Dan Carter Cub Scout Part 33

Freeze and his companion, apparently abandoning all hope of pus.h.i.+ng the station wagon to dry pavement, had begun to unload their luggage.

"They _are_ skipping town!" Dan declared anxiously. "I guess they must have wised up after they failed to find the crate of pheasants at Mr.

Silverton's place."

"Here they come now," Brad muttered a minute later as the two men splashed through the water toward the car. "Oh, heck! If we don't think of something, they'll get away!"

Mr. Hatfield, however, did not intend to allow the pair to escape without at least an attempt to hold them. Warning the Cubs to remain in the car, he stepped out onto the road just as the two waded up carrying their heavy luggage.

"Stuck?" he inquired casually.

"Looks like it, don't it?" growled Jake Freeze. "You can't get through with your car. I'd advise you to turn around and go back the way you came."

"Guess I will," Mr. Hatfield said easily. "You're abandoning your station wagon?"

"We're in a hurry to catch a train," Freeze answered. "We'll have it towed in by a garage."

"Maybe I can give you a lift to town," Mr. Hatfield offered, stalling for time.

"Sure, we'll appreciate it," Bauer growled. "I'm tellin' you we've had a rotten run o' luck tonight."

Mr. Hatfield turned his car around in the narrow road, taking as long as he possibly could. Then he swung open the rear door for the two men to enter.

As Freeze settled himself, he gave Brad and Dan a sharp glance, noticing their Scout uniforms.

"Cubs!" he exclaimed. "Say, haven't I seen you kids somewhere?"

"Why, we wouldn't know," Brad answered. "Unless maybe it was in Webster City."

"Cubs!" the man repeated. "Now I got it! Dobbs was telling us that they were swarming over the Silverton place and might make trouble-"

"Trouble?" Dan interposed innocently. "What sort of trouble?"

But neither Freeze nor his companion was to be trapped into further speech.

Suddenly suspicious, they started to get out of the car.

"Thanks for offering a lift," Freeze muttered, "but we'll telephone for a tow car."

Mr. Hatfield had observed the headlights of two approaching vehicles.

"It won't be necessary to telephone," he said with quiet jubilation. "I rather think help is coming now."

Even as the Cub leader spoke, Mr. Silverton's car drove up, followed by a police cruiser.

Freeze and Bauer, abandoning their luggage, made a dash for the hill.

Belatedly they realized that they had fallen into a trap.

Mr. Silverton and Saul Dobbs had leaped from the sportsman's car.

Deliberately, they cut off escape.

"Just a minute!" the owner of the pheasant farm said, stepping in front of Freeze and Bauer. "I have a few questions to ask you two."

"Such as?" Freeze demanded insolently.

"For one thing, I want to know why you've been s.h.i.+pping my pheasants out of town? And trespa.s.sing on my property?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Freeze muttered, trying without success to shove past the sportsman.

"We don't know nothin' about any pheasants," Bauer added.

"I think you do," Mr. Silverton corrected. "You needn't deny that you've been trespa.s.sing. Dobbs already has confessed his part."

"Why, you dirty double-crosser!" Freeze accused, starting for the workman. "I'll get you for this!"

Before he could lay hands on Dobbs, he was firmly grasped by a police officer who informed him and Bauer that they both were under arrest.

"This is an outrage!" Bauer protested bitterly. "You've no evidence against us. Dobbs has been telling lies to try to save his own skin."

"We'll let the judge decide about that," the policeman retorted. "Come along without any fuss, or we'll use the handcuffs."

Aware that resistance would be quite useless, the two men sullenly submitted to arrest. They were loaded into the police car and taken away.

Mr. Silverton then turned to express his appreciation once more to the Cubs and their leader.

"From now on, I want it understood that the Cubs are free and welcome to come and go whenever and wherever they please on my property," he declared. "And I want to help the Cub movement here in Webster City.

Tomorrow I'll send the organization a check for one hundred dollars."

"That's entirely too generous," Mr. Hatfield protested. "After all, the Cubs only tried to do what was right."

"And it's right that I should make the contribution," insisted Mr.

Silverton. "I'd gladly pay double the amount for the service the Cubs have rendered tonight."

Mr. Hatfield, Brad and Dan, rather worn from their adventures, followed the police cruiser and Mr. Silverton's car into Webster City.

In backtracking along the highway, they encountered two extensive patches of flood water. However, it rose only to hub-cap depth, and they reached the city without further delay.

During the next two days, events moved with supersonic speed for the Cubs. True to his word, Mr. Silverton sent the organization a check for one hundred dollars. With it came an urgent invitation for the Cubs to visit the farm whenever they wished, with exclusive right of obtaining pheasant feathers or wood.

"Say, we all can make fancy Indian headgears now!" declared Fred enthusiastically.

From Mr. Silverton, the Cubs learned that both Freeze and Bauer had pleaded guilty to stealing pheasants and were to be sentenced on a larceny charge within a few days. Dobbs, relieved of his job, had left Webster City to seek employment where he was unknown.

Now that their names had been cleared in the community, the Cubs centered all their thoughts upon the coming Pack meeting and exhibition of handicraft articles.

All the Den members were plugging for Chips and Red to win a prize with their entry. However, on the night of the exhibition, when they saw the many fine items entered by other contestants, they were filled with misgiving.

The collection of Indian articles was one of the best ever shown in Webster City. In addition to many elegant feather bonnets, there were buckskin s.h.i.+rts, s.h.i.+elds, Indian leggings, baskets, beaded belts and carvings of bone.