CHAPTER XVI. INTO THE FIRE!
The moon had just risen. Her light silvered the dark hemlock tops, and,by bad luck, fell in a flood full upon Rob and Jumbo. The man who hadsprung into such sudden activity was, on the contrary, completelyshrouded in the black shadow of the hut.
Even had they had weapons they would, situated as they were, have beencompletely in his power. To use a slang term, but one full ofexpressiveness, he had "the drop" on them.
"Who are you?" rasped out the inmate of the hut in a harsh, startledvoice. "Speak quick, for I'm right smart on the trigger."
"We are two wanderers who have lost our way," rejoined Rob, "we have noweapons and have no wish to harm you."
"Come forward a bit while I look you over," said the man, his suspicionmollified a bit by the boyish tone. But the next instant, as his eyesfell on Rob's uniform, he seemed to bristle with suspicion again.
"What's that uniform?" he demanded; "be you some new-fangled revenue?"
"I'm a Boy Scout," rejoined Rob, and then, thinking it best not to relatehis whole story at once, he added, "I got lost on a scouting expedition.Our camp is not far from here on the other side of the lake. All we wantis some food, drink and shelter."
"Boy Scout, eh?" said the man, eyeing him curiously, "um, ay, I've readof 'em. To my mind you'd be best at home instead of gallivanting aroundthe country and getting lost. But who's that black fellow?"
"Ah'se a 'spectable colored gen'ulman, suh," began Jumbo indignantly inhis usual formula. But the black-bearded man checked him with a gesture.
"You're just a nigger, nigger, don't forget that. I come from south ofthe Mason and Dixon line."
"Yas, sah, yas, sah," grinned Jumbo. The big black shivered and showedall the gleaming white of his teeth and eyes in his alarm at the beardedlittle man's fierce looks and gestures.
"S'pose I feed yer," was the bearded one's next question, "kin you pay?I'm a poor woodsman and----"
"Oh, we can pay," Rob assured him. Foolishly he drew out a ratherwell-filled purse. The next moment he wished he hadn't. For a briefinstant the hut-dweller's keen, serpent-like black eyes had kindled withan avaricious flame.
But he cleverly masked whatever emotion it was that had swept over him atsight of the money receptacle.
"Guess that'll be all right," he said, "come on in."
Rather troubled in his mind, but deciding that it was best to accept thesituation as it unfolded, Rob followed his conductor into the hut. Jumboambled along behind, his black face expanded in a grin of wonderment. Thehut, within, proved to be a roughly constructed affair of raw logs. Thechinks were plastered with clay, mixed with grass to give it consistency.A few skins hung on the walls and some rough, home-made furniture stoodabout.
At one end of the place was a huge, open fireplace, with a bighearthstone. It was not used, however, the cookery being done upon thestove, which also provided the heat.
At the end of the hut opposite to the chimney a rough flight of steps ledto an attic. After the two half-famished wanderers had concluded a heartymeal, washed down by strong, hot, black coffee, their host motioned tothe steps.
"Ef you want a shake-down you'll find straw up thar," he said.
Rob thanked him civilly and he and Jumbo climbed the stairway and foundthemselves in a low-ceiled loft. The floor was of unnailed boards.Through the chinks between them the ruddy lamplight below could be seen.
"Dere's wusser beds in dis wale ob tears dan nice clean straw," observedJumbo philosophically as he threw himself on his heap. Rob agreed withhim. The straw did, indeed, seem soft and grateful after their recenthard knocks and experiences. Following Jumbo's example, the lad made forhimself a kind of nest. Curling up in it he was soon off in the deep,dreamless slumber of healthy boyhood.
Voices awakened Rob. He sat up sharply. They were coming from below. Thesounds of the conversation floated up through the wide chinks in therough floor.
Rob rolled on his side and peered through the most convenient crack.Three men were now in the room below him. As he gazed he was amazed tosee the hearthstone swing bodily backward, on some concealed hinges, anda fourth man emerge from some secret passage.
