"Well, boys, how much longer be you a-goin' to stay up there, hey?"

The question came from the foot of the tree, and, much alarmed, the four gazed below, to see Pop Lundy standing there, with a stout whip in his hand.

"I say, how much longer be you a-goin' to stay there?" went on the mean farmer, with a glare at them.

"Oh, how do you do, Mr. Lundy?" cried Snap, as cheerfully as he could. "We were just rowing by and we thought we'd sample your apples."

"Really neow, thet was kind, wasn't it?" said the farmer, sarcastically.

"Jest come deown and ye can sample this cowhide o' mine."

"Thanks, but I just as soon stay here," came softly from 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!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed 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 a.s.sistance.

"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 pa.s.s 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 a.s.sisted 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?"

n.o.body 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.