UNCLE IKE PRESENTS HIMSELF
Mrs. Brady and Buck walking together, Ned and Frank discussed the
situation thoroughly as they descended the mountainside.
"This may be a frame-up," Ned observed, "but it is up to us to see it
through. The boy who has just been brought in may be the prince, or
he may be the grandson, and we are here to get the answer."
"Or there may be no boy at the cabin at all!" Frank suggested. "The
conspirators know that we are in the mountains for the purpose of
looking up the prince. What better plan than the one now working
could they have settled on? If they are sharp at all, they would
understand that a story of a child brought on from Washington would
set us in motion--would be likely to get us into a trap!"
They scrambled on down the slope for some distance, too busy keeping
upright to do any talking, then Frank went on.
"You know very well that I'm no prophet of evil, Ned, but it looks to
me that we have betrayed our mission here by taking such an interest
in the child. Would a lot of boys looking for snap-shots trail off in
the night to see a boy when they might have taken a look at him the
next day?"
"If I know anything about human nature," Ned answered, "those two
people ahead of us are honest. If it is a frame-up, they are not in
it."
"Anyway," Frank went on, "I'm glad the plans were changed by the
arrival of Buck. It is much better for us to meet whatever is coming
to us side by side than to have me sneaking back in the distance!"
Ned agreed to this, and the two quickened their pace in order to come
up with Buck and Mrs. Brady, who were now turning from the west to
the south, keeping along the slope of the mountain. Directly they
came to a narrow trail which led into a green valley.
Following this, they soon came to a couple of acres of cleared land,
in the middle of which stood a rough cabin of peeled logs. A dim
light came from a square window by the door, and there came from the
interior the sound of a man's voice humming a song.
The woman drew up and looked suspiciously at Buck.
"Who is that?" she asked. "You didn't tell me my son came, too."
"No," replied Buck, "I didn't, because, you see, Mike didn't come! He
sent this young fellow in with the kid, bringing word that he would
be along later."
"And who is it?" demanded the woman.
"A likely young chap," was the reply. "He asked me to get you home
to-night, because he wants to leave early in the morning."
"He won't leave early in the morning if he sees us here," Ned
whispered to Frank. "If that is the prince in there, the man with him
may be the fellow who made his way into Jack's house and listened
from the attic."
"What are we going to do about it, then?" asked Frank, anxiously.
"We've got to meet him," Ned replied. "Whoever he is, he knows from
Buck that Mrs. Brady went up the mountain to visit a camp of
strangers. We've got to go in and face him! I wish we had kept away
from here to-night."
Mrs. Brady and Buck now opened the door and entered the cabin, the
boys close behind them. A log fire was burning on a stone hearth, and
a tall, rather handsome young man with light hair and blue eyes was
sitting in a homemade chair before it.
He stirred the fire to a brighter blaze as they entered, and the
leaping flames disclosed a dark-haired child of perhaps seven years
asleep on a bed in a corner of the small room. Without speaking,
without so much as a glance at the visitor, the old lady walked
swiftly to the bed and took the child in her arms.
The boy opened his eyes and started to cry, but she quieted him with
low words and sat down on the edge of the bed, swinging him back and
forth with a motion of her arms and shoulders. The man at the fire
glanced sharply at the woman and then turned his eyes to the boys,
now standing not far from the bed.
"The little dear!" the woman cried, mothering the child. "He's all
tired out with his long journey!"
"This is the man that brung the boy in," Buck said, pointing to the
figure by the fire. "A mess of a time he must have had of it, too."
"You are the grandmother?" asked the stranger. "Yes, I understand.
And are these boys your sons, too?" he added, nodding at Ned and
Frank, suspiciously.
"Only New York boys spending a vacation in the mountains," Ned said,
answering the question. "Mrs. Brady came to our camp tonight looking
for her son and we came home with her. We are looking for good
pictures," he added.
The stranger pointed to the old lady, sitting with the sleeping child
on her breast.
"There is one," he said.
"Yes, and I'm sorry I haven't my camera with me."
"Are you thinking of remaining in this section long?" the visitor
asked.
"We can't say," laughed Ned. "We may move on to-morrow, and may stay
here a week."
The man's suspicions seemed to have vanished. He talked frankly with
the boys, and occasionally addressed a word to the old lady. He gave
her, briefly, a good report of her son's progress in Washington, and
handed her a roll of bank-notes.
"He is coming here himself soon," he said, "and he will bring more.
He is doing very nicely there."
