CHAPTER VIII
DICK’S FOOTBALL TACKLE
Left alone by Phil to pursue his own devices, Dick carried out his intention of getting something to eat before going any farther, and accordingly turned his steps in the direction of Aunt Abbie’s house.
He went around to the back door, and with his hat in his hand, gave an imitation of what he imagined would be a tramp asking for a “hand-out.”
He knocked at the door, and just as it was opened, asked in a whining tone for something to eat. The door was hardly opened, when he heard Aunt Abbie’s brisk voice:
“Start right in on that woodpile first.”
At this Dick could not hold in, and he began to laugh heartily.
The laugh evidently surprised Aunt Abbie, for she threw the door wide open and peered out over the tops of her glasses. When she recognized the “tramp,” she too began to laugh, and said:
“Come in, you young scalawag. Just for what you did I’ve a good notion to make you earn your dinner anyway.”
“Glad to help out a bit even for nothing,” promptly offered the fat boy.
“Well, seeing you’re so willing, we’ll let you off this time. I dunno what I can give you to eat. Fire’s gone down, and all I’ve got is some fresh tomatoes and some salad dressing and cucumbers and pie and doughnuts, and some cold milk out of the ice box, and——”
“Hold on, Aunt Abbie,” interrupted Dick. “There’s only one person here. I haven’t got a half a dozen people with me.”
“Why, what difference does that make?” inquired the old lady, somewhat tartly.
“Well, you’ve named over enough things to feed a regiment with.”
“Good land, don’t you suppose I know just what a growing boy can eat? Goodness knows I ought to. I raised four sons myself, all of them in the city and all doin’ well too.”
Dick sat down in the cool kitchen while Aunt Abbie scurried about getting his lunch. She kept up a running fire of chatter as she worked, it being mostly about the missing Ruth. She wanted to know what news any of the boys had, and what they were doing to find her.
“Garry has some sort of a clue that he has a lot of faith in, and has gone to look it up. You needn’t worry, Aunt Abbie. If she’s to be found, Garry is the boy to do the trick.”
Dick did not want to tell her that Ruth was in the power of Jean LeBlanc, for he knew that she would worry even more. Then he asked how the grandfather was.
“Land sakes, he’s still asleep; just played out, and it looks as though he will sleep till night anyway, maybe more. I’ve kept everything quiet about the house so as not to disturb him. There, now, eat your lunch, it’s all ready. What are you going to do this afternoon?”
“I am keeping my eyes on Lafe Green for awhile, and then I thought I’d go back to our place in the woods and see what luck I had with a little experiment that I’m trying out,” answered Dick as he tackled the luscious food set before him.
“Well, you better get into the woods pretty soon and get back again, for it’s going to rain great guns before night. Not a storm that will last long, just a good shower that will wet things down right and set the gardens growing again.”
Dick looked out through the open window at the cloudless sky, and asked in surprise:
“Why, the sky is as clear as crystal. What makes you think it’s going to rain?”
“Lots o’ signs say it’s going to, but there’s one that never fails,” answered the old lady. “My cat’s been washing her face all morning and bringing her paw over her right ear every time, and further she’s been outdoors eating the tops off the grass for the last hour.”
Dick laughed heartily at this as a weather sign, until he saw that he was in danger of offending the old lady. So he muffled his laughter and said:
“Excuse me, Aunt Abbie, but that’s a new one on me. I never before heard tell of a cat acting as a barometer.”
“Well, you can depend on Thomas Jones, that’s the name of my cat, to let me know whenever it’s going to rain in the summer.”
Dick finished his luncheon and then took his departure, promising to be back for supper unless something tied him up and prevented him. It should be mentioned that the boys had made arrangements to board at Aunt Abbie’s whenever they were in the town, so he was not exactly inviting himself to be a guest that night.
“Well, go along, and bring good news back with you when you come,” said the kindly Aunt Abbie as she began to clear away the dishes.
