"Hold on, thar!" yelled Rufus Blent, leaping from the sleigh with more agility than one would have given him credit for. "You air oversteppin"
the line, Mr. Tingley. That officer"s in the right."
"No, he"s not in the right. He"d never be in the right--hunting a boy with an armed posse. I should think you and these other men would be ashamed of yourselves."
"You look out, Mr. Tingley," warned Blent, hotly. "You"re a stranger in these parts. You try to balk me and you"ll be sorry."
"Why?" demanded the city man, quite as angrily. "Are you the law and the prophets here, Mr. Blent?"
"I know my rights. And if you want to live in peace here, keep out o" my way!" snarled the real estate man.
"You old scoundrel!" exclaimed Mr. Tingley, stepping swiftly toward him.
"Get off Cliff Island--and get off quick. I"d spend a thousand dollars to get a penny"s worth of damages from you. I"ll sue you in the civil courts for trespa.s.s if you don"t go--and go quick!
"Don"t think I went blindly into the transaction that gave me t.i.tle to this island. I know all about your withholding the right to "treasure trove," and all that. But it doesn"t give you the right to trespa.s.s here.
Get out--and take your gang with you--or I"ll have suit begun against you at once."
Old Blent was troubled, but he had one good hold and he knew it. He shouted to Lem Daggett:
"Serve that warrant, Lem, and come along. Bring that young rascal. I"ll fix him."
"Let me read that warrant!" exclaimed Mr. Tingley, suddenly.
"No, ye don"t!" yelled Blent. "Don"t let him take it into his hand. Read it aloud to him. But make that pesky young Sheming come ash.o.r.e first.
Before ye know it, he"ll be runnin" away ag"in."
The men who "covered" Jerry motioned him to step up to the bank. They looked so threatening that he obeyed. Daggett produced a legal looking paper. He read this aloud, blunderingly, for he was an illiterate man.
Its contents were easily gathered, however. Squire Keller had signed the warrant on complaint of Rufus Blent. Jerry was accused of having stolen several boxes of ammunition and a revolver. The property had been found in an old shed at Logwood where the boy had slept for a few nights after he had first been driven from Cliff Island.
"Why, this is an old story, Blent," e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Mr. Tingley, angrily. "The boy left that shed months ago. He came directly to the island, when I hired him, from the neighborhood of Lumberton, and Preston a.s.sures me he hasn"t been to Logwood since arriving."
"You can tell all that in court," snarled Blent, waving his hand. "If he"s got witnesses to clear him, I guess they"ll be given a chance to testify."
"You"re a villain!" declared the city man.
"Lemme tell you something, Mr. Tingley. There"s a law to punish callin"
folks out o" their names! I know the law, an" don"t you forgit it. Come here, you, Jerry Sheming! Git in this sleigh. And you, too, Lem. You other fellers can come back to Logwood and I"ll pay ye as I agreed."
Ruth had, meanwhile, met Jerry when he came ash.o.r.e. She seized his hand and, almost in tears, told him how sorry she was he was captured.
"Don"t you mind, Miss Ruth. He"s bound to git me out of the way if he can," whispered Jerry. "Rufe Blent is _all_ the law there is in Logwood, I guess."
"But Mr. Tingley will help you."
"Maybe. But if Blent can"t prove this hatched up business against me, he"ll keep right on persecuting me, if I don"t light out. An" I believe I found something, Miss Ruth."
"Your uncle"s money?"
"I wouldn"t say that. But I was goin" to break into another little cave if I"d got hold of that mattock. The mouth is under the debris that fell with the landslide. It was about where Uncle Pete said he hid his treasure box.
Poor Uncle Pete! Losin" that box was what sent him off his head complete, like."
This had been said too low for the others to hear. But now Daggett came forward and clamped his big paw on Jerry"s shoulder.
"Come along, you!" commanded the constable, jerking his prisoner toward the sledge.
"Oh, isn"t it a mean, mean shame?" cried Helen Cameron.
"Wish that old Blent was my size," grumbled Busy Izzy, clenching his fists and glaring at the real estate man.
"I wish I could do something at the present moment to help you, Sheming,"
said Mr. Tingley, his expression very angry. "But don"t be afraid. You have friends. I shall come right over to Keller"s court, and I shall hire a lawyer to defend you."
"You kin do all ye like," sneered Blent, as the sledge started with the prisoner. "But I"ll beat ye. And ye"ll pay for tryin" to balk me, too."
"Don"t you be too loose with your threats, Rufe," sang out Preston, the foreman. "If anything happens over here on the island--any of Mr.
Tingley"s property is destroyed--we"ll know who to look to for damages."
"Yah!" snarled Blent, and drove away.
The fact remained, however, that, for the time being at least, Rufus Blent was master of the situation.
CHAPTER XX
THE FISHING PARTY
Ruth felt so unhappy she wept openly. It seemed too bad that Jerry Sheming should be taken away to the mainland a prisoner.
"They"ll find some way of driving him out of this country again," remarked Preston, the foreman. "You don"t know Blent, Mr. Tingley, as well as the rest of us do. Other city men have come up here and bucked against him in times past--and they were sorry before they got through."
"What do you mean?" demanded the angry owner of Cliff Island.
"Blent can hire those fellows from the lumber camps, and some of the guides, to do his dirty work. That"s all I"ve got to say. Hunting camps have burned down in these woods before now," observed the foreman, significantly.
"Why! the scoundrel sold me this island himself!"
"And he"s sold other outsiders camp sites. But they have had to leave if they angered Blent."
"He is a dangerous man, then?"
"Well--things just happen," returned Preston, shaking his head. "I"d keep watch if I were you."
"I will. I"ll hire guards--and arm "em, if need be," declared Mr. Tingley, emphatically. "But take it from me--I am going to see that that boy Jerry is treated right in these backwoods courts. That"s the way I feel about it."
Ruth was glad to hear him say this. As she had decided when she first saw him, Mr. Tingley could be very firm if he wished to be. At once he went back to the house, had a team hitched to a sleigh, and drove over to the mainland so as to be sure that Blent did not get ahead of him and have court convened before the proper hour.