IN LUCK AGAIN.
BOB was quite as eager as his companion to hurry forward and see what
that cry of a girl's voice might mean. Whoever heard of a Southern boy
unwilling to act in similar circumstances?
The two of them had noted the quarter from whence the shrill scream
came, and were making a bee line for it as fast as the rough nature of
the ground permitted.
"Keep back, thar, you ugly critter! Don't you dar jump at me! Oh! if I
could on'y git free, I'd show you!" they heard just beyond the fringe of
bushes.
Bursting through these, and the scene lay before them. It was a girl, a
real mountain girl too, who had called out. She was half bent over, as
though trying all her might to wrench her foot free, for it seemed to be
caught in a crevice of the rock, as in a vise.
Not ten feet away from her crouched an ugly wildcat. Its ears were bent
backward toward its body; the yellow eyes seemed to glow with an ugly
fire; and there could be no doubt but that the animal was getting ready
to jump at the girl, possibly angered by the red sunbonnet she wore.
She had managed to pick up a stone, with which she was ready to do
battle in case the cat really attacked her. Thad saw this, and admired
her grit, even though he believed that she would have suffered
dreadfully, had the fight ever come off.
Bob gave a cry of rage as he saw what it all meant. He too snatched up a
stone, and made directly for the wildcat, as though such a thing as fear
did not enter into his calculations. And Thad, a little wiser, seeing
an excellent club handy, made out to get that in his grip ere following
his chum.
Despite the coming of these two new enemies the wildcat showed no sign
of beating a retreat. There may have been some reason for this
unexpected bravery on the animal's part. Usually it is only when
darkness comes that bobcats are dangerous; and in the daytime they will
generally retreat before the coming of human foes.
There may have been kittens somewhere close by; and a mother cat will
attack anything that moves in defense of her offspring.
But just then Thad was not bothering himself with trying to understand
why the fierce beast acted in that altogether remarkable way. What they
wanted to do was to influence the animal to leave the neighborhood, and
the quicker this were done the better they would be pleased.
"Go slow, Bob!" Thad called out, fearful lest his impulsive comrade dash
up so close that in another instant the cat would be upon him, clawing,
biting, and doing all manner of damage.
He swung his club in as ferocious a manner as he could, and made all
sorts of threatening gestures as he rushed forward.
Thinking that if they approached from two separate quarters the beast
might grow more or less confused, and possibly slink away, Thad did not
follow directly in the track of his friend, but made a little detour.
Bob came to a pause. He was not more than a dozen feet away from the
beast now, and there was danger that if he closed in any more the
expected collision must take place.
Thad saw him draw his arm back. Undoubtedly Bob meant to hurl the heavy
rock he had snatched up. If he missed his aim, he would then be entirely
unprotected. But then Bob had pitched on a baseball team several
seasons, and was said to have a very clever delivery, with the faculty
of getting the ball over the rubber with clock-like precision. And a
crouching wildcat, only a dozen feet away, is a large enough object to
be counted a sure thing by an experienced ball player.
So even as Thad looked and wondered, he saw Bob let drive. And when the
rock actually struck the cat between its glaring eyes, hurling it over
backwards, Thad could not help letting out a yell.
"Good shot, Bob!" he cried. "Get another, quick, for he's coming after
you like hot cakes!"
He himself was closing in on the cat all the time he shouted after this
manner. In another moment they were all in a confused bunch, the enraged
and wounded wildcat screaming and snarling; Thad pounding away every
chance he got; Bob kicking wildly at the animal, as he looked for a
chance to get hold of another stone; and the whole making quite a
lively circus.
Several times Thad landed with such a will on the side of the springing
wildcat that the wretched beast was knocked clean over. But with a
desperation that was simply astonishing it would get together, and come
flying back again, as though it really possessed the nine lives its
tribe is given credit for.
Of course this could not last long. The game was too one-sided, with two
against one; and in the end the cat was glad to jump into the bushes,
with a parting expression of hatred in the form of a snarl.
The panting boys stood and looked at each other. Each of them had a few
rents in their khaki trousers; and might have been served even worse
only that their puttees protected the lower part of their limbs.
"Whew! that was a hot time!" gasped Thad. "Did you see how many times I
bowled the thing over, and only to have to defend myself again? Give me
a mad wildcat for gameness. They haven't their equal going, pound for
pound."
"And I hit him when I threw that stone; I'm proud of that shot, suh!"
declared the Southern boy, with a grim smile.
"Say, it was a right smart throw, all right; but s'pose yuh come and
help me outen this trap now, strangers," came from the mountain girl.
