"That is my hound, and I"ll bet it will be a long time before I shall hear him give tongue in that fashion again," soliloquized Tom, as he emerged from the cane and took a survey of the prospect before him. "I may never hear him, but I shall always remember him."
As Tom came out of the cane he found himself on the verge of that swamp over which, one short week previous, the water had stood to the depth of fifteen feet; but Our Fellows had already ridden over it, with Sandy Todd for a leader,--the boy who admitted that he "might be slow a-walkin" an" a-talkin", but was not slow a-ridin","--in their wild chase after the Indians and after Luke Redman, the man who had stolen Black Bess, and had managed in some way, they could not tell how, to secure possession of the valise which contained General Mason"s five thousand dollars. The ridges were high and dry, and by following them one could enjoy a pleasant ride, avoiding the water altogether; but the trouble in Tom"s case was the ridges ended either in the swamp at Dead Man"s Elbow, the place where they afterward captured Luke Redman, or veered around until they ended in the very spot Tom did not want to go, the town of Burton, which was the only place in the county that could boast of a jail. It was dangerous to attempt to pa.s.s from one ridge to another, for the bottom was covered with a bed of mud in which a horseman would sink out of sight. Tom speculated upon this as he walked along, and although he was positive that no very desperate attempt would be made to capture him when it was found out that he was the guilty one, he would have felt safer if he had left all sights and sounds of his first wrong-doing far behind. How his uncle would scorn him when first he found it out! And the negroes! Why, it wouldn"t be long till it would be all over the State.
"This is what comes of a rash attempt to have revenge on a boy who never did me a thought of harm. Because I couldn"t be the leader among Our Fellows I had to go to work and get myself into worse trouble by it. Why couldn"t I have rested easy when I had nothing to worry about? But I mustn"t allow my thoughts to get the start of me right at the beginning, for if I do, I shall come out at the little end of the horn. I wish I had an axe, for I would soon get across. I shall never find my way to the Mississippi as long as I stay on this side the bayou."
While Tom was talking to himself in this way, he stood upon the bluffs, which, by drawing near to one another, had gradually left the low lands behind and brought the two banks of the stream within twenty feet--a bad-looking place, for it went far to remind Tom of Dead Man"s Elbow. It was his only chance to cross the stream. While he stood there, looking at the dark, muddy water that flowed between him and liberty, that is, between him and the Mississippi, and trying hard to determine what his chances were of pa.s.sing the night in his wet clothes with no means of starting a fire, his attention was attracted by the very sound he wanted to hear. He listened, and when the blows began to fall in regular order, as if the woodman was warming at his work, he left the bluffs behind him and turned and went into the woods.
"That"s an axe," thought Tom, "and as n.o.body but negroes can be chopping out here, I"ll go up and get a bite to eat; for, now that I think of it, I"m hungry. I must be ten miles from my uncle"s now, and of course no one down here has heard of that grip-sack business. To-morrow morning I will make him cut a tree across the bayou."
Guided by the sound of the woodman"s axe, Tom felt his way through the cane (for by this time it was so dark in there that feeling was the only sense he could go by), and presently came within sight of the chopper.
He was a jolly, good-natured negro, who seemed a little startled on discovering Tom"s approach, but speedily recovered himself when the boy addressed him by saying:
"Hallo, s...o...b..ll! What are you doing so far out of the world?"
"Sarvent, sar. Well, sar, you see all dis timber here? My moster is needin" some rail timber mighty bad, so he sends me out here every Monday and I stays here until Sat.u.r.day. Say, boss, what you doin" out here? Ise you los"?"
"You haven"t seen a gray horse, with saddle and bridle on, going by here, have you?" asked Tom in reply.
"No, sar, I aint. Did he threw you?"
"Nor any hounds giving tongue?"
"No, sar, I aint. Ise dey de ones you is lookin" for, boss?"
"They"re gone, and the best thing I can do is to follow after them on foot," said Tom, looking around for a handy log to sit down on; for, now that his tramp for the day was ended and he had somebody to talk to, he began to realize that he was tired. "I believe I"ll camp with you to-night."
"Sarvent, sar. Cert"n"y, sar. Whar might you uns come from?"
"I came from the country about General Mason"s place. Have you got anything to eat?"
"Oh, yes, sar. Plenty of it, sar," said the negro, sticking his axe into the log he was chopping and leading the way off through the bushes. "Dis way, sar. I"s often heared of folks up your way. Somebody up that a-way been a-stealin" five thousand dollars."
Tom was thunderstruck. "Who brought that news here?" he asked.
"De n.i.g.g.e.rs, dey brung it. You can"t keep anything away from de darkies."
"How far is General Mason"s place from here?"
"Fifteen miles, or sich a matter."
"And did the darkies say who stole it?"
"Oh, yes, sar. Dey say that a youngster named Tom Mason--he"s just about your size, but you aint no thief, be ye?"
"Do I look like a thief?" enquired Tom.
"I aint a-sayin" you did, sar. I only say he was just about your size.
Then this Luke Redman,--you"ve heared of him, aint ye?--he got hold of the money and tried to run away to Texas."
"Well, the old gentleman has got it now," said Tom, who plainly saw that it wouldn"t do to talk too freely with the darky on this subject, because he knew too much. "They organized a big expedition and hunted the man down and captured him."
