DICK’S FOOTBALL TACKLE
Left alone by Phil to pursue his own devices, Dick carried out his
intention of getting something to eat before going any farther, and
accordingly turned his steps in the direction of Aunt Abbie’s house.
He went around to the back door, and with his hat in his hand, gave
an imitation of what he imagined would be a tramp asking for a
“hand-out.”
He knocked at the door, and just as it was opened, asked in a
whining tone for something to eat. The door was hardly opened, when
he heard Aunt Abbie’s brisk voice:
“Start right in on that woodpile first.”
At this Dick could not hold in, and he began to laugh heartily.
The laugh evidently surprised Aunt Abbie, for she threw the door
wide open and peered out over the tops of her glasses. When she
recognized the “tramp,” she too began to laugh, and said:
“Come in, you young scalawag. Just for what you did I’ve a good
notion to make you earn your dinner anyway.”
“Glad to help out a bit even for nothing,” promptly offered the fat
boy.
“Well, seeing you’re so willing, we’ll let you off this time. I
dunno what I can give you to eat. Fire’s gone down, and all I’ve got
is some fresh tomatoes and some salad dressing and cucumbers and pie
and doughnuts, and some cold milk out of the ice box, and——”
“Hold on, Aunt Abbie,” interrupted Dick. “There’s only one person
here. I haven’t got a half a dozen people with me.”
“Why, what difference does that make?” inquired the old lady,
somewhat tartly.
“Well, you’ve named over enough things to feed a regiment with.”
“Good land, don’t you suppose I know just what a growing boy can
eat? Goodness knows I ought to. I raised four sons myself, all of
them in the city and all doin’ well too.”
Dick sat down in the cool kitchen while Aunt Abbie scurried about
getting his lunch. She kept up a running fire of chatter as she
worked, it being mostly about the missing Ruth. She wanted to know
what news any of the boys had, and what they were doing to find her.
“Garry has some sort of a clue that he has a lot of faith in, and
has gone to look it up. You needn’t worry, Aunt Abbie. If she’s to
be found, Garry is the boy to do the trick.”
Dick did not want to tell her that Ruth was in the power of Jean
LeBlanc, for he knew that she would worry even more. Then he asked
how the grandfather was.
“Land sakes, he’s still asleep; just played out, and it looks as
though he will sleep till night anyway, maybe more. I’ve kept
everything quiet about the house so as not to disturb him. There,
now, eat your lunch, it’s all ready. What are you going to do this
afternoon?”
“I am keeping my eyes on Lafe Green for awhile, and then I thought
I’d go back to our place in the woods and see what luck I had with a
little experiment that I’m trying out,” answered Dick as he tackled
the luscious food set before him.
“Well, you better get into the woods pretty soon and get back again,
for it’s going to rain great guns before night. Not a storm that
will last long, just a good shower that will wet things down right
and set the gardens growing again.”
Dick looked out through the open window at the cloudless sky, and
asked in surprise:
“Why, the sky is as clear as crystal. What makes you think it’s
going to rain?”
“Lots o’ signs say it’s going to, but there’s one that never fails,”
answered the old lady. “My cat’s been washing her face all morning
and bringing her paw over her right ear every time, and further
she’s been outdoors eating the tops off the grass for the last
hour.”
Dick laughed heartily at this as a weather sign, until he saw that
he was in danger of offending the old lady. So he muffled his
laughter and said:
“Excuse me, Aunt Abbie, but that’s a new one on me. I never before
heard tell of a cat acting as a barometer.”
“Well, you can depend on Thomas Jones, that’s the name of my cat, to
let me know whenever it’s going to rain in the summer.”
Dick finished his luncheon and then took his departure, promising to
be back for supper unless something tied him up and prevented him.
It should be mentioned that the boys had made arrangements to board
at Aunt Abbie’s whenever they were in the town, so he was not
exactly inviting himself to be a guest that night.
“Well, go along, and bring good news back with you when you come,”
said the kindly Aunt Abbie as she began to clear away the dishes.