Thoroughly satisfied with the world, the fat youth sauntered towards the center of the village, and reconnoitred about the restaurant kept by the old Frenchman. No one was in sight, and he wandered down the street.
As he neared the corner where stood the general store, he saw Lafe Green disappearing around the side of the store. He followed cautiously, and let Green get a considerable start, and then trailed him. It was an easy job, for Green took to the woods that surrounded the town and walked swiftly. Dick dodged from tree to tree, keeping well back, but always close enough to make out Green’s form.
Lafe seemed to be circling as he walked, and Dick wondered what the idea was. Then it dawned on him, that from the direction he was taking, Lafe was headed for his own home. Dick at once concluded that there was some reason for his wanting to approach his own place without being detected. It was only a few moments before the boy saw the reason for the roundabout course.
Lafe took a stand under one of the trees, and in a few minutes was joined by two other men. Peering from his vantage point in back of a great spruce, Dick was startled to note that the new companions of Green were the two tramps that still remained at liberty.
They talked together in low tones for a moment, and then moved away. Walking as though the ground were covered with sharp needles and eggs and seeking shelter behind a tree every few seconds, Dick followed the trio.
As he thought, they headed for Lafe’s house, coming in from the back. When he was sure of their destination, Dick cut through the standing hay, and wriggling along on the ground, in a manner that the boys had read of the Indians doing, and had often practiced as youngsters, he approached the house. The hay field, as he knew, ran almost to the house, and ended at a stone wall not fifteen feet from the farmhouse. When he arrived at the wall he saw that the two tramps were sitting on the porch, while Lafe had gone inside on some errand. What the errand consisted of, was presently shown when the owner of the farm came out with a jug of cider.
“Not a soul inside, not even poor Bill. How he managed to let those cussed boys get him is more than I can make out,” muttered Green to the tramps. His words were quite distinguishable to Dick, for a gentle breeze was blowing in his direction, over which the voices of the men were carried as though on a telephone wire.
“Well have a score to settle with those birds aforelong,” growled one of the tramps. “But anyway, Bill can’t be much good when he lets a bunch of boys take him off. Can’t we get him bailed out?”
“Don’t see how. I’m out on bail myself, and it took nearly every penny I had to do that. Besides, I ain’t any too well liked by the law and order folks around here, and ’tisn’t likely they’d take my bail for him. We’ll have to do those two jobs alone tonight, and that will give us some money to work with and we’ll see then what can be done.”
“Speaking of jobs, which will we take first, the store or the bank?” asked one.
“Guess we better take the store first and get that over with; then it’ll be pretty late and we can take our time with the bank,” answered Green. “Say we get to the store at midnight; everyone’ll be in bed then. Look here, it’s getting hot outside, and it’s cooler in the house. Bring that jug inside with you,” and Lafe turned and went into the house, followed by the others.
Light instantly broke over Dick. That was the reason for the friendliness between the tramps and Lafe Green. They were evidently plotting to break and enter the store and the bank. Green knew nothing of this branch of criminality, and had in some way become acquainted with the tramps and had gone partners with them in this nefarious expedition.
Dick wished that they had stayed out on the porch and further discussed their plans. He knew it would be foolhardy to try and approach the house with the three of them there, for one might be at a window and they could easily seize him. He had not brought his rifle with him, but left it at Denton’s.
Still he had all the information that was necessary, and winding his way across the hay field, got out of sight of the house and then legged it for town as fast as he could go. He was puffing when he reached the village, and he stopped to get his breath. As he stood in the shade of an arching elm, the village constable came by and hailed him.
“Got any more tramps up your sleeve?” he asked facetiously.
“No, I got something better than that this time,” answered Dick. “I have three bank robbers for you.”
The constable thought that Dick was joking, and was about to make some humorous reply, when he noticed that Dick was in dead earnest.
“You really serious?” he asked.
