TAKEN PRISONER
Both lanterns had now been lighted, and were hung so that the interior
of the twenty-four foot motor boat was fairly illuminated. Phil had a
fine little searchlight in the bow, which he expected to make use of,
if the time ever arrived when they would want to keep moving after
nightfall; but there was no necessity for bringing this into play now.
"I only hope none of the vandals think to smash things here, if they
carry us away to the village!" Larry gave vent to his thoughts, as they
stood and waited for the coming of the squatters.
"McGee, he not let that be, I think," Tony hastened to say, so as to
reassure the more timid Larry; who was quivering like a bowl of jelly
over the unknown calamities that hung over their heads.
Now the leaders of the marchers were close up. A dozen strong they
were pushing forward; and at their head strode the tallest of them all,
the man who was head and shoulders above the rest.
"Hello!"
It was Phil who called out, and Larry started as though he had been
shot, so strung were his nerves.
The crowd still came on. Perhaps they thought those on the boat meant
to put up a desperate resistance; and it was policy in that event for
them to be as near as possible, before the word was given to carry the
craft by storm.
"McGee, are you there?" continued Phil; and he was really surprised
himself at the calm manner in which he could handle his voice; now that
the critical moment had really come, all his fears seemed to have
vanished.
"That's me!" came back, in the heaviest voice Phil had ever heard; and
which in fact seemed to accord perfectly with the giant figure of the
head of the clan.
"Come aboard, please," continued the boy, steadily, to the secret
admiration of both his chum and Tony. "I've been expecting to drop in
at your place tomorrow to see you; but you've beat me out."
"Oh! we has, hey?" growled the giant, as with one effort he jumped upon
the boat the curtains of which the boys had drawn up, so that they were
fastened to the inside of the standing roof.
Strange to say the first thing McGee did was to reach out and clutch
his own boy. But if Phil expected to see him embrace Tony, he was very
much mistaken.
On the contrary he shook him much as a dog might a rat, until the boy's
teeth seemed to rattle together. But Tony was used to this sort of
thing, no doubt; and he would not have protested, even though suffering
ten times the amount of pain that may now have racked his slender frame.
"What yuh doin' hyah, boy, tell me that?" roared the big man. "Whar's
yuh leetle sister; and why so did yuh desart her up yander? If so be
any harm's kim tuh Madge, I'll skin yuh alive, d'ye hyah me?"
Phil was on the point of interfering, but on second thoughts he
realized that this was a matter between father and son. Tony could
take care of himself; and he knew best how to handle the terrible
McGee, whom men so feared.
"She's thar in the horspittal, jest like yuh told me tuh leave her,"
the boy said, steadily enough. "She's awaitin' till ther eye doctor he
kims erlong down from the Nawth. They 'spected him yist'day. Reckons
as how he musta arriv."
"But why did yuh kim away, an' leave the pore leetle gal alone thar?"
continued McGee, in a low but fearful voice.
Already Phil realized that this man was no common creature, but one to
be reckoned with. He could now easily believe the stories he had heard
about the tremendous strength of the giant. And it was easy to see how
he kept control over the members of the squatter clan by sheer force of
character.
"She war bein' looked arter fine. Ther nusses was kind, an' they sez
as how nawthin' cud be did till the doctor he kim. But I got chased
outen town by a gang o' men, an' they'd sure given me thuh cowhidin'
they sez, on'y I hid aboard the boat uh these boys. They be'n mighty
good tuh me too. They ain't nawthin' they wouldn't do foh me, I tells
yuh. An' ther critter as was leadin' them cowards as chased me acrost
kentry, he was Kunnel Brashears!"
Then the shingle-maker broke out into a string of profanity that
shocked Larry, and set him to shivering again. He could do little save
stare at this remarkable man, and draw in great breaths. No doubt he
regretted the evil day he had promised to accompany his chum down into
this region of swamps, alligators, wildcats, and lawless squatters.
But it was much too late now to think of retreating; they had thrown
their hat into the ring, and must accept the consequences of their
rashness.
McGee, turning, snatched a lantern from its resting place. This he
held alternately in front of, first Phil, and then Larry. Evidently he
judged the latter to be of small consequence anyway; for after that
moment he paid attention only to the one whom he believed to be the
leading spirit in the expedition.
"Yuh don't 'pear tuh be a Southerner?" he said, frowning at Phil.
