CHAPTER XVIII.

A SURPRISE.

“Hello! Sheriff Badgely! Hello!”

When Tom Smith, the alligator-hide hunter, sent this hail out at the top of his voice, it seemed as though every other sound ceased like magic. Why, even the hounds stopped yelping, and seemed as though they might be standing there, sniffing the air in their endeavor to locate the one who had shouted.

“Who’s that callin’ me?” a voice was heard to say.

“It’s me, Sheriff, Alligator Tom Smith; I didn’t want yuh tuh be a takin’ a crack et me fust, an’ then beggin’ my pardon arterwards.”

“Oh! that’s it, hey? Whar are ye at, Tom?” came the sheriff’s voice.

“Out heah a space, in a boat. I done got a party o’ No’the’n boys along with me, as wanted tuh see what ole Alligator Swamp she looked like. Ef yuh kim right ’long ther ridge, Sheriff, yuh cain’t miss us. We-uns’d like tuh meet up with yuh right smart. These heah boys they hain’t never seen dawgs like them yuh got.”

“All right, Tom, we’ll be ’long thar in a jiffy. Glad ye spoke out when ye did, ’case some o’ my men they like as not air ready to shoot at the sight o’ a hat. Move along, Carson; hello, Mobbs, shove the boats on, and jine us t’other side o’ the p’int.”

Again the sound of voices, and also the fretting of the hounds, could be heard, as the advance was resumed. Then moving figures began to be seen amidst the bushes ashore; while at the same time several boats appeared in sight, turning the point which had been mentioned by the energetic sheriff.

Each boat had a number of men aboard, and all of them seemed to be heavily armed, as though they had not started out upon this undertaking without recognizing the fact that they might run across desperate characters, and be compelled to show their teeth in armed conflict.

As the guide paddled in a little closer to the shore so as to meet the officer when he arrived, those in the other canoes did likewise; although Bumpus viewed this movement with concern, doubtless not being able to get those dogs out of his mind.

“They’ve got the hounds in leash right now,” he heard Thad remark presently; possibly the considerate scout-master said this on purpose to ease the minds of those who might be feeling a bit nervous; at any rate it did comfort the fat member of the patrol not a little, for he was immediately heard to give vent to a sigh of tremendous volume, and allow his rigid clutch upon the pistol-grip of his gun to relax.

Thad had been prepared to see quite a numerous retinue following the sheriff; but even he was surprised at the multitude of men and boys who had gladly accepted of the chance to have a hand in the final cleaning up of the pest hole of the parish, that had been postponed year after year until this late day.

“Say, looks like a regular rag-tag army!” Bumpus was heard to mutter, as he stared at the Southern planters, business men from near-by towns and clerks in stores, all carrying guns of every possible description, from the ancient musket, handed down from Civil War times, to the modern repeating pump-gun.

And if Bumpus and his mates stared hard at the strange collection of butternut-clad natives, fancy the way they were in turn gaped at by these men and lads, most of whom had doubtless never even heard of a Boy Scout, and knew not what to make of their uniforms.

A small, nervous man came bustling forward, and Thad, noting his air of authority, rightly guessed that this must be the sheriff. And sure enough, he wore a long coat just as the boys had noticed so many of those wonderful Western sheriffs did in the moving pictures they had watched, of stirring scenes on the plains; while a wide-brimmed soft hat sat jauntily upon his bushy head of red hair.

“Hello! Tom Smith!” he called out, as he advanced; “I kinder expected to meet up with you befo’ we got through with this job, but not so soon. And, Great Jehosophat! what d’ye call them boys you’ve got along? Is the militia been called out to do my work fo’ me? I’d like to know what all this means, Tom Smith?”

The sheriff was really showing signs of being indignant, since he was supposed to be the peace officer of the parish; and according to law, the soldiers could not be called on duty until he had exhausted his powers, and made a demand upon the governor.

Of course the swamp hunter made haste to explain.

“Yuh see, suh, these is a party o’ No’the’n boys as belong to the scouts. They kim down thisaway on a matter o’ bizness, an’ wanted tuh see what a reg’lar Louisiana swamp she looked like. So I ’grees tuh pilot ’em round a bit.”

“Do you mean the Boy Scouts, Tom?” demanded the sheriff, eagerly; “because, while we ain’t got so far along down heah as to have a troop o’ the same, I know what they stand fo’, an’ I surely am glad to meet up with some o’ the lot. If so be ye come ashore, I’d like to shake hands with ye, boys.”

“And we’ll count it a great honor, Mr. Sheriff,” said Giraffe, just as quick as he could speak, and taking the words right out of Thad’s mouth as it were; but then it was an old trick with Giraffe, and one he never could be cured of.

No one offered the slightest objection to paddling close up to the land, and going ashore. Bumpus was heard to mutter something to himself, however, and might be expected to keep an anxious eye on the two hounds that were straining at their rope leashes, as though wanting to either go on, or else make a closer acquaintance with these newcomers.

