Four Boy Hunters | Page 8

Giant.
"Fine work to be cotched at," went on Pop Lundy. "Stealin' a poor
man's fruit. Come deown an' I'll tan yer hide well fer ye!"
He was very angry and now he shook his cowhide whip at them.

At that instant, quite unintentionally, Shep let an apple core drop from
his hand. Pop Lundy was looking up when the core hit him plumb in
the left eye.
"Yeou villain!" he cried, dancing around. "Want fer to put my eye eout,
hey? Oh, wait till I git my hands on ye, I'll show ye a thing or two!"
"Mr. Lundy, supposing we agree to pay you for the apples?" questioned
Snap, after an awkward pause.
"How much?" demanded the farmer, cautiously. He was a good deal of
a miser and money was very dear to him.
"Oh, a fair price."
"Don't pay him a cent," whispered Giant. "Let us all drop and run for
it."
"If we do that he may report the matter at home and make trouble that
way," went on Snap. "He can't charge us only a few cents for what we
have taken."
"Will ye give me a dollar fer the apples?" asked Pop Lundy.
"A 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