THE LAST OF JOSIAH CRABTREE
All listened intently to the story Dick had to tell, and he had
not yet finished when Dick Chester presented himself, having been
attracted to the vicinity by the roars of the lion and the various
pistol and gun shots.
"This Crabtree must certainly be as bad as you represent," he
said. "I will have a talk with him when I get back to our camp."
"It won't be necessary for you to talk to him," answered Dick
grimly. "If you'll allow me, I'll do the talking."
"All right," grinned the Yale student. "Do, as you please. We
are a getting tired of him."
Chester and Cujo descended into the hollow to examine the lion.
There was a bullet in his right foreleg which Chester proved had
come from his rifle. "He must be the beast Frank Rand and I fired
at from across the lake. Probably he had his home in the hollow
and limped over to it during the night."
"In that case you are entitled to your fair share of the meat--if
you wish any," said Randolph Rover with a smile. "But I think
the pelt goes to Tom, for he fired the shot that was really
fatal." And that skin did go to Tom, and lies on his parlor floor
at home today.
"Several of the students from Yale had been out on a long tour the
afternoon before, in the direction, of the mountain, and they had
reported meeting several natives who had seen King Susko. He was
reported to have but half a dozen of his tribe with him, including
a fellow known as Poison Eye.
"That's a bad enough title for anybody," said Sam with a shudder.
"I suppose his job is to poison their enemies if they can't
overcome them in regular battle."
"Um tell de thruf," put in Cujo. "Once de Mimi tribe fight King
Susko, and whip him. Den Susko send Poison Eye to de Mimi camp.
Next day all drink-water get bad, an' men, women, an' children die
off like um flies."
"That's cheerful information," said Tom.
"And why didn't they slay the poisoner?"
"Eberybody 'fraid to touch him--'fraid he be poisoned."
"I'd run my chances--providing I had a knife or a club,"
muttered Tom.
"Or a pistol," finished Sam. "Such rascals are not fit to live."
Dick, as can readily be imagined, was hungry, and before the party
started back for the lake, the youth was provided with some food
which Aleck had very thoughtfully carried with him.
It was learned that the two parties were encamped not far apart,
and Dick Chester said he would bring his friends to, see them
before the noon hour was passed.
"I don't believe he will bring Josiah Crabtree," said Tom. "I
reckon Crabtree will take good care to keep out of sight."
Tom was right. When Chester came over with his friends he said
that the former teacher of Putnam Hall was missing, having left
word that he was going around the lake to look for a certain
species of flower which so far they had been unable to add to
their specimens.
"But he will have to come back," said the Vale student. "He has
no outfit with which to go it alone."
He was right. Crabtree put in an appearance just before the sun
set over the jungle to the westward. He presented a most woebegone
appearance, having fallen into a muddy swamp on his face.
"I--I met with an--an unfortunate accident," he said to
Chester. "I fell into the--ahem--mud, and it was only with
great difficulty that I managed to--er--to extricate myself."
"Josiah Crabtree, you didn't expect to see me here, did you?" said
Dick sternly, as he stepped forward. And then the others of his
party also came out from where they had been hiding in the brush.
The former teacher of Putnam Hall started as if confronted by a
ghost.
"Why--er--where did you come from, Rover?" he faltered.
"You know well enough where I came from, Josiah Crabtree," cried
Dick wrathfully. "You dropped me into the hollow for dead, didn't
you!"
"Why, I--er--that--is--" stammered Crabtree; but could
actually go no further.
"Don't waste words on him, Dick," put in Tom. "Give him the
thrashing he deserves."
"Thrashing!" gasped Crabtree.
"Yes, thrashing," replied Dick. "If we were in America I would
have you locked up. But out here we must take the law into our
own hands. I am going to thrash you to the very best of my
ability, and after that, if I meet you again I'll--I'll--"
"Dun shoot him on sight," suggested Aleck.
"You shall not touch me!" said the former teacher with a shiver.
"Chester--Rand--will you not aid me against this--er--savage
young brute?"
"Don't you call Dick a brute," put in Sam.
"If there is any brute here it is you, and everyone in our party
will back up what I say."
"Mr. Crabtree, I have nothing to say in this matter," said Dick
Chester. "It would seem that your attack on Rover was a most
atrocious one, and out here you will have to take what punishment
comes."
"But you will help me, won't you, Rand?" pleaded the former
teacher, nervously.
"No, I shall stand by Chester," answered Rand.
"And will you, too, see me humiliated?" asked Crabtree, turning to
the other Yale students. "I, the head of your expedition into
equatorial Africa!"
"Mr. Crabtree, we may as well come to an understanding," said one
of the students, a heavyset young man named Sanders. "We hired
you to do certain work for us, and we paid you well for that work.
Since we left America you have found fault with nearly everything,
and in a good many instances which I need not recall just now you
have not done as you agreed. You are not the learned scientist
you represented yourself to be--instead, if we are to believe
our newly made friends here, you are a pretender, a big sham, and
a brute in the bargain. This being so, we intend to dispense with
your services from this day forth. We will pay you what is coming
to you, give you your share of our outfit, and then you can go
your way and we will go ours. We absolutely want nothing more to
do with you."
This long speech on Sanders' part was delivered amid a deathlike
silence. As the student went on, Josiah Crabtree bit his lip
until the blood came. Once his baneful eyes fairly flashed fire
at Sanders and then at Dick Rover, but then they fell to the
ground.
"And so you--ahem--throw me off," he said, drawing a long
breath. "Very well. But I demand all that is coming to me."
"You shall have every cent."
"And a complete outfit, so that I can make my way back to the
coast."
"All that is coming to you--no more and no less," said Sanders
firmly.
"But he shan't go without that thrashing!" cried Dick, and
catching up a long whip he had had Cujo cut for him he leaped upon
Josiah Crabtree and brought down the lash with stinging effect
across the former teacher's face, leaving a livid mark that
Crabtree was doomed to wear to the day of his death. "There you
are! And there is another for the way you treated Stanhope, and
another for what you did to Dora, and one for Tom, and another for
Sam, and another--"
"Oh! oh! let up! The boy will kill me!" shrieked Crabtree, trying
to run away. "Don't--I will be cut to pieces! Don't! don't!"
And as the lash came down over his head, neck, and shoulders, he
danced madly around in pain. At last he broke for cover and
disappeared, not to show himself again until morning, when he
called Chester to him, asked for and received, what was coming to
him, and departed, vowing vengeance on the Rovers and all of the
others.
"He will remember you for that, Dick," said Sam, when the affair
was over. "He will be your enemy for life."
"Let him be--I am not afraid of him," responded the elder
brother.