WINNING A SUPPER
While they ate the chupatties with the relish gained by their morning's
tramp, and washed them down with steaming hot tea, they looked over the
map which Dick had spread between them.
'Here we are,' said Dick, putting his finger on the very cartway
itself, which was clearly shown in the capital map.
Chippy nodded.
'Lemme see,' murmured the latter. 'Wot's the best way to head arter
this?'
The two scouts were steering clear of all high-roads and beaten tracks.
They were both agreed that there was no fun in tramping along under
telegraph wires and in the dust of motor-cars. Anyone could find his
way where there was a row of milestones and finger-posts to keep him
straight. They were marching purely by the map, following byways and
narrow, hidden country lanes, and unfrequented tracks which led by moor
and heath and common. There was another immense advantage, too, in
moving by such routes. Not merely was it excellent scouting practice,
but it afforded them quiet places for camping. It is not easy to camp
along a high-road: there are too many people about. No sooner does the
smoke of the evening fire begin to rise than a squad of village
loungers turn up to watch the preparations, or perhaps, worse still,
someone in authority arrives, and forbids the campers to halt in that
spot.
'Lemme see,' murmured Chippy again. 'Here's a river; that's about
seven mile again, as fur as I can mek' out.'
Dick measured the distance. 'Just about seven miles,' he said.
'Wot d'yer say to campin' pretty handy to it to-night?' went on Chippy.
'So that you can try your hand on the fish, eh?' laughed Dick.
Chippy nodded.
'All right,' said Dick, 'we'll strike out for it. We shall have to do
about two miles along a main, then we can branch off again, and get up
to the river in very quiet country. See, there's hardly a house marked
on the map.'
'All the better for mekin' a camp,' said Chippy; and Dick agreed.
When they had finished their meal they lay in the sunshine, chatting
and watching the fire die away. Before they left they took care that
every ember was extinguished, so that no harm could come to the place
where they had made their halt.
It was about two o'clock when they resumed their journey, and they
moved at an easy pace, with the aim of reaching their camping-ground
towards five. That would give them ample time to make their
preparations for the night.
Until four o'clock the march was quite uneventful, then Chippy had an
adventure with a baker's cart. They were passing through a village
whose street was spanned at one end by a railway bridge. Near the
bridge stood a cottage lying well back from the road, and as the scouts
passed, a baker drove up, and went to the cottage with his basket on
his arm.
While he was at the door, a train whizzed up and thundered over the
bridge, and the horse took fright and dashed away, galloping up behind
the two boys. Both of the latter began to run with all their might in
the same direction as the horse, which soon caught them up. He was
about to pass them on Chippy's side when the Raven flung aside his
staff, and seized the shaft with his right hand, and thus was enabled
for a few yards to keep an equal speed with the horse. Then Chippy
gripped the near rein with his left hand and tugged with all his might.
The terrified creature was not yet too wild with fear to fail to answer
to the pull on the bit, and swung round to the left. In this way the
scout managed to jam the frightened brute's head into the tall bank,
and thus pulled it up. In dashed Dick and seized the other rein, and
between them the scouts held the horse until the baker ran up and
helped them to secure it.
The baker was profuse in his thanks--above all, when he had looked over
the horse and cart, and found that neither was a penny the worse,
thanks to the Raven's clever manoeuvring.
Chippy scratched his jaw thoughtfully, then spoke up:
'D'ye reckon it's worth a loaf to ye--a big un?'
'A loaf!' cried the baker, 'it's worth every loaf I've got in the cart,
and more, too. The mare might have broke her leg and the cart been
smashed, and I gave three-and-twenty pound for the mare less 'n a
fortnight ago.'
'We'll let it go at a loaf,' murmured Chippy; and the baker picked out
the best he could find and gave a thousand thanks with it. Chippy put
the loaf in his haversack, and the scouts trudged on.
'It'll stretch our flour out a bit,' said Chippy, and Dick grinned.
'After all, Chippy,' he said, 'the loaf was well earned, and no
mistake. I don't see that we're not playing fair by picking up things
like that.'
'I don't see aught wrong in that,' replied the Raven; 'that's living on
the country in as straight a way as can be, I reckon.'
Beyond the village they climbed a rise to a ridge, and at the crown of
the ascent they looked ahead, and saw a wide valley before them, with a
shining stream winding its way through a green river-flat.
'There's the river, Chippy,' said Dick, 'and there goes the road up the
side of the valley, turning away from the river.'
He pointed to the white ribbon of dusty road which climbed a distant
rise and disappeared.
'We'll mek' straight for the river,' said the Raven.
'Right,' said Dick. 'Cross-country it is;' and the boys struck away
into the fields. They spent some time in reaching the river, for they
carefully avoided crossing fields where grass was growing for hay, or
where corn was green; but at last they were on its banks at a point
where it wound across a big patch of rough common land, dotted by
flumps of gorse and broken by two or three spinneys.
The river was not wide, but it was slow, and seemed deep. The boys
tried two or three places with their patrol staffs, and could not touch
the bottom. Then they started to prospect for a camping-ground for the
night.
'How about under that little hanger?' said Dick, pointing to a tiny
wood which clung to a bank a short distance back from the river.
'Looks all right,' rejoined Chippy; and they went towards it. They
were crossing a grassy strip between two clumps of furze when a small
spiny creature with a sharp nose trundled across their path some
distance ahead. Chippy leapt out and darted in pursuit, his staff
raised. Dick followed, saw the staff fall, and came up to find the
Raven turning over a dead hedgehog with the point of his stick.
'Supper for two,' chuckled Chippy, 'an' a jolly good un.'
'Supper?' cried Dick, 'Why, it's a hedgehog. Who can eat a thing like
that?' and he made a face of disgust.
'Them as know's wot's good,' murmured Chippy, with a cheerful wink.
'Wait till ye've had a bit. Besides, ain't we scouts? An' scouts ha'
got to tackle anythin' an' everythin'. Look wot it says in the books.
Look wot B.P. et at one time an' another.'
'You're right, old chap,' said Dick; 'but just for a minute it seemed
so jolly queer to knock over a spiny little brute like that, and then
talk of eating it.'
'Gipsies eat 'em reg'lar,' replied Chippy, 'an' I know 'ow they handle
'em. They're good--I tell ye that.'
Carrying the hedgehog by a withe cut from a willow, the scouts went on
to the ground below the hanger, and pronounced the spot first-rate for
a camp. There was a sandy patch at the foot of the bank, and here they
resolved to build their fire and sleep.