Chapter XXIII
Just Between Boys
“Why, they’re all wet, boys, if you’ll believe me!” exclaimed Sim, as soon as Tubby and Andy arrived in the car.
Tubby got out, laboriously, and then proceeded to exhibit as fine a string of bass as the heart of any enthusiastic angler could wish.
“But the biggest got away from us, I’m sorry to say,” he remarked. “’Course I know well enough that that’s an awful old excuse, but in this case it’s a fact. Our condition proves it, too. I held on like grim death, even after he upset the boat, and, say, he dragged me under twice, and then—shucks! the line broke. I guess he snagged it on a sharp rock. These bass are mighty smart fish, I’m finding out.”
Andy was grinning, as though it may have been something of a “circus” to him even if he had also been thrown into the water by the capsizing of their cranky boat when the clumsy Tubby became excited with such a large fish on his hook.
“Believe me, it was a lively time,” he admitted. “Tubby was swimming, and spouting the water out of his mouth like a whale, all the while holding on to his rod, and trying to yell. I think he would have landed that monster bass if only the line hadn’t gone back on him. He was the most disappointed fellow you ever saw when he found his prize had skipped out.”
“Were you far from the shore, and what did you do?” asked Rob.
“It happened that we were fishing past that big rock where Tubby caught his other noble bass,” explained Andy. “So we didn’t have far to swim, pushing the boat between us. I knew that was the easiest way to manage, because Tubby would have had a tough job climbing over the stern.”
“Huh! must have weighed nearly a ton with my soaked clothes,” the fat boy agreed. “But we didn’t lose anything, except a hook, and that monster bass. It wasn’t such a terrible experience, either. If the day had been chilly at all we’d have started a fire, and dried out; but neither of us cared to bother going to all that trouble; so we baled out the boat, and just commenced fishing again; but I never got another bully strike like that one.”
They were not feeling uncomfortable in the least; as their clothes had by this time pretty well dried out upon their backs, neither of the boys took the trouble to make any change.
“I’m too hungry to wait a minute,” announced Tubby, showing that he had heard the summons to lunch as the car approached the farmhouse.
It was high noon, and still no Peleg. Rob continued to wonder what could be keeping the farm boy in town. Still, it was a good ten mile tramp in case he thought to make it afoot. On the other hand, Rob thought he might be waiting for a chance to ride with some farmer returning home, and that the opportunity may not as yet have come along.
“What, no frogs’ legs today?” remarked Tubby, when the meal had progressed far enough to show this lack of his favorite delicacy.
“Oh! we’ve decided to leave all that to you, Tubby,” laughed Ralph. “It seems that the rest of us have had all we want of that fish-chicken combination. There’s the pond, and whenever you feel like having a mess take my Flobert and get busy. The rest of us have other fish to fry.”
“What’s the programme for this afternoon?” asked Sim.
Rob looked toward Ralph, fully expecting to hear the other suggest that they go to town. Again he was mistaken, for nothing of the kind came about.
“Why,” Ralph started to say, “father has asked me to take the car and run over to Flemington to attend to some business that needs looking after. If any or all of you feel like going along, now’s your chance to say the word. There’ll be room for you, and it’s worth going thirty miles uphill and down, for you’ll get some mighty fine views. How about you, Rob?”
“I’m game if the rest are,” came the ready reply.
In rapid succession Tubby, Sim and Andy announced themselves willing to take part in the excursion. It would show them a section of country that was new; and promised to be quite an enjoyable diversion. Evidently, then, Rob concluded, Ralph did not mean to look that curio dealer up in a hurry, so as to settle the question of Peleg’s innocence or guilt.
“I wouldn’t be much surprised,” Rob told himself, “if Ralph sort of shrinks at doing that. He would like to get his stamps back, but while the case is open and unsettled he can try and convince himself that the boy isn’t guilty. Once he has the proof dead to rights and Peleg must go. It does Ralph a whole lot of credit, this trying to give the boy all the chance he can.”
They certainly had a glorious run of it on the way to Flemington, and the scenery was all that the enthusiastic Ralph had promised. He also managed to return by another roundabout road, so that they could see still another section of country.
“Ralph, slow up, won’t you?” suddenly called out Sim, who was sitting on the back seat. “I want to get a better look at something through the trees over here on the right. There, I saw him again, and now I’m dead sure of it.”
“Why, it certainly does look mighty much like our Peleg,” agreed Tubby, who had also managed to crane his fat neck so as to obtain a passing view; “but whatever would he be doing away over here, a long way from your place; and he seemed to be driving a horse and buggy, too. Ralph, what do you know about this?”
Ralph stopped the car, and also glanced back, for as he had to keep his eyes on the road most of the time, it was not easy for him to turn around, lest by so doing he land them in a ditch.
“Yes, that’s Peleg,” he announced, presently, and Rob could see that the altogether strange appearance of the farm boy over in this section when he should have turned up at the Jeffords’ place surprised Ralph.