So the friendly sheriff proceeded to shake hands all around.

“Even down in this neck o’ the woods we done heah more or less about what’s goin’ on all over,” he remarked, as he came to Thad, in whom he seemed to recognize the leader of the little band; “and I often thought I’d like to meet up with some o’ these heah Boy Scouts. I got the manual they drill by, an’ it meets with my unqualified approval, I wants to say right heah. I hain’t got nary a boy, but if my five gals was sech, I’d want to start a patrol right away in my town. An’ meetin’ you chaps thisaway gets me more’n ever in the notion to try an’ see if we cain’t have a troop o’ our own.”

“I’m glad to hear you say that, Mr. Sheriff,” declared Thad; “if you’d care to take my address, and I could do anything at all to help you in the matter, you can depend upon it I will. You’re in something of a hurry just now, but perhaps later on we may happen to meet again when things are a little more quiet; and I’d like to tell you dozens of things that have happened to the Silver Fox Patrol, that you’d like to hear; and also what a big difference it’s made with some of our members.”

“That’s sure kind of you, my boy,” said the sheriff, while the crowd listened eagerly to all that was being said, and some of the younger elements began poking each other in the ribs, as though they saw good times coming should the officer ever put his contemplated plan into operation; for things must have been pretty dull for boys down in that region so far removed from the hurly burly of metropolitan life. “I hope now I’ll meet up with that chant, beca’se there’s a heap o’ things I’d like to ask you. But jest as you say, I’m up to my ears in business right now, and it wouldn’t be just the thing to pull up before this old swamp has been run over east and west, no’th and south, with a fine-tooth comb, till we gits every law-breaker it hides, or else chases ’em into the open, where they’ll be easy to corral.”

“Tom Smith has been telling us considerable about the way this place has been used for years and years to hide runaway slaves, escaped convicts from the camps, and all sorts of bad men; and it’ll be a blessing to the whole community, sir, if you succeed in exterminating the vicious breed,” said Smithy, assuming his most important air.

Sheriff Badgely looked curiously at the speaker, as though he did not exactly sense all that he said in his pedagogue way; for Smithy was as exact in his manner of speech as long ago he used to be dudish in his dress, until the rougher element among the scouts cured him of that fault.

“Thank ye, son,” the officer finally remarked, thinking that this ought to cover the bill, and not expose his ignorance concerning fine language.

“It certainly does you credit, Mr. Sheriff, that you’ve undertaken a job which all your predecessors seemed to have shirked,” Allan went on to say; for he had somehow taken a sort of sudden fancy for the small man, who seemed to be as lively as a cricket, and full of vim and go.

“Oh! I might as well confess to ye, son,” remarked the sheriff with a chuckle; “that p’raps I might a kept aputtin’ the raid off right along, jest like Sheriff Zeb Coles done fo’ nigh on eleven yeahs, till he turned up his toes and was put under ground, only fo’ a certain thing happenin’. Fact is, they has been a big robbery up-country a bit, an’ only two days back we got word as how the man suspected o’ doin’ the same was a lyin’ low in ole Alligator Swamp. Co’se, after that thar wa’n’t no excuse fo’ me not to raise a big posse, and try to just clean things out down heah; ’case you see, the man that had been robbed he offered to pay the wages of every man and boy that’d go along, and put five thousand dollahs in my hand in addition, if so be I was lucky enough to ketch thet slick thief, an’ recover the stuff as had been taken from him.”

“I can see how that was a spur, just as you say, sir,” Thad remarked, smiling at the naive way in which the officer admitted that the chances of a fat reward made an alluring bait at any time.

“Well, it gave me a chanct to collect the greatest posse ever seen in these heah parts; an’ we’re just bound to have the biggest lot of fun afoah we quits the game ever heard tell of,” the sheriff went on to say; “but sorry to tell you, boys, we’ll likely have to part company right now, and take up our hunt.”

“Have you come across anything in the way of game so far?” asked Giraffe.

“Oh! we done sent that ole voodoo man to town under guard,” replied the other, carelessly; “you see, he’s been makin’ heaps o’ trouble lately, gettin’ some o’ the hands on the sugar plantations to throwin’ up their jobs in the busy season, an’ fillin’ ’em full o’ horrible notions sech as the voodoo practices. And we kim to the conclusion that it had to stop. He’ll get sent where he won’t do no more damage in ignorant minds. Afore we-uns are through with our job we calculate to pick up a number o’ convicts that’s been hidin’ out in this region; but we’ll try to devote most of our time and attention to findin’ this heah slick Jasper.”

When the sheriff happened to casually mention the man for whom all this remarkable preparation had been made, Thad exchanged a quick glance with his closest chum, Allan; for the officer who was sworn to carry out the mandates of the law had spoken the name of the party of whom the scouts were in search, and who was believed by Thad to be the kidnapper of his little baby sister, Pauline, years before.