WHEN SCOUTCRAFT WAS IN DEMAND.
"Looks like the rig, all right, Chief!" one of the men called out.
The tall man he addressed did not reply; for, truth to tell, at that
particular minute he was staring very hard at the three scouts who sat
there on the seat of the wagon. There was not a great deal of light, but
evidently he had made a discovery that astounded him.
"Why, they're a lot of boys, after all!" exclaimed the man who had
advanced to the other side of the wagon, holding something up that
glittered like a revolver.
"Yes, and wearing scouts' uniforms at that!" added the tall man whom one
of the others had called "Chief." As he pushed still closer to the wagon
he went on to say, "I think I ought to know this lad here. Is it you,
Rob Blake?"
"Just who it is, Chief," replied the other soberly; "and you can hardly
blame us for having our breath taken away on being held up so suddenly
at the point of the pistol and told that we were under arrest!"
"But the white horse deceived us, Rob," hastily answered the other, who
was really the new head of the Hampton police force, a man who had made
it his business to get acquainted with every boy in town, believing that
he could nip lots of impending trouble in the bud by letting boys know
that he was interested in all they did, and ready to prove himself their
best friend. "You see, we've been 'phoned that a couple of desperate men
who escaped from the jail over at Riverhead had stolen a wagon and a
white horse and were heading this way. So we came out to lay for the
rascals. Sorry to have bothered you, boys."
"Well, this may prove to be the very horse and wagon they told you
about, Chief," Rob went on to say; while the other two officers now
crowded up close to catch all that passed.
"Just what it might!" added Andy, wishing to let everybody know that he
was in the affair, if he didn't happen to be holding either the lines or
the whip.
"Please tell us, won't you, Chief, whether one of the men that broke
jail limped like he had a bad leg or a sprained ankle?" Tubby broke
out, before Rob could get in another word.
"What's that you're telling me, my lad?" exclaimed the officer eagerly.
"Now, I didn't think it worth while to mention the fact to you, but the
truth is the taller man of the two did have a bad fall when he broke
out, and he must have injured himself in some way. Do you mean that
you've set eyes on that precious pair of rogues?"
"It was this way," Rob started to say, meaning to make his explanations
as brief as possible. "We had been up the bay to get half a bushel of
select oysters from old Cap. Jenkins over at his beds; and on the way
home we had the misfortune to spring a leak, so that we had to beach the
sailboat and start along the road, as night was coming on, and we wanted
to get back in time for supper."
"That's right, supper was the main thing we had in mind, Chief, believe
me," Tubby volunteered just then; after which he again relapsed into
silence, and allowed Rob to finish his story.
"Of course we wanted to get a ride if we could, Chief, because the sack
was heavy," the patrol leader went on to say, "and, well, boys always
like to ride better than they do to walk. Pretty soon we heard a horse
and wagon coming after us, and one of the two men aboard was whipping
the poor beast dreadfully. Well, we lined up, and as soon as they came
along all of us stepped out to ask if we could have a lift as far as
Hampton; when, would you believe me, the men jumped out of the wagon as
if they'd seen a ghost, and went back along the road as fast as they
could tear, soon breaking into the scrub, and disappearing."
"Leaving you the rig; is that it, Rob?" asked the officer, laughing as
he spoke.
"Just what they did, sir," continued the patrol leader; "and you may be
sure we couldn't even get our breath together to call out and thank them
before they'd vanished. Well, we got to talking it over, and made up our
minds the men must have stolen the rig, and were badly frightened by the
sight of our scout uniforms, thinking we might be soldiers meaning to
arrest them. And after we had waited a little while, thinking they might
come back, why, we just made up our minds there wasn't any use looking a
gift horse in the mouth; but that we'd take the rig to town so as to
turn it over to you at Police Headquarters. And here it is at your
service, Chief."
"But I hope you'll let us ride to town in it?" Tubby struck in.
"Well, you've all done me a great favor, boys," the tall official went
on to say; "and if so be you feel that you must get along home, why,
take the rig and leave it in front of my office. But if you could put us
in the way of nabbing that pair of escaped rogues, you'd be doing a
great thing. They're a bad crowd, and the longer they stay loose, the
worse it is going to be for the community."
"We can help you some there, Chief!" Rob hastened to declare.
"I should say we could!" added Andy with emphasis.
"We happen to know just where they left the road and plunged into the
brush; and perhaps we might even be of some assistance to you in
following their trail, Chief; because, you understand, scouts are
supposed to know more or less about such things. Woodcraft comes under
the head of a scout's education. What d'ye say, fellows; shall we turn
around right now and take these officers to the place where the leaning
white birch hangs over the road?"
Every voice came in a decided affirmative. Even Tubby, who had been
amusing himself while holding on to the sides of the wagon by figuring
out just how long he must wait until he could hope to find himself
seated at the supper table, heroically pushed aside all such
temptations, and proved that he could rise to an occasion like a true
scout.
