A SWIMMING PARTY
Though Jack Danby, partly through his own courage and determination,
and partly by reason of Dick Crawford's quick thinking, had escaped
from the hands of the desperado who had so evidently determined to
murder him, Scout-Master Durland was anything but easy in his mind
regarding his friend, as he was proud to call the young Scout who had
done so well whenever he had been put to the test.
He did not want to alarm Jack himself without cause, but to Dick
Crawford he spoke without hesitation.
"I'm worried about Jack, Dick," he said. "These villains are quite
capable of making another attack on him, and that would never do."
"I should say not, sir! He might not get off so lightly another time."
"That's just what I'm afraid of. If they strike against him once more
they are more than likely to realize that to have a chance against him,
they must strike quickly. If that scoundrel had had the slightest idea
that the alarm had been given, or that poor Jack was conscious, I am
afraid Danby would have had very little chance of his life."
"It makes me sick to think of what they might have done. That was what
I was thinking of all along as I rode for the lock."
"You made good time getting there, Dick."
"I felt as if I had to! I was helpless as long as they were out on the
lake, where it was broad. Even a boat would have been useless. If
they had seen a boat making for them, they would have known at once
that they were in danger, and would have either gotten rid of Jack or
made a desperate stand, with a good chance of beating off any attack.
The lock was the only place to reach them--and that meant fast moving,
or I would have been too late."
"Well, what I meant to say was that we ought, if it is at all possible,
to take steps to see that Jack does not again expose himself to any
such risk. He is too valuable a Scout to have him take chances that
are not necessary."
"Especially since he doesn't seem to know what fear is. He never stops
to think of the effect of anything he does upon himself. He goes ahead
and trusts to luck, if he thinks that it is his duty to do anything, if
there seems to be danger. So, when there is no need of his being in
peril, it is only right to do all we can to guard him."
"Tom Binns and Pete Stubbs are devoted to him, aren't they, Dick?"
"I think either one of them would go through fire or water for him if
there was need."
"Well, then, suppose you get hold of them quietly, without letting Jack
learn anything about what you are planning, and have them keep a close
watch on his movements. They can do it without arousing his suspicion,
and, if he seems likely to do anything that would give these fellows a
chance to get at him, we will interfere, if possible, and spoil their
little plan."
"That's the idea, sir! Those two boys will be trustworthy, and they've
got a lot of good horse sense, too."
"This may prove a very important commission for the two of them, though
I hope, of course, that we are afraid of a shadow, and that Jack has
nothing more to fear from these men."
Tom Binns and Pete Stubbs were delighted when Dick Crawford told them
what he wanted them to do.
"Gee, Dick," said Pete, "that makes us like a couple of sure enough
detectives, don't it?"
"Yes--except that you're supposed to prevent anything crooked from
being done, and not simply to find out how it was done afterward, and
who did it. We don't want any work for detectives that Jack Danby is
the centre of."
"I understand," said Tom Binns. "Pete and I are just to keep our eyes
open, and if we think Jack is running into any danger, we're to let you
know, so that you can help to keep him out of it."
"I think there's more than one person would like to see Jack out of the
way," said Pete Stubbs, thoughtfully. "You know, he's told me
something lately about this queer business of his name. It looks
mighty funny to me. There are people, he says, who know who his father
and mother were, and who are mighty angry and sorry that he's left
Woodleigh and dropped out of their sight."
"Is that so, Pete?" asked Dick, surprised, since he had heard nothing
of all this.
"Yes, indeed! There was a man who has been up at Woodleigh, trying to
find out exactly where Jack had gone, and what he was doing. Jack
seemed to think that this man was satisfied to have him up at
Woodleigh, where people wouldn't see much of him and weren't likely to
be curious about who he was."
"And where anyone who wanted to could keep tabs on him pretty well, eh?
That's easier to do in a little country place like that, where everyone
knows the business of everyone else, than it would be in a big city
like this, isn't it?"
Dick was very thoughtful.
"I've heard funny stories about Jack Danby and his name," he went on.
"In fact, Jack's told me himself that Danby really isn't his name at
all, and that he has no idea of what his real name is. As he gets
older, naturally, it means a great deal to him that he isn't like all
the rest of us, and doesn't know all about himself. It doesn't make
any difference to his real friends, but it bothers him, naturally. I
think we'll have to see if we can't help him solve that mystery, don't
you?"
