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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Boy Scouts of Lenox, by Frank V. Webster
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: The Boy Scouts of Lenox
+       Or The Hike Over Big Bear Mountain
+
+
+Author: Frank V. Webster
+
+
+
+Release Date: June 15, 2007  [eBook #21842]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BOY SCOUTS OF LENOX***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Mark C. Orton, Linda McKeown, Jacqueline Jeremy, and
+the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+(https://www.pgdp.net)
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
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+      See 21842-h.htm or 21842-h.zip:
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+
+
+
+
+
+THE BOY SCOUTS OF LENOX
+
+Or
+
+The Hike Over Big Bear Mountain
+
+by
+
+FRANK V. WEBSTER
+
+Author of "Only a Farm Boy," "Ben Hardy's Flying
+Machine," "The Boy from the Ranch," Etc.
+
+Illustrated
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: THEY HOISTED HIM TO THE LIMB, WHERE HE CLUNG WATCHING
+THE NEXT RESCUE. _Page 202._]
+
+
+
+New York
+Cupples & Leon Company
+Publishers
+
+
+     *     *     *     *     *
+
+
+BOOKS FOR BOYS
+
+By FRANK V. WEBSTER
+
+12mo. Cloth. Illustrated.
+
+    ONLY A FARM BOY
+    TOM, THE TELEPHONE BOY
+    THE BOY FROM THE RANCH
+    THE YOUNG TREASURER HUNTER
+    BOB, THE CASTAWAY
+    THE YOUNG FIREMEN OF LAKEVILLE
+    THE NEWSBOY PARTNERS
+    THE BOY PILOT OF THE LAKES
+    THE TWO BOY GOLD MINERS
+    JACK, THE RUNAWAY
+    COMRADES OF THE SADDLE
+    THE BOYS OF BELLWOOD SCHOOL
+    THE HIGH SCHOOL RIVALS
+    BOB CHESTER'S GRIT
+    AIRSHIP ANDY
+    DARRY, THE LIFE SAVER
+    DICK, THE BANK BOY
+    BEN HARDY'S FLYING MACHINE
+    THE BOYS OF THE WIRELESS
+    HARRY WATSON'S HIGH SCHOOL DAYS
+    THE BOY SCOUTS OF LENOX
+    TOM TAYLOR AT WEST POINT
+    COWBOY DAVE
+    THE BOYS OF THE BATTLESHIP
+    JACK OF THE PONY EXPRESS
+
+Cupples & Leon Co., Publishers, New York
+
+
+     *     *     *     *     *
+
+
+Copyright, 1915, by
+Cupples & Leon Company
+
+THE BOY SCOUTS OF LENOX
+
+Printed in U. S. A.
+
+
+
+
+ CONTENTS
+
+
+    CHAPTER                                         PAGE
+
+         I. WHEN THE SEED TOOK ROOT                    1
+
+        II. THE MAN WHO LOVED NATURE                  10
+
+       III. A CLOUD OVER THE OSKAMP HOME              20
+
+        IV. THE DEFIANCE OF DOCK PHILLIPS             30
+
+         V. THE BLACK BEAR PATROL                     41
+
+        VI. SETTING THE TRAP                          48
+
+       VII. DOCK GOES FROM BAD TO WORSE               57
+
+      VIII. SIGNS OF TROUBLE AHEAD                    66
+
+        IX. NO SURRENDER                              76
+
+         X. READY FOR THE START                       84
+
+        XI. ON THE WAY                                91
+
+       XII. THE FIRST CAMP-FIRE                       98
+
+      XIII. THE LIFE THAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN SAVED      106
+
+       XIV. AT THE FOOT OF BIG BEAR MOUNTAIN         114
+
+        XV. NOT GUILTY                               122
+
+       XVI. WHAT TO DO IN A STORM                    129
+
+      XVII. THE LANDSLIDE                            137
+
+     XVIII. CAMPING ON THE LAKE SHORE                145
+
+       XIX. FRIENDS OF THE DEER                      153
+
+        XX. FIRST AID TO THE INJURED                 162
+
+       XXI. SCOUT GRIT                               171
+
+      XXII. THE CABIN IN THE WOODS                   180
+
+     XXIII. INTO THE GREAT BOG                       189
+
+      XXIV. RETURNING GOOD FOR EVIL                  198
+
+       XXV. WHEN CARL CAME HOME--CONCLUSION          207
+
+
+
+
+THE BOY SCOUTS OF LENOX
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+WHEN THE SEED TOOK ROOT
+
+
+"I move we go into it, fellows!"
+
+"It strikes me as a cracking good idea, all right, and I'm glad Tom
+stirred us up after he came back from visiting his cousins over in
+Freeport!"
+
+"He says they've got a dandy troop, with three full patrols, over
+there."
+
+"No reason, Felix, why Lenox should be left out in the cold when it
+comes to Boy Scout activities. Let's keep the ball rolling until it's
+a sure thing."
+
+"I say the same, Josh. Why, we can count about enough noses for a full
+patrol right among ourselves. There's Tom Chesney to begin with; George
+Cooper here, who ought to make a pretty fair scout even if he is always
+finding fault; Carl Oskamp, also present, if we can only tear him away
+from his hobby of raising homing pigeons long enough to study up what
+scouts have to know; yourself, Josh Kingsley; and a fellow by the name
+of Felix Robbins, which happens to be me."
+
+"That's five to begin with; and I might mention Billy Button; yes, and
+Walter Douglass, though I guess he'd take the premium for a tenderfoot,
+because he knows next to nothing about outdoor life."
+
+"But he's willing to learn, because he told me so, Josh; and that
+counts a lot, you know. That makes seven doesn't it? Well, to complete
+the roster of the patrol we might coax Horace Herkimer Crapsey to cast
+in his lot with us!"
+
+The boy named Josh laughed uproariously at the suggestion, and his
+merriment was shared to some extent by the other two, Carl Oskamp
+and George Cooper. Felix shook his head at them disapprovingly.
+
+"Just go slow there, fellows," he told them. "Because Horace has always
+been so afraid of his soft white hands that he wears gloves most of the
+time isn't any reason why he shouldn't be made to see the error of his
+ways."
+
+"Oh! Felix means that if only we can coax Horace to join, we _might_
+reform him!" exclaimed Josh, who was a thin and tall boy, with what
+might be called a hatchet face, typically Yankee.
+
+"By the same token," chuckled Felix in turn, "a few of us might drop
+some of our bad habits if once we subscribed to the rules of the
+scouts, because I've read the same in a newspaper. They rub it into
+fellows who find fault with things instead of being cheerful."
+
+"Oh! is that so, Felix?" burst out George Cooper, who took that thrust
+to himself. "How about others who are lazy, and always wanting to put
+things off to another day? Do those same rules say 'procrastination is
+the thief of time?'"
+
+"Well boys," remarked Carl Oskamp, pouring oil on the troubled water as
+was his habit, "we've all got our faults, and it might be a good thing
+if joining the scouts made us change our ways more or less. There comes
+Tom, now, let's get him to tell us something more about the chance for
+starting a troop in Lenox right away."
+
+"He said he believed he knew a young man who might consent to act as
+scout master," observed Felix. "It's Mr. Robert Witherspoon, the civil
+engineer and surveyor."
+
+"Why, yes, I believe he used to be a scout master in the town he came
+from!" declared Carl. "I hope Tom is bringing us some good news right
+now."
+
+"If that look on his face counts for anything, he's going to give us a
+chance to let out a few cheers," asserted Felix, as the fifth boy drew
+near.
+
+It was a Friday afternoon near the close of winter when this
+conversation took place. School was over for the week, and as
+there was an unmistakable feeling of coming spring in the air
+the snow on the ground seemed to be in haste to melt and
+disappear.
+
+Every now and then one of the boys would be overcome by an irresistible
+temptation to stoop, gather up enough of the soft clinging snow to make
+a hard ball, which was thrown with more or less success at some tree or
+other object.
+
+The town of Lenox was just one of many in the eastern section of the
+great United States, and boasted a few thousand inhabitants, some
+industries, a high school, and various churches. In Lenox the boys
+were no different from those to be found in every like community.
+They had a baseball club that vied with rival schools in spirited
+contests, a football organization, and in fact almost every element
+that might be expected to thrive in the midst of a lively community.
+
+There was, however, one thing in which the boys of Lenox seemed to have
+been lacking, and this had been brought home to them when Tom Chesney
+came back from his recent visit to Freeport, some twenty miles away.
+
+Somehow the growing fever among boys to organize scout troops had not
+broken out very early in Lenox; but if late in coming it bade fair to
+make up for lost time by its fierce burning.
+
+The boy who now joined the four whose chatter we have just recorded was
+a healthy looking chap. There was something positive about Tom Chesney
+that had always made him a leader with his comrades. At the same time
+he was never known to assume any airs or to dictate; which was all the
+more reason why his chums loved him.
+
+"What luck, Tom?" demanded Josh, as soon as the newcomer joined the
+others.
+
+"It's all fixed," was the quick answer given by Tom, who evidently did
+not believe in beating about the bush.
+
+"Good for you!" cried Felix. "Then Mr. Witherspoon is willing to
+organize the Lenox Troop of Boy Scouts, is he, Tom?"
+
+"He said he would be glad to have a hand in it," replied the other,
+"his only regret being that as he is often called out of town he might
+not be able to give the matter all the attention he would like."
+
+"That's great news anyhow, Tom!" declared Josh, beaming with
+satisfaction. "We've just been figuring things out, and believe
+we can find eight fellows who would be willing to make up the
+first patrol."
+
+"We would need that many for a starter," commented Tom; "because
+according to the rules he tells me there must be at least one full
+patrol before a troop can be started. And I'm glad you can figure on
+enough. It's going to make it a success from the start."
+
+"There's yourself to begin with," remarked Josh, counting with his
+fingers; "Felix, Walter Douglass, George here, Billy Button, Horace
+Crapsey, Carl and myself, making the eight we need for a patrol."
+
+"I'm glad you're all anxious to join," said Tom, glancing from one
+eager face to the other, as they walked slowly down the street in a
+group.
+
+"Why, so far as that goes, Tom," ventured Felix Robbins, "most of us
+are counting the days before we can be wearing our khaki suits and
+climbing up out of the tenderfoot bunch to that of second-class scout.
+Only Carl here seems to be kind of holding back; though none of us can
+see why he should want to go and leave his old chums in the lurch."
+
+At that Tom gave Carl another look a little more searching than his
+first. He was immediately struck by the fact that Carl did not seem as
+happy as usual. He and Tom had been close chums for years. That fact
+made Tom wonder why the other had not taken him into his confidence, if
+there was anything wrong.
+
+Carl must have known that the eyes of his chum were upon him for he
+flushed, and then looked hastily up.
+
+"Oh! it isn't that I wouldn't be mighty glad of the chance to go into
+this thing with the rest of you," he hastened to say; "don't believe
+that I'm getting tired of my old chums. It isn't that at all. But
+something has happened to make me think I may be kept so busy that I'd
+have no time to give to studying up scout laws and attending meetings."
+
+"Oh! forget it all, Carl, and come in with us," urged Josh, laying a
+hand affectionately on the other's shoulder. "If it's anything where we
+can help, you know as well as you do your own name that there isn't a
+fellow but would lay himself out to stand back of you. Isn't that so,
+boys?"
+
+Three other voices instantly joined in to declare that they would only
+be glad of the opportunity to show Carl how much they appreciated him.
+It always touches a boy to find out how much his chums think of him.
+There was a suspicious moisture about Carl's eyes as he smiled and
+nodded his head when replying.
+
+"That's nice of you, fellows. But after all perhaps I may see my way
+clear to joining the troop. I hope so, anyway, and I'll try my best
+to make the riffle. Now Tom, tell us all Mr. Witherspoon said."
+
+"Yes, we want to know what we'd have to do the first thing," added
+Josh, who was about as quick to start things as Felix Robbins was
+slow. "I sent off and got a scout manual. It came last night, and
+I'm soaking up the contents at a great rate."
+
+"That was why I saw a light over in your room late last night, was it?"
+George Cooper demanded. "Burning the midnight oil. Must have been
+interesting reading, seems to me, Josh."
+
+"I could hardly tear myself away from the book," responded the other
+boy. "After to-night I'll loan it to the rest of you, though I guess
+Tom must have got one from Mr. Witherspoon, for I see something bulging
+in his pocket."
+
+Tom laughed at that.
+
+"Josh," he said, "it's very plain to me that you will make a pretty
+clever scout, because you've got the habit of observing things down to
+a fine point. And if you've read as much as you say, of course you know
+that one of the first things a tenderfoot has to do is to remember to
+keep his eyes about him, and see things."
+
+"Yes," added Josh, eagerly, "one test is for each boy to stand in front
+of a store window for just two minutes, making a mental map of the
+same, and then go off to jot down as many objects as he can remember
+to have seen there."
+
+"That's quite a stunt," remarked Felix thoughtfully; "and I reckon the
+one who can figure out the biggest number of articles goes up head in
+the class. I must remember and practice that game. It strikes me as
+worth while."
+
+"Listen to the row up there, will you?" burst out George Cooper just
+then. "Why, that lot of boys seems to be having a snowball fight, don't
+they? Hello! it isn't a battle after all, but they're pelting somebody
+or other. See how the balls fly like a flock of pigeons from Carl's
+coop!"
+
+"It looks like a man they're bombarding!" ejaculated Felix.
+
+"You're right about that, and an old man in the bargain," added Tom
+as he quickened his steps involuntarily; "I can see that bully Tony
+Pollock leading the lot; yes, and the other fellows must be his
+cronies, Wedge McGuffey and Asa Green."
+
+"See the poor old fellow try to dodge the balls!" exclaimed Josh.
+"They're making them like ice too, and I wouldn't put it past that lot
+to pack a stone in each snowball in the bargain. They'd be equal to
+anything."
+
+"Are we going to stand by and see that sport go on, boys?" asked Carl
+as he shut his jaws tight together, and the light of indignation shone
+in his eyes.
+
+"We wouldn't be fit to wear the khaki of scouts if we did, fellows!"
+cried Tom Chesney. "Come on, and let's give them a taste of their own
+medicine," and with loud shouts the five comrades started to gather up
+the snow as they chased pell-mell toward the scene of excitement.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE MAN WHO LOVED NATURE
+
+
+"Give it to them, boys!" Josh was shouting as he started to send his
+first ball straight at the group of busy tormentors who were showering
+the helpless old man with their icy balls that must have stung almost
+as much as so many rocks.
+
+He seemed to be lame, for while he tried to advance toward the young
+rascals waving his stout cane wildly, they had no difficulty in keeping
+a safe distance off, and continuing the cruel bombardment.
+
+The smashing of that ball flung by Josh, who was pitcher on the Lenox
+baseball team, and a fine shot, was the first intimation the three
+tormentors of the old man had that the tables had been turned.
+
+"Hey! look here what's on to us!" shrilled one of the trio, as he felt
+the sudden shock caused by the first snowball striking the back of his
+head.
+
+Upon that the bully of the town and his two allies were forced to turn
+and try to defend themselves against this assault from the rear. They
+fought desperately for a very short time, but their hands were already
+half frozen, and five against three proved too great odds for their
+valor.
+
+Besides, every time Josh let fly he managed to land on some part of the
+person of Tony Pollock or one of his cronies. And those hard balls when
+driven by the sturdy arm of the baseball pitcher stung mercilessly.
+
+The old man stood and watched, with something like a smile on his face.
+He seemed to have forgotten all about his own recent predicament in
+seeing these young rowdies receiving their just dues. If he had not
+been old and lame possibly he might have insisted on joining in the
+fray, and adding to the punishment being meted out to the three
+cowardly boys.
+
+Once a retreat was begun, it quickly merged into a regular panic. Tom
+stayed to talk to the old man while his comrades pursued the fleeing
+trio, and peppered them good and hard. When finally they felt that they
+had amply vindicated their right to be reckoned worthy candidates for
+scout membership they came back, laughing heartily among themselves,
+to where Tom and the old man were standing.
+
+"Why, I've seen that old fellow before," Josh remarked in a low
+tone as he and Carl, George and Felix drew near. "His name is Larry
+Henderson, and they say he's something of a hermit, living away up in
+the woods beyond Bear Mountain."
+
+"Sure thing," added Felix, instantly; "I've heard my folks talking
+about him lots of times. He does a little trapping, they say, but
+spends most of his time studying animated nature. He knows every animal
+that ever lived on this continent, and the birds and insects too, I
+reckon. He's as smart as they make 'em, and used to be a college
+professor some people say, even if he does talk a little rough now."
+
+For some reason all of them were feeling more or less interest in the
+man who walked with a cane. Perhaps this arose from the fact that of
+late they had become enthusiastic over everything connected with
+woodcraft. And the fact that Mr. Henderson was acquainted with a
+thousand secrets about the interesting things to be discovered in the
+Great Outdoors appealed strongly to them.
+
+"These are my chums, Mr. Henderson," said Tom, when the others came up;
+and as the name of each one was mentioned the hermit of Bear Mountain
+grasped his hand, giving a squeeze that made some of the boys wince.
+
+"I'm glad to meet you all," he said, heartily. "It was worth being
+attacked by that lot of rowdies just to get acquainted with such a fine
+lot of boys. And I want to say that you gave them all the punishment
+they deserved. I counted hits until I lost all track of the number."
+
+"Yes," said Felix, with a grin on his freckled face; "they're rubbing
+many a sore spot right now, I reckon. Josh here, who's our star pitcher
+on the nine, never wasted a single ball. And I could hear the same
+fairly whistle through the air."
+
+"Gosh all hemlock! Felix," objected the boy mentioned, "you're
+stretching things pretty wide, aren't you? Now I guess the rest
+of you did your share in the good work, just as much as I."
+
+"All the same I'm thankful for your coming to my assistance," said
+Mr. Henderson. "My rheumatism kept me from being as spry in dodging
+their cannonade as I might have been some years ago. And one ball
+that broke against that tree had a stone inside it, I'm sorry to
+say. We would have called that unsportsmanlike in my young days."
+
+"Only the meanest kind of a fellow would descend to such a trick!"
+exclaimed the indignant Josh; "but then Tony Pollock and his crowd
+are ready to do anything low-down and crooked. They'll never be
+able to join our scout troop, after we get it started."
+
+"What's that you are saying?" asked the old man, showing sudden
+interest.
+
+"Why, you see, sir," explained Josh, always ready to do his share
+of talking if given half a chance, "our chum here, Tom Chesney, was
+visiting his cousins over in Freeport, and got interested in their
+scout troop. So we've taken the thing up, and expect to start the
+ball rolling right away."
+
+"It happens," Tom went on, "that there is a young man in town who once
+served as scout master in a troop, and I've just had him promise to
+come around to-night and tell us what we've got to do to get the
+necessary charter from scout headquarters."
+
+"You interest me very much, boys," said Mr. Henderson, his eyes
+sparkling as he spoke. "I have read considerable about the wonderful
+progress this new movement is making all over the land; and I want to
+say that I like the principles it advocates. Boys have known too little
+in the past of how to take care of themselves at all times, and also be
+ready to lend a helping hand to others."
+
+"The camping out, and finding all sorts of queer things in the woods
+is what makes me want to join a troop!" said Josh; "because I always
+did love to fish and hunt, and get off in the mountains away from
+everybody."
+
+"That's a good foundation to start on," remarked the hermit, with
+kindling eyes, as he looked from one eager face to another; "but I
+imagine that after you've been a scout for a short time your ideas
+will begin to change considerably."
+
+"How, sir?" asked Josh, looking unconvinced.
+
+"Well," continued the old man, softly, "you'll find such enjoyment in
+_observing_ the habits of all the little woods folks that by degrees
+the fierce desire you have now to slay them will grow colder. In the
+end most of you will consider it ten times better to sit and watch them
+at their labors or play than to slaughter them in sport, or even to
+kill them for food."
+
+"But Mr. Henderson," said Josh, boldly, "I've heard that you trap
+animals for their pelts; and I guess you must knock a few over when
+you feel like having game for dinner, don't you?"
+
+"Occasionally I go out and get a rabbit or a partridge, though not
+often," admitted the old man; "and as for my trapping, I only try to
+take such animals or vermin as are cruel in their nature and seem to
+be a pest to the innocent things I'm so fond of having around me. I
+wish you boys could visit my cabin some time or other, and make the
+acquaintance of my innumerable pets. They look on me as their best
+friend, and I would never dream of raising a hand to injure them.
+Kindness to animals, I believe, is one of the cardinal principles
+of a true scout."
+
+"Yes, sir, that's what it is," responded Josh, eagerly. "I've got the
+whole twelve points of scout law on the tip of my tongue right now.
+Here's what they are: A scout has got to be trustworthy, loyal,
+helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty,
+brave, clean and reverent."
+
+"Whew! that's going some!" declared Felix, who being prone to put
+things off to a more convenient season could readily see that he
+was sure to run up against a good many snags if he tried to keep
+the scout law.
+
+"Then you can easily understand," continued Mr. Henderson, "what a
+treasure-house the woods is going to be to every observing boy who
+spends some time there, and becomes interested in seeing all that
+is going on around him."
+
+"I'm sure of that, sir," responded Tom, earnestly. "I know for one that
+I've never paid a quarter of the attention to such things as I ought to
+have done."
+
+"No, you are right there, my lad," the hermit continued, being
+evidently on a favorite subject, "the average boy can walk through
+a mile of forest and hardly notice anything around him. In fact, he
+may even decide that it's only a gloomy place, and outside the cawing
+of the crows or perhaps an occasional squirrel at which he shies a
+stone he has heard and seen nothing."
+
+"Then it's different with a scout, is it, sir?" asked George Cooper.
+
+"If he has been aroused to take a keen interest in nature the same
+woods will be alive with interesting things," the other told them. "He
+will see the shy little denizens peeping curiously out at him from a
+cover of leaves, and hear their low excited chattering as they tell
+each other what they think of him. Every tree and moss-covered stone
+and swinging wild grape-vine will tell a story; and afterwards that
+boy is going to wonder how he ever could have been content to remain
+in such dense ignorance as he did for years."
+
+"Mr. Henderson do you expect to remain in town over night?" asked Tom,
+suddenly.
+
+"Why yes, I shall have to stay until to-morrow," came the reply; "I
+am stopping with my old friend, Judge Stone. We attended the same red
+school house on the hill a great many years ago. My stock of provisions
+ran short sooner than I had counted on, and this compelled me to come
+down earlier than usual. As a rule I deal over in Fairmount, but this
+time it was more convenient to come here. Why do you ask, Tom?"
+
+"I was wondering whether you could be coaxed to come around to-night,
+and meet the rest of the boys," the boy told him. "We expect to have a
+dozen present, and when Mr. Witherspoon is explaining what a scout must
+subscribe to in joining a troop, it might influence some of the fellows
+if you would tell them a few things like those you were just describing
+to us."
+
+The old naturalist looked at the eager faces of the five lads, and a
+smile came over his own countenance. Undoubtedly he was a lover of and
+believer in boys, no matter whether he had ever had any of his own or
+not.
+
+"I shall be only too pleased to come around, Tom; if Judge Stone can
+run his car by moonlight. Tell me where the meeting is to take place."
+
+"The deacons of the church have promised to let us have a room in the
+basement, which has a stove in it. The meeting will be at eight
+o'clock, sir," Tom informed him.
+
+"I hope to be there and listen to what goes on," said the hermit. "And
+after all I'm not sorry those vicious boys thought to bombard me the
+way they did, since it has given me the opportunity to get acquainted
+with such a fine lot of lads. But I see my friend, the Judge, coming
+with his car, and I'll say good-bye to you all for the present."
+
+He waved his hand to them as he rode away beside the white-bearded
+judge, who was one of the most highly respected citizens of Lenox.
+
+"Well, he's a mighty fine sort of an old party, for a fact!" declared
+George, as they looked after the receding car; nor did he mean the
+slightest disrespect in speaking in this fashion of the interesting old
+man they had met in such a strange way.
+
+"I'd give something if only I could visit Mr. Henderson at his cabin,"
+remarked Felix; "I reckon he must have a heap of things worth seeing in
+his collection."
+
+"Who knows," said Tom, cheerily, "but what some good luck might take us
+up that way one of these fine days."
+
+"Let's hope so," added Josh, as they once more started toward home.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+A CLOUD OVER THE OSKAMP HOME
+
+
+Tom and Carl walked along together after the other three boys had
+dropped off at various stages, taking short-cuts for their homes,
+as supper-time was approaching.
+
+"What's gone wrong, Carl?" asked Tom, as he flung an arm across the
+shoulders of his closest chum.
+
+"I was meaning to tell you about it, Tom," explained the other,
+quickly; "but somehow I kept holding back. It seemed as if I ought
+to find a way of solving that queer mystery myself. But only this
+morning I decided to ask you to help me."
+
+His words aroused the curiosity of the other boy more than ever.
+
+"What's this you're talking about?" he exclaimed. "A mystery is there
+now, Carl? Why, I thought it might all be about that coming around so
+often of Mr. Amasa Culpepper, who not only keeps the grocery store but
+is a sort of shyster lawyer, and a money lender as well. Everybody
+says he's smitten with your mother, and wants to be a second father
+to you and your sisters and brothers."
+
+"Well that used to worry me a whole lot," admitted Carl, frankly,
+"until I asked my mother if she cared any for Amasa. She laughed at me,
+and said that if he was the last man on earth she would never dream of
+marrying him. In fact, she never expected to stop being John Oskamp's
+widow. So since then I only laugh when I see old Amasa coming around
+and fetching big bouquets of flowers from his garden, which he must
+hate to pull, he's so miserly."
+
+"Then what else has cropped up to bother you, Carl?" asked Tom.
+
+The other heaved a long-drawn sigh.
+
+"My mother is worried half sick over it!" he explained; "she's hunted
+every bit of the house over several times; and I've scoured the garden
+again and again, but we don't seem to be able to locate it at all. It's
+the queerest thing where it could have disappeared to so suddenly."
+
+"Yes, but you haven't told me what it is?" remarked Tom.
+
+"A paper, Tom, a most valuable paper that my mother carelessly left on
+the table in the sitting room day before yesterday."
+
+"What kind of a paper was it?" asked Tom, who always liked to get at
+the gist of things in the start.
+
+"Why, it was a paper that meant considerable to my mother," explained
+Carl. "My father once invested in some shares of oil stock. The
+certificate of stock was in the safe keeping of Amasa Culpepper, who
+had given a receipt for the same, and a promise to hand over the
+original certificate when this paper was produced."
+
+"And you say the receipt disappeared from the table in your sitting
+room, without anybody knowing what became of it?" asked Tom.
+
+"Yes," replied Carl. "This is how it came about. Lately we received
+word that the company had struck some gushers in the way of wells, and
+that the stock my father had bought for a few cents a share is worth a
+mint of money now. It was through Amasa Culpepper my mother first
+learned about this, and she wrote to the company to find out."
+
+"Oh! I see," chuckled Tom, "and when Mr. Culpepper learned that there
+was a chance of your mother becoming rich, his unwelcome attentions
+became more pronounced than ever; isn't that so, Carl?"
+
+"I think you're right, Tom," said the other boy, but without smiling,
+for he carried too heavy a load on his mind to feel merry. "You see my
+mother had hunted up this precious receipt, and had it handy, meaning
+to go over to Mr. Culpepper's office in the forenoon and ask for the
+certificate of stock he has in his safe."
+
+"So she laid it on the table, did she?" pursued Tom, shaking his head.
+"Don't you think that it was a little careless, Carl, in your mother,
+to do that?"
+
+"She can't forgive herself for doing it," replied his chum, sadly. "She
+says that it just shows how few women have any business qualities about
+them, and that she misses my father more and more every day that she
+lives. But none of the other children touched the paper. Angus, Elsie
+and Dot have told her so straight; and it's a puzzle to know what did
+become of it."
+
+"You spoke of hunting in the garden and around the outside of the
+house; why should you do that?"
+
+"It happened that one of the sitting room windows was open half a foot
+that day. The weather had grown mild you remember," explained the
+other.
+
+"And you kind of had an idea the paper might have blown out through
+that open window, was that it?"
+
+"It looked like it to me," answered the widow's son, frowning; "but
+if that was what happened the wind carried it over the fence and far
+away, because I've not been able to find anything of it."