“Never more so in my life,” answered Dick, and in a few brief sentences imparted his information to the constable.
“Now what’s the next step?” asked Dick, as he finished telling his story.
“Well, things are breaking lucky for us. I telephoned the sheriff after you brought in that other chap, and he said he’s starting right for here in his tin flivver. That was just before noon, and allowing him plenty of time along the road, he ought to be here any minute now. He’s only about forty-five miles from here. Let’s get back to the lockup and wait for him.”
This they did, and had barely gotten inside when they heard a motor engine come to a coughing stop outside and in walked the sheriff with one of his deputies. He recognized Dick instantly, for he had been at the head of the party the night that the smuggler band had been surrounded and captured.
The constable asked Dick to relate the occurrences of the morning beginning with the capture of the tramp and the subsequent developments that warned them of the attempt that was to be made that night.
The sheriff took in the whole talk without interruption, and then quickly made his plans.
“If any other person than this fellow had told me such a wild story, I’d be laughing yet; but I’ve seen a little of the work of this boy and his two companions, and so I’m taking a chance that he hasn’t been dreaming. You’re sure these are the same fellows you had a run-in with down in Cumberland county, are you?” he asked, for Dick had told them how they had first known of the tramps.
“Sure I’m sure,” said Dick indignantly. “Do you think I’m spinning tales just to hear myself talk?”
“That’s all right, Dick, don’t get hot,” laughed the sheriff. “I’m just getting the lay of the land, that’s all. Now here’s what we’ll do. I have Brown, my deputy, with me here, and the constable will make three. We’d better get one more man, Constable, just to be on the safe side. Who can you get?”
“Why, there’s Bud Harkins, who takes my job when I’m off on business, or on a little vacation. I can have him here in half an hour.”
“All right; be off and bring him here, and say nothing of what it’s all about. That will make us four, one more than the other outfit.”
Dick had been listening to this in a surprised sort of a way.
Suddenly he burst out: “Four? Where do I come in?”
“Why, you’ve done your share already, and there’s no need for you to be putting yourself in danger needlessly,” answered the sheriff.
“Say, that isn’t hardly fair. Here I get this tip, and then I’m to be cheated of the fun of being in at the end,” protested the fat boy.
“Might as well let him be the fifth man, Sheriff,” said the deputy. “He and his friends are pretty solid headed kids, and they were with us, you remember, when we rounded up Green and his gang first time.”
The sheriff debated with himself for a moment, and then gave in.
“All right, another person in the party won’t hurt any.”
Dick gave the deputy a grateful look, and said he had some other business to transact, and so would hop off and do that, and would be back at the little police station in plenty of time to join the capturing party.
“Take your time. We won’t gather here till about ten o’clock, and then we can slip around and take cover near the store and await the coming of the outfit. Don’t let anyone see you coming here, if you can help it, tonight,” answered the sheriff.
Dick hopped out and started for the lean-to in the woods. The business that he wanted to transact was to see if the camera trap had been sprung, and if so to bring the film back to town with him and develop it before it was time to join the sheriff’s party.
It was a hiking afternoon for Dick, and he thought that he must have walked nearly a score of miles that day in the hot sun. But Dick could put on speed when the occasion demanded it, and this was certainly such an occasion.
He glanced at the sky from time to time. It was still bright and cloudless, and he indulged in several little chuckles as he thought of the gentle chaffing that he would give Aunt Abbie about her “cat barometer” that evening.
He retrieved his rifle at Denton’s and then at a half trot made for the woods.
It was cooler walking under the trees, and he kept up a swift pace, watching carefully as he walked, so that he would not be surprised by any one.
He did not meet a person on his way to the lean-to, and as he approached the brush shack, redoubled his vigilance. There was no sign of anyone around, and keeping his rifle in a handy position, he made his way to the place they called home while in the woods.
Dick stepped over the trap carefully, for in the event that no one had been there, he did not want to have a snap of himself taken, and thereby necessitate some minutes in resetting the trap.
