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diff --git a/34333.txt b/34333.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9d715bf --- /dev/null +++ b/34333.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7283 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Captain Ted, by Louis Pendleton + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Captain Ted + A Boy's Adventures Among Hiding Slackers in the Great Georgia Swamp + +Author: Louis Pendleton + +Release Date: November 15, 2010 [EBook #34333] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CAPTAIN TED *** + + + + +Produced by Patrick Hopkins, Curtis Weyant and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + +Transcriber's Note + +- The position of the illustrations has been changed to better fit with +the context. The Frontispiece illustration noted in the "List of +Illustrations" is missing from the original book upon which this digital +version is based and therefore its location has not been indicated. + +- Illustration captions in {brackets} have been added by the transcriber +for reader convenience. + +- In general, geographical references, spelling, hyphenation, and +capitalization have been retained as in the original publication. This +includes a few inconsistencies across the text. For example, the word +"tomorrow" is more or less equally written as both "tomorrow" and +"to-morrow". + +- Minor typographical errors--usually periods and commas--have been +corrected without note. + +- Significant typographical errors have been corrected. A full list of +these corrections is available in the Transcriber's Corrections section +at the end of the book. + + * * * * * + + + + + CAPTAIN TED + + + + CAPTAIN TED + + _A Boy's Adventures Among Hiding + Slackers in the Great Georgia Swamp_ + + BY + + LOUIS PENDLETON + + AUTHOR OF "KING TOM AND THE RUNAWAYS," + "LOST PRINCE ALMON," "IN THE CAMP OF THE CREEKS," ETC. + + + + [Illustration: {Seal}] + + ILLUSTRATED + + + + D. APPLETON AND COMPANY + NEW YORK LONDON + 1918 + + + + + COPYRIGHT, 1918, BY + D. APPLETON AND COMPANY + + Printed in the United States of America + + + + + TO THE FIGHTING YOUTH + OF AMERICA + + THIS STORY OF A BRAVE AND DEVOTED + BOY IS CONFIDENTLY INSCRIBED + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + + FACING + PAGE + The beast obeyed an impulse stronger than fear and + leaped _Frontispiece_ + + They closed in hand-to-hand combat 78 + + The contending creatures, fast in each other's grip, + rapidly drew nearer 138 + + With a wild cry Jackson jumped--too late! 270 + + + + +CAPTAIN TED + + + + +I + + +Ted and Hubert were proud of the commission and felt that much depended +on them. Ted led the way, not merely because he was past fourteen and +more than half a year older than his cousin, but because Hubert +unconsciously yielded to the captaincy of a more venturesome and +resolute spirit. Everything was ready for Christmas at home--mince pies, +fruit cake, a fat turkey hanging out in the cold--and no doubt the as +yet mysteriously reserved presents would be plentiful and satisfactory. +Only a tree was still needed, and Ted and Hubert were to get it. + +So now, in the early afternoon of December 24, 1917, they tramped up the +long hill at the back of the Ridgway farm toward North Carolina woods of +evergreens and leafless maples. The landscape as far as the eye went was +white with snow, but its depth, except in drifts, was only about two +inches. Ted dragged a sled with rope wherewith to strap the tree +thereon. Hubert trudged beside him--always a little behind--carrying a +heavy sharp hatchet. + +"Aunt Mary said we must get a good one, small size, and I'm going to +hunt till we do," said Ted. + +"Papa says it isn't everybody who'll have all we'll have this +Christmas," remarked Hubert. "He says it's great to have a farm as well +as a town house and perduce your own food in war time." + +"'Produce'--not 'perduce,'" corrected Ted. + +About two-thirds of the way up the long white stretch of hillside the +boys paused on the brink of a pit that had been dug years before by a +thick-witted settler in a hopeless quest for the gold that was then +profitably mined some ten miles away. The pit was about twenty-five feet +deep at its middle and perhaps thirty-five in diameter--an excavation at +once too large and too small to pay for the great labor of filling in. +So it had been left as it was. The snows of the windy hillside had +drifted into it until the bottom was deeply covered. + +The boys paused only to take a look into the "big hole" and then went +on their way up the remaining stretch of open hillside. They explored +the woods for a quarter of a mile or more before they found just the +sort of slenderly tapering and gracefully branching spruce that they +wanted. In no great while this was cut down, the spreading branches were +roped in, and the trunk tied on the sled, which was then dragged out +into the open. + +The long descent toward the distant farm-house was gradual enough to +render sledding safe yet steep enough at points to make dragging +burdensome. Ted declared that the easiest way to get down with their +load was to slide down, and Hubert agreed. + +"But we'd better look out for the pit," added Hubert. + +"Oh, we'll aim so as to leave that away to one side," said Ted +confidently. + +And so they did. After a running start, Ted leaped on the sled, +straddling the trunk of the Christmas tree, and Hubert flung himself +with a shout into the trailing branches, upon which he secured a firm +hold. + +Away they went, shouting happily, now quite forgetting the pit in +their excitement. They only laughed when they bumped into a snow-covered +obstruction and were swerved to the left of their intended course. They +laughed again when another bump carried them still further to the left. +A third mishap of the same kind awoke Ted to the danger, but too late. + +He had hardly begun to kick his heels into the snowy surface whirling +past, in an effort to change their course, and to shout, "Look out!" in +great alarm, when Hubert, whose view was obstructed by the branches of +the spruce, became aware of a sudden silence and felt himself sinking +through space. The younger boy scarcely realized that they had gone over +the brink of the pit until he found himself floundering at the bottom in +the snow, which happily was deep enough to break the force of their fall +and save them from injury. + +As soon as he found that neither Hubert nor himself had been harmed, Ted +laughed over their struggles in snow up to their waists, but Hubert +thought it was no laughing matter and accusingly inquired why they had +done such a foolish thing. + +"We certainly were fools to try it," admitted Ted, sobering. + +He floundered up to a higher level of the pit's bottom where the snow +was only about two feet deep, extended a hand to Hubert, and then pulled +the tree-laden sled after them. + +"Now, how are we going to get out?" he asked excitedly. + +"We can't get out," said Hubert, looking around at the pit's steep +sides. + +"But we _must_, Hu. Anyhow, somebody's sure to come along." + +But nobody did. They shouted again and again, as time passed, and +listened in vain for an answer. Meanwhile Ted tried every means of +escape he could think of. He first proposed to cut steps into the side +of the pit, but the hatchet could not be found. Hubert had either lost +his grip on it as they were sledding down the hill or it was now +somewhere under the deep snow in the bottom of the pit. + +Ted next proposed to throw the rope around a sapling that hung over the +very brink some fifteen feet above their heads. He therefore unstrapped +the Christmas tree from the sled, coiled half the rope, and attempted to +throw it over the sapling. Several times he succeeded in throwing the +coil as high as the top of the pit, but always failed to throw it around +the little tree. + +"Oh, it's no use," groaned Hubert at last. "We'll never get out." + +"Now, Hu, you mustn't give up," urged Ted. "Boy Scouts don't give up. +We'll get out somehow. Think of the good times coming when we visit Camp +Hancock and go hunting with Uncle Walter in the Okefinokee." + +"But we'll have to stay here till tomorrow and we'll freeze to death. +I'm nearly frozen now." + +"Now, Hu, you quit that," rebuked Ted, although profoundly discouraged +himself. "Jump up and down and swing your arms if you're cold, but don't +do the baby act. Think of the soldiers in the trenches and what they +have to stand. Our own American boys are in the trenches now, and do you +think one of them would whimper because it was cold or wet, or even if a +bomb dropped in on them?" + +"But they can get out and we can't," tearfully argued Hubert. + +"Yes!--they can go 'over the top' and charge the enemy and meet cannon +balls and liquid fire and poison gas and---- Oh, Hu, this is _nothing_! +Can't we be soldiers enough to stand just a hole in the ground with snow +in it?" + +Hubert had his doubts, but he was silenced. He exercised his numb limbs, +as advised, and watched Ted as he prepared to make experiment of still +another plan. With his pocket-knife Ted picked stones out of the side of +the pit until he found one he thought might serve his purpose--an +oblong, jagged bit of rock around which the rope could be securely tied. +Again and again Ted threw this stone--the rope trailing after +it--without succeeding in sending it around the sapling. + +The sun had set and Hubert's teeth chattered as he wept, when, almost +ready to give up, it occurred to Ted to toss the stone up with both +hands and all his strength, aiming half a foot to the right of the +leaning sapling. This carried the stone higher than it had gone before +and, at the second trial, it struck the incline above the tree, rolled +and came down on the other side, carrying the rope around the trunk and +bringing it within reach of Ted's hand, who drew it down and quickly +tied the two ends together. + +Within five minutes the boy had clambered out of the pit. Then Hubert +began his struggle to follow, but Ted stopped him, insisting that both +the sled and the Christmas tree be drawn out first. This having been +accomplished with considerable difficulty, Hubert, with the rope tied +round his waist, was assisted to the upper level after much effort and +some strain on the part of both boys. + +"I'll never slide down that hill again," vowed Hubert, as they neared +the cheeringly lighted farm-house, dragging sled and tree. + +But Ted only said: + +"I'm glad we got out without help. I'm glad we fell in, too, because it +was a little bit like being soldiers in the trenches." + +Hubert Ridgway was the petted son of the house they were entering, while +Theodore Carroll was but a semi-adopted orphan cousin who, though well +cared for, had known no pampering. This accounted in part for the +latter's greater energy and self-reliance, but perhaps there was +something in this lean, dark, keen-eyed handsome boy from inheritance +that the fair-haired, plump, ease-loving Hubert lacked. Ted knew little +about his parents, and rarely asked questions because he observed a +slight note of disapproval when his aunt and his uncles answered, but +he had heard more than once that his father was "a poet who nearly died +in the poor-house" and that his mother was "high-strung and +artistic"--whatever that might mean. His parents had missed life's +material prizes and come to early death, but they had lived intensely; +and the son of their blood, alert, eager, fully alive in both body and +brain, was likewise inclined to look beyond the mere pleasures of the +senses toward the higher and more truly substantial values. + +The difference between the two boys was indicated not only in their +mishap of the afternoon but as they sat and talked in the warm, +comfortable sitting-room after supper. Hubert could not spare a thought +for anything but the coming Christmas presents which he hoped were many +and varied, including heaps of good things to eat. Ted was happily +expectant also, but he thought and spoke much more about the promised +visit to Camp Hancock and the hunting trip to follow in the Okefinokee +Swamp. + +Ted usually spent part of the year with his uncle in North Carolina and +the other part with his uncle in southern Georgia, attending school in +both States. He knew that his Georgia uncle, who was his favorite, +wanted him all the time, and he preferred the easy-going life on the big +farm near the borders of the Okefinokee; but he traveled back and forth +because his North Carolina uncle, though really indifferent, made a +virtue of insisting on the arrangement entered into when the widow +Carroll promptly followed her poet-husband to another world and her +brothers recognized their duty to look after her son. This winter the +Georgia uncle had invited both boys, proposing to take them on a hunting +trip in the great swamp, and--to the delight of Ted--it was arranged for +them to stop at Augusta and visit Camp Hancock on their way down. + +"I can't wait till I see my Christmas presents," said Hubert as they +were going to bed. + +"_I_ can hardly wait till I see Camp Hancock and thousands of soldiers," +said Ted. "Camp Hancock and the Okefinokee are _my_ two great Christmas +presents." + + + + +II + + +But it was late in February before they saw Camp Hancock. Meanwhile the +boys continued at school and Ted, in his leisure, read everything he +could find about the cantonments in Georgia and elsewhere in addition to +keeping up with the war news as usual. For more than a year now he had +read the papers eagerly every day and in consequence, as Hubert +expressed it, could "talk a blue streak" about the war. Hubert, who was +no reader and was content to get his news at second hand, thought Ted +knew all about the situation in England, France, Italy, Russia and even +Germany. Obviously this was a slight exaggeration, but Ted did grip much +current information, and he was never unwilling to give Hubert and other +boys the benefit of his knowledge. + +During the time of waiting Ted received a letter from his Uncle Walter +in Georgia which greatly interested him. + + Bring your Boy Scout uniform when you come down [it read.] I was + glad to hear you had earned the right to wear it by first-rate + examinations, and I want to see you in it. + +This pleased Ted the more because he did not often wear his khaki in +North Carolina. The reason for this was that his sensitive and quick +perceptions unerringly informed him that the sight of it was not quite +agreeable to his perfectly polite Aunt Mary and Uncle Fred. Having +failed to pass the examinations, Hubert had no Boy Scout uniform and +Ted's was a reminder that the son and heir had not measured up to the +standard of the orphan cousin. + + And perhaps [Uncle Walter's letter continued] your soldierly + uniform may make an impression on the slackers hiding in the + Okefinokee if we should run across any of them when we take that + hunting trip. It is reported that some of the backwoods boys of + this county evaded registration and are now camping on an island + far in the Okefinokee in order to escape being drafted into the + war. The sight of your uniform and a tongue-lashing from me, with + well-grounded threats of prosecution and punishment, may make them + ashamed of themselves and perhaps even scare them into their duty. + +The suggested effect of Ted's uniform on fugitives from the draft was +little more than jest, but Ted accepted it quite seriously and was at +once thrilled with ambition and aspiration. His prospective hunting trip +into the Okefinokee took on the character of a mission in his country's +service. Was he not actually in the country's service now that the +President had made the 370,000 Boy Scouts of America "dispatch bearers" +in the matter of the circulation among the people of "bulletins of +public information"? Would not the government also be willing and even +pleased for him to undertake to show the hiding draft-evaders the error +of their way? What if he could really find them and persuade them to +renounce their cowardly course, thus contributing more fighters to the +armies of Uncle Sam! But when he spoke of his glorious plan, the +unimaginative and unaspiring Hubert merely said: + +"If you can get at them, you'll talk a blue streak about the war, all +right; but what good will that do such fellows? _They_ don't care. Papa +says slackers can think only of their own skins." + +"There's nothing like trying," insisted Ted, accustomed to discouraging +comment and not in the least inclined to abandon his scheme. + +At last the impatiently awaited hour for their departure arrived and the +two boys boarded the train for Augusta. They were almost too excited for +speech when, early in the morning of a fine day, their train rolled into +the Georgia city widely famed for the great war cantonment in its +neighborhood, and they looked forth to see groups of young men in khaki +tramping its streets. They were met at the station by Lieut. John +Markham, a cousin of both boys who was with the Pennsylvanians at Camp +Hancock because his mother, another sister of the Ridgway brothers, had +married a Philadelphian and lived many years in the city by the +Delaware. + +Never will Ted forget that day. As he and Hubert took the train that +night for southern Georgia he declared that his eyes were "dead tired +from so much looking." First they drove out to the camp and over its +extensive area, wherein Ted's wish to see thousands of soldiers was +abundantly gratified. Later they walked about, saw the quarters of the +officers, looked into the tents of the privates, and at many points +watched the soldiers drill, drill, drill--infantry drill, physical +drill, bayonet exercise and target practice. They even found opportunity +in the course of another long drive to witness actual firing of field +artillery on a ten-mile range, and, as the sound of the great guns +lifted the awed boys to their highest pitch of excitement, they felt +that they saw war in the making indeed. + +But the most inspiring sight of all, to Ted, was the infantry drill. The +measured, simultaneous movement of so many men, to the beat of drums and +the martial airs of the bands, thrilled the boy from head to foot, and +it seemed to him that all things centered in this brave and beautiful +array which it was his wonderful privilege to see. As he looked and +listened, he would not have changed places with a king, and for the +moment to have been anywhere else in the world but at Camp Hancock would +have been like exile from all that he held dear. + +They also looked at the experimental military bridge building of the +engineering corps and inspected the practice trenches, learning that the +extensive system of the latter had been built under the personal +supervision of French and English officers. Both Ted and Hubert asked +many questions and much was explained to them--points about the +first-line trenches and the great communicating ditches that led off +zigzag instead of straight in the rear, "so that they could not be +enfiladed" by the enemy's cannon. + +At noon they dined with Lieut. Markham in the officers' quarters of his +regiment. This in itself was a great event and Ted could hardly eat for +watching and learning the rank of each, his interest heightening when +two or three French and English officers were pointed out to him. With +the eye of a hawk he noted the manners of the French, the British and +the Americans, hoping to achieve a successful imitation. Several of the +friends of Cousin John were very attentive to the delighted and +flattered boys, being especially polite to Ted who proudly thought they +recognized a coming comrade in a Boy Scout in khaki. + +"Now let's go to the bayonet run and see the boys spit the Boches," said +Lieut. Markham early in the afternoon. + +This was one of the forms of bayonet exercise, and both boys watched it +absorbed, fascinated, oblivious of everything else in the great camp. +Strapping young fellows in khaki sprinted up an incline, leaped over +obstructions in their path, and plunged down toward suspended dummies, +at which or through which they thrust their bayonets. This was spitting +or impaling the Boches in a bayonet charge. + +"Why do they call them 'Boches,' Cousin John?" asked Hubert, quite +superfluously in the opinion of Ted, who knew already. + +"It's a French nickname for the Germans--not very complimentary," was +the answer. "Means something like 'blockhead,' I'm told." + +At the railway station in Augusta that night, as they took leave of +their kindly kinsman, who had exerted himself both to entertain and +instruct, Ted could hardly take his mind off the vivid and crowding +recollections of the day, but he did not forget his manners. + +"It's been a great day and you've been just lovely to us, Cousin John," +he said. "I can never thank you enough." + +"I wanted you to see all you could," said Lieut. Markham, smiling and +patting Ted on the shoulder, "because you'll take your turn here or in +some other camp after a while--if the war lasts long enough." + +This prospect brought thrills and delighted smiles to Ted, but he +checked the first words that rushed upon his tongue--reflecting that it +might be wrong to hope that the war would last long enough--and only +said, with the manner of one already devoted to a cause: + +"Yes, I'll be here--if the war lasts." + + + + +III + + +The boys had to change cars and "lay over" several hours at an +intervening point, and so it was night again when they left the train at +their destination, a small town near the eastern borders of the +Okefinokee Swamp. Their Uncle Walter met them and they drove with him +out to his big farm. At the station they noted that passing +acquaintances addressed him respectfully as Judge Ridgway, but there was +no overpowering dignity about him that they could see. He seemed almost +like an elderly boy who accepted them as comrades in his own class, so +jolly and friendly was he. + +As they drove the five miles through the dark pine woods, he talked +enthusiastically of the coming trip into the Okefinokee and told them +hunting stories. + +"If you boys should get lost from me," he said once, "and get mixed up +with wild animals after your ammunition has run out, fight 'em with +fire if you can. I've done it. I did it when I was a boy, too. My father +moved to a wild part of Texas when I was about twelve and stayed out +there four years. And once a pack of wolves got after me when I happened +to be alone in a camp without a gun. I thought my time had come, but I +actually whipped that pack of wolves without a thing to shoot with. +There was a good fire burning and I hugged it close. I noticed that they +seemed afraid of it and that gave me an idea. I threw on more wood and +then began to fling blazing chunks among my howling enemies. It did the +business. I actually threw a big live coal into the open mouth of the +nearest beast, and such a yelping and running you never saw! I flung +burning chunks until there was mighty little fire left, but I put the +whole pack to flight. Wild animals are all cowards when it comes to +fire, so you must never fail to have plenty of matches. But you won't +see any wolves in the Okefinokee these days. We may get a bear, though, +and bear steak is not bad when you're hungry. I'd consider it mighty +good on one of these 'meatless' days." + +Uncle Walter continued to be merry and talkative, with a good story for +every occasion, after they reached the big, rambling farm-house and +while they ate the bountiful supper served by a young black waiter +directed by a fat negress, but he had hardly lighted his pipe by the +fireside in the sitting-room later when news came that at once made him +serious and regretful. A special messenger brought a telegram and when +he had read it his face fell. + +"Boys, this is too bad," he said. "I've got to go to Washington by the +first train and our hunting trip will have to be postponed." + +"We'll get along all right--till you come back," said Ted, struggling +with his disappointment and trying to look cheerful. + +"But I don't know how soon I can get back. It's an important matter and +may take time. While I'm gone you boys can hunt as much as you please, +in the woods around the place and along the edge of the Okefinokee, but +don't venture into the swamp itself. You might get lost." + +Both boys promised to be careful, and then their uncle rang a bell. When +the fat negress who had overseen the serving of the supper entered the +room, he said to her: + +"Well, Clarissa, I've got to go to Washington and leave these boys in +your care. It's a pity your mis'es is not here." He referred to his +sister who was away on a visit. Uncle Walter was a bachelor. + +"Dat's all right, Mr. Walter," good-naturedly responded the negress, +whom the boys understood that they were to address respectfully as "Aunt +Clarissa" in the old-time Southern fashion. "You kin trus' me to feed +'em up all right and keep 'em in clean clothes and clean sheets." + +"They are to have the run of the place and go hunting as much as they +like," Uncle Walter directed. "And if they get tired of it out here they +can go to town and visit Cousin Jim Fraser. I told him about them and +he'll be glad to have them." + +"All right, suh," the negress assented. "If dey goes off and don't come +back, I'll know dey's in town at Mr. Jim's." + +"Now go and call Asa; I want to give him some directions," said Uncle +Walter, and the negress retired. + +The boys were sorry to hear at breakfast next morning that their uncle +had gone, but there was much to see and do in his absence and they were +pretty sure of an interesting time even without him. It was with no lack +of cheerfulness that they shouldered their small bird-guns and started +forth in the fine sunny air. + +Though February had not quite gone and it was still winter according to +the calendar, already wild violets were peeping through the +frost-browned wiregrass and dogwood and honeysuckle blossoms were +perfuming the air in the long-leaf pine forests which surrounded the +farm and seemed to have no end. To Ted there was nothing novel in these +vast stretches of pine woods as level as a floor, but to Hubert, who had +known only the North Carolina hills, the south Georgia country was +almost like a new world. The boys spent most of the day hunting in the +woods about the farm, but came home disappointed, having seen few quail +or doves and bagged practically nothing. + +"To-morrow we'll take a look at the Okefinokee and hunt along the edge +of it," proposed Ted at supper. + +Hubert agreed, adding, as "Aunt" Clarissa offered them more hot waffles: +"And if we get tired of that, we'll go to town and see Cousin Jim." + +When they were about to start off next morning Hubert critically called +attention to the fact that Ted was still dressed in his khaki. "Are you +going to wear that all the time?" he asked. + +"Why shouldn't I if I like? In a way I am in the government's service +and this is my uniform." Ted spoke quite seriously. + +"_You_ in the government's service!" scoffed Hubert. + +"Didn't you know the President has made all the Boy Scouts dispatch +bearers? When I get the pamphlets I am to distribute, you'll see me in +the service all right." + +Hubert soon forgot his skepticism and envy in the interest he found in +their expedition. Inquiring the way from a negro encountered on the +public road, the boys tramped straight in the direction of the great +swamp. For about three miles the path led through open, level, +wiregrass-carpeted pine woods; then gradually a downward slope was +perceived and soon the straggling pines were succeeded by a dense +"hammock" growth, thick with underbrush, reeds and brambles, the ground +becoming damp and spongy, and the more open spaces being often little +more than sloppy bogs around which the young adventurers picked their +way. + +The great Okefinokee Swamp, formerly some forty miles long by +twenty-five wide with a vast surrounding acreage of untouched pine +barrens, has been to some extent reclaimed by advancing settlement, +local drainage, and the invasion at points of the insatiable lumberman; +but even when Ted and Hubert entered its borders the greater part of it +was still a wild and almost pathless acreage of tangled forest-grown +bottom lands, flooded jungles, watery "prairies" or marshes, remote +lakes, sluggish streams, and pine-covered islands. More than a hundred +years ago a story was current that it had been the last refuge of the +ancient Yemassees, an Indian race that disappeared before the march of +the conquering Creeks. It is well known to have been a stronghold of the +Seminoles during the Florida-Indian wars as well as to have furnished a +secure hiding place for deserters from the Confederate army during the +Civil War, and even in the year 1917 fugitives from the draft law could +have found no more remote and safe retreat than its inner recesses +afforded. + +At points the line of demarcation between the surrounding pine woods and +the outer reaches of the swamp itself is by no means clear. A +considerable acreage of low swampy land is nothing uncommon anywhere in +the long-leaf pine section of southern Georgia. Ted had often seen such +low areas far from the great swamp, and so now, without realizing what +he did, he pushed forward into a section of the Okefinokee itself. The +point where the boys entered was thickly grown with cypress and covered +in considerable part with shallow water through which they waded. This +was nothing alarming, hunting in that section with dry feet being +practically out of the question. + +After they had eaten some biscuits and rested at noon Hubert urged that +they turn back, but Ted declared that he intended to "make a day of it" +and pushed on. + +"We can go to town to-morrow if we want to," he said. + +About mid-afternoon they found themselves on the shore of a little lake, +the surface of which, except near the center, was hidden by clumps of +brown flags and "bonnets," a species of waterlily. Visions of wild +ducks, both alive and slain, now occupied Ted's imagination and urged +him on. He skirted more than half the way round the lake, creeping +forward stealthily, before he sighted a flock of ducks within range. In +his excitement he fired too quickly and the ducks fluttered away +unharmed. + +Hubert, who had remained behind, now hurried up to see what Ted had +shot. By this time the sun was getting low, and the younger boy insisted +that they ought to take the backward trail at once in order to be out of +the woods or reach the public road by night. But Ted refused to start +back until he had skirted the lake twice, shot three times and finally +killed a duck, to secure which he waded up to his waist in the sedge. + +Struggling out of the water with his prize, the boy hurriedly took his +bearings and led the way along what appeared to be the trail by which +they had come. + +Within an hour the sun had set and the short twilight of that latitude +was at hand. This would have mattered little if they had been clear of +the swamp; but so far from having gained the open pine woods, they now +seemed more deeply involved than ever, and were unable to recognize +anything about them. Ted halted and looked anxiously around. He now more +than suspected that, in skirting the lake, intent on the game only, he +had lost his bearings, and that in starting homeward they had taken the +wrong direction. + +"Don't be afraid, Hu," he said manfully, after a few moments; "but we +are lost, and we've got to stay here all night." + +"Stay here all night!" echoed Hubert, gazing around the gloomy +swamp-depths through starting tears. "I _said_ we ought to turn back. I +told you two or three times, but you wouldn't listen to me." + +"Yes, it was all my fault," admitted Ted. + +"Do you think the panthers will smell us and--and--come?" asked Hubert, +his voice lowered. + +"Of course not," answered Ted stoutly, although he also was troubled +with vague misgivings. He had never spent a night in a swamp; and the +prospect of it now, under the existing circumstances, was little less +than terrifying. + +But for the younger boy's sake as well as because of a certain pride of +manliness, he determined not to betray his feelings. So he "got a grip +on" himself, as he mentally phrased it, and spoke up resolutely in a +steady voice: + +"It's no use to think of finding our way home to-night, and we had +better hunt a place to camp right away." + + + + +IV + + +Promptness was indeed necessary, for it was fast growing dark. After a +hurried search Ted selected a little open spot which was comparatively +dry and covered with long grass. Within two or three feet stood a large +black-gum tree, which, Ted reflected, could be climbed easily in an +emergency; and close at hand was abundance of hemleaf and huckleberry +bushes. The tops of these could be broken and piled where the boys chose +to sleep, and the couch thus prepared, though not likely to suggest +down, would at least protect them from the damp ground. + +Ted next began to collect fuel, which he should have done at first. The +two boys had scarcely begun this task when it became so dark that no +object more than three feet distant could be distinctly seen. Dry wood +appeared to be very scarce, and even when they had finally started a +small fire the prospect of keeping it burning throughout the night was +more than doubtful. However, it gave them light whereby to break brush +and gather Spanish moss for their bed, and it enabled Ted to dry his wet +trousers. + +To attempt to butcher and broil the duck under present circumstances +seemed too great an undertaking and so for supper they had only the +sweet and tender roots of young palmetto shoots; after partaking of +which unsatisfactory sustenance they found a degree of comfort in +vigorously chewing sweetgum scraped from a neighboring tree. And when +they lay down to sleep, covering themselves with moss, they were +thankful to be warm and dry, even if still hungry. + +"I think I understand now," said Ted, before they lay down by the dying +fire. "I think we are in the Okefinokee. We came in without knowing it." + +"And we'll never get out," groaned Hubert. + +"Oh, yes we will. I've noticed that things come out all right after a +while if you keep trying," said Ted philosophically. "But before we do +get out we may have to tramp around a long time, and, maybe we'll find +the slackers' camp. I wish we could. I'd like to talk to them and see +if I couldn't persuade them----" + +"They'd only laugh at you," interrupted Hubert, "and they might get mad +and cuff you around. Better let them alone." + +"Sometimes I think they might," said Ted, "but when I want to do +anything very much and feel afraid of getting hurt I say to myself, +'Never mind; they can't do any more to you than to kill you, and there's +another world to come after this,' and I go ahead. Sometimes I go ahead +when I'm awfully afraid." + +"You can put up a big bluff, then, for you never seem afraid," said +Hubert. "Maybe they'll start to hunt for us by morning," he added +hopefully, abruptly changing the subject. + +"Not if Aunt Clarissa thinks we've gone to Cousin Jim's in town, and it +might be two weeks before she found out we weren't there," said Ted, +regretting his speech the moment it was uttered. + +"Oh, I forgot," groaned Hubert, with starting tears. "We'll never get +out of this swamp." + +"We'll soon find our way," insisted Ted. "Anyhow, it does no good to +fret. It does harm. I've found that it pays to keep hoping. Maybe I'd +be different if I'd had a mother to pet me up and make me soft. It's +great to have a sweet mother, but if you don't have one you learn a lot +of things for yourself." + +Hubert made no response and Ted fell silent. Presently the heavy +breathing of the younger boy showed that he was asleep, but Ted lay +awake a long while. The fire was now practically out and the darkness +was intense, but it was a clear night and an occasional star could be +seen through the overhanging foliage. After silently reciting the prayer +he had been taught to repeat at night, Ted lay close to Hubert, trying +to still anxious thought and sleep, but at every sound made in the brush +by some little restless forest dweller, bird or beast, at every +freshening of the night breeze in the leaves, he would start up and +listen, his active imagination peopling the gloom about them with +nameless and sometimes fearful shapes. + +Anything definite and distinctly recognizable, permitting no vague and +disturbing conjecture, was welcome, and so Ted's strained attention +somewhat relaxed when an owl alighted in the black-gum, lifted its eerie +voice, and with insistent repetition seemed to +demand--"_Who-who-who-all?