<h2 id="c15">CHAPTER XV. <br/><span class="small">STILL BUMPING BUMPUS.</span></h2>
<p>Various were the expressions of disgust when
the scouts heard this piece of intelligence from
the guide.</p>
<p>“Well, what d’ye think of that now, for a piece
of nerve?” exclaimed Step Hen.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_128">128</div>
<p>“Seems just like this here Ricky, whose first
name must be Gin, I reckon, thinks he owns pretty
much all Alligator Swamp, because he’s held out
here so long, and nobody ever bothered him before!”
Bumpus lamented.</p>
<p>“But what’s the use talking that way, fellows?”
said Giraffe, almost fiercely; “none of us expect to
clear out just because Mr. Ricky says we’ve got to
go. If he expects that he’s given us the worst
scare of our lives, he’s got another think acoming
to him, that’s all.”</p>
<p>“Giraffe, you never spoke truer words than
that,” cried Davy Jones, suddenly firing up, and
showing unexpected zeal in the matter; he had a
way of stretching his eyes when under any sort of
excitement, and in this way made the other boys
laugh at his looks; but just then, somehow, no one
even smiled, for they were too much taken up with
the seriousness of the conditions confronting them.</p>
<p>“Well, it strikes me about the same way,” spoke
up Bob White, with his customary Southern eagerness,
“the Silver Fox Patrol has gone through with
too many adventures in its time to get scared off,
just because one old moonshiner chances to feel
ugly that we’ve had to come into this swamp.”</p>
<p>“He’d better take care,” warned Smithy, who
seemed fully as much worked up as any of the rest
of them; “or we might make up our minds to kill
two birds with one stone.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_129">129</div>
<p>“That’s what!” echoed Bumpus, aggressively;
“while we’re alooking up this here Felix, why, if
we’re forced to show our hand without a glove,
p’raps we’ll take a notion to pull old Ricky in, and
hand him over to the revenue officers. Maybe
there might be some sort of reward out for him;
and we’ve made our expenses before now in helping
the hands of justice. Remember what we did up
in Maine, boys?”</p>
<p>“Yes, and please move our boat a little to the
right, will you, Allan, because somehow I think
the air comes a mite finer from that quarter,” and
Giraffe as he said this almost glared at Bumpus;
who returned his look with one of pretended indifference,
as he fondly stroked his dingy old khaki
jacket that was so discolored from long and hard
use that one could hardly tell what the original
color may have been.</p>
<p>“Well, I hope now we ain’t going back, anyhow?”
the fat scout remarked, calmly.</p>
<p>All eyes were turned upon the scout-master, as
though the decision must rest entirely with him;
but then they knew Thad well enough to feel sure
he never backed down in anything he attempted
until the very last word had been said.</p>
<p>And then again they must have found more or
less consolation in the fact that it was his particular
business that had brought them all the way into
Dixieland; the possibility of finding his long lost
little sister would spur Thad on to reaching his
goal, if there were a dozen Ricky moonshiners in
the way.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_130">130</div>
<p>Just as they hoped and expected, he lost no time
in settling the matter, at least as far as he was concerned.</p>
<p>“We’re here to find that man with the little girl,
boys, and we’re bound to do it, by hook or by
crook,” he said, quietly, but in that firm tone they
knew so well. “If this man who makes the moonshine
stuff chooses to get in our way and show himself
disagreeable, why, we may have to turn aside
for a little while, and teach him that it isn’t always
safe to interfere with other people’s business, even if
they do happen to be Boy Scouts. And I’m sure
our guide here, Tom Smith, will stand by us
through it all, won’t you, Tom?”</p>
<p>Now, the swamp hunter was having his eyes
opened right along to the possibilities of boys under
the new way of making them think for themselves,
and the more he saw of Thad and his seven
chums, the higher his admiration arose. So when
the young scout-master thus appealed to him, he
was quick to assure them of his constancy.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_131">131</div>
<p>“I’ve lived around hyah fo’ a good many yeahs,
an’ minded my own bizness right along so ’at Ricky
an’ me we-all never hed any fallin’ out; but I sez
right now, thet if he thinks he kin chase you boys
outen Alligator Swamp, jest ’cause yuh happens tuh
be wearin’ them uniforms as makes him ’spicious
like, he’s beatin’ up the wrong tree, thet’s all.
