diff options
| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 01:53:22 -0700 |
|---|---|---|
| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 01:53:22 -0700 |
| commit | 99637d314783b3d057916c5f82fe2aa39cbc007e (patch) | |
| tree | 67772cecd00f19ad75c0598021cbba611d2ca10a /22644-h | |
Diffstat (limited to '22644-h')
| -rw-r--r-- | 22644-h/22644-h.htm | 6765 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22644-h/images/illus-131.jpg | bin | 0 -> 32528 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22644-h/images/illus-198.jpg | bin | 0 -> 32056 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22644-h/images/illus-211.jpg | bin | 0 -> 31070 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22644-h/images/illus-emb.png | bin | 0 -> 6011 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22644-h/images/illus-fpc.jpg | bin | 0 -> 33014 bytes |
6 files changed, 6765 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/22644-h/22644-h.htm b/22644-h/22644-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1d2f8a0 --- /dev/null +++ b/22644-h/22644-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,6765 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Boy Scout Treasure Hunters, by Charles Henry Lerrigo. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> + /*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ + <!-- + p {margin-top: 0.5em; text-align: justify; margin-bottom: 0.5em;} + body {margin-left: 11%; margin-right: 10%;} + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; clear: both;} + h2 {text-align: center; margin-top: 3em; margin-bottom: 2em; clear: both;} + h3 {text-align: center; margin-top: 2em; font-weight: normal; clear: both;} + a {text-decoration: none;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + table p {text-align: center; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0;} + h2.toc {margin-top: 1em;} + .caption {font-size: 80%;} + .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + .center {text-align:center;} + .pagenum {position: absolute; left: 92%; font-size: x-small; + font-weight: normal; font-variant: normal; font-style: normal; + text-indent: 0; color: silver; background-color: inherit;} + a.pagenum:after {border: 1px solid silver; padding: 1px 3px; content: attr(title);} + hr.major {width: 55%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em;} + hr.minor {width: 25%; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em;} + h2.loi {margin-top: 1em;} + hr.dashed {width: 100%; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; border:none; border-bottom:1px dashed;} + hr.full {width: 90%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> +</head> + +<body> + + +<pre> + +Project Gutenberg's The Boy Scout Treasure Hunters, by Charles Henry Lerrigo + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Boy Scout Treasure Hunters + The Lost Treasure of Buffalo Hollow + +Author: Charles Henry Lerrigo + +Illustrator: Charles L. Wrenn + +Release Date: September 17, 2007 [EBook #22644] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BOY SCOUT TREASURE HUNTERS *** + + + + +Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class="figcenter" style='width:350px'> +<a name="illus-000" id="illus-000"></a> +<img src="images/illus-fpc.jpg" alt="A few rapid and accurate strokes with the pick loosened the hard earth." title="" width="350" /><br /> +<span class="caption">A few rapid and accurate strokes with the pick loosened the hard +earth. (Page 96) Frontispiece</span> +</div> + +<hr class='dashed' /> + +<table style="margin: auto; border: black 1px solid; width:25em" summary=""><tr><td> +<p style=" font-size:2em; margin-top:1em;">THE BOY SCOUT</p> +<p style=" font-size:2em; margin-bottom:0.25em;">TREASURE HUNTERS</p> +<p style=" font-size:1em; margin-bottom:0.5em;">OR</p> +<p style=" font-size:1.2em;">THE LOST TREASURE</p> +<p style=" font-size:1.2em; margin-bottom:3em;">OF BUFFALO HOLLOW</p> +<p style=" font-size:0.8em;">BY</p> +<p style=" font-size:1.1em; margin-bottom:2em;">CHARLES HENRY LERRIGO</p> +<p style=" font-size:0.8em; font-style:italic;">ILLUSTRATED BY</p> +<p style=" font-size:0.9em; margin-bottom:4em; font-style:italic;">CHARLES L. WRENN</p> +<p style=" font-size:0.8em; font-style:italic;">PUBLISHED WITH THE APPROVAL OF</p> +<p style=" font-size:0.8em; margin-bottom:3em; font-style:italic;">THE BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA</p> +<div class='center'><img src='images/illus-emb.png' alt="emblem" /></div> +<p style=" font-size:0.8em; margin-top:2em;">PUBLISHERS</p> +<p style=" font-size:0.8em;">BARSE & HOPKINS</p> +<p style=" font-size:0.8em; margin-bottom:2em;">NEW YORK, N. Y. NEWARK, N. J.</p> +</td></tr></table> + +<hr class='dashed' /> + +<p class='center' style='font-size:smaller'> +Copyright 1917<br /> +by<br /> +Barse & Hopkins</p> +<hr style='width:10%' /> +<p class='center' style='font-size:smaller'>The Boy Scout Treasure Hunters<br /> +Printed in the United States of America +</p> + +<hr class='dashed' /> + +<p class='center' style='font-size:smaller'> +TO MY SON<br /> +<span style='font-size:larger'>FRANK LERRIGO</span><br /> +IN THE HOPE THAT IT MAY<br /> +HELP HIM TO BE<br /> +A "GOOD SCOUT"<br /> +</p> +<hr class='dashed' /> + +<h2 class="toc"><a name="Contents" id="Contents"></a>Contents</h2> +<table border="0" width="500" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="Contents" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto"> +<col style="width:15%;" /> +<col style="width:5%;" /> +<col style="width:70%;" /> +<col style="width:10%;" /> +<tr> + <td align='right'><span style='font-size:x-small'>CHAPTER</span></td> + <td></td> + <td></td> + <td align='right'><span style='font-size:x-small'>PAGE</span></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right">I</td> + <td></td> + <td align="left">GLEN MASON RUNS AWAY</td> + <td align="right"><a href="#GLEN_MASON_RUNS_AWAY_97">9</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right">II</td> + <td></td> + <td align="left">A FRIEND AND A FOE</td> + <td align="right"><a href="#A_FRIEND_AND_A_FOE_401">22</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right">III</td> + <td></td> + <td align="left">JOLLY BILL IS CONSIDERABLY UPSET</td> + <td align="right"><a href="#JOLLY_BILL_IS_CONSIDERABLY_UPSET_698">34</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right">IV</td> + <td></td> + <td align="left">HOW MOTHER CARES</td> + <td align="right"><a href="#HOW_MOTHER_CARES_980">46</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right">V</td> + <td></td> + <td align="left">TREACHEROUS INDIANS AT BUFFALO LAKE</td> + <td align="right"><a href="#TREACHEROUS_INDIANS_AT_BUFFALO_LAKE_1229">56</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right">VI</td> + <td></td> + <td align="left">GETTING ACQUAINTED</td> + <td align="right"><a href="#GETTING_ACQUAINTED_1510">68</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right">VII</td> + <td></td> + <td align="left">GLEN IS INITIATED</td> + <td align="right"><a href="#GLEN_IS_INITIATED_1786">79</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right">VIII</td> + <td></td> + <td align="left">MATT BURTON'S TREASURE FIND</td> + <td align="right"><a href="#MATT_BURTONS_TREASURE_FIND_2084">91</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right">IX</td> + <td></td> + <td align="left">GLEN ENLISTS</td> + <td align="right"><a href="#GLEN_ENLISTS_2348">102</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right">X</td> + <td></td> + <td align="left">J. JERVICE AND HIS GANG</td> + <td align="right"><a href="#J_JERVICE_AND_HIS_GANG_2584">112</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right">XI</td> + <td></td> + <td align="left">GLEN FOLLOWS A FALSE TRAIL</td> + <td align="right"><a href="#GLEN_FOLLOWS_A_FALSE_TRAIL_2777">120</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right">XII</td> + <td></td> + <td align="left">THE BEE TREE</td> + <td align="right"><a href="#THE_BEE_TREE_3108">133</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right">XIII</td> + <td></td> + <td align="left">THE CHASE ON THE MOTOR-BIKE</td> + <td align="right"><a href="#THE_CHASE_ON_THE_MOTORBIKE_3395">144</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right">XIV</td> + <td></td> + <td align="left">SAFE AT CAMP BUFFALO</td> + <td align="right"><a href="#SAFE_AT_CAMP_BUFFALO_3651">154</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right">XV</td> + <td></td> + <td align="left">STRENGTH AND LOYALTY</td> + <td align="right"><a href="#STRENGTH_AND_LOYALTY_4001">167</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right">XVI</td> + <td></td> + <td align="left">DETECTIVE MATTY</td> + <td align="right"><a href="#DETECTIVE_MATTY_4241">177</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right">XVII</td> + <td></td> + <td align="left">THE END OF THE JERVICE GANG</td> + <td align="right"><a href="#THE_END_OF_THE_JERVICE_GANG_4556">189</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right">XVIII</td> + <td></td> + <td align="left">GLEN AND APPLE FIND THE CAVE</td> + <td align="right"><a href="#GLEN_AND_APPLE_FIND_THE_CAVE_4928">203</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right">XIX</td> + <td></td> + <td align="left">BURIED IN THE CAVE</td> + <td align="right"><a href="#BURIED_IN_THE_CAVE_5205">214</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right">XX</td> + <td></td> + <td align="left">THE TREASURE OF BUFFALO LAKE</td> + <td align="right"><a href="#THE_TREASURE_OF_BUFFALO_LAKE_5540">227</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right">XXI</td> + <td></td> + <td align="left">WHAT BECAME OF THEM</td> + <td align="right"><a href="#WHAT_BECAME_OF_THEM_5879">240</a></td> +</tr> +</table> + +<hr class='dashed' /> + +<h2 class="loi"><a name="Illustrations" id="Illustrations"></a>Illustrations</h2> +<table border="0" width="500" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="Illustrations" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto"> +<col style="width:80%;" /> +<col style="width:20%;" /> +<tr><td colspan='2' align='right'><span style='font-size:x-small'>PAGE</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">A few rapid and accurate strokes with the pick loosened the hard earth.</td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#illus-000"><i>Frontispiece</i></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">"Brave Man!" sneered the leader. "Get me a little rope an' I'll do him up scientific."</td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#illus-001">130</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Glen watched the three walk back up the road at a lock-step gait.</td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#illus-002">198</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">With the lighted lanterns they could get a better idea of their surroundings.</td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#illus-003">210</a></td></tr> +</table> + +<hr class='full' /> + +<h2>THE BOY SCOUT TREASURE HUNTERS</h2> +<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em"> +<a name="GLEN_MASON_RUNS_AWAY_97" id="GLEN_MASON_RUNS_AWAY_97"></a> +<a class="pagenum" name="page_9" id="page_9" title="9"></a> +<h2>CHAPTER I</h2> +<h3>GLEN MASON RUNS AWAY</h3> +</div> + +<p>It was the supper hour at the State Industrial School for Boys, known to +the general public as "The Reform School."</p> + +<p>Glen Mason sat on a long bench trying to hold the place next to him +against the stealthy ravages of the boys who crowded him.</p> + +<p>"Where's Nixy?" he inquired angrily of his neighbor on the right. "Did +he go to town again?"</p> + +<p>"He's back," the boy replied. "Just got in an' had to go up and change +his clothes. Had the toothache again to-day, he told me. Here he comes, +now."</p> + +<p>A lanky boy of fifteen or sixteen got into the vacant seat just as the +chaplain rose to say grace. After grace no loud talking was permitted, +but no objection was made +<a class="pagenum" name="page_10" id="page_10" title="10"></a> +to whispered conversations that did not +become too noisy.</p> + +<p>"How's it come you go to town so often and I don't ever get to go, +Nixy?" whispered Glen, the moment grace was ended.</p> + +<p>"One thing you don't have the toothache, another thing you get too many +demerits. The fellows that get to town have to go thirty days without a +black sign. You never could do it, Glen."</p> + +<p>"I could if I wanted. I'm twenty days now. Wouldn't hurt me to go +another ten. If I went to town alone I'd never come back."</p> + +<p>"It ain't so easy, Glen. You have to wear your uniform so everybody +knows what you are. If you aren't back by six o'clock they have the +police after you. The old man made a great talk about his honor system, +but as long as you have to wear your uniform there's plenty of people to +watch you."</p> + +<p>"I could find a way to get around that," insisted Glen.</p> + +<p>"Well, so could I. I've got one all planned out that I'm going to work +some day. I'll get leave to go to the dentist late some afternoon. The +car to come back leaves his office at five o'clock. He doesn't want to +stay until five because he goes off to play golf. So he'll leave me in +his waiting-room<a class="pagenum" name="page_11" id="page_11" title="11"></a> when he goes. I'll have a suit of overalls rolled up +under my uniform. Soon as the doctor goes I'll change my clothes. You +can't get out without being seen but I'll hide right there in the +building till it closes and then get down the fire-escape."</p> + +<p>"I guess somebody'd see you go down and a policeman would get you."</p> + +<p>"I guess they wouldn't. I wouldn't try till late at night when there +wasn't anybody around. Then I'd pick a dark night, and that fire-escape +is in the back end of the building, so I guess there wouldn't nobody see +me."</p> + +<p>"Oh, mebbe there wouldn't. Supposin' you did get away. Where'd you go?"</p> + +<p>"I'd have that all fixed. I'd put on my other clothes and pitch my +uniform away and that night would get me twenty-five miles where +nobody'd think of looking for me."