_" + +Finally the boy fell into deep slumber. Some hours later he was awakened +by feeling Hubert move and hearing his voice close to his ear: + +"Ted, Ted, wake up! I heard something." + +Ted was wide awake in a moment. Listening intently he heard a stealthy +footfall, then another and another, suggesting that an animal of some +size was guardedly encircling the camp. The sounds appeared to come from +points little more than thirty feet away. + +"Let's climb that tree!" proposed Hubert excitedly. "It may be a panther +and it may jump on us." + +A twig snapped under the foot of the prowling animal and panic seized +both boys. Grasping his gun, Ted leaped to his feet and bounded toward +the tree, which Hubert was already climbing. After passing up his gun, +Ted followed nimbly. Lodged in the branches of the black-gum some +twenty-five feet from the ground, the boys listened intently, but now +all was still. The marauder appeared to have been frightened in turn, +and had either retreated or had squatted and was remaining quiet. + +Ted began to repent of their hasty action, suggesting in a whisper that +it would have been better if they had stayed where they were and built +up the fire. "You remember what Uncle Walter said about fighting 'em +with fire," he reminded Hubert, adding, with a view to comfort the +younger boy: "Maybe it was nothing but an old cow anyhow." + +But Hubert would not consent to descend from the tree, and so Ted made +himself as comfortable as possible among the spreading branches near the +tree's main stem. + +Waiting thus, wide awake and watchful, he soon noted with great relief +that day was breaking. The welcome light that slowly descended and +gradually dissipated the darkness of the swamp brought good cheer. With +a laugh on his lips Ted climbed down from their perch and was +reluctantly followed by Hubert. + +"We must go back on our tracks to the lake," proposed Ted, "go all +around it carefully, make sure of the right path, and start off toward +home. If we have good luck, we may get there by dinner time." + +Hubert now espied the hatchet near the bed of leafy boughs and picked it +up. They then observed that the ground was covered with feathers, with +here and there a few fragments of small bones, and recollected the duck +which Ted had shot. It was plain that the animal that had visited them +during the night had enjoyed a feast at their expense. + +"You see, that was all it was after," laughed Ted. + +The boys started off cheerfully on the backward trail. For the first +half mile it led over soft spongy earth, wherein their tracks were +easily seen; but by and by they reached a tract of many acres dotted +with clumps of palmettos, where the ground was firm and thickly covered +with wiregrass. Here the trail was soon lost. After some time spent in a +vain attempt to find it, they pushed forward in what appeared to be the +right general direction only to lose all sense of even this in +consequence of the excitement following an exciting event. + +As Ted expressed it afterward, they "ran right up on a bear." The +creature was engaged in pulling up young palmetto shoots and eating the +sweet and tender part near the root. After each pull it would rear up on +its hind legs and look cautiously over the brush in every direction. So +when Ted and Hubert stepped into view the bear saw them on the instant +and bolted, crashing loudly through the tangle of underbrush. The two +boys took one long look and then fled in the opposite direction, not +quite sure that the beast was pursuing them, but uncomfortably certain +that their bird-guns would be scant protection. + +Their panic over, they came to a halt, Ted laughing nervously and +remarking that the bear was "worse scared than we were." As to this +Hubert had his doubts, and he was hardly able to force a smile. Looking +about him upon totally unfamiliar landscape, he declared, with a catch +in his voice, that they were "lost now for sure." + +"No, we're not, for there's the lake!" cried Ted, espying a sheet of +water some distance ahead of them. + +Then they hurried forward hopefully, but only to find that the little +sheet of water, though much like it, was not the one wherein the duck +had been shot. It was now quite evident that they were lost several +miles within the borders of the Okefinokee and ignorant which way to +turn. In the full realization of this Hubert had to struggle very hard +to keep back his tears. As for Ted, he forgot all about his plan of +seeking out the camp of the slackers and thought only of finding their +way home. + +He was not too disheartened, however, to neglect a chance which offered +for a shot at some ducks, and was highly elated on discovering that he +had killed two and that they were within reach. Having had no breakfast +and being now ravenously hungry, they halted at a little stream that ran +into the marshy lake, built a fire, and butchered one of the ducks. The +novel experiment of cutting slices from the fat bird, suspending them +from the points of long sticks, and holding them close to the coals, was +persisted in until their hunger was satisfied. They were glad enough to +feast upon the flesh of the duck thus roasted, although it was rendered +unsavory by the lack of salt. + +"The thing for us to do, Hu," said Ted, as they rose, more cheerful, to +move on, "is to keep pushing ahead where the swamp seems open. In that +way we ought to find our way out after a while." + +Following the line of least resistance as proposed, they tramped several +miles and then, about mid-afternoon, were confronted by a seemingly +impenetrable jungle. + +"We'll have to turn back now," said Hubert dolefully. + +"No, let's go right ahead," said Ted, pushing on. "We may have to travel +more slowly, but we can get through, and maybe when we _do_ get through +we'll be out of the swamp. I think from what I've heard that the +Okefinokee has a thick rim just like this round a great deal of it." + +In reluctantly consenting, Hubert urged that they first provide +themselves with "some fat lightwood splinters" for kindling. "It's low +and wet down in there," he said, "and if we don't get through before +night, we'll need them to make a fire." + +This prudent suggestion having been acted upon, Ted pushed ahead, +carrying his gun and the hatchet, and Hubert followed, his little gun +in his right hand and the bundle of kindling under his left arm. + +The jungle evidently covered thousands of acres and was at points so +dense as to be penetrable only where wild animals had made their trails. +Thorny brambles often an inch thick and running great lengths added to +the discomfort and difficulty of forcing a passage. Everywhere the +ground was wet, sometimes boggy, and in great part covered with water +varying in depth from two inches to two feet. Often the hatchet had to +be used before they could move forward a step, and they soon bitterly +regretted their decision to force their way through. But the hope of +accomplishing the task led Ted on until, as the sun declined, it became +evident that they would be unable to retrace their steps before night. + +When little more than half an hour of daylight was left the boys halted +to make camp at a point where the jungle was less dense. Even here the +water rose above their ankles and the prospect was a very gloomy one. +Ted had often heard how belated Okefinokee hunters had been compelled to +build sleeping platforms whereon to spend the night, and this the boys +set about doing without delay. + +Selecting two saplings about eight feet apart, the boys cut into them +with the hatchet, at a point about three feet above the water, until +they toppled and fell over in the same direction. These saplings, being +young and stringy, did not entirely break from their stumps, and, while +slanting gradually down to the water, offered a support to the smaller +poles and brush which were bridged across from one to the other. Even +with the addition of moss for bed and covering, the resting-place thus +secured was far from comfortable, but was to be preferred to spending +the night in a tree. + +With their guns beside them, and their "fat" splinters and matches +within reach, the boys lay down, thankful at least that it was as yet +too early in spring for moccasins and other reptiles to be abroad. + +Lying on an uncomfortable pile of boughs three feet above the stagnant +water, in hunger and darkness, with little hope of finding their way +home, their distress of body and mind was very severe. Hubert broke down +at last and sobbed, refusing to be comforted, although Ted made a +manful effort to do so. + +"We'll get out of the swamp to-morrow or find the slackers' camp," he +predicted, with pretended cheerfulness. + +"We'll starve to death," wailed Hubert. + +"You'll see," persisted Ted. "It will be one thing or the other, and +either will suit me." + +But they spoke little after they lay down, and that little in +whispers;--as if fearing to betray their presence to some formidable +beast that might lurk in the neighborhood. They were so exhausted that +they soon fell into deep sleep. + + + + +V + + +If there was any tramping of wild animals about their camp that night, +the boys did not hear it. They slept soundly until dawn and were then +awakened by the sweet and cheering voice of a wood-thrush. They lost no +time in quitting their gloomy camp-site, pushed steadily forward and +about nine o'clock, to their great delight, emerged from the jungle. + +They now ascended the slope of an open pine ridge, upon which, at a +distance of some three or four hundred yards apart, they noted three +Indian mounds about fifteen feet in height. Ted reminded Hubert of his +prediction, believing that they were out of the swamp at last. But a +two-hours' tramp was sufficient to convince him that they were merely on +an island about three miles long by about one mile in width, and that +they were probably farther away from the Ridgway farm than ever. + +In the course of their tramp a flock of wild turkeys, some eight or ten +in number, fluttered out of their path and ran rapidly ahead of them, +too little alarmed at first to fly. Both boys fired into them and one +turkey remained struggling on the ground when the others rose. Each boy +thought he had bagged the game, but they were too hungry to waste time +in dispute. They hurried with their prize to the nearest water, built a +fire and were soon broiling substantial slices of the great bird on the +coals. And after they had eaten their fill, in spite of their +misfortunes they became quite cheerful. + +"Now, Hu, don't let's worry any more," advised Ted. "We are going to +come out all right and we are having a wonderful time. Some of it is +pretty tough, I know, but when it's all over we'll be so _proud_ of what +we've been through! The boys who hang around home and just do the same +old things, will wish awfully, when they hear about it, that they had +been with us." + +The thought of winning renown among his playmates at home as a great and +experienced adventurer was distinctly comforting to Hubert, helping him +to resolve to resist fear in future and meet discomfort more +cheerfully. The boys felt better still when presently they made a +discovery which awakened new hope. At the farther end of the island, +where a dense "hammock" growth sloped down and joined hands with the +swamp, which here took on the form of a deeply flooded forest, they +found a boat--a small bateau scarcely capable of floating more than +three persons. Evidently it had been lying idle for some time. It was +half full of water, but when this was bailed out it showed no serious +leaks and carried the two boys safely. + +"That must lead out to a lake," said Ted, indicating the narrow +boat-road which could be seen winding away through the flooded forest. +"And once on that lake, we may find our way out of the swamp. Anyhow, we +may meet some of the slackers. Let's start right off!" + +Hubert was loath to leave the dry open pine woods of the island and said +so, but Ted convinced him that there was nothing to be done but to push +on. + +The boat-road had evidently been a good deal traveled and it was not +very difficult to make headway, although the two paddles they had +picked up were little more than two long sticks. As Ted had surmised, +the boat-road led after a few hundred yards into a long and very narrow +forest-bordered lake, where feeding fishes of considerable size were +"striking" here and there in a way to tempt the most indifferent angler. +Hubert wanted to stop to fish, but Ted said that if they were to get +through by night they couldn't spare the time. + +They did stop and drift, however, when they caught sight of a large +animal swimming across their path about two hundred yards ahead. The +boys grabbed their guns, but knew better than to waste bird shot on such +big game. They merely watched the swimming creature in some alarm until +it disappeared in the flooded forest. Hubert was sure it was a panther, +but Ted said it might be only a lynx, perhaps even only the lesser lynx, +commonly called the wild-cat. In any case, he thought, it was better to +"let it go" and not "try to stir up a fight," armed as they were with +mere bird-guns. + +While they discussed the matter, drifting, Hubert unwound a fishing line +he took out of his pocket. It was provided with a fly which had seen +service in North Carolina trout streams, and he threw it as far out as +he could. To his astonishment it was taken almost immediately and he +found himself pulling a large and game fish toward the boat. When +finally lifted over the boat's side, it proved to be a black bass +weighing about five pounds. Both boys were now eager for more such +sport, but Ted resisted the temptation and dipped his paddle vigorously. + +"We've got to get somewhere before night," he said, looking at the +declining sun. "Maybe we can come back here some time and try 'em +again." + +At the farther end of the lake the boat-road began again and wound on +its way as before through seemingly endless flood and forest. At many +points they found it more difficult to force the boat forward, but the +scenery was the same. Now a long winding reach of black or wine-colored +lagoon bordered by trees standing knee-deep in the flood and flying a +thousand ragged flags of gray moss; now a tortuous trail among the +crowding trunks of both standing and fallen trees, among masses of reeds +full of the drift of fallen branches, beneath low-hanging boughs +dipping their finger-like leafage into the water, and tangles of vines +trailing down to the very surface of dark still pools. Then more and +more of the thin-leafed cypresses towering on high with some of their +banyan-like "knees" rising from the wine-colored flood a dozen feet from +the parent stem, and others lying in wait a few inches below the +surface, less perilous to the swamp boat than a sunken reef to the ocean +ship, yet the most stubborn of all snags and the source of much labor +and delay. + +By the time the boys had laboriously got clear of the third "knee" upon +which their boat had stalled, and had paddled, polled and pushed +altogether three or four miles, the sun was down and they found it +necessary to prepare for the night. + +"I _said_ we ought to stay on that island," complained Hubert, as he +looked around into the darkening aisles of the flooded forest. + +"Well, I didn't want to be a prisoner there if you did," retorted Ted. + +They bailed out what water had leaked into the bateau, broke brush and +gathered moss for their bed, then ate an insufficient portion of +broiled turkey which they had the forethought to bring with them. They +felt safer in their boat, adrift in a tree-bordered lagoon, even if +dark, mysterious foliage did overhang them. Perhaps this was why Hubert, +after they had lain down and covered themselves with moss, permitted +himself to refer sarcastically to Ted's prediction of the night before. + +"I thought you were to be out of the swamp or get to the slackers' camp +by to-night," he observed, with a yawn. + +"Oh, give me another day, can't you!" retorted Ted, and, turning over, +he fell asleep. + +They were still asleep when the dawn came down and, in slow, wondrous +miracle, transformed the thick darkness of the swamp into light. The +wood-thrush lifted its sweet voice in welcome of the new day, and a +lovely calm seemed to rest upon the great Okefinokee. + +But the heavenly peace of morning was not everywhere, for directly above +the sleeping boys, close upon a limb of the tree under which their +drifting boat had come to rest, crouched a beast which looked down upon +them with a fixed, dilating stare of hate. The animal was of a grayish +brown that went pale along its belly. Its body looked long yet was short +in proportion to the length of its powerful legs. It had a round head +and face, pointed ears, yellow-green eyes and whitish-brown whiskers. +Its tail was a mere thick brown stump that stood up stiffly when it +moved an inch or two as if to get a better look, sinking its razor-edged +claws deep into the green bark. + +The watching lynx longed fiercely to drop upon Ted's neck, so soft and +red and helpless, but was held motionless by its fear of the most +terrible of all its enemies--mysterious, wonderful man. Nevertheless, +seeing needed food, the beast obeyed an impulse stronger than fear and +leaped, alighting, not upon Ted, but upon the black bass at the foot of +the couch of broken boughs. + +The boat rocked. The boys started up, blinking. The lynx growled +fiercely, its teeth fastened in its prey. And then, after another and +mightier leap, which rocked the boat still more, it became a mere shadow +in the brush on their right, and was gone. + +Shouting, questioning, gesticulating, and almost losing their balance, +the boys sat down quickly in fear of upsetting the bateau. + +"What is it?" cried Hubert. "It got my fish!" + +"A wild-cat maybe," said Ted, "but it seemed bigger than I thought they +were and I didn't know they had a stumpy tail." + +"It had fierce whiskers just like the Kaiser's," asserted Hubert. "Look +here, Ted," he added solemnly, "we've got to get out of this place or +something will eat us up." + +Then Ted began to laugh. And as there was nothing else to be done, there +being no food, they picked up their paddles and started, breakfastless, +on their way. + +Several hours later they emerged from the flooded forest and saw before +them an extensive open marsh filled with long rushes, "bonnets," and +open pools, and dotted with small islands, the trees of which were hung +with long gray drifts of Spanish moss. As far as the eye could reach, +straight ahead, to the right or to the left, nothing else was visible. +With increasing weariness and hunger the boys paddled and poled about +this marsh until late in the day, imagining that they were pursuing the +same general course, but in reality wandering widely in the confusion +of rounding the many islets. At last, in the late afternoon, they saw +far ahead the green tops of some tall pines and gradually worked their +way toward them, surmising that they stood either upon a large island or +the mainland. As they approached within half a mile, a shallow marsh, +free of the confusing islets, opened before them. In the shallower water +here the rushes and water-mosses seemed to thicken steadily as they +neared the shore, and it became more and more difficult to force the +bateau through or over them, although the boys now followed the windings +of a clearly-defined boat-trail. + +Finally, within some three hundred yards of the shore or the wall of +woods indicating an island, they were compelled to step out and drag the +boat after them, sinking now to the knee, now to the waist, in slimy +moss, mud and water. Entering the border of trees, they pushed forward, +still in water knee-deep, for about a hundred yards, before they reached +a landing-place where two boats, somewhat larger than their own, were +moored. + +"There's somebody here, _sure_," said Ted, looking about hopefully. + +A well-beaten path led upward through the dense "hammock" between the +swamp proper and the pine ridge composing the island upon which the boys +had landed. Under magnolia and bay trees and through tall underbrush of +swamp-cane the path led to the top of the slope, where, some two hundred +yards from the boats, the boys found themselves in a small clearing, +beyond which the open pine land of the island stretched away +monotonously. + +Near the center of the clearing stood a house, built of rough pine logs, +elevated some twelve feet from the ground on stilt-like posts; and over +a fire to the right of this structure bent a man's figure. Evidently he +was cooking his evening meal, for the boys caught the delicious odor of +frying meat. + +"Maybe he'll give us something to eat," said Hubert wistfully. + +Just then the man stood erect, and they saw that he was a negro in rough +soiled clothes. A moment later he turned his face toward them and they +recognized a care-free, good-natured type of young black man with which +they had had abundant acquaintance. + +The boys hesitated no longer. The negro heard their steps and looked up, +the first bewildered expression on his black, sweat-shining face +changing to one of pleased astonishment. He came forward to meet them. + +"W-huh you boys come fum?" he cried. Then, his eyes fastening upon Ted's +muddy uniform, he continued, giggling delightedly: "And one of 'em is a +little soldier! Well, if dat don't beat all! _Who_ you boys?" + +Ted staggered slightly and sat down heavily on the grass. + +"Please give us something to eat and then we'll tell you," he said in a +weak voice. + +The negro showed instant sympathy. "Is you boys perishin' for sump'n to +eat?" he asked, regretfully. "Lem me git you sump'n quick!" + +He rushed about and within less than two minutes had piled hot meat, +fish and bread on palmetto leaves placed before the boys where they sat +on the billowy wiregrass. + +"You boys sho kin eat," he commented, grinning, as he watched them +devour the good food. "I des know you was most starvin'. You kin eat +all dat and have plenty mo'." + +After Ted had satisfied his hunger, felt strengthened, and had thanked +the negro gratefully and very politely, he asked: + +"What camp is this?" + +"Eight young white mens been campin' yuh since las' summer and dey brung +me in to cook dey vittles. I'm July Martin." + +"Oh--this is where those slackers are hiding to keep out of the war?" +said Ted, stating a recognized fact in the form of a question. + +"Dis is it, but don't tell 'em I tole you. Dey's mighty partic'lar to +keep people fum knowin' where dey is." + +"How about you?" asked Ted. "Negro men are being drafted for war +service, too." + +"Who, me?" laughed July, slightly uneasy. "Well, you see, when Mr. Buck +Hardy come an' tole me he want me in yuh to cook for 'em, he say if I +didn't do it dem draft-bode people would grab me up an' send me to de +waw, and I was powerful worried. You see, de waw come so sudden; it bus' +right in my face, like; an' it look like I des _had_ to take time to git +in de notion to stan' up an' let dem Germans shoot at me. So I tuck dis +chance to make a honest livin' in a quiet place. I's makin' a livin'. +Dey takes up a c'lection and pays me wages for cookin' and doin' dey +dirty work. And, 'sides all dat; Mr. Buck Hardy say I des got to come in +yuh wid 'em an' he wouldn' lem me say no." + +Both boys smiled broadly, but at the conclusion of this prodigiously +amusing speech Ted asked: + +"Don't you call yourself a free man? Don't you think it's bad enough to +be a slacker without putting the blame on somebody else?" + +In ordinary times July would have boasted of his freedom to come and go +as he pleased, but now he desired to persist in the persuasion that he +was not a free agent. + +"But Mr. Buck Hardy tole me," he argued, giggling uneasily,--"he tole me +if I did n' come in yuh he and dem yuther young white mens would give me +de devil, an' he tole me if dem draft-bode people got me and sont me to +de waw dem Germans would cut my head off." + +"Oh, confess that you are an out-and-out slacker and be done with it," +said Ted. "That's the only honest thing to do, you know." + +"Look yuh, boy," said July, his good-humored face showing irritation, +"you better put a bridle on dat tongue o' yours. I like to see a smart +boy like you wid plenty o' spunk, and I ain't mad wid you, but lem me +give you a piece o' advice: if you go talkin' dat-a way to Mr. Buck +Hardy and dem young white mens, you gwine to git into trouble. You sho +will." + +"Who is Mr. Buck Hardy?" asked Hubert, diplomatically, prudently +deciding that it was time to check Ted by changing the subject. + +"He's de ring-leader. He's de cock o' de walk in dis camp." + +"What is the name of this island?" asked Ted, looking around. + +"I hear 'em say, but I disremember," answered July with seeming +sincerity. + +"A mighty good name for it would be Deserters' Island,'" remarked Ted, +rising to join Hubert, who now stood by the fire drying his wet +trousers. + + + + +VI + + +As the boys stood steaming by the fire, Ted using his wet handkerchief +to clean the mud and slime from his trousers, more questions were asked, +and in response to inquiry as to the present whereabouts of the hiding +slackers, the negro said: + +"Dey ain't come in yet. Some of 'em runnin' a deer and some gone to dey +traps." July pointed to the skins hanging from grape-vines and +bear-grass ropes under the elevated house of logs and beneath a low +shelter of thatched palmetto fans. "Dey in de trappin' business," he +added. + +At this moment some one was heard coming through the brush, singing in a +peculiar childish voice: "Open the gates as high as the sky and let King +George's army pass by." + +"Dat's Billy," said July. "He ain't got good sense." + +A barefoot young white man, roughly clothed, entered the clearing at a +trot and ran up to the two boys. Fixing his eye on Ted, he inquired +with a giggle, "What's your name?" When Ted had told him, he turned to +Hubert with the same question. His hair was light in color and soft as a +child's, but his face was wrinkled and wore a meaningless smile. His +pale eyes were vacant yet restless. + +"He's Sweet Jackson's nigger same as I'm Mr. Buck Hardy's," explained +July, showing his white, even teeth. "I found him in yuh waitin' on +Sweet when I come. But Mr. Hardy don't cuff me round de way Sweet do +Billy. _He_ don't think nothin' o' takin' a stick to dat half-witted boy +when he git mad. It's scan'lous." + +It appeared from July's remarks to Ted, while Billy still questioned +Hubert, that "Sweet"--a curious illustration of the adhesiveness of +Cracker nursery nicknames--was second only to Buck in importance and +influence among the slackers. Yet Sweet was not liked, being often +sullen and ill-tempered, while Buck, the "cock of the walk," a great +stalwart fellow with a waste of muscle and a kindly disposition, was +generally popular. + +The tramp of approaching feet was now heard and July turned hurriedly to +the fire, where he had been frying cornbread. A heavy young man +advanced out of the darkened woods, a rifle over his arm, followed by +two other young men carrying a deer suspended from a stick which ran +across their shoulders. Three dogs trotted into the fire-lit circle +ahead of the hunting party. The two burdened men threw the deer down on +a carpet of palmetto fans and at once began to skin it, merely glancing +once or twice at the strange boys. The leading hunter, who, according to +July's whisper, was Sweet Jackson, betrayed curiosity. + +"Who-all's this?" he inquired gruffly, approaching the fire. "Billy, git +me some water quick. Whur did you boys come from?" + +Ted briefly explained, but Sweet Jackson did not appear to be quite +satisfied, a gleam of suspicion showing in his eyes as they remained +fixed upon Ted's uniform. + +"What's them clothes you got on?" he asked, and when the boy had +explained he was mysteriously informed in a voice suggestive of menace: +"If they sent you in the Oke-fi-noke to find our camp and go back and +tell 'em, they played thunder." + +Another party of hunters now came out of the dark woods, exhibiting an +otter skin as their single but valuable prize. Among these was Buck +Hardy, who stood in the background only long enough to hear the outline +of the boys' story and then approached them, his manner quite friendly. + +"How you come on, boys?" he asked, extending his hand to Ted. "This +one"--as he turned, smiling, to Hubert--"is as rosy as a little gal." + +Hubert was highly indignant at this, but both he and Ted felt +intuitively that the "cock of the walk" would prove their best friend in +the camp. As he questioned them and appeared to be satisfied with their +straightforward answers, they observed him narrowly. He was fully six +feet tall and evidently an uncommonly muscular and powerful man. But +what attracted the boys was his atmosphere of quiet resolution and the +kindly expression of his eyes. They wondered that such a man, who looked +brave if he was not, should be a hiding slacker. + +Meanwhile July had been busy frying thin strips of fresh venison steak, +and now announced that supper was ready. The slackers thereupon took +their places round the fire, and the boys had abundant opportunity to +study the faces of all--an inspection that, except in one or two +instances, found little that was reassuring. Ted and Hubert were +politely invited by Buck to join in the feast, but, having already eaten +their fill, accepted only a cup of coffee. + +The hapless Billy, who had taken the liberty of appeasing his hunger +before supper was ready, now lay on the grass, reciting in a sort of +sing-song: "Mena, mino, mo; ketch a nigger by the toe, if he hollers let +him go." This was followed by: "Quemo, quimo, dilmo, day; rick, stick, +pomididdle, dido--Sally broke the paddle over Mingo's head." The +childish mind of the young man seemed to delight in nursery rhymes. He +was beginning, "One-two, buckle my shoe--three-four, open the door," +etc., when Sweet Jackson called his name roughly and sent him on an +errand. + +"What's the news about the war?" asked Buck Hardy of Ted, as the +slackers lighted their pipes and settled into comfortable lounging +positions about the fire. + +Ted responded eagerly, describing the situation as he understood it and +showing that the outlook was not as promising as it had been. He +indicated that Russia had dropped out and was "no good any more," that +Italy was hard pressed, that France was wearing out, and that England's +safety was threatened by Germany's submarines. + +"It depends on the United States," the boy declared. "We've got to end +this war. We've got to be in a big hurry to put two million soldiers in +the field, and every able-bodied young man is needed." Then, his zeal +overcoming his prudence, he excitedly added: "I don't see how you men +can stay here in this swamp at such a time. I--I--I'd be _ashamed_!" + +Buck Hardy winced. Sweet Jackson sat erect with a threatening look. The +other slackers shifted their positions uneasily and frowned, some of +them uttering low ejaculations of astonishment. July paused in his noisy +scraping of a pot and stood at attention. Hubert nudged Ted warningly +and urged him in a whisper to hold his tongue. + +"Who's ashamed!" cried Sweet Jackson derisively. "I ain't, for one. +'Tain't none of my quiltin'. What them Germans ever done to _me_? I +never heard tell of 'em till lately." + +"You'll hear of 'em a plenty if they ever get this country," said Ted, +shaking off Hubert's hand. The boy was too excited and eager to speak +his mind to count the costs. "They'll rob you of every dollar, and if +you don't walk the line they chalk you'll be shot in your tracks. They +haven't had a chance yet to do anything to _you_. The thing to think +about is what they've done to other countries and what they intend to do +to ours if they can. Do you want them to give Texas and a half dozen +more States out that way to Mexico, as the Kaiser promised to do, if +Mexico would help him conquer this country?" + +"Texas is a fur ways, and big enough to take care of itself, too," said +Sweet, serenely indifferent. + +"That's a fine way to look at it!" Ted was quick to retort, scorn in his +tone. "Will your right hand feel that way if somebody walks up and +whacks off your left?" + +"They could never do it," spoke up Buck Hardy quietly. "The Germans nor +nobody else could ever take this country." + +"That depends on what sort of a fight we put up and how quick we are +about it," insisted Ted. "I read the papers a lot, and listen to men +talk, too, and sometimes it looks as if even England may have to give +in. If the Germans get England and the British fleet, what will happen +then? Why, they'll get Canada, of course, and get ready to invade us +anywhere across a three-thousand mile border line. _Then_ we'll have +it!" + +"Canada and New York and Ohio and Chicago is a fur ways," remarked +Sweet, yawning. "If the Germans do get 'em, what's that to us 'way down +h-yuh?" + +"What's that to _us_ if the richest part of our country falls into the +hands of the enemy!" cried Ted, losing his patience and with it all +sense of prudence. "You make me sick. As I was about to say just now, it +all depends on how many of us go out and fight and how many of us go and +hide in a swamp." + +Again Buck Hardy winced, and all the lounging slackers sat up, startled, +staring at Ted as if scarcely able to believe that they had heard +aright. As a general murmuring began, Sweet Jackson leaped to his feet. + +"Billy, go get me a big switch," he ordered. "I've got to give that +sassy boy a good frailin'. He's too big for his breeches. I aim to teach +him a lesson right now." + +"No, you won't," said Buck Hardy, who had also risen to his feet. "I +like that boy. I like his spunk. And anybody who lays a hand on him has +got me to whip. I put you all on notice," he concluded, turning from the +furious but perceptibly checked Jackson and sweeping an eye over the +seated slackers. + +"Well, Buck Hardy," argued Sweet in a vain attempt to disguise his +surrender, "if you're goin' to play the fool in this thing you'll be +sorry." + +"Aw, set down and let the boy talk," said Buck, resuming his own seat on +the grass. "You don't have to agree with him. Let him talk; it's +interestin'. Go on, kid." + +But Ted seemed to think that he had said enough for the present, and for +once he was not ready to speak. Buck Hardy himself broke the silence +that followed. + +"There's another thing I want to say," he announced. "I ain't in this +swamp because I'm a-scared to fight. If they'd a let me alone, it would +a' been all right, but when they up and passed a force-law, draftin' +everybody whether or no, I got mad." + +Then Ted found his voice, opening his mouth to speak impetuously, but +Hubert grabbed him by the arm to check him and this time the younger boy +would not be denied. + +"Hush!--don't!" Hubert whispered urgently. "Don't tell him he was free +to enlist and try to put him in a hole. He's our _friend_." + +Ted saw the force of this in time and shut off his coming flood words, +saying only: + +"I didn't think you were afraid, Mr. Hardy. And it is very good of you +to be willing for me to speak out, and I thank you very much." + +Then the "cock of the walk" himself seemed to think that it would be +better to change the subject, for he began to speak about an interesting +incident of the day's hunting. But the conversation soon dragged, the +slackers yawning drowsily. One by one they rose and disappeared, until +only Buck, Sweet and the two boys were left by the fire. Finally Sweet +rose, saying: + +"What you aim to do with them boys to-night, Buck? We got to keep our +eye on them boys." + +"They'll sleep with me," was the answer. + +Shortly afterward Buck Hardy lighted a torch and bade the boys follow +him. He led them beneath the curious log house standing so high in the +air--a precaution against snakes in summer--and climbed by a ladder +through a square opening in the floor. Passing the sleeping men, whose +faces even in the case of the least pleasing seemed softened in slumber, +Hardy led the way to the extreme end of the room. Giving the torch to +Ted, he scattered and broadened his really comfortable bed of leaves and +Spanish moss so as to make room for the two boys between himself and the +wall. There appeared to be no window in all the structure, but +apparently sufficient air entered between the logs of the walls and +through the wide door in the floor. + +After the light was put out Ted recalled Sweet Jackson's "We got to keep +our eye on them boys," with its suggestion of possible captivity at +least for a time; but both he and Hubert were too tired to speculate or +worry about their situation, and they soon forgot everything in sound +sleep. + + + + +VII + + +When Ted and Hubert awoke next morning they were alone in the +sleeping-loft. Descending the ladder, they found July at the fire with +breakfast awaiting them; and after they had washed their hands and +faces, the negro pouring water for them, they ate heartily. It appeared +that all but two or three of the slackers had already gone off to their +traps, or hunting, and even these two or three were nowhere to be seen +just now. + +As the boys breakfasted, it was noticeable that July's manner toward Ted +was markedly respectful and that his eye frequently rested upon the Boy +Scout uniform. Suddenly the young negro stood still in front of Ted and +thus addressed him: + +"Hubut tole me las' night de President 'p'int you dispatch carrier. Did +de President sen' you in dis swamp to git after dese slackers, too?" + +"Of course not." + +"Did Guv'nor Dorsey sen' you?" + +"No." + +"Did Judge Ridgway sen' you?" + +"No." + +"Den, how come you talk so uppity, like a man wid de law on he side and +ain't a-scared o' nobody?" + +"I don't know, July," replied Ted, amused, smiling, yet serious. "When I +get started I'm so interested that I forget to be scared." + +"Well, you sho is a _man_, if you is des a boy. You sho is a cap'n. Dey +ought to call you 'Cap'n Ted.'" The young negro's wonder and admiration +were manifest. + +"That's very nice of you, July," stammered Ted, embarrassed and +blushing. + +"You sho did talk up to dem white mens. You didn't leave 'em a leg to +stand on." + +"How about _you_?" asked Ted, with a twinkle in his eye. "Have you got +any more legs than they have?" + +July guffawed loudly, enjoying the joke at his own expense. "Who, me?" +he laughed again. "I's ready to go to de waw if dey promus to put me +where dem Germans can't p'int a gun at me." + +Ted and Hubert laughed heartily, vastly amused, and the latter said: +"Don't you think all slackers are as ready as that?" + +"I got sump'n to tell you," said July, hastening to change an +embarrassing subject. "Dem young white mens hole a meetin' dis mawnin' +and dey voted on what to do about you boys. I couldn't hear much o' dey +talk, but I think dey voted Mr. Buck Hardy down." + +"But I thought you said he was the 'cock of the walk,' and he certainly +stood them all down last night," commented Ted. + +"He sho is de cock o' de walk when it come to fightin'," said July, "but +when it come to votin' he ain't got but one vote. Hush! H-yuh he is +now." + +Buck Hardy had come out of the woods, and, pausing at the edge of the +clearing, he now called Ted to him. + +"Well, what you boys aim to do?" he asked in a friendly way, as Ted +joined him. + +"I'll tell you what I'd _like_ to do," said Ted earnestly, encouraged by +his tone, "and that is, persuade you, and as many of the rest as I +could, to go out of this swamp and be drafted for the war." + +Buck Hardy laughed outright, but there was no unfriendliness in his +merriment. "You've laid out to do a pretty big job of work, kid," he +said; "most too big, I reckon. Better give it up. Better jes' stay h-yer +a while with us and learn to hunt." + +"I wouldn't mind staying a while if--if there was any chance of----" + +"But there ain't, son; so you'd better not bother your head about it. +And I reckon you'll have to put up with our company a while. We talked +it over this mornin' and took a vote. We agreed when we come in h-yer to +decide things by vote. I was for takin' you boys out to-day and puttin' +you on the trail home, but the fellers wouldn't hear to it. Al Peters +was the only one who agreed with me, and _he_ wasn't willin' to let you +boys go unless you promised on yer honor to say nothin' about us when +you got home." + +In great excitement Ted was about to declare that nothing could ever +induce him to be silent in order to shield fugitive slackers, but Buck +went on speaking before the imprudent words were uttered, and after +reflection the boy decided that it would be wiser not to make such a +declaration until he had to. + +"You see," Buck continued, "the boys is afraid the sheriff will send a +posse in h-yer and take us out and prosecute us. So there's nothin' for +you and Hubert to do but stay h-yer a while and get all the fun you can. +Maybe I can win the boys over to my thinkin' in a week's time. I'll try. +The truth is, I don't think there's very much danger in letting you go +even if you did tell on us, for there's too much goin' on now for the +county to take the trouble to send a posse away in this swamp jes' to +get eight men drafted. But the boys has voted and it stands, as I tell +you. I want to say another thing, kid," added Buck, after a slight +pause: "I want you to feel free, and I like to hear you talk about the +war, but you must be careful not to step on the boys' toes too hard. I +don't want a fight on my hands." + +"I hardly know what to say--I'll have to think," said Ted, lifting his +troubled eyes to the big slacker's face; "but I'm very much obliged to +_you_, Mr. Hardy. I think you are just splendid, even if you are a----" + +The boy stopped, confused, dropping his eyes. + +"That's all right, kid," said Buck, patting Ted's shoulder in a kindly +way. "Now you just go and enjoy yourself, and maybe everything will come +out all right." + +Buck Hardy turned abruptly and swung off into the woods. Ted returned +slowly to the fire, where, with a very serious face, he announced to +Hubert the fact of their captivity. The younger boy's grip on his +lachrymal ducts was never firm and the tears now ran down his cheeks in +a steady stream as he sat on the grass by silent Ted. + +"I want to go home," he wailed. + +"I think dat's a shame," said July, promptly taking the side of the +boys. + +"Don't cry, Hu," said Ted. "It will come out all right. We'll stay a +while, and then if they don't let us go, we'll run away and go anyhow." + +"Maybe I kin help you git off," proposed July, standing in front of the +seated boys, his black face full of sympathy. "If I kin, I will. But you +mustn't tell dem white mens on me." + +The half-witted Billy now appeared from the direction of the +boat-landing, and, seeing Hubert's tears, he seemed to be much +concerned. He had taken a fancy to Hubert. Dropping into a seat by the +grieving boy, he put a hand on his knee and asked indignantly: + +"Who been whippin' you?" + +"Nobody. It isn't that." + +"Well, don't cry. If you don't cry, maybe I'll take you to see son." + +"You haven't a son!" said Hubert, smiling through his tears. + +"Wait till I show him to you, and you'll see." + +"Who is he?" asked Hubert, drying his eyes. + +"Never you mind," answered Billy, his sudden look of cunning losing +itself in an explosion of mirth. "You'll find out when I take you to +him. You'll know him when you see him." + +After this cryptic announcement Billy would say no more about his "son" +and sought to entertain Hubert with recitations of nursery rhymes. + +The boys lounged about the camp for an hour, discussing their situation +in low asides while intermittently conversing with July and Billy. Then +Buck Hardy reappeared and began to talk amicably with Ted and Hubert +about hunting, evidently trying to interest them in sport. He told them +that he and his associates depended more on their traps than on their +guns in their business of securing salable pelts, stating that many +traps had been set here and there on the island and in the surrounding +swamp. It was while this conversation was in progress that Sweet Jackson +entered the clearing and called out: + +"You goin' to use July this mornin', Buck?" + +"Not partic'lar," was the indifferent response. + +"Well, I can use him and I'd like to borry him. I'm goin' to build me a +permeter shelter for my own hides, so I kin spread 'em out more." + +Buck having consented and turned again to the boys, the "borrowed" July, +much disgusted, was led away in company with Billy. The business +required of them was the cutting down of one six-inch sapling for posts +and several two-inch saplings wherewith to frame the slanting roof which +these posts would support. This done, they must gather hundreds of +palmetto fans and thatch the roof, all under the direction of an +ill-tempered boss. + +The three had been thus engaged scarcely half an hour when Buck, Ted and +Hubert, at the camp, heard screams and the sound of blows. A few steps +toward the spot selected for the palmetto shelter revealed the cause of +the uproar. Sweet Jackson was whipping Billy with a long supple stick, +and, as he laid on more heavily, in spite of his victim's piteous cries, +the boys drew near in horror, followed more slowly by Buck. + +"Stop that!" shouted Ted. + +"Oh, it's you, Mr. Smarty!" said Sweet, pausing to look up. "I won't +stop till I git ready, and if you don't keep your mouth shut, I'll +wallop you in the bargain." + +"You coward!" cried Ted. "You ought to be ashamed to beat that poor +half-witted----" + +Sweet suddenly let Billy go and turned upon Ted with uplifted stick. + +"Hit him if you dare!" said Buck, stepping up to them. + +"'Tain't none o' your business, Buck Hardy!" cried Sweet, furious. + +"It's everybody's business when you jump on that poor boy Billy. You +know he ain't accountable." + +"I reckon I've got a right to thrash him if he won't work. I kin hardly +make him lift his hand to do a thing, and when he does work he works so +powerful sorry----" + +"I thought you was more of a man, Sweet Jackson." + +"I depend I'm man enough to give you all you want!" shouted the +infuriated Jackson, with a threatening movement. + +Buck caught one end of the uplifted stick; it broke between them and +they closed in hand-to-hand combat. Apparently they were well matched +physically and the fight promised to be a long one. As Ted and Hubert +watched it, absorbed, July stepped between them and whispered: + + [Illustration: They closed in hand-to-hand combat] + +"If you boys want to try to run away, now de time! Nobody in camp but +dem two fightin' mens. If you git dem boats, maybe you kin git away. You +kin take two boats and I kin hide t'other one, and den dey can't foller +you." + +"Yes, let's run down to the boats," agreed Hubert. "Come on! I want to +get away from this place!" + +Hubert had already moved to follow the negro, but Ted hesitated. He did +not like to run away while Buck was fighting in his cause as well as +Billy's, and the fight itself drew his eye compellingly. Moreover, he +really preferred to stay at least a day or two and look for +opportunities