University of Virginia Library

CHAPTER X.
THE POOR MAN'S AUTOMOBILE.

"GET up, Rooster; don't you know it's broad daylight?"

"Aw! sure you're foolin' me, Josh," said the other, as he sat up and rubbed his heavy eyes with the knuckles of both hands; and then, staring around at the bustling scene, he went on to add in utter astonishment: "well, bless me if it ain't a fact; and to think of me sleepin' like a log all this time. Why, the sun's up, and I c'n smell the coffee agoin'. Guess I was makin' up for the time I lost last night in that road tavern bed. You know, Josh, I said somethin' kept me awake most all the time."

"Yes, and we believed you, too, Rooster," commented the other. "You're an easy mark, and everything takes to you, first. Right now the skeeters have been pepperin' your face like fun. But hurry, and wash up, because Rod, he called out a minute or so ago that breakfast was pretty near ready."

"Oh! tell Rod I'll be on deck; you can always depend on me to hustle when there's any eatin' goin' on. I believe in promptness at meal times. I was brought up that way, you see, Josh."

"Well, if I know you, Rooster, and I think I do, it's the only occasion you can be counted on to toe the mark on time," and with this parting shot, which made the object of the insinuation only grin, Josh turned back to his duties at the fire.

So the night in camp had passed, and nothing more had happened to bring the least sign of trouble. As they sat around, disposing of the abundant breakfast provided by the cooks of the morning, quite naturally much of the talk was of the strange events of the preceding night. They discussed the chase of the guards, and wondered whether the mulatto convict had been overhauled by the dogs.

Of course, if such proved to be the case, the only thing Yellow could do would be to climb a tree, because he would not dare attempt to enter into a fight with a pair of such ferocious animals as those tawny hounds seemed to be, especially with no other means of offense and defense than a club. And should this happen, the baying or yelping of the dogs would eventually bring the men to the spot, to make the fugitive their prisoner again.

"I'm sorry for the poor wretch, if ever he falls into their hands, though I reckon that he's a bad egg, and ought to suffer," Elmer remarked.

"Yes, when I remember the face of that short guard I feel a little that way myself," Rod went on to say. "This man is a tough character, I suppose, but that's no reason he should be abused if

retaken; and I'm afraid that's what will happen, if that guard with the cruel face has his way."

"But, there isn't much chance that they'll run across Ajax, is there?" demanded Hanky Panky; "because, if they did, p'raps they'd think it worth while to trot back here, to ask why so many of our duds happened to be in his keeping. They'd kind of suspect that we'd been helping him get away, you see."

"Oh! forget it," observed Rod. "From what that leading guard said, they didn't care much whether they recaptured Ajax or not, because they knew he didn't amount to anything as a criminal; but it was different with the other. And now, if you have all had enough breakfast, suppose we get ready to make a flying start. From what Elmer tells me we'll like as not have a heap of trouble today, because of the poor roads, and other things."

"Yes," said Elmer, taking the subject up, "we've noticed that they must have had a pretty heavy storm around this region lately, that washed the roads badly; and they're poor enough, suh, at their best, believe me. So we'll likely have to dismount quite a few times, and walk a mile or more, pushing our machines ahead of us."

Rooster groaned at hearing that. If there was one thing he disliked to do it was walking, when he had a fine motorcycle along. It always galled him, and he was wont to declare it was as bad as having

to put the horse in the carriage, and dragging the entire outfit.

But nevertheless, Rooster was able to do his duty when pushed, and while he might grunt, more or less, he always kept up with the procession. On. this occasion it was very likely that he would make a special effort to do so, because of the many bad things he had heard Elmer say concerning the country through which their day's run was apt to take them.

Presently, everything being pronounced ready, Elmer started off. The road happened to have a comparatively level stretch just beyond them, before it mounted upward; and this offered a fine opportunity for getting away.

Even Rooster, although undoubtedly the poorest rider of the five, seemed to have little trouble about making a flying start; and the merry popping of the exhausts, as the boys pushed sturdily upward, announced that the expedition was under way.

Under ordinary conditions, Rod, as the leader, would have been in the van; but on account of the fact that this was Elmer's old stamping-ground which they were about to visit, and that he was supposed to be more or less familiar with conditions down here among the Tennessee mountains, Rod had, of his own free will, started in to "play second fiddle," as Elmer put it.

It was not long before they found that the Tennessee

boy had been quite right when he warned them that they were likely to run up against a sea of troubles on this second day's ride through the valleys, and over the elevations that lay to the north of Chattanooga many miles.

