WHAT HAPPENED ON THE ROAD
"HOLD her in, Toby!" George was heard to shout, as he floundered around
in the midst of the gunny sacks, with the other two scouts straddling
him half the time.
"Whoop! we ain't in thuch a hurry ath all that, Toby. Get a grip on the
linth, Elmer, and help him pull. Oh! what a quack I got then on my head.
I bet you I'll have a lump ath big ath a gooth egg! Quit clawing me,
George; I can't help it if I do climb all over you. Look at the way the
wagon thwings, would you?"
Elmer did not need to be told that it was his duty to assist Toby
control the runaway animal. No matter what the cause of the beast's
strange fright might turn out to be, their first business was to drag so
heavily on the lines that Nancy would have to moderate her wild pace.
Accordingly both of the boys pulled and sawed and jerked until the mare
was made to come to a full stop. This occurred fully a mile away from
the wayside grocery, which was long ago lost to sight behind several
bends in the road.
"Jump out and hold her, some of you other fellows!" gasped Toby, short
of breath after his violent exertions.
Chatz, George and Ted all hastened to obey. They had been tumbled around
in the bed of the big wagon at such a lively rate that they were only
too glad of the chance to gain their feet. Held by a stout boy on either
side the mare did not offer to run further, though still acting very
strangely.
Elmer had once spent some time up on an uncle's ranch in Northwest
Canada; and knew a heap about horses. He had sometimes seen animals act
this way, and had before then guessed what might be the matter.
"Hold her steady, everybody, and let me look around a little," was what
he called, as he jumped down, and began patting the sweaty back of the
trembling animal.
A minute later and they heard him give an angry exclamation.
"I thought as much," Elmer was saying, as he held up his hand; "look
what was fixed under her tail."
"Say, that seems like a bunch of those nasty little sand spurs that
sting and poison like all get-out!" exclaimed George, and it might have
been noticed that this time he showed no signs of his customary doubting
spirit.
"Just what they are," Elmer went on to say, indignation in his whole
manner.
"But how--when--where?" began Ted, when Chatz burst out with:
"He did it, Elmer, that skunk of a McDowd. Must have thought it'd be a
fine way to pay back what he believed he owed the Hickory Ridge boys.
The low-down coward, to hurt a hoss that way."
"But why, he might have made some of us get thrown out, and hurt right
bad in the bargain!" exclaimed George, angrily.
"Much he'd have cared for that," Toby panted; "and didn't I just think I
heard a silly laugh at the time Nancy started to rear up, and prance
like a crazy thing? That must a been Angus. And like as not he's doubled
up back there right now laughing over seeing how we got thrown around in
the wagon because of his sand spur trick. For five cents I'd turn
around, and go back to give him the licking he needs."
"Don't bother thinking about that," Elmer told him. "It was a mean
trick, and I've known men to get a halter out on the plains for playing
that same game. But we got out of the hole without any damage, only to
our feelings; so let's forget it."
The others were usually swayed more or less by what Elmer thought or
did. He was a natural leader, and it had become second nature for the
other scouts to look to him for advice, whenever an emergency arose.
"Guess the poor frightened thing'll stand now, fellows, without holding
her any more," Toby suggested; "so climb back on your seat; and be more
careful next time how you let go your hold. It's a wonder none of you
got dumped out when you tilted over backward."
Just as he said, the animal seemed to have partly recovered from her
mad fright occasioned by the pain the little sharp-pointed burrs
inflicted. Though still trembling, and acting in a skittish manner, she
gave signs of being docile enough to be driven.
The three scouts hastened to climb in at the back of the wagon, and
after securing the gunny sacks, as well as the large package belonging
to Toby, they once more found seats for themselves. George and Chatz,
however, it might be noticed, made sure to get a firm grip somewhere on
the side of the wagon; while Ted, being in the middle, threw an arm
around each of his chums, as though he depended on them to sustain him,
should another runaway occur.
They were soon going along at a fair clip, though Toby had to "lean"
pretty heavily on the lines in order to hold the big bay mare in, for he
did not think it advisable to let her have her head again. The next time
she made such a mad spurt as that they might not find it so easy to get
her to stop.
"What d'ye reckon possessed that coward to play such a mean trick on
us?" Toby wanted to know.
"Oh! he had it in him, that's all, and when the chance came around he
just couldn't help himself," Elmer told him, for the Assistant Scout
Master was somewhat of a philosophical boy, and able to figure out
things that might puzzle some of his tent mates.
"Next time I see that Angus he'll hear my opinion of a sneak who could
play a dirty trick like that!" continued the driver, vigorously.
"Thame here!" chirped Ted. "And if he giveth me any thath I'll pull hith
red noth for him, thee if I don't."
"All I can say is, keep your eye out for sledge hammer punches if ever
you go to pulling _his_ nose," warned George; "because he's a born
scrapper, and would as soon fight as eat."
