A MOTION WHICH WAS NOT IN ORDER.
The next day the march was resumed, and continued with some haltings
for rest until about three o'clock, when Sam chose a camp for the
night, saying that they had already made a better march than he had
planned for that day, and that there was no occasion to break
themselves down by going further.
The work was at once resumed upon guns and arrows, Sam beginning by
finishing the arrows already made. He cut strips from a hare's skin
which Tommy had brought with him at Sam's request, making each strip
about four or five inches long, and just wide enough to meet around
the end of an arrow. Binding these strips firmly, the arrows were
complete. Each was a slender, light stick of cedar, shod at one end
with a slender iron point, and bound around at the other, for a
distance of several inches, with the fur of the hare. Pushing one of
these into the mouth end of his blow gun, Sam showed his companions
that the fur completely filled the tube, so that when he should blow
in the end the arrow would be driven through and out with considerable
force.
Pointing the gun toward a tree a little way off, Sam blew, and in a
moment the arrow was seen sticking in the tree, its head being almost
wholly buried in the solid wood.
The boys all wanted to try the new guns, of course, and Sam permitted
them to do so, greatly to their delight, as long as the daylight
lasted. Then the manufacture of new arrows began, the boys working
earnestly now, because they were interested.
After awhile Sam took out his map and began pricking the course upon
it.
"I say, Sam," said Bob Sharp, "how do you do that?"
"How do I do what? Prick the map?"
"No, I mean how do you know where we are and which way we go?"
"That's just what I want to know," said Sid Russell.
"And me, too," chimed in Billy Bunker and Jake Elliott.
"Well, come here, all of you," replied Sam, "and I'll show you. We
started there, at camp Jackson,--you see, don't you, where the Coosa
and the Tallapoosa rivers come together and we are going down there,"
pointing to a spot on the map, "to the sea, or rather to the Bay near
Pensacola."
"Are we! Good! I never saw the sea," said Sid Russell, speaking faster
than any of the boys had ever heard him speak before.
"Yes, that is the place we're going to, and presently I'll tell you
what we're going for; but one thing at a time. You see the course is a
little west of south, nearly but not quite southwest. The distance, in
an air line is about a hundred and twenty-five miles: that is to say
Pensacola is about a hundred and ten miles further south than camp
Jackson, and about fifty miles further west."
"That would be a hundred and sixty miles then," said Billy Bowlegs.
"Yes," replied Sam, "it would if we went due south and then due west,
taking the base and perpendicular of a right angled triangle, instead
of its hypothenuse."
"Whew, what's all them words I wonder," exclaimed Billy.
"Well, I'll try to show you what I mean," said Sam, taking a stick and
drawing in the sand a figure like this:
[Illustration]
"There," said Sam, "that's a right angled triangle, but you may call
it a thingimajig if you like; it doesn't matter about the name.
Suppose we start at the top to go to the left hand lower corner; don't
you see that it would be further to go straight down to the right hand
lower corner and then across to the left hand lower corner, than to go
straight from the top to the left hand lower corner."
"Certainly," replied Billy, "it's just like going cat a cornered
across a field."
"Well," said Sam, pointing with his finger, "if I were to draw a
triangle here on the map beginning at camp Jackson and running due
south to the line of Pensacola, and then due west to Pensacola itself,
with a third line running 'cat a cornered' as you say, from camp
Jackson straight to Pensacola, the line due south would be about a
hundred and ten miles long and the one due west about fifty miles
long, while the 'cat a cornered' line would be about a hundred and
twenty five miles long."
"How do you find out that last,--the cat a cornered line's length?"
asked Tom.
"I can't explain that to you," said Sam, "because you haven't studied
geometry."
"Oh well, tell us anyhow, if we don't understand it," said Sid
Russell, who sat with his mouth open.
"Sid wants to find out how to tell how far it is from his head to his
heels, without having to make the trip when he's tired," said Bob
Sharp, who was always poking fun at Sid's long legs.
"Well," said Sam smiling, "I know the length of that line because I
know that the square described on the hypothenuse of a right angled
triangle is equal to the sum of the squares described on the other two
sides."
"Whew! it fairly takes the breath out of a fellow to hear you rattle
that off," replied Sid.