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I dunno. I guess you'd be easy picked up. Anybody could tell you a +mile off. All to do is to look for a broom handle out walking all by +itself."</p> + +<p>"Broom handle yourself, Glen Mason. I've got the makings of a big man if +ever I'd get enough to eat."</p> + +<p>"You go high enough up to be a big man, but you've stretched too much. +If you'd ever learn +<a class="pagenum" name="page_12" id="page_12" title="12"></a> +to be a contortionist and tie yourself into three +knots close together, you'd do better."</p> + +<p>"You're always saying something mean. I wish I hadn't told you my plan +at all."</p> + +<p>"I won't do anything to your old plan."</p> + +<p>"I ain't so sure. 'Twouldn't be above ye to steal it."</p> + +<p>"I s'pose you dare me to do it."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I dare ye to do it."</p> + +<p>"An' you think I'd steal a plan from a mate?"</p> + +<p>"I think you'd do anything."</p> + +<p>There were many who had just as poor an opinion of Glen. He himself +found it remarkably easy to do mean and low acts and had almost ceased +to wonder at himself. Every day seemed to find a lower level for his +setting. Nixon had correctly guessed his thoughts. Already he was +turning over in his mind the feasibility of Nixon's plan of escape and +wondering if he could himself take advantage of it. He had been in the +reform school over a year, but it had not reformed him. The new +superintendent, with his kindness, had won the hearts of many of the +most wayward boys, but no impression had he made on Glen. As a matter of +fact the boy rather laughed at his foolishness. To put boys on their +honor, to trust the merit boys to go into town without guard, all was +new policy,<a class="pagenum" name="page_13" id="page_13" title="13"></a> and the only interest Glen had in it was to take advantage +of it. Let him get one single chance to go to town alone and the reform +school would see no more of him. Just what he would do he did not know. +Sometimes a fleeting thought of going home to see the mother whose heart +must be almost broken by his waywardness and the young sister and +brother who were carefully guarded from knowledge of the disgrace he had +brought upon them would come to him. But though he was supposed to be +dead to impulses for reform there always crept into his mind the desire +that his return home should be only when he had enough money and enough +honor so that he should not be welcomed as a penitent but as a +conquering hero. Glen was much given to great thoughts of the mighty +things he would do and the high stations he would occupy. Unfortunately +his pride of thought had never made him insist that his inclination +yield to right instead of to desire. Glen Mason's fault was easily +summed up—he desired always his own way and had so allowed this +inclination to fill his life that he was utterly regardless of others. +Given his own way he was a pleasant chum, a good friend and a brave +comrade.</p> + +<p>When Glen wanted a thing very badly he would go to great lengths to get +it. Having set for his<a class="pagenum" name="page_14" id="page_14" title="14"></a> goal the thirty days of good behavior marks he +was bound to win it, though greatly to the surprise of the officers who +had never known Glen to pass so long a time without fracturing a great +number of rules. No sooner was his time up than he asked leave to go to +town to visit the dentist.</p> + +<p>The Superintendent was rather disturbed by the request. He had been both +pleased and surprised by Glen's good behavior. Now that the boy had +earned the privilege of going to town without guard he did not wish to +spoil his good work by a refusal to trust him. Yet he was suspicious. He +asked that Glen be sent to the office.</p> + +<p>"Why do you want to go to the dentist, Glen?" he asked kindly. "What +attention do your teeth need?"</p> + +<p>Glen was confused. So far as he knew his teeth were sound as bullets. He +had not sunk to the place where lies were easy of expression.</p> + +<p>"I don't know just what, sir," he stammered, wishing that he could think +of something. "The dentist will know what they need."</p> + +<p>This was as good an answer as he could have made, although stumbled on +by chance.</p> + +<p>"You want the dentist to go over them to find what is the matter, do +you?" said the soft-hearted superintendent.<a class="pagenum" name="page_15" id="page_15" title="15"></a></p> + +<p>"Yes, sir. I want the dentist to find what is the matter."</p> + +<p>"It isn't a bad idea," said the superintendent. "It won't be necessary +for you to go to town, though, for the dentist is coming out here next +week."</p> + +<p>"But I don't want to wait until next week," cried Glen. "I want to go +to-day. I want him to pull one out."</p> + +<p>"Which one?" inquired the superintendent.</p> + +<p>It made little difference to Glen which tooth he denoted for the +sacrifice. Now that he had told the lie he would stay by it. He pointed +to a big double tooth and resolved that he would remember it.</p> + +<p>The superintendent looked at the tooth and at the boy.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps you don't know how much that tooth is worth?"</p> + +<p>"No, sir," agreed Glen.</p> + +<p>"A very conservative price is a hundred dollars, at your age. You +wouldn't throw a hundred dollars away."</p> + +<p>"No, sir; but I want it pulled."</p> + +<p>It was all very well to talk of a hundred dollars, but when Glen had his +mind set on a matter he would make any sacrifice.<a class="pagenum" name="page_16" id="page_16" title="16"></a></p> + +<p>"Well, you must not have it pulled. But have the dentist look at it. I +will give you a pass for this afternoon. You will wear your uniform, +walk to the car line and take the street car to the dentist's office. +Let me ask you one thing, Glen. Don't forget to come back."</p> + +<p>It was as if the superintendent read his thoughts. Glen changed color +and looked foolish. He could think of only one thing to say. "At what +time, sir?"</p> + +<p>"You will be in by six o'clock. As you go to town and see the boys at +liberty on the streets remember that if you keep up your good behavior +you may soon be paroled and be as free as they. All you have to do, +Glen, is to keep it up."</p> + +<p>As he went to put on his uniform, the hated uniform that made it so hard +for him to lose himself in the crowd, Glen realized better how it was +that Nixon and some of the others who had been given liberty in town had +never violated their trust. It seemed abominably mean and small to go +back on a man like this. He actually began to have his own doubts. But +it was very hard for Glen Mason to give up anything on which he had set +his heart.</p> + +<p>There were several things went wrong which were quite disturbing. In the +first place he was obliged to change his clothing under the eye of the<a class="pagenum" name="page_17" id="page_17" title="17"></a> +physical director which utterly spoiled any scheme of hiding a suit of +overalls under his uniform. The walk to the street car and the ride to +the doctor's office would have been very enjoyable had not every one +stared at him and his uniform. More than once he heard some one say +"There goes a reform school boy." Then the dentist did all manner of +things in his efforts to find the nonexistent aching tooth. Finally he +did find an area of tenderness in an entirely different tooth to the one +specified.</p> + +<p>"Does this tooth hurt you more than the others!" he asked.</p> + +<p>"It does," Glen agreed, quite truthfully, an involuntary "Ouch" +following his words.</p> + +<p>"I thought as much," the doctor observed. "It is often hard to locate +the pain definitely. The nerve reflexes are responsible for it. I will +now drill into this and see what we find."</p> + +<p>"Do you have to drill?" asked Glen.</p> + +<p>"Surely. Have to clean out all the old decayed tooth before I fill it. I +often give the boys from the school a little sermon by telling them the +bad has to be cleaned out before you get sound living."</p> + +<p>"Make it as easy as you can," Glen requested.</p> + +<p>"Yes, of course. But cleaning out decay often hurts."<a class="pagenum" name="page_18" id="page_18" title="18"></a></p> + +<p>It did hurt but Glen would have fainted rather than make an outcry.</p> + +<p>The doctor stepped to the 'phone and called up the superintendent.</p> + +<p>"It's all right with the Mason boy," he said. "I've done all I can +to-day for him. I'm leaving now. What shall he do until time for his +car."</p> + +<p>He turned to Glen as he received a reply.</p> + +<p>"You are to wait until five o'clock in my reception room and then take +the inter-urban car," he said, locking the inner office when they passed +out. "I am leaving a little early to-night."</p> + +<p>Before he left he stepped into a little closet which led out of the +reception room and changed his office clothes. Glen's eyes sparkled. His +problem was solved.</p> + +<p>At five o'clock Glen Mason rode down in the elevator to the ground floor +and asked the elevator man how he could identify the inter-urban car. +But instead of leaving the building he dodged back to the stairway as +soon as the elevator had started on its return trip and ran stealthily +up the stairs and again entered the dentist's reception room. It was +empty. Glen boldly entered the little closet and dressing himself in the +dentist's office clothes made a bundle of his uniform. The closet was +both deep and high. He climbed to the top shelf<a class="pagenum" name="page_19" id="page_19" title="19"></a> and shoved his bundle +far back over its wide surface against the wall. He dared not risk going +out in the doctor's clothing in daylight. He must stay until the +building was deserted and use the fire escape. His great fear was lest +some one should come to the reception room. The only safeguard was +concealment in the hot, dark closet. He waited hours without any +disturbance. He felt sure that it must be almost midnight. Stealthily he +opened the door of the closet and stepped to a window. It was still +daylight, though the sun was setting. He returned to his closet.</p> + +<p>It must have been some hours afterward that he heard footsteps and +voices outside the door. In sudden desperation he climbed up and lay +flat on the wide shelf where he had hidden the uniform. Someone opened +the door of the closet, glanced inside and shut it again.</p> + +<p>"I tell you I took him down about five o'clock and showed him his car. +He ain't here," said the voice of the elevator man.</p> + +<p>"I have to make sure," replied his companion.</p> + +<p>Glen knew the voice for that of one of the school officials. So already +they were seeking him!</p> + +<p>After all was quiet Glen ventured to open the closet door and peep out. +It was dark now but there were lights in the hall. After a long time<a class="pagenum" name="page_20" id="page_20" title="20"></a> +they were extinguished and the building seemed deserted. The last late +worker departed. The elevator ceased its rhythmic motion.</p> + +<p>Glen waited yet longer for a time and then crept down the hall to the +fire-escape, which he made out by a red light. It was a dark night, but, +nerved to the act, he made no hesitation as he swung himself out on to +the iron bars. It was an old-fashioned escape, bars at wide intervals so +close to the wall as to leave hardly a toe hold. Down, down he went, not +daring to look to see where he was going but clinging fast and letting +one step follow another. Then suddenly the ladder stopped. Feel as he +would, in this direction or in that, there were no more steps. He had +known of fire-escapes ending ten or twelve feet from the ground with an +extension which might be lowered. But he found no extension. He looked +down, but it was black night and he could see nothing but shadowy +outlines. Looking up, the ladder soon disappeared in the darkness. There +was no sense in mounting again. He let down his legs as far as he could +reach, with his body balanced on his elbows, then he let himself hang by +his hands and kicked out in the hope of finding some landing. There was +nothing to be felt but the brick wall. His arms grew<a class="pagenum" name="page_21" id="page_21" title="21"></a> tired as he swung. +His efforts to draw up again were ineffectual. In desperation he swung +off into space.</p> + +<p>Splash! He was choking and gasping in water!</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em"> +<a class="pagenum" name="page_22" id="page_22" title="22"></a> +<a name="A_FRIEND_AND_A_FOE_401" id="A_FRIEND_AND_A_FOE_401"></a> +<h2>CHAPTER II</h2> +<h3>A FRIEND AND A FOE</h3> +</div> + +<p>Splashing about in his watery quarters Glen speedily discovered that he +had fallen into an enormous rain barrel. He was able to reach the top +with his hands, and lost no time in drawing himself up and crawling over +the side. Then he stood in the shelter of the barrel and wrung a gallon +or so of water out of the doctor's clothes. When the job was finished he +had pretty well destroyed the identity of that suit of clothing. The +draggled, wrinkled and stained garments bore no resemblance to the neat +office suit. His mishap had given material help in effecting a disguise.</p> + +<p>He struck out away from the town and met no one to interfere with him as +he walked along the quiet residence streets. Just at the edge of the +city he was attracted by a great illumination. It was the electric +lighting of a park, which even at that hour was thronged with visitors. +The boy who had been shut up for a year and more looked hungrily through +the great entrance way. It was free to all. He walked cautiously in, +keeping a<a class="pagenum" name="page_23" id="page_23" title="23"></a> suspicious eye wide for policemen; for though he thought he +was free he was in bondage to his guilty conscience.