+
+"How long was it between the time your mother laid the paper on the
+table and the moment she missed it?" continued Tom Chesney.
+
+"Just one full hour. She went from the breakfast table and got the
+paper out of her trunk. Then when she had seen the children off to
+school, and dressed to go out it was gone. She said that was just a
+quarter to ten."
+
+"She's sure of that, is she?" demanded Tom.
+
+"Yes," replied Carl, "because the grocer's boy always comes along at
+just a quarter after nine for his orders, and he had been gone more
+than twenty minutes."
+
+At that the other boy stopped still and looked fixedly at Carl.
+
+"That grocer's boy is a fellow by the name of Dock Phillips, isn't he?"
+was what Tom asked, as though with a purpose.
+
+"Yes," Carl replied.
+
+"And he works for Mr. Amasa Culpepper, too!" continued Tom, placing
+such a decided emphasis on these words that his companion started and
+stared in his face.
+
+"That's all true enough, Tom, but tell me what you mean by saying that
+in the way you did? What could Mr. Culpepper have to do with the
+vanishing of that paper?"
+
+"Oh! perhaps nothing at all," pursued the other, "but all the same he
+has more interest in its disappearance than any other person I can
+think of just now."
+
+"Because his name was signed at the bottom, you mean, Tom?" cried the
+startled Carl.
+
+"Just what it was," continued Tom. "Suppose your mother could never
+produce that receipt, Mr. Culpepper would be under no necessity of
+handing over any papers. I don't pretend to know much about such
+things, and so I can't tell just how he could profit by holding them.
+But even if he couldn't get them made over in his own name, he might
+keep your mother from becoming rich unless she agreed to marry him!"
+
+Carl was so taken aback by this bold statement that he lost his breath
+for a brief period of time.
+
+"But Tom, Amasa Culpepper wasn't in our house that morning?" he
+objected.
+
+"Perhaps not, but Dock Phillips was, and he's a boy I'd hate to trust
+any further than I could see him," Tom agreed.
+
+"Do you think Mr. Culpepper could have hired Dock to _steal_ the
+paper?" continued the sorely-puzzled Carl.
+
+"Well, hardly that. If Dock took it he did the job on his own
+responsibility. Perhaps he had a chance to glance at the paper
+and find out what it stood for, and in his cunning way figured
+that he might hold his employer up for a good sum if he gave
+him to understand he could produce that receipt."
+
+"Yes, yes, I'm following you now, go on," implored the deeply
+interested Carl.
+
+"Here we are at your house, Carl; suppose you ask me in. I'd like to
+find out if Dock was left alone in the sitting room for even a minute
+that morning."
+
+"Done!" cried the other, vehemently, as he pushed open the white gate,
+and led the way quickly along the snow-cleaned walk up to the front
+door.
+
+Mrs. Oskamp was surprised as she stood over the stove in the neat
+kitchen of her little cottage home when her oldest boy and his chum,
+Tom Chesney, whom she liked very much indeed, entered. Their manner
+told her immediately that it was design and not accident that had
+brought them in together.
+
+"I've been telling Tom, mother," said Carl, after looking around and
+making certain that none of the other children were within earshot;
+"and he's struck what promises to be a clue that may explain the
+mystery we've been worrying over."
+
+"I'm pleased to hear you say so, son," the little woman with the rosy
+cheeks and the bright eyes told Carl; "and if I can do anything to
+assist you please call on me without hesitation, Tom."
+
+"What we want you to tell us, mother," continued Carl, "is how long you
+left that Dock Phillips alone in the sitting room when he called for
+grocery orders on the morning that paper disappeared."
+
+Mrs. Oskamp looked wonderingly at them both.
+
+"I don't remember saying anything of that sort to you, Carl," she
+presently remarked, slowly and with a puzzled expression on her pretty
+plump face.
+
+"But you _did_ leave him alone there, didn't you?" the boy persisted,
+as though something in her manner convinced him that he was on the
+track of a valuable clue.
+
+"Well, yes, but it was not for more than two minutes," she replied.
+"There was a mistake in my last weekly bill, and I wanted Dock to take
+it back to the store with him for correction. Then I found I had left
+it in the pocket of the dress I wore the afternoon before, and so I
+went upstairs to get it."
+
+"Two minutes would be plenty of time, wouldn't it, Tom?" Carl
+continued, turning on his chum.
+
+"He may have stepped up to the table to see what the paper was," Tom
+theorized; "and discovering the name of Amasa Culpepper signed to it,
+considered it worth stealing. That may be wronging Dock; but he has a
+bad reputation, you know, Mrs. Oskamp. My folks say they are surprised
+at Mr. Culpepper's employing him; but everybody knows he hates to pay
+out money, and I suppose he can get Dock cheaper than he could most
+boys."
+
+"But what would the boy want to do with that paper?" asked the lady,
+helplessly.
+
+"Why, mother," said Carl, with a shrug of his shoulders as he looked
+toward his chum; "don't you see he may have thought he could tell Mr.
+Culpepper about it, and offer to hand over, or destroy the paper, for a
+certain amount of cash."
+
+"But that would be very wicked, son!" expostulated Mrs. Oskamp.
+
+"Oh well, a little thing like that wouldn't bother Tony Pollock or Dock
+Phillips; and they're both of the same stripe. Haven't we hunted high
+and low for that paper, and wondered where under the sun it could have
+gone? Well, Dock got it, I'm as sure now as that my name's Carl Oskamp.
+The only question that bothers me now is how can I make him give it up,
+or tell what he did with it."
+
+"If he took it, and has already handed it over to Mr. Culpepper,
+there's not a single chance in ten you'll ever see it again," Tom
+asserted; "but we've got one thing in our favor."
+
+"I'm glad to hear that, Tom," the little lady told him, for she had a
+great respect for the opinion of her son's chum; "tell us what it is,
+won't you?"
+
+"Everybody knows how Amasa Culpepper is getting more and more stingy
+every year he lives," Tom explained. "He hates to let a dollar go
+without squeezing it until it squeals, they say. Well, if Dock holds
+out for a fairly decent sum I expect Amasa will keep putting him off,
+and try to make him come down in his price. That's our best chance of
+ever getting the paper back."
+
+"Tom, I want you to go with me to-night and face Dock Phillips," said
+Carl.
+
+"Just as you say; we can look him up on our way to the meeting."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE DEFIANCE OF DOCK PHILLIPS
+
+
+Remembering his promise, Tom called early for his chum. Carl lived in a
+pretty little cottage with his mother, and three other children. There
+was Angus, a little chap of five, Dot just three, and Elsie well turned
+seven.
+
+Everybody liked to visit the Oskamp home, there was such an air of
+contentment and happiness about the entire family, despite the fact
+that they missed the presence of the one who had long been their guide
+and protector.
+
+Tom was an especial favorite with the three youngsters, and they were
+always ready for a romp with him when he came to spend an evening with
+his chum. On this occasion however Tom did not get inside the house,
+for Carl was on the lookout and hurried out of the door as soon as he
+heard the gate shut.
+
+"Hello! seems to me you're in a big hurry to-night," laughed Tom, when
+he saw the other slip out of the house and come down the path to meet
+him; "what's all the rush about, Carl?"
+
+"Why, you see I knew we meant to drop in at Dock Phillips' place, and
+we wouldn't want to be too late at the meeting if we happened to be
+held up there," was the explanation Carl gave.
+
+As they hurried along they talked together, and of course much of their
+conversation was connected with this visit to Dock. Carl seemed hopeful
+of good results, but to tell the truth Tom had his doubts.
+
+In the first place he was a better judge of human nature than his chum,
+and he knew that the Phillips boy was stubborn, as well as vicious. If
+he were really guilty of having taken the paper he would be likely to
+deny it vehemently through thick and thin.
+
+Knowing how apt Carl was to become discouraged if things went against
+him very strongly, Tom felt it was his duty to prepare the other for
+disappointment.
+
+"Even if Dock denies that he ever saw the paper, we mustn't let
+ourselves feel that this is the end of it, you know, Carl," he
+started to say.
+
+"I'll be terribly disappointed, though, Tom," admitted the other boy,
+with a sigh that told how he had lain awake much the last two nights
+trying to solve the puzzle that seemed to have no answer.
+
+"Oh! that would only be natural," his chum told him, cheerily; "but you
+know if we expect to become scouts we must figure out what they would
+do under the same conditions, and act that way."
+
+"That's right, Tom," agreed the other, bracing up. "Tell me what a
+true-blue scout would figure out as his line of duty in case he ran
+up against a snag when his whole heart was set on doing a thing."
+
+"He'd just remember that old motto we used to write in our copybooks at
+school, and take it to heart--'if at first you don't succeed, try, try
+again!' And Carl, a scout would keep on trying right along. He'd set
+his teeth together as firm as iron and say he'd solve that problem, or
+know the reason why."
+
+"Tom, you know how to brace a weak-kneed fellow up all right."
+
+"But you're not that kind, Carl. Only in this case there's so much at
+stake you hardly do yourself justice. Remember how Grant went at it,
+and when he found that Lee met all of his tactics so cleverly he got
+his back up and said he'd fight it out on that line if it took all
+summer."
+
+"I see what you mean, and I'm game enough to say the same thing!"
+declared the other, with a ring of resolution in his voice.
+
+Tom felt wonderfully relieved. He knew that Carl was capable of great
+things if only he succeeded in conquering his one little failing of
+seeing the gloomy side of passing events.
+
+"Well, here we are at Dock's place. It's not a particularly lovely home
+for any fellow, is it? But then his father is known to be a hard
+drinker, and the mother finds it a tough job to keep her family in
+clothes and food. My folks feel sorry for her, and do what they can at
+times to help her out, though she's too proud to ask for assistance."
+
+"Dock promises to be as bad as his father, I'm afraid, only so far he
+hasn't taken to drinking," remarked Carl.
+
+"There's some hope for him if only he keeps away from that," ventured
+Tom. "But let's knock on the door."
+
+No sooner had his knuckles come in contact with the panel than there
+was a furious barking within. Like most poor families the Phillips
+evidently kept several dogs; indeed, Dock had always been a great lover
+of animals, and liked to be strutting along the main street of Lenox
+with a string of dogs tagging at his heels.
+
+A harsh voice was heard scolding the dogs, who relapsed into a
+grumbling and whining state of obedience.
+
+"That's Dock himself," said Carl. "They mind him all right, you see. I
+hope he opens the door for us, and not his father."
+
+Just then the Phillips door was drawn back.
+
+"Hello! Carl, and you too Tom; what's up?"
+
+Although Dock tried to say this with extreme indifference Tom saw that
+he was more or less startled at seeing them. In fact he immediately
+slipped outside, and closed the door behind him, as though he did not
+want his mother or any one else to overhear what might be said.
+
+This action was positive evidence to the mind of Tom Chesney that Dock
+was guilty. His fears caused him to act without thinking. At the same
+time such evidence is never accepted in a court of law as
+circumstantial.
+
+If either of the two boys had ever called at the Phillips' house before
+it must have been on account of some errand, and at the request of
+their mothers. Dock might therefore be filled with curiosity to know
+why he had been honored with a visit.
+
+"We dropped around to have a few words with you, Dock," said Tom, who
+had made arrangements with his chum to manage the little interview, and
+had his plan of campaign all laid out in advance.
+
+"Oh is that so?" sneered the other, now having had time to recover from
+the little shock which their sudden appearance had given him. "Well,
+here I am, so hurry up with what you've got to say. I came home late
+from the store and I'm not done my supper yet."
+
+"We'll keep you only a few minutes at the most, Dock," continued Tom;
+"you take the orders for groceries for the store, don't you?"
+
+"What, me? Why, course I do. Ain't you seen me a-goin' around with that
+bob-tail racer of Old Culpepper's that could make a mile in seventeen
+minutes if you kept the whip a-waggin' over his back? What if I do take
+orders; want to leave one with me for a commission, hey?"
+
+Dock tried to throw all the sarcasm he could into his voice. He had an
+object no doubt in doing this; which was to impress these two boys as
+to his contempt for them and their errand, whatever it might be.
+
+"We came here in hopes that you might solve a little bit of a mystery
+that's bothering Carl's mother, Dock," continued Tom.
+
+It was pretty dark out there, as the night had settled down, and not
+much light escaped from the windows close by; still Tom thought he saw
+the other boy move uneasily when he said this.
+
+"That's a funny thing for you to say, Tom Chesney," grumbled the other.
+"How'd I be able to help Mrs. Oskamp out, tell me? I ain't much of a
+hand to figger sums. That's why I hated school, and run away, so I had
+to go to work. Now what you drivin' at anyhow? Just tell me that."
+
+"Day before yesterday you called at Mrs. Oskamp's house, Dock, as you
+do every morning, to take orders. You always make it about the same
+time, I understand, which is close to a quarter after nine."
+
+"Oh! I'm the promptest grocery clerk you ever saw!" boasted Dock,
+perhaps to hide a little confusion, and bolster up his nerve.
+
+"After you had gone, or to make it positive at just a quarter to ten
+Mrs. Oskamp, who had dressed to go out, missed something that was on
+the table of the sitting room where you came for orders, and which she
+says she knows was there when you first arrived!"
+
+"What's this you're a-sayin', Tom Chesney? Want to make me out a thief,
+do you? Better go slow about that sort of talk, I tell you!" blustered
+Dock, aggressively. "Did Mrs. Oskamp see me take anything?"
+
+"Oh! no, certainly not," continued Tom; "but she had to go upstairs to
+get a bill she wanted you to take back to the store for correction, and
+left you alone in the room for a couple of minutes, that's all."
+
+Tom was fishing for a "rise," as he would have put it himself, being
+something of an angler; and he got it too. All unsuspicious of the trap
+that had been spread for his unwary feet Dock gave a harsh laugh, and
+went on to say angrily:
+
+"You have got the greatest nerve I ever heard about, Tom Chesney,
+a-comin' here right to my own home, and accusin' me of bein' a reg'lar
+thief. I wouldn't take a thing for the world. Besides, what'd I want
+with a silly old scrap of paper, tell me?"
+
+"Oh!" said Tom, quietly, "but I never mentioned what it was that was
+taken. How do you happen to know then it was a paper, Dock?"
+
+Carl gave a gasp of admiration for the clever work of his chum. As for
+Dock, he hardly knew what to say immediately, though after he caught
+his breath he managed to mutter:
+
+"Why, there was some papers on the table, I remembered, and I just
+guessed you must be meanin' that. I tell you I ain't seen no paper, and
+you can't prove it on me either. I defy you to; so there! Now just tell
+me what you're goin' to do about it."
+
+He squared off as though he had a dim idea the two boys might want to
+lay hands on him and try to drag him around to the police headquarters.
+Of course this was the very last thing Tom and Carl would think of
+attempting. Strategy alone could influence Dock to confess to the
+truth.
+
+"Oh! we don't mean to touch you, Dock," said Tom, hastily. "All we
+wanted to do was to ask you if you had seen that paper? If you denied
+it we knew we would have to try and find it another way; because sooner
+or later the truth is bound to come out, you understand. We'd rather
+have you on our side than against us, Dock."
+
+"But what would a feller like me want with your old paper?" snarled the
+boy, who may not have wholly liked the firm way in which Tom said that
+in the end the real facts must be made known, just as if they meant to
+get some one accustomed to spying on people to watch him from that time
+on.
+
+"Nothing so far as it concerned you," replied Tom; "but it was of
+considerable value to another. Your employer, Mr. Culpepper, might be
+willing to pay a considerable sum to get possession of that same paper,
+because it bore his signature."
+
+Dock gave a disagreeable laugh.
+
+"What, that old miser pay any real money out? Huh, you don't know him.
+He squeezes every dollar till it squeals before he lets it go. He'd
+bargain for the difference of five cents. Nobody could do business with
+him on the square. But I tell you I ain't seen no paper; and that's all
+I'm a-goin' to say 'bout it. I'm meanin' to let my dogs out for a
+little air soon's I go back in the house, an' I hopes that you'll close
+the gate after you when you skip!"
+
+There was a veiled threat in his words, and as he proceeded to
+terminate the interview by passing inside Tom and Carl thought it
+good policy to make use of the said gate, for they did not like
+the manner in which the dogs growled and whined on the other side
+of the barrier.
+
+"He's a tough one, all right," Carl was saying as they walked on
+together, and heard the three dogs barking in the Phillips' yard.
+
+"Yes," admitted his chum, "Dock's a hard customer, but not so very
+smart when you come right down to it. He fell headlong into my trap,
+which is a very old one with lawyers who wish to coax a man to betray
+his guilt."
+
+"You mean about saying it was a paper that had been lost?" said Carl.
+"Yes, you fairly staggered him when you asked him how he knew that."
+
+"There's no question about Dock's being the guilty one," asserted Tom.
+"He gave himself away the worst kind then. The only thing we have to do
+is to try and get the truth from him. Sooner or later it's got to be
+found out."
+
+"Yes," continued Carl, dejectedly, "but if he's handed that paper over
+to Mr. Culpepper in the meantime, even if we could prove that Dock took
+it what good will that do? Once that paper is torn up, we could recover
+nothing."
+
+"But I'm sure he hasn't made his bargain with old Amasa yet," Tom
+ventured.
+
+"Why do you believe that?" asked the other, eagerly.
+
+"You heard what he said about the meanness of his employer, didn't
+you?" was what Tom replied. "Well, it proves that although Dock sounded
+Mr. Culpepper about being in a position to give him the paper they
+haven't arrived at any satisfactory conclusion."
+
+"You mean Dock wants more than Amasa is willing to pay, is that it,
+Tom?"
+
+"It looks that way to me," the other boy assented; "and that sort of
+deadlock may keep on indefinitely. You see, Dock is half afraid to
+carry the deal through, and will keep holding off. Perhaps he may
+even have put so high a price on his find, that every once in a
+while they'll lock horns and call it a draw."
+
+"I hope you've hit on the right solution," sighed Carl; "if it didn't
+do anything else it would give us a chance to think up some other
+scheme for getting the truth out of Dock."
+
+"Leave it to me, Carl; sooner or later we'll find a way to beat him at
+his own game. If he's got that paper hidden away somewhere we may
+discover his secret by following him. There are other ways too. It's
+going to come out all right in the end, you take my word for it!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+THE BLACK BEAR PATROL
+
+
+It was a lively scene in the room under the church when the meeting was
+called to order by Mr. Witherspoon, the civil engineer and surveyor. A
+dozen boys were on hand, several having come from curiosity, and
+meaning to join the scouts later on if they saw reason to believe it
+would amount to anything.
+
+Besides the boys there were present Judge Stone, his friend the
+hermit-naturalist, Larry Henderson, and two fathers, who had dropped
+around to learn whether this new-fangled movement for the rising
+generation meant that the boys were to be secretly trained for
+soldiers, as so many people believed.
+
+Robert Witherspoon having once been a scout master knew how to manage a
+meeting of this sort. After he had called it to order he made a neat
+little speech, and explained what a wonderful influence for good the
+organization had been in every community where it had been tested.
+
+He read various extracts from the scout manual to show the lofty aims
+of those who had originated this idea which was taking the world by
+storm.
+
+"The boys have been neglected far too long," he told them; "and it has
+been decided that if we want a better class of men in the world we must
+begin work with the boy. It is the province of this scout movement to
+make duty so pleasant for the average lad that he will be wild to
+undertake it."
+
+In his little talk to the boys Mr. Witherspoon mentioned the fact that
+one of the greatest charms of becoming scouts was that growing habit of
+observing all that went on around them.
+
+"When you're in town this may not seem to be much of a thing after
+all," he had gone on to say; "but in the woods you will find it an ever
+increasing fascination, as the wonders of nature continue to be
+unfolded before your eyes. We are fortunate to have with us to-night a
+gentleman who is known all over the country as a naturalist and lover
+of the great outdoors. I think it will be worth our while to listen
+while he tells us something of the charming things to be found in
+studying nature. Mr. Henderson I'm going to ask you to take up as much
+time as you see fit."
+
+When Tom and Carl and some of the other boys did that little favor for
+Mr. Larry Henderson they were inclined to fancy that he was rather
+rough in his manner.
+
+He had not been talking five minutes however, before they realized that
+he was a born orator, and could hold an audience spell-bound by his
+eloquence. He thrilled those boys with the way in which he described
+the most trivial happening in the lonely wilds. They fairly hung upon
+his every sentence.
+
+"When you first commence to spend some time in the woods, boys," he
+told them, "it will seem very big and lonesome to you. Then as you come
+to make the acquaintance of Br'er 'Coon and Mr. Fox and the frisky
+chipmunk and all the rest of the denizens, things will take on a
+different color. In the end you will feel that they are all your very
+good friends, and nothing could tempt you to injure one of the happy
+family.
+
+"Yes, it is true that occasionally I do trap an animal but only when I
+find it a discordant element in the group. Some of them prey upon
+others, and yet that is no excuse why man should step in and
+exterminate them all, as he often does just for the sake of a few
+dollars."
+
+This sort of talk roused the enthusiasm of the boys, and when after a
+while Mr. Witherspoon put the question as to how many of them felt like
+immediately signing the roster roll so as to start the first patrol of
+the intended troop, there was a good deal of excitement shown.
+
+First of all Tom Chesney signed, and immediately after him came Carl,
+Felix, Josh and George. By the time these five names had appeared Josh
+had slipped his arm through that of Walter Douglass and brought him up
+to the table to place his signature on the list.
+
+"We need two more to make up the first patrol," announced Mr.
+Witherspoon. "Unless eight are secured we cannot hope to get our
+charter from scout headquarters, because that is the minimum number of
+a troop. I sincerely hope we may be able to make so much progress
+to-night at this meeting that I can write to-morrow to obtain the
+necessary authority for acting as your scout master."
+
+At that another boy who had been anxiously conferring with his father
+walked forward.
+
+"Good for you, Billy Button!" called out Josh. "That makes seven, and
+we only need one more name. Horace, are you going to see this grand
+scheme fall through for lack of just a single name? Your sig would look
+mighty good to the rest of us at the end of that list." Then he ended
+with an air of assumed dignity, "Horace, your country calls you; will
+it call in vain?"
+
+Horace Herkimer Crapsey was the boy who had been spoken of as a dainty
+dude, who hated to soil his white hands. Tom had expressed it as his
+opinion that if only Horace could be coaxed to join the troop it would
+prove to be the finest thing in the world for him. He had the making of
+a good scout only for those faults which other boys derided as silly
+and girlish. He was neat to a painful degree, and that is always looked
+on as a sort of crime by the average boy.
+
+Horace evidently had been greatly taken by the combined talk of the
+scout master and the old hermit-naturalist. To the great delight of
+Josh, as well as most of the other boys, he now stepped forward and
+placed his name on the list.
+
+"That makes eight, and enough for the first patrol," announced Mr.
+Witherspoon, with a pleased look; "we can count on an organization now
+as a certainty. All of you will have to start in as tenderfeet, because
+so far you have had no experience as scouts; but unless I miss my guess
+it will be only a short time before a number of you will be applying
+for the badge of second-class scouts."
+
+"That's just what we will, sir!" cried Josh, brimming over with
+enthusiasm.
+
+"We cannot elect a patrol leader just now," continued Mr. Witherspoon,
+"until there are some of you who are in the second class; but that will
+come about in good time. But it is of considerable importance what name
+you would like to give this first patrol of the new Lenox Troop of Boy
+Scouts."
+
+There was a conference among the boys, and all sorts of suggestions
+were evidently being put forward. Finally Tom Chesney seemed to have
+been delegated as usual to act as spokesman.
+
+"Mr. Chairman," he said, rising from his seat, "my comrades of Lenox
+Troop have commissioned me to say they would like to ask Mr. Henderson
+to name the first patrol for them. They believe they will be perfectly
+satisfied with any name he may think best to give them."
+
+Judge Stone smiled, and nodded his head as though he considered this
+quite a neat little compliment for his good old friend. And the
+naturalist was also evidently pleased as he got upon his feet.
+
+"After all, boys," he told them, "it is a matter of very little
+consequence what you call this fine patrol. There are a dozen names
+that suggest themselves. Since you have a Bear Mountain within half a
+dozen miles of your town suppose you call it the Black Bear Patrol."
+
+There was a chorus of approving assents, and it looked as though not a
+single objection was to be offered.
+
+"The black bear is an American institution, you might say," Mr.
+Henderson continued, when this point had been settled, "and next to the
+eagle is recognized as distinctive. From what I have heard said this
+evening it seems to me also that the Boy Scouts of America differ from
+any other branch of the movement in many ways."
+
+"Above all things," exclaimed Mr. Witherspoon, "in that there is
+nothing military about the movement over here. In Europe scouts are in
+one sense soldiers in the making. They all expect to serve the colors
+some day later on. We do not hold this up before our boys; though never
+once doubting that in case a great necessity arose every full-fledged
+scout would stand up for his country's honor and safety."
+
+"Every time!" exclaimed the impetuous Josh.
+
+Long they lingered there, discussing many things connected with the
+securing of their uniforms, after the proper time had elapsed. Various
+schemes were suggested whereby each boy could earn enough money to pay
+for his outfit; because that was one of the important stipulations made
+in joining a troop, no candidate being allowed to accept help in
+securing his suit.
+
+Before the meeting was adjourned it was settled that they were to come
+together every Friday night; and meanwhile each member of the Black
+Bear Patrol expected to qualify for the grade of second-class scout
+just as soon as his month of membership as arranged under the bylaws of
+the order had expired.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+SETTING THE TRAP
+
+
+"Three weeks have gone by since we had that first meeting, Tom; just
+think of it."
+
+Carl was walking along the river road with his chum when he made this
+remark. They had seen the last of the snow vanish, and with the coming
+of milder days all the boys began to talk of going fishing before long.
+
+Perhaps this saunter of the pair after school may have had something to
+do with the first contemplated outing of the season, and they wanted to
+see whether the fish had commenced to come from their winter quarters,
+though the law would not be off for trout yet awhile.
+
+"That's a fact, Carl," replied the other boy; "and at our very next
+meeting most of the members of the patrol are going to get their badges
+as second-class scouts, because they've already qualified for it to the
+satisfaction of Mr. Witherspoon."
+
+"Honest to goodness I believe there'll be only one tenderfoot left in
+the lot," Carl continued; "and that of course is our dude, Horace. He
+managed to exert himself just enough to fulfill the requirements a
+tenderfoot has to possess, but there he sticks."
+
+"Wait a while longer," Tom told him, "and one of these fine days you
+may see Horace wake up. I haven't lost hopes of him by a long shot. At
+our next meeting, after we've passed up, the first thing we have to do
+is to elect a patrol leader."
+
+Carl laughed softly.
+
+"Oh that's all cut and dried, already," he asserted.
+
+"Well, if it is no one has said anything to me about it," objected Tom,
+at which the other laughed again.
+
+"Why should they bother when it was seven against one, Tom?" argued
+Carl. "Why, the boys wouldn't dream of having any other leader than
+you!"
+
+"But that doesn't seem quite fair, it ought to be talked over openly.
+Why pick me out above every one else for that?"
+
+"Because you've always been a leader among your schoolmates, Tom,
+that's why!" he was quickly, told. "You've got it in you to take the
+lead in every kind of sport known to boys. Baseball, football, hockey,
+athletics--tell me a single thing where you've had to play second
+fiddle to any other fellow. And it isn't because you want to push
+yourself either, but because you can go ahead."
+
+"Well," said Tom, slowly and musingly, "it's mighty nice to know that
+the other boys like you, and if the fellows are bound to make me take
+the office of patrol leader I suppose I'll have to accept it."
+
+"No one so well able to do the work as you are, Tom. But this has been
+a terribly long three weeks to me, I tell you."
+
+"Now you're thinking that we haven't made a bit of progress about
+finding that stolen paper," suggested Tom, looking a little
+crest-fallen. "Both of us have tried from time to time to watch Dock
+after nights, but somehow we haven't had much success up to now."
+
+"No," added Carl, with one of his heavy sighs, "if he has that paper
+hidden somewhere he's smart enough to keep away from his cache, so far
+as we've been able to find out."
+
+"I don't believe he's come to any settlement with Amasa Culpepper as
+yet," Tom observed, with considerable positiveness.
