CHAPTER X.
THE COMING OF KRACKER.
"They're sure comin', Thad!"
The scoutmaster looked up when Giraffe said this.
"Oh! you must mean that big cannon Kracker, and his two friends?" heremarked, in such a cool tone that Giraffe fairly gasped for breath.
"That's them!" he declared, with an utter disregard for grammar thatwould have caused him to lose some of his good points in school hadthe lapse occurred there. "And my stars! they look ugly enough to eatus all up, without caring for bones!"
"But I calculate they won't, all the same," replied the other, smilingwith supreme confidence. "Did Allan send you in to tell me?" hecontinued, for he had delegated the second in command to keep watchand ward when he was busy in his tent doing something.
Giraffe nodded his head violently; indeed, any one who did not knowhow tenacious a hold it had on that long neck, might have been alarmedlest he dislocate his vertebra through such contortions.
"Yep; and he said you was to come out and see for yourself," Giraffewent on.
"All right, I will then."
Thad quietly picked up his little twelve-bore Marlin before quittingthe tent; and there was an air of business about his manner of doingso quite different from the fussy way Giraffe had of doing things, butwhich was apt to appear much more convincing in the eyes of any onewho could read character fairly well.
When the scoutmaster reached the open air he found quite a buzz ofexcitement around the confines of the little camp. It seemed as thoughthe scouts must certainly be anticipating something in the line oftrouble; because every one who had a gun was nervously fingering theweapon, and watching the coming of the three figures stalking towardthe camp from across the little valley.
There was Giraffe, first of all, gripping his big rifle eagerly, agrim look on his thin face; Bumpus had his ten-gauge Marlin clenchedtightly in his hands, and perhaps some of the usual color was missingfrom his fat face; but he had a reputation to sustain now, and knew hemust toe the mark like a little man; Allan had his rifle in evidence;and Aleck having lost his at the time he was captured, was keeping ahand close to one of his pockets in which reposed a small revolverwhich one of the other scouts had loaned him.
Bob White did not have a gun either, since he had let Smithy go offwith his; but he did not mean to be caught defenseless, should troublearise; and back of him he was holding that handy camp hatchet.
The Fox,--well, if he was anywhere around the camp, Thad failed todiscover him; and even at that exciting moment the scoutmasterremembered thinking that perhaps the Crow boy had hidden, not wishingany of the Kracker crowd to see him.
Thad glanced around him. He had considered the situation before this,like the wise general who notes down in his mind the promising pointsconnected with his chosen field of battle.
Speaking a few words to Allan, who knew what the plan of campaign wasto be, Thad sent the other over to a clump of rocks, from the crest ofwhich, not more than fifty feet away, he could have a splendid andunobstructed view of the camp, as well as its surroundings. Indeed,hardly a snake could have crawled across that open space without beingexposed to the sharp eyes of the Maine boy.
Then Thad awaited the coming of the three men.
Just as Giraffe had declared, he could easily see that they were alllooking more or less angry. The big man in the middle interested himmuch more than either of the others, of course; because he knew verywell that when Colonel Kracker took snuff, it was up to Waffles andDickey Bird to sneeze; for they were only shadows of the leader, whoalways controlled their actions.
Thad had never seen just such a man before; but for all that he believedthat what he had said before was the truth. Red-faced, and looking likea big hurricane let loose on the land, still back of all this outwarddisplay of fierceness Thad felt sure there lay a really cowardly heart.Yes, no brave man would act as Kracker had done, and when it came rightdown to the point of facing death, he was pretty sure to quail.
Thad turned, and spoke a few reassuring words to Aleck.
"Remember, we don't mean to let him lay a finger on you, boy. I'vedrawn a line out between that rock, and the scrub oak over yonder; andif he crosses that we're going to make him wish he hadn't. There'll besome work for me to do picking bird shot out of his fat legs, andbinding up his other wounds; for we've sure got to stop him coming into this camp, no matter what happens!"
It was a remarkable situation for the acting scoutmaster of a troop ofBoy Scouts to find himself in. Very few others could ever say they hadgone through a like experience, Thad thought. But then, that was noreason he and his mates were bound to let this tyrant walk rough-shodover them, and take Aleck away, to continue his harsh and inhumantreatment of the lad. No, if it were necessary, in order to avoid sucha catastrophe overtaking them, he must give the command to fire on theenemy, much as he would ever regret the necessity for such a step.