</p> + +<p>Of the many attractions the one which made the greatest appeal to +Glen—and the only one he could afford, for his sole fortune was the +nickel he had for car-fare—was the merry-go-round with its gaudy horses +and its gurdy tunes. He bought a ticket and mounted one of the turbulent +steeds with a little thrill of anticipatory pleasure. The music began, +the movement gradually quickened, and he was just giving himself up to +the pleasure of it when he saw working toward him, on the inside +running-board, a man collecting tickets. On his coat was the nickeled +badge of a constable. Glen did not know that he was a special officer +for the sole purpose of protecting his own outfit against rowdies. In +his eyes it was the approach of the law. Although they were now swinging +round at a good rate he slipped from his horse and jumped, at peril of +his neck. The sight of an official badge struck terror to his soul.</p> + +<p>So it was wherever he went. He saw in every man an officer. One might +have supposed the park policed by an army. He had just dodged one of the +two real park policemen when he overheard a momentous conversation.<a class="pagenum" name="page_24" id="page_24" title="24"></a></p> + +<p>A man from the bathhouse came by.</p> + +<p>"Anything doing, Jake?" he asked the officer.</p> + +<p>"Nothing much," replied the policeman. "They 'phoned us a boy got away +from the reform school. They think he might just have come out to the +park for fun and overstayed. Ain't seen any one, have ye?"</p> + +<p>"Not me."</p> + +<p>"Well, if he's in here we'll get him as he goes out. I'll watch one gate +and Barney the other."</p> + +<p>So they were on the look out for him. But there was nothing in his +present clothing to suggest the reform school boy, and though he was +hatless there were numbers of hatless boys in the park. There were many +people of all kinds, in fact, and if he went with the crowd, he could +surely slip out unnoticed. Yet he feared to attempt to pass the +representative of the law at the gate. How conscience doth make cowards +of us all!</p> + +<p>It was a good deed, done impulsively, that solved Glen's problem. An +automobile was passing. The occupants were all watching the bathers in +the lake, excepting a little chap of three who had seized the +opportunity to climb over the door with the evident idea of jumping to +the ground. When Glen saw him he was poised on the running board ready +for his jump. Like a flash Glen jumped for the<a class="pagenum" name="page_25" id="page_25" title="25"></a> footboard of the moving +car and interposed his body as an obstacle to the little fellow's leap. +The women in the car screamed and the man who was driving stopped his +car in surprise at the intrusion. It was only when Glen hauled the +little boy up to view that they saw what he had done.</p> + +<p>"I am Jonathan Gates," said the man, offering Glen his hand, "and this +is my wife and daughter. We don't know how to thank you for saving that +little scamp from harm."</p> + +<p>"We might at least take you back into town," suggested Mrs. Gates.</p> + +<p>"But I am going west, into the country," said Glen.</p> + +<p>"That is still better," said Mr. Gates. "We live eight miles west of +here and will take you wherever you say."</p> + +<p>"I'll go just as far as you go," Glen replied. "I live away out west and +am on my way on foot. Every mile is a help."</p> + +<p>They passed through the gates without any notice from the officer who +was watching for an escaped Reform School boy, and Glen felt safe again.</p> + +<p>"We have not visited the park in a long while," explained Mrs. Gates, +"and it was all new to us. That is why we lost sight of Jack. He was +very<a class="pagenum" name="page_26" id="page_26" title="26"></a> anxious to run back and see the monkeys again."</p> + +<p>"I have never been there before at all," said Glen. "And I am glad I saw +this monkey. I was passing and I just went in by chance."</p> + +<p>"Not chance," said Mr. Gates. "Let us say Providence. Our boy might have +been badly hurt or even killed. Certainly you were led by Providence, or +I would rather be more definite and say the hand of God."</p> + +<p>"Oh I don't know. I guess not," stammered Glen, greatly embarrassed. He +wondered what Mr. Gates would say if he knew that he came to the park in +running away from the reform school. He had not yet learned that the +power of God may even overrule our evil for good. But he was quite +willing to agree that his good fortune in meeting the Gates family might +be God's providence.</p> + +<p>He felt his good fortune still more when Mrs. Gates insisted that he +must stay with them at least one night. He yielded, thinking that he +would get up very early and slip away before they were astir in the +morning. But the excitement of the day had such an effect that he +overslept and did not waken until called to breakfast.</p> + +<p>The effect of this family was something such as Glen had never known. +All they knew of him was his name, but they took him at his word. They<a class="pagenum" name="page_27" id="page_27" title="27"></a> +accepted his statements without a question—a most unusual thing in his +experience. They showed him every kindness. At breakfast Mr. Gates +heaped his plate with good things. They were so cordial in their +invitation to stay and rest for awhile that he could not refuse them. +They showed to him such a spirit of love as made him feel that, after +all, Christian people were different from others, and to begin to be +sorry that he had taken advantage of the good, old superintendent. They +planted in his softened heart seeds of kindness and love which were +bound to blossom.</p> + +<p>Glen stayed two days, and might have remained longer, but on the morning +of the third day, coming down early, he picked up the day-old paper +which Mr. Gates had been reading. It was folded back at a place which +told of his disappearance from the reform school. He was ashamed to look +again in their faces, so he stole out the back way, passed through the +barn, and thus made his way out into the dusty road.</p> + +<p>His thoughts, as he trudged along, were far from cheerful. Although he +had strong, boyish desires to fare forth into the world alone, he much +disliked to leave this cheery home. Had he been a clean, honorable boy +with a good record he might have stayed there and learned to be a man.<a class="pagenum" name="page_28" id="page_28" title="28"></a></p> + +<p>His gloomy thoughts were diverted by the sight of a man who seemed to be +having troubles of his own. He was down at the side of an automobile, +perspiring freely and vexed with the whole world as he unsuccessfully +labored at changing a tire. The automobile was no ordinary car. It had a +driver's seat in front and a closed car behind like the closed delivery +wagons Glen had seen in town. Bright colored letters announced to the +world that J. Jervice supplied the public with a full line of novelties, +including rugs, curtains, rare laces and Jervice's Live Stock Condition +Powders.</p> + +<p>"Can I help you," volunteered Glen. It is worthy of note that the +service was freely offered before the man spoke so much as a word. It +had not been Glen's habit to volunteer help. He was feeling the +influence of the home he had just left.</p> + +<p>The offer was not kindly received. The man's reply was so churlish as to +leave open the suspicion that he was not naturally a man of pleasant +ways.</p> + +<p>"Garn away f'm here," he snarled. "I don't need no boys spyin' around my +car."</p> + +<p>"Who's spyin'?" asked Glen defiantly. "You seem to need somebody pretty +bad. You ain't man enough to strip that tire off."</p> + +<p>"Nor nobody else wouldn't be," declared the<a class="pagenum" name="page_29" id="page_29" title="29"></a> man. "Leastways nobody with +jest one pair of hands. While I pry it off one end it slips back on the +other. Are you strong?" he asked, stopping to look at Glen.</p> + +<p>"I'm pretty stout for my age," admitted Glen, modestly, "but I don't +want to help nor spy, if you don't want me."</p> + +<p>"I could use another pair of hands," the peddler admitted. "I can't pay +you nothing for it, though, unless it be a ride to town."</p> + +<p>"That is just what I want," agreed Glen. "It's a bargain."</p> + +<p>The perspiration of Mr. J. Jervice had not been without occasion. The +tire he was trying to change had done good service—it was, in fact, the +very first tire that wheel had ever carried. Perhaps it cherished fond +hopes of remaining in service as long as the wheel to which it clung—at +least it resisted most strenuously all efforts to detach it. Both Glen +and the man were moist with their efforts before it came away, and they +accumulated still more dirt and moisture in applying its successor. But +at last it was all done, and Glen had already mounted to the seat, while +his companion was putting away his tools, when a cart drove up alongside +and Glen recognized in the driver, Mr. Gates.<a class="pagenum" name="page_30" id="page_30" title="30"></a></p> + +<p>"What's the matter?" he asked, as Mr. Gates pulled up his horse.</p> + +<p>"What's the matter?" echoed Mr. J. Jervice; "this boy been doing +anything?"</p> + +<p>It was not an unnatural question for there was something in Mr. Gates's +look and in Glen's questioning tone that betokened affairs out of the +ordinary; furthermore, Mr. J. Jervice seemed to be so suspicious of +people in general that one might well think he had something to conceal.</p> + +<p>"The boy's all right," replied Mr. Gates. "I have something to say to +him, that's all. If he will come over here we will drive on a few feet +while I say it."</p> + +<p>Glen's thoughts flew back to the folded newspaper and he was instantly +suspicious.</p> + +<p>"I don't want to get down," he said. "This gentleman's agreed to give me +a ride to town and I don't want to keep him."</p> + +<p>"But I want you to stay," replied Mr. Gates. "I will take you to town if +you wish, but first I want you to go back home with me and I will tell +you something important."</p> + +<p>Glen felt one of his old, unrestrained passions rising within him.</p> + +<p>"I know what you want," he cried. "I saw the<a class="pagenum" name="page_31" id="page_31" title="31"></a> newspaper. You want to +send me back to the reform school."</p> + +<p>"I want to help you make a man of yourself," asserted Mr. Gates, unmoved +by the boy's passion. "It's true I want you to go back to the school, +but I will go with you and speak for you. You must go back because it is +the only right way out. Let me tell you, Glen, you will never get over a +trouble by running away from it. The manly and Christian thing to do is +to go back. And that is why I want you to do it."</p> + +<p>"And of course you don't want the reward of ten dollars that's always +paid for returning a boy. You wouldn't take the money, would you?"</p> + +<p>If the eyes of Mr. Gates were saddened by this mean sneer those of Mr. +J. Jervice were not. They lightened with a sudden interest, and he +jumped into the battle for the first time.</p> + +<p>"This boy's a goin' with me," he told Mr. Gates. "He's earned a ride and +I promised it and I'm a man of my word. You be off, now, and leave him +alone."</p> + +<p>"You are spoiling his best chance," said Mr. Gates. "I am not interested +in the school or the reward. I am simply trying to do my duty to the +boy."</p> + +<p>"Well, you've done it," cried Mr. J. Jervice,<a class="pagenum" name="page_32" id="page_32" title="32"></a> as his car gathered +headway. "Good-by to ye."</p> + +<p>He turned to Glen as the car got into its speed.</p> + +<p>"So you've run away from the reform school, eh? And he was goin' to make +ten dollars taking you back?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, he didn't want the ten dollars," said Glen, his rage all gone. "He +treated me awful fine while I was at his house. I just said that because +I was mad. But he can't get me to go back; nor nobody else unless they +tie me up first."</p> + +<p>"I don't know?" said Mr. J. Jervice. "Ten dollars is pretty near a +week's pay for most men."</p> + +<p>"That wouldn't make any difference with him," said Glen. "He's straight +as a string."</p> + +<p>Mr. Gates would have been gratified to know how deep an impression his +Christian character had made on this boy who had flouted his kindness.</p> + +<p>Mr. J. Jervice was not inclined to conversation—he was puzzling over a +problem something akin to that of the fox and the geese (he to be the +fox). So they drove along in comparative silence until, topping a hill, +Glen exclaimed at the sight of the buildings of a large town.</p> + +<p>"Are we almost there?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"About three miles yet," said Mr. J. Jervice. "What you going to do when +we get there?"</p> + +<p>"I'm not sure, but I think I'd better leave you<a class="pagenum" name="page_33" id="page_33" title="33"></a> before we get to town. +I don't believe Mr. Gates would telephone the police but somebody else +might."</p> + +<p>"You can ride with me a couple o' miles yet. Tell ye what ye can do. +S'pose'n you get inside. There's lots o' room and there's a ventilator +back o' this seat will give ye air. You be real careful and not go +fussing around disturbing things. There's things there I wouldn't want +ye to touch."</p> + +<p>It seemed a good idea. Mr. J. Jervice unlocked the doors in the back and +Glen stepped inside. The doors slammed behind him and he heard the heavy +steel bar drop into its slots. Then he heard something like a laugh—a +foxy laugh. Why should Mr. J. Jervice laugh? At once his suspicions were +awakened.</p> + +<p>As Mr. J. Jervice climbed to his seat again Glen shouted to him through +the ventilator.</p> + +<p>"Stop," he shouted. "I've changed my mind. I don't like being in here +and I believe I'll take my chance with you on the front seat."</p> + +<p>Mr. J. Jervice paid no attention.