THE SIGNAL SMOKES
"There's smoke, Dolly!" cried Bessie, triumphantly. "Oh, but we've
beaten them on this! Ours must have gone up twenty minutes before
theirs, and they must have been able to see it when they were building
their fire, too."
"Good! Oh, we'll take them down a peg or two before we're done today,
Bessie!"
"Don't be too confident yet, Dolly. Remember this is only the start.
There's ever so much more to be done before we've won."
"I don't care! You and I have done our share, anyhow."
"You certainly have," said Eleanor Mercer's laughing voice. "But
Bessie's right; it isn't time to celebrate yet. Come on, now, we're
all going to be busy cooking and getting ready to cook."
Dolly and Bessie looked at the girls emerging from the trail in
surprised delight.
"Well, you've done your share, and more, too," said Bessie. "We
thought we came pretty fast, and we didn't expect you for another
fifteen minutes, anyway."
"Well, we didn't exactly loiter on the way. I expect we'd all be glad
of a chance to rest a little, but that will have to come later. We'll
be able to take things easy while we're eating. We're each to allow a
full hour for that, you see, no matter when we get ready."
"But if we're ready to start eating first we can start clearing up
first, too, can't we?" asked Dolly.
"Certainly! That's the object of hurrying now. When we're ready to
sit down we're to make two smokes, and they are to do the same, and
again when we've finished, or when our hour is up, at least. We'll
keep tabs on one another that way, you see, and each side will know
just how much the other has done. There's got to be some such
arrangement as that to make it interesting."
"Yes," said Margery Burton. "It wouldn't really seem like a race
unless we knew a little something about what the other side was doing,
I think."
"Well," said Eleanor, "I see you've got a splendid fire. I'll appoint
you chief cook, Margery. You are to be here at the fire, and Zara
shall help you."
Zara sprang to attention at once, and she and Margery unwrapped the
ham, and got out the big boiler in which it was to be cooked.
"You go and get water, Dolly and Bessie," said Eleanor, then. "There
are the buckets. Hurry, now, so that the water can be boiling while
the others are fixing the ham."
And so dividing up the tasks that were to be done, she assigned one to
each girl. They were all as busy as bees in a moment, and the work
flew beneath their accustomed fingers. Miss Eleanor knew the girls
thoroughly, and while, as a rule, she saw to it that each girl had to
do a certain number of things that did not particularly appeal to her
since that made for good discipline, she managed matters differently
today.
It was a time to give each girl the sort of work she most enjoyed, and
which, therefore, she was likely to do better and more quickly than any
of the other girls.
Although a stranger, hearing the singing, and seeing the bustling group
of girls without understanding just what they were doing, might have
thought he was looking on at a scene of great confusion, order really
ruled. Each girl knew exactly what she was to do, and there was no
overlapping. Things were done once, and once only, whereas, at the
ordinary picnic there are half a dozen willing hands for one task, and
none at all for another.
"Too many cooks spoil the broth," says the proverb, and the same rule
applies doubly to such meals as the one the girls were so busily
preparing. But there was no spoiling here, and in a surprisingly short
time most of the girls were able to rest. Places were laid for the
meal; plenty of water had been provided for the cooks, and there was an
ample heap of firewood beside the fire.
"I'll be ready for dinner when it's time, all right," said Dolly,
sniffing the delicious odor of the cooking ham as it rose from the
fire. "My, but that smells good!"
"I've heard some people who had to cook meals say that it spoiled their
appetites, and that they didn't enjoy meals they had to cook
themselves," said Eleanor. "But I don't believe that applies to us a
bit. You'll be able to eat with the rest of us, won't you,
Margery--you and Zara?"
"I can't speak for Zara," said Margery, laughing. "But I certainly can
for myself. Just you watch me when dinner's ready! Let's start the
coffee, Zara."
A great coffee pot had been brought, and a muslin sack full of coffee.