Thoroughly satisfied with the world, the fat youth sauntered towards
the center of the village, and reconnoitred about the restaurant
kept by the old Frenchman. No one was in sight, and he wandered down
the street.
As he neared the corner where stood the general store, he saw Lafe
Green disappearing around the side of the store. He followed
cautiously, and let Green get a considerable start, and then trailed
him. It was an easy job, for Green took to the woods that surrounded
the town and walked swiftly. Dick dodged from tree to tree, keeping
well back, but always close enough to make out Green’s form.
Lafe seemed to be circling as he walked, and Dick wondered what the
idea was. Then it dawned on him, that from the direction he was
taking, Lafe was headed for his own home. Dick at once concluded
that there was some reason for his wanting to approach his own place
without being detected. It was only a few moments before the boy saw
the reason for the roundabout course.
Lafe took a stand under one of the trees, and in a few minutes was
joined by two other men. Peering from his vantage point in back of a
great spruce, Dick was startled to note that the new companions of
Green were the two tramps that still remained at liberty.
They talked together in low tones for a moment, and then moved away.
Walking as though the ground were covered with sharp needles and
eggs and seeking shelter behind a tree every few seconds, Dick
followed the trio.
As he thought, they headed for Lafe’s house, coming in from the
back. When he was sure of their destination, Dick cut through the
standing hay, and wriggling along on the ground, in a manner that
the boys had read of the Indians doing, and had often practiced as
youngsters, he approached the house. The hay field, as he knew, ran
almost to the house, and ended at a stone wall not fifteen feet from
the farmhouse. When he arrived at the wall he saw that the two
tramps were sitting on the porch, while Lafe had gone inside on some
errand. What the errand consisted of, was presently shown when the
owner of the farm came out with a jug of cider.
“Not a soul inside, not even poor Bill. How he managed to let those
cussed boys get him is more than I can make out,” muttered Green to
the tramps. His words were quite distinguishable to Dick, for a
gentle breeze was blowing in his direction, over which the voices of
the men were carried as though on a telephone wire.
“Well have a score to settle with those birds aforelong,” growled
one of the tramps. “But anyway, Bill can’t be much good when he lets
a bunch of boys take him off. Can’t we get him bailed out?”
“Don’t see how. I’m out on bail myself, and it took nearly every
penny I had to do that. Besides, I ain’t any too well liked by the
law and order folks around here, and ’tisn’t likely they’d take my
bail for him. We’ll have to do those two jobs alone tonight, and
that will give us some money to work with and we’ll see then what
can be done.”
“Speaking of jobs, which will we take first, the store or the bank?”
asked one.
“Guess we better take the store first and get that over with; then
it’ll be pretty late and we can take our time with the bank,”
answered Green. “Say we get to the store at midnight; everyone’ll be
in bed then. Look here, it’s getting hot outside, and it’s cooler in
the house. Bring that jug inside with you,” and Lafe turned and went
into the house, followed by the others.
Light instantly broke over Dick. That was the reason for the
friendliness between the tramps and Lafe Green. They were evidently
plotting to break and enter the store and the bank. Green knew
nothing of this branch of criminality, and had in some way become
acquainted with the tramps and had gone partners with them in this
nefarious expedition.
Dick wished that they had stayed out on the porch and further
discussed their plans. He knew it would be foolhardy to try and
approach the house with the three of them there, for one might be at
a window and they could easily seize him. He had not brought his
rifle with him, but left it at Denton’s.
Still he had all the information that was necessary, and winding his
way across the hay field, got out of sight of the house and then
legged it for town as fast as he could go. He was puffing when he
reached the village, and he stopped to get his breath. As he stood
in the shade of an arching elm, the village constable came by and
hailed him.
“Got any more tramps up your sleeve?” he asked facetiously.
“No, I got something better than that this time,” answered Dick. “I
have three bank robbers for you.”
The constable thought that Dick was joking, and was about to make
some humorous reply, when he noticed that Dick was in dead earnest.
“You really serious?” he asked.
“Never more so in my life,” answered Dick, and in a few brief
sentences imparted his information to the constable.