</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em"> +<a class="pagenum" name="page_34" id="page_34" title="34"></a> +<a name="JOLLY_BILL_IS_CONSIDERABLY_UPSET_698" id="JOLLY_BILL_IS_CONSIDERABLY_UPSET_698"></a> +<h2>CHAPTER III</h2> +<h3>JOLLY BILL IS CONSIDERABLY UPSET</h3> +</div> + +<p>The treachery of Mr. J. Jervice was now very clear. He had decided that +he himself would hand Glen over to the authorities and receive the ten +dollars reward. Since Glen was almost as big as he, there had been some +question how he should restrain the boy. He thought this all settled by +his clever scheme, and the ten dollars practically in his pocket. No +wonder he chuckled.</p> + +<p>But it is well for those who cage wild animals to be sure that the cage +is properly prepared. Glen looked around in the gloom of the car. He +knew it was useless to bump against those solid doors. The way out lay +through Mr. J. Jervice, and the time for getting out was very brief. On +a shelf lay a bundle of sticks. He pulled on one and found on the other +end a flag. It was an emblem. The flag should bring him freedom.</p> + +<p>Glen found that the flag stick would just poke through the ventilator +railing. Being effectively poked it struck Mr. J. Jervice neatly in the +back<a class="pagenum" name="page_35" id="page_35" title="35"></a> of the neck, and the poke being vigorous, it aroused his attention +quite thoroughly.</p> + +<p>"Stop that," he cried, hastily dodging. "Them flags is worth a quarter +apiece, and you'll break the handle."</p> + +<p>"Stop and let me out," cried Glen.</p> + +<p>"I can't stop now. I just made this change to accommodate you, remember. +Stopping and starting is awfully expensive—takes as much gasoline as +running a mile. We'll be in town in five minutes."</p> + +<p>"And then you think you will sell me for ten dollars. You'll lose money +on it, Mr. Jervice. I have a sharp, open knife in my hand. I'm going to +turn loose on everything in—"</p> + +<p>"Don't you dare," shouted Mr. Jervice.</p> + +<p>"But I will if you don't stop. You want to send me back to the reform +school. All I'll get will be a little longer sentence. Will that pay you +for your goods?"</p> + +<p>Mr. J. Jervice reluctantly stopped his car. He saw ten dollars vanishing +into the atmosphere. Whether Glen would have been as destructive as he +threatened does not enter into this record. We are obliged to admit that +at this time he was a wilful lad, and he was especially provoked at this +man because he had dragged him from the counsel and<a class="pagenum" name="page_36" id="page_36" title="36"></a> aid of Mr. Gates +for the sole purpose of his personal gain. It is enough for us to know +that Mr. J. Jervice quite believed that a reform school boy with a knife +was equal to anything.</p> + +<p>"Everything in here is in just as good order as when I came in," said +Glen, when the doors were opened. "I earned this ride, so I don't owe +you anything. Now you stand away off and let me get out."</p> + +<p>There was no need to be so emphatic. Mr. J. Jervice was neither a big +man nor a brave man, and had no idea of offering any opposition. He +stood well aside as Glen jumped from the car and ran away through the +fields.</p> + +<p>One thing was very clear to Glen. Mr. J. Jervice would certainly reach +town in a few minutes and just as certainly would advise the authorities +to look out for him. He might even come back with the officer, knowing +that the boy would have but a short start. Glen was standing by an +abandoned stone quarry as these thoughts came to him. It contained many +nooks and corners in which a boy might hide, and would be far safer for +the present than tramping along the road or in the fields. So he picked +out a secluded nook and lay there until evening. He watched eagerly for +signs of an officer or Mr. J. Jervice, but also fruitlessly.<a class="pagenum" name="page_37" id="page_37" title="37"></a> Had he but +known it he was perfectly safe, for Mr. J. Jervice was again having +troubles of his own. Perhaps this was his day for trouble.</p> + +<p>Spending a whole day cooped up in a little niche about ten feet long by +three wide, even though it be as high as the heavens, is dreary work for +a boy. The time dragged terribly. In his work on the school farm Glen +had learned to use the sun for a clock quite accurately, so there was no +deceiving himself as to time. He had eaten a good breakfast before +leaving the Gates' home so there was no occasion for excessive hunger, +but he did get very thirsty. Looking down through the old quarry he +fancied he saw a pump, and when the sun reached its noon zenith he crept +cautiously down and satisfied his thirst. There was no one in sight, yet +he felt afraid to venture toward the town before dark, and went back to +his hiding place.</p> + +<p>On the way back he made a great find. Some careless workman had left a +mallet and chisel lying by a huge slab of stone. They were rusted by the +weather but otherwise in good condition. Glen took them to his hiding +place and spent a great deal of the afternoon cleaning off the rust. +Then he began work on a rough block of stone which lay near and was +greatly gratified at the result of his<a class="pagenum" name="page_38" id="page_38" title="38"></a> labors. So the afternoon slipped +away without the dreariness of the morning.</p> + +<p>He was hungry now and tired and consumed with loneliness. His thoughts +turned to the pleasant home he had just left with a great longing. They +had given him good treatment—the Gates family. He contrasted Mr. Gates +with Mr. Jervice, stirring in his bosom a great indignation at the +treachery of Jervice, and also awakening a great trust and confidence in +Mr. Gates. Perhaps he was right after all. Perhaps it would be a good +thing for him to go back to the school, serve out his time, and then try +to make a man of himself. If the school had been close at hand he would +have gone at once, for the supper-time picture which rose to his mind, +with the crowd of boys ready for their plain but wholesome food was a +very attractive one just now. Where his supper was to come from he did +not know, for his only nickel had paid for the ticket to the +merry-go-round.</p> + +<p>Now that it was dark enough to make his travel safe he picked up his +chisel and mallet and climbed up the side of the quarry. The tools gave +him an idea. They were marketable and would surely provide a supper for +him. He looked them over as closely as the fading light would allow but +found no marks or initials to indicate the owner.<a class="pagenum" name="page_39" id="page_39" title="39"></a> So he felt a little +more certain of his plans as he hurried along the road toward the town.</p> + +<p>He had no intention of going to a big store and offering the tools for +sale. His choice would be rather a small general shop where he could get +both food and a hat in exchange for his offering. He felt that the lack +of a hat as he walked through the streets would be sure to attract +attention. He found just the place he needed at the very outskirts of +the town, a little "general utility store" designed to supply the needs +of the dwellers in outlying houses who did not wish to go to town for +every purchase.</p> + +<p>But the dealer was suspicious of a bareheaded boy in a man's suit of +clothes offering to trade a mallet and chisel for a meal and a straw +hat.</p> + +<p>"Where did you get these things?" he asked, as he closely examined the +tools.</p> + +<p>"I found them in the old quarry east of town," replied Glen.</p> + +<p>"You found them! They don't look like tools that have been lying around +in an old quarry."</p> + +<p>"No, sir. Because I spent all afternoon cleaning them up."</p> + +<p>"I hope that's true, boy. I want to be fair with you. Wait a minute +while I make a few inquiries."<a class="pagenum" name="page_40" id="page_40" title="40"></a></p> + +<p>He turned to the telephone; and even as he did so Glen fled through the +open door. It was unfair, miserably unfair, he told himself as he ran, +and the hot tears filled his eyes. He had found these tools all rusty, +and spent all afternoon cleaning them, and now this man was bound to +call up the police. He did not stop to think that if he had been an +honest boy with a good record calling up the police would have meant +nothing to him.</p> + +<p>Glen slowed his pace to a walk after a few blocks; a running boy was too +conspicuous. Every time he saw a man in any kind of a uniform he dodged +out of his way. A street-car conductor on his way home, who passed near +to him, gave him a great scare. And at last came a policeman who really +did start after him; at least he walked in his direction and when Glen +started to run he ran too. Glen was terribly frightened. He ran madly, +not once looking behind, and therefore ignorant of the fact that after +one block the officer gave up the chase after a boy who was probably +playing some foolish joke. It was a hot night but the sweat on Glen's +face was caused as much by terror as by his exertion. He ran not knowing +where he was going and at last hardly seeing. Then he swung around a +sharp corner, came into collision with some kind of a vehicle, and +rolled<a class="pagenum" name="page_41" id="page_41" title="41"></a> over and over with it and its occupant into the gutter.</p> + +<p>Glen lay panting from the chase he had given himself, for just a second, +and in that second he felt a large hand grip his arm in a firm grasp. +But it was not the policeman. Beside him, with his head touching the +curb, lay a strong young man. Across their bodies was the vehicle which +Glen had overturned, something like a large baby buggy or a small +invalid chair, with a steering wheel in front. No one came to their +help, for Glen had instinctively selected the quiet streets and this one +seemed deserted save for them two. Seeing no policeman in sight Glen +gained confidence.</p> + +<p>"Let go of my arm," he cried.</p> + +<p>"I can't afford to just yet," replied the young man. "It's the only +thing I've got to remember you by, unless you count this big bump on the +back of my head."</p> + +<p>"I didn't mean to hurt you," said Glen.</p> + +<p>"I reckon not. I suppose it was thoughtless for me to get in your way. +You must have been going somewhere."</p> + +<p>"Let me up. Please let me up, and I'll tell you all about it. I want you +to help me. It isn't fair. I'm not getting a fair show."<a class="pagenum" name="page_42" id="page_42" title="42"></a></p> + +<p>"Oh, that's the way, is it? Well, you're at the right shop. Nobody ever +calls on Jolly Bill in vain. You get up and lift this automobile off my +quivering frame and we'll see what we can do for you."</p> + +<p>Glen crawled out and managed to lift the vehicle off the young man's +body.</p> + +<p>"Now you can get up, can't you," he asked.</p> + +<p>"With your kind assistance, noble sir." He raised himself to a sitting +position as he spoke. "This is as far as I get without your aid."</p> + +<p>Glen hardly knew how to help, though the conveyance told him that the +young man was a cripple.</p> + +<p>"How shall I help you?" he asked. "Are your legs paralyzed?"</p> + +<p>"Worse than that, young fellow. My legs are dead and buried."</p> + +<p>"I'm awfully sorry," said Glen, his heart stirred with sympathy. "I'm +glad you have such strong arms. They certainly are alive."</p> + +<p>"That's the way to talk about it, boy. Don't worry about what's gone. +Look at what you have left. That's what I try to do, and that's why they +call me Jolly Bill. Now, a big heave and I can stand on my pegs while +you bring my Billy-cart up this way."<a class="pagenum" name="page_43" id="page_43" title="43"></a></p> + +<p>He was quite skillful about getting into his cart once Glen had him in +the right position.</p> + +<p>"Now I'll let you push me home, boy—two blocks ahead and one to your +right—and meantime you may tell me the sad story of your eventful +career."</p> + +<p>"Promise that you won't give me up," said Glen.</p> + +<p>"Whew! That sounds awfully interesting. You must be a desperate +character, and that perhaps explains your peculiar mode of rapid +transit. I'm so curious I promise."</p> + +<p>"It isn't so awfully bad," said Glen, feeling that his new friend was +poking fun. "I ran away from the reform school, that's all."</p> + +<p>"I don't know how bad that is," was the reply. "The question is are you +reformed, are you reforming, or are you worse than ever?"</p> + +<p>"I want to reform," declared Glen, the first confession of the kind he +had ever made.</p> + +<p>"I suppose the best way to do it would be to go back to the school," +suggested Jolly Bill.</p> + +<p>"That's what Mr. Gates said," admitted Glen. "But I don't want to be +taken back."</p> + +<p>"That sounds pretty fair. You don't want to be taken; you want to go. I +want to go, but I have to be taken. I was hoping you were the boy to do +some taking for me."<a class="pagenum" name="page_44" id="page_44" title="44"></a></p> + +<p>"You mean take you around," exclaimed Glen.</p> + +<p>"That's about what I mean. I'm an important personage and wherever I +travel I have to have a body guard."</p> + +<p>"I'd like to do it better than anything in the world!"</p> + +<p>"I believe you're just the boy if the reform school could wait for you a +week or two. I have a plan that will make me a fortune; but I can't work +it out without a strong, energetic boy to help me."</p> + +<p>"I'm the boy," shouted Glen. "Try me. What is it?"</p> + +<p>"You won't give my secret away?"</p> + +<p>"Never. Upon my—"</p> + +<p>"Upon your what?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I suppose you'd say I didn't have any."</p> + +<p>"You were going to say upon your honor. Certainly you have honor. You +make it every day. To prove my confidence I will tell you my secret. I +was born in this neighborhood and lived here most of my life. A few +years ago a terrible accident deprived me of my father and at the same +time left me as you see me. I support my mother by selling real estate. +Twenty miles or so from here I know of a great fortune. But it is hidden +away, buried, choked up and forgotten. I have<a class="pagenum" name="page_45" id="page_45" title="45"></a> tried to get my friends +to hunt this out for me but they do not see things my way. So I need a +strong healthy boy to help me, and together we will find this +treasure."