He went directly to the bush screen, and looked.
Then he gave a whoop of delight. The little lever of the lens had been pulled down.
Carefully he took the camera out of its hiding place among the branches, and turned the roll so that a new film was exposed. He knew from the numbers on the little peekhole that there were three more exposures on the roll, and so to use them up, rather than develop them blank, he snapped the brush lean-to from three different positions, thinking that the folks at home would be interested in seeing what kind of a place they lived in while in the forests.
Then pocketing his camera, he cast a last look around the lean-to and set out for the village and Aunt Abbie’s house.
He had gone less than five hundred yards when the sky began to darken, and in a few minutes the big rain drops were pattering down through the branches of the trees.
“Well, I’ll be jiggered,” he muttered aloud. “If Aunt Abbie wasn’t right. Believe me, next time I want to know what the weather is, I’m going to hunt me up a cat and observe his actions for awhile. I’m due for a nice wetting now.”
He wound a large bandanna handkerchief around his neck to keep out the wet, and pulled his coat collar up. Then he broke into a long lope, that would take him over the ground at a fair rate of speed, and yet not be tiring.
The rain increased in force, and soon he was pretty thoroughly drenched. He wished he had his rubber poncho with him, but that was strapped to his knapsack, safely tucked away at Denton’s store, nearly four miles away. There was nothing to do but get wet, thought Dick philosophically, and he put his best food forward. He had cheerful visions of Aunt Abbie’s warm house and a good hot supper, for the rain was cooling off the heated air like so many monster electric fans.
He reached Denton’s store at last, and getting his knapsack and refusing the postmaster’s invitation to stay and get dry, made his way to Aunt Abbie’s.
“Good land o’ liberty,” said the old lady, when she saw Dick’s condition. “Come right out to the kitchen stove, and get those wet things off. Lucky there’s some old clothes belonging to my youngest son upstairs, and you can put ’em on till yours get dry.”
Dick protested that he wanted nothing more than a chair by the stove, for a wetting more or less was nothing to him; but the old lady wouldn’t hear of it, and to humor her, Dick told her to go and get the clothes and he would wear them.
“By the way, Aunt Abbie, I take back all the laughing I did at your ‘cat barometer’ this afternoon.”
“I knew you would. Thomas Jones has never failed me yet,” and she bustled out to get the dry clothes.
In a short time she was back with them.
“These ought to fit you pretty well, my boy was about your size when he had them. Now hurry up, for Mr. Everett has waked up, and said he’d be right down to talk to you.”
Aunt Abbie left the kitchen, and Dick made haste to get into the dry clothes, for although he was used to being wet, he did not deny that the dry apparel was mighty comfortable.
Ruth’s grandfather soon appeared on the scene, and his first anxious question was for news of his granddaughter.
Dick told him the whole story, and did his best to comfort the old man by telling that Garry rarely failed on a mission.
“Besides, it seems to be our fate to overcome the evil schemes of that half breed, and this time ought to be no exception. I’ve a hunch also that LeBlanc’s race is pretty nearly run, and we are due to turn him over to the law before we finish our work here.”
Dick’s optimism transferred itself in a measure to the old man, who said philosophically:
“Well, the only thing to do is to wait, I suppose, until Garry gets back, either with her or with news. All my faith is pinned on him, and I feel he won’t fail.”
After supper, Dick asked Aunt Abbie if she had a closet that had an electric light in it, and found to his delight that she had.
He borrowed some flat dishes from her, and then went to the closet she indicated and proceeded to make a darkroom of it. There was a flat-topped trunk there, and this he converted into a table.
In the flat dishes he put the necessary water, and then from his knapsack got the hypo and developer and a piece of red cloth that he had bought for just such a purpose.
This red cloth he twisted around the bulb of the electric light, and in this way made his darkroom. Requesting Aunt Abbie to turn off the lights in the room, he entered the closet and proceeded to prepare his developer and fixing bath.
