CHAPTER XXVI.

THE "STILL" IN THE MOUNTAIN CAVE.

"HIT'S sum climb," said Polly, doubtfully.

"But think what is at the end of it," answered the eager Bob. "Why, to see my father again, I'd go all night, and then some. Please don't say you won't, Polly, after giving me your promise."

"I'm gwine tuh leave hit tuh him," said the girl simply, and both of them understood that she meant Thad; for doubtless Polly had guessed before now that he was the leader of the boys in uniform, and that what he said was authority.

Thad knew there was no such thing as trying to restrain his chum, now that the fever was in his veins; nor did he have any desire to do so.

"He'll make it, all right, I think, Polly," he remarked, quietly.

"Sure I will; so let's start," declared the other.

Polly, of course, was willing. She did not seem to give one thought to herself; and yet Thad remembered how swollen her ankle had seemed, after such a bad twisting in the cleft of the rock that same afternoon, when the angry wildcat threatened to jump at her. But then Polly had been reared among the mountains that seem to meet the sky; and she was a girl accustomed to standing all manner of pain as well as any grown man could have done.

They started to climb upward.

One thing favored them, for which Thad was really glad. Polly knew every foot of the rough country like a scholar might the printed pages of a book. She could lead them along trails that they never would have suspected existed at all, hidden as they were from the eye of a stranger, by the artful moonshiners. And while possibly the climbing might be difficult, it was never as bad as the boys had found it when ascending the mountain in the day time.

Bob for a wonder kept quiet. Of course he needed all his wind to carry him through. Then again, he was naturally turning over in his mind the amazing thing that had just come to him, and trying to realize his wonderful good fortune.

The thought that he was about to see his dear father shortly was enough to fill his mind, to the exclusion of all else. And so he continued to follow close after the nimble girl, while Thad brought up the rear.

They paused to rest several times. No doubt it was more on account of these two boys, quite unaccustomed to such harsh labor as climbing a mountain, that compelled Polly to pause; because otherwise, she could have kept straight on, without any rest.

"We's gittin' thar now," she remarked, finally, as they halted for the fourth time, with Bob fairly panting for breath, and Thad himself secretly confessing that this mountain climbing after a surefooted girl who had shown herself as nimble as a goat, was no "cinch."

"I'm glad to hear that news, Polly," Bob admitted candidly; but then it may have been on account of the fact that he was nearer the meeting with his long-lost father, rather than an admission that he was tired.

"Jest wun moah stop, an' sh.o.r.e we'll be thar; p'raps we cud make her right smart from hyah, ef so be yuh felt fresh enuff," Polly explained.

"Let's try, anyhow," declared Bob; "you don't know how much I can stand.

Why, I used to climb these same mountains as well as you ever could; and it'd be queer if I'd forgot all I ever knew."

"Thet sounds jest like a Quail," remarked the girl, with a chuckle, as she once more took up the work.

The last part of the climb was certainly the roughest of all. Old Phin had hidden his secret Still in a quarter of the rocky uplift where no revenue man thus far had ever been able to look upon it of his own free will.

But finally they heard Polly say that it was close by. Thad also noticed that the girl had changed her manner more or less. She climbed now without making the slightest noise; just as though some instinct, born of her life in the zone where warfare always existed between her people and the Government agents, had caused her to exercise caution.

Thad saw that they were approaching what must be a rocky gully, leading to some sort of cave. He remembered that Polly had, while speaking, happened to mention the fact that her father's famous Still was located in a cave, which could never be found by the smartest agent the authorities had ever sent to look for such illegal distilleries.

"Look out yer don't slip!" came in a low but thrilling whisper from the guide at this juncture; and from this Thad a.s.sumed that they must be pa.s.sing along the edge of some dizzy precipice, that had to do with the safety of the manufactory, the existence of which had so long taunted the Government.

Now and then Polly would give a slight pause. At such times Thad believed she must be looking cautiously around, to make sure that the guard had not returned to the place since she left there some time before.

Then he realized that he could no longer see the stars overhead. From this he judged they must have pa.s.sed underground; and that this was a fact he presently learned when, by stretching out his hand, he felt the cold rock close by.

