University of Virginia Library

CHAPTER VII.
A CALL FOR HELP.

"WHAT ails you, Hanky?" demanded Rod, as the other came panting up to them, his face ghastly in color.

"Whee! I'm cold as ice! To think of me running smack on a dead man!" gasped the boy, in a quavering tone.

"Hey! what's that he says?" exclaimed Josh, starting to join them, with Rooster tagging at his heels like a little "me too."

Rod caught hold of the one who had given utterance to such an astounding thing.

"See here, collect yourself, and tell us what it means!" he remarked, sternly.

Hanky Panky seemed to get a new grip on himself.

He always did when Rod took hold of the case, and started to engineer things after his customary positive fashion.

"Cross my heart it's true, Rod; indeed, I'm not fooling this time, or tryin' to play a trick on you. I was just steppin' over the log when I looked down, and oh! my stars, there was a man alyin' there, as stiff as anything. I just came along as if I hadn't seen a thing; but my knees felt like they was knockin' together."

"Where was this?" asked Rod.

"Right between the fire and the place where I get my drinks at the spring," came the prompt answer, as Hanky Panky nodded his head in the quarter he indicated.

"But haven't you gone that same way several times before, since we settled down here for the night?" asked Rod.

"Sure I have," the other replied.

"Stepped over that same log, perhaps, too?" continued the leader.

"Yep, that's so, Rod."

"In exactly the same place?"

"Guess you're right about that; there's a sort of a trail I got in the habit of follerin', you see," Hanky went on to admit.

"Well, stop and think, if that thing was there before, when you went to the water to get a drink, wouldn't you have seen it? You had the same

eyes, and the fire must have been just as bright then as now."

Hanky Panky scratched his head; and then looked up quickly.

"Sure I don't see how I could a missed it," he replied.

"Then what makes you think it was a dead man?" asked Rod.

"Mostly because he didn't move a bit when I stepped over the log. But I c'n see what you mean, Rod. He must a come there since I got my last drink, ain't that it?"

And Rod nodded his head, as he turned to Elmer, saying:

"We must look into this thing, boys. Get lights and clubs as quick as you can, every fellow!"

"And I'll watch, to make sure he don't skip out!" observed Rooster, who was none too anxious to be in the van when they advanced toward that fallen tree, behind the trunk of which the other had declared some one was lying hidden.

Josh was the first to announce himself as ready. He had picked out a fine torch from the fire, and in his other hand clutched the cudgel that he had kept by him at the time the two hounds were so close, under the impression that possibly it would come in handy. And Josh was glad now that he had so good a weapon.

Hanky Panky had followed suit in so far as

securing a heavy stick went, though he did not try to find a light. As for Rod and Elmer, they were ready shortly after the speedy Josh announced himself as prepared to advance.

Indeed, he had to be recalled by Rod; for, with his usual impetuousness Josh had taken half a dozen steps toward the fallen tree before the others were moving.

"Wait for us, Josh," said Rod; "better keep together, as we don't know what we may be up against."

"That's so," echoed Hanky Panky; "and if you'd had the scare I did, I tell you right now, you'd be careful how you rushed things. I thought my heart would jump right out of my throat when I made it out to be somebody alyin' there!"

The five of them advanced slowly toward the spot. Hanky Panky was the guide, and from time to time he directed them to turn this way or that. It was a weird spectacle, those flaming lights advancing toward a certain spot, with the boys waving their cudgels as they walked, and exchanging low comments.

"Look out now, you're mighty near to him," cautioned Hanky Panky, in a thrilling whisper, that naturally added to the nervousness of the others.

Now they had reached the fallen tree. Rod, holding his burning torch low, could see where the thirsty one had made a regular trail going to,

and coming from the water. And right there he had been compelled on each occasion to step over the log.

Perhaps, in going to the creek he had failed to look down, and thus did not notice the figure stretched alongside the tree trunk; but on his return it caught his attention, just as he had declared.

Rod motioned to Elmer and Josh to spread out a little, while he himself stayed on the trail in the center.

Then he took a couple of steps forward, leaned over, and held his torch in such a manner that its light fell across the log.

Rooster held his breath with a great fear of what might follow.

He saw Rod bend down even further, as though examining something. Then he spoke in a low but commanding tone.

"Come up out of that!"

Immediately something began to stir behind the log. Then a figure came into view.

"Oh!" gasped Rooster, as he stared with all his might; "it's one of them escaped convicts, sure it is, 'cause I c'n see the striped clothes!"