</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em"> +<a class="pagenum" name="page_46" id="page_46" title="46"></a> +<a name="HOW_MOTHER_CARES_980" id="HOW_MOTHER_CARES_980"></a> +<h2>CHAPTER IV</h2> +<h3>HOW MOTHER CARES</h3> +</div> + +<p>Running away would be very popular with boys if they could be sure of +finding such good friends as Glen had met. The reverse is more commonly +true. Glen knew well enough that the boy on the road, trusting to chance +for friends, is much more apt to fall a prey to people of the J. Jervice +variety. He remembered the pitiful plight of a boy who had been returned +to the school after falling into the hands of tramps, and he thanked an +unknown Providence that he had tumbled into the kind arms of Jolly Bill.</p> + +<p>Mother Spencer was just as kind and cheerful as her son, though she +neither made jokes nor appreciated those offered by Will.</p> + +<p>"This is Glen Mason, mother," said Jolly Bill, when she came out to meet +them. "After he had committed assault and battery on my delicate frame, +I prevailed on him to bring home the mangled remains."</p> + +<p>"You are hurt, Willie!" she cried in alarm. "Your face is scratched and +there is blood. Is it serious?"<a class="pagenum" name="page_47" id="page_47" title="47"></a></p> + +<p>"I shall recover," said Will. "I have been in rather worse accidents. +Take a look at this other dusty, weary specimen. What do you recommend?"</p> + +<p>"I beg your pardon," she apologized to Glen. "I was anxious about my +boy. I am every time he goes out. I'll just show you up to the bathroom. +There is plenty of hot water and soap and towels, and I'll bring you a +clean suit that Willie used to wear."</p> + +<p>Glen reddened with embarrassment at this goodness.</p> + +<p>"Maybe you'd better not," he protested. "You don't know who I am."</p> + +<p>"But I know what size you are," she insisted. "This old suit of Willie's +has been lying around for years, but it's perfectly good. Now you take +and put it on."</p> + +<p>"Take it along and wear it," urged Jolly Bill. "It's been shut up in the +closet so long it may turn two or three handsprings when it gets out in +the sunshine, but otherwise it will fit you all right. Mother's kept the +moth out of it long enough."</p> + +<p>Soaking in a tub of clean water after his hot and dusty day, with a nice +suit of clean clothing ready to put on, Glen felt that he was indeed<a class="pagenum" name="page_48" id="page_48" title="48"></a> +fortunate. He actually concluded that he was getting better treatment +than he deserved. He was still embarrassed by the thought, when he went +downstairs and found Will and his mother at the table.</p> + +<p>"I've told mother all about you," announced Bill. "You have her official +seal of approval."</p> + +<p>"Don't mind what he says," interrupted Mrs. Spencer. "A boy who wants to +do right always has a place with me. But you get a reserved seat because +you're going to help Willie."</p> + +<p>"I hope I'll be able to. I'll surely try."</p> + +<p>"Oh, you're just the strong young fellow he needs. He's had the plan +quite a while but so many people—"</p> + +<p>"Not so very many, mother," interrupted Will. "Very few people know of +it."</p> + +<p>"Well, the people that you've told—you know how they have all acted or +spoken as if it were a wild goose chase—"</p> + +<p>"They think so; that's their privilege."</p> + +<p>"No it isn't. They shouldn't think so. You've studied it out and you +know it's as bright a thought as ever helped any man to a fortune and +I'm glad this big boy is going to help you work it."</p> + +<p>"And then I'll be rich enough to buy you a<a class="pagenum" name="page_49" id="page_49" title="49"></a> home, and to go to that big +hospital and get my old pegs fixed up so they can put artificial legs on +me that I really can walk on."</p> + +<p>"I'm mighty glad to help," said Glen. "I'd do most anything for folks as +good as you."</p> + +<p>"There, mother; that's an unsolicited testimonial to your particular +brand of goodness," said Will. "He didn't talk a bit that way when he +met me first. Acted quite abrupt and seemed to want to get away."</p> + +<p>"I didn't know you then," objected Glen. "I was trying to get away from +everybody."</p> + +<p>"Pretty good horse-power you were putting into it, too," observed Will. +"That reminds me, boy. It is now time for you to unroll the full history +of your eventful career."</p> + +<p>"There isn't very much that matters, until a few days ago," began Glen.</p> + +<p>"What's that?" asked Mrs. Spencer. "Did you say not much that matters? +How old are you?"</p> + +<p>"I was fifteen last May."</p> + +<p>"Fifteen years ago last May! Don't you know, Glen, that something +happened then that mattered a wonderful lot to one person, even if it +didn't then matter much to you. And it's been mattering ever since, to +her."<a class="pagenum" name="page_50" id="page_50" title="50"></a></p> + +<p>"Yes," agreed Glen, "my mother, you mean."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I mean your mother. And your father, too, as long as he lived. +Don't you suppose it mattered to them that their boy should be so—" she +hesitated, groping for a word.</p> + +<p>"Pigheaded!" volunteered Glen.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Spencer looked shocked, and remonstrated: "Why, Glen! I didn't say +anything of the kind—wayward was the word I wanted."</p> + +<p>But Jolly Bill clapped his hands in cheerful applause.</p> + +<p>"Good boy, Glen!" he exclaimed. "Pigheaded is the word. Bound to have +your own way. Bound to have what you want. No self restraint at all. If +you want it, nothing will do but you must have it, good or bad. Believe +me, boy, that's the very word."</p> + +<p>"I wish you wouldn't interrupt me, Willie," objected Mrs. Spencer. "I +wasn't trying to preach a sermon to Glen and I don't know why you +should. What I want to tell him is that every little thing about a boy +matters to mother. It's always important to her what he does, and if he +does wrong to-day she is sure that he certainly will do better +to-morrow. Mother's going to be awfully glad when she hears about you, +Glen, and I want you to tell me where I can write to her<a class="pagenum" name="page_51" id="page_51" title="51"></a> this very day. +Now, go on and tell us about running away."</p> + +<p>Glen was interrupted occasionally.</p> + +<p>"Oh, did you say Gates?" cried Mrs. Spencer. "Was it Jonathan Gates?"</p> + +<p>"I believe I did hear his wife call him Jonathan once or twice, though +mostly they all called him 'Father.'"</p> + +<p>"It must be they," said Mrs. Spencer. "They're just the people to take +care of a boy that way. We know the Gateses very well and they're the +salt of the earth. I wonder you ever had the heart to leave them."</p> + +<p>Glen told why he had left and then related his further adventures with +J. Jervice, his final escape, and his day of dread lest he should be +apprehended.</p> + +<p>"I think I can tell you why Mr. J. Jervice didn't send after you," said +Will. "It's been his busy day. I just read about it in the evening +paper. Excepting that it was funny I wondered what excuse they had for +giving it so much space. But I now see why it is important. Look at +this!"</p> + +<p>He handed Glen the paper folded back to a column headed: "Peddler in +Wrong Pew."</p> + +<p>"Every good citizen knows of the new license<a class="pagenum" name="page_52" id="page_52" title="52"></a> ordinance but not every +peddler. One came briskly to the county clerk's office this morning. He +was not too rushed to stop and sell a patent tie clip to a man at the +door.</p> + +<p>"'I'm a traveling merchant,' said he to our genial county clerk.</p> + +<p>"'Very good,' said the clerk. 'I see you are doing a little business.'</p> + +<p>"'Pretty fair,' agreed Mr. Peddler. 'But that ain't what—'</p> + +<p>"'Hold on a bit,' interrupted the clerk. 'First thing is a license.'</p> + +<p>"'I've got something more important, just now,' urged the peddler. 'I +want to tell you about—'</p> + +<p>"'First things first,' persisted our efficient clerk. 'You must pay a +license to peddle in this county.'</p> + +<p>"'But I don't want to peddle now. I want to lodge—'</p> + +<p>"'One thing at a time. You may lodge longer than you want if you break +our ordinances. Get your license. Five dollars!'</p> + +<p>"'But I don't want a license. I want to give information—'</p> + +<p>"'No, no! You want to get information (our clerk is just bound to have +his way). 'You should<a class="pagenum" name="page_53" id="page_53" title="53"></a> have information about our new license fee. Every +peddler must pay it.'</p> + +<p>"'I'll not pay it. Five dollars is more'n I could make in a whole day, +and I don't aim to be in your county that long. I'll go on.'</p> + +<p>"'Too late. You've made one sale that we know of. Five dollars or—'</p> + +<p>"'I can't, Mister. I can't pay that. You, just forget about it an' I'll +tell you how we can divide ten dollars, easy money.'</p> + +<p>"'Trying to bribe a county officer! That's worse and worse. Here, Mr. +Sheriff, you'd better look after this man.'</p> + +<p>"The man's name was J. Jervice and he found five dollars in his clothing +before the sheriff had fully clamped his grip. He went away in great +wrath, taking with him not only the objectionable license but also the +valuable secret which was worth ten dollars—easy money.</p> + +<p>"The honest merchant who has a regular route does not object to the +license. The objections come from these itinerant peddlers, who claim +that they are just passing through. Our county officers will insist upon +payment. They do not fear to discourage their visits for these +fly-by-nights are the very men who cheat our citizens, sometimes +stealing under guise of a sale and sometimes<a class="pagenum" name="page_54" id="page_54" title="54"></a> stealing outright. We do +not say that this peddler looked suspicious, but we observed our sheriff +taking a good mental picture of him."</p> + +<p>"Good-by, Mr. J. Jervice," exulted Glen, as he laid down the paper. "I +don't care if I never meet you again."</p> + +<p>"But I'm not sure that you won't," said Jolly Bill, with a purpose to +tease. "Now that Mr. Jervice has had to pay a five dollar license fee, +all because he loved you so and wanted to see you safe home, he'll be +apt to look for you."</p> + +<p>"He'd better not come near this house," declared Mrs. Spencer, +energetically. "I'll give him a piece of my mind if I see him, I can +tell you."</p> + +<p>"I surely hope he'll come," said Jolly Bill. "He deserves all he can +get."</p> + +<p>But neither Jolly Bill, Mrs. Spencer nor Glen were to be gratified with +a sight of Mr. Jervice immediately, although they were by no means +through with him.</p> + +<p>Later in the evening after Glen had given Mrs. Spencer very efficient +aid in helping her crippled son to his bed on the ground floor, she +showed the boy up to a cozy little bedroom where he was to spend the +night.</p> + +<p>"Have a good night, son," she said. "I'm so glad you are going to help +my boy, because you<a class="pagenum" name="page_55" id="page_55" title="55"></a> look like a boy with grit and determination, and +I'll feel safe about him with you looking after him. It means a lot to +us just now. It isn't so much that I care about the money, although +Willie insists that I must have this home all clear of debt. But the +main thing with me is to see my boy able to take care of himself. +There's a place in New York where they can operate on him and then fix +him up so he can walk all by himself. All we need is the money. It will +be such a joy to me. Good night!"</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em"> +<a class="pagenum" name="page_56" id="page_56" title="56"></a> +<a name="TREACHEROUS_INDIANS_AT_BUFFALO_LAKE_1229" id="TREACHEROUS_INDIANS_AT_BUFFALO_LAKE_1229"></a> +<h2>CHAPTER V</h2> +<h3>TREACHEROUS INDIANS AT BUFFALO LAKE</h3> +</div> + +<p>It was a couple of days later before Mr. William Spencer (sometimes +known to his fellow citizens as Jolly Bill) fully explained to Glen the +method by which he hoped to increase their fortunes. He had taken Glen +into his home, had fed and provided for him and had given him some +clothing. An automobile had brought them the twenty miles of their +journey, early that morning, and had left them with their belongings at +the house of a farmer, with whom Spencer was evidently on the best of +terms. Now they stood on a knoll overlooking what seemed to Glen to be +nothing but an immense field of growing corn.</p> + +<p>"There is our fortune," said Spencer.</p> + +<p>"That field of corn?" asked Glen.</p> + +<p>"That is Buffalo Hollow and I repeat that there lies our fortune."</p> + +<p>"And how are we to get it?"</p> + +<p>"That is your job. That's why I brought you."</p> + +<p>"What do you expect me to do. Take a spade and dig?"</p> + +<p>"Perhaps! We shall see. Sit down while I<a class="pagenum" name="page_57" id="page_57" title="57"></a> tell you about this place. +Buffalo Mound, over there, is the highest ground in this country. From +its summit you can see into six counties. This big field before us is +Buffalo Hollow. When I was a little chap I was told a great story about +this by an old Indian. He said that years ago the Hollow was a beautiful +lake fed by springs from Buffalo Mound. Some freighters carrying bullion +camped here and were slaughtered by Indians. To hide the bullion until +they could dispose of it they threw it in the lake. When they returned +they could not find it readily, so they dammed the springs and drained +the lake. Makes quite a romantic story, doesn't it?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, but did it ever happen?"