JASPER'S IDEA TAKES ROOT.
"HOOP-LA, somebody grab me before I drop!" shouted Landy, as he kept
trying to get a grip with his fat legs on the foliage of the outer
branches which seemed to take particular delight in evading his
ambitious designs.
"Get a feather bed under him!" shrieked Ty, although at the same time he
was changing his position in the tree with all possible haste, meaning
to assist the clinging boy, if it could possibly be done.
"Oh, save me first, and joke about it afterward!" cried Landy, who was
really alarmed and under a tremendous strain, both bodily and mentally.
"If I only had a rope with a loop in it, I could lasso him!" declared
Jasper.
"But you haven't, you see," cried Landy. "Think up something else! Hurry
along, boys; I can't hold out much longer. I'm no Elmer as a gymnast.
I'm slipping right now, I tell you. Wow! Is that measly old ladder under
me, and will I come down with a splash on it?"
He panted as he uttered this complaint, and the boys saw that his face
resembled the setting sun, as he looked up to them almost piteously. But
who could reach him there? On the very outer edge of the big tree, with
the ground fully twenty feet below, and nothing to break his fall, it
began to look like a serious business for poor Landy.
Dr. Ted realized that there was real danger of the boy getting a broken
leg if he fell that distance. Landy was not like agile Lil Artha, or
some other members of the troop. His weight made him solid, and being
without any spring, he would likely come down with a dull, sickening
thud.
"Hold on as long as you can, Landy!" yelled Ted, even neglecting to lisp
in his great excitement.
He was slipping down the tree like a "greased pig," as Jasper termed it,
though what that sort of animal would be doing up in an apple tree he
never took the trouble to explain.
Ty saw what the idea was. He had been about to try and reach Landy by
standing far out on a limb; but the prospect of success was very small.
And so he followed Ted down the tree, slipping from limb to limb with
the agility that some boys can only display when the owner of the
orchard is seen coming on the full run with a ferocious bulldog at his
heels.
"Oh, hurry! hurry! I'm near gone, and can't hold out much longer!
What're you doing down there to help me, boys?" wailed the one whose
legs swung back and forth like a couple of pendulums, as they vainly
sought for a chance to grip something that would ease the strain on his
arms above.
"The ladder! They've gone to set it up again, Landy! Just hold on half a
minute longer. And there's Elmer jumped off his bicycle; and he's
already raising it up. Set your teeth, Landy; take a fresh grip, and
it's going to be all right!"
So the excited Jasper shouted as he sat there in the tree, unable to
lend a helping hand, but at least capable of offering good advice.
A boy who had been coming toward the place on a wheel, seeing the state
of affairs, had instantly sized up the situation; and even while those
in the tree were shouting back and forth, and before they could get
started, Elmer Chenowith, jumping from his saddle, had limped forward to
where the unlucky ladder lay.
By the time Ted, followed by Ty, landed on the ground, he had raised it
single-handed, and with a readiness that told of long familiarity with
ladders; for one not accustomed to such things would never know the
secret of bracing the bottom against some root and then lifting rapidly.
So just in the nick of time the treacherous ladder was dropped against
the outer branches of the tree, alongside the hanging boy. Elmer himself
flew up the rounds, for he feared that Landy, always more or less
clumsy, might not be able to swing his form around, and take advantage
of the opening.
But desperation gave Landy new abilities, and he managed by a violent
effort to roll around to the outer side of the leaning ladder. Utterly
exhausted by the strain he had been under, the fat boy must have slipped
helplessly down only that Elmer managed to clutch him.
Step by step the gasping Landy was lowered until he reached the bottom
round. He was no longer furiously red, but had turned a sickly white.
"Here, let him down on the ground," said Dr. Ted, taking command at that
point as though it were his acknowledged right. "He's only getting the
reaction now. I'll fix him up, boys, and he'll be picking apples again
before ten minutes, believe me."
He was as good as his word, for Landy soon recovered; but it was noticed
that from that moment the fat boy showed great caution how he climbed up
that ladder, by which he had once been betrayed.
"What was all that talk going on as I passed?" asked Elmer, a bright,
wide-awake young fellow, whose year out on a Canadian ranch belonging
to an uncle was proving of considerable value to him in his experience
as a scout.
"What did you hear?" asked Jasper, assuming a little of his former
importance.
"Seemed to me it smacked of a contest," Elmer replied, "and somebody was
telling how a few of us could keep tabs on the same, while using our
wheels. That struck me as interesting, and so, wanting to know more, I
just wheeled around, and was coming in through the back gate to the
garden when the ladder fell. Now tell me the rest, fellows, because you
all know that I'm head over ears interested in anything that touches on
contests of any sort."
"Well," spoke up Ty, grinning; "somehow we got to talking about who the
best all-round walker and runner in the troop might be. A lot of names
were mentioned, including my own. Then there were Red, Lil Artha, Matty,
George Robbins and Jack Armitage. Even Landy here threatened to enter
for the big hike."
"But what was the idea?" asked Elmer, his face aglow with interest.
"To fix up a long-distance hike, say for twenty-four consecutive hours;
and a few fellows, mounted on their wheels, kind of superintend things
by keeping tabs along the line. The contestant coming in ahead at the
end of the walk to be declared the pride of the troop, and the greatest
ever."
Jasper rattled all this off with a fluency that told how he had indeed
been deliberating over the scheme for some little time, and only sprang
it on his chums now because the talk had gotten around to the subject.
