"We must get ready and watch for our chance," said Hubert, and Ted, sighing again, uttered no word of dissent.
That day, devoted in considerable part to the discussion of plans, passed without important incident. The slackers came and went, the boys kept mostly to themselves, discreetly remaining within the borders of the camp, and there was peace. But at supper they noticed a studied coolness toward them, particularly in the larger group of which Sweet Jackson was the center. While the boys spoke and acted with all discretion, Jackson stared at them often, talking in a low voice to those about him. His grudge against Ted was plainly visible and he seemed to be trying to stir up the other men against him. The boys went off to bed early, much troubled in mind. At the camp fire the next night Sweet Jackson deliberately stepped out of his path in order to hook his toe under Ted's outstretched leg and give it a rude and vicious shove.
"Why can't you keep yer feet out o' the road?" he shouted angrily.
"Why don't you do that to a man of your size?" cried Ted in hot indignation.
"_Size_ don't bother me when I get good and mad," declared Jackson menacingly.
"Oh, Billy, don't you want to play a game!" called out Hubert in the most cheerful voice. "Come on, Ted."
Then Hubert jerked Ted to his feet and pulled him away in the direction of the imaginary Billy, who was, in fact, nowhere to be seen. "_Don't_ answer him back," whispered the younger boy urgently. "If you do, we'll have trouble. Keep away from him!"
Thus the incident passed and with it any immediate danger, thanks to Hubert's ready and resolute interference.
The next day at breakfast and dinner July served the boys after the slackers had eaten and scattered--at Hubert's suggestion. And at supper he fed them with Billy at the cook-camp fire about forty feet apart from the fire around which the slackers ate and lounged. Sweet Jackson observed the new arrangement with a mocking smile, looking over at the cook-camp often as he talked merrily with those about him.
"That's right," he called out once. "Stay there with the nigger, where you belong."
Ted started up, furious, but Hubert hung upon him on one side and Billy, giggling and thinking it was a kind of game, hung upon him on the other.