expose his ignorance concerning fine language.
“It certainly does you credit, Mr. Sheriff, that you’ve undertaken a job which all your predecessors seemed to have shirked,” Allan went on to say; for he had somehow taken a sort of sudden fancy for the small man, who seemed to be as lively as a cricket, and full of vim and go.
“Oh! I might as well confess to ye, son,” remarked the sheriff with a chuckle; “that p’raps I might a kept aputtin’ the raid off right along, jest like Sheriff Zeb Coles done fo’ nigh on eleven yeahs, till he turned up his toes and was put under ground, only fo’ a certain thing happenin’. Fact is, they has been a big robbery up-country a bit, an’ only two days back we got word as how the man suspected o’ doin’ the same was a lyin’ low in ole Alligator Swamp. Co’se, after that thar wa’n’t no excuse fo’ me not to raise a big posse, and try to just clean things out down heah; ’case you see, the man that had been robbed he offered to pay the wages of every man and boy that’d go along, and put five thousand dollahs in my hand in addition, if so be I was lucky enough to ketch thet slick thief, an’ recover the stuff as had been taken from him.”
“I can see how that was a spur, just as you say, sir,” Thad remarked, smiling at the naive way in which the officer admitted that the chances of a fat reward made an alluring bait at any time.
“Well, it gave me a chanct to collect the greatest posse ever seen in these heah parts; an’ we’re just bound to have the biggest lot of fun afoah we quits the game ever heard tell of,” the sheriff went on to say; “but sorry to tell you, boys, we’ll likely have to part company right now, and take up our hunt.”
“Have you come across anything in the way of game so far?” asked Giraffe.
“Oh! we done sent that ole voodoo man to town under guard,” replied the other, carelessly; “you see, he’s been makin’ heaps o’ trouble lately, gettin’ some o’ the hands on the sugar plantations to throwin’ up their jobs in the busy season, an’ fillin’ ’em full o’ horrible notions sech as the voodoo practices. And we kim to the conclusion that it had to stop. He’ll get sent where he won’t do no more damage in ignorant minds. Afore we-uns are through with our job we calculate to pick up a number o’ convicts that’s been hidin’ out in this region; but we’ll try to devote most of our time and attention to findin’ this heah slick Jasper.”
When the sheriff happened to casually mention the man for whom all this remarkable preparation had been made, Thad exchanged a quick glance with his closest chum, Allan; for the officer who was sworn to carry out the mandates of the law had spoken the name of the party of whom the scouts were in search, and who was believed by Thad to be the kidnapper of his little baby sister, Pauline, years before.
“Oh! Thad, did you hear what he said?” whispered Giraffe, in the ear of the scout-master.
“Keep still, Giraffe, and let me manage this affair, please!” was what Thad replied; and accordingly the tall scout, quickly grasping the situation, relapsed into silence; for he had the utmost faith in the ability of the patrol leader to whip things into shape.
“What was that you were telling us, Mr. Sheriff, about this man robbing some one?” Thad asked, before the other could turn fully away.
“It’s this way, son,” came the obliging officer’s reply; “a very wealthy planter by the name of Richmond had occasion to employ a secretary to conduct some literary work he was head oveh ears interested in. So in New Orleans he comes across a smart gentlemanly fellow who gives the name of Jasper. Fo’ a long time they seem to get on right well. Then all of a sudden the kunnel he finds that his secretary suh, done disappeah, as also the contents of his safe, includin’ some family jewels that had been fetched oveh from France two hundred yeahs ago by his ancestors, and which he values above anything he possesses.”
“Oh! and that is why he is willing to put up so much money to try and recover these things, I suppose?” Thad went on, for the purpose of drawing out still more information rather than because he failed to understand.
“That accounts fo’ the milk in the cocoanut, son,” the officer admitted. “He then and there calls me in fo’ a consultation, and immediately afterwards issues that offer of reward, as also the promise to pay every man and boy who would join my posse, and hunt fo’ the thief.”
“And then word came to you that some one had seen a man answering the description of this Jasper down here—was that it, sir?” Allan asked.
