<h2 id="c18">CHAPTER XVIII. <br/><span class="small">A SURPRISE.</span></h2>
<p>“Hello! Sheriff Badgely! Hello!”</p>
<p>When Tom Smith, the alligator-hide hunter,
sent this hail out at the top of his voice, it seemed
as though every other sound ceased like magic.
Why, even the hounds stopped yelping, and seemed
as though they might be standing there, sniffing
the air in their endeavor to locate the one who had
shouted.</p>
<p>“Who’s that callin’ me?” a voice was heard to
say.</p>
<p>“It’s me, Sheriff, Alligator Tom Smith; I didn’t
want yuh tuh be a takin’ a crack et me fust, an’ then
beggin’ my pardon arterwards.”</p>
<p>“Oh! that’s it, hey? Whar are ye at, Tom?”
came the sheriff’s voice.</p>
<p>“Out heah a space, in a boat. I done got a party
o’ No’the’n boys along with me, as wanted tuh see
what ole Alligator Swamp she looked like. Ef yuh
kim right ’long ther ridge, Sheriff, yuh cain’t miss
us. We-uns’d like tuh meet up with yuh right
smart. These heah boys they hain’t never seen
dawgs like them yuh got.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_158">158</div>
<p>“All right, Tom, we’ll be ’long thar in a jiffy.
Glad ye spoke out when ye did, ’case some o’ my
men they like as not air ready to shoot at the sight
o’ a hat. Move along, Carson; hello, Mobbs, shove
the boats on, and jine us t’other side o’ the p’int.”</p>
<p>Again the sound of voices, and also the fretting
of the hounds, could be heard, as the advance was
resumed. Then moving figures began to be seen
amidst the bushes ashore; while at the same time
several boats appeared in sight, turning the point
which had been mentioned by the energetic
sheriff.</p>
<p>Each boat had a number of men aboard, and all
of them seemed to be heavily armed, as though
they had not started out upon this undertaking
without recognizing the fact that they might run
across desperate characters, and be compelled to
show their teeth in armed conflict.</p>
<p>As the guide paddled in a little closer to the
shore so as to meet the officer when he arrived,
those in the other canoes did likewise; although
Bumpus viewed this movement with concern, doubtless
not being able to get those dogs out of his
mind.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_159">159</div>
<p>“They’ve got the hounds in leash right now,”
he heard Thad remark presently; possibly the considerate
scout-master said this on purpose to ease
the minds of those who might be feeling a bit nervous;
at any rate it did comfort the fat member of
the patrol not a little, for he was immediately
heard to give vent to a sigh of tremendous volume,
and allow his rigid clutch upon the pistol-grip of
his gun to relax.</p>
<p>Thad had been prepared to see quite a numerous
retinue following the sheriff; but even he was surprised
at the multitude of men and boys who had
gladly accepted of the chance to have a hand in
the final cleaning up of the pest hole of the parish,
that had been postponed year after year until this
late day.</p>
<p>“Say, looks like a regular rag-tag army!” Bumpus
was heard to mutter, as he stared at the Southern
planters, business men from near-by towns and
clerks in stores, all carrying guns of every possible
description, from the ancient musket, handed down
from Civil War times, to the modern repeating
pump-gun.</p>
<p>And if Bumpus and his mates stared hard at
the strange collection of butternut-clad natives,
fancy the way they were in turn gaped at by these
men and lads, most of whom had doubtless never
even heard of a Boy Scout, and knew not what to
make of their uniforms.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_160">160</div>
<p>A small, nervous man came bustling forward, and
Thad, noting his air of authority, rightly guessed
that this must be the sheriff. And sure enough, he
wore a long coat just as the boys had noticed so
many of those wonderful Western sheriffs did in
the moving pictures they had watched, of stirring
scenes on the plains; while a wide-brimmed soft
hat sat jauntily upon his bushy head of red hair.</p>
<p>“Hello! Tom Smith!” he called out, as he advanced;
“I kinder expected to meet 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 the militia been called out
to do my work fo’ me? I’d like to know what all
this means, Tom Smith?”</p>
<p>The sheriff was really showing signs of being
indignant, since he was supposed to be the peace officer
of the parish; and according to law, the soldiers
could not be called on duty until he had exhausted
his powers, and made a demand upon the
governor.</p>
<p>Of course the swamp hunter made haste to explain.</p>
<p>“Yuh see, suh, these is a party o’ No’the’n boys
as belong to the scouts. They kim down thisaway
on a matter o’ bizness, an’ wanted tuh see what a
reg’lar Louisiana swamp she looked like. So I
’grees tuh pilot ’em round a bit.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_161">161</div>
<p>“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
troop o’ the same, I know what they stand fo’, an’
I surely am glad to meet up with some o’ the lot.
