CHAPTER VII
THE TRAP THAT PELEG SET
"There's Growdy's shack and barns!"
"Don't seem to be anything stirring, fellows!"
"Look out for a trap. Once bitten, twice shy. Perhaps he's just layingfor some fellers to come along, and play some more paintin' job trick.I heard that he said he would find some way to stop the nuisance!"
This from "Red" Betts, who was known as a cautious chap, and able tovanish at the first sign of danger better than any fellow in town.
"Suppose we hold up here, and send out scouts to see how the land lies?That's the military way of doing it," ventured Bobolink.
"A good idea, and I appoint you, Bobolink, with Jud Elderkin, to carryout the little business," remarked Paul, in a low tone.
"Trot along, you chaps; the rest of us will bunk right here alongsidethe road and wait till you report," and suiting the action to his wordsWilliam dropped in his tracks.
A brief time elapsed, and then the pair of spies returned.
"Not a single light in the house, and the coast clear, fellows; so comeon!" and Jud waved his long arms as though enjoying his brief assumptionof authority to the limit.
It would have doubtless astonished the old farmer had he chanced upon thescene just then. A young moon hung in the western sky, and while givinglittle light, still the figures of some score of stooping boys might havebeen discovered, advancing in broken formation along the road.
The leader silently opened the gate leading to the dooryard of Growdy'splace. His barns stood near the house, so that the confusion whichreigned was all the more noticeable. Its equal had never been knownaround Stanhope; and could only be expected in the case of a place wherea woman's influence for cleanliness had been totally absent during thepast ten years.
Over to the stable went some of the boys.
Paul had talked it all over with them as they walked, and each knew whatpart he was to take in the general clean-up.
To some of them it was simply another form of a lark. Boys are queercreatures even to those who imagine they know them well. They must bedoing something all the time. Once get them started in the rightdirection, and they will labor just as sturdily to bring about a goodobject, as under other conditions, they would work to play a joke. It alldepends on how they begin. And thanks to the sagacity of Paul, he hadsucceeded in interesting them in the novelty of his proposal.
Some secured rakes and hoes, and began to systematically gather up thescattered loose material that covered the place, ankle deep. Otherspushed the wagons, and the old dilapidated buggy, back into the shed insystematic order.
They worked like busy bees, chuckling, whispering and evidently gettingconsiderable fun out of the strange frolic.
Paul himself went over the job to make sure that it had been thoroughlydone, and that nothing remained uncared for.
Up to this time fortune had favored the busy workers, since no sound hadcome about to betray their presence.
"How is it, Paul?" asked Jack Stormways, as he ran across the other inmaking his rounds.
"About at the end. The boys are putting the old tools back where theyfound them; and then we can go home. It's the best half hour's workany of us have done for a good while, I tell you, Jack."
"Some of the boys don't seem to think it quite so funny now as when theystarted in. They say they can't see where the pay is going to come in,and have begun to grumble," whispered the other.
"Perhaps it never will, and again, who knows what might come out of this?Anyhow, the ladies will be glad to see this dirty place clean for once.Some others I know may take a notion that if Old Growdy can clean up theyought to. Listen! what in the world is that?"
A rattling of tin pans came to their ears, as if one of the boys inprowling around had accidently upset a bench on which a milk bucket andsome flat tinware had been airing.
"That settles it! He'll hear all that row and be out on us in a jiffy!"said Paul, annoyed because the affair had not gone off according toschedule.
"Look! there's a light sprung up inside the house. He's getting histrousers on, all right, and the sooner we skip out the better!" declaredJack.
The boys now came running from every direction, while sounds from withinthe nearby farmhouse told that Old Peleg must be switching on his heavyboots.
So Paul, knowing that the only thing left now was a hasty flight, gavethe signal arranged for. It meant every fellow for himself until theyhad put a reasonable distance between themselves and the seat of danger.Then they could meet at a given place, and go home, laughing over thewhole affair, and wondering what Peleg would think when he saw what amiraculous transformation had taken place while he slept.
Paul happened to be the very last to run away. Instead of passing out byway of the gate as most of the others did, Paul started to pass over thefence at an inviting point, where two of the bars seemed to be down, andhe could gain the adjoining woodlot, from which he might reach the roadat his pleasure.
But alas! the best of plans often go amiss. And that gap that yawned inthe fence proved a delusion and a snare.
Hardly had Paul made the jump over the two lower bars than he foundhimself suddenly jerked down, and his head came with a crash on theground, causing him to see a myriad of stars.
Nor was this all. An unknown power at the same time seemed to lift hislower extremities up in the air at least two feet, so that he appeared tobe trying to swim on dry land.
For a moment he was puzzled to account for this remarkable happening;but as his head cleared a bit, and the stars ceased to shoot before hismental vision, he began to get an idea as to what had happened.
Apparently the fellows who had painted the farmer's pigs on the othernight must have entered his place from the woods, and through this gapin the fence.
Old Peleg had remembered, and anticipating another invasion sooner orlater, he had succeeded in arranging some sort of ingenious trap on thespot.
In jumping Paul had set off the trigger, with the consequence that anoose had instantly tightened around his ankles, and a hogshead partlyfilled with stones, starting to roll down the slope, had drawn his legsupward.
Well, at any rate there he was, clinging to the grass, and with an unseenforce pulling at his elevated feet, so that he was helpless to assisthimself.
It was very funny, no doubt, but Paul hardly felt like laughing, justthen. He tried to wriggle around so as to get at the loop, in the hopethat he might loosen the same; but all his efforts were wasted.
Old Peleg had builded better than he expected when he set that trap inwhich to catch his tormentors.
He was coming now to see the result of his cunning. No doubt he had heardthe tremendous rattle as the bulging barrel of stones started to rolldown the slope after being liberated; for even a deaf man could hardlyhave missed that racket. Lantern in hand he was even now hobbling along,chuckling in anticipation of what he would find in his trap.
Closer came the limping farmer. Paul saw now that he held a vicious blackwhip in his right hand, while gripping a lighted lantern in the other.
Laughter in the distance told that the boys had all taken themselves off.They could not suspect what a dire calamity had befallen their leader, ora rescue party must have certainly been formed.
Another minute and Peleg had arrived at the fence, and bending over heldthe lantern so that its light fell upon the figure of his captive.
"Gut ye, have I? Mebbe ye'll try to paint some critters of mine agin, an'mebbe ye won't!" said the farmer, as he raised the ugly black whip whichhe held, with the evident intention of bringing it down good and hard onthe helpless boy.