“You have described it to the lettah, suh. And as the thief must be hiding in Alligator Swamp, you can understand how we’ve made up our minds to clean the old pest hole out, once fo’ all.”
“But we are told that a stranger never could make his way in and out of here, because there are so many treacherous passages; and that more than a few men have met their death trying to escape from the endless succession of watery trails?” the scout-master continued, still trying to pick up information without betraying his side of the case to the other.
“Perfectly correct, suh,” the sheriff told him; “but that fact only made me look deeper into the case. What do you think I discovered, but that yeahs ago a family by the name of Jasper lived close by this region. If that is so, then we sorter reckons this heah thief might be a son of the ole man; and in that case don’t ye see, he’d know every part of the swamp as well as Tom Smith heah?”
It gave Thad a strange thrill to hear this spoken; because had he not actually covered the identical ground himself when figuring out just how the man with the girl should be able to go and come with such little concern?
“Why,” he exclaimed, suddenly meaning to go further, and learn more, if possible; “seems to me we heard something about a strange white man who had been seen going into the swamp here, Mr. Sheriff; and perhaps now it may have been the same Jasper. But this party had a little girl about ten years old with him. Was the Jasper you wanted the father of such a child, sir?”
“He done told the kunnel that he had a daughter in a school in New Orleans; so p’raps now he went an’ took her out, so she could cook his meals fo’ him all the time he was ahidin’, till the trail got cold, an’ it was safe fo’ him to head no’th,” was what the sheriff told him.
Meanwhile Thad had been quickly figuring in his mind whether it would not be best for him to take the officer wholly into his confidence; and being a boy who could cut the Gordian knot, and decide quickly on his plan of campaign, he immediately settled this matter in the affirmative.
If the objective point of the sheriff’s posse was the retreat where Felix Jasper was supposed by Tom Smith to be hidden, how foolish it would be for them to try and attain their object while there was a rival expedition in the field that might in some way interfere with the successful carrying out of their plans.
Yes, far better to combine, and pool their issues. Besides, with such a formidable backing would not success be more apt to perch upon their banners than should they keep on trying it alone?
“I’m going to tell you something, Mr. Sheriff,” he said, hastily; “and while it may hold you up a few minutes, in the end you’ll admit that the time has been profitably spent; because we might as well join forces with you. Fact is, sir, we have come all the way down from the North in the hope of rounding up this same Jasper you’re looking for; because the girl he has with him, I have great reason to believe, is my own little sister, stolen away from my mother’s home years ago by a man named Felix Jasper, once from New Orleans, and who wanted to have revenge upon the Brewster family on account of some fancied wrong done him.”
Of course upon hearing this remarkable statement the sheriff no longer evinced a nervous desire to be on the go. He seemed to realize that his interests were bound up with those of the manly leader of the scouts, who had just thrilled him with so strange a story.
And as for his posse, they were crowding around so densely, anxious not to lose a single word of what was said, that, as Giraffe afterwards declared, they looked like “sardines packed in a can;” every face filled with eagerness, and many of them seeming hardly to breathe lest they lose some of the story.
Thad, knowing that now he had broken the ice it would be better to explain more fully, started in to tell how his guardian received the news, and could not himself undertake the long journey, but had readily agreed that the scouts should come, because they had shown themselves so capable on many other occasions.
“We entered the swamp by ourselves, though I understood it was a dangerous thing to attempt,” Thad concluded; “but we were lucky enough to run across a guide in Tom Smith here. He thinks he can give a pretty good guess where this Jasper will be apt to hold out, Mr. Sheriff; and now that we’re all on the same business, why not combine forces, and let him show us the way?”
A number of the planters and others exchanged knowing glances.
“Best thing that ever happened for us, Mr. Sheriff!” one man declared stoutly.
“Truer words never were spoken,” observed another. “I’ve heard that Alligator Tom Smith knows more things about this same swamp than any man living. I told you in the beginning that we had ought to hunt him up, and make him join the posse. Luck is playing your way, Sheriff, believe me.”
