of the lash that Duncan was accustomed to crack over him. He was
frightened, and ran at top speed.
The Angel passed a wildly waving, screaming woman on the road, and
a little later a man riding as if he, too, were in great haste.
The man called to her, but she only lay lower and used the whip.
Soon the feet of the man's horse sounded farther and farther away.
At the South camp they were loading a second wagon, when the Angel
appeared riding one of Duncan's bays, lathered and dripping, and
cried: "Everybody go to Freckles! There are
thieves stealing trees,
and they had him bound. They're going to kill him!"
She wheeled the horse toward the Limberlost. The alarm sounded
through camp. The gang were not unprepared. McLean
sprang to
Nellie's back and raced after the Angel. As they passed Duncan, he
wheeled and followed. Soon the pike was an
irregularprocession of
barebacked riders, wildly driving flying horses toward the swamp.
The Boss rode neck-and-neck with the Angel. He
repeatedly commanded
her to stop and fall out of line, until he remembered that he would
need her to lead him to Freckles. Then he gave up and rode beside
her, for she was sending the bay at as sharp a pace as the other
horses could keep and hold out. He could see that she was not
hearing him. He glanced back and saw that Duncan was close.
There was something terrifying in the appearance of the big man, and
the manner in which he sat his beast and rode. It would be a sad day
for the man on whom Duncan's wrath broke. There were four others
close behind him, and the pike filling with the
remainder of the
gang; so McLean took heart and raced beside the Angel. Over and
over he asked her where the trouble was, but she only gripped the
hames, leaned along the bay's neck, and slashed away with the
blacksnake. The steaming horse, with
crimson nostrils and heaving
sides, stretched out and ran for home with all the speed there was
in him.
When they passed the cabin, the Bird Woman's
carriage was there and
Mrs. Duncan in the door wringing her hands, but the Bird Woman was
nowhere to be seen. The Angel sent the bay along the path and
turned into the west trail, while the men bunched and followed her.
When she reached the entrance to Freckles' room, there were four
men with her, and two more very close behind. She slid from the
horse, and snatching the little
revolver from her pocket, darted
toward the bushes. McLean caught them back, and with drawn weapon,
pressed beside her. There they stopped in astonishment.
The Bird Woman blocked the entrance. Over a small limb lay
her
revolver. It was trained at short range on Black Jack and
Wessner, who stood with their hands above their heads.
Freckles, with the blood trickling down his face, from an ugly cut
in his
temple, was gagged and bound to the tree again; the
remainder of the men were gone. Black Jack was raving as a maniac,
and when they looked closer it was only the left arm that he raised.
His right, with the hand shattered, hung
helpless at his side,
while his
revolver lay at Freckles' feet. Wessner's weapon
was in his belt, and beside him Freckles' club.
Freckles' face was white, with colorless lips, but in his eyes was
the strength of undying courage. McLean pushed past the Bird
Woman crying. "Hold steady on them only one minute more!"
He snatched the
revolver from Wessner's belt, and stooped for Jack's.
At that
instant the Angel rushed past. She tore the gag from
Freckles, and seizing the rope knotted on his chest, she tugged at
it
desperately. Under her fingers it gave way, and she hurled it
to McLean. The men were crowding in, and Duncan seized Wessner.
As the Angel saw Freckles stand out, free, she reached her arms to him
and pitched forward. A
fearful oath burst from the lips of Black Jack.
To have saved his life, Freckles could not have avoided the glance
of
triumph he gave Jack, when folding the Angel in his arms and
stretching her on the mosses.
The Bird Woman cried out
sharply for water as she ran to them.
Someone
sprang to bring that, and another to break open the case
for
brandy. As McLean arose from
binding Wessner, there was a cry
that Jack was escaping.
He was already far in the swamp,
running for its densest part in
leaping bounds. Every man who could be spared plunged after him.
Other members of the gang arriving, were sent to follow the tracks
of the wagons. The teamsters had
driven from the west entrance, and
crossing the swale, had taken the same route the Bird Woman and the
Angel had before them. There had been ample time for the drivers to
reach the road; after that they could take any one of four directions.
Traffic was heavy, and
lumber wagons were passing almost constantly,
so the men turned back and joined the more exciting hunt for a man.
The
remainder of the gang joined them, also farmers of the region
and travelers attracted by the disturbance.
Watchers were set along the trail at short intervals. They patrolled
the line and roads through the swamp that night, with lighted torches,
and the next day McLean headed as
thorough a search as he felt could
be made of one side, while Duncan covered the other; but Black Jack
could not be found. Spies were set around his home, in Wildcat
Hollow, to
ascertain if he reached there or aid was being sent in
any direction to him; but it was soon clear that his relatives were
ignorant of his hiding-place, and were searching for him.
Great is the elasticity of youth. A hot bath and a sound night's
sleep renewed Freckles' strength, and it needed but little more to
work the same result with the Angel. Freckles was on the trail
early the next morning. Besides a crowd of people
anxious to witness
Jack's
capture, he found four stalwart guards, one at each turn.
In his heart he was compelled to admit that he was glad to have
them there. Close noon, McLean placed his men in
charge of Duncan,
and
taking Freckles, drove to town to see how the Angel fared.
McLean visited a
greenhouse and bought an armload of its finest
products; but Freckles would have none of them. He would carry
his message in a glowing mass of the Limberlost's first goldenrod.