"Then that's settled," said Rob, proud of his mates of the Eagle Patrol;
"and if you will wait till we turn the horse around, Chief, you can have
my seat here."
Merritt quickly backed the wagon into the side of the road, and faced
the animal in the direction from which he had just come.
Meanwhile Rob and Andy had crawled over the rear of the seat and joined
Tubby, who seemed pleased when he found that he was going to have
company. The Chief and one of his men occupied the seat, along with the
scout who was doing the driving; while the other officer contented
himself with sitting so that his legs dangled over the tail board.
In this fashion, then, they started to retrace the ground the boys had
so recently gone over. Of course the Chief had a dozen questions to ask
in connection with the actions of the two men, as to what they said and
what they did.
"The only words any of us heard them say were: 'Holy smoke, looky here,
Con!'" Rob told him. "But they made up for it by doing some tall
sprinting, lame man or not, that would have won them a prize at an
athletic meet."
"Well, right there you've settled the thing and clinched it into the
bargain," the tall police officer remarked with a satisfied chuckle;
"because, don't you know, one of the rascals went by the name of Con
Keating. And if the taller of the pair has a broken leg, why we ought to
be able to run them down, and bag him, anyway, even if the other gives
us the slip. But I'm hoping he'll stick to his pal until we can come up
with them."
"We ought to be nearly back to where we picked up the wagon, now, hadn't
we, Rob?" asked Merritt, who was straining his eyes trying to make out a
white birch tree leaning over the road on the left.
"One more bend and we'll be there," answered Rob, with such absolute
confidence that every one of the other scouts knew he had been keeping
tabs of the conditions, and could tell to a fraction just when they
were drawing near the point that had been marked down in their memories.
A minute later and it turned out that Rob was perfectly correct; because
Merritt discovered the landmark for himself.
"There it is, Chief, just ahead of us," he remarked, "where you see that
white birch bending over. We made it a point to mark the place, thinking
that p'raps you or somebody else would want to know about the men who
ran away."
"A clever bit of business, my lad," remarked the other admiringly. And,
indeed, what he had seen of these Scouts during the few months he had
been in charge of the Hampton police had caused the Chief to entertain a
very high opinion of their ability, and make him a firm advocate for the
cause they represented.
The horse was pulled up close to where the white slender birch could be
seen through the gathering gloom.
"Wait till I strike a match, and I'll try to find a piece of lightwood
to make a torch," said Rob, jumping from the wagon.
"No use bothering that way, lad," called out the Chief; "because I've
got something along with me that goes away ahead of any wood torch you
ever saw."
"Then you must mean an electric hand torch," Tubby ventured to remark.
"I know, because I've got one at home."
"Much good that does you," jeered Andy. "A torch, like a gun, is the
kind of thing that when you do want it you want it badly."
"Well, how was I to guess all that would happen?" demanded Tubby
indignantly. "Don't you think that if I had known we would get that hole
in the boat, have a horse and wagon shoved on us this way, and be held
up by the Chief and his men, I'd gone and made sure to fetch my little
torch along? Sure I would."
"And if I'd known all that," chuckled Andy, always ready to have the
last word, "d'ye know what I would have done the first thing? Why, told
Rob about that old plug in the bottom of his boat, and seen to it that
it was driven in so hard it never could work loose. And that would have
saved us from all the rest of the business!"
"All right," rejoined Tubby, with a never-say-die accent to his voice;
"all I can remark is that we would have lost a heap of entertaining
experiences, that's what!"
They had all left the wagon before this, and Merritt managed to secure
the horse to a tree near by; so that in case they found the animal there
on their return, after striving to locate the two escaped jail birds,
they might have a pleasant means of transportation to Hampton town.
When the police officer had produced his little electric hand torch,
which was capable of being carried in a vest pocket and yet gave quite a
fine glow when the current was switched on, he told Rob that he had
better take possession of the light, as he would really be the one to
need it. As for himself and his men, they meant to keep themselves in
constant readiness for grappling with the two desperate rogues, should
they have the good fortune to come up with them.
Nothing could have pleased Rob more than this splendid chance to show
what the education of a scout along the line of woodcraft was doing for
the boys of the Eagle Patrol. Here was an opportunity to make a test of
their knowledge. If they proved equal to the task of finding those two
men who were doing all in their power to elude recapture, it would
certainly go far to witness that these scouts had not studied the art of
trailing in vain.
And hence it was with considerable satisfaction, as well as a firm
determination to exhaust every means he had in his power in order to
come up with the fugitives, that the young leader of the Eagles accepted
that handy electric torch, and immediately commenced to flash its white
glow over the ground in the vicinity of the white birch.
Men and boys trailed along after Rob; Tubby, Merritt and Andy making
sure to keep well in the rear, so that they might not interfere with the
plans of the Chief.