It is always a difficult thing for the ordinary boy to restrain his impatience, and several of the scouts squirmed about uneasily while Bob was trying to calm himself down, so that he might talk with reasonable comfort.
Thad let him have his own time. He understood that Bob was even more anxious to tell, than any of them were to hear; and that just as quickly as he could, he was sure to start in.
That time came presently, when his heart began to beat less violently; and as a consequence Bob started to breathe more naturally.
"I met Bertha," he began to say, "and she gave me the paper. Boys, it's everything I hoped it'd be; and once I manage to get it in the hands of a good lawyer, good-bye to Mr. Reuben Sparks' authority over little Bertha, and her fortune."
"Wow! that's going some!" burst out Giraffe, rubbing his thin hands one over the other, as though decidedly pleased by the news.
"Was she disappointed when you told her how impossible it would be for us to take her away right now, when these moonshiners have got us marooned up here in their blessed old mountains; and we can't turn whichever way without runnin' slap up against a sentry with his old gun?" asked Bumpus.
"That's right, she was upset when I told her that same," answered the other. "It made me feel right bad too, suh, to see how she took it; and I tell you right now I came mighty neah givin' in, and sayin' we'd make a try. But I remembered what Thad heah had told me, and how it was best for all of us that we let the cou'ts summon old Reuben to bring Bertha before the bar of justice. An' finally, after I'd explained it all to her, she began to see it the same way. My cousin has got the spirit of the Quails all right, I tell you, fellows, even if she is young and little."
"I reckon you stayed so long tryin' to convince her, Bob, that you clean forgot how you'd promised to get back here as soon as you could?" remarked Step Hen, under the belief, no doubt, that he was giving the other a sly dig.
"Well, perhaps you are correct about that same, suh," replied Bob, quite unabashed; "she was like most girls, and had to be argued into seeing things like boys see 'em. Of course, I couldn't break away till she had arranged to go back to the house, and wait for things to begin to move, as they surely would, just as soon as I get to Asheville. But there was one real smart thing she did do, and I've just got to tell you about that befo' I come to my own adventure."
"That's right, don't skip anything, old chum," remarked Giraffe, warmly, as he settled down to listen.