Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
file which includes the original illustrations.
See 50983-h.htm or 50983-h.zip:
(https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/50983/pg50983-images.html)
or
(https://www.gutenberg.org/files/50983/50983-h.zip)
Transcriber’s note:
Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).
Text enclosed by equal signs is in bold face (=bold=).
FOUR AFOOT
* * * * * *
BY RALPH HENRY BARBOUR.
Each Illustrated, 12mo, Cloth, $1.50.
Double Play.
Forward Pass!
The Spirit of the School.
Four in Camp.
Four Afoot.
Four Afloat.
The Arrival of Jimpson.
Behind the Line.
Captain of the Crew.
For the Honor of the School.
The Half-Back.
On Your Mark.
Weatherby’s Inning.
D. APPLETON & COMPANY, NEW YORK.
* * * * * *
[Illustration: “Swinging along a country road on Long Island.”]
FOUR AFOOT
Being the Adventures of the Big Four on the Highway
by
RALPH HENRY BARBOUR
Author of “The Half-Back,” “Behind the Line,”
“Weatherby’s Inning,” “On Your Mark,”
“Four in Camp,” etc.
[Illustration]
New York and London
D. Appleton and Company
1910
Copyright, 1906, by
D. Appleton and Company
Published September, 1906
To L. S. S.
IN MEMORY OF PLEASANT HOURS
TO THE READER
Many of you who followed the adventures of Nelson, Dan, Bob, and
Tom, as narrated in a previous story, FOUR IN CAMP, have very kindly
professed a willingness to hear more about this quartette of everyday
boys, and the author, who has himself grown rather fond of the “Big
Four,” was very well pleased to take them again for his heroes.
It seems now as though there might even be a third volume to the
series--but that will depend altogether on how well you like this one,
for, as of course you understand, the author is writing in an effort to
please you, and not himself. And if he doesn’t please you, he would be
very glad to have you tell him so, and why.
If you go to searching your map of Long Island for the places mentioned
in this story you will be disappointed. They are all there, but, with
one or two exceptions, under other names. You see, it doesn’t do to be
too explicit in a case of this sort. Mr. William Hooper, for instance,
might seriously object were you to stop in front of his house and
remark, “Huh! there’s where old Bill Hooper lives, the fellow that
wouldn’t give the ‘four’ any supper!” Of course it is different in the
case of Sag Harbor--that town has already been immortalized on the
stage, and is probably by this time quite hardened to publicity. And as
for Jericho--but then they never got there!
RALPH HENRY BARBOUR.
CAMBRIDGE, MASS.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I.--IN WHICH THE BIG FOUR SET OUT FOR JERICHO 1
II.--IN WHICH TOMMY DELAYS PROGRESS AND THEY LOSE
THEIR WAY 13
III.--INTRODUCES MR. JERRY HINKLEY AND AN IMPROMPTU
DINNER 24
IV.--INTRODUCES MR. WILLIAM HOOPER AND AN IMPROMPTU
SUPPER 37
V.--DESCRIBES A SECOND ENCOUNTER WITH MR. WADE 45
VI.--WITNESSES A RESCUE AND AN ADDITION TO THE PARTY 57
VII.--WHEREIN BARRY DISTINGUISHES HIMSELF 67
VIII.--IN WHICH POVERTY CLAIMS THE FOUR 77
IX.--SHOWS THEM BOTH HUNGRY AND SATISFIED 88
X.--IN WHICH NELSON SEES STRANGE VISIONS 98
XI.--IN WHICH JERRY TELLS HIS STORY AND DAN PROVIDES
DINNER 112
XII.--WITNESSES THE FIRST APPEARANCE OF “DANELLO” 128
XIII.--WHEREIN THEY MEET THE WILD MAN OF THE TARTARY
STEPPES 137
XIV.--TOM SWIMS IN THE OCEAN AND DIPS INTO POETRY 151
XV.--TELLS HOW THEY MEET THE MANNIG BASEBALL CLUB AND
HOW NELSON AND BOB GET ENGAGEMENTS 170
XVI.--WHEREIN NELSON AND BOB PLAY BALL AND LAURELVILLE
MAKES A PROTEST 184
XVII.--IN WHICH A FIRE ALARM AIDS MANNIG, AND THE FOUR
LEAVE HURRIEDLY 201
XVIII.--TELLS OF AN ADVENTURE IN A HUT 218
XIX.--TELLS OF A VOYAGE AND A SHIPWRECK 230
XX.--FOLLOWS WITH A RESCUE AND INTRODUCES FRIENDS IN
NEED 246
XXI.--WHEREIN TOM LOSES HIS TOOTHBRUSH AND DAN TELLS
A STORY 261
XXII.--WHEREIN GOOD-BYS ARE SAID AND BARRY MAKES HIS
CHOICE 271
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
FACING
PAGE
“Swinging along a country road on Long Island.” _Frontispiece_
“Leaped excitedly at the counter.” 74
“‘Why! Hello, Jerry Hinkley!’” 104
“Suddenly the boat’s head swirled around.” 242
FOUR AFOOT
CHAPTER I
IN WHICH THE BIG FOUR SET OUT FOR JERICHO
“On to Jericho!”
