Four Boy Hunters | Page 8

dollar!" ejaculated Whopper. "Humph! I can get a barrel of these apples for a dollar!"
"No, yeou can't! I'm a-goin' to git six dollars fer 'em---they're the best in these air parts. Make it a dollar an' I'll let ye go."
"This is a regular hold-up," muttered Shep. "Offer him twenty-five cents."
At that moment came a loud cry from the direction of the farmhouse, which was located at the upper end of the orchard.
"Help! help! Simon! Simon! Help me!" came in the voice of a woman.

CHAPTER IV
THE DISAPPEARANCE OF THE BOAT
"Something is wrong sure!" exclaimed Snap, as the cry from the farmhouse was repeated.
He looked below and saw that Pop Lundy was running away, in the direction of the cry for assistance.
"Now is our chance to get away!" cried Whopper, and dropped to the ground, while the others did the same.
"Wait!" came from Snap. "That sounds as if somebody was in great trouble. Hadn't we better go and see what it means?"
"And get caught by Pop Lundy?" queried Giant.
"I don't care," put in Shep. "If I can help a lady I am going to do it."
He hurried off in the direction Simon Lundy had taken and one after another his chums followed. To get to the back door of the farmhouse they had to pass around a chicken house and a pig sty, and as they were doing this they saw a burly negro leap a rail fence not far away.
"What is it, Jane?" they heard the farmer cry, as he dashed into the house.
There was no reply, and coming to the door, the four boys saw that the farmer's wife lay back in a kitchen chair in a dead faint.
"Sumbuddy hez killed her, I guess!" moaned Simon Lundy. "Oh, where is the villain?"
"She isn't dead, only fainted," answered Shep, who had assisted his father on more than one occasion. "Got some smelling salts in the house?"
"I dunno. Ye kin look in the closets."
Shep and the others did so, and soon the son of the physician found something that was beneficial. Yet it was several minutes before the lady of the farm came to her senses and opened her eyes.
"Where is he?" she murmured. "Take him away! Take him away!"
"Who are ye a-talkin' about, Jane?" demanded the husband.
"Thet---he---oh, Simon, is it you? Why didn't you come before?"
"Couldn't---cos I had these young whelps up an apple tree. But wot is it all about anyhow?"
"The big negro---he wanted something to eat, and then he got saucy and he picked up your watch from the mantelpiece-----"
"My watch!" The miserly farmer sprang to the mantelpiece. "It's gone, sure enough!" he groaned.
"I saw the negro!" cried Snap. "He jumped that fence out there as we came up."
"That's right," put in Whopper. "He was running like a house afire, too."
"Where did he go?"
Nobody knew, but some thought he might have taken to the road. Finding his wife had not been harmed, only badly scared, Simon Lundy ran out to the road and gazed up and down, and the boys did the same.
"I don't see nuthin'," said Pop Lundy.
"Let us run down the road a bit, fellows," suggested Shep.
"Will ye come back?" asked the farmer, anxiously. "I---er---I won't say nuthin' about them apples."
"Yes, we'll be back," answered Snap.
The boys spent the best part of an hour on the road, hunting up and down for some trace of the negro, but without success. They knew he was short and stocky and wore a light, checked suit, but that was all.
When they returned to the farmhouse they heard Mrs. Lundy's story in detail. She had been on the point of sweeping the sitting-room when the negro had appeared and asked for Mr. Lundy. She had told him her husband was out, and then the colored man had wanted something to eat. She had refused to give him anything, and then, seeing the watch on the mantelpiece, he had snatched the timepiece and run. She had screamed for assistance and then fainted from excitement.
"Was the watch a valuable one?" asked Snap.
"Yes, it was," answered Simon Lundy. "It was gold and given to me by my father years ago. I wouldn't take a hundred dollars fer it nohow. I was mighty careless to leave it on the mantelpiece, but I didn't want to carry it around in the orchard when I picked apples."
"What will you do about it?" asked Shep.
"I dunno. Go tew teown an' tell the constable, I guess. Be yeou goin' to town?"
"No; we are off on a hunting trip," answered Giant. "And, by the way, we had better be getting back to the boat," he added to his chums.
"Mr. Lundy, we'll give you a quarter for those apples," said Shep.
"All right, as ye please," said the old farmer. He was so upset over the loss of his watch he could