Bobby Blake on a Plantation: or, Lost in the Great Swamp

“Ah sho will,” replied ’Rastus, and a moment later he had vanished like a shadow among the vines and tree trunks.

“Thank heaven,” cried Lee as they looked after his retreating figure. “Before night we’ll all be back in the home that I began to fear we’d never see again.”

“It’s glorious,” agreed Bobby, “but after all, perhaps it’s all for the best that we’ve had to stay in the swamp as long as we have. If help had come yesterday, for instance, we wouldn’t have found the boundary stones. That’s paid us for all the trouble and danger we’ve been through.”

In a few minutes they heard the sound of voices, and soon a party of four men came in sight, with ’Rastus Abimelech Belshazzar Johnson proudly leading the way.

There were broad smiles on their faces as the boys rushed forward to meet them and it was hard to tell which group was the more delighted. All talked together, and there was a general hubbub until the excitement quieted down a little.

The leader of the party was a Mr. Lanfranc, the Parish Clerk of that section, a big, bluff, genial man, who was a great friend of the Cartier family.

“I can’t tell you how relieved we are to find you boys,” he said, as he slapped Lee affectionately on the shoulder. “We’ve been beating the swamp for you for the last two days. But it covers so many miles of territory that it’s almost like looking for a needle in a haystack. But thank God that we’ve found you at last, alive and well. Your poor mother has been almost crazy about you. Here, ’Rastus,” he continued, turning to the little darkey who stood by, all smiles and swelling with a sense of his importance, “you go right away to the Cartier place and tell Mrs. Cartier that we’ve found the boys, that they’re all right, and that we’ll be home before night.”

With another flash of his white teeth, ’Rastus was off on his errand.

“We’d go right away,” explained Mr. Lanfranc to Lee, “only we have a rendezvous with another party to meet them at noon only a little way from here. As soon as they know you’ve been found we’ll have a bit of lunch and then we’ll all make tracks for home. But how did it come about that you got lost?” he continued. “I understand you went away in the motor boat. What became of that?”

“Jim Boolus stole it from us,” replied Lee.

“What!” cried Mr. Lanfranc.

He listened while Lee told him of the confession they had extorted from the negro boy who had acted as the tool of Boolus, and his face grew dark with wrath, that was reflected on those of the other members of the party.

“The old scoundrel!” he exclaimed. “That caps the climax. For a long time he’s been the bane of this parish. But up to now he’s been so cunning that the law has had no chance to get a grip on him. But this time he’s overreached himself, and the minute we can lay our hands on him we’ll clap him in jail. It will be a double satisfaction to do that, because of the way he’s been trying to get your mother’s property away from her. I’m afraid he may do that yet.”

“No, he won’t!” cried Lee jubilantly. “We’ve found the boundary stones of the property!”

CHAPTER XXX

JIM BOOLUS TRAPPED

“Say that again,” cried Mr. Lanfranc, delight and incredulity struggling for the mastery.

“Sure as shooting,” affirmed Lee with a happy laugh. “It isn’t more than an hour ago that we came across them. Come here and I’ll show them to you.”

The whole party hurried to the precious memorials and examined them closely. The Parish Clerk was skilled in such matters, which came within the duties of his office, and he confirmed the belief of the boys that these were the only things necessary to make Mrs. Cartier’s title to the property absolutely secure.

“This has been a great day,” he said, as he rose from his knees after making notes of the inscriptions on the stones, “not only because we have found you boys, but because we’ve been able to put a crimp in the plans of the greatest rascal in this part of the parish. It was a clever thing, by the way, that you boys caught on to the meaning of these boundary stones.”

“Oh, as for that,” said Lee generously, “all the praise must go to Bobby here. He was the one that figured it all out.”

“Some boy,” said Mr. Lanfranc approvingly, and Bobby flushed to his ears.

“It’s a queer coincidence,” continued Mr. Lanfranc, “that we ran across Boolus, accompanied by one of his negroes, in another part of the swamp, no later than yesterday. He said that he was out hunting, but I didn’t see that he had any gun. But here come the other fellows,” he added, as he caught sight of a party of three coming into view, “and as it is pretty near noon, I guess we’ll have our lunch right now and hurry back home. I can imagine how impatient Mrs. Cartier will be to have you with her as soon as possible.”