“Now what’s the next step?” asked Dick, as he finished telling his
story.
“Well, things are breaking lucky for us. I telephoned the sheriff
after you brought in that other chap, and he said he’s starting
right for here in his tin flivver. That was just before noon, and
allowing him plenty of time along the road, he ought to be here any
minute now. He’s only about forty-five miles from here. Let’s get
back to the lockup and wait for him.”
This they did, and had barely gotten inside when they heard a motor
engine come to a coughing stop outside and in walked the sheriff
with one of his deputies. He recognized Dick instantly, for he had
been at the head of the party the night that the smuggler band had
been surrounded and captured.
The constable asked Dick to relate the occurrences of the morning
beginning with the capture of the tramp and the subsequent
developments that warned them of the attempt that was to be made
that night.
The sheriff took in the whole talk without interruption, and then
quickly made his plans.
“If any other person than this fellow had told me such a wild story,
I’d be laughing yet; but I’ve seen a little of the work of this boy
and his two companions, and so I’m taking a chance that he hasn’t
been dreaming. You’re sure these are the same fellows you had a
run-in with down in Cumberland county, are you?” he asked, for Dick
had told them how they had first known of the tramps.
“Sure I’m sure,” said Dick indignantly. “Do you think I’m spinning
tales just to hear myself talk?”
“That’s all right, Dick, don’t get hot,” laughed the sheriff. “I’m
just getting the lay of the land, that’s all. Now here’s what we’ll
do. I have Brown, my deputy, with me here, and the constable will
make three. We’d better get one more man, Constable, just to be on
the safe side. Who can you get?”
“Why, there’s Bud Harkins, who takes my job when I’m off on
business, or on a little vacation. I can have him here in half an
hour.”
“All right; be off and bring him here, and say nothing of what it’s
all about. That will make us four, one more than the other outfit.”
Dick had been listening to this in a surprised sort of a way.
Suddenly he burst out: “Four? Where do I come in?”
“Why, you’ve done your share already, and there’s no need for you to
be putting yourself in danger needlessly,” answered the sheriff.
“Say, that isn’t hardly fair. Here I get this tip, and then I’m to
be cheated of the fun of being in at the end,” protested the fat
boy.
“Might as well let him be the fifth man, Sheriff,” said the deputy.
“He and his friends are pretty solid headed kids, and they were with
us, you remember, when we rounded up Green and his gang first time.”
The sheriff debated with himself for a moment, and then gave in.
“All right, another person in the party won’t hurt any.”
Dick gave the deputy a grateful look, and said he had some other
business to transact, and so would hop off and do that, and would be
back at the little police station in plenty of time to join the
capturing party.
“Take your time. We won’t gather here till about ten o’clock, and
then we can slip around and take cover near the store and await the
coming of the outfit. Don’t let anyone see you coming here, if you
can help it, tonight,” answered the sheriff.
Dick hopped out and started for the lean-to in the woods. The
business that he wanted to transact was to see if the camera trap
had been sprung, and if so to bring the film back to town with him
and develop it before it was time to join the sheriff’s party.
It was a hiking afternoon for Dick, and he thought that he must have
walked nearly a score of miles that day in the hot sun. But Dick
could put on speed when the occasion demanded it, and this was
certainly such an occasion.
He glanced at the sky from time to time. It was still bright and
cloudless, and he indulged in several little chuckles as he thought
of the gentle chaffing that he would give Aunt Abbie about her “cat
barometer” that evening.
He retrieved his rifle at Denton’s and then at a half trot made for
the woods.
It was cooler walking under the trees, and he kept up a swift pace,
watching carefully as he walked, so that he would not be surprised
by any one.
He did not meet a person on his way to the lean-to, and as he
approached the brush shack, redoubled his vigilance. There was no
sign of anyone around, and keeping his rifle in a handy position, he
made his way to the place they called home while in the woods.
Dick stepped over the trap carefully, for in the event that no one
had been there, he did not want to have a snap of himself taken, and
thereby necessitate some minutes in resetting the trap.
