"Yes, fa"r an" squar"," answered the man.
"Very well then, I"ll tell you about this matter. We boys don"t like your illegal occupation up here in the mountains, but it is none of our business. We have never spied out your stills and certainly we have given no information to the revenue officers."
"What did they come up here for then?" asked one of the mountaineer"s companions.
"They came up to capture us. They had seen the lights of Camp Venture and had located us. So they thought they had a still sure, and they came up here to capture it. The first thing they did was to surround us and fire at us in the dark. I explained matters to them and they searched our camp all over. Then they decided to camp there till they could get some provisions from down below, and while they were waiting, they asked me to tell them where the stills were so that they might raid them for meal. I knew where some stills were of course, for I"ve seen a lot since I came up here, but I refused to tell them."
"Is that honest Injun, Tom?"
"Yes," answered the boy. "I never tell lies. But you must understand me clearly. I haven"t the smallest respect for you moonshiners or for your business. Under ordinary circ.u.mstances I should not hesitate to tell the revenue officers where a still was if I happened to know. But I made a bargain with you, Bill Jones. I told you truly that we had come up here to cut railroad ties and not to interfere with you or your criminal business. I told you that if you"d let us alone we"d let you alone. We could have sent a message down the mountain by our chute any day which would have brought the soldiers and the revenue people up at once but we didn"t. I had promised you and I have kept my promise."
"Yes," answered Bill Jones, "an" you let me off in a state prison case, jest in time to save my little gal from starvin" to death! I"ll never forgit it, an" I tell you fellers you mustn"t hurt little Tom. Ef you do, I"ll stand on his side an" they"ll be some ugly work done before you"re through with it."
"Well," said one of the men, "he tells a mighty nice, slick story like, an" maybe it"s true. But they"s jest one question I"d like to ask him afore we close the conversation like."
"Ask me any question you please," said Tom, "and I"ll answer it truly. I have nothing to conceal, and I never tell lies."
"Well," said the man after discharging a quid of tobacco from further service and biting off a new one to take its place, "what I want to know is what you"se been doin", out here in the mounting all night like."
"That"s easy," said Tom. "I"ve been killing a bear."
"Where?" asked the man.
"About a quarter of a mile back. You see we"re getting short of meat down there in camp, with all these soldiers quartered upon us."
"Then ef you done got a bear whar is it?" asked the man.
"It is back there, as I tell you, about a quarter of a mile."
"Why didn"t you bring it with you?" asked the man.
"Simply because it is too heavy. It is the biggest bear I ever saw. I was on my way to camp, when you stopped me, to get some fellows to come out here and help me drag it."
"Will you show it to us?" asked the man, still incredulously. "Seein"s believin" you know."
"Certainly," said Tom. "The little old moon is rising now, and you can get a good look at the bear that I"ve sat up all night to kill."
He led the way back and at sight of the bear even the incredulous one of the party was satisfied.
"Now," spoke up Bill Jones, "we"ve got jest one thing to do. Ef this bar is left here it"ll be half et up by varmints afore men can be brought from the camp to carry it in. Fellers we"ve got to carry it in fer Little Tom--him what let me go jist in time to save my little gal from starvin" when her mother was lyin dead in the cabin an" fer two days the little gal hadn"t so much as a bite to eat. We"ll drag the bar to the camp fer Little Tom!"
One of the men offered an objection: "We"ll git arrested ef we do," he said.
"For what?" asked Tom.
"Why fer moonshining of course."
"But you haven"t been caught moonshining. n.o.body in camp can accuse you of that or any other crime. Anyhow if you fellows will help me to camp with this bear I pledge you my honor that I"ll stand by you and see to it that you"re not arrested."
"That"s "nuff sed," said Bill Jones. "Little Tom never goes back on his word, an" he knows how to manage things. We"ll take the bar to camp."
The men a.s.sented but with hesitation and obvious reluctance. Seeing their hesitation Bill Jones spoke again:
"Now I tell you, you needn"t worry the least little bit. I know whereof I speak, as the Bible says, when I tell you that you kin bet all you"ve got on Little Tom Ridsdale. When he says a thing he means it an" when he means it he"ll do it ef all the eggs in the basket gits broke."
"Thank you Bill," said Tom. "Anyhow I"ll see that you fellows get safely out of our camp or else I"ll go with you with my rifle in my hand."
The men seemed satisfied. Seizing the bear they dragged it campwards as the daylight began to grow strong. Before Camp Venture was reached the sun was well above the horizon, and as they approached Tom gained some notion of what had happened there and of what the blaze of the night before had signified. But well outside the camp his mountaineers dropped the bear and bade Tom good bye.
Not a vestige of the house in which the boys had lived all winter remained. Only the smoke of a still smoldering fire marked the place where it had been.
CHAPTER x.x.xV
_The End of Camp Venture_
During the night of Tom"s bear hunt, the boys slept soundly, wearied as they were by an especially hard day"s work. About three o"clock a soldier from out under the bluff rushed in crying:
"Wake up! Wake up! Wake up! Your chimney"s on fire!"
Then came the Lieutenant with a squad of soldiers to remove the wounded men from the hut. This was a work of some difficulty although all the men were now "making satisfactory recovery" as the Doctor phrased it.
The Doctor took charge at this point because he knew as no one else did the exact nature and condition of each man"s wound, and it was his care to see that none should be improperly handled or in any way injured in the removal. Yet the house burned so rapidly that there was very little time for care and the excited soldiers had to be sharply restrained by the Lieutenant to make them comply with every direction of the Doctor in their handling of the wounded men.
Meantime the boys removed from the house everything of value, including even the "piano," which they would need every day for the sharpening of their axes.
What had happened was this: the upper part of the chimney, as the reader will remember, had been built of sticks, laid in a crib, and daubed all over with mud. The sticks were green, full of sap and almost incombustible when placed in position, and besides that the mud daubing protected them. But little by little the mud had dried and fallen away.
While the heat of a fire that was maintained night and day for many months had seasoned the sticks first and then dried and parched them to the condition of tinder, capable of being ignited by the merest spark.
That night the spark did its work. The chimney sticks caught fire and burned with fierce violence. The clapboards forming the roof and the resinous pine timbers that held them in place, had also been roasted into an exceedingly combustible condition, and by the time that the fire was discovered the house was obviously doomed. That was the origin of the light that Tom had seen in the direction of Camp Venture while waiting for his bear.
When he now entered the camp he found the boys getting breakfast by an out door fire, built near the mouth of the chute.
"Poor old Camp Venture!" he exclaimed. "How did it happen boys?"
They hastily explained especially answering Tom"s eager questions as to the condition of the wounded men.
"They are quite comfortable," said the Doctor. "All possible care was taken in removing them from the burning house, and my examination discovers no trace of damage done to any of them. But where have you been and what have you brought back with you?" for Tom had no game in possession.
"I"ve been to the home and headquarters of Ursa Major, and I"ve killed him," answered Tom. "I want to borrow the Lieutenant"s gla.s.s to-night to see how the heavens look without the constellation of the Great Bear."
"What do you mean, Tom?" asked the boys eagerly.
"Why simply that I have killed the biggest black bear I ever saw or heard of in these mountains."
"Where is it?" eagerly asked Jack, who had a great longing for fresh meat for breakfast that morning.