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

by Herbert Carter

  CHAPTER XVIII. A SURPRISE.

  "Hello! Sheriff Badgely! Hello!"

  When Tom Smith, the alligator-hide hunter, sent this hail out at the topof his voice, it seemed as though every other sound ceased like magic.Why, even the hounds stopped yelping, and seemed as though they might bestanding there, sniffing the air in their endeavor to locate the one whohad shouted.

  "Who's that callin' me?" a voice was heard to say.

  "It's me, Sheriff, Alligator Tom Smith; I didn't want yuh tuh be atakin' a crack et me fust, an' then beggin' my pardon arterwards."

  "Oh! that's it, hey? Whar are ye at, Tom?" came the sheriff's voice.

  "Out heah a space, in a boat. I done got a party o' No'the'n boys alongwith me, as wanted tuh see what ole Alligator Swamp she looked like. Efyuh kim right 'long ther ridge, Sheriff, yuh cain't miss us. We-uns'dlike tuh meet up with yuh right smart. These heah boys they hain't neverseen dawgs like them yuh got."

  "All right, Tom, we'll be 'long thar in a jiffy. Glad ye spoke out whenye did, 'case some o' my men they like as not air ready to shoot at thesight o' a hat. Move along, Carson; hello, Mobbs, shove the boats on,and jine us t'other side o' the p'int."

  Again the sound of voices, and also the fretting of the hounds, could beheard, as the advance was resumed. Then moving figures began to be seenamidst the bushes ashore; while at the same time several boats appearedin sight, turning the point which had been mentioned by the energeticsheriff.

  Each boat had a number of men aboard, and all of them seemed to beheavily armed, as though they had not started out upon this undertakingwithout recognizing the fact that they might run across desperatecharacters, and be compelled to show their teeth in armed conflict.

  As the guide paddled in a little closer to the shore so as to meet theofficer when he arrived, those in the other canoes did likewise;although Bumpus viewed this movement with concern, doubtless not beingable to get those dogs out of his mind.

  "They've got the hounds in leash right now," he heard Thad remarkpresently; possibly the considerate scout-master said this on purpose toease the minds of those who might be feeling a bit nervous; at any rateit did comfort the fat member of the patrol not a little, for he wasimmediately heard to give vent to a sigh of tremendous volume, and allowhis rigid clutch upon the pistol-grip of his gun to relax.

  Thad had been prepared to see quite a numerous retinue following thesheriff; but even he was surprised at the multitude of men and boys whohad gladly accepted of the chance to have a hand in the final cleaningup of the pest hole of the parish, that had been postponed year afteryear until this late day.

  "Say, looks like a regular rag-tag army!" Bumpus was heard to mutter, ashe stared at the Southern planters, business men from near-by towns andclerks in stores, all carrying guns of every possible description, fromthe ancient musket, handed down from Civil War times, to the modernrepeating pump-gun.

  And if Bumpus and his mates stared hard at the strange collection ofbutternut-clad natives, fancy the way they were in turn gaped at bythese men and lads, most of whom had doubtless never even heard of a BoyScout, and knew not what to make of their uniforms.

  A small, nervous man came bustling forward, and Thad, noting his air ofauthority, rightly guessed that this must be the sheriff. And sureenough, he wore a long coat just as the boys had noticed so many ofthose wonderful Western sheriffs did in the moving pictures they hadwatched, of stirring scenes on the plains; while a wide-brimmed soft hatsat jauntily upon his bushy head of red hair.

  "Hello! Tom Smith!" he called out, as he advanced; "I kinder expected tomeet up with you befo' we got through with this job, but not so soon.And, Great Jehosophat! what d'ye call them boys you've got along? Is themilitia been called out to do my work fo' me? I'd like to know what allthis means, Tom Smith?"

  The sheriff was really showing signs of being indignant, since he wassupposed to be the peace officer of the parish; and according to law,the soldiers could not be called on duty until he had exhausted hispowers, and made a demand upon the governor.

  Of course the swamp hunter made haste to explain.

  "Yuh see, suh, these is a party o' No'the'n boys as belong to thescouts. They kim down thisaway on a matter o' bizness, an' wanted tuhsee what a reg'lar Louisiana swamp she looked like. So I 'grees tuhpilot 'em round a bit."

  "Do you mean the Boy Scouts, Tom?" demanded the sheriff, eagerly;"because, while we ain't got so far along down heah as to have a troopo' the same, I know what they stand fo', an' I surely am glad to meet upwith some o' the lot. If so be ye come ashore, I'd like to shake handswith ye, boys."

  "And we'll count it a great honor, Mr. Sheriff," said Giraffe, just asquick as he could speak, and taking the words right out of Thad's mouthas it were; but then it was an old trick with Giraffe, and one he nevercould be cured of.

  No one offered the slightest objection to paddling close up to the land,and going ashore. Bumpus was heard to mutter something to himself,however, and might be expected to keep an anxious eye on the two houndsthat were straining at their rope leashes, as though wanting to eithergo on, or else make a closer acquaintance with these newcomers.

