Chums in Dixie | Page 8

there," remarked Phil. "A
fellow gets as hungry as a bear in the spring after he comes out from his
hibernating. But already you ought to know that, because you're eating
half again as much as you do up home. And of your own cooking too."
"That stamps it gilt-edged, A Number One," laughed Larry. "But here's
Tony beginning to wake up. Come and join us, Tony. We want to ask
you heaps of things about the animals of the timber and the swamps;
also something about your people. You see, we ain't down here just for
our health or the fun of ft. Phil here has got a mission to perform, that
concerns the terrible McGee they told us about up in the river town."
Again did Tony send that questioning look at Phil Lancing; and there
was something besides inquiry in his manner. Doubtless the words so
carelessly uttered by good-natured Larry had stirred up mingled
emotions in the breast of the swamp boy, and he was wondering what
sort of a message the son of the man who now owned all that wild
country below, could be carrying to the giant shingle-maker, leader of
the whole McGee clan.

"If I c'n tell you anything jest ask me, sah!" he remarked, in his
singularly smooth and even voice. "I sure ought tuh be ready tuh 'blige
after all yuh done foh me. But I wisht you'd done never come down
thisaways, case they's hard men, the McGees, an' I reckons as how they
ain't got any reason tuh think kindly o' your governor."
As he said this bluntly, Tony looked squarely into the face of Phil; who
however only smiled as he made reply.
"I see you have heard my name before, Tony? Well, you never heard
anything bad in connection with it, I'll be bound. It's true that my father
did come into possession of ten thousand acres or more of land and
swamp, lying along this same little river a year or two ago. And he's
taken a notion that something ought to be done to make it more
profitable than it seems to be now. That's one of the reasons I'm down
here. My father don't like the idea of having squatters on his lands. He
wants to make a change."
Tony squirmed uneasily, and the look on his face was really painful to
see. At one instant it seemed as though defiance ruled; only to give way
to distress; as in imagination he saw these new-found friends, who had
been so very kind to him, in the hands of his infuriated clansmen, and
being roughly treated.
"Better not keep on down-river, sah!" he muttered. "They all knows
that name o' Lancing. Sure I've heard many a shingle-maker curse it,
an' say what he'd do tuh the new owner, if ever he dared show his face
on the river. An' what they'd do tuh your dad they'd like enough do tuh
you. That's why I asks yuh to turn aroun' an' go back, while yuh has the
chanct."
"Why, you don't mean to say your people would try to harm us?" asked
Larry, his round face showing signs of uneasiness.
"They sure would, if they knowed his name was Lancing," replied the
other, doggedly. "They's a tough lot, seein' as how they lead a hard life,
an' they think they got a right to the land they built ther shanties on.
More'n once the sheriff he tried tuh git his man down yonder. Sho! they

jest rode him on a rail, an' warned him if ever he showed his face thar
again they'd sure tar and feather him. An' let me tell yuh, he ain't come
back from that day to this'n."
"Well," Phil went on, coolly, "I've heard all those things from the
people of the town. They haven't one good word to say for McGee and
his tribe. But somehow I've got a notion that your folks ain't as black as
they're painted. And I'm banking on that idea just enough to take the
risk of going on down there, even if it is bearding the lion in his den."
Tony shook his head dismally, and looked disappointed.
"Wisht yuh wouldn't," he muttered. "Yuh been good to me, an' I'd hate
tuh know anything happened."
"Oh! that's all right, Tony," said Phil, cheerfully. "Nothing's going to
happen--nothing bad, I mean. I'm not afraid to meet the terrible McGee
face to face. I just want to tell him something that will make him
change his mind pretty quick, I guess."
"And when they see that we've been good friends to you, Tony,"
remarked Larry, "they couldn't think to injure us. We come not in war
but in peace. Phil, my chum, has got an idea he