by Quincy Allen
CHAPTER XXI--THE LAST STRAW
"Ouch! I'm scalded!"
"Skidoo, boys! there's more a-comin'!"
"Why didn't ye shoot, Bill, when ye had the chance? Gee! the skin'sa-peelin' off me nose a'ready!"
No sooner had Waddy Walsh thrown the pan of hot water upon the advancinggroup that carried the log than he bolted inside again, and the bar washeard falling back of the door.
Then they heard the young savage laugh loud and long. It was this soundthat aroused the passions of the crowd. They no longer thought offlight. With the burning sensation that came with the hot waterapplication, each fellow ached to be revenged. The worst of it was, mostof them knew Waddy well, and indeed he had once been a member of thissame crowd.
Down went the log to the ground. All thought of using it as a batteringram had left them now.
"Git behind the trees, fellers. It's us to the foolish house if we letthat Waddy Walsh ketch us ag'in," shouted Pet, who was rubbing his facequite as vigorously as his comrades in misery.
Upon this they hustled for shelter. Each boy took to a tree thathappened to come handy, and feeling safe from a further bombardment theygave vent to their feelings in all sorts of characteristic shouts.
Frank was feeling a bit anxious about Jerry. What if these recklessspirits, aggravated by their hot reception, should try to take it out onthe person of the boy they hated? Two of them carried some manner ofshotguns, and there was no telling what they might not be tempted to do.
When, however, he looked anxiously up into the tree where he had lastseen Jerry, to his delight he found that the other had vanishedcompletely from sight.
"Where's he gone?" asked Bluff, at this moment, he having apparentlylikewise just discovered the absence of the other chum.
"I don't know. Perhaps he's only hiding behind the trunk of the tree, orhe may have found it hollow, like that other one, and slipped in. Watchwhat those fellows are up to. If they make a move to shoot at Jerry,we'll have to put in our oar," Frank answered with considerable feeling.
Pet Peters' crowd was plainly at a loss to know how they ought toproceed. They saw that hundred dollars reward dangling temptingly beforetheir eyes, and could not bear the thought of letting it pass withoutstraining themselves to the utmost to win it. All sorts of things theyhad wanted so long could be bought with that easy money, and they werenot yet ready to give up their chances.
"Hi! Bill, you an' Sim git over here. I wanter have a spiel with yuh.Them guns orter fetch our game out on ther knees, if yuh on'y use 'emsteady. Kim over, an' you, too, Miser Lee. P'raps I kin use yuh!"
It was Pet bawling out, and that his word carried weight was manifest bythe way in which the three fellows addressed hastened to cross over towhere he stood back of the big tree that had the gaping hole in itstrunk ten feet from the ground.
Frank could see them talking earnestly, and gesticulating as if toemphasize their words. Finally Pet seized the gun that one of the otherscarried, and taking a quick aim at the cabin he pulled the trigger.
"Bang! bang!" went both barrels.
The dead grass vanished from the little window under the charges of shotat such close quarters.
"Kim out o' that, an' surrender to the law!" bellowed Pet.
Frank laughed to himself at the words; it was more than comical to hearthis boy, whose contempt for law and order had made him a markedcharacter in Centerville, so loudly proclaim his sudden conversion.
Silence followed this peremptory command. Those within the cabin eitherdid not care to answer, or else could not.
"Say, Pet, p'raps ye did for 'em that time?" suggested one of theothers.
"Git out! Thar wa'nt no chance of that happenin'. Waddy just wants tuhfool us. He allers was that ways, yuh know," answered Pet; but it wasplain that the awful suggestion rather awed him.
"Shall I shoot, Pet?" asked the other owner of a gun, dubiously.
"'Course yuh must. Think I'm goin' tuh do all the work. Blaze away bothof ye, so long as ye got a shell left. Anyhow, p'raps we kin put in aclaim fur part o' the reward, fur holdin' 'em here. Go on, Sim, I tellyuh!"
So Sim began to bombard the wall of the cabin. He made mighty sure notto fire in at that little gaping hole where the dead grass had hunguntil Pet knocked it through with his shot. If so be any damage was doneto the inmates Sim did not mean to be accused as the guilty one.
