"HEY! what's all this mean; morning, and n.o.body woke me up, to let me stand my trick at the wheel! I don't think you're treatin' me fair, that's what, fellers!" and b.u.mpus Hawtree sat up, rubbing his eyes as he looked around him in wonder.

The fact of the matter was it had been decided that they could get on very well without calling on the fat boy to stand sentry duty. Most of them knew how unreliable b.u.mpus was when it came to such things, no matter how sincere his desire to please might be; and Thad had secretly arranged to leave him out.

And so b.u.mpus had not known a single thing of what was going on until, smelling the delightful fumes of boiling coffee, he had opened his eyes to find most of his comrades moving about, and breakfast well on the way, under the supervision of Giraffe and Allan.

"The whole blessed night gone, and me a sleepin' for all get-out,"

complained the stout member of the patrol, as he climbed to his feet, and stretched. "Well, it looks good, anyway. Nothin' happened, after all. n.o.body ain't been kidnapped by the moonshiners, have they, because I can count--what, there don't seem to be only seven here! Somebody's gone, and yet I don't miss any familiar face."

"Oh! you only forgot to count yourself, b.u.mpus," laughed Thad.

"Well, that goes to show how modest I am, you see," chuckled the other, as he started toward the spring to get the sleep out of his eyes by the use of some cold water.

"Yes, as modest as a spring violet," sang out Step Hen; "but how about that President Cornelius Jasper Hawtree business? Seems to me any feller that hopes to a.s.sume that high office ain't so very retiring after all."

But b.u.mpus refused to be drawn into any discussion of his merits as a candidate, at least so early in the morning. He came back presently, asking for a towel, which he had forgotten to carry along with him. But as breakfast was announced just about that time, everything else was forgotten in the pleasant task of appeasing their clamorous appet.i.tes.

While they ate they talked, and many were the schemes invented by some of the ingenious scouts, all looking to the undoing of the enemy, as they chose to consider the combination of Reuben Sparks and Old Phin Dady.

Bob asked that they remain over one more night in that camp, and there was not a dissenting voice raised. They were fairly comfortable, and their haversacks still held a certain amount of food; though Thad did say some of them ought to go skirmishing in the direction of the houses across the valley, to see if there was a chance for buying fresh eggs; breakfast bacon; salt pork; or even grits, as the finer grade of hominy is universally called throughout the entire South.

As for Bob and himself, Thad had laid out a little campaign for the day.

He believed that it might pay them to climb up the side of the mountain.

This would be looked upon by any of Old Phin's followers, should they see the boys, as in keeping with what the patrol leader had told the moonshiner about the doings and ambitions of Boy Scouts. There need not be anything suspicious about such a move, when Thad had time and again declared that one of the main objects of their selecting this part of the country for their hike, had been the desire to climb mountains.

As to the benefits to be gained, they could at least have a good birdseye view of the entire region, the queer bowl-shaped little valley, at the further end of which nestled the pretentious house of Reuben Sparks, and the nearby cabins; as well as the back trail.

Besides, possibly they might get some sort of information with regard to what the moonshiners were doing. Most of these men lived in the little ramshackle cabins they had occasionally pa.s.sed on the mountain road; where a few hens, a razor-back hog or two, and possibly a slab-sided mule, const.i.tuted the sole possessions of the poor whites. But then, others doubtless had homes deeper in the depths of the great elevations that reared their rocky heads heavenward. These were the parties who, like Old Phin himself, were in demand by the authorities, and who wanted to take as few chances of arrest as possible.

No revenue men could very easily come into that well-watched region without the keen eyes of a mountaineer noticing him. And often the crack of a rifle would be the first sign the daring man might have that he was discovered.

Bob was only too glad of a chance to get off in the company of Thad. He wanted to talk over matters with the other very much, and find out just what the patrol leader thought about the situation.

So, as they climbed steadily, though slowly, upward, they chatted in low tones. Thad had warned his comrade that they must imagine an enemy back of every tree, and act accordingly, so as not to betray themselves by unwise talk.

It was rough going. Plenty of times they had to pull themselves up by main muscular strength, over some rocky obstruction. Then again, perhaps they would have it comparatively easy for a brief interval.

"Here's a plain trail leading upward," remarked Thad, whose eyes had been on the lookout all the time. "Suppose we follow it some. Chances are it'll be easier going, because whoever lives up here would know the softest road."

"That's true," a.s.sented Bob; "but we'd best not keep on this same trail too long."

