"Thank you! Oh! thank you! That is all I want. I mean to do the right thing, but I'm only a poor, weak boy, and he wants me to do a man's work. I don't get enough to eat to make me strong. Oh! I've been wishing I could die, but now, somehow, I feel different. If you could only take me away from him. He beats me, and I'm awful sore!" he exclaimed.
"That's all right, Jed. Don't worry any more about it. We're going to stand back of you after this," said Jerry soothingly.
"But he's somewhere up here, looking for me. I saw him only to-day, and his big foreman, too. They carried blacksnake whips, the kind that cuts so bad. They will come here and take me away, and laugh at you, no matter what you say. Give me something to eat, and let me run away into the mountains, even if I starve to death."
Bluff laughed aloud.
"Oh, they will, eh? Well, let 'em try it. They'll find that two can play at a game like that, and that guns are much better to win with than whips," and he pointed to his beloved weapon as he spoke.
"Well, supper's ready, so sit around here, boys. Excuse me if I help our unexpected company first," observed Jerry, heaping a pannikin with some stew, and placing several slices of toast, already buttered, on top of this, after which he passed it along to the bound boy.
It was pleasure enough just to watch the look on his pinched face as he started to devour the appetizing food with the rapacity of a half-starved wolf.
"Bluff, get your gun and keep it across your knees. Sometimes kettles have a strange habit of vanishing just when you are expecting to enjoy the contents. This seems to be a bewitched country in that respect. Sticks poke out from behind tree trunks and spear your loaf of bread right before your eyes. We don't want to have those sort of tricks played on us any more, if we can help it, you know."
"Right you are, governor," said Bluff, only too glad to be appointed guardian of the feast by Frank; and the way in which he dragged his firearm toward him was satisfactory evidence that he would be faithful to his trust.
But there was no interruption to the feast. The boy ate until he astonished his hosts by his capacity for holding food. Finally all were satisfied, and they sat around the fire to consider what should be done in the matter.