I’ll stick tuh yuh through thick an’ thin; and Ricky,
he bettah go slow, thet’s all.”</p>
<p>“Of course,” put in Thad, hastily, as with a
movement of the hand he checked the cheer that
arose to the lips of several of the more enthusiastic
scouts; “we’d rather not have the least trouble with
the man, because, you understand, we never even
knew of his being here until we started in to try
and find the others; but if he’s as obstinate as a
mule——”</p>
<p>“Or Bumpus here,” interjected Davy, as quick as
a flash.</p>
<p>“Why,” Thad went on to say, “we’ll have to
pay attention to him first of all, because it’s unpleasant
to think that at any minute you’re apt to be
shot at from ambush, by some one who is hidden behind
a tree.”</p>
<p>“I never did sot any store by this hyah bushwhackin’
bizness,” declared their guide, frowning.
“And Ricky, he’s bound tuh git hisself intuh a
heap o’ trouble if so be he tries thet same on, many
more times.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_132">132</div>
<p>“I was thinking,” resumed Thad, “that perhaps,
now, there might be some way for you to get in
touch with Ricky, or leave a communication for
him somewhere. In that way you could tell him
who we were, and that we haven’t any notion of doing
him any harm. In fact, so far as we’re concerned,
it doesn’t matter if he keeps on with his little
still in the swamp till doomsday, does it, boys?”</p>
<p>“No, if only he keeps his hands off, and don’t
bother the Silver Fox Patrol in the line of their
duty,” asserted Giraffe. “Some other people, just
about like this same old Ricky, learned that it was
as safe to monkey with a buzz-saw as to fool with
scouts when they’re bent on minding their own affairs.
I could mention more’n a few who got
their fingers pinched, and pinched bad too.”</p>
<p>“Well, don’t bother going into details now,
Giraffe,” remarked Allan; “all that will keep for
some time when we’re sitting around the fire, and
you happen to feel like telling our guide a few
things about what we’ve done in the past. Just
now we’ve got to settle on our plans for work.
How about what Thad asked you, Tom Smith;
can you manage to get word to this Ricky, do you
think?”</p>
<p>The swamp hunter had been thinking while the
boys exchanged these few remarks; and now he
nodded his head in the affirmative.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_133">133</div>
<p>“I kinder reckons as how I mout do thet same,
son,” he went on to say, as though his mind were
made up. “In the fust place, I knows jest whar
Ricky he holds out, an’ hes his ole still; an’ I wants
tuh say thet I don’t reckon tuh find them parties
yuh be alookin’ fo’ in thet ere quarter. So, yuh
see, we’s soon gwine tuh head in a diff’rent way,
so Ricky, if so be he’s a watchin’ on us frum the
bushes’ll make out thet we don’t mean tuh disturb
him yet awhile.”</p>
<p>“Still, he might think we were only going around
to come up on him from another quarter?” ventured
Allan.</p>
<p>“Yes,” added the scout-master, “and if you can
let him know what I said about our being only
Boy Scouts; and that we’ve hired you, not to find
him, but another party altogether, it might be best.”</p>
<p>“They’s a chanct tuh do thet same,” returned
Tom Smith; “an’ this is theh way o’ hit. Yuh see,
Ricky he don’t never show hisself outen the swamp,
leastways not in daytime, ’cause he reckons as how
thar be a marshal behind every tree, jest awaitin’
tuh nab him fo’ moonshinin’. But he sells his
mountain dew, as they calls it up in Georgia an’
Tennessee tuh sum o’ theh natives, an’ when they
wants a supply they leaves word at his post office
like.”</p>
<p>“Oh! I see, Ricky isn’t only trying to beat the
United States Government out of its revenue on
the stuff he distills, but he’s set up a rival establishment
for sending letters through the mails without
paying a cent of postage?” and Giraffe chuckled
at his own wit, which Bumpus thought very bad
taste; but then Bumpus was provoked at the lanky
scout just then, and could not see anything good in
whatever Giraffe said or did.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_134">134</div>
<p>“And can you get a note into that private post
office without too much trouble?” Thad asked,
quite interested, and ready to carry out the little
scheme with all the speed possible.</p>
<p>“Why,” resumed the swamp hunter, “hit happens
thisaway, yuh see; we’s bound tuh pass right
neah thet holler tree, whar Ricky allers looks fo’
letters; an’ if so be yuh guv me a note tuh stick
in the hole, chances are he’d see me do hit, an’ be
ahookin’ theh same out arter I quits.”</p>
<p>“Then Ricky can read?” queried Allan, as
though surprised.</p>
<p>“Him?” ejaculated Tom Smith, as though surprised
at the question; “sure he kin, an’ write too.
