The Raid from Beausejour; and How the Carter Boys Lifted the Mortgage Part 12

"No!" whispered Will.

"Why not?" asked Ted, anxiously.

"You don't suppose I want to shoot anybody, do you?" said Will. "I've got both barrels loaded with powder and wadding, so I can scare them out of their wits. And I've some bird shot in my pocket, to pepper their legs with if I should have to!"

"O!" said Ted.

The boys talked for perhaps an hour, in a cautious undertone, not audible ten feet off by reason of the rus.h.i.+ng and hissing and clamoring of the incoming tide. Then they were silent for a while. At length Ted murmured:

"O, I say, but I'm getting sleepy. Can't you let me go to sleep for a bit? Wake me in an hour, and I'll let you snooze."

"S't!" whispered Will, laying his hand on his brother's arm. "I heard something splash in that pool yonder!"

The boys noiselessly raised their eyes to a level with the top of the dike. At first they could see nothing. Then they detected a shadowy figure making for the place where they had last been at work.

CHAPTER IV.

A RESCUE AND A BATTLE.

"He's alone!" whispered Ted. "Shall we jump on him?"

"Hold on; wait till he gets to work," said Will. "Then, if we catch him in the act, he can't make any excuse, but just take his medicine like a man!"

"It's Baizley, eh?" murmured Ted.

At this moment they heard the stones and planks being pulled off the end of the dike. Then came the sound of a spade thrust into the clay with violence.

"Now," exclaimed Will, "let's onto him! let me get hold of him first, and then you take a hand in."

Grasping their clubs, and leaving the gun lying by their nest, the boys slipped over the dike and dashed upon the marauder. So occupied was the latter with his nefarious task that he heard nothing till the boys were within ten feet of him. Then he started up, and raised his spade threateningly.

"Drop that, Baizley, or I'll blow a hole in you!" cried Will, springing at his neck.

At this instant the silent figure flung itself adroitly off the dike, dropping the spade and eluding Will's grasp. It started swiftly across the muddy flat, the two boys close on its heels.

For a few yards the boys just held their own. Then Ted, being the swifter, forged ahead. In a few seconds more he overtook the fugitive, sprang upon his neck, and bore him headlong to the ground. The next moment, before either could recover, Will had come up, and his iron grip was on the stranger's throat.

"No nonsense, now," said Will, in a voice that carried conviction, at the same time tapping the fellow's cranium lightly with his club.

"If you don't want the life half pounded out of you, keep still!"

The fellow lay quiet, only gasping:

"Don't choke me!"

Will relaxed his grip, and then exclaimed to Ted, in astonishment:

"Why, it ain't Baizley!"

"Course, it ain't!" growled the fallen one, sullenly, appearing indignant at the imputation.

"Sit up, and let's look at the fellow that goes round nights cutting people's dikes!" commanded Will.

The fellow turned over on his face.

"Sit up!" repeated Will, in a cold voice, which sounded as if he was in earnest.

"Why," exclaimed Ted. "If it isn't Jim Hutchings!"

"Old Hand's man, eh? I begin to smell a mouse," said Will, sarcastically.

"It's as plain as a pikestaff!" almost shouted Ted. "It's old Hand that ought to get the licking we were going to give you. But we'll have to pound you a little for his sake and your own too!"

"No, Hutchings," said Will, after a moment's thought. "You deserve a licking, but we'll let you off. Only take warning. I'll blame old Hand this time, and you can let him know he's likely to hear from us about this, and about last night's work. But as for you, if we catch you fooling round this dike again, you'll be sorry as long as you live.

We're on the watch for you and the likes of you. And over yonder I've got my gun, in case there were more than one of you in the sc.r.a.pe."

"We've loaded her up, both barrels," said Ted, maliciously, "with big charges of bird shot, so she'll scatter well and everybody get his share!"

By this time Jim Hutchings was on his feet.

"Now clear out!" was Will's peremptory direction.

Hutchings started back toward the dike to get his spade.

"No, you don't," laughed Ted. "That's confiscated!'"

"Never mind the spade!" said Will, firmly, as Hutchings hesitated.

"We'll keep it and try and find some use for it!"

The fellow would have liked to contest the point, but he remembered the feeling of Will's grip. With an oath he turned on his heel and made for the uplands. Then the boys went back to the dike, possessed themselves of the spade, and repaired the slight damage that had been done.

"Shall we stay any longer?" asked Ted, again getting sleepy.

"No, I fancy we won't be bothered this way any more!" answered Will.

"At all events, Jim Hutchings won't come back!" And he chuckled to himself.

Will proved right. The dike was no more molested. By the middle of October it was within two or three yards of completion. At the gap the ground was high, so that at ordinary tides there was small outflow and inflow.

Two or three days more of satisfactory work, and the new marsh would be an accomplished fact Will and Ted were in a fever of anxiety, day and night, lest something should happen at the last to mar their plans.

Above all, they had a vague dread of some sinister move on the part of Mr. Hand.

Just at this time it happened that old Jerry lost a shoe. Ted was away in the woods looking for a stray cow, so Will had to take the horse down into the village to the blacksmith.

On his return, about the middle of the forenoon, he pa.s.sed a field in which Will Hen Baizley was at work digging a ditch. Along the foot of the field ran a clear trout brook, into which it was evidently the intention to drain a little swamp which lay further up the slope. Near where Baizley was digging, the brook widened out into a sandy-bottomed, sunny pool, in which the minnows were always darting and flickering.

Not far off stood the house of Mr. Israel Hand, where he guarded the one being he was supposed to love, his little four-year-old orphan grandson. Whether or not he cared for anyone else, it would be hard to say; but there was no questioning the fact that he absolutely wors.h.i.+ped Toddles, as the baby was called. The little one was a blue-eyed, chubby, handsome lad, with long yellow curls and an unlimited capacity for mischief.