Things seemed pretty lively for a time, with those two guns rattlingaway as fast as the owners could reload. From behind their trees thebalance of the attacking crowd watched to see if there came any whiteflag of surrender. Beyond the boom of the guns, however, not a sound washeard, unless the excited voices of the eager boys were taken intoconsideration.
Bluff was plainly nervous. He tried to get up several times, and asoften Frank pulled him down again.
"I just can't stand it, with all that racket going on. Why don't we havea share in it?" he begged, piteously.
"Because we don't want to expose our hand. Give those silly chumps timeand they will play the game to suit us. Wait till their last shell hasbeen fired; then we control the situation. See?" whispered his comrade,soothingly.
"Frank, you hit me again that time. What a goose I am. Why, of coursethat's the racket for us. Let 'em go on and roll their hoop!" answeredBluff, who at least was always ready to admit the error of his ways whenconvinced.
The shooting soon came to an end, for neither Sim nor Bill seemed tohave any great amount of ammunition with them.
"That's my last shell!" declared the former, presently.
"An' I got my last in the gun. Shall I use 'em, Pet?" demanded theother.
"'Course, an' send it in the windy this time," growled the oneaddressed.
But Bill was too shrewd for that, and proceeded to sprinkle his birdshot over the surface of the ancient logs.
"Now we control the situation. Our guns are not useless, if theirs are!"exclaimed Frank, with a chuckle.
Still he did not seem in any hurry to open hostilities. Perhaps he hopedthese eight followers of Pet might find a way to capture the hoboes,upon which they could appear on the scene and menace the enemy untilthey were glad to run away, leaving the fruits of their victory in thehands of Frank and his friends.
"Pet's up to something tricky. I bet it's the old game of firing theshanty. You remember, Frank, how he tried to burn us out last Fall whenwe were in camp. There goes some of the lot creeping up with armfuls ofleaves. Say, are we going to stand by and see it done?" queried Bluff,warmly.
"At the last minute we can stop it. When Pet starts up to strike amatch, then we'll take a hand. No hurry. The chaps inside won't thankus, remember. It's out of the frying-pan into the fire with them," camefrom his companion, who was observing all that went on with a criticaleye.
"Looks like they meant to have a big enough pile of leaves there," saidBluff, as the line of creeping forms kept depositing more and more fuelclose to the wall of the cabin.
"Yes, and I reckon she'd burn like tinder if once started. Suppose thosetwo hoboes rushed out suddenly, do you suppose Pet and his crowd havegot sand enough to tackle them?" asked Frank of the recruit on his otherside.
"They want that reward bad, I reckon, and would do some tall fightin' toget it. Fightin' is ther main suit, ye know," answered Tom Somers, as hecaressed the cut on his face tenderly.
"Now they've stopped piling up the leaves. Looks like they expected Petto go in and put a match to the bunch. He don't appear to hanker afterthe job, but to back out would put him on the blink with the crowd.There, Frank, he's going to make the riffle, you see. Now, what?" pantedBluff, again seeking to rise, as he fumbled his gun nervously.
"There's no need of our doing anything, after all," remarked Frank.
"Then you mean to let 'em set the cabin on fire, and perhaps roast thepoor hoboes before our very eyes?" exclaimed Bluff, in dismay.
"Not at all. I only mean that the job of frightening the bunch off isgoing to be taken out of our hands, for that wild man is coming back!"
"You don't say? Where--point him out to me, Frank. Oh! if I could onlyget a chance to snap him off; but, just like the luck, the lastflashlight cartridge is gone. Ginger! I see him now. Ain't he a terrorthough? And won't they go into fits when he rushes 'em? There he comes,as sure as you live! Wow! watch the circus, boys. My! my! ain't I gladI'm here to see this!"
Tom Somers had said that his former teammates loved nothing better thana fight, but there were evidently times when such a condition of affairswas far from their thoughts. Such seemed to be the case now, for as theyheard the shrill whoops of the outlandish hairy figure that cameprancing headlong toward them, every boy took to his heels in a madflight, heedless alike of direction or obstacles in the way, so long ashe could escape a close encounter with that terrible creature.
