THE ROOT HUNTER
“Well,” remarked Teddy, softly, “what you’re telling me doesn’t
flabbergast me one little bit. I just guessed that much from looking at
the fellow, and hearing him talk. We’ll keep an eye on him, all right;
and if he steals anything from _our_ camp this night, why, he’s welcome
to it, that’s all. But we’d better act like we had only come over here
to examine this boat, and see how bad a mark that snag made in the
varnished side. He’s got his eye on us all the while; I can feel it.”
“Righto!” replied the woods boy, cheerfully, his mind relieved, since
he had given his friend and employer proper warning, so that the burden
was no longer on his shoulders.
A few minutes later they walked back to the fire, engaged in discussing
whether the snag “bite” would prove serious at some future time; and if
so, should they cover the spot with a piece of canvas, brought along
for mending purposes.
Hackett watched them suspiciously, and seemed to strain his hearing in
the endeavor to make out what they were saying. He seemed relieved upon
catching the burden of their talk, as though it proved that they had
not been discussing him while away.
By the time he finished eating, there was nothing more in sight. Dolph
was of the opinion that the giant’s capacity was of such an unlimited
nature, that if given an opportunity he could have lessened their stock
of provisions alarmingly, before calling a halt.
“Must say that I never seed such a dandy outfit as ye boys kerry,” Gabe
was pleased to remark, as he looked enviously around him; “canoes that
jest take me eye; guns sech as I never handled in all my life; and ther
cutest cookin’ things as was ever got up. Must take a heap o’ hard cash
ter buy sech things. An’ thet coffee, say, will I ever forgit it? Like
as not the taste’ll stick with me forever. Ain’t nawthin’ hardly I
wouldn’t do, if so be I could aim the money ter buy sich coffee. P’raps
ye wouldn’t mind leavin’ me the name, an’ fust dollar I find rollin’ up
hill, hang me if I don’t invest the same in it. I could do with little
else, if I got a drink like that. It beats any old pizen whiskey I
ever swallered.”
“That’s where you’re right, Gabe!” remarked Teddy, quickly; “and if a
lot of our men only thought the same, and carried it out, they’d be
better off for it. Perhaps you’ve guessed it before, but I might as
well tell you that I’m Teddy Overton, the only son of the president of
the lumber company that’s a rival of the one you used to work for.”
“Yep, I guessed it, an’ why—’cause in the fust place ye’re the image
o’ yer daddy; and then agin, I see ye onct at the store,” the visitor
went on to say.
Then, although he had known this fact from the start, was there some
hidden reason why Gabe had not said a word about it?
They went on talking for a while, the man evidently in no hurry to
leave his comfortable seat in order to once more take up his walking
through the pine forest.
Teddy could not but notice how often those greedy eyes rested on his
gun; or it might be something else belonging to the outfit. Plainly
Gabe Hackett was wishing some great good fortune might throw a chance
in his way to gain possession of some of these things.
And Amos thought he saw more than that, as he continued to watch the
burly former logger out of the tail of his eye. He had just mentioned
to Teddy a suspicion that was creeping through his mind; and sitting
there, the boy kept following it up, trying to make ends meet, yet
never seeming quite able to do so.
He wondered why Gabe should look toward Dolph so many times, and always
with a sudden little tightening of the lips. If it had been Teddy now,
Amos could understand, and believe that the unprincipled man might be
plotting some harm to the son of the lumberman who defied the Trust;
but Dolph was a stranger in these Michigan woods, his home being in
faraway Cincinnati.
Could it be barely possible, Amos wondered, that this rough man knew
about the father of Dolph being a man of almost unlimited money, one
of the big millionaire manufacturers of the thriving city on the bank
of the Ohio; and was he even daring to lay some bold plan, looking to
kidnaping the boy, to hold him for a ransom?
Lots of people would say that such things, while being done frequently
in Italy, Greece, and such Old World countries, were just impossible
in up-to-date free America. Why even Amos knew it was just to the
contrary. He read the papers every chance he could get; and many a
time had he discovered where Italians, or others, had taken to these
methods, with the idea of forcing people with money to divide with them.
There was that case of the Cudahy boy, for instance; and numerous
others of like boldness. Oh! no, such things are not at all confined to
Europe. They are being planned and executed right in our own country,
every week. The only question that staggered Amos was how such a
small-minded fellow as this giant, could ever engineer a scheme like
this. But perhaps he may have backing they knew nothing of; and that
there were wheels within wheels. Dolph might be made to disappear,
just to make it look as though Teddy Overton’s abduction were in the
ordinary nature of things; when in truth it was all being done to force
the lumber company to seek new fields, and leave this region to the
opposition.
So Amos was wrestling with a pretty big proposition as he sat there by
the fire, listening to the man talk, and hoping to pick up a few little
clues from what he said, that might lead to disclosures.
It all came back to Amos later on, under entirely different conditions;
to give him new chances for anxiety.
The hour was getting rather late, and still Hackett lingered on, loth
to once more continue his lonely tramp. He said he was waiting for
the moon to rise; but even after the battered remnant of the heavenly
luminary put in an appearance over the trees across the river, he made
no movement looking to immediate departure.
