The Boy Scouts Down in Dixie; or, The Strange Secret of Alligator Swamp

by Herbert Carter

  CHAPTER VII. THE HEART OF A SCOUT.

  "That's interesting news, Thad!" Step Hen declared.

  "The way you say that makes me think you mean 'interesting, if true,'"Thad remarked, with a little laugh. "In other words, you want me toprove it."

  "Oh! well, we're all such a lot of slow-witted scouts that we have to beshown; just like we'd come from Missouri," admitted the other, in a tonethat was meant to serve as an apology.

  "And I'm always ready to explain as far as I can," the scout-master toldhim. "At the same time I have to keep an eye on Allan here, for you allknow that when it comes to reading the signs of the woods I sit at hisfeet. What I pick up just by figuring out, he knows from pastexperience. So I want him to pull me in just as quick as he sees I'm onthe wrong track; promise that, Allan."

  "Go ahead," remarked the Maine boy, but his manner told plainly enoughthat he was very little afraid he would have to do anything of the kind.

  "Of course," Thad began, "all of you can see by the marks here thatsomething was moving along toward our camp; and if you look a littlecloser you'll notice that it was a man on his hands and knees; for hereare the plain impressions of both his hands; while his shuffling kneesmade that mark, and that, and here is where his toes dragged along.Plain enough, eh, fellows?"

  "As easy to read as A B C!" declared Giraffe, eagerly.

  "Another thing is that he had just reached this spot behind the bushesat the time Giraffe let fly with his gun, and then we all started toshout; for you can see the tracks go no further. On the contrary, theman became suddenly frightened, under the belief that he had beendiscovered; for here he scrambled to his feet, as you can plainly seeeach impression of a bare foot, and as he hurried away he kept back ofthe low bushes, from which I deduce the idea that he must have stoopedover in order not to be seen and fired on."

  "Well, it goes right along like a book, don't it?" said Bumpus, lookingat the young scout-master in admiration and wonder; for he could notimagine how any one, and a mere boy at that, could discover so much justfrom observation, and using his common sense at the same time.

  Allan nodded his head approvingly.

  "But chances are that isn't near all you noticed, Thad?" he said,questioningly.

  "You're right, it isn't," said the other, promptly. "I can see from thesigns that the man is barefooted, and consequently in great need; so Iam compelled to believe that he must be an escaped convict who has beentrying to keep life in his wretched body, perhaps for months, in thisswamp, eating roots or berries, trapping birds, or catching fish,muskrats, turtles, anything that he can find. And as nearly all thosewho are held in these camps are blacks, I find it easy to guess thatthis is a negro."

  "Ain't that a great way of finding out things, though?" marveled Bumpus."Why, Thad, you talk just like you'd been watching that poor old chapevery second of the time. I don't reckon, now, that you could tell usanything else about him--how big he was, and all that?"

  "He was a good-sized fellow, for you can see that the track of his barefoot is really tremendous; and if you look here you'll notice where helay flat on his face, so that it is possible to roughly measure hislength--all of six feet, too. And his left hand is lacking one finger!"added the scoutmaster.

  "What's that?" gasped Step Hen. "You're only joshing us now, Thad; forhow under the sun could you tell such a thing as that?"

  Allan chuckled, and looked immensely pleased.

  "I thought so!" he was heard to mutter to himself.

  "Well, it's the old story of keeping your eyes about you," remarkedThad, "and using your head as you go. Three separate times, now, I sawwhere he had placed his left hand spread out on the ground where it wassoft enough to take a pretty good impression; and in every instance the_third_ finger was missing; so with all that proof I thought I was safein assuming that this man was marked. And let me say, that later on whenwe get the chance I mean to ask a lot of questions just to satisfymyself about it. If a convict escaped from jail, or some camp, who hasno third finger on his left hand I'll consider that I've proved mycase."

  Some of the boys were still a little skeptical, and asked to be shownthose wonderful imprints of the hand that told Thad such an interestingstory; but after they too had examined them they admitted that it waseven so.

  "It sure beats the Dutch how these things stick up with some fellows,"Bumpus frankly admitted, as he scratched his frowsy head in wonder, andalmost awe. "Now, the rest of us looked right at them impressions in themud. We saw they'd been made by a human hand, of course, cause thereain't any monkeys around here besides Davy; but not one of us went anydeeper. Why, after you've been shown, it stands out there like amountain, and you see it as plain as you see your nose when you shut oneeye. I wisht I could discover things that way; there'd be heaps ofthings I'd find out, let me tell you."