The Bird Woman received them, and in answer to their eager
inquiries, said that the Angel was in no way
seriously injured,
only so bruised and
shaken that their doctor had ordered her to lie
quietly for the day. Though she was sore and stiff, they were
having work to keep her in bed. Her callers sent up their flowers
with their
grateful regards, and the Angel
promptly returned word
that she wanted to see them.
She reached both hands to McLean. "What if one old tree is gone?
You don't care, sir? You feel that Freckles has kept his trust as
nobody ever did before, don't you? You won't forget all those long
first days of
fright that you told us of, the
fearful cold of
winter, the rain, heat, and lonesomeness, and the brave days, and
lately, nights, too, and let him feel that his trust is broken?
Oh, Mr. McLean," she begged, "say something to him! Do something to
make him feel that it isn't for nothing he has watched and suffered
it out with that old Limberlost. Make him see how great and fine it
is, and how far, far better he has done than you or any of us expected!
What's one old tree, anyway?" she cried passionately.
"I was thinking before you came. Those other men were rank
big
cowards. They were scared for their lives. If they were the
drivers, I wager you gloves against gloves they never took those
logs out to the pike. My coming upset them. Before you feel bad any
more, you go look and see if they didn't lose courage the minute
they left Wessner and Black Jack, dump that
timber and run. I don't
believe they ever had the grit to drive out with it in daylight.
Go see if they didn't figure on leaving the way we did the other
morning, and you'll find the logs before you reach the road.
They never risked
taking them into the open, when they got away
and had time to think. Of course they didn't!
"And, then, another thing. You haven't lost your wager! It never
will be claimed, because you made it with a stout, dark, red-faced
man who drives a bay and a gray. He was right back of you, Mr.
McLean, when I came
yesterday. He went deathly white and shook on
his feet when he saw those men probably would be caught. Some one
of them was something to him, and you can just spot him for one of
the men at the bottom of your troubles, and urging those younger
fellows to steal from you. I suppose he'd promised to divide.
You settle with him, and that business will stop."
She turned to Freckles. "And you be the happiest man alive, because
you have kept your trust. Go look where I tell you and you'll find
the logs. I can see just about where they are. When they go up that
steep little hill, into the next woods after the
cornfield, why,
they could
unloose the chains and the logs would roll from the
wagons themselves. Now, you go look; and Mr. McLean, you do feel
that Freckles has been brave and
faithful? You won't love him any
the less even if you don't find the logs"
The Angel's nerve gave way and she began to cry. Freckles could not
endure it. He almost ran from the room, with the tears in his eyes;
but McLean took the Angel from the Bird Woman's arms, and kissed
her brave little face, stroked her hair, and petted her into
quietness before he left.
As they drove to the swamp, McLean so
earnestly seconded all that
the Angel had said that he soon had the boy feeling much better.
"Freckles, your Angel has a spice of the devil in her, but
she's superb! You needn't spend any time questioning or bewailing
anything she does. Just
worshipblindly, my boy. By heaven! she's
sense, courage, and beauty for half a dozen girls," said McLean.
"It's
altogether right you are, sir," affirmed Freckles heartily.
Presently he added, "There's no question but the
series is over now."
"Don't think it!" answered McLean. "The Bird Woman is
working for
success, and success along any line is not won by being scared out.
She will be back on the usual day, and ten to one, the Angel will
be with her. They are made of pretty stern stuff, and they don't
scare worth a cent. Before I left, I told the Bird Woman it would
be safe; and it will. You may do your usual walking, but those four
guards are there to remain. They are under your orders absolutely.
They are prohibited from firing on any bird or molesting anything
that you want to protect, but there they remain, and this time it
is
useless for you to say one word. I have listened to your pride
too long. You are too precious to me, and that voice of yours is
too precious to the world to run any more risks."
"I am sorry to have anything spoil the
series," said Freckles, "and
I'd love them to be coming, the Angel
especial, but it can't be.
You'll have to tell them so. You see, Jack would have been ready to
stake his life she meant what she said and did to him. When the
teams pulled out, Wessner seized me; then he and Jack went to
quarreling over whether they should finish me then or take me to
the next tree they were for felling. Between them they were pulling
me around and hurting me bad. Wessner wanted to get at me right
then, and Jack said he shouldn't be
touching me till the last tree
was out and all the rest of them gone. I'm belaying Jack really
hated to see me done for in the
beginning; and I think, too, he was
afraid if Wessner finished me then he'd lose his nerve and cut, and
they couldn't be managing the felling without him; anyway, they
were hauling me round like I was already past all feeling, and they
tied me up again. To keep me courage up, I twits Wessner about
having to tie me and needing another man to help handle me. I told
him what I'd do to him if I was free, and he grabs up me own club
and lays open me head with it. When the blood came streaming, it
set Jack raving, and he cursed and
damned Wessner for a
coward and
a softy. Then Wessner turned on Jack and gives it to him for
letting the Angel make a fool of him. Tells him she was just
playing with him, and beyond all manner of doubt she'd gone after
you, and there was nothing to do on
account of his
foolishness but
finish me, get out, and let the rest of the
timber go, for likely
you was on the way right then. That drove Jack plum crazy.
"I don't think he was for having a doubt of the Angel before, but
then he just raved. He grabbed out his gun and turned on Wessner.
Spang! It went out of his fist, and the order comes: `Hands up!'
Wessner reached for kingdom come like he was expecting to grab hold
and pull himself up. Jack puts up what he has left. Then he leans
over to me and tells me what he'll do to me if he ever gets out of
there alive. Then, just like a snake hissing, he spits out what
he'll do to her for playing him. He did get away, and with his