"I am mighty glad to hear it, and I hope dey will throw dem as "as got it in jail so tight that dey won"t never have time to think of five thousand dollars. Now, sit down on that block of wood and I"ll soon get you something to eat. You see, there is two bunks here? One belongs to my pardner, who is home now, sick with the rheumatiz. Moster is mighty keerful of his n.i.g.g.e.rs, and he don"t like to have Pomp come down here dat a-way, so he told him he must stay about the house and do light ch.o.r.es until next week, when he will come down here to help me split rails. Dere"s a slice of bacon and some johnny cake for you. If you can wait till I fix up the fire I will give you a cup of coffee."
"Does your master give you coffee?" asked Tom in surprise, for he could not remember that his uncle ever so far forgot himself.
""Course he does, sar, when we are splittin" rails; and sometimes"--here the darky leaned over and whispered the words to Tom, as if he feared that somebody would overhear them--"we take a handful now and then to do the old woman. Hy-ya!"
Tom laughed as heartily as the negro did,--his laugh was catching,--but said he would wait until the darky had his supper.
"Very well, den. You eat your lunch and I will go back to my rail-splittin". When you get through, just lay down in Pomp"s bunk and go to sleep. I"ll have you up at seven o"clock."
The darky went out, and Tom, being left to himself, proceeded to look about him. The cabin, which was built of rails, was barely large enough to seat two men at the table; but it was tight, and as the most the darkies had to do was to eat and sleep under it, it had plenty of room in it. Besides, there was a bench beside the door, and when the darkies were tired of working, that was the place for them to "loaf." By the time he had made these observations his bacon and johnny cake were gone, and he got up and crept into Pomp"s bunk.
By the time he awoke it was pitch dark, save where the faint light from the dying fire which the negro had kindled to cook his supper shone through the open doorway. The terrific snores which came from the bunk at his feet told him that the darky had long ago retired to rest, but he was hungry, and he crept out of bed to see if anything had been left for him. He found a pot of coffee and a huge chunk of bacon and johnny cake waiting for him on the coals, and as the fire had not had time to burn itself out, they were as warm as when they first were cooked. But by certain signs which he discovered while disposing of the good things the darky had provided for him, he found that he had been asleep longer than he had thought, and that daylight was not far off, and finally the negro started up from an apparently sound sleep, threw aside the blankets with a frantic sweep of his arm, and sat up and looked about him.
"Hi! dere you is," said he. "I fix up dat fire fo" times during de night, but you was sleepin" so soundly that I couldn"t b"ar to waken you up. Has you got plenty?"
"Plenty, thank you. It"s about four o"clock, isn"t it?"
The negro pulled himself entirely out of bed, put on his shoes, and went out and looked about him. After looking in vain for several stars which he ought to have found, but could not, he announced that his guest had struck the hour pretty closely.
"Well, then, while you are cooking your own breakfast, couldn"t you put on a little mess for me? You see, I am not bound for my uncle"s house just now. I have to go down to the landing to meet the steamer _John Clark_ there, and get a trifling sum of money that one of the pa.s.sengers will have ready for me."
"Why, boss, how is you going to get across de bayou?" asked the darky, in surprise.
"If my horse had not thrown me, I could have ridden him across," replied Tom. "But he had to start off on his own hook, and I shall have to do the best I can on foot. For that money I must have."
"Dat"s all right, sar. But I don"t see how you are going to get across de bayou."
"Don"t you? Well, you just go ahead and cook me some breakfast and then I"ll show you. If you had lived in these woods as long as I have, you would know that it is an easy matter to cut a tree across some parts of the bayou."
Tom washed his hands and face in some muddy water he dipped up from the stream that ran a short distance from the camp, dried them on his handkerchief, and watched the negro as he went about his work. Now and then, when he thought Tom was not looking at him, he would roll up his eyes, taking in at one swift glance all the clothing he wore, from his hat down to his boots. Tom was well enough acquainted with the negro character to know that he had excited his suspicions in some way.
"If I keep on in this way, I shall excite the mistrust of everyone I chance to meet," thought Tom, who wondered what he could have said that had caused this sudden change in the darky"s behavior. "I have shut him up like an oyster, and not another thing can I get out of him. I shall be with him over half an hour longer, and then he can do what he pleases with his suspicions."
"Dat"s a mighty slick rascal, dat feller," muttered the darky, as he fished the bacon out of the frying-pan and placed it on to a clean chip.
"Dere"s your breakfast, sar. I"ll eat mine out here by this stump."
"Give me a cup of coffee," said Tom. "It is all I want."
The steaming beverage was placed before him. Tom thought of the great world into which he was so soon to enter, and wondered if everybody in it was going to treat him as this obscure darky had done. Texas was a pretty good-sized empire, he had heard them say, and he believed it was made up mostly of men who had gone there to get clear of the law, and who had enough to think of to keep themselves out of trouble; consequently they wouldn"t bother their heads about a boy who had been suspected of stealing five thousand dollars. When Tom had reached this point in his meditations, the darky, who had evidently swallowed his breakfast whole and rolled up in a piece of old gunny sack the supply he intended Tom should take with him, handed the bundle to him with one hand, and reached out for the axe with the other.
"Ise ready now if you is, sar."
This was all that pa.s.sed between them. Tom got up, pointed out the path he wished the negro to follow in order to reach the narrowest part of the stream, which he had examined the day before, and fell in behind him; and it is a noticeable fact that he kept the black in front of him all the way to the stream. It is true that the man had no weapon but his axe, but with such an article, if he could only get the start with it, he could easily march him before his master, and that was the very place he didn"t want to go. Such things had been done, and Tom did not see why they could not be done again. In a few minutes they reached the bank of the bayou, and when the negro saw it, he leaned on his axe and shook his head.
"You knows what you want to do, don"t you, sar?" he asked.