"Oh! no, I've only come down here with my friend for a trip. We had
the boat sent by rail, and launched her in the river above here. We
expect later to run on down to the gulf, and do some cruising there.
But first of all I wanted to stop over with the shingle-makers of the
swamps, and meet you, McGee!"
Phil said this without putting on airs. He knew that any one who found
himself virtually in the power of these independent people, who
recognized no law save that of might, would be exceedingly foolish to
show signs of boasting. It was man to man now, and money did not count
in the comparison.
"Yuh wanted tuh meet up with me, yuh say?" the other observed, with
sarcasm in his tones. "Wall now yuh see me, p'raps yuh don't jest like
my looks. If so be I thort them coward hounds up-river sent yuh down
hyah tuh spy on us, an' inform thet rail-rid sheriff how he cud git tuh
cotch us on the sly, I'd jest lay a cowhide acrost yer backs till the
welts they stood up like ropes."
"I have nothing to do with the people of that town," declared Phil,
resolutely. "So far as I saw of their actions, they are a lot of
cowards, who could chase after a half-grown boy, but draw the line at
coming down here to meet men."
"Then tell me why did yuh pick out this yer stream tuh bring yer boat
down; I reckons they be heaps o' others thet'd suited better?" demanded
McGee.
"Why, I told you that I wanted to see you and that it was with that
plan in my mind I selected this river of them all," replied the boy.
Tony was hovering near. He had not even attempted to escape when that
iron hand of his father loosened its clutch on his shirt. Of course he
understood to what end all these things must lead; and that it was now
a mere matter of seconds when the fact must be disclosed that the boy
with whom he had been associating was in reality the only son and child
of the man these squatters hated above every human being on earth.
And he could imagine the effect of that explosion on the hot temper of
McGee. No wonder then that Tony felt alternate flushes of heat, and
spasms of cold pass over his body, as he hung upon every word Phil gave
utterance to. He dreaded what his father might be tempted to do in the
first flash of his anger; and Tony was holding himself ready to jump
into the breach. He was accustomed to feeling the weight of the
McGee's displeasure, but it pained him to think that it must fall on
his best of benefactors, and his new found chum.
The man again flirted the lantern forward, as he took another look into
the calm face of the boy. Phil met the piercing gaze of McGee with a
steadiness that doubtless impressed him; for of a certainty McGee must
be a reader of character, since he had never had a school education.
He knew that this was no ordinary young fellow who had come down the
river on board the new-fangled boat that needed nothing in the way of
oars, yet made no steam like the tugs which came up to take their
cypress shingles to market.
A number of the men had climbed aboard by this time. They stood
around, staring at the elegance to which they were unaccustomed; yet
not venturing to so much as lift a finger toward taking possession of
things. Until their leader gave the word they would refrain from
looting the captured boat. His simple word was law among the swamp
shingle-makers.
"Yuh keep asayin' as how yuh wanted tuh meet up wid me, younker," McGee
presently remarked in his deep, booming voice. "Wall, now, surpose yuh
jest up an' tells why yuh shud feel thetaway. If harf they sez 'bout
the McGee be true, they ain't nobody but a crazy men as'd want tuh run
acrost 'im."
"But I don't believe one-half of what I hear about you," said Phil.
"They warned me that it was foolish to make the try; but I kept on
saying that McGee was a fighter who never made war on boys, and he'd
listen to what I had to say, even if he didn't want to shake hands, and
call it a go."
"What's thet?" demanded the giant, suspiciously. "Yuh act like yuh
kerried sumthin' 'long wid yuh, younker?"
"So I do--a message, a letter to you, McGee!" came the quick reply.
"Then yuh'll jest hev tuh deliver it in tork, 'case I cain't read a
word. My wife, she allers wanted me tuh larn; but I sez as how 'twar
no use tuh me in my line o' work; so she gets the chillen tuh take hit
up. Tony thar kin read; an' the lettle gal she knows heaps foh a blind
chile. But speak up, younker, an' tell me who sent yuh wid the letter?"
"My father did, McGee," Phil went on, striving to keep the tremor from
his voice. "He believed that you had been deceived about him, and he
was determined that you should know him as he is, not as he has been
described to you by those who want to make trouble."
"Yuh father? Tell me, who's boy be yuh?" demanded the giant, scowling
ominously as he bent down over the young owner of the power boat.
"His name is well known to you," said Phil, boldly; "it is Doctor
Gideon Lancing, of Philadelphia."