That was just what it was, a fellow as black as the ace of spades, and just shaking like a leaf in the breeze, with dread lest the boys would deliver him over to the men and the dogs.

"Close up around him, fellows," Rod next

ordered; and this the others immediately did. But the prisoner gave no evidence of wanting to run away.

"'Deed, I'se ain't meanin' tuh run, no, sah. I kim back hyah jest apurpose tuh ask yuh tuh gib me a bite, foh de lub o' misery. Ain't had nebber a single mouthful ob anyt'ing dis tree days back. I'se tellin' youse de truf, 'clar tuh goodness I is, boss."

He said this in a trembling voice, that immediately caused the boys to feel something like sympathy for the poor wretch.

Rod looked at him keenly. He saw the black man had a face that was simple, rather than coarse or repulsive. Just now it seemed to be pathetic in its appeal.

It was a time for quick thinking. What should they do about it? True, this man wore the degrading garments that stamped him a convicted criminal; but then Rod, young as he was, knew that often innocent men manage to get in prison. And then again, many colored convicts in the South are such simply because they had been unwise enough to allow their temper to force them into a fight -- Elmer had told him so.

No matter who or what this fellow might be, he was a human being, and hungry at that, nearly starved in fact. He had tried to get possession of their food by trying to coax them away from their

camp while his mate ran away with what supplies they possessed; but lots of men who claimed to be honest would have done the same thing, under similar conditions. Rod was one of those who believed that a great many persons in this world are honest because they have never known what it was to be hungry.

"I guess we'll go you, Ajax," he said, presently, remembering that the guard had told them that this was the name of the black fugitive; and also that there was not so very much against him, for it was the desperate mulatto whom they were most desirous of overtaking.

The black face lost some of its anxious look; even the ghost of a grin crept over it, as the man heard what Rod said.

"That's right, Rod, "declared warm-hearted Josh; "we've got plenty to eat along; and the poor chap looks like he could tackle about the toughest article going; so let's give him a decent meal for once, and then wash our hands of him."

"Elmer, are you of that mind too?" asked Rod, who knew that the Tennessee boy was better acquainted with the peculiarities of the negro race than any of the rest, and his opinion ought to be sought in a case of this kind.

"Certainly, suh; the poor boy needs it the worst kind. I'd do without breakfast myself rather than deny him," came the quick response.

And so they all moved over to the fire, where the man was told to sit down, and wait until another pot of coffee could be boiled, as well as some ham cooked. In the meanwhile, to take the savage edge off his ravenous appetite, Rod gave him part of a box of crackers, and a hunk of cheese, to gnaw on; which Ajax proceeded to demolish without ceremony, much as a hungry dog would bolt pieces of meat that were thrown to him.

Rod sat down near the convict. Somehow he did not seem to feel such a repugnance as would seem natural. Perhaps it was because the fellow's face, now that the hungry, anxious expression had vanished, was of a happy-go-lucky type, and reassured the boy. He felt certain that Ajax, just as the guard had said, was not a bad man by nature, but had come into his present difficulty through weakness.

"What made you come back here near us, Ajax?" Rod asked him, presently, when he saw that the other could talk without choking over the crackers.

"I done couldn't bear tuh tear myself away from de grub, sah, an' dat am de truth," came the grinning reply. "I was de man dat make out tuh steal de big heavy bicycle, so dat Yaller, he could grab up somethin' tuh eat, 'case as how we was done starvin'. When dat fell through I nebber meant tuh jine him ergin, 'case I skeered o' dat nigger; he say as how

he mean tuh do fo' me de firstest time I try tuh cut loose frum him."

"And so you came back here, boy, to find out if we'd give you a meal, was that it?" asked Elmer.

"Yassir, dat am de way ob it," the other went on, eagerly. "I done git to de crick when I heah's de dawgs a yelpin'; an' den I walk in de water, so's tuh kill de scent. Den I heahd dem agoin' away on de track ob Yaller, an' I t'inks it time I creep up tuh ask yuh fo' de crumbs frum de table."

"Well, make your mind easy, Ajax," said Rod, as Josh came up with the fried ham, followed by Hanky Panky bearing the coffee; "we don't mean to hold you for the convict camp guards. When you're done eating you can go your way, understand?"

The wretched Ajax mumbled his thanks, for he was already deep into the appetizing slice of ham. And sitting there, the motorcycle boys watched him eat ravenously. It was certainly a sight none of them would ever forget. Josh and Hanky Panky may have believed they knew what hunger was; but as they saw the almost frantic actions of this man who had been three days without food, they admitted that they had never been in the same class.