He went directly to the bush screen, and looked.
Then he gave a whoop of delight. The little lever of the lens had
been pulled down.
Carefully he took the camera out of its hiding place among the
branches, and turned the roll so that a new film was exposed. He
knew from the numbers on the little peekhole that there were three
more exposures on the roll, and so to use them up, rather than
develop them blank, he snapped the brush lean-to from three
different positions, thinking that the folks at home would be
interested in seeing what kind of a place they lived in while in the
forests.
Then pocketing his camera, he cast a last look around the lean-to
and set out for the village and Aunt Abbie’s house.
He had gone less than five hundred yards when the sky began to
darken, and in a few minutes the big rain drops were pattering down
through the branches of the trees.
“Well, I’ll be jiggered,” he muttered aloud. “If Aunt Abbie wasn’t
right. Believe me, next time I want to know what the weather is, I’m
going to hunt me up a cat and observe his actions for awhile. I’m
due for a nice wetting now.”
He wound a large bandanna handkerchief around his neck to keep out
the wet, and pulled his coat collar up. Then he broke into a long
lope, that would take him over the ground at a fair rate of speed,
and yet not be tiring.
The rain increased in force, and soon he was pretty thoroughly
drenched. He wished he had his rubber poncho with him, but that was
strapped to his knapsack, safely tucked away at Denton’s store,
nearly four miles away. There was nothing to do but get wet, thought
Dick philosophically, and he put his best food forward. He had
cheerful visions of Aunt Abbie’s warm house and a good hot supper,
for the rain was cooling off the heated air like so many monster
electric fans.
He reached Denton’s store at last, and getting his knapsack and
refusing the postmaster’s invitation to stay and get dry, made his
way to Aunt Abbie’s.
“Good land o’ liberty,” said the old lady, when she saw Dick’s
condition. “Come right out to the kitchen stove, and get those wet
things off. Lucky there’s some old clothes belonging to my youngest
son upstairs, and you can put ’em on till yours get dry.”
Dick protested that he wanted nothing more than a chair by the
stove, for a wetting more or less was nothing to him; but the old
lady wouldn’t hear of it, and to humor her, Dick told her to go and
get the clothes and he would wear them.
“By the way, Aunt Abbie, I take back all the laughing I did at your
‘cat barometer’ this afternoon.”
“I knew you would. Thomas Jones has never failed me yet,” and she
bustled out to get the dry clothes.
In a short time she was back with them.
“These ought to fit you pretty well, my boy was about your size when
he had them. Now hurry up, for Mr. Everett has waked up, and said
he’d be right down to talk to you.”
Aunt Abbie left the kitchen, and Dick made haste to get into the dry
clothes, for although he was used to being wet, he did not deny that
the dry apparel was mighty comfortable.
Ruth’s grandfather soon appeared on the scene, and his first anxious
question was for news of his granddaughter.
Dick told him the whole story, and did his best to comfort the old
man by telling that Garry rarely failed on a mission.
“Besides, it seems to be our fate to overcome the evil schemes of
that half breed, and this time ought to be no exception. I’ve a
hunch also that LeBlanc’s race is pretty nearly run, and we are due
to turn him over to the law before we finish our work here.”
Dick’s optimism transferred itself in a measure to the old man, who
said philosophically:
“Well, the only thing to do is to wait, I suppose, until Garry gets
back, either with her or with news. All my faith is pinned on him,
and I feel he won’t fail.”
After supper, Dick asked Aunt Abbie if she had a closet that had an
electric light in it, and found to his delight that she had.
He borrowed some flat dishes from her, and then went to the closet
she indicated and proceeded to make a darkroom of it. There was a
flat-topped trunk there, and this he converted into a table.
In the flat dishes he put the necessary water, and then from his
knapsack got the hypo and developer and a piece of red cloth that he
had bought for just such a purpose.
This red cloth he twisted around the bulb of the electric light, and
in this way made his darkroom. Requesting Aunt Abbie to turn off the
lights in the room, he entered the closet and proceeded to prepare
his developer and fixing bath.
