HOLLY HOLLIS
Overlook Cabin had not been built for season occupancy. It had been
thrown up as a little storehouse for paraphernalia used on the hill,
which was called Black Hill because it rose above a treacherous marsh
and overlooked Black Lake. The reader will find helpful the
accompanying rough sketch of the locality. Black Hill, as will be
seen, lay to the east of the camp. The slope was gradual from the
south where the highroad passed. But on reaching the brow of the
hill one looked down from a dizzy precipice.
Between this precipice and the lake was a marsh about which weird
stories were told, but the worst that was actually known of it was
that it was the foregathering place of a choral society of frogs
whose croaking made it seem weird enough at night. From the lake you
could pole a boat into this marsh, but not all the way to the base of
the cliff. Sometimes, after heavy or prolonged rains, the marsh
would be entirely submerged, but usually it was visible as a rank and
vivid green area with patches of scum.
The cabin on the brow of the cliff had been built for the
accommodation of certain scout activities which had been conducted
there. Close to the edge was a rather odd contrivance, conspicuous
from the lake below, and newcomers seldom failed to ask about its
purpose, though now in its time of disuse and comparative
dilapidation, few took the trouble to ascend the hill and view it at
close range. This was a square wooden frame about eight or ten feet
in size, standing upright and held by means of braces in the ground.
It was loose and rickety from the force of heavy winds. Stretched in
this was a sheet of canvas, bound to the frame with windings of light
rope, by which it could be tightened. The canvas came to within a
few inches of the frame all the way round.
[Illustration: Map of Scout camp and surrounding country]
This affair was known as a signal easel and had been used for
practice in signalling. Illuminated at night by a bonfire at a safe
distance in back of it the screen was as brilliant as the silver
screen of the movies. Then a scout standing between it and the
precipice was revealed in striking silhouette as he manipulated
wigwag flags. From all the way across the lake he could be seen, a
weird and vivid sight in the night time, and in this way codes were
tried out and practiced. Once, on a memorable occasion, that
redoubtable showman, Pee-wee Harris, had given a motion picture
exhibit here with his prize outfit at the appallingly low admission
fee of ten cents. But there being no gate, the place was overrun by
deadheads and the exhibition ended in a riot.
The cabin was filled with old signalling paraphernalia, flags and
smudge buckets. It had three bunks and some rough camping
necessities used by hunters in the winter. A ghost was also said to
live there, but if so he must have been of a retiring nature for he
was never seen. The rental charge which Connie Bennett had mentioned
was made so as to limit the use of the place to older visitors at
camp, field men and the like. Eagle Scouts may come and go, but it
is probably true that Danville Bently was the only boy of scouting
age at camp who could so easily have made arrangements to use the
place.
It was here that he and Skinny settled down to a kind of frontier
life, to a companionship which Danville regarded in a humorous way,
but never so as to belittle his odd companion. They ate down at
camp, of course, and usually attended camp-fire, but otherwise they
led a life apart, stalking, tracking and hiking about the woods.
Danville did his fourteen mile hike, but there was no boy to train
for a tenderfoot, so there he remained for the time being; he seemed
not greatly interested in scouting progress merely for its own sake.
He was easy-going and casual, a good looker-on. He seemed never to
think about how near he had come to wearing the Gold Cross; so far as
Skinny could see, that badge of the highest heroism meant nothing to
him. Perhaps he did not care for things because it was so easy for
him to get them. The pomp and fuss and honors and awards did not
appeal to him.
He showed no resentment toward the Elks for their shabby treatment of
Skinny, but the Elks knew that he had seen them at their worst and
they avoided him. Every scout in camp felt that here was a boy of
unlimited reserve power; a boy who would never do a thing simply for
a thrill or a badge, but who would prove invincible when aroused to
act for a purpose. They all respected him and there was no hint of
banter in the nickname of _White Scarf_ by which he came to be known.
That spotless white scarf was a familiar sight in camp and singled
him out from all other scouts and made him conspicuous.
As for the Elks, they got what they wanted and basked in the glory of
it. An Eagle Scout is a wonderful thing, embodying all the heroic
romance of scouting. He is a glory to his patrol. And at Temple
Camp such a one was an asset to his patrol since only certain
endowment rewards were open to Eagle patrols. Holly Hollis came not
unheralded by his new patrol colleagues, and it must be admitted that
he filled his place with a becomingness never achieved by poor little
Skinny. On the evening of his arrival he attracted a good deal of
attention as he passed through the "eats" pavilion with the Elks on
his way to supper. A number of scouts arose and gave him the full
salute, and there was a rather discordant attempt on the part of a
few enthusiasts to sing
"You can't go higher than an Eagle,
As every scout should know;
You have to stop when you get to the top,
It's as high as you can go."
He wore his full regalia with his Eagle badge above his left breast
pocket, and his sleeve was covered with his twenty-one merit badges.
A slim boy he was, with very black hair and a look in his pleasant
face that bespoke something rather more than powers--a touch of the
venturesome. No stick-in-the-mud was this Eagle of the darting and
roaming black eyes.
And those eyes did not fail to notice things, for no sooner had he
taken his place at table than turning to the proud Connie he asked,
"Who's that fellow over at the third table with the white scarf?"
He was to know that fellow well before his season at Temple Camp was
over.