+
+"We think that, but we don't know for sure," ventured the less
+confident Carl. "If only I could glimpse the paper I'd have a big load
+lifted from my mind. And it cuts me to the quick to see poor mother
+trying to look cheerful when I come indoors, though I've noticed signs
+of tears on her cheeks several times."
+
+"I've been thinking of some sort of scheme," began Tom, slowly.
+
+"Good for you!" burst out Carl, delightedly. "Tell me what it is then;
+and can we start in to try it right away?"
+
+"That depends on several conditions," explained the other. "First of
+all do you remember what that receipt made out by Mr. Culpepper looked
+like, Carl?"
+
+"Do I? Why, it seems to me it must have been burned on my memory as
+though you'd take a red hot poker and make marks on the clean kitchen
+floor. When I shut my eyes nights and try to go to sleep it keeps
+dancing in front of me. Before I know what I'm doing I find myself
+grabbing out for it, and then I want to kick myself for being so
+foolish, when I know it's all just a silly bit of imagination."
+
+"I'm glad you remember so well how it looked," remarked Tom, somewhat
+to the mystification of his companion.
+
+"What has that got to do with your scheme?" he demanded, in perplexity.
+
+"A whole lot," came the swift answer; "because I want you to get me up
+as close a copy of that receipt as you possibly can!"
+
+"Whew! do you mean even to signing Mr. Culpepper's name at the end?"
+asked Carl, whose breath had very nearly been taken away.
+
+"Yes, even to that," he was told; "in fact the paper wouldn't be worth
+a pinch of salt in my little game if that signature were omitted. Do
+you think you could duplicate the receipt, Carl?"
+
+"I am sure I could; but even now I'm groping in the dark, because for
+the life of me I can't see what you expect to do with it, Tom."
+
+"Don't forget to crease it, to make it look as though it had been
+folded and opened ever so many times; yes, and soil the outside a
+little too, as if it had been carried in a boy's pocket along with a
+lot of other things like marbles or a top or something like that."
+
+"But please explain what all this means," Carl pleaded.
+
+"Listen!" replied the other, impressively, "and I'll tell you what my
+game is. It may work, and it may fall flat; a whole lot depends on
+circumstances, but there's no harm trying it out."
+
+"Of course not; go on and tell me."
+
+"In watching Dock when he didn't know it, we've learned considerable
+about his habits," continued Tom. "For one thing every single night he
+walks home along the river road here after delivering a package or two
+at certain houses. It seems to be a part of the programme. Well, some
+fine night we'll lie in wait for him about this spot; and on the road
+will be that duplicate of the paper which we believe he stole."
+
+At that Carl became quite excited.
+
+"Oh! now I see what your game it!" he cried; "and let me tell you I
+think it's as clever a trick as could be thought of. He'll pick up the
+paper, thinking it may be something worth while; and when he sees that
+it is the very receipt he thinks he has got safely hidden away
+somewhere, Dock will be so rattled that the first thing he does will be
+to hurry to find out whether it's been taken or not."
+
+"That's the idea, Carl; and of course we'll follow him, so as to jump
+in the very minute he gets out the real document to compare them."
+
+"Fine! fine, Tom! You are certainly the crackerjack when it comes to
+laying a trap to trip a scamp up. Why, he'll fall into that pit head
+over heels; and I do hope we can snatch the paper away from him before
+he has a chance to tear it up."
+
+"We'll look out for that all right, you can depend on it," came the
+reassuring remark from the other scout. "When will you get busy on that
+copy, Carl?"
+
+"To-night, after the kids are in bed," Carl hastened to reply; "I
+wouldn't care to have them see what I was doing, though in this case I
+firmly believe it's all right."
+
+"And if your mother wants to know, tell her," said Tom.
+
+"I'd have to do that anyway," said Carl, without the least confusion or
+hesitation; "I always tell my mother everything that happens. She takes
+an interest in all my plans, and she's the dearest little mother a boy
+ever had. But she'll understand that it's only meant to be a trick to
+catch the thief."
+
+"Then if you have it ready by to-morrow afternoon we might try how it
+works that same evening," Tom remarked.
+
+"I wish the time was now, I'm getting so anxious to do something,"
+sighed the second boy, as he again remembered how he had seen his
+mother force herself to appear cheerful when he came from school,
+though there were traces of tears on her cheeks, and her eyes looked
+red.
+
+Soon after that the chums separated, as the afternoon was drawing near
+a close.
+
+"I wish you luck with your work to-night, Carl," was what Tom called
+out in parting; "and if any one wants to know where we've been, be sure
+and tell them that so far as we've been able to find out the fishing
+promises to be mighty fine this spring, better than for years, if signs
+go for anything."
+
+On the following day at noon when they walked home for lunch Carl
+showed his chum the paper. It had been carefully done, and even bore
+the marks of service in the way of numerous creases, and some soiled
+spots in the bargain.
+
+Tom was loud in his praise.
+
+"It certainly looks as if it had been carried in a boy's pocket for
+some time," he declared; "and it's up to you to say how close a copy
+the contents are to the original."
+
+"I'm sure Amasa Culpepper would say it was his own crabbed handwriting
+to a fraction," Carl had no hesitation in asserting. "And so far as
+that goes Dock Phillips isn't capable of discovering any slight
+difference. If he ever picks this up you mark my words, Tom, he's going
+to get the biggest shock he's felt in many a day."
+
+"And you can see how the very first thing he'd be apt to do would be to
+look around to see if anybody was spying on him, and then hurry away to
+find if his paper could have been taken from the place where he hid
+it."
+
+"Oh! I hope, Tom, he doesn't just step over it, and never bother to
+pick it up."
+
+"We've got to take our chance of that happening," he was told; "but we
+know how nearly every boy would act. Besides, scraps of paper have
+begun to seem worth something in Dock's eyes lately. The chances are
+three to one he'll get it."
+
+"Well, I'll meet you at just seven o'clock to-night at the old smithy,
+and we'll lay the trap when we hear his whistle up the road. Dock
+always whistles when he's out after dark. I think it must help him keep
+his courage up."
+
+The church bells had just started to ring seven when the two boys came
+close to the old blacksmith shop that had been deserted when Mr.
+Siebert moved to a better location.
+
+They had chosen this spot because it was rather lonely, and there did
+not seem to be very much chance of their little game being interrupted
+by any other pedestrian coming along just at the critical time.
+
+On one side of the road lay the bushes, in the midst of which the boys
+expected to hide; on the other could be seen the river.
+
+All was quiet around them as the minutes passed away.
+
+"There, that's his whistle, Tom!" whispered Carl, suddenly.
+
+Thereupon the other scout crept swiftly out upon the road, and placed
+the folded paper where it could hardly help being seen by any one with
+ordinary eyesight. He had just returned to the bushes when a figure
+came hurrying around the bend, whistling vigorously as some boys are in
+the habit of doing. Carl's heart seemed almost to stop beating when he
+saw Dock suddenly halt and bend over.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+DOCK GOES FROM BAD TO WORSE
+
+
+Just at that instant, as luck would have it, a vagrant gust of wind,
+perhaps an advance courier of the prospective storm, swooped down
+across the road. Before the boy who was stooping over could touch the
+paper that had attracted his attention it was whisked suddenly away.
+
+He made an ineffectual effort to seize upon it in the air, but missed
+it and had to stand there, while the paper floated far out over the
+river, to fall finally on the moving current.
+
+Carl quivered with another feeling besides anxiety and suspense; keen
+disappointment was wringing his heart cruelly. Just when their clever
+little plot seemed on the point of working, a freak of fate had dashed
+his hopes to the ground.
+
+He had the greatest difficulty in suppressing the cry that tried to
+bubble from between his lips. Even Tom must have felt bitterly
+chagrinned when he saw the paper go swirling off, without having had a
+chance to test its ability to deceive Dock Phillips, and perhaps lead
+him into confessing his guilt.
+
+The grocer's boy was now walking on again. Of course he knew nothing
+about the character of the elusive paper, save that it had played him a
+little trick. They could hear him whistling again in his loud way as
+though he had already forgotten the circumstance.
+
+"Hang the luck!" complained Carl, when he felt that it was safe to let
+a little of the compressed steam escape through the safety valve of his
+voice.
+
+"That was a rough deal, all right," admitted Tom. "Who would have
+dreamed such a blast could sweep down and take that paper off? Too bad
+you had all your work for nothing, Carl."
+
+"Oh! the work didn't amount to much," said the other boy, despondently;
+"but after hoping for such great things through our plan it's hard to
+feel that you're up in the air as bad as ever."
+
+"We might try it all over again some time, after Dock's kind of
+forgotten about this happening," suggested Tom. "But if he kept on
+seeing loose papers every little while he might get suspicious about
+it. Perhaps we can think up another plan that will have the earmarks of
+success about it."
+
+"I never thought the river would play me such a trick," said Carl,
+looking out on the moving water; "up to now I've had a sort of friendly
+feeling for the old stream, but after this I'll be apt to look on it as
+an unprincipled foe."
+
+"Oh! I wouldn't say that," urged Tom, always practical; "the river
+wasn't to blame at all. And that gust of wind would have come whether
+we thought to place our bait on the road or not. I'd call it a piece of
+hard luck, and let it go at that."
+
+"We couldn't do anything, Tom, now our paper's gone off on the
+current?"
+
+"Oh well," replied the other purposely allowing himself to grow
+humorous so as to cause Carl to forget the keen bitterness of his
+disappointment; "perhaps if we went fishing to-morrow below here we
+might take the trout that would have your paper tucked away in his
+little tummy."
+
+"That's right, Tom," the other added; "we've read some thrilling yarns
+about jewels being recovered that way; and I remember that even a gold
+watch was said to have been found, still running inside a fish after
+many moons."
+
+"Yes, they tried to explain that phenomenon in a lot of ways, but I
+guess it must have been meant for a joke, just as my idea was."
+
+"It's all over for to-night then?"
+
+"Yes, let's go home," replied Tom. "We have lots to talk over and do,
+too. Before long the exams will be coming on, and we want to pass with
+honors if we expect to enjoy our vacation this summer."
+
+"And it's pretty nearly decided I hear, that the Black Bear Patrol
+takes a long hike the first thing after school closes," Carl was
+saying, as they started down the river road into Lenox.
+
+"Ten days in camp or knocking about will do more to make us seasoned
+scouts than as many months at home," ventured Tom, knowingly.
+
+"All the difference between theory and practice you mean," added Carl.
+"On my own part I don't care how soon we get started. I've a whole lot
+of things written down to be attended to, once we get away from
+civilization. That long list Mr. Witherspoon gave me I've made up a
+name for."
+
+"What is it, then?" asked Tom.
+
+"Things for a Tenderfoot Scout to Look for on His First Visit to the
+Storehouse of Nature. What do you think of the title, Tom?"
+
+"A pretty long one, it strikes me," answered the other; "but it covers
+the ground. Every one of us must have a copy, and it'll be a lot of fun
+to find out who'll be the first to answer all those questions."
+
+"One thing I hope will happen before we start out on that hike," said
+Carl.
+
+"Of course you're referring to that paper again, and I don't blame you
+a bit. We'll do our level best to get hold of it before then," and
+trying as well as he knew how to buoy up the drooping spirits of the
+disappointed chum Tom locked arms with him, and in this fashion they
+walked home.
+
+The days again drifted along into weeks.
+
+Scout matters were looking up decidedly in Lenox. There was even some
+talk of a second rival organization among another set of boys, though
+Mr. Witherspoon gave it as his opinion that nothing could ever be done
+with such a wild crowd.
+
+"There isn't a single one among them, from what I hear and know, who
+could comply with the requirements every scout is expected to have as
+an asset when he makes application," was the way he put it. "Those boys
+couldn't subscribe to any of the rules which govern scouts in their
+daily life. They'd have to turn over a new leaf for a fact before they
+could don the khaki."
+
+"And," said Josh Kingsley, "when such tough fellows as Tony Pollock,
+Asa Green, Wedge McGuffey and Dock Phillips start to turning leaves you
+can begin to see angel wings sprouting back of their shoulder blades."
+
+There were already five boys who had given in their names to make up a
+second patrol. When it was filled they meant to join the troop, and
+qualify for a better standing than greenhorns or tenderfeet.
+
+Larry Henderson had long since gone back to his wilderness home beyond
+Bear Mountain. Twice had Tom received a letter from the old naturalist,
+in which he asked a great many questions, all concerning the boys of
+Lenox, in whom he had not lost interest, and what progress the new
+troop was making.
+
+He also expressed a hearty wish that should they ever take a trip
+through the section of country where he lived they would not neglect to
+look him up in his cabin.
+
+One thing Tom and Carl had noticed of late, and this was that Dock
+Phillips had taken to going with that tough crowd again. For a while
+his work in the grocery store had tired him so much each day that when
+evening came he had been content to go to his home, eat his supper, and
+then crawl in between the sheets.
+
+Once more Dock was to be seen hanging around the street corners late at
+night with that group of rowdies that gave the uniformed force so much
+trouble. Some of them only escaped arrest on numerous occasions because
+their fathers happened to be local politicians whom the police did not
+wish to offend.
+
+Tom and Carl talked this fact over and arrived at a conclusion, which
+may, and again may not, have been the true explanation.
+
+"Dock's getting tired of holding down his job," Tom had said, "He's
+been out of school so long now that he can't be sent back; and he
+doesn't like hard work either. Since his father signed the pledge he's
+been working steadily enough, and perhaps Dock gets into trouble at
+home because of his temper."
+
+"I happen to know he does for a fact," assented Carl. "He's been acting
+hateful, staying out up to midnight every night, and his father has
+threatened to pitch him out. I rather think he's lazy, and wants to
+loaf."
+
+"Perhaps he thinks that he ought to be drawing a regular salary because
+of that paper he's got hidden away, and which is worth so much to Amasa
+Culpepper, as well as to you. To keep him quiet it may be, the old man
+is paying him a few dollars every week on the sly, even though he
+refuses to come down with a big lump sum."
+
+"Tom, would it be right for me to have another talk with Dock, and make
+him an offer?" ventured Carl, hesitatingly.
+
+"Do you mean try to find out what the sum is he asked Amasa to pay
+him?" questioned Tom; "and agree to hand it over to him just as soon as
+the stock of the oil well company can be sold, after your mother gets
+it again?"
+
+"Yes, like that. Would it be wrong in me? anything like compounding a
+felony?" Carl continued.
+
+"I don't see how that could be wrong," the other boy answered, after
+stopping to think it all over. "You have a right to offer a reward and
+no questions asked for the return of your own lost or stolen property."
+
+"Then I'd like to try it before we settle on leaving town, Tom."
+
+"It would do no harm, I should think," his chum advised him. "The only
+danger I can see would be if Dock took the alarm and went to Mr.
+Culpepper, to tell him you were trying to outbid him for the possession
+of the paper."
+
+"That would be apt to make him come to time with a jump, wouldn't it?"
+said Carl.
+
+"Unless he got it into his head that Dock was only trying to frighten
+him into meeting the stiff price at which he held the paper," said Tom.
+"He might make out that he didn't care a pin, with the idea of forcing
+Dock to come down."
+
+"Yes, because he would believe Dock wouldn't dare put his neck in the
+noose by confessing to us he had stolen the paper. Then would you
+advise me to try the plan I spoke of?"
+
+"If you get a good chance I should say yes."
+
+That was on a Wednesday afternoon, and Carl went home, his head filled
+with a programme he had laid out that concerned the cornering of Dock
+Phillips.
+
+On Thursday he learned, when home for lunch, that a new boy had come
+for orders from the grocery. Carl was immediately filled with alarm. In
+imagination he could see Dock and Mr. Culpepper coming to terms at
+last.
+
+After school that afternoon he waited for Tom, to whom the startling
+news was disclosed. The stunning effect of it did not seem to affect
+Tom's quick acting mind.
+
+"Let's find out just what's happened," he remarked. "Perhaps over at
+Joslyn's, next door to the Phillips's, we might pick up a clue."
+
+"Yes, and I know Mrs. Joslyn right well in the bargain," said Carl,
+showing interest at once. "I'm sure that if I told her as a secret just
+why we wanted to know about Dock she'd tell me if anything had happened
+there lately."
+
+To the Joslyn house the two boys went. Mrs. Joslyn was an energetic
+little woman, and said to be able to mind her own business.
+
+She listened with growing eagerness to the story, and at its conclusion
+said:
+
+"I'm sorry for your mother, Carl, and I don't know that I can help you
+any; but there was something strange that happened at the Phillips'
+house last night."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+SIGNS OF TROUBLE AHEAD
+
+
+"Was it about Dock?" asked Carl, eagerly, while Tom could see that the
+color had left his face all of a sudden.
+
+"Yes," continued Mrs. Joslyn, "Dock seems to have fallen into the habit
+of staying out until midnight, with some of those young fellows who
+loaf on the corners and get into every kind of mischief they can think
+up."
+
+"That's what we've been told was going on, ma'am," said Tom.
+
+"I could hear his father scolding him furiously, while his mother was
+crying, and trying to make peace. Dock was ugly, too, and for a time I
+thought his father was going to throw him out of the house. But in the
+end it quieted down."
+
+"That's a new streak in Dock's father, I should say," remarked Tom.
+"Time was when he used to come home himself at all hours of the night,
+and in a condition that must have made his wife's heart sick."
+
+"Yes, but you know he's turned over a new leaf, and acts as if he meant
+to stick to the water wagon," Mrs. Joslyn explained. "Somehow it's made
+him just the other way, very severe with Dock. I guess he's afraid now
+the boy will copy his bad example, and that's peeving Mr. Phillips."
+
+"But he let Dock stay in the house, you say?" Carl continued. "Then I
+wonder why he didn't show up for orders this morning. The other boy
+told my mother Dock was sick and couldn't come."
+
+Mrs. Joslyn smiled.
+
+"Yes, he says that," she observed. "I went over to take back a dish I
+had borrowed, and he was lying on the lounge, smoking a cigarette. He
+said he was real sick, but between you and me, Carl, I'm of the opinion
+he's just tired of his job, and means to throw it up. He'd rather loaf
+than work any day."
+
+Carl breathed more freely. It was of course none of his business what
+Dock did with himself, though he might think the other was a mean shirk
+to hang around idle when his people needed every dollar they could
+scrape up.
+
+"Thank you for telling me this, Mrs. Joslyn," he said as with his chum
+he prepared to take his departure; "it relieves my mind in several
+ways. And please don't whisper my secret to any one. I still hope to
+be able to get that paper from Dock sooner or later, if he doesn't come
+to terms with Amasa Culpepper."
+
+"I promise you faithfully Carl," the little woman told him. "I guess
+I'm able to hold my tongue, even if they do say my sex never can. And
+Carl, you must let me know if anything happens to alter conditions,
+because I'm dreadfully interested. This is the first time in all my
+life I've been connected with a secret."
+
+"I certainly will let you know, Mrs. Joslyn," Carl promised.
+
+"And furthermore," she continued, "if I happen to see Dock doing
+anything that looks queer or suspicious I'll get word to you. He might
+happen to have his hiding-place somewhere around the back yard or the
+hen house, you know. He may have buried the paper in the garden. I'll
+keep an eye on the neighbors while he's home."
+
+Tom was chuckling at a great rate as he and Carl went down the street.
+
+"It looks as if you've got Mrs. Joslyn a whole lot interested, Carl,"
+he told the other. "She's just burning with curiosity to find out
+something. Every time Dock steps out to feed the chickens she's going
+to drop whatever she may be doing, and focus her eyes on him, even if
+her pork chops burn to black leather."
+
+"I wonder what he's meaning to do?" remarked Carl, in a speculative
+way.
+
+"Oh! just as Mrs. Joslyn told us, Dock's a lazy fellow," Tom suggested;
+"and now that his father is working steadily he thinks it's time for
+him to have a rest. Then we believe he's expecting sooner or later to
+get a big lot of money from Mr. Culpepper, when they come to terms."
+
+"Yes," added Carl. "And in the meantime perhaps he's got Amasa to hand
+him over a few dollars a week, just to keep him quiet. That would
+supply his cigarettes, you know, and give him spending money."
+
+"Well, it's a question how long his father will put up with it," Tom
+mused. "One of these fine days we'll likely hear that Dock has been
+kicked out, and taken to the road."
+
+"He's going with that Tony Pollock crowd you know," Carl hinted; "and
+some of them would put him up for a time. But I'm hoping we'll find a
+chance to make him own up, and hand back the thing he stole. I'd like
+to see my mother look happy again."
+
+"Does Amasa still drop in to call now and then?" asked the other.
+
+"Yes, but my mother insists that I sit up until he goes whenever he
+does. You'd have a fit laughing, Tom, to see the black looks he gives
+me. I pretend to be studying to beat the band, and in the end he has
+to take his hat and go. I'm allowed to sleep an hour later after those
+nights, you see, to make up. It's getting to be a regular nuisance, and
+mother says she means to send him about his business; but somehow his
+hide is so thick he can't take an ordinary hint. I think his middle
+name should have been Rhinoceros instead of Reuben."
+
+"What will she do when you're away with the rest of us on that ten day
+hike over Big Bear Mountain?" asked Tom.
+
+"Oh! she says she'll have told Mr. Culpepper before then she doesn't
+want him to call again," explained Carl; "either that or else she'll
+have to keep all the rest of the children up, and get them to romping
+like wild Indians. You know Amasa is nervous, and can't stand noise."
+
+Tom laughed at the picture thus drawn of three boisterous youngsters
+employed in causing an ardent wooer to take his departure.
+
+"It's only a few days now before we can get started, you know, Carl.
+Nearly all the preparations have been made. Each scout will have his
+new uniform on, with a few extra clothes in his pack."
+
+"We won't try to carry any tent, will we, Tom?"
+
+"That's been settled," came the ready answer. "At the meeting when I
+was elected patrol leader we discussed this trip, and it took like
+wildfire. In the first place we haven't a tent worth carrying; and then
+again it would make too heavy a load. All of us have been studying up
+on how to make brush shelters when in the woods, and even if it rains I
+think we'll get on fairly well."
+
+"Each scout has a rubber poncho, which can be made mighty useful in a
+pinch, I should think," said Carl. "Then besides our clothes and a
+blanket, we'll have to carry a cooking outfit, as light as it can be
+made, and what grub we expect to eat up."
+
+"Oh! most of that we'll rustle for on the way," the patrol leader told
+him. "We'll find farms scattered along our route, and it'll be easy
+enough to buy eggs, milk, perhaps a home-cured ham, some chickens, and
+other things like bread and butter."
+
+"That's a great scheme, Tom, and it makes my mouth fairly water just to
+talk about it. Sounds like an army foraging, only instead of taking
+things we'll expect to pay cash for them. How many are going along on
+the hike?"
+
+"I have yet to hear of any member of the Black Bear Patrol who dreams
+of backing out; and there are several others who've told me they hope
+to join us. The way it looks now only a bad case of sickness would be
+able to keep any scout from being in line on that wonderful morning
+when Lenox Troop marches out of town headed for Big Bear Mountain."
+
+"One good thing, we don't have to pack any heavy guns along with us,"
+declared Carl.
+
+"No, that's absolutely forbidden," the patrol leader declared; "we can
+take a fishing rod if we feel like it, because there's a chance to pick
+up some trout or bass before we come back on the down-river boat ten
+days later."
+
+"I like that idea of making the return trip by water," Carl continued.
+"It will be great after so much tramping and camping. Besides, some of
+the boys have never been fifteen miles up the river before, and so the
+trip is going to be a picnic for them."
+
+"Come over to-night and do your cramming for the exam with me,"
+suggested Tom.
+
+"I'd like to the worst kind," the other boy said with a grimace; "but
+this is the night Mr. Culpepper generally pops in, and you see I'm on
+guard. But I'm hoping mother will give him his walking papers pretty
+soon now."
+
+"You would have to put a bomb under his chair to convince Amasa that
+his space was more desired than his company," laughed Tom, as he strode
+off toward his own comfortable home.
+
+The days passed, and since school would be over for the year at the end
+of the week, in the bustle of examinations and all that they meant for
+each boy scout, the intended outing was over-shadowed for the time
+being.
+
+When, however, several of the scouts got together of course the talk
+soon drifted toward the subject of the hike, and many were the
+wonderful projects advanced, each of which seemed to give promise of a
+glorious prospect ahead.
+
+So Friday night finally came.
+
+School had been dismissed with all the accustomed ceremonies that
+afternoon, and there were few of the boys who had not gone up to a
+higher grade, so that when the last meeting before their expected
+vacation trip was called to order by the president of the organization
+it was a care-free and happy assemblage that answered the roll-call.
+
+Mr. Witherspoon, the scout master, was on hand, but he seldom
+interfered with the routine of the meeting. It was his opinion that
+boys got on much better if allowed to manage things as much as possible
+after their own ideas. If his advice was needed at any time he stood
+ready to give it; and meanwhile he meant to act more as a big brother
+to the troop than its leading officer.
+
+Of course Mr. Witherspoon expected to start out on the hike with the
+boys. His only fear was that he might not be allowed to finish the
+outing in their company, since he was liable to be called away at any
+time on urgent business.
+
+The usual routine of the meeting was gone through with, and then a
+general discussion took place in connection with the anticipated hike.
+They had laid out the plan of campaign as well as they could,
+considering that none of the boys had actually been over the entire
+route before.
+
+"That makes it all the more interesting," Tom had told them; "because
+we'll be apt to meet with a few surprises on the way. None of us would
+like to have anything all cut and dried ahead of time, I'm sure."
+
+"It's generally the unexpected that gives the most pleasure," declared
+Josh Kingsley, who was known to have leanings toward being a great
+inventor some fine day, and always hoped to make an important discovery
+while he experimented in his workshop in the old red barn back of his
+home.
+
+"Well," remarked George Cooper, getting slowly to his feet, "there may
+be some things that drop in on you unexpected like that don't seem to
+give you a whit of pleasure, and I can name one right now."
+
+"Oh come, George, you old growler, you're just trying to throw cold
+water on our big scheme," complained Felix Robbins, trying to pull the
+other down.
+
+"I've seen him shaking his head lots of times all evening," asserted
+Billy Button, "and I just guessed George was aching to make us feel
+bad. He's never so happy as when he's making other folks miserable."
+
+George refused to take his seat. He even shrugged his shoulders as
+though he thought his comrades were hardly treating him fairly.
+
+"Listen, fellows," he said, solemnly and ponderously; "I don't like to
+be the bird of ill omen that carries the bad news; but honest to
+goodness I'm afraid there's a heap of trouble looming up on the horizon
+for us unless we change our plans for a hike over Big Bear Mountain."
+
+"What sort of trouble do you mean, George?" asked the patrol leader.
+
+"Only this, Mr. President," said George, "on the way here I learned
+that Tony Pollock, Wedge McGuffey, Asa Green and Dock Phillips had
+started off this very afternoon, meaning to spend a week or more
+tramping over Big Bear Mountain; and I guess they've got it in for our
+crowd."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+NO SURRENDER
+
+
+"It looks like a set-up job to me!" declared Josh Kingsley, with a ring
+of honest indignation in his voice.
+
+"They've been hearing so much talk about what a great time we meant to
+have, it's just made them green with envy; that's what I think,"
+ventured Horace Crapsey.
+
+"Yes, but why pick out Big Bear Mountain," Felix wanted to know;
+"unless they meant to spy on the scouts, and give us all the trouble
+they could?"
+
+There were signs of anger visible on every side. Scouts may be taught
+that it is noble to forgive those who wrong them, but all the same they
+are human, and deep down in their boyish hearts is the resentment any
+one with spirit feels at being imposed upon.
+
+"We haven't lifted a finger to interfere with anything that crowd
+wanted to do," said Walter Douglass, aggressively; "and they have no
+business to upset our plans."
+
+"Huh! just let them try it, that's all!" grunted Josh, shaking his
+head.
+
+"We had an experience something like this over in Winchester, where I
+belonged to the scouts before moving to Lenox," remarked Rob Shaefer,
+one of the two new boys.
+
+"Do you mean some rowdies tried to make trouble for you?" asked Carl.
+
+"In every way they could," the new boy replied. "We stood it as long as
+we could, and then acted."
+
+"What did you do to them?" asked Mr. Witherspoon, with an amused smile,
+for he liked to see these wide-awake lads figure out their own plans,
+and was greatly interested in listening to their discussions as they
+worked them out.
