University of Virginia Library

CHAPTER XIII.
WINNING A POWERFUL FRIEND

ON hearing Elmer speak in this confident way, Rod took another good look at the lanky mountaineer. He could not see anything unusual about the man, except that possibly he was taller than the average run, and had a sort of commanding air about him, such as would indicate his being in a position to act as a leader among his kind.

"Who and what is he, Elmer?" he asked, in a low tone.

"His name is Si Keck," replied the other; "and fo' a good many years now he's always been known as the head and front of the mountain men. Some people say that he makes mountain dew, and that the revenues have tried for years to get him in the act, but up to now they've failed. Si, suh, is too sharp for them."

"But why do you say we're in great luck to have done his family this service?" continued Rod. "We don't expect to have anything to do with moonshiners, and how would this Si Keck be in a position to help us in the work you want to carry out?"

"I'll tell you," said Elmer, quickly. "As I said

befo', there's always been a chance that some fool man down here would take a dislike to us, because in the first place we are strangers; and then again he'd think we were connected with the military on account of these leather leggins we wear, and the fact of our having such fine motorcycles, which have seldom, if ever, been seen around here, fo' a fact."

"Yes; go on, please, Elmer."

"Now, it's a mighty uncomfortable feeling, suh," the Southern boy continued; "you'll agree with me, to keep thinking that there may be a moonshiner hiding behind some rock, and covering you with his rifle, while his finger plays with the trigger, I confess that it might give me the creeps. But that will all be done away with now. Si Keck will see to it that nothing of the sort happens."

"Oh! now I begin to get at what you mean," declared Rod.

"Wait and see what happens, for he's heading this way right now, and I reckon he means to speak what's on his mind. Meet him squarely, man to man, Rod, and my word for it, we won't be sorry."

The tall, lanky mountaineer was advancing toward the spot where the boys stood. By now the fire had been so far subdued that it no longer menaced the cabin. The little ramshackle stable had been pretty badly burned, but thanks to the prompt efforts of the motorcycle boys, the fire had

been confined to the building where it must have started.

But evidently the mountain man did not have this so much on his mind as the invaluable service they had rendered in saving his old and lame father from suffocation in the smoke that filled the cabin.

Now he was before them, and with hand outstretched. There was an actual softening of the stern, suspicious face, and his eyes were certainly humid as he spoke:

"I wanter shake hands with yuh, younkers. I hears as how yuh done me an' mine a mighty good turn. I'm 'bliged tuh ye foh savin' my cabin from burnin'; but when yuh pulled ole Daddy outen thah, yuh done somethin' I hain't never agoin' tuh forgit. He's on'y an ole an' lame man, but we sot some store by him thisaway. An' yuh kin count on Si Keck bein' yuh friend arter this."

He gravely shook hands with Elmer, Rod, Josh and Hanky Panky by turns. Rod was surprised at the way he did it, for there was no enthusiasm in his grip; indeed, that hand of the mountaineer felt like a cold thing, a frog, or something like that. But then Rod knew what a deficiency of energy there was among these people of the mountains. He understood that lack of decent food had made them fit subjects for the hookworm, and that as a rule they could muster little animation, except when engaged in a fight.

Elmer introduced himself and all his comrades. He even went so far as to tell that they were from Ohio, and down in Tennessee just for a trip on their wonderful little steel steeds,

"I used to live down here myself, Si Keck," he went on to say, seeing the other looking at him keenly, as though he might have noticed the Southern inflection to Elmer's voice, and wondered what it meant. "My people lived not twenty miles out of Chattanooga. You must have heard of Luther Overton, my grandfather."

The man started, and looked at him again.

"Jest what I has," he went on to say, "an' him an' me we never was friends; but I allers did think Luther was on ther squar, an' wouldn't turn a trick on a po' mountain man. So ye be ther leetle un I uster see aplayin' 'round thar? An' yuh be comin' down hyah tuh set eyes agin on ther ole place? Wall, yuh done me a good turn, boy, an' ole Si Keck ain't agoin' tuh forgit it. Some o' ther folks thought as how yuh mout be gov'ment spies, sent hyah tuh git p'ints agin us. They even done sot a trap beyant this place, meanin' tuh trip yuh up, an' smash them fine wheels o' yourn. But yuh ain't no cause tuh be worrited arter this. It's all rite, I tells you, younker."

"We're sure glad to hear that, Si Keck," said Elmer, who had taken it upon himself to be the spokesman on this occasion, a position Rod was only

too glad to let him fill, because of the fact that Elmer ought to know best of all just how to handle these queer people of the Tennessee mountains,

"I'm agoin' tuh let 'em know riteaway that yuh all be friends o' mine; an' if so much as a hair o' yer heads be injured, the critter as does it hes gut tuh answer tuh me," the old man went on to say, and with a certain dignity that somehow impressed Rod very much.

