CHAPTER XXIII--THE PLAN TO ROUND UP THE WHITE HOODS

Sergeant Dick did not notice the startled, anxious glance that old Arnold gave him as they went back to the living-room. There they found a substantial meal spread for them.

Ere they all sat down to it, some of their number took a look out through the loops on all four sides of the house. The lake was still bathed in moonlight, and not an Indian canoe or raft was to be seen anywhere.

“Well, now, sergeant, what’s this astonishing news that you’ve got to tell us?” asked the old squatter, with his mouth full. “What’s this something that you said you had discovered among the cliffs on the west shore, and which I presumes brought ye back so timely here ag’in?”

His sons and their mother all started and exchanged covert, alarmed glances, then eyed the young police officer keenly and by no means favorably.

As it happened, he had his eyes bent upon his plate at the time, and did not observe the strange, gloomy looks, which, after all, as before, were most veiled.

“I’ve discovered the ‘duffing-den’ of the White Hoods, I believe,” he quietly replied.

“What!”

And Amos Arnold sprang up, nearly upsetting his chair.

“Yes, I believe so,” said Sergeant Dick. And he went on to relate in full his experiences of the previous night after his escape from the Indian ambush; how he climbed the water-slide and found the cup-shaped valley and saw several hundred head of cattle, sheep, and horses grazing within it.

His companions listened in silence, Muriel and Jenny in breathless interest. None interrupted him, the young men only contriving to steal questioning glances at one another behind their mugs, and particularly at their father.

Muriel and Jenny hung excitedly upon Dick’s every word; and when he had told them all, the first-mentioned cried out:

“Oh, uncle--boys, what a grand discovery! It must be the outlaws’ secret duffing-den right enough. You and Sergeant Dick now can capture the gang and claim the reward offered. What is it--five hundred pounds, isn’t it?”

“I had instructions to increase the reward to a thousand pounds,” said Dick.

“A thousand pounds; and not only that, but you will rid these parts of these murderous robbers who have so long terrorized us. In fact, I believe their plundering has helped to incite the Ogalcrees to rebel and go on the warpath, for they, besides suffering heavily at the gang’s hands, have been blamed for some of its misdeeds, as we know.”

“Yes, yes,” chimed in Jenny. “It will be a grand thing for all round here when those awful White Hoods are put down; the poor farmers and ranchmen will sleep more easily in their beds. You will be doing humanity a service, father--brothers--if you help the sergeant to lay the gang by the heels.”

“We shall be doing ourselves a big sarvice, too, if we make a thousand pounds over the job,” guffawed her father. “By thunder, lads--mother, we’ll have a shot at it; we’ll help the sergeant to capture these fellows. But only on one condition, sergeant, and that is, that you let no one else into the secret; that we keep it to ourselves. I don’t want no others to share the thousand quid, you understand?”

“That’s so--that’s so,” cried his wife. “A thousand pounds divided equally between six on you--the four lads, you Alf, and the sergeant here, ain’t two hundred apiece. Lemme see, how much would it be? Six into a thousand goes what, Muriel--Bella?”

“Oh, never mind, aunt. The reward is not ours yet to divide,” said Muriel hastily, and blushing a deep crimson. “And don’t you think that Sergeant Dick should have more than any one else, as he discovered the gang’s lair?”

“Come, come, we won’t discuss that,” laughed Dick. “In any case it will be for Government to apportion the reward. All right, Arnold, we’ll keep it to ourselves, and you and the lads will help me to lay these white-robed rustlers by the heels, as Jenny put it. Let me see, they are supposed to number either nine or ten at full strength.”

“That’s so. And we are six,” said Abel, the eldest son, “but then we ought to catch ’em napping, and not in full strength.”

“When shall we make the attempt?” asked Aaron, the second son. “We’ve evidently routed the redskins for good and all this time. They’re not likely to give us any further trouble. And the sooner we go the better, say I.”

And he exchanged a meaning glance with his father and mother.

“Oh, there’s no immediate hurry,” said Dick. “With the Ogalcrees out on the warpath, the gang will be bound to lie snug and not try to remove their stolen cattle and sheep for fear of being attacked on the march by the Indians. Besides, it will be as well, first, to make sure that the redmen have abandoned the siege here for good and all. We don’t want them to attack the house in our absence while only the ladies are here, nor attack us, for that matter, while landing, as they did before--nor yet in the woods. A day more or less can’t make any difference one way or the other as regards the White Hoods, while it may mean a great deal as regards your home here.”