"Come," resumed Sam, "we aren't getting on with what we undertook. Now
look and listen. Here is the line we would follow if we could go
straight from Camp Jackson to Pensacola. If we could follow it, I
would only have to guess how many miles we march each day, and mark it
down on the map. But we can't go straight, because of swamps and
creeks and canebrakes, so I must keep looking at my compass to find
out what direction we do go; then I mark on the map the route we have
followed each day, and the distance, and each night's camp gives me a
new starting point."
"Yes, but Sam," said Tom, suddenly thinking of something.
"Well, what is it, Tom?"
"Suppose you guess wrong as to the distance travelled each day?"
"Well, suppose I do; I can't miss it very far."
"No, but it gives you a wrong starting-point for the next day, and two
or three mistakes would throw you clear out."
"Yes, but I make corrections constantly. You see, I have changed the
place of last night's camp a little on the map."
"How do you make corrections?"
"By the creeks and rivers. Here, for instance, is a creek that we
ought to cross about ten miles ahead. If we come to it short of that,
or if it proves to be further off, I shall know that I have got
to-night's camp placed wrong on the map. I shall then correct my
estimate. When we come to the next creek I shall be able to make my
guess still more certain, and by the time we get to Pensacola I shall
have the whole march marked pretty nearly right on the map."
"I'd give a purty price for that there head o' your'n, Sam," said Sid
Russell.
"It isn't for sale, Sid, and besides it will be a good deal cheaper to
use the one you have, taking care to make it as good as anybody's. Now
let me explain to all of you why we are going to Pensacola," and with
that Sam entered into the plans which we know all about already, and
which need not be repeated here. When he had finished the boys plied
him with questions, which he answered as well as he could. Jake
Elliott said nothing for a time, but after a while he ventured to
ask:--
"Don't they hang fellows they ketch in that sort o' business?"
"They hang spies," replied Sam, "but they can scarcely hold us to be
spies, especially as we shall be in the territory of a friendly
neutral nation, where there cannot properly be a British camp at all."
"Well, but mayn't they do it anyhow, just as they are a campin' there,
anyhow?"
"Of course they may, but I do not think it likely. In the first place
we mustn't let them suspect us, and in the second, we must make use of
what law there is if we should be arrested."
"Well, but if it all failed, what then?" asked Jake.
"Oh, shut up Jake," cried Billy Bowlegs. "You're afeard, that's what's
the matter with you."
"Well," replied Sam "that is simply a risk that we have to run, like
any other risk in war. I told you all in advance that the expedition
was a hazardous one."
"Of course you did, an' what's more you didn't want Jake Elliott to
come either," said Billy Bowlegs.
"Go into your hole, Jake, if you're scared," said Bob Sharp.
"Jake ain't scared, he's only bashful," drawled Sid Russell.
"I ain't afraid no more'n the rest of you," said Jake, "but you're all
fools enough to run your heads into a noose."
"What do you mean by that?" asked Sam, looking up quickly from the map
over which he had been poring.
"I mean just this," replied Jake, "that this here business 'll end in
gettin' us into trouble that we wont git out of soon, an' I move we
draw out'n it right now, afore its too late."
Sam was on his feet in an instant.
[Illustration: "DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU'RE SAYING, SIR?"]
"Do you know what you're saying sir?" he cried. "Do you understand who
is master here? Do you know that no motions are in order? Let me
tell you once for all that I will tolerate no further mutinous words
from you. If I hear another word of the kind from you, or see a sign
of misconduct on your part, I shall take measures for your punishment.
Stop! I want no answer. I have warned you and that is enough."
Sam's sudden assertion of his authority, in terms so peremptory, took
Jake completely by surprise. Sam was a good tempered fellow, and not
at all disposed to "put on airs" as boys say, and hence he had been as
easy and familiar with his companions as if they had been merely a lot
of school boys out for a holiday; but when Jake Elliott suggested a
revolt, Sam, the good natured companion, became Captain Sam, the stern
commander, at once.
The other boys saw at once the necessity and propriety of the rebuke
he had administered. They believed Jake Elliott to be a coward and a
bully, and they were glad to see him properly and promptly checked in
his effort to give trouble.
It was growing late and the boys presently threw themselves down on
their beds of soft gray moss and were soon sound asleep.