CHAPTER XXX
ATTACKED IN THE REAR
Early the next morning the three Badgers held a council of war.
It was unanimously decided that something must be done, but what thatsomething should be it was not easy to determine.
Mr. Badger suggested that the town constable should be summoned.
"The boy has committed assault and battery upon our persons, Mrs.Badger," he said, "and it is proper that he should be arrested."
"Shall I go for the constable?" asked Andrew Jackson. "I should like tohave him put in jail. Then we should be safe."
"The constable would not be up so early, Andrew."
"Besides," said Mrs. Badger, "we shall be laughed at for not being ableto take care of a single small-sized boy."
"You know what he is capable of, Mrs. Badger. At least you did when youcame flyin' down the attic stairs into my arms!"
"Shut up, Mr. Badger," said his wife, who was ashamed when sheremembered her panic. "You'd better not say anything. He got you on thefloor and pounded you--you a full-grown man!"
"I'd like to pound him!" said Badger, setting his teeth hard.
"It's a pity if three of us can't manage him without calling in aconstable," continued Mrs. Badger, who, on the whole, had more couragethan her husband.
"What do you propose, wife?" asked Nathan.
"I propose that we all go up and seize him. He is probably asleep andcan't give any trouble. We can tie him hand and foot before he wakesup."
"Capital!" said Mr. Badger, who was wonderfully assured by the thoughtthat his young enemy might be asleep. "We'll go right up."
"He may be awake!" suggested Andrew Jackson.
"True. We must go well armed. I'll carry the gun. It will do to knockthe pistol out of his hand before he gets a chance to use it."
"Perhaps so," assented Mrs. Badger.
"And you, Andrew Jackson, what can you take?"
"I'll take the poker," said the heroic Andrew.
"Very good! We had better arm ourselves as soon as possible or he maywake up. By the way, Mr. Badger, where is the ball of twine? It will beuseful to tie the boy's hands."
"If his hands are tied he can't work."
"No, but I will only keep them tied while I give him a thrashing. Youcan take possession of his pistol and hide it. When he is thoroughlysubdued we will untie him and send him to work."
"Without his breakfast?" suggested Andrew.
"No, he has already fasted since yesterday morning, and it may make himdesperate. He shall have some breakfast, and that will give him strengthto work."
Andrew Jackson was rather disappointed at the decision that Bill was tohave breakfast, but on this point he did not venture to oppose hisfather.
The plan of campaign having been decided upon, it only remained to carryit out.
Mr. Badger took the old musket and headed the procession. His wifeslipped downstairs and returned with the kitchen broom and a poker. Thelast she put in the hands of her son.
"Use it, Andrew Jackson, if occasion requires. You may be called upon todefend your father and mother. Should such be the case, do not flinch,but behave like a hero."
"I will, ma!" exclaimed Andrew, fired perhaps by the example of thegreat general after whom he was named. "But you and pa must tackle himfirst."
"We will!" exclaimed the intrepid matron. "The disgraceful scenes oflast evening must not again be enacted. This time we march to certainvictory. Mr. Badger, go on, and I will follow."
The three, in the order arranged, advanced to the foot of the stairs,and Mr. Badger slowly and cautiously mounted them, pausing before thedoor of the room that contained, as he supposed, the desperate boy.
"Shall I speak to him before entering?" he asked in a tone ofindecision, turning back to his wife.
"Certainly not; it will put him on his guard. Keep as still as you can.We want to surprise him."
To account for what followed it must be stated that Dick Schmidtawakened his visitor early and the two went down to breakfast. Mr.Schmidt was going to the market town and found it necessary to breakfastat five o'clock. This happened fortunately for Bill, as he was able toobtain a much better breakfast there than at home.
When breakfast was over he said soberly:
"Dick, I must go back."
"Why do you go back at all?" said Dick impulsively.
"I must. It is the only home I have."
"I wish you could stay with me."
"So do I, but Mr. Badger would come after me."
"I suppose he would. Do you think he will flog you?"
"I am sure he will."
"I'd like to flog him--the brute! Don't take it too hard, Bill. You'llbe a man some time, and then no one can punish you."
Poor Bill! As he took his lonely way back to the house of his tyrannicalemployer in the early morning he could not help wishing that he wasalready a man and his days of thraldom were over. He was barely sixteen.Five long, weary years lay before him.
"I'll try to stand it, though it's hard," murmured Bill. "I suppose he'svery mad because I wasn't home last night. But I'm glad I went. I hadtwo good meals and a quiet night's sleep."
It was not long before he came in sight of home.
Probably no one was up in the Badger household. Usually Bill was thefirst to get up and Mrs. Badger next, for Andrew Jackson and his fatherwere neither of them fond of early rising.
The front and back doors were no doubt locked, but Bill knew how to getin.
He went to the shed, raised a window and clambered in.
"Perhaps I can get up to my room without anybody hearing me," hereflected.
He passed softly through the front room into the entry and up the frontstairs. All was quiet. Bill concluded that no one was up. He came to thefoot of the attic stairs, and his astonished gaze rested on the threeBadgers, armed respectively with a gun, a broom and a poker, all ontheir way to his room.
"Were they going to murder me?" he thought.
Just then Andrew Jackson, who led the rear, and was therefore nearest toBill, looked back and saw the terrible foe within three feet of him.
He uttered a loud yell, and, scarcely knowing what he was about, broughtdown the poker with force on his mother's back, at the same timecrying:
"There he is, ma!"
Mrs. Badger, in her flurry, struck her husband with the broom, while herhusband, equally panic-stricken, fired the musket. It was overloaded,and, as a natural result, "kicked," overthrowing Mr. Badger, who in hisdownward progress carried with him his wife and son.
Astonished and terrified, Bill turned and fled, leaving the house in thesame way he entered it. He struck across the fields and in that momentdecided that he would never return to Mr. Badger unless he was draggedthere. He felt sure that if he did he would be murdered.
He had no plans except to get away. He saw Dick Schmidt, bade him ahurried good-by and took the road toward the next town.
For three days he traveled, indebted to compassionate farmers for food.But excitement and fatigue finally overcame him, and he sank by theroadside, about fifty miles from the town of Dexter, whence he hadstarted on his pilgrimage.
Robert Coverdale's Struggle; Or, on the Wave of Success Page 30