The officer of the law seemed to think the same way, for he immediately turned upon the scouts’ guide and demanded:
“Are ye willin’ to come in with us, Tom, and trust to me to make it right with ye, when I gets that reward in my hands? ’Case if ye ain’t, I’m agoin’ to draft ye in the posse all the same, an’ ye just cain’t hold back. The State gives me that power, ye understand!”
“Oh! I’ll let yuh set the price accordin’ tuh how yuh sees fit,” remarked the wise and far-seeing Tom, quickly; if he had the name he might as well have the game too, he undoubtedly thought; “but I hopes as how my employer heah, Mr. Scoutmaster, won’t go fo’ tuh think I purposely deserted him.”
“Why, you’re working for us just the same, Tom,” observed Thad, quickly; “and your wages will be going on all the time, no matter what you get from our friend the sheriff. And so we may call it settled; is that so, sir?”
“Just as ye say, son; and I consider that I’ve certain got the best part o’ the bargain as it is,” the other replied.
“We won’t quarrel over the proceeds, for you want to get the man and the stuff he stole; while all we’re after is the little girl,” Thad went on to say.
“I sure hopes it may turn out all right to you, son, and the gal be thet same little sister you lost long ago,” the sympathetic sheriff went on to say; “I done got five gals, an’ I understand just what it must have been fo’ your mammy to a lost her on’y one. Yes, we-all hopes as how you’ll find it ain’t a mistake. But since these matters are fixed, let’s figure on headin’ that way, Tom Smith. Now, what might ye advise, to begin with?”
“Hit’s thisaway, Sheriff,” began the swamp-hunter; “dawgs is good in ther way; but sumtimes they mout seem tuh git in ther road, an’ guv warnin’ tuh theh party yuh was awantin’ tuh s’prise. Hain’t thet so, suh?”
“Reckon ye knows best, Tom; an’ let me say that I sees what yer drivin’ at,” the officer told him. “Ye believes as ye knows whar this Jasper’d most likely be aholdin’ out, an’ ye kin take us thar without the use of the hounds? Is that it, Tom?”
“Close tuh what I war meanin’ tuh say, Sheriff,” the alligator hunter went on to remark; “an’ if so be now yuh kept the dawgs back heah a bit till we seed if we cud round-up our man, it’d be better. Then, if he wa’n’t whar I laid out tuh find him, yuh cud call up the critters agin, an’ start in fresh.”
“That’s settled, then,” asserted the other; and turning to one of the posse who seemed to be in charge of the brace of hounds he continued: “Townley, ye heard as what was said, didn’t ye? Well, pick out another to help, and stay heah till ye gets the signal to come on; or we-all joins ye later.”
He spoke with such authority in his voice that the man dared not evince any disposition to disobey, though doubtless he secretly groaned in spirit at being left out of the deal at such an important juncture.
“And now, Tom Smith, lead us on; everybody keep quiet, and let’s play this game fo’ all she’s worth. If so be we brings the critter to bay, they’ll be fightin’ in plenty, I reckons, if what the kunnel says about this man is only half true. And in case we have to take to the boats, p’raps now some o’ us’ll be let crowd in with these plucky scouts. Fo’ the last word, then, here’s hopin’ we’ll have the best o’ success.”
The alligator-hide hunter again took the lead; but now he had a following that must have given him a strange thrill every time he turned his head to glance backward, for quite a flotilla of boats came in his wake; while on the nearby land a swarm of figures flitted, reminding one somewhat of a pack of silent wolves chasing relentlessly after a wounded stag.
“Thad!”
Step Hen leaned back in the boat he occupied in company with Bumpus, Davy Jones and the scout-master, as he softly uttered the name of the last mentioned.
“Yes, what is it, Step Hen?” remarked Thad.
“Would you mind if I asked a single question?” pursued the other, speaking as near a whisper as he could, and still make his voice carry.
