CHAPTER XXI
SCOUT GRIT
"Tell us how it happened, Billy!" said the patrol leader, when theclamor of excited voices partly died away, giving him a chance to makehimself heard.
"Yes, what did they do to you, Billy?" demanded Josh, noticing that theother did not seem to be limping, or showing any other signs of havingmet with rough treatment at the hands of the camp raiders.
"Why, it was this way," Billy hastened to explain. "You see I was downby the water cleaning all those fish at the time. Guess I must havebeen pretty much a whole hour at the job. And I'd just about finishedwhen I thought I heard somebody give a sneeze, which made me get up offmy knees and look around."
"And did you see the tramps in camp cleaning things out then?" askedFelix.
"Well, no, not exactly," replied Billy; "the most I thought I saw wassomething 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 thecamp, "and the first thing I thought to do was to put the pan of fishI'd cleaned up in the crotch of a tree. Then I went to the camp, andoh! 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 andcoffee-pot!"
"Oh! that's sure the limit!" groaned Josh. "We'll never be able to keepon our hike with nothing to eat or drink, and not a pan to cook stuffin, even if we bought it from the farmers. It spells the end, fellows!"
"Yes," echoed George, always seeing the worst side of things, "we'llhave 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," saidTom, who was looking very determined.
"Do you mean there's any chance for us to keep going, after our thingshave 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," Tomtold him. "As for me, I'd be willing to go on half rations rather thanown up beat. How do we know but that this raid on our stuff was madejust 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 hefailed to get even a single look at the thieves. I've got my ownopinion 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 ahole? Don't we happen to know that Tony Pollock and his crowd arearound here on Big Bear Mountain somewhere? Didn't they rob that henroost of Mr. Perkins?"
"Tom, I really believe you're right!" exclaimed Josh, beginning to lookat 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 therewere," Tom went on to say. "Come on Billy, and show me just where yousaw the bushes moving when that laugh struck you."
He called upon the others to keep back so that they might not spoil anytracks to be found at that particular spot. A very little search showedthe boys what they so eagerly sought.
"Here are tracks enough, and all heading away from the camp," said thepatrol leader presently, "let's see how we can classify them, for everyfootprint 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 likethat. Now Wedge McGuffey has got broad shoulders and spindle legs, andhe 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 couldbe hung on such circumstantial evidence as that."
"And here's a fourth that's different from any of the rest," continuedTom, as he pointed downward, "so it looks as if there were just four inthe bunch, which you may remember corresponds with the number in TonyPollock's crowd, now that Dock Phillips has thrown his lot in withthem."
Some of the scouts expressed their indignation loudly as theyinvestigated the results of the daring raid. It would not have beenpleasant for Tony and his cronies had they been brought face to facewith the angry scouts about that time.
Tom Chesney soon had reason to admit that he had met with a personalloss that bothered him exceedingly.
"They've even taken my little diary in which I've been keeping anaccurate account of our entire trip," he announced; "though what goodthat 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. Perhapshe 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 joteverything down just as it happened, thinking you might take that prizeoffered for the best true account of a hike by scouts."
"I'll make sure to write this latest adventure out while it's fresh inmy 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 upthe ship for such a little thing as being without provisions. It'llmake us hustle some to lay in a supply; but, after all, the experienceis going to be a great thing for us."
"And if it comes to a vote," added Horace, showing unexpected staminain this emergency; "count on my voice being raised against giving up.Why, I'm just getting interested in this game, and I find it prettyexciting."
"Just what I say!" echoed Josh.
"And I!" came from every one of the others, without even the exceptionof poor Billy, who seemed to feel that he might be mostly to blamebecause the raid on the camp had been conducted while he was in charge.
Tom smiled on hearing so unanimous an expression of opinion. He knewthat even such an apparent catastrophe as had befallen them was notgoing to cause these gallant fellows to "take water."
"How long ago was it that the raid took place, Billy?" asked Josh, asthough a sudden idea had struck him.
"Oh! I should say about an hour or more," replied the other, afterthinking it over. "I suppose they watched the camp for a while to makesure I was the only one around. Then when they saw me so busy downthere by the pond they just started to root. They may have been pokingaround half an hour, for all I know; I was keeping my eyes on my workand thinking of poor Walter."
"Tom, would it pay us to follow them right now?" demanded Josh, whilehis eyes sparkled with the spirit of retaliation, as though he couldpicture them pouncing on the spoilers of the camp, and making them paydearly for their frolic.
The patrol leader, however, shook his head in the negative, much to thedisappointment of the impetuous Josh.
"In the first place they were apt to hurry off," said Tom. "Then theymight even try to blind their trail, though I don't believe any of themknow 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 Mountainyou know."
"Yes," added George, always ready with an objection, "and some of usfeel 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 scoutsfollowing the trail a bit while breakfast was cooking, and saving usthat much trouble later on."
"The next thing for us to see about is how under the sun will we cookall 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 cookingin 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 cookingthe fish on that," replied Tom. "Then some old hunters who won't botherto carry a frying-pan into the woods with them manage by toasting themeat or fish at the end of a long sliver of wood. Given the fish and ahot fire, the fellow who couldn't invent some way of cooking woulddeserve to go hungry."
"That's right," agreed Josh. "And everybody notice that it's going totake more than a little thing like this to stall the scouts who are upto their business."
Indeed, there did seem to be an unusual spirit of animation among theboys that evening. Every fellow was anxious to assist in getting supperready, 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 aclean stone close to the fire while the other lot was cooked. As theirsupply of coffee had gone together with numerous other things, the boyshad to drink cold water for supper. Loud were the lamentations overthis.
"The smell of coffee, bacon, or fried onions is what always makes itseem like camping out," declared Josh, sadly; "and now we haven't got asingle one of those lovely things left. Our breakfast is going to be apretty limited one; and as for other meals to-morrow, where they aregoing 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 gohungry?"
"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 thatgentleman 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 toboil 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 asmuch as undoubtedly the four young rascals who had played this meantrick upon them expected would be the case.