CHAPTER XII
BLUFF TAKES A HAND
A great load seemed lifted from Frank's mind. With the coming of thelumberman, he had good reason to believe things would brighten up. Forone thing, he was pleased to see that Mr. Darrel carried a rifle,which he was holding in a half-threatening manner as he advanced.
"Oh, here's where we get busy right away!" Bluff was heard to mutter.
"Now things are going to look different," Jerry added, withconsiderable satisfaction.
Frank looked deeper than the surface. He saw that the lumberman wasalone.
"There are three of the sportsmen," Frank told himself, "and eachcarries a gun. Mr. Darrel wouldn't be able to manage the bunch if theystarted to get ugly. We ought to be able to lend a hand."
He did not think it advisable to go toward the cabin himself, but thatwas no reason some one else might not make the attempt.
"Bluff!" he whispered, for it happened that the other was close by hiselbow.
"What is it?"
"Try and make your way to the cabin without attracting theirattention."
"To get my gun?"
"Yes; and fetch mine along, too. Careful, now; and if you see themwatching you stand still and appear innocent."
Hardly had Frank spoken the last word before Bluff was in motion.
Other things chained Frank's attention just then. Mr. Darrel hadwalked forward until he was now not more than thirty feet from theboys and Bill Nackerson's crowd. It might be said that they formed atriangle, of which the lumberman was the apex, and the boys formed oneof the base corners.
Frank knew that Mr. Darrel was acquainted with Nackerson. When theyhad told him about the trouble on the train, the lumberman relatedsome differences he had once had with the sportsman, who had beencoming to the Maine woods for a good many years.
The sight of Mr. Darrel had been anything but agreeable to the bully.When he saw, however, that the lumberman seemed to be unattended, theold look of anger came back to his face.
"Just keep your hands out of my business, Darrel," he saidthreateningly. "This is no affair of yours, and I don't want to haveany trouble with you."
"Well, that's what you will have, Bill Nackerson," replied thelumberman calmly, "if you go to bothering these boys, who are goodfriends of mine."
"Oh, you don't say!" sneered the other. Frank was of the opinion thatit was Nackerson's intention to egg the lumberman on until finallythey might come to blows, when his superior weight and muscle wouldgive him an easy victory, he thought.
"What's all this I hear about your accusing them of hurting your dog?"demanded the newcomer, who may have heard only fragments of the talkas he was coming up.
"Look at the poor brute and see how his nose has been treated!" roaredthe bully, trying to work himself up into another passion.
"Well, it is hurt some, I can see," replied Mr. Darrel, "but didn't Ihear Frank Langdon here explain that it was done by some animal thedog had tried to dig out of its burrow?"
"Yes, sir," spoke up Jerry, eager to get in a word of explanation,"and over there's where the dog was digging when first we noticed him.Then all at once he gave out a lot of yelps, and took to his heels.Frank said he had been nipped on the nose by the animal, which hethought must be a savage old mink. And that's all any of us know aboutit."
"You didn't touch a hair of his dog, then?" asked the lumberman.
"Why, none of us was within thirty or forty feet of him at any time!"replied the indignant Jerry.
"How about throwing a stone at him?" continued Mr. Darrel, as thoughmeaning to have a thorough understanding of the whole matter, once andfor all.
"I give you my word, sir, not one of us even picked up a stone,"answered Jerry. "Of course, when we saw how funny the dog looked,running with his tail between his legs as he let out those queeryelps, we may have laughed. Anybody would have done that, Mr. Darrel."
"And shouted in the bargain, too!" added Will.
"You hear what these lads say again, Nackerson?" resumed the owner ofLumber Run Camp, as he once more wheeled and faced the threesportsmen, with the dog cowering at their feet rubbing at his injuredmuzzle and whimpering.
"Oh, they gave us that song before; but we knew they were lying!"declared the other. "Boys never tell the truth. They'll beat aroundthe bush every time. I know just as sure as I'm standing here thatthey did something to my dog. On the train they tried to break hisback by upsetting a heavy pack on him. And I've about made up my mindto show them they're barking up the wrong tree if they think they canplay their monkey-shines on Bill Nackerson."
"I heard all about that incident of the smoker, Nackerson," Mr. Darreltold him sternly, "and they assured me they had no hand in your dog'shurt. He upset the pack on himself by squirming around and getting hisrope caught in it."