"Be sure that we appreciate what you say, suh, and as we ride on this day it will please us very much to feel that if any eyes watch our coming, they are those of your friends. I ought to know this country down heah; and that strangers are not wanted in the mountains, unless they can show a clean bill of health, and that they have no connection with the government service. The leather coats, and the leggins that we wear might look suspicious to some persons, who had never set eyes on a motorcycle. And as fo' the little service we were able to do you and yours, believe me it was only a pleasure to have the chance to show what we could do."

Si Keck was evidently a man of few words. He had already about exhausted his vocabulary in saying as much as he did. Nor was Rod much surprised when the man turned abruptly away, waved his hand toward his woman and the two children, still hovering over the old Daddy, and strode once more along the road.

As though an after thought had struck him, Elmer called out to him to wait, and then hurried to where he stood. They talked earnestly for at least five minutes, after which the tall mountaineer hurried away, while Elmer returned to where his comrades awaited him.

"Now where d'ye suppose he's gone?" asked Josh, when they were all together again.

"I reckon, suh, that he's meaning to send on some sort of signal to those of the mountain clan further along the road," replied Elmer.

"You mean the fellers that he said were in hidin', layin' some sort of man-trap that was calculated to upset us, and smash our machines -- is that it, Elmer?" Hanky Panky wanted to know, looking a bit pale as he considered what sort of trouble this might have meant for them.

"That's what I mean, suh," Elmer continued; "of course I don't know just how it might have been done. Perhaps, for instance, a big rock would suddenly let go above at a time when one of us was spinning along at a merry clip, and fill the narrow mountain road. As it would be utterly impossible for the rider to bring his motorcycle to a stop, the result would be a collision, a smashed machine, and perhaps a broken collarbone, some ribs damaged, or even a leg fractured."

"Wow! then I'm delighted to know that we came along here just when we did, and not only had the

fun of acting as fire-fighters, but made a good friend of this Si Keck, who seems to be a sort of Grand Panjandrum among the mountain men. But when you ran after him, and talked again, did you ask him how he meant to let his pals know about us, Elmer?"

Hanky Panky had no equal in asking questions; he could tire anybody out without satisfying himself. But generally speaking, his chums were always ready to accommodate him to the best of their ability.

Elmer shook his head as he slowly replied:

"Why, no, I didn't think to ask him that, Hanky; fact is it wasn't any of my business just how he meant to do that same thing."

"But it bothers me more'n a little to guess however he could do it," the other continued, with his customary pertinacity; "they ain't no telegraph lines along this here road; and even if there did happen to be, I don't believe Si, or any of his friends'd know how to take or send a message by the dot-and-dash method."

"You're surely right there, suh," conceded Elmer, with a grin at the thought.

"But I guess that you, or Rod here, must have a pretty good idea just how it'd be done; and suppose you tell Josh'n me," Hanky Panky insisted.

At that Rod spoke up.

"From what I know of these mountaineers,"

he said, "they have a means of communicating similar to all woodsmen and Indians. This is by smoke signal. And chances are, that if we keep our eyes about us from now on, we'll be apt to notice puffs of black smoke sailing up from the top of some elevation that is looked on as a station. And the men who are lying in wait for us will read what Si Keck is trying to tell them, just as easy as a Signal Corps man in the army would take a message with the wigwag flags, or the heliograph."

"Huh! that's some interestin', let me tell you," Hanky Panky observed; "and for one I'm agoin' to keep my eyes open for signs of smoke. I'll feel a whole lot easier after I see it movin', and that's a fact."

"And seems to me," interrupted Josh, for once showing signs of caution, which was quite a novelty, the other boys thought; "we hadn't ought to try and hurry any too much. If we went booming on too fast, why, we might get to that place where the trap has been fixed even before old Si could send his message. And it's mighty important to us that he lets them boys know we're stamped with his approval mark. Tell you what, for one I don't hanker after runnin' ker-smash into a rock, and taking the consequences."

"You're right, Josh," said Rod, "and when we leave here we'll go at a slow clip right along. The time for dashing is past; and the roads down here

wouldn't stand for a mile-a-minute pace either. But suppose we throw a little more water on the stable, and make sure the last spark is out. Then we can walk back to where our chum, Rooster, is waiting for us. It was too bad he couldn't have had a share in all the fun; but some one had to stand by the wheels, and his saying he had felt a stitch in his side made him the logical guardian of our machines."

Their work was quickly done, and after a few words with the woman, who also insisted in shaking hands with them all, in just the same listless way Si had done, the four motorcycle boys walked back along the road, turning the bend, and presently arriving at the place where Rooster had been left in charge of the precious machines, about half an hour before.