+
+"When it became unbearable," said Rob, gravely, though his eyes
+twinkled, "we ducked the whole five in a frog pond, and after that they
+let us alone."
+
+"Cooled 'em off, eh?" chuckled Josh, whom the account seemed to amuse
+very much. "Well, that isn't a bad idea, fellows. Frog ponds have their
+uses besides supplying messes of delicious frog-legs for eating.
+Anybody know of a pond that's got a nice green coating of scum on the
+top? That's the kind I'd like to see Tony and his bunch scrambling
+around it."
+
+"Oh! the pond will crop up all right when the time comes," asserted
+Felix Robbins, confidently; "they always do, you know."
+
+"But what are we going to do about this thing?" asked Tom, as the
+chairman of the meeting. "Motions are in order. Somebody make a
+suggestion, so we can get the sense of the troop."
+
+"One thing certain," observed George, "we've got to give up the plan
+we've mapped out, and change our programme--or else count on running
+foul of Tony and his crowd. Which is it going to be?"
+
+A chorus of indignant remonstrances immediately arose.
+
+"Why should we take water when we laid our plans first?" one demanded.
+
+"There are only four of them, all told, while we expect to number ten,
+perhaps a full dozen!" another scout announced.
+
+"I don't believe in knuckling down to any ugly lot of fellows that
+chooses to knock up against us," and Josh must have expressed the
+feelings of most of those present when he said this, for there was a
+chorus of "my sentiments exactly," as soon as he finished.
+
+Then, somehow, all eyes began to turn toward the scout master. They had
+come to think a great deal of Mr. Witherspoon. He seemed to have a
+great love for boys implanted in his heart, and was thus an ideal
+scout master; for there was always an exchange of sympathy between him
+and his charges.
+
+"You want to know what I think of it, boys?" he started to say.
+
+"It would have a heap of influence on our actions, sir--even if we did
+hate to play second fiddle to that crowd," admitted Felix.
+
+"But I can see no reason why we should do that," the scout master
+immediately told them, and at this the anxious look on many faces gave
+way to one of satisfaction.
+
+"Then you don't want us to give up the Big Bear Mountain hike, and make
+up another programme; is that it, Mr. Witherspoon?" asked Tom, who had
+not been quite so much concerned as some of the others, because he
+believed he knew the nature of their efficient scout master, and that
+he was not one of the "back-down" kind.
+
+"Why should we do that?" replied the other, quietly. "We are not
+supposed to be aware of the fact that these four rowdies have gone off
+in that direction. Our plain duty is to follow out our original plans,
+go about our own business, interfering with no one, and at the same
+time standing up for our rights."
+
+At hearing this some of the boys turned and exchanged expressive grins;
+others even shook hands with each other. Fair play was something they
+admired above all things; and this manly stand on the part of their
+scout master pleased them immensely.
+
+"We're all glad to hear you say that, Mr. Witherspoon," the chairman of
+the meeting told him. "I'm sure I voice the sentiments of every scout
+present when I say that while we'll try to avoid trouble up to a
+certain point, there's going to be a limit to our forbearance."
+
+"And the frog-pond cure is always available as a last resort," added
+the new boy from Winchester.
+
+"Now let us try to forget all about this disagreeable topic, and go on
+with the discussion concerning the things we should take with us," the
+scout master suggested. "Scouts should always be able to meet an
+emergency, no matter how suddenly it is forced on them. We'll be
+prepared, but at the same time not borrow trouble."
+
+Accordingly all mention of Tony Pollock and his scapegrace cronies was
+avoided as they once more entered into a warm but perfectly friendly
+argument.
+
+There was one among them, however, who seemed to still look troubled.
+This was no other than Carl Oskamp. Glancing toward his chum several
+times, Tom could see the lines on his forehead, and he was also able
+to give a pretty good guess why this should be so.
+
+Of course, it was all on account of the fact that when George made his
+announcement concerning the movements of Tony Pollock he had stated
+that Dock Phillips was one of the group that had left town, bent on
+spending a week on Big Bear Mountain.
+
+This meant that the new scheme which Carl had expected to "try out" on
+the coming Saturday night could not be attempted, because the object of
+his attention would be far away.
+
+Tom meant to comfort his chum after the meeting, when they were walking
+home together. He could see further than Carl, and would be able to
+find more or less encouragement in the way things were working.
+
+Scout affairs were certainly picking up in Lenox of late. Perhaps the
+coming to town of Rob Shaefer and Stanley Ackerman, who had both
+belonged to troops in the past, may have had considerable to do with
+it.
+
+At any rate the new Wolf Patrol numbered five, and other boys were
+showing a disposition to make application for membership. Rob Shaefer
+was booked for the patrol leader, because of his previous experience
+along those lines, as well as the fact that he was becoming well liked
+in Lenox boy circles.
+
+The other new boy, while a pretty fair sort of fellow, did not have the
+same winning qualities that Rob did. Some of them even thought he felt
+envious because of Rob's popularity, though if this were true, he took
+the wrong means to supplant his rival in the affection of their new
+friends.
+
+As this would be the last chance to talk things over, every little
+detail had to be settled before the meeting broke up. Each boy who
+expected to accompany the expedition starting out to explore Big Bear
+Mountain was directed what to carry with him.
+
+"And remember," Mr. Witherspoon told them as a final caution, "we
+expect to do much tramping under a hot June sun, so that every ounce
+you have to carry along will tell on your condition. Limit your pack to
+the bare necessities as we've figured them out, and if necessary the
+strong will assist the weak. That's about all for to-night, boys. Seven
+sharp on Monday morning outside the church here, unless it's stormy.
+The church bell will ring at six if we are going."
+
+The boys gave a cheer as the meeting broke up. And it was a
+merry-hearted lot of lads that started forth bound for various homes
+where there would be more or less of a bustle and excitement until the
+hour of departure arrived on Monday morning.
+
+Tom and Carl walked home together.
+
+"I could see what ailed you, Carl," the patrol leader was saying as he
+locked arms with his chum; "you felt as though things were going
+against you when George announced that Dock had left town."
+
+"Because now I'll not have a chance to try out that second plan we'd
+arranged for, and which I had great hopes might succeed," complained
+Carl, gloomily.
+
+"Cheer up," urged the other, in his hearty fashion; "perhaps things are
+working your way after all. How do we know but that a glorious chance
+may come up and that you can win out yet? Dock has gone to Big Bear
+Mountain, where we expect to camp. In a whole week or more we're apt to
+run across him maybe many times. And Carl, something seems to tell me
+your chance is going to come while we're off on this hike. Dock hasn't
+settled with Mr. Culpepper yet, that's certain; and he's got that paper
+hidden away still. Keep up your hopes, and it's sure to come out all
+right yet. Besides, think what a grand time we're going to have on our
+outing!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+READY FOR THE START
+
+
+On the following day, which was Saturday, there was considerable
+visiting among the scouts who so proudly wore their new khaki suits.
+Conferences were of hourly occurrence, blankets brought out for
+inspection and comment, packs made up and taken to pieces again, and
+all manner of advice asked concerning the best way to carry the same.
+
+Each boy had a written list of what he was expected to provide. This
+was a part of the wonderful system Tom Chesney had inaugurated. He had
+told them it was copied from the methods in vogue in the German army,
+so that in case of a hurried mobilization every man capable of bearing
+arms in the whole empire would know exactly what his particular duty
+was.
+
+This scout was to carry a generous frying-pan, made of sheet-steel to
+reduce the weight; another had to look out for the coffee-pot, which
+was also to hold enough for at least six thirsty campers. So it went
+on through the whole list of necessities.
+
+There were to be two messes of five or six each, and the second had a
+duplicate list of cooking utensils, as well as food to look after.
+Nothing had been omitted that Tom, assisted by several others who had
+had more or less camping experience, could think of.
+
+It was about eleven this Saturday morning when Tom, doing a little work
+among his vegetables in the kitchen garden, heard his name called.
+Glancing up he discovered Carl standing there by the fence that
+separated the garden from the highway.
+
+Immediately Tom realized that something new must have happened to make
+his chum appear so downcast. His first fear was that Mr. Culpepper had
+been asked by Carl's mother for the securities, and had flatly denied
+ever having had them.
+
+"Hello! what's gone wrong now, Carl?" he asked, as he hurried over to
+join the boy who was leaning both elbows on the picket fence, and
+holding his head in his hands.
+
+"It seems as though everything is going wrong with us nowadays, Tom,"
+sighed poor Carl.
+
+"Anything more about that stolen paper?" asked Tom.
+
+"No, it's something else this time," Carl replied. "Just as if we
+didn't have enough to worry about already."
+
+"No one sick over at your house, is there?" demanded the other,
+anxiously.
+
+"I'm glad to say that isn't the case," Carl told him. "Fact is, some
+bad news came in a letter mother had this morning from a lawyer in the
+city who manages her small affairs."
+
+"Was it about that tenement house she owns, and the rents from which
+comes part of her income?" continued Tom, quick to make a guess, for he
+knew something about the affairs of Carl's folks.
+
+The other nodded his head as he went on to explain:
+
+"It burned down, and through some mistake of a clerk part of the
+insurance was allowed to lapse, so that we will not be able to collect
+on more than half. Isn't that hard luck though, Tom?"
+
+"I should say it is," declared the other, with a look of sympathy on
+his face. "But if it was the fault of the lawyer's clerk why shouldn't
+he be held responsible for the loss? I'd think that was only fair in
+the eye of the law."
+
+"Oh!" said Carl, quickly, "but my mother says he's really a poor man,
+and hasn't anything. Besides, he's been conducting her little business
+since father died without charging a cent for his labor, so you see
+there's no hope of our collecting more than half of the insurance."
+
+"Too bad, and I'm mighty sorry," Tom told him.
+
+"Coming on top of our losing that paper you can imagine how my mother
+feels," continued the other; "though she tries to be cheerful, and
+keeps on telling me she knows everything is sure to come out right in
+the end. Still I can see that while she puts on a brave face it's only
+to keep me from feeling so blue. When she's all alone I'm sure she
+cries, for I can see her eyes are red when I happen to come in on her
+unexpectedly."
+
+"Nothing can be done, I suppose, Carl?"
+
+"Not a thing," the other boy replied. "That is what makes me furious.
+If you can only see what's hitting you, and strike back, it does a
+whole lot of good. Unless something crops up to make things look
+brighter between now and fall there's one thing certain."
+
+"What's that?" asked Tom, though he believed he could give a pretty
+good guess, knowing the independent spirit of his chum so well.
+
+"I shall have to quit school, and go to work at something or other. My
+mother will never be able to meet expenses, even in the quiet way we
+live, now that part of her little income is cut off. A few hundred
+dollars a year means a lot to us, you see."
+
+"Oh, I hope it won't come to that," said Tom. "A whole lot may happen
+between now and the beginning of the fall term. For all we know that
+missing paper may be recovered, which would put your folks on Easy
+street."
+
+"That's about the last hope, then," admitted Carl. "It's all I'm
+counting on; and even then the chances seem to be against us."
+
+"But you won't think of backing down about going on this grand hike
+over Big Bear Mountain, I hope?" remarked the patrol leader.
+
+"I believe I'd lack the heart to do it, Tom, leaving mother feeling so
+bad; only for one thing."
+
+"Meaning the fact that Dock Phillips is somewhere up there on the
+mountain; that's what you've got in your mind, isn't it, Carl?"
+
+"Yes, and what you said last night keeps haunting me all the time, Tom.
+What if I did run across the chance to make Dock own up, and got him to
+give me that precious paper? It would make everything look bright
+again--for with the boom on in the oil region that stock must be worth
+thousands of dollars to-day, if only we can get hold of the certificate
+again."
+
+"Well, you're going to; things often work in a queer way, and that's
+what is happening now. And I feel as sure as anything that Mr.
+Culpepper's stinginess in holding out against Dock's demands is going
+to be his undoing."
+
+Such confident talk as this could not help having its effect on Carl.
+He had in fact come over to Tom's house knowing that he was sure to get
+comfort there.
+
+"You make me feel better already, Tom," he asserted, as he took the
+hand the other boy thrust over the top of the garden fence; "and I'm
+going to try and look at it as a true scout should, believing that the
+sun is still shining back of the clouds."
+
+"I'm about through with my work here in the garden," Tom told him, "so
+suppose you come around to the gate, or hop over the fence here. We'll
+go up to my room and take a look over the stuff that I expect to pack
+out of Lenox Monday A. M. I want to ask your opinion about several
+things, and was thinking of calling you up on the 'phone when I heard
+you speak just now."
+
+Of course the main object Tom had in view was not so much getting
+Carl's opinion as to arouse his interest in the projected trip, so that
+for the time being he might forget his troubles.
+
+The two boys spent an hour chatting, and consulting a map Tom produced
+that was supposed to cover most of the Big Bear Mountain territory. It
+had been made by an old surveyor some years back, simply to amuse
+himself, and while not quite up to date might be said to be fairly
+accurate.
+
+Mr. Witherspoon had secured this chart and loaned it to Tom, for there
+was always a possibility of his receiving a sudden call on business
+that would take him away from town, when the duty of engineering the
+trip must fall to the leader of the Black Bear Patrol as the second in
+command.
+
+That was going to be an unusually long and tedious Sunday for a good
+many boys in Lenox. Doubtless they would have their thoughts drawn from
+the sermon, as they sat with their folks in the family pews. And, too,
+looking out of the window at the waving trees they would probably
+picture themselves far away on the wooded slope of Big Bear Mountain,
+perhaps making their first camp, and starting the glorious fire around
+which, as the night drew on, they would gather to tell stories and sing
+school songs.
+
+And it could be set down as certain that few of those who expected to
+join the adventurous spirits starting forth on the long mountain hike
+slept very soundly on the last night.
+
+When the hour agreed on, seven o'clock, came around, there was a scene
+of bustle under the tower of the church, where the scouts had gathered,
+together with many friends both young and old who meant to give them a
+noisy send-off on their hike over Big Bear Mountain.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+ON THE WAY
+
+
+Amidst many hearty cheers and the clapping of hands the Boy Scouts
+started off. Felix Robbins had been elected bugler of the troop, and as
+there was no regular instrument for him, he had thought to fetch along
+the fish horn the boys used in playing fox and geese.
+
+This he sounded with considerable vim as the khaki-clad lads marched
+away, with a flag at their head, the scout master keeping step
+alongside the column.
+
+Some of the older people had come to see them off. Others hurried to
+the open doors and windows at the sound of the horn and the cheers, to
+wave their hands and give encouraging smiles.
+
+It was a proud time for those boys. They stood up as straight as
+ramrods, and held their heads with the proud consciousness that for the
+time being they were the center of attraction.
+
+There were ten in all starting forth. More might have gone, only that
+no scout not wearing the khaki could accompany the expedition; and
+besides the members of the Black Bear Patrol, Rob Shaefer and Stanley
+Ackerman were the only two who could boast of a uniform.
+
+A number of boys accompanied them for a mile or so, to give them a good
+send-off; after which they either returned home or else went over the
+river fishing.
+
+For the first two miles or so every one seemed to be standing the tramp
+well. Then as it began to get warmer, and the pack, somehow, seemed to
+increase in weight, several scouts lagged a little.
+
+Seeing this, and understanding that it is always an unwise thing to
+push a horse or a human being in the beginning of a long race, Mr.
+Witherspoon thought it best to slacken their pace.
+
+They were in no particular hurry to get anywhere; and once heels began
+to get sore from the rubbing of their shoes, it would not be easy to
+cure them again. The wise scout master was a believer in the motto that
+"an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure."
+
+Ahead of them loomed the lofty elevation that possibly from its shape
+had long been known as Big Bear Mountain. The boys had tried to learn
+just how it came by that name--and naturally this subject interested
+them more than ever as they found themselves drawing steadily closer to
+its foot.
+
+"It doesn't look so _very_ much like a bear to me," George Kingsley
+remarked, as the discussion waxed warmer. Though for that matter George
+always did find some reason to object to almost everything.
+
+"I was told by an old settler who ought to know," ventured Tom, "that
+long ago numerous bears lived in the rocky dens of the mountain, and
+that's how it came to be called as it is."
+
+"Must have been years and years ago then," said Josh, "because I never
+remember hearing about a bear being seen hereabouts. I often used to
+look for bear tracks when I was out hunting, but of course I never
+found one."
+
+"Wouldn't it be a great thing if we did happen on a real bear while we
+were out on this hike?" suggested Billy Button, who was rather given to
+stretches of imagination, and seeing things where they did not exist.
+
+So they beguiled the time away as they tramped along. Gradually they
+approached the great gloomy looking mountain, and it was seen that by
+the time they stopped for their noon meal they would probably be at its
+foot.
+
+Tom and Carl were walking together, for somehow the boys seemed to pair
+off as a general thing. Carl was looking brighter now, as though in the
+excitement of the start he might have temporarily forgotten his
+troubles.
+
+"There don't seem to be so many farms up this way as we thought," Tom
+observed as they found themselves walking close beside a stretch of
+woodland, with a gully on the other side of the road.
+
+"That may make it harder for us to get the supplies we'll need, I
+should think," suggested Carl, who knew the leaders of the expedition
+had counted on finding hospitable farmers from time to time, from whom
+they could purchase bread, butter, and perhaps smoked ham or bacon,
+very little of which had been carried with them--in fact no more than
+would be required for a few meals.
+
+"Yes," admitted Tom readily enough. "But then it will afford us a
+chance to show our ability as scouts--and if you look at it the right
+way that counts for a lot. When everything goes according to the
+schedule you've arranged there isn't much credit in doing things; but
+when you're up against it good and hard, and have to shut your teeth
+and fight, then when you accomplish things you've got a right to feel
+satisfied."
+
+Carl knew full well there was a hidden significance beneath these words
+of his chum's--and that Tom was once more trying to buoy up his hopes.
+
+Since they had struck a portion of country not so thickly populated,
+the observing scouts had commenced to notice numerous interesting
+sights that attracted their attention. Soon every boy was straining
+his eyesight in the hope of discovering new things among the trees, in
+the air overhead, or it might be amidst the shadows of the woodland
+alongside the country road.
+
+The scout master encouraged this habit of observation all he could. He
+knew that once it got a firm hold upon the average boy he could never
+again pass along a road or trail in the country without making
+numberless discoveries. What had once been a sealed book to his eyes
+would now become as an open page.
+
+About this time there were heard inquiries as to when they expected to
+stop and have a bite of lunch. Tom and the scout master had already
+arranged this, and when the third scout was heard to say he felt as
+hungry as a wolf, Tom took it upon himself to explain.
+
+"If you look ahead," he remarked, so that all could hear, "you'll
+notice where a hump of the mountain seems to hang over the road. That's
+about where we expect to rest an hour or so."
+
+"Must be something unusual about this particular place, I should say,
+for you to settle on it ahead of time this way," remarked wise Josh in
+his Yankee way.
+
+"There is," Tom informed him. "According to my map here, and what
+information I've been able to pick up, there's a fine cold spring
+bubbles up alongside the road right there; and for one I'm feeling the
+need of a good drink the worst kind."
+
+After that it was noticed that even the laggards began to show unusual
+energy, as if the prospect of soon being able to throw themselves down
+and slake their thirst, as well as satisfy their hunger, appealed
+forcibly to them.
+
+It was close on to noon when finally, with a shout, they hurried
+forward and dropped their packs close to where the ice-cold spring
+flowed.
+
+"Queer how heavy those old packs do get the longer you carry them,"
+observed George, as he waited for his turn to lie down and drink his
+fill of the spring water.
+
+"You're a suspicious sort of fellow, George," declared Felix; "I've
+seen you turn around as quick as a flash, just as if you thought some
+other scout might be hanging his pack on to yours, so as to make you
+carry double."
+
+George turned redder than he had already become under the force of the
+sun; but he did not deny the accusation.
+
+It was decided not to light a fire at noon. They could eat a cold lunch
+and wash it down with water.
+
+"We'll keep our fire for this evening," said Mr. Witherspoon; "you know
+it is generally quite a ceremony--the starting of the first campfire
+when scouts go off on a long trip."
+
+Waiting until the sun had started well on his way down the heavens,
+and there had arisen a little breeze that made it more bearable, the
+scout master finally had Felix sound his fish horn for the signal to
+"fall in."
+
+Some of the boys did not show quite as much animation as on that other
+occasion. They were not accustomed to walking for hours, and would have
+to get used to it through experience.
+
+An hour later they were straggling along, some of them on the other
+side of a wire fence that separated the road from the woods, as there
+seemed to be a chance of making interesting discoveries there.
+
+"Look at that red squirrel hanging head down to the bark on the trunk
+of that tree!" exclaimed Billy Button; "I never noticed just how they
+did that stunt before."
+
+"Huh! lots of us are seeing things through a magnifying glass since we
+joined the scouts," admitted Felix. "Seems as if the scales have been
+taken from my eyes, and I find a thousand things worth looking at all
+around me."
+
+"Well, here comes one right now, Felix; and he's a bouncer at that!"
+cried the third of the group that had invaded the woods beyond the
+barbed-wire fence.
+
+Even as he spoke there was a furious barking, and a savage-looking dog
+came tearing swiftly toward them, evidently bent on doing mischief.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+THE FIRST CAMP-FIRE
+
+
+"Help, he's going to eat us all up!" shouted Billy Button.
+
+Felix and Rob Shaefer did not like the looks of the oncoming dog any
+more than did Billy. Being more pugnacious by nature, however, instead
+of making a frantic dash over the wire fence, and trying to crawl
+through between the strands at the risk of tearing their clothes, they
+hurried to snatch up some clubs which would serve them as a means of
+defence.
+
+The dog acted as if he meant business. They were trespassing on his
+master's territory, and as the guardian appointed to defend this ground
+he assailed the intruders without fear or favor.
+
+They had quite a lively time of it, what with the shouting, the loud
+bursts of laughter from those scouts who were safe on the other side of
+the fence, and the agonized cries of Billy Button, caught fast in the
+grip of the barbed-wire, and expecting to be devoured.
+
+Both Felix and Rob had luckily managed to secure fairly strong pieces
+of broken limbs from the trees. With these they boldly assaulted the
+dog, and kept him from jumping on the helpless comrade until some of
+the others came to Billy's assistance, and by raising the wires allowed
+him to crawl through.
+
+Tom and George hastened to join in the fray for it was evident that the
+savage dog would have to be beaten off before those who were in danger
+could find a chance to reach the road again.
+
+With four enemies against him the dog concluded that he had done all
+that could be expected of him, and that it was now no dishonor to beat
+a masterly retreat; which he accordingly did.
+
+The boys pretended to chase after him, with loud shouts; but seeing
+their opportunity to escape made haste to put the wire fence between
+themselves and the owner of those cruel white fangs. As long as he
+could follow them from his side of the barrier the dog continued to
+bark savagely; but did not offer to leave his own domain.
+
+After all Billy Button was the only one to suffer, and he had a fine
+big three-cornered hole in his coat.
+
+"Going into the real-estate business, are you, Billy?" asked Josh, who
+could always see a chance for a joke.
+
+"Oh! am I?" retorted the other. "What makes you think that, Josh?"
+
+"Because you've got a sign up 'to rent,'" is what the other told him.
+
+"Didn't I see that dog take hold of you by the leg, Felix, at the time
+you struck him so hard on the head with your club?" Mr. Witherspoon
+asked.
+
+"Yes, sir, but he only dented my leggings, you see," the bugler
+replied, as he showed where the marks of the animal's teeth could be
+plainly seen; "that's the good of having extra-thick canvas leggings
+on; they save you from snake bites and all sorts of other things that
+you don't want."
+
+"It was a pretty lively skirmish while it lasted, let me tell you,"
+admitted Rob Shaefer, who had seemed quite to enjoy the affair.
+
+Another hour or more passed, with the column straggling along, and some
+of the boys showing positive signs of fatigue. Mr. Witherspoon had been
+consulting with the leader of the Black Bear Patrol, and evidently they
+had reached a conclusion, for presently the welcome order was given to
+turn into the woods, as the day's hike was at an end.
+
+Gladly did those tired lads obey the call. And one of the first things
+they discovered was that there was another cold spring nearby, the
+presence of which, of course, had been known to those who carried the
+chart of the region.
+
+First of all they dropped down to rest themselves. Later on, when they
+were feeling more like doing things, they would start to put the camp
+in order, get the fires started, and perhaps erect some sort of rude
+shelter that to a certain degree would take the place of tents.
+
+Finally some of the more enterprising began to stir around. Josh took
+it upon himself to provide a fireplace made out of stones which lay
+conveniently near. It was to be built according to the best formula he
+knew, something in the shape of a letter V, with the large end toward
+the wind; and across the top of the stones they would lay their iron
+rods, thus forming a gridiron on which would rest the frying-pan and
+the coffee-pot.
+
+"I'll duplicate your cooking fire, Josh," said Rob Shaefer, who meant
+to show some of his new chums a few wrinkles he had learned when in
+camp on other occasions.
+
+Half an hour before the sun went down both fires were crackling at a
+great rate; and when good beds of red embers should have formed
+operations looking to supper would be started by those in charge of the
+occasion.
+
+Everybody took a deep interest in what was now going on. All sorts of
+suggestions were called back and forth as the ham was sliced and the
+potatoes put in the pots for boiling; while further along the fires the
+two coffee-pots began to emit a most delightful and appetizing odor
+that made the hungry boys wild with impatience.
+
+The spot where they had determined to spend their first night out was
+in the midst of the woods. Around them the forest trees lay on every
+side, some being great oaks, others beeches, with drooping branches and
+smooth silvery bark--as well as other species, such as sycamore, ash
+and lindens.
+
+Most of the scouts were bubbling over with enthusiasm concerning the
+outlook before them; but several of the less daring ones might be seen
+casting furtive glances about as though the prospect of passing the
+night amidst such lonely surroundings had already commenced to make
+them feel a little queer.
+
+No doubt the pride of these fellows would carry them through the
+initial night; and after that by degrees they would become accustomed
+to their new experiences. Every soldier can look back to his first
+battle, remembering how he trembled in his shoes, and feeling that he
+would give all he possessed for the privilege of running away at top
+speed.
+
+And when supper was ready, with the boys gathered around, each bent on
+doing the best he knew how to show his appreciation of the work of the
+cooks, it seemed to be the fitting climax to a most wonderful day.
+Would they ever forget that supper? Never had anything tasted so
+royally good at home.
+
+"This is the life!" declared Josh Kingsley, buoyantly, as he passed his
+tin plate along for a second helping when he heard it mentioned that
+there was still a further supply not distributed.
+
+"It certainly does taste pretty fine to me!" admitted Horace Crapsey,
+who had in times gone by been so finicky about his eating that his
+folks had begun to wonder what was going to become of him--yet who was
+now sitting there cross-legged like a Turk, wielding an ordinary knife
+and fork, and with his pannikin on his lap, actually doing without a
+napkin, and enjoying it in the bargain.
+
+Mr. Witherspoon had the seat of honor, for the boys insisted that he
+should occupy the highest place on the log that had been rolled near
+the fires. He observed all that went on with satisfaction. Boys were
+close to his heart, and he never tired of his hobby of studying them.
+It was a constant source of delight to the scout master to listen to
+them chatter, and he noticed that a perceptible change was taking place
+in some of his charges since first joining the troop.
+
+Finally when every youth admitted that he had had all he could eat,
+Mr. Witherspoon got up.
+
+"Now it's full time we started our _real_ campfire," he announced.
+"That was why I had you gather such a big heap of wood. Here's the
+right place for the blaze, as we must be careful not to scorch any of
+the trees, the branches of which hang down over us, because this
+property belongs to some one, and we must respect his rights."
+
+He had no trouble about finding willing workers, because every one
+acted as if anxious to have a hand in the building of that first
+campfire, to be recorded in the annals of Lenox Troop as an event of
+unusual importance.
+
+When finally the pyramid had been carefully built the scout master was
+asked to apply the match.
+
+"Unfortunately I do not know the customary procedure on such momentous
+occasions," he told the boys, as they formed a circle around the pile;
+"and all I can say is that with this match I am about to dedicate this
+fire to the useful purpose of bringing all our hearts in tune with our
+surroundings. For to-night then, we will try to believe ourselves real
+vagabonds, or children of the forest, sitting around the sanctuary at
+which every camper worships--the crackling fire!"