“Go ahead, then,” the other went on to say, knowing full well that when once Step Hen’s curiosity became fully aroused there was nothing to do but gratify it; besides, had he not often told the scouts that a certain amount of “wanting to know” was commendable?
“Why, I saw you talking with the sheriff just before we started out again, and while you were ashore; would it be a fair question to ask what you fixed up with him?” Step Hen inquired, boldly.
“Oh! nothing that would make any change in our plans,” said Thad. “The fact is, I was a little nervous about what might happen in all the excitement of a fight; and it was only my plan to get the sheriff to promise that he would warn every man in the whole posse to be very careful not to injure a hair of the girl’s head, even by accident; that’s all, Step Hen.”
“Thank you, Thad, and I hope you don’t think I was putting in my oar where I had no business to?”
“Sure I don’t,” replied the scout-master; “we’re all chums, and I’m certain that every one of you feels almost as much interest as I do about meeting up with this girl Jasper has with him, and learning whether she can be our little Polly. But please don’t talk any more just now, Step Hen; because it isn’t best; and besides, I want to do some tall thinking.”
Neither Bumpus nor Davy had taken any part in this little whispered conversation but they had listened eagerly, and doubtless caught every word that was spoken; if one could judge from their manner, and the great sigh that the fat scout managed to heave when Thad brought the talk to an abrupt close.
Yes, it was true that every member of the Silver Fox Patrol did feel that he had a deep personal interest in the outcome of this journey and search. Thad was very dear to them all, and many times they had pitied the boy because, outside of old “Daddy” Brewster, his uncle and guardian, he seemed to have no close relatives, while they all had parents, and in most cases either brothers or sisters, perhaps both.
Now, Thad was a sunny-natured lad, and not given to complaining; yet these warm chums of the Boy Scout Troop could remember instances where tears had come into his fine eyes when visiting at the home of some comrade around Christmas time, and he seemed to realize what it was to be without even one brother or sister, and lacking the love and affection of father and mother.
And now that there really seemed a chance of Thad’s discovering a sweet little sister to love and care for, every scout was praying pretty much continually in his mind, that the expedition might not turn out a failure, but that when they once more turned their faces northward there would be an addition to their number, and that Thad would be smiling all the while with supreme happiness.
Meanwhile Tom Smith was leading them carefully on.
It was entirely different now from what the advance of the sheriff’s posse had been before the scouts met the crowd. Up to that time noise had predominated, with the hounds baying wildly, and men shouting back and forth, as though by this means they expected to frighten the swamp fugitives into surrendering.
Scout tactics now prevailed. When real woodsmen start out to track an enemy, or even a wild animal, they adopt the ways of the wolf or the stealthy Indian, and keep utterly silent. Why, even the paddles seemed to rise and fall with nothing to mark their laboring save possibly the trickling drip of drops of water falling from the elevated blades; so careful were those who handled the same how they used them.
Had they been trying to approach a feeding deer on the edge of the water among lilypads the scouts could not have exercised greater caution; and those in the other boats, noticing how gently the boys drove their canoes along, made haste to pattern after them, not wishing to be outdone.
All the while the swamp was getting more and more lonely looking, and the vegetation becoming even thicker, showing that Alligator Smith must be taking them to a part of the great morass where few people ever came.
Undoubtedly he had his reasons for this, and more than one of the scouts found himself nearly bursting with eagerness to know what these could be; but so long as the guide remained in the lead there was no opportunity to put questions, even could they muster up courage enough to attempt it.
Of course they were constantly on the alert, not knowing at what moment there might come a change in the conditions, and something not down on the bills occur to break the monotony of the advance.
Some of them remembered what the sheriff had said about this Jasper, and how, if all accounts were true, there would be a wild time when they finally rounded him up, as he would not succumb without a desperate fight.
Bumpus watched the bushes and trees ahead of the guide’s boat. He was a great fellow to imagine things, and doubtless had many a sudden start when some bird stirred, or a small swamp animal scudded away, each time causing poor nervous Bumpus to imagine that it must be the terrible Jasper who was hidden there, drawing a bead on the most prominent object in the leading canoe behind that of the guide, and which of course meant himself.