As they turned toward her, and advanced, Thad saw immediately that she
was not the little Bertha whom he had looked upon, sitting beside Reuben
Sparks, and with her golden hair, seeming very much like a fairy.
This girl was slender, and with coarse, black hair. She was garbed in
common homespun clothes, and wore shoes that were doubtless much too
large for her feet. One of her ankles had been caught tightly in the
crevice of the rock. She might have managed to extricate herself if
given a little time; but the sudden appearance of that ugly fighting
wildcat had upset her; so that she had twisted and squirmed until her
foot was held as though in a blacksmith's vise.
Bob in his usual impetuous way might have been impelled to tug at that
imprisoned foot, and add to her sufferings; but Thad, who was cooler,
set about discovering just how it was gripped; then, as gently as he
could he gave it a sudden turn, and the thing was done.
The girl uttered a little scream as a pain shot through her ankle; but
then she realized that the way the boy had gone about it was the right
one. Results count every time. When a man succeeds, the path he has
taken is looked upon as a shining example to the rising generation;
should he fail, the same route is pointed out as beset with
unsurmountable difficulties.
"I'm right glad you kim along in time," the girl remarked, as her black
eyes scanned the faces of the two boys who had done her such a good
turn.
"Had you done anything to the cat; or was it just crazy for a fight?"
asked Bob, as he looked more closely at the angular girl; and Thad
thought he could detect that in his manner to tell he might have
recognized her.
"'Pears like it was jest brim full of scrap, mister," she went on. "I
was acomin' down ther side o' the mounting, paying 'tention to my own
business, when I jest made er fool o' myself, like ye see, an' gut a
foot fast atween the rocks. Then the critter showed up, and started
makin' a row. I tried all I knowed how to break loose, but it was no go.
An' I was jest agwine to hit the animal atween the eyes if it jumped me,
when you-uns arriv. But I'm glad ye kim. 'Tain't nice to git yuh face
all clawed to ribbands by cat's claws. Yep, I'm glad ye helped me outen
it."
Thad saw that she was a character, this girl of the Blue Ridge. Rough
and uncouth, she might be, still she possessed the qualities that real
heroines were once made out of in the days of Joan of Arc.
Doubtless she must be the daughter of one of the poor "white trash"
mountaineers who spend their time between making moonshine whiskey, and
dodging revenue men. It struck Thad at the moment that perhaps, since
they had been enabled to do her a good turn, she might be willing to
assist them. Such a girl ought to know a good deal of what was going on
back in the mountains. Her people must talk about the strange things
that happened; perhaps she might be able to even tell Bob something
about the prisoner who was said to be kept up there somewhere, working
at the sour-mash in the never raided Still of Phin Dady.
With this bright idea in his mind Thad decided that fortune had indeed
played another nice trick upon them, and one that would perhaps be to
their advantage.
"Do you live near here; and will you be able to limp home?" he asked;
for he saw that the ankle was somewhat swollen, and must pain more or
less; although the girl scorned to show it by her manner.
"A right smart ways off from heah, stranger," she replied; "but then
they be some o' my friends nigh this, who'll take keer o' me. Ye did hit
up that ere onary cat some handsome, an' I shore think it won't want to
tackle a pore gal ther next time it sees one."
"Perhaps we might help you along to the home of your friends," said
Thad.
She looked at him keenly, for even the daughters of moonshiners grow to
be suspicious of those whom they do not know.
"'Tain't no need, stranger; I kin take keer o' myself, I reckon. Not
that I ain't feelin' 'bliged to ye, fur offerin'. I kain't furgit thet
ye done me a good turn. Mebbe I ain't good lookin' like thet leetle
cousin o' yours, Bob Quail; but it's the on'y face I'll ever hev; and no
gal likes to be scratched an' gouged bad by the pizen claws o' a
wildcat."
"Will you tell your father about this, Polly?" asked Bob, excitedly,
Thad thought.
"'Pears like I hadn't orter keep it from him," she replied, slowly,
watching the expressive and handsome face of the young Southerner
closely. "Thems as don't think Phin Dady keers fur his fambly, but they
don't know. Reckons he'd jest 'bout lay down his life fur _me_, pore
looker as I am!"
Thad drew a big breath. Really things were rushing forward by leaps and
bounds now. For not only had the girl recognized his companion, who
wished to keep his identity under cover while in the mountains; but this
same Polly, as Bob called her, had now disclosed herself to be the
daughter of the moonshiner, Old Phin Dady!