Phil raided his radio set for the necessary wire, and fixed the dynamite against the log house. There was only one detonator left, and Phil was not sure it was a good one, but he felt so certain that there would be no need of setting it off that he did not particularly care.
His plan was for the man who bore the flag of truce to promise safe conduct for one man to go and look at the arrangement and then go back and tell the others that it was so. The inspector would be under cover of the rifles of the posse all the time, so would have no chance of wrecking the dynamite mine.
When it was finally in place, he gave the order for the truck to back away slowly, paying out the wire that was to be used to set off the detonator from the battery at the other end if the need really arose.
Garry then volunteered to act as the truce bearer, but here King stepped in.
"I"ve been athinkin" that you shouldn"t go. Suppose they once got you in the shack; they could send a man out and tell us that they would harm you if you didn"t give orders to git out o" the way. They know that your pa would rather lose the whole camp than have you harmed. Now with me it would be different; they"d know that I didn"t count for much with you folks, I"d be like one o" the sheriff"s men only, and could bargain better. Better let me go, only promise if anythin" happens to me you"ll take care of my baby."
The crude logic of the old timer appealed to them all except Garry, who felt that he should take the danger, since Phil had done his share in braving bullets to fix the charge.
However, the sheriff decided the matter, and since he was the real head of the posse and the law representative of the county, his decision went.
One of the men produced a white handkerchief and tied it to a stick.
Then holding the flag of truce aloft, King, the squatter, headed for the log house. The posse held their breaths for a moment, thinking that those in the shack would fear a trick and shoot him; but he advanced in safety and they saw the door of the shack open long enough to admit him.
When King arrived at the shack, he was met by Barrows, who demanded to know what message was sent. In a few words King told them, then he added some words of his own. These were directed to the lumberjacks. King spun a yarn out of whole cloth and told the jacks, who by this time were almost ready to desert the ship, that another posse was on the way.
Barrows was for disregarding the message as a trick, but King clinched the argument by offering immunity to all the lumberjacks except the bosses and camp officers. They demanded that one of their number go and see if the dynamite was really there.
Barrows and his lieutenants were not strong enough to cope with the lumberjacks, and it was finally agreed that one lumberjack and the red headed cookee go and inspect the blasting apparatus. Each faction-for there were two now in the log house-insisted on having a representative sent, for neither was willing to trust the word of the other. King agreed to remain behind as a hostage for the safety of the messengers.
The two set out on their quest, and in a few minutes were back, post haste.
"It"s there, boss; enough to blow us all into the next world," gasped the cookee, who was now frightened half to death.
His words being corroborated, the lumberjacks insisted on an immediate surrender. Barrows saw that the jig was up, and he ordered an evacuation. Jean LeBlanc"s face was livid, and he spat out a torrent of abuse at Barrows. But for all his braggadocio, Barrows was a coward under the skin, and he saw there was nothing to be gained by a fight except a longer prison term. Even now he was figuring on bargaining with Mr. Boone for his freedom, by giving away the interests who had hired him to do their dirty work.
Once outside the door, they found the guns of the men in the trucks trained on them, and they were marching quietly to be disarmed and probably bound, when suddenly, with a loud scream of defiance, Jean LeBlanc turned and bounded away with the speed of a stricken deer. A dozen shots flew after him, and one must have struck him, for they heard him give a screech of pain, then he reached the sanctuary of the woods, and dodging for safety from tree to tree dashed for the lake. Three of the men took after him, but he had taken them by such great surprise when he fled, that he got a flying start.
LeBlanc reached the lake and dived in. He had seen at the same moment as the men who were following, the one chance to save his hide. The motor boat had been repaired, and in it were three or four of the men concerned in the timber thefts. Among them was Jean"s brother Baptiste.
Swimming under water, the halfbreed made for the craft. The men in the launch opened fire on the pursuers. A rope was thrown to Jean by his brother, which he grasped, and then without taking the time to haul him aboard, the boat put about and made for the other side of the lake.
Shot after shot was exchanged, but LeBlanc, as well as those in the motor boat, seemed to bear charmed lives.
Once again, Jean LeBlanc had foiled justice and made his escape.
The chagrined pursuers returned to the late scene of hostilities, and found that order had been restored. The lumberjacks who had been promised immunity had been disarmed and herded together, waiting the word to leave the camp.
The ringleaders had been tied up to prevent any more escapes, and Mr.
Boone and d.i.c.k, together with the other prisoners, had been removed from the stifling air of the storehouse.
Warm was the greeting between father and son and between the chums who were together once again, unharmed and happy. After the greetings were over, the traitorous lumberjacks were ordered to get their packs and leave within fifteen minutes under the guidance of the posse, while the prisoners were put on the trucks to be taken to the county jail.
"So ends the battle of Boone"s camp, and all the excitement. My boys, I can"t tell you how proud I am of you; but had I known the perils that were in store for you, I would never have started you on this mission.
But you have covered yourselves with glory, and I"m proud of you. Now I must get a manager that will serve my interests, get this camp going and do what I can to try and retrieve what I have lost through the rascally Barrows. I am afraid that I am financially hurt unless we can bring Carson to book and make him stand this loss."
"With our evidence I think you can," said Garry. "And now what would you give for a real manager that would serve you and no one else?"
"I don"t know, but I would give almost anything in reason for such a man."
"Then," said Garry, "there"s your man," and he pointed to Art Howells.
Garry"s father heartily agreed.
"Now," said Mr. Boone, "I"d like to get a look at this hermit of yours."
The boys looked around for the old man, but, mysterious as ever, he had disappeared!
CHAPTER XIX
CONCLUSION
So the quest of the boys to discover the Timber Thieves was ended. Mr.
Boone hailed Garry"s suggestion with delight, and Howells, who protested that he had done nothing to deserve the big promotion, was installed as camp manager, with the faithful lumberjacks as a nucleus, to get the camp going full blast again.
"And you can depend, Moose Boone, on our doing everything we can to make up for what has happened before," one of the old timers shouted.
Only one remained to be rewarded for his help. That was King, the squatter. Mr. Boone immediately agreed when Garry told him of the promise that had been made, and offered to send some food and clothes to Misery Camp.
A suggestion by d.i.c.k proved good. He asked why the Misery Camp men could not be hired to take some of the places left vacant by the men who had turned traitor. This was put to King and he thought it over a minute.
Then he said:
"Squatters hain"t lazy; it"s just that every man"s hand is turned against "em because they haven"t got homes and land o" their own; but you people seem different. I"ll have all the men here in a couple o"
days, ready to go to work and earn a livin"."
It took some time for all to tell their stories. Since Garry and Phil had worked separately from d.i.c.k, they had to tell him all that befell them since the evening they had left to go and visit the scene of the timber stealing; and d.i.c.k was made to tell how he had become a captive.
In the telling of their stories to each other, the whole story was unfolded to Mr. Boone, and at the end of the stories he again congratulated them on the successful way in which they had carried out his mission.
"Now I suppose it"s back to the patrol on Sourdehunq," said Garry. "We have forgotten for some time that we are Rangers, and we still have a month or so to work for the protection of the forests. It will seem kind of quiet there after all this excitement, for I don"t believe that much can happen there now."
But further adventures were in store for the boys-how they were given another mission to accomplish; the great good fortune that came to Phil; the explanation of the mystery that surrounded the hermit, and the final reward for their summer"s work. All will be told in the next and last book of the Ranger Boys series, ent.i.tled, "The Ranger Boys and Their Reward."
THE END