to talk further to the slackers about the war and their +duty. And when they did run away, he thought they ought to make careful +plans beforehand, providing themselves with food for the journey, for +one thing. + +But Hubert and July, who were now twenty feet away, beckoned him +frantically, and, thus urged, Ted reluctantly followed. The three then +raced on their way, pursued by the now smiling Billy who apparently +thought that some sort of game was proposed. Passing the camp fire, July +caught up a tin bucket of sliced venison, then darted along the winding +path through the swamp cane toward the boat landing. + +Racing along this same path a few moments later, Ted and Hubert halted +suddenly at sight of the negro returning. + +"De boats all gone," announced July. "Dem mens must 'a took 'em to go to +dey traps in de swamp." + +Ted did not share Hubert's deep disappointment and smiled at the +giggling Billy in the moment of blank pause. + +"Let's hurry back, then," he said, breaking the silence, "so they won't +know what we tried to do." + +The run to the boat landing and back, a distance of little more than two +hundred yards, had scarcely consumed five minutes, and the four +spectators were again on the scene of the fight before the combatants +had noticed their absence. They were just in time to see Sweet Jackson +strike the ground heavily beneath the weight of his antagonist, who now +partly rose, placing his knee upon the breast of the vanquished. + +"You got enough?" shouted Buck. "If you ain't, say so, and I'll give you +a whole bellyful." + +Sweet said nothing, but ceased to struggle, whereupon Buck let go his +hold and rose. + +"I'll git even with you yet, Buck Hardy," declared the defeated man with +black looks after he had painfully gathered himself up and was limping +off into the woods. + +The victor disdained a retort, and, turning, walked back to the camp, +where he was followed by the boys and the negro. At the noon hour Sweet +Jackson had not reappeared and it was evident that the work on his +"permeter" shelter would not be resumed that day. + +Assured of this by the time dinner had been served and his subsequent +work about the camp had been finished, July proposed a job of another +kind. + +"Mr. Hardy," he said, "kin I take Cap'n Ted wid me to build dat turkey +pen dis evenin' an' lef' Hubut yuh to play wid Billy?" + +"Sure--if he wants to go," consented Buck. "I think I'll take 'em both +on a deer hunt tomorrow." + +On their way to the selected site of the turkey pen, about half a mile +away in the pine woods near the border of the swamp, July broke a brief +silence as follows: + +"A colored lady tole me dem Germans eats people. You reckon dat's so?" + +"Of course not," said Ted, "but they've done things in this war just as +bad." + +Having arrived at the chosen spot and cleared a space about six feet +square, July dug a trench from its center to a point some four feet +without, baited it with shelled corn and bridged it over with sticks. He +then cut down a number of pine saplings and employed sections of these +in building a pen about four feet high around the cleared space, +afterward covering the top with sections of the same and weighting them +down with heavy "lightwood knots." Lastly a few grains of corn were +dropped at intervals from the mouth of the tunnel to a point several +yards distant, so that wild turkeys feeding in that neighborhood would +be attracted toward the snare. July explained that when these wild fowl +entered by way of the tunnel and ate up the bait they would merely +struggle to break through the well-lighted cracks of the trap, +forgetting entirely the shadowed path to freedom at their feet. + +As he worked, receiving some assistance from the interested boy, the +negro talked and asked questions about other matters. + +"When de time come for you boys to run away," he said once, "maybe I'll +go wid you." + +"That would be fine," said Ted, "because you could show us the way." + +"I gittin' tired o' dis job yuh in dis camp," July continued. "Dem white +mens don't pay me all dey promus, and I don't like de way some of 'em +cusses me aroun', speshly dat Sweet Jackson. Mr. Hardy pay me his part, +but he can't collec' a cent o' my money fum some of 'em. If it wasn't +for dat waw, I'd go out o' dis swamp wid you tomorrow. Cap'n Ted, if I +was to go out wid you, you reckon dem draft-bode people would grab me +right up an' sen' me to de waw?" + +"They'd examine you and might send you to a training camp, and you might +even go to France," answered Ted, "but I don't think they'd ever put you +on the fighting line. You see, in this big war there's a lot to do +besides fighting and the thing is to find out what a man can do best. +They might just make you a cook behind the lines, and pay you wages, +too." + +"Gee! dat 'ud suit me grand," cried July joyfully. "I'd love to cross de +big water an' see all dere is to see--if only dey don't put me where dem +Germans kin shoot me. You think I kin 'pend on dat, Cap'n Ted?" + +"I don't know for certain, July, but I think so." + +When they turned up at camp toward sundown, it was evident from their +faces that both Ted and July were in a hopeful frame of mind. The one +was glad because he had made two useful friends in a single day; the +other was elated because he indulged in dreams of securing war adventure +without incurring the risk of war's penalties. + + + + +VIII + + +Ted hoped that the war would be discussed around the camp fire that +night, but he was disappointed. Sweet Jackson turned up only in time to +eat his supper and went immediately to bed. The other men appeared to be +unusually tired and followed as soon as they had smoked a single pipe. +Nevertheless Ted was nearer his heart's desire than he supposed. + +About two o'clock in the morning a large animal prowled into or near the +camp, doubtless attracted by the refuse of the deer's carcass; and all +hands were roused by the furious baying of the dogs. Snatching up their +guns, the slackers to the last man sallied out and followed in pursuit. +Billy ran after them, and Ted, Hubert and July were left standing over +the fire, now stirred to a bright blaze. + +The eager hunters were hardly two hundred yards away when Hubert looked +across the fire at Ted and said: + +"Now's our chance to get off in the boats. We could do it--if July would +go with us. You said he was thinking of it." + +"Yes, I been thinkin' 'bout it," admitted July, his manner doubtful and +hesitating, "but on account o' dat waw I ain't made up my mind yit." + +"And, anyhow, in the middle of the night is a bad time," said Ted. +"We're not ready either." + +At this moment they heard the sound of footsteps and a voice shouted: +"Buck says you boys come, too, and see the fun. And, July, you better +bring some vittles." + +The young man who had hurriedly returned on this errand had halted as +soon as he was within call, and now waited impatiently to be joined by +the boys and the negro, evidently afraid that he might miss seeing the +game run to earth. His "Hurry up" was so frequent and so insistent that +the boys joined him without a moment's delay and July, shaking his head, +followed without the "vittles." + +The cause of the excitement, which proved to be a bear, had beaten a +hasty retreat toward the center of the island, and there, being hard +pressed by the dogs, climbed a tall pine. By the time the hunters +reached the spot the animal was at rest among the clustering boughs at +the very top. Nothing could be done now until daylight, and the men +proceeded to make themselves comfortable. Several fires were built, +forming a circle around the tree, in order to make sure that the bear +would remain where it was in case the watchers should fall asleep. + +Then July and two men were sent back to camp to bring food and corn beer +of the slackers' own brewing. The besiegers threw themselves down in +comfortable, lounging attitudes around the largest fire and were +disposed to have a merry time during the three hours of waiting. Ted and +Hubert seated themselves on the grass near Buck Hardy and watched with +absorbed attention all that took place. The treeing of a bear in a tall +pine at such a time of night was remarked upon as a very unusual +occurrence, and several declared that they had never seen the like. + +"I tell you the old Oke-fi-noke is the place to run up on curious +things," said Buck Hardy musingly, after the men sent to camp had +returned with their loads. "I've seen a heap o' strange things in this +swamp. I reckon you boys wouldn't believe me if I was to tell you I saw +a catfish whip a moccasin in h-yer one time." + +The men laughed incredulously, but demanded the particulars. Buck took a +drink of corn beer from a gourd passed him by July, and then asked his +nearest neighbor, Al Peters, for "a chaw o' tobacco," before he +proceeded to satisfy their curiosity by telling his story. It was, in +substance, that he had once seen a moccasin spring upon a catfish in a +shallow lagoon of the swamp and promptly get "whipped." That is to say, +disastrous consequences resulted from the snake's attempt to swallow its +prey. For the fish immediately "popped" its formidable fins through the +reptile's throat, and all efforts on the part of the latter to disgorge +its victim proved futile. + +"That moccasin reared mightily and was as lively a snake as you ever +laid eyes on," Buck declared with a laugh, "but it bit off more'n it +could chaw that time." + +He wound up by saying that the snake crawled off rapidly out of sight; +but several hours later, returning past the same neighborhood, he found +it lying dead, the tail of the fish still protruding from its mouth and +the fins visibly transfixing its neck. Finding that the catfish was +still alive, Buck took the trouble of liberating it, then watched it +revive in its native element and finally swim away in the lagoon. + +Buck's listeners had expected a jest, but they seemed to accept the +story as matter of fact--no one presuming to give expression to doubts, +if any were felt. This was the beginning of much spinning of Okefinokee +yarns, some of them even more remarkable. Finally Buck turned to Ted and +said: + +"Well, kid, what's the strangest thing you've seen in the Oke-fi-noke?" + +The boy would have liked to reply that the strangest, most +unaccountable, most infamous sight he had seen in the great swamp was a +party of able-bodied young men who, instead of serving their country by +training to fight the Germans, were deliberate and confessed slackers +and fugitives from the law of the land. But he hesitated to go so far +and only said: + +"I haven't seen as much of it as the rest of you, but the strangest +story about it I ever heard was the one my Uncle Walter said the Indians +used to tell a hundred years ago." + +"Let's hear it," invited several. + +So Ted related the old Indian legend which pictured the remote interior +of the Okefinokee as a high and dry land, and one of the most blissful +spots of earth, where dwelt beautiful women called daughters of the Sun. +Some warriors of the Creek nation, lost in the interminable bogs and +jungles, and confronted with starvation and despair, were once on a time +rescued and lovingly cared for by these radiant creatures. And ere the +lost warriors were led out of the confusing labyrinths and sent on their +way, they were fed bountifully with dates, oranges, and corn-cake. There +may have been other good things to eat, but Ted's memory could vouch +only for the dates, oranges, and corn-cake. He remembered that his uncle +had spoken skeptically about the dates and disrespectfully of the +corn-cake, which latter, though a good and useful thing in its way, was +too "common" for celestial ladies who, in all other tales of the same +type, were in the habit of feeding on ambrosia. Uncle Walter conceded, +however, that the maize was probably regarded by the Creek Indian as one +of the most precious gifts of the gods and, therefore, not unworthy of +a place in this legend of the daughters of the Sun who dwelt in the +great Okefinokee. + +This story, with Judge Ridgway's comment added, was over the heads of +the uneducated young backwoodsmen who listened with heavy gravity, but +several of them expressed polite appreciation of it and spoke in +complimentary terms of Ted's recital. + +The fires were now replenished, more corn-beer was imbibed, fresh pipes +were lighted, and the yarn-spinners began another series devoted to the +"tight scrapes" in which they had found themselves occasionally in the +Okefinokee. One young man told of a deadly hand-to-hand conflict with a +wounded bear; another of a thrilling unarmed fight with a wild-cat; a +third related how he had once sunk down suddenly to his armpits in the +great marsh called the "prairie," how he had saved himself by grasping +the growth on a small tussock, and how he was confronted there, before +he could drag himself out, by an angry moccasin, which luckily he shot. +And so on. + +When this yarn-spinning began to languish for lack of startling +material, Buck Hardy asked Ted if he did not have something interesting +to tell about his and Hubert's struggles on their way through the swamp +to the island. In relating the Indian legend Ted had kept his seat on +the grass, but now, as if accepting this invitation, he rose to his +feet, his eye sweeping the faces of the eight assembled young "backwoods +Crackers," all evidently more or less ignorant and uneducated, and--as +Ted thought--sorely in need of instruction, especially on the subject of +the great war. Some of them had read a weekly paper occasionally, but +most of them had not even availed themselves of that limited source of +information. This Ted knew from inquiries he had made. Did this not +account, at least in part, for their indifference, and if they were told +more about the war, might it not be possible to wake them up? Thus Ted +had reasoned as he sat listening, observing and awaiting his +opportunity. + +"Gentlemen," he politely began, "what happened to us coming through the +swamp is hardly worth telling about. I'd much rather talk about the +greatest and most terrible war in history, and I hope you are willing. +For everything--the whole world's future as well as our own country's +safety--depends on the way it ends. I don't think you know enough about +it. If you did, you wouldn't be here to-night. You would be in the +training camps wearing the soldier's uniform." + +"Shut up!" + +The voice was Sweet Jackson's, and his demand was echoed by several +others. + +"No, don't shut him up," shouted Buck Hardy. "Let him talk. _I'm_ not +afraid to listen to him. I'm man enough to know my business and stick to +it even if a boy who can talk fine does come along. Go on, kid." + +This quelled the disturbance, and Ted continued: + +"This war's got to end in complete victory for the United States and her +allies, for if the Germans win, they will ride over us all rough-shod +and make us no better than slaves, just as they have done in Belgium and +wherever they have marched their armies. We must win, as the President +says, so that the world can be made safe for Christian ideals and for +democracy." + +"Stop a minute, kid," said Buck. "You are handin' out some pretty big +words. I reckon we all know what Christian means, but a bunch of us may +not be quite so sure about 'de-mocracy.'" + +"Democracy," explained Ted, "is free government by and for the people, +instead of high-and-mighty government by one man like the German Kaiser. +You will see better what we'll be up against if the Germans get this +country," the boy continued, "if I tell you about some of the things +they have done and some of the things they want to do. After training +for this war fifty years, they jumped on Europe, taking everybody by +surprise. They have already conquered Belgium, Servia and Rumania, and +they hold northern France, part of Russia and part of Italy. They want +to take all the rest of Europe and then conquer the United States. They +have said so. Some of 'em even say they ought to force the German +language as well as German rule on the world, and they are so crazy with +conceit that they say they have a right to do so because they are so +much finer people than the people of other countries. Some of them even +claim that the Germans have been divinely appointed to rule all +nations." + +"A little bit stuck on themselves, ain't they?" interjected Buck +derisively. + +"Why, I read," continued Ted, "of how one of their big preachers told +his congregation: 'The German soul is God's soul; it shall and will rule +over mankind.' And the Kaiser talks about 'the German God.'" + +"You reckon they're such blame' fools as all that?" questioned Al Peters +doubtfully. + +"Germany is a fur ways and tales are pretty apt to grow as they travel," +remarked a young man known as "Bud" Jones. "I know how a tale can grow +in ten miles, let alone all the way across the ocean. It puts me in mind +of the time Wash' Johnson was up before court." + +Jones then related with humorous exaggerations how the story of a very +small offense, on its eventful and roundabout journey "from Possum Trot +to Crossways," became almost a murder in the first degree. "And when all +the truth came out," he concluded, "there was jes' _nothin'_ to it." + +Several others recalled amusing anecdotes illustrating the powers of a +rumor to expand enormously as it passed from mouth to mouth, and the +effect was such that poor Ted saw his opportunity disappear for the +time. He was too inexperienced a speaker to find a way to regain command +of the situation, but he made an effort. He was further embarrassed as +he took note that clumps of palmettos and scrub-oak thickets under the +tall pines were becoming clearly outlined at a distance from the dying +fires, showing that day had dawned and the time left him was short. + +"But I haven't told you _anything_ yet," he insisted, as soon as he was +able to put in a word. "And it's all _true_. Our ambassadors and consuls +and big men who have come back from Europe say the Germans have said and +done even worse things than have been reported. If you would just let me +tell you some of the things I know----" + +"Can't be done now, kid; it's daylight," interrupted Buck Hardy, moving +to rise and looking around into the woods from which the darkness was +rapidly lifting. + +All the loungers about the fire now sprang to their feet, turning their +eyes toward the top of the pine wherein the bear had taken refuge, and +noisily proposing to be the first to bag the game. As soon as there was +sufficient light to outline the black bulky form among the high +branches, the men opened fire, one at a time, and at the thirteenth +shot the big game came tumbling down, striking the ground with great +force. + +"I got him!" insisted several voices, but of course there was no means +of determining which was the fatal shot. + +The bear measured seven inches across the ball of the foot, three inches +through the fat on the round, and the total weight was calculated at not +less than four hundred pounds. The hide was carefully taken off and some +pounds of the choicest meat were sliced to dry, but the bulk of the +carcass was left where it was for the buzzards. + +"I wish it could be shipped to the starving Belgians," said Ted, as he +looked on, sorrowing to think of such waste at a time when economy and +careful conservation of all food were urged upon the whole nation. + +But nobody paid any attention to him, merriment and care-free +indifference being the dominant note of the moment. When the sun was an +hour high all hands, in great good humor, returned to camp and, to the +accompaniment of boastful hunting stories, partook heartily of the hot +breakfast which by this time July had prepared. + + + + +IX + + +After breakfast had been eaten and the eight slackers had scattered, +going about the day's business, Ted sat disconsolately by the camp fire, +watching July as he "cleared up" and talking intermittently with Hubert +about the incidents of the night. + +"I'm afraid I can't do anything with those slackers," said Ted, his tone +as well as his words indicating great discouragement. "I thought I might +be able to wake them up, but----" + +"Well, you put up a good talk anyhow," said Hubert, frankly outspoken, +as usual, in his admiration of Ted's oratorical powers, adding, however, +with his habitual pessimism: "But I knew it wouldn't do any good. What +do _they_ care? All they want to do is to look out for number one." + +At this moment Billy trotted out of the woods and called Hubert aside. +The half-witted young man leaned toward Hubert and said to him in a low +voice, with the air of one conferring a priceless favor: + +"Would you like to come now and see son?" + +"Who is 'son'?" asked Hubert skeptically yet curiously. "Yes, I'd like +to see him."' + +"Come on, then." + +Ted had fallen into troubled revery and July was engaged in vigorously +scraping one of his pots, so neither took note of Hubert's departure in +the company of the half-wit. + +Billy, who had fished out of his pocket a small wriggling water frog and +carried it in his hand, led the way through the woods about a quarter of +a mile, halting at last near the clay-covered roots of a large pine that +had fallen during a wind storm. At the base of this was a small round +hole in the ground, beside which Billy fell on his knees and began +repeating in a strange, monotonous, coaxing voice: + +"Doodle, doodle, come out your hole! Doodle, doodle, come out your +hole!" + +As he heard the mystic words supposed to be potent to call forth from +ambush the ant-lion, which crafty insect prepares over its nest a kind +of pitfall for ants, Hubert stepped back, protesting: + +"You know that's too big for a doodle-hole; that's a snake's hole." + +Billy made no reply, continuing his recitation. + +"I hear him a-comin'," he said softly, at last. Then, in a gentle, +caressing voice, he called down the hole: "Come on, son; come on, son." + +In a few moments a large rattlesnake glided out of the hole and seized +the frog from Billy's fingers. Hubert backed rapidly away and sprang +upon a log, but Billy did not move from his place and betrayed no fear +whatever. + +"Come away from there!" cried Hubert in amazement. "You Billy--that +snake will bite you!" + +"Son won't bite me," replied Billy, confidently. "Son knows me. Don't be +a-scared, boy; son won't hurt you if I tell him not to." + +So this was "son"--the great mystery which poor Billy had seemed so to +delight in! + +"If you don't come away, I won't stay here," cried Hubert urgently. + +He was alarmed for Billy's safety, fearing that as soon as the frog had +been swallowed the reckless half-wit would be bitten. He thought he +ought to look for a big stick and try to kill the snake, but made no +move to do so, fearing the consequences of resistance from Billy. + +After protesting and begging for some time in vain, Hubert jumped down +from the log and hurried back to camp. By the time he had told the story +to Ted and July, the witless snake-charmer himself appeared unhurt. + +"Lem me tell you one thing, Hubut," cautioned July: "you let dat Billy +hoe his own row. Play wid him roun' dis camp, but don't go foolin' long +wid him in dese woods. He ain't got good sense, and he'll git you in +trouble sho's you born." + +"He ought to be in a sanitarium," said Ted. + +"Look yuh, Billy," cried July, as the half-wit approached, "ain't you +got no better sense'n to prodjick wid a rattlesnake dat-a way?" + +"What made you tell?" asked Billy reproachfully of Hubert. + +"Dat snake goin' to bite you an' kill you," July warned urgently. + +"Don't you fret," said Billy, giggling. "Son knows me." + +Ted was reminded of the old saying that Providence takes care of fools +and drunken men, but he also spoke in rebuke and warning, whereupon the +disgusted Billy took himself off. + +"Cap'n Ted, you want to go fishin' wid me dis mawnin'?" asked July, and +the boy promptly accepted the invitation. + +The negro explained that Buck Hardy was willing for Ted to go if Hubert +would stay around the camp and play with Billy. Apparently it was not as +yet thought advisable to permit the two boys to go off on an excursion +together, but no danger of attempted flight on the part of either was +feared while they were separated. + +"I don't want to 'play with Billy,'" protested Hubert indignantly. "But +you go ahead, Ted, if you want to. I'll stay around camp. I want to look +over that old paper and then take a nap. I'm sleepy--after last night." + +So July got ready his fishing tackle and bait, and Ted followed him down +to the landing. They took the smallest boat and, paddling and poling, +slowly made their way against the usual obstructions toward a small lake +in the flooded jungle to the right of the great marsh or "prairie." + +After nearly an hour of hard work they reached their destination and +threw out their lines, baited with wriggling worms, which, according to +July, the black bass or "trout" often took "as fas' as you kin throw +in." This morning, however, they appeared to be less hungry, and the +fishermen waited some time for even a "bite," talking in low voices the +while. During the hour that followed Ted caught one three-pounder and +July landed two others not quite as large. July considered this very +poor luck and complained that the catch was not "half a mess." It was +time to return to camp, however, and they reluctantly drew in their +lines. + +As they were following the boat-trail back to the island, Ted, who had +brought his gun, stood up now and then and looked searchingly around, +hoping to see something to shoot. In this way he caught sight of a flock +of ducks swimming about in a little open pool to their left. He was +quick to fire both barrels, the shock almost causing him to lose his +equilibrium and tumble overboard. And when, with a great splashing and +fluttering the flock rose, three ducks were left floating on the water. +The boy shouted in his delight. + +"We'll have enough duck, if not enough fish," he said. + +"If we kin git 'em," said July doubtfully. + +A hard struggle resulted in bringing the bateau only within about twenty +feet of the spot, and there it stalled, the crowding obstructions being +apparently insurmountable. July reluctantly gave up, declaring that they +would have to let the ducks "go." But tenacity of purpose was one of +Ted's chief characteristics and he would not give up. His hunter's pride +demanded the game and, besides, he insisted that it would never do to +permit so much good food to be wasted. + +It was a warm spring day, and, putting his hand into the water, Ted +found it to be only agreeably cool. His decision was instantly made: he +would have those ducks if he had to swim for them. Deaf to July's urgent +warnings of the danger of alligators, moccasins, and what not, he +stripped to his shoes, and stepped out of the boat, surprised to find +the water deeper than he had expected. + +In addition to standing trees and shrubs of many sorts and sizes, the +flooded swamp at this point was crowded with sunken logs, dead branches +and here and there a dense growth of flags. But Ted, wading, slipping, +falling, swimming, and battling manfully with the various difficulties, +finally reached the goal and held in his grasp a foot of each of the +three floating ducks. It was only when he turned to come back with his +prizes that he became seriously embarrassed. He then stumbled, fell, +and, as if his feet were caught or entangled in the sunken obstructions, +failed to regain his upright position. His head even disappeared under +the water, and it looked to July as if he had been drawn under by some +unseen force. + +Fortunately the bateau, now lightened of a part of its load, drew less +water, and could be forced forward with less difficulty. Exerting all +his powers, the terrified negro made rapid headway and came to the +rescue in time. While the struggling Ted still managed to hold his +breath, he was seized, drawn out of the water, and lifted over the side +of the boat, laughing as he kicked from him a mass of swamp weeds and +mossy rotting branches in which his feet had been entangled. His body +showed several red scratches, and he knew he had had a narrow escape, +but he had succeeded and was happy. + +"I got 'em!" he shouted triumphantly. Then, sobering, he gratefully +thanked the negro for his timely intervention and listened in a becoming +manner to the scolding his recklessness invited. + +"Git on your clothes quick," urged July. "I was most scared to death, +you see me so. I wouldn't 'a' had you drownd-ed for a thousand dollars. +Mr. Hardy sho would tan my hide if I was to take you back to camp +drownd-ed. He think a heap o' you, Cap'n Ted. Dem yuther white mens all +time complainin' 'bout you, but he shut 'em up an' tell 'em he sho aim +to stan' by you." + +"I think he's just fine--if he is in with a bad crowd." + +"He sho is de bes' man o' de whole bunch." + +"Maybe he didn't understand that he could have volunteered freely and +enlisted in some branch of the service before he was drafted," suggested +Ted. "That's the only way I can explain it." + +"Maybe so," assented July, adding with a shrewd shake of the head: "But +you better not push him too hard, Cap'n Ted." + +After the noon meal at the camp Buck Hardy kept his promise and took the +two boys on a deer hunt. This was a more easy and comfortable expedition +that Ted had expected. It was merely a matter of waiting and watching at +a "stand" until there was a chance to shoot at a deer running by. The +"still hunt" method, with its wearying efforts to sneak watchfully +through the woods without making the slightest noise, was not attempted. +Buck prepared only for a "deer drive." He first dispatched July with the +dogs to the south end of the island, which was about four miles long, +instructing him to go quietly with the dogs in leash. At the south end +he was to untie them and start them running northward. Meanwhile, after +giving the boys shells containing buck-shot, the "cock of the walk" +leisurely selected a promising "stand" for each and took one for himself +along the backbone of the island at the upper end. + +The boys were instructed not to fire too quickly and be careful to take +good aim. They at first waited and watched in great excitement, +expecting every minute to have their first chance to bag noble game; +then they calmed down and began to wonder if anything was really going +to happen; and at last they looked wearily down the aisles of the open +pine woods, their enthusiasm fast waning. + +In due time the distant baying of the dogs was heard, the sound drew +nearer, and after a long while their loud yelping plainly showed that, +though unseen by the boys, they were running past the immediate +neighborhood. Later July himself was heard coming, his voice lifted in +tireless repetition of a brief, chant-like sing-song of barbaric African +origin, which rang pleasingly through the woods. But no frightened +leaping deer was seen, and not a shot broke upon the air of the balmy +afternoon. Then, finally, came Buck himself, to tell the boys, in great +disappointment, that no game had been beaten out of the brush, and that +it was all over for the time. + +"I reckon they are off feedin' in the swamp shallows to-day," he said. + +By the time the slackers had lit their pipes around the camp fire that +night Ted had recovered from his disappointment and he casually remarked +that, after all, he was glad they didn't get a deer. + +"Did you hear what that boy said?" asked Al Peters, laughingly drawing +general attention to Ted. + +"Of course, I would have enjoyed it," the boy explained, "but we don't +need it for food, July says--I asked him--and it's a great pity to waste +even an ounce of meat at such a time. The President and Mr. Hoover have +asked everybody not to waste a scrap of food and not to eat any more +than is actually necessary." + +"Well, I'll be dog-on!" exclaimed Bud Jones, and the slackers in general +looked their astonishment. + +They had grown up to lavish feeding and wasteful methods in the handling +of food. They had never heard of anything else, except perhaps in the +case of some "triflin'" white man too lazy to work or some poor negro in +rags, and they wondered that such "meanness" could be recommended by the +President of the United States. Some of them were even inclined to doubt +Ted's word. There was a suggestion of scorn in Al Peters' tone as he +asked: + +"What for?--for goodness' sake!" + +"Why, to stave off famine, or near-famine," explained Ted. "We've got to +help feed our allies in Europe as well as ourselves. They are too busy +fighting to be able to raise their usual crops and their supplies from +other countries are cut very short. I read not long ago that the German +submarines had sent three million pounds of bacon and four million +pounds of cheese to the bottom of the sea in a single week." + +At this the uneducated young backwoodsmen who had been in hiding since +the late spring of 1917 opened their eyes, several of them repeating the +figures in astonishment. + +"I heard tell of them submarines," one of them remarked. "They sneaks up +on ships and shoots 'em from under the water." + +"But why don't our people and our friends over the big water get after +them sneakin' things and knock 'em out and stop it?" asked Bud Jones. + +"We are doing all we can, and we are really doing a lot," said Ted. "Mr. +Edison is working night and day on inventions and our destroyers are +hunting submarines all the time, and they and the English destroyers bag +a lot of them, too. They drop tremendous explosives where they see +bubbles and it tears the submarine to pieces. But the Germans keep on +building them very fast." + +With an oath Buck Hardy expressed the earnest wish that "every one of +them devilish water-snakes" might be blown up. Ted assured him that +such a wish was very generally shared, remarking further in his own +boyish way that German submarines were hated in America all the more +because they virtually made war on the United States long before an +actual and formal state of war existed. Then, returning to the subject +under discussion, he added: + +"You see, there's nothing in history like this thing that has come upon +the world. This great war touches everybody and everything, and we've +all got to help in some way." + +"Now he's got on the war again!" exclaimed Sweet Jackson, rising to his +feet. "If you men had sense enough to listen to me, you'd shut him up." + +Without waiting for a response the most unpopular member of the camping +party spat in his disgust and walked off toward the sleeping loft. + +"We've all got to help in some way," repeated Ted, taking no notice of +the interruption,--"either by fighting, giving money, making munitions, +supplying brains or skilled labor, raising crops, or by saving food. +It's got to be done, or there's no telling what may happen." + +The boy was again advancing upon dangerous ground and a disturbed +atmosphere was at once perceptible. The slackers were beginning to +realize that the war was a bigger thing and much more exacting in its +demands than they had supposed. But they had chosen their course and +they did not wish to be reminded that duty called them. They shifted +their positions uneasily, yawned, spoke of other things, remarked that +they were sleepy, and one by one rose to their feet. Within a couple of +minutes they had followed Sweet Jackson, only Buck Hardy, July and the +two boys remaining by the fire. + +The big slacker kept Ted there for an hour longer, asking questions and +listening to the boy's replies. He seemed to forget to be ashamed of his +ignorance in his eagerness for the latest information. Hubert said +little and July said nothing, the eyes of both traveling back and forth +from the face of Buck to the face of Ted and often betraying admiration +for the latter. + +"You certainly put up a good talk," said Hubert, as the boys lay down to +sleep, and this time he even forgot to add: "But it won't do any good." + + + + +X + + +The slackers scattered about their business early next morning and the +two boys were left alone in the camp with July, who had been ordered not +to let them get out of his sight. The negro had glibly promised, but his +sympathies were divided. He was still averse to being forced to go to +the "waw," and to this extent he was still a confederate of the +slackers, but he had developed such admiration and affection for "Cap'n +Ted" that he was now almost as ready to do the boy's bidding as to +respect the wishes of Buck Hardy himself. + +So he was not disposed to follow his orders to the letter, and when an +errand called him down to the boat-landing he left the boys alone +without a word. He was hardly out of sight when Hubert became alert, +looked around cautiously, and said to Ted: + +"Last night I overheard one of the slackers speak of a jungle trail at +the lower end of this island, and I think he meant a trail that leads +all the way out of the swamp. Let's go and look for it--now that we've +got a chance to walk off by ourselves." + +Ted promptly agreed to this proposition, but said that he didn't want to +run away yet. "Mr. Hardy is getting interested in the war," he +explained, "and if we stay a few days longer I may be able to +persuade----" + +"Oh, shucks!" scoffed Hubert. "All the talking in the world will never +do any good, as I've told you and told you." + +"We'll see," said Ted hopefully. "In the meantime it will be a mighty +good thing to find that trail and know where to make for when we are +ready to start--if we do have to run away." + +He caught up his gun as he spoke and they started off in a hurry, +actually running the first two hundred yards in order to be out of sight +before July reappeared. + +They first walked about two miles down the backbone of the island, +stopping to look into July's turkey-pen as they went and finding it as +yet empty of feathered prisoners. They then decided to cut across to +the swamp on the right and begin looking for the jungle trail. Their +plan was to follow as nearly as possible the line of demarcation between +the swamp proper and the higher ground, thus rounding the lower half of +the island in the course of some hours and necessarily crossing the +looked-for trail. + +To follow the island's rim was obviously the only way to make sure of a +thorough search, but they found it easier to propose than to perform. +Often a detour higher up or lower down the slope was necessary to avoid +bogs, marshy tracts, impregnable clumps of fan-palmettos and tangled +masses of brambles. And often the way was made difficult enough by +reason of the old fallen logs thrown criss-cross or piled high by wind +storms, by dense blackjack thickets, and by crowding swamp undergrowth. +Once they penetrated a cane-brake through which they could scarcely have +forced their way but for passages made by wild animals; for the tall +strong reeds, which stood as straight as arrows, were for the most part +hardly three inches apart. Even along the borders of the comparatively +open pine land which formed the island they were forcibly reminded of +what a wild and remote wilderness the interior of the Okefinokee really +was. + +Several times they halted and carefully examined faint suggestions of a +trail, soon pushing forward again unsatisfied. They had passed the lower +end of the island and were returning up the left-hand side, fearing that +their effort had been fruitless, when they at last came upon what Ted +felt convinced was the object of their search. + +Having followed the trail two or three hundred yards into the jungle, +they retraced their steps to higher ground, after the wiser Ted had +resolutely rejected Hubert's wild proposal that they push on toward +freedom, unprepared as they were and at whatever risk. It was now near +noon and high time to turn their faces toward camp, for they had already +begun to feel sharp hunger. But they were tired after the long and rough +tramp, and Hubert insisted on at least a short rest. So they lay down on +the soft billowy wiregrass in a high and dry spot inclosed on three +sides by tall clumps of palmettos. + +Their rest was short indeed, for Hubert had hardly stretched himself +out, yawning, when Ted heard a rustle in the grass on their left. One +searching glance revealed what appeared to be a wild-cat, crouched +within a few feet of them. As the startled boys sprang to their feet, +the cat's hair stood on end, its eyes flashed with rage and it displayed +its glistening teeth, uttering a low guttural growl. The creature had +evidently been surprised close to its lair, as otherwise it would likely +have made off without show of fight; plainly its back--of dark brownish +gray mottled with black--was up in more than a literal sense. + +Ted caught up his gun and fired, but his hurried aim caused him to miss +his mark even at such close quarters. Before he could shoot again the +cat leaped upon him. The shock carried him to his knees, the now useless +gun slipping from his grasp. As the bounding cat came down, its fore +paws struck the boy's chest and clawed through his coat, the creature +snarling furiously the while and blowing its hot breath into his face. +Ted beheld its fiery eyes only a few inches from his own and his hands +flew to its throat. + +Exerting all his strength, he held the beast off, but could not prevent +the tearing of his clothes and the painful clawing of his arms and body. + +Hubert now came out of his first paralysis of surprise and fright. +Getting out his pocket-knife and opening it as quickly as possible, he +caught the cat by the tail and stabbed it twice in its stomach. Then, +with a maddened snarl, the creature let go its hold on Ted, wrested its +neck from Ted's grasp, and leaped upon Hubert. + +"Grab him by the throat!" shouted Ted, staggering to his feet and +reaching for his gun. + +Luckily his eye fell on the bloody pocket-knife just dropped by Hubert +and he snatched it up instead of the