CHAPTER XIV.
THE RETURN OF THE EIGHTH SCOUT.
"HE'S gone!" exclaimed Bumpus; and it would have been hard to tellwhether relief or regret lay back of his words; for some of the boys,forgetting the peril that might hang over the head of Bob White, did themoonshiner know of his presence, and his mission to the Blue Ridge, onlyconsidered the entertainment afforded by having Old Phin at their fire.
"And I guess the old feller's got enough information in his head to lasthim a long spell," remarked Giraffe.
"Say, p'raps he's seriously considerin' starting a troop of Boy Scoutshere in the Blue Ridge country," suggested Step Hen, who sometimes didhave brilliant ideas flash through his brain.
There was considerable of a laugh at this proposition, which struck theboys as about as absurd as anything they had heard for a long time.
"Wonder how our real scoutmaster, Dr. Philander Hobbs'd like to take thejob?" chuckled Davy Jones. "He thought he had trouble enough on hishands when he ran up against a few hard cases, like Giraffe and Step Henhere; but they'd be just pie alongside the strappin' mountain kids we'veseen."
"Well," remarked Thad, "you never can tell what might happen. Even thoseboys have got something in them that can be brought out, if only oneknows how to go about it. Don't you forget, fellows, that some of thegreatest men this country has ever known, were born among the mountains.And right now there may be a future president of the United Stateswithin ten miles of where we sit."
"Hear! hear!" cried Step Hen, pretending to clap his hands in applause.
"Huh! nearer than that, mebbe," declared Bumpus, mysteriously swellingout his chest and looking every inch the hero; "how would the name ofCornelius Jasper Hawtree sound to you? We've never had a PresidentHawtree; but that ain't no reason we never will, is it? Tell me that."
"Give it up," sang out Davy Jones.
"Anyhow, it'd sound more distinguished than plain Jones," retortedBumpus.
"My name isn't Plain Jones, it's David Alexander Constantine Josephus,and a few more that, to tell the honest truth; I've forgot," the otherwent on.
Thad and Allan drew apart from all this mimic warfare, in which thefun-loving scouts liked to indulge from time to time.
"Then you did talk with Bob?" asked the former, with some show ofeagerness in his voice.
"Yes," replied Allan, "it was great fun too. Waited a little whilebefore I could get the first answer to all my waving; but in the end Isaw a flash, like a match had been struck, and then we got in touch."
"What did Bob have to tell?" asked the patrol leader.
"He met his little cousin, all right, just as they had arranged," Allanwent on to say. "And she must have told him something that has made ourchum wild with delight, for he says the trip paid him twenty times over.Just what it was he didn't try to tell me, saying it would have to keeptill he got to camp."
"Well, we can give a pretty good guess what it must be," Thad observed.
"You mean that Bertha has looked, and made a discovery among the papersin her guardian's safe; is that it, Thad?"
"Just about; but we'll have to quit guessing, and just wait till hecomes in," said the scoutmaster, who knew just how to take a grip uponhimself, and appear patient, where some of the other boys would havefretted, and worried greatly.
"He oughtn't to be more'n an hour, at the most," suggested Allan.
"Not unless something happens to him, which we hope it won't," repliedThad.
"You don't think now, do you," demanded the other, "that Old Phin mighttake a notion to waylay him, just to have a look at the eighth scout?"
"I've thought of that, but made up my mind that so far the moonshinercan have no suspicion who Bob is. And that being the case, Allan, youcan see he wouldn't be apt to bother himself to lie in wait for him. Ihope not, anyhow. It'd sure upset some of the plans we're trying so hardto fix. And it might spell trouble with a big T for Bob."
"He's a good fellow, all right," remarked Allan, not in the leastjealous because his particular chum seemed drawn more than ever towardthe Southern boy.
"That's right," answered Thad, quickly; "and we've just got to standback of him, no matter what happens. I guess that if some of the boys'parents had had even half a suspicion that we'd run up against such acombination as this, they wouldn't have given their consent so easily toour coming!"
"I suppose that would have been the case with Bumpus and severalothers," the Maine boy went on; "but I've seen so much of this sort ofthing up in the pine wood that it isn't new to me. Not that it doesn'tgive me a thrill, all right, whenever I think of what we're doing here,and how we had that man sitting at our fire, the worst moonshiner of thewhole Blue Ridge, I guess. And Thad, you did give him a treat, the wayyou talked. I could see that he took considerable stock in all you said.And you opened his eyes some, believe me, with all the wonderful thingsyou reeled off."