But then, try as he would he could not reduce his bulk any more than had already been done; and so he must continue to play the part of “martyr,” serving as a shield to his three more fortunate chums back in the boat.
The guide moderated his pace from time to time. Bumpus wondered at first whether this came from a fear lest he might be running into an ambush cleverly set by the man in hiding; but after watching more carefully he finally realized that he was far from striking the truth when he thought this way.
In fact, these periods of seeming hesitancy were only indulged in when the men on the shore had fallen somewhat behind; and undoubtedly it must be Tom Smith’s plan to allow them an opportunity to come up again, so that the entire company might be close together.
Finally Bumpus noticed that the guide was now heading straight in toward the land, as though he meant to give over the water part of the trip; whereat the fat scout had a thrill of expectancy and joy sweep over him; for once they left the boats it would no longer be necessary for him to stick there in the van, such a conspicuous object, when by rights he felt much more at home in the rear, letting such fire-eaters as Giraffe and Bob White take the lead if they felt so inclined. “Every one to his taste,” was the motto of Bumpus; and as for him he always loudly declared that Nature had not intended him to be a fighter, or else would he have been fashioned on a different model from that of a dumpling.
Yes, now Tom Smith had driven the prow of his clumsy canoe right into the bank, and he was clambering out of the same, showing that there was about to be a positive change in the character of the hunt.
A minute later and Bumpus was able to clamber over the bow of his own boat, and actually reach solid ground. How he drew in a great breath of relief when this became an accomplished fact. After all, give him the touch of good oldterra firma—how well he remembered going to the dictionary to find out what those italicized words meant when he first came across them in a story of young plant hunters written by one who used to be a great favorite among the boys several generations past—Captain Mayne Reid, but who is seldom known to the lads of to-day; and ever since that time Bumpus had been prone to spring his knowledge upon his unsuspecting fellow scouts, until they threatened all sorts of dire things unless he changed his tune.
Still the very thought of “solid ground” must always please a fellow built on the order of an elephant, Bumpus told them time and again, as an excuse for his satisfaction. However, he did not dare open his mouth now to say a single word, and had to take it out in sighing, and mentally shaking hands with himself.
Presently they were all gathered there. The boats were drawn up on the bank to be left in charge of a guard, for it would not be very pleasant if they returned later on, to find that some enemy had been there, and either carried their canoes off, or else in some way smashed holes in the bottoms, so that they would be useless for the return trip.
The sheriff, Thad and Tom Smith came together and talked for several minutes in low tones, the rest gathering around, and trying to get in touch with what was being said.
Had any one been noticing Davy very closely, however, they might have seen him moving uneasily, then withdrawing his eyes from the central figures to look hurriedly around him; and after that deliberately walking away so that he could place himself on thewindwardside of the large group.
“Huh!” grunted Bumpus, frowning when he saw this, for he had by accident been pushing up against Davy at the time, in his eagerness to hear what the leaders were deciding on; “think you’re smart, don’t you? But I kinder reckon you’re overdoing the thing, and you’ll get called down good and hard by Thad, if you don’t let me alone. Huh! who cares, anyway?”
Bumpus became aware about this time of the fact that Tom Smith was no longer standing still, but had begun to move off, as though meaning to lead them on land the balance of the way.
He also seemed to keep close to the border of the water, for some reason or other, as though either the trail led there, or else he had some object in not immediately plunging into the thick of the scrub.
Before they had gone fifty yards this object was made manifest. The guide carefully parted the tall reeds that grew in the shallow water, and then beckoned to the others to come forward and look for themselves.
Of course the scouts were in the van, and they quickly discovered what it was the swamp guide wished them to see.
“Why, it’s only an old boat, after all!” grumbled Bumpus, who had possibly anticipated discovering a monstrous alligator, or else the terrible Jasper himself.
“Yes, only a boat,” added Allan, who was at his elbow; “but it belongs to the man we’re looking for, and tells us that we’ll find him home, when we get to where he hangs out; for that’s the means he has of coming and going. Things look good to me.”