Ned was wishing the boy would waken when the old lady arose from the
bed and laid him gently down. He stirred uneasily in his sleep and
she stood by his side, smoothing his dark hair away from his
forehead.
"He favors my side of the family, being dark," she said. "The Stileses
are all dark. If one of you boys will sit with him a moment," she
added, with mountain hospitality, "I'll get you all a snack. It was a
long road over the mountains."
Ned accepted the invitation eagerly and sat down by the child. The
face was dark and slender, the eyebrows turned up a trifle at the
outer comers.
"Is it Mike III., or is it the prince?" he was asking himself when
the boy awoke and sat up in bed with a jerk.
"What's comin' off here?" he demanded, rubbing his sleepy eyes. "What
kind of a bum game is this? I want my daddy."
The visitor by the fire laughed.
"He's up in city slum talk," he said. "And he's learned something of
French, too, knocking around with the boys in school."
"I can talk Franch like a native," asserted the boy.
"And what else?" asked the man by the fire.
"Any old thing!" boasted the child. "They keep me at books all the
time. I'm glad I'm with grandmother in the hills. Are you my
grandmother?" he asked, pointing to the old woman, now bending over
the fire.
"Yes, deary," was the reply. "I'm going to take care of you now."
"I'm glad!"
The boy tumbled back on the bed again and closed his eyes. Frank
looked at Ned significantly.
"There's no doubt about it!" his eyes said. "This child is Mike III."
The old lady made hot corn bread and brewed a pot of mountain tea.
The boys were not at all hungry, but managed to eat and drink
moderately. Then Ned arose.
"We've got to be on our way," he said. "It will be morning before we
get back to camp if we don't start pretty soon!"
When the boys, after a cordial good night from Mrs. Brady and Buck,
left the cabin the visitor followed them out. Ned stopped breathing,
almost, as he took him by the arm.
"There's one thing I want you to explain to the old lady after a
time," the man said. "I suppose I might do it myself, but I prefer to
let her know from personal observation something of the case first.
That boy is not exactly right."
"Not mentally sound, you mean?" asked Ned. "He appeared to be all
right just now."
"Oh, he's bright enough," answered the other, "but he's been ill and
has been in a hospital at Washington, and has been cuddled and
humored so long that he likes to boss! Not good people to boss, the
attendants in a hospital, you will say, but I guess they let this kid
have his way. When he was delirious they told him all sorts of fairy
tales about kings and princes, and he actually thinks some of them
are true. If he breaks out in any of his tantrums before you leave,
kindly tell the old lady what I am telling you, will you?"
Ned almost gasped! So the boy was likely to talk of kings and
princes! He was likely to become masterful in his manners!
"I may have to change my mind," he thought. "This may be the prince,
and not Mike III. But the boy's English, and there's his street
slang! What about that? I reckon that we have a job on our hands!"
The two stood talking together in the moonlight for some moments, the
stranger evidently resolved to make a good impression on the boys,
while Frank walked on along the trail, looking back now and then to
see if his chum was coming.
"This boy's father," the man went on, "has permitted him to have his
own way about everything. That was a mistake, of course, but he is
trying to rectify it now by placing him under the care of his
grandmother, who, if I mistake not, will see that he is properly
disciplined."
"It has been a long time since the father left here," Ned suggested.
"Yes, along time."
"He is doing well in Washington?"
"Yes, he is connected with the State department."
Ned made a mental note of that!
"And is receiving a fair salary?" he asked.
"Oh, yes; he's doing nicely, far better than his mother has any
notion of."
Here was more food for thought. Why had the father delegated the
pleasant duty of taking the boy back to the old mountain home to
another if he had been situated so that he might have taken the
journey himself?
"Is it the prince, or is it Mike III.?" he kept asking himself.
While they stood there together a great clattering came down the
trail, and they saw Frank turn aside and stand at attention, as if
waiting for some object, seen in the distance, to come up. Directly
the sounds settled down to the rattling of stones and the steady
pounding of hoofs.
"Look what's here!" Frank shouted, pointing.
Ned moved forward, closer to the trail, and in a moment caught sight
of a tall, lank, ungainly mule coming galloping toward him!
"What do you think of him?" called Frank. "He's come to tell us that
it is time we were home and in bed."
"Uncle Ike!" called Ned. "Come here, you foolish mule!"
Uncle Ike, now in plain sight, kicked up his heels in derision but
finally came to an abrupt halt in front of Ned, and stood with ears
pitched forward and forelegs braced back, evidently very much
frightened.