"What makes you think that, Thlucco? What have you seen or heard?"
"Um. Injun see. Injun know. Injun no fool. Jake cuss Sam. Jake cuss Jackson. Injun hear."
"When did you hear him curse me or General Jackson, Thlucco?" asked Sam.
"Um. To-day! "Nother day, too! "Nother day "fore that."
"What did he say?"
"Um. Jake _cuss_. Um. Jake gone."
"What!" exclaimed Sam. "Gone! where?"
"Um. Injun don"t know. Injun know Jake gone."
"When did he leave camp?"
"Um. When Sam go "way Jake go too! Injun follow Jake. Jake cuss Injun.
Injun come back."
"Is that all you know, Thlucco?"
"Um. That"s all. That"s "nough. Jake gone "way."
Sam jumped out of the boat and waked the boys.
"Where did Jake Elliott go to-night?" he asked.
None of the boys knew.
"Did any one of you see him leave camp?"
"Yes," answered Billy Bowlegs, "but we didn"t pay much attention to him. He"s been so glum lately that we"ve been glad to have him out of sight."
"Has he ever gone away before?" asked Sam.
"No, only he never stays right in camp. He sleeps over there by them trees," said Billy Bowlegs, pointing to a clump of trees about forty or fifty yards away, "an" I guess he"s only gone over there. He never stays with us when you"re not here."
Sam strode over to the trees indicated, and searched carefully, but could find no trace of Jake there. Returning to the camp he asked:--
"Did any of you observe which way he went when he went away?"
"Yes," answered Sid Russell, "he went toward his trees."
"That is toward the town," answered Sam.
"Yes, so it is."
"Have you observed anything peculiar about his conduct lately?"
"No," replied Billy Bowlegs, "only that he"s been a gettin" glummer an" glummer. I"ll tell you what it is, Captain Sam, I"ll bet a big b.u.t.ton he"s deserted an" gone home. He"s a coward and he"s been scared ever since he found out that you wa"n"t foolin" about this bein" a genu-_ine_, dangerous piece of work, an" I"ll bet he"s cut his lucky, an" gone home, an" if ever I get back there I"ll pull his nose for a sneak, you just see if I don"t."
"Very well," said Sam, "go to sleep again, then. If he has gone home it is a good riddance of very bad rubbish."
Sam was not by any means satisfied that Jake had gone home, however.
Indeed he was pretty well convinced that he had done nothing of the sort, and he wished for a chance to think, so that he might determine what was best to be done. He believed Jake would not dare to go home as a deserter, knowing very well what reputation he would have to bear ever afterward, in a community in which personal courage was held to be the first of the virtues, and the lack of it the worst possible vice. Where had he gone, then, and for what? Sam did not know, but he had an opinion on the subject which grew stronger and stronger the more he revolved the matter in his mind.
Jake Elliott, he knew, had a personal grudge against him, and no very kindly feeling for the other boys. He was confessedly afraid to continue in the service in which he was engaged, and it was not easy for him to quit it. There was just one safe way out of it; and that offered, not safety only, but revenge of precisely the kind that Jake Elliott was likely to take. Sam knew very well that, notwithstanding his magnanimity, Jake still bitterly hated him, and still cherished the design of wreaking his vengeance upon him at the first opportunity.
"What is more probable, then," he asked himself, "than that Jake is trying to betray us into the hands of the enemy to die as spies? He is abundantly capable of the treachery and the meanness, and his desertion of the camp to-night strongly confirms the suspicion."
This much being decided, it was necessary for Sam to determine what should be done in the circ.u.mstances. If there had been no camp in his rear, he would have withdrawn his command through the woods at once.
As it was, he must find some other way. It was clearly his duty to escape with his boys, if he could, and to lose no time in attempting it. The danger was now too near at hand, and too positive to be ignored, and there was really very little more for him to do here. He must escape at once.
But could he escape?
That was a question which the event would have to answer, as Sam could not do it. Unluckily, it was already beginning to grow light, and he would not have the shelter of darkness.
He aroused the boys again, before they had had time to get to sleep, and quietly began his preparations.
"Make no noise," he said, "but put what provisions you have, and all your things into the boat. _Don"t forget the guns and the ammunition._ Sid! take our little water keg and run and fill it with fresh water."
The boys set about their preparations hurriedly, although they but dimly guessed the meaning of Sam"s singular orders.
At that moment Jake Elliott shuffled into the camp.
CHAPTER XXI.
JAKE ELLIOTT MAKES ANOTHER EFFORT TO GET EVEN.
As it is impossible to tell at one time the story of the doings of two different sets of persons in two different places, it follows that, if both are to be told, one must be told first and the other afterward.
For precisely this reason, I must leave Sam and his party for a time now, while I tell where Jake Elliott had been, and what he had been about.
When Sam let him off as easily as he could at the time of the compa.s.s affair, and even went out of his way to prevent the boys from referring to that transaction, he did so with the distinct purpose of giving Jake an opportunity and a motive to redeem his reputation; and he sincerely hoped that Jake would avail himself of the chance.
It is not easy for a man or boy of right impulses to imagine the feelings, or to comprehend the acts of a person whose impulses are all wrong, and so it was that Sam fell into the error of supposing that his badly behaved follower would repent of his misconduct and do better in future. This was what all the boys thought that Jake ought to do, and what Sam thought he would do; but in truth he was disposed to do nothing of the sort, and Sam was not very long in discovering the fact. Instead of feeling grateful to Sam for shielding him against the taunts of his companions, he hated Sam more cordially than ever, when he found how completely he had failed in his attempt to embarra.s.s the expedition. He nursed his malice and brooded over it, determined to seize the first opportunity of "getting even," as he expressed it, and from that hour his thoughts were all of revenge, complete, successful, merciless. He was willing enough, too, to include the other boys in this wreaking of vengeance, as he included them now in his malice.
His first attempt to accomplish his purpose, as we know already, was an effort to wreck the boat in a drift pile, and that affair served to open Sam"s eyes to the true character of the boy with whom he had to deal. He trusted him no more, and managed him thereafter only by appeals to his fears.
When the camp was formed near Pensacola, Sam carefully canva.s.sed the possibilities of Jake"s misconduct, and concluded that the worst he could do would be to injure the boat or her tackle, and he sufficiently guarded against that by always sleeping near the little craft.
Jake was more desperately bent upon revenge than Sam supposed, and from the hour of going into camp he diligently worked over his plan for accomplishing his purpose. He had learned by previous failures, to dread Sam"s quickness of perception, of which, indeed, he stood almost superst.i.tiously in awe. He would not venture to take a single step toward the accomplishment of the end he had set himself, until his plans should be mature. For many days, therefore, he only meditated revenge not daring, as yet, to attempt it by any active measures. At last, however, he was satisfied that his plans were beyond Sam"s power to penetrate, and he was ready to put them into execution. On the night of Bob Sharp"s return, which was the night last described in previous chapters, Sam went to the town, as we know, accompanied by Tom, who sailed the boat. As soon as he was fairly out of sight Jake walked away toward Pensacola. The distance was considerable, and the way a very difficult one, as the tide was too high for walking on the beach, so that it was nearly midnight when Jake knocked at a house on a side street.
"Who is there?" asked a night-capped personage from an upper window.