CHAPTER IV
_A New Declaration of Independence_
"Well," said little Tom long before supper, "if you fellows are too lazyto do any more work after an easy day like this, I am going out into thesunset to look for a turkey. I'm not fond of salt meat, and besideswe've got to spare our salt pork against a time of need. I'll be back bysupper time."
With that he shouldered his gun, withdrew one of the buckshotcartridges, inserted one loaded for turkeys in its stead, and strolledaway up the mountain side.
An hour passed and little Tom did not return. Another hour went by andstill no little Tom came. By this time darkness had set in and supperwas ready. The boys were growing uneasy, but they comforted themselveswith the thought that "Little Tom knows how to take care of himself,anyhow."
So they sat down to their evening meal with a great fire crackling andglowing in front of their temporary shelter, and filling it with fiercelight which completely blinded their eyes to everything in the gloombeyond. They had carelessly stacked their arms in a corner, a dozen feetbeyond reach, and were chatting in a jolly way when suddenly thereappeared before them the tall mountaineer of the night before.
This time he was wilier than on his previous appearance. This time helevelled his gun at the party and quickly stepped between them and theirarms. Then, with his rifle at his shoulder and his finger near the hairtrigger that was set to go off at the very lightest touch, he calledout:
"You got the drap on me las' night, but now I've dun got the drap onyou. Will you now git out'n this here mounting? I've dun give you noticethat us fellers what lives up here don't want no visitors from downbelow. So throw up your hands and march right now, every one of you.I'll take keer o' your guns an' other things, an' I'm not a goin' totake this rifle from my shoulder till the last one of you is wellstarted down the mounting. Come now! Git a move onto you!"
At that moment a noise as of some heavy body falling was heard in theouter darkness just beyond the limits of the firelight. The nextinstant little Tom leaped upon the mountaineer's back grasped histhroat with both hands and dragged him to earth. His rifle went off inthe melee, but fortunately the bullet had no billet and flattened itselfagainst the side of the cliff.
Of course the mountaineer was more than a match for little Tom and in aprolonged struggle would easily have got the better of him. But theother boys instantly came to their comrade's assistance and the intruderwas quickly and completely overcome.
He had received some ugly hurts in the encounter, among them a brokenarm, but the Doctor dressed the wounds and meantime the man becameplacative in his mood.
"I was about to shoot him," said little Tom, "but it isn't a pleasantthing to shoot a man even when you must, and so I thought of the otherplan, and jumped on his back instead. I knew I couldn't hold him down bymyself, but I knew you other fellows would come to my assistance, so Irisked that mode of operations."
"If you had shot him," said the Doctor, "you'd have been justified bothin law and in morals."
"Yes, I know that," said little Tom, "but I shouldn't have slept wellafterwards and I'm fond of my sleep."
"Well now eat your supper," said the Doctor, "and perhaps our friendthe enemy here will join you in enjoying it."
To the astonishment of all, the mountaineer eagerly replied:
"Well, I don't keer if I do. I ain't et nothin' sence a very earlybreakfast, an' it wa'n't much of anything that I et then. As for thelittle scrimmage, I don't bear no malice when I gits hurt in a fairfight--least of all against a young chap like that. You see I had gotthe drap on you fellers, an' when he come up sort o' unexpected like andunbeknownst to me, he jist naterally took the drap on me. It was allfair an' right, an' I want to say I'm grateful to him for not usin' hisgun. He could 'a shot me like a dog, an' he didn't."
All this while the lean and hungry mountaineer was eating voraciouslyand in spite of his wounds with an eager relish.
"How do you people live up here?" asked the Doctor. "You can't grow muchin the way of crops. Do you generally have enough to eat?"
"Well hardly to say generally. Sometimes we has, and more oftener wehasn't. You see our business is onsartain. That's why we don't likestrangers prowlin' around in the mountings. Now I've got somethin'friendly like, to say to you fellers. Fust off I want to tell you _I'm_not agoin' to bother you agin. I'm a believin' that you've come up hereon a straight business. But there's others that ain't got so much faithas me. They'll make trouble for you if you stay. My advice to you is togit out'n the mountings jest as quick as you kin."
"But my friend," said the Doctor, "Why should we leave the mountains? Weare on land owned by the mother of my young friends here. We have comeonly to see if we can't get some money for her out of lands that havenever paid her anything--not even earning the taxes that she has paid onthem. Why shouldn't we stay here and do this? This is a free country,and--"
"They's taxes in it," said the mountaineer, gritting his teeth, "an'they's jails for them that tries to carry on business without a payin'of the taxes. I don't call that no free country."