  "Yes," said Giraffe, severely, as he moved away from the vicinity ofBumpus, his nose elevated at an angle of forty-five degrees; "but whatwe're all hoping most for now is that you'll hurry and get over thatcold in your head, so that your natural sense of smell will come back;for then you'd certain sure duck out of that grimy old suit that's justgreased from top to bottom, and give us a chance to breathe the pureair."

  Bumpus looked at him pityingly.

  "You do love to carry on a joke to the limit, Giraffe," he said, simply.

  "Joke?" burst out the other in a vociferous voice; "let me tell you,this is a mighty serious matter; and if it keeps along, some of us indesperation may be tempted to jump on you while you sleep, and make thechange ourselves. We're getting to a point where self-preservation isthe first law of Nature."

  "Bah! who's afraid?" retorted Bumpus, with a shrug of his plumpshoulders; "but you want to keep your hands off me, for I'll kick andbite like fun if set on. I know you're just trying to see if you can'tconvince me against my own good sense. This atmosphere seems all rightto me; though I admit I don't just like the looks of this black swampwater, and the ooze we meet up with sometimes."

  Giraffe gave him a last piercing look; then as if making up his mindthat the case was utterly hopeless, he shook his head and turned away;while Bumpus went back to his camp duties as blithely as though care satlightly on his head.

  After they had finished breakfast the tents were struck, folded in assmall a compass as possible, and one stowed away in each of the boats.Afterwards they cleaned up the camp, and made sure that nothing worthwhile was left.

  There had been certain portions of the razorback that they did not meanto take along with them. Seeing Bumpus busily engaged Thad approached,asking:

  "What are you up to here, old fellow? Just as I thought, trying to do alittle favor for that wretch of a three-fingered coon, by tying up thismeat where the animals will have a hard time getting at it. Yes, youguessed right that time, for the chances are he'll come back here assoon as he knows we've gone, in the hopes of picking up some scrapswe've tossed aside. Bumpus, you're improving, because that shows youfigured it all out, and hit the bull's-eye in the bargain."

  The fat scout looked immensely pleased to hear Thad talk in this strain.

  "Well, after eating such a jolly breakfast myself, it struck me aspretty sad we should be so near a miserable human being who was almoststarved. No matter if he is a bad man, and deserves all he's getting,he's made like us, and I just reckon the lot of us would be quite astough as he is if we'd never had the benefit of a nice home andeducation and full stomachs. And so I thought, as he'd be likely to comehere, I'd save these pieces from the cats and skunks for him."

  "It sure does your big heart credit, Bumpus, and that is the way a truescout ought to feel pretty much all the time," Thad went on to say,looking affectionately at his stout chum. "Now, if he only gets heresoon enough, there'll be red ashes in the bed of our fire, and he canstart it up again, so as to do his cooking."

  "Oh!" said Bumpus, with a happy gurgle, "I thought all that out, too,Thad. See, here in this paper is half of my matches.
I can spare 'emeasy enough; and every one will be worth a heap to him, I guess."

  At that evidence of thoughtfulness Thad clapped his hand on the shoulderof Bumpus, and as he turned away remarked:

  "They can talk about you all they please, Bumpus, and make fun of theonion odor about your old suit with more or less truth; but you'recertainly making better progress along the lines of scout lore than mostof the boys who think themselves your superiors."

  And that sort of earnest praise made Bumpus beam with happiness allmorning long.

  The camp spot was deserted shortly after this little talk between Bumpusand Thad. And for some hours they continued to press slowly along,following such channels as Thad believed to be most promising.

  All the time he kept in mind that they were trying to come across a manand a girl who were supposed to have a place of hiding somewhere in thisswamp; and so he considered this fact every time he had to make any sortof choice concerning taking one channel or another, invariably selectingthat which he fancied had been used more than the other.

  He had to decide from mute evidence. It might be only a broken branchthat told him a boat had possibly scraped against a bush in making ashort turn; or the fact that he believed he could see a sort of regularline of marked places, as though some one besides themselves hadresorted to the same means of blazing their trail in order to be able togo out whenever they felt inclined, without running the danger of losingtheir way among all those endless channels, and never being able toleave the confines of that horrible swamp.

  All this while it had been getting worse and worse, the heavy growthenclosing them in a narrow canal at times, so that they had seriousdoubts as to whether they were doing the right thing, or had wanderedfar from the proper channel.

  It was while they were pushing steadily onward that Bumpus, who wasnodding as he lazily paddled, suddenly heard Thad in the stern cry inthrilling tones:

  "Lookout, Bumpus, there's a water moccasin just over your head on thatlimb, and acting like he'd drop in the boat. There! throw yourself back,Bumpus, quick now, I tell you!"