The New Boys at Oakdale Part 25

Not far from them, yet wholly concealed by the thickets and the shadows, the moving object halted and remained silent for a long time. Gradually this silence wore upon their patience, and presently Nelson made signs indicating that he meant to investigate with all possible caution.

Osgood nodded, and, side by side, they crept forward, stepping softly and peering anxiously into the gloom.

Beneath Nelson's foot a dead branch snapped with a report like a toy pistol. Almost instantly there was a movement in the thicket, a rus.h.i.+ng sound, a cras.h.i.+ng as of a person in flight.

"Confound it!" exclaimed Jack. "Come on, Osgood, let's run the thing down."

Through the bushes and the shadows, they dashed in pursuit. Osgood, following the other boy too closely, was lashed in the face by whipping branches, which stung and blinded him. At the first opportunity he turned aside and chose a course he believed to be parallel with that Nelson was pursuing. All at once he perceived they were no longer guided by sounds made by the one they were after, and he stopped short to listen. The other boy ran on much farther before he also stopped.

Again the woods, bathed in the white light of the moon, seemed hushed and silent.

"Oh, Osgood! Where are you?"

It was Jack calling.

Ned had opened his lips to answer when something touched his ankle-touched it and gripped it. Looking down, he was amazed to see that it was a human hand thrust out from beneath a thick, low cl.u.s.ter of bushes, and for the moment the discovery robbed him of the power to make a sound.

The low bushes stirred. A head was pushed forth into a patch of moonlight, and to Ned's ears came a tremulous, choking whisper, full of fear and pleading:

"Don't answer, Osgood-for the love of goodness, don't answer!"

Ned was looking down into the distraught, fear-stricken face of Charley Shultz!

CHAPTER XXIV

SHULTZ SEES A LIGHT.

Amazed beyond expression, Osgood continued to gaze downward at the haggard, woe-begone face of Shultz. Presently, recovering a bit, he asked:

"What in the world are you doing here, Charley?"

"Hus.h.!.+ Keep still!" pleaded the boy beneath the bushes. "He'll hear you!

There he is, calling again! Don't answer! Don't answer!"

"Why, it's only Nelson," said Ned, squatting beside the bushes. "We were chasing you. We thought you might be Hooker."

"Hooker-oh!"

There was inexpressible terror and anguish in those two words, which seemed almost to choke the boy who uttered them.

Nelson was approaching, continuing to call Osgood's name.

"Hide! hide!" urged Shultz. "Don't leave me! Oh, don't leave me now! Let him go! Get into these bushes and he won't see you!" Grasping Ned's coat, the pleading fellow sought to draw him into the shelter of the low bushes.

"Why don't you want him to see you?"

"I'll tell you-I'll tell you when he's gone. Quick! get in here!"

Wondering at the agitation of the fellow who had always seemed utterly incapable of such emotion, Osgood humored him by creeping into the thick ma.s.s of shrubbery. Thus concealed, he saw the dark figure of Nelson pa.s.sing at a little distance, and all the while Shultz clung to him with hands that quivered and shook and seemed silently to beg him not to respond to the calls of the searching lad.

After a time Nelson could be heard no more. Then Ned crept forth, followed by Charley, who remained sitting on the ground with one leg outstretched.

"What's the meaning of this tomfoolery?" demanded Osgood, a bit sharply.

"How in the name of the seven wonders did you come to be here, anyhow?

You weren't with the bunch that started out to find Hooker."

Again, at the sound of that name, Shultz shrank and cowered as if struck a blow.

"Don't speak of him-don't!" he sobbed. "It's an awful thing! Oh, if you only knew what I've suffered to-night!"

"Why, you're all to pieces, old man. You're completely broken up."

"I'm a wreck. I'm done for. It's a wonder I'm not crazy. I have been half-crazy. Why shouldn't I be, chased and hunted like a wild beast?

It's enough to drive any one insane."

"Chased and hunted? What do you mean?"

"Oh, I know the whole town is after me. I barely got away from two of them who caught me flinging pebbles at your windows to wake you up."

Osgood stiffened a bit. "You-did-what?"

"When I found out what had happened, when I knew the worst, I cut across lots to Mrs. Chester's to wake you and tell you that I was going to run away. I was so excited I threw the pebbles against the wrong window, and when I went back to the street for more the men saw me and chased me. I doubled on them and threw them off the track."

"Those men must have been Turner and Crabtree. They thought they were chasing Roy Hooker."

"Hooker!" palpitated Shultz. "Hooker? He's dead! His ghost came to my window! It was perched on the ridgepole of the ell. I was just going to bed when I saw it. I'll never forget the terrible look in those eyes!"

Squatting on the ground beside the trembling fellow, Osgood grasped him firmly by the arm.

"What is this stuff you're telling me, Shultz?" he demanded. "You saw Hooker looking in at your window?"

"I tell you it was his ghost. I've never believed in such things, but I do now, for I've seen one. I saw it again, too, here in these very woods. It spoke to me. I heard it speak. Then I ran and ran, until I fell into a gully and thought I'd broken my leg. It was my ankle. It's sprained and swollen, but I've been hobbling on it just the same. Oh, Osgood, isn't there any way for me to escape? If I hadn't hurt my ankle, I'd be miles on the road to Barville before this. I didn't mean to kill him. You know I didn't mean that, don't you? If they bring me to trial, you'll tell them you know that much, won't you, Ned?"

Osgood was moved almost to tears by this pathetic pleading.

"Now listen to me, Shultz," he commanded. "You've deceived yourself.

Hooker isn't dead, unless he's died since he got out of bed to-night, escaped observation and left his home. If you really saw something that looked like Hooker on the roof of Caleb Carter's ell, it was Roy himself. If you met something in these woods that looked like Hooker, it was Hooker. He's wandering about somewhere in a deranged condition, and he's the one the people are searching for, not you."

Overwrought by the terror of his experience, it was no simple matter for Charley Shultz to comprehend the meaning of his companion's words.

"Hooker-not dead?" he muttered wildly. "Why, I-I was sure of it. How do you know, Ned? You may be mistaken."

Compelling Shultz to listen, Osgood finally succeeded in convincing him.

"Let us hope with all our hearts," he concluded, "that they find Roy and get him safely home, and that he recovers. Let us hope, regardless of what it may mean to us, that, restored to his right mind, he'll soon be able to tell everything."