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THE BOY SCOUTS' MOUNTAIN CAMP
by
LIEUT. HOWARD PAYSON
Author of "The Boy Scouts of the Eagle Patrol,"
"The Boy Scouts on the Range,"
"The Boy Scouts and the Army Airship," etc.
With Four Original Illustrations by R. M. Brinkerhoff
New York
Hurst & Company
Publishers
Copyright, 1912,
by
Hurst & Company
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. A Typical Boy Scout 5
II. Two Mysterious Men 16
III. The Major Explains 30
IV. The Narrative Continued 39
V. A Midnight Auto Dash 51
VI. In Direst Peril 66
VII. Adrift in the Storm 76
VIII. Eagles on the Trail 86
IX. What Scout Hopkins Did 97
X. A Rescue and a Bivouac 109
XI. The Mountain Camp 121
XII. Captured 132
XIII. Rob Finds a Ray of Hope 144
XIV. A Thrilling Escape 155
XV. Out of the Frying Pan 167
XVI. Into the Fire! 177
XVII. "We Want You." 187
XVIII. Jumbo Earns $500.00--and Loses It 197
XIX. The Forest Monarch 206
XX. The Canoes Found 216
XXI. "The Ruby Glow." 225
XXII. The Buccaneer's Cave 238
XXIII. Trapped in a Living Tomb 248
XXIV. Two Columns of Smoke 264
XXV. The Heart of the Mystery--Conclusion 276
The Boy Scouts' Mountain Camp.
CHAPTER I.
A TYPICAL BOY SCOUT.
"Hullo, Rob; what's up?"
Merritt Crawford stopped on his way past the Hampton post-office, and
hailed Rob Blake, the leader of the Eagle Patrol, of which Merritt was
corporal. Both lads wore the natty scout uniform.
"Not a thing is up or down, either," rejoined Rob, with a laugh; "it
looks as if things had stopped happening in Hampton ever since that
schooner was blown up."
"And Jack Curtiss's hopes of a fortune with it," added Merritt. "Well,
I'm off home. Going that way?"
"Yes, I'll be with you in a---- Hullo, what's happening?"
From farther up the street, at one end of which lay the glistening sheet
of water known as Hampton Inlet, there came excited shouts. Then,
suddenly, into the field of vision there swept, with astonishing
rapidity, a startling sight.
A large automobile was coming toward them at a rapid rate. On the
driver's seat was a white-faced young girl, a cloud of fair hair
streaming out about her frightened countenance. She was gripping the
steering wheel, and seemed to be striving desperately to check the onrush
of the machine. But her efforts were vain. The auto, instead of
decreasing its rate of progress, appeared every minute to be gaining in
speed.
It bumped and swayed wildly. A cloud of yellow dust arose about it.
Behind the runaway machine could be perceived a crowd of townsfolk
shouting incoherently.
"Oh, stop it! I shall be killed! Stop it, please do!"
The young girl was shrilly screaming in alarm, as the machine approached
the two boys. So rapidly had events progressed since they first sighted
it, that not a word had been exchanged between them. All at once, Merritt
noticed that he was alone. Rob had darted to the roadway. As the auto
dashed by, Merritt saw the young leader of the Hampton Boy Scouts give a
sudden flying leap upon the running-board. He shot up from the road as if
a steel spring had projected him.
For one instant he hung between life and death--or, at least, serious
injury. The speed with which the auto was going caused the lad's legs to
fly out from it, as one of his hands caught the side door of the tonneau.
But in a jiffy Rob's athletic training triumphed. By a supreme effort he
managed to steady himself and secure a grip with his other hand. Then he
rapidly made his way forward along the running-board.
But this move proved almost disastrous. The already panic-stricken girl
took her attention from the steering-wheel for an instant. In that
molecule of time, the auto, like a perverse live thing, got beyond her
control. It leaped wildly toward the sidewalk outside the Hampton candy
store. A crowd of young folks--it was Saturday afternoon--had been
indulging in ice cream and other dainties, when the shouts occasioned by
the runaway machine had alarmed them.
Instantly soda and candy counters were neglected, and a rush for the
sidewalk ensued. But, as they poured out to see what was the matter, they
were faced by deadly peril.
The auto, like a juggernaut, was careening straight at them. Its exhausts
roared like the nostrils of an excited beast.
Young girls screamed, and boys tried to drag them out of harm's way. But
had it not been for the fact that at that instant Rob gained the wheel,
there might have been some serious accidents.
The lad fairly wrenched it out of the hands of the girl driver, who was
half fainting at the imminence of the peril. A quick, savage twist, and
the car spun round and was on a straight course again. That danger, at
least, was over. But another, and a deadlier, threatened.
Right ahead lay the spot where the road terminated in a long wharf, at
which occasional steamers landed. Every second brought them closer to it.
If Rob could not stop the machine before it reached the end of the wharf,
it was bound to plunge over and into the sea. All this flashed through
the boy's mind as he strove to find some means of stopping the car. But
the auto was of a type unfamiliar to him. One experiment in checking its
motion resulted instead in a still more furious burst of speed.