"Let's forget about that little affair," suggested Elmer; "no use crying
over spilt milk, and what's done can't be undone. Toby, suppose you tell
us a little more about this nut grove up at the old Cartaret place;
because if I remember rightly you said you'd been asking everybody all
about the estate."
"Why, old Judge Cartaret, the rich man who built up the place, meaning
to live there with his young and handsome wife, went crazy, they say,
after he'd found her dead in her room. The mystery never was cleared up.
To this day some people say she was murdered by a man she once promised
to marry before the millionaire judge came along; another lot seem to
believe she committed suicide because the judge was so cruel, and
wouldn't let her leave the place; and one man told me he always had
believed ever since he was a boy that the judge struck her down in a fit
of passion. But of course those things don't cut any figure with us."
"On the contrary," interrupted Chatz, who had been listening to all
these horrors with wide-open eyes, and a look of intense interest on
his dark face, "they strike me as being decidedly interesting, suh. If I
had a chance I'd like to investigate this queer thing, and perhaps learn
what did happen in that big house ever so many years ago."
"But how about the nut treeth, Toby, did the judge plant the thame when
he wath trying to make a thut-in paradith for that pretty bride of
hith?"
"That's just what he did, boys, so they told me," Toby continued,
readily consenting to be squeezed for information; "he planted a whole
lot of chestnuts, walnuts and shell-bark hickories that have been
growing for several dozen years. They're busting big trees, and just
breaking down with the finest crop ever known, and with never a single
fellow brave enough up to this time to go there and gather the harvest.
Why, when I heard what that man had to say about it, I was fairly wild
to be off. And believe me, boys, we'll make the eyes of the other
fellows stick out of their heads like fun when they see what an enormous
supply of nuts we've gathered for next winter around the fire. Yum! yum!
I always did say that a plate of red-cheeked apples, a dish of fresh
popped corn, and a pocketful of nuts beats all creation on a stormy
night, winter times."
"Believe it when I see it!" muttered skeptical George, who undoubtedly
thought this wonderful harvest was too good to turn out to be true;
after they had arrived on the ground, very probably it would only be to
find that the trees had been stripped of their burden of nuts by some
hardy souls who did not place much credence in the stories of the ghost
said to haunt the place; something was always on the eve of turning up
to keep George from reaping success, it seemed.
"No use talking," observed the disgusted Toby, "George never will be
convinced till he begins to load up the wagon with bags running over
with nuts. And even then he'll expect some white-sheeted ghost to step
up, and demand that we throw every one of the same back again where we
found them. You couldn't convince him of a single thing till he's had a
chance to prove it over and over again."
"Learned that in school when I was doin' problems," George declared with
one of his most exasperating grins; "which was why I always passed with
such a high percentage in arithmetic and algebra. They said I'd make a
fine carpenter, because I'd always measure my boards again and again
before I cut 'em, and that way there never'd be any mistakes about my
sawing."
"And a great carpenter you'd make, George," chuckled Toby; "why, you'd
take everlasting and a day just to get your foundation started. The
folks would all die off waiting for you to finish your job. A
carpenter--whew! excuse me if you please from ever employing a mechanic
who spends all his time figgering out how things could be so and so."
"But we must be within a mile or two of the place by now, fellows,"
Elmer told them about that time, "so if you hold up a little we'll soon
know the worst or the best. I'm of the opinion myself that what Toby
says is going to turn out true; for nobody ever goes near the Cartaret
place these days. Lots of boys around home never even heard about it;
and others couldn't be coaxed or hired to explore around a place they
call haunted."
"Yes, I'm not the only silly believer in ghosts," Chatz told them,
looking pleased at what Elmer had just said, "for misery always likes
company, and you'll remember, suh, how the sly old fox that had fallen
into a well told the goat looking down that it was a lovely place to
drop in; and when Billy had taken him at his word he hopped on the
goat's back and jumped out. But if I have half a chance I expect to
prowl around more or less while we're up heah, and see if the stories
I've heard about this queer old rookery could ever have been true. Why,
they even say the judge had the house built so that it was like a big
prison, or some sort of asylum."
Chatz was full of his subject, and might have wandered on still further,
once he got fairly started, only for a sudden movement on the part of
Elmer. Sitting alongside the driver it was the easiest thing going for
that worthy to seize the reins and with a quick strain on the same bring
the mare to a full stop.
"Why, what under the sun!" began the astonished Toby, when Elmer clapped
his hand over his mouth and immediately said:
"Hush! be still! Look what's coming out of that side road ahead there!"
and at the same time he pointed with his disengaged hand.
All of the others hastened to do as he requested. There, in plain sight,
though their own vehicle was partly hidden by the foliage still clinging
to the bushes that jutted out at a bend of the road, was a two-horse
wagon, containing four boys, in whom they readily recognized some of the
toughest elements around the town of Hickory Ridge.
As the other wagon rattled into the main road, and went speedily on
without the occupants once looking toward them, Elmer and his chums
exchanged troubled glances.