"Well, Giraffe, you certainly made a big mistake when you took this hat for the one our chum had lost," remarked Thad, in a loud, clear voice, which he hoped would reach the ears of the one in hiding, and bring him forth; "and you owe some sort of an apology to the owner."

"But how in the wide world c'n I tell whose hat it is, Thad?"

expostulated the tall and lanky scout.

"Thet's all right, younker," said a gruff voice, "I'm the critter as owns thet ere hat; Phin Dady's my name. Reckon ye've heard o' me," and with the words a man stalked into the camp.

He was tall and straight, and carried a long repeating rifle. More than that, he had a small face, and piercing eyes like those of a badger. And every scout felt a thrill as he realized that he was face to face with the notorious moonshiner, Phin Dady, whom the whole United States Government had tried for years in vain to capture.

CHAPTER XII.

AN HONORED GUEST.

THE boys looked at the moonshiner, who returned their stares with interest. He seemed utterly indifferent as to whether they chose to receive him either as a friend or a foe. From this Thad was almost certain that there must be other fierce mountaineers close by, ready to back up their chief, should he provoke a quarrel with the strange boys in uniform.

That fact meant serious trouble for the scouts, if it happened to come to pa.s.s. Thad knew that these lawless men of the mountains, who snap their fingers at the authority of the courts, and feel safe in the security of their secret fastnesses, deep in the unknown regions back of the trodden trails, think very little of human life. They are usually engaged in some vendetta between rival factions, or families, and blood is frequently shed.

Understanding how thin was the ice upon which he and his comrades were skating, the patrol leader felt that he could not be too careful how he provoked this man of strong pa.s.sions to violence.

A little to his surprise Phin Dady wheeled, and faced him directly. But then the mountaineer was gifted with a sharp vision, and he could readily guess which one of the scouts served in the capacity of leader.

Perhaps there was that in the manner of Thad to tell him this fact. Or he might have been watching and listening long enough to see how the others all deferred to Thad's judgment.

"I gut yer letter O. K.," he said, simply.

Thad's anxious face brightened up instantly; he saw that for the time being the other meant to put aside his hostility. Curiosity had supplanted enmity. He wanted to learn more about what that term "Boy Scouts," used in the message left in the cleft of the stick, might mean.

"And I hope you read what we wrote, Phin Dady?" the boy asked, eagerly.

A whimsical smile flashed athwart the thin face of the mountaineer.

"As fur me, I ain't much o' a hand ter read, any more'n I am ter write; but thar chanced ter be a feller along as hed sum schoolin'; an' him an'

me, we managed ter figger it out. Thort as how I'd like ter run up agin ye all, an' larn wat all this hyar bizness consarnin' Boy Scouts be.

Heerd tell 'bout sich, but never cud find anythin' but a cold trail. So I kim over ter see ye; an' p'raps now ye'd open up an' 'xplain."

"I'll be only too glad to do that, if you'll take a seat at our camp-fire here for a little while, Phin Dady," Thad remarked, making a movement with his hand to indicate where the other could find a comfortable spot to rest.

The man looked closely at the speaker; then turned his head, and deliberately made a motion with his hand, that must have been intended for some concealed confederate. After which he stepped over, and took a seat, but not the one Thad had indicated as the post of honor.

"Reckon I'll sit hyar, ef so be it's all ther same ter you-uns," he said, as he dropped down, and swung his rifle across his knees. "Yuh see, I likes ter look at everybody w'en I gets ter talkin'. It's more sociable like."

But Thad knew better. The gleam in those beady eyes told him what the true meaning of this action must be. When a man has been hunted, in and out of season, for the better part of his long life, he naturally become most suspicious of every stranger, young and old. Many had been the shrewd games engineered by the revenue men to catch this old weasel asleep. He trusted no one all the way, even his best friends, who might be tempted to betray him because of the reward that was offered for his capture.

But although Thad had guessed just why the other chose the seat he had taken, it would have been most unwise on his part to have shown any resentment; or even to let Phin Dady know that he understood.

"You see," Thad began, simply, "we were warned to be careful before we left Asheville, because people said that the fact of our wearing uniforms might make the mountain folks think we had something to do with the army. I was explaining all about what the Boy Scouts represent to Mr. Reuben Sparks only a short time ago, and he was greatly interested.

If you'll listen, then, I'll go back, and tell what we aim to do; and why we have left our homes to take a long hike through a mountainous region, for up where we live we have no such big hills as these."

So Thad began, and told in as simple language as he could find just what objects were kept in mind among all troops of Boy Scouts, whether in America, England, Australia, South Africa, Germany, France or any other country on the face of the globe.

