THE SCOUT-MASTER'S SCHEME.
Smithy and the Jones boy watched their patrol leader with something more
than ordinary curiosity, as Thad examined the two shining coins. And
when the other even tried his teeth on each half dollar in turn, Davy
gave an exclamation of delight; while the other scout was in a measure
filled with sudden consternation.
For both of them could understand what this meant, and that Thad felt
more or less suspicious regarding the genuineness of the two coins.
"He thinks they might be counterfeits, Smithy," said Davy, in low but
thrilling tones. "Now wouldn't that be a great joke if we found
ourselves bunking on this old island along with a lot of desperate bogus
money-makers! Oh! say, things are just turning out tremendous, and
that's a fact. But I don't exactly know, whether there'd be more fun
staying here, or taking that little voyage with the log."
"That part of it has already been settled," remarked Thad, with a vein
of authority in his voice; for he wanted Davy to understand that as a
true scout, he must always pay respect to the orders of his superior,
and never try to evade a duty that had been imposed upon him.
"Oh! all right, Thad;" Davy replied; "I'm willin' enough to try the
swim; but say, what if they jump on you fellers while I'm away?"
You would have thought from the patronizing manner of the Jones boy that
upon his presence alone depended the safety of the group of scouts.
Thad, however, knew Davy pretty well by this time, and did not take all
he said seriously.
"We'll have to manage to get on, somehow," he said; "and perhaps, after
all, the danger may not be so very great. If there are places for these
two men to hide, why, seems to me we ought to be able to keep out of
their sight some way or another."
Smithy was not saying much, but it might be understood that he was doing
a whole lot of thinking. This was certainly a novel experience for him.
A short time before, and he had not really known what it was to
associate with any boys save a delicate little cousin away off in a
city, and who was very girlish in all his ways. And here he was now, not
only in the company of seven healthy fellows, fond of fun, and all
outdoor sports; but a genuine scout in the Silver Fox Patrol, and facing
danger with a bravery no one had ever dreamed he could display.
That was why Smithy felt pleased, even while he at the same time
experienced a touch of uneasiness because of the new developments that
were constantly making their situation look more desperate.
As Thad had discovered, under all that gentle exterior there beat a
heart within Smithy that yearned to have its fair share of excitement.
Reading Robinson Crusoe and Treasure Island might be all very well; but
acting a part in a little bit of daring seemed much better.
Thad bent down to assist Davy secure his clothes to the log. The Jones
boy had waded in, and upon examining one side of the old tree trunk as
it floated buoyantly on the water, he found that there was just the
nicest hiding-place one could wish for in the shape of a cavity well
above the reach of the water.
"You see, Thad," he explained, "it ain't goin' to be on the side that
the waves beat against, and so my duds won't be apt to get _very_ wet.
The cutest pocket you ever saw; and looks like it might just have been
made specially for a feller that wanted to take a tour of the lake with
his private yacht Now, do I go, Thad? I'm ready, and only waitin' for
orders."
"Then you might as well start, Davy; and if I was you I'd keep out of
sight all I could. If they happened to spy you, and believed you were
going for help, so that they might be captured before night came, it
would go hard with you perhaps."
"I got your meaning, Thad," Davy replied, without showing the least
concern, for he was a fearless chap; "which is, that they've got the
boat, and could chase after me if they thought I was going to get 'em in
a peck of trouble by flitting. Never you fear, I'll keep low down, and
out of sight."
He thereupon proved how easy it would be to lie in a position where he
could guide the floating log, and yet be out of sight from the side that
was toward the island.
"Oh! this is the greatest thing that's come my way for a long time," he
said, as he walked further away from the shore, the water getting deeper
all the time until his body was very nearly all submerged; "and I'm ever
so much obliged to you for giving me the chance, Thad. Don't bother a
thing about me. If some big mud-turtle don't grab me by the toe, and
pull me down, I'll come out swimmingly, see?"
Thad knew that he could depend on the Jones boy. When a fellow can even
think to joke like that when facing danger of any sort, he certainly
could not be feeling in a state of panic.
"Now the breeze strikes me, fellows, and I'm off. I'd like to give a
whoop, I feel so great; but something tells me that would be wrong. So
just consider that's what I'm doing inside, anyhow. Good-bye, boys, and
I hope you pull through O. K."
Thad did not answer, for the simple reason that the log with its boyish
freight was already so far away that he would have to raise his voice to
make Davy hear; and such a thing would be foolish, when they wanted to
keep as quiet as possible, so as not to attract attention.