The newcomers were quite as delighted as the first party had been, to learn that the missing ones were found and that their anxious search was ended. They chose a spot on higher ground in a clump of trees, and set to work on the abundant lunch with which they were provided. The boys, with their minds free for the first time in days, thought it was the most delicious repast they had ever tasted.

They had not quite finished when Bobby caught sight of two figures at the edge of a fringe of trees some distance away.

“Here come two other men,” he announced.

“Is that so?” said Mr. Lanfranc with some curiosity. “I wonder who they are. Hunters I suppose.”

“No,” cried Lee, who had been studying them closely. “It’s Jim Boolus and that darkey of his.”

“So it is,” confirmed Mr. Lanfranc, after another look. “Lie down flat, all of you. I’m curious to see what the old rascal is up to.”

They stretched themselves flat on the ground and looked through the bushes at the approaching couple.

All unconscious of the scrutiny, they came on, Boolus in the van, his eyes scanning the ground as they advanced.

Suddenly he caught sight of one of the boundary stones, which, having been largely uncovered during the investigation of the markings were now in plain sight. With an exclamation of satisfaction, he hurried toward it, and fell on his knees to look at it closely. Then he rose to his feet and rubbed his hands together in glee.

He beckoned to the colored youth, talked to him for a minute or two and then both set to work digging about the stone, using some implements that the attendant had brought with him.

“What are they after?” asked Fred in a whisper.

“I know very well what they are after,” replied Mr. Lanfranc in a low tone that held grimness in it. “He’s hanging himself with his own rope.”

The couple worked hard for perhaps a quarter of an hour, and then with great effort dragged the heavy stone out of its hole and laid it on the grass. Then after resting a moment each took one end, and half carrying, half dragging it, moved toward the edge of a bog that lay twenty yards away.

“Halt!” shouted Mr. Lanfranc, and at the same moment the whole party rose to their feet and poured out from among the trees.

At the sudden command, Boolus and his helper dropped the stone as though they had been shot. In a moment the members of the party were upon them. The negro started to run, but one of the men caught him and dragged him back by the collar.

“So, Jim Boolus,” said Mr. Lanfranc, “you robber of widows and orphans, we’ve caught you at last. You’ve kept out of the grip of the law for a long time, but it’s got you now. The evidence is so clear that the jury will convict you without leaving the box. You stole the boat of these boys and left them to starve and die, for all you cared – ”

“I didn’t,” denied Boolus, “and you can’t prove it.”

“This boy has confessed that he did it at your direction,” declared Mr. Lanfranc, indicating the negro.

“You don’t suppose a jury would take the word of a negro against that of a white man, do you?” replied Boolus, who thought he saw a ray of hope.

“Against such a white man as they know you to be, I think they would,” answered Mr. Lanfranc. “But let that pass. Just now, all of us have seen you commit a crime. Two minutes more and that stone would have been swallowed up in the bog. The removal of boundary marks is a serious crime and a state prison offense. You’re due for a good long time behind the bars, Jim Boolus. Come along now,” he commanded, cutting short abruptly the mumbling appeals for mercy that the detected wretch was beginning.

The whole party took up the march, and in a few hours reached the nearest town, where Jim Boolus was committed to the charge of the sheriff, who took him to the jail. There he stayed until, a few weeks later, he began his long prison term.

The boys hurried at once to the plantation, where Lee flew to his mother’s arms. She hugged and cried over him, as mothers do, and then Bobby and Fred came in for a welcome scarcely less warm. It was a glorious reunion and one of the happiest occasions that the boys had ever known.

“Do you remember what I said about a hunch this morning?” Bobby asked Fred, when, at the end of that jubilant day, they were getting ready for bed.

“Yes,” agreed Fred, “your hunch was right. It sure has been our lucky day!”

“And to think we found those boundary stones,” put in Lee. “That’s the best ever. My mother will want to thank you for that – when she gets over all this excitement over our return.”

“Gee, but we’ll have a story to tell, when we get back to Rockledge,” was Fred’s comment. “Lost in a swamp, and fighting a cougar, and a moccasin snake, and sinking in the mush – ”

“They won’t believe the half of it,” added Bobby. “It sure was a lot of adventures!”