"Bah! Tell that to the marines!" snarled the other, now lookingdangerously ugly, so that Frank felt a great relief when he discoveredout of the tail of his eye that Bluff was slipping from the cabindoor, and that he carried both guns.
Given half a minute more, and they would not feel they were aninferior force.
Fortunately neither of the men with the bully had noticed what Bluffwas doing.
"Well," said Mr. Darrel, "you don't think that I'll stand here and seeyou lay a finger on any one of these boys without protesting, do you?"
"I'd advise you to keep out of this mess, Mr. Darrel," continued theother. "I'm not the man to be interfered with, once they get me riledup. And both of my friends here are going to stand back of me. Sodon't you try to raise that gun of yours, or somebody will get hurt."
"That's so, Mr. Nackerson," chimed in another voice just then, "andthe first one to feel it will be you!"
Frank knew it was Bluff who made this assertion. He could see that theother had leaned one gun against a tree, and was leveling his ownweapon straight at the intruder.
Neither of the other men made the slightest movement. They seemed tothink that as Nackerson had brought all this trouble on them he shouldstand for it.
Frank started toward Bluff, for he wanted to get his hands on his ownrifle.
"Hold on there, you young fool; that gun might go off!" exclaimed thesportsman, showing extreme nervousness; for he did not know what areckless boy might be tempted to do.
"I expect it to, unless you clear out of this!" retorted Bluff, trueto his name; for such a thing as actually firing was far from histhoughts, though as a last resort he would have been capable of it.
This seemed like adding insult to injury, in the eyes of the bully. Itwas bad enough to be baffled when bent upon carrying out his planthrough brute strength, but to be ordered away by a mere boy galledhim.
By now Frank had slipped behind Bluff, so as not to distract hisattention, and snatched up his own rifle. Nackerson must have realizedthat the tide had changed and was now setting heavily against him.
"You'll all be sorry for this, see if you ain't!" he growled, forsomehow that is always the threat of a defeated man.
"Well, I advise you to clear out while you have the chance,Nackerson," the lumberman told him, perhaps more than a little pleasedto see how ably the boys could look out for themselves.
"Are you going to stand back of me or not, Whalen?" snarled the bigsportsman, not daring to make a hostile move himself while Bluff washolding that gun leveled at him.
The man he addressed gave a nervous little laugh.
"Well, we would, Bill," he went on to say, "if we thought you had aclean bill; but it strikes us both that in this affair you're away offyour trolley. These boys didn't have anything to do with the hurts ofthe dog, they say, and we can't prove they did. So we'd best clearout."
"Good for you, Whalen!" remarked Darrel. "And let me say right now,that if there's any suspicious business attempted while you're up herein this section of the Big Woods, you're apt to get a pack of mylumberjacks hot on your trail. You'd better go slow about what you do.They'd as soon give you a coat of tar and feathers as not."
Whalen di
d not make any answer. Apparently he and his companion feltashamed of being caught in association with the bully.
Seeing that he was deserted by his friends, Nackerson realized thatthere was now nothing left for him to do but to give up. He was a hardloser, Frank saw, as he noted the muscles of the man's face working.
"Oh, I'm going to clear out, Mr. Darrel," he said, trying to speakcontemptuously; "there are times when it's policy to knuckle down.This is one of them, I reckon. But Bill Nackerson doesn't throw up thesponge as easy as all that. Just wait. You or these young cubs heremay be sorry for this."
"Be careful how you make threats, Nackerson," warned the lumberman."They may be brought home to you later on, if anything does happen tothese boys here."
"Oh, I'm not threatening!" the other hastened to say. "That'ssomething I always try to keep from doing, and I want you to know it.But all the same, you may think of this time, and be sorry you rubbedit in so hard; that's all."
"Come along, Bill," urged the man called Whalen, as though fearingthat unless they got their boisterous companion moving he might bringmatters to an open rupture yet.
"Sure, I'll go with you, Cass Whalen, even if you have deserted a palwhen he was up against it. I won't forget that, either. I've got along memory for such things, I have. And mark me, Mr. Darrel, I'lloften see this hour again as I think of how you insulted me. That'sall I've got to say."
He wheeled in his tracks, gave a kick at his dog that started the poorbeast to yelping again, and the party moved off, leaving the chums andMr. Darrel exchanging looks of unbounded relief.