THE STRANGE TRACKS
Hervey had not the slightest idea in which direction he was going, but
in point of fact he was heading straight in the direction of Temple
Camp. But he had found his precious tracks and nothing would stop him
now. He would go over the top in a blaze of glory next day, and then
perhaps a telegram could be sent to scout headquarters to have the Eagle
badge sent up immediately so that he could receive the very award itself
on Saturday night. He was on the home stretch now, as luck would have
it, and nothing would stop him--nothing....
_Nothing!_ He would send a line to his mother that very night and tell
her all about it, and put E. S. after his name. _Eagle Scout._ The
bicycle his father had promised him when he should attain that pinnacle
of scout glory, he would now demand. That would be where dad lost
out....
If Tom Slade knew some secret about a higher award, that meant more
stunts, Hervey would do those stunts, too; the more the merrier. He
should worry....
Yes, he was on the trail at last, and at the end of that trail was the
stalking badge--and the Eagle award. _Hervey Willetts, Eagle Scout._ It
sounded pretty good....
He realized now that this discovery of his was just a streak of luck,
that the chances would have been altogether against his finding real
tracks in these two remaining days. "I'm lucky," he said. Which must
have been true, else he would have lost his life long ere that....
Darkness was now coming on apace, and it must be long past supper-time.
But this was no time to be thinking of eating. Nothing would stop him
now, _nothing_. When he set his mind on a thing....
The tracks changed again in traversing the fields. They were not tracks
at all, in fact, but a narrow belt of trampled grass, which was not
visible close by. It was only by looking ahead that Hervey could
distinguish it. Half way across the field he lost it altogether, but,
remembering the fact that it could be seen better at a distance, he
climbed a tree and there lay the long narrow belt of trampled grass
running under the rail fence at the field's edge and into the sparse
woods beyond. He had not to follow it, only pick out the rail of the
fence near where it passed and hurry to that spot.
And there it was, waiting for him. If Hervey had been well versed in
tracking lore and less of a seeker after glory, he would have
scrutinized the lowest rail of the fence, under which the track went,
for bits of hair. But Hervey Willetts was not after bits of hair. It was
quite like him that he did not care two straws about what sort of animal
he was tracking. He was tracking the Eagle badge.
In the sparse woods the tracks appeared as regular tracks again, sharply
cut in the hard earth. Where the ground was bare under the trees, the
tracks were as clear as writing on a slate, but in the intervening
spaces the vegetation obscured them and he found them with difficulty.
This tracking in the woods was the hardest part of his task because it
required patience and deliberation, and Hervey had neither.
But he managed it and was beginning to wonder how far his tracking had
led him and whether he was near to covering the required distance. When
he felt certain of that, he would drive a stake in the ground, fly his
navy blue scarf from it to prove his claim, and go back to camp in
triumph. He had made up his mind that he would at once report his feat
in Council Shack, and offer to escort any or all of the trustees back
over the ground in verification of his crowning accomplishment. The only
Eagle Scout at Temple Camp, except Tom Slade; and Tom Slade didn't
count....
Still, as he looked back, the base of the mountain seemed almost as near
as when he had made his discovery, the fields and wood which had seemed
so long to the tracker were but small to the casual glance and he
realized that his whole journey was yet far short of a quarter mile.
The tracks now ran, as clear as writing, across one of those curious
patches of damp ground with a thin, slippery skin, which was torn
straight across in a kind of furrow. Hervey was so intent on studying
this that he did not notice in the shadow about a hundred feet ahead of
him a log directly in line with the tracks. When suddenly he looked up,
he paused and stared ahead of him in consternation.
Some one was sitting on the log.