"How's that strike you, Elmer?" asked Ty.
"Yeth, give uth your opinion, Mr. Thcoutmaster!" echoed Ted.
"Boys, it's just dandy, and that's a fact!" declared Elmer. "We can make
up the arrangements to-night, if you'll all come around to my house.
I'll get a lot of the other boys on the phone. I was thinking this
morning that we ought to have a meeting about now, anyway, for there are
a lot of matters that need attention."
"Then if you say so, it will be a go," declared Jasper, highly pleased
because his little scheme had met with such instant approval at the
hands of one in whom he placed the utmost confidence.
"Sure to be, Jasper," came the reply. "And it does you great credit too.
Some of us were wondering what we might do to stir things up a little.
With school opening just two weeks off, we want to make the most of the
few days left of our vacation. Now this big hike will be just the
thing."
"Besides, you see, Elmer," the small scout continued, eagerly, "it's
going to settle a dispute between the lot of us here. Some think one
fellow is going to have a walkover, and others hold different opinions.
Of course we all know you're bound to be shut out, on account of that
sore foot of yours. And as Mark is out of town, he can't enter the game
either. But we think the six fellows we picked out ought to make things
lively enough to suit anybody."
"They will, for a fact," replied Elmer. "Of course I pin my faith on Lil
Artha, but I may be mistaken just as well as any one of you. But I must
be going, fellows, as I was on an errand, and just ran around here to
see how you were getting on. Better not try those gymnastics again,
Landy. That was an ugly scrape for even an acrobat, let alone a fellow
as chunky as you are."
"Elmer, never again," said the fat boy, solemnly, as he slowly shook his
head. "I'll be sore for a week after that job. My arms feel right now
like they'd been nearly pulled out of their sockets. Gee, but nobody
can understand just how it feels to be hanging twenty feet up, on the
outside branches of a tree, and slowly slipping, slipping! And I lost a
basket of the biggest pippins you ever saw; every one a prize winner,
but now all bruised and wasted!"
"You'd have been the biggest squashed pippin of the lot if you went down
that time," sang out Ty from the top of the tree.
"Now that's real cruel of you, Ty," complained Landy; but he did not
take the jibes of his comrades much to heart, for he was fond of a joke
himself.
"Remember, every one of you drop around to-night," said Elmer, as he
picked up his wheel, which he had hastily thrown aside at the moment he
discovered how necessary prompt action was required in order to save
Landy.
"Any chance of striking some of that delightful sponge cake your
housekeeper makes to beat the Dutch?" asked Landy, who had never
forgotten the treat set before the scouts the last time some of them
were invited around to Elmer's home.
"Seems to me Mrs. Gregg was making a big batch this very morning when I
left home," called back Elmer; just as if he hadn't asked her to do the
same, since he intended having the boys in khaki there that night.
"Then count me in," declared the fat boy, firmly; "even if my arms are
so sore I'll have to ask somebody to raise the cake to my mouth. Yum,
yum; that was the finest thing that ever came down the pike, barring
none! And you tell her that, Elmer, with my compliments."
"All right, I will," sang out the departing one, as he passed out of the
rear gate, mounted on his wheel and riding as one to the manner born.
The apple picking went on, with the heap at the base of the tree
growing in size as basket after basket was added to it. And the
conversation between the five lads covered a great variety of subjects
as they stripped the big tree of its golden freight.
"What makes me sore," remarked Landy with a big sigh, "is the fact that
I upset the basket that held the finest apples going. You see, my dad
expected to show some of these at the fair next week, if they turned out
as well as they looked from the ground. And I was just saying to myself
that I had the beauts, when the silly old ladder went back on poor
little Philander."
"Don't weep, old chap," called out Ty. "If you look over that last lot I
sent down on my little cable here, you'll find them the mates of the
ones you dropped. And for a wonder, too, I got that basket down safe
without an upset."
"Thanks, you make me happy again, Ty," remarked Landy. "And for that
you'll be remembered in my last will."
"Huh!" grunted Jasper; "he deserves a heap of credit for letting all
those fine pippins get past him; because he acted like he meant to
gobble every extra good one that came along. I've counted about a dozen
he's got away with up to now; and I think even at that he's just taken
the edge off his appetite."
"Well, in that case I'll get down and pick out a basket from the pile to
take in the house, before Ty starts at full speed," and Landy did
actually head for the ground to put his threat into execution.
So they kept up a crossfire of remarks, sometimes more or less witty,
until the last apple that could be reached was bagged. Then the game was
declared off, and Landy invited his chums in to help dispose of a quart
of peanuts he happened to have in his room.
"We'll all be around to-night at Elmer's house, I suppose?" remarked Ty
as, with Ted, Jasper and Chatz, he started for the door.
"Count on me, if I have to be carried on a stretcher," vowed Landy,
laughing at the speaker, as he recalled to mind the attractive lure that
had been held out for their attendance.
"And I'm anxious to have this thing put through," declared Jasper;
"because, you see, it was partly my suggestion; and besides, I've got a
hunch that the Fairfield troop are figuring on a long hike, to try out
their best fellows. I'd like to see our Lil Artha or Matty Eggleston up
against the best they have. It'd be a hike worth hearing about, believe
me, fellows."
"And perhaps we _can_ fix up a match; I'm going to mention the thing to
Elmer, anyhow," remarked Chatz, who really had no small nature, and
could see one of his comrades winning laurels without showing the
slightest envy.
And talking it over earnestly, they left Landy, heading for their
various homes.