gun, which he now realized could +not be used at such close quarters without risk of killing his cousin. A +moment later the wild-cat was stabbed in its side; then again and yet +again. + +But Hubert was still exposed to the wounded animal's strong sharp claws +which did not relax their hold. So Ted seized the cat's left fore-leg +and pulled with all his might. The throat of the snarling beast, thus +drawn partly away from its victim, was now exposed, and into it Ted +drove the knife to the hilt. + +It was all over after that. The cat ceased to struggle, became limp and +dropped to the ground. The battle had been won, but at no small cost. +Both boys were bleeding from several deep scratches and their coats +were badly torn. As all this became painfully evident, Hubert found +himself unable to keep a firm grip on his lachrymal ducts. + +"I don't want to cry, Ted," he said, as he sat down heavily, drawing +shuddering breaths and raining tears, "but I c-can't help it." + +"You just cry as much as you want to," said the older boy in a +sympathetic voice, adding gratefully: "If it hadn't been for your help +that thing might have scratched my eyes out. Have you noticed that it's +smaller and has a longer tail than the one that jumped into our boat +that morning in the swamp?" he continued. "That one must have been a +lynx and this is just an ordinary wild-cat." + +Ted now proceeded to cut a long, stout, green stick. He then fished some +twine out of his pocket and tied the dead wild-cat's feet together. +Thrusting the stick between its legs, he took one end of it and Hubert +the other. Chatting and even laughing cheerfully, in spite of the pain +of their bleeding scratches, they bore their dearly bought prize between +them along the backbone of Deserter's Island. + +As they approached the camp they saw that several slackers were still +sitting over their noon meal. July was the first to see the boys and +their burden. A few leaps, and he was beside them; a few words, and he +knew the outline of their story. + +"Look yuh, Cap'n Ted," he cried, laughing and gesticulating, "you mean +to say you an' Hubut kill dat wile-cat wid des yo' pocket-knife!" + +"That's what we did," declared Hubert, proudly. + +"Oh, go 'way!" cried July, gleefully. "Well, well, well, if dat don't +beat all!" + +Hardly less enthusiastic were the slackers, who expressed admiration of +the youngsters' pluck and readiness of resource in no mild terms. + +"That's the sort of grit I like to see, boys," said Buck Hardy, showing +great pleasure. "Never mind; I'll fix you up," he added, seeing both +boys wince on being patted on the shoulder. + +He made them strip and washed their wounds, while Al Peters hunted up a +box of healing salve made from bear's marrow, and Bud Jones, producing +needle and thread, neatly darned their torn coats. Even Sweet Jackson +spoke kindly to the boys on hearing the story later. Everybody seemed +determined to make heroes of them and their story, in response to eager +questions, was told and told again. As long as he talked about the +wild-cat adventure and hunting in general, omitting any mention of the +war, Ted noted that he secured universal, willing and pleased attention. +If these young men so highly valued pluck and victory in a mere struggle +with a wild animal, he thought, why could they not thrill in +contemplation of the true glory of shedding one's blood for one's +country in a war against the foes of the world! + +As the boys were eating their dinner, after the dressing of their +wounds, Ted inquired as to the value of wild-cat fur and was told that +it was worth "quite a little." Then, after a few whispered words with +Hubert, he rose and, with quite a grand manner, said: + +"Mr. Hardy, my cousin and I wish to present this pelt to you as a small +token of our appreciation of your kindness to us." + +Following Ted's lead, Buck also was formal in accepting, walking over +awkwardly and shaking hands, as he said: "This sure is nice of you, +boys; I'll think more of that skin than any I ever had." + + + + +XI + + +As the three slackers, Hardy, Peters and Jones, were getting ready to +leave camp and go about their unfinished business of the day, Ted +wondered how he could turn his new popularity to account. With the help +of the greater friendliness the morning's adventure had brought him, +could he not induce the slackers to listen to another appeal as they sat +around the fire that night? With his mind full of thoughts of what he +hoped to be allowed to say, the boy little dreamed that he was to win +even greater renown as a hunter that very afternoon. + +His discovery of a bee tree was what led to the second adventure. While +he and Hubert were bringing in the dead wild-cat they stopped for a +short rest under a tall pine about three quarters of a mile from the +camp. As they sat there, Ted looked up and noted a black, quivering line +against the bright sky that seemed to stream out from the trunk of the +tree just above the lowest branch and about fifty feet from the ground. +His curiosity aroused, the boy rose to get a better look, and then made +certain that the black, quivering line was composed of flying insects. + +"Hubert, look!" he cried. "Those must be bees and this must be a bee +tree." + +Ted now suddenly recalled this incident, as the slackers were moving +away, and, rising, he called out: + +"Oh, Mr. Hardy! I ought to tell you. I think I've found a bee tree." + +The three slackers turned, all attention, and Ted described what he had +seen. A bee tree it certainly was, they all declared; a "mighty good +find, too," for everybody would be "glad of a bait of honey." + +"Come and show it to us right away," proposed Buck Hardy. "We can help +July cut the tree down before we go to the traps, then leave him to +gather and bring in the honey. Do you feel like walking there and back, +son?" + +Ted cheerfully consented, declaring that he was not tired and that his +wounds were no longer very painful. So the whole party, except Hubert +who was now asleep by the fire, started off toward the bee tree, +carrying axes and even buckets, in confident expectation of a +satisfactory yield of honey. + +The distance was not great and Ted soon located the tree, a tall pine +near an inwinding arm of the swamp. But after he had seen the tree +felled and cut into here and there in the search for the wild hive, he +began to feel tired and, turning about quietly, started back toward +camp. He had not gone far when an outcry indicated that honey had been +found, but he did not turn back, telling himself that he could enjoy his +share later. He soon lay down beside Hubert and fell into a deep sleep. + +He was awakened some two hours later by movements of July, who reported +the yield of honey, very small and expressed the conviction that there +were further stores somewhere in the same tree. Ted, who was now rested +and felt but little annoyed by his wounds, proposed that they go back to +the tree and look for more honey. July agreed and the awakened Hubert +was invited to accompany them, but declined. + +So Ted, carrying a repeating rifle belonging to the camp, and July, +carrying an axe and two tin buckets, started off, followed by two dogs. +The felled tree lay across a wiregrass-covered space enclosed on three +sides by clumps of palmettos and a blackjack thicket. Only a few bees +still lingered over the ruins of their hive and there was little danger +of being stung, but July took the precaution of setting fire to a +section of a discarded undershirt with a view to putting them to rout by +means of the thick, stifling smoke. + +Then he cut into the tree at several points and after a half hour of +vain effort declared that it was "no use wastin' any more elbow-grease," +but Ted urged him to further endeavor. The negro obligingly swung his +axe again and very soon cut into a second hollow containing honey, no +doubt connected by a narrow passage with the cavity opened earlier in +the afternoon. The last blow of the axe penetrated the honey itself, +breaking several fine layers of comb and sending the liquid forth in a +slow thick stream. + +While July filled his buckets, Ted took a large piece of the honey-comb +and sat down on a neighboring log to enjoy the feast. + +"Hello! what's up?" the boy cried suddenly, noting that both dogs were +now snuffing excitedly and that the hair on their backs stood erect. + +As if in answer a large black bear appeared, moving clumsily out of the +blackjack thicket and making straight for the bee tree, toward which it +had no doubt been attracted by the scent of the much beloved honey. +Seeing the negro, the boy, and the now snarling dogs, the surprised +animal halted, reared on its hind legs and snorted. + +"Where dat rifle?" cried July, as both he and Ted started to their feet +and retreated a few steps. + +When they reached the bee tree the rifle had been laid aside, Ted +thoughtlessly following the example of the negro who put by all that he +carried in order to be free to swing his axe. Now they saw in alarm that +the rifle lay within a few feet of the bear and could not be reached. At +this discovery panic seized them and they raced to the other end of the +open space, a distance of some fifty yards the negro even forgetting to +snatch up his axe. + +There they knew they were safe enough for the present, for the wildly +barking dogs were between them and the bear, which showed no desire to +advance upon anything but the bee tree, toward which, after getting down +upon its all-fours, it glanced hungrily, seemingly wondering whether +its further progress thither would be opposed. + +Encouraged by shouts from Ted and July, the two dogs grew bolder. They +advanced so close that the bear abandoned the immediate prospect of a +feast and showed fight, growling fiercely and chasing its enemies +backward. But the dogs ever returned to the attack, urged by the +repeated "Sick 'im!" of the negro and the boy, who hoped that the +running fight, if kept up, would bring the rifle safely within their +reach. + +After more than twenty minutes this opportunity was still awaited, for +not much ground was covered in the conflict. The dogs repeatedly raced +forward as if bent on a furious attack, but skipped away as the enraged +animal plunged at them. Having put them to flight, the bear would halt, +and so the coveted weapon remained within the danger zone. + +But at last, harried continually, the bear began to fag and showed a +desire to seek shelter. Having gradually neared the trunk of a pine in +the course of its shiftings of position, it was seen to look up as if +into a haven of refuge. Another rush of the dogs, encouraged by still +louder shouting, seemed to decide the issue. As if weary of the +struggle, the heavy creature rose on its hind legs, embraced the trunk +of the pine, and began to climb, going rapidly upward without rest until +it found itself among the spreading branches more than sixty feet from +the ground. + +Then, with shouts of satisfaction, Ted and July ran forward, the former +reaching the rifle first because the latter halted a moment to recover +his axe. + +"Better gim me dat rifle," said July urgently as he joined the boy. + +"Oh, no," objected Ted; "_I_ want to shoot this bear." + +July yielded only because it was "Cap'n Ted"; any other mere boy could +have retained the weapon only after listening to long and loud protest. +The two circled the pine until they found the point whence the dark bulk +of the bear could be seen most plainly outlined amid the clustering +boughs of the tree's top. + +Ted fired once, twice--six times--and the bear did not move. + +"He must have a bullet-proof hide," the boy panted, loath to admit that +he had missed so often. + +"Better gim me dat rifle, Cap'n Ted. Won't do to waste so much +'munition." + +"Well, didn't the men shoot thirteen times before they brought down that +bear the other night?" + +"I's sho 'fraid you can't hit 'im." + +"Well, I can keep on trying," the now irritated boy said sharply. "_I'm_ +the hunter--not you. You're the _cook_." + +This silenced July, except for continuing expressions of eagerness to +see the finish. The persistent boy kept firing and, at last, at the +eleventh shot, the big game was seen to sway to one side, as if +loosening its grip on the branches. Then the heavy body came crashing +down. + +"I got him! I got him!" cried Ted, wildly excited. + +July fingered the prize, roughly estimating its length and weight, but +Ted was chiefly interested in the five bullet holes in the creature's +side, proving that his aim was much better than at first appeared. + +After they had returned to camp and Hubert had listened appreciatively +to the great news, Ted's elation suddenly gave place to misgiving and +regret. The boy fell silent and looked troubled, as he recalled that the +bear was not needed for food and that the great bulk of its flesh would +be wasted. But when the slackers trooped into the fire-lit circle after +nightfall the boy sprang to his feet and proudly announced: + +"Mr. Hardy, I've got a bear skin for you, if you want it." + +The slackers crowded round and listened in astonishment, most of them +commending and praising the boy in the most generous terms. But, as they +sat smoking round the fire after supper, Sweet Jackson suddenly began to +laugh, sarcastically remarking: + +"_He_ says we mustn't waste a ounce o' meat, but soon's he gets a chance +he shoots a bear, and there's nobody to eat it. Very fine to talk! I've +seen preachers that didn't live up to ther preachin' before to-day." + +Buck Hardy turned upon the scoffer with a look of disgust and scorn, but +Ted was the first to speak. + +"You've got me there, Mr. Jackson," he frankly confessed. "I've been +sorry ever since I did it. I was so excited I didn't take time to +think." + +"How could he help it--with the blood of a man in him?" demanded Buck. + +"I won't do it again," Ted solemnly declared. + +"You won't get a chance," said Jackson, his tone still sneering. "That +was a chance in a thousand." + +Ted then spoke of the meatless and wheatless days urgently recommended +in the President's proclamation of January 18, in order that we might +spare and ship the food sorely needed by our fighting allies in Europe. +His listeners looked their astonishment as the boy outlined the Food +Administration's program: no wheat on Mondays and Wednesdays and at one +meal on the other days of the week; no meat of any kind on Tuesday, no +fresh pork or bacon on Saturday; and rigid economy in the use of sugar +at all times. + +"For goodness' sake," cried Bud Jones, "does he want us to starve so +them people in Europe can have plenty?" + +"You know better than that," Buck quietly retorted. + +"Of course not," said Ted. "There's plenty to eat without wheat bread +and biscuits. What's the matter with corn bread and rye bread and +potatoes and rice and oat-meal porridge?" + +"But how can anybody get along without meat?" asked Al Peters. + +"We don't need it every meal or even every day," said Ted. "We just +_think_ we do. What's the matter with fish and eggs and oysters and a +whole lot of things to take the place of meat?" + +"But everybody can't get all that," objected Bud Jones. "The President +sure has put us on short commons." + +"He wants us all to eat plenty of good food, and we can do it and still +save wheat and meat for our allies if we are not wasteful," insisted +Ted. "But we ought to be willing even to go on 'short commons' in order +to win this war. What we ship to 'them people in Europe,' as you call +our allies, is not thrown away. It goes to feed the men who are fighting +our battle as well as their own. We are all in the same boat. And they +are helping us in other ways. We haven't got enough ships to carry our +soldiers across, but England and France will furnish what we lack. I +read Secretary Baker's report to the Senate--it was ten columns, but I +read it through--and he said we'd have half a million soldiers in France +early this year and that another million would go over by next January. +Some people say it can't be done because we haven't got the ships, but +our allies will give us the ships. Then oughtn't we to save and even +deny ourselves in order to send them wheat and meat? Why, it's just as +plain! We must work together--Americans, English, French and the +rest--to win this war. And here in this country every man must do his +part. We've _got_ to win this war--or be the Kaiser's cattle. Do you +want to cut wood and tote water for the Germans for the rest of your +days?" + +Ted looked around the fire-lit circle. Nobody answered. Again the +situation had become embarrassing. Again Sweet Jackson rose, with a +muttered oath, and went off to bed. Again other uneasy slackers feigned +drowsiness, rose yawning, and promptly followed. + +"Look at 'em," whispered Hubert. "I told you so. You put up a mighty +good talk, but it won't do any good." + +But Ted smiled hopefully, for again Buck Hardy kept his seat. Once more +the big slacker kept the boy by the fire an hour longer, asking many +questions and listening soberly while he answered as best he could. + + + + +XII + + +Ted's greatest wild-animal adventure was so unexpected and astonishing +that it became the subject of wondering comment in the camp for days. +Strange to say, it came within less than twenty-four hours of the +bagging of the bear, after which achievement Buck Hardy, with but little +opposition, gave the boys the freedom of Deserters' Island. + +"From now on," he said at supper, "I want the boys to be free to go +where they please on this island. I won't have a boy as smart and lucky +with a gun as Ted cooped up in this camp. Let the boys hunt this island. +No use hemmin' 'em in too close anyhow. They can't get away, with some +of us takin' the boats every day. They'll think twice before they wade +off in the swamp, not knowin' which way to go." + +So after breakfast next morning Ted and Hubert started off openly, their +little guns over their shoulders and a camp dog, which they had petted +and become fond of, following gladly at their heels. They first walked +down to the lower end of the island and located the jungle trail a +second time. Then they slowly hunted up the left hand side to a point +nearly opposite and less than a mile and a half from the camp. During +all this time they saw practically nothing to shoot, and at last Ted +complained that luck had deserted him. Hubert, always the first to be +discouraged, proposed that they give up the hunt and "cut across" the +island toward camp. + +Still tramping on, loath to surrender, Ted suddenly tripped and fell +over a log, striking the side of his head against a sharp snag. He was +at first slightly stunned and his wound, though but little more than a +scratch, bled freely. What was more serious, he sprained his ankle as he +fell and found it impossible to walk without unbearable pain. After +trying repeatedly, he became quite faint and was forced to lie down. + +"Hubert, you'd better go on to camp," he said breathlessly, "and, if I +don't turn up by dinner time, tell 'em what's the matter. Mr. Hardy will +know what to do--if this pain keeps me from walking all day." + +Ted raised himself on his arm, pointing, anxious to make sure that +Hubert took the right course, and then, as his alarmed cousin started +off at a trot, he fell back exhausted, closing his eyes. All was now +quiet except for the sighing of the breeze in the high pine tops and the +panting of the dog squatting near him. As long as he did not move the +pain in his ankle was eased, and, as the bleeding scratch on the side of +his head troubled him but little, he grew drowsy and in no great while +fell asleep. + +Ted was awakened some time later more by a warning sense of danger than +by certain slightly disturbing sounds. On opening his eyes, he found the +dog standing close to him, the hair on its back erect and its tail +between its legs--both signs of fear. The boy's faithful guardian, with +low growling that was almost a whine, gazed steadily into the faintly +rustling foliage of a water-oak some thirty feet away. The tree stood on +the edge of the low, wet area, its boughs interlacing with the branches +of other trees behind it, these connecting in turn with myriads of +others and thus forming a leafy bridge for miles through the dense, +mysterious, softly whispering swamp. + +While he slept something had come stealthily over this bridge--something +keen of scent, with eyes of hate and knife-edged claws, hungry for +blood--and now a long lank animal of a tawny hue, its twitching tail +uplifted and its small flat head lowered, lay along a limb of the +water-oak watching with green, glaring, cruel eyes as he stirred. + +At first Ted saw nothing to alarm him, but soon he caught sight of a +tail like that of an enormous cat beating back and forth among the +leaves in a manner startlingly suggestive of both restlessness and rage. +He remembered to have heard one of the slackers say that the tail of a +panther twitched in that nervous way when the beast was crouching for a +spring. He remembered also the agreement of all the slackers engaged in +the conversation that no killing of a panther in the Okefinokee had been +reported for years. + +"But that must be one," thought Ted, "and it smelt my blood and is after +me." + +Forgetting his sprained ankle, the boy clutched his gun and started up, +but staggered and dropped to his knees in an agony of pain. On seeing +his master stir, the dog showed more spirit, putting on a bolder front +and barking wildly. + +This seemed to put an end to the suspense. Almost at once the great cat, +snarling fiercely, tore through the leafage surrounding her and +descended toward her intended prey, striking the earth within a few feet +of the dog. + +Ted managed to raise his gun and take aim, but before he pulled the +trigger the panther had leaped again and engaged the dog at close +quarters. To shoot then was to endanger friend as well as foe, and the +boy hesitated. Fearing that mere buck-shot would not serve anyhow and +that the faithful dog was his only protection, Ted painfully crawled +further away, looking back over his shoulder to watch the fierce +struggle between the two beasts, with never a moment's let-up in such +harsh growling and snarling as he had never heard in all his life. + +The contending creatures, fast in each other's grip, rapidly drew +nearer, tearing up grass and brush as they came. Apparently the +panther's object was to shake off the dog and reach the boy, her real +intended prey, and it looked as if she would succeed, for she was larger +as well as much stronger than the battling friend of Ted who braved +her cruel claws in his defense. + + [Illustration: The contending creatures, fast in each other's grip, + rapidly drew nearer] + +In great concern for the dog as well as for himself, the boy again +started to his feet, but again the pain was more than he could bear. He +tottered, fell, and this time a black, quivering sea seemed to engulf +all his senses. When consciousness returned, which was almost at once, +the horrid din bombarded his ears as before, and, as he opened his eyes, +the panther accomplished a resistless rush in his direction, arriving +within perhaps five feet of him together with the heroic dog, which +still refused to be shaken off. + +Ted thought his days were numbered, yet the very thought seemed to +steady his nerves and clear his head. Rising to his knees, he lifted his +gun and watched his chance. The fiercely struggling and snarling beasts +came nearer still, now the panther and now the dog turning a back to the +boy. + +Suddenly, with a coolness that he afterward wondered at, Ted leaned +forward and, seizing the opportunity as it came, put the very muzzle of +his gun against the neck of his enemy and pulled the trigger. + +As the report reverberated through the woods, the panther leaped high in +the air, wresting herself away at last from the grip of the dog's strong +teeth. It looked to Ted as if she would descend directly upon him, and, +as he shrank away, giving himself up for lost, his senses failed him +once more and oblivion followed. + +When he revived and looked around the panther lay still on one side of +him and the dog, cruelly wounded, struggled feebly with a low whining on +the other. A large section of the mighty cat's neck had been literally +torn out by the discharge of the gun at close quarters and there could +be no question that life was extinct. Assured of this, and fearing that +the dog could not survive, Ted put an arm around his faithful savior's +neck and wept. + +It was thus that the boy and the dog were found when, after the welcome +sounds of the rescuing party's nearing halloo, Buck Hardy rushed upon +the scene, followed by Al Peters, Bud Jones, Hubert and July. + +"Are you all right, kid?" asked Buck, gathering Ted up tenderly. + +"_I'm_ all right, but the dog--poor, faithful Spot! Can't you do +something for him, Mr. Hardy?" + +A brush stretcher was hastily constructed and Ted was placed upon it, +but he refused to be borne to the camp by the four men until the wounded +dog had been laid at his side. + +"We'd better hunt around this island tomorrow," remarked Al Peters, as +the four men labored across the island with their burden. "That boy bags +more game right here than we do on our long trips." + +It pleased Ted greatly to overhear this, but his satisfaction was not +complete until, after a careful examination of the cruelly clawed dog at +camp, he was assured that his devoted friend would recover. His own +slight head wound and sprained ankle did not trouble him. After each had +received the most expert attention the sympathetic and admiring camp of +slackers was capable of, it was merely a matter of keeping still +temporarily in order to save himself from pain. + +"What's a little scratch on the head and a sprained ankle," he asked of +the solicitous men about the camp fire that night, "compared with what +our soldiers have to stand--liquid fire and poison gas bombs in the +trenches and submarine torpedoes at sea?" + +"I don't reckon anybody in this war has been up against anything worse +than you was to-day," remarked Buck Hardy, glancing at the panther skin +which had been brought in and hung up in the camp where the lame boy +could see it. + +"Oh, yes, they have," insisted Ted; "but they were not scared the way I +was. Why, our soldiers on the _Tuscania_ stood and sang 'The +Star-Spangled Banner' while the ship was sinking and they were waiting +their turn to get off in the boats. Many of them went to their death +like the greatest heroes." + +Ted then told what he had read about the sinking of this transport some +two weeks before he left his uncle's home in North Carolina to come down +to the neighborhood of the Okefinokee. The slackers had not heard of it +and all listened with great interest. + +"Even women--lots of them--have been up against much worse in this war +than I was to-day," the boy continued. "Think of Miss Edith Cavell, that +lovely English nurse the Germans shot in Belgium." + +As Ted eloquently told the story of the execution of this innocent and +devoted woman, practically all the slackers gave expression to lively +indignation. + +"I wouldn't 'a believed a bunch o' devils would 'a done such a thing, +and _to a lady_ at that!" one voice called out. + +"What do the Huns care about a lady or anything in the world?" cried +Ted. "They treat women as roughly as they treat men. They've carried off +thousands of Belgian and French women and made them slaves. They've +actually made women work in front of their lines under the fire of +French guns. They've herded up women and children in Belgian and French +towns and shot them down. They've carried off hundreds of thousands of +men and women from conquered countries and made them slave night and day +in Germany. The very songs they sing--I've seen translations of some of +them--tell proudly of cruel, barbarous outrages and boast that neither +women nor children are spared. + +"Why, I've seen a list of the atrocities committed by the Germans in +this war that would make your blood boil, that would make you sick," +the boy continued. "And it's the truth--all taken from what they call +'verified official reports,' with as many as ten witnesses for +everything. You see, the Germans believed they were going to conquer the +world, and so many of them didn't care _what_ they did. They massacred +prisoners in cold blood at Ypres and other places. They loot, burn and +often kill as they go. They've nailed people up alive against doors. +They've cut off hands and feet and left the poor creatures alive. +They've filled the streets with dead--not only fighting soldiers but old +men, women and children. They've burned people up in their houses. +They've cut even women to pieces. The way they get all the money in a +captured town is to threaten to kill everybody, and to prove that they +are going to do it they kill a few hundred to begin with. They drive the +helpless people like cattle--drive them out and leave them to starve. +They seem to delight in burning or knocking down churches with their +cannon. They've stuck bayonets in women and boys and girls and pitched +them into the fire of burning houses. The cavalry has tied men and women +to their stirrups and galloped around with them dragging. They throw the +dead into springs and wells. I can't begin to tell you of their awful +doings. They have even stuck their bayonets through little children and +held them up as they walked through the streets." + +After twisting nervously in his seat and breathing hard as he listened, +Buck Hardy now started to his feet with a cry of rage. And then--- as +July described the exhibition later--he "gritted his teeth and shook his +fist and cussed awful." The negro did not exaggerate. Buck Hardy's rage +was as vocal as it was intense. He exhausted all the most picturesque +and crushing profanity he could think of, concluding: "I wish to God I +could get my hands on one o' them devils!" + +It was on the tip of Ted's tongue to say: "Well, then, why don't you go +where you can get a chance to do it?" But a warning nudge from Hubert +reminded him to be discreet in the case of their best friend in the +camp. He also remembered July's advice not to push the big slacker too +hard. And perhaps he didn't need any pushing now; for clearly he was +awakened. So Ted merely watched Buck's signs of incandescent anger with +great joy and said nothing. + +But Buck himself must have seen the thought in the boy's glowing eyes. +He must have sensed something in the general atmosphere of the fire-lit +circle tending to convey to him the startling warning that he had put +himself to the test by his own outburst. At all events he suddenly shut +his lips, turned on his heel, and strode off into the dark woods. + +"The Huns are beastly," Ted then remarked to nobody in particular, "but +after fifty years of training they are fine soldiers and it's no picnic +to down them. That's why our country needs every able-bodied young man +to go on the job." + +An embarrassing moment followed. Ted looked around at the sober-faced +slackers and their eyes fell before him. They had been thrilled, +horrified, stirred with anger and feelings of outrage; but they were not +ready to face the question they feared the persistent and plucky boy +would put to them. They shifted their positions uneasily, began to get +on their feet, and then in twos and threes went hurriedly off to bed, +anxious to escape another direct appeal. + +"You put up a great talk and you sort of got hold of some of them this +time," whispered Hubert; "but you see--as I've told you before--that it +won't do any good." + +"Maybe it will--after a while," said Ted, his eyes still glowing. + +Buck Hardy now reappeared and called back two of the retreating +slackers. With their help, and without a word, he lifted Ted and carried +him up the ladder to his bed in the sleeping-loft. + + + + +XIII + + +Ted heard the slackers leave the sleeping-loft early the next morning, +but he did not stir. He knew that he ought to keep quiet, and, after +reluctantly resigning himself to the necessity, he turned slightly on +his bed of Spanish moss and fell asleep again. When he awoke he was +alone in the loft. A few minutes later July appeared with his breakfast, +telling him that all the slackers had "done gone" and that Hubert was +"frolicin' wid Billy." + +"Mr. Buck Hardy say you mus' stay in dat bed all day," the negro +informed him, adding: "Mr. Hardy sho is hurted in his mind. He don't say +a word hardly. When I woke up late in de night las' night I seen him +standin' out dere by de fire thinkin'. I reckon he studyin' 'bout dat +waw an' all you tole him." + +Buck's reported disturbance of mind was Ted's only comfort during the +long, tiresome day, for he felt confident that he knew the cause and +was hopeful of the issue. Hubert, Billy and July visited him several +times during the day, and at dinner time Buck Hardy, Al Peters and Bud +Jones all spent a few minutes at his bedside, doing their best to cheer +him up; but the boy spent some lonely hours and the consciousness of his +and Hubert's captivity oppressed him as at no time during the previous +days of activity and diversion. What was to be the end of it? Did their +disappearance cause alarm at Judge Ridgway's farm? Had his uncle +returned from Washington, and, if so, what did he think, and what would +he do? + +It was very hard to lie quiet and just think, think, think. But the next +day Ted was glad he had done so, for he found that the complete rest, +aided perhaps by the salve made of bear's marrow, had had a wonderfully +healing effect. He could stand on his injured foot without pain and was +able to walk with a limp. The two succeeding days, spent very quietly +about the camp, were much less hard to endure, and on the fourth day he +was almost himself again. + +Meanwhile there had been talk with the slackers at meal times and about +the camp fire at night, but the boy found little opportunity to speak +of the war. If he introduced the subject the conversation was promptly +diverted into other channels. Ted noticed with discouragement that even +Buck Hardy seemed to wish to hear no more. And so, fearing that after +all he would be able to accomplish nothing, the boy found his thoughts +turning toward plans of escape from captivity as soon as he felt assured +of his ability to stand the strain of hard travel. + +On the fourth morning both boys gladly accepted an invitation from Buck +to make a trip with him in his boat. The big slacker announced at +breakfast that he expected to visit Honey Island and, as their last +harvest of honey was now exhausted, he would keep an eye open for a bee +tree. The island to which they were going had received its name, it +appeared, in consequence of several discoveries of bee trees there. + +July was ordered to prepare a lunch and the three were soon ready to +start. Sweet Jackson observed their preparations narrowly and before +they got off he called two young men known as Zack James and Jim Carter, +aside and urged them to accompany or follow the party. + +"I'm a-scared Buck aims to turn them boys loose," he said. "That +biggity little chap worries him a-carryin' on and exhortin' about the +war the way he does--I kin see it--and I wouldn't be surprised if he +wants to git shed o' them boys. I'd like to git shed of 'em myself, but +it won't do--it ain't safe. You fellows better go 'long to Honey Island +and keep yer eye on them boys." + +The precaution was one in which they were equally interested, and the +two young men readily agreed to go. As he was poling his bateau off from +the shore, Buck was surprised to see them coming down the path, each +with a gun in one hand and a bucket in the other. + +"We aimed to go over that way this mornin', too," Zack James called out. +"Mebby we'd better keep together, Buck, till you find a bee tree, so we +kin holp you cut it down and gether the honey." + +"All right," said Buck, after a keen, appraising look at the two men. + +It was soon evident to all, however, that the "cock of the walk" was +displeased. During the long hard pull of more than two and a half hours +over the boat-road winding through flooded swamp and forest he did not +once speak to James or Carter, although the distance between the boats +was rarely greater than a hundred yards and often not more than a few +feet. But he spoke now and then to the boys, pointing out objects likely +to interest them, usually at moments when their trail-followers were out +of earshot. + +"Honey Island ain't as big as ours," he told them once, casually adding: +"On t'other side from where we'll land there's a good trail that leads +out of the swamp. It's wet and boggy in places, but you don't need a +boat. I reckon I could git out of the swamp in half a day by that +trail." + +Ted wondered how long it would take him and Hubert to reach the outer +world by the same path. They could not attempt it to-day, of course, +even if they found opportunity, because his injured ankle was not yet in +shape to stand hard travel, and he supposed that this probably accounted +for Buck's willingness to mention its existence. He decided that it +would be wise to locate it, if possible, as part of the preparation for +future attempted escape. + +"Hubert," called out Zack James when the island was reached, "pick up +that piece o' rope in yer boat and fetch it along; we'll need it, +mebby." + +The boats had run aground several yards from dry land, and all hands +were now wading out, Hubert being the last to step into the water, +carrying the desired coil of rope. + +"I believe I kin go right to one," said Buck, as soon as they had +struggled through the dense "hammock" and gained the higher level of the +island. "When I was huntin' h-yer week before last I saw lots and cords +of bees, and I watched which way they was flyin'. If I'd 'a had time, I +could 'a spotted one right then." + +No one was surprised, therefore, when little more than an hour later a +bee tree was found. Pausing under a tall pine, the big slacker turned to +his followers and pointed to an almost continuous stream of bees, a dark +line against the bright sky, issuing from an unseen hole in the trunk of +the tree a few inches below the lowest branch, but more than fifty feet +from the ground. + +It was now midday, and before attacking the tree, the party sat down on +the wiregrass and ate the lunch which July had prepared. Then James and +Carter rose and vigorously plied their axes on opposite sides of the +tree. Scarcely had the chips begun to fly when Buck turned to Ted and +said: + +"If you boys want to, you kin take your guns and run around for a little +hunt while we're cuttin' the tree and getherin' the honey." + +"I've seen one bee tree cut already, and I believe I would rather walk +around," said Ted. + +He turned to go as he spoke and promptly disappeared beyond a blackjack +thicket, followed closely by Hubert, who still carried the coil of rope +over his arm. + +"This looks like as good a chance to get away as we may ever have," said +Ted as soon as they were out of earshot. + +"Yes, if we can hurry up and find that half-day trail," Hubert eagerly +agreed. "Do you think your ankle can stand a rush?" + +"No--that's the trouble," answered Ted. "Besides it would be much better +to have July with us, and I believe he'll go when the time comes. Let's +find the trail, though, so that we won't have to lose any time if we get +off by boat and make for this island." + +The watchful James had not failed to note the departure of the boys and +he at once began to show signs of fatigue, drawing his breath very hard, +putting in his strokes more slowly, and finally pausing altogether, with +an exclamation indicating that his exhaustion was complete. + +"Tired out a'ready?" asked Buck contemptuously; and, taking the axe, +which was willingly resigned to him, he began to swing it with great +vigor. + +This was precisely what James desired, and he lost no time in quietly +withdrawing to a point whence he darted into the bushes on the track of +the boys. Half an hour later, as Ted and Hubert hurried forward, leaping +over logs and forcing their way through crowding underbrush, the former +happened to look in the direction whence they had come and distinctly +saw a man leap behind a tree. + +"It's no use, Hubert," he said, pausing. "We can't even find the trail +this trip. Zack James is following us; I saw him jump behind a tree." + +"Then Jim Carter is with him, and they'll stop us before we go far," +declared Hubert. + +"Maybe it's just as well," said Ted philosophically. "We know about +where the trail is, and I was running great risk of spraining my ankle +again." + +They sat down, panting on a log, agreeing to go forward more slowly a +half mile further, and then return to the bee tree, just as if their +trip had been a hunt and nothing more. + +They then rose and moved on, picking their way more cautiously. A few +minutes later Ted halted and signed to Hubert to be quiet, as a crow +suddenly cawed and flew out of a tree two or three hundred yards in +their front. + +"That crow saw something, I'll bet," he whispered, and when what +appeared to be fresh bear tracks were discovered, he added triumphantly: +"I told you so." + +The tracks soon led them into what was doubtless the path of an +aforetime tornado, the ground being crowded with uprooted trees, which +had been thrown across each other at every angle and lay "heaped in +confusion dire." Here the trail was lost, but the boys still cautiously +advanced. + +At the end of another hundred yards, standing on an elevated log and +looking forward, Ted became greatly excited at the discovery, not twenty +feet away, of a small open space covered with a deep drift of pine +needles, in the center of which were two round depressions or beds, some +fifteen inches deep and not less than four feet in diameter. In one of +these were two young bears, apparently asleep while their mother was +away feeding. + +Signing