Like objects seen in a nightmare, the stores, the white faces of the
alarmed townsfolk, and the other familiar objects of the village street,
streaked by in a gray blur.
"I must stop it! I must!" breathed Rob.
But how? Where had the manufacturer of the car concealed his emergency
brake? The lever controlling it seemed to be mysteriously out of sight.
Suddenly the motion of the car changed. It no longer bumped. It ran
terribly smoothly and swiftly.
From the street it had passed out upon the even surface of the planked
wharf. Only a few seconds now in which to gain control of it!
"The emergency brake!" shouted Rob aloud in his extremity.
"Your foot! It works with your foot, I think!"
The voice, faint as a whisper over a long-distance telephone, came to the
ears of the striving boy. It belonged to the girl beside him. Glancing
down, Rob now saw what he would have observed at first, if he had had
time to look about him--a metal pedal projected through the floor of the
car. With an inward prayer, he jammed his foot down upon it. Would it
work?
The end of the pier was terribly close now. The water gleamed blue and
intense. It seemed awaiting the fatal plunge overboard.
But that plunge was not taken. There was a grinding sound, like a harsh
purr, the speed of the car decreased, and, finally, it came to a
stop--just in time.
From the landward end of the pier a crowd came running. In front were two
or three khaki-uniformed members of the Eagle Patrol. Behind them several
of the Hawks were mingled with the crowd.
Beyond all the confusion, Rob, as he turned his head, could see another
automobile coming. It had two passengers in it. As the crowd surged about
the boy and the girl, who had not yet alighted, and poured out questions
in a rapid fusillade, the second car came "honking" up.
A murmur of "Mr. Blake" ran through the throng, as a tall, ruddy-faced
man descended, followed by a military-looking gentleman, whose face was
strongly agitated. Mr. Blake was Rob's father, and, as readers of other
volumes of this series know, the banker and scout patron of the little
community. It was his car in which he had just driven up with his
companion.
The latter hesitated not a moment, but in a few long strides gained the
side of the car which Rob's efforts had stopped just in time.
"Bravely done, my lad; bravely done," he cried, and then, to the girl,
"good heavens, Alice, what an experience! Child, you might have been
killed if it had not been for this lad's pluck! Mr. Blake," as the banker
came up, "I congratulate you on your son."
"And I," rejoined the banker gravely, "feel that I am not egotistical in
accepting that congratulation. Rob, this is my friend, Major Roger
Dangerfield, from up the State."
"And this," said the major, returning Rob's salutation and turning to the
girl who was clinging to him, "is my daughter, Alice, whose first
experience with the operation of an automobile nearly came to a
disastrous ending."
Rob Blake, whose heroic action has just been described, was--as readers
of The Boy Scout Series are aware--the leader of the Eagle Patrol, an
organization of patriotic, clean-lived lads, attracted by the high ideals
of the Boy Scout movement.
The patrol, while of comparatively recent organization, had been through
some stirring adventures. In _The Boy Scouts of The Eagle Patrol_, for
instance, we read how Rob and his followers defeated the machinations of
certain jealous and unworthy enemies. They repaid evil with good, as is
the scout way, but several despicable tricks, and worse, were played on
them. In this book was related how Joe Digby in the camp of the Eagles,
was kidnaped and imprisoned on a barren island, and how smoke signaling
and quick wit saved his life. The boys solved a mystery and had several
exciting trials of skill, including an aeroplane contest, which was
almost spoiled by the trickery of their enemy, Jack Curtiss.
In the second volume, _The Boy Scouts on the Range_, we followed our
young friends to the Far West. Here they distinguished themselves, and
formed a mounted patrol, known as _The Ranger Patrol_. The pony riders
had some exciting incidents befall them. These included capture by
hostile Indians and a queer adventure in the haunted caves, in which
Tubby almost lost his life.
In this volume, Jack Curtiss and his gang were again encountered, but
although their trickery prevailed for a time, in the end they were
routed. A noteworthy feature of this book was the story of the career and
end of Silver Tip, a giant grizzly bear of sinister reputation in that
part of the country.
_The Boy Scouts and the Army Airship_, brought the lads into a new and
vital field of endeavor. They met an army officer, who was conducting
secret tests of an aeroplane, and were enabled to aid him in many ways.
In all the thrilling situations with which this book abounds, the boys
are found always living up to the scout motto of "Be prepared."
How they checkmated the efforts of Stonington Hunt, an unscrupulous
financier, to rob a poor boy of the fruits of his inventive genius--a
work in which he was aided by his unworthy son, Freeman Hunt--must be
read to be appreciated. In doing this work, however, they earned Hunt's
undying hatred, and, although they thought they were through with him
when he slunk disgraced out of Hampton, they had not seen the last of
him.
As the present story progresses, we shall learn how Stonington Hunt and
his son tried to avenge themselves for their fancied wrongs at the hands
of the Boy Scouts.