If so be ye come ashore, I’d like to shake hands
with ye, boys.”</p>
<p>“And we’ll count it a great honor, Mr. Sheriff,”
said Giraffe, just as quick as he could speak, and
taking the words right out of Thad’s mouth as it
were; but then it was an old trick with Giraffe, and
one he never could be cured of.</p>
<p>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 hounds that were straining at their rope
leashes, as though wanting to either go on, or else
make a closer acquaintance with these newcomers.</p>
<p>So the friendly sheriff proceeded to shake hands
all around.</p>
<p>“Even down in this neck o’ the woods we done
heah more or less about what’s goin’ on all over,”
he remarked, as he came to Thad, in whom he
seemed to recognize the leader of the little band;
“and I often thought I’d like to meet up with some
o’ these heah Boy Scouts. I got the manual they
drill by, an’ it meets with my unqualified approval,
I wants to say right heah. I hain’t got nary a boy,
but if my five gals was sech, I’d want to start a
patrol right away in my town. An’ meetin’ you
chaps thisaway gets me more’n ever in the notion
to try an’ see if we cain’t have a troop o’ our own.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_162">162</div>
<p>“I’m glad to hear you say that, Mr. Sheriff,”
declared Thad; “if you’d care to take my address,
and I could do anything at all to help you in the
matter, you can depend upon it I will. You’re
in something of a hurry just now, but perhaps later
on we may happen to meet again when things are
a little more quiet; and I’d like to tell you dozens
of things that have happened to the Silver Fox
Patrol, that you’d like to hear; and also what a big
difference it’s made with some of our members.”</p>
<p>“That’s sure kind of you, my boy,” said the
sheriff, while the crowd listened eagerly to all that
was being said, and some of the younger elements
began poking each other in the ribs, as though they
saw good times coming should the officer ever put
his contemplated plan into operation; for things
must have been pretty dull for boys down in that
region so far removed from the hurly burly of
metropolitan life. “I hope now I’ll meet up with
that chant, beca’se there’s a heap o’ things I’d like
to ask you. But jest as you say, I’m up to my
ears in business right now, and it wouldn’t be just
the thing to pull up before this old swamp has been
run over east and west, no’th and south, with a fine-tooth
comb, till we gits every law-breaker it hides,
or else chases ’em into the open, where they’ll be
easy to corral.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_163">163</div>
<p>“Tom Smith has been telling us considerable
about the way this place has been used for years
and years to hide runaway slaves, escaped convicts
from the camps, and all sorts of bad men; and
it’ll be a blessing to the whole community, sir, if
you succeed in exterminating the vicious breed,”
said Smithy, assuming his most important air.</p>
<p>Sheriff Badgely looked curiously at the speaker,
as though he did not exactly sense all that he said
in his pedagogue way; for Smithy was as exact in
his manner of speech as long ago he used to be
dudish in his dress, until the rougher element among
the scouts cured him of that fault.</p>
<p>“Thank ye, son,” the officer finally remarked,
thinking that this ought to cover the bill, and not
expose his ignorance concerning fine language.</p>
<p>“It certainly does you credit, Mr. Sheriff, that
you’ve undertaken a job which all your predecessors
seemed to have shirked,” Allan went on to say;
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.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_164">164</div>
<p>“Oh! I might as well confess to ye, son,” remarked
the sheriff with a chuckle; “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 he turned up his toes and was put under
ground, only fo’ a certain thing happenin’. 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’ the same was a lyin’ low in
ole Alligator Swamp. Co’se, after that thar wa’n’t
no excuse fo’ me not to raise a big posse, and try
to just clean things out down heah; ’case you see,
the man that had been robbed he offered to pay the
wages of every man and boy that’d go along, and
put five thousand dollahs in my hand in addition, if
so be I was lucky enough to ketch thet slick thief,
an’ recover the stuff as had been taken from him.”</p>
<p>“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 chances of a fat
reward made an alluring bait at any time.</p>
<p>“Well, it gave me a chanct to collect the greatest
posse ever seen in these heah parts; an’ we’re
just bound to have the biggest lot of fun afoah 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 right now, and take up our
hunt.”</p>
<p>“Have you come across anything in the way of
game so far?” asked Giraffe.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_165">165</div>
<p>“Oh! we done sent that ole voodoo man to town
under guard,” replied the other, carelessly; “you
see, he’s been makin’ heaps o’ trouble lately, gettin’
some o’ the hands on the sugar plantations to
throwin’ up their jobs in the busy season, an’ fillin’
’em full o’ horrible notions sech as the voodoo practices.
And we kim to the conclusion that it had
to stop. 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 number
o’ convicts that’s been hidin’ out in this region;
but we’ll try to devote most of our time and attention
to findin’ this heah slick Jasper.”</p>
<p>When the sheriff happened to casually mention
the man for whom all this remarkable preparation
had been made, Thad exchanged a quick glance
with his closest chum, Allan; for the officer who
was sworn to carry out the mandates of the law
had spoken the name of the party of whom the
scouts were in search, and who was believed by
Thad to be the kidnapper of his little baby sister,
Pauline, years before.</p>
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