+
+Then the blaze began to seize hold of the wood, and amidst the cheers
+of the enthusiastic scouts the fire got fully under way.
+
+High leaped the red flames, so that presently there was a general
+backward movement, on account of the heat. Had it been November instead
+of June, they would doubtless have enjoyed the cheery warmth much more.
+
+Each boy managed to pick out a comfortable place, and then the talk
+began to grow general. Plans for the morrow and the succeeding days
+were being discussed with much ardor.
+
+It was while this was going on, and the scouts were all feeling most
+happy that with but scant warning a discomforting element was suddenly
+injected into Camp Content. Moving figures, harsh voices, together with
+the half strangled barks of dogs held in leash startled the seated
+campers. Two rough-looking men, evidently a farmer and his hired man,
+armed with guns, and holding a couple of dogs by ropes, came in sight
+close by.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+THE LIFE THAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN SAVED
+
+
+"Hey! what d'ye mean by trespassin' on my ground? I'll have the law on
+ye for darin' to build a big bonfire like that! No tramp convention c'n
+threaten to set fire to my woods, let me tell ye!"
+
+The man in the lead was shouting this in an angry voice as he bustled
+forward, with his dog growling and straining to get free. Of course
+every one of the boys scrambled to his feet in a hurry. The sight of
+their khaki uniforms seemed to give the big farmer a decided shock, for
+they saw him come to a stop.
+
+"What's this here?" he exclaimed, as he stared at the dozen lads. "Tell
+me, am I seein' things Bill Scruggs? Is it the State Militia dropped
+down on us? Is there a war on?"
+
+Mr. Witherspoon, who was of course in uniform, stepped to the front and
+made the old fellow a military salute that must have gone far toward
+soothing his ruffled feelings.
+
+"We're sorry if we've intruded on your ground, sir," he said in that
+convincing voice of his. "The fact is these are some of the Boy Scouts
+of Lenox, a troop that has lately been organized. I am Robert
+Witherspoon, the surveyor, and if I'm not mistaken I did some work for
+you a few months ago, Mr. Brush."
+
+"That's a fact ye did, Mr. Witherspoon," declared the farmer, with less
+venom in his tone. "Seems like I didn't know ye with them togs on."
+
+"I'm acting as scout master to these lads just now," continued the
+other, in his conciliatory way. "One of the rules of the organization
+is that each troop must have a grown person to serve with them, so that
+any undue boyish spirits may be kept within reasonable bounds."
+
+"So I read in the paper, Mr. Witherspoon," continued the countryman.
+
+"Won't you tie up your dogs, Mr. Brush, and come and join us here
+before the fire?" asked the scout master, who doubtless had more or
+less faith in the ability of a cheery blaze to curb animosity.
+
+They saw the farmer rub his chin with his hand. He seemed to be
+debating within himself as to whether or not it would be advisable to
+comply with such a friendly invitation.
+
+"Well, p'raps I mightn't git such a good chance to look scouts over
+again as this here one," he presently said, half to himself. "I've
+been reading a hull lot lately 'bout the doin's of the boys. Got three
+lads o' my own yet," and there he was seen to swallow something that
+seemed almost to choke him.
+
+"Then for their sake you ought to be interested in this great movement,
+Mr. Brush," said the scout master; "I remember a bright boy of yours
+who was very much interested in the little surveying work I did for you
+that day. He helped me some, and said he thought he'd like to be a
+civil engineer when he grew up. If he joined the scouts that desire
+might be encouraged, sir, I assure you."
+
+"Oh, they been pesterin' the life outen me to let 'em jine, but I ain't
+had no faith in the thing," Mr. Brush went on to say, with a stubborn
+shake of the head.
+
+He had by this time tied up his dog, and was accepting a seat on the
+log close to the obliging scout master. The boys were satisfied to let
+Mr. Witherspoon do the most of the talking. They could see that he
+meant to open the eyes of this unbeliever, and show him a few things
+that he ought to know.
+
+"Just why did you frown on the scout movement, may I ask, sir?" Mr.
+Witherspoon continued, quietly.
+
+"Well, in the fust place I don't calc'late that my boys be brought up
+to be food for gunpowder," replied the farmer.
+
+"Then like a good many people you think Boy Scouts in this country are
+intended to become a part of the military defences; is that it, Mr.
+Brush?"
+
+"Do you mean to tell me it ain't so, Mr. Witherspoon?" asked the
+farmer.
+
+"Nothing is further from the truth than that, as I'll prove to you in a
+dozen ways, if you care to listen," the scout master told him.
+
+"Fire away, then," said the farmer. "I'm not hide-bound ye know, and
+allers open to conviction; so tell me why I orter let my three boys
+jine the scouts."
+
+Mr. Witherspoon started in and explained the fundamental principles
+upon which the new movement was organized. He soon convinced the farmer
+that there was not the slightest intention on the part of those having
+the matter in hand to incorporate the scouts into a National Defence
+Movement.
+
+"Was that the only objection you had, Mr. Brush?" he asked when the
+farmer frankly admitted that he had been wrong in his opinion.
+
+"I reckoned that these boys only got together and wore uniforms for a
+big lark," was the reply to his question. "I ought to know what boys is
+like, havin' had four of my own."
+
+"Then you have lost one, have you sir?" questioned the scout master,
+not from idle curiosity, either, Tom Chesney felt positive.
+
+The old man heaved a great sigh.
+
+"Yes, my youngest, and the darling o' his maw's heart, little Jim. Only
+last summer he was off swimmin' with several o' his chums, and got
+caught with a cramp. They got him out, brave enough, but--he never kim
+to agin."
+
+Mr. Witherspoon cast a quick and meaning glance around the circle of
+eager faces. Several of the scouts nodded in a significant fashion as
+though they guessed what was flashing through the mind of their leader.
+
+"Mr. Brush," said the scout master, gravely, "I'd like to tell you some
+things that to my own personal knowledge scouts have done; things that
+they never would have been capable of performing in the wide world had
+they remained outside of this organization that first of all teaches
+them to be manly, independent, helpful to others, and true to
+themselves. May I, sir?"
+
+"Jest as ye please, Mr. Witherspoon," came the low reply, for the
+farmer had evidently been partly overcome with the sad remembrance of
+the vacant chair, and the face he missed so much at his table.
+
+The scout master went about it in a very able manner. Again he
+explained the numerous duties of a scout, and how he was taught to
+render first aid to the injured in case, for instance, his services
+should ever be needed when some comrade cut himself with an ax, and was
+in peril of bleeding to death.
+
+"There are other ways," Mr. Witherspoon continued, "in which the scout
+is instructed to be able to depend on himself should he be lost in the
+wilderness, caught in a tornado, tempted to take refuge in a barn, or
+under an exposed tree during a thunder storm."
+
+"All o' that sounds mighty interestin', I must say, sir!" commented the
+farmer, deeply interested.
+
+"To my own personal knowledge, Mr. Brush," finally said the other, "on
+three separate occasions I have known of cases where a boy in swimming
+was apparently dead when dragged from the water after having been under
+for several minutes; in every one of those instances his scout
+companions, working according to the rules that had become a part of
+their education, managed to revive the fluttering spark of life and
+save the lad!"
+
+There was an intense silence as the last word was spoken. Every one of
+those boys realized how terribly the man was suffering, for they could
+see his face working. Presently he looked up, with a groan that welled
+from his very heart.
+
+"Jest a year too late, sir!" he said, in an unsteady voice. "Oh, why
+didn't ye come last June? My little Jim was alive then, and the apple
+of my eye. If he'd jined the scouts he might a be'n with us right now.
+A year too late--it's hard, hard!"
+
+"But you said you have three boys still, Mr. Brush?" said the scout
+master.
+
+"So I have, and mighty dear they be to me too!" exclaimed the farmer,
+as he proceeded to bring down his ponderous fist on his knee, "and
+arter what you've told me this night, sir, they cain't be scouts any
+too soon to please me. I've had my lesson, and it was a bitter one. I'm
+right glad ye kim along to-night, and camped in my big woods, where we
+seen the light o' yer fire."
+
+"And we're glad too, Mr. Brush," said the scout master, while several
+of the boys were heard to cough as though taken with a sudden tickling
+in their throats.
+
+Long they sat there talking. Mr. Brush became an ardent advocate of the
+scout movement, and even made an arrangement for his boys to join the
+new patrol being formed, though it would mean many a trip in and out of
+Lenox for him in his new cheap motor car, in order that they attend the
+weekly meetings.
+
+After all that was an evening long to be remembered. Tom Chesney, who
+kept a regular log of the outing, meaning to enter his account in a
+competition for a prize that had been offered by a metropolitan daily,
+found a fine chance to spread himself when jotting down the
+particulars.
+
+The farmer could hardly tear himself away from the crackling fire.
+Three times he said he must be going, yet did not stir, which quite
+amused Josh Kingsley and Felix Robbins.
+
+"Our scout master sure must have missed his calling when he set out to
+be a civil engineer and surveyor," whispered the former in the ear of
+Felix.
+
+"That's so," replied the other, "for while he may be a pretty good
+civil engineer, he'd made a crackerjack of a lawyer or a preacher. When
+he talks somehow you just hang on every word he says, and it convinces
+you deep down. That old farmer on a jury would do whatever Mr.
+Witherspoon wanted. But it's been worth hearing; and I'm a heap glad to
+be a scout, after listening to what he's been saying."
+
+Finally the owner of the woods shook hands all around with them, and
+accompanied by his hired man and the two dogs respectfully took his
+departure.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+AT THE FOOT OF BIG BEAR MOUNTAIN
+
+
+It took them a long time to get settled on that night. Some of the
+scouts were about to experience their first camp sleep. They had to be
+shown just how to arrange their blankets, and what to do about the
+customary pillow upon which they wished to rest their heads.
+
+Tom, Josh and Rob Shaefer, having been through the mill before,
+explained these things. They even helped the tenderfeet fill with
+hemlock browse the little cotton bag, which had possibly once held
+flour, and which each scout had been advised to carry along in his
+pack.
+
+"They'll be worth their weight in gold many times on the trip," said
+Tom, when even Mr. Witherspoon stood listening with interest, for he
+had not as yet learned everything, he was free to confess.
+
+"But do we have to carry them along with us like that?" asked Horace as
+he held up the rather bulky object he had made of his cotton slip.
+
+"Certainly not," he was informed; "you empty it before breaking camp,
+and in the evening fill it again. Plenty of hemlock or spruce handy,
+whenever you choose to stretch out your hand and pluck it."
+
+"You must show me about all these things," Billy Button remarked. "To
+tell the truth I don't know the difference between balsam, fir, spruce,
+hemlock, larch and some other trees I've heard you talking about."
+
+"I'll begin to-morrow, and you'll find it simple enough," Tom promised
+him.
+
+After all the night really passed without any disturbance. Tom and Rob
+managed to wake up a number of times, and getting quietly out of their
+snug nests, they renewed the fire, thus keeping it going all through
+the night.
+
+Had any one been watching closely they probably would have seen a head
+bob up occasionally, the owner take a cautious look around, and then
+drop back again as though convinced that all was well, with no danger
+of ferocious wild beasts raiding the camp.
+
+These were the tenderfeet of the troop. They of course could not sleep
+save in snatches, and the strangeness of their surroundings caused them
+to feel more or less nervous. All they heard, however, was the barking
+of Farmer Brush's watch dogs or some little woods animal complaining
+because these two-legged intruders had disturbed the peace of their
+homeland.
+
+With the coming of dawn there was a stir in camp. Then one by one the
+scouts crawled out from their blankets, all but two greenhorns.
+
+"Let them sleep a while longer," said Mr. Witherspoon. "I fancy neither
+of them passed a very comfortable night."
+
+And at this the other boys moderated their voices as they proceeded to
+get an early breakfast ready, though in no hurry to leave that pleasant
+Camp Content.
+
+Of course both the laggards were up and ready by the time the call to
+breakfast was heard in the land. It may be that the smell of the eggs
+and bacon frying and the aromatic coffee's bubbling had much to do with
+arousing them.
+
+While they were eating who should appear but the hired man of Farmer
+Brush. He had a big basket on his arm, also a note for the scout
+master.
+
+    "I have to go to town early this morning or I'd fetch these few
+    things myself," the note ran; "I want you to accept them from me
+    with my compliments, and my hearty thanks for your entertainment
+    last night. I have hardly slept a wink thinking about what you
+    told me; and next meeting me and my boys will be on hand.
+
+    "EZRA BRUSH.
+
+    "P.S. The chickens my wife sends you, and she says they are
+    tender enough to fry."
+
+Besides the four chickens, all ready for cooking, there was a fine
+print of new butter, as well as a carton of several dozen eggs fresh
+from the coop.
+
+"Three cheers for Mr. Brush, fellows!" cried Tom, after the scout
+master had read the note aloud; and they were given with a will, much
+to the entertainment of Bill, who stood there and grinned broadly.
+
+It was about eight o'clock when the column started once more. They
+meant to leave the main road they had been following up to this time,
+for it did not run in the direction they wanted to go.
+
+There was another smaller one which they expected to follow, for that
+day at least, and which skirted the base of the mountain, even
+ascending it in several places, as their map showed.
+
+"It will be our last day on any sort of road, if we follow out the
+programme as arranged," Tom Chesney explained, as they sat around at
+noon munching the "snack" each scout had been commissioned to prepare
+at breakfast time against his being hungry in the middle of the day,
+when they would not care to start a fire in order to do any cooking.
+
+"You mean we expect to push right up the mountain and begin exploring
+the country, don't you, Tom?" asked Josh between bites.
+
+"Yes, and three of the fellows intend to make maps as we go, for
+practice," the leader of the Black Bear Patrol explained.
+
+"All I hope is," commented Billy Button, anxiously, "that we don't
+manage to get lost. I've got a very important engagement a week from
+Friday that I wouldn't want to miss."
+
+"Huh, guess I'm in the same box," chuckled Josh; "anyway I promised to
+be sitting in my usual chair with my feet under our dining table on
+that same day; and it'd grieve my heart if I missed connections."
+
+The middle of that June day proved to be very warm, and the boys
+decided to lie around for several hours. When the sun had got well
+started down the western sky perhaps there might be a little more life
+in the air. Besides, they were in no hurry; so what was the use of
+exerting themselves unduly?
+
+"I hope it isn't going to storm!" suggested Carl, as they sprawled
+under the shady tree where they had halted for the noon rest, each
+youth in as comfortable an attitude as he could assume.
+
+"Oh, is there any chance of a terrible storm dropping down on us, do
+you think?" asked Horace Crapsey, looking troubled; for although none
+of the others knew it, the crash of the thunder and the play of
+lightning had struck terror to his soul ever since the time he had been
+knocked down, when a tree near his house was shattered by a bolt from
+the clouds.
+
+"Not that you can see right now," Josh informed him, a little
+contemptuously; with a strong boy's feeling toward one who shows signs
+of being afraid; "but when it's summer time and when, in the bargain, a
+day has been as hot as this one, you never can tell."
+
+"That's so, Josh," George Kingsley remarked, wagging his head as though
+for once he actually agreed with something that had been said; "a
+simmering day often coaxes a storm along. It may hit us toward
+night-time, or even come on any hour afterwards when we're sleeping
+like babes in the woods."
+
+"But what can we do for shelter?" asked Billy Button; "we haven't got
+even a rag for a tent; and once we get soaked it'll be a hard job to
+dry our suits, you know."
+
+"Leave that to us, Billy," Tom told him, confidently. "First of all
+every scout has a rubber poncho; two of these fastened together will
+make what they call a dog tent, under which a couple of fellows can
+tuck themselves, and keep the upper part of their bodies dry. Soldiers
+always use them."
+
+"Yes," added Rob Shaefer; "and if it looks like rain to-night we'll
+raise several brush shanties. By making use of the rubber blankets they
+can be kept as dry as a bone. Scouts must learn how to meet every
+possible condition that can rise up. That's a big part of the fun, once
+you've begun to play the game."
+
+Billy seemed to be much impressed by this cheering intelligence; and
+even Horace smiled again, having recovered from his little panic.
+
+It was almost three o'clock when the signal was given for a start. They
+took it slowly, and in the next two hours had probably covered little
+more than two miles. They were still loitering along the road that
+skirted the foot of the Big Bear Mountain.
+
+"As we have some extra cooking to do to-night, boys," the scout master
+told them, "we had better pull up here where we can get fine water.
+That's one of the things you must always look for when camping,
+remember."
+
+Nothing pleased the scouts better than the prospect of stopping, and
+starting supper, for they were tired, and hungry in the bargain.
+
+"If we didn't want to eat these fowls right away," Tom remarked, "I'd
+suggest that we bake them in a hot oven made in the ground. That's the
+original cooker, you know. But it takes a good many hours to do it."
+
+"Another time, perhaps, when we're stopping several days in one camp
+we'll get some more chickens, Tom," said the scout master, "and have
+you show us just how it is done. I've heard of the old-time scheme, but
+never tasted anything cooked in a mud oven."
+
+Everything looked calm and peaceful just then, but after all that was a
+deception and a snare. Even while the cooks were starting in to cut up
+the chickens so that the various parts might be placed in the two big
+frying-pans, after a certain amount of fat salt pork had been "tried
+out," and allowed to get fiercely hot, Josh, who happened to be seen
+coming from the spring with a coffee-pot of water called out:
+
+"Well, here comes your storm cloud all right, Horace; only instead of a
+ducking we stand a chance of getting a licking from another enraged
+tiller of the soil!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+NOT GUILTY
+
+
+"Whew! but he looks even madder than Mr. Brush did!" exclaimed Billy
+Button, when he saw the advancing man snap his whip furiously, as
+though to warn them what to expect on his arrival.
+
+Every scout was now on his feet and watching.
+
+"There's his wagon over on the road," said Carl; "he must have been
+passing and have seen us here. I wonder if we've trespassed on _his_
+private property now. Mr. Witherspoon, you'd better get ready to
+hypnotize another mad farmer."
+
+"He's got his eye on our chickens, let me tell you!" urged Josh, as he
+moved over a few paces, as though meaning to defend the anticipated
+treat desperately if need be.
+
+The man was a big brawny fellow, and very angry at that. Mr.
+Witherspoon faced him without a sign of alarm, even smiling, because
+conscious of having given no reasonable cause for an assault.
+
+"That cracking of his whip isn't going to scare us a bit," muttered the
+pugnacious Josh; "he'd better not lay it on me for one, or any of my
+chums, that's what!"
+
+The man could hardly speak at first, from the effect of his anger,
+together with his hasty rush from the road up to the camp. Then holding
+his threatening whip in one hand he pointed a quivering finger straight
+toward the fowls that they were expecting to have for their supper, and
+which could no longer be concealed by Josh.
+
+"So," bellowed the man, "now I know where the chickens that were stolen
+from my coop last night went. Raidin' the farms up this way, are you? I
+want to tell you it's going to be a bad job for every one of ye. I'll
+have the law on ye if I have to go to Lenox and look every boy in town
+over. And I'll know ye all again, if its a month from now."
+
+He snapped the whip viciously as he stopped talking; but Mr.
+Witherspoon did not seem to shrink back an inch. Looking the excited
+farmer squarely in the eye the scout master started to speak.
+
+"I judge from what you say, sir, that you have had the misfortune to
+lose some of your poultry lately? I'm sorry to hear of it, but when you
+come and accuse us of being the guilty parties you are making a serious
+mistake, sir."
+
+"Oh, am I?" demanded the other, still as furious as ever, though the
+boys noticed that he made no effort to use the dreadful whip he
+carried. "I lost some fowls, and you're expecting to have some chickens
+for dinner. Anybody with hoss sense could put them facts together,
+couldn't they? I ain't to be blarnied so easy, let me tell you."
+
+"You seem to talk as though no one owned chickens up this Bear Mountain
+way but yourself, sir," said Mr. Witherspoon, calmly. "These lads are
+Boy Scouts. They are a part of the Lenox Troop, and I can vouch for
+every one of them as being honest, and incapable of stealing any man's
+fowls."
+
+"You don't say, mister?" sneered the man; "but tell me, who's a-goin'
+to vouch for you, now?"
+
+"My name is Robert Witherspoon," replied the scout master, showing
+wonderful self-control the boys thought, considering the insulting
+manner of the angry farmer. "I am a civil engineer and surveyor. I love
+boys every way I find them; and it is a pleasure to me to act as their
+scout master, accompanying them on their hikes when possible, and
+seeing that they behave themselves in every way. You can find out about
+my standing from Judge Jerome, Doctor Lawson or Pastor Hotchkiss in
+Lenox."
+
+The man still looked in Mr. Witherspoon's calm eyes. What he saw there
+seemed to have an influence upon his aroused feelings, for while he
+still shook his head skeptically there was not so much of menace in his
+manner now.
+
+"Boys will be boys, no matter whether they have scout uniforms on or
+overalls," he said sullenly. "I've suffered mor'n once from raids on my
+orchards and chicken coops, and found it was some town boys, off on
+what they called a lark, that made other people suffer."
+
+"But I assure you there is not the slightest possibility of any boy
+here having taken your chickens, sir," continued the scout master.
+
+"We've been on the move all day long," added Tom, "and only arrived
+here half an hour back. Last night we were several miles away in camp."
+
+"But--you got chickens, and I was robbed last night," faltered the
+farmer, as though that fact impressed him as evidence that no argument
+could keep down.
+
+"If we could prove to you," continued Mr. Witherspoon, "that we came by
+these four fowls honestly, I hope you will be frank enough to apologize
+to my boys for unjustly suspecting them of being hen thieves?"
+
+"Go on then and do it, mister; but I warn you I'm sot in my ways, and
+hard to convince. It's got to be a mighty likely yarn that'll fotch me
+over."
+
+"You've lived around here some time, I take it?" asked Mr. Witherspoon.
+
+"Man and boy forty-seven years," came the reply.
+
+"Then you must know Ezra Brush, for he was born in the farm house he
+occupies to this day?" suggested the scout master.
+
+"I know Ezra like a book. Him and me have always been good friends,
+except for that boundary dispute which took us to court; but I reckon
+Ezra don't hold no grudge agin me 'cause I won out.
+
+"We had Mr. Brush sitting beside our campfire for two hours last night,
+while I told him all about the things Boy Scouts are taught. He means
+to have his three boys join the troop at the next meeting; for he knows
+now that if his little Jim and some of his companions had been scouts,
+the boy's life in all probability would have been saved last summer."
+
+"It might have been," admitted the farmer, "if them other lads had
+knowed what to do, but before a man got there it was too late. And Ezra
+certainly sot some store by that bright-faced little Jim; everybody
+keered for him, he was so winnin' in his ways."
+
+"Well," continued Mr. Witherspoon with a smile, for he was certain of
+his ground by this time, and the whip hung listlessly alongside the
+farmer's leg; "we made so good an impression on Mr. Brush that early
+this morning his man Bill came over with a basket, and also this note.
+Please read it, sir."
+
+He placed the paper in the other's hand; and leaning down so that the
+waning light of the setting sun might fall on the writing the farmer
+seemed to take in the contents of the note.
+
+When he looked up he no longer scowled, but let his eyes rove around at
+the faces of the scouts, all filled with eager anticipation.
+
+"Well, I was wrong to say what I did, I owns up," he commenced, making
+a wry face, as though it was rather an unusual thing for him to admit
+being anything but right; "and since I promised to apologize to ye,
+boys I'm ready to do it. Chickens all looks alike after they've been
+plucked and the heads cut off; but 'cordin' to what that note reads
+these here are Brush fowls and not from the Perkins coop."
+
+Mr. Witherspoon nodded his head, and his eyes twinkled.
+
+"Are you satisfied to accept Mr. Perkins' apology, boys, in the same
+spirit in which it is given?" he asked, looking at his charges.
+
+Of course there was an immediate response, and in the affirmative too.
+Boys are not apt to harbor any deep resentment, once the accusation is
+withdrawn.
+
+"There, you see these boys are not the ones to hold it against you, Mr.
+Perkins," the scout master continued.
+
+"Did you see the thieves who were in your hen house last night, Mr.
+Perkins?" asked Tom, as though he had some object in making the
+inquiry.
+
+"Wall, no, though I heard the racket when my chickens got to squawkin',
+and run to the coop with a gun; but the pesky rascals had cleared out
+with half a dozen of my best young fowls. I reckoned to larn where they
+was, and I'm on my way to town right now with a load of stuff, meanin'
+to make a few inquiries in the mornin'."
+
+He grinned as he fumbled at the pocket of his coat.
+
+"What have you got there, Mr. Perkins?" asked Tom.
+
+"It's a boy's cap as was left in my coop last night," declared the
+farmer; "and a queer lookin' one at that. Guess they might tell me who
+it fits in Lenox."
+
+Every eye was focused on the cap which he held up. It was indeed of an
+odd color, and very likely the only one of the kind in that section.
+
+Josh Kingsley laughed out loud.
+
+"Guess we ought to know that cap, fellows!" he exclaimed. "The last
+time I saw the same it was perked on the red head of Tony Pollock."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+WHAT TO DO IN A STORM
+
+
+"Would you mind letting me see that cap for a minute, Mr. Perkins?"
+asked the leader of the Black Bear Patrol.
+
+The farmer seemed to hesitate as though loth to let his only evidence
+go out of his hand; but after one good look at the smiling countenance
+of Tom Chesney apparently he felt ashamed of suspecting that so
+clean-looking a boy could mean to deceive him in any way. So he passed
+the head-gear over.
+
+Knowing that Tom must have some object in making this request the other
+scouts pushed closer and watched eagerly. They saw him turn the cap
+partly inside out.
+
+"I thought as much," Tom remarked laughingly, at the same time
+carefully picking several tiny objects up, which he held before the
+eyes of the admiring farmer, who had doubtless never before heard of
+such a thing as "scoutcraft."
+
+"Look for yourself, Mr. Perkins," Tom said exultantly; "you will have
+no difficulty in recognizing these as fiery red hairs. The boy
+mentioned by my chum here, has a brick-top like that. I should say the
+evidence is about as conclusive as anything could be."
+
+Mr. Perkins' mouth had opened wide. He was apparently thunder-struck by
+the cleverness displayed by this stripling in clinching the guilt of
+the party who had stolen his spring chickens.
+
+"Tell me his name again, Bub," he said turning to Josh; "I calc'late
+makin' it some warm for him unless I gets pretty good pay for them
+fowls."
+
+"His name is Tony Pollock," he was told with a grin, for somehow Josh
+seemed to be tickled over the retribution that was likely to overtake
+the boy who had for so long a time acted as a bully in Lenox.
+
+After some talk the farmer withdrew, taking with him his evidence in
+the shape of the queer checked cap, and also the best wishes of the
+assembled scouts, who gave him a cheer as he drove away.
+
+He had even promised to drop around at a couple of their houses with
+messages hastily scribbled, to the effect that the boys were very well,
+and having the time of their lives.
+
+Needless to say that those who sent these were the tender feet of the
+troop. Horace and Billy, who imagined that their respective mothers
+must be lying awake nights in mortal fear lest something dreadful had
+happened to the heretofore pampered darlings. Most of the other boys
+were accustomed to being away from home, and prided themselves on being
+able to show the spirit of veteran campers.
+
+The fowls turned out to be the peer of any the boys had ever tasted.
+Indeed with the chicken cooked a delicate brown by those in charge, and
+seasoned with the keen appetites a day in the open air is apt to give a
+boy, that supper must always linger in their memories as a bright spot
+never to be excelled.
+
+By now the greenhorns would be getting more accustomed to seeing the
+woods all around them, and probably sleep better than they did before.
+The second night in camp always does find everybody feeling more at
+ease, and settling down for a good rest.
+
+They had no reason to find fault with anything that happened to them
+after the departure of Mr. Perkins. The stars came out in the heavens
+and there was apparently no sign of rain.
+
+To satisfy the more timid boys, Tom and Rob Shaefer had started on a
+brush shanty, which they so far completed that it could be changed into
+a fair shelter by making use of their rubber ponchos. It was not really
+needed, though several of the boys chose to make up their beds under
+its arched roof, mentioning that they might feel the dew if it
+happened to prove heavy.