"Wall," said the newcomer, a huge figure of a man with a big, blondviking-like beard, "the last keg is headed and fixed up. We've finishedour work. To-morrow----"
But the black-bearded man checked him with a sharp gesture.
"Shut up, Sims," he warned, "not so loud. Go ahead, Watkins," he went on,turning to one of the men with whom he had been talking.
"What I ses is," resumed this fellow, a squatty-built, loosely-hunglittle fellow, with close-cropped sandy hair, and a bristly growth on hischin, like the stubble on an old tooth brush, "what I ses is, don't takeno risks."
He paused impressively and then added in a lowered voice, but one thatreached Rob, nevertheless, with thrilling clearness:
"Fix 'em."
"Great Abraham Lincoln!" gasped the boy, "this is a nice nest of hornetswe've stumbled into. 'Fix 'em,' that must mean us."
But the talk went on, and Rob strained his ears for the continuation.
"But if they was guvn'ment men they wouldn't hev walked in like theydone, I reckon," put in another man, a pallid, sickly-looking chap, withpink-rimmed eyes and a ferrety, furtive manner.
"Best be on the safe side," counselled the black-bearded man, who hadintroduced the travelers to the hut, "they've got money, too."
"Money?" questioned the blonde-bearded man.
"Yes. The boy has. And they haven't got any weapons. I guess we'll havean easy time of it with them."
"That nigger looks pretty hefty, and the kid's no weakling."
It was the pink-eyed man who spoke. Rob felt a shiver run through him. Sothey had been observed while they were asleep and never knew it!
"Oh, I'm a fine Scout!" thought the lad bitterly.
"Seems kind of tough on the kid," said the blonde-bearded man, "but younever did have no sense of pity, Black Bart."
Black Bart! Rob's heart stood still and then beat furiously. These menthen, were the moonshiners of whom Dale had spoken that afternoon. Itseemed, too, from their talk, that they suspected him and Jumbo of beinggovernment spies. In that case they would stop at nothing. And they werefour to one. The Boy Scout felt for the knife he had filched from Dale,but in their passage through the woods it must have been lost, for hecould not find it on him.
"Kid or no kid," retorted Black Bart, viciously, "he can tell therevenues a story jes' as well as anybody else, can't he?"
"That's so," agreed the red-headed man, "and if they get us this timethey'll make it hot for us."
This argument seemed to extinguish all regrets in the blond-bearded man'smind.
"When air you goin' ter do it?" he asked. His voice was perfectlymatter-of-fact and cold-blooded.
"No time like the present. But it's best to get 'em asleep. We don't wantno noise," said Black Bart, with deliberation. "Pinky," to the pink-eyedman, "jes' take a look upstairs and see if they are asleep."
Rob laid down and crouched still as a mouse while he heard Pinky ascendthe creaking stairs, satisfy himself that the intended victims wereasleep, and retreat again.
Then the boy awakened Jumbo. In a few words he apprised him of thesituation. To Rob's great relief, the negro, in this dire emergency,seemed to be as self-possessed as he was cowardly in minor matters. Manynatures are so constituted.
"What we gwine ter do, Marse Rob?" he breathed, crawling noiselesslyabout on his straw.
"There's a window over there," whispered Rob; "we'll have to drop throughit and chance coming out safely."
"Lawsy sakes! S'posin' it looks out on one ob dem bottomless pitses lakyo' all near fell inter ter-night?"
"Can't be helped, it's the only way we can escape. Hark! They're comingnow. Get over to the window with as little noise as you can."
"How 'bout you alls?"
"I'll follow. You get it open first."
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br /> Without another word the negro noiselessly wriggled across the floor tothe window--a mere opening in the wall--that Rob had observed. At thesame instant there came the "creak! creak!" of the staircase as one ofthe men below began to ascend the stairway.
There was a big bit of loose timber lying near Rob's straw. With a suddenflash of anger at the thought of the men's treachery, the lad snatched itup.
"They shan't get off scot free, anyhow," he decided within himself.
With the bulk of timber clutched in both his hands, ready poised for ablow, Rob waited by the opening at the head of the rickety stairway asthe midnight assailant ascended.