Standing there, they watched the strange argosy floating away on the
dancing waves. Davy was urging it from the shore of the island as well
as he could by swimming, and without showing any part of his person.
"He's going to make that point, all right," said Thad, knowing that the
Jones boy's one fear had been lest he ground on the bar that put out
there, and be compelled to show himself in order to push off again.
"But you said it would be hours before he could even get to camp, didn't
you, Thad?" asked Smithy.
"The way he's drifting now, he'll surely be at the end of the lake in
half an hour; and given four times as much to make his way round all the
coves, would bring him to camp about noon, I reckon. Then, if Giraffe
starts out at once, and has fair luck traveling he ought to get to
Rockford in two hours, running part of the way, once he strikes the
road."
"That would mean two in the afternoon, then, Thad?"
"About that, if all goes well," the other continued, as though mapping
out the programme, step by step. "Then give him a quarter of an hour to
tell Mr. Hotchkiss the story over the wire; and after that the
Faversham officers would have to come on here. But perhaps they might
get a car to bring them along the road. It's not a first class auto
road, but could be navigated I guess. Say by four o'clock they could be
at our camp, Smithy."
The other sighed.
"That means something more than six hours for us to play hide and seek
here on the island, doesn't it?" he remarked; but Thad saw with relief
that Smithy was certainly showing less signs of alarm than he had
expected, under the best conditions.
"Well, if you were only as good a swimmer as you hope to be one of these
days, Smithy," he remarked, pleasantly, "we might try for the shore. But
as it is, we've got to make the best of a bad bargain, and wait. You've
got good sight, so suppose we try and see if we can tell what the boys
are doing in camp. Two pair of eyes ought to be better than one any
day."
"But honest now, I don't seem to see a blessed fellow there," declared
Smithy, which was just what Thad had himself found out. "I can see the
fire burning lazily, and the flag whipping in that splendid breeze; but
as far as I can make out the whole pack have deserted, and gone
somewhere. Perhaps they're fishing."
"You could see them on the bank, if that were so, Smithy," remarked
Thad. "Try again with another guess; and this time think well before
you answer."
"Well," remarked the new tenderfoot scout presently, after he had stood
there, conjuring up his thoughts; "I remember that you told them
something before we set sail on our trip."
"Just what I did, and tell me if you can remember the nature of the task
they were to handle during our absence?" the scout-master continued.
"Allan was going to show them some more interesting things about
following a trail," Smithy immediately replied; "how to tell what sort
of little animal like a fox, a woodchuck, a mink, a muskrat or an otter
had made the marks; what it was trying to do; and how it was captured by
the men who make a business of collecting skins, or as they call them,
pelts."
"Just so," Thad observed, "only it was to be this afternoon Allan meant
to show them all that. If you think again, now, Smithy, I'm sure you'll
recollect there was another piece of scout business, and a very
important one too, that they were to practice this morning."
"Yes, I remember it all now--wigwagging it was," the tenderfoot went on
to say with eagerness, and not a little satisfaction, because he had
recalled everything that Thad wanted him to. "Allan was to go up to the
top of that little bare hill back of the camp, and two of the other
fellows were to hike over to another about a mile or so away. Then they
would exchange sentences by means of the signal flag, waved up and down
and every which way, according to the alphabet used in the U. S. Signal
Corps. And to-night the result was to be given to you to correct."
"I see your memory is in good working order, Smithy, for that is exactly
what sort of a task I set the boys we left behind. And now, I've just
thought up a dandy scheme that if it can only be carried out, may gain
us just about two hours over Davy's best time, in letting our chums know
what a hole we're in."
Smithy looked interested. Indeed, whatever Thad did always excited his
enthusiasm; for he believed the young scout-master to be the smartest
boy he had ever heard of in all his life.
"It's something to do with this same wigwagging, Thad, I'm sure of
that?" he remarked, drawing a big breath in his new excitement.
"Well, there's no use wasting any more time in beating around the bush,
so I'll tell you right now what the idea is," Thad continued, smiling at
the eagerness of his comrade. "Suppose I could climb to the top of some
tree, and attract the attention of Allan, as he stood on that bald hill,
which is in plain sight from here; don't you understand that by making
use of my handkerchief, and the code, I might be able to tell him what's
happened, and get him to send Giraffe to Rockford so as to call the
Faversham Chief over the 'phone?"
Smith's face was wreathed in a smile of mingled admiration and delight
as he caught the full meaning of the bright thought that had come to the
mind of his companion, the scout-master.