somethin' right here, inside, that seems to tell me it's going to be all right, all right!" and Bob repeated those last two words softly, caressingly, as though they meant everything in the wide world to him.

CHAPTER XXII.

WHEN BOB CAME BACK.

THE other boys of course shared in Bob's deep feeling of satisfaction.

Perhaps he might be expecting too much from the old mountaineer; but then, Bob had lived among these people during a good portion of his life, and ought to be able to judge as to the amount of grat.i.tude they were capable of feeling.

"But you ought to be off across the valley yourself, Bob," ventured Thad, presently.

"I know it, suh," the Southern lad replied, quickly; "and let me tell you I'm starting right now in better spirits than I ever dreamed would be the case. I want to get back heah in good time, so as to go up yondah with you, and meet Polly."

"If you're not too much played out," suggested Allan.

Bob drew his figure up proudly, as he went on to say:

"I'd have to be mighty nigh a collapse, suh, let me tell you, to keep from goin' to where I've got a chance to hear about _him_!" and they did not need to be told who was meant, for they knew Bob was thinking of his missing father, whom everybody had long believed to be surely dead.

And so he presently vanished, with a farewell wave of the hand.

The other scouts gathered around the fire, chatting on various subjects, but princ.i.p.ally in connection with the recent happening. They thought it the strangest thing in the world how two girls came to play a part in the affair which their good comrade, Bob Quail, was trying to put through; and of such vastly different types too, the one a plain mountain maid, and the other, according to what they themselves had seen, quite a dainty little thing, cultured and refined.

"Smithy, I'm going to tell you to reverse that badge of yours," said the scoutmaster, as they sat there around the fire, waiting for the return of the absent comrade.

Smithy looked up in surprise. He had been smoothing his coat sleeve after a peculiar habit he had, as though he imagined he had discovered some dust there. And for the moment he fancied that Thad must be joking him on account of those "finicky" ways, as Giraffe called them, which he could not wholly throw aside, since extreme neatness had long ago become a part of his very nature.

"That's very kind of you, Thad," he remarked, trying to appear calm; "and I'm sure I feel grateful for the privilege, which should always be a matter of pride I take it, with every Boy Scout. But I am not aware, sir, just how I've gained the right to reverse my badge."

"By handing me that stick when I asked for it, and thereby becoming a partner with me in a.s.sisting that wounded man. You notice that I'm turning my own badge, because I think I've earned it by this act, if I didn't by what Bob and myself did to that bobcat. And Allan, you're in this deal also; you brought me that roll of stout muslin when I wanted it, so you did all you could."

"And I helped get him on his feet!" declared Giraffe, quickly.

"So did I!" exclaimed b.u.mpus, excitedly; "anyhow, I started to lend a hand; but there was so many around I just got crowded out. But I _wanted_ to do something, sure I did, Thad!"

"Turn your badge, then," ordered the scoutmaster, smiling. "In fact, every scout was full of sympathy, and ready to a.s.sist if called on. And under the circ.u.mstances, I just guess there needn't be any badge in this camp unturned right now. To-morrow we'll start fresh again, and let's see how quick all of us can follow after Step Hen's example, and help some worthy object along."

"Even if it is only a poor little tumble-bug that can't push his ball home," remarked Giraffe, with a grin.

The time hung heavily upon their hands. No doubt this was partly caused by their intense eagerness to learn just how Bob was coming out. Would Bertha meet him; or might she have been shut up in the house by her guardian, stern Reuben Sparks? If she did come, would she bring that paper which she said was signed with her dead father's name; and supposing it proved to be all Bob hoped and prayed it would, was it possible, if placed in the hands of a competent lawyer in Asheville, that this doc.u.ment would take Bertha from the custody of Reuben, and give her a home with Bob's mother up in Cranford?

All these things were debated from every standpoint; and wide-awake boys can see the weak links in the chain about as quickly as any one; so that Thad was kept busy explaining, and building up plans to suit the altered conditions.

"Ought to be time he was here," Giraffe remarked, as he stifled a huge yawn.

"It's sure nearly a whole hour since we heard that row across there,"

b.u.mpus went on to say. "Seemed like a whole crowd had started to yell, and dogs to bark. We none of us could make up our minds what it meant.

