CHAPTER V
JED, THE RUNAWAY BOUND BOY
"Say, fellows, there goes your bread! I bet the ghost has got away withit!" sang out Will, at that juncture, proving that he had also seen thedisappearing act.
Frank was already on his feet, filled with indignation. Once before hadhe known a supper to vanish mysteriously, when a couple of hoboes letdown a rope over a little bluff, and by dexterously working a hook atthe end of the same, caught up a kettle of stew, which was thereupondrawn up to satisfy their appetites.
"Hold him, Frank, ghost or no ghost. I'm with you!" bellowed Jerry, ashe started after the other, while Bluff made a dive for his gun, thatbeing the one thing ever uppermost in his mind when trouble came.
Frank appeared in view, and not alone.
He carried the loaf of bread under his arm, but his other hand wastwisted in the shirt collar of a small boy, writhing and twisting inhis grasp.
"Say, he's got him!" shrieked Will in delight. "Oh! if you would onlylet me get my camera out and snap you off that way, Frank!"
"Talk to me about quick action!" sang out Jerry. "That pard of mine hasthem all beat to a frazzle. Lightning isn't in it with him, fellows."
Frank came forward with his unwilling captive. It was noticed that hemade no attempt toward hurting the boy, save that he held him in a gripthat nothing could break.
"How's this?" exclaimed Jerry, looking again. "Don't appear to be any ofthat measly crowd Pet Peters trains with. Can this be the terrible ghostof Oak Ridge?"
Bluff burst out into a roar.
"Say, I know that shaver, all right! It's Jed Prouty!" he declared.
"And who might he be when at home?" asked Frank, still holding onto hisprize.
"Know old Farmer Dobson, Jerry? Well, this is his bound boy. I saw himworking when I went out to carry a message from dad, and I felt sorryfor any chap who had to knuckle down under that old skinflint andtyrant. Say, I bet you he's run away!"
"And he must have been awful hungry, in the bargain, for he was tearingat our loaf of bread when I caught up with him," said Frank, causing theother to be seated, after which he removed his clutch.
The boy had a small, weazened face. He looked frightened as he crouchedthere, his eyes turning from one of his captors to another. There wasalso something of pleading in his gaze that touched Bluff.
"Look here, Jed, we ain't going to hurt you. Why didn't you comestraight into camp and tell us, if you were hungry? Think we would giveyou over to the tender mercies of that red-faced farmer, eh? That ain'tour way. Supper's just ready, and we invite you to stay and share it,eh, fellows?" he said heartily.
"Them's my sentiments," declared Jerry, with more emphasis than grammar.
"Of course he's quite welcome. After he's had enough to eat he can tellus his story, and we'll try and advise him whether to go back home orstay away," said Frank kindly.
"Ain't got no home. Wouldn't run away if I did. Looky here what he doneto me," and eagerly the little fellow threw himself out of the raggedcotton shirt he was wearing.
"Wow! That's fierce!" cried Jerry as he saw the red welts on the bareback of the fugitive bound boy.
"It's an outrage, and the big brute should be made to answer for it in alaw court. No matter if this boy is bound out to him, the law willprotect him. You know that, Jerry. Your father is a lawyer, too,"observed Frank, quite as filled with horror as his chum, though not asdemonstrative.
"And I'm going to put it up to him. Dad will stand back of this poorchap, and see he has his rights. He must be taken away from old Dobsonand put in the care of a decent farmer, who will treat him white,"continued Jerry, waxing enthusiastic over the situation.
The boy sprang over to him, and his whole expression was one ofgratitude.
"Thank you! Oh! thank you! That is all I want. I mean to do the rightthing, but I'm only a poor, weak boy, and he wants me to do a man'swork. I don't get enough to eat to make me strong. Oh! I've been wishingI could die, but now, somehow, I feel different. If you could only takeme away from him. He beats me, and I'm awful sore!" he exclaimed.
"That's all right, Jed. Don't worry any more about it. We're going tostand back of you after this," said Jerry soothingly.