Tom Smith looked as though he were himself rather pleased over his find. Thad had an idea that the swamp guide had been basing a part of his plans on some theory he had formed; and was tickled to discover how well it had turned out.
Under his directions a guard was also set over the boat, with orders to remain in hiding, but constantly ready to spring upon the hunted party, in case he should manage to elude the main body, and make his way to the secret hiding-place of his boat, with the intention of fleeing from the swamp.
And when all these little arrangements had been completed, Tom Smith passed to the other side of the sedge grass, and showed them what seemed to be a sure-enough trail, leading directly into the scrub, and undoubtedly only recently made.
“Wait up for just a minute or so, will you, Tom?” said Thad; and while the boy did not go further in order to explain what he wished to do, when the other scouts saw him move hastily along, and drop down on his hands and knees beside the trail, somehow they just seemed to instinctively guess what was in his mind and heart.
Thad was looking for the track oflittle feetthere; such as would betray the fact that a child had accompanied the man when he passed to and fro from the boat to the secret hiding-place!
All of them fairly held their breath while waiting to hear the result of the scout-master’s investigation. They knew what his ability was in the line of reading “signs,” and felt no hesitation about believing that if any one present could discover the impression of the girl’s shoes in the soil, Thad would.
He got up presently, and those who had seen him almost tenderly touch the ground in certain places with his hand, knew before he said a word that his search had certainly met with abundant success.
“Yes, he has the girl along with him,” Thad went on to say, softly, noticing the anxious faces of his chums; “and so far as that goes, the story that was sent up North was true. But then, we will have to wait a little before we know whether she is really his daughter or—little Polly!” and his voice was very tender as he just softly breathed that name which had been almost constantly in his mind of late.
The sheriff had drawn near the guide, and seemed desirous of learning something more about the expected hiding-place of the fugitive from justice; and thus having his hands doubly strengthened for the anticipated fray.
“Tell us a leetle more about it, Tom,” he urged; “how did ye ever come to think Jasper he’d be a keepin’ undeh cover heah; and what does it look like? We-all ain’t agoin’ to get a chanct to talk agin, I reckons, an’ let it all be said an’ done now.”
The guide did not seem to be unwilling to rest a bit before starting out on the last leg of the “closing-in” process. And no doubt he quite agreed with the sheriff in what the other said about the man who was forewarned being doubly armed.
“Why, yuh see, Shurff,” he began, softly, “I done took consid’able int’rest in everything ’bout this heah ole swamp; an’ when I fust cotch theh story ’bout theh Jasper fambly, I investigates, an’ larns how a cupple o’ theh boys used tuh hide out in the swamp days at a time, when theh ole man he was riled at ’em, an’ nobody ever cud find out whar they stayed.”
“I see that same just got your spunk up,” remarked the officer with a grin, “and ye was detarmined ye’d find it out fo’ y’self, eh, Tom?”
“W’ich I did afore I was satisfied,” continued the other, “an’ we’en I larned as how a Jasper hed kim back, tuh disappear like to Alligator Swamp, w’y, don’t yuh see, I jest nat’rally concludes as how he must be one o’ them as used to play hide an’ seek thar. So I reckons I’d know whar tuh find theh same; an’ arter runnin’ acrost that ole boat whar we did, I hain’t any doubts ’bout hit. He’s thar, as sure’s my name’s Thomas Beauregarde Smith.”
“But tell us somethin’ about the nest, now,” urged the sheriff.
“This heah trail’ll lead us plumb thar, see if she don’t,” remarked the guide, wagging his head with conviction. “Yuh see, tuh git tuh the place it’s fust necessary tuh cross a big bed o’ muck whar a sunken ridge lies. I had tuhfeelmy way acrost mighty keerful; ’cause if yuh takes a wrong step chances are yuh’ll be up tuh yuh waist in mud; an’ if so be thar hain’t nobody ’round thet section tuh lend yuh a helpin’ hand yuh kin make up yuh mind it’s the end. I seen quicksand sum in my time, but they ain’t a sarkimstance alongside that muck fo’ suckin’ yuh in.”