"It would be idle to argue that question," replied the Doctor. "But we,at least, have nothing to do with the taxes. We are here to make alittle money in a perfectly legitimate way, by hard work. We are notinterfering with any body and we don't intend to interfere with anybody. But we're going to stay here all winter and carry on ourbusiness."
"Yes!" added Jack, "and if any body interferes with us it will be theworse for him."
"Well, you're makin' of a mistake," said the mountaineer, "an' I giveyou friendly warnin'. As I done told you before, I believe you. I thinkyou're dead straight. But there's them what ain't so charitable, as thepreachers say. There's them that'll believe you're lyin', and 'll stickto that there belief till the cows come home, an' they'll make a mightyheap o' trouble fer you fellers ef you tries to stay here. They're menthat won't be watched I tell you, and forty witnesses, all on theirBible oaths couldn't persuade 'em but what you're here to watch 'em.It's friendly advice I give you when I tells you to git out'n thesemountings."
"All right," broke in little Tom, "but while you're scattering friendlyadvice around suppose you advise your friends to let us alone. Tell themthat little Tom Ridsdale proposes to shoot next time, and to shoot hisbuckshot barrel at that." Tom rose to his feet and added:
"You and your people mean war. Very well. I for one, accept the issue.Hereafter it will be war, and in war every man shoots to do all thedamage he can. I have a perfect right to be here on my mother's land,and here I am going to stay. If every other fellow in the party shouldstart down the mountain this night, I would stay here alone to fight itout all winter. And every other fellow in our party feels just as I do.Go to your criminal friends and tell them that! But warn them that ifthey interfere with us we'll not wrestle with them, we'll shoot andwe'll take no chance of missing. We'll shoot to produce effects. We'llnever interfere with you or your friends, but you and your friendsmustn't interfere with us. If you do, you'll get war and all you want ofit. We've tried to do the right thing by you; and now I give you fairwarning."
"Well, all I've got to say," said the mountaineer, as he took hisdeparture, "is jest this: You fellers has dealt fair with me, an' I'lldeal fair with you. That boy that threw me down an' broke my arm moutjust as easy have shot me through the body; an' then the tender way thatthe Doctor done up my arm! Why even a woman couldn't 'a' been tendererlike. Now I ain't got no quarrel with you fellers, an' that's why I'madvisin' you to git down out'n the mountings as soon as you kin. There'sothers, I tell you, an' they ain't soft hearted like me. They'll giveyou a heap o' trouble if you stay here."
"Let them try it," answered little Tom. "Let them try it. Then we'll seewho's who, and what's what. Now tell your friends what I've said to you.There! good night! I hope your arm will get well. If it doesn't, comeover here and let the Doctor look at it."
With that defiant farewell in his ears the mountaineer took his leave.
"Was it prudent, Tom?" ask
ed Ed Parmly, "to send that sort of defiantmessage to the moonshiners?"
"Yes, quite prudent. We want them to know that we are here on our ownbusiness and not on theirs, at all. We want them to know that we proposeto stay here whether they want us to do so or not. And finally, we wantthem to understand that any interference with us on their part, willmean war. I've simply issued a Declaration of Independence, and--"
"And to it," called out Jim Chenowith, quoting, "we pledge our lives,our fortunes and our sacred honor."
"Now," said Jack, "from this hour forward we'll keep a sentinel alwayson duty, so that we may not be caught napping. During the daytime, ofcourse, when we're chopping ties and timbers, we'll need no sentinels.We'll keep our guns within easy reach, and so every one of us will be asentinel, but when night comes on we mustn't let anybody 'get the drap'on us as that fellow did to-night. By the way, Tom, did you get anygame?"
"Why, yes. I forgot all about that. I dropped it out there to tacklethat mountaineer. I had carried and dragged it for weary miles, and Iwonder at my forgetfulness."
Without questioning him further two of the boys went off into thatcircle of darkness which seemed impenetrably black when looked at fromthe fireside, but which was light enough when they got within itsenvironment. There they found a deer, weighing perhaps a hundred andfifty pounds, which little Tom had shot high up on the mountain and hadlaboriously dragged, in part, and carried on his shoulders in otherpart, all the way to camp.
Tom was much too weary to attend to it, but there were eager hands tohelp, and while Tom slept, they dressed the venison, and when Tom wakedin the morning, he found that he had been completely excused from sentryduty throughout the night. His toilsome hunt, his painful carrying ofthe deer, his nervous strain over the necessity of encountering themountaineer, and pretty seriously injuring him, and above all, his risein wrath and his deliverance of a new Declaration of Independence as adefiance to the mountaineers, had been decreed by unanimous vote of theparty to be the full equivalent of sentry service, and so Tom had beenpermitted to sleep through all the hours till breakfast was served.