</p> + +<p>"I believe there is some record of such a thing, but my private opinion +is that the draining was done by some stingy owner who had little use +for a lake and thought he saw an opportunity to secure twenty acres of +good bottom land. Probably he thought he was a great economist. But as a +matter of fact he did a very foolish thing. This prairie country is +poverty stricken so far as lakes and woods are concerned. In the town I +live in there are many wealthy men who take their families long +distances every summer in order to reach a lake. A twenty acre lake is<a class="pagenum" name="page_58" id="page_58" title="58"></a> +only a pool in the lake country, but out here it is worth more than a +gold mine."</p> + +<p>"And you think if you could make it a lake again you could sell it to +these wealthy people?"</p> + +<p>"I know I could. I know an athletic club in town that would pay a big +price for it. There are many of our wealthy men who would pay five +hundred dollars for a hundred foot frontage, so that they might put up +bungalows for summer residences. My plan is to find those choked +springs, bring them again into their old channels, and convert the +Hollow into a lake. Mr. Ryder, our farmer friend who now owns this farm, +doesn't think much of my plan, and won't have anything to do with it any +more than to sell me options on the land and the privilege of cutting +this excellent stand of corn, and that is as far as my arrangements with +him extend."</p> + +<p>"And what is the first thing for me to do?" asked Glen.</p> + +<p>"Excellent talk, that, my boy. What would you advise as to the first +thing."</p> + +<p>"I suppose you can't do much exploring while the corn stands. It should +be cut."</p> + +<p>"It should, and it must be cut in the old fashioned way. Did you ever +cut corn in the old fashioned way?"<a class="pagenum" name="page_59" id="page_59" title="59"></a></p> + +<p>"You mean with a corn-knife. I helped cut a hundred acres at the school +last fall."</p> + +<p>"Well, there's only about five acres of this land in corn so the +contract is smaller. The first thing is to borrow a corn-knife of our +friend Ryder."</p> + +<p>Glen's attack upon the field of corn began that very day. A year ago, at +the reform school, he had hated this work; now, he enjoyed it. The corn +was higher than his head, and the heavy stalks, piled on his left arm as +he cut with his right, wore through his shirt and made an attempt upon +his skin, but he did not complain. He was doing a work into which his +heart entered, and so he was enjoying it.</p> + +<p>Spencer could give no help at all. There are people, with like +misfortune to his, who are able to make some sort of a shift with +crutches, but Will could not use them at all. As Mrs. Spencer had +explained to Glen, there had been some trouble in the amputation. All +that was needed was money to go to a famous hospital and have things +properly arranged and a pair of artificial legs fitted that would enable +him to walk, run, race, dance or play the pipe organ. Will hoped to be +successful enough to command the money for this and meantime he intended +to be happy in the prospect. So he sat and watched Glen<a class="pagenum" name="page_60" id="page_60" title="60"></a> work, made +suggestions, cracked jokes and drew diagrams of the surrounding country.</p> + +<p>The day that Glen finished his work was very hot. He had been working +hard in the hope of completing the job by nightfall and was wet and +grimy with perspiration and dirt. As he carried an armful of stalks to +the shock he noticed a boy standing there dressed in a khaki uniform of +olive drab.</p> + +<p>"Wouldn't you like a little help?" asked the boy.</p> + +<p>"I could use some," said Glen. "But I have only one knife."</p> + +<p>"You rest, then, and let me use it awhile. I know how to cut corn."</p> + +<p>"You'll spoil your pretty suit."</p> + +<p>"This kind doesn't spoil. It's a scout uniform."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps it won't spoil for as long as you'll work," said Glen. "What +are you doing here?"</p> + +<p>"We have a camp around the other side of the Mound. We only came +yesterday or you would have seen some of us before now."</p> + +<p>He was cutting cornstalks with a practised hand and Glen decided that he +could trust him.</p> + +<p>"You can go ahead for awhile. I'll go over and see what my partner +says," he agreed.<a class="pagenum" name="page_61" id="page_61" title="61"></a></p> + +<p>"There's a boy scout over there," he told Spencer. "He wanted to help +cut a piece, so I let him. Do you mind?"</p> + +<p>"Not a bit. I'd like to get a whole troop of boy scouts to help. They +ought to be some good at our game."</p> + +<p>"There is a troop of them camped the other side of the mound, this boy +says. Maybe we could get them to help."</p> + +<p>Spencer straightened himself in his seat.</p> + +<p>"Bright idea, Glen. To-night you shall push Jolly Bill and the old +billy-cart over there, and we'll give them a chance to do a good turn."</p> + +<p>Glen went back to where the scout was working.</p> + +<p>"That's enough," he said. "You've given me quite a rest. We're coming +over to see you to-night."</p> + +<p>"I hope you will," the scout replied. "My father is the scout master and +I know he'll be glad to have you come. His name is Newton."</p> + +<p>"I suppose you get along with the same name?" suggested Glen.</p> + +<p>"I surely do. And my other name is Corliss, but the fellows call me +Apple."</p> + +<p>"Why's that. Is it your round face and red cheeks?"</p> + +<p>"No. I couldn't help looking that way and the<a class="pagenum" name="page_62" id="page_62" title="62"></a> boys wouldn't throw it up +to me. No, sir; they started to call me Core, then Apple-core, and so +down to Apple."</p> + +<p>"It's a good name for you," said Glen. "Did I tell you I'd be bringing +my partner over this evening, too?"</p> + +<p>"He's welcome. It's in our articles, you know. 'A scout is friendly.'"</p> + +<p>"Well, don't forget to ask him to tell some stories. Then you'll be glad +we came."</p> + +<p>"We'll be glad, anyway," said Apple, politely, as he turned away. When +Glen learned to know him better he found this sunny cheer and gentle +courtesy to be characteristic of him at all times and places.</p> + +<p>It was no easy job to propel the old "billy-cart" over the fields, but +Glen managed it. The scouts were just getting together for their evening +camp-fire. They were all attracted by the queer vehicle and its jolly +occupant and cheerfully and noisily responded to the introductions given +by Apple Newton. Mr. Newton, the scout master, was just such a gentleman +as one might expect Apple to have for a father and cordially welcomed +both Spencer and Glen to their fellowship.</p> + +<p>A hint from Apple Newton that Mr. Spencer was a teller of stories drew +forth a wild clamor<a class="pagenum" name="page_63" id="page_63" title="63"></a> from the boys for his services. His first story, a +funny one, brought forth delirious applause—a "side-splitter" they +voted it. Then he told them a story of adventure which held them +spell-bound. They clamored yet for more.</p> + +<p>"Only one," stipulated the scout master. "It will soon be time to turn +in."</p> + +<p>"Then I will tell you a short story about this country, but I cannot +vouch for its truth. First I must tell you that I grew up a mile or two +from here. There are still some Pottawatomie Indians here occasionally, +I saw one yesterday. When I was a small boy there was quite a colony—a +number who never had gone onto the reservation. I knew some of the old +men pretty well and one of them used to tell me stories. The most +remarkable story he ever told was the story of Buffalo Lake. Years ago +the place now known as Buffalo Hollow was a twenty acre lake. Lakes of +any size are so rare in this country that even one of twenty acres is +sure to be preserved in tradition, so there is plenty of record to +verify this part of his story. The remainder may be true. He insisted +that it was.</p> + +<p>"It was late in the evening of a hot day. The freighters had been +pushing along their tired horses for the last three hours, with their +eyes<a class="pagenum" name="page_64" id="page_64" title="64"></a> steadfastly set on a clump of trees ahead—probably this clump in +which we sit. When they reached the trees they no longer needed them for +shade, for the sun had already set, but they were none the less glad of +their leafy branches, glad of the green grass, glad of the cooling +waters of the lake. They could scarcely restrain their tired but eager +animals from plunging in as they were, and dragging their loads along, +and once the harness was released the beasts made a wild dash for the +water and reveled in its coolness. The men themselves lost no time in +stripping off their clothing and taking the first swim of their trip. +They swam and larked and sported until they were not only refreshed and +rested but actually tired again. Then they ate a plentiful supper, +spread their blankets around the treasure wagons and soon slept the +sleep of exhaustion. Even the watch slept, for he, too, had borne the +burden of the day and worn himself with the frolic of the evening. He +felt no need of special caution for they were now in territory +considered safe.</p> + +<p>"But the Indians had been following them for many days, eager for such +an opportunity. They dreaded as well as hated these plainsmen. They had +not dared to attack them on the open prairie.<a class="pagenum" name="page_65" id="page_65" title="65"></a> But now, one dark form +after another slipped noiselessly from tree to tree, and very soon every +tree sheltered a savage form and made cover for the marksmanship of an +Indian brave in feathers and war-paint.</p> + +<p>"I don't dare to tell you the rest of this story as the old Pottawatomie +told it to me, for it is near bedtime and these are the very trees +between which the ghostly, ghastly figures flitted in the darkness. It +is all past and gone now and you need have no fear. You boys on the +outer edge who are crowding up to the light of the camp-fire are just as +safe as the fellows in the middle. The thing to interest you is what the +Indians did with the bullion, after they had massacred its guardians.</p> + +<p>"There is a government record that such a massacre actually occurred and +that the bullion has never been recovered. The old Indian said that +being unable to take the treasure away they rowed it out in the lake and +buried it in its waters. They were chased out of the country and it was +years before they dared to venture back. Then they tried to regain the +treasure but without success. As a final measure they dammed up the +springs and drained the lake. But the<a class="pagenum" name="page_66" id="page_66" title="66"></a> treasure was not there and so far +as known it has never been found. What has become of it!"</p> + +<p>A moment of deep silence followed.</p> + +<p>"Supposing they didn't put it in the lake at all? Supposing they hid it +in a cave?"</p> + +<p>It was Apple Newton who spoke and his speaking was the signal for a +perfect babel of suggestions and guesses.</p> + +<p>Spencer held up his hand for silence.</p> + +<p>"I did not come here to search for this bullion; but I feel sure that it +did exist and that it may exist yet. Your scout master has invited me to +stay with you for a week. I will tell you all that I know about the +country, and you will help me as much as possible in getting about. We +will hunt for this treasure. I try to be generous, so I will say that +the scout finding it may keep it."</p> + +<p>"I have a word to add," said Mr. Newton. "In this treasure hunt we must +have system. Every scout desiring to enter will choose the section which +he thinks most favorable, draw a map of it and present it for our +approval. Afterwards he will give a full report of all his actions, how +he has gone to work and what he has noted."</p> + +<p>And then came a third speaker who had been expected by no one. He +stepped from behind a tree, and to the eyes of the boys he was tall and<a class="pagenum" name="page_67" id="page_67" title="67"></a> +erect and to some of their eyes he wore feathers and war-paint.</p> + +<p>"Boys hunt gold! Boys hunt heap stone!" he said and disappeared.</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em"> +<a class="pagenum" name="page_68" id="page_68" title="68"></a> +<a name="GETTING_ACQUAINTED_1510" id="GETTING_ACQUAINTED_1510"></a> +<h2>CHAPTER VI</h2> +<h3>GETTING ACQUAINTED</h3> +</div> + +<p>Most of the boys around the camp fire sat as if petrified for a few +moments. Some of them clutched at their scalp locks, as if to make sure +of their continued existence.</p> + +<p>The first scout to show real signs of recovery was a thin, lanky, +freckled-faced hero of unheroic appearance, who spoke in a jerky fashion +peculiarly his own.</p> + +<p>"Help!" he cried. "Help! Mother! Why'd my pa let me come to this wild +place? Injuns! Robbers! Help!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, shut up, Chick-chick," cried a small boy. "You'll have 'em coming +back."</p> + +<p>A contemptuous laugh came from a big, handsome boy who sat in the middle +of the circle—big and handsome, yet with a supercilious look.</p> + +<p>"Never mind, kid," he assured the little fellow. "You are safe enough +here. Chick-chick can't help having hysterics, but you're safe while I'm +here."<a class="pagenum" name="page_69" id="page_69" title="69"></a></p> + +<p>"Sure, you're safe," echoed Chick-chick. "Ev'body's safe. Matty will +protect you. Matty protects whole camp. Go after heap big Injun, Matty. +Jes' disappeared northwest by south."</p> + +<p>"That's enough from you, Chick-chick," retorted the handsome scout, Matt +Burton, who did not bear chaffing cheerfully. "I could go after that +Indian if I cared to. And get him, too."</p> + +<p>"Why should anyone want to go after him," interrupted Apple Newton. +"He's done nothing but suddenly appear and give some information that +may be valuable."</p> + +<p>"He just came up from nowhere," said a scout. "I don't believe he's a +real Indian at all—just a spirit."</p> + +<p>"He was right close to me," declared Chick-chick. "I smelled the +spirits."