Val fastened the canoe beside it. The turf seemed springy, though here and there it gave way to patches of dark mud. It was on one of these that Ricky had left her mark in the clean-cut outline of the sole of her riding-boot.
With a last desperate slap at a mosquito Val headed inland, following with ease that trail of footprints. Ricky was suffering, too, for her rashness he noted with satisfaction when he discovered a long curly hair fast in the grip of a thorny branch he scraped under.
But the path was not a bad one. And the farther he went the more solid and the dryer it became. Once he passed through a small clearing, man-made, where three or four cotton bushes huddled together forlornly in company with a luxuriant melon patch.
And the melon patch was separated by only a few feet of underbrush from Jeems’ domain. In the middle of a clearing was a sturdy platform, reinforced with upright posts and standing about four feet from the surface of the ground. On this was a small cabin constructed of slabs of bark-covered wood. As a dwelling it might be crude, but it had an air of scrupulous neatness. A short distance to one side of the platform was a well-built chicken-run, now inhabited by five hens and a ragged-tailed cock.
The door of the cabin was shut and there were no signs of life save the chickens. But as Val lowered himself painfully onto the second step of the ladder-like stairs leading up to the cabin, he thought he heard someone moving around. Glancing up, he saw Ricky staring down at him, open-mouthed.
“Hello,” she called, for one of the few times in her life really astounded.
“Hello,” Val answered shortly and shifted his weight to try to relieve the ache in his knee. “Nice day, isn’t it?”
CHAPTER XI
RALESTONES TO THE RESCUE!
“Val! What are you doing here?” she demanded.
“Following you. Good grief, girl,” he exploded, “haven’t you any better sense than to come into the swamp this way?”
Ricky’s mouth lost its laughing curve and her eyes seemed to narrow. She was, by all the signs, distinctly annoyed.
“It’s perfectly safe. I knew what I was doing.”
“Yes? Well, I will enjoy hearing Rupert’s remarks on that subject when he catches up with us,” snapped her brother.
“Val!” She lost something of her defiant attitude. He guessed that for all her boasted independence his sister was slightly afraid of Mr. Rupert Ralestone. “Val, he isn’t coming, too, is he?”
“He is if he got my message.” Val stretched his leg cautiously. The cramp was slowly leaving the muscles and he felt as if he could stand the remaining ache without wincing. “I sent Sam Two back to tell Rupert where his family had eloped to. Frankly, Ricky, this wasn’t such a smart trick. You know what Charity said about the swamps. Even the little I’ve seen of them has given me ideas.”
“But there was nothing to it at all,” she protested. “Jeems told me just how to get here and I only followed directions.”
Val chose to ignore this, being hot, tired, and in no mood for one of those long arguments such as Ricky enjoyed. “By the way, where is Jeems?” He looked about him as if he expected the swamper to materialize out of thin air.
Ricky sat down on the edge of the platform and dangled her booted feet. “Don’t know. But he’ll be here sooner or later. And I don’t feel like going back through the swamp just yet. The flies are awful. And did you see those dreadful vultures on that dead tree? What a place! But the flowers are wonderful and I saw a real live alligator, even if it was a small one.” She rubbed her scarf across her forehead. “Whew! It seems hotter here than it does at home.”
“This outing was all your idea,” Val reminded her. “And we’d better be getting back before Rupert calls out the Marines or the State Troopers or something to track us down.”
Ricky pouted. “Not going until I’m ready. And you can’t drag me if I dig my heels in.”
“I have no desire to be embroiled in such an undignified struggle as you suggest,” he told her loftily. “But neither do I yearn to spend the day here. I’m hungry. I wonder if our absent host possesses a larder?”
“If he does, you can’t raid it,” Ricky answered. “The door’s locked, and that lock,” she pointed to the bright disk of brass on the solid cabin door, “is a good one. I’ve already tried a hairpin on it,” she added shamelessly.
They sat awhile in silence. A wandering breeze had found its way into the clearing, and with it came the fragrance of flowers blossoming under the sun. The chicken family were pursuing a worm with more energy than Val decided he would have cared to expend in that heat, and a heavily laden bee rested on the lip of a sunflower to brush its legs. Val’s eyelids drooped and he found himself thinking dreamily of a hammock under the trees, a pillow, and long hours of lazy dozing. At the same time a corner of his brain was sending forth nagging messages that they should be up and off, back to their own proper world. But he simply did not have the will power to get up and go.
“Nice place,” he murmured, looking about with more approbation than he would have granted the clearing some ten minutes earlier.
“Yes,” answered Ricky. “It would be nice to live here.”
Val was beginning to say something about “no bathtubs” when a sound aroused them from their lethargy. Someone was coming down the path. Ricky’s hand fell upon her brother’s shoulder.
“Quick! Up here and behind the house,” she urged him.
Not knowing just why he obeyed, Val scrambled up on the tiny platform and scuttled around behind the cabin. Why they should hide thus from Jeems who had given Ricky directions for reaching the place and had asked her to come, was more than he could understand. But he had a faint, uneasy feeling of mistrust, as if they had been caught off guard at a critical moment.
