The log, which had been partly hacked up for firewood, was found, and a slender resinous strip was torn from it. Lighting one end of this strip of wood, Piper fanned it into a bright flame, and, bearing it in his hand, boldly entered the shanty.

The torch revealed nothing they had not previously seen, but it did give them complete a.s.surance that the boy they sought could not be hiding there.

"Yes, he got away, that's sure," said Nelson; "and there's only one way by which he could do it. He had to go back as he came."

"And therefore," said Billy quickly, "he must be in the woods somewhere yonder. That's where we should look for him now."

"Perhaps," ventured Crane, "he's near enough to hear us. Oh, Hooker!

Hey, Roy!"

Piper sprang at him savagely. "Stop that, you idiot!" he snarled. "Stop shouting that way! What are you trying to do?"

"Why, I thought he might hear me."

"Yes, he might and be frightened into fits. No more of that fool business, Sile. Keep still and come on. We'll get off right away and do the best we can hunting for him over yonder."

Over the treacherous crossing they returned to the solid ground beyond the border of the swamp. Looking backward, Cooper tugged at Springer's sleeve.

"Now I'm afraid we _won't_ find him, Phil," he confessed. "I'm afraid n.o.body will find him tonight. And when they do, it wouldn't surprise me if they dug his body out of this old swamp."

CHAPTER XXII

A SURPRISING CONFESSION.

After a time Osgood and Nelson became separated from the rest of the searchers. They had come to a little opening where the moonlight shone upon a small pile of cord-wood that had been cut and left there during the past winter, and here they stopped and faced each other.

"It's worse than useless, this searching without lights of any sort save what the moon affords," said Jack. "There are thousands of places were one could hide from searchers if he chose. It would be better to go through the woods calling to Hooker and a.s.suring him we are friends."

"I doubt," returned Ned, "if we'd find him then."

"What do you suppose has become of him?"

"You can answer that question fully as well as I."

"Well, then," said Jack suddenly, "what do you suppose was the cause of all this trouble, anyhow? How was Hooker hurt?"

Osgood's answer was a shrug. Motioning toward two short stumps which stood nearby, he suggested that they should sit down.

"I want to talk to you, Nelson," he said, when they were seated. "I've got to talk to some one, and I'd rather it would be you than any one else. We've never been what might be called real friendly, have we?"

Surprised and wondering at his companion's words and singular manner, Nelson replied:

"I don't know that we've been exactly chummy, but--"

"Tell the truth," interrupted Osgood, reaching out and putting his hand on the other boy's knee. "We haven't been even friendly, although you seemed willing enough to be, and I've put up a bluff that I was. All the same, you didn't trust me. You knew I was bluffing."

"I-I don't think-that I-actually knew it," stammered Nelson, still more astonished.

Osgood threw back his head and smiled. The moonlight, full on his rather handsome, aristocratic face, showed that smile to be touched with bitterness, even with self-scorn.

"I'm a bluffer, Nelson-a thoroughbred bluffer," he declared. "Intuition told you as much. All along I knew you were one fellow in Oakdale that I had not fully blinded. Piper, with all his natural shrewdness-and we'll admit that he's naturally shrewd-was deceived in me."

"What are you talking about, Osgood?" exclaimed Jack. "Why are you telling me this stuff, anyhow?"

"I don't know just why, but I'm telling it to relieve my mind. Perhaps it will relieve me in a measure, anyhow. I had no thought in the world of talking to you this way when we paused here a few moments ago, but suddenly an irresistible impulse came upon me. Something seemed to say, 'You may as well tell him, for he sees through you, anyhow.' Do you know, Nelson, I've hated you. Yes, that's the word. I hated you because I couldn't deceive you, and that's why I longed to do something to hurt you."

"You what? Of course I know I benched you in that Wyndham game, but I had--"

"You should have benched me before," exclaimed Osgood. "You should have fired me from the nine."

"Fired you? Why, you were one of our best players. You really knew more baseball than any one else on the team. You were valuable."

"Even if I could play better baseball than Hans Wagner himself, I was a bad man to have on the team, for I was trying to create insubordination, distrust and a disbelief in your ability as captain."

"I-I knew Shultz was ready to kick against my authority at any provocation," said Nelson, bewildered; "but you always seemed so decent and--"

"Shultz!" exploded Osgood. "Why, he was simply carrying out my scheme. I let him think it was mainly his idea, but all the time it was mine. I fooled him, just the same as I did the others. When I perceived that you did not trust me, and when I became convinced that you thought me something of a fraud, I was bitterly determined to down you. I set about ingratiating myself into the good will and esteem of certain fellows on the team-certain fellows I felt confident I could sway to my will. Never mind who they are, Nelson, for they weren't wise to the depth of my game. Still, I knew I was getting them, one by one, just where I wanted them. I knew that in time, when I should be ready to make a split on the nine, I could swing them to my side and carry the majority of the players with me. That was my object, Nelson. I intended to make trouble on the team, break it up under your leadership, and then suggest reorganization, with the purpose of being chosen captain in your place."

Nelson leaped to his feet. "Why, you miserable scoundrel!" he cried furiously. "So that's what you were up to! I did smell a rat. I did think you were up to something underhanded. So that was it, eh? You're a sc.r.a.pper; you can box, they say. Take off your coat!"

Osgood made no move to rise. "We're not going to fight," he a.s.serted calmly. "Did you think I was telling you this in order to provoke a fight?"

"I can't understand why under heaven you told me, anyhow."

"Simply because I was determined to relieve myself of some of the load I've been carrying. Simply because in the last few hours I've come to see the full meaning of my dirty scheming. Oh, I don't suppose you believe me, but that's the reason-anyhow, it's a part of the reason. And I'm done with it all, no matter what may happen to me to-morrow."

His breast heaving, his hands clenched, Nelson continued to stand glaring down at the calm, abject fellow before him. And there was something so genuinely abject in Osgood's appearance that gradually Jack felt his rage oozing away and leaving him.

"Sit down," invited Ned once more. "I'm not half through. As long as I've begun on this thing, and said so much, I'm going to tell you more, although it's likely you'll hold me henceforth in the most complete contempt. You spoke of Shultz a moment ago. Do you know he's not the sort of fellow with whom I can have any real natural bond of sympathy?"

"I've always wondered at your chumminess with him," said Nelson slowly, reseating himself. "He's so different. You're a gentleman, while he's plainly of the most plebeian and common stock."

"He's no more plebeian and common than I am," declared Osgood instantly.

"But his family-he comes of a most ordinary family."

"So do I."

"You? Why, you have some high-grade ancestors behind you on your mother's side, at least."

"I wondered if you believed that, Nelson. If you did, it's plain you did not see through me completely, as I fancied."

"What? Do you mean to say that--"