"Good riddance to bad rubbish, I take it," declared Giraffe. "Whenever the fire flashed up that gent would look around the queerest way ever, as though he kind of thought we might be revenue agents playing a fine game on his friends, the moonshiners."
"Be careful what you say, Giraffe," advised the more cautious Thad. "When you're in the enemy's country you want to use soft words. Besides, you're only guessing when you say that. He was naturally curious about us. Some people would think a bunch of boys stark crazy, to try and hike through such wild country as this, when we could have taken to the good roads up in New York State, had orchards all along the way, and good-natured farmers galore to buy milk and eggs from when we got hungry."
"I hope, suh, you won't be sorry you came down this aways," Bob White spoke up. "I take it as a great compliment, believe me, that you-all would care to keep me company when I said I felt that I just had to come back here on a visit, to see what changes there were, and do a little private business in the bargain. I'm aware of the fact that there isn't anything much worth seeing here, suh; except the untamed wilderness; but they's always plenty of excitement going around, I understand."
"I should guess yes," broke out Step Hen, "with that same Old Phin hangin' 'round with his eye on the watch for revenues. But see here, Bob, don't you think you owe us a little explanation about this racket—meaning your relations with the gent who is guardian to your sweet little cousin Bertha?"
"So say we all," chorused Davy Jones, Giraffe and Bumpus, solemnly, as they gathered around the Southern boy.
Bob White looked at their eager faces for a minute before speaking. There was something akin to real affection to be seen there as he turned his eyes from one to another of his mates. The boy from Dixie had not been in the habit of making friends easily in earlier days; but when he landed in Cranford he had soon been captivated by the sincere companionship of Thad Brewster; and when he joined the new patrol of the scouts he quickly learned to appreciate the many good qualities that marked the other members.
"Yes, it's only fair, boys," he began, slowly yet with an evident determination to take them at least part way into his confidence; "that you should know just why I didn't want any of you to tell the name of the town we hailed from, when that man was in here. He would have recognized it as my new home, and might have suspected that I brought you all down here for a purpose."
"Which you did," interrupted Bumpus; "to admire the scenery; rough it awhile in the Land of the Sky; and show us something of your native country. If there was anything more, we didn't know it, Bob White. But we're comrades, one and all; and if we c'n do anything to help you tide over some trouble, why, you've just got to tell now."
"That is fine of you, Bumpus, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart," continued the other, strangely moved. "But let me tell you a few things first before you make such a rash promise, which I am not going to hold you to, suh. The man who was in this cabin, Reuben Sparks, is said to be the richest and meanest in these parts. It has been hinted more than a few times that he has always been thick with Old Phin Dady. But no matter how he came by his money, he is something of a miser."
"No relation of yours, I hope, then, Bob?" asked Step Hen.