“This the place, Red?” The clipped words sounded clear above the murmurs of life from swamp and woods.
“Yeah. Bum-lookin’ joint, ain’t it? These guys ain’t got no brains; they like to live like this.” The contempt of the second speaker was only surpassed by the stridency of his voice.
“What about this boy?” asked the first.
“Dumb kid. Don’t know yet who his friends is.” There was a satisfied grunt as the speaker sat down on the step Val had so lately vacated. Ricky pressed closer to her brother.
“What about the cabin?”
“He ain’t here. And it’s locked, see? Yuh’d think he kept the crown jewels there.” The tickling scent of a cigarette drifted back to the two in hiding. “Beats me how he slipped away this morning without Pitts catching on. For two cents I’d spring that lock of his—”
“Isn’t worth the trouble,” replied the other decisively. “These trappers have no money except at the end of the fur season, and then most of them are in debt to the storekeepers.”
“Then why—”
“I sometimes wonder,” the voice was coldly cutting, “why I continue to employ you, Red. What profit would I find in a cabin like this? I want what he knows, not what he has.”
Having thus reduced his henchman to silence, the speaker went on smoothly, as if he were thinking aloud. “With Simpson doing so well in town, we’re close to the finish. This swamper must tell us—” His voice trailed away. Except for the creaking of wood when the sitter shifted his position, there was no other sound.
Then Red must have grown restless, for someone stamped up to the platform and rattled the chain on the cabin door aggressively. Val flattened back against the wall. What if the fellow took it into his head to walk around?
“Gonna wait here all day?” demanded Red.
“As it is necessary for me to have a word with him, we will. This waste of time is the product of Pitts’ stupidity. I shall remember that. It is entirely needless to use force except as a last resource. Now that this swamper’s suspicions are aroused, we may have trouble.”
“Yeah? Well, we can handl
e that. But how do yuh know that this guy has the stuff?”
“I can at least believe the evidence of my own eyes,” the other replied with bored contempt. “I came down river alone the night of the storm and saw him on the levee. He has a way of getting into the house all right. I saw him in there. And he doesn’t go through any of the doors, either. I must know how he does it.”
“All right, Boss. And what if you do get in? What are we supposed to be lookin’ for?”
“What those bright boys up there found a few days ago. That clerk told us that they’d discovered whatever the girl was talking about in the office that day. And we’ve got to get that before Simpson comes into court with his suit. I’m not going to lose fifty grand.” The last sentence ended abruptly as if the speaker had snapped his teeth shut upon a word like a dog upon its quarry.
“What does this guy Jeems go to the house for?” asked Red.
“Who knows? He seems to be hunting something too. But that’s not our worry. If it’s necessary, we can play ghost also. I’ve got to get into that house. If I can do it the way this Jeems does, without having to break in—so much the better. We don’t want the police ambling around here just now.”
Val stiffened. It didn’t require a Sherlock Holmes to get the kernel of truth out of the conversation he had overheard. “Night of the storm,” “play ghost,” were enough. So Jeems had been the ghost. And the swamper knew a secret way into the house!
“Wait,” Ricky’s lips formed the words by his ear as Val stirred restlessly. “Someone else is coming.”
“I don’t like the set-up in town,” Red was saying peevishly. “That smooth mouthpiece is asking too darn many questions. He’s always asking Simpson about things in the past. If you hadn’t got Sim that family history to study, he’d been behind bars a dozen times by now.”
“And he had better study it,” commented the other dryly, “because he is going to be word perfect before the case comes to court, if it ever does. There are not going to be any slip-ups in this deal.”
“’Nother thing I don’t like,” broke in the other, “is this Waverly guy. I don’t like his face.”
“No? Well, doubtless he would change it if you asked him to. And I do not think it is wise of you to be too critical of plans which were made by deeper thinkers than yourself. Sometimes, Red, you weary me.”
There was no reply to that harsh judgment. And now Val could hear what Ricky had heard earlier—a faint swish as of a paddle through water. Again Ricky’s lips shaped words he could barely hear.
“Spur of bayou runs along here in back. Someone coming up from there.”
“Jeems?”
“Maybe.”
“We’d better—” Val motioned toward the front of the cabin. Ricky shook her head. Jeems was to be allowed to meet the intruders unwarned.
“This swamper may be tough,” ventured Red.
“We’ve met hard cases before,” answered the other significantly.
Red moved again, as if flexing his muscles.
“One boy, and a small one at that, shouldn’t force you to undergo all that preparation,” goaded the Boss.
Ricky must get away at once, her brother decided. Stubbornness or no stubbornness, she must go this time. Why he didn’t think of going himself Val never afterwards knew. Perhaps he possessed a spark of the family love of danger, after all, but mostly he clung to his perch because of that last threat. Whoever Jeems was or whatever he had done, he was one and alone. And he might relish another player on his side. But Ricky must go.
He said as much in a fierce whisper, only to have her grin recklessly back at him. In pantomime she gestured that he might try to make her. Val decided that he should have known the result of his efforts. Ricky was a Ralestone, too. And short of throwing her off the platform and so unmasking themselves completely, he could not move her against her will.
“No,” she whispered. “They’re planning trouble for Jeems. He’ll probably need us.”
