CHAPTER XI ZEB MAKES GOOD
Since they had been aroused, and the dawn was at hand, there was no useof going back to their blankets again. So the boys finished their simpledressing, and washed up outside the door. Tubby declared the air was ascold as the Arctic regions and it must surely be some degrees belowfreezing, two assertions that hardly bore out each other.
Zeb Crooks was gotten out of his bunk. Rob had made up his mind torelease the other. He now believed the story the repentant guide had sofrankly told them, and thought it would be too humiliating for Zeb to befound tied up by a trio of boys, when his employer returned.
But Rob took his time about carrying this out, though he had alreadyobtained the backing of Tubby in the scheme. While the latter waspreparing breakfast, and Andy had stepped out, gun in hand, for a littlewalk around, in hopes of seeing something in the line of game on whichhe could prove his skill as a marksman, the scout leader walked over towhere the big guide sat with his back against the wall.
“You still say, do you, Zeb,” he commenced, “that you meant to stay inthe cabin here until Mr. Hopkins came back, and then ask him to overlookyour foolishness?”
“I sartin did, youngster,” affirmed the other vehemently, and thenadding, “Thar was times when I got plumb skeered, because I hated tothink of meetin’ that look in my boss’s eyes. I even considered whetherI had ought to stay and take his money agin, arter I’d been so mean. Itried to write a leetle note I was calculatin’ to leave here, in case mynerve give out and I slipped away agin.”
“A note do you say?” demanded Rob quickly. “Did you keep it, Zeb?”
“Shore I did, sir. It’s right here in my pocket, tho’ mebbe arter allI’d a-stayed the thing out, and then I needn’t use it. But I didn’tknow, I wasn’t right sartin I could stand for it.”
Rob leaned over, and after fumbling around for a short time managed tofind the well-thumbed paper. Evidently Zeb’s education lay mostly in anextensive knowledge of woodcraft and the habits of wild animals, for hecould not have spent much time learning to spell, or in applying theordinary rules of grammar. Rob might have smiled at the primitiveproduct of the big guide’s untrained hand only for the fact that somehowhis eyes were strangely blinded while he read.
“Mister hopkins, der sur, I ben the bigest fule livin’ i gess to ack like i done with the best frend i ever had, and sur i wanted to tell you this but i dident hay the nerve to stay. i em agoin hum an wen i look in the cleer eyes of my gal Ruth as was named after yur own ded wife i feel like kickin myself, but i shore do hope yo kin forgiv Zeb Crooks and mebbe next year hire me agin. I had my leson, sur, thats rite, an never agin siz i. An i hopes yo git that big bull moose this time thats awl.
Zeb Crooks.”
Rob folded that soiled sheet of paper, torn from a memorandum book. Hemeant to keep it, and on the sly show it to Mr. Hopkins, who couldappreciate the manly nature that had thus conquered in the battle withan evil spirit. Andy would not appreciate such a message, for he mustsuspect that it was only intended to blind the eyes of a trusting personand conceal the man’s real intentions. Yes, Tubby might see it, sometime or other. Rob intended to keep it always.
“Well, Zeb,” he went on to say cheerfully, to hide the emotion he felt,“we’ve concluded to set you free. You can stay around until they getback from the Tucker Pond, when there’ll be a chance to fix matters upwith Mr. Hopkins.”
“I’m shore plumb pleased to hear that, younker,” declared the guide,grinning. “It ain’t none too pleasant to be tied up, and somehumiliatin’, seein’ as how you are only boys. The sorest thing o’ allwould have been to let _him_ see me this way.”
“That’s going to be all right, Zeb,” said Rob, much impressed with thejustice of this remark. “I’ll see to it that none of us tell him we madeyou a prisoner. We believe what you’ve been telling us. In fact, Ithought you were straight from the beginning, but that note clinched itfor me.”
He soon had the rope unfastened. Tubby, looking over from the fire,nodded his head in appreciation. Andy, coming in shortly afterward,failed to make any disagreeable remark, from which it might be judgedthat he had begun to think better of his former opinion with regard toZeb’s honesty.
The guide acted as though nothing out of the way had happened. Heassisted Tubby in getting breakfast, just as he was in the habit ofdoing for his employer. Indeed, Zeb seemed to improve upon acquaintance,and Rob felt certain he had not made a mistake in tempering justice withmercy.
They had a merry time of it at breakfast. The boys were light-hearted bynature, and Zeb seemed to be growing to like them very much. He askedmany questions in connection with their past experiences. They had anyquantity of incidents to relate, some of which caused the Maine guide toopen his eyes wide; for the accounts Tubby and Rob gave of whatwonderful things they had seen when with the fighting armies in Belgiumand France were enough to thrill any one to the core.
Later on that morning Andy started forth again, bent on picking up somegame. He was advised by Rob to be careful and not get lost, aninjunction which he promised to heed.
Rob had been more or less anxious during the night. He could not get itout of his mind that the man who piloted that aeroplane had been spyingout the land on the other side of the border for some dark purpose. Robhad half fancied he heard a distant heavy sound that might be caused byan explosion, though on second thought he decided that he was wrong.
