had adam guy been at the helm of the rolling stone, it would probably have reached the pier at titusville a couple of hours sooner than it did under the guidance of the three boys. but it reached there finally, and our young friends were too glad to have made a safe passage to grumble about the slowness of it.
when the story about the alligators and the desertion of coot was told at the hotel, it created a good deal of merriment and also some hearty condemnation of brewer, who had not yet arrived in town.
adam came up to the hotel, having seen the boat come in, and when he heard the story he was very indignant.
“i never oughter let you go with such a miserable good-for-nothin’ feller. he thought of nothin’[235] but savin’ his own wretched skin, and i’ve a great mind to thrash it all off of him as soon as i ketch sight of him.”
“don’t do that,” shouted the colonel, “for then he can’t get away, and we don’t want him here. this is the last time coot brewer ever takes anybody in a boat from this town.”
adam was just about to leave the house, being anxious to finish that day the job of work he had undertaken, when he stopped on the piazza, and called out,—
“hello! here comes the dirty maggie.”
at this everybody came out. the story of the boat-thieves had been told, and had excited a good deal of interest. the young men had come from parts unknown, and had been regarded with disfavor in the town before they started on their river trip. they had hired a boat of a negro, no one else being willing to trust them with one.
“they’ve been a long time getting here,” said phil.
“i shouldn’t wonder,” said adam, “if they’d been a-hangin’ back till we got away.”
“that’s so,” said the colonel. “and now you fellows make yourselves scarce, and keep out of the way till they come up, and then we’ll hear what they have to say for themselves. if they see you, i shouldn’t wonder if they put off again.”
[236]our friends then retired into the dining-room, where, with doors shut and shutters partly closed, they watched the approach of the maggie.
the dirty little boat sailed slowly toward the town, and when it reached the rolling stone, which was moored some little distance out in the river, it stopped, and the two young men seemed to be carefully examining her. apparently satisfied that everything belonging to our friends had been taken out, and that they had probably gone on their way, they came up to the pier, and soon reached the hotel. the colonel was sitting on the piazza, not far from the dining-room window.
“well,” said he, as the two fellows, now more untidy than ever, ascended the steps, “you’ve got back, have you?”
“yes,” said one of them, “here we are.”
“did you shoot much?” asked the colonel, gazing at them steadfastly.
“shoot!” cried the one who did the talking. “we didn’t do none at all. our guns was stole. the fellers that took ’em said they’d leave ’em with you, and i hope you’ve got ’em.”
a number of persons had now collected on the piazza, and the three boys and adam were listening intently in the dining-room.
“your guns stolen!” shouted the colonel. “you must be a pretty couple of fellows to let your guns be taken from you.”
[237]“there was four of ’em that took ’em,” said the other, “and they was too many for us.”
“i should think half a good man would be too many for you two,” said the colonel, who was beginning to talk louder and louder. “how did they come to steal them?”
“they just wanted ’em, and they took ’em,” was the answer.
the other young man now considered it necessary to put in a word:
“we wasn’t just about when they took ’em. if we had been, they wouldn’t——”
“shut up!” roared the colonel. “i can’t stand any more such lying. i know all about you, and i know your guns were not stolen from you, and that you stole john brewer’s sail-boat, with everything in it.”
“we didn’t steal no boat,” was the surly reply. “that was a lie them fellers made up.”
“you didn’t, eh?” cried the colonel. “i’ve some witnesses on hand that’ll say something about that.”
then, turning to the dining-room window, he shouted, “come out here!” and immediately adam and the three boys appeared.
“now, then,” said the colonel, “will you say before these persons that you did not steal a boat from them?”
at first the two young men seemed utterly dismayed[238] at the sight of the three boys and the man from whom they had stolen the boat, and whom they supposed were now far away. but as one of them fixed his eyes on chap his dismay seemed to change into anger. his face grew very red, and he shook his fist at our long-legged young friend.
“there’s the feller,” he cried, “who tried to kill me! he fired a gun straight at me, and not a dozen feet away, and i a-doin’ nothin’. it’s all very well to talk about a little trick we played on ’em about the boat, but here’s a feller who tried to murder me. if there’s any law in this land i’ll have it on him!”
the colonel turned to chap.