Bumpus tightened his fists as he heard this stated. He seemed to have a sudden inspiration, or fear, and it was to the effect that if any single person in all that host were unlucky enough to slip from that concealed ledge, and test the depth of that muck bed, he would be the wretched victim—was it not always the case that he had to play the part of the “goat” in any performance?
“But once over thet bad part an’ the rest is easy sailin’, Shurff,” the guide went on to say, confidently, “fo’ yuh see, they’s a sorter wooded island thar; an’ outside o’ them Jasper boys an’ me, I done reckon as how nobody ever did find theh way tuh git oveh thar. All I asks yuh is tuh keep right still till we kin kinder s’round theh shack an’ s’prise him!”
“Then there is some sort of house, is there?” asked Thad, thinking again of the little girl, and what a cover over her head might mean in wet weather.
“I allow as thar be, suh; leastwise ’twar thar w’en I larst been oveh. You see, it happens as how the ’gators they don’t use thet island, frum sum cause er other, an’ so I neveh keered tuh stay thar any time; so it’s ben sum yeahs sense larst I crossed. But I hain’t forgot theh way, I reckons, an’ I’ll guide yuh thar, safe an’ sound.”
“Glad to heah ye say that, Tom,” remarked the sheriff: “and fo’ the sake of this heah fine boy I sure hopes that we’ll find his sister, too.”
“Well,” remarked Thad, turning his eyes toward the officer, with a feeling of gratitude in that Fortune had raised up such a sympathetic friend just when they were in need of help; “you can be certain that I’m hoping all the while the same way. When we get back to town I’ll find letters there from my uncle, and begging me to wire him how it has come out; and I trust that the news I send will be just the one word: ‘Found!’”
“And as for me,” Bumpus was heard to say, softly, “I’m also hoping to get a letter in answer to the one I wrote my ma on the way down, asking her if I’d delivered that medicine she sent me for. Hope to goodness the answer is ‘yes,’ because it’ll be a turrible load off my mind.”
“Five cents’ worth of worry, and you’d think it spelt ten thousand dollars!” jeered Giraffe; but he was careful to say this in the ear of the stout scout, for he did not want Thad to know he was still keeping up this badgering process.
“I don’t care for the amount, and you know that,” said Bumpus, in an irritable fashion that was strange for him, but might be laid to the cold in the head from which he had now been suffering for several days; “it’s just theprincipleof the thing that hurts me. My honor as a scout is in question. I hate to think of having failed the only mother I’ve got, when she trusted and depended on me. Get that, do you, Giraffe?”
“Oh! sure, only how many mothers would you expect to have?” the other went on; but Bumpus, having had his say, relapsed into a dignified silence.
Thad had taken his position alongside the guide when they started out again. As they now had a trail to follow there was no longer any necessity for depending on the knowledge of Tom Smith, and his broad acquaintance with the intricacies of the swamp. Left to themselves the scouts could have easily carried the expedition safely along from this point; for they were well versed in the secrets of woodcraft.
And as he walked along by the side of Alligator Smith the scout-master kept his fond gaze fastened, a part of the time, upon every fresh indentation of those heels belonging to the shoes of the girl who was in the company of the fugitive, Jasper.
What hopes and fears must be passing constantly through the mind of Thad as he contemplated those dainty footprints. Many and many a time had he yearned to be as well off as some of his chums, in the way of having some one near and dear to him, whom he could love and protect; and now that there seemed a possible chance of a little sister being miraculously given to him through the working of Fate, the boy could hardly believe that he was not dreaming.
At the same time he did not forget his scout schooling, and that he must always be on the alert. So from time to time he would take his eyes away from the faint trail ahead, to scan the bushes, and seek for any sign that might spell danger.
When a lesson has been well learned it soon becomes what might be called “second nature;” and so Thad, even in the present excited condition of his mind, could not help acting as he believed a sagacious scout should when on duty, and following in the wake of a dangerous man.