</p> + +<p>"Maybe he is a phantom Indian. I've heard of such things," said Apple +Newton, ignoring Chick-chick's absurd remark. "I think it would be fine +to have a phantom come purposely to get us started on the right track +for the treasure hunt. 'Hunt heap stone' was what he said. We shall have +to look for peculiar formations of stone."</p> + +<p>"Maybe we'll find one that has a letter under<a class="pagenum" name="page_70" id="page_70" title="70"></a> it telling where to dig," +eagerly suggested one of the younger ones.</p> + +<p>"Likely thing," said another. "How long would a letter stand the +weather? There'll be marks cut in the stone if there's anything."</p> + +<p>"Much you fellows know about Indian ways," boasted Matt Burton. "What +did those Indians know about our language. Indians talk by signs and +numbers. It will take a smart fellow to tell what it means when you find +your heap stone."</p> + +<p>"Don't worry, fellows. When you find it hike back an' ask Matty. He'll +tell you."</p> + +<p>Matty was saved from delivering his angry response, for just then "taps" +sounded. The scout master demanded prompt attention to all camp signals. +It was understood that after taps there was to be no noise, no +unnecessary conversation. All was to be quiet and orderly.</p> + +<p>Mr. Newton would not hear of Glen pushing Jolly Bill back to the farm +house.</p> + +<p>"We have an empty tent with two cots and bedding too—left here by +members who were called home. You turn right in with us. We are glad to +have you—both of you. I think we'll make Glen a scout."</p> + +<p>This invitation suited both of them splendidly. Spencer was pleased, +and, as for Glen, he had<a class="pagenum" name="page_71" id="page_71" title="71"></a> never experienced anything so gratifying in +his life. He was so excited that he could not sleep for some time, but +lay on his comfortable cot thinking of the many happenings of the last +few eventful days, and especially of the exciting story of the camp +fire, and the dramatic appearance of the Indian. He was glad that he was +here to help his good friend, Jolly Bill, but he felt that it would be +much more glorious to help him by finding bars of bright, glistening +bullion, than by looking for a lost lake.</p> + +<p>Glen was still dreaming of Indians when the bugle call aroused him, and +he awakened to the glorious activities of a summer morning in a scout +camp. Two scouts were in the tent almost before he had hopped out of his +blankets and into his clothes.</p> + +<p>"We came to help our friend, Mr. Spencer," explained Apple Newton.</p> + +<p>"Want to wind up his machine an' put on some funny story records," added +Chick-chick.</p> + +<p>"I can't tell funny stories before breakfast," objected Jolly Bill. "I'm +hungry enough to eat Indian."</p> + +<p>"We have eggs for breakfast—fresh laid. We got 'em from the farmer +yesterday."</p> + +<p>"You're sure they're fresh?" asked Spencer.<a class="pagenum" name="page_72" id="page_72" title="72"></a> "I'm very particular about +my eggs since I camped out a few years ago. One of our fellows wasn't +much good about cooking, but he said he'd get the eggs. He came back +pretty soon with a whole dozen. 'You're sure these are fresh?' I asked +him. 'Dead positive' said he. So I started to break one into my pan, and +about all there was that was still egg was the shell. 'What made you so +positive these eggs were fresh?' I asked that chap after I let him come +to a little. 'I could have sworn to it,' he said. 'I lifted the hen +right off the nest myself and the eggs were warm yet.'"</p> + +<p>"Our eggs aren't laid by the dozen," said Apple, "and we know they're +fresh because the farmer said so. Come on now, if you're ready. The +scout master says we're to push your automobile right up to the end of +the table, next to him."</p> + +<p>It was a jolly crowd at the table, and no less jolly was the squad +acting that morning as waiters. The scout master believed it good +discipline to teach every scout how to do the humblest duty as well as +how to do the greatest, so each scout took his turn at waiting on table. +Patrol leader Matt Burton was in charge of the waiter squad this +morning. He was the one exception who<a class="pagenum" name="page_73" id="page_73" title="73"></a> showed that it did not agree well +with every scout to do these menial tasks. He considered them beneath +his dignity and never would have condescended to them had there been a +way of escape. Since there was not, he had made the best of a bad job, +and as he was very bright and a natural leader he had managed to reach +the rank of Patrol Leader in spite of his disinclination to certain +matters of work.</p> + +<p>"Bob said he had a special order for Mr. Spencer, Matt," said Apple, +stepping to his side after he had wheeled the cart up to the table. +"Tell him Mr. Spencer wants his eggs sure fresh and likes 'em soft."</p> + +<p>"You can just carry Mr. Spencer's order to Black Bob yourself," said +Matt disgustedly. "I'm no waiter."</p> + +<p>"You won't be if the scout master hears you," said Apple, his good +nature exhausted. "You'll be a traveler."</p> + +<p>"He surely will," observed Chick-chick. "I'll take care of Mr. Spencer, +Apple. Leave him to me."</p> + +<p>"It's more in your line," insinuated Matt. "I guess it's about the same +thing as waiting on your father's customers at his garage."</p> + +<p>"An' it's proud I am to do it," retorted Chick-chick.<a class="pagenum" name="page_74" id="page_74" title="74"></a> "I do it whenever +they want anything I can handle, from gasoline to a new machine. Lem'me +sell you a new car, Matty. Lem'me sell you one that'll make your blue +blood bubble all over itself. Tell ye 'bout it jest as soon as I get +those eggs."</p> + +<p>"We've just bought a new car," said Matt. "And I'd walk before I'd let +my folks buy one of you, anyway."</p> + +<p>"I don't believe that fellow likes you," observed Glen, as he went up to +the cook shack with Chick-chick.</p> + +<p>"He surely don't disgrace himself by too much show of affection," agreed +Chick-chick. "You musn't think it's because it's me, though. There's +on'y one person Matty really loves. He's real smart, Matty is. You +noticed he spoke so the men couldn't hear him."</p> + +<p>Black Bob had Mr. Spencer's eggs all ready.</p> + +<p>"These is for the ge'mman as told the stories last night," he announced. +"He sure is quality, if they ain't much to him."</p> + +<p>"Give 'em to me, Bob," said Chick-chick. "I'm going to wait on Mr. +Spencer."</p> + +<p>"You go away, you Henry Chicken," objected Black Bob. "I know all 'bout +yore tricks. Bear<a class="pagenum" name="page_75" id="page_75" title="75"></a> Patrol is waitin' table dis yere mohnin' an' you +ain't no Bear Patrol."</p> + +<p>"Well, here's Goosey," exclaimed Chick-chick, grabbing the shoulder of a +small scout who had just appeared. "Goosey is in Bear Patrol, and he's a +friend of mine, ain't you, Goosey?"</p> + +<p>"I surely am," declared the small scout. "Anything I can do for +Chick-chick I do."</p> + +<p>"Hustle these eggs down to Mr. Spencer, Goosey, an' make it your +business to wait on him. Bob won't give me a thing."</p> + +<p>"Not when you ain't on duty. Oh, I know you, Mr. Henry-chick," Bob +affirmed.</p> + +<p>"Bob doesn't seem to trust you," said Glen. "Aren't you friendly?"</p> + +<p>"Just best friends ever. Bob hasn't better friend 'n me in camp. I like +Bob 'n I love his cakes an' pies. 'Tain't my fault if he doesn't always +seem to reciprocate, is it, Bob?"</p> + +<p>"What dat 'bout recipe fo cake? Nev' you min', Mister Henry-chick. I +knows you, I do."</p> + +<p>Bob shook a fist as he spoke, but the chuckle in his voice and the laugh +in his eye were more apparent than the threat in his fist.</p> + +<p>"Well, let's go back an' get ours while they're hot," said Chick-chick. +"Goosey'll wait on Mr.<a class="pagenum" name="page_76" id="page_76" title="76"></a> Spencer. Good boy, Goosey. Goin' do something +good for Goosey some day."</p> + +<p>He led Glen back to the long table of smooth boards laid on trestles +which stood on the grassy level. The scouts were helping themselves from +great bowls filled with eggs cooked in the shell, or from large platters +on which eggs fried or poached were served, according to their +preference. Bob was a good cook and gave them their choice. Glen, with +an appetite that cared little for the fine points of preference, chose +impartially from every dish that reached him. An occasional glance +showed that the small scout known as Goosey was giving good attention to +Jolly Bill, and not only he but Apple Newton and other scouts were +endeavoring eagerly to anticipate his wants.</p> + +<p>Glen was mentally putting the fellows in their proper places on the +shelves of his esteem. Apple Newton and the boy called Chick-chick he +warmed to most particularly, and they were given prominent places. He +liked young Goosey, as well as several other of the younger boys whose +names he had not learned. There was a big fellow called Tom Scoresby +that he believed that he would get along with pretty well. Just one +scout he found no room for anywhere. That was Matt Burton.<a class="pagenum" name="page_77" id="page_77" title="77"></a> He hated +him, he was quite sure. His unruly young heart only had one desire for +Matt. He wanted just one good chance to measure strength with him and +plant his hard, clenched fist right where that smile of insolence curled +the handsome lips.</p> + +<p>Quite engrossed in his thoughts Glen did not notice that the boys around +him had risen from the long bench on which they sat. Suddenly he heard +Matt Burton's voice behind him.</p> + +<p>"Get up," he said. "Can't you see that we want these places for the +waiters."</p> + +<p>Glen slowly and deliberately turned around in his seat and looked at his +questioner.</p> + +<p>"Who are you?" he asked, and his voice was so aggressive that every +scout in hearing distance turned to see what was up.</p> + +<p>"You'll find out who I am," replied Matt angrily. "Get up when I tell +you."</p> + +<p>"I don't have to get up when you tell me, nor lie down when you tell me, +nor do anything when you tell me. Did you get that? What now?"</p> + +<p>Matt was getting very angry but he did not entirely forget his position.</p> + +<p>"If I call my patrol you'll get up mighty quick," he said. "I'd like to +know who let you come here, anyway."<a class="pagenum" name="page_78" id="page_78" title="78"></a></p> + +<p>"Never mind about your patrol and don't fuss about who let me come here. +You come and make me get up, all by yourself."</p> + +<p>Matt looked at the brown skin and the strong tough features of the +obstinate boy a long minute, as if making up his mind.</p> + +<p>"Oh, well," he said, "I suppose if you're a guest you must do as you +please."</p> + +<p>"Since you're so nice about it," said Glen, "the seat's yours. Do what +you want with it."</p> + +<p>Glen knew in his heart that there would be a clash with Matt Burton if +he stayed long in that camp. He felt also that he had not come out of +this first brush with entire distinction. Matt had been in the wrong and +had shown that he was angry, yet he had a certain discipline which had +enabled him to control his temper, and the issue had ended in defeat for +the undisciplined waif who might well have been victorious had they come +to blows.</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em"> +<a class="pagenum" name="page_79" id="page_79" title="79"></a> +<a name="GLEN_IS_INITIATED_1786" id="GLEN_IS_INITIATED_1786"></a> +<h2>CHAPTER VII</h2> +<h3>GLEN IS INITIATED</h3> +</div> + +<p>Strange to say, with the passing of the morning, Glen found himself +unhappy, though he should have been abundantly content. Strange, for +with all these boys to help, his tasks would be greatly lightened, and +to join in the fun of this crowd should be joy beyond compare. But Glen +did not want fun just now. There was something much more precious to +him, which he felt in danger of losing, and although he himself could +not have explained its substance, it was none the less real. It was the +trust and dependence of Will Spencer. For the first time in his life +Glen had been really trusted and really needed by some one. He had taken +up the burden like a man and rejoiced in it. Now he felt that his +opportunities would be dissipated among the crowd.</p> + +<p>"What's the matter, Glen?" asked Spencer. "Why are you moping around +with a face like the reverse side of a frying-pan? You ought to be right +out with the bunch, egging 'em on."<a class="pagenum" name="page_80" id="page_80" title="80"></a></p> + +<p>"Oh, I guess no one has any use for me," said Glen disconsolately. "I +guess I might as well go back to the school."</p> + +<p>"To the school! And leave me in the lurch?"</p> + +<p>"You don't need me any more. You don't tell me anything."</p> + +<p>"What haven't I told you, boy?"</p> + +<p>"Well, you were telling Apple all about that Indian who came last night, +but you didn't tell me."</p> + +<p>"Oh, nonsense, boy. You are peeved too easily. That Indian was just old +Joe Marrowfat, who had followed me up from the farm. Apple is romantic +and he wanted a string of stuff about the noble red man's noble +antecedents. I need you, all the time, to be the mainspring of this +business."</p> + +<p>"Tell me what I can do and I'm only too glad to get at it."</p> + +<p>"Well, for one thing you must mix with the boys. Be jolly with 'em. +'Laugh and the world laughs with you.' That's my motto. That's the way I +get along. Someone must be around with these boys to keep 'em going, or +their hunt won't last long. Get them interested in finding the location +of the springs. To-day they are all looking for big stones because of +what Joe said. There's enough big stones around here to keep them busy.<a class="pagenum" name="page_81" id="page_81" title="81"></a> +Tell them the fellow who finds the treasure may get some gold but the +boy who finds a spring gets twenty dollars sure. Get them to survey the +Hollow and search for marks to show where the old stream used to run in. +You ought to be up on your toes every minute. I'm sorry you aren't a +scout."