This sack was now put in the coffee pot, which was filled with water,
and the pot was set on the fire. There is no better way of making
coffee. The finest French drip coffee pot in the world can't equal the
brew that this simple and old-fashioned method produces. And anyone
who has ever tasted really good coffee made in such a fashion will
agree that this is so.
"Can those boys really cook, Miss Eleanor?" asked Dolly, looking toward
the other peak, whence smoke was rising steadily.
"Can't they, just!" said Eleanor, heartily. "What makes you ask that,
Dolly?"
"I don't know. It seems sort of funny for them to be able to do it,
that's all. You expect boys to do lots of other things, but cooking
seems to be a girl's business."
"Oh, there are lots of times when it's a good thing for a man to be
able to cook himself a meal, especially when he's camping out. And
they certainly can do it--those Boy Scouts."
"Have you ever tasted any of their cooking?"
"I certainly have. One day I was out for a long tramp near the city,
and I managed to lose way in some fashion. You know some of the roads
are pretty lonely, and I managed to go a long way without coming to any
sort of a house where I wanted to stop and ask them to let me have
something to eat, and I was nearly starved."
"What did you do? Wasn't there even a store where you could have
bought something?"
"I didn't find it, if there was. Well, finally I decided to try a
short cut through some woods, and I hadn't gone very far when I ran
plump into this same troop of Boy Scouts that is on the other peak now!"
"I bet you were glad to see them!"
"Indeed I was. I knew Mr. Hastings, you see, and when I told him I was
lost and hungry, he made me sit down right away, and he explained that
they were just going to have an early supper."
"That must have been good news!"
"If you knew how hungry I was, you'd believe it. Well, I never have
had a meal that tasted half so good. They had crisp bacon, and the
most delicious coffee, and real biscuit!"
"Biscuit! And had they cooked them themselves?"
"They certainly had--and they were so good and flaky they fairly melted
in my mouth. If you'd tasted that supper you'd never ask again if boys
could cook. Those boys over there today will fare just as well as we
do ourselves, and they'll have just as good a time getting the meal
ready, too."
"I guess they're better able to look after themselves than most of the
boys we know at home."
"Dinner!" cried Margery, then. "Everything else ready? We'll be all
ready for you in a jiffy now. The ham's cooked, and so are the
potatoes and the corn is all roasted!"
"We're ready whenever you are," said Eleanor, with a glance at the
"table." "Dolly, you and Bessie can send up your two smoke signals
now. I do believe we're ready to eat before they are!"
"Oh, we're going to beat them all the way!" said Dolly, happily.
Bessie and Dolly, holding the blanket together, wasted no time in
making the signal that let those on the other peak know that the Camp
Fire was ahead in another stage of the race, and, just as the second
smoke was made, a faint cheer was carried across the space between the
two peaks by the wind, which had shifted.
But it was fully twenty minutes after the girls had begun their meal
before two pillars of smoke rose from South Peak as a sign that over
there, too, the meal was ready.
"What a shame that we've got to waste a whole hour eating!" said Dolly.
"I don't call it waste. I'm dog-tired," said Margery. "I'm mighty
glad to sit down and rest, and I'm mighty hungry, too."
"So'm I," said Bessie. And there were plenty to echo that.
"Well, if no one else will say it, I will," said Margery, presently.
"This _is_ a good dinner, if I did help cook it."
"No one ever praises your cooking any more; they're too busy eating,"
said Eleanor. "You established your reputation long ago."
"Well, this was the sort of dinner you couldn't spoil," admitted
Margery, frankly. "And when people are frightfully hungry, you only
waste your time if you do any really fine cooking for them. All they
want is food, and they don't care much what it is, or how it's cooked."
"You don't go on that principle, though, Margery. I notice you take
just as much trouble with your cooking whether it's likely to be
appreciated or not."
"I do that for my own sake because I really enjoy cooking. I know what
I'm going to do next year if I can. Teach cooking in the high school.
And I think I can get the work, too."
"That's fine, Margery. I know you'll enjoy it."
