Yan tried, but it was too heavy.
"Get out, you useless Pup!" and the tramp walked into the teepee and gave Yan a push that sent him headlong out on the ground.
The boy was badly bruised, but saw his only chance. The big knife was there. He seized it, cut the cord on his legs, flung the knife afar in the swamp and ran like a Deer. The tramp rushed out of the teepee yelling and cursing. Yan might have gotten away had he been in good shape, but the tramp"s cruelty really had crippled him, and the brute was rapidly overtaking him. As he sped down the handiest, the south trail, he sighted in the trees ahead a familiar figure, and yelling with all his remaining strength, "Caleb! Caleb!! Caleb Clark!!!" he fell swooning in the gra.s.s.
There is no mistaking the voice of dire distress. Caleb hurried up, and with one impulse he and the tramp grappled in deadly struggle.
Turk was not with his master, and the tramp had lost his knife, so it was a hand-to-hand conflict. A few clinches, a few heavy blows, and it was easy to see who must win. Caleb was old and slight. The tramp, strong, heavy-built, and just drunk enough to be dangerous, was too much for him, and after a couple of rounds the Trapper fell writhing with a foul blow. The tramp felt again for his knife, swore savagely, looked around for a club, found only a big stone, and would have done no one knows what, when there was a yell from behind, another big man crashed down the trail, and the tramp faced William Raften, puffing and panting, with Guy close behind. The stone meant for Caleb he hurled at William, who dodged it, and now there was an even fight. Had the tramp had his knife it might have gone hard with Raften, but fist to fist the farmer had the odds. His old-time science turned the day, and the desperado went down with a crusher "straight from the shoulder."
It seemed a veritable battle-field--three on the ground and Raften, red-faced and puffing, but st.u.r.dy and fearless, standing in utter perplexity.
"Phwhat the divil does it all mane?"
"I"ll tell you, Mr. Raften," chirped in Guy, as he stole from his safe shelter.
"Oh, ye"re here, are ye, Guy? Go and git a rope at camp--quick now,"
as the tramp began to move.
As soon as the rope came Raften tied the fellow"s arms safely.
""Pears to me Oi"ve sane that hand befoore," remarked Raften, as the three fingers caught his eye.
Yan was now sitting up, gazing about in a dazed way. Raften went over to his old partner and said: "Caleb, air ye hurrt? It"s me--it"s Bill Raften. Air ye hurrt?"
Caleb rolled his eyes and looked around.
Yan came over now and knelt down. "Are you hurt, Mr. Clark?"
He shook his head and pointed to his chest.
"He"s got his wind knocked out," Raften explained; "he"ll be all right in a minute or two. Guy, bring some wather."
Yan told his story and Guy supplied an important chapter. He had returned earlier than expected, and was near to camp, when he heard the tramp beating Yan. His first impulse to run home to his puny father was replaced with the wiser one to go for brawny Mr. Raften.
The tramp was now sitting up and grumbling savagely.
"Now, me foine feller," said William. "We"ll take ye back to camp for a little visit before we take ye to the "Pen." A year in the cooler will do ye moore good, Oi"m thinkin", than anny other tratement. Here, Guy, you take the end av the rope and fetch the feller to camp, while I help Caleb."
Guy was in his glory. The tramp was forced to go ahead; Guy followed, jerking the rope and playing Horse, shouting, "Ch"--ch"--ch"--get up, Horsey," while William helped old Caleb with a gentleness that recalled a time long ago when Caleb had so helped him after a falling tree had nearly killed him in the woods.
At camp they found Sam. He was greatly astonished at the procession, for he knew nothing of the day"s events, and fearfully disappointed he was on learning what he had missed.
Caleb still looked white and sick when they got him to the fire, and Raften said, "Sam, go home and get your mother to give you a little brandy."
"You don"t need to go so far," said Yan, "for that fellow has a bottle in his pocket."
"I wouldn"t touch a dhrap of annything he has, let alone give it to a _sick friend_," was William"s reply.
So Sam went for the brandy and was back with it in half an hour.