“Well,” Val cautioned her, “if it gets too rough, you’ve got to promise to cut downstream for help. We’ll be able to use it.”
She nodded. “It’s a promise. But we’ve got to stand by Jeems if he needs us.”
“If he does—” Val was still suspicious. “He may fall in with their suggestions.”
Ricky shook her head. “He isn’t that kind. I don’t care if he has been playing ghost.”
Someone was walking along the path among the bushes bordering the back of the clearing. Although they could hear no sound, they could mark the passing of a body by the swish of the foliage. Val lay, face down, on the platform and reached for a stick of wood lying on the ground below. Somehow he did not like to think of being caught empty-handed when the excitement began.
“Hello.” It was Red, suddenly genial. The Ralestones could almost feel the radiance of the smile which must have split his face.
“Whatta yo’ doin’ heah?” That was Jeems, and his demand was sharply hostile.
“Now, bub, don’t get us wrong.” That was Red, still genial. “I know my pal sorta flew off his base this mornin’. But it was all in fun, see? So we kinda wanted yuh to stick around till he came and not do the run-out on us. And now the Boss has come down here so we can talk business all friendly like.”
“Shut up, Red!” Having so bottled his companion’s flow of words, the other spoke directly to Jeems. “My men made a mistake. All right. That’s over and done with; they’ll get theirs. Now let’s get down to business. What do you know about that big plantation up river, the one called ‘Pirate’s Haven’?”
“Nothin’.” Jeems’ answer was clear. The hostility was gone from his voice; nothing remained but an even tonelessness.
“Come now, I know you have reason to be hot. But this is business. I’ll make it worth your while—”
“Nothin’,” answered Jeems as concisely as before.
“You can’t expect us to believe that. I followed you one night.”
“Yo’ did?” The challenge was unmistakable.
“I did. So you see I know something of you. Something which even the present owner does not. Say the ghost in the hall, for example.”
There was the sound of a deeply drawn breath.
“So you see it is to your advantage to listen to us,” continued the Boss smoothly.
“What do you want?”
Val knew disappointment at that question. Would Jeems surrender as easily as that?
“Just an explanation of how you get into the house unseen.”
“Yo’ll nevah know!” The swamper’s reply came swift and clear.
“No? Well, I’d think twice before I held to that answer if I were you,” purred the other softly. “A word to the Ralestones about those nightly walks of yours—”
“Won’t give yo’ what yo’ want,” replied Jeems shrewdly.
“I see. Perhaps I have been using the wrong approach,” observed the Boss composedly. “You work for a living, don’t you?”
“Yes.”
“Then you know the value of money. What is your price? Come on, we won’t haggle.”
The Boss’ impatience colored his tone. “How much do you want for this information?”
“Nothin’!”
“Nothing?”
“Ah ain’t said nothin’ an’ Ah ain’t a-goin’ to say nothin’. An’ yo’ bettah be a-gittin’ offen this heah land of mine afo’—”
“Before what, swamper?” Red was taking a hand in the game.
“Yo’ can’t fright’n me with that gun,” came calmly enough from Jeems. “Yo’ ain’t a-goin’ to risk shootin’—”
“There ain’t no witnesses here, kid. And there ain’t no law back in these swamps. Yuh’re gonna tell the Boss what he wants to know an’ yuh’re gonna spill it quick, see? I know some ways of making guys squeal—”
At that suggestion Val’s fingers tightened on his club and Ricky choked back a cry as her brother crept toward the corner of the cabin. Their melodrama was fast taking on the color of tragedy.
“So yuh better speak up.” Red was still encouraging Jeems.
There was no immediate answer from the swamper, but Ricky touched Val’s arm and nodded toward the bushes. She had decided that it was time for her to leave. He agreed eagerly. She dropped lightly to the ground and he watched her crawl away unnoticed by those in front who were so intent upon the baiting of their quarry.
“Three minutes, swamper!”
Ricky was gone, free from whatever might develop. Val edged forward and for the first time peered around the corner of the cabin. The two assailants were still only voices, but he could see Jeems. The swamper’s face was bruised and there was a smear of dried blood across one cheek as if he had already been roughly handled. But he stood at ease, facing the cabin. His hands were hanging loosely at his sides and he was seemingly unconcerned by what confronted him. Suddenly his eyes flickered to the bushes at one side. Had Ricky betrayed herself, Val wondered breathlessly.
Clear now of the cabin, Val wriggled his way around the platform. In a minute he would be able to see the Boss and Red. He gripped the club.
Then Jeems stared straight into his face. But the swamper gave no sign of seeing Val. And that, to the boy’s mind, was the greatest feat of all that afternoon. For Val knew that if he had been in Jeems’ place he would have betrayed them both in his surprise.
The others were at last visible, their backs to Val. Nervously he sized them up. The Boss was tall and thin, but his movements suggested possession of wiry strength. Red, his brick-colored hair making him easy to identify, was shorter and thick across the shoulders, but his waistline was also thick and the boy thought that his wind was bad. Of the two, the Boss was the more dangerous. Red might lose his head in a sudden attack, but not the Boss. Val decided to tackle the latter.