Part 10 (1/2)
”Did you stop at Cairo on your way up?”
”The Able was there perhaps half an hour.”
”Then I can see through some of it as plain as daylight,” exclaimed Nels, straightening up on his nail keg and shaking his hand at Jeff. ”He was at Cairo long enough to change his clothes, swap hosses and have his whiskers shaved off; but why he should have the cap'n of the Able set him ash.o.r.e here at this landing, beats my time. Don't it your'n?” There were signs of excitement in the cabin, and Rodney felt the cold chills creeping over him. The wood-cutters were wofully ignorant, quite as open to reason as so many wooden men would have been, and if they suspected him of trying to play some trick upon them, Rodney could not imagine how he should go to work to set them right. He glanced at their scowling faces and told himself that he would not have been in greater danger if he had been a prisoner in the hands of the Yankees.
”I should like to know what you mean by this foolishness?” exclaimed Rodney, growing excited in his turn.
”Mebbe you'll find that there aint no great foolishness about it before we've got through with you,” answered Nels; and Rodney noticed that one of the wood-cutters moved his seat so as to get between him and the door.
”I shall know more about that after you have told me who and what you take me for,” continued Rodney. ”Do you think you ever saw me before?”
”Well, as to your face and clothes we might be mistook,” replied Nels, slowly. ”But you had oughter hid that watch chain before you come back amongst we-uns.”
He reached out to lay hold of the article in question, but the angry boy pushed his hand away.
”This watch and chain were a birthday present from my mother four years ago,” said he, taking the watch from his pocket and unhooking the chain, ”and the fact is recorded on the inside of the case, if you have sense enough to read it, which I begin to doubt. You are at liberty to look at them, but you mustn't try to get out of the door with them.”
Nels took the articles in question and looked fixedly at Rodney, as if he did not know whether to smile at him or get angry. He decided on the former course when one of his companions said, in an audible whisper:
”You sartingly be mistook, Nels. That abolition hoss-thief was a mighty palavering sort of chap, but he didn't have no such grit.”
”Is that what you take me for,” exclaimed Rodney,-”a horse-thief and an abolitionist besides? You certainly are mistaken, for I haven't got that low down in the world yet. Jeff, you are the only man in the party who seems to have a level head on his shoulders, and I wish you would explain this thing to me. Begin at the beginning so that I may know just how the case stands.”
Before Jeff could reply to the request one of the small army of hunting dogs which found shelter in the wood-cutters' camp set up a yelp, the rest of the pack joined in, and for a minute or two there was a terrific hubbub. When it lulled a little the hail rang out sharp and clear from some place in the surrounding woods:
”Hallo the house! Don't let your dogs bite!”
The words brought all the wood-choppers to their feet and sent all except two of them-Nels and the man who had taken his seat near the door-out into the darkness. These remained behind in obedience to a sign from Jeff, and Rodney knew that they meant to keep an eye on him.
”Who's out there?” he inquired.
”Don't you recognize his voice?” asked Nels in reply. ”There's more'n one of 'em, and they are the men who have been hunting for you for a week past.”
”I am glad to hear it,” said Rodney. ”Perhaps they will be able to clear away some of the ridiculous suspicions you seem to have got into your heads concerning me.”
”Get out, ye whelps,” shouted Jeff, when he stepped out of the door; whereupon the dogs ceased their clamor and slunk away behind the cabin to escape the clubs he threw among them to enforce obedience to his order. ”Come on, strangers. They won't pester you.”
Then came a tramping of hoofs, as if a small body of cavalry was making its way through the bushes, and a minute afterward Rodney could look through the open door and see half a dozen men dismounting from their horses. He saw Jeff exchange a few hasty words with the tall, black-whiskered man who was the first to touch the ground, and heard the exclamations of surprise which the latter uttered as he listened to them. He could not understand what the man said, but the woodcutter near the door did, for he called out:
”He's come back sure's you live, and Nels has got his watch to prove it.
He knowed him the minute he seed the chain that's fast to it.”
”Well, if that is the case, whom have we got here?” said the black-whiskered man; and this time Rodney heard the words very plainly. ”Where is he? Let me have a look at him.”
Jeff waved his hand toward the door and the man stepped in and faced Rodney, who arose to his feet and met his gaze without flinching. One glance brought from him a sigh of relief. He had an intelligent man to talk to now-one who could be reasoned with.
”There's the watch that has brought suspicion upon me in a way I cannot understand,” said Rodney, nodding toward Nels, who promptly handed it over. ”Will you be kind enough to open it and read the inscription you will find on the inside of the case.”
The man took the watch, and while he was opening it kept his eyes fastened upon Rodney's face. He seemed both amused and angry.
”Jeff,” he exclaimed at length. ”I never knew before that you were such a blockhead. There is about as much resemblance between this young gentleman and that horse-thief outside as there is between you and me.”