EVERYTHING IS SETTLED
The boys left the little developing room after putting out the lights
and seeing that all was safe and that there was no chance of fire,
and made their way to the middle of the camp, where there was an open
space in which a number of the boys had gathered to amuse themselves.
There were several good singers among the boys and a number of them
had musical instruments, banjos, guitars and mandolins, so that it
was an easy matter to get up a concert at any time, the boys whiling
away many an hour in this fashion.
Some of the musicians had already begun to play when the three boys
arrived, their absence not having been noticed, and now Arthur, who
played the banjo, called upon a number of the boys to join in a
plantation melody and later a number of the old and new college songs.
Blaisdell had a good voice and he started the songs, the others
quickly joining him, till there were a dozen or more and fifty for
the chorus, the woods fairly ringing with the melody, which could be
heard a mile away by the men who had tried to stop the boys from
surveying.
"Huh! they're singin' up there!" growled the big man. "We hain't
got nothin' yet, an' that young feller said he was goin' to pay us."
"We orter got pay afore we done anythin', that's the trouble,"
growled Jenkins. "He was a sneak. Arter promisin' to pay us for
makin' trouble, he run away an' left us." "Mebby if we tell
the ingineers who he is they'll pay us," suggested one of the men.
"We gotter get something out o' this."
"That's true enough," echoed Calthorpe. "We can't do things for
nothing. We gotter make something."
"I guess if we tell the young feller that we know who it was what
sot us ag'in' him he'll pay us something," added Jenkins. "It don't
make no difference to me where I get money, so long as I get it."
"O' course not," said a number of the men in a breath. "One feller's
money is as good as another feller's."
"Let's go down there and see 'em," suggested Calthorpe. "If the
feller what hired us won't pay up, we'll get it from some other
feller. That's all right enough, I guess."
Half an hour later Bucephalus called Percival to the edge of the camp,
telling him that he was wanted, Jack and Billy going with Dick.
"Did you want to see me?" he asked, seeing Jenkins and Calthorpe.
"Yes, I guess so," stammered Jenkins. "You're at the head of the
ingineers, ain't ye?"
"I am with them," Percival replied. "You are one of the men who
tried to stop us, aren't you? You are Jenkins, I believe?"
"Yes, that's me. What I wanted to say is this. I know who the
feller was what told us we'd be hurt ef the road went through, and
mebby you'd like to know who he is. I kin tell ye, for I know his
name an' he's one of-----"
"We know who he is," broke in Jack, "and you can tell us nothing."
Jenkins seemed a good deal put back by this speech and stammered
not a little as he replied:
"Huh! yer didn't know who he was this afternoon, 'cause ye asked
me if I had saw him. Guess ye're only bluffin' an' don't know-----"
"Look at this!" said Jack, suddenly shoving the print he had received
from Billy that very evening under the man's nose, there being
light enough for him to see it. "Do you recognize any one there?"
"By Jinks!" exclaimed Jenkins, who recognized his own portrait first
of all. "You've been takin' our picters to use ag 'in' us. Gimme
that!"
Jenkins tried to snatch the picture as Jack drew it back, but
Percival, by a quick movement, threw his hand up and said sharply:
"No, you don't, my man! We want to keep that picture for evidence.
Besides, even if you got it, we can print a hundred more of them."
"Ain't you goin' to give us anything for telling you who it was?"
Jenkins asked in a tone of disappointment.
"No, for you have not told us."
"But I told you it was one of your fellers this afternoon. You
wouldn't ha' known anything about it if I hadn't."
"Oh, yes we would," laughed Billy. "That picture was already taken
when you mentioned the matter, and the minute we saw it we would
have known that something was wrong, even if you hadn't said a word."
"And we ain't goin' to get nothing?"
"No!" said Jack in a tone of decision.
"You may get what you don't want, though I won't say but that you
deserve it all right," laughed Percival "I mean a term in jail."
"And so this was what you sent to us for?" said Jack. "You might
have known you would get nothing. Come, Dick. Come, Billy. There
is no use wasting any more time on these fellows."
"You look out that we don't go on our own hook and stop your workin'
the branch," snarled Calthorpe. "We can make trouble for you
and we-----"
"Herring cannot have paid them anything for what they did," remarked
Percival as they walked back toward the middle of the camp. "That
is like him, to promise them something for a service and then forget
all about it. I don't believe he ever intended to pay them."
"That's nothing new for Pete," said Billy. "The man or boy who
relies on that fellow keeping his word is going to get left."
The work was resumed the next morning and progressed rapidly, many
of the boys from the camp who were not of the surveying party coming
to see how things were getting on.
Then, greatly to the disgust of the Hilltoppers, Peter Herring
and some of his cronies came along and stopped to watch the surveyors.
"I thought we would see him before long, Dick," said Jack in a low
tone to Percival. "He could not stay away."
"Huh! surveying, are you?" sneered Herring. "Much you know about
such things! Fine old railroad you fellows could build."
"I wouldn't want to ride on it, would you, Pete?" asked Merritt.
"The only time it would go smooth would be when the cars was off
the track."
"I thought you were at Saratoga," said Percival.
"So I was, but it was too slow there."
"So you thought you'd come here and make trouble for us?"
"Huh! I only got here just now. Me and a friend was motoring and
heard that there were some surveyors around, and we came to watch
them."
"Then you were not talking to Jenkins and Calthorpe and the other
squatters and telling them that we wanted to ruin their farms?"
"Don't know what you're talking about!" blustered Herring, but Jack
saw him turn color and knew that he had been taken by surprise.
"Who are Jenkins and Calthorpe?"
"And you have not been anywhere near this place till just now?"
asked Jack quietly.
"No, of course I haven't! I told you I just came."
"Then how about this?" and the boy suddenly thrust the print Billy
had taken right under the bully's nose. "What were you saying to
Jenkins when Billy snapped this? Jenkins said a boy who answered
to your description told them that we would ruin their farms."
Herring flushed deeply and seemed utterly taken aback, it being
clear that he had not suspected the existence of this picture,
which was the clearest kind of evidence against him.
He tried to snatch it out of Jack's hand, but the boy was too quick
for him and drew it back, saying:
"What were you saying to Jenkins at the time that picture was
snapped, Herring?"
"I was telling him that there was no use to bother you about the
surveying," growled Herring. "Why would I want to get 'em to
trouble you for? It was nothing to me what you did."
"But just now you said that you had not seen Jenkins and did not
know him. This shows that you must have done so, and in fact
Jenkins himself said that one of our boys, a big fellow-----"
"Ah, what do I care what he said?" growled Herring, turning quickly
and walking toward the road, followed by his companions.
They did not see him again and were not troubled by Jenkins or any
of the pretended farmers, the work of surveying going on rapidly
after that. At length it was completed to the satisfaction of
everyone and the camp was broken up, the boys dispersing to their
several homes.
Those who have been interested in the fortunes of Jack Sheldon
and his friends will welcome the next volume of the series, which
will show the young surveyors completing the work already begun
and contain much to interest and instruct, as well as to amuse.
Jack spent a part of his vacation with Percival, and when the
two parted Dick said earnestly:
"You'll be on hand for the building of the railroad, Jack?"
"I certainly will, Dick."
THE END
End of Project Gutenberg's The Hilltop Boys on the River, by Cyril Burleigh