THE TWO DESPERADOS
"Don't shoot, sir! It's just me!" Jamie piped in terror from the tree.
"It's only a kid!" Bill swore an oath of disgust and lowered his
rifle. "You git down out'n that tree! Git down quicker'n lightnin',
too!"
"I'm comin', sir!" came Jamie's frightened voice from the tree-top.
Jamie lost no time in descending from his perch and in a moment stood
trembling before his captors. It was quite dark now and snowing hard,
and to the frightened little lad the two big lumbermen loomed up like
giants.
"What you doin' here?" demanded Bill with an oath as he seized Jamie's
arm with a grip that made the lad wince.
"I were--I were huntin' for the cache," confessed Jamie.
"Goin' to steal our cache, was ye? Well, we'll teach you to leave
other folkses things be!" The man gave Jamie a savage shake. "Tryin'
to steal our cache, eh? Who set you on to it? That's what I want to
know! Who set you on to stealin' it, now?"
"I weren't goin' to steal un, sir," chattered Jamie, horrified at the
implication that he was a thief.
"What were you huntin' the cache for, then? Don't lie, you little rat,
or I'll twist your neck off!"
The fellow seemed quite capable of executing the threat literally, as
he again shook Jamie savagely.
"I--aint'--lyin'--about--un, sir!" pleaded Jamie between the shakes.
"I were--just--goin'--to--look--at un, and--if--'tweren't--Lem Horn's
silver fox--I weren't--goin' to touch un!"
"Well, 'tain't Lem Horn's silver fox. It's things of our'n! Do you
hear that? _'Tain't_ Lem Horn's silver, it's our'n what's in that
there bag! You leave our things be! Do you hear what I'm sayin'? You
and your gang keep away from our cache, and don't go foolin' with
anything you don't know anything about! Do you hear?" The man gave
Jamie another shake.
"I--I didn't know! We--we just suspicioned 'twere Lem's silver, and I
were wantin' to take un back to he," explained Jamie.
"You heard what I said? 'Tain't Lem Horn's silver! You hear that,
don't you?"
"Aye, sir, I saw what you was takin' out of the bag, and 'tweren't Lem
Horn's silver. 'Twere something to drink out of a bottle. I sees you
drinkin' it."
"Let the kid go, Bill," laughed Hank, who until now had kept silent.
"We were all thinkin' 'twere Lem's silver. I'll tell un 'twere not the
silver but somethin' else that you takes from the Captain that you
were hidin' in the cache," said Jamie hopefully.
"You goin' to tell that! You heard what we said, and you goin' to blab
it?" the man roared in a rage.
"Aye, sir, I'll just tell the others so's they'll not be thinkin' 'tis
Lem's silver," said Jamie innocently.
"The others? Who's 'the others'?" demanded Bill.
"Doctor Joe and the other scouts," Jamie explained.
"'Doctor Joe and the other scouts,'" quoted the big lumberman. "Who's
this here Doctor Joe? And who's the other scouts?"
"He's Doctor Joe! Everybody knows Doctor Joe!" explained Jamie, quite
astonished that any one should ask who Doctor Joe might be. "The
scouts be the other lads of the Bay, sir."
"Well, this here Doctor Joe, whoever he is, and these here other
scouts, whoever they be, better keep out'n our business and mind their
own," roared the man. "I suppose they're this here bunch what's
campin' down by the brook and been runnin' all over the country
to-day?"
"Aye, sir, we're all campin' down handy to the brook, and we've all
been lookin' for the cache, but I'm the only one that finds the rock,"
admitted Jamie.
"You ain't camped down there now!" The man swore a mighty and strange
oath that made Jamie tremble. "You was camped there, but _now_ you
ain't! You're goin' with us, _you_ be! Hear that?"
"Aw, let the kid go!" broke in Hank, impatiently. "We better be
gettin' a jog on us too. Leave the kid be, and come on. He's just a
kid and he can't kick up any trouble. Leave him be, and let's get out
of here."
"Not me!" The man gave Jamie's arm a painful twist. "I ain't goin' to
leave this here kid to go back and blab to that there Doctor Joe and
the hull country. He heard our talk, and if it gets to the boss you
know what that means. I ain't takin' any chances on him, and I'm half
of this."
"We'll be gettin' in bigger trouble if we takes him along. We'll have
the hull country huntin' us," Hank protested.
"You heard me! I ain't goin' to take chances on his blabbin'! He goes
along, and I'll fix him so's he won't blab and nobody'll get our trail
if they do hunt us. The snow'll hide it," insisted Bill.
"Well, let's get a move on then," said Hank. "The wind's risin' and
it's goin' to kick up a sea. I don't want to be caught out on the Bay
again in a sea like we had that other time. The snow's goin' to be
thick too, and we'll lose our bearings."
"Go on, then. I'll foller with the kid," said Bill, still holding
Jamie's aching arm.
"Better let the kid go," said Hank, swinging a rifle over his left
shoulder and with an axe in his right hand striding away through the
darkness and thickly falling snow.
"Come along you!" and Jamie's captor, gripping Jamie's arm in one hand
and with a rifle in the other, followed in the trail of the man Hank,
dragging Jamie almost too fast for his legs to carry him.
On and on they went through the darkness. Now and again Jamie fell
over stumps or other obstructions, and each time the man, with a
curse, jerked him to his feet.
Snow was falling heavily and the wind was rising. Once they crossed a
frozen marsh where the snow swirled around them in clouds. Then they
were again among the forest trees, forging ahead in silence save for
an occasional curse by the man who held Jamie in his merciless and
relentless grip.