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BOY SCOUTS ON A LONG HIKEorTo the Rescue in the Black Water Swamps
ByArchibald Lee Fletcher
ChicagoM. A. DONOHUE & COMPANY
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Copyright 1913M. A. DONOHUE & CO.CHICAGO
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CONTENTS
Chapter Page
I--THE BOYS OF THE BEAVER PATROL 7II--HELPING NOODLES 16III--THE GENTLE COW 26IV--IN ALABAMA CAMP 35V--A HELPING HAND 44VI--THE HOME-COMING OF JO DAVIES 53VII--INNOCENT OR GUILTY? 62VIII--"WELL, OF ALL THINGS!" 71IX--THE RUNAWAY BALLOON 81X--DUTY ABOVE ALL THINGS 90XI--THE TRAIL IN THE SWAMP 99XII--WHERE NO FOOT HAS EVER TROD 108XIII--THE OASIS IN THE SWAMP 117XIV--JUST IN THE NICK OF TIME 126XV--ON THE HOME-STRETCH 135XVI--"WELL DONE, BEAVER PATROL!" 146
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BOY SCOUTS ON A LONG HIKEOr, To the Rescue in the Black Water Swamps
CHAPTER I
THE BOYS OF THE BEAVER PATROL
"They all think, fellows, that the Beaver Patrol can't do it!"
"We'll show 'em how we've climbed up out of the tenderfoot class; hey,boys?"
"Just watch our smoke, that's all. Why, it's only a measly littletwenty-five miles per day, and what d'ye think?"
"Sure Seth, and what's that to a husky lot of Boy Scouts, who've beenthrough the mill, and wear merit badges all around? Huh! consider it asgood as done right now!"
Half a dozen boys who wore khaki uniforms, were chattering like so manymagpies as they stood in a little group on an elevation overlooking thebustling Indiana town of Beverly.
Apparently they must have been practicing some of the many clever thingsBoy Scouts delight to learn, for several of the number carried signalflags; two had pieces of a broken looking-glass in their possession;while the tall lad, Seth Carpenter, had a rather sadly stained blanketcoiled soldier fashion about his person, that gave off a scent of smoke,proving that he must have used it in communicating with distantcomrades, by means of the smoke code of signals.
Besides Seth there were in the group Jotham Hale, Eben Newcomb, AndyMullane, Fritz Hendricks, and a merry, red-faced boy who, because of hisGerman extraction, went by the name of "Noodles Krafft."
The reader who has not made the acquaintance of these wide-awake scoutsin previous volumes of this Series will naturally want to know somethingabout them, and hence it might be wise to introduce the members of theBeaver Patrol right here.
Eben was the official bugler of Beverly Troop. He had been made to takethis office much against his will, and for a long time had the greatestdifficulty in getting the "hang" of his instrument, so that his comradesguyed him most unmercifully over the strange medleys he used to bringforth when meaning to sound the various "calls." But of late Eben seemedto have mastered his silver-plated bugle, and was really doing verywell, with an occasional lapse excepted.
Andy was a Kentucky boy, but outside of a little extra touch of pride,and a very keen sense of his own honor, you would never know it.
Seth was the champion signal sender, and delighted to study upeverything he could discover concerning this fascinating subject.
Fritz, on his part, chose to make an especial study of woodcraft, andwas forever hunting for "signs," and talking of the amazing things whichthe old-time Indians used to accomplish along this line.
As for good-natured Noodles, if he had any specialty at all, it lay inthe art of cooking. When the boys were in camp they looked to him tosupply all sorts of meals that fairly made their mouths water witheagerness to begin operations long before the bugle of Eben sounded the"assembly."
Last of all the group, was Jotham Hale, a rather quiet boy, with anengaging face, and clear eyes. Jotham's mother was a Quaker, or at leastshe came from the peace-loving Friends stock; and the lad had been earlytaught that he must never engage in fights except as a very last resort,and then to save some smaller fellow from being bullied.
