For a moment Hubert seemed about to obey an impulse to hide his face in the moss of the bed, but Ted rose promptly and faced Jackson with a steady, watchful gaze.
"So you come over this-a way, did you?" cried Jackson, with a triumphant grin. "Wasn't it lucky that I come, too, just in time!" he sneered.
"Why, do you know them boys?" asked the old swamp-squatter, turning, in great surprise.
"_Know_ 'em? They belongs to our camp," declared Jackson. "I want more than yo' tobacco, old man; I want them boys."
"We _don't_ belong to their camp," cried Ted, his voice unsteady, addressing the old man. "We only found our way there when we got lost, and then they wouldn't let us go because they were afraid we'd tell on them."
"Why didn't you tell me before?" asked the old man, greatly troubled.
"I wish I had," said Ted. "We waited to tell you and then--then--we thought, maybe, we'd better not."
"He's lyin'," said Jackson glibly. "He was scared to tell you they'd run away from where they belonged."
Jenkins turned upon Jackson with an indignant manner, but hesitated, and seemed to decide to keep silent. Noting this with discouragement, Ted checked an angry response to the insult and turned again to the old man:
"Everything I have told you is the truth. Won't you stand by us?"
The old swamp-squatter looked sharply from man to boy and back again, his expression indicating great disturbance of mind.
"If you are a-takin' them boys without the right to do it," he said, "you may have _double_ trouble on yer hands befo' long."
"That's _my_ business, and you'd better 'tend to your'n--if you know what's good for you!" There was menace in Jackson's tone.
The old man surrendered the plugs of tobacco with a trembling hand, then took a step toward Ted.
"You see, the trouble is," he said, rather pitifully, "that I can't take the word of two boys agin the word of two men. If they claims you, I can't stop 'em. But I'm awful sorry because I've thought a heap o' you boys."
"Thank you," said Ted huskily, comprehending the old swamp-squatter's helplessness, and moved to make a polite acknowledgment of the compliment even at such a moment.
"Will you go peaceable, or do you want a whippin'?" demanded Jackson.
"Better go peaceable," advised the old man, speaking gently. Ted turned and exchanged glances with Hubert. They read in each other's eyes the conviction that there was nothing to be done but yield for the time, and that it was better to yield without a struggle than to suffer intolerable indignities and brutal usage. After swallowing hard, like one taking a bitter dose, Ted announced in a low voice that they were ready to go.