"Here now, Caleb," said William, "drink that now an" ye"ll feel better," and as he offered the cup he felt a little reviving glow of sympathy for his former comrade.
When Sam went home that morning it was with a very clear purpose.
He had gone straight to his mother and told all he knew about the revolver and the misunderstanding with Caleb, and they two had had a long, unsatisfactory interview with the father. Raften was brutal and outspoken as usual. Mrs. Raften was calm and clear-witted. Sam was shrewd. The result was a complete defeat for William--a defeat that he would not acknowledge; and Sam came back to camp disappointed for the time being, but now to witness the very thing he had been striving for--his father and the Trapper reconciled; deadly enemies two hours ago, but now made friends through a fight. Though overpowered in argument, Raften"s rancour was not abated, but rather increased toward the man he had evidently misused, until the balance was turned by the chance of his helping that man in a time of direst straits.
XXVI
WINNING BACK THE FARM
Oh, the magic of the campfire! No unkind feeling long withstands its glow. For men to meet at the same campfire is to come closer, to have better understanding of each other, and to lay the foundations of lasting friendship. "He and I camped together once!" is enough to explain all cordiality between the men most wide apart, and Woodcraft days are days of memories happy, bright and lifelong.
To sit at the same camp fireside has always been a sacred bond, and the scene of twenty years before was now renewed in the Raften woods, thanks to that campfire lit a month before--the sacred fire. How well it had been named! William and Caleb were camped together in good fellowship again, marred though it was with awkwardness as yet, but still good fellowship.
Raften was a magistrate. He sent Sam with an order to the constable to come for the prisoner. Yan went to the house for provisions and to bring Mrs. Raften, and Guy went home with an astonishing account of his latest glorious doings. The tramp desperado was securely fastened to a tree; Caleb was in the teepee lying down. Raften went in for a few minutes, and when he came out the tramp was gone. His bonds were cut, not slipped. How could he nave gotten away without help?
"Never mind," said Raften. "That three-fingered hand is aisy to follow. Caleb, ain"t that Bill Hennard?"
"I reckon."
The men had a long talk. Caleb told of the loss of his revolver--he was still living in the house with the Pogues then--and of its recovery. They both remembered that Hennard was close by at the time of the quarrel over the Horse-trade. There was much that explained itself and much of mystery that remained.
But one thing was clear. Caleb had been tricked out of everything he had in the world, for it was just a question of days now before Pogue would, in spite of Saryann, throw off all pretense and order Caleb from the place to shift for himself.
Raften sat a long time thinking, then said:
"Caleb, you do exactly as Oi tell ye and ye"ll get yer farrum back.
First, Oi"ll lend ye wan thousand dollars for wan week."
_A thousand dollars!!!_ Caleb"s eyes opened, and what was next he did not then learn, for the boys came back and interrupted, but later the old Trapper was fully instructed.
When Mrs. Raften heard of it she was thunderstruck. A thousand dollars in Sanger was like one hundred thousand dollars in a big city. It was untold wealth, and Mrs. Raften fairly gasped.
"A thousand dollars, William! Why! isn"t that a heavy strain to put on the honesty of a man who thinks still that he has some claim on you?
Is it safe to risk it?"
"Pooh!" said William. "Oi"m no money-lender, nor spring gosling nayther. Thayer"s the money Oi"ll lend him," and Raften produced a roll of counterfeit bills that he as magistrate had happened to have in temporary custody. "Thayer"s maybe five hundred or six hundred dollars, but it"s near enough."
Caleb, however, was allowed to think it real money, and fully prepared, he called at his own--the Pogue house--the next day, knocked, and walked in.
"Good morning, father," said Saryann, for she had some decency and kindness.
"What do you want here?" said d.i.c.k savagely; "bad enough to have you on the place, without forcing yerself on us day and night."
"Hush now, d.i.c.k; you forget--"
"Forget--I don"t forget nothin"," retorted d.i.c.k, interrupting his wife. "He had to help with the ch.o.r.es an" work, an" he don"t do a thing and expects to live on me."