“Why do you suppose he keeps hanging on so?” Teddy managed to ask Amos,
aside, as they chanced to enter the tent together for some purpose.
“P’raps he wants you to ask him to have another little snack?”
suggested the woods boy, with a chuckle.
“Well, he’ll wait a long time, then, I tell you,” complained Teddy.
“Why, that fellow could eat us out of house and home in three days, and
then not half try. Did you ever see such a mouth? He takes a bite that
would be three to me.”
“Huh! I cooked for him one winter,” remarked Amos, as though that
circumstance ought to tell how much he knew concerning the capacity of
Big Gabe to stow away provisions. “Kept us busy, right along, too, I’m
promising you. But we’d better get outside again; he’s that slick he
might pull the wool over Dolph’s eyes, and make away with a package of
our coffee.”
When they came out, greatly to their delight they found that Gabe was
on his feet, stretching his six feet three.
“Hate ter do hit the wust kind, boys,” he was remarking. “You all hev
been so kind to me, I’d like ter stop over jest till mawnin’, so’ds ter
hev another drink o’ that fine coffee. Don’t s’pose now, he could spare
a feller one leetle cupful o’ the same? I’d take it handsome now, sure
I would. An’ it’d help me git over the miles I gotter go afore mawnin’;
jest ter smell it every little while’d help right sum.”
Teddy jumped over to the mess chest. There was a can full of the ground
coffee in this; and besides, he calculated that they had an abundance,
and to spare. Even if they had to go on short rations, if the giving of
a cup of the pulverized berry from the South Seas could help hurry Gabe
off, he was willing to endure the privation.
And so he found a paper bag to pour the fragrant stuff in. When he
handed this over to Gabe the big ex-logger sniffed at it with what was
intended to be an expression of bliss on his bearded face, rolling his
eyes at the same time heavenward to signify his thanks.
“That’s the stuff, young fellers! Never seed the like, give ye my word
for hit. I’m glad ye writ me the name o’ the brand, an’ tells me whar I
kin git the same. I’m a-goin’ ter hev that coffee arter this, or know
the reason why.”
He folded the paper bag, and thrust it in the outer pocket of his coat;
though Amos afterwards remembered seeing the corner of the packet
sticking out.
Shortly afterwards Gabe took his departure. He gave one last look
around ere doing so. It might be to impress the appearance of all those
fine outing arrangements in his memory, so that he could recall them at
some future time, when sitting at his lone camp fire; or on the other
hand, possibly he wanted to know just how the camp was laid out, for
some other purpose, not so honorable.
But the boys were glad to be rid of him.
“Hope we never set eyes on Gabe again,” remarked Teddy, after they had
seen him pass out of sight, up the river.
“Well, since he seems to be heading in the same direction we’re bound,
we might run across the man again,” remarked Dolph. “But honest now,
between us, Teddy, I couldn’t swallow all he said about hunting roots.
You see, the man doesn’t even have an idea what wild ginseng looks
like; and as for golden seal, he would pass it by every time, judging
from some remarks he made. Now, what would such an ignorant man want,
hunting valuable medicinal roots up here?”
“But if not that, what is he after then?” queried Teddy with a frown on
his young face, as though a faint suspicion had even begun to trouble
him.
“He knows you are the son of Mr. Overton, the president of the lumber
company; and he admits that he used to work for the opposition. Perhaps
he’s still in their employ, Teddy; perhaps he means to do something
to you, something that will give his company the whiphand over your
father.”
It was Amos who said this; but Teddy laughed at such an idea. He
declared that the most they had to fear from Big Gabe was his thievish
propensity. Possibly he might be sorely tempted to come back, and try
to loot the camp. His actions had shown them that he was envious of
the fine guns they carried, as well as all those other things, the like
of which the man had never seen before.
“I’m going to put in a couple of shells of the finest bird shot I’ve
got,” he went on to say, grimly; “and whichever one is on duty must
carry my Marlin. Then, if our friend does come creeping around, we’ll
pretend that we think it a bear or a cat, and blaze away. He’ll get his
jacket dusted, and limp a little, maybe; but he won’t try that dodge
again, I reckon.”
“A good idea,” declared Dolph; and even Amos grinned; for in
imagination he could see that ill-natured giant, who had always been
the bully of the logging camp, going limping away, grunting with the
pain of the fine shot that Teddy kept for summer woodcock shooting in
the brush, where close shots were the rule.
They sat down to talk a little before making arrangements for the
night; because both Teddy and Dolph were curious to hear what the woods
boy knew concerning the past tempestuous life of Big Gabe.
And Amos, on his part, was quite willing to tell. His recollections of
the giant were not at all pleasing, for doubtless the boy must have
more than a few times felt the heavy hand of the man who, for some
years, had been reckoned the biggest bully among the Woodstock loggers.
As they chatted, they kept their eyes constantly on the alert; just as
though Hackett would ever think of creeping back while the camp mates
were on the alert, rather than wait until they had entered the tent to
rest.