“What do you reckon he’s doing over here?” continued Tubby, bound to “pump” the other until Ralph yielded up all the information at his disposal.
“Well, I can explain that part of it,” was the reply. “You see, Peleg’s sister is working out at that house where he’s going right now. Evidently Peleg has hired that rig in town for the purpose of paying his sister a visit.”
“Oh! seeing that he was off work, he must have just made up his mind he might as well be killed for a sheep as a lamb; is that it, Ralph?” demanded Tubby.
“Something like it, I guess,” answered the other, at the same time giving Rob at his side a queer look, together with a frown.
Rob could easily guess what was passing through the mind of the boy at the wheel of the car; he believed that Peleg must be spending the money he had received for those packets of foreign stamps in paying for the horse and buggy with which he was driving over to see his sister.
It was not a pleasant thought to Rob. He wished the whole affair would make haste to reach a settlement; if Peleg were guilty, the sooner the fact became known to Ralph the better; if, on the other hand, he could prove his innocence, it was too bad to keep up this feeling of suspicion.
They started on again. So far as they knew, Peleg had not once looked toward the road as he drove up along the lane leading to the farmhouse just beyond the brow of the rise. Apparently he was at the time so excited over the thought of seeing his sister again that he had eyes and ears for nothing else; and the mere passing of a car held no attraction for him. Rob thought it was just as well, for Peleg might have signalled to them; and in some way Ralph was likely to burst forth, perhaps openly accusing the boy in the presence of the others.
So they went on. Ralph kept his thoughts to himself, not even speaking of Peleg to Rob at his side. The others, very naturally, continued to exchange remarks that Ralph could not help hearing above the purr of the engine.
“Well, anyhow,” Tubby was saying, with his accustomed zeal, “I’m glad to know he wasn’t hurt any in the fire. When he failed to show up at the time we were leaving I felt worried. Lots of people got injured, I’m sure, for the crowd acted like it was crazy, running back and forth, and knocking everybody over who got in the way.”
“Peleg is all right, we know now,” interjected Andy. “He’s wanted to see this sister of his for some time, I reckon, and took this chance to get around. Oh! look at that bull chasing after that dog in the field, will you? The little barker is too smart for the clumsy beast; but if ever he gets those horns underneath him, I give you my word for it he’ll clear thirty feet in the air if he does one.”
Little escaped their eyes as they rode along. First one and then another would call attention to something of interest that was seen, now on the right and again on the left. Tubby even declared that he was beginning to believe he had a regular “rubber-neck,” they kept him looking so much.
Back at the farm again, they lounged around the balance of the afternoon. Ralph often looked along the road they had so recently driven over, and Rob made up his mind that the other was hoping to see Peleg coming. To his mind this proved that while Ralph had kept unusually quiet on the subject, he was still worrying about the status of the farm boy.
It was getting along toward sunset when finally Ralph, as if unable to longer hold in, introduced the subject himself.
Perhaps the fact that he and Rob chanced to be alone at the time had something to do with it. They were looking over the flashlight apparatus, which the owner had been explaining to Ralph, who agreed that the manipulation of the little “trick” was simplicity itself, and could be easily managed by any one with a fair degree of intelligence.
“It begins to look to me as though Peleg knows he must be under suspicion, and doesn’t mean to come back to work here, much as I hate to believe that, Rob,” was what he said, watching the face of his companion so as to read his opinion even before the other made any sort of reply.
“Oh! I wouldn’t say that until you know more about his actions,” Rob told him. “You yourself said he had a queer and powerful affection for his brothers and sisters. His going out there today proves that, too. Now as a scout I’ve been taught never to believe wrong of any one unless the proof is overwhelming; and even then to try and think the best you can of him, perhaps by your influence causing him to repent and make restitution.”
“I understand what you mean, Rob,” muttered the other, “and if Peleg really showed any sign of being sorry for what he has done, I’d forgive him, and keep his secret. I’m not one of the hard kind to hold a thing against any chap, because I know we’re not all alike. Peleg, being tempted, would mean ten times the strain on his honesty that the same thing would to me. Yes, I’ve already made up my mind to go easy with him.”
Rob was glad to hear this. At the same time he still hoped there would be no occasion to exercise this clemency on the part of his friend. It was pleasant for him to know Ralph was that sort of boy; and he believed the other would make a model member of the new scout troop, when it was organized in Wyoming.
“There’s just one more thing I want to say, Rob,” the other remarked when they were about to pass out again to the open air, and join the rest of the fellows on the shady porch. “Meeting you has been a revelation to me, and given me a lot of new ideas. And let me tell you I’ve never known any one who had such faith in finding a streak of good in every boy that lives!”
“Oh!” said Rob with a laugh, “that’s easy enough when you figure out your own struggles between right and wrong. All boys pass through the same, more or less.”