On one occasion, which no one in Beverly would ever forget, Jotham hadproven that deep down in his heart he possessed true courage, and grit.He had faced a big mad dog, with only a baseball bat in his hands, andwound up the beast's career right on the main street of the town, whileeverybody was fleeing in abject terror from contact with the animal.
Because in so doing Jotham had really saved an old and nearly blindveteran soldier from being bitten by the terrible brute, he had beenadjudged worthy to wear the beautiful silver merit badge which is sentoccasionally from Boy Scout Headquarters to those members of theorganization who have saved life at great peril to themselves.
But Jotham was not the only one who proudly sported a badge. In fact,every one of the eight members of the Beaver Patrol wore a bronze medalon the left side of his khaki jacket. This had come to them because ofcertain services which the patrol had rendered at the time a child hadbeen carried away by a crazy woman, and was found, later on, through themedium of their knowledge of woodcraft.
Of course there were two more boys connected with the patrol, who didnot happen to be present at the time we find them resting on their wayhome after a rather strenuous afternoon in the open.
These were Paul Prentice, the patrol leader, and who served as actingscout master when Mr. Alexander was unable to accompany them; and "Babe"Adams, the newest recruit, a tenderfoot who was bent on learningeverything connected with the game.
They had gone home a little earlier than the rest, for reasons that hadno connection with the afternoon's sport, each of them having a pressingengagement that could not be broken. "Babe" had been nick-named in thespirit of contrariness that often marks the ways of boys; for he was anunusually tall, thin fellow; and so far as any one knew, had nevershirked trouble, so that he could not be called timid in the least.
"No use hurrying, fellows," declared Seth, as he flung himself down on alog that happened to be lying near the edge of a little precipice,marking the abrupt end of the shelf which they had been following, sothat to descend further the scouts must pass around, and pick their waydown the hillside.
"That's so," added Jotham, following suit, and taking great care not toknock his precious bugle in the least when making the shift; "for one,I'm dead tired after such a hard afternoon. But all the same, I wantyou to know that I'm in apple-pie condition for that long hike, or willbe, after a night's rest."
"What d'ye suppose made Mr. Sargeant offer a prize if the Beaver Patrolcould walk to Warwick by one road, and back along another, a distance ofjust an even hundred miles, between sunrise of four days?" and Fritzlooked around at his five comrades as though inviting suggestions.
"Because he's fond of boys, I reckon," remarked Andy. "They tell me helost two splendid little fellows, one by drowning, and the other throughbeing lost in the forest; and when he learned what sort of things thescouts practice, he said he was in favor of encouraging them to thelimit."
"Well, we want to get busy, and show Mr. Sargeant that we're going togive him a run for his money," said Seth.
"We've all seen the cup in the window of the jewelers in town, and itsure is a beauty, and no mistake," added Jotham.
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p; "Don't anybody allow himself to think we can't cover that hundred milesinside the time limit. You know how Paul keeps telling us thatconfidence is more'n half the battle," Fritz went on to say.
"You pet we want dot gup, undt we're yust bound to get der same,"observed Noodles, who could talk quite as well as any of his mates, butwho liked to pretend every now and then, that he could only expresshimself in "broken English," partly because it pleased him and at thesame time amused his mates.
"We're right glad to hear you say that, Noodles," declared Seth, with awink in the direction of the others; "because some of us have beenafraid the hike might be too much for you, and Eben."
"Now, there you go again, Seth," complained the bugler, "alwaysimagining that because I seldom blow my own horn----" but he got nofurther than this, for there broke out a shout, from the rest of theboys.
"That's where you struck it right, Eben!" cried Seth, "because in theold days you seldom did blow your own horn; but I notice that you'reimproving right along now, and we have hopes of making a champion buglerout of you yet."