“is that so?” he said.
chap admitted that the main facts were true, and then explained how it had all happened, but the colonel interrupted him, and leaning forward in his chair, as if he would jump out of it, he shouted at him,—
“i wouldn’t have believed it of you! if there was a court sitting in this town, i’d have you brought before it this very day. i’m ashamed to have you in my house. if ever there was a boy who deserved being clapped into jail, it would be the one who fired at that fellow and didn’t hit him! if i had my way i’d put you into prison till you learned to shoot.”
[239]at this there was a great roar of laughter from everybody except the two young men, and to these the colonel now addressed himself.
“there’s been a good many scoundrels in these parts, since i’ve lived here, but i never see any to beat you two. you steal other people’s property, and then you come here, and, right to my face, charge honest men with taking your things. i don’t believe you ever owned anything in your lives. and you want your guns, do you? well, you hired them of jim randall,—i know all about it,—and you’ll pay for them from the day you took them till this minute.”
one of the men attempted to say here that he hadn’t had them for ever so long.
“shut up!” roared the colonel. “you don’t suppose i’m going to let jim be cheated out of his money, do you, just because other people had to take care of the guns to keep you from doing mischief?—bob!”
in a moment the negro boy appeared, and the colonel said to him,—
“go tell jim randall to come right here.—as soon as you’ve paid him,” he continued, turning to the young men, “you get out of this place. if the court sat this month, i’d have you up before it, but we’re not going to keep you here at the public expense, and you’ve got to make yourselves scarce. and i want every man, woman, and child in this[240] town to understand,” he said, looking around at the people, “that not one of them is to harbor these fellows for a minute, or to speak to them, or to have anything to do with them. here, jim,” he said, as that individual approached, “what do these scamps owe you for your guns up to to-day?”
jim mentioned the sum.
“pay it!” was the command of the colonel to the young men. “now pay for your boat. here’s the man you hired it of. now go!” roared the colonel, when this last order had been obeyed.
the young men had brought a couple of knapsacks with them from the boat, and picking these up, they went. they had sense enough to see that there was nothing for them to do but to obey the autocrat of titusville.
these two miscreants had not been gone more than half an hour before coot brewer wandered into the town. he was very tired, and looked warm.
when he entered the hotel, he was greeted with shouts of derision, and the colonel at once began to storm at him.
“coot brewer!” he cried, “if ever you take anybody in a boat again from this place, i’ll have you horsewhipped!”
coot sat down, and smiled a languid smile.
“you don’t ketch me takin’ out city chaps like them,” he said. “they draws ’gators.”
at this another shout of laughter arose.
[241]“you dunderhead!” cried the colonel. “don’t you know that if you’d fired at them, every ’gator would have skedaddled?”
“yes,” said coot, “a-carryin’ off us fellers in their jaws.”
scolding and derision had very little effect on the brother of john brewer. the colonel roared out his strongest condemnation of coot’s conduct in deserting the boys, and everybody laughed at him for being afraid of the alligators, but the placid coot smiled through it all. he had got safely away from the ’gators in lowper’s creek, and he did not care what happened now.
just before supper, there was another arrival in the town. this was the yacht containing the family-party which the boys had seen on indian river.
they came up to the hotel in a little procession, with their bundles, their valises, their baskets, their umbrellas, their fishing-rods, their canes they had cut, the little alligators they were carrying home in boxes, the shells they had picked up, and all the curious things they had gathered on their trip.
the colonel sat, with an austere countenance, and watched them approaching. they had not stopped in titusville when they passed through before, having gone directly on board the boat, which they had engaged by letter, and it soon appeared that they did not intend to stop now.
[242]the winkyminky was to start early the next morning from salt lake, about seven miles away, and the head of the party considered it wise for them to go on that night to a house some three miles nearer the lake, so that they could the more easily reach the steamboat in the morning.
“all right,” said the colonel. “take the wagon and go along. i don’t want anybody here that don’t want to stop.”
after supper, the colonel called adam and the boys to him.
“look here,” he said. “you fellows have got to be sharp, or you won’t get off in the winkyminky to-morrow. she’s a little tub, and don’t hold many people, and there’s a party down at the lake now, camping out, waiting for her. if this caravan, with their baskets, and bundles, and boxes of shells, get aboard first, there’ll be no room for you, and you’ll have to wait over a week. they hadn’t any right to come back before they said they were going to. i know captain root like a book, and if you get there first with a note from me, he’ll take you in, no matter who comes after you.”
“we can’t stay here another week!” cried the boys, in consternation.
“all right,” said the colonel. “you be up early, and i’ll put you through.”