“The sergeant is right,” observed Bella, Abel’s wife; and Deborah and Muriel murmured approval. “And you all need a good night’s rest before setting out on so risky an expedition.”

“Wait till to-morrow night,” said Muriel, “then we’ll know for certain whether the Indians have abandoned the warpath, and we may be able to send word to the soldiers at the nearest fort, if word has not already gone there, of the rising.”

This was sensible advice, and it was unanimously agreed on; and, shortly after, all declared for bed. The supper things were cleared away; the living-room was divided off into three compartments by the shabby curtains on the rods being drawn across, and a hammock slung in each compartment for Amos, the sergeant, and Abner respectively.

All the others then retired to their bedrooms, and silence and darkness speedily enwrapped the stronghold in the lake.

Sergeant Dick slept soundly in his hammock; but he was accustomed to sleeping on a hair-trigger, as one might say, and from time to time he awoke, rose, and went to the front door or the window on either side of it and looked forth.

All was still and peaceful. The lake and the woods south and east and west seemed slumbering under the silvery moon.

Thoroughly refreshed, he was up before the dawn, and went to the bathroom at the back of the house to wash himself. When he returned to the living-room he found that Amos and Abner had arisen, the curtains had been drawn back, and Mrs. Arnold, Muriel and Jenny were already preparing breakfast, with front door and windows open to admit the sweet warm morning air.

They all--even the surly Abner--greeted him cordially; and he thought Muriel prettier than ever in the rosy light of the dawn.

Bella and Deborah, the two married daughters-in-law, made their appearance shortly, and then old Alf and their husbands.

All the men went out on the verandah to smoke a morning pipe before breakfast; and, seated upon it, looking out across the water and scanning the shore in all directions for any sign of their late besiegers, they discussed at length their plans for the “rounding-up” of the White Hoods.

They were at breakfast when they heard the plash of paddles and men hailing the “castle.”

As the morning was so warm and fine they had the door wide open and all the windows, too, but no foes could have stolen on them unawares very well.

Rushing forth, they saw approaching the “castle” from the direction of the landing-spit on the east shore four canoes carrying three white men apiece.

Through the field-glasses they recognized the new comers as Foulkes, the Indian agent, a couple of the local police troopers, two of the officers from the nearest fort, and some ranchmen and cowboys of the neighborhood.

All twelve visitors were warmly welcomed by the inmates of “Water Castle,” who plied them eagerly with questions as to how matters had gone in the district--the doings elsewhere, of course.

The Ogalcrees, it appeared, had committed a few isolated outrages, burning and plundering some half-dozen or more farms. But for the most part they had spared the inmates, or these had escaped and they had contented themselves with the drink and valuables they got.

Word had been conveyed to the troops, however, and these had now arrived at the Reservation on Paquita Island and were holding all the chiefs who had not followed Howling Wolf on the warpath as hostages for the good behavior of the rebels.

These last had fled _en masse_ across the frontier into the United States, and were expected to be shortly rounded up and forced to submit by Uncle Sam’s troops.

Sergeant Dick was wanted at the Reservation to help to satisfy the Indians there that Government had acted in good faith by them, and already sent the money due upon their claims, but that it had been intercepted and stolen by the White Hood rustlers, or road-agents, and that it would be made good later.

Accordingly, he went off with the visitors in one of their canoes an hour or so later, promising old Alf and his two elder sons quietly aside, however, before he did so, that he would return at nightfall and go with them to the gang’s secret lair, and in the meantime not tell another soul about it.

Sure enough, just as dusk was falling over the lake and the wooded hills embosoming it, a canoe containing a single occupant was seen by the inmates of “Water Castle” to be approaching from the southern end of the sheet of water; that is from the direction of the Indian Reservation.

Old Alf and his sons had been out the best part of the day visiting the traps that they had set the evening of the Ogalcree rising, and had just got back. Most of their traps they had found interfered with by the redskin raiders, but those which had not been so molested had contained furred victims sufficient to repay them well for the trouble and time taken in setting them.

They had reset the traps for the night, and then returned home. Bella and Deborah did not always accompany the men on their trapping expeditions, though they frequently did so, as sometimes also did Muriel and Jenny, and even Aunt Kate.

The canoe coming from the south end of the lake was speedily near enough for the squatters to see that Sergeant Dick was in it, and soon after he was partaking of some light refreshments in the “castle” living-room, preparatory to leading the expedition.