CHAPTER XVII.
IN LUCK AGAIN.
BOB was quite as eager as his companion to hurry forward and see whatthat cry of a girl's voice might mean. Whoever heard of a Southern boyunwilling to act in similar circumstances?
The two of them had noted the quarter from whence the shrill screamcame, and were making a bee line for it as fast as the rough nature ofthe ground permitted.
"Keep back, thar, you ugly critter! Don't you dar jump at me! Oh! if Icould on'y git free, I'd show you!" they heard just beyond the fringe ofbushes.
Bursting through these, and the scene lay before them. It was a girl, areal mountain girl too, who had called out. She was half bent over, asthough trying all her might to wrench her foot free, for it seemed to becaught in a crevice of the rock, as in a vise.
Not ten feet away from her crouched an ugly wildcat. Its ears were bentbackward toward its body; the yellow eyes seemed to glow with an uglyfire; and there could be no doubt but that the animal was getting readyto jump at the girl, possibly angered by the red sunbonnet she wore.
She had managed to pick up a stone, with which she was ready to dobattle in case the cat really attacked her. Thad saw this, and admiredher grit, even though he believed that she would have suffereddreadfully, had the fight ever come off.
Bob gave a cry of rage as he saw what it all meant. He too snatched up astone, and made directly for the wildcat, as though such a thing as feardid not enter into his calculations. And Thad, a little wiser, seeingan excellent club handy, made out to get that in his grip ere followinghis chum.
Despite the coming of these two new enemies the wildcat showed no signof beating a retreat. There may have been some reason for thisunexpected bravery on the animal's part. Usually it is only whendarkness comes that bobcats are dangerous; and in the daytime they willgenerally retreat before the coming of human foes.
There may have been kittens somewhere close by; and a mother cat willattack anything that moves in defense of her offspring.
But just then Thad was not bothering himself with trying to understandwhy the fierce beast acted in that altogether remarkable way. What theywanted to do was to influence the animal to leave the neighborhood, andthe quicker this were done the better they would be pleased.
"Go slow, Bob!" Thad called out, fearful lest his impulsive comrade dashup so close that in another instant the cat would be upon him, clawing,biting, and doing all manner of damage.
He swung his club in as ferocious a manner as he could, and made allsorts of threatening gestures as he rushed forward.
Thinking that if they approached from two separate quarters the beastmight grow more or less confused, and possibly slink away, Thad did notfollow directly in the track of his friend, but made a little detour.
Bob came to a pause. He was not more than a dozen feet away from thebeast now, and there was danger that if he closed in any more theexpected collision must take place.
Thad saw him draw his arm back. Undoubtedly Bob meant to hurl the heavyrock he had snatched up. If he missed his aim, he would then be entirelyunprotected. But then Bob had pitched on a baseball team severalseasons, and was said to have a very clever delivery, with the facultyof getting the ball over the rubber with clock-like precision. And acrouching wildcat, only a dozen feet away, is a large enough object tobe counted a sure thing by an experienced ball player.
So even as Thad looked and wondered, he saw Bob let drive. And when therock actually struck the cat between its glaring eyes, hurling it overbackwards, Thad could not help letting out a yell.
"Good shot, Bob!" he cried. "Get another, quick, for he's coming afteryou like hot cakes!"
He himself was closing in on the cat all the time he shouted after thismanner. In another moment they were all in a confused bunch, the enragedand wounded wildcat screaming and snarling; Thad pounding away everychance he got; Bob kicking wildly at the animal, as he looked for achance to get hold of another stone; and the whole making quite alively circus.
Several times Thad landed with such a will on the side of the springingwildcat that the wretched beast was knocked clean over. But with adesperation that was simply astonishing it would get together, and comeflying back again, as though it really possessed the nine lives itstribe is given credit for.
Of course this could not last long. The game was too one-sided, with twoagainst one; and in the end the cat was glad to jump into the bushes,with a parting expression of hatred in the form of a snarl.
The panting boys stood and looked at each other. Each of them had a fewrents in their khaki trousers; and might have been served even worseonly that their puttees protected the lower part of their limbs.
"Whew! that was a hot time!" gasped Thad. "Did you see how many times Ibowled the thing over, and only to have to defend myself again? Give mea mad wildcat for gameness. They haven't their equal going, pound forpound."
"And I hit him when I threw that stone; I'm proud of that shot, suh!"declared the Southern boy, with a grim smile.
"Say, it was a right smart throw, all right; but s'pose yuh come andhelp me outen this trap now, strangers," came from the mountain girl.