to Hubert to be very quiet but to come quickly, Ted waited until +his cousin stood beside him on the log and had seen what neither was +likely to have the opportunity of seeing again. For, indeed, as the +slackers afterward declared, it was a "find" as remarkable as +unexpected. + +"Don't shoot 'em," whispered Hubert. "Let's catch one of 'em alive and +take it to Billy. We can tie it with this piece of rope." + +"We can try," assented Ted, adding: "I wouldn't shoot the cute little +things." + +Cautiously they stole down the log and stepped upon the soft carpet of +pine needles. A twig snapped under Hubert's foot, whereupon one of the +little bears lifted its head and looked around. Instantly cub number one +got upon its feet with a snort and bolted into the bushes, but before +number two had followed Ted was upon him. + +Letting his gun fall, the boy plunged forward, alighting astride of the +cub's back and grasping its ears with his hands. Uttering a peculiar +sound, partaking both of an angry snarl and a terrified whimper, the +vigorous little beast tried to jump; but Ted successfully held it down, +although the frantic creature tore up the bed of pine needles with its +powerful claws and struggled furiously to get at its captor. + +Hubert made a slip-knot, as he was directed, and passed the rope around +the animal's neck. Then Ted rose, letting the cub go as he seized firm +hold of the other end of the rope. + +"We'd better look out for the old one now," he said warningly. + +Released, the little bear ran away with great speed, dragging the boy +after it along a path which fortunately led out into the more open pine +woods and in the direction of the bee tree. Snatching up Ted's gun, +Hubert followed, looking about apprehensively for "the old one." + +As long as the cub ran in the right direction, no effort was made to +check it; but before a great while it turned off abruptly to the right, +and then Ted had to exert all his strength to drag it after him. Perhaps +even his best efforts would have been unavailing, had not Hubert, who +covered their retreat, carrying both guns, frightened the little bear +from behind with a frequent shove of his foot. + +Within a few minutes Buck Hardy became aware of the absence of Zack +James and suspected its cause, but went on cutting into the bee tree +without a word. When James reappeared three-quarters of an hour later +his trivial excuses were accepted without comment. By this time the pine +had been felled, the hollow was located, and now, protected from the +angry bees by the smoke from burning rags, the three men proceeded to +cut into the tree and secure the stores of honey, a job that was about +complete when Ted and Hubert appeared. + +James had followed the boys far enough to become convinced that they +were not running away and were really in pursuit of game; but his +surprise was as great as that of the other men when the two young +hunters came noisily into view, dragging the little bear after them. + +"Well, this beats it all!" exclaimed Buck Hardy, dropping a bucket of +honey and going to meet them. + +As the boys hastily told their story in outline, Zack James walked up, +smiling, and congratulated them. + +"I saw you following us," Ted said to him, with a keen glance. "If you +had stayed, you could have helped us bring in the cub." + +"Who, me? I was jus' lookin' out for another bee tree," was the man's +answer, but he dropped his eyes before Buck's haughty stare. "Let's +hurry to the boats before the old one comes," urged Ted. "It would be a +pity to have to kill the mother after taking the baby--and we don't need +the meat." + +"But some of us would like to have another bear skin," remarked Jim +Carter. + +"All right, kid," said Buck, taking no notice of Carter's suggestion. +"We're through, and we'll go." + +And go they did, carrying the honey and forcing the captive cub along as +fast as they could. James and Carter followed reluctantly, looking back +and listening as they came; but at the landing place Buck stood aside +and waited for them to get afloat first and take the lead on the return +trip. Still more reluctantly they did this, not wishing a quarrel with +the "cock of the walk." + +The two disappointed men were out of sight around a bend of the +boat-road, and Buck and the boys were following with their prize when +they heard a crash in the brush on shore and saw a full-grown bear come +rapidly along the path, its nose seemingly bent to the scent. Buck +started and gripped his gun, the hunter's instinct strongly astir within +him. + +"Oh, please don't shoot," whispered Ted. "These bears are not dangerous +unless attacked; they don't have to be killed on sight like panthers. It +would be such a waste." + +"All right, kid; it's your bear," assented Buck, and sent the boat +gliding round the bend before it was seen by the heavy creature hurrying +on their trail. + + + + +XIV + + +Great was the delight of Billy, and outspoken the admiration and +surprise of all, when Ted and Hubert dragged their prize into the camp +on Deserters' Island. Everybody seemed pleased except Sweet Jackson. +While the latest slackers to arrive were questioning and complimenting +Ted around the camp fire after supper, Jackson began to laugh in a +sneering sort of way and presently remarked to nobody in particular: + +"_He_ says if we waste a ounce o' meat we won't be able to whip them +Germans. Then he kills a bear when we don't need the meat and right on +top o' that he ketches a young cub. Very fine to talk! I've seen +preachers that didn't live up to ther preachin' before to-day." + +Ted broke the silence that followed. + +"I confessed I was wrong the other time," he said, "but I thought this +was different. We could have shot the mother, but we didn't. As for the +cub, even if we can't tame it it can be kept until it is needed for +food. Do you think it can be tamed, Mr. Hardy?" + +"Don't worry, kid; you're all right, whether you can tame it or not," +said Buck, after a steady look at Sweet Jackson that produced a +noticeably sobering effect. "I saw a bear cub chained to a pole near a +shanty on Billy's Island once, but it looked mighty wild and thin and +down-in-the-mouth. I don't reckon they can be tamed without the help of +one o' them circus men who knows how. This one's pretty apt to die--if +it don't get away." + +Ted looked very serious and fell silent. He lingered about the fire only +until he had asked for news about the war from one "Mitch" Jenkins, a +young man who had fled to the Okefinokee to escape the new draft, +joining the other slackers at their camp only that afternoon. Finding +that the newcomer had no news to impart of any importance, Ted soon +confessed that he was tired and went off with Hubert to bed, there to +lie awake a long while. + +As soon as he was assured by their heavy breathing and snoring that the +slackers were all asleep, the boy crept to the door in the floor, +quietly put down the ladder and descended. Fifteen minutes later he was +back in his bed. In the morning there was quite a commotion when it was +discovered that the cub had escaped, although supposedly it was +altogether secure. Nobody noticed that Ted did not look surprised. The +boy kept his secret, regretting his act only at moments in the presence +of the hapless Billy's grief. + +Ted consoled the quickly forgetful half-wit with the present of a silver +quarter, and soon gave all his thought to more important matters. For +after breakfast July called him aside and said with a very serious face: + +"Come go wid me to de turkey pen; I got sump'n to tell you." + +"I haven't seen Mr. Hardy this morning," remarked Ted, as he walked away +from the camp with the negro. + +"Dat's what I got to tell you. He on his way out de swamp. Dat new man, +Mr. Jinkins, brung de news dat Mr. Hardy's ma sick, an' bright an' early +dis mawnin' he started out. An' what's mose as bad, Mr. Peters an' Mr. +Jones gone wid 'im to fetch in some supplies. Dem three treats me de +bes' of all of 'em in dis camp, an' dey's yo' bes' friends, too." + +A sudden heart-sinking caused Ted's voice to be shaken as he asked when +they expected to get back. + +"Mr. Peters an' Mr. Jones say dey comin' right back--in two, three days. +But how you gwine to calkilate on Mr. Hardy?" July stopped in his tracks +and gazed solemnly into Ted's eyes. "Sposen his ma keep sick an' he stay +dere till she die or git better? An' while he waitin', sposen dey grab +him an' sen' him to do waw? We'd never see him yuh no mo'." + +Ted's face brightened momentarily and he said: + +"If--if I thought he would go to the war willingly, I--I could give him +up." + +"You sho is a cap'n," said July, looking down on the boy with +admiration, "for I reckon you know it'll be mighty diffunt in dis camp +wid Mr. Hardy gone." + +"I know," said Ted, very serious. "I've been thinking about it." + +"Fum de very fust day he stan' between you boys and dat rough crowd. +An' dat puts me in mind o' what I got to tell you." + +July suddenly fell silent. They were now near the turkey pen or trap, +and a fluttering of wings against its bars showed that their trip was +not to be without substantial gain. Two wild turkeys were captive in the +pen. Having taken these out with much elation, clipped their wings, tied +their feet together, and scattered more shelled corn to attract fresh +victims, July lifted his fluttering burden, started on the backward +track, and resumed: + +"De las' words Mr. Hardy say to me was, 'July, tek good care o' dem +boys,' and I aim to do my level bes' right now. Cap'n Ted, lem me give +you a piece o' advice: don't you go to talkin' to dem t'other mens 'bout +dat waw, let 'lone exhortin' and shamin' 'em like de way you done. Hit +won't do; hit won't begin to do. You sho must know dat yo'self." + +"I understand," said Ted, gloomily. + +"If Mr. Peters an' Mr. Jones was dere, you might say a little, but +better be careful any time. I kin keep you boys in good vittles, but I +can't keep dem mens fum cuffin' you round if dey git mad. So, do please +'member what I tell you." + +After Ted had gratefully thanked him July went on to express the +conviction that if Buck had not gone away in such a great hurry he would +have left the boys better protected; he would have insisted that Peters +and Jones stay at the camp in his absence and that two other men go out +for the supplies. + +"But I reckon he was so worried 'bout his ma dat he couldn't think of +eve'thing. He didn't forgit you, dough. He tole dem mens he wanted to +take you-all out wid 'im. He say you been in dis swamp long enough an' +you ought to be home. But dey wouldn't hear to it and dey voted him +down. He was too worried an' busy gittin' ready to tussle wid 'em long, +so he give up. But he tole 'em if anything happen to you boys while he +gone dey'd have to answer to him." + +"He's a gentleman," said Ted. "I can't understand why he ever came into +this swamp, but I know what he is." + +"So dat's de way it stans," said July, as they were approaching the +camp. "Now, Cap'n Ted, you tell Hubut all I tole you, an' den you boys +mus walk easy an' watch out. If anybody starts sump'n, don't let it be +you." + +Ted soon found opportunity to tell Hubert and was surprised to find that +his cousin received the news more or less cheerfully. + +"Now we may be able to get away from here," said Hubert. "I've wanted to +go all the time, but you had notions in your head and were never ready. +I liked your spunk, Ted, and I thought the way you talked to the +slackers was fine; but I knew it would never do any good, and I thought +it was foolish for us not to run away at the first chance." + +"I wanted to try to do a little to help win the war," said Ted, rather +pathetically, as if by way of excuse for error, as if wondering whether, +after all, Hubert had been right and he had been wrong. + +He sighed deeply, lacking in sufficient experience of life to know that +even the greatest souls have moments of depression wherein they are +doubtful as to whether the very purest and highest aspiration or +endeavor is worth while or even justifiable before the bar of good +sense. + +"We must get ready and watch for our chance," said Hubert, and Ted, +sighing again, uttered no word of dissent. + +That day, devoted in considerable part to the discussion of plans, +passed without important incident. The slackers came and went, the boys +kept mostly to themselves, discreetly remaining within the borders of +the camp, and there was peace. But at supper they noticed a studied +coolness toward them, particularly in the larger group of which Sweet +Jackson was the center. While the boys spoke and acted with all +discretion, Jackson stared at them often, talking in a low voice to +those about him. His grudge against Ted was plainly visible and he +seemed to be trying to stir up the other men against him. The boys went +off to bed early, much troubled in mind. At the camp fire the next night +Sweet Jackson deliberately stepped out of his path in order to hook his +toe under Ted's outstretched leg and give it a rude and vicious shove. + +"Why can't you keep yer feet out o' the road?" he shouted angrily. + +"Why don't you do that to a man of your size?" cried Ted in hot +indignation. + +"_Size_ don't bother me when I get good and mad," declared Jackson +menacingly. + +"Oh, Billy, don't you want to play a game!" called out Hubert in the +most cheerful voice. "Come on, Ted." + +Then Hubert jerked Ted to his feet and pulled him away in the direction +of the imaginary Billy, who was, in fact, nowhere to be seen. "_Don't_ +answer him back," whispered the younger boy urgently. "If you do, we'll +have trouble. Keep away from him!" + +Thus the incident passed and with it any immediate danger, thanks to +Hubert's ready and resolute interference. + +The next day at breakfast and dinner July served the boys after the +slackers had eaten and scattered--at Hubert's suggestion. And at supper +he fed them with Billy at the cook-camp fire about forty feet apart from +the fire around which the slackers ate and lounged. Sweet Jackson +observed the new arrangement with a mocking smile, looking over at the +cook-camp often as he talked merrily with those about him. + +"That's right," he called out once. "Stay there with the nigger, where +you belong." + +Ted started up, furious, but Hubert hung upon him on one side and Billy, +giggling and thinking it was a kind of game, hung upon him on the other. + +"_Don't!_" warned Hubert. + +And then, as several of the slackers spoke up in protest, Jackson made +no further hostile demonstration. + +Too outraged to speak, or even to think clearly, Ted soon rose and +almost literally staggered off to bed. + +"We'll have to go--to-day or to-night," were his first words to Hubert +next morning, after a sleepless night. + +This was at breakfast, after the slackers had scattered. He had +purposely stayed in bed late in order to avoid them. He now spoke while +the negro noisily cleaned his pots. + +"Well, I've pumped July about all the trails leading out he knows of," +said Hubert, "and all we've got to do is to make a choice and beat it at +the first chance." + +Suddenly the negro turned from his pots and planted himself in front of +the two boys, his face very serious. + +"Cap'n Ted," he began, "you reckon I kin 'pend on what you said 'bout +gittin' a cook's job behind de lines in dat waw?" + +"I can't say for certain, July, but I think you can." + +"Well, I got to tek de risk anyhow," the negro announced with an air of +finality. "I's gwine out o' dis swamp. I's done wid dat gang o' white +trash. I got my dose. I gwine out wid you boys." + +"That's great," cried Hubert. "But what's happened, July?" + +"Dis mawnin' when I was workin' de bes' I knowd how an' givin' dem men +good vittles, dey up an' made fun o' my hair. Dat-ere Sweet Jackson +'lowed dat a nigger wasn't a rale human pusson because, stid o' hair, he +had wool on his haid. Den dey all looked at me an' laughed till dey +shook. I wished I could 'a' tole 'em dey was a liar and a-busted 'em +wide open!" + +"That was very unkind," said Ted, struggling hard, as did Hubert, not to +laugh. + +"I reckon you boys done had all you want o' dat gang yo'sef," said July, +"an' in as big a hurry to git away fum yuh as I is." + +"Yes," agreed Hubert. "This is the fourth day and Mr. Peters and Mr. +Jones haven't come back. There's no telling _when_ Mr. Hardy will come. +Even Ted hasn't anything to stay for now." + +"I wanted so much to try to wake up some of the slackers and make them +see," said Ted, "but I'm afraid I can't do anything now. I give up," he +concluded, a big tear rolling down one cheek. + +"Cap'n Ted, honey, don't you worry," said July, with sympathy. "You done +yo' bes' and dat's all a man kin do. It look' to me sometimes like you +was gwine to git Mr. Hardy an' maybe Mr. Peters, but you couldn't 'a' +done nothin' wid dat white trash left yuh in dis swamp. If dey was +_dragged_ to de waw dey would des lay down an' let de Germans walk on +'em. I use' to hear a white gen'l'man say, 'you can't mek a silk purse +out'n a sow's ear,' an' I putty nigh busted my head tryin' to understan' +what he meant, but I knows now he was talkin' 'bout des sich trash as +dat. Don't you worry, Cap'n Ted; de President an' de gov'ment'll tek +care o' dat waw." + +"We haven't any time to waste," spoke up Hubert impatiently, proposing +that they at once decide on a plan and begin to get ready. He asked the +negro if they could run away that very day. + +July replied promptly that it wouldn't do to attempt to escape in the +day time because since Mr. Hardy's departure the camp had been +continually under observation from morning till evening. He said the +break for freedom would have to be made at night "when dey ain't +expectin'." With this much settled, they went on to discuss routes, and +decided that a game of hide-and-seek led by Billy should be the form of +camouflage masking their start on their road that night after supper. + +The boys were still discussing plans when the majority of the slackers +came into camp for dinner, and, as the new man, Mitch' Jenkins, passed +near where they sat, Ted suddenly got upon his feet and asked eagerly +for news from the Russian front. + +"Now just look at him," muttered Hubert impatiently. "Will I ever get +him away from this place?" + +"Oh, Mr. Jenkins," began Ted, in his politest manner, just as if nothing +disagreeable had occurred, "I've been wanting to ask you if, before you +came in, you heard whether Germany and Russia had made peace or not." + +"I didn't hear no talk of it," said Jenkins, eying the boy curiously. + +"They had been about to make peace," said Ted, "but just before I came +in here they were on the point of going to war again. It was reported +that the Russians had threatened to kill 1,500,000 German prisoners of +war if the Kaiser marched his army on Petrograd. That would have been +perfectly awful, but it's just the kind of thing the Germans themselves +did in Belgium and France. I hope they haven't made peace; it's best for +us for them to keep on fighting." + +"You take a heap of interest, for just a boy, in that war 'way off +yonder," said Jenkins, his manner not unfriendly. + +"Everybody ought to take an interest, for we are in the fight, too, you +know," said Ted, forgetting and becoming argumentative. "Why, don't you +see, if the Germans whip all Europe and get England's fleet, they'll +come right over here and attack us, and wherever they land our people +will have to stand all the terrible things the Belgians and the French +have had to stand." + +"Here you are a-talkin' about that war again!" stormed Sweet Jackson, +who had walked up in time to hear a few words. + +"Look h-yer, Jackson, I don't see nothin' the matter with this boy," +said Jenkins, his tone sharp and his look steady. "Why are you so sot +agin him? He jes' asked me if two of them fightin' countries had made +peace." + +"Oh, well--if that was all," said Jackson more quietly, yielding before +unexpected belligerence. + +"Thank you, Mr. Jenkins," said Ted politely, and turned away. + +"That's a nice, polite kid," said Jenkins to one of the slackers a few +moments later. "What's all the row about anyhow?" + +"But you ain't heard him exhortin' and shamin' us runaways yet." + +"Did he do that? Well, that's a cat of another color. But he sure is a +spunky kid." + +After supper that night, as the slackers told yarns and joked about the +camp fire, Billy, who had been craftily stimulated, seemed unusually +wide awake and repeated nursery rhymes and "rigmaroles" by the dozen. +Taking Hubert's hand in his, he touched the fingers one after another, +repeating, "Little man--ring man--long man--lick pot--thumpkin." Then, +tweaking the toes of his own bare feet, he merrily recited: "This little +pig wants some corn; this one says, 'Where you goin' to git it?' This +one says, 'In master's barn.' This one says he's goin' to tell. This one +says, 'Queak!--queak!--can't git over the door-sill!'" + +Touching first Hubert's index finger and then his own as each word was +uttered, Billy went on: "William Ma-trimble-toe; he's a good fisherman; +catches hens, puts 'em in pens; some lays eggs, some lays none; wire, +briar, limber-lock; sets and sits till twelve o'clock; O-U-T spells +'out'--go!" + +Thus was started the camouflage game of hide-and-seek, Ted at once, and +July a little later by invitation, joining in the sport. It was a bright +moonlight night, and no one seemed sleepy. The slackers stopped telling +their yarns and watched the game, the seemingly joyful laughter of the +boys and the negro affecting them agreeably. The fun was so contagious +that several of the younger slackers, yielding to the fascination of it, +joined in the game. + +"Ten--ten--double ten--forty-five--fifteen hundred--are you all hid?" +shouted Billy in great glee and with an air of vast importance. And such +whooping and running and hiding in far dark recesses as followed! + +"Now's de time!" whispered July, when the fun was at its height, and he +and Ted and Hubert had run off and squatted together behind the same +clump of palmettos. + +According to the plan agreed to, the negro was now to run down to the +landing-place, step into the water and hide all the boats as far out in +the thick growth of the submerged swamp as he dared to go, thus +conveying the impression that the fugitives had escaped by way of the +great marsh. + +The course of the game now compelled the conspirators to separate and +return to headquarters; but as soon as the next rush for cover was made +the boys saw the negro dart away in the direction of the landing, and +until he returned they played more enthusiastically and noisily than +ever in order to distract attention from his absence. When he reappeared +at last his trousers were wet to the knees, but this did not seem to +attract notice. It was understood that the first rush for cover in the +game after his return was to begin the dash for freedom. + +So when the boys saw the negro again dart away along the path into the +swamp-cane, they followed fast with throbbing hearts, arriving at the +boat-landing before Billy had finished the last recitation of his +"rigmarole." There Ted and Hubert were given their guns and July +snatched up a bucket of food--all of which he had cunningly conveyed +thither since the beginning of the game. The negro promptly stepped into +the water and bade the boys follow. + +"Got to wade round a piece to fool dem dogs," he whispered. + + + + +XV + + +July led the boys about fifty feet from the shore along the open +boat-road, then turned to the right into the thick growth and skirted +the island for several hundred yards before landing again. This was no +trifling undertaking. The water in many places rose over their knees, +and was thick with drift and moss; the bottom was often boggy, and the +dense swamp growth forced them to a tortuous route. Moreover, little +light descended from the moon among those crowding trees. + +"Ten--ten--double ten!" they faintly heard Billy still shouting as they +landed, glad to know that as yet their absence had not caused alarm. + +Flight across the "prairie" had been voted down because they could take +only two boats and rapid pursuit would be inevitable. The trail leading +out from Honey Island attracted them, but the boat trip thither was +difficult and impossible to follow by night. So they had chosen the +jungle trail leading from the lower end of Deserters' Island which the +boys had located on the day they killed the wild-cat. The boats had been +hidden and they had waded some distance in order to convey a wrong +impression as to their real design and delay pursuit. + +Halting to listen a few minutes after they landed, they distinctly heard +the names of Ted and July called, and knew that at last they were +missed. After a few minutes, as they hurried on their way, another shout +reached them; and after a brief silence several sharp short yelps from +the dogs were heard. + +July leaped forward at the sound, urging the boys to haste. The darkness +was bewildering until they emerged from the "hammock" and gained the +more open pine woods forming the backbone of the island. Here the +moonlight filtered through the scattering tops of the tall pines and +they could distinguish prominent objects fifty feet away. Even here, +however, rapid headway was difficult owing to the blackjack thickets and +crowding clumps of the fan-palmetto preventing a straight course. There +was a faint trail leading for some three miles toward the lower end of +the island, but there was no time to search for it, and they pushed +ahead in the general direction as best they could. + +An hour later, descending at last into the dense "hammock" growth +joining the swamp and the island's lower end, they halted to listen. All +was deathly still, at least in the direction of the slackers' camp; but +the quiet of the dark slumbering swamp in their front was suddenly +broken by the dismal hoot of an owl. + +Ted urged that they search for the jungle trail he and Hubert had +located and, having found it, push far into the swamp before break of +day; but July's courage now failed him and he objected. He said it was +dangerous to push into the swamp at night, as indeed it was; that they +might sink into a bog over their heads, might walk blindly into a nest +of moccasins, or might be set upon by a panther. + +"The great trouble is that you are both right," said Hubert. + +"Dem mens won't start down dis-a way till daylight," said July. "Dey +won't find out we ain't in de boats till mawnin' an' we kin git a big +start on 'em on de swamp trail. Less stay up dere in dem open pines +till daybreak." + +They paused a few moments, undecided. Suddenly from the dark depths of +the swamp in their front a strange cry was borne to their ears, an +indescribable cry that made their flesh creep. + +"What's that?" whispered Hubert. + +"Mus' be a pant'er," was July's whispered response. + +The cry was heard again, more mysterious and startling than before. Then +July bolted up the slope and was followed by the boys into the more open +pine woods where the moonlight outlined all objects within their near +view. July wanted to build a fire, but Ted would not consent to such +imprudence, and finally it was agreed that they sit down with their +backs to a large pine and watch until daylight. + +All was now quiet and gradually they recovered from their fright. It was +balmy spring weather, but they felt the chill of the night air. With a +view to their greater comfort, July rose and tore down a couple of +armfuls of Spanish moss that thickly wreathed a near-by blackjack +thicket. When their legs were covered with this they were warm enough, +but now found it increasingly difficult to sit upright and alert. Soon +drowsiness overcame July, his head dropped on his breast and he began to +snore. Ted roused him several times only to see him relapse into +insensibility a few moments later. + +Soon Hubert also was asleep, and, after watching for perhaps an hour +longer, Ted himself succumbed. Later, as he struggled to rouse himself +and opened his eyes, he saw that the moon was low and concluded that all +was well. As he drifted back toward dreamland he thought he heard a yelp +or two from distant dogs, but was too benumbed by drowsiness to give +heed. Possibly the dogs of the far camp had started on the trail of some +animal, but what could this matter to the three sleepers under the pine? +This half-thought itself was soon gone and the boy lay still, +undisturbed by even a dream. + +When Ted awoke it was daylight, and the dogs were leaping about him and +barking. Several men were at hand, too; and the one nearest, who looked +down at the sleepers with a triumphant grin, was Sweet Jackson. + +They were caught! And what else could they have expected? The events of +the night leaped forth from the boy's memory to shame him. If only they +had not been such cowards and sleepyheads! + +"Don't hurt them boys! You can't blame 'em for tryin' to get away," +called Mitch' Jenkins sharply, as Sweet Jackson began kicking July to +wake him. + +Ted hurriedly wakened Hubert and they both rose to their feet, turning +away their indignant eyes from the severe kicking and cuffing bestowed +upon July before he was allowed to rise. + +"Thought you'd give us the slip along with them boys, did you?" shouted +Sweet. "_I'll_ teach you to give notice before you quit yer job." + +"He's got a right to go home and so have we," cried Ted indignantly. +"And some day you'll pay for this!" + +"Shut up," cried Jackson, turning upon Ted--"if you want me to keep my +hands off of you!" + +"You let that boy alone," said Mitch' Jenkins, a distinct menace in his +tone, and the bully subsided. + +Then, being ordered to march and to "be quick about it," the prisoners +started toward camp, Ted silent and thoughtful, Hubert crying softly, +and July with a face of gloom. Their captors followed, laughing and +jesting as they came. + +When the camp was reached July proceeded to cook breakfast, as ordered, +and the boys stood and watched as the slackers set about building a +"prison"--a sort of pen of heavy saplings--in which they announced that +the negro would hereafter be locked up at night. What disturbed all of +the captives perhaps even more than this was the order given to July, +with threats of punishment, to "keep away from them boys" in the day +time. + +The building of the prison-pen occupied the slackers until near noon, +and, while they were waiting about camp for their dinner, Mitch' Jenkins +proposed that they "knock off" work that afternoon and "have a little +fun out of a gander-pulling." Jenkins had brought a live gander on his +march into the swamp because, as he explained when he reached the camp, +he had failed to lay hands on a couple of fat chickens. + +"But we ain't got no horses nor no race track," objected Zack James. + +"Oh, we'll just swing him up and run round and grab him on foot. It's +been done that way. Anything for a little fun." + +This proposal having been adopted, preparations for the sport were begun +immediately after dinner. From the stout limbs of two neighboring trees +branching out some six or eight feet apart a rope was loosely swung, and +to this the gander's feet were securely tied, so that the fowl's neck +hung within easy reach of a man of average height. Before the squawking +bird was hung up its neck was thoroughly greased, both operations being +strenuously objected to and jealously watched by Billy, who had already +adopted the gander as one of his pets. + +All hands having gathered at the spot, Jenkins, the leading spirit of +the festivity, passed round a hat and took up a collection of coins as a +prize for the as yet unknown victor. The two boys, Billy and July formed +the party of spectators, all the slackers, now only six in number, +proposing to enter the contest. Lots having been drawn in order to +determine who should have the first trial, the second, the third, and so +on, Mitch' Jenkins announced the opening of the sport. + +"Everything is lovely and the goose hangs high," he shouted. +"Gentlemen--let 'er go!" + +Thereupon Sweet Jackson, who had drawn the first lot, took position +about fifty feet away and at a given signal started forward at a rapid +run. As he neared the swinging gander, his right hand was thrust upward, +and he endeavored to seize the fowl by its neck. But in this he failed, +the gander cunningly twisting its head out of reach. + +A loud guffaw went up from the on-looking slackers as this signal +failure was witnessed. Jim Carter then ran forward and grasped at the +neck of the swinging fowl with no better success. The turn of Zack James +followed. He succeeded in seizing the gander's neck, and, but for the +treacherous grease, its head would have accompanied him in his onward +rush. Released, the unhappy bird swung back and forth, hissing and +squawking in an extremely ludicrous yet pathetic manner, exciting the +laughter of the slackers, the pity of the boys and the angry protest of +Billy. + +"Quit it! Quit it, I tell you! You-all let my gander alone!" cried the +witless young man again and again as the contest continued. + +Once he ran forward and tried to take the fowl down, but retired, +whimpering, on receiving a resounding box on the ear from Jackson. + +After all hands had made several trials and the gander's greasy neck had +received a number of rude wrenches, the poor fowl held its head less +high, ceased to hiss, and squawked more plaintively than ever. The game +was easier now, and almost every contestant succeeded in grasping the +neck as he ran past, but always failed to retain his hold. + +At last, after the contest had continued for more than an hour and a +half, and the object of the cruel sport had almost ceased to make any +outcry whatever, Zack James leaped upward as he ran by and grasped the +neck of the fowl near its breast. As his body was carried onward by the +force of its momentum, his tightly gripped hand slipped rapidly along +the gander's neck, but paused at its head. For one moment the man's body +swung from the ground, his whole weight supported by the neck of the +still living fowl. It was then that he gave his hand a vigorous twist. +The next moment he pitched forward on his feet, carrying the gander's +head in his grasp. + +At this moment Ted seized the opportunity offered by the universal +preoccupation of the slackers to speak earnestly to Hubert. In spite of +their disapproval of such cruel sport, both boys had been absorbingly +interested in the contest, but now Ted's thoughts returned to the +problem of escape from Deserters' Island. Declaring that another attempt +should be made that night, he urged Hubert to be watchful and ready. +Then, stepping cautiously to the side of the negro, whose eyes were +fastened on the now noisily disputing slackers, the boy said: + +"We must try it again to-night, July." + +"Don' know 'bout dat," said the negro doubtfully. "Better wait. Dey'll +be watchin' us too close." + +"That's it; they won't be expecting it to-night, and that's the very +reason we ought to have a good chance." + +This view of the matter promptly appealed to the negro, who ceased to +object and listened attentively to the boy's suggestions. + +"Get ready on the sly," urged Ted. "Put a bucket of food where you can +lay your hands on it, and late in the night we'll slip out of the loft +and let you out of your pen." + +"All right, Cap'n Ted; I'll be ready, an' if I's sleep, des gimme a +punch in de ribs." + +Then they moved quickly away from each other and gave their attention to +the loudly contending slackers. + +"And _I_ say Mr. James gits the prize," cried Mitch' Jenkins. + +He detached himself from a noisy group as he spoke, stepped to the side +of the waiting victor and poured the collection of coins into his hand. + +"He didn't git it fair," declared Sweet Jackson, in loud, angry tones. +"Who _can't_ wring off a gander's neck if he swings on to it that-a +way?" + +"We all had the same chance to do what he did," argued Jenkins, +good-humoredly. "The trouble was we couldn't keep our grip." + +"I say hit wan't done fair!" repeated Jackson, in great anger. + +Flushed with victory, James did not pause to calculate consequences and +now gave his accuser the lie, which, in local parlance, was equivalent +to the "first lick." + +Sweet Jackson's face turned livid, and, whipping out a large +pocket-knife, he leaped toward James. Almost at the same instant +Jenkins and Carter sprang toward Jackson from opposite sides, but the +uplifted blade descended before James had protected himself and ere the +interference was made fully effective. Although Jackson's arm was +seized, the point of the knife deeply grazed the left cheek of the +prize-winner. A moment later the staring spectators noted a rapidly +expanding streak of red. The murderous but fortunately arrested blow had +done only slight damage, yet the free flow of blood imparted a harsh and +startling reality to the forbidding scene, the horror of which was +intensified by the effect on Billy. + +"Oh, yes, Zack James, see now what you got for pullin' off my gander's +head!" cried the witless young man triumphantly, capering about and +giggling. "See what you got now! I wish my gander knowed it. I'll bet he +does know, too. Anyhow he'll know by and by and he'll laugh. He'll have +a good laugh." + +"Stop that!" commanded Jenkins, turning a shocked and stern face toward +the untimely merrymaker. + +Then Billy subsided, watching as silently as the other spectators while +Jackson was forced away in one direction and James in the other, both +cursing with great fury, and each vowing that he would take the life of +the other. + + + + +XVI + + +The two boys and the negro remained motionless in their places, +wondering what would happen next, until Billy cut down the body of the +headless gander and was about to bear it away. Then July interfered. + +"Gim-me dat gander, boy," he said, laughing. "Quit yer foolin' an' gwine +on. We got to hab dat gander for supper." + +James now sat with his back to a pine, and Jenkins was bending over him +and wiping away the blood with a wet handkerchief. The latter, seeing +that the cut was little more than a painful scratch, began to jest and +laugh, the atmosphere of tragedy being thus quickly dispersed. Having +salved the wound, predicting a speedy healing, Jenkins turned to seek +Jackson and "give him a talking to." The "knife-slinger" was pointedly +informed that if he wanted to have a single friend left in the camp, he +had better keep a grip on himself in future. Listening to this forcible +utterance of common sense, Jackson rapidly cooled down, ceasing his +profane and threatening speeches. + +And so, in spite of the violent termination of the festive +gander-pulling, the slackers soon recovered their wonted spirits. After +supper, with the exception of the wounded man who went immediately to +bed, they sat about the fire and joked, sang corn-shucking songs, and +drank corn-beer, in the greatest possible good humor. + +But July smiled covertly and shook his head, as soon as he found +opportunity thus forcibly expressing himself: + +"Look yuh, Cap'n Ted, I got to git away fum dis place befo' somebody +draw a knife on me an' cut my throat." + +"We'll get away to-night," said the boy confidently. + +"We got a good chance," assented July. "After all dat jollification dem +mens'll sleep hard, cep'n it's Mr. James wid dat cut face. You better +look out for _him_. You better not move a foot till 'way late 'bout two +o'clock." + +Hubert fell asleep soon after they had lain down on their bed of moss in +the corner of the loft, but Ted lay awake for hours, listening and +waiting. He had been rendered the more anxious by a suggestion that was +made as the slackers were taking off their shoes and preparing to lie +down. + +"Don't you reckon we'd better tie them boys?" proposed Sweet Jackson. + +"Oh, no," answered the more humane Jenkins. "They've had their lesson." + +Jackson did not seem to think it necessary to insist and the boys were +left in freedom of hand and foot, to their great relief. But the +restlessness of James was a continuing source of apprehension, his +smarting face causing him to turn frequently with a grunt or sigh or +muttered exclamation of annoyance. + +At last Ted began to fear that there was no hope of stealing out of the +loft that night, and in the midst of his discouragement sleep overtook +him. + +When he awoke all was quiet, except for the snoring of several of the +men. Zack James, who had been restless so long, now lay still and made +no sound. Ted did not know why, but he felt convinced that it was near +morning. Lifting himself guardedly upon his knees, he bent over his +sleeping cousin, shook him and whispered in his ear. + +Hubert stirred sleepily and began a stupid muttering in a voice +seemingly so loud that Ted was terrified, allowing the boy to relapse +into slumber. After listening intently and hearing no disturbance, Ted +tried again and this time roused Hubert to complete wakefulness without +noise. + +The two then crept along the wall until they stood opposite the hole in +the floor. As they did this, Ted, who led the way, stumbled over an +outstretched foot and narrowly escaped falling. The disturbed sleeper +grunted, muttered a few unintelligible words, turned over, and all was +quiet again. Just as the boys were preparing to swing themselves down +through the opening, not daring to put down the ladder, one of the +sleepers stirred noisily, and they heard the voice of James demanding: + +"Who's that?" + +Drawing back into the deep shadow, the boys stood silent, holding their +very breath. The challenge was repeated. Then, for perhaps a quarter of +an hour, Ted and Hubert stood in their tracks, hardly moving a muscle, +breathing softly, and fearing that even the beating of their hearts +would be heard. + +Convinced at last that the wounded man had relapsed into slumber, they +noiselessly swung themselves down through the opening and dropped