"Why not?" asked the other, looking around at his chum.

"You must know that it sure leads, sooner or later, to some hidden cabin of a man who's got some pretty good reason for keeping away from the beaten road."

"Yes, I guessed that the first thing; and I suppose you mean he'd feel angry some if he saw two fellows in uniform following his trail?" Thad suggested.

"Angry--well, that hardly covers the ground," chuckled Bob. "When these mountain men don't like a thing they start to shooting right off the handle. Never waste time, suh, in asking questions; they judge things as they see them, and act accordingly. And believe me, Thad, when their guns speak, generally something goes down."

"Well, on the whole I think what you said carries so much weight with me, Bob, that I've lost pretty much all interest in this same trail. It don't look near so attractive as it did; and I wouldn't be surprised if we'd make better time just keeping on straight up the face of the old hill."

They looked at each other, and laughed softly, as though it was mutually understood what meaning Thad intended to convey back of his words.

All the same the dangerous beaten track was immediately forsaken, and once more they set out to climb straight upwards. Occasionally Bob, who seemed more at home in this thing than his companion, as he had lived among the mountains most of his young life; would discover that by taking a side cut they could avoid a hard climb, and in that event the direct line was changed to an oblique one.

The view was at times a fine one, with a stretch of the wild country spread out before them like a panorama. Then again for a quarter of an hour or more they would be unable to see anything, on account of the formation of the mountainside, or it might be the presence of thick foliage on the small trees growing in profusion all around them.

"So far we haven't seen the first sign of a living thing?" remarked Thad, when they halted to get their breath.

"That's a fact, suh," agreed Bob White, "but we mustn't make up our minds that we haven't been followed and watched at all times. These mountain men can climb like goats, suh. It would make you stare to see one of them go up a cliff that neither of us could dream of climbing.

They could keep us in sight right along, and believe me, we would never know a thing about it."

"I can easily understand that, Bob. But it's some wilder up here than ever I believed possible. I saw squirrels in plenty as we came along; some birds flushed from alongside that bank that must have been partridges; and right here's a bunch of feathers, showing where some animal had a fine supper not long since."

Thad dropped down beside the telltale feathers that marked the end of a game bird, and seemed to be examining the ground.

A minute later he looked up.

"I'm not as dead sure about this thing as Allan would be," Thad remarked; "but it doesn't look like fox tracks to me. The claws are too well defined; and I'm of the opinion that it might have been a wildcat, if you happen to have such beasts here in the heart of the Blue Ridge."

"I reckon we do, suh, and mighty fierce fellows too," the Southern lad made answer promptly; "I've myself met with one when out hunting, and got him too, though he gave me a heap of trouble; and I was sore from the scratches a whole week or so. No doubt you're right, and it was a cat; though I'm surprised that he ate his catch on the ground, instead of in the crotch of a tree."

"Perhaps he was too hungry to wait; or the bird tasted so good he just had to pitch in right away," suggested Thad, picking up one of the feathers, and sticking it in the cord of his campaign hat, boy fashion.

"It's getting pretty nigh dinner time," observed Bob, as he felt for the package of food he had thrust into one of his pockets before starting out, upon the suggestion of the patrol leader, who did not know just how long a time they might be gone.

"Yes, and I suppose we've come up about as far as we ought," Thad added, himself feeling the vigorous climb the more because his muscles were not used to anything of that sort. "So, let's drop down right where we are.

It's a good enough lunching place. The cat thought so, you can see."

They soon settled in comfortable places, each with a tree to lean his back against while he munched the dry sandwiches that had been hurriedly put together, a little potted ham between crackers, with a slice of cheese thrown in for good measure.

The sun felt warm overhead, but the atmosphere at this alt.i.tude was bracing and refreshing indeed, as mountain air always is. The boys, as they ate, talked incessantly, covering the ground of what they hoped to accomplish, if fortune were only kind enough to favor them, and the moonshiners to allow them to leave the mountains in peace.

Bob was explaining that after all it might be well for him to divide his mission into two parts, and get Bertha disposed of, before thinking of trying to find whether the mysterious prisoner of the moonshiners could really be his dear father, when their conversation was interrupted by a scream from a point close by.

The two boys sprang to their feet, and looked at each other blankly.

"That was a girl called out, Bob!" exclaimed Thad. "We can't tell but what it may be a trap of some kind, but that's a chance we've just got to take. Come on, and we'll soon see what it means!"

CHAPTER XVII.

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 circ.u.mstances?