+
+Again they prepared breakfast, and then started off with a day's tramp
+ahead of them that would differ in many respects from anything as yet
+encountered. This was because they expected to strike boldly up the
+side of the massive mountain that reared its head far above them, its
+slopes covered for the most part with a heavy growth of timber. This,
+however, thinned out the nearer one came to the summit, which in turn
+was composed of bald rocks, grim and silent, save when some eagle gave
+its shrill scream from a projecting crag.
+
+They took their last look at the little road, and then Tom led the way
+into the heart of the wild growth. Just as they had anticipated it was
+a great deal more difficult going now, for there was no trail save an
+occasional cowpath which might lead down to the creek, or anywhere
+else; and to which, for this reason, they could not pay any attention.
+
+When noon came there was a loud call for a halt. While every boy was
+too proud to confess that his muscles were beginning to feel sore from
+the continual strain, he tried pretty hard to find some plausible
+excuse for wanting to make a good long halt.
+
+While they were eating and fanning themselves, for it was very warm,
+Walter Douglass noticed Tom glancing off toward the southwest. Upon
+looking in that direction himself he burst out with an exclamation:
+
+"It's going to strike us this time, boys, as sure as anything!"
+
+"What another irate farmer?" cried Josh, laughingly. "Whatever have the
+scouts been doing this time to raise trouble? We've been accused of
+trespassing, and stealing chickens; p'raps they'll try to make out we
+have evil designs on some country bank."
+
+"It looks like a storm," admitted Tom; upon which Billy Button began to
+stare at the clouds in plain sight, and Horace seemed to be listening
+anxiously to catch the first distant mutter of thunder in the air.
+
+"If you are all through eating," said Mr. Witherspoon, "perhaps we had
+better move out of this. I'm not the best judge of such things, but I
+think we could find a better spot than this to stay during the storm."
+
+"There! listen to that, will you?" exclaimed George as they heard a
+heavy boom that seemed to throb on the heavily charged air like the
+roar of a monster siege gun.
+
+Horace was looking a little pale, though he set his teeth hard
+together, and apparently had made up his mind to at least refrain from
+showing the white feather, no matter how frightened he felt.
+
+They did up their packs, keeping the rubber ponchos out, according to
+the advice of the patrol leader.
+
+"At the worst we can put our heads through the slit in the center," he
+explained to them; "and then it serves as a waterproof to keep the
+upper part of you dry. But perhaps we can find an overhanging shelf of
+rock under which all of us can crawl."
+
+"But how about that fine big tree yonder, couldn't we take shelter
+under that?" asked Horace, pointing to a massive oak with
+wide-spreading branches that made a canopy through which even a
+downpour of rain could hardly penetrate.
+
+"Never!" Tom told him hastily. "A tree standing apart like that is
+always one of the most dangerous places you can select when seeking
+shelter from an electrical storm. Far better stay out and take your
+little soaking than to take chances in a barn, or under an isolated
+tree. In the forest it is not so bad, where there are hundreds of
+trees; but then you ought to be careful which one you select. Lightning
+loves a shining mark, you know."
+
+"But that big tree has stood for one or two hundred years and never
+been hit by lightning," objected Horace, who could not understand
+exactly.
+
+"So have others that I've seen shattered to fragments," Mr. Witherspoon
+told him, "but their time came at last, and without warning. We can't
+afford to accept the risk. There is only one safe way, and that is to
+avoid dangerous places."
+
+The thunder grew louder with every peal. There were vivid flashes of
+lightning, too, each of which caused Horace to start and close his
+eyes, though he bravely suppressed the groan that seemed ready to burst
+from his lips.
+
+Tom, as well as Mr. Witherspoon, Josh and Rob Shaefer, was constantly
+on the lookout for some sign of shelter. The ground seemed to favor the
+possibility of finding something in the line of overlapping lines of
+rock, which, forming a mushroom ledge, would screen them from the
+violence of the expected downpour.
+
+After all, the honor of making the discovery went to Carl.
+
+"Look over yonder between those bushes, sir; doesn't that seem to be
+about the kind of place you're after?" he called out, clutching the
+scout master by the arm.
+
+So impressed was Mr. Witherspoon by what he saw that he immediately
+directed all of his charges to make for the spot pell-mell. The first
+big drops were coming down as they arrived, to find that, sure enough,
+the ledges of stone cropped out as much as six or seven feet.
+
+"Crawl under wherever you can find a good place, and lie quiet!"
+ordered the scout master; and in several detachments they proceeded to
+get out of the rain, now commencing to fall heavily.
+
+The wind rushed through the branches with a furious shriek; the thunder
+crashed; they heard several trees fall under the strain; and then
+without warning came a blinding flash, with a terrific ear-splitting
+roar of thunder accompanying it.
+
+Horace, who with a number of others was in the cavity Tom had chosen,
+shrank close to the leader of the Black Bear Patrol.
+
+"Oh, Tom!" he cried, when his voice could be heard, "didn't that sound
+right from where that magnificent big oak tree stood that I wanted to
+get under?"
+
+"Just what it did!" Josh Kingsley told him, vehemently, while Tom said:
+
+"We'll investigate after the storm is over, Horace; but right now I'm
+of the opinion your fine oak is lying shattered into fragments by the
+bolt that fell!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+THE LANDSLIDE
+
+
+"Whether that's so or not," said the trembling Horace, "I feel that
+I've learned a lesson. I own up that I'm terribly afraid of lightning;
+but after this I'm going to face it, even if I have to lie out in the
+storm, rather than take chances."
+
+It became difficult to carry on any sort of conversation, what with all
+the racket around them. The wind blew, the rain fell in sheets, and the
+thunder boomed so continuously that one deep-toned roll hardly died
+away before there would come another crash that made everybody start.
+
+Still they were a thankful lot of boys as they lay under the ledges and
+counted the minutes creep past.
+
+"We've managed to keep our jackets tolerably dry after all," announced
+Josh, at a time when there happened to be a little slackening of the
+gale; "and that's what everybody couldn't have done under the same
+conditions."
+
+"Well, I should say not," another scout declared; "I know lots of
+fellows who think themselves extra smart around town, and yet put them
+up here and they'd either have been knocked out hiding under a tree
+that was struck, or else soaked through to the skin."
+
+"It takes scouts to figure things out when the supreme test comes,"
+said Josh.
+
+"Yes, _some_ scouts," added Felix, drily; as much as to tell Josh not
+to plume himself too highly, because this was not his bright thought.
+
+A more terrific peal of thunder than any they had yet heard except that
+one outburst, stopped their talking for a brief time.
+
+"I really believe the old storm is coming back to try it all over
+again!" cried Billy Button, in dismay.
+
+"They often seem to do that," remarked another boy. "That has puzzled
+me more'n I can tell. What's the explanation, Mr. Witherspoon?"
+
+"Well, as near as I can say," replied the scout master, "it's something
+like this. Most storms have a regular rotary movement as well as their
+forward drift. On that account a hurricane at sea has a core or center,
+where there is almost a dead clam."
+
+"Yes, I've read about that," interrupted Josh. "Sea captains always
+mention it when they've found themselves in the worst of a big blow.
+It slackens up, and then comes on again worse than ever."
+
+"But always from exactly the opposite quarter," the scout master
+continued.
+
+"You can see how this is, for the wind coming from the east up to the
+time the core of the gale strikes them, is from the west after the
+center has passed by. We may be about to get the other side of this
+little storm now."
+
+"Listen to it roaring, up on the mountain?" cried Horace.
+
+"I wonder what those other fellows are doing about now?" Josh was heard
+to say, in a speculative way.
+
+"Of course you mean Tony Pollock and his crowd," observed Tom. "Unless
+they've been as lucky as we were they're feeling pretty damp ground
+this time. Still Tony is a shrewd fellow, and may have discovered some
+sort of shelter before the downpour came."
+
+"I hope so," Horace went on to say, for he was not at all cruel by
+disposition; "because I wouldn't want a dog to be out in this blow,
+much less boys I've known all my life, even if they have been an ugly
+lot."
+
+There was a short interval of violent downpour. Then all at once the
+storm again slackened, and soon the rain ceased.
+
+Horace had been whispering to Tom, and the pair of them now started to
+crawl out from under the shelter.
+
+"Where are you going, Tom?" asked Josh, wondering what the strange move
+meant.
+
+"Just mean to take a little walk over here," was the reply; "we'll be
+back in a few minutes. Horace is curious to see if it was the big oak
+that was struck."
+
+"I'll go along, if you don't object," said the always ready Josh.
+
+"Me too," called out a second scout.
+
+Accordingly several of them followed Tom and Horace out from under the
+ledges. There were at least six in the group that hurried along toward
+the spot where the splendid oak had been noticed an hour before.
+
+They were compelled to pick their way along, for little streams of
+water flowed in almost every direction; besides, the trees were
+shedding miniature Niagaras that would be very unpleasant if received
+in the back of the neck by any one passing underneath.
+
+In this fashion they neared the place. Every boy was keenly on the
+lookout.
+
+"Why, I don't see anything at all of the tree, and yet it certainly
+stood high above those smaller ones over there!" exclaimed Horace,
+presently, with a curious little quiver of awe in his voice.
+
+Ten seconds later they had advanced far enough to pass the barrier
+formed by those lesser forest trees. Then the entire group of scouts
+came to a sudden stop and simply stared. Horace even rubbed his eyes as
+if he half believed he might be dreaming.
+
+The big oak was gone!
+
+Where it had stood they saw a shattered trunk not more than twenty feet
+high. Upon the ground in every direction lay torn and twisted limbs and
+smaller branches, just as they had been violently hurled when that
+terrible electric bolt struck with such amazing force.
+
+"Whew!" gasped Josh, "there's an object lesson for you, Horace!"
+
+"It's the same for each one of us," added Tom, gravely; "and for every
+scout who ever hears of it."
+
+"Supposing we had taken refuge under that fine old oak," suggested
+Felix, with a shrug of his shoulders; "not one of us would have ever
+known what hit him."
+
+"I've seen all I want to, Tom; let us go back," said Horace, who looked
+rather white by now. "Besides, I think it's going to pour down again
+shortly."
+
+"That's right," added another scout; "you can hear it coming over
+there. Everybody scoot for the home base."
+
+They lost no time in retracing their steps, and just managed to reach
+the friendly shelter of the ledges when the rain did come down, if
+anything harder than ever.
+
+"There'll be a big boom in the river after this!" remarked Felix, when
+the rain had been falling in a deluge for ten minutes.
+
+"I think it must be next door to what they call a cloud burst; wouldn't
+you say so, Mr. Witherspoon?" asked another boy.
+
+"It seems like it," he was told by the scout master. "Meantime we ought
+to be very thankful we're so well provided for. No danger of being
+floated away this far up on the mountain. But the rain is going to stop
+presently."
+
+"Getting softer already!" announced the watchful Josh.
+
+"I didn't have any chance to ask you about the big oak?" Mr.
+Witherspoon continued.
+
+"There isn't any," remarked Felix; "only a wreck that would make you
+hold your breath and rub your eyes."
+
+"Then it was struck by that terrible bolt, was it?" asked the scout
+master.
+
+"Smashed, into flinders," replied Josh. "You never in all your life saw
+such a wreck, sir."
+
+"We'll all take a glance at it before we leave this place," the leader
+of the hiking troop told them. "But from the way things look there's a
+good chance we may think it best to put in the night right here, where
+we can be sure of a dry place for sleeping."
+
+"That strikes me as a good idea, sir," said Tom, promptly, for he had
+been considering proposing that very plan himself, though of course he
+did not see fit to say so now.
+
+"All I hope is that the river doesn't sweep away a part of Lenox," one
+of the boys was heard to say. "You remember that years ago, before any
+of us can remember, they had a bad flood, and some lives were lost."
+
+"Oh yes, but that was in the spring," explained Josh, "when the heavy
+snows melted, and what with ten days of rain the ground couldn't take
+up any more water. It's a whole lot different in June. Besides, we've
+been having it pretty hot and dry lately, remember, and the earth can
+drink up a lot of water."
+
+"Still, you never can tell what a flood will do," George was heard to
+say; but as they all understood his way of looking at the worst side of
+things none of the other boys took much stock in his gloomy
+predictions.
+
+"We must hustle to find some dry wood, so as to cook our supper, and
+keep warm afterwards," Felix told them.
+
+"Leave us alone to do that," Josh announced. "No matter how hard it has
+been raining you can always get plenty of dry stuff out of the heart
+of a stump or a log. And thank goodness we brought an ax along with
+us."
+
+"Say, did you feel anything then?" called out one of the other boys.
+"Seemed to me the rocks might be trembling as they did when it
+thundered extra loud. There it goes again! Get that, fellows?"
+
+They certainly did, and a thrill of wonder and sudden anxiety passed
+over them when the trembling sensation became even more pronounced.
+Then they realized that a strange rumbling sound had arisen. It came
+from further up the mountain, and yet drew rapidly closer, increasing
+in intensity, until it began to assume the proportions of a terrible
+roaring, while the rocks vibrated in a sickening way.
+
+"Oh! it must be an earthquake!" shrilled one scout, in alarm.
+
+"Lie still, everybody!" shouted Mr. Witherspoon; "don't think of
+crawling out. It's a landslide coming down the side of the mountain!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+CAMPING ON THE LAKE SHORE
+
+
+For several minutes the scouts lay there and fairly held their breath
+in the grip of that sudden fear that had come upon them. As the
+rumbling noise and the sickening sensation of the rock trembling under
+them passed away they regained in some degree their former confidence.
+
+"The worst is over, I think," said Mr. Witherspoon; "but we'll stay
+where we are a while longer."
+
+Content to abide by his judgment, and glad that they had escaped being
+caught in that avalanche of earth and rocks, the boys kept quiet until
+finally, as there was no repetition of the landslide, they were allowed
+to issue forth.
+
+Investigation showed them where the slip had occurred. Some fault in
+the formation of the mountain side had allowed it to happen, the
+conditions being just right.
+
+Later on the rest of the scouts went over to view the wrecked oak,
+bringing back some of the splinters of wood to use in making the fire
+they expected to have going presently.
+
+Considering the two narrow escapes they had passed through recently,
+one from lightning and the other from the avalanche, the boys all felt
+that they had reason to be thankful.
+
+"You'll have some remarkable things to set down in that log book of
+yours for this particular day, Tom," said the scout master; "and I
+think you can do the subject justice. I hope to read an account of this
+trip in print one of these days."
+
+"Oh! there's a small chance of my account taking the first prize, I'm
+afraid Mr. Witherspoon," laughed the leader of the Black Bear Patrol;
+"I imagine there'll be scores of competitors in the race, and plenty of
+them can write things just as well as I can, perhaps even better."
+
+"Yes," remarked Josh, "but don't forget that every account of an outing
+trip has to be absolutely true. No wonderful imaginary stories will be
+allowed in the competition, the rules said."
+
+"Yes, that's just what they did state," added Felix; "you've got to
+have things authenticated--wasn't that the word the paper used?"
+
+"Attested to in due form by the scout master who accompanied the
+troop," Mr. Witherspoon explained, smiling; "and in this case I can do
+that with an easy conscience."
+
+"And if things keep going as they have been lately," declared another
+boy, "there never was and never can be a trip so crowded with
+interesting happenings as this same hike of Lenox Troop over Big Bear
+Mountain."
+
+The fire was made without any particular trouble, just as Josh and some
+of the others had predicted. The boys knew how to get dry fuel out of
+the heart of a stump, and once the fire was roaring it hardly mattered
+what kind of wood was used, since the heat quickly dried it out.
+
+Then supper was cooked as usual, only on this occasion they dispensed
+with some of the conditions that were not absolutely necessary, such as
+having two separate fires.
+
+On the whole they managed to get on, and every one admitted he could
+dispose of no more when finally the meal was concluded.
+
+Later on the boys sat around, and while most of them compared notes
+regarding their experiences during the exciting day just closed, others
+proceeded to attend to certain duties they did not wish to postpone any
+longer.
+
+As for Tom Chesney, it was an aim with him to write out his account of
+daily events while they were still fresh in his mind. He was afraid
+many of the little details might be forgotten if he delayed; and in the
+end those were what would give most of the charm to the narrative of
+the scout doings.
+
+The storm had passed on, and above them they saw the stars peeping out
+once more. Long into the night the steady drip of water could be heard,
+telling of numerous little rivulets that still ran down the side of Big
+Bear Mountain, though by morning most of these would have dried up.
+
+They slept under the friendly ledges. It was, after all was said, a
+pretty "rocky" bed, as Josh termed it; but since the ground outside was
+so well soaked, and there was always more or less peril in the shape of
+another landslide, none of the boys complained, or expressed his
+feelings in more than sundry grunts.
+
+With the coming of morning the strange camp was astir, and one by one
+the boys painfully crawled out, to try to get some of the stiffness
+from their limbs by jumping around and "skylarking."
+
+About nine o'clock the hike was resumed Mr. Witherspoon did not think
+it advisable to go on up the mountain any further after that avalanche;
+he believed they would have just as good a time passing around the
+base, and in the end making a complete circuit of the high elevation.
+
+The day turned out to be a delightful one after the storm. It seemed as
+though the air had been purified, and even in the middle of the day it
+was not unpleasantly warm.
+
+"We ought to make that little lake by the afternoon, oughtn't we, Tom?"
+the scout master asked, as he plodded along at the side of the patrol
+leader.
+
+Another consultation of the map Tom carried followed, and it was
+decided that they must be within a half a mile of the water. Ten
+minutes later Josh declared he had caught a glimpse of the sun shining
+on dancing wavelets; and shortly afterwards a sudden turn brought them
+in full view of the pond.
+
+It was hardly more than that, covering perhaps ten acres; but the boys
+declared they had never set eyes on a prettier sight as they arrived on
+the near shore, and proceeded to make a camp there.
+
+"If we only had a canoe up here what a great time we'd have fishing,"
+said Josh, who was particularly fond of casting a fly for a trout or
+bass, and scorned to use the humble angleworm, as ordinary fishermen
+do.
+
+"What's the matter with taking a log and straddling the same?" asked
+Tom. "Three of us could manage it, one to troll with a spoon, another
+to cast near the shore and the third to paddle the log."
+
+"Let's try that in the morning," suggested Josh, eagerly; "it's too
+late in the day to have any great luck now. But I like the looks of
+that pond--and I think we might get a good string of fish from it, if
+the wind's right."
+
+That night their fire glowed upon the border of the water. It was a
+new experience, and the boys, seeing Tom busily engaged in writing,
+told him to do full justice to the theme, for it deserved to be
+recorded exactly in the way they saw it.
+
+It was a comfortable night they spent by the pond, in sharp contrast to
+the preceding one when flattened out under the rocky ledges. Every one
+got a good sound night's sleep, so that when morning came they were in
+prime condition for the work of the day.
+
+"We'll stay here to-day and not go on for another twenty-four hours,"
+decided the scout master, as they sat around eating breakfast.
+
+"For one I'm glad to hear that," said Felix; "I can hike as well as the
+next fellow; but just the same when I'm off for pleasure I don't like
+to keep moving all the time. This suits me first-rate. Then I expect to
+do some paddling when we find the right sort of a log, with Josh at the
+bow casting his flies, and Tom at the stern trolling his phantom minnow
+along."
+
+The log needed was easily found, and was rolled down, to be launched in
+the pond. A rude paddle was also cut, with the aid of the ax and a
+sharp knife. Felix declared he could make it answer the purpose; so
+presently the enterprising scouts composing the fishing party went
+forth, followed by the best wishes of their mates.
+
+"Fix it so we have a fish dinner to-night, fellows!" Billy Button
+called out.
+
+"If you're wise you'll not make up your mouth that way; then there's no
+danger of being disappointed," said George. "I never expect anything,
+and so I meet with pleasant surprises once in a while."
+
+Perhaps since the days of old Robinson Crusoe a more remarkable fishing
+party never started out than that one. The three boys had taken off
+shoes and socks, and rolled up their trousers above their knees.
+Straddling the log, Felix used his paddle, and, sure enough, the clumsy
+craft moved along fast enough to answer their desires.
+
+Tom let out his line and trolled, while Josh began to cast with great
+animation, sending his trailing flies close to the shore, and drawing
+them toward him in fine style.
+
+Presently he struck and managed to land a fair-sized bass. Then Tom
+caught a larger one on his imitation minnow. The fun began to wax
+furious, so that once both the anglers chanced to be busily engaged
+with fish they had hooked at the same time.
+
+It was while this was going on, and their string had already reached
+respectable proportions, that the boys on the log heard a sound far
+away, up on the side of the mountain, which caused Josh to exclaim:
+
+"That's a pack of dogs yapping, and they're hot on the track of some
+sort of game, too! It may be only a poor little cottontail, but we'll
+soon know, for they're heading straight in our direction. Whew! listen
+to the yelps they give!"
+
+"There's something in the lake over yonder, and coming this way, too!"
+exclaimed Felix "Can it be a muskrat, Tom, do you think, swimming on
+top of the water?"
+
+"Not much it isn't!" cried Josh from the bow of the novel craft; "it's
+a deer I tell you, a stag with half-grown antlers, taking to the water
+to escape from the hounds."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+FRIENDS OF THE DEER
+
+
+"Yes, its a buck," announced Tom, as a shout from the camp told that
+one of the other scouts had also discovered the swimming animal.
+
+"Whew! there come the dogs along the shore!" cried Felix, pointing as
+he spoke to where a number of swiftly-moving objects could be seen.
+
+"They've taken to the water after the deer!" exclaimed Josh.
+
+"It'll be a shame if they manage to catch up with the poor thing in the
+pond!" Felix declared; "we ought to break that game up somehow. Isn't
+there a way?"
+
+"If we had a canoe instead of a log we might get between, and keep the
+dogs back," he was told by the patrol leader; "but I'm afraid we'll
+never be able to make it at this rate."
+
+Felix had started paddling furiously even while the other was speaking.
+The novel craft began to move through the water much faster than at any
+previous time. It was really surprising how much speed it could show,
+when driven by that stout, if homely, paddle, held in the hands of a
+muscular and excited scout.
+
+Tom gave directions as though he were the pilot, and while the swimming
+buck certainly saw them approaching he must have considered that these
+human enemies were not to be feared one-half as much as those merciless
+hounds following after him, for he swerved very little.
+
+"We're going to cut in between the deer and the dogs after all, boys!"
+cried the delighted Josh, who was bending his body with every movement
+of the paddler, as though he hoped to be able in that fashion to assist
+the drive.
+
+"It's a pity we didn't think to bring another paddle along!" was Tom's
+comment, "for that would have added considerably to our progress."
+
+As it was, however, they managed to intervene between the hounds and
+the frightened buck. Josh waved both arms, and shouted threateningly at
+the eager dogs. They possibly did not know what to make of it, for as a
+rule their masters probably tempted them to chase a deer even with the
+law against hounding in force.
+
+"Keep back there, you greedy curs!" yelled Josh; and as Tom and Felix
+joined in the shouting, the last mentioned also waving his flashing
+paddle, the swimming dogs came to a pause.
+
+Whenever they made a start as though intending to sweep past the log on
+which the three scouts were perched, Felix, waiting for some such move,
+paddled vigorously to head them off. This series of obstructive
+tactics, coupled with the demonstration made by the other boys, served
+to keep the hounds in check for a certain length of time.
+
+"There, he's made the shore across on the other side of the pond!"
+announced Tom.
+
+Looking that way the boys saw the harried buck hasten out of the
+shallow water. He turned once on the very edge to give a single glance
+back toward the baffled dogs, still swimming aimlessly about, and
+yapping in defeat, then leaped lightly into the undergrowth and
+vanished from sight.
+
+"Good-bye!" shouted Josh, waving his hand after the rescued deer, "and
+good luck!"
+
+The dogs by this time had managed to flank the obstruction.
+
+"No use chasing after them any more, Felix," said Tom; "I think the
+deer has a good lead on them now, and will easily make his escape."
+
+They watched the pack swim to the shore, and noted that they came out
+at some little distance from the spot where the buck had left the
+water.
+
+"That's going to delay them still more," announced Tom; "they've lost
+the scent, and will have to chase up and down hunting for it."
+
+Sure enough the hounds ran first one way with their noses to the
+ground, then doubled back. It was several minutes before a triumphant
+yelp announced that they had finally struck the lost trail.
+
+"There they go with a rush!" said Josh, as the pack was seen to start
+off, following the course taken by the deer.
+
+Their eager yelps became less distinct as they skirted around the foot
+of Big Bear Mountain.
+
+"Well, that was a queer happening, wasn't it?" said Tom, as they
+prepared to resume their fishing, which had been so singularly
+interrupted.
+
+"It'll make an interesting event for your note book, Tom," declared
+Felix.
+
+"A deer is seldom seen around this region," Josh ventured to say;
+"which makes our luck all the more remarkable. I wouldn't have missed
+that sight for a good deal!"
+
+"I saw Stanley Ackerman using his camera, so let's hope he got a bunch
+of snapshots that'll show the whole circus," Felix announced.
+
+"How about allowing dogs to roam the woods up here, Tom; isn't it
+against the law in this State nowadays?" Josh asked.
+
+"It certainly is," he was informed. "For a good many years chasing deer
+with hounds, and using a jack-light at nights to get them, has been
+strictly forbidden. Time was when packs of hounds used to be met with
+in plenty. Men would start out and hunt deer that way. Then the papers
+took it up, and showed the cruelty of the so-called sport, and it was
+abolished."
+
+"According to the law anybody is allowed to shoot dogs caught in the
+act of running deer, especially in the summer time; isn't that right,
+Tom?"
+
+"Yes, that's what we would have had a perfect right to do if we'd had a
+gun along. But I don't believe that pack belonged to any one man. They
+are dogs that have gone wild, and having gathered together in the
+woods, live by hunting."
+
+"I've heard that dogs do go back to the old wolf strain sometimes,"
+Josh admitted; "and now that you mention it, Tom, there was a wild look
+about every one of the beasts. I even thought they had half a notion to
+attack us at one time; but the way Felix kept that paddle flashing
+through the air cowed them, I guess."
+
+The fishing was resumed, though all this racket seemed to have caused
+the bass to cease taking hold for some time. By skirting the more
+distant shores, close to where the water grass and reeds grew, they
+finally struck a good ground, and were amply rewarded for the efforts
+put forth.
+
+"I think the bass must have their beds on this shoal here," said Tom,
+when they paddled back over the place at which success had come to
+them. "It's early in the season as yet, and a lot of them are still
+around here. They haven't gone out into deep water with their
+newly-hatched young ones."
+
+"Is that what they do?" asked Felix, who was not as much of a fisherman
+as either of his chums.
+
+"Well, not immediately after the eggs hatch," Tom told him. "The mother
+bass is going to keep her swarm of little ones in shallow water, and
+guard them until they get to a certain size. Then she darts in among
+them, scatters the whole lot, after which she is done with them. They
+have reached an age when they must take their chances."
+
+When finally about noon the three came ashore, rather stiff from having
+straddled that log for such a length of time, they had a pretty fine
+string of fish, two of them in fact.
+
+The talk as they ate their mid-day meal was along the subject of deer
+hunting, and Tom as well as Josh had to tell all about it, as far as
+they knew.
+
+Stanley declared he had made good use of his camera, and hoped the
+results would come up to expectations. All of them united in saying
+that it had been an adventure worth while; and apparently their
+sympathies were wholly with the gallant buck, for they expressed a
+fervent hope that he would succeed in outrunning his canine enemies.
+
+Somehow in the course of the conversation mention was made of Tony
+Pollock and his crowd.
+
+"I heard Tony tell a story of having seen a deer pulled down somewhere
+in the forest last fall by a pack of ugly dogs," related George Cooper.
+"At the time I believed he was only yarning, though he vowed black and
+blue it was so. He said the dogs looked and acted so ugly that he
+thought it best to clear out before they turned on him."
+
+"Like as not this same pack," remarked Tom. "They say that once a dog
+has taken to that savage sort of life nothing can ever coax him to go
+back to living with mankind again. It's in the blood, that call of the
+wild."
+
+"Well," chuckled Josh, "we know of another kind of call of the wild
+that's going to be heard in the land pretty soon, when Farmer Sile
+Perkins faces Tony. He will demand double pay for the chickens Tony and
+his crowd stole, on penalty of his being arrested if he doesn't whack
+up. Oh I can just see Tony begin to crawl then; and I wonder how he'll
+get the money."