softly +to the ground below. Several dogs, lying asleep beneath the loft, rose +and followed the boys with signs of great cheerfulness, evidently +anticipating a night hunt. + +The first need was to "turn July out," as Hubert put it. This consisted +merely in lifting away the heavy section of a log braced against the +makeshift door of the prison-pen, and was soon accomplished without +noise. July came forth, rubbing his eyes, and whispering: + +"I clean give you out an' went to sleep. It's mose daylight," he added, +"an' we better be gwine quick." + +"Let's take the dogs, so that they can't use 'em to track us," suggested +Ted. "We can make 'em come back after we get a good start of five or six +miles. I wish I could keep Spot," he added, referring to the dog that +had so devotedly battled with the panther. + +July agreed to this, and the dogs were called softly. The whole pack, +five in number, followed gladly, as the boys and the negro hurried away +from the camp. It had been decided on the evening before to take the +jungle trail leading from the lower end of Deserters' Island, and they +now moved in that direction. The intervening miles of high pine land +were covered with the greatest possible speed. Wherever the ground was +sufficiently open they ran, and even in the brush they pushed forward +rapidly, careless of scratched hands and faces or torn clothing. + +Faint light filtered through the treetops from the whitening sky before +they had traversed half the length of the island, and by the time they +reached its limit birds on every hand were singing their welcome to the +arrival of a new day. The fugitives now observed with considerable +concern that the dogs had disappeared, surmising that they had +recognized the difference between a flight and a hunt and in consequence +had returned to camp. + +They soon found the trail and hurried down into the jungle, careless of +the mud and water, the thorny brambles, the possible moccasins. They +knew that within an hour's time the pursuit would begin and recognized +the need of great haste at any cost. + +July, who led the way, paused suddenly; and, opening the tin bucket +carried on his arm, urged the boys to take some of the sandwiches +therein and stuff them in their pockets. + +"May be hard to keep togedder when dey come at' us wid de dawgs," he +said,--adding: "But if you boys git lost fum me, you keep gwine on by +yo'self till you git out de swamp an' find yo' way home." + +Pressing on with the utmost energy for an hour longer, and not as yet +hearing any sounds indicating pursuit, they began to feel more secure; +and soon, at the urgent suggestion of Hubert, they sat down on a log to +refresh themselves with some of the cold food while resting their +wearying legs. + +"We got to be gwine!" cried July less than fifteen minutes later. + +He had sprung to his feet as the distant baying of dogs fell on his ear. +All knew at once that the slackers were again on their trail and that +there was no time to lose. + +Again the negro led the way, taking new precautions and urging the boys +to do precisely as he did. As he dashed forward over the difficult +ground, he jumped from tussock to tussock, stepped upon roots and masses +of dry moss, and avoided every bit of soft exposed earth where a track +would remain imprinted. Whenever a fallen log ran parallel with their +course, he sprang upon it and walked its full length. Once he made a +complete circle, two hundred yards or more in diameter; then, springing +upon a fallen log several feet beyond the limits of this circle, and +directing the boys to do likewise, he pressed forward again over the +direct course. + +All this was intended to confuse and delay the dogs, if it did not throw +them off the scent altogether; but in no great while it appeared to have +succeeded only in a small measure. For the baying, instead of gradually +fading away in the distance as desired, after ceasing for a time became +more vigorous than ever and unmistakably drew nearer. Soon July halted, +looked round, and waited for the boys to overtake him. + +"Dem dawgs'll be yuh in no time," he said, discouraged. + +"Will they bite us?" asked Hubert apprehensively. + +"No; they know us," said Ted. "We could shoot them," he added, facing +the negro, a question in his tone. "I'd hate to do it, and I don't think +I _could_ shoot Spot, but we have a right to do it." + +Ted and Hubert carried their small guns. The negro was armed only with a +hatchet and a heavy butcher-knife, the blade of which gleamed brightly +where it stuck in his belt. + +"Better let me go for 'em wid de hatchet or dis knife," said July, +shaking his head. "Soon's you shoot dem mens'll know 'zackly where we +is." + +Further discussion was checked by the warning of a yelp very close in +their rear. Bidding the boys conceal themselves, July ran back a few +yards over the trail and took his stand behind a large tree trunk. + +As the foremost dog was about to trot past, the negro leaned over and +dealt it a terrific blow on the head with the butt end of the hatchet, +breaking through its skull. With a stifled cry in its throat, the dog +rolled over and lay in the struggle of approaching death, whereupon the +four others coming up shied away from the unseen danger and took to +their heels on the backward track with yelps of affright. + +After Ted had gladly taken note that the slain dog was not Spot, the +three fugitives hurried onward as before, and for an hour they heard +nothing more from the dogs. Finally a subdued and, as it seemed, muffled +yelp began to be heard at intervals. July looked puzzled and several +times paused to listen, showing great anxiety when he became convinced +that the sounds were drawing nearer. At last he said he believed that +the slackers held the dogs in leash, their object being to steal upon +the unsuspecting fugitives while they halted to rest in fancied +security. + +"If we ain't quick dey'll nab us befo' we know it," the negro concluded. + +"Can't we put the dogs off the scent in some way?" asked Ted, looking +about him. + +They were now in a dense growth of water-oaks and other trees, gay with +the full green leafage of spring; and some little distance ahead water +could be seen. + +"I believe we could climb up and swing from limb to limb until we got +out yonder over that water," eagerly proposed Ted. "Then we could drop +down and wade as far as the water went, then climb up again, and, if the +trees keep thick enough, go quite a long way. _That_ would break the +trail." + +"It sho will," assented July, "if only we kin do it. May be easy for you +light boys, but hit won't be so easy for me." + +"Let's try it anyhow," urged Ted, and they at once began preparations. + +By means of stout twine, much of which they had fortunately stuffed into +their pockets, Ted securely strapped his gun on his back. July having +disposed of Hubert's gun and his own bucket in the same way, giving +Hubert the hatchet in exchange, and all now having arms as well as legs +free, they began to climb. + +For once, Hubert led the way. Lifting himself among the larger branches +of a spreading water-oak, he found it comparatively easy to walk out on +a lower limb--while grasping a higher--until he could lay hold of an +interlacing branch and swing himself safely among the larger arms of a +neighboring tree. Repeating this performance, he passed on from tree to +tree. + +Ted followed readily enough, for, though older, he was no heavier than +Hubert, and was even more active; but he lingered behind to watch and +softly encourage July. Because of his far greater weight and the bending +of the branches beneath him, the negro might well hesitate and move +cautiously. He soon saw that his only hope was in a bold leap into the +branches of the neighboring tree, trusting to his quick, firm grasp to +arrest his descent to the ground. + +The sound of a muffled yelp from the dogs, unmistakably coming from a +point only a short distance away, spurred July on, and he took the +dangerous leap, landing among the stout branches of the neighboring tree +unharmed save for scratches and bruises which he scarcely felt. + +"You can do it," Ted called back softly, by way of encouragement. "Come +on as fast as you can." + +"Don't wait on me," said July. "I'll git dere bimeby. You boys hurry +on." + +So Ted followed faster on the track of Hubert. Within a few minutes from +the start the boys had transported themselves more than a hundred yards +without setting foot on the ground and were soon over the water. They +then let themselves down, waded knee-deep some fifty yards among +scattering cypress trees, grasped a low limb of another water-oak, swung +themselves up and were once more traveling, monkey-like, aloft. + +"You go ahead, Hubert," said Ted. "I'll wait here till I see July +coming." + +Hubert went on and Ted waited. But he waited in vain, for July was in +trouble. After leaping successfully three or four times, at last--while +the boys were wading across the cypress pool--July failed to gain a firm +hold of the branches through which his heavy body descended, and, though +his fall was broken by the leafy obstructions, he struck the ground with +great force and was for a few moments partially stunned. + +A sudden yelping of the dogs now very close at hand roused him to +action. Struggling to his feet, he laid hold of the tree into which he +had attempted to jump, and climbed with some difficulty into its +branches. The unfortunate negro saw that it was now too late to jump +again, even if he dared to do so, badly shaken as he was, and that his +forlorn and only resource was to conceal himself as best he could in +the higher foliage of the tree. + +Scarcely had the trembling of the leaves and branches subsided when the +pursuers were heard very near at hand, July promptly recognizing the +voices of Sweet Jackson, Jim Carter and two other men belonging to the +camp. They held the dogs in leash, as the negro had suspected, but were +marching with the greatest possible speed. Reaching the point where the +trail came to an end, the dogs one and all halted, snuffing the air in a +mystified way, and could hardly be forced forward. + +"They must be round h-yer some'rs," the harsh voice of Sweet Jackson +declared. + +"Mebby they tuck a tree," suggested Carter. + +A silence followed, and July understood only too well that the members +of the party had separated and were scanning the neighboring treetops. +Suddenly one of the dogs began to bay immediately beneath him, and a few +moments later the triumphant voice of Carter was heard: + +"H-yer's one of 'em up this tree!" + + + + +XVII + + +The dog had snuffed the spot where he fell to the ground, and poor July +was discovered. + +"It's the nigger," announced Carter after a few moments. + +"Shoot 'im if he don't git down from there quick," cried Jackson, +savagely. + +Instantly the branches of the water-oak began to tremble, and July +descended with all speed. + +"Now where's them boys?" demanded his captors. + +"I dun-know where dey is." + +Curses greeted this denial, and Jackson threatened to "break every bone" +in the negro's body if he did not reveal the hiding place of the boys at +once. + +"I tell you I dun-know," insisted July, determined to prevent the +capture of his young confederates if he could possibly do so. "All I +know is," he lied boldly, "dey got lost fum me 'way back yonder where we +fout de dawgs." + +Abusive exclamations of incredulity were supplemented by Carter with the +warning: + +"That was Rafe Wheeler's dog you killed, and I reckon he'll make you see +sights before he's done with you." + +July knew that there was trouble ahead of him in any case, and as he +obediently followed his captors while they beat the neighboring bush, +endeavoring in vain to start the dogs on the scent, he stuck to his +story, unblushingly inventing incidents with a view to impart to it an +atmosphere of convincing reality. + +As Ted waited and watched for July, he noted that the spreading branches +of the water-oak embraced the trunk of an immense old decaying cypress, +and that there was a circular opening in its side a foot or two above +him and only a few feet away. Plainly there was a large hollow--possibly +the result of some past forest fire--for the opening was at least two +feet in diameter. He saw also that, by moving a foot or two nearer on +the limb supporting his weight, he could grasp the sides of the opening +and perhaps enter the hollow. + +He now heard the murmur of voices and listened intently, fearing that +the pursuers had arrived and put an end to July's chances of escape. The +voices grew louder, and then the tramp of feet was heard, but still Ted +lingered, owing both to his concern for July's safety and his eagerness +to know the definite issue. + +Then, before he realized that they were so near, the slackers appeared +with the dogs and July himself on the other side of the cypress pool and +began to wade across. + +Ted now perceived that he was in peril. It was too late to hurry on the +trail of Hubert, for the noise and leafy commotion inevitably +accompanying his passage from tree to tree would at once attract +attention. Doubtless Hubert was far enough away to be reasonably safe +and could for the time be left to take care of himself. At all events +Ted realized that his own safety could be his only immediate concern, +and that it was necessary not only to keep quiet but to hide. + +Therefore, without a moment's delay, he moved guardedly out on the +bending limb, leaned forward and grasped the sides of the cypress's +hollow, which fortunately proved to be firm. Drawing himself up quietly, +he thrust his feet through the opening and slid into the hollow with +but little noise. As he did so, a large squirrel whisked past him with a +frightened squeak and scurried wildly up the sides of the cypress. + +"I never saw such a piece of good luck," Ted declared afterward, +relating that the hollow was neither too big nor too little, and that +his feet landed on a firm bottom just far enough below the opening to +permit him to stand comfortably and look out. + +But when he looked out he could see little more than the foliage of the +water-oak. He listened intently as the slackers waded across the pool. +He hoped that they would turn aside, but they seemed to come straight +on. A few moments later the dogs made a noisy rush and he heard them +barking excitedly immediately beneath the cypress. Convinced that he had +been scented and was now "treed," the boy feared that one of the +slackers would promptly climb up and drag him from his hiding place. + +But he kept quiet and still hoped for some fortunate turn of events. +Tempted to lean out and look down, he drew his head back quickly and +almost held his breath. He had glimpsed two men tramping around in the +shallow water beneath the oak and looking up into its branches. +Evidently the opening in the side of the cypress had not yet been +discovered, as there was no triumphant outcry, and at this thought Ted +felt somewhat encouraged. He now heard the impatient voice of Carter: + +"_I_ don't see nothin'. What's the matter with them dogs anyhow?" + +Then came the voice of July, speaking at a greater distance: + +"Look at dat fox-squirrel!--skippin' round 'way up in de top o' dat +cypress! Dat's what ail de dawgs." + +Ted blessed the squirrel for the good service it had evidently performed +by changing its position and immediately attracting the eye of those +below because of the cypress's characteristically thin leafage. + +"I reckon that's it," said Garter. + +"It sho is," insisted July, "for dem boys is a fur ways fum yuh des like +I tole you." + +"Don't care how fur--I'll git 'em 'fore I quit," the angry voice of +Sweet Jackson was then heard. + +"Drive them dogs away from there and come on." + +The dogs were called off, the voices became only a faint murmur, the +noisy tramping through water subsided, and soon the ordinary quiet of +the forest reigned. Recovering his wonted spirits, Ted laughed softly, +but remained motionless for twenty minutes or more. He would have waited +still longer but for his anxiety in regard to the whereabouts and fate +of Hubert. + +Climbing out of the hollow, he let himself down into the shallow water +beneath the oak and whistled softly. He whistled again a little more +loudly, and was then immensely gratified to receive a cautious response. +Whistling softly, the boys approached each other and soon stood face to +face. Then each quickly told his story. + +"Yes, I heard 'em," said Hubert, "and I was almost too scared to +breathe. I stayed up in my tree as quiet as a mouse. I was awfully +afraid they'd get you as well as July." + +They hurried on their way as they talked, and soon left the neighborhood +far behind. It was now midday and, being no longer in fear of immediate +capture, the boys had leisure to discover that they were tired as well +as hungry. So they stopped to rest and eat what remained of the cold +bread and meat given them by July. But they knew that there was no time +to be lost and within less than half an hour they were pushing forward +again. + +Soon after they had penetrated the jungle that morning, the trail +gradually faded away until July doubted whether they had found the right +one in the first place; and, after the dogs were heard on their track, +the negro made no further effort to follow it, but pushed ahead in the +general direction taken, choosing the most open and passable ground. +This was Ted's plan now. + +Toward mid-afternoon the ground began slowly to rise before them, and +the forest growth to become less dense, until finally they emerged from +the jungle region altogether and found themselves on an open pine ridge +where the ground was covered with wiregrass and dotted with clumps of +fan-palmettoes. They believed they were now, at last, clear of the great +swamp, but tramped on without any exchange of congratulatory +exclamations, not daring to jubilate too soon. + +"This looks like the outside," was all Hubert said, and Ted merely +admitted: "It looks good to me." + +"I smell smoke," said Hubert a few minutes later. + +They had now tramped out into the open pine woods some half a mile, and +the wind blowing into their faces wafted a distinctly smoky odor, +suggesting a forest fire. The probability of this was shortly confirmed +by the sight of fleeing birds, and here and there an animal, as a deer, +a fox or a skunk making rapidly toward the flooded swamp area. + +"Somebody must be burnin' off the woods for the cattle," said Ted, +elated. "If that's it, we are certainly out of the swamp at last." + +He referred to the common practice in the region bordering the +Okefinokee of firing the woods in spring in order to destroy the year's +crop of tough wiregrass and so give place to a tender green growth on +which the cattle might feed to better advantage. + +In no great while the boys could see the fire itself here and there, and +ere long they were confronted by an unbroken barrier of flame extending +across the whole ridge. Their position was becoming dangerous, and Ted +looked around in some anxiety. The swamp half a mile behind was a +certain refuge, and he believed that they could reach it ahead of the +fire, but he was reluctant to turn back. While hesitating, his eye fell +upon a small cypress pond some three hundred yards to the left, and, +calling on Hubert to follow, he started toward it on a run. + +Ted felt confident that, even if there were no water in the pond, the +fire would not burn through it. "Pond" is hardly an accurate description +of these little groves of a dozen or two of cypresses so frequently +found in the pine barrens, although they are always on low, swampy +ground, which in wet weather is likely to be covered with a foot or two +of water. A small pool about twenty feet in diameter lingered in the +center of this one, but the boys did not wade into it. As soon as they +stood among the cypress "knees" and trod upon spongy ground covered with +damp pine needles they felt safe. + +During a few minutes hot and almost stifling smoke filled the +surrounding atmosphere, but the fire itself merely burned round the +edges of the pond and then passed on its roaring way, the wind soon +carrying off the smoke also. After waiting some little time for the +ashes of the burnt grass to cool, the boys came out of their retreat and +picked their way across the blackened ground. The wiregrass had entirely +disappeared before the flames, but the tall pines, the scrub-oaks and +the clumps of fan-palmettos stood for the most part intact. Here and +there some fallen and well-seasoned log still burned vigorously, and in +a few instances fire had run up on the oozing sap to the tops of the +tallest trees. + +Ted and Hubert tramped over the blackened and heated earth about a mile +and a half, always hoping soon to see the clearing and log house of some +backwoods settler. But when at last they reached a "hammock" growth and +descended through it to the borders of a vast "prairie" or marsh, in +every respect similar to the one adjoining Deserters' Island, this +pleasing hope became a sigh of regret. + +It was now quite clear that they were still within the borders of the +great Okefinokee, and that they had just traversed one of its islands or +areas of elevated land. The origin of the fire puzzled Ted at first, but +he concluded that some of the slackers, or hunters from the outside, +had recently been there and had neglected to extinguish or clear a space +about their camp-fire. + +"It's going to rain," said Ted, looking up at the darkening sky, "and +we'd better fix our camp right away." + +A favorable spot on the outskirts of the hammock was chosen, and they +hurriedly erected a "brush tent," or lean-to, similar to those they had +heard the slackers speak of building when too far away to return to camp +for the night. When the fugitives began their tree-top retreat that +morning, July had relieved Hubert of his gun and given the boy his +hatchet in exchange. With the hatchet the boys now cut down a slender +sapling which they tied at each end with bear-grass thongs to two small +trees about ten feet apart. Against this cross-bar, which was about four +feet from the ground, eight or ten other cut saplings were leaned at an +angle of about forty-five degrees and less than a foot apart. Over these +were then arranged about a hundred palmetto fans cut within a few feet +of the spot, thus forming a thatch which was protected against gusts of +wind by two or three other saplings laid diagonally across. They thus +secured a fairly good shelter and were sure of sleeping dry unless the +wind changed and blew into the open front instead of against the thatch +at the back. + +It was nearly dark when the work was finished, but it had not yet begun +to rain. While Hubert now gathered wood for their camp-fire, Ted took +his gun and stole off into the woods, hoping to shoot something for +supper. He had not gone very far when a fluttering and dimly outlined +forms on a high limb of a tall bay tree indicated a "turkey roost." +Taking careful aim, he fired, and then, amid the noisy flap of wings as +the wild fowl scattered, he thought he heard a soft thud on the ground +beneath the "roost." Running to the foot of the bay tree, he was +delighted to find that he had bagged a plump turkey-hen. + +Some Spanish moss having been gathered and spread on the ground in the +acute angle of the lean-to, and portions of the turkey having been +broiled with fair success on glowing coals raked out of the fire, the +boys satisfied their hunger and lay down with a feeling of comfort which +hardly seemed in keeping with their continuing misfortunes, and which +was not lessened by the harmless patter of the rain-drops on the thatch +over their heads. + +"I hope a bear won't come along and knock our shelter down," remarked +Hubert a few minutes after they lay down. + +There was no real apprehension in his tone, the first nervousness +inseparable from sleeping in the remote woods of the Okefinokee having +by this time disappeared even in his case. Ted stretched his limbs, +yawned, and made no reply; but a few minutes later he said: + +"You remember Uncle Walter saying the night before he left for +Washington that the experts thought the war would last about three +years? If it does, we'll be about old enough to go in--if we volunteer, +and I will." + +"I wouldn't mind an old-fashioned war, with fighting in the open in the +old way," said Hubert, after a moment's thought. "But that hard and +dirty trench fighting, the terrible big new cannon, the poison gas, and +all the devilish doings of the Germans--it sort of gets on my nerves." + +"We'd get used to it," said Ted. "And to go in is the only thing to do. +You remember the Greek mythology tale about how the new race of gods +knocked out and gave the hideous and terrible Cyclops their finish, +fastening them down under great rocks? The Germans and their deviltry +make me think of the Cyclops, and they've got to be put down in +something of the same sort of way, or the world won't be safe for +anybody. It's like going out after mad dogs. It's dangerous, and you +don't like it, but you've got to do it." + +Hubert's thoughtful silence admitted the correctness of Ted's view. +After some minutes without speech the younger boy asked: + +"Ted, what are you thinking about?" + +"I was thinking that even if the slackers did catch us and take us back +to Deserters' Island, maybe it would be for the best, after all," said +Ted. "You see, I might make a friend of Mr. Jenkins--there's something +nice about him--and maybe I might get him interested in the war and +persuade him to go out----" + +"Well, you are _the limit_!" exclaimed Hubert, in disgust. + +Then he turned over, refusing to talk any more, and soon fell asleep. + + + + +XVIII + + +In the early morning they were awakened by the rain falling on their +faces, and found their once dry and cosy retreat now thoroughly wet and +uncomfortable. Not only did water percolate through the hastily +constructed palmetto thatch, but, the wind having changed, the rain now +beat in from the front. A slow, steady downfall evidently had continued +throughout the night. + +"It's a set-in rain, and we're goin' to have a hard time," Hubert +complained. + +It was only with great difficulty and after long effort that they +succeeded in building a fire, and by the time the remainder of the +turkey, which had been hung out of reach of marauding animals the night +before, had been broiled and eaten, it was late in the morning. + +What to do next was the puzzling question. Even the night before Ted had +been troubled to answer. To turn back might invite an encounter with a +pursuing party of slackers, yet the marsh barred further progress, +unless the boys were willing to take the risks involved in wading +through mud, slime, mosses, rushes, "bonnets," and what not, the water +being no doubt over their heads in many places. + +"Let's try it," Ted proposed at last. "We are wet to the skin anyhow, +and if we can't do it, we can come back here. If we can get across, I +don't think it will take us long to find our way out of the swamp." + +Hubert shrank from but agreed to the undertaking, preferring almost +anything whatsoever to turning back with the prospect of falling into +the hands of a pursuing party of slackers. Both boys were good swimmers, +but Ted thought it unwise to venture on a flooded marsh of unknown depth +without some safeguard. As they had no boat and probably would be unable +to float a raft, even if one could be constructed, he decided to take +with them a section of a tree to which they might cling, in case they +should advance beyond their depth and be unable to swim on account of +the mosses and sedge crowding the marsh water at so many points. + +After considerable search Ted found a dead cypress which had broken +into parts in its fall before a wind storm. A section of this about +twelve feet long and about a foot in diameter, was chosen. Having +provided themselves with light slender poles some ten feet long, and +tied the gun and hatchet between two short up-reaching branches of the +log, the boys succeeded in launching what Ted termed their +"life-preserver." + +While they were accomplishing this task Hubert made his first +acquaintance with a curiosity of the Okefinokee, more noticeable in +times past than now along the shores of islands within or bordering the +marshes. Stepping off from the island shore, Hubert walked forward upon +a seeming continuation of land--a mass of floating vegetable forms, +intermingled with moss, drift and slime, forming a compact floor capable +of sustaining his weight, which, although it did not at once break +through beneath him, could be seen to sink and rise at every step for +several feet around. + +"Why this ground moves!" cried Hubert, astonished. + +"You'd better look out," said Ted. "It won't hold you up much longer. +It's not ground; it's floating moss and stuff----" + +He paused, smiling, as Hubert broke through and stood in mud and water +above his knees. + +"I heard one of the slackers speak of that moving stuff as 'floating +batteries,'" Ted added. "Uncle Walter said the Indians, in old times, +called it 'Okefinokee' or 'trembling earth,' and that was how the swamp +got its name." + +Once they had dragged their "life preserver" over the "trembling earth," +the boys made better progress, although they still had to contend with a +submerged slimy moss of a green color and a great variety of crowding +rushes. As they staggered along, dragging the log, now only up to their +knees in water, now sinking in the yielding ooze until the water rose +above their waists, they were for a time much annoyed by a little black +fly or bug haunting the sedge which stung like a mosquito. + +The clouds still dropped a slow drizzle, and a mist lay upon the great +marsh, in which the many little islands, clothed in dun-colored +vegetation, loomed up in dim, uncertain outlines. Ted remarked that he +had heard the slackers call these islets "houses," but that to him they +now rather suggested huge phantom ships. Many cranes, herons and +"poor-jobs" had already risen at their approach; and as they advanced +farther out on the marsh, where the water deepened, the sedge began to +thin and to be succeeded by "bonnets" or water lilies, large flocks of +ducks flew up, and occasionally a curlew skimmed across their course. + +Passing not far from one of the little islands, they noted that it was +grown up at the edges with low cassina bushes, and that other vegetation +sloped gradually up to two or three tall cypresses in the center, the +whole being drearily decorated with long trailing drifts of Spanish +moss. + +"It looks like a big circus tent," said Hubert. + +The water still deepened, and soon they were obliged to swim--Ted with +his left arm thrown over the forward end of the cypress log, and Hubert +with his right resting on the rear end. A couple of hundred yards or so +further on they entered an open and perceptible current flowing almost +at right angles to their course. + +"Let's follow this," proposed Ted. "It will be so much easier to carry +the log." + +So they swam on, floating their log with the gentle current which +flowed narrowly between the bordering "bonnets," little dreaming that +they were on the head-waters of the famed Suwanee River. + +How far they traveled, floating on this current, they hardly knew, being +unable to see any great distance or keep anything like landmarks in +view. As soon as one of the ghostly little islands floated past and +disappeared in the mist, another would be outlined in their front, and, +all of them being more or less alike, the effect was confusing. They +lost count, as it were, of both distance and time. + +Finally Hubert protested that he was cold as well as tired and hungry, +and demanded that they land on the next "house." Ted thought longingly +of a rest, too, and as soon as they were opposite another islet, he +struck out toward it through the "bonnets" and sedge, forcing the log +along with Hubert's help. + +In this way they floated into a round open pool which the mist had +concealed from view. Ted had no sooner sighted several dark floating +objects a short distance ahead than the water about him became curiously +agitated, and, with a cry of alarm, he glanced back at Hubert. + +"Jump on the log!" he shouted. "We're in a 'gator hole." + +Neither boy could afterward have told how he did it, but almost in a +twinkling both stood upright on the log, maintaining a precarious +balance by dipping their long sticks in the water, first on one side and +then on the other. Under their combined weight the log sank so low that +it was almost entirely submerged, and this added to the alarm of both +when they saw that the pool seemed to be alive with alligators large and +small, for a hundred feet around. Some of the huge scaly saurians swam +about rather lazily, while others lay quiet on the water and gazed at +the intruders with their black, lusterless eyes. As yet they exhibited +no signs of either fear or anger, and even seemed lacking in curiosity. + +But it was Hubert's first experience with the alligator of Florida and +southern Georgia, which, in his ignorance, he associated with the +crocodile of the far East, and the boy was terrified. + +"They are going to eat us up!" he gasped, after he had tottered, swayed, +and very nearly lost his balance beyond recovery. + +"I don't think they'll do anything to us, if we are careful not to run +into them," said Ted, reassuringly, though not without some real +apprehension of trouble. + +But this is precisely what happened. Hubert's desperate struggles to +regain his balance caused the log to depart from the course Ted was +trying to maintain, and, before it could be prevented, they floated +between two motionless alligators, almost touching them, and then the +forward end of the log ran aground on the back of a third. + +There followed a great stir and splashing. Hubert went overboard with +the first shock, and the powerful flirt of a frightened or enraged +alligator's tail sent Ted, slightly stunned, into the water three or +four feet from the log. + +Both boys swam desperately back to their one refuge, conscious of the +plunging of the excited amphibians as they did so, and fearing every +moment that an arm or a leg would be bitten off. But when they again +stood upright on their log, balancing themselves once more with the long +sticks to which they had persisted in clinging, they saw with some +measure of relief that the nearest of the alligators now visible were +some yards distant. In their stupid astonishment or lazy indifference, +the creatures had allowed an easy prey to escape them. + +With all possible speed, yet cautiously, the boys paddled their log away +from the undesirable neighborhood, breathing more freely only after they +were out of the pool and well on their way through the sedge toward the +"house." + +"Maybe they didn't think we were good to eat," said Hubert, wondering, +and then joining nervously in Ted's merry laugh. + +"I've heard that they eat animals sometimes, but they live on fish +mostly," said Ted. "It was lucky, though, that we had the log to get up +on." + +"Would they have eaten us if we hadn't had it?" + +Ted laughed again before he answered: + +"I don't think so, but I shouldn't care to risk it a second time. +Hunters say alligators don't attack man except in self-defense." + +"But I've heard of their catching pigs and even little niggers," +persisted Hubert. + +"Well," admitted Ted, still smiling, "you never can tell when such +creatures may want a change of diet. That place back there--a breeding +place, I think--is like one I heard Mr. Hardy speak of. He called it an +'alligator heaven.'" + +"Deliver me from an 'alligator heaven,' if that's one," said Hubert, so +solemnly that Ted was amused and laughed once more. + +Entering shallower water, they dared to step into it and wade toward the +little island. Leaving their log safely lodged on the "trembling earth" +formation, and having struggled through and over this, they landed on +firm but damp ground. The island was circular in form and hardly two +hundred yards in diameter. Cassina bushes fringed the shores, the +vegetation rising thence to a few tall cypress trees in the center. +Everywhere the funereal Spanish moss fluttered in the gentle breeze. + +It had now ceased raining, but a dense mist still floated upon the great +marsh. The raw atmosphere seemed as cold as the water had been and the +boys moved about shivering, bitterly regretting their attempt to cross +the flooded wilderness. The wildness and desolation of the scene seemed +to be intensified by the presence of two small gray eagles, which +screamed in a harsh shrill way as they hovered about a large nest in the +top of the tallest tree on the island. + +Their weariness and sharp hunger were the only certain indications of +the flight of time, but as the light began to wane the boys realized +that they had been on the marsh for hours and had not landed on the +island till late in the afternoon. It was now necessary to make some +sort of preparation for the night, and that speedily. An attempt to +build a fire had failed, the wet matches refusing even to ignite, and as +the gun was also wet and the shells soaked, there appeared to be no hope +of obtaining even the raw flesh of a bird for supper, supposing they +could have eaten it. + +Tears appeared in shivering Hubert's eyes and rolled slowly down his +cheeks, seeing which Ted smiled and tried hard to make merry with a +little jest. + +"Now, Hu, we've had enough water for one day without pumping up any +more," he said, patting his cousin affectionately on the shoulder. + +"Well, you know," said Hubert, trying to smile in response, "I never did +have a good grip on my what-you-may-call-'em ducts, and this is pretty +tough, as you know. I really am trying hard to stand it and not be a +baby. I'm glad we didn't have such a dose as this the first day in the +swamp--I'd have boo-hooed sure enough. I'm not quite the baby that I +was." + +"No, you are not, Hu; you are getting to be quite a man," said Ted +gently, and Hubert, struggling hard to sit on the lid of his lachrymal +ducts, so to speak, was very grateful. + +A few moments later he smilingly announced that he had succeeded in +"turning off the water," but he feared that he had spoken too soon when +suddenly Ted, moving about, very nearly stepped on a large moccasin and +found some difficulty in killing it with his long stick. Hubert suffered +from an instinctive horror of snakes and the episode almost upset him. + +Ted had heard the slackers describe how they made shift for the night +when they had to camp out on a marsh island or on a damp tussock in the +flooded forests, and he now proceeded to strip bark off the cypress +trees with the aid of the hatchet. This was spread on the ground under +quantities of Spanish moss which was to be used as both bed and +covering. The moss was damp, water-soaked, in fact; but even so they +would be warmer covered with it than if they lay exposed to the currents +of raw air. + +By the time these preparations were completed it was dark. Ted thought +they ought to remain awake and keep more or less active all night, in +order to stave off severe colds; but they were both too exhausted to +persevere in such efforts. Seated on the cushioned cypress bark, and +leaning their backs against a tree, the wet moss drawn up over them, +they soon subsided into quiet of limb and tongue, and after a long while +fell into troubled, dream-haunted slumber. + +"We'll never get home," moaned Hubert, breaking down at last, while +still they talked, sitting there in the thick darkness. + +Ted made no reply at once. He was thinking how different had been the +experience of the heroes of romance wrecked on unknown islands or lost +in desolate places. None of these, so far as he could remember, had ever +suffered such continuing miseries of body and mind as he and Hubert had +to endure; there always seemed to be a wreck at hand with plenty of good +things on board to eat, and the castaways could at least manage to sleep +warm and dry. + +"We are going to starve to death in this swamp," moaned Hubert. + +"Not a bit of it," said Ted with forced cheerfulness, cutting off +abruptly his own complaining train of thought. "Now, Hu, you are not +really giving up, I know; you only think you are," he continued, leaning +affectionately against his cousin. "Brace up like the man you really +are. Just think how much better off we are than some people. Think of +our soldiers in the trenches at night in bad weather. In some ways we +are as uncomfortable, but think how much safer we are. There are no +Germans to sneak poison-gas over on us in the dark." + +"There are no Germans, but there are moccasins," said Hubert dolefully. + +"I'll just bet that was the only one on this island," Ted declared +stoutly, although he feared there were at least a dozen. "Don't think +about them. Think of what we are going to do tomorrow, and we are going +to get out of this swamp--or pretty nearly. Things come out all right +after a while; I never saw it fail. You know, Hu, I like to think of the +grand pluck of old Socrates--I've heard Uncle Walter quote him--when he +said: 'No evil can befall a good man, whether he be alive or dead.' That +means, if we are truthful and manly, and harm nobody, and do our best, +we're all right, or going to be all right, whatever happens. And you and +I are goin' to be all right soon, too. You'll see." + +Whether it was the result of this comforting philosophy or sheer +physical exhaustion, Hubert became quiet and soon fell asleep. But it +was long before poor Ted, sitting alone in the dark, could do for +himself what he had so manfully done for his cousin. If a discerning eye +had looked down through the night, helplessness, even despair, would +have been seen in his face. And then, all at once, somehow help came to +Ted, too; his courage returned, and with it