THE HOWL OF THE WOLF SIGNAL.
"WELL, I like that, now!" burst out Toby. "He thinks we've run all the
way from good old Hickory Ridge, thirty-five miles away and more, just
to hand him a string."
"And me taking all the dreadful chances of breaking my neck with this
cranky machine that's got into its second childhood!" echoed Nat,
indignantly.
Elmer paid no attention to these side remarks. He could easily
understand just how Lil Artha looked at things. Not having the slightest
suspicion concerning any crooked work in connection with the great hike,
he could not comprehend what was meant by "kidnaping" him.
"Just what we're here for, old fellow," he remarked. "In the first
place, perhaps you know it, and again you may not; but Mr. Garrabrant
sent these two good scouts over to Fairfield on their motorcycles to
take notes of the start made by the three fellows who meant to compete
with us in this event."
"Yes, I knew about that," muttered Lil Artha.
"All right," Elmer continued. "They performed their duties, and then,
according to orders, hung around to find out whether there might be any
talk about some of those famous tricks that used to be played when Matt
Tubbs was running things with a high hand over there."
"But hasn't Matt turned over a new leaf; did Mr. Garrabrant expect that
it was all a make believe with him?" asked the other, quickly.
"No," said the scout leader; "so far as we can tell, Matt is in dead
earnest about doing the right thing from now on. I reckon he'd be as mad
as hops if he heard what some of his old mates have arranged."
"Well, hurry on and tell me, please, Elmer; I'm as curious as any old
woman you ever ran across," and Lil Artha laughed as he said this.
"Late in the afternoon they happened to overhear a talk between two
Fairfield boys, and then and there learned about the scheme. It seems
that four fellows in a car had already been gone an hour. They were to
run up to the head of the line, and find out just how things lay. If a
Fairfield competitor was running in the lead, of course nothing would
happen; but in case it proved to be a Hickory Ridge scout _they had
their orders_."
"But see here, Elmer, wouldn't that knock them out of the organization.
The rules of the scouts wouldn't stand for such an outrage," protested
Lil Artha.
"Hold on, Lil Artha," interrupted Elmer. "You don't seem to get on to
the real facts. Nobody said a word about any scouts being connected with
this thing."
"Outsiders, then, you mean, Elmer?"
"Yes, some of the crowd that used to run with Matt Tubbs when he was the
terror of the county. You know they broke with him at the time he saw a
great light. Some of the best in the bunch followed him into the
Fairfield troop. Others laughed at the idea of turning over a new leaf.
And they say there's a new bully cropped up in Fairfield, a fellow who
used to sneeze in the old days every time Matt took snuff."
"Yes," said Lil Artha, "I know--Eddie Johnston; and a bad egg he is,
too."
"Well," went on Elmer; "he's engineering this deal. The idea is that
these four fellows will try to coax you to enter their ear for a lift,
promising that nobody will ever hear about it, you see."
"But they ought to know I'd laugh at 'em. I'm good for the rest of the
hike, and could put on fresh speed if I sighted any feller coming along
to bother me," the tall scout declared.
"Well, in that case they had orders to jump you, get you in the car by
force, and carry you off, to drop you ten miles away, perhaps at Little
Falls. In that way, you see, Lil Artha, you would be eliminated from the
game, because you had _entered a vehicle_, which is against the rules.
And the second one in the race would win. That must be Felix Wagner."
"Does he know about this?" demanded the excited scout, frowning.
"Of course," answered Elmer, "we don't feel sure about it; but the
chances are he doesn't. No fellow who has his heart in the true
principles the scout movement stands for, could take a hand in such a
nasty game. And I'm hoping that if Felix learned what has been done he'd
be the very first to declare that he wouldn't accept a tainted title!"
"Good for you, Elmer! I don't know Felix very well myself, but I want to
think of him in that way, because he's a fellow scout. But look here. I
guess I saw the bunch you speak of pass me by only a little while back."
"Yes, I knew they had gone on ahead, because I saw that in several
places your footprint was plainly marked in the tread of the auto tire
in the mud," said the scout leader, quietly.
"Well, I declare now, if you don't beat anything in finding out them
tricks!" remarked Lil Artha, who frequently forgot there was such a
thing as grammar in the wide world. "Nobody else'd think of that way.
The rest of us have got heaps to learn. But I only saw two fellers in
the car, Elmer."
"Oh, well, perhaps the others were hiding low down for a purpose,"
returned the one who observed things closely and figured out results.
"If they all showed themselves you would be apt to know them later when
they started in with their rough-house business."
"Then what d'ye think they mean to do?" asked the tall scout, anxiously;
at the same time Toby and Nat noticed that his hands were doubling up
into fists, as if the old spirit of self-defense had begun to run riot
within him.
"They've gone down the road a few miles to some place that looks good to
them. Then, I reckon, the bunch will pile out and hide till you come
along. And while they're about it, they may disguise their faces in some
way with handkerchiefs. When fellows are in for something that won't
bear the light of day, they nearly always do that, don't you know, Lil
Artha?"
"Sure I do," nodded the tall scout, promptly. "More'n a few times I've
done the same myself, and so has Toby here. But all the same it's a mean
dodge to try and cheat me out of my honest dues. What're we goin' to do
about it, Elmer?"
"It stands to reason that we don't mean to let the game go through,"
replied the one addressed, frowning. "I'm as much opposed to violence as
any fellow could be; but there may come times when even the scout is
justified in using his fists. Mr. Garrabrant says so; and if he was
here, even if he is a man of peace, he'd say the same."