Dan Speede took the car steps at a bound and was out on the station
platform looking eagerly about him before the other three boys had
struggled through the car door. Swinging his pack to his shoulders, he
waved an imaginary sword about his head and struck an attitude in which
his right hand pointed determinedly toward the country road.
“Forward, brave comrades!” he shouted.
The brave comrades, tumbling down the steps, cheered enthusiastically,
while the occupants of the car in which the quartet had traveled from
Long Island City looked wonderingly out upon them. But as the present
conduct of the boys was only on a par with what had gone before, the
passengers soon settled back into their seats, and the train puffed on
its way. Tom Ferris waved gayly to the occupants of the passing windows
and then followed the others along the platform. The station was a
small one, and save for a farmer who was loading empty milk cans into a
wagon far down the track, there was no one in sight.
“Which way do we go?” asked Nelson Tilford.
For answer Bob Hethington produced his “Sectional Road Map of Long
Island, Showing the Good Roads, with Description of Scenery, Routes,
etc.,” and spread it out against the side of the station.
“Here we are,” he said. “Locust Park. And here’s our road.”
“That’s all right,” answered Nelson, following the other’s finger. “I
see the road on your old map, but where is it on the landscape?”
“Why, down there somewhere. It crosses the track just beyond the
station.”
“Certainly, but you don’t happen to see it anywhere, do you?” asked Dan.
Bob had to acknowledge that he didn’t.
“Come on; we’ll ask Mr. Farmer down here,” said Tom.
So they went on down the track to the little platform from which the
milk was loaded on to the cars and hailed the farmer.
“Good morning,” said Dan. “Which is the road to Jericho, please?”
The farmer paused in his task and looked them over speculatively.
Finally,
“Want to go to Jericho, do you?” he asked.
“Yes,” answered Dan.
“Are you in a hurry?”
“Why--no, I don’t suppose so. Why?”
“’Cause there’s a train in about an hour that’ll take you to
Hicksville, and it’s about two miles from there by the road.”
“But we just got off the train,” objected Nelson.
“So I seen,” was the calm response. “Why didn’t you stay on? Didn’t you
have no money?”
“Yes, but we wanted to walk,” answered Bob. “Which way do we go?”
“Want to walk, eh? Well, you won’t have no trouble, I guess. Pretty
fair walkers, are you?”
“Bully!” answered Dan.
“Fond of exercise, I guess?”
“Love it!”
“That so? Well, there’s lots of good walkin’ around here; the roads is
full of it.”
“Oh, come on,” said Tom impatiently. “He’s plumb crazy!”
“Hold on,” interposed the farmer. “I’m tellin’ you just as fast as I
know how, ain’t I?”
“Maybe,” answered Dan politely, “but you see we sort of want to get to
Jericho before Sunday. And as it’s already Monday morning----”
“Thought you said you weren’t in no hurry,” objected the farmer.
“Well, if you call that being in a hurry,” Dan replied, “I guess we
lied to you. If you happen to have any idea where the Jericho road
is----”
“Well, I’d oughter, seems to me. I live on it. Are you all going?”
“Every last one of us,” answered Nelson.
“Tell him how old we are and the family history and let’s get on,”
suggested Dan _sotto voce_.
“Well, there’s four of you, eh?”
“I think so.” Bob made pretense of counting the assembly with much
difficulty. “Stand still, Tom, till I count you. Yes, sir, that’s
right; there are four of us.”
“Well, two of you could sit on the seat with me and two of you could
kind of hang out behind, I guess.”
“Oh, much obliged,” said Bob. “But really we’d rather walk. We’re
taking a walking trip down the island.”
“You don’t say! Well, you go back there about a half a mile and you’ll
find a road crossing the track. You take that until you fetch the
country road going to your right. Keep along that and it’s about nine
miles to Jericho.”