Some thought the wounded man must a got to the cabins, an' all that noise meant the kind of reception a brave feller gets in these parts when he's brought home on a shutter. But others, they seemed to b'lieve it might have had to do with our chum Bob, and that p'raps he'd been surrounded, and trapped by the wise old Reuben."

"We hope not, for a fact," declared Thad.

"Well, there's somebody coming right now, I give you my word!" observed Smithy, who happened to be on the windward side of the fire, and able to hear better than some of the rest.

"And from the right direction, too," added Allan.

The patter of footsteps came closer, and presently a dim figure loomed up, almost staggering.

"It's Bob, all right!" cried b.u.mpus; and Thad heaved a sigh of relief, for he had begun to fear that something might have happened to disturb the carefully laid plans of his companion.

The Southern boy came into camp, breathing heavily. He seemed to be very much exhausted, but Thad could detect a look of triumph on his face that seemed to tell of something worth while having been accomplished.

Dropping down, Bob motioned for a drink of water, and Step Hen made haste to get him one from the collapsible bucket they had brought along with them. Draining the tin cup, Bob sighed as though the cooling liquid went just to the right spot, and had refreshed him wonderfully.

"It's all right, Thad!" he managed to say, noticing the questioning look that the other was bending upon him.

"Then you saw your cousin, and got the paper?" asked the scoutmaster, eagerly, while the rest of the boys fairly hung upon every word.

Bob nodded his head.

"Get my breath right soon now," he remarked; "then tell you all about it. Phew! I had a smart run, believe me!"

The boys exchanged expressive looks. They drew their own conclusions from the little Bob had already dropped; and began to believe that he must have been hotly pursued. Evidently then, if this were indeed the case, Bob had met with an adventure since leaving the camp-fire, and a serious one at that.

It is always a difficult thing for the ordinary boy to restrain his impatience, and several of the scouts squirmed about uneasily while Bob was trying to calm himself down, so that he might talk with reasonable comfort.

Thad let him have his own time. He understood that Bob was even more anxious to tell, than any of them were to hear; and that just as quickly as he could, he was sure to start in.

That time came presently, when his heart began to beat less violently; and as a consequence Bob started to breathe more naturally.

"I met Bertha," he began to say, "and she gave me the paper. Boys, it's everything I hoped it'd be; and once I manage to get it in the hands of a good lawyer, good-bye to Mr. Reuben Sparks' authority over little Bertha, and her fortune."

"Wow! that's going some!" burst out Giraffe, rubbing his thin hands one over the other, as though decidedly pleased by the news.

"Was she disappointed when you told her how impossible it would be for us to take her away right now, when these moonshiners have got us marooned up here in their blessed old mountains; and we can't turn whichever way without runnin' slap up against a sentry with his old gun?" asked b.u.mpus.

"That's right, she _was_ upset when I told her that same," answered the other. "It made me feel right bad too, suh, to see how she took it; and I tell you right now I came mighty neah givin' in, and sayin' we'd make a try. But I remembered what Thad heah had told me, and how it was best for all of us that we let the cou'ts summon old Reuben to bring Bertha before the bar of justice. An' finally, after I'd explained it all to her, she began to see it the same way. My cousin has got the spirit of the Quails all right, I tell you, fellows, even if she is young and little."

"I reckon you stayed so long tryin' to convince her, Bob, that you clean forgot how you'd promised to get back here as soon as you could?"

remarked Step Hen, under the belief, no doubt, that he was giving the other a sly dig.

"Well, perhaps you are correct about that same, suh," replied Bob, quite unabashed; "she was like most girls, and had to be argued into seeing things like boys see 'em. Of course, I couldn't break away till she had arranged to go back to the house, and wait for things to begin to move, as they surely would, just as soon as I get to Asheville. But there was one real smart thing she did do, and I've just got to tell you about that befo' I come to my own adventure."

"That's right, don't skip anything, old chum," remarked Giraffe, warmly, as he settled down to listen.

"When Bertha took that doc.u.ment from the little pigeonhole in the safe where he had it hidden, she thought to make up another as much like it as she could, and put that in place of the one she carried off. Some of you scouts ought to take pattern from the smartness of that little girl; don't you think so, Thad?" and Bob turned his now smiling face upon the patrol leader.