part ever since you come to dis camp. Don"t you cry, Cap"n Ted, honey."
"Did you ever see the like o" that boy?" asked Al Peters softly. "He sure made the cold chills run up and down my back."
The remark was made to Buck Hardy, whose lips were twitching nervously and who did not answer.
"Too bad he _ain"t_ old enough," said Bud Jones. "He"d sure make a dandy cap"n in the army."
The other slackers stared into the fire in gloomy silence.
Suddenly Buck Hardy rose to his feet, clearing his throat as he too looked steadily into the fire.
"Well, fellows," he said, "I don"t know how the rest o" you feel, but I"m ready to quit. I"m tired o" playin" the game of a sneakin" suck-egg dog and I want to try the game of bein" a _man_."
"Goin" to desert, air you?" asked Zack James in a harsh, unsteady voice.
"No--goin" to _quit desertin"_."
"Goin" to go back on _us_," insisted James, "jes" because a _boy_ has got lots o" lip and can talk to beat the band."
"No," said Buck, keeping his temper. "He sure is game and a great kid, and he stirred me up powerful; but I made up my mind before to-night. I made it up when I was by my sick mother"s bed. I"m free to say that that boy"s talk before that had a lot to do with it, but the truth is I ain"t been satisfied from the start. I never did really belong to this crowd.
I got in wrong last summer when I thought I knew better than the Congress of the United States about that draft business and was fool enough to get mad."
Zack James blew out his breath in a sort of contemptuous hiss.
"I meant to tell you all as soon as I come back yesterday," continued Buck, taking no notice of James, "but the trouble in camp stopped me. I only come back to get them boys, and to-morrow I"ll start out with "em.
I"m goin" to take them boys home and then I"m goin" to the war."
"Oh, Mr. Hardy," cried Ted, who had been drying his eyes as he listened, and who now started up, "I"m gladder to hear that than to know that we are going home!"
Mitch" Jenkins now spoke for the first time.
"Maybe you are goin" to take them boys home," he said, "but you ain"t goin" to the war. You are goin" to jail, and then you are goin" to be shot."
"What do you mean?" demanded Buck in startled tones, plainly disturbed.
Then Ted darted his hand into an inside pocket and brought out a battered newspaper clipping.
"That"s what they are sayin" in my neighborhood," declared Jenkins.
"And that"s why, when I heard of you fellows on the quiet, I came in to join you. I"d let the time to register go by, and so I come in here a-kitin"."
"Mr. Jenkins," said Ted, boldly facing hostile eyes, his voice quite steady, "you heard a wild rumor of the sort the Germans in this country are spreading all the time. I have the real facts here, Mr. Hardy. I cut this out of that paper Mr. Jenkins himself brought in, thinking I might need it. It got wet when we crossed the "prairie," but you can read it.
It is a part of Provost Marshal General Crowder"s report on the first draft. It says that out of nearly ten million men not much over five thousand arrests were made for failure to register, that more than half of these, after registering, were released. ""The authorities,"" read the boy from his clipping, ""wisely a.s.sumed an att.i.tude of leniency toward all those who after arrest exhibited a willingness to register and extended the _locus penitentiae_ as far as possible, believing that the purpose of the law was to secure a full registration rather than full jails.""
Ted handed the clipping to Buck, who, after looking it over carefully, handed it to Al Peters, remarking:
"Another lie nailed. I don"t mean that you did the lyin", Jenkins. I reckon it was the Germans."
The clipping pa.s.sed from Peters to Jones and then to Jenkins, each holding it near the fire and reading in silence. Jenkins studied it carefully and then, without comment, pa.s.sed it to James, who, after hardly a glance at the printed lines, tore up the clipping and threw it into the fire.
"What good will that do you?" asked Peters scornfully.
"Nothin" but newspaper lies to fool runaways like us out of their hidin"
places," said James bitterly.
Ted, who regarded the clipping as of great value and considered it his property, turned with an outraged face to Buck, who chose to take no notice of an incident which appeared to him unimportant.
"Well, fellows," he said in conclusion, "I"ve put you on notice, and now all I"ve got to do is to get ready."
"So you"ve gone back on us," repeated James, his voice trembling with anger, "and you"ll go out and put the sheriff on our trail?"
"I didn"t say that. I don"t expect to hunt up the sheriff. I"ll be satisfied if he don"t hunt me up. But if he asks me straight up and down, I don"t engage to do any lyin"."
"You mean that after them boys has blabbed the whole thing, you won"t deny it?" demanded James.
"I told you I wouldn"t do any lyin"," said Buck sharply.
"All _right_," said James menacingly. "That"s all I want to know."
"How much more do you deserve?" asked Buck, his tone showing irritation for the first time. "Al Peters," he said suddenly, turning to the young man addressed, "I don"t think you belong in this crowd, either. If there"s any yellow dog in you, I ain"t seen it. Don"t you want to come along with me and join the _men_?"
"Buck," said Peters, rising and stepping forward, "I have a good mind to do it."
"Good for you! Now, Jones, let"s hear from you. I ain"t seen any yellow dog in you either. I think that down underneath you"re a _man_. Don"t you want to come along?"
"Buck, I think I will," said Bud Jones.
He spoke as lightly as if a fishing trip had been proposed. He even smiled as he rose and took his stand in the group of which the boys were now the center.
Zack James started up, staring and muttering, his manner suggestive of impotent rage. He drew Thatcher aside and whispered to him.
"How about you, Jenkins?" asked Buck, smiling. "You"re new and I hardly know you, but from things I"ve heard it looks to me like you"re pretty nearly all white."
"No, thank you," said Jenkins, with mocking courtesy. "I"m stayin". It"s risky--with the sheriff gettin" on to it in three days" time--but it ain"t as risky as goin" to jail with the chance o" bein" shot."
"Then, that"s all," said Buck. "No use to ask any o" the rest."
"July wants to go out with us," spoke up Ted.
"I sho do want to go wid Mr. Hardy an" Cap"n Ted," declared the grinning negro.
"All right, July. I brought you in and, if you want to go, I"ll take you out."
The two groups were now quite distinct, first Carter and then Jenkins having joined James and Thatcher.
"So," said James, as if estimating the relative strength of contending forces, "there"s three of you and the n.i.g.g.e.r and the boys, and there"s four of us--five when Wheeler gets back."
"Yes, you"ll get Wheeler--not a doubt of it," said Buck, as if greatly amused. "And you"re welcome to him."
Then he turned his back on James, remarking to those about him: "Well, I think our crowd had better go to bed. We ought to start early in the mornin"."