He wondered what the leading lights in the great organization wouldsay, should the circumstances ever be placed before them; but then,scouts should acquit themselves manfully under any and all conditions;and that was just what Thad meant to do now.
The men were now close enough to make sure that those facing them wereonly boys. Thad could see that Kracker was looking closely, as thoughanxious to settle that point first of all; and it agreed exactly withthe opinion he already entertained for the big prospector; namely,that he was what Giraffe would call "a wind-bag," or a puff-ball, likethose every one has stepped on in the fields, that go off with a pop,emit a little cloud of dust, and then collapse.
But what was there to be feared from a mere parcel of half-grown boys?Kracker doubtless believed that he could awe them with that fiercelook of his, and the domineering way he had of holding himself erect;while it was almost certain that when they heard his awful voice,sounding like hoarse thunder, their very legs would tremble underthem, so that their knees must knock together.
But apparently no one was doing much trembling, as yet, for theyseemed to stand there in a line, and holding their guns half raised,with the stocks hitched under their shoulders, in the manner of thosewho have hunted much, and know which might be the easiest method offlinging a gun to rest in a second of time.
One of the men had a rifle. He was the fellow whom Thad guessed wentby the name of Dickey Bird. But then, no doubt both Kracker andWaffles carried smaller arms about their persons somewhere, for Thadcould see signs of their belts, and judged the heavy revolvers wereswung back of them, where a hand could sweep around and lay hold ofthe butt easily.
The scoutmaster had made up his mind that Kracker was the only onewhom they had to fear in the least. With him removed from the game,the other two would turn out to be easily handled. In fact, they wouldprobably throw up their hands in surrender the very instant anythinghappened to take the big man off. And accordingly Thad meant to devoteall his energies toward cutting the claws of the colonel. He had givenAllan his ideas on the subject, and the Maine boy agreed with him fully.
They were coming close to the imaginary dead line Thad had markedbetween that pile of rocks and the stunted tree. Half a minute more,and he felt that he must call a halt.
Would they mind what he said; or, thinking that orders from a mere boywere not to be taken seriously, would they insist on advancing further?
Thad gritted his teeth, and was more resolved than ever that ifKracker invited trouble he would get it, good and hard. He would findout that guns can be just as dangerous in the hands of boys, as men.
But now he noticed that the big man had slowed up a little. Perhaps hedid not just like the way they stood there waiting, and with so manyguns handy, too.
Thad deliberately cocked his shotgun. The sound of the hammer clickingcould be plainly heard, just as the boy intended it should; and therewas something terribly business-like and significant about it.
At any rate, Colonel Kracker reduced his pace another notch, as if inanswer to an unspoken challenge. He was not so brave inwardly as hisfierce outwa
rd appearance would seem to indicate.
His eyes were glued upon the figure of young Aleck, who stood besideThad, just a step to the rear, possibly. And apparently Kracker wastrying to throw all the force of his domineering character into thatglare. It was really enough to frighten one into fits, Thad thought;but somehow it did not make him even tremble, because he believedsurface indications often told what was not true.
"Keep on giving him back look for look, Aleck!" was what Thad said ina low tone, intended only for the ear of the boy they had rescued fromthe cliff ledge.
"Oh! I ain't afraid of him now; he couldn't make me squirm when I wasall alone, and in his power; so it ain't likely I'm shivering, nowthat I've got so many friends to back me up," answered the other, alsoin a hoarse whisper.
"Good for you!" Thad sent back.
At the same time he coughed.
This had been arranged as a signal for the rest of those who carriedguns, to raise them to their shoulders. The action itself ought toconvince Kracker that he had reached the limit of the peace line; andthat if he persisted in advancing any further, he might expectsomething to happen.
It worked splendidly. The big man came to an abrupt halt, and ofcourse so did Waffles, and Dickey Bird too. Thad did not think much ofthe last mentioned; but the other fellow looked to be just such a sortof "second fiddle" whom a man like Kracker would choose to assist himin his schemes, that were so often evil.
And they were right on that imaginary line Thad had marked out, too;had they persisted in advancing three more feet he meant to call outsharply, and warn them to pull up.
Slowly Kracker elevated that fat right hand of his. Many a time, nodoubt it had given some poor wretch cause for trembling when hepointed that finger at him. Just now, with those terrible eyes of hisglued upon Aleck, he made his forefinger move, once, twice, threetimes, in a significant beckoning gesture.
Then he spoke, and his deep-toned voice was not unlike the rumble ofthunder at a time the lightning is darting among the heavy storm clouds.
"Come here!"