+
+Carl was saying little or nothing, and Tom knew why. Here they had been
+on the hike several days, and as yet there had arisen not a single
+chance for him to get in touch with Dock Phillips.
+
+Tom understood that another spell of dark foreboding was beginning to
+enfold his chum. At the first opportunity he could find, Tom joined
+Carl. The latter had thrown himself down on the bank some distance away
+from the camp, where he could be in the shade, and yet look out on the
+sunlit water, which just then had a most attractive aspect.
+
+"You're worrying again because nothing has happened as we hoped would
+be the case, eh, Carl?" was what the patrol leader said as he dropped
+down close to the moody scout.
+
+Carl sighed heavily.
+
+"Perhaps it's foolish of me, Tom," he said, with a curious little break
+in his voice, which he tried hard to master; "but once in so often it
+seems as if something gripped me, and made me shiver. It's when I get
+to thinking what little real progress I am making that this chilly
+spell comes along."
+
+"Yes, I can understand that," the other told him. "I did hope we might
+run on Dock while we were up here, and either force or coax him to tell
+what he did with the stolen paper. He's away from the influence of Mr.
+Culpepper, you know, and if we had to come down to offering him a price
+to get the paper he might accept."
+
+"Oh! much as I hate to have to compromise such a thing," said Carl,
+desperately; "I believe I'd do it. Anything to get that paper, for the
+more I think of it the stronger I believe it means everything to my
+mother."
+
+"Well, we haven't quite got to the end of our tether yet," the patrol
+leader assured him. "I can't explain it, but somehow there's a feeling
+inside of me that tells me to keep on hoping. In some sort of fashion
+luck is going to turn your way. Just keep up your grit, and hang on.
+Take a lesson from the persistence of those dogs in following the
+deer."
+
+"Yes, I suppose I ought to. I've read how wolves will keep chasing
+after a deer day and night, steady as dock-work, until in the end they
+tire it out and get their dinner."
+
+Just then they heard a shout, or what was closer to a shriek. It came
+from beyond the camp, and was immediately followed by cries of alarm
+from the other scouts.
+
+"What's happened?" asked Tom, as with Carl he hurried to the spot to
+see a group approaching bearing some burden in their midst.
+
+"Walt Douglass fell out of a tree," replied Billy Button, looking very
+pale; "and Mr. Witherspoon says he's afraid it means a fractured leg,
+if nothing worse!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+FIRST AID TO THE INJURED
+
+
+Dismay seized upon most of the scouts upon realizing what a disaster
+had fallen upon them. Tom however was not the one to forget that he had
+made a special study of "first aid to the injured," as had also Rob
+Shaefer.
+
+"Carry him over here, where we'll make a soft bed of the blankets, and
+then we've got to see how badly he's hurt!" was what Tom called out,
+hurrying on ahead to arrange things.
+
+His example seemed contagious. Boys are apt to follow a leader very
+much as sheep will a bell-wether. Everybody wanted to assist; and the
+feeling of panic gave way to one of confidence. Scouts should be equal
+to any sudden emergency; and in that way prove the value of their
+education along the lines of usefulness.
+
+Walter was groaning dismally, although trying his best to bear the
+pain. He looked as white as a sheet in the face. Tom's first act was to
+force himself to appear cheerful; he knew that if all of them stared
+and shuddered it would have a bad effect on the injured lad.
+
+When they had made an examination Tom and Rob agreed that one of the
+bones only had been broken.
+
+"It's a painful thing, but not nearly so bad as a compound fracture
+would be," Tom announced. "I think we can set it all right,
+temporarily, and then bind the leg up. In the meantime, Mr.
+Witherspoon, please make up your mind what we'd better do about getting
+Walter home in a hurry, where the doctor can take charge of him."
+
+"I hope you won't think of giving up your hike just on account of me,
+fellows," said the poor Walter, weakly, showing a magnanimous spirit in
+adversity that made his chums feel all the more admiration for him.
+
+"Leave that to me," Mr. Witherspoon announced; "I remember seeing an
+old car in the yard of that house we passed some three miles back. If
+you boys can make some sort of stretcher for carrying Walter I'll see
+that he gets home to-day, if I have to accompany him, and then come
+back again to you."
+
+This cheered the stricken lad as nothing else could have done. Home
+just then had a most alluring look to Walter. The woods may seem all
+very delightful when a boy is perfectly well, but let sickness or an
+accident put him on his back, and there is nothing like one's own
+home.
+
+After making some preparations, Tom and Rob announced that they were
+ready.
+
+"It's going to hurt you some, Walter," said the patrol leader,
+regretfully; "but it's got to be done, you know. Those two ends of the
+bone must be brought together, and after that we intend to bandage your
+leg the very best we know how."
+
+Walter shut his teeth hard together, and seemed to prepare for the
+worst.
+
+"Go ahead, boys," he said, grimly; "I'll have to grin and bear it, I
+guess. And I deserve all I'm getting for being so silly as to slip when
+I was climbing that tree to see what was in the hole in the trunk."
+
+He managed to stand it very bravely indeed, though the agony must have
+been intense. The other scouts heaved a sigh when they saw the amateur
+surgeons start to binding up the injured limb.
+
+"That's all through with, Walter," said Tom, cheerily, "and you stood
+it like a soldier, we'll all declare. Just as soon as that litter is
+done you're going to be carried back to that house, if it takes every
+one of us to do the job."
+
+Josh and some of the others had been busily engaged trying to construct
+a suitable litter. Fortunately they had learned how this should be
+done, for it is one of the duties of every Boy Scout to know this.
+
+With the ax they cut a couple of stout poles about eight feet in
+length. These were to constitute the sides, and would form the handles,
+each one to be in charge of a scout.
+
+A blanket was arranged across these in such a manner that there would
+not be the slightest danger of its slipping, after the two poles had
+been held a certain distance apart with a couple of cross-pieces.
+
+When finally the litter was completed it was pronounced first-class by
+every one.
+
+"I'm proud of the way you boys grapple with an emergency," said Mr.
+Witherspoon, enthusiastically. "You're all a credit to the organization
+to which you belong. I mean that your light shall not be kept under a
+bushel, for this is an example worthy of being spread abroad, and
+copied by other scouts."
+
+The next thing was to lift Walter to the litter, which was done without
+giving the poor fellow much pain. He seemed so grateful for every
+little thing they did for him, and looked so pitiful lying there that
+tender-hearted Billy Button was observed to hurriedly rush away,
+pretending that he wanted to wash his hands down at the water, when
+they all knew the tears had been welling up in his eyes.
+
+"It's going to be no easy task getting him all the way back to that
+house," said Mr. Witherspoon, "especially over such rough ground as
+we've struck. Four will be needed to work at a time, and they'll have
+to be relieved often, so perhaps we had better all go along save one
+scout, who can stay to look after the camp."
+
+"Let Billy stay," said Josh; "he was complaining of a stone bruise on
+his heel, and would be better off here than taking that six mile
+tramp."
+
+So it was decided that Billy Button should remain in the camp. He did
+not look as if he enjoyed the prospect very much.
+
+"No wild animals around here to bother you, Billy," Josh assured him,
+when they were prepared to make the start.
+
+"You forget those dogs, I guess," Billy told him; "they must be pretty
+mad at us for holding them up. What must I do if they take a notion to
+come back and threaten to eat me up?"
+
+"Oh! the easiest thing for you to try," Josh told him, "would be to
+shin up this tree here, and wait for us to rescue you. We've hung our
+grub up so nothing can get hold of it. But don't worry, Billy; there
+isn't one chance in ten that the dogs'll come back this way."
+
+It was a strange procession that left the camp. Stanley took a picture
+of the litter bearers so they would have something to remember the
+occurrence by; and Walter had so far recovered from the shock and the
+acute pain as to be able to raise his head, so that he might appear in
+the scene as the object of all this excitement.
+
+Billy saw them depart, and then turned his attention to other things.
+Being left in full charge of the camp he had a sense of responsibility
+resting upon him, such as he had never experienced before.
+
+It would take them perhaps two full hours going that distance with the
+injured boy, because great care would be required in picking the
+easiest way. Of course the return journey would be made in half that
+time.
+
+Altogether three hours might elapse, even with the best of luck, before
+the main body of scouts could be expected back; and Billy had been told
+that they would depend on him to get supper started.
+
+It was fine to see how very careful the litter bearers were as they
+pushed along the back trail. One would go ahead to lead the way, and so
+avoid any unusually rough places as much as possible. Every boy looked
+well to his footing, since any sort of jolt, such as would accompany a
+stumble, was apt to cause Walter unnecessary pain.
+
+Their progress was necessarily somewhat slow. Tom said that was one of
+the times when it paid to be sure rather than to try to make speed. And
+from the fact that not once did they cause poor Walter to give a groan
+it could be seen that these careful litter-bearers fulfilled their duty
+fully as well as Red Cross or hospital attendants could have done.
+
+The two hours and more had passed before they came to the house at
+which Mr. Witherspoon had remembered seeing a car. It turned out that
+the man who lived there was doing so for his health. He wanted to be in
+a quiet place on account of shattered nerves.
+
+When he learned what had happened he told them he would gladly take the
+injured scout to his home, and that there was room also for Mr.
+Witherspoon, whom he would bring back with him again.
+
+The splendid manner in which the scouts had managed, both with regard
+to doing up the fractured limb, and in making that litter, excited the
+man's admiration; and he felt that he could not do too much for those
+self-reliant lads.
+
+"Such work should be encouraged by every right-thinking man or woman,"
+he told them; "and after you've all had a cup of hot coffee, which my
+wife is getting ready right now, we'll be off."
+
+Of course all of them were feeling much more cheerful, now that they
+knew the hike would not have to be abandoned on account of this
+accident. Some of the boys had begun to fear this would be the result.
+
+"When I get back here from town," Mr. Witherspoon told them, "it is apt
+to be late, and I'll be too tired to try that three miles over rough
+ground. So I've made arrangements to stay here over-night with our good
+friends. In the morning after breakfast I'll start off along the trail
+for the camp. Of course it would be nice if several of you met me half
+way there."
+
+"We'll be only too glad to do that, sir," Josh told him; for Mr.
+Witherspoon had by this time firmly entrenched himself in the
+affections of his boys, who believed him to be the best scout master
+any troop had ever boasted, barring none.
+
+After seeing the car start, and giving Walter a rousing send-off that
+must have done his heart good, the rest of the boys concluded to turn
+their faces toward the camp.
+
+"Three hours will seem an age to Billy Button," said Horace, who was
+feeling quite proud of the fact that he had been chosen as one of the
+litter-bearers.
+
+"Oh! he'll have plenty to do cleaning all those fish we caught this
+morning, and some other odd jobs I gave him," remarked Josh,
+carelessly.
+
+"Billy is inclined to be timid," Felix observed, loftily; "and it's a
+good thing, for him to be left alone once in a while. Nothing like
+making a scout feel he's just got to depend on himself for things."
+
+The three miles was soon covered by the returning eight scouts.
+
+"I can see smoke ahead!" announced Josh presently.
+
+"Yes, and there's the pond shining in the light of the sun," added
+Felix.
+
+"Isn't that our chum, Billy, waving his hands to us?" asked George.
+"Looks as if he wanted us to hurry up some. I wonder what's happened
+now?"
+
+"Oh! he's only anxious for us to join him," said Carl; "perhaps he made
+a mistake in the time we were to be back, and he's gone and cooked all
+the fish."
+
+It was soon seen, however, that the guardian of the camp had a good
+reason for his excitement. His face bore a troubled expression, it
+struck Tom, when he drew near the camp.
+
+"Anything gone wrong here Billy?" he asked.
+
+"I should say there had, Tom!" he burst out with. "Why, would you
+believe it, some miserable tramps raided the camp, and got away with
+most of our stuff!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+SCOUT GRIT
+
+
+"Tell us how it happened, Billy!" said the patrol leader, when the
+clamor of excited voices partly died away, giving him a chance to make
+himself heard.
+
+"Yes, what did they do to you, Billy?" demanded Josh, noticing that the
+other did not seem to be limping, or showing any other signs of having
+met with rough treatment at the hands of the camp raiders.
+
+"Why, it was this way," Billy hastened to explain. "You see I was down
+by the water cleaning all those fish at the time. Guess I must have
+been pretty much a whole hour at the job. And I'd just about finished
+when I thought I heard somebody give a sneeze, which made me get up off
+my knees and look around."
+
+"And did you see the tramps in camp cleaning things out then?" asked
+Felix.
+
+"Well, no, not exactly," replied Billy; "the most I thought I saw was
+something moving in the bushes on the other side of the camp; and yes,
+it was just like a laugh too that I caught."
+
+"What did you do?" asked Josh.
+
+"I wondered if those wild dogs had come back," said the guardian of the
+camp, "and the first thing I thought to do was to put the pan of fish
+I'd cleaned up in the crotch of a tree. Then I went to the camp, and
+oh! my stars I but it was in an _awful_ mess, with things flung around,
+and most of our eatables taken, as well as the frying-pan and
+coffee-pot!"
+
+"Oh! that's sure the limit!" groaned Josh. "We'll never be able to keep
+on our hike with nothing to eat or drink, and not a pan to cook stuff
+in, even if we bought it from the farmers. It spells the end, fellows!"
+
+"Yes," echoed George, always seeing the worst side of things, "we'll
+have to go back to town like dogs with their tails between their legs,
+and have all the other fellows make fun of us."
+
+"Hold on there, fellows, don't show the white feather so easily," said
+Tom, who was looking very determined.
+
+"Do you mean there's any chance for us to keep going, after our things
+have been taken in this way?" demanded George.
+
+"Well, we can talk that over to-night, and then see what Mr.
+Witherspoon has to say about it when he joins us in the morning," Tom
+told him. "As for me, I'd be willing to go on half rations rather than
+own up beat. How do we know but that this raid on our stuff was made
+just to force us to give up our hike?"
+
+"Why, how could that be?" asked Billy Button, wonderingly.
+
+"And why would hoboes want that to happen?" added George.
+
+"When Billy says they were tramps he's only jumping to conclusions,"
+Tom explained, "he doesn't know a thing about it, because he owns up he
+failed to get even a single look at the thieves. I've got my own
+opinion about this thing."
+
+"Meaning you believe you know who the fellows were?" questioned Carl.
+
+"Stop and think--who would like nothing better than to put us in a
+hole? Don't we happen to know that Tony Pollock and his crowd are
+around here on Big Bear Mountain somewhere? Didn't they rob that hen
+roost of Mr. Perkins?"
+
+"Tom, I really believe you're right!" exclaimed Josh, beginning to look
+at the matter from the standpoint taken by the patrol leader.
+
+"We can soon settle that part of it!" declared Rob Shaeffer.
+
+"By hunting for their tracks, and finding out how many thieves there
+were," Tom went on to say. "Come on Billy, and show me just where you
+saw the bushes moving when that laugh struck you."
+
+He called upon the others to keep back so that they might not spoil any
+tracks to be found at that particular spot. A very little search showed
+the boys what they so eagerly sought.
+
+"Here are tracks enough, and all heading away from the camp," said the
+patrol leader presently, "let's see how we can classify them, for every
+footprint will be different from the others."
+
+"Here's one that is square across the toe," announced Josh, instantly.
+"And say, seems to me I remember Asa Green always wears shoes like
+that. Now Wedge McGuffey has got broad shoulders and spindle legs, and
+he wears a pointed shoe like the one that made these tracks."
+
+"Here's another that's got a patch across the toe," said Felix.
+"Couldn't mistake that shoe, no matter where you saw it. A fellow could
+be hung on such circumstantial evidence as that."
+
+"And here's a fourth that's different from any of the rest," continued
+Tom, as he pointed downward, "so it looks as if there were just four in
+the bunch, which you may remember corresponds with the number in Tony
+Pollock's crowd, now that Dock Phillips has thrown his lot in with
+them."
+
+Some of the scouts expressed their indignation loudly as they
+investigated the results of the daring raid. It would not have been
+pleasant for Tony and his cronies had they been brought face to face
+with the angry scouts about that time.
+
+Tom Chesney soon had reason to admit that he had met with a personal
+loss that bothered him exceedingly.
+
+"They've even taken my little diary in which I've been keeping an
+accurate account of our entire trip," he announced; "though what good
+that could do them I'm at a loss to understand."
+
+"Oh! they just believed it would make you feel bad," explained Carl;
+"and that would tickle Tony, he's such a mean sort of fellow. Perhaps
+he expects to read it out to the others while they sit by their fire,
+and then throw it away. I hope you can write it all over again, Tom."
+
+"Too bad!" declared Josh, "when you went to such trouble to jot
+everything down just as it happened, thinking you might take that prize
+offered for the best true account of a hike by scouts."
+
+"I'll make sure to write this latest adventure out while it's fresh in
+my mind," remarked Tom, bent on making the best of a bad bargain.
+
+"Well," observed Felix, "all I hope is that we decide not to give up
+the ship for such a little thing as being without provisions. It'll
+make us hustle some to lay in a supply; but, after all, the experience
+is going to be a great thing for us."
+
+"And if it comes to a vote," added Horace, showing unexpected stamina
+in this emergency; "count on my voice being raised against giving up.
+Why, I'm just getting interested in this game, and I find it pretty
+exciting."
+
+"Just what I say!" echoed Josh.
+
+"And I!" came from every one of the others, without even the exception
+of poor Billy, who seemed to feel that he might be mostly to blame
+because the raid on the camp had been conducted while he was in charge.
+
+Tom smiled on hearing so unanimous an expression of opinion. He knew
+that even such an apparent catastrophe as had befallen them was not
+going to cause these gallant fellows to "take water."
+
+"How long ago was it that the raid took place, Billy?" asked Josh, as
+though a sudden idea had struck him.
+
+"Oh! I should say about an hour or more," replied the other, after
+thinking it over. "I suppose they watched the camp for a while to make
+sure I was the only one around. Then when they saw me so busy down
+there by the pond they just started to root. They may have been poking
+around half an hour, for all I know; I was keeping my eyes on my work
+and thinking of poor Walter."
+
+"Tom, would it pay us to follow them right now?" demanded Josh, while
+his eyes sparkled with the spirit of retaliation, as though he could
+picture them pouncing on the spoilers of the camp, and making them pay
+dearly for their frolic.
+
+The patrol leader, however, shook his head in the negative, much to the
+disappointment of the impetuous Josh.
+
+"In the first place they were apt to hurry off," said Tom. "Then they
+might even try to blind their trail, though I don't believe any of them
+know much of the Indian way of doing that. But the sun will soon set,
+and it grows dark early along the northeast side of Big Bear Mountain
+you know."
+
+"Yes," added George, always ready with an objection, "and some of us
+feel a little tired after all we've gone through with to-day."
+
+"We'd better leave that until Mr. Witherspoon joins us in the morning,"
+concluded Tom. "Of course that wouldn't prevent a couple of scouts
+following the trail a bit while breakfast was cooking, and saving us
+that much trouble later on."
+
+"The next thing for us to see about is how under the sun will we cook
+all these delicious bass Billy's got ready?" remarked Felix.
+
+"Oh! I forgot to tell you they missed one frying-pan," remarked Billy,
+exultantly; "it chanced to be hanging from a nail I drove in a tree,
+and they couldn't have seen it. By making relays we can do our cooking
+in that."
+
+"Besides, we're two shy of our original number," added Horace.
+
+"What would we have done without any skillet at all, Tom?" asked Billy.
+
+"Oh! there are ways of doing it by heating a flat stone, and cooking
+the fish on that," replied Tom. "Then some old hunters who won't bother
+to carry a frying-pan into the woods with them manage by toasting the
+meat or fish at the end of a long sliver of wood. Given the fish and a
+hot fire, the fellow who couldn't invent some way of cooking would
+deserve to go hungry."
+
+"That's right," agreed Josh. "And everybody notice that it's going to
+take more than a little thing like this to stall the scouts who are up
+to their business."
+
+Indeed, there did seem to be an unusual spirit of animation among the
+boys that evening. Every fellow was anxious to assist in getting supper
+ready, so that after all it began to look at one time like a case of
+"too many cooks spoiling the broth."
+
+When the first batch of fish had been browned they were kept hot on a
+clean stone close to the fire while the other lot was cooked. As their
+supply of coffee had gone together with numerous other things, the boys
+had to drink cold water for supper. Loud were the lamentations over
+this.
+
+"The smell of coffee, bacon, or fried onions is what always makes it
+seem like camping out," declared Josh, sadly; "and now we haven't got a
+single one of those lovely things left. Our breakfast is going to be a
+pretty limited one; and as for other meals to-morrow, where they are
+going to come from is a question I'd like somebody to settle."
+
+"Listen," said Tom. "I'm going to get you up at daylight, Josh."
+
+"Me? What for? Do we have to start in fishing that early, or else go
+hungry?"
+
+"I want you to go along with me, that's all, Josh."
+
+"Along--where to, may I ask?" continued the other scout, wonderingly.
+
+"Back to where we took Walter," replied Tom; "I think when that
+gentleman hears what's happened to us, after we tell Mr. Witherspoon,
+he might be willing to sell us some supplies, such as coffee and bacon,
+and even loan us an extra frying-pan, as well as some sort of tin to
+boil coffee in."
+
+So, after all, the boys who gathered around the camp fire that evening,
+after such an eventful day, did not seem to be cast down one-half as
+much as undoubtedly the four young rascals who had played this mean
+trick upon them expected would be the case.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+THE CABIN IN THE WOODS
+
+
+It was just about an hour after dawn, and the sun had hardly got
+started on his journey toward the zenith, when two boys in the khaki
+garb of scouts arrived at the house to which Walter Douglass had been
+carried on a litter.
+
+Mr. Witherspoon on coming out to get a breath of air before breakfast
+was announced was surprised and pleased to see Tom and Josh.
+
+"Why, this is splendid of you, boys!" he remarked, as they came toward
+him. "Of course you were anxious to know about your comrade. We got him
+safely home, and called the doctor, who said he would not have to set
+the limb again, since you scouts had done the job in first-class style.
+It's a feather in your cap, for he is sure to tell it everywhere. Now,
+what makes you look so glum, Josh?"
+
+That gave them a chance to explain. When the scout master heard of the
+latest outrage of which the Tony Pollock crowd had been guilty, he was
+much annoyed.
+
+"We thought," Tom went on to say, "that perhaps by coming over here
+before you got started we might influence the gentleman to spare us a
+small amount of coffee, a strip of bacon, and some sort of tin to make
+the coffee in."
+
+"No harm trying," Mr. Witherspoon immediately remarked; "and it does
+you credit to have thought up such a scheme. I've found him an
+accommodating gentleman. If he has anything he can spare I'm sure we'll
+be welcome to it."
+
+When the matter was mentioned to Mr. Clark, he immediately offered to
+help them out as far as he could do so.
+
+"I can give you plenty of eggs," he said, "and enough coffee for
+several meals. It happens that I'm shy on bacon just now, and intended
+to run in to town to stock up either to-day or to-morrow, when I have
+my eggs to dispose of. What I can spare, you're entirely welcome to."
+
+Nor would he allow them to pay a cent for what he handed over to them.
+
+"What I've heard about you boys from Mr. Witherspoon here has aroused
+my interest greatly," he told Tom and Josh as they were about to
+depart; "and I'd be glad to know more about such a splendid movement as
+this promises to be. You must keep me informed of your progress. I
+would appreciate an occasional letter. Then, if it happens that your
+account of the outing is ever put in print, Tom, remember me with a
+copy."
+
+"I certainly will, sir," the patrol leader promised, for he realized
+that the gentleman and his wife led a lonely life of it, removed from
+association as they were, with most of their fellows.
+
+They reached the camp in three-quarters of an hour after leaving the
+house, and received a noisy welcome from the rest of the boys, who gave
+their leaders the regular scout salute as they came into camp.
+
+Then once again the affair was discussed, this time with Mr.
+Witherspoon to listen and give occasional comments. It ended in their
+original plan's being sustained. They would not give up, and would try
+to carry out the plan as arranged before the hike was started.
+
+Tom had an idea that they must be near the cabin of Larry Henderson,
+the naturalist whom he had met in Lenox, at the time of the snowball
+battle with the Pollock crowd.
+
+"He gave me directions how to find his cabin," Tom explained to his
+companions when they were discussing this matter, "and I believe we
+must be somewhere near there right now. I asked Mr. Clark, and what he
+could tell me only confirmed my idea."
+
+"But Tom, do you think we could get some supplies from him?" asked
+Josh.
+
+"There's a reasonable chance of that," he was told. "I understood him
+to say he always kept a supply of all sorts of food on hand. It was to
+lay in a lot that took him down to Lenox that time, you know."
+
+"Then goodness knows I hope we can run on his shack to-day," said Felix
+fervently. "We want most of all coffee, potatoes, onions, bacon, ham,
+and, well anything that can stop the gap when ten campers are half
+starved."
+
+"Shall we get started right away, Tom?" asked George, who looked
+distressed, as though he had not been wholly satisfied with the amount
+of his breakfast.
+
+"There's nothing to delay us, since we have no tents to come down," Tom
+told him. "Every fellow fold up a blanket, and make his pack ready."
+
+"It's going to be marching in light order with us nowadays," sighed
+Felix, "with all our good stuff stolen. That's the only compensation I
+can see about it."
+
+"Tom, you've studied your chart good and hard, let's hope," commented
+Josh; "so we won't run any chance of going past the place without
+knowing it?"
+
+"He gave me certain land marks that I couldn't very well miss seeing,"
+explained the patrol leader.
+
+"According to my way of thinking," Felix was saying, "we must be half
+around the foot of Big Bear Mountain by this time."
+
+"You've got the right idea of it," admitted the one who carried the
+chart; "and Mr. Henderson's cabin isn't far away from here. That crag
+up on the side of the mountain was one of the things he told me about.
+When we can get it in a direct line with that peak up there we will be
+within shouting distance of his place."
+
+Tom continued to keep on his guard as they pressed onward. Every one
+was alive to the necessity of finding the cabin of the old naturalist
+as soon as possible. Farms were so rare up here that they found they
+could not count on getting their supplies from such places; and the
+possibility of going hungry was not a pleasant prospect.
+
+After all it was an hour after noon when Tom announced the fact that
+the several land marks which had been given to him were in conjunction.
+
+"The cabin must be around here somewheres," he said, positively.
+
+Hardly had he spoken when Josh was noticed to be sniffing the air in a
+suspicious fashion.
+
+"What is it, Josh?" asked the scout master.
+
+"I smell smoke, that's all," was the answer.
+
+Others could do the same, now that their attention was called to the
+fact.
+
+"With the breeze coming from over that way, it ought to be plain enough
+we must look for the cabin there," remarked Tom.
+
+The further they advanced the plainer became the evidence that there
+was a fire of some sort ahead of them. Presently they got a whiff of
+cooking, at which some of the hungry scouts began to sniff the air like
+war horses when the odor of burnt powder comes down the breeze from the
+battlefield.
+
+"There it is!" exclaimed one of the watchful boys, suddenly.
+
+Yes, there stood a commodious cabin right in the midst of the thick
+woods. It was a charming site for the home of one who loved nature as
+much as the old naturalist did.
+
+When a vociferous shout rang forth a form was seen to come quickly to
+the open doorway. It was the same genial Larry Henderson whom some of
+the scouts had once rescued from the unkind assault of the bully of
+Lenox and his crowd, as they pelted the lame man with hard ice balls.
+
+He welcomed them to his little home with a heartiness that could not be
+doubted, and soon a royal dinner was being prepared for the whole
+party. While this was being dispatched later on, the owner of the woods
+cabin listened to the story of the great hike over Big Bear Mountain,
+as told by the boys.
+
+Everything seemed to interest him very much indeed, and when last of
+all they told him how some unscrupulous boys had stolen most of their
+supplies, meaning to break up the hike, Mr. Henderson looked pleased.
+
+"Don't let a little thing like that deter you, boys, from carrying out
+your original proposition," he remarked. "I can spare you all you want
+in the way of supplies. Yes and even to a coffee-pot and an extra
+frying-pan. An enterprise as splendidly started as this has been must
+not be allowed to languish, or be utterly wrecked through the mean
+tricks of such scamps as those boys."
