TELLS ABOUT THE STORM ON BLACK LAKE
One thing I have to admit, and that is that Mr. Ellsworth helped me a
lot with this chapter and the next one too. But just the same both of
them are by me, all right.
It's a funny thing, but all that night I was dreaming about that canoe
with the two fellows in it. I could hear them paddling just as clear as
could be, only when I woke up before daylight, I knew it was just the
sound of rain on the roof of our patrol cabin. It was dripping into the
rain ditch, I guess.
Pretty soon I went to sleep again, and I could see Skinny standing in
front of me and his eyes were staring and his face was all white and
there was some blood on it and he said, "I want to be a Silver Fox,
because my father stole a lot of silver; so haven't I got a right to
be?" I tried to answer him, but there was a loud noise and he couldn't
hear and then, all of a sudden, I woke up and I knew the noise was
thunder and Skinny wasn't there at all. Anyway, it made me feel kind of
creepy and I was glad when I saw him at breakfast.
All that morning it rained and most of the scouts stayed in their tents
and cabins. Some of them played basketball in the pavilion. Three
fellows from the Boston troop went out fishing, but they had to come in
it was raining so hard.
Before dinnertime, Uncle Jeb called some of us to move the mess boards
into the pavilion, because it was beginning to blow from the east and
the awnings and thatch roofs over the mess boards didn't keep the rain
off, because it blew sideways. Out on the lake the water was churning
up rough with little white caps. Jiminy, I never saw it like that
before.
It was so dark and rainy that a fellow couldn't read even; anyway _I_
couldn't because, oh, I don't know, I felt queer kind of. A lot of us
sat on the wide porch of the pavilion--the side facing the lake. It was
wide enough so the rain didn't come in and wet us as long as we stayed
way back near the windows. We sat in a long row with our chairs tilted
back. It was nice there.
Somebody said, "That spring-board looks lonely sticking out into the
lake; look how the drops jump off it, just like fellows diving."
"Not much of a day for the race," Doc Carson said.
"What race?" Pee-wee shouted.
"The human race," Doc said; "no sooner said than stung."
We were just starting to jolly Pee-wee, because that's our favorite
indoor sport, when somebody said, "There's one of the gold dust twins
out; he must be crazy."
"He comes from Maine," another fellow said; "I guess he's a maniac."
But anyway, it was no joke, that was sure. Away over near the other
side of the lake we could see the canoe bobbing up and down and it
seemed to be coming toward us.
"Only one of them is in it," I said.
"And that's one too much on a day like this; that pair are sure nutty,"
Doc said.
But just the same the canoe came along and one of those campers was
sitting in the stern paddling it. He was having a pretty hard job, I
could see that, but maybe it wasn't as dangerous as it looked, because
if you know how to manage a canoe it's better than an old tub of a boat
in bad weather.
"He's making it all right," one of the fellows said; "he's game, that's
sure."
Pretty soon he came alongside the landing and turned his canoe over to
let the water out, and then came up to the pavilion.
"Pretty wet," he said.
"You said something," Westy answered him; "you took a big chance coming
over."
"I'd sure have been drowned if I _hadn't_ come," he laughed; "I wonder
if you fellows can sell us a shovel? Our tent is floating."
I had to laugh, because that's always the one thing that most campers
who aren't used to it forget about--I mean digging a drain ditch
outside their tent. And the first time it rains, _good night,_ they get
drowned out like rats. I thought he was a pretty nice kind of a fellow,
only he was one tenderfoot, that was sure. He had a swell bathing suit
on with one of those waterproof mackinaw jackets over it. I guess his
people were rich all right, and I suppose that's why the fellows at
camp called the pair the gold dust twins. He took some bills out of his
pocket and said, "We want to buy a shovel; you can't dig a trench with
a canoe paddle. There's fine swimming in our tent."
Then Bert Winton said, kind of quiet in that way he had, "I don't think
you'll need any money here. I'll get hold of one of the scoutmasters,"
and he started down the steps. Just then I noticed Skinny standing on
the steps and Bert Winton gave him a push, just for fun, as he went by.
"Come on in out of the rain, Alf," I said; because I knew he was just
hanging there, because he was afraid to come up where the rest of us
were. I asked him where his patrol was, and he said, "In the cabin,
playing checkers." I said, "Don't _you_ know how to play checkers," and
he said, "No." After that I didn't notice him.
Pretty soon the gold dust twin came back with a shovel and Mr. Elting,
who is resident trustee, was with him, telling him he'd better not go
back across the lake on account of its blowing up harder.
"I could never get around through the woods," he said; "because I tried
it."
"Some of these boys will show you the trail," Mr. Elting said.
But he said, "No," and that as long as he came he was going to go back.
He said he didn't want any escort. He was pretty game, that was one
sure thing. I guess maybe he felt sort of ashamed to have boy scouts
show him the way, because he was older than most of us. Anyway, he
started back and we sat there watching him, and pretty soon it seemed
as if a kind of a screen was behind him, the rain was so thick and
there was so much mist. It made him look sort of like a ghost or a--you
know--a spectre.
Then, all of a sudden Artie Van Arlen's hat blew off and I heard a
branch of a tree crack.
"Where is the canoe?" Doc said, all excited; "do you see it?"
We looked all over, but couldn't see him anywhere. That was just how
quickly it happened. Then, all of a sudden I could hear a voice, but I
couldn't hear it plain, because the wind was blowing the other way and
the rain was making such a racket on the porch roof. The voice was all
mixed up with the wind and it sounded spooky and gave me the creeps.
For a couple of seconds nobody said anything.