a certain restfulness of +body which presently brought sleep. + + + + +XIX + + +As the first gray light of morning struggled through the mist still +enveloping the marsh, Ted started up and looked about him. His attention +was at once attracted to a white sand-hill crane fully five feet in +height standing on a point of the little island about fifty yards +distant. + +Seizing his long stick, the boy crept toward the fowl behind the screen +offered by the cassina bushes. He hoped to knock it down, thinking that +even the fishy flesh of a crane would be found palatable by two +half-starved boys. But the wary bird spread wide its wings and flew away +in the mist long before Ted was near enough to use his weapon. He smiled +faintly as he faced his failure, calling to mind the story told him when +a very little boy that he could catch any bird in existence if he could +get near enough to put salt on its tail. He remembered at least one +unsuccessful attempt to catch a mocking-bird by such means, before he +appreciated the joke, and reflected that it would be about as easy to +salt a crane's tail as to creep up near enough to knock it down with a +stick. + +Both Ted and Hubert found themselves suffering with sore throat and +their limbs were numb and cold; but they felt more or less rested and +their hunger was less sharp than on the night before. On the whole, they +felt better, and were eager to go forward in the hope of improving their +condition. Ted said that if they could see the island they had left the +day before, he would favor going straight back there; but that if they +attempted to return in the fog, there were a thousand chances to one +that they would go astray, and he therefore thought that they had better +take the risk of pushing forward. Hubert agreed, preferring to leave the +decision to his more experienced cousin in any case. + +So they struggled through the "trembling" and breaking "earth" +surrounding the little island, got their log afloat, pushed it out into +the little stream, and swam with the slow current as on the day before. +Although their exertions soon began to tell on them, weakened for lack +of food as they were, they pushed forward heroically for hours, landing +to rest two or three times on the dreary and inhospitable "houses." + +Toward mid-afternoon, while swimming with one arm over the rear end of +the log, Hubert's feet became entangled in the rushes; and, losing his +hold on the log, he was drawn beneath the water just as a faint cry +escaped him. Ted looked back in time to see him go down, and, swimming +to his aid, succeeded in extricating him after he had swallowed several +gulps of water and was partially strangled. + +Meanwhile the log had floated with the current and lodged among the +"bonnets" nearly two hundred yards down stream. This distance Ted was +obliged to swim without artificial aid, meanwhile supporting Hubert, who +was almost helpless. The last few yards was the scene of a desperate +struggle to keep above water until the log could be grasped. + +After resting on their log until somewhat revived, they painfully made +their way to the nearest "house," realizing that they could travel no +further that day. Indeed, Ted secretly feared that they might never be +able to leave the island without help, so feverish and exhausted had +both he and Hubert become. The first thing he did after landing and +resting, therefore, was to tie his handkerchief to one end of his long +stick and thrust the other end into the soft ground in an open spot, +hoping thus to attract the attention of any boat that might pass the +neighborhood. + +That night was even more trying and uncomfortable than the preceding. +They were again unable to start a fire, and lay down as before on +cypress bark and damp moss, the hunger that gnawed them becoming more +and more hard to endure. Though he made a brave effort, Ted found +himself unable to appear to be as cheerfully optimistic as on the night +before. In his feverishness and misery words often failed him, but he +unselfishly maintained an attitude of tenderness and sympathy toward +Hubert whose lachrymal ducts knew no restraint and discharged their +entire store of tears. + +"Never mind, we'll get out of this to-morrow," promised Ted in his +gentlest voice, over and over; but, struggle as he might, there was lack +of genuine hopefulness in his tone. + +The morning of the third day dawned bright and clear. Not a vestige of +the fog was to be seen anywhere on the great marsh. Although now really +ill, their heads throbbing with fever and pain, the boys felt cheered by +this change. In every direction except one they were unable to see +anything but an expanse of marsh dotted with "houses"; but in that one +direction they clearly discerned, not more than two or three miles away, +a wall of green pines, indicating either the mainland or a large island. +With great satisfaction they noted also that the intervening marsh, +though covered with water at points, was not of a character to +necessitate swimming. + +Hopeful once more, they started eagerly toward the green wall of pines, +soon finding, however, that it was no easy matter to cross this portion +of the marsh, scantily covered with water though it was. Much of it was +treacherous quagmire, and the boys sometimes sank down suddenly in the +mud to their armpits. Once Hubert sank up to his neck, and nothing but +his long stick saved him. They had left their log behind, but +fortunately carried their long poles. + +It was near noon when they at length reached the high land where the +pine trees grew. After plunging into a neighboring pool of +comparatively clear water in order to wash the mud and slime from their +bodies and clothing, the boys climbed wearily up the slope and lay down +in the warm sunshine, shading their faces with palmetto leaves. Here +they rested several hours, for the most part in troubled, feverish +slumber. + +Rousing himself at last, Ted coaxed Hubert to his feet, and again they +pushed forward wearily. The vegetation of the island, if island it were, +was found to be unusually dense and wild. After gaining the crest of the +slope, where, on the other islands, a comparatively open pine ridge was +usually found, they were confronted by the brambles of the jungle and +immense thickets of blackjack or scrub-oak. An hour later they emerged +upon an open pine barren, where the underbrush consisted chiefly of +tyty, hemleaf and fan-palmetto. Here progress was easier, but now Hubert +fell rather than sat upon the grass, declaring that he could go no +further. + +"I feel as if my head would burst," he said, staring about him stupidly. + +After trying in vain to encourage him to further effort, Ted, who really +felt no better, decided to push on alone. + +"You stay here and rest, Hu," he said, "while I look around for a good +place to camp. The matches are dry now and I think we can have a fire +to-night." + +It was now late in the afternoon and Ted realized that he must exert +himself. Pushing forward, he chanced upon something like a trail, +followed it for nearly a mile, and, just as the sun sank out of sight, +he stole guardedly through an oak thicket, halted on its borders, and +looked into an open space where a camp fire burned. + +Everywhere in the little clearing there were evidences of a long +sojourn. The stumps of several trees showed that the felling had been +done months, perhaps a year or more, before. Curing hides hung against +the trees; tools and cooking utensils lay about on the grass. A pot +swung over the fire from a tripod of three long sticks, and in it there +evidently simmered a savory stew. No dog was aroused by Ted's approach, +and the boy looked long, without interruption, at everything, including +the sole occupant of the clearing, an old man with a long white beard +who sat on the ground near the fire, his back to the observer. Ted +turned quietly, retraced his steps through the thicket, and hurried back +over the trail. + +"Oh, Hubert," he cried, as soon as he was within speaking distance, +"I've found a camp and an old man cooking supper!" + +But the younger boy merely looked up stupidly and spoke of his aching +head. Resolutely employing all his remaining strength, Ted lifted Hubert +to his feet, and, with his arm around him, coaxing and dragging, he +forced him slowly along the trail toward the stranger's camp. Arrived +within the fire-lighted circle just after night had fallen, he allowed +Hubert to collapse upon the grass, and then, holding out appealing +hands, he cried: + +"Help us--please help us!" + +The old man started up in amazement and, judging from the expression of +his face, even alarm. He appeared not to have heard the approaching +footsteps because of deafness, and now seemed to expect a further +invasion of the privacy of his camp. + +"Who're you?" he asked in a bewildered way. "Whur in the dickance did +you boys come from?" + +Ted did not answer. His remaining strength failed him, and he dropped +upon the grass by Hubert's side, but his eyes still appealed. + +"Are you sick?" + +"Starving," answered Ted, hardly above a whisper. + +A wave of compassion swept over the old man. He almost leaped to the +fire; and, quickly dipping something from the pot into a tin cup, he +blew his breath upon it several times in order to cool it, then hurried +back to the prostrate boys, knelt beside them, and offered the cup to +Ted. But the boy gently pushed it away and motioned toward his cousin, +indicating that Hubert was in the greater need and should be attended to +first. + +Having partaken of the nourishment which presently was offered him in +turn, Ted fell asleep, or fainted--he could not afterward tell +which--and there followed a blank. When he again opened his eyes and +looked about him, he lay on a bed of moss covered with blankets in what +was evidently a log cabin of one large room. In a few moments the door, +which stood ajar, was thrown wide, and the old man of the long white +beard entered the room, a cheerful expression appearing on his kindly +face as he met the boy's eye. + +"You feel better now, I reckon," he said, seating himself on a pile of +moss near Ted's bed. + +"Where am I?" The boy's voice was weak but eager. + +"In my house," was the reassuring reply. "You've been pretty bad +off--sort o' wanderin' in yer mind. But you're all right now." + +"Where's Hubert?" The boy's voice was now stronger, but indicated +anxiety. + +"He's outside. He got up and went out this mornin'. He's all right. He +had fever from cold and exposure, but you was the sickest of the two. +You've been on a harder strain, I reckon." + +"How long have I been here?" + +"Three days. I was afraid it was goin' to be typhoid, but it was jes' a +nervous fever from starvation and so much exposure. It was mighty high, +though, for a while. T'other boy tole me how you-all's been lost and +a-wanderin' in the swamp. You boys sure has seen sights." + +"Are we out of the swamp at last?" asked Ted eagerly. + +"Not by a long jump. You're on Blackjack, one o' the biggest islands." +Noting the boy's sigh of disappointment, the old man added: "But don't +worry. You lay quiet till to-morrow, and then I'll tell you more about +it, and show you the way out o' the swamp." + +"Oh, thank you. You are very kind." + +With such a prospect in view, it would be easy to lie quiet until the +morrow, it being now late in the afternoon. Ted wanted to ask many +questions, but he submitted when his host bade him be quiet and +withdrew. A few minutes later Hubert entered, with a smile on his face, +and the boys congratulated each other. + +"I think we are safe at last," said Ted, relaxing on his bed and +beginning really to rest. + +"Yes, I think we are," said Hubert. "That Mr. George Smith is very kind, +though he is a queer old duck. He looks just like a ram-goat with that +long beard running down into a point. He's been camping and trapping +here for years. I was afraid to tell him that we had been kept prisoners +on Deserters' Island. I haven't said a thing about the slackers." + +"Perhaps that was just as well," said Ted, dreamily, and soon fell +asleep. + +An hour or more later his eyes filled with tears of gratitude as his +elderly host brought in a delicious quail stew for his supper. + +"To-morrow," the old man promised, "I'll show you how I shoots them +partridges." + +Ted knew that he should have said quail instead of partridges, but was +too polite to correct him. + +"Do you think we could start out to-morrow?" asked the boy, after he had +eaten and thanked his host. + +"Better wait a little longer. It'll be a long pull and you ought to be +rested up," advised the old man. "Hubert says you want to git to Judge +Ridgway's. I know where that is. We kin boat it a piece o' the way and +then tramp it till I put you on the trail. You strike the trail on a big +peninsula runnin' in the swamp. Then all you got to do is to follow that +trail about ten miles till you git to your uncle's neighborhood." + +All Ted's anxieties dropped from him as he listened. Home had not seemed +so near since the day he and Hubert were lost in the swamp, and when he +fell asleep he dreamed that he was actually there. + + + + +XX + + +In the morning, feeling well and strong, Ted rose early and followed +Hubert out of the cabin to the camp fire. There their attention was +attracted to two large fox-squirrels lying on the grass. + +"I shot 'em befo' you waked up," said their host, who was busily +preparing the morning meal. "The woods is chock full of 'em." + +Both boys ate a hearty breakfast, after which Ted felt so fully restored +that he declared he was ready for the hardest kind of a tramp. But he +was again advised to wait till the following morning. + +The boys spent the day talking with their new friend, gathering young +"greens" from his little vegetable garden, giving some help toward the +preparation of the meals, and lying about on the grass and sleeping. Ted +took great interest in a bow belonging to and manufactured by the old +trapper, considering himself highly favored on being allowed to shoot +away two or three arrows, which latter he diligently searched for and +returned to their owner. Both bow and arrows were made of ash, the +latter being tipped with sharpened bits of steel. The bow-string was +made of tough gut of the wild-cat. + +"You-all come go with me now, if you want to see some fun," said Mr. +Smith at sundown. + +He then took bow and arrows and led the boys about a quarter of a mile +away in the woods, telling them he would show them how "partridges" +(quail) roosted at night. When the place was reached twilight had +fallen, but a dozen or more of the birds were distinctly seen squatting +near each other in the wiregrass. + +"Now watch me bag 'em," said the old trapper; and, lifting his bow, he +bent it almost double, the string twanged, and the arrow sped on its +way. + +Again and again the bow twanged, and in amazement the boys began to see, +as they did not at first, that each flying arrow cut off the head of a +quail. The neighboring birds looked startled, turning their heads from +side to side as if striving to pierce the gathering gloom, but there was +no noisy plunge of the remainder of the covey until the old man had +shot as often as he wished and stepped forward to gather up his arrows +and the slain. + +"You see, I shoots 'm in the head to keep from sp'ilin' the meat," he +smilingly explained. + +"What a fine shot you are!" exclaimed both boys in a breath. + +"I could never do that in the world," said Ted. + +"It took me years to learn that trick, but I learned it, and you could, +too, if you tried hard," the old trapper said, generous in his +pardonable pride. + +As they sat about the fire after supper the subject of the war came up. +The trapper asked for news and Ted outlined the general situation as he +had understood it before the swamp misadventure cut him off from sources +of information. + +"If I was young enough I'd be in it," declared their host, much to Ted's +satisfaction, going on to say that the Civil War was over before he was +quite old enough and that the Spanish-American war was over almost +before he heard of it, for he was in the Okefinokee that very year. "And +now I'm too old to be a soldier," he concluded, with a smile and a +sigh. + +"I've heard my Uncle Walter say that 'the will is almost as good as the +deed,'" remarked Ted politely. + +"From all I hear them Germans is a mighty bad crowd, and they need the +worst thrashin' any lot of people ever got," the trapper continued. "And +the young men o' this country ought to see that they git it good and +heavy. But some of 'em ain't goin' about it right. Some of 'em is +kickin' about the draft, and some of 'em is scared to death; and they +tell me some of 'em is _hidin' out_." + +The old man spat in his disgust. The boys became alert, perceiving that +he had knowledge of and was thinking of the camp of slackers on +Deserters' Island. They looked at each other significantly and waited +for him to go on. + +"But it ain't _my_ business to see that the sheriff is on his job," +continued old George Smith, stroking his long beard. "I'm a old man, and +I got to live in peace, 'speshly these days when there's young men +without a particle of respect for gray hairs. I 'tends to my own +business." + +"My uncle said he heard that there were some slackers hiding in this +swamp," said Ted, cautiously and invitingly. + +"Mebby so; the Oke-fi-noke's a big place," responded the old man, after +a moment of perceptible hesitation. "I don't see," he quickly added, +"why there's all this kickin' about the draft. They drafted 'em 'way +back in the sixties, South and North, too. We got to have it that way." + +"My uncle says it's the fairest as well as the quickest plan." + +"Ther must be more chicken-hearted young men now than ther was in my +young days," remarked Mr. Smith. He fell into a thoughtful silence, from +which he roused himself suddenly, saying: "Well, let's go to bed. Got to +git up bright and early in the mornin'." + +It was evident that he did not intend to speak openly of Deserters' +Island. The boys were no less inclined to be cautious, not knowing what +his personal relations with the slackers might be. After an exchange of +significant glances, they tacitly agreed to keep silent also, at least +for the present. It troubled Ted to think that an honest, patriotic man, +such as their host appeared to be, should place his "peace" above his +duty to inform against the hiding slackers, but he took comfort in the +thought that the fugitives from the draft would not long be left in +quiet possession of Deserters' Island. + +"Mr. Smith won't tell on 'em," he whispered to Hubert after they had +gone to bed, "but just wait till we get home. Uncle Walter will have the +sheriff starting into this swamp in a day's time." + +When a woodpecker, boring loudly into the cabin's roof, roused him next +morning, Ted saw that the sun was shining, realized that he had +overslept, and wondered why he had not been called. Hearing voices +outside, he conjectured that the old trapper had been delayed by the +arrival of visitors. But what visitors? The boy thought instantly of +Deserters' Island, which was undoubtedly the nearest inhabited area +within many miles. In sudden fear, he checked the noisy movements he was +making. Then, listening intently, he heard the unmistakable voice of +Sweet Jackson! + +Creeping to the front wall, Ted peeped out through a crack between the +logs, and at once his eyes confirmed the evidence presented by his ears. +Sweet Jackson and Mitch' Jenkins, their guns across their knees, were +seated near the camp fire eating the breakfast the old trapper was +serving them. + +"We wanted to make yo' camp last night," Jackson was saying, "but we was +too fur. When we made it up to come over this-a way, I thought I'd bring +a hide to trade for some plug-tobacco." + +"Well, I'll trade," said old Mr. Smith, with his usual good-natured +manner. + +Ted bounded softly back to the bed and, bending down, shook Hubert. + +"Quit pushin' me," complained Hubert, still half asleep. + +"Hush!" whispered Ted warningly. "Look at me! Listen, and don't make a +noise. Some of the _slackers_ are out there!" + +Hubert's rebelliousness disappeared on the instant, and he stared at his +cousin in silent fright. Then he, too, heard Jackson's voice, whereupon +he started up, looking wildly about, as if for some means of escape. + +Without waiting to say more Ted hurried back to his peep-hole. + +"Can't we slip out and run?" whispered Hubert as soon as he reached +Ted's side. + +"How can we? There's no window on the back and they are facing this way. +They'd see us. We've got to stay right here till they go away, or till +we get a chance to slip out." + +"But what if they should come in here?" suggested Hubert. + +"We'll have to risk it." + +The breakfast was now over, and the two slackers rose to their feet. A +few moments later the excited boys took note that all three of the men +stood with their backs to the cabin door. + +"Now's our chance," whispered Hubert. "Let's slip out, sneak round the +house and run off." + +"We'd better wait, I think," said Ted. "They might turn round on us +before we----" + +The boy stopped suddenly, for now the old trapper and Jackson turned, +the latter saying: "Well, bring out your tobacco." The former moved +toward the cabin accordingly. + +"Let's lie down and pretend to be asleep, so they won't hear him speak +to us," hurriedly proposed Ted. + +When the trapper stepped into the room the slumber of the two boys +appeared to be profound. He looked at them, smiled, and, as if deciding +not to call them till later, went about the business of the moment, +bending down over a large covered box with his back to them. Noting all +this, Ted congratulated himself upon the success of his plan. It did not +occur to him that curiosity might bring Jenkins into the cabin, or that +the officious Jackson might wish to see for himself how large a store of +tobacco the cabin contained. + +So when a heavy tread was heard at the door, the boy faced the +unforeseen as well as the affrighting. There was now nothing left for +him and Hubert to do but cover their faces with their blankets and lie +still, which they did, fearing that the very beating of their hearts +would be heard. + +The less curious Jenkins might have overlooked them, in the subdued +light of the interior, but Jackson's roving eyes alighted on their +outlined figures almost at once. + +"Who-all's this?" he asked sharply. "I see you got comp'ny." + +"Jes' two boys that got lost huntin' in the swamp," answered the old man +quietly. "I kep' 'em a day or two to rest up. They had a hard time and +was real sick." + +"_Two boys?_" echoed Sweet Jackson, in tones of keen expectancy; and, +stepping across the intervening space, he roughly tore away the +coverings and exposed to view the shrinking boys. + +For a moment Hubert seemed about to obey an impulse to hide his face in +the moss of the bed, but Ted rose promptly and faced Jackson with a +steady, watchful gaze. + +"So you come over this-a way, did you?" cried Jackson, with a triumphant +grin. "Wasn't it lucky that I come, too, just in time!" he sneered. + +"Why, do you know them boys?" asked the old swamp-squatter, turning, in +great surprise. + +"_Know_ 'em? They belongs to our camp," declared Jackson. "I want more +than yo' tobacco, old man; I want them boys." + +"We _don't_ belong to their camp," cried Ted, his voice unsteady, +addressing the old man. "We only found our way there when we got lost, +and then they wouldn't let us go because they were afraid we'd tell on +them." + +"Why didn't you tell me before?" asked the old man, greatly troubled. + +"I wish I had," said Ted. "We waited to tell you and then--then--we +thought, maybe, we'd better not." + +"He's lyin'," said Jackson glibly. "He was scared to tell you they'd run +away from where they belonged." + +Jenkins turned upon Jackson with an indignant manner, but hesitated, and +seemed to decide to keep silent. Noting this with discouragement, Ted +checked an angry response to the insult and turned again to the old man: + +"Everything I have told you is the truth. Won't you stand by us?" + +The old swamp-squatter looked sharply from man to boy and back again, +his expression indicating great disturbance of mind. + +"If you are a-takin' them boys without the right to do it," he said, +"you may have _double_ trouble on yer hands befo' long." + +"That's _my_ business, and you'd better 'tend to your'n--if you know +what's good for you!" There was menace in Jackson's tone. + +The old man surrendered the plugs of tobacco with a trembling hand, then +took a step toward Ted. + +"You see, the trouble is," he said, rather pitifully, "that I can't +take the word of two boys agin the word of two men. If they claims you, +I can't stop 'em. But I'm awful sorry because I've thought a heap o' you +boys." + +"Thank you," said Ted huskily, comprehending the old swamp-squatter's +helplessness, and moved to make a polite acknowledgment of the +compliment even at such a moment. + +"Will you go peaceable, or do you want a whippin'?" demanded Jackson. + +"Better go peaceable," advised the old man, speaking gently. Ted turned +and exchanged glances with Hubert. They read in each other's eyes the +conviction that there was nothing to be done but yield for the time, and +that it was better to yield without a struggle than to suffer +intolerable indignities and brutal usage. After swallowing hard, like +one taking a bitter dose, Ted announced in a low voice that they were +ready to go. + +"Come on, then, and be quick about it," ordered Jackson, striding out of +the cabin. + +Jenkins and the boys followed. The old man lingered in the doorway, +looking very sorrowful. + +As the party was crossing the clearing to take the trail through the +woods, Ted suddenly announced that he would have to "thank Mr. Smith for +his hospitality," and, before he could be hindered, ran back to the door +of the cabin. Jackson and Jenkins halted, turning to look on curiously +as the boy performed this social duty. + +"You've been very kind, Mr. Smith, and we thank you very much," said +Ted, loudly enough for all to hear. Then, with his back to the slackers, +he added in a low voice: "There's _one_ thing you can do to help us. You +know where Judge Ridgway lives and----" + +"That's all right, Ted, honey," the old man loudly interrupted. "You +sure are welcome to what little I did for you boys." + +This speech was accompanied by three distinct pressures of Ted's hand +which seemed satisfactorily significant. The old man then turned to +shake hands with Hubert, who had been permitted to follow Ted. + +"When are you goin' out again, Mr. Smith?" called out Jackson. + +"I think it'll be some while," was the answer. + +But when the old swamp-squatter was left alone in his clearing, his +activities seemed to show that he had suddenly changed his mind. + +"What's to keep that old man from goin' out and tellin' on our whole +crowd?" asked Jenkins, as soon as they were out of hearing. + +"He's scared o' me--that's what," was the confident answer. + +Jackson halted as he spoke, took some heavy string out of his pocket, +and, suddenly seizing Ted from behind, began to tie his hands. +Protesting in hot indignation, the boy struggled so fiercely that +Jenkins was called on for help. + +"Not on your life," said Jenkins, standing apart. "I won't touch him. I +ain't a party to this thing. _You_ are takin' them boys, not me. I'm +jes' walkin' long with you. You don't need to tie 'em anyhow. If they +was to cut and run, you could easy catch one, and the other wouldn't +stay off by himself." + +But Jackson persisted. Checking Ted's resistance with violent language +and ugly threats, he had his will, then served the protesting but +unresisting Hubert in the same way. + +"I know my business, Mitch' Jenkins," he said. "They ain't a-goin' to +give me the slip this time." + +Then followed a tramp of about two miles to the point of the island +where the slackers had left their bateau. Much of the route was covered +with dense thicket and bramble-infested jungle, and the boys suffered. +Sometimes, when they stumbled and fell, or pushed through thorny brush, +being unable to use their arms and hands, they received painful +scratches or blows on face or head. Finally Ted rebelled, throwing +himself down and persisting doggedly at all threatened costs. + +"I won't go another step until you untie our hands," he declared, +setting his teeth. "You can beat me if you are devil enough," he +informed Jackson, with blazing eyes and unflinching calm, "but I won't +budge." + +Jackson swore furiously and lifted his foot to kick, but was checked by +Jenkins, who said: + +"And if you beat him, you may have to beat me." + +Then the two men glared at and paid their respects to each other in +unprintable language. Hubert hoped that they would fight hard and long, +and that in the midst of it he and Ted might run away; but, as usual, +the cowardice beneath Sweet Jackson's bullying exterior showed itself. +He discharged much violent language, but prudently declined the contest +of physical strength offered by Jenkins. + +"What did you come in this swamp for, anyhow?" he demanded. "You ain't +worth a cent." + +"You kin find out what I'm worth if you want to," goaded Jenkins. + +"Oh, shucks!" cried Jackson, with a show of vast disgust; and taking out +his knife, he cut both Ted's and Hubert's bonds, intimating that he +washed his hands of the consequences. + +After that peace was restored, the tramp was resumed, and more rapid +progress was made. + + + + +XXI + + +They landed on Deserters' Island late in the afternoon. The news of +their arrival appeared to reach the camp ahead of the captive boys, for +as soon as they followed the upward path through the swamp-cane to the +outskirts of the familiar clearing they saw July running to meet them. +The negro's smiling expressions of delight at sight of them were checked +by his recollection that they were returning to captivity. + +"I sho is sorry dey cotch you if I is glad to see you," he apologized. +"But, Cap'n Ted, you won't have such a hard time dis time 'cause de +gen'l'mens is got back an' now de dawgs'll have to keep dey place." + +Ted did not wait for an explanation of this mysterious announcement, for +he now saw Buck Hardy standing near the sleeping-loft and ran eagerly +toward him. + +"Oh, Mr. Hardy," he cried, in enormous relief and satisfaction, "I'm +_so_ glad to see you. We've had a terrible time since you left. I--I--I +hope your mother is better." + +Buck smiled down on the delighted boy, warmly clasping his hand. + +"She's all right now, thank you, kid," he said. "Sorry I had to stay +outside so long. Just got back two hours ago--with Peters and Jones. So +you've had a terrible time, eh? July has been tellin' me, but he don't +know it all, and I want to know it all up to this minute. Did Sweet +Jackson do anything to you after he caught you? Did he--whip +you--or----" + +"He would have, if it hadn't been for Mr. Jenkins." + +"Tell me all about it." + +After walking into the clearing attended by the pleased and garrulous +negro, Hubert shook hands with Al Peters and Bud Jones, but awaited his +turn to speak to Buck Hardy, not wishing to interrupt the big slacker's +earnest conversation with Ted. As he looked around, Hubert saw Billy +seated a short distance away and wondered why he seemed to take no +interest in their arrival. Judging from past experience, he would have +expected the half-wit not only to be pleased but even to caper around +him and Ted, giggling and shouting his expressions of gratification. But +now Billy seemed to be intently contemplating some object in the grass +at his feet and to be oblivious of everything else. + +The news of the return of Hardy, Peters and Jones evidently reached +Jackson before he came up from the landing, for when he appeared he had +a conscious and depressed air. He spoke a perfunctory greeting to Peters +and Jones and then, as he busied himself about the camp, his roving +glance frequently returned in a stealthy sort of way to Buck Hardy where +he stood questioning and listening to Ted. His manner was expectant and +he probably was not surprised when Buck, turning from the boy toward the +groups near the fire, called out: + +"Sweet Jackson!" + +Jackson pretended not to hear and sought to delay the coming reckoning. + +"Billy! You Billy," he called sharply, "go bring me some fresh water." + +The absorbed Billy looked up for a moment with an air of one rudely +awakened from a dream, but he did not move and his eyes promptly +returned to the object in the grass that seemed to fascinate him. + +"Don't you hear me?" shouted Jackson. + +"Don't you hear _me_?" shouted Buck. "Sweet Jackson, step out h-yuh and +take yo' whippin'." + +Jackson could pretend inattention no longer. Planning to force the other +men to interfere while storming at Billy, he now whipped a revolver out +of his pocket and wheeled round. + +"Drop it," ordered Buck. "I've got you covered. I expected this and I +was ready." + +Two men rushed to Jackson's side, he permitted Zack James to take his +weapon, and moved a step or two forward. Then Buck took his hand from +the revolver in his coat pocket. + +"What I done to you, Buck Hardy?" demanded Jackson with as blustering an +air as he could support. + +"Nothin'," answered Buck. "You know better'n to do anything to _me_. +It's what you've done to two helpless boys when I was gone. _You_ know +what I'm talkin' about. I can be sorry for a natural-born coward. If I +saw you runnin' from the draft officers and hollerin' that you wished +you was a baby and a _gal_ baby at that, I'd be sorry for you. But I +can't stand a man that's a coward underneath and a bully on top whenever +he thinks there's nobody to stop him. I whipped you once for beatin' on +that po' weak-minded Billy. This time it's for what you did to two as +nice boys as there ever was. I'd whip you for it if every man in this +camp stood behind you. But there ain't nobody to stand behind you +because they all despise you." + +This withering speech and his fear of certain punishment combined caused +Jackson's lip to twitch nervously. He doubled his fists and prepared to +ward off the coming blows, determining to strike back at the outset in +order to lessen his disgrace by a stubborn show of fight. But, try to +stand his ground as he might, he found himself retreating backward +before his advancing enemy. + +Before Hardy had arrived within striking distance Jackson had backed +into Billy and trodden upon the half-wit's outstretched legs. + +"Git out o' my way!" stormed the retreating man, glad to divert +attention from himself. + +Billy sprang up and jumped out of reach, as if believing that he had +been attacked. Then he faced his supposed foe, a strange glow in his +eyes. + +Suddenly Sweet Jackson became aware that he was treading upon some soft +living body, which yielded beneath his weight and struggled in a +peculiar, writhing way. As his glance swept downward, he heard a harsh +rattling sound and saw that he stood upon a large coiled snake. + +The look of mortal terror on his face and his gasp of horror caused Buck +Hardy to stop in his tracks, and several of the on-lookers to start +forward, just as the rattler struck the unfortunate man on the right leg +above the ankle. With a wild cry Jackson jumped--too late! + + [Illustration: With a wild cry Jackson jumped--too late!] + +A laugh at such a moment was the most unexpected and shocking thing in +the world, and for the moment it drew every eye to Billy, who, giggling, +cried out: + +"That's right, son! Give it to him, son!" + +Then Ted and Hubert and July comprehended what had happened before +Jackson, in an agony of alarm, staggered out into the open, crying that +he had been bitten by a rattlesnake and calling for help. + +"I'm mighty glad I hadn't hit him," murmured Buck Hardy, as he joined +those who, grabbing sticks and guns, started in pursuit of the snake +which was now rapidly crawling away. + +The rattler was quickly overtaken and killed, greatly to the indignation +and sorrow of Billy. Then the attention of all was centered upon +Jackson, who now sat with his back against a tree, tearing off shoe and +sock in a hurried, terrified way, groaning aloud and shuddering in +horror. The wound, when exposed, was seen to be swelling already. + +"If anybody's got any whisky, for God's sake bring it out," shouted Buck +Hardy. + +He looked from one face to another, as heads were shaken, several +reminding him that they were in a prohibition State. Only Jim Carter +admitted that he had "just a smodgykin" saved up for a time of need. He +ran to the sleeping-loft and returned with a flask containing less than +half a pint of colorless whisky. This was forthwith poured down +Jackson's throat. + +Meanwhile Zack James and Mitch' Jenkins had drawn stout cords as tightly +as possible round the leg above and below the wound, with a view to +check the circulation of poisoned blood. This done, large portions of +the raw quivering flesh of a turkey just killed were pressed hard, one +after another, upon the wound itself, these supposedly acting as an +absorbent. + +One of the men suggested that the raw flesh of the rattler be applied in +lieu of the turkey, mentioning a story he had heard to the effect that +the best results could be thus obtained; but the poisoned man shuddered +and refused to permit this. + +He called pitifully for "a doctor," and the men about him only looked at +each other helplessly, the nearest physician being many miles too far +away to be sent for and brought through the swamp's difficulties in time +to be of any service. There seemed to be nothing further to do but to +continue to apply raw flesh to the wound. + +By the time July announced supper, which nobody could eat, Jackson's leg +was startlingly swollen and an hour or two later he had begun to wander +in his mind. + +Meanwhile, Hubert had related to Buck Hardy and several other listeners +how he had one day been invited to visit the rattlesnake at its hole; +how Billy had fed it, and seemed to be on the friendliest terms with it. +Ted and July having confirmed Hubert's story, it became clear to +everyone that Billy had brought the snake into the camp and was playing +with it when the retreating Jackson stepped upon it. Nobody forgot that +Jackson was of an ugly temper and had harshly used the half-witted boy +whom he had brought into the swamp and who was said to be his cousin; +but none the less was Billy now looked upon with suspicion and aversion, +and by common consent he was shut up in the prison-pen that had been +built for July. Rafe Wheeler gave expression to the general sentiment +when he said: + +"We don't want no sich walkin' free aroun' this camp. Fust thing we know +he'll be tolin' up another rattlesnake to bite some of us." + +As the poisoned man grew steadily worse and the inevitable issue had to +be faced, Buck Hardy called Peters, Jones, Jenkins and James into +consultation. + +"He won't last through the night," said Buck in low tones, "and I reckon +we'll have to bury him right h-yuh. He'd spoil before we could git him +out. What do you say, men?" + +All agreed that this was the only thing to be done, Zack James adding: +"And 'sides that them that undertook to tote him out would run a +turrible risk of goin' to jail for dodgin' the draft." + +"Another thing," said Buck: "there's that po' fool Billy. He ought to go +to his people, and I know you all want to get rid o' him. What had we +better do about that?" + +"Rafe Wheeler is goin' out for salt in the mornin'," said Zack James. +"Maybe we could git him to take him." + +This suggestion was approved, Wheeler was approached; and, though he +objected, saying that he was afraid to lie down in the woods with "a +crazy snake-charmer," a collection of contributed quarters and dimes +offered as a substantial reward, induced him to undertake the +disagreeable task. + +Shortly after midnight Sweet Jackson drew his last breath, after his +physical anguish had been mercifully dulled by delirium. Then a hush +fell on the camp. Ted and Hubert retired to the sleeping-loft, but all +the men sat about the fire until break of day. Straightening the limbs +and covering the face of the dead, they sat about a freshened fire, +speaking little and thinking much. Young men who had scarcely reflected +seriously in all their lives did so now. Some of them feared the blow +that had fallen was a judgment not only upon Jackson but upon the +slacker camp in general, and more than one troubled mind wrestled with +the question as to whether to turn from a selfish and cowardly course +and go where duty called. + +Awakening rather late in the morning, Ted and Hubert heard the sound of +carpenter's tools and, descending from the sleeping-loft, they saw two +of the slackers engaged in the construction of a rough coffin. Later +they learned that others were digging a grave several hundred yards out +in the pine woods. As July was giving them their breakfast, they also +heard with relief that Wheeler had "gone out," and that poor Billy had +been persuaded to accompany him. + +An hour later the body was placed in the coffin and four men bore it to +the grave, where the whole camp assembled. When the boys reached the +spot Buck Hardy softly called Ted to come to him where he stood in +consultation with several of the slackers. + +"We ain't got no preacher nor no Bible," he said to the boy, "and we've +agreed that the least we can do is to stand round the grave and every +man say what he can remember of the prayers he used to say. We don't +have to say 'em out loud if we don't want to." + +There was a slight pause, and then Buck rather awkwardly added: + +"Kid, I was thinkin' that, as you are the speaker in this camp, maybe +you could remember some o' them pieces out o' the Bible they say at +funerals, and----" + +"Oh, Mr. Hardy, I'm afraid I can't," gasped Ted, appalled by the solemn +responsibility thus placed upon him. + +"You can do it, kid," urged Buck. "Don't be scared. Nobody will crack a +smile, and we'll all think you're just great," As Ted still hesitated, +Buck said further: "If you can remember any o' them Bible pieces, I +think Sweet's folks would be glad if you said 'em." + +"Well--I'll try--to remember some," said the shrinking boy, unable to +resist this last appeal, "and--and--I'll do my best." + +"Good for you," said Buck, putting an affectionate hand on Ted's +shoulder. + +Then he turned, gave the awaited signal, and all present formed a circle +round the grave. Then, with bent and uncovered heads, practically every +one repeated in whispers the whole of known or fragments of +long-forgotten prayers. + +As soon as the last man to do this looked up, thus signifying that he +had finished, Buck stood a little forward with Ted, his hand on the +boy's shoulder. Then Ted, in a voice at first low and trembling but +gradually strengthening, his eyes fixed upon the coffin, repeated: + +"Jesus said, I am the Resurrection and the Life. He that believeth in +Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.... Blessed are the dead who +die in the Lord; they rest from their labors, and their works do follow +them.... Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust...." + +The boy hesitated and, turning to Buck whispered anxiously: + +"I--I don't think I can remember any more." + +"That'll do fine," whispered Buck, then announced aloud: "Now we'll bury +him." + + + + +XXII + + +After the slackers had spent the afternoon in heavy sleep and eaten a +hearty supper, the atmosphere of gloom was partially lifted from the +camp; but the thoughts of all were still busier than their tongues as +they sat and smoked about the fire. Though conversation lagged, nobody +was sleepy, and all lingered, lounging on the grass until Ted suddenly +rose to his feet and asked if he might say a few words. + +"I am only a boy," he said, "and a boy is not expected to talk to men, +but there are a few things I want _so much_ to say, and I hope you will +let me." + +"Go ahead, kid," said Buck Hardy. + +Al Peters and Bud Jones added their permission, the others remaining +silent. All stared at the boy, giving him close attention. Instead of +shrinking before the steady gaze of so many eyes, he felt inspired +thereby. It had been so ever since he was first given declamation +exercises at school. Always he had found writing "a composition" a +distasteful, unwelcome and heavy task, but as soon as he was given a +chance to speak to attentive listeners his work became easy, his active +mind became more fully awake, crowding thoughts clamored for expression, +and, while he talked, the subject given to him developed far beyond any +previous outline that he had made. And it was so now, his proposed few +words becoming many and his promise to be very brief being soon +forgotten. + +"Of course, we are all thinking a lot about that poor man," he said, +"and perhaps some of you have thought, as I have, how much better it +would have been for him and his family if he had gone to the war and +died gloriously for his country instead of coming to such an end in such +a place as this at such a time. But I don't want to say much about Mr. +Jackson. Ever since the days of old Rome, my uncle says, it has been +agreed that we ought to say little about the dead unless we are ready to +say something in praise. + +"I speak of him because the way he died reminds me of what I read in +that newspaper Mr. Jenkins brought in here when he came. I read in that +paper of how a captain in our army wasn't true to our side because his +parents were Germans and he had relatives in Germany, and of how he was +sentenced to twenty-five years of hard labor. That and lots of other +things I've read show what we are up against in this country. My uncle +says our Northern States are full of foreigners who came over here just +to make money, and they and their children still love the countries they +came from, the Germans especially, who, I've read, claim twenty millions +in our country that are German by birth or descent." + +"Gee-whiz!" cried Buck Hardy, quick to see the boy's point. + +"Of course, most of these have been here long enough to become real +Americans. My uncle thinks there is doubt about only the more recent +immigrations. But even these are a great population, and the things that +have happened prove that very many of them are working for the Kaiser +with all their might. They spy for Germany and blow up and burn down +munition plants. They do even more harm by their cunning whispers and +continual talk. They get hold of ignorant people and try to persuade +them that it costs too much in blood and money to fight Germany and +that, anyhow, the world would be better off under the Kaiser's rule. I +read of one German, a professor in one of our colleges, who actually +argued in print that the wisest thing to do is to submit and make peace +on any terms. You see, they are not real Americans, and still love and +admire Germany; they would really enjoy having the Kaiser walk on their +necks, and they may think that to try to make this country one of the +tails to the Kaiser's kite is just the thing they ought to do. Besides, +they know that German rule would bring them forward and make them the +aristocrats in this country." + +The listeners to this boyish, but pointed and intensely earnest harangue +were all of old American stock and at this point all of them, without +exception, were visibly indignant. + +"Don't you see what this brings us up against?" asked Ted. "And what we +are up against reminds me of the way Mr. Jackson died. This great German +element that is secretly for the Kaiser is our Snake in the Grass that +watches and waits and will come out and strike openly if ever a German +army lands on our shores. Meanwhile it tries to poison the minds of our +people and it does all the damage it possibly can on the sly. You see +what we have to fight right here at home and how, in a way, we have a +harder pull and need more help than any of our Allies. + +"Now this is my answer to the argument I have heard in this camp. Some +of you have said that you are not needed because the country is so big +and powerful and has so many men. We _are_ powerful, but, you see, we +have the secret foe at home as well as the open foe on the French +border, and we need all our strength--all our able-bodied young men--so +that we can go ahead in a big way and _smash_ the hateful Huns. Our +country needs _you_, and _you_, and _you_," cried Ted, nodding his head +toward Buck Hardy, and then toward every man around the camp fire in +turn. + +"Do you want to see a German viceroy taking orders from the Kaiser at +Washington?" he demanded. "Do you want to see a German general in +command of Atlanta and of every other State capital? Do you want to see +a strutting German boss lording it over every town and county in this +country? If you do, then you can say that you are not needed. Maybe you +can't be stirred up by the President's call to make the world safe for +democracy, because that may sound to you like something far away--though +it isn't--But don't you--" cried the boy, tears starting in his +eyes--"don't you want to see the American flag keep on flying? Don't you +want to see your neighbors and all our people live in freedom and +safety? Don't you want Americans still to rule in the country which our +ancestors fought for and won and built up? Even little children have not +been safe from the cruelty of the Germans. Do you want them protected? +Do you want to keep our young women from being carried off into slavery? +Do you want your mothers and sisters and sweethearts to belong to +foreign beasts? Do you want to see in your own neighborhoods the +dreadful things that have been seen in Belgium and France? The people in +France have suffered so that when our first soldiers landed some of the +French kissed the very hem of their garments. Do you want to wait until +_we_ feel like that toward any people who might come to help us to drive +back the German hordes? + + "'Breathes there a man with soul so dead + Who never to himself hath said, + This is my own, my native land!' + +"Breathes _here_, to-night, a man with soul so dead that he thinks of +the safety of his own skin instead of the safety of his country, his +people, his women, and who is not willing to stand up and fight for +freedom, for security, for the right to live in peace, against powerful +and wicked aggressors? Oh, God, I wish _I_ were old enough to go to the +war and do my part!" + +Then, overcome by his emotions, Ted threw himself down on the grass and +sobbed aloud. Hubert, who was near, put an arm over his cousin and +sobbed with him. July, who had crawled nearer on the grass while Ted was +speaking and now lay flat on his stomach close at hand, reached out a +hand and touched the boy's shoulder, whispering: + +"Nem-mind, Cap'n Ted. You done yo' part to-night. You been doin' yo' +part ever since you come to dis camp. Don't you cry, Cap'n Ted, honey." + +"Did you ever see the like o' that boy?" asked Al Peters softly. "He +sure made the cold chills run up and down my back." + +The remark was made to Buck Hardy, whose lips were twitching nervously +and who did not answer. + +"Too bad he _ain't_ old enough," said Bud Jones. "He'd sure make a dandy +cap'n in the army." + +The other slackers stared into the fire in gloomy silence. + +Suddenly Buck Hardy rose to his feet, clearing his throat as he too +looked steadily into the fire. + +"Well, fellows," he said, "I don't know how the rest o' you feel, but +I'm ready to quit. I'm tired o' playin' the game of a sneakin' suck-egg +dog and I want to try the game of bein' a _man_." + +"Goin' to desert, air you?" asked Zack James in a harsh, unsteady voice. + +"No--goin' to _quit desertin'_." + +"Goin' to go back on _us_," insisted James, "jes' because a _boy_ has +got lots o' lip and can talk to beat the band." + +"No," said Buck, keeping his temper. "He sure is game and a great kid, +and he stirred me up powerful; but I made up my mind before to-night. I +made it up when I was by my sick mother's bed. I'm free to say that that +boy's talk before that had a lot to do with it, but the truth is I ain't +been satisfied from the start. I never did really belong to this crowd. +I got in wrong last summer when I thought I knew better than the +Congress of the United States about that draft business and was fool +enough to get mad." + +Zack James blew out his breath in a sort of contemptuous hiss. + +"I meant to tell you all as soon as I come back yesterday," continued +Buck, taking no notice of James, "but the trouble in camp stopped me. I +only come back to get them boys, and to-morrow I'll start out with 'em. +I'm goin' to take them boys home and then I'm goin' to the war." + +"Oh, Mr. Hardy," cried Ted, who had been drying his eyes as he listened, +and who now started up, "I'm gladder to hear that than to know that we +are going home!" + +Mitch' Jenkins now spoke for the first time. + +"Maybe you are goin' to take them boys home," he said, "but you ain't +goin' to the war. You are goin' to jail, and then you are goin' to be +shot." + +"What do you mean?" demanded Buck in startled tones, plainly disturbed. + +Then Ted darted his hand into an inside pocket and brought out a +battered newspaper clipping. + +"That's what they are sayin' in my neighborhood," declared Jenkins. +"And that's why, when I heard of you fellows on the quiet, I came in to +join you. I'd let the time to register go by, and so I come in here +a-kitin'." + +"Mr. Jenkins," said Ted, boldly facing hostile eyes, his voice quite +steady, "you heard a wild rumor of the sort the Germans in this country +are spreading all the time. I have the real facts here, Mr. Hardy. I cut +this out of that paper Mr. Jenkins himself brought in, thinking I might +need it. It got wet when we crossed the 'prairie,' but you can read it. +It is a part of Provost Marshal General Crowder's report on the first +draft. It says that out of nearly ten million men not much over five +thousand arrests were made for failure to register, that more than half +of these, after registering, were released. "'The authorities,'" read +the boy from his clipping, "'wisely assumed an attitude of leniency +toward all those who after arrest exhibited a willingness to register +and extended the _locus penitentiae_ as far as possible, believing that +the purpose of the law was to secure a full registration rather than +full jails.'" + +Ted handed the clipping to Buck, who, after looking it over carefully, +handed it to Al Peters, remarking: + +"Another lie nailed. I don't mean that you did the lyin', Jenkins. I +reckon it was the Germans." + +The clipping passed from Peters to Jones and then to Jenkins, each +holding it near the fire and reading in silence. Jenkins studied it +carefully and then, without comment, passed it to James, who, after +hardly a glance at the printed lines, tore up the clipping and threw it +into the fire. + +"What good will that do you?" asked Peters scornfully. + +"Nothin' but newspaper lies to fool runaways like us out of their hidin' +places," said James bitterly. + +Ted, who regarded the clipping as of great value and considered it his +property, turned with an outraged face to Buck, who chose to take no +notice of an incident which appeared to him unimportant. + +"Well, fellows," he said in conclusion, "I've put you on notice, and now +all I've got to do is to get ready." + +"So you've gone back on us," repeated James, his voice trembling with +anger, "and you'll go out and put the sheriff on our trail?" + +"I didn't say that. I don't expect to hunt up the sheriff. I'll be +satisfied if he don't hunt me up. But if he asks me straight up and +down, I don't engage to do any lyin'." + +"You mean that after them boys has blabbed the whole thing, you won't +deny it?" demanded James. + +"I told you I wouldn't do any lyin'," said Buck sharply. + +"All _right_," said James menacingly. "That's all I want to know." + +"How much more do you deserve?" asked Buck, his tone showing irritation +for the first time. "Al Peters," he said suddenly, turning to the young +man addressed, "I don't think you belong in this crowd, either. If +there's any yellow dog in you, I ain't seen it. Don't you want to come +along with me and join the _men_?" + +"Buck," said Peters, rising and stepping forward, "I have a good mind to +do it." + +"Good for you! Now, Jones, let's hear from you. I ain't seen any yellow +dog in you either. I think that down underneath you're a _man_. Don't +you want to come along?" + +"Buck, I think I will," said Bud Jones. + +He spoke as lightly as if a fishing trip had been proposed. He even +smiled as he rose and took his stand in the group of which the boys were +now the center. + +Zack James started up, staring and muttering, his manner suggestive of +impotent rage. He drew Thatcher aside and whispered to him. + +"How about you, Jenkins?" asked Buck, smiling. "You're new and I hardly +know you, but from things I've heard it looks to me like you're pretty +nearly all white." + +"No, thank you," said Jenkins, with mocking courtesy. "I'm stayin'. It's +risky--with the sheriff gettin' on to it in three days' time--but it +ain't as risky as goin' to jail with the chance o' bein' shot." + +"Then, that's all," said Buck. "No use to ask any o' the rest." + +"July wants to go out with us," spoke up Ted. + +"I sho do want to go wid Mr. Hardy an' Cap'n Ted," declared the grinning +negro. + +"All right, July. I brought you in and, if you want to go, I'll take you +out." + +The two groups were now quite distinct, first Carter and then Jenkins +having joined James and Thatcher. + +"So," said James, as if estimating the relative strength of contending +forces, "there's three of you and the nigger and the boys, and there's +four of us--five when Wheeler gets back." + +"Yes, you'll get Wheeler--not a doubt of it," said Buck, as if greatly +amused. "And you're welcome to him." + +Then he turned his back on James, remarking to those about him: "Well, I +think our crowd had better go to bed. We ought to start early in the +mornin'." + +To this there was general assent, the three men and the two boys moving +at once toward the sleeping-loft, followed slowly by the negro. + +"Good night," called out Buck, his tone quite friendly. + +But no response came from the four slackers who, standing in their +tracks, watched the departing "deserters" with hostile eyes. + +As the three men and the boys were climbing the ladder, July quietly +disappeared. Stealing into the bushes bent double, he skirted the +clearing, treading very softly. Five minutes later he lay in the brush +within earshot of the four slackers who still stood in consultation. + + + + +XXIII + + +Ted went to bed a very happy boy, seeing nothing but the wonderful +achievement of his fond dream. Hubert alone noted that the three men put +their guns within reach of their hands when they lay down, and he alone +heard Al Peters whisper: + +"What if them fellows want to make trouble?" + +The boy was glad to hear Buck answer: "Oh, shucks, there ain't spunk +enough in _that_ bunch." + +Some two hours later Buck saw reason to modify this contemptuous +opinion, for July brought startling news. Climbing up into the +sleeping-loft very quietly, the negro bent down over Peters, Jones and +Hardy in turn, shaking each until assured that each was fully awake. +Each grumbled sleepily, protesting and questioning. Not until all three +stood up and peered at him in the dim light did July fully explain. + +"Sorry to 'sturb you gen'l'mens," he apologized, "but it ain't safe to +stay sleep in dis place to-night. I's scared dem mens out dere is +fixin' to burn it down on you." + +"What in the dickens made you wake us up to tell such a fool tale as +that?" demanded Buck skeptically. + +"I tellin' you de trufe," insisted July in an injured tone. "I was +lookin' an' listenin' when Mr. James shook his fist at dis place an' +says: 'Less burn 'em up--dat's de quick an' sure way.' Dem's his very +words. I slipped up on 'em an' watched an' listened." + +Peters and Jones looked at each other and then at Buck. + +"Zack James is a fool anyhow and now that he's mad, his brains is plumb +addled," said Buck in a disgusted tone. "Nothin' but talk. Jenkins +wouldn't stand for it." + +"Well, you better believe dem mens is gittin' ready to fight," insisted +July. "Dey's tuck all de provisions an' put 'em wid dey guns behind a +bunch o' permeters close by de big pine--you know de big pine--and dey +got another fire built down dere. And dey's tuck all de boats an' hid +'em. I sneaked round an' watched 'em while dey was doin' it all." + +This was serious. Buck made no further protest when Peters said: + +"Boys, we'd better look out for ourselves." + +"Dey's 'spectin' a fight," said July. "When I fust crawled up to listen +Mr. Thatcher was a-sayin': 'If we got to be shot, we mought as well be +shot right yuh in de swamp widout waitin' for de Gov'ment to do it.'" + +"And what did Jenkins say?" asked Buck. + +"I couldn't make out, but I think fum de signs dat he argued an' argued +an' den give in to Mr. James an' them." + +"Anyhow he won't let that fool James burn this place down on us." + +"We'd better move out, though, and do it quick," said Jones. "Zack James +may be drunk. I smelt whisky on him to-day." + +"We've got four guns," remarked Peters. + +An immediate move being agreed on, the boys were wakened. The guns and +blankets were divided between the three white men, who also secured a +few personal belongings which they kept in the sleeping-loft. The negro +was told to give the boys any tins of salmon or sardines that he could +find and to shoulder as large a load of raked up moss as he could +carry, after dropping it through the opening in the floor. + +But before this was done, or any one had descended the ladder, Buck lay +flat on the floor, thrust his head and shoulders through the opening and +looked about. As he did so, he saw a man hurrying away--after listening +beneath the loft, as it appeared. Buck then went half way down the +ladder, gun in hand, and looked about more fully, noting that the old +camp fire had burnt out and that a new one burned steadily some two +hundred yards away at the point July had indicated, the upright figures +of two men being visible within the circle of light. + +"Come on, boys," he said softly, after a few moments. + +Within fifteen minutes the move had been made in silence and without +disturbance, even the moss being transferred to the chosen, +grass-covered spot which was shut in on three sides by thick clumps of +palmettos. Here they were amply screened both on the side looking toward +the sleeping-loft, which was about a hundred yards away, and on the +front looking toward the slackers' new camp fire, which was some two +hundred yards distant. No upright figures were now seen within the +circle of light, the alert slackers evidently having taken alarm and +sought shelter behind their own "bunch o' permeters." + +There was no moon, but myriads of stars rained soft light through the +clear atmosphere, and, as the three white men took turns watching on the +exposed side of their fireless camp, they were able to see every object +distinctly for a considerable distance out among the scattered pines. + +July shaped the pile of dry moss into a comfortable bed and Ted and +Hubert lay down under blankets, as Buck insisted that they should do; +but there was little sleep for anybody during the rest of that night. +None of the white men lay down even while off sentinel duty. The three +mostly sat in a group, watching, or listening, or softly discussing +plans for the coming day. + +At last morning slowly dawned, nothing of importance having occurred +meanwhile. As soon as the growing light brought out distinctly the +outlines of every familiar object on the island within reach of the eye, +Buck stepped out into the open, gun in hand, faced the slackers' leafy +fort, and called: + +"Jenkins! Jenkins!" + +In a few moments Jenkins, also carrying a gun, stepped into view. + +"Well, Jenkins," shouted Buck, a sneer in his tone as well as in his +words, "that nice little Sunday-school game of burnin' the roof over our +heads didn't come off, after all. I reckon we was too quick for you." + +"Now, Buck Hardy," cried Jenkins, "you ought to know I wouldn't stand +for nothin' o' that sort." + +"You're in with a bad crowd, Jenkins. Well, what do them yellow dogs in +the bushes behind you aim to do?" + +"_I'd_ ruther see nothin' done. The whole thing is crazy. I say, let you +fellows go out without any trouble. That's the only thing to do, _I_ +say." + +"But your yellow dogs don't agree, one of 'em 'specially--the one that +wanted to burn us out. I know who he is, and I've a good mind to walk +right over there and break every bone in his body." + +There was a sudden rustling of the palmettos behind Jenkins that seemed +to indicate preparation for war. Noting this, Peters and Jones leveled +their guns through their own palmettos without exposing the muzzles to +the view of the watchers in the opposite leafy fort. The two boys and +the negro looked and listened with all their eyes and ears, their +excitement now intense. But Buck Hardy stood in a careless pose, gun in +hand, as before. + +"Jenkins," he said, "if you've got any influence with Carter and +Thatcher, talk to 'em. Then stack all your guns against that big pine. +Then _we'll_ stack our guns where you can see 'em. Then I'll walk over +there empty-handed and wipe up the ground with Zack James. Let that +settle it. _I'll_ be satisfied." + +Jenkins had no time to speak, even if ready with a reply. The last word +was hardly uttered when there came a flash from the green behind him, a +loud report followed, and a bullet whistled by Buck Hardy's head. + +Instantly Peters and Jones fired their guns. Then Jenkins leaped out of +sight, and Buck, after firing where he stood, sought cover beside his +friends. + +The slackers promptly fired a volley from their green covert in +response, the bullets rattling through the palmettos and passing over +the heads of the two seated boys. + +"Lie down flat!" Buck commanded them. + +"Here, nigger, take this extra gun and shoot," cried Peters, shoving it +toward July with his left hand as he raised his own gun with his right. + +July took the gun with a frightened air and a sickly smile, but prepared +to obey. + +Hubert flattened himself out on the grass and lay still, as ordered; but +Ted, unable to endure such inaction, with its attendant inability to see +what was going on, crawled quietly and unnoticed into the palmettos to +the left of the men until he reached a point where, by resting on his +elbows and cautiously parting the leafage in front of him, he could scan +the open and see the green covert sheltering the enemy as it trembled +under the shock of each volley fired into it. + +"Aim low," he presently heard Buck say. "The only way to end it is to +hit some of 'em." + +"I wish we had an American flag to run up," thought Ted, as the next +volley was fired. + +A moment later he forgot this aspiration, as a cry of pain was heard +from the slackers' covert. + +"Somebody's hit!" cried Peters gaily. + +Buck chuckled. Jones laughed aloud. Intense excitement reigned, mingled +with a fierce exultation which Ted, as he realized afterward, fully +shared. + +The three white men and the negro fired again, and were raising their +guns once more when Buck suddenly called a halt. + +"Hold on," he said. "Looks like they've quit. And if they have, we'll +quit, too." + +All listened intently and looked cautiously forth. There were now no +answering shots. It was evident that the slackers had either "quit" or, +as Peters suggested, were "hatching some mischief." + +While keeping a wary eye on the open woods behind them, the watchful +listeners waited for some sign from the silenced "fort," and presently +it came. A white handkerchief rose on the end of a stick and fluttered +above the clump of palmettos. + +"Hello, there!" shouted Buck. "Is that you, Jenkins? It's got to be +Jenkins, or we won't trust you." + +"It's me," they heard the voice of Jenkins, rather fainter than it had +been during the previous parley. "It's all over, Hardy. You've got us. +James and Thatcher have run--they're in the boats and gone by this time. +Nobody here but me and Carter." + +"Step out, then, and stack your guns." + +"We're both hit, but I reckon we can do that much." + +Jenkins came out of cover, limping, and stood his gun against the tree. +Behind him came Carter, dragging his gun with one hand, his other arm +hanging limp at his side. + +"I reckon it's all right," said Buck. "But, July, you stay here and keep +them boys till we make sure." + +Then the three white men, holding their guns in readiness, walked across +the open to investigate. Left alone with the boys, July suddenly began +to laugh with all the abandon of the happiest of darkies. + +"Dat sho was a grand fight," he assured the boys. "An' what you reckon, +Cap'n Ted? Atter I shot once I wasn't scared. I des 'joyed myself +shootin' at dem slackers an' list'nin' to de bullets rattlin' round us +in dese permeters. I wouldn't 'a' believed it. I sho is a 'stonished +nigger dis mawnin'." + +July laughed ecstatically, and before the amused and pleased boys had +spoken he continued: + +"Look yuh, Cap'n Ted, maybe I won't haf to have des a cook's job in de +army. Maybe I'd 'joy myself mo' still shootin' at dem Germans out o' one +o' dem holes in de ground. If dey want to try me, I's willin'--I don' +care how soon de Gov'ment put a rifle in my hands an' sick me on dem +Germans!" + +Then the grinning negro gave vent to his feelings in a prodigious and +joyful yell--a sort of war whoop in advance. + +"July, this is simply _great_!" cried Ted, full of enthusiasm as he +beheld a soldier born for Uncle Sam in the most unexpected quarter. "And +I'm not so very much surprised either; for I have heard old army men say +that a great many good soldiers are afraid at first." + +Then they heard Buck's shout that everything was "all right," and the +two boys and the negro raced eagerly across the intervening space. + +"July," ordered Buck, "bring a bucket of water and any old cloth you can +find. And be quick." + +Carter was seated with his back against a tree, his face very pale and +his bared arm showing a deep flesh wound out of which came an alarming +flow of blood. Jenkins, seated near, had uncovered a bleeding but much +less serious flesh wound in the calf of his left leg. + +"Zack James was at the bottom of the whole fool business," Jenkins was +saying. "He was drinkin' all night. You can see his empty bottle behind +them permeters." + +"Lucky for him that he beat it before I got my hands on him," said Buck. + +While Peters and Jones were checking the red flow from Carter's wound +and very carefully binding it up, Ted noticed with alarm that blood +trickled down Buck's left wrist. He had received instruction in first +aid as a part of his Boy Scout training and now insisted on dressing his +friend's wound, although Buck protested that the bullet had "just +grazed" his arm and no attention was necessary. Ted cleared the drying +blood from around the scratch and, tearing into strips his handkerchief +which he had washed and dried the previous afternoon, neatly employed a +part of it as a bandage. + +"Thank you, little doctor," said Buck, smiling and pleased. + +Then Ted turned to Jenkins and very carefully performed the same office +for him, in this case there being some real need. + +"You sure are a nice kid," said Jenkins gratefully. "I didn't think +you'd do it for me because I wasn't on your side in the fight." + +"Do you take me for a _German_?" demanded Ted, vastly indignant. "The +Americans and the English and the French always attend to wounded +prisoners of war. Only the Germans leave the enemy wounded to die, or +kill them. They fire on the Red Cross and sink hospital ships, too. But +we are different." + +"Lord, no; I'd never take you for a German," apologized Jenkins, with a +twitch of his lip and a twinkle in his eye. + +Ted looked around, bright-eyed, upon the scene about him and the +swamp-island surroundings, sighing, not with sadness, but with relief +and satisfaction in the shaping and fortunate issue of events. Well +pleased, he noted that the sun had risen in a clear sky and that birds +were singing joyfully. + +The boy vaguely sensed the wonderful and ever-compensating fact that +nature had received no shock and its marvelous mechanism remained +untouched; that the world was beautiful and its inarticulate creatures +were happy, in spite of man's strain and strife, his guns and his wars. + +"Hurry up now, July, and get us some breakfast," the voice of Buck Hardy +was heard calling. + + + + +XXIV + + +Two tramping parties approached each other on the borders of the great +Okefinokee in the late afternoon. + +The one just emerged from the swamp consisted of Ted Carroll, Hubert +Ridgway, the three reformed slackers, the negro, and the two "prisoners +of war," the first of the latter moving with a slight limp and the +second carrying his arm in a sling. + +The party descending toward the swamp consisted of Judge Ridgway, in +hunting dress and carrying a gun, the widely known sheriff of that +section, several deputies, a negro with a heavy provision-pack, and the +venerable swamp-squatter whose long beard running down in a point had +reminded Hubert of "a ram-goat" until the old fellow's kindness had won +the hearts of both boys. + +As the homeward-bound party wound out of the swamp brush, and the party +moving down the slope skirted a blackjack thicket and came into full +view, both halted momentarily, uttering ejaculations of astonishment. +Then Ted and Hubert, whose keen young eyes saw everything and whose +quick minds leaped upon the explanation, raced forward, shouting, and +rushed into their uncle's arms. + +Judge Ridgway held them hard and kissed them; then, with an arm round +Ted on his right and an arm round Hubert on his left, he sat on a log +and listened as the boys' tongues ran a veritable race. + +The sheriff, his deputies; and the old swamp-squatter stood respectfully +apart. The three reformed slackers and the "prisoners of war" halted +where the shouting and racing boys had left them, comprehending what had +occurred and awaiting further developments, even the three who counted +on the friendship of the boys not altogether easy in their minds. But +July, grinning, delighted, curious, edged nearer until he heard Hubert +crowd upon Ted's last words, saying: + +"And Ted made speeches to them nearly every night. I told him and told +him it wouldn't do any good, but it did a lot of good. It converted +them." + +"And you were just starting to look for us?" asked Ted. + +"Yes--the moment we were ready, without waiting for an early morning +start. I'll tell you later what kept me away from home so long, and why +my servants thought you were staying in town, and how Cousin Jim thought +you were just having a good time hunting around the plantation. I had +just got home when your good old swamp-squatter friend turned up and +told us where to find you." + +"It doesn't matter, Uncle," said Ted. "I'm awfully glad--now that it's +over--that you _didn't_ start any sooner, because, if you had, you know, +some of the great things that happened might not have happened." + +Judge Ridgway smiled and squeezed the boy, then said: + +"Well, now let me have a look at your party. Suppose you bring up the +'prisoners of war' first." + +Turning away with a vastly important air to execute this commission, Ted +and Hubert ran into the venerable Mr. George Smith. + +"I'm that glad to see you boys I don't know what to do," declared the +smiling old swamp-squatter, grasping their hands. "I'd 'a' footed it out +to Judge Ridgway's even if Sweet Jackson had 'a' locked me up and flung +away the key." + +"He won't bother you any more," said Hubert, without stopping to +explain. + +"Thank you _so much_, Mr. Smith," said Ted. "I just knew you would." + +Then the boys ran on their way. + +"They are all here except James, Thatcher and Wheeler," Judge Ridgway +was saying to the sheriff, who had stepped to his side. "To-morrow you +can send a party in to round them up." + +Then followed the rare spectacle of a Judge "holdin' court right dere in +de open pine woods"--to quote from July's later description. For Ted and +Hubert had brought up the "prisoners of war." + +"Mr. Jenkins and Mr. Carter," said Ted, presenting them. + +"Good names that have not been honored," Judge Ridgway sternly +commented, looking the prisoners up and down with a keen, appraising +eye. "I imagine that you haven't much to say for yourselves, for there +isn't much to be said. Have you had enough of dodging the law of the +land and shirking your duty, hidden like thieves in a swamp? Are you +ready to register and go to the war when called?" + +"Yes, sir," answered Jenkins and Carter in a breath. + +"That's the main requisite, and the situation is now practically in your +own hands, for, as the higher authorities have wisely said, what the +country wants is full armies, not full jails. Take them in charge, Mr. +Sheriff. I will only say further that I should like to see them given +every chance, Mr. Jenkins especially, for whom my dear boys have spoken +a good word." + +When the "prisoners of war" had stepped apart in the company of the +deputies, Jenkins exchanging a parting smile with Ted as he went, Judge +Ridgway spoke again to the sheriff: + +"I want the other three young men to spend the night at my house. Their +case is different. I think also that I'll have my servants put up the +young negro for the night--my boys are so grateful to him. I will be +responsible for the four and see that they are registered to-morrow." + +"All right, Judge," said the sheriff, and, saluting, he marched off with +his deputies and the "prisoners of war." + +Judge Ridgway rose from his seat, smiling, as Ted and Hubert brought up +their three friends and introduced them. He shook hands first with +Peters and then with Jones, saying: + +"Well, boys, you made a very serious mistake, but even serious mistakes +can be rectified; and I understand that you have voluntarily done so +already, so far as was in your power. _Voluntary_ rectification is +everything. Little more can be asked, and we'll say no more about it." + +Then he turned to Buck with an extremely friendly manner, holding the +young man's hand in a warm clasp. + +"Mr. Hardy, I am deeply indebted to you," he said. "I shudder to think +of what my boys might have suffered but for you and your commanding +influence over that lawless crowd." + +"Judge--Judge Ridgway, you--you make me ashamed," stammered Buck, +awkwardly, his eyes lowered. "What I did for them was nothin' to what +Ted did for me. That boy made me feel like I'd never get any peace o' +mind till I'd bagged about sixteen o' them Germans." + +"You're the right stuff!" declared Judge Ridgway, with a suddenly +renewed grip of Buck's hand. + +After smiling with the greatest satisfaction into Buck's uplifted eyes, +he addressed the three young men collectively: "I want you all to spend +the night at my house." + +"Oh, Judge, we don't want to impose----" began Peters. + +"Not a word; you've got to come, all of you," declared Judge Ridgway +merrily, as he noted the looks exchanged by the embarrassed young +backwoodsmen. "I want you to help my boys tell their wonderful story. +Even Ulysses after all his travels never found a keener listener than I +shall be." + +He was about to add that all had now better start on the homeward tramp, +when he noticed the old swamp-squatter lingering to say good-by. + +"Come back and stay all night, Mr. Smith," he hospitably invited. "Then +you can make an early start in the morning." + +"Thank you, Judge, I believe I will," the old man eagerly accepted. + +July had already been informed by Hubert that he was to be the guest of +old Asa and Clarissa for the night, and he could now be seen with the +black pack-carrier hurrying along the path ahead, eager, as he had +confessed, to reach the Ridgway kitchen and relate to a gaping audience +the marvelous adventures of "Cap'n Ted." + +"Walk on with your friends, Ted," directed Judge Ridgway. "I want to +speak to Hubert." + +As soon as he learned that the boys were lost in the swamp Judge Ridgway +telegraphed his brother in North Carolina, and that morning he had +received a long answer. + +"I've heard from your father, Hubert," he now informed the boy. "Both +your father and mother want me to send you home at once. They think +Ted's influence is bad for you." + +"Oh, they don't understand," cried Hubert, his grip on his lachrymal +ducts visibly loosening. "I wouldn't take a thousand dollars for this +great trip with Ted. I'm more of a man right now than I would have been +without Ted. To be with Ted is the greatest thing in the world!" + +"Hubert, shake hands with your uncle," said Judge Ridgway, stopping +short. "There's much better stuff in you than I supposed. Good boy! You +won't have to go till to-morrow, and I'll see to it that you come down +to visit Ted soon." + +A few minutes later Hubert joined the party ahead and told Ted that his +uncle wanted to speak to him. Ted ran back gladly, shouting as he drew +near: + +"Oh, Uncle--I forgot. What's the news about the war?" + +"A great battle[A] is raging on the west front--but we'll talk about +that later." + +[A] The great German drive beginning March 21, 1918. + +Judge Ridgway put his arm over Ted's shoulder, and they walked forward. + +"I'm to have you for keeps now," he said. "Your Uncle Fred has at last +agreed to give you up." + +"That's just what I've wanted!" + +"We have much to talk about. As to your future, I rather think it will +have to be West Point for you, eh?" + +"Splendid!" cried Ted, his eyes glowing. "Oh, Uncle, everything is +coming just as I wanted it. Isn't it wonderful how things come out all +right? And I'm always expecting it, too. In the very worst times in the +swamp I told Hubert we'd get out of it and even be glad of what we'd +gone through. And now I'm expecting, I'm sure of, the greatest thing of +all--our victory over the Germans!" + +An hour later, just as the white front of the Ridgway house showed +through the trees from afar, Judge Ridgway and Ted joined the others, +and, looking around upon all his friends, the boy exclaimed: + +"_Won't_ we have a party to-night!" + +"Yes, I think it will be a 'party,'" said Judge Ridgway. "I think +Clarissa will try to serve such a supper as she has sometimes seen in +her dreams. And I think we may even drink a toast to my Ted." + +Putting an affectionate hand on the boy's shoulder, Buck Hardy slightly +amended the announcement of their host. + +"To _Captain_ Ted," he said. + + +THE END + + * * * * * + +Transcriber's Corrections + +Following is a list of significant typographical errors that have been +corrected. + +- Page 58, "beargrass" changed to "bear-grass" for consistency of use +(grape-vines and bear-grass ropes). + +- Page 107, "repetion" changed to "repetition" (in tireless repetition). + +- Page 118, "wildcat" changed to "wild-cat" for consistency of use (an +ordinary wild-cat). + +- Page 118, "wildcat's" changed to "wild-cat's" for consistency of use +(the dead wild-cat's feet). + +- Page 124, "inclosed" changed to "enclosed" (space enclosed on three +sides). + +- Page 197, "himsel" changed to "himself" (Lifting himself guardedly). + +- Page 301, "anwering" changed to "answering" (no answering shots). + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Captain Ted, by Louis Pendleton + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CAPTAIN TED *** + +***** This file should be named 34333.txt or 34333.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/4/3/3/34333/ + +Produced by Patrick Hopkins, Curtis Weyant and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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