Dick was no mean hand at developing pictures, and he did the job
speedily but carefully. After the necessary developing, he left the
developed negatives in the water for several minutes, sloshing them
around occasionally to wash them free of all the acid that was used
in developing them. Then he let them dry somewhat, and held them up
to the ruby light he made with the red cloth. The negative showed
the upright figure of a man, but he could not make out who it was.
It would be necessary to make prints. Having finished with his
developing, he went out of the closet and turned on the light in the
outer room.
“Now, Aunt Abbie, can I bother you for one more thing?” he asked.
“Bless your heart, a dozen more if you want them. What is it now?”
she replied.
“I’d like a small piece of glass and a flat piece of wood. I am
going to try and print some pictures, but have no printing frame;
although with the two things mentioned, I can improvise one that
will do the work.”
Aunt Abbie directed him to the cellar, and he rummaged around until
he found a piece of glass that was of the size he wanted. It was
evidently one that had been procured to mend a light in the cellar
window which he observed was broken. Then he found a board, and
proceeded to saw it to the same size as the glass. He now had the
principal parts of the frame.
All that remained now to do was to hinge the board and the glass,
and this he did with a piece of insulating tape from his ever ready
knapsack. It was some that had been bought for the purpose of
repairing the telephone lines when they were on the forest fire
patrol, when they had first entered the woods.
Dick then retired to the darkroom, and setting his negative against
a piece of sensitized paper, inserted the two between the glass and
the wood. Then holding the other end firmly together between his
thumb and fingers, held the improvised frame with the glass up to
the electric light from which had been removed the red cloth.
Dick was familiar enough with printing to “read” the paper as it
developed. This was then put into the printing bath and soon the
picture appeared. When it was finished, Dick stared at it in
amazement; for instead of the features of Jean LeBlanc, which he
firmly expected to see, he noted that it was not Jean, but his
brother, Baptiste!
“I might have remembered that they would probably be together,” he
thought, as he remembered that Baptiste had been in the motor
launch, by the aid of which Jean had escaped from the lumber camp.
“Well, that leaves still two to be disposed of, for the tramps and
Lafe Green will be taken tonight.”
He cleaned up after his work of developing and printing, and then
looking at his watch, found it was nearly time to be starting for
the rendezvous with the sheriff and the constable.
“Where’s Phil?” asked Aunt Abbie. “I thought he would be around for
supper tonight.”
“He went off to Coldenham to do a little investigating,” answered
Dick, “and there was some likelihood of his not being back tonight,
unless he could get a conveyance to bring him. There’s nothing to
worry about, however,” said Dick lightly, not knowing of the
accident that had befallen his comrade.
At the police station, he found that all the men of the party had
already arrived. The sheriff stated that they would wait for about
one hour and then proceed singly or in pairs to the general store
and postoffice. Here they would take positions in hiding and wait
for the approach of the raiders.
“We’ll let them get in the store so that we can catch them
red-handed, and that will give us enough to keep them in prison for
a good while to come. Also, it will cause the re-arrest of Lafe
Green, who, to my mind, should never have been let out on bail. This
second offense will forfeit his right to asking bail again, and that
will clean up the last of a bad gang in these parts,” said the
sheriff.
The hour passed quickly, while Dick told of some of the events that
took place at the lumber camp.
“After we get through with this job, I think I’ll make it a point to
go after LeBlanc and get him proper. He should not be at large, for
he’s a dangerous person as well as a criminal,” remarked the
sheriff.
Dick mentally agreed with him, as he thought of the several narrow
escapes that he and his friends had had from The Bear, as LeBlanc
liked to call himself.
The start was made, and they arrived at the general store.
There the sheriff stationed them in spots where they could observe
the store and yet be in hiding themselves.
“They’ll probably approach from the woods there where you say you
followed them Dick, and will likely get in through the back of the
store, as I happen to remember there’s a window there.”
They waited nearly an hour, a long, slow, dragging hour, before the
approach of Green and his two evil companions.
