For at least a minute neither of the boys spoke. They knew that Roberts
and his gang had planned on coming there to the cabin that morning, but
it had not occurred to them that they could be there so soon. Moreover,
they had rather taken it for granted that they had possession of the
only boat in the swamp.
Scott realized now that he had been grossly careless. There was no
possible justification for their staying in that cabin after they
learned whose it was and knew that the others were planning on coming
there. He was filled with remorse now and would have given anything to
be out of the scrape, but it was too late. They were trapped like a
couple of rats and the ferrets were rapidly approaching the only
possible way out. Scott fairly groaned. Possibly they would not get out
and no news would ever reach the outside world as to what had become of
them, but if the truth should ever become known it was maddening to
think that they would be reported as having lost out on a most important
mission through carelessness and a few hours of hunger.
But trapped and hopelessly outnumbered as they knew themselves to be
they had no idea of giving up without a struggle. Scott slipped
noiselessly from the bench and grabbed an iron bar which was leaning
against the door frame and was evidently intended to bar the door.
“Get that ax-handle over there in the corner,” he whispered to Murphy,
“and take your place on the other side of the door. We’ll get as many of
them as we can. I’ll take the first one who comes in the door and you
take the next.”
They took up their stations and waited grimly with nerves on edge. They
expected every instant to hear the boat bump the landing and the thud of
feet on the steps. But they did not come. The suspense was terrific.
Suddenly Scott remembered their boat tied to the landing. No wonder they
did not land. They knew that there were strangers within and probably
suspected who it was. They were probably holding a council of war now to
determine the best method of attack, for they would not know that the
boys had lost their guns in the quicksands.
Scott felt that he must know what was going on at all hazards and he
slipped cautiously over to the window in the front of the cabin and
peeped out. At first he could see nothing and thought they must have
gone around to the other side, but just as he was turning away a moving
object quite a distance off in the swamp caught his eye. It was two
darkies in a bateau paddling straight away from the cabin. He heaved a
sigh of relief. For the moment they were saved. The next instant he
realized what it meant and groaned inwardly.
“There goes the news!” he exclaimed bitterly, as he pointed out the
rapidly disappearing boat to Murphy. “It may be a long chase now before
we ever locate those fellows again, if we ever find them.”
“Oh, we’ll find them all right when the time comes,” Murphy replied
cheerfully. “The thing to do now is to get out of this trap as fast as
we know how before any one else comes. If we can get away I’m not
worrying about the rest of it.”
Scott realized the wisdom of the suggestion, but he thought it best to
cover up their tracks as best they could. They quickly straightened up
the cabin, put everything as nearly as they could just as they had found
it, took one cautious glance around the swamp and hurried out to their
boat. They half expected to hear a shot from the back of the cabin.
There was no window on that side of the house and they had no assurance
that there had not been two bateaux, one of which might be lying in wait
for them. But there was no sound and a hurried survey discovered no boat
in sight.
“Now for it!” Murphy exclaimed, bending to his pole with all his might.
“I wouldn’t stop to eat anywhere else before I get to headquarters if I
was starving.”
They did not realize how badly they had been scared in that cabin till
they found how hard they were working to get away from it. They were
headed due north by the compass and going as fast as they could. Scott
had caught up a fishing pole off the landing and was doing his best to
help. It was not till they were far out of sight of the cabin that they
relaxed a little in their efforts. They were at least a mile from the
south edge of the swamp and still there was no intimation that they were
approaching the other side.
“Good thing we found this boat,” Murphy commented; “we’d have drowned
before this if we had tried to cross this place without it.”
Scott did not reply. He was wondering how far it was from the north edge
of the swamp to the railroad track and how long it would be before they
could get a train going in their direction. When he had discovered the
log canal and the hidden mill he had thought his work in Florida was
about completed, and successfully completed. The scare at the cabin had
showed him how easy it would be for him to fail completely even yet. He
was anxious now to get back to headquarters and place his information
where it would be safe.