All around them was pitch darkness at first, and the girl had made Bob take hold of her dress, while Thad in the rear kept a hand on his chum's back as they moved slowly along.

Presently the watchful scoutmaster made a little discovery that afforded him pleasure. There must be a light ahead somewhere, for he began to catch a faint glow, such as might come from a lantern.

This illumination grew gradually stronger, until they could actually manage to see dimly around them.

"Wait hyah foh me, till I see ef ther coast is clar," whispered the girl.

The two scouts saw her slip away. It struck Thad that possibly he and his chums had much to learn ere they could pa.s.s along as noiselessly as this mountain girl.

How the seconds dragged. Each one must have seemed torture to poor anxious Bob, knowing as he did that the one he had long mourned as dead was so near at hand. They heard nothing save a dripping sound, which might have been caused by water. Evidently the secret Still was not in operation just then; and words dropped by Polly gave Thad the impression that possibly it had ceased work for all time, because of some reason that brought about a change in the conditions.

Polly could not have been gone more than five minutes before she came gliding back again to where she had left the boys.

"Hit's all right, an' thar don't 'pear ter be any guard 'round."

She plucked at Bob's coat sleeve, as if to let him understand that he could come on now; as if the boy needed a second invitation.

They turned a bend in the narrow pa.s.sage ahead, and Thad drew a long breath as he looked upon one of the most remarkable scenes it had ever been his fortune to see.

The cave was a natural grotto, rock-ribbed, and as firm as the everlasting foundations of the mountains themselves. The moonshiners had fitted it up for their purpose; and there, for the first time Thad saw what a Still looked like. After all, it did not amount to much, the worm being the most interesting part of it. But then the fact that he was now gazing upon the very Still that revenue men had for years tried in vain to discover and wreck, gave the scoutmaster a sensation akin to awe.

But all this he saw with one sweeping glance. There was more. A clanking as of a chain drew his attention to a figure that had arisen from a bench, and was pushing the long hair from his eyes to watch their entrance. Evidently Polly during her short absence must have whispered to the prisoner that Bob was close by.

There was, of course, no such thing as holding Bob back any longer. He saw that ragged and altogether uncouth figure, which of course bore not the least resemblance to the father he remembered so well; but he also had discovered a pair of extended arms, and toward their shelter the boy fairly leaped.

Another instant and Bob Quail was wrapped in the embrace of the parent he had not seen in more than two years, and whose fate it had been to remain here a prisoner among the moonshiners who hated him so thoroughly, while his dear ones mourned him as dead.

After a few minutes Thad moved closer, and gave a little cough, wishing to let his chum know that he had a comrade tried and true near by. With that Bob started up, and gripped him by the arm.

"This is my best friend, Thad Brewster, father," he said.

Thad shook hands with the emaciated man who had been confined in this underground retreat so long. In spite of the long beard and strange looks of the other, he realized that Mr. Quail was no ordinary man. But then Thad had guessed that already, from what he had heard about the one-time marshal.

"This is a mighty big piece of luck for Bob!" Thad remarked. "It seems nearly too good to be true; and he'll be the happiest boy in the States when he takes you back home with him, sir."

"Home!" repeated the prisoner; "how strange that word sounds, after being shut up here so long. And how queer the outside world will seem to me. But I hope the promise Old Phin Dady made me, still holds good; for I've no longer the desire to hold out against his will. In my own mind I'm no longer on the pay-roll of the Government, for he tells me every one believes me dead; so I can take the vow with a clear conscience.

Yes, I'm hoping to go home with my boy."

Thad felt that all now remaining for them to do was to get in communication with the moonshiner, and have Mr. Quail set at liberty.

Surely after what he and Bob had done for the family of Phin Dady, the latter could not refuse to let his prisoner go; especially since he now professed his willingness to make the promise that up to this time he had absolutely declined to subscribe to.

They were still talking in this strain when a sound like a cough drew their attention, and looking up, Thad discovered a grim figure leaning on his gun not twenty feet away. There was no need to ask who the man was, for every one of them had already recognized the moonshiner, Phin Dady!