Then there was a slight hitch that threatened their plans for a
moment. Instead of all of them entering the store, Lafe Green
effaced himself against the side of the store in the shadows,
evidently to act as lookout while the others plied their nefarious
occupation.
“We’ll have to get up on him unawares,” whispered the sheriff to
Dick, who was standing by him.
“Why can’t we draw back a bit and then approach him from the other
corner. We can creep along in front of the porch there, and take him
by surprise. He would only be expecting to see some straggler
approach up the street, and would not think of anyone creeping up on
him,” suggested Dick.
“Good an idea as any, suppose we try it,” whispered the sheriff.
They followed out the idea, and taking several minutes in order to
make no sound, crept up on the unsuspecting Green.
“Put ’em up, Green, and don’t let out a yip, or I’ll blow the
daylight through you,” whispered the sheriff sibilantly.
Then he and Dick straightened up, leveling their firearms at Green.
Green was so taken by surprise that he was only able to gasp.
“Now, Dick, round up the boys while I watch this fellow,” ordered
the sheriff.
Dick hastened to do his bidding, and in a trice the other members of
the party were at the sheriff’s side. Green had already been
handcuffed, and warning him to make no sound, the party moved
towards the window in the rear of the store where the tramps had
made their entrance.
Bidding the constable guard Green, the capturing party crept toward
the cubbyhole office.
Everything was going according to schedule, when the constable’s
assistant stumbled against a crate, barking his shins severely, and
forgetting the necessity for quietness, let out a muttered
imprecation.
Instantly the tramps wheeled from their work, and making out the
forms of the sheriff and his men, let loose with a volley of shots
from their revolvers.
There was the sound of a falling body, and a groan from the
sheriff’s deputy. Dick was about to rush to his assistance, when he
called:
“Never mind me, just got me in the leg. Get the men.”
The tramps had snapped out their light, and so offered no mark for
the guns of the authorities of the law. Flashes of orange flame
pierced the darkness as the sheriff fired at the spot where the
tramps had been working. Finally there was a rush of feet, and the
sheriff fired in the direction of the sound.
There was a cry of pain from one of the tramps, and then a crash as
one hurled himself through the open window.
Dick was the nearest to the window, and in a flash had followed the
lead set by the tramp. He had dropped his rifle as he jumped, and
was therefore unarmed, while the tramp still had his revolver.
The refugee was only a few steps ahead of him, and had slackened his
stride for a moment to get his bearings and determine in which
direction he should run.
This was Dick’s opportunity. Straight at the tramp he ran, and with
the practice borne of long years on the football field,—for he was
the star center of the high school team,—dived straight at the
running man.
He hit him with a shock just above the knees, and the man fell like
a stricken ox. It will be remembered that Dick was a heavy chap, and
the weight of his body added to the great force with which he struck
the man, was enough to knock the wind entirely out of the tramp.
As the man lay there, stunned for the moment, Dick possessed himself
of the revolver, and with this show of arms was able to force his
prisoner to march back to the spot where Lafe Green was being held
under guard.
There were no more shots from the store, and in a moment or two the
sheriff appeared with the constable and the prisoner. He gave these
in charge of Dick and the man Hawkins, and then went back to aid his
deputy.
The fusilade of shots had drawn several half-dressed men to the
scene, and great was their astonishment when they saw the sheriff’s
party and their prisoners.
The deputy was carried to the home of one of the men, and a doctor
called, but it was found that he had sustained nothing more than a
bad flesh wound.
Among those who had been attracted by the shots was one Mr. Arthur,
the president of the bank.
When he was informed that his little bank was to have been the next
scene of operations on the part of the yeggman, and was told that
Dick’s work had prevented it, he shook hands with the boy heartily.
“It would have been a hard blow for me, for I have more money than
usual, since several mortgages have been paid during the past few
days. You can be assured that I will not forget your brave work,” he
said.
“Looks like I lost out with you, young feller,” said Lafe to Dick.
“But let me tell you this. There’s one more left to reckon with you,
and I guess he’ll wipe the slate clean for me!”