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

by Herbert Carter

  CHAPTER XVI. RICKY'S POST OFFICE.

  Something like a snicker ran around the other scouts when Giraffeproposed to punish the obstinate Bumpus in this queer fashion. But therewas one among them who did not see anything so comical in the idea, andthis was the proposed victim himself.

  Bumpus looked daggers at Giraffe. Why, he even picked up his gun, whichchanced to be lying near his position in the bow of the other canoe;though of course he did not have the least idea of resisting to thatextent, should the decision be averse to him.

  "Guess I can see through a board that's got a knot-hole in it, GiraffeStedman!" he exclaimed, bitterly. "Fact of the matter is, you're justjealous of my figger, that's what, and all the while you lie awakenights atrying to think up schemes that'll make me have trouble, and inthe end reduce my flesh so fast that you won't be the only livingskeleton in the bunch. Right now you want to make me paddle all bymyself; and there ain't anything calculated to thin a fellow more'n thatkind of business. Thad, don't you see what he's after? And I certainlydo hope you won't let him crow over me. I'm losing enough weight as itis, aworrying over that silly job of not remembering what I did with mymother's medicine she sent me to fetch home; let alone having to paddleever and ever so many weary miles. Tell him to get in Tom Smith's canoehimself, and go on ahead, if so be he thinks he's going to feel anybetter. You ain't once complained about my dear old suit, Thad, neitherhas Step Hen here."

  "Well, go slow about me there, Bumpus," spoke up the last mentionedparty; "for you see my cold's agetting just a _little_ bit better; andseems to me at times I do notice something queer about the air of thisswamp. Tell you more later on, if I keep improving like I am."

  "That'll be enough for you, Giraffe," said Thad, with an assumption ofauthority that announced his belief that the time for levity was past;"we'll not bother about such a little thing right now; but wait until weget in camp after we've settled the matter of the man and the girl.Let's move along."

  "Little thing--huh!" grunted Davy, while Giraffe and Bumpus exchangedgrins, the one being founded on triumph, in that Thad had decided in hisfavor, while the elongated scout showed that he had only been jestingafter all, though pretending to be so serious.

  The guide had listened to all this side talk, and seemed to be more orless amused, though like as not he failed to catch the true essence ofthe joke. But he had already grown to like these quick-witted lads morethan a little, and was trying hard to enter into their way of looking atthings.

  He paddled on slowly, always keeping a bright lookout ahead and around.Giraffe took occasion to remark, after noticing how careful the swamphunter seemed to be, that according to his notion Tom Smith was halfexpecting to hear that rifle of the moonshiner bark again.

  "Whee!" Bumpus was heard to say, half to himself; and they noticed thatafter that the fat scout managed to squat a little lower in his place,doubtless thinking it the part of discretion to make himself less of ashining mark, calculated to draw the attention of any would-be marksman.

  Not that Bumpus would have acknowledged feeling _afraid_; but he mighthave declared that he did not see why he should loom up there like atarget, while lucky fellows like Giraffe, who were as thin as a knifeblade, stood little chance of being hit.

  All went smoothly for some little time, and as no ugly sound like thereport of a gun annoyed them, the scouts began to get their full amountof courage back again. But Bumpus apparently found his new position oflolling in the bottom of the bow of the canoe comfortable enough toplease him, for he made no attempt to sit up pompously again, as hadbeen his habit before.

  The guide had kept just a little in the van, and presently he turned tobeckon, as though desirous of having them join him; which those in theother two boats immediately did.

  "Heah's theh post office, suh!" remarked Tom Smith, as he pointed towarda big half-rotten stump of a tree that must have been broken off shortin some storm of years gone by.

  "What, that poor old thing?" ejaculated Bumpus, just as though visionsof a post office conjured up in his mind all sorts of elaboratebuildings, with crowds of country people gathering around as the mailwas being sorted.

  "Thet heah is theh place, as sure as anything," asserted the other; "an'jest hole on long enuff tuh 'low me tuh slip yuh lettah in theh same,Thad."