As they turned toward her, and advanced, Thad saw immediately that shewas not the little Bertha whom he had looked upon, sitting beside ReubenSparks, and with her golden hair, seeming very much like a fairy.
This girl was slender, and with coarse, black hair. She was garbed incommon homespun clothes, and wore shoes that were doubtless much toolarge for her feet. One of her ankles had been caught tightly in thecrevice of the rock. She might have managed to extricate herself ifgiven a little time; but the sudden appearance of that ugly fightingwildcat had upset her; so that she had twisted and squirmed until herfoot was held as though in a blacksmith's vise.
Bob in his usual impetuous way might have been impelled to tug at thatimprisoned foot, and add to her sufferings; but Thad, who was cooler,set about discovering just how it was gripped; then, as gently as hecould he gave it a sudden turn, and the thing was done.
The girl uttered a little scream as a pain shot through her ankle; butthen she realized that the way the boy had gone about it was the rightone. Results count every time. When a man succeeds, the path he hastaken is looked upon as a shining example to the rising generation;should he fail, the same route is pointed out as beset withunsurmountable difficulties.
"I'm right glad you kim along in time," the girl remarked, as her blackeyes scanned the faces of the two boys who had done her such a goodturn.
"Had you done anything to the cat; or was it just crazy for a fight?"asked Bob, as he looked more closely at the angular girl; and Thadthought he could detect that in his manner to tell he might haverecognized her.
"'Pears like it was jest brim full of scrap, mister," she went on. "Iwas acomin' down ther side o' the mounting, paying 'tention to my ownbusiness, when I jest made er fool o' myself, like ye see, an' gut afoot fast atween the rocks. Then the critter showed up, and startedmakin' a row. I tried all I knowed how to break loose, but it was no go.An' I was jest agwine to hit the animal atween the eyes if it jumped me,when you-uns arriv. But I'm glad ye kim. 'Tain't nice to git yuh faceall clawed to ribbands by cat's claws. Yep, I'm glad ye helped me outenit."
Thad saw that she was a character, this girl of the Blue Ridge. Roughand uncouth, she might be, still she possessed the qualities that realheroines were once made out of in the days of Joan of Arc.
Doubtless she must be the daughter of one of the poor "white trash"mountaineers who spend their time between making moonshine whiskey, anddodging revenue men. It struck Thad at the moment that perhaps, sincethey had been enabled to do her a good turn, she might be willing toassist them. Such a girl ought to know a good deal of what was going onback in the mountains. Her people must talk about the strange thingsthat happened; perhaps she might be able to even tell Bob somethingabout the prisoner who was said to be kept up there somewhere, workingat the sour-mash in the never raided Still of Phin Dady.
With this bright
idea in his mind Thad decided that fortune had indeedplayed another nice trick upon them, and one that would perhaps be totheir advantage.
"Do you live near here; and will you be able to limp home?" he asked;for he saw that the ankle was somewhat swollen, and must pain more orless; although the girl scorned to show it by her manner.
"A right smart ways off from heah, stranger," she replied; "but thenthey be some o' my friends nigh this, who'll take keer o' me. Ye did hitup that ere onary cat some handsome, an' I shore think it won't want totackle a pore gal ther next time it sees one."
"Perhaps we might help you along to the home of your friends," saidThad.
She looked at him keenly, for even the daughters of moonshiners grow tobe suspicious of those whom they do not know.
"'Tain't no need, stranger; I kin take keer o' myself, I reckon. Notthat I ain't feelin' 'bliged to ye, fur offerin'. I kain't furgit thetye done me a good turn. Mebbe I ain't good lookin' like thet leetlecousin o' yours, Bob Quail; but it's the on'y face I'll ever hev; and nogal likes to be scratched an' gouged bad by the pizen claws o' awildcat."
"Will you tell your father about this, Polly?" asked Bob, excitedly,Thad thought.
"'Pears like I hadn't orter keep it from him," she replied, slowly,watching the expressive and handsome face of the young Southernerclosely. "Thems as don't think Phin Dady keers fur his fambly, but theydon't know. Reckons he'd jest 'bout lay down his life fur _me_, porelooker as I am!"
Thad drew a big breath. Really things were rushing forward by leaps andbounds now. For not only had the girl recognized his companion, whowished to keep his identity under cover while in the mountains; but thissame Polly, as Bob called her, had now disclosed herself to be thedaughter of the moonshiner, Old Phin Dady!