  So the friendly sheriff proceeded to shake hands all around.

  "Even down in this neck o' the woods we done heah more or less aboutwhat's goin' on all over," he remarked, as he came to Thad, in whom heseemed to recognize the leader of the little band; "and I often thoughtI'd like to meet up with some o' these heah Boy Scouts. I got the manualthey drill by, an' it meets with my unqualified approval, I wants to sayright heah. I hain't got nary a boy, but if my five gals was sech, I'dwant to start a patrol right away in my town. An' meetin' you chapsthisaway gets me more'n ever in the notion to try an' see if we cain'thave a troop o' our own."

  "I'm glad to hear you say that, Mr. Sheriff," declared Thad; "if you'dcare to take my address, and I could do anything at all to help you inthe matter, you can depend upon it I will. You're in something of ahurry just now, but perhaps later on we may happen to meet again whenthings are a little more quiet; and I'd like to tell you dozens ofthings that have happened to the Silver Fox Patrol, that you'd like tohear; and also what a big difference it's made with some of ourmembers."

  "That's sure kind of you, my boy," said the sheriff, while the crowdlistened eagerly to all that was being said, and some of the youngerelements began poking each other in the ribs, as though they saw goodtimes coming should the officer ever put his contemplated plan intooperation; for things must have been pretty dull for boys down in thatregion so far removed from the hurly burly of metropolitan life. "I hopenow I'll meet up with that chant, beca'se there's a heap o' things I'dlike to ask you. But jest as you say, I'm up to my ears in businessright now, and it wouldn't be just the thing to pull up before this oldswamp has been run over east and west, no'th and south, with afine-tooth comb, till we gits every law-breaker it hides, or else chases'em into the open, where they'll be easy to corral."

  "Tom Smith has been telling us considerable about the way this place hasbeen used for years and years to hide runaway slaves, escaped convictsfrom the camps, and all sorts of bad men; and it'll be a blessing to thewhole community, sir, if you succeed in exterminating the viciousbreed," said Smithy, assuming his most important air.

  Sheriff Badgely looked curiously at the speaker, as though he did notexactly sense all that he said in his pedagogue way; for Smithy was asexact in his manner of speech as long ago he used to be dudish in hisdress, until the rougher element among the scouts cured him of thatfault.

  "Thank ye, son," the officer finally remarked, thinking that this oughtto cover the bill, and not expose his ignorance concerning finelanguage.

  "It certainly does you credit, Mr. Sheriff, that you've undertaken a jobwhich all your predecessors seemed to have shirked," Allan went on tosay; for he had somehow taken a sort of sudden fancy for the small man,who seemed to be as lively as a cricket, and full of vim and go.

  "Oh! I might
as well confess to ye, son," remarked the sheriff with achuckle; "that p'raps I might a kept aputtin' the raid off right along,jest like Sheriff Zeb Coles done fo' nigh on eleven yeahs, till heturned up his toes and was put under ground, only fo' a certain thinghappenin'. Fact is, they has been a big robbery up-country a bit, an'only two days back we got word as how the man suspected o' doin' thesame was a lyin' low in ole Alligator Swamp. Co'se, after that tharwa'n't no excuse fo' me not to raise a big posse, and try to just cleanthings out down heah; 'case you see, the man that had been robbed heoffered to pay the wages of every man and boy that'd go along, and putfive thousand dollahs in my hand in addition, if so be I was luckyenough to ketch thet slick thief, an' recover the stuff as had beentaken from him."

  "I can see how that was a spur, just as you say, sir," Thad remarked,smiling at the naive way in which the officer admitted that the chancesof a fat reward made an alluring bait at any time.

  "Well, it gave me a chanct to collect the greatest posse ever seen inthese heah parts; an' we're just bound to have the biggest lot of funafoah we quits the game ever heard tell of," the sheriff went on to say;"but sorry to tell you, boys, we'll likely have to part company rightnow, and take up our hunt."

  "Have you come across anything in the way of game so far?" askedGiraffe.

  "Oh! we done sent that ole voodoo man to town under guard," replied theother, carelessly; "you see, he's been makin' heaps o' trouble lately,gettin' some o' the hands on the sugar plantations to throwin' up theirjobs in the busy season, an' fillin' 'em full o' horrible notions sechas the voodoo practices. And we kim to the conclusion that it had tostop. He'll get sent where he won't do no more damage in ignorant minds.Afore we-uns are through with our job we calculate to pick up a numbero' convicts that's been hidin' out in this region; but we'll try todevote most of our time and attention to findin' this heah slickJasper."

  When the sheriff happened to casually mention the man for whom all thisremarkable preparation had been made, Thad exchanged a quick glance withhis closest chum, Allan; for the officer who was sworn to carry out themandates of the law had spoken the name of the party of whom the scoutswere in search, and who was believed by Thad to be the kidnapper of hislittle baby sister, Pauline, years before.