Fortunately Thad was a good talker. He knew how to make use of a whole lot of little things in order to arouse the interest of the one who was listening; and he certainly had a subject worthy of his best efforts in this explanation of what the Boy Scout movement stood for.

And the mountain man was deeply interested too. He proved this by the way he hung upon the words of the boy. Now and then his suspicious nature would show itself in a cautious look around, as though he wanted to make sure that no shrewd game were being engineered, while the speaker kept his attention engaged.

Several times he broke in on Thad to ask questions. He could not get it through his head, for instance, why boys any more than men, should set about doing all the work that scouts attempt, without pay. In this region of the hookworm, where men never dream of working until driven to it by actual hunger, they think others must be crazy to voluntarily take upon themselves huge tasks that try both brain and muscle.

"But sure the Gov'ment pays yuh!" he said three separate times, as though he felt positive there must be some secret connection between the Boy Scout movement, and the authorities at Washington; else why should they be wearing the uniform he and his fellow-moonshiners had come to look on as the mark of the oppressor; for several times the army had been called into the field to hunt down the elusive law breakers, who simply vanished utterly from view, and remained in hiding until the raid was over.

"Not one cent do we get from anybody," Thad a.s.sured him, positively.

"Why, even our uniforms have to be bought with money we've each one earned. We're not allowed to accept them as a gift from any man, or any source. So you see, we're under no obligations to anybody."

Again Phin Dady asked a series of questions which would indicate that he was at least interested in all Thad told him, though possibly he believed only a small part of the whole.

When Thad repeated to him the twelve cardinal features of a Boy Scout's vow, taken when he joined a troop, Phin shook his head helplessly, as though it were beyond his power of understanding. Indeed, that was where the trouble lay; he possessed so shallow a nature that he was utterly unable to grasp the full significance of the scheme. There must be some sort of recompense, in dollars and cents, to make it worth while for any person to do things that called for labor. And that was why he continued to keep his weapon across his knees as he sat and listened, and asked an occasional question. Phin Dady was not going to be lulled to sleep by any interesting yarn that sounded very "fishy" in his ears.

Of course, the other scouts had discreetly remained silent while all this was going on. They were content to let Thad do the talking, for none of them could equal the patrol leader in explaining what the benefits were, which boys might expect to obtain when they joined a scout patrol.

Several of them just sat there, and stared in open-mouthed wonder at the man, of whom they had heard more or less lately, and whose defiance of the authorities had been a matter of many years' standing.

Phin Dady might boast of no education whatever; and his knowledge of the world, outside the confines of the Big Smokies, was doubtless extremely limited; but he did possess what served him far better in the warfare in which he was continually engaged with revenue agents--a natural shrewdness such as the wily fox of the forest shows, and by means of which he outwits his pursuers.

"An' yuh kim 'way down this away jest tuh climb the mountings, an' see wot yuh cud do acampin' out without ary tents er blankets, did yuh?" the mountaineer went on, surveying the boyish faces that formed a half circle around him. "Wall, I jest reckons ye'll know a heap more by ther time ye gits back ter yer homes'n yuh did w'en yuh started out."

He chuckled as he said that. Thad wondered whether there could be any hidden meaning back of the words. When dealing with such a slippery customer as this hunted moonshiner, it was always necessary to keep on the watch. The man who always suspected others of double dealing might be in the same cla.s.s himself.

"Oh! we're quite sure of that," said the patrol leader, with a pleasant smile. "Already those among us who had never climbed a mountain slope before, have had their leg muscles stiffened, and can do better work than in the start. We expect to have a pretty good time all around. And we wrote you that message, Phin Dady, because we believed you were ordering us out of these mountains under a mistake that we meant to do you, or some of your friends, harm. We want you to feel that we never dreamed of that when we started in here."

"Then I hopes as how yuh beant changin' o' yer minds sence yuh kim,"

remarked the moonshiner, just as though he knew what the subject of their recent conversations might have been.

Before Thad could decide just what sort of an answer he ought to make, if any at all, the manner of the other changed as if by magic. His face took on a fierce expression, and he looked along the row of boyish faces by which he was confronted, as though one of them had done something to arouse his hot anger.

The click of the hammer of his gun could be heard as his thumb drew it back; and the scouts shrank away in dismay when they saw the flame in his small eyes.

"Quick! tell me you'uns, whar be the other one? Thar was sure eight w'en we counted yuh from the side o' the mounting. An' it mout pay yuh ter 'member thet Ole Phin, he beant the man ter fool with. Eight thar was; whar be the other right now?"

And Thad realized that the ice was indeed getting desperately thin under their feet at that particular moment.

CHAPTER XIII.

BAITING OLD PHIN, THE MOONSHINER.