"It is as true as gospel."
Dick could not refuse to believe it after so strong an affirmation as this. He grinned all over with delight, and taking the sailor's sturdy palm in his long, bony fingers, gave it a shake and a squeeze that made the captain wince and lift one of his feet a little way from the deck. Then Dick hurried off to find his chum.
"It's all right, Bob," said he, gleefully. "I didn't know civilized folks done sich things, but the cap'n's scalpin' that feller in a way the Injuns never thought of. He's pilin' fire on his head every day."
This piece of news, while it greatly surprised both the trappers, afforded them the liveliest satisfaction. The kidnapper was being fearfully punished for what he had done, and they told one another that he deserved it. Dick did not hang around the cabin door any more, but he kept his eyes open, and as he never saw any fire carried below, he began to grow suspicious.
When the Stranger arrived in the port of Honolulu and he saw preparations being made to take the captain ashore, he resolved to investigate things a little, just to satisfy himself. Watching his chance, while the wounded man was being carried across the deck to be lowered into the boat, he dashed forward and lifted the hat from his head. To his intense surprise and chagrin the captain's scalp was all there, and his hair did not look as if it had ever been near a fire. Knowing nothing of the Christian principle of returning good for evil, the trapper supposed that Captain Gaylord had been piling literal coals on his patient's head every day. It took Uncle Dick a long time to explain things, and the backwoodsman never had as much faith in him after that.
Having restored Frank to the society of his friends once more, we will take leave of him for the present, promising to say more of him soon in the concluding volume of this series, which will be entitled: "The Boy Traders; or, The Sportsman's Club among the Boers."
TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE:
—Obvious print and punctuation errors were corrected.