"Wonderful to him, Allan, but the plain every day truth to the rest ofus. But I've always heard that there is a spark of good even in theworst man living; and perhaps his weakness for boys may be the soft spotin Old Phin Dady, the moonshiner's heart."
They presently went back to the others, and joined in the generalconversation, which, quite naturally enough, was pretty much confined tothe visit of the mountaineer, what he had spoken about, his suspicions,and above all the strange interest he had taken in Thad's account ofthe Boy Scout movement.
"Hello! there!" said a voice; and they saw Bob White stalk into camp.
One look at the face of the Southern boy told Thad that he had indeedmade a profitable trip, for he saw a smile there, such as had seldommarked it in the past.
They quickly made room for him by the fire; while several of the boysscouted around, to make sure that no spies lurked in the undergrowth,listening to all that was said.
The fire crackled merrily, and looked very cheerful, as the ring offaces turned inquiringly toward Bob White. He knew they were anxious tohear what he had accomplished; and, as there were no longer any secretsto be kept from the balance of the patrol, all having been taken intohis confidence, the Southern boy hesitated no longer.
"I found no trouble getting across the valley," he began; "though once Ihad to lie low, when two men passed by. From what I heard them say, Iknew they were some of the moonshiners, and that they had been orderedto take up positions somewhere, and stand guard. They seemed to be allat sea about the nature of the danger, and yet when Old Phin gave thealarm, they knew what they had to do."
"We ought to tell you in the start, Bob," said Thad, "that we had PhinDady sitting right where you are now; and that he stayed more than afull hour in camp."
"Yes," broke in Bumpus, "and filling up on the stuff Thad gave him, allabout the heaps of things Boy Scouts are supposed to do. He liked it,too, sure as you live, Old Phin did; and we reckon he's got a sneakin'notion of startin' a troop right here, some fine day."
Bob White appeared to be astonished, and demanded to hear the wholestory before he went on with his own experiences. This was presentlytold, and the one who had been absent at the time looked thoughtful whenhe heard the conclusion.
"It may work for good, who knows?" he remarked, as though speaking tohimself. "He's a strange man, is Old Phin; a hard case in most ways; butp'raps now he has got a soft spot in his flinty old heart for boys. He'sa daughter of his own but no sons. And that kind of men generally taketo boys best."
"If they do, it's because they don't know what boys are like," suggestedBumpus.
"Now go on and tell us what you did," observed Thad. "Was your cousin atthe place you told her about?"
"Yes, it was a little arbor in the garden that I knew well," remarkedBob, tenderly. "She was right glad to see me again, suh; and while shewouldn't tell me all I wanted to know, I'm mighty sure Reuben Sparks iscruel to her. She has been anything but happy; and always dreamin' ofthe time when I'd come back to see her, and take her to my mother."
"Did she do what you asked her?" asked Thad, seeing that Bob was apt tolose
the thread of his narrative in letting his thoughts stray back tohis meeting with little Bertha, whom he loved like a sister.
"She did, suh, took a chance to peep through some of the papers in thesafe of Mistah Sparks; and believe me, she gave me a shock when she saidthere was one hidden in a little compartment, that seemed to have beensigned by her own father. I asked her some more questions, and I'malmost sure that it's a will which Reuben Sparks kept hidden away, butwhich something or other has prevented him from destroying these fouryears and more, since my uncle died."
"If you only could get that in your hands, and it turned out to be allyou think, seems to me you might do about what you wanted with oldReuben," Thad remarked.
"Given another day, and good luck, suh, and I surely expect to have thesame in my possession. Then I can shape my plans; but one thing sure, mycousin will go back to Cranford with me!" and Bob smote the palm of hisleft hand with his doubled right fist, to emphasize his remark.
No one seemed a particle sleepy. Indeed, they had never been more wideawake in their lives. Even Davy Jones, filled with the spirit ofmischief that seemed to take possession of him every once in so often,climbed the tree under which they had built their camp-fire, and swunghimself from limb to limb; now with his hands but just as frequently byhis toes; as though he wanted to prove the truth of what that learnedprofessor by the name of Darwin always declared, that we were descendedfrom a race of monkeys.
The rest were lying around in the most comfortable attitudes they couldfind.
"Oh! say, come down out of that, Davy; you make me tired with youreverlasting pranks. Take a drop, won't you, please?" called out Bumpus.
Hardly had he spoken than there was a whoop, and Davy landed squarely inthe middle of the now smouldering fire, sending the brands to the rightand to the left in a hurricane of sparks.
The seven scouts threw themselves backward to avoid contact with thescattered red embers, while Davy scrambled out of his fiery bed withfurious alacrity.