"But he's somewhere up here, looking for me. I saw him only to-day, andhis big foreman, too. They carried blacksnake whips, the kind that cutsso bad. They will come here and take me away, and laugh at you, nomatter what you say. Give me something to eat, and let me run away intothe mountains, even if I starve to death."
Bluff laughed aloud.
"Oh, they will, eh? Well, let 'em try it. They'll find that two can playat a game like that, and that guns are much better to win with thanwhips," and he pointed to his beloved weapon as he spoke.
"Well, supper's ready, so sit around here, boys. Excuse me if I help ourunexpected company first," observed Jerry, heaping a pannikin with somestew, and placing several slices of toast, already buttered, on top ofthis, after which he passed it along to the bound boy.
It was pleasure enough just to watch the look on his pinched face as hestarted to devour the appetizing food with the rapacity of ahalf-starved wolf.
"Bluff, get your gun and keep it across your knees. Sometimes kettleshave a strange habit of vanishing just when you are expecting to enjoythe contents. This seems to be a bewitched country in that respect.Sticks poke out from behind tree trunks and spear your loaf of breadright before your eyes. We don't want to have those sort of tricksplayed on us any more, if we can help it, you know."
"Right you are, governor," said Bluff, only too glad to be appointedguardian of the feast by Frank; and the way in which he dragged hisfirearm toward him was satisfactory evidence that he would be faithfulto his trust.
But there was no interruption to the feast. The boy ate until heastonished his hosts by his capacity for holding food. Finally all weresatisfied, and they sat around the fire to consider what should be donein the matter.
"The sight of those welts is enough for me," said Jerry, "and I'm goingto make my dad promise to befriend the poor chap. He never had any usefor that red-faced Cal Dobson, anyway. Once they had a lawsuit oversomething, and the farmer got the better of it, I'm sorry to say, so Ireckon dad'll be glad of a chance to turn the tables on the old fellowand show him up."
"And I'll influence my father to see that Jed is placed in a home wherethey'll be kinder to him. A boy is only a slave with that big bully. Isaw him once, and he was threatening a parcel of little town girls fromthe factory section. Perhaps they had been annoying him by stealingfruit, or something like that, but he was talking to them like they werethe worst criminals," declared Frank.
"He always swore he would be the death of me if I didn't move faster. Iwas so weak I just couldn't. And then I run away three days ago," saidthe boy.
"Say, wouldn't I like to see the old fellow just now! He must be as madas a hornet," laughed Will.
The boy shuddered.
"Oh! I hope he won't come here till I'm gone," he said, his face takingon its old expression of abject fear.
Frank did not like to see him give way after this manner. At the sametime he knew that the lad had been browbeaten all his young life, andwhat little spirit he may have inherited must have been about crushed.
"You must have faith in us, Jed. I give you my word that if he appearedright now we would not let him take you away," he said.
"No," declared Bluff. "He could threaten and bluster all he wanted, solong as I had my eye on him along this trusty barrel he wouldn't dare."
"Listen! I thought I heard voices!" said Will just then.
They all remained silent, to make sure. The fugitive bound boy coweredlower in his seat. His terror-filled eyes glanced to the right and left,as though he contemplated immediate flight.
Frank put out his hand reassuringly.
"Don't you move. Trust us, Jed," he said quietly.
"But it's _him_--oh! I heard him speak! Don't I know his voice? Haven'tI waked up many a time, thinking I heard it
in my dreams? And nearlyalways he swears at me, and cuts me with that whip! Don't you think itwould be better if I hid?" he asked, his confidence not quite so strongas it had been a while back.
"Don't move. I give you my word that he isn't going to take you back,and that we won't let him even put his finger on you, Jed. Do youbelieve me?"
The poor waif looked into the determined face of Frank. What he sawthere seemed to give him a new lease of faith, for he did not make anyfurther effort at flight.
Nearer came the gruff voices.
"Perhaps you other fellows had better get ready to repel boarders,"remarked Frank, as he too, reached out and secured his shotgun.
Jerry did likewise, while Will picked up his camera and hied him away toa spot where he thought he might secure a flashlight picture of thescene.
And hardly had the stage been set after this fashion than tworough-looking men showed up on the edge of the camp, standing therewhile they looked the group over.