"I'd give anything if I could make Jack happy by telling him all about
himself!" cried little Tom Binns, full of love and loyalty for the
friend who had always done so much for him.
"Well, we'll see," said Dick. "Meantime, if Jack has the best name in
the world, it wouldn't do him much good if it had to be carved on a
tombstone before he's had a chance to use it at all, and if that fellow
that carried him off from our camp ever gets another chance at him,
that's what he'll be needing."
It wasn't like Dick Crawford to be alarmed by anything as a rule, and
the two Scouts were mightily impressed by his solemn tone and the
warning he gave, as he meant them to be. He didn't want them to go
into the work of guarding Jack as if he were simply a figure in a new
and fascinating game. He wanted them to take the task very seriously,
and give their best efforts to it. And, after such a speech, he had no
doubt that they would carry out his intentions, and that if there were
any way of making Jack safe from future attacks they would find it.
Jack himself suffered no ill effects worth mentioning from his rough
experience, unpleasant as it had been.
"Gee, Jack," said Pete Stubbs, when he saw his chum the morning after
his rescue, "one would think, just to look at you, that you liked
having a chap chloroform you and kick you around a little bit of a
boat. You look great!"
"I had a good night's sleep, Pete. That's why. Look at the time--it's
the middle of the afternoon, isn't it? I felt a lot more tired the day
after that baseball double header than I do right now. They didn't
really hurt me, you see. And that swim in the cold water was just what
I needed to make me feel fine after it, too. That chased the headache
the drug gave me, and set me up in fine shape."
"I tell you why, Jack. It's because you always take a lot of exercise
and look after yourself all the time, that things like that don't upset
you."
"Say, Pete, Tom Binns is coming around here again, later. I feel so
good that I think I'd like to go and do something this afternoon. What
do you say? I think it would be fine to go down to the lake and have a
great old swim. Summer don't last so long that I want to miss any of
the swimming while it's as good as it is now."
"I'll go you!" said Pete, never thinking that it might be just such
expeditions that Dick Crawford was afraid of. "Say, wouldn't it be
fine to live in a place where you can go swimming all the year round,
like Florida, or California, or some place like that?"
"I don't know that it would, Pete. I think all the seasons are good,
in their own time. You wouldn't like never to see the snow, or to be
in a place where it never froze and made ice for skating, would you?"
"Say, Jack, I never thought of that! That's a funny thing about you.
You never go off the way the rest of us do, without thinking about
things. You think of all sides of anything. I wish I was like that.
I wouldn't make so many fool breaks!"
"Old Dan used to catch me up every time I said anything in a hurry,"
explained Jack, with a smile. "I guess that's the reason I'm that way,
if I really am, Pete. It isn't that I'm any more likely to think of
things than you, but that I've been trained that way. Whenever I said
anything reckless, or quick, Old Dan used to ask me why I said it, and
make me try to prove it. So I got to thinking about everything I said
before I let myself say it, and I've sort of kept up the habit."
"I'm going to try to be like that, too, Jack. I think it's a good way
to be."
"Well, here's Tom Binns! Want to go swimming with us, Tom?"
"You bet I do, Jack! Sure you feel well enough, though? You don't
want to take any chances on being sick after what you were up against
last night, you know."
"No. I'll be all right. Come on."
So they went off. The day was warm, but overcast, and there was a
threat of a thunderstorm in the sultriness of it. But they cared
little for that.
"If we're going to get wet," said Pete, "we might as well do it
comfortably. We won't be any wetter for a thunderstorm than if the sun
were shining if we're in swimming."
They changed their clothes in a little hut at the camping place, and
went in from the little sandy beach there, the presence of which was
one of the reasons the Scouts had favored it for a camping ground.
They had not been in the water very long before great drops of water,
began to fall, and then, with a howling of wind, the threatened storm
came down. They laughed and enjoyed the novelty of being in the water
in such weather, since they were in a sheltered cove. Presently the
wind died down and furious thunder and lightning came to take its
place, but that didn't bother them, either. It was not until, after a
vivid flash and an immediate roar of thunder, cries of distress came
from the lake, that they were aroused. They looked out, and saw a
burning launch.
"Gee," cried Pete Stubbs, his face white, "the lightning must have
fired their gasolene tank! Let's get out there and see if we can't
help."
At once they swam to the rescue.