It might have been just natural meanness that caused this, since eight healthy young appetites would eat up all in his larder. But then again, there may have been other reasons for the lack of Southern hospitality. Possibly Reuben did not care to have inquisitive strangers prowling about his place. He may have occasional visitors, who brought cargoes which he would not want other eyes to see.
The boys fell in shortly after the vehicle had vanished around a bend of the road ahead; and the march was once more resumed.
Of course Bob took the earliest opportunity to forge alongside of Thad. He was feverishly excited, so that his black eyes sparkled, and his breath came faster than usual.
"What did you think of him, Thad?" he asked, the first thing.
"I must say I don't just like his looks;" replied the other; "but your little cousin is everything you said she was. But Bob, she doesn't look happy!"
"You could see that too, could you, suh?" exclaimed the other, gritting his teeth angrily. "I know he treats her badly. She is thinner in the cheeks than she was two years ago, though taller some. And Thad, there's a look in her eyes that hurts me. I'm glad I wrote what I did in that little note I slipped in her hand. Later on I'm going to tell you about it. But oh! it looks like there was a slim chance to do anything for poor little Bertha."
Thad hardly knew how to console his chum. Boy-like he was ready to promise anything that lay in his power.
"Well, there are eight of us, and that's not as bad as being here alone," he suggested, with a cheering pat of his hand on the other's shoulder.
"You'll never know how much comfort I get out of that, Thad," the Southern boy went on to say, in a broken voice. "You see, I've been believing for a long time that there must have been something crooked about the way Reuben Sparks came into possession of Bertha, and her property. But how to prove it, when my father failed, is what gets me now. But I'm full of hope; and what you keep saying gives me a heap of solid comfort. I'm going to try and learn the truth while I'm down here; and take her away from that man, if it can be done. I'm only a boy, and he's a cold scheming man; but all the same, Thad, something inside here seems to tell me my visit to the Old Blue Ridge isn't going to be useless."
Bob White seemed to be sensibly encouraged after his little chat with the patrol leader; for when he dropped back among the rest of the scouts he had allowed a winning smile to creep over his dark, proud, handsome face.