  As he said this Tom Smith paddled his canoe alongside the bank, jumpedout, and strode over to the remnant of a once proud sentinel oak.

  He seemed to know what he was about; perhaps in times gone by he mayhimself have communicated with old Ricky through means of this letterbox. At any rate the boys saw him reach up to a break in the surface ofthe stump, and put his hand inside. When he drew it out he no longerheld the little note that the scout-master had written, and given intohis charge.

  Then Tom Smith once more embarked, and joined them in his canoe.

  "That's what I call a slick way to send letters," Davy remarked.

  "Saves a heap of postage, for a fact," Bob White chuckled; "but thenI've seen the same done more than a few times befo', suh, so it'snothing new to me."

  "Say, do you really and truly think old Ricky might be awatching usright now, and see you put something in his post office?" Bumpusquestioned.

  "Course I don't jest know fo' sure," replied the swamp hunter; "but I'msummat 'quainted with his ways, an' I reckons as how it's likely he be."

  Bumpus looked all around, and then went on to remark again:

  "But he wouldn't feel just like letting loose on us because you went andstuffed his ballot-box, would he? If he's as smart a man as you said,after having been to school, he'd guess that we had some good reason forwanting to communicate with him in this way; ain't that so, Thad?"

  "Just as you say, Bumpus; and make your mind easy, we'll not be botheredagain by Ricky," the scout-master assured him. "He'll get my letter, andunderstand that we are not here to do him any injury."

  "And Bumpus," remarked Smithy, "I just want to say that I couldn't haveput that remark in better English than you did, even if I tried my best.They say that associations will tell in the long run."

  "Don't plume yourself so much, Smithy," jeered Davy; "don't we alsolearn at school how 'evil communications corrupt good manners?' Firstthing you know we'll be finding that you use slang; and maybe won'tchange _your_ old suit when it's just so rank of onions and fishy odorsfrom cooking, that all your mates are groaning to beat the band. Somethings are as ketching as the measles, they say."

  "Then when the fever strikes you, Giraffe," ventured Bumpus quickly,seeing his chance, "maybe you'll give me a rest, and turn on Davy here."

  "Huh!" was all Giraffe returned to this sly dig; but he grinned asthough satisfied to have made the fat scout speak out.

  "It's on again now, I suppose, Tom Smith?" remarked Allan.

  "Yep, an' right heah we makes summat o' a turn, so that from now on wedon't reckon tuh keep headin' in ther direction o' Ricky's still. He'llfoller us arter he gits yuh letter, suh; till he sees as how we ain'tcalc'latin' tuh close in on his leetle island still in the heart o' thehswamp. Then like as not he'll make up his mind they beant anythin' tuhskeer 'bout long o' we-uns, an' quit botherin'."

  "And I say a good riddance of bad rubbish when he takes that samenotion," declared Bob White.

  "Same here!" echoed Smithy; while the others contented themselves withgiving sundry nods, as though their minds ran along the same channels.

  So the swamp guide again started ahead, picking his way throughintricate channels that none of the scouts believed they could everrecognize again; though it was plain to be seen from the manner in whichThad and Allan kept keenly observing all their surroundings that theywere trying to impress the general run of things upon their minds, sothat in case it became necessary for them to take the lead, throughlosing their guide in some fashion, they might not be wholly unprepared.

  And it was in this manner that the scout-master constantly showed thosewho were under his charge the necess
ity for constant watchfulness at alltimes, when in the open. The boy who is "prepared" has a great advantageover the one who never takes note of what is transpiring around him. Notonly that, but he discovers a thousand splendid things in the woods andwaters about him that remain unknown forever to the lad who will notarouse himself, and do his own thinking.

  They had been going for some little time in this fashion, and alreadythere were heard slight murmurs from the place where Giraffe was seatedconcerning what a light breakfast they had taken, and that it mustsurely be getting on toward noon, when Thad began to notice that theguide was acting queerly.