Dick was no mean hand at developing pictures, and he did the job speedily but carefully. After the necessary developing, he left the developed negatives in the water for several minutes, sloshing them around occasionally to wash them free of all the acid that was used in developing them. Then he let them dry somewhat, and held them up to the ruby light he made with the red cloth. The negative showed the upright figure of a man, but he could not make out who it was.
It would be necessary to make prints. Having finished with his developing, he went out of the closet and turned on the light in the outer room.
“Now, Aunt Abbie, can I bother you for one more thing?” he asked.
“Bless your heart, a dozen more if you want them. What is it now?” she replied.
“I’d like a small piece of glass and a flat piece of wood. I am going to try and print some pictures, but have no printing frame; although with the two things mentioned, I can improvise one that will do the work.”
Aunt Abbie directed him to the cellar, and he rummaged around until he found a piece of glass that was of the size he wanted. It was evidently one that had been procured to mend a light in the cellar window which he observed was broken. Then he found a board, and proceeded to saw it to the same size as the glass. He now had the principal parts of the frame.
All that remained now to do was to hinge the board and the glass, and this he did with a piece of insulating tape from his ever ready knapsack. It was some that had been bought for the purpose of repairing the telephone lines when they were on the forest fire patrol, when they had first entered the woods.
Dick then retired to the darkroom, and setting his negative against a piece of sensitized paper, inserted the two between the glass and the wood. Then holding the other end firmly together between his thumb and fingers, held the improvised frame with the glass up to the electric light from which had been removed the red cloth.
Dick was familiar enough with printing to “read” the paper as it developed. This was then put into the printing bath and soon the picture appeared. When it was finished, Dick stared at it in amazement; for instead of the features of Jean LeBlanc, which he firmly expected to see, he noted that it was not Jean, but his brother, Baptiste!
“I might have remembered that they would probably be together,” he thought, as he remembered that Baptiste had been in the motor launch, by the aid of which Jean had escaped from the lumber camp. “Well, that leaves still two to be disposed of, for the tramps and Lafe Green will be taken tonight.”
He cleaned up after his work of developing and printing, and then looking at his watch, found it was nearly time to be starting for the rendezvous with the sheriff and the constable.
“Where’s Phil?” asked Aunt Abbie. “I thought he would be around for supper tonight.”
“He went off to Coldenham to do a little investigating,” answered Dick, “and there was some likelihood of his not being back tonight, unless he could get a conveyance to bring him. There’s nothing to worry about, however,” said Dick lightly, not knowing of the accident that had befallen his comrade.
At the police station, he found that all the men of the party had already arrived. The sheriff stated that they would wait for about one hour and then proceed singly or in pairs to the general store and postoffice. Here they would take positions in hiding and wait for the approach of the raiders.
“We’ll let them get in the store so that we can catch them red-handed, and that will give us enough to keep them in prison for a good while to come. Also, it will cause the re-arrest of Lafe Green, who, to my mind, should never have been let out on bail. This second offense will forfeit his right to asking bail again, and that will clean up the last of a bad gang in these parts,” said the sheriff.
The hour passed quickly, while Dick told of some of the events that took place at the lumber camp.
“After we get through with this job, I think I’ll make it a point to go after LeBlanc and get him proper. He should not be at large, for he’s a dangerous person as well as a criminal,” remarked the sheriff.
Dick mentally agreed with him, as he thought of the several narrow escapes that he and his friends had had from The Bear, as LeBlanc liked to call himself.
The start was made, and they arrived at the general store.
There the sheriff stationed them in spots where they could observe the store and yet be in hiding themselves.
“They’ll probably approach from the woods there where you say you followed them Dick, and will likely get in through the back of the store, as I happen to remember there’s a window there.”
They waited nearly an hour, a long, slow, dragging hour, before the approach of Green and his two evil companions.