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps I could be," suggested Glen.</p> + +<p>"Why not? Get Apple to teach you the knots and the scout law, and I'll +teach you the rest. I'll speak to the scout master and see if they won't +initiate you to-night."</p> + +<p>The remainder of the day Glen was too busy to mope. When the camp fire +came he was at hand as a candidate for tenderfoot initiation which the +scout master had agreed to give. Mr. Newton had ideas of his own about +initiation ceremonies. He believed in making them interesting and +impressive to candidate and scouts alike, and he devised a new ceremony +of initiation for special occasions.</p> + +<p>This occasion was unusual, for since none but scouts came to camp, +initiations were not needed. It was also unusual in being conducted in +the open, which was necessary because the camp had no assembly tent. Mr. +Newton was glad of the diversion, for the day had been very sultry, a<a class="pagenum" name="page_82" id="page_82" title="82"></a> +storm threatened, and many of the scouts were afflicted with that +uneasy, depressed feeling which seems to be absorbed from the atmosphere +at such times.</p> + +<p>"All scouts on tent duty," he announced after supper. "Rain threatens. +See that trenches are clear. Slacken tent ropes a little, especially +where they are new. See that nothing in the tents touches the walls. +Have your beds all ready to turn in. You will then all assemble at the +camp-fire for initiation ceremonies."</p> + +<p>The camp had lanterns and one or two oil torches but Mr. Newton +preferred to go back to nature for his light at this ceremony. The night +was cool as the storm drew near, and the camp-fire was allowed to flare +up in a crackling blaze which spread its light over the wide open circle +and threw mysterious shadows among the big trees beyond.</p> + +<p>Mr. Newton took his stand with his back to a massive elm at the edge of +the circle.</p> + +<p>"The candidate may present himself," he announced; and Glen marched out +and stood before him, with much more of a feeling of solemnity than he +had felt on occasions when he had stood before persons of far greater +authority.</p> + +<p>"Who desires to bear the lights which shall<a class="pagenum" name="page_83" id="page_83" title="83"></a> lighten the way of this +candidate as he enters the mysteries of scoutcraft?" called the scout +master.</p> + +<p>"We desire to bear the lights," came simultaneously from two of the +tallest scouts. They stepped to the fire, selected each a blazing torch +and ranged themselves under the tree.</p> + +<p>"Who is sponsor for this candidate?" was the next question.</p> + +<p>"I, First class scout Corliss Newton, am his sponsor," proclaimed Apple, +stepping forward, his pleasant eyes alight with earnest gravity.</p> + +<p>"It is well. The sponsor may take his stand to the candidate's left. Who +desires to bear the scout law to this applicant."</p> + +<p>Twelve scouts arose as one—the older scouts they were—those not likely +to be confused by bashfulness or to spoil the ceremony by their own +self-consciousness.</p> + +<p>"Let the bearer administer article I. A scout is trustworthy!"</p> + +<p>Forth strode a scout bigger than Glen. Laying his hand on Glen's lips, +he said: "No lies proceed from trustworthy lips, no deceit from +trustworthy tongue, he lives by the breath of honor and his lips are +sealed to all but words of truth."</p> + +<p>"The bearer of article 2. A scout is loyal!"</p> + +<p>This scout bore aloft the flag of the camp, which<a class="pagenum" name="page_84" id="page_84" title="84"></a> had been +requisitioned for the purpose. He placed the staff in Glen's hands as he +said: "Loyal to the flag and to all it represents. Loyal to all scouts +and all officials. Loyal to home, to parents and authorities, and loyal +to Almighty God."</p> + +<p>The wind was swirling through the branches of the trees now and the few +stars which had shone were blotted out by the clouds, but the initiation +proceeded.</p> + +<p>"The bearer of article 3. A scout is helpful!"</p> + +<p>This bearer, coming forward, took Glen's hands and raised them up as he +recited: "These hands and the body they represent are pledged to lift up +righteousness and tear down iniquity. They will do at least one good +turn to somebody every day."</p> + +<p>"The bearer of article 4. A scout is friendly!"</p> + +<p>Glen was glad to see Chick-chick coming forward with a cheerful grin on +his face. He stood between Glen and Apple and around the shoulders of +each he placed an arm, while he and Apple shouted aloud: "All friends! +All brothers!" And immediately every scout rose to his feet and together +they echoed: "Brothers all!"</p> + +<p>But the first rain drops were spatting among the leaves and Scout Master +Newton raised his hand.<a class="pagenum" name="page_85" id="page_85" title="85"></a></p> + +<p>"We must abbreviate our ceremony," he announced. "The remaining bearers +will repeat their sections of the scout law after me as I read. The +twelve will then form an inner circle around us, and all other scouts +will make strong our defenses with an outer circle as we give this +candidate the scout oath."</p> + +<p>In their order the remaining eight advanced with their salutations:</p> + +<p>A scout is courteous.</p> + +<p>A scout is kind.</p> + +<p>A scout is obedient.</p> + +<p>A scout is cheerful.</p> + +<p>A scout is thrifty.</p> + +<p>A scout is brave.</p> + +<p>A scout is clean.</p> + +<p>A scout is reverent.</p> + +<p>They formed the inner circle and around them all the scouts arose and +joined hands to form the outer guard. The lightning became more vivid in +its flashes and the mutterings of thunder changed to rumbling and +roaring as they stood there. The big drops of rain began to thicken but +they paid no heed.</p> + +<p>"The candidate will hold up his right hand, palm to the front, thumb +resting on the nail of the little finger, and the other three fingers +upright<a class="pagenum" name="page_86" id="page_86" title="86"></a> and together, which constitutes the scout sign."</p> + +<p>Glen stood at attention with his hand raised as directed.</p> + +<p>"The candidate will now repeat after me the scout oath."</p> + +<p>"'On my honor I will do my best:</p> + +<p>"'To do my duty to God and my country and to obey the scout law;</p> + +<p>"'To help other people at all times;</p> + +<p>"'To keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally +straight.'</p> + +<p>"Scout you are now admitted into our ranks as a tenderfoot, which is our +first step and one from which you may go on to acquire merit and honor. +We are brothers all. The skies may be heavy above us, the storms may +threaten, the thunder roar and the lightning flash but we extend to you +the cheer of scout fellowship and the welcome of scout comradeship. And +as you meet the inevitable storms of life we believe that your +remembrance of this law and oath will help you to weather them all +triumphantly."</p> + +<p>The rain was beginning to fall in earnest now.</p> + +<p>"Dismiss troop!" called the scout master; and the boys, a second before +in impressive order, made a wild scramble for their tents. Glen ran<a class="pagenum" name="page_87" id="page_87" title="87"></a> to +the assistance of Will Spencer, who had been an interested spectator of +the ceremony, seated in his "billy-cart" at the edge of the circle, but +Mr. Newton waved him to his tent.</p> + +<p>"I will look after this man," he declared. "He is my guest and I am rain +proof."</p> + +<p>Glen turned into his blankets that night a Boy Scout of America. He +awoke to a sunny morning and discovered that he was still Glen Mason. +Almost the first thing, he was in trouble with his patrol leader, Matt +Burton. It is only fair to Glen to say that Burton's treatment was of a +character sure to antagonize a boy of Glen's nature. From the first +there had been a feeling of ill-will between them, a feeling that had +been manifest in looks and silent expressions as well as in one sharp +interchange of words. Now, to Glen's disgust, he found himself assigned +to Burton's patrol, and the very first work for which he was detailed +was that of camp cleaning.</p> + +<p>Glen went at his detail with poor spirit; picking up old papers, +fragments, trash of every kind, a hateful work to him. Perhaps he would +have made open rebellion but for Apple Newton, who though not in the +same patrol was helping in the work.</p> + +<p>"Get busy at it, Glen," Apple counseled. "It<a class="pagenum" name="page_88" id="page_88" title="88"></a> isn't a ten minute job if +you hustle. Beats washing dishes all to pieces. Every scout has to take +his turn. Get busy."</p> + +<p>But, filled with the thought that Burton had put him to this work to +humiliate him, Glen did not carry through his task to great advantage. +He was glad that the morning swim came immediately after, and glad to be +able to make a cleaner dive and a longer swim than Burton, who was +himself among the best. Therein lay the trouble, Glen was a born leader, +and although his opportunities for leading had been few he was quick to +assert himself. Burton was also a leader and one who had been given +ample opportunity. Neither boy had yet learned that the first element in +leadership is the ability to serve; neither had learned that the +greatest leader is the one who counts no service too mean for his +personal attention.</p> + +<p>When the treasure hunt began there were no further restrictions for the +morning, and Glen's spirit was rejoiced at Apple's invitation that he +bear him company. The sunny-faced, open-hearted boy won the love of +everyone, but in Glen Mason he had stirred a real worship.</p> + +<p>"We'll have to call you something, Glen," he said. "Your name's all +right, but the boys are<a class="pagenum" name="page_89" id="page_89" title="89"></a> sure to name you over so we may as well do it +now. Let's ask Chick-chick. He's good at names."</p> + +<p>"What's his real name?" asked Glen.</p> + +<p>"His real name is Henry Henry. His father liked Henry so well for a +surname that he had him christened Henry, too. We began by calling him +Hen Hen, but that didn't go very well so we call him Chick-chick."</p> + +<p>"I don't mind s'long as y' don't call me Biddy chick," explained +Chick-chick, who had just come up. "Now what kind o' Mason are +you—Stonemason, Brickmason or Mason Fruit Jar."</p> + +<p>"Brick's the best," declared Apple. "Matches his hair, too. Let's call +him Brick."</p> + +<p>"Right it is. Brick for Mason. Where ye goin' to find treasure?"</p> + +<p>"You can come along, Chick. We're going to look for signs of +water-courses running into the Hollow."</p> + +<p>"I won't come, then. I'm going with Goosey to look for a heap rock. +We're after gold, we are."</p> + +<p>All the morning the two boys explored the Hollow. Many times they traced +deceptive depressions in the earth's surface which gave some intimation +of having served at some time as a waterway,<a class="pagenum" name="page_90" id="page_90" title="90"></a> but never was there any +reward for their efforts. At noon, hot and dusty, they made their way +back to the camp. A great group of excited boys stood there +gesticulating and shouting, and in the center of the group stood Matt +Burton.</p> + +<p>"What's the excitement?" asked Apple of the first boy they reached.</p> + +<p>"Excitement isn't the word," he replied. "Matt Burton has found the +treasure!"</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em"> +<a class="pagenum" name="page_91" id="page_91" title="91"></a> +<a name="MATT_BURTONS_TREASURE_FIND_2084" id="MATT_BURTONS_TREASURE_FIND_2084"></a> +<h2>CHAPTER VIII</h2> +<h3>MATT BURTON'S TREASURE FIND</h3> +</div> + +<p>When they heard the remarkable news that Matt Burton had discovered the +treasure the curiosity of the two boys was beyond measure. They were +pushing their way eagerly toward the group to get the full news when a +running noose dropped from the overhanging limb of a great tree and +neatly entwined them. Their progress was checked.</p> + +<p>"That's Chick-chick," said Apple, without looking up. "He's always +playing some kind of a trick. Let go your hold of that rope, +Chick-chick."</p> + +<p>The joker dropped down from the branch almost on top of them.</p> + +<p>"I was just fixing a swing when ye came 'long," he explained, in his +jerky fashion. "Too good a chance to miss, it was, and worked fine, it +did. Don't be in a hurry."</p> + +<p>"You loosen this rope and let us go. We want to get the news."</p> + +<p>"'Tain't s' important as you think. Gives the<a class="pagenum" name="page_92" id="page_92" title="92"></a> Great an' Only Matty a +chance t' spread himself. Come on to dinner; you'll hear all 'bout it."</p> + +<p>Dinner was indeed ready and the boys were filling up the long table, for +Mr. Newton had decreed that no action should be taken on Matt's +discovery until after dinner.</p> + +<p>When all was cleared away and the boys were ready to dismiss he made the +announcement: "Burton will now tell us of his discovery; the site he +selected, how he has worked and what he has found."</p> + +<p>"Rah for the Great and Only," yelled Chick-chick, and, the designated +title being popularly known and approved, the "rah" was given before +Matt began to speak.</p> + +<p>There was no embarrassment about Matt Burton as he rose to speak. He was +about fifteen years old, tall, straight and handsome. A mass of dark +brown hair with well-set eyes of the same shade and regular features +gave vigor to his head and face. He was of good family and had been +reared in a home of refinement and taught to feel at ease under all +circumstances. He accepted his nickname of "The Great and Only Matty" +with some complacency, as being not inappropriate, especially since his +pitching was the star feature of their baseball playing. A wise father +had sent<a class="pagenum" name="page_93" id="page_93" title="93"></a> him to the scouts to "get acquainted with himself" but so