They had covered at least another mile and were beginning to think that
the swamp must extend clear up into Georgia when they began to see some
signs of land ahead. They were coming to a fringe of dense underbrush
and behind it they could see the tops of pine trees. In a few minutes
they were standing on solid ground once more with an open pine forest
stretching away to the northward as far as they could see.
“Well, it can’t be more than a hundred miles from here to the railroad!”
Murphy exclaimed. “Let’s go.”
They were both anxious to get out of that unknown country where so many
unexpected things seemed to happen to them, and set out at a lively
pace. The country continued to be dry and open, but it was at least two
hours before they saw any sign of life or a road or anything else which
would indicate that they were anywhere near civilization. Then they
sighted a little cabin far ahead of them in the woods. Smoke was curling
from the chimney and two men were leaning on the front fence with their
backs toward them.
Scott decided that there could be no danger in approaching these people
who could not possibly know anything about them and he wanted to learn
the shortest way to the railroad. They advanced in silence and their
feet made no sound in the soft sand. The men in the yard turned out to
be a couple of darkies and they seemed to be enjoying some huge joke.
Their laughter broke out in an almost continuous high-pitched cackle and
they were having altogether too good a time to pay any attention to the
approach of strangers. In fact, strangers were so rare in that section
that no one ever thought of seeing one. The boys were not very far from
the cabin when one of the darkies roared between his gusts of laughter,
“No, suh, you won’t ketch me tryin’ to steal no grub out of dat cabin
ag’in. A little mo’ and we’d a-walked right in on ’em and you know what
Mist’ Roberts said de las’ time he ketched us out dere. No, suh, I’ll
buy my grub fust.”
Scott stopped in astonishment and stared at Murphy. So that was what had
scared them so at the cabin; only a couple of darkies trying to steal
some of the supplies. And Roberts had not learned anything of their
whereabouts, nor was he likely to from these fellows. It was the first
cheerful news he had had for some time.
Murphy cleared his throat loudly and the two darkies jumped almost out
of their skins and looked as though they were about to run away. The
sight of the two forest service uniforms did not seem to reassure them.
The weight of a guilty conscience made them nervous.
“Say, boy,” Murphy called to reassure them, for he was familiar enough
with darkies to know that if they were frightened there would be no hope
of getting the truth out of them about anything, “which is the nearest
road to the railroad station?”
It took the darky a moment to recover from his fright, but the terror
died from his face when he realized that the stranger had not said
anything about robbing a cabin and he grinned respectfully. “Dat de road
right deah, boss, de ain’t no otheh.”
“How far is it?”
“Fo’ miles, suh. Leastways dat’s what dey calls it around heah.”
Murphy wanted to ask what station it was but he did not want to
acknowledge that he was as completely lost as all that. So they took the
little used track in the sand which the darky had dignified by the name
of a road and walked on as though they were perfectly satisfied and knew
just where they were going. There was one thing they did know. They knew
that they had furnished the darkies with a subject of conversation which
would keep them busy for some time to come.
Like most estimates of distance in the country the “fo’ miles” proved to
be rather a rough guess and it was pretty well along in the afternoon
when they came in sight of the three or four houses which composed the
railroad town. The few people who were in sight eyed them curiously when
they walked into the station. They were too far from the forest for any
one to recognize their service uniforms and every one took them for
soldiers.
There was no train till ten o’clock that night. It seemed as though they
had eaten enough of Roberts’ supplies out there in the swamp to last
them for a week, but they were hungry again already and walked over to
the store to get some crackers and cheese for supper. The storekeeper
asked them so many questions that they had a hard time eating their
lunch after they had bought it, but it at least gave Scott a chance to
ask a few questions in return.
“Isn’t there a Mr. Roberts living somewhere around here?” he asked
casually.
“He don’t exactly live around heah, suh, but he does his buyin’ heah. He
operates a sawmill down to the south of heah. Fine gentleman, suh.”
Scott reserved his opinion about the qualities of the gentleman in
question, but Murphy could not suppress a very audible snort of
contempt. They picked up what little information they could about the
sawmill, which was not much, and strolled outside to wait for the train.
They felt fairly safe here, but they would feel safer outside where it
was dark.