“Hallo! who is this stranger, and where did the Pike pick him up?”
The boys behind looked over their leader’s shoulder to see who the stranger was, and Chase heard one of them exclaim: “I declare, that’s the Wild Man of the Woods, fellows! He’s the one who frightened the horses!”
As the three boys drew nearer Chase’s heart continued to beat loudly, and his eyes began to open with amazement. He looked again and again, brushing away a mist that appeared to obstruct his vision, and then sat as motionless as if he had been turned into one of the boulders that lay scattered around. He noticed, too, that something created a commotion among the approaching boys. The one in front uttered an exclamation that quickly brought the one in the rear to his side, and the two stood looking first at Chase, then at each other, and whispering eagerly. At length one of them called out abruptly:
“Say, fellow, who are you?”
“O, Eugene!” was all poor Chase could say He had borne up bravely so far, but he could bear up no longer. To hear the tones of a familiar and kindly voice out there in that wilderness, when he had thought himself a thousand miles from everybody he had ever seen or heard of, was too much for the wanderer in his demoralized condition. He leaned his hands upon his knees, buried his face in them and sobbed convulsively.
“It is Hank, as sure as the world!” cried both Fred and Eugene, in tones which showed that they were not quite ready to believe it after all.
They dropped their bundles, and hurrying up to the long lost boy threw themselves down one on each side of him. “Look up, Hank,” said Eugene, “and let us see if it is really you. Speak to a fellow, can’t you?”
But Chase could neither look up nor speak. His tears flowed freely as he rocked himself back and forth on the ground. His two friends glanced at his tattered clothing, at the rags which covered his feet, then at his blue cold hands, and the eyes they raised to Archie Winters’s astonished face were not dry by any means. Fred nodded his head toward one of the bundles, and Archie understanding the sign, quickly untied it, and handed out a pair of blankets which Fred and Eugene threw over Chase’s shivering form, and then patiently waited for him to speak, resting their arms over his shoulders meanwhile, as if to assure him of their protection.
“He is a friend of ours,” said Featherweight, in answer to an inquiring look from the Pike and his wife. “He lives near us in Louisiana, and used to go to school with us.”
“Well, I do think in my soul!” cried the worthy couple, in concert.