"Of course that was just a slip; but let it pass," remarked Eben,grinning in spite of the fact that the joke was on him. "What I meant tosay was that because I don't go around boasting about the great thingsI'm going to do, please look back on my record, and see if I haven't gotthere every time."
"Sure you have," admitted Seth, "and we give you credit for bull-dogstubbornness, to beat the band. Other fellows would have thrown thebugle into the bushes, and called quits; but you kept right alongsplitting our ears with all them awful sounds you called music. And say,if you can show the same kind of grit on this long hike we're going totry, there ain't any doubt but what we'll win out."
"Thank you, Seth; you're a queer fish sometimes, but your heart's allright, underneath the trash," observed Eben, sweetly; and when he talkedlike that he always put a stop to the other's teasing.
"How about you, Noodles; d'ye think you're good for such a tough walk?"asked Fritz, turning suddenly on the red-faced, stout boy, who wasmoving uneasily about, as though restless.
"Meppy you don't know dot me, I haf peen practice on der quiet dis longtime, so as to surbrize you all," came the proud reply. "Feel dotmuscle, Seth, undt tell me if you think idt could pe peat. Gymnastics Ihaf take, py shiminy, till all der while I dream of chinning mineself,hanging py one toe, undt all der rest. Meppy you vill surbrised pe yet.Holdt on, don't say nuttings, put wait!"
He put on such a mysterious air that some of the boys laughed; butNoodles only smiled broadly, nodded his head, and made a gesture withhis hand that gave them to understand he was ready and willing to lettime vindicate his reputation.
"Hadn't we better be moving on?" remarked Andy.
"Yes, the sun's getting pretty low in the west, and that means it mustbe near supper time," said Fritz, who was the possessor of a prettybrisk appetite all the time.
"Oh! what's the use of hurrying?" Seth went on to say, shifting hisposition on the log, and acting as though quite content to remain anunlimited length of time. "It won't take us ten minutes to get there,once we start; fifteen at the most. And I like to walk in just when thestuff is being put on the table. It saves a heap of waiting, you know."
"That's what it does," Eben echoed. "Because, if there's anything I hateto do, it's hanging around while they're finishing getting grub ready."
"Here, quit walking all over me, Noodles!" called out Fritz, who hadcoiled his rather long legs under him as well as he could, whilesquatting there on the ground.
"I haf nodt der time to do all dot," remarked the German-American boy,calmly, "idt would pe too pig a chob. Oh! excuse me off you blease,Fritz; dot was an accident, I gif you my word."
"Well, don't stumble across me again, that's all," grumbled the other,watching Noodles suspiciously, and ready to catch him at his tricks bysuddenly thrusting out a foot, and tripping him up--for Noodles was sofat and clumsy that when he took a "header" he always afforded more orless amusement for the crowd.
It was not often that Noodles displayed a desire to play tricks or joke,which fact made his present activity all the more remarkable; in fact hewas developing a number of new traits that kept his chums guessing; andwas far from being the dull-witted lad they had formerly looked upon asthe butt of all manner of practical pranks.
While the scouts continued to chat, and exchange laughing remarks upona variety of subjects, Noodles kept moving restlessly about. Fritz feltpretty sure that the other was only waiting for a good chance to pretendto stumble over his legs again, and while he pretended to be enteringheartily into the rattling fire of conversation, he was secretly keepingan eye on the stout scout.
Just as he anticipated, Noodles, as though discovering his chance,lurched heavily toward him. Fritz, boylike, instantly threw out a foot,intending to simply trip him up, and give the other a taste of his ownmedicine.
Well, Noodles tripped handsomely, and went sprawling headlong in aludicrous manner; but being so round and clumsy he rather overdid thematter; for instead of simply rolling there on the ground, he kept onscrambling, hands and legs shooting out every-which-way; and to theastonishment and dismay of his comrades, Noodles vanished over the edgeof the little precipice, close to which the scouts had made theirtemporary halt while on the way home!