"I think it will be pretty good fun. You know, it isn't only just the
girls in school. A whole lot of older girls come down--brides, and
girls who are going to be married. And they are the silliest things,
sometimes!"
"Time's nearly up," said Eleanor, looking at her watch. "Bessie,
signal four times with the smoke. I want to see if my watch is right
by Mr. Hastings'."
Four times the smoke rose, and from the other peak rose two short
answering smokes.
"We arranged that signal, you see," said Eleanor. "Now, watch! He'll
show the time by his watch. Count the smokes carefully."
First of all came two smokes.
"That's the hour; two o'clock," said Eleanor. "Now count the next lot
carefully; that'll be the first digit of the minutes."
Four smoke pillars rose, at regular intervals. And then, after a
well-marked pause, six more went up.
"All right," said Eleanor. "Answer with four smokes. That means it
was forty-six minutes past two, fourteen minutes to three, when they
started signalling. And my watch and his agree exactly, so that's all
right."
"We'll have a good lead when we are able to start cleaning up," she
continued. "But we can't waste any time. We start at two minutes to
three, and you want to remember that they know just how far behind they
are, and we won't be able to gain any more time from now on."
"Why not, Miss Eleanor," asked Margery, "if we've done it so far?"
"It's going to be very different now, Margery. I don't say that they
exactly despised us before, but I certainly do believe they
underestimated us. They thought they were going to have an easy time,
and they probably loafed a little this morning. But now, you see, they
know that they're in for a licking if they don't do mighty well, and
they'll strain every nerve to beat us."
"Oh, I suppose so, but we've really got a splendid lead."
"Yes. And do you know what will happen if we don't look out? We'll be
over-confident, just the way they were this morning, and it will have
just the same result. In a race, you know, a good runner will very
often let a slower one stay ahead until they are near the finish. They
call it making the pace. And then, when he gets ready, he goes right
by, and wins as he likes."
But the warning, although Eleanor was sure that it had been needed,
seemed to spur the girls on. They were waiting eagerly when she gave
the word to start cleaning up, and each girl, her task assigned to her
in advance, was at work as soon as the command to go was given.
In no time at all, as it seemed, the dishes ware washed. Then Bessie
and Dolly, as tenders of the fire, brought buckets of water and poured
them over the glowing embers, for the rule of the Camp Fire never to
leave a spark of flame behind them in the woods was strictly enforced.
They put the fire out while the others finished packing the things that
had to be taken back. All the rubbish had been burned before water was
poured on the fire, and when everything was finished and the girls were
ready to start the march back to Long Lake there was no sign of their
visit except the blackened ring where the fire had burned.
"Zara, I'm going to leave you here as a sentry when we start," said
Eleanor. "I'll carry your pack until you join us."
"How long am I to stay?" asked Zara.
"Until you see that their fire is put out. That will mean that they
will be ready to start within two minutes, and I want to know just how
much of a start we have on the hike home."
"I see. As soon as they put it out I'm to start after you and report?"
"Yes. Here's my watch. Remember the exact time. If they catch up
with us, it will be on this hike."
Then they started, singing happily as they went down the hill. The
homeward path was easy. Burdens were lighter than they had been on the
trip from Long Lake, and the path was mostly down hill. And, moreover,
the Camp Fire Girls had the consciousness that, in order to win, they
needed only to hold the advantage they had gained.
"Here's Zara!" cried Bessie, who had been looking behind her.
"Good! What time did they put out their fire?" asked Eleanor.
"Just ten minutes after you started," said Zara. "I came as quickly as
I could, but you must have been walking fast."
"I told you they'd begin gaining on us," said Eleanor. "See, they
picked up ten minutes in clearing up. Come on, now, we must hurry!"
Hurry they did, and when they reached Long Lake there was a brief
period of bustle. A new fire had to be made, and they worked with
feverish haste. But they were in time. Bessie and Dolly sent up the
first smoke signal before any pillar appeared at the other end of the
lake. But the margin was small, for the first Boy Scout pillar rose
just as they sent up their third!