"That's right Elmer; I've heard him say that myself, and he'd laugh
right out when he declared that he was a man of peace, and that he was
bound to have peace even if he had to fight to get it," chuckled Toby.
"All right," snapped Elmer. "We must remember that we're up against a
condition that can only be met by standing up for our rights. If those
four rascals from Fairfield tried to push Lil Artha into their car
against his will, he'd be justified in kicking and striking out in
defense of his liberty, wouldn't he, scout law or not? And on the same
ground, we, as his comrades, have the right to defend him."
"And by ginger we will!" burst out Toby, triumphantly.
"Make your mind easy on that, Lil Artha," declared Nat; "we haven't run
all the way from Hickory Ridge to see our chum badly treated without
putting in a few good licks for him. Gee, it will seem like old times!
My style is getting rusty, and will need some sandpapering, I guess."
"Of course, talk won't amount to a row of pins," said Elmer.
"Not with that kind of skunks it won't," observed Lil Artha.
"As Mr. Garrabrant isn't here, and I stand in his place, I'll have to
try and do what I think he'd commend," Elmer went on.
"About that peace racket, even if you have to fight to get it, eh?"
laughed Nat.
"Wait and see," replied the scout leader, nodding his head, and giving
the other a significant, look that made Nat's heart glad; for, like Red
Huggins, Nat had always had something of a reputation as a fighter, and
found it most difficult to repress this pugnacious spirit after he
joined the scouts.
"Lay out the programme, Elmer, won't you, please?" begged Lil Artha.
"Yes, tell us just what each fellow must do," added Toby.
"Well, I've been thinking it over as we came along," remarked the one to
whom these appeals were addressed; "and this is the plan I settled on as
promising the best results. In the first place, as these chaps want
darkness before they show their hand, so that Lil Artha won't be apt to
recognize them, the chances are they've gone several miles farther on
before running the car in among the trees at a likely spot. Do you agree
on that, boys?"
"Sounds good to me, Elmer; please go on and roll your hoop," said Nat.
"Beats all how you can hit things so close," remarked Toby; "because,
now that you've mentioned it, I c'n see how they'd be apt to do just
that very thing."
"I'm agreein' with the rest, so keep moving, Elmer," Lil Artha observed,
deeply interested in the results, as he had a right to be.
"Well, then, suppose now we ride on behind Lil Artha for another mile.
Then he can hold up when I give a little whistle, or he hears the faint
howl of a wolf in the distance. The three of us will then proceed to
hide our motorcycles somewhere in the woods, marking the place at the
roadside so we can find 'em again easy later on to-night. After that
we'll haul upon our chum, and keep a little distance behind him as he
tramps on toward Little Falls."
"Bully idea!" declared the object of all this attention, shaking the
hand of the one who had suggested it. "And a feller don't have to have
more'n two eyes, with a mite of common sense back of 'em, to know
what's goin' to happen when the Fairfield bullies jump out on me."
"Whack! whack! that's two down; one with the right, and t'other with the
left duke, leaving only two for you three boys," declared Nat, making a
violent lunge in either direction, as though getting in trim after these
months of idleness, when following the mild paths of peace.
Toby laughed.
"Say, what d'ye suppose we'll be doing all that while?" he demanded.
"Don't be so greedy, Nathan. It's one apiece all around. Nothin' could
be fairer than that, and I put it up to Elmer here. Who wants to get
cheated out of his share, tell me that!"
"I reckon that ought to be understood in the beginning," remarked Elmer,
dryly. "Get this notion out of your heads, fellows. All we want is to
protect Lil Artha. If talking would do it I'd say leave it to me
entirely; but we all know it needs something stronger. So let each
fellow try to capture one of the bunch in ambush and hold him. Perhaps
they'll skedaddle as soon as they see us coming, and the job will be
done without one blow."
"But if they do resist when we're trying to defend our chum, what then?"
asked Nat, with the most agonizing appeal in his voice, as though he saw
his dearest hopes fading, fading gradually away.
"Oh, that goes without saying," chuckled Elmer. "I don't think there's
any real need of my giving you fellows orders along that line, because
you know what the only remedy is. Only, please don't forget for one
minute that you are scouts, and as such should hold your hand the
instant the white flag goes up."
"Sure we will, Elmer, if we see it!" chuckled Nat. "You make me happy
again. Gee! I was afraid you might say that under no circumstances was
a poor fellow allowed to defend himself--that, like a lot of old women,
all we could do was to grab an enemy and hold on, no matter how he
scratched and bit and gouged. It's all right. We've got our orders,
fellows. Nuff said."
All this time they had been walking at a rather stiff pace along the
road that led in the direction of Little Falls, distant something like
nine miles. When Lil Artha had said that he believed he was in
possession of his second wind, he evidently knew what he was talking
about. At least the others were hard pushed to keep up with the
long-legged contestant, hampered as they were by their heavy machines,
which had to be trundled along with considerable effort.
"Fall back and mount, fellows," said Elmer; "and you, Lil Artha, keep
listening for the signal to wait for us. Only a mile do we dare keep
going; to get closer to the place of ambush might betray us, as they
would hear the explosions from one of these machines, the muffler of
which never works decently. Get that?"
"It's as plain as the nose on my face, and nobody can miss that,"
replied the other, as he started off along the road.
Elmer cautioned his comrades to make as little racket as possible, and
presently they followed on their motorcycles.
About ten minutes later a low, weird sound floated through the air. To
most persons it would have meant that some farmer's watchdog was uneasy,
and baying at the stars; but Lil Artha knew better.
It was intended for the howl of the wolf, the sign of his patrol!