Captain Sam | Page 9

to
release his enemy quietly in the morning, before the other boys should be astir. Unluckily
he overslept himself, and so the first hint of the dawn he received was from the loud
calling of the boys for Jake Elliott. Fortunately Jake had not yet nerved himself up to the
point of answering and calling for assistance, and so Sam had still a chance to execute his
plan.
"Never mind calling Jake," he cried, as he rose from his couch of bushes, "but run down
to the spring and bring some water. I have Jake engaged elsewhere."
The boys suspected at once that Sam and Jake had arranged a private battle to be fought
somewhere in the woods beyond camp lines, a battle with fists for the mastery, and they
were strongly disposed to follow their captain as he started up the river.
"Stop," cried Sam. "I have business with Jake, which will not interest you. Besides, I
think it best that you shall remain here. Go to the spring, as I tell you, and then go back to
the fire, and get breakfast. Jake and I will be there in time to help you eat it. If one of you
follows me a foot of the way, I--never mind; I tell you you must not follow me, and you
shall not."
There were some symptoms of a turbulent, but good-natured revolt, but Sam's
earnestness quieted it, and the boys reluctantly drew back.
Passing around to the further side of the drift-pile, more than a hundred yards away from
the nearest point of the camp, Sam called in a low tone:--
"Jake! Jake!"
"What is it?" asked Jake presently, trembling in voice as he trembled in limb, for he was
now thoroughly broken and frightened. He dreaded the meeting with Sam nearly as much
as he dreaded the terrible fate which seemed to him the only alternative, namely, that of
remaining in the drift-pile to starve.
"Come down this way," said Sam.
"Well," answered Jake when he had moved a little way toward Sam.
"Do you see a hole in the top, just above your head?" asked Sam.

"Yes, but I can't see the sky through it."
"Never mind, get a stick to boost you, and climb up into it."
Jake did as he was told to do, and upon climbing up found that there was a sort of passage
way running laterally through the upper part of the timber, crooked and so narrow that he
could scarcely force his way through it. Whither it led, he had no idea, but he obeyed
Sam's injunction to follow it, though he did so with great difficulty, as in many places
sticks were in the way, which it required his utmost strength to remove. The passage
through which he was crawling so painfully, was one which Sam and his companions had
made by dint of great labor, during their residence in the tree root cavern a year before. It
led from the main alley way to their post of observation on top of the pile, their look-out,
from which they had been accustomed to examine the country around, to see if there were
Indians about, when they had occasion to expose themselves outside of their place of
refuge. As the only way into this passage was through a "blind" hole in the roof of the
main alley way, no one would ever have suspected its existence.
After awhile Jake's head emerged from the very top of the drift pile, and he saw Sam
lying flat down, just before him. He instinctively shrank back.
"Come on," said Sam; "but don't rise up or the boys will see us. Crawl out of the hole and
then follow me on your hands and knees."
Jake obeyed, and the two presently jumped down to the ground on the side of the
hummock furthest from camp.
Jake's first glance revealed Sam fully dressed, and standing firmly in his boots. There
could be no mistake about it, and yet a moment before he would have made oath that
those very boots were hidden hopelessly within the deepest recesses of the drift-pile. He
could not restrain the exclamation which rose to his lips:--
"Where DID you get them boots?"
"Never mind where, or how. I have a word or two to say to you. You took my boots and
were on the point of throwing them into the river. If you think such an act by way of
revenge was manly and worthy of a soldier, I will not dispute the point. You must
determine that for yourself."
"Let me tell you about it, Sam," began Jake in an apologetic voice.
"No, it isn't necessary," replied Sam. "I know all about it, and it will not help the matter
to