  "Watch Tom Smith, Allan!" he remarked to the other, as the canoes wereclose together; and of course every one of the other six scoutsimmediately sat up and began to take notice.

  "You're right, Thad, there is something bothering him," admitted Allan,after he had used his eyes for a brief time to observe what the guidewas doing.

  The alligator-hide hunter had stopped paddling, although his canoe stillcontinued to glide along under the impetus it had received from his lastfew vigorous strokes. He had raised his head, and cocked it on side, asthough listening to some sound that caught his ear.

  "Maybe after all the old moonshiner didn't get your message, Thad,"suggested Step Hen; and immediately Bumpus ceased trying to stretch histhick neck in the endeavor to see over the heads of those nearest him,and who were more or less interfering with his view; "p'raps right nowhe's atrailing after us, and meaning to give us heaps and heaps oftrouble?"

  Step Hen often made remarks like this that proved how he failed to use adue regard for reason. And the scout-master immediately showed him howunlikely his suggestion was.

  "In the first place, Step Hen," Thad remarked, "if you look closeryou'll see how he keeps looking away ahead of us, and not behind. If oldRicky had followed us, the chances are we'd hear of him back theresomewhere, and not in advance."

  "Guess you're right, Thad," muttered Step Hen, who at least was never sohard to convince as Bumpus; and quick to see the point at the same time.

  "Then again," resumed the other, pushing his advantage vigorously, asevery wide-awake scout should always do; "from the fact that none of usseem to have sensed what Tom Smith has plainly heard; it shows, not onlythat his hearing is better than ours, but that the sounds, whatever theymay be, come from a distance."

  Hardly had Thad said this than some of the boys, upon straining theirhearing to the utmost, believed they caught certain sounds; or else thewind happened to pick up a little just then, bringing them closer.

  "Oh! Thad, was that a wolf; and do they have such things down here inLouisiana?" burst out Bumpus, before any one else could speak.

  Giraffe laughed harshly.

  "Tell the poor little innocent, Thad, the difference between a bayinghound and his first cousin _lupus_, the wolf," he observed, with a loftyair that was calculated to quite crush the fat scout, but did nothing ofthe kind.

  "That's what it is, boys, a baying hound!" Thad told them; "and there,you can hear it louder than before, which would seem to indicate eitherthat the breeze is getting stronger right along, or else the dog isheading this way."

  "What was that the guide was saying a while ago about the sheriffborrowing a couple of hounds from some other parish to use down here?"Davy wanted to know.

  "Bloodhounds, more'n likely," added Step Hen, with his eyes widening, asthough the possibilities conjured up by this suggestion thrilled him tothe core.

  "Well, here's our good guide waiting for us to join him," said Thad;"and just as like as not he may have something to tell us, for thereseems to be a puzzled look on his face."

  Paddles were dipped in the water, and before half a minute passed bothcanoe-loads of scouts had come alongside the pilot boat in which TomSmith sat, rubbing his bearded chin thoughtfully with one hand, while hecontinued to hold his head, as though still listening to the rapidlygrowing baying of that hound.

  "What's the answer, Tom?" demanded Giraffe, bluntly. "We've been hearingthat dog give tongue, and wondered what there was about it to make youlook so sober. Is it a coon dog, and has he got a bushy-tail up a tree?I've heard 'em break loose like that more'n once."

  "Wall, younker," said the other, gravely, "yuh hain't never heard a coondorg yap like that, let me tell yuh. Ther dorg as gives them clar notesain't agwine tuh tuhn his head tuh look at a coon, 'cept it be atwo-legged un. I reckons I knows the breed right well; an' I wants tuhstate thet yuh listenin' tuh a hound now as hes ben trained never to runon any trail, deer, bar or coon, but a human un. Thet's a bloodhoundacomin' thisaways; and like as not thet sheriff hes picked out AlligatorSwamp tuh try out his new dorgs. An' let me tell yuh, thar must besumthin' in theh wind tuh make him fotch his posse along whar no sheriffever did cotch his game up tuh this day. Times is achangin' down in oldLouisiana, they be."