Then there was a slight hitch that threatened their plans for a moment. Instead of all of them entering the store, Lafe Green effaced himself against the side of the store in the shadows, evidently to act as lookout while the others plied their nefarious occupation.
“We’ll have to get up on him unawares,” whispered the sheriff to Dick, who was standing by him.
“Why can’t we draw back a bit and then approach him from the other corner. We can creep along in front of the porch there, and take him by surprise. He would only be expecting to see some straggler approach up the street, and would not think of anyone creeping up on him,” suggested Dick.
“Good an idea as any, suppose we try it,” whispered the sheriff.
They followed out the idea, and taking several minutes in order to make no sound, crept up on the unsuspecting Green.
“Put ’em up, Green, and don’t let out a yip, or I’ll blow the daylight through you,” whispered the sheriff sibilantly.
Then he and Dick straightened up, leveling their firearms at Green. Green was so taken by surprise that he was only able to gasp.
“Now, Dick, round up the boys while I watch this fellow,” ordered the sheriff.
Dick hastened to do his bidding, and in a trice the other members of the party were at the sheriff’s side. Green had already been handcuffed, and warning him to make no sound, the party moved towards the window in the rear of the store where the tramps had made their entrance.
Bidding the constable guard Green, the capturing party crept toward the cubbyhole office.
Everything was going according to schedule, when the constable’s assistant stumbled against a crate, barking his shins severely, and forgetting the necessity for quietness, let out a muttered imprecation.
Instantly the tramps wheeled from their work, and making out the forms of the sheriff and his men, let loose with a volley of shots from their revolvers.
There was the sound of a falling body, and a groan from the sheriff’s deputy. Dick was about to rush to his assistance, when he called:
“Never mind me, just got me in the leg. Get the men.”
The tramps had snapped out their light, and so offered no mark for the guns of the authorities of the law. Flashes of orange flame pierced the darkness as the sheriff fired at the spot where the tramps had been working. Finally there was a rush of feet, and the sheriff fired in the direction of the sound.
There was a cry of pain from one of the tramps, and then a crash as one hurled himself through the open window.
Dick was the nearest to the window, and in a flash had followed the lead set by the tramp. He had dropped his rifle as he jumped, and was therefore unarmed, while the tramp still had his revolver.
The refugee was only a few steps ahead of him, and had slackened his stride for a moment to get his bearings and determine in which direction he should run.
This was Dick’s opportunity. Straight at the tramp he ran, and with the practice borne of long years on the football field,—for he was the star center of the high school team,—dived straight at the running man.
He hit him with a shock just above the knees, and the man fell like a stricken ox. It will be remembered that Dick was a heavy chap, and the weight of his body added to the great force with which he struck the man, was enough to knock the wind entirely out of the tramp.
As the man lay there, stunned for the moment, Dick possessed himself of the revolver, and with this show of arms was able to force his prisoner to march back to the spot where Lafe Green was being held under guard.
There were no more shots from the store, and in a moment or two the sheriff appeared with the constable and the prisoner. He gave these in charge of Dick and the man Hawkins, and then went back to aid his deputy.
The fusilade of shots had drawn several half-dressed men to the scene, and great was their astonishment when they saw the sheriff’s party and their prisoners.
The deputy was carried to the home of one of the men, and a doctor called, but it was found that he had sustained nothing more than a bad flesh wound.
Among those who had been attracted by the shots was one Mr. Arthur, the president of the bank.
When he was informed that his little bank was to have been the next scene of operations on the part of the yeggman, and was told that Dick’s work had prevented it, he shook hands with the boy heartily.
“It would have been a hard blow for me, for I have more money than usual, since several mortgages have been paid during the past few days. You can be assured that I will not forget your brave work,” he said.
“Looks like I lost out with you, young feller,” said Lafe to Dick. “But let me tell you this. There’s one more left to reckon with you, and I guess he’ll wipe the slate clean for me!”