“Thanks,” said Dan.
“You’re welcome. That’s the best way if you’re real fond of walking.”
“Oh,” said Bob suspiciously. “And supposing we aren’t?”
“Then you’d better go the shorter way and save about two miles,”
answered the farmer gravely.
“Which way’s that?”
“Right down the track here for a quarter of a mile till you come to a
road going to the left. Take that for half a mile and then turn to your
right on the country road.”
“Thanks again,” said Bob. “You’ve had a whole lot of fun with us,
haven’t you?”
“Well, you’re sort of amusin’,” answered the farmer with a twinkle in
his eye. “But I been more entertained at the circus.”
Bob smiled in spite of himself, and the others grinned also; all save
Tom.
“B-b-b-blamed old ha-ha-hayseed!” growled Tom. “Hope he ch-ch-ch-chokes!”
The four took their way down the track, Bob highly pleased to find the
truthfulness of his map established; although Dan declared that a map
that would lie nearly a quarter of a mile couldn’t be fairly called
truthful. When they had gone a hundred yards or so the farmer hailed
them.
“What is it?” shouted Bob.
“Got friends in Jericho, have you?” called the farmer.
“No,” answered Bob, adding “confound you” under his breath.
“Going to take dinner there, be you?”
“I guess so. Why?”
“Well, you go to William Hooper’s place about a mile t’other side of
the village, and say Abner Wade sent you. He’ll look after you, William
will.”
“Thank you,” called Bob.
“He seems to be a decent chap after all,” said Nelson.
“The only trouble with him is that he’s like Dan,” answered Bob. “He’s
got an overdeveloped sense of humor.”
They tramped on, and presently found the road that crossed the railway.
Turning into this they struck due north; at least that’s what Tom
declared after consulting the compass which he carried in his pocket.
Bob looked at his watch.
“Nine-fifteen,” he announced. “We’ve got lots of time. Seven miles in
three hours is too easy.”
“If that old codger told us the right way,” amended Tom.
“He did, because the map shows it,” responded Bob.
“Don’t talk to us about that old map,” said Dan. “It’s an awful liar,
Bob.”
And while they are quarreling good-naturedly about it let us have a
look at them.
The boy walking ahead, swinging that stick he has cut from a willow
tree, is Nelson Tilford. Nelson--sometimes “Nels” to his friends--lives
in Boston within sight of the golden dome and is a student at Hillton
Academy; and next year he expects, if all goes well, to be a freshman
at Erskine College. That apparent slimness is a bit misleading, for
the muscles under the gray flannel suit are hard as iron, and what
Nelson lacks in breadth and stature is quite made up in strength and
agility. In the same way the quiet, thoughtful expression on his face
doesn’t tell all the truth. Nelson is a good student, fond of books and
inclined to think matters out for himself, but at the same time he is
fond of sports and has been known to get into mischief.
Next to him walks Tom--familiarly “Tommy”--Ferris; residence, Chicago;
age, fourteen years--almost fifteen now. Tom is inclined toward
stoutness, has light hair and gray eyes, is at once good-natured
and lazy, and has a positive talent for getting into trouble. Tommy
expresses himself clearly until he becomes excited; then he stutters
ludicrously. Tommy is also a Hillton boy, but is one class behind
Nelson, a fact which troubles him a good deal, since he wants very much
to go up to college with his friend.
The big, broad-shouldered boy with the red hair and rollicking blue
eyes is Dan Speede. Dan, who hails from New York, is fifteen years
old. Whereas Tom spends a good deal of his time getting into trouble
himself, Dan is tireless in his efforts to get others into trouble;
and he usually succeeds. For the rest, he is fond of fun, afraid of
nothing, and hasn’t an ounce of meanness in him. Dan is in his senior
year at St. Eustace Academy, and he, too, has his heart set on Erskine
College.
The last boy of the four--and the eldest--is Bob Hethington, of
Portland, Maine. Bob is sixteen--nearly seventeen--and is big,
quiet-appearing, and unexcitable. He has curly black hair and eyes and
is distinctly good-looking. Bob, too, is booked for Erskine.
Perhaps you have met these boys before, when, at Camp Chicora,
last summer, they gained the title of the Big Four. If so, you are
undoubtedly wondering how it happens that we find them on this bright
morning in early September swinging along a country road on Long
Island. Well, it was all Dan’s fault. Dan took it into his head to get
sick in early summer. As he had never been sick before to amount to
anything, he thought he might as well do the thing right. So he had
typhoid fever. That was in June, just after school closed, and he spent
the succeeding two months at home. He didn’t have a good time, and even
when the doctor declared him well, Dan felt, as he himself expressed
it, like a last summer’s straw hat. So there was a family council.