Two nights had passed without anything of this sort happening. He wishedMr. Hopkins would get back to the camp so he could consult with soexperienced a man as Tubby’s uncle must be, and decide what their dutyshould be.
Andy did not come back until after the others had started to eat lunch.When they saw the number of plump partridges he carried theycongratulated him on his good luck. Rob had anticipated something ofthis sort, having heard a number of shots in rapid succession, sosuspecting that the hunter had struck game.
“But, shucks!” Andy went on to say in a disgusted tone, “I’m almostashamed to tell you how easy they came to me. Why, after I’d flushed thecovey they went and alighted in a tree with wide-spreading branches.There half a dozen of the silly birds perched on a lower limb, and Ipicked off one as nice as you please. Still, to my surprise, the restdidn’t fly away, but just sat there, craning their necks to look downand see what their companion was doing all that kicking and flutteringon the ground for. Guess the gumps thought it was a new sort ofpartridge cake-walk. Anyway I nailed the second one, then a third and afourth, and, why, would you believe me, I actually got the fifth whenthe last bird flew away. It was too easy a job; like taking candy fromthe baby. Don’t call me a hunter, I feel more like a butcher right now.”
“But, Andy, they’re nice and fat,” cooed Tubby, running his handadmiringly down the speckled breast of one bird. “I’m figuring onrigging up a dandy spit so we can cook it in front of the fire. I’vetasted chickens cooked that way at a restaurant in the city, and my! butthey were delicious.”
“They did use a spit ages and ages ago,” laughed Rob, “which goes toshow that after all our forefathers knew a good thing or two that hasn’tbeen improved upon in all these centuries. Here’s hoping you have thebest of luck, Tubby. If you need any help, call on me.”
Tubby did put in most of the afternoon on that job. Zeb took it uponhimself to attend to the fowls, which he dressed most carefully. Tubbywas more than glad that the little company had received an addition, forif there was one thing he disliked doing it was cleaning birds or fish.
Along in the late afternoon he had the right kind of a fire for hispurpose. With all the birds fastened on his home-made spits, which couldbe revolved with a clock-like motion, Tubby set to work to prove himselfa master _chef_. Indeed, as the work went on, and the revolving birdsbegan to take on a brown hue the odors that permeated every part of thelong bunk-house were enough to set any ordinary hungry bo
y half crazy.Andy was seen to hurriedly take his departure, after finding out fromTubby that supper would not be ready for at least half an hour; itlooked as though he for one could not stand it to “be so near, and yetso far.”
When Tubby grew tired or overheated he would give the willing Zeb achance to make himself “useful as well as ornamental,” as Tubby jokinglyremarked. He and the big Maine guide were the best of friends. It lookedas though Zeb would have a pretty good advocate with the uncle in caseany were needed to straighten out his affairs with Mr. Hopkins.
Finally the summons was beaten on a skillet, always welcome to those whohave been hanging around, and suffering cruel tortures because theminutes seem to drag with leaden feet. Every one pronounced Tubby’senterprise a most wonderful success. Partridges may have tasted finebefore, when cooked in one of those hunters’ earthen bake-ovens thatresemble a fireless cooker so much; but in that case they would havesimply been as though steamed, and lacked all that brown crispness.
Still no sign of the party from the Tucker Pond. They must surely comeback by another day, Rob thought, with a feeling akin to uneasiness; foronce more he dreaded what a night might bring forth, his thoughts beingagain carried across the line into the country whose sons were in thetrenches over in Belgium and the North of France.
So Rob felt that his mind would be much relieved if only another day sawMr. Hopkins, in order that he might shift the burden to older shoulders.Somehow it seemed to the anxious scout master as though some sort ofresponsibility had been placed upon them because they chanced to seethat airman making his reconnoissance two days before.
The night was now upon them. Little did any of those three boys suspectwhat thrilling events were destined to take place in their lives and howtheir patriotism would be tested before another daybreak came. They sataround as usual, and made merry. Tubby played with the dog, for Wolf hadnot offered to run away again. It was concluded that he must have givenup all hope of ever finding his former home; or else felt quitecontented to remain with his new masters, who fed him so abundantly.
It was getting well along toward nine o’clock, and some of them had evencommenced to show signs of being drowsy, for it must be remembered thatthey had not been allowed to enjoy a full night’s sleep on the precedingnight.
Andy said he would step outside and see what the signs promised in theheaven for the next day. He pretended to be quite a weather prophet. Hehad hardly closed the door behind him, it seemed to Tubby, than theyheard him coming hastily back again. He seemed excited, too, a fact thatcaused Tubby to struggle to his feet, though the others were alreadyahead of him.
“I wish you would all come out here and listen,” said Andy. “I may bemistaken, and, perhaps, after all, it’s only some freak of the breezewhining through a hole in the cabin wall; but, honest to goodness, itstruck me that it was some one calling in the distance, and calling forhelp, too.”