Why, I ’members him atellin’ as how he went tuh
school an’ got book larnin’ a whole winter, long
time ago.”</p>
<p>“What d’ye think of that?” ejaculated Step
Hen. “Suppose, now, Ricky had had half the
chances of us fellows, wouldn’t he set the world on
fire, though? Only went to school one winter
when he was a boy, and learned to read and write
at that. I’m ashamed to say it, but there are some
chaps I know that have been agoing to school all
their lives, and don’t know much more’n how to
read and write.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_135">135</div>
<p>“Speak for yourself, Step Hen,” said Bumpus,
who seemed unusually touchy these days, and resented
the significant way in which the other looked
in his direction.</p>
<p>“I’ll write a few lines then,” said Thad, “and
make it as plain as I can that we don’t mean Ricky
any harm, and would rather than not he helped us
find that strange man with the little girl; for I
suppose he must have noticed him around in the
swamp, and has wondered what they were doing
here.”</p>
<p>“Oh! as fo’ thet,” chuckled the guide, “nobody
ever questions what a feller is after when he hides
in ole Alligator Swamp; ’case, yuh see, it’s allers
been a safe retreat fo’ every escaped convict, and
sech others as want tuh keep outen sight. I hev
heard as how in theh ole days o’ slavery many a
black took tuh this place arter runnin’ away from
the sugar plantations; and they used tuh hunt ’em
with bloodhounds. Fack is, right in these hyah
days I’ve heard the bayin’ o’ hounds more’n a few
times; and I done larn on’y yesterday as how the
sheriff, he went an’ fotched a brace o’ dorgs down
from another parish, tuh use the same hyah’bouts.”</p>
<p>Thad was already busily engaged, having secured
a page from a pocket notebook, and with the
stub of a pencil he was writing a few lines as
plainly as he could accomplish it.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_136">136</div>
<p>Giraffe and Davy were whispering together as
their boats happened to drift close together, and
from the fact that they allowed their eyes to turn
toward Bumpus from time to time, it seemed probable
that some new scheme was being hatched looking
to the further annoyance of the fat scout.</p>
<p>Bumpus saw what was going on, and moved
uneasily, as though he suspected that some species
of bomb were being prepared to explode under him;
but he did not say anything, however much he may
have thought.</p>
<p>Thad had just folded the note, and handed the
same to Tom Smith, so that he could place it in the
tree post office as they came to it; when Giraffe
caught the attention of the scout-master.</p>
<p>“Me’n Davy here been conferring on a certain
matter, you see, Thad,” he went on to say, apparently
half in earnest, yet with his eyes twinkling as
though a wicked sense of humor bubbled up within;
“an’ while we hope you won’t think we’re atrying
to start a mutiny of any sort, we would like to get
your opinion to a certain scheme to keep peace in
the family, and let the rest of us get our share of
good sweet air.”</p>
<p>“Well, hurry up and state your case, Giraffe,”
remarked Thad, who possibly could more than half
guess what was coming; “because we’ve lost time
enough already, and should be on the move.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_137">137</div>
<p>“Why, it’s just this way,” continued Giraffe,
after exchanging winks with Davy, as though looking
for encouragement there; “we’ve tried our level
best to coax a certain member of this expedition
to be faithful to his vows, and stow away the greasy
old fishy suit he keeps on awearing; and he’s just
that like a mule he won’t do the first thing to accommodate
us. Now, we all feel that we’ve got
rights, and Davy here thought up a plan whereby
Bumpus can keep on wearing his cast-offs if he
wants to, and have all the fun to himself.”</p>
<p>“Oh! is that so?” sneered the object of all this
tender solicitude; “how kind of Davy, and you too,
Giraffe. Maybe, now, you’ll go right along, and
explain how this same miracle’s agoing to be fixed?
This suit is an old friend of mine, and I just love
it. Course, if Thad lets you, and the whole bunch
pile on, I can’t hold out against seven; but that
ain’t the way to treat a fellow scout. Go right
along and explain what Davy’s plan is.”</p>
<p>“Why, here’s the scheme, and I must say it’s a
grand good one,” Giraffe continued, bracing up to
make the explanation. “Since Bumpus must save
his good suit, let him, if only he don’t bother the
rest of us so furiously. Now, there’s the boat of
our guide; let him change places with Tom Smith,
and follow away behind the balance of the expedition.
We could wave him back whenever we
thought he was getting too close, you know. And I
want to say the plan has my unqualified endorsement,
and does our chum Davy great credit. Now,
what’s the verdict. Thad? Does Bumpus either
have to agree to throw away that old suit of his; or
get in the guide’s canoe, and go away back and sit
down? We’re content to abide by your decision in
the matter; and here’s hoping you fix it to suit the
majority!”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_138">138</div>
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