Dan’s mother said Dan ought to stay out of school and go abroad. Dan
said, “Nonsense.” So the matter was left to the physician. He said what
Dan needed was outdoor exercise, plenty of fresh air, and all that.
“Let him get into an old suit of clothes,” said the doctor, “and
take a walking trip.” (You see, the doctor was a bit old-fashioned.)
“Nothing like walking; sea trips and sanitariums aren’t half as good.
He needn’t hurry; just let him wander around country for two or three
weeks; that’ll set him up, you see if it doesn’t.”
Dan liked the idea, but the thought of wandering around the country
alone didn’t appeal to him. “If I could only get Nelson or Bob or Tommy
to go along,” he said.
“Perhaps you can,” said his father.
So three letters were written and dispatched and soon three answers
came. Nelson was glad to go, Bob was equally willing, and Tom was
“tickled to death.” Bob and Nelson had been at Camp Chicora most of
the summer, while Tom had spent his vacation at one of the Michigan
lake resorts. The last week in August there was a jolly gathering of
the clans at Dan’s house, a happy reunion, and an excited discussion
of ways and means. Mr. Speede engineered affairs, and by the fourth
day of September all was ready. There had been much discussion as to
where they should go. Nelson recommended his own State, Bob thought
Pennsylvania about right, and Tom favored the Adirondacks. It was Dan’s
father who thought of Long Island.
“In the first place,” he pointed out, “it’s right at our back door,
and you won’t have to waste a day in getting there; and as you’ve
got only three weeks at the most before school begins, that’s worth
considering. Then, too, if anything should happen to you, I could
get you here in a few hours. Long Island isn’t the biggest stretch of
country in the world, but there’s over a hundred miles of it as to
length, and I guess you can keep busy. Besides, the towns are near
together and you’ll be able to find good sleeping accommodations; and
I’d rather Dan didn’t do too much sleeping out of doors just at first.”
So the map of Long Island was produced and studied, and the more they
studied it the better they liked it. It was unknown territory to them
all, for even Dan’s knowledge of the place was limited to Coney Island,
and the names of places--names which amused Tommy vastly--and the
evident abundance of good roads won the day.
“Me for Long Island!” declared Nelson.
“Same here,” said Tommy. “I want to go to Jericho.”
“And I want to go to Yaphank,” declared Bob.
“And Skookwams Neck for mine!” cried Dan.
So they started to lay out a route. They laid out six. The first
left out Lake Ronkonkoma, and Tommy declared he just had to see Lake
Ronkonkoma. The second omitted Ketcaboneck, and Bob said he couldn’t
go back home without having seen Ketcaboneck. The third slighted
Aquebogue, and Nelson refused to go unless that charming place was on
the route. And so it went, with much laughter, until finally Mr. Speede
advised them to settle only on a place to start from, take the map
with them, and decide their itinerary as they went along. That pleased
even Tommy.
“I shall visit Quogue if I have to go alone,” he said.
What to take with them was a question which occasioned almost as
much discussion. Tommy had brought his trunk and wanted to take most
of its contents along. In the end Mr. Speede’s counsel prevailed
and each boy limited his luggage to the barest necessities. Light
rubber ponchos--squares with a hole cut in the middle which could be
slipped over the head when it rained--were purchased, and these were
to be used as knapsacks, the other articles being rolled up inside.
The other articles included a towel, bathing trunks, brush and comb,
toothbrush, extra shoe laces, a light-weight flannel shirt, three
pairs of stockings, and handkerchiefs. Each boy carried a collapsible
drinking cup in his pocket, Bob took charge of the map, and Tom was the
proud possessor of a compass. Tom also carried a folding camera, having
at length been prevailed upon to leave a choice library of fiction, a
single-barreled shotgun, and two suits of clothing behind him.
Old clothes, stout shoes, cloth caps, and light flannel shirts with
collars was the general attire. And so clothed, each with his pack in
hand, the four said good-by to Mr. and Mrs. Speede on Monday morning,
took car to the ferry, crossed the river, and boarded an early train
for Locust Park, at which point their journey on foot was to begin.
And so we find them, Dan a trifle pale of face but as merry and happy
as any, trudging along the road toward Jericho, each prepared for a
good time and eager for adventures.
And adventures were awaiting them.