The late storm had indeed played havoc with the roads, washing gullies in them in places, that constantly threatened the motorcyclists with disaster.

Because of this ever present peril they made slow progress during the morning. To the dismay of Rooster, the walking proved a regular thing, so that for half a mile at a stretch, and that many times, they had to climb a steep elevation, pushing those heavy machines along, and perspiring heavily.

"One thing I hope you'll conclude to do, Rod," gasped Hanky Panky, after this foot exercise had been going on for some time, and they had stopped to rest on the brow of a small-sized mountain.

"What might that be?" asked Josh, before Rod could frame words to put the question himself.

"That we make up our minds to go back by another route," Hanky Panky went on.

"Second that motion!" hastily cried Rooster, wiping his steaming forehead with his red bandanna handkerchief, which he kept knotted about his neck, cowboy style, so he could make use of it to wipe the dust from his eyes while riding.

"Just as likely as not we will," replied Rod,

cheerily; "that is, if there's any choice of roads, and Elmer will know."

"Yes, leave that all to me, fellows," the one mentioned remarked, placidly.

Elmer had become very thoughtful of late, and Rod understood what that stood for. Naturally enough, the closer they drew to his old home the more his doubts disturbed the Tennessee lad. He was torn by conflicting hopes and fears, one minute feeling that he must surely find the precious papers under the hearth-stone of the house in which much of his life had been spent; and then again finding himself groping in doubt, for there seemed so many chances against success. Those words dropped by the old grandfather in his sleep, when his mind wandered back to the past, may not have had any particular significance; or even though they did refer to some hiding-place where he had secreted the valuable papers, it might be a stone in the mountains, after all.

"What a great thing these machines are, to get over ground," Josh remarked, as they began to prepare to mount again. "Why, think of it, if we had to walk all the way here from our home town, away up in Ohio. It would take us weeks, I guess."

"It would me, that I'm sure of," Rooster observed, calmly. "And the funny thing about it is that some silly people say all sorts of things about motorcycles, even calling them the most dangerous

thing to be met with on the highways of the country."

"That's all because of a few harem-scarem riders, who go whirling along through villages, and everywhere else, like mad, killing chickens, and dogs, and giving everybody a bad scare," Rod declared.

"Why," spoke up Hanky Panky, "I was just reading only the other day how over in England they're used by all sorts of tradesmen, in going to and from their work, especially out among the country towns. Why, a carpenter thinks nothing of taking on a job ten miles away from home. They have fine, even roads over there, you know, and with his kit of tools fastened on his machine, he gets there in decent time, and has a lovely spin going home again, rain or shine, it makes little difference to him."

"That's using the motorcycle as it ought to be used," Rod went on to say, as he straddled his machine, and prepared to follow, when Elmer had taken the lead. "Over here most people are in such a hurry that they think they have to let things out to the last link, and go whirling along like mad."

"Now I know you're getting a little knock on me, Rod," remarked Josh, the impatient chum; "but I don't do that near so much as I used to, you'll all have to admit that."

"Yes, you're reforming -- a little, Josh," said Rooster.

"And you'd better quit taking those headers of yours every once in so often," was the way Josh got back at the last speaker; "you seem bent on exploring every mud hole or frog pond that happens to lie alongside the road; and because up to now luck has been with you, so that you haven't broke your precious neck, or damaged your wheel seriously, don't think it'll always be that way, Rooster."

"Aw! people that live in glass houses oughtn't to throw stones; so I'm off after Rod and Elmer. Watch me, and see if I wobble as much as I used to. I'm getting to be a middle of the road man nowadays, you notice."

Presently the entire five were moving along nicely, as the road happened to be in pretty good shape for a couple of miles. Then once more their troubles began, and they had to alternately walk and ride.

So noon found them. Elmer had hoped they would have reached a crossroads he had marked upon his rough chart of the region he was carrying, where they would pick up some sort of a lunch; but it seemed utterly hopeless, the way things were going.

"Tell you what, fellows," he had said, when they took another turn at walking up a hill; "we'll be lucky to strike some sort of cabin along in the next mile, at which we may be able to buy a scanty meal of hog and hominy."

"Don't I wish now I had a gun along," remarked Josh; "I've seen two bevies of quail rise up, and Elmer here says he started a lot more pa'tridges, as they call 'em down here. But say, fellows, what d'ye s'pose now, all that smoke means over the top of the rise up there?"

"And listen, would you?" exclaimed Hanky Panky, in more or less excitement, "don't you hear some sort of shoutin' too? Say, I wouldn't be s'prised now if it meant one of these here cabins was afire. Let's hurry, boys, and get to the top!"