“I sure hopes it may turn out all right to you, son, and the gal be thet same little sister you lost long ago,” the sympathetic sheriff went on to say; “I done got five gals, an’ I understand just what it must have been fo’ your mammy to a lost her on’y one. Yes, we-all hopes as how you’ll find it ain’t a mistake. But since these matters are fixed, let’s figure on headin’ that way, Tom Smith. Now, what might ye advise, to begin with?”
“Hit’s thisaway, Sheriff,” began the swamp-hunter; “dawgs is good in ther way; but sumtimes they mout seem tuh git in ther road, an’ guv warnin’ tuh theh party yuh was awantin’ tuh s’prise. Hain’t thet so, suh?”
“Reckon ye knows best, Tom; an’ let me say that I sees what yer drivin’ at,” the officer told him. “Ye believes as ye knows whar this Jasper’d most likely be aholdin’ out, an’ ye kin take us thar without the use of the hounds? Is that it, Tom?”
“Close tuh what I war meanin’ tuh say, Sheriff,” the alligator hunter went on to remark; “an’ if so be now yuh kept the dawgs back heah a bit till we seed if we cud round-up our man, it’d be better. Then, if he wa’n’t whar I laid out tuh find him, yuh cud call up the critters agin, an’ start in fresh.”
“That’s settled, then,” asserted the other; and turning to one of the posse who seemed to be in charge of the brace of hounds he continued: “Townley, ye heard as what was said, didn’t ye? Well, pick out another to help, and stay heah till ye gets the signal to come on; or we-all joins ye later.”
He spoke with such authority in his voice that the man dared not evince any disposition to disobey, though doubtless he secretly groaned in spirit at being left out of the deal at such an important juncture.
“And now, Tom Smith, lead us on; everybody keep quiet, and let’s play this game fo’ all she’s worth. If so be we brings the critter to bay, they’ll be fightin’ in plenty, I reckons, if what the kunnel says about this man is only half true. And in case we have to take to the boats, p’raps now some o’ us’ll be let crowd in with these plucky scouts. Fo’ the last word, then, here’s hopin’ we’ll have the best o’ success.”
The alligator-hide hunter again took the lead; but now he had a following that must have given him a strange thrill every time he turned his head to glance backward, for quite a flotilla of boats came in his wake; while on the nearby land a swarm of figures flitted, reminding one somewhat of a pack of silent wolves chasing relentlessly after a wounded stag.
CHAPTER XX.
THE SCOUTS SHOW THE WAY.
“Thad!”