A SURPRISE.
“Hello! Sheriff Badgely! Hello!”
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.
“Who’s that callin’ me?” a voice was heard to say.
“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.”
“Oh! that’s it, hey? Whar are ye at, Tom?” came the sheriff’s voice.
“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.”
“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.”
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.
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.
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.
“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.
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.
“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.
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.
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.
“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?”
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.
Of course the swamp hunter made haste to explain.
“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.”
“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.”
“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.
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.
So the friendly sheriff proceeded to shake hands all around.
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.
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.
“Thank ye, son,” the officer finally remarked, thinking that this ought
to cover the bill, and not expose his ignorance concerning fine
language.
“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.
“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.”
“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.
“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.”
“Have you come across anything in the way of game so far?” asked
Giraffe.
“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.”
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.