+
+He was pleased when they gave him a round of hearty cheers, such as
+could only spring from a group of lively, wide-awake American boys.
+
+Afterwards he showed Tom and some of the others many things that
+interested them more than words could tell. Indeed, so fascinating were
+the various things he took the trouble to explain to them, that the
+scouts only wished they could stay at the cabin in the woods for a
+number of days, enjoying his society.
+
+It was decided that they must remain there at least until another
+morning, which would give them a night with the naturalist and hunter,
+a prospect that afforded satisfaction all around.
+
+Tom soon saw that Mr. Henderson had something on his mind which he
+wished to confide to him; consequently he was not much surprised when
+he saw him beckon to the leader of the Black Bear Patrol to join him.
+
+"Tell Mr. Witherspoon to come, too, and also that bright chap you call
+Rob," remarked the recluse. "It is a little matter that may interest
+you and I think it best to lay the story before you, and then let you
+decide for yourselves what you want to do. Still, from what I've seen
+up to this time of your character, I can give a pretty shrewd guess
+what your answer will be."
+
+Of course this sort of talk aroused a good deal of curiosity in both
+Tom Chesner and Rob Shaefer, and they impatiently awaited the coming of
+the scout master.
+
+"And now I'll explain," Mr. Henderson told them, when he found three
+eager pairs of eyes fastened on him. "I chanced to be about half a mile
+away from home an hour before noon to-day when I heard angry voices,
+and discovered that several persons were about to pass by, following a
+trail that leads straight into the worst bog around the foot of Big
+Bear Mountain."
+
+"I warrant you that it must have been the four young rascals who robbed
+our camp, that you saw," ventured Mr. Witherspoon.
+
+"I know now that it was as you say," continued the other. "At the time
+I might have called out and warned them of the peril that lay in wait
+for them if they should continue along that misleading trail, but when
+I looked at their faces, and heard a little of the vile language they
+used, I determined that it would be a very unwise thing for me to let
+them know I lived so near."
+
+"And you allowed them to go on past, you mean, sir?" questioned Mr.
+Witherspoon.
+
+"Yes, I regret to confess it now," came the reply, "but at the time it
+seemed to be simply ordinary caution on my part. Besides, how was I to
+know they would pay the slightest heed to anything I might say? I did
+not like their looks. But since then I've had grave doubts about the
+wisdom of my course, and was more than half inclined to start out, lame
+though I am, to see whether they did get off the only safe trail, and
+lose themselves in the bog."
+
+"Is it then so dangerous?" asked Mr. Witherspoon; while Tom was saying
+to himself that perhaps the chance so ardently desired by poor Carl
+might be coming at last.
+
+"There are places where it might be death itself to any one who got off
+the trail, and became bewildered. The mud is deceptive, and once one
+gets fast in it an hour or two is apt to see him swallowed up; nor will
+his fate ever be known, for the bottomless mire of the bog never
+discloses its secrets."
+
+Tom drew a long breath.
+
+"If you will show us the way there, sir," he told the naturalist, "we
+will certainly accompany you."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+INTO THE BIG BOG
+
+
+"Is it worth our while to bother with that crowd, Tom?" asked Josh,
+with a look approaching disgust on his face.
+
+One lad waited to hear what reply the patrol leader would make with
+more or less eagerness, as his face indicated. Needless to say this was
+Carl Oskamp, who had so much at stake in the matter.
+
+"There's just this about it, Josh," said Tom, gravely, "suppose after
+we arrived safely home from this splendid hike, the first thing we
+heard was that one or two of that crowd had been lost in the Great Bog
+up here, and it was feared they must have found a grave in the mud
+flats. How would we feel about it, knowing that we had had the chance
+given to us to stretch out a helping hand them, and had failed?"
+
+Josh turned red in the face. Then he made a sudden gesture which meant
+he was ready to throw up his hands.
+
+"Huh! guess you know best," he replied, in a husky voice; "I didn't
+think of it that way. I'd sure hate to have such a thing on my mind
+nights. Let's start right away then."
+
+That was the way with Josh; when he had anything unpleasant to do he
+was always eager to get it accomplished. For that matter, however,
+there were others among the scouts who wished to be astir, for the
+words of the patrol leader had thrilled them.
+
+"What if they have gotten lost in that awful mud bog, and right now are
+stuck fast there, whooping for help?" suggested Felix.
+
+Billy Button and Horace looked white with the very thought. As usual
+George pretended to make light of the whole matter, though some of them
+fancied much of his disbelief was assumed, for George had a reputation
+to maintain.
+
+"Oh! no danger of those Smart Alecks being caught so easy," he told
+them; "they could slip through any sort of bog without getting stuck.
+Like as not we'll only have our trouble for our pains."
+
+"You can stay here at the cabin if you like, George," Tom told him.
+
+That, however, was far from George's mind; if the others meant "to make
+fools of themselves he guessed he could stand it too"; and when they
+started forth George had his place in the very van. Josh often said
+George's "bark was worse than his bite."
+
+"Fortunately," said the old naturalist, "the Great Bog isn't more than
+a mile away from here, and as I've spent many a happy hour there
+observing the home life of the little creatures that live in its depths
+the ground is familiar to me."
+
+"But you still limp, I notice, sir," remarked Tom; "are you sure you
+can make it to-day? Hadn't we better try it alone?"
+
+"I wouldn't think of letting you," replied the other, hastily. "I shall
+get along fairly well, never fear. This limp has become more a habit
+with me than anything else, I must admit. But if you are ready let us
+start off."
+
+Accordingly the entire party began to head in the direction taken by
+those four boys from Lenox. Rob and Josh were keeping a close watch,
+and from time to time announced that those they were following had
+actually come along that same trail, for they could see their
+footprints.
+
+"You know we took note of the different prints made by their shoes,"
+Rob told some of the other boys when they expressed surprise that this
+should be possible, "and it's easy enough to tell them every once in a
+while."
+
+"They are really following my usual trail, which I always take when
+going to or returning from a trip," explained the hermit-naturalist,
+looking pleased at this manifestation of scout sagacity on the part of
+the trackers.
+
+Tom was keeping alongside his chum Carl, instead of being with those
+who led the procession. He had a reason for this, too; since he had
+seen that the other was again showing signs of nervousness.
+
+"Tom," said Carl in a low voice as they walked steadily onward, "do you
+think I may have a chance to see Dock face to face, so I can ask him
+again to tell me what he ever did with that paper he took?"
+
+"While of course I can't say positively," was Tom's steady answer, "I
+seem to feel that something's going to happen that will make you
+happier than you've been this many a long day, Carl."
+
+"Oh! I hope you're on the right track!" exclaimed Carl, drawing a long
+breath, as he clutched the arm of his faithful chum. "It would mean
+everything to me if only I could go home knowing I was to get that
+paper. Just think what a fine present it would be to my mother, worried
+half to death as she is right now over the future."
+
+"Well, keep hoping for the best, and it's all going to come out well.
+But what's that the boys are saying?"
+
+"I think they must have sighted the beginning of the Great Bog,"
+replied Carl. "Do you suppose Mr. Henderson has brought that stout
+rope along with the idea that it may be needed to pull any one out of
+the mud?"
+
+"Nothing else," said Tom. "He knows all about this place, and from what
+he's already told us I reckon it must be a terrible hole."
+
+"Especially in that one spot where he says the path is hidden under the
+ooze, and that if once you lose it you're apt to get in deeper and
+deeper, until there's danger of being sucked down over your head."
+
+"It's a terrible thing to think of," declared Tom; "worse even than
+being caught in a quicksand in a creek, as I once found myself."
+
+"How did you get out?" asked Carl. "I never heard you say anything
+about it before, Tom?"
+
+"Oh! in my case it didn't amount to much," was the answer, "because I
+realized my danger by the time the sand was half way to my knees. I
+suppose if I'd tried to draw one foot out the other would have only
+gone down deeper, for that's the way they keep sinking, you know."
+
+"But tell me how you escaped?" insisted Carl.
+
+"I happened to know something about quicksands," responded the other,
+modestly, "and as soon as I saw what a fix I was in I threw myself
+flat, so as to present as wide a surface as I could, and crawled and
+rolled until I got ashore. Of course I was soaked, but that meant very
+little compared with the prospect of being smothered there in that
+shallow creek."
+
+"But the chances are Tony and those other fellows know nothing at all
+about the best ways to escape from a sucking bog," ventured Carl.
+
+"Yes, and I can see that Mr. Henderson is really worried about it. He
+is straining his ears all the while, and I think he must be listening
+in hope of hearing calls for help."
+
+"But none of us have heard anything like that!" said the other.
+
+"No, not a shout that I could mention," Tom admitted. "There are those
+noisy crows keeping up a chatter in the tree-tops where they are
+holding a caucus, and some scolding bluejays over here, but nothing
+that sounds like a human cry."
+
+"It looks bad, and makes me feel shivery," continued Carl.
+
+"Oh! we mustn't let ourselves think that all of them could have been
+caught," the patrol leader hastened to say, meaning to cheer his chum
+up. "They may have been smarter than Mr. Henderson thinks, and managed
+to get through the bog without getting stuck."
+
+Perhaps Carl was comforted by these words on the part of his chum; but
+nevertheless the anxious look did not leave his face.
+
+They had by this time fully entered the bog. It was of a peculiar
+formation, and not at all of a nature to cause alarm in the beginning.
+Indeed it seemed as though any person with common sense could go
+through on those crooked trails that ran this way and that.
+
+The old naturalist had taken the lead at this point, and they could see
+that he kept watching the trail in front of him. From time to time he
+would speak, and the one who came just behind passed the word along, so
+in turn every scout knew that positive marks betrayed the fact of
+Tony's crowd having really come that way.
+
+By slow degrees the nature of the bog changed. One might not notice
+that his surroundings had become less promising, and that the surface
+of the ooze, green though it was, would prove a delusion and a snare if
+stepped on, allowing the foot to sink many inches in the sticky mass.
+
+In numerous places they could see where the boys ahead of them had
+missed the trail, though always managing to regain the more solid
+ground.
+
+"It's getting a whole lot spooky in here, let me tell you!" admitted
+Felix, after they had been progressing for some time.
+
+"But it's entirely different from a real swamp, you see," remarked
+Josh; "I've been in a big one and I know."
+
+"How about that, Josh; wouldn't you call a bog a swamp, too?" asked
+George.
+
+"Not much I wouldn't," was the reply. "A swamp is always where there
+are dense trees, hanging vines and water. It's a terribly gloomy place
+even in the middle of the day, and you're apt to run across snakes, and
+all sorts of things like that."
+
+"Well, we haven't seen a single snake so far," admitted Horace. "I'm
+glad, too, because I never did like the things. This isn't so very
+gloomy, when you come to look around you, but I'd call it just
+desolate, and let it go at that."
+
+"Black mud everywhere, though it's nearly always covered with a
+deceptive green scum," remarked Josh, "with here and there puddles of
+water where the frogs live and squawk the live-long day."
+
+"I wonder how deep that mud is anyhow?" speculated George.
+
+"Suppose you get a pole and try while we're resting here," suggested
+Josh, with a wink at the scout next to him.
+
+George thereupon looked around, and seeing a pole which Mr. Henderson
+may have placed there at some previous time he started to push it into
+the bog.
+
+"What d'ye think of that, fellows?" he exclaimed, in dismay when he had
+rammed the seven foot pole down until three fourths of its length had
+vanished in the unfathomable depths of soft muck.
+
+"Why, seems as if there wasn't any bottom at all to the thing," said
+Felix.
+
+"Of course there is a bottom," remarked the naturalist, who had been
+watching the boys curiously; "but in some places I've been unable to
+reach it with the longest pole I could manage."
+
+"Have we passed that dangerous place you were telling us about, sir?"
+asked Mr. Witherspoon.
+
+"No, it is still some little distance ahead," came the reply.
+
+"If it's much worse than right here I wouldn't give five cents for
+their chances," declared George.
+
+"Hark!" exclaimed Tom just then.
+
+"What did you hear?" cried Carl.
+
+"It sounded like voices to me, though some distance off, and coming
+from further along the trail," the patrol leader asserted.
+
+"They may be stuck in the mire and trying every way they can to get
+out," observed the naturalist. "Let us give them a shout, boys. Now,
+all together!"
+
+As they all joined in, the volume of sound must have been heard a mile
+away. Hardly had the echoes died out than from beyond came loud calls,
+and plainly they heard the words "Help, help! Oh! come quick, somebody!
+Help!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+RETURNING GOOD FOR EVIL
+
+
+When that wailing cry reached their ears it thrilled the scouts through
+and through, for now they knew that the worst must have happened to the
+wretched Tony Pollock and his three cronies, adrift in the treacherous
+muck bog.
+
+"Forward, but be very careful to keep in my tracks all the time!"
+called out the naturalist as he started off.
+
+They wound around this way and that. There were times when Rob, who
+came directly on the heels of the pilot, could not see the slightest
+trace of a trail; but he realized that from long association and
+investigation Mr. Henderson knew exactly where to set his feet, and
+thus avoid unpleasant consequences.
+
+They now and then sent out reassuring calls, for those unseen parties
+ahead continued to make fervent appeals, as though a terrible fear
+assailed them that the rescuers might go astray and miss them.
+
+By degrees the shouts sounded closer, though becoming exceedingly
+hoarse. Presently Felix called out that he believed he had glimpsed the
+unfortunate boys.
+
+"Oh! they're all in the mud, and up to their waists at that!" he cried.
+
+"No, you're wrong there, Felix," said Josh. "Three of them seem to be
+stuck fast, but there's one up in that tree nearly over them. He must
+have managed to pull himself up there, somehow or other."
+
+"He's got a branch, and is trying to help one of his mates," asserted
+Rob. "But he doesn't seem to be making much headway."
+
+"They're in a peck of trouble, believe me!" admitted George, for once
+neglecting to sneer at the prospect of a fatality.
+
+Carl was trying to make out who the three in the bog were.
+
+"Can you see if _he's_ in there, Tom?" he asked, eagerly.
+
+"Yes, it's Wedge McGuffey up in the tree, and the others must be Tony,
+Asa and Dock," the patrol leader assured him; nor did he blame poor
+Carl for sighing as though in relief, for he could easily guess what it
+meant to him, this golden opportunity to be of help to the stubborn boy
+who could lift the load from his heart, if only he chose.
+
+When they came closer to the struggling captives in the lake of mud
+they heard them actually sobbing for joy. Hope must have been almost
+gone when first they heard that chorus of cheering shouts. And when the
+scouts saw what a desperate condition the three prisoners were in they
+could not blame them for showing such emotion in the excess of their
+joy.
+
+Soon the newcomers were as close as they could come to the three who
+were stuck there in the mire. Never would they forget their deplorable
+appearance. They had evidently floundered about until they were fairly
+plastered over with the mud, and looked like imps.
+
+"Can't you get us out of here, fellers?" called Tony Pollock, in a
+voice that seemed almost cracked, such was his excitement, and his
+fears that these scouts, whom he had done his best to injure, might
+think to pay him back in his own coin and abandon him to his fate.
+
+"Yes, we'll manage it some way or other," said the hermit-naturalist.
+"Keep as still as you can, because every movement only sends you down
+deeper."
+
+Then he turned to Tom, for he knew the patrol leader was the one to
+take charge of the rescue party.
+
+"Here's the rope, Tom," he told him. "Pick out several of the stoutest
+of your comrades, and make use of the tree as a lever. It's all very
+simple, you can see, thought it may hurt them more or less when you
+pull."
+
+Tom understood what was expected of him.
+
+"Come along with me, Carl, Rob and Josh," he said. "The rest of you
+stand by and be ready to pull if we need any more help. We'll pass the
+end of the rope back to you."
+
+"But how are we going to climb up in the tree?" asked Rob; "without
+getting stuck in the mud ourselves?"
+
+"There's only one way," replied Tom, as he seized hold of a branch that
+happened to be within reach, and commenced to climb it as though he
+were a sailor swarming up a rope.
+
+When he had effected a lodgment above they threw the rope to him, and
+after Tom had made one end fast to the thick limb the other three had
+little difficulty in following him.
+
+Then they clambered out to where Wedge McGuffey was perched. His
+condition betrayed the fact that he too had been caught in the muck;
+but being closer to a friendly branch he must have made a tremendous
+effort and climbed into the tree.
+
+First of all Tom made a running noose in the end of the rope. Then he
+lowered this to Tony who was almost below the limb of which they were
+astride.
+
+"Listen, Tony," said Tom, clearly, "put the loop under your arms, with
+the knot at your chest. Then grin and bear it, because we've got to
+drag hard to get you free from all that stuff you're in."
+
+"Oh! never mind about me, Tom; I'd stand anything if only I could get
+out of this terrible place. Pull me in half if you have to; I'm game!"
+said the boy below.
+
+They found that it was really a little harder than they had bargained
+for, because of their insecure footing. Accordingly, after several
+attempts that did not meet with much success, Tom had the other end of
+the rope carried to the scouts who were on the ground.
+
+After that Tony just had to come. He evidently suffered pain, but, as
+he had said, he was game, and in the end they hoisted him to the limb,
+where he clung watching the next rescue.
+
+It happened that Asa was the second to be pulled out. Meanwhile Dock
+was in great distress of mind. All his nerve seemed to have gone, for
+he kept pleading with Carl not to think of having revenge because of
+the way he had harmed him.
+
+"Only get me out of this, Carl," he kept saying, "and I've got
+something right here in my pocket I'm meaning to give back to you. I
+was getting shaky about it anyhow; but if you help me now you're
+a-goin' to have it, sure you are, Carl!"
+
+It can easily be imagined that Carl worked feverishly when it came
+time to get Dock Phillips out. He was deeper than either of the others
+had been, and it required some very rough usage before finally they
+loosened him from his miry bed.
+
+Dock groaned terribly while the work was being carried on, but they did
+not stop for that, knowing it had to be. In the end he, too, was drawn
+up to the limb, a most sorry looking spectacle indeed, but his groans
+had now changed into exclamations of gratitude.
+
+It required much labor to get the four mud-daubed figures down to where
+the others were awaiting them. Even Tom and his helpers were pretty
+well plastered by that time, and their new uniforms looked anything but
+fine. Josh grumbled a little, but as for Tom and Carl they felt that it
+was worth all it cost and a great deal more.
+
+Carl would not wait any longer than he could help. Perhaps he believed
+in "striking while the iron was hot." Tom too was egging him on, for he
+felt that the sooner that precious paper was in the possession of his
+chum the better.
+
+"Dock, I hope you mean to keep your word to me," Carl said, as they
+took up the line of march over the ground that had been so lately
+covered.
+
+Dock was seen to be fumbling as though reaching into an inner pocket;
+and while the suspense lasted of course Carl held his very breath.
+Then a hand reached back, and something in it was eagerly seized by
+the widow's son. One look told him that it was the paper his mother
+needed so much in order to balk the greedy designs of Amasa Culpepper.
+
+"How is everything now, Carl?" asked a voice in his ear, and turning he
+found Tom's smiling face close to his own.
+
+"Oh! that terrible load seems to have fallen from my shoulders just as
+water does from the back of a duck!" Carl exclaimed, joyously, and the
+patrol leader saw that he was very happy.
+
+"I'm so glad!" was all Tom said, but the way he grasped his chum's hand
+counted for much more than mere words.
+
+When they finally reached the end of the treacherous Great Bog there
+was a halt called by the naturalist.
+
+"We must stop here and try to clean these boys off as best we can," he
+announced.
+
+This was no easy task, but by making use of slivers of wood from a
+fallen tree they finally managed to relieve Tony and his crowd of most
+of the black mud, although they would be apt to carry patches of it on
+their garments for some time after it dried.
+
+"Now," said the kindly old hermit-naturalist, "I'm going to invite all
+of you up to my cabin, and we'll have a feast to-night in celebration
+of this rescue from the Great Bog. You four lads have had a narrow
+escape, and I only hope you'll never forget what the scouts have done
+for you."
+
+Even Tony seemed affected, and certainly no one had ever before known
+him to show the first sign of contrition. He went straight up to Tom
+and looked him in the eye.
+
+"We played your crowd a mighty low trick I want to say, Tom Chesney;
+and while we've et up most of the grub we took, here's something you
+might be glad to get back again," and with that he thrust into the hand
+of the patrol leader the little note-book which Tom had mourned as lost
+to him forever.
+
+"I'm glad to have that again, Tony," the other said, offering his hand
+to the contrite one; "because I mean to use my account of this hike
+later on in trying for a prize. It's lucky you didn't throw it away as
+you did the frying-pan and coffee-pot, which I see you failed to carry
+along with you."
+
+"We know where they're hid in the brush," Tony hastened to declare;
+"and I c'n get 'em again inside of an hour. I'm a-goin' to do it too,
+'cause I feel mean about that thing. I'm done with callin' the scouts
+names. Fellers that'd reach out a helpin' hand to them that didn't
+deserve it must be the right sort. And laugh if you want to, Tom
+Chesney, but when we get back home I want ye to lend me a book that
+tells all a feller has to do when he thinks of gettin' up a scout
+troop!"
+
+Tony was as good as his word. When he said a thing he stuck to it,
+which was his best quality. He tramped a long way back along the trail,
+and reappeared after sunset bearing the missing cooking utensils.
+
+"We're going to pay for the eatables we took later on, I promise ye,
+Tom," he declared.
+
+They spent a great night and those four boys who had hated the scouts
+so long learned many wonderful things connected with the great movement
+as they sat by the fire, and listened to all that was said.
+
+In the morning they went their way, and appeared to be different youths
+from what they had been in the past.
+
+Mr. Witherspoon and the scouts spent another day and night with the
+hermit-naturalist. Then on the next morning they started forth to
+complete their hike over Big Bear Mountain.
+
+It chanced that no further adventures came their way, and one afternoon
+weary but well satisfied with the success of their trip, the troop
+re-entered Lenox, with Felix sounding his fish horn just as valiantly
+as though it were the most beautiful silver-plated bugle that money
+could buy.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+WHEN CARL CAME HOME--CONCLUSION
+
+
+Amasa Culpepper had taken advantage of the absence of Carl to drop
+around that afternoon to see the widow. He fully believed that by this
+time Dock Phillips had either destroyed or lost the paper he claimed to
+have found; or else Amasa felt that he could secure possession of it at
+any time by paying the sum the boy demanded.
+
+When Carl drew near his home he saw the well-known rig of the old
+lawyer and grocer at the gate. Somehow, the sight gave Carl an
+unpleasant feeling. Then, as his hand unconsciously went up to the
+pocket where he had that precious paper, he felt a sensation of savage
+joy.
+
+They would get rid of this nuisance at last. Mr. Culpepper would have
+to produce the certificate for the oil shares that had become so
+valuable, now that the receipt he had given for it could be produced,
+and after that an era of prosperity would come to the Oskamp's, with
+grim poverty banished forever.
+
+Carl entered by the gate, and passed around the side of the house
+instead of using the front door as usual.
+
+The boy knew that the windows of the little sitting room must be open,
+and of course the afternoon caller would be in there. Carl was anxious
+to hear what had caused the rich old man to don his best clothes and
+drop in to see his mother of an afternoon, though he strongly suspected
+the reason back of it.
+
+It did not strike the boy that he was playing the part of an
+eavesdropper, for in his mind just then the end justified the means.
+And he knew that Amasa Culpepper had to be fought with his own weapons.
+
+Evidently he must have again asked Mrs. Oskamp to marry him, and as
+before met with a laughing refusal, for Carl could hear him walking
+nervously up and down in the little sitting room.
+
+Having exhausted his stock of arguments as to why she should think
+seriously of his proposal, Mr. Culpepper seemed to be getting angry. He
+had been courting the widow for a long time without making any
+impression on her heart. It was time to change his tactics. Perhaps
+since entreaties had failed something in the way of half-veiled threats
+would become more successful.
+
+"You tell me that with the burning of the tenement building more than
+half of your little property has been lost," Carl heard him saying as
+he crouched there under the open window.
+
+"Yes, that is the sad truth, Mr. Culpepper," the widow admitted.
+
+"But with a family of children to bring up how are you going to live
+from now on, when before this happened you had barely enough? If you
+would seriously consider the proposition I make you, and become Mrs.
+Culpepper, your children would have a good home."
+
+"That is very generous of you, Mr. Culpepper," Carl heard his mother
+say, while he fairly held his breath in suspense for fear she might
+agree to what the other asked; "but I cannot change my mind. I never
+expect to marry again."
+
+"But how can you get along, I want to know?" he demanded, angrily. "It
+takes money to live, and you will see the children you love suffer."
+
+"There is one resource still left," she told him, as though urged to
+put him to the test. "It lies in those shares of oil stock which you
+are holding for me. They have become very valuable, and when I dispose
+of them I hope to have enough and to spare for all future needs."
+
+There was a brief and awkward silence.
+
+"But what evidence is there," he finally asked icily, "that you ever
+placed any shares of stock in my hand, or even so, that they were not
+delivered to you again? Of course you can show my name at the bottom
+of a receipt if that is the fact?"
+
+"Is that absolutely necessary, Mr. Culpepper?" she asked, helplessly.
+
+"It is strictly business, madam," the visitor went on, in his cold,
+cutting tones that were like the rasping of a file. "I could not think
+of handing over anything of value that was in my possession without
+receiving in return a receipt."
+
+"But you would not be so cruel as to deprive my children of their bread
+simply because of a little technicality, sir? I will do anything the
+law demands to insure that you are not held liable whether the lost
+receipt is ever found again or not."
+
+"There is only one thing you can do," continued Mr. Culpepper, eagerly,
+"that will cause me to waive my rights, and you know what that is.
+Those are my only terms of surrender."
+
+"That's just where you're a whole lot mistaken Mr. Culpepper!" cried
+Carl, unable to hold in any longer, and thrusting his head and
+shoulders through the open window as he spoke.
+
+The widow gave a slight shriek, while Mr. Culpepper said something half
+under his breath that no doubt expressed his feelings.
+
+"What do you mean by saying that?" he asked, in a voice that was
+unsteady.
+
+"You made a statement that you'll have to take water on," Carl told him
+with a broad smile on his face. "Listen! My mother will be down at
+your office to-morrow morning with Judge Beatty and myself, and she'll
+demand that you deliver the paper that this receipt calls for!"
+
+With that he held up the precious little paper so that those in the
+sitting room could see it. Mrs. Oskamp gave a bubbling cry of joy,
+while Amasa Culpepper, seizing his hat and stick, hurried out of the
+door, entered his buggy and whipped his horse savagely, as though glad
+to vent his ill humor on some animate object.
+
+Carl was not another moment in climbing through the open window and
+gathering his mother in his strong arms. The whole story was told that
+evening with the younger children gathered around. Mrs. Oskamp sat
+there and felt her mother heart glow with pride as she heard how Carl
+had played his part in the exciting drama connected with the hike of
+the Boy Scouts.
+
+"It seems as though some power over which you had no control must have
+led you on to the glorious success that came in the end," she told the
+happy Carl, after everything had been narrated. "With that paper in our
+hands we can have no further trouble in securing our property. But I
+shall feel that we owe something to Dock Phillips, and that it can only
+be repaid through kindness to his mother."
+
+On the following day they took Judge Beatty, who was an old friend of
+Carl's father, into their confidence, and the certificate of stock was
+promptly though grudgingly delivered to them on demand.
+
+Amasa Culpepper knew that he had been fairly beaten in the game, and he
+annoyed Mrs. Oskamp no longer.
+
+The oil shares turned out to be worth a large sum of money, and it
+placed the Oskamps beyond the reach of want.
+
+Tom Chesney wrote his account of their great trip over big Bear
+Mountain, and, sure enough it did take the prize when submitted in
+competition with numerous others to the magazine that had made the
+offer. Tom remembered his promise and sent copies of the story to Mr.
+Clark, as well as to Mr. Henderson.
+
+The last heard from Lenox the Boy Scouts were thriving famously. They
+expected to enjoy many an outing under the charge of the good-hearted
+scout master, Mr. Witherspoon, but some of the boys were of the opinion
+that there never could be just such a wonderful series of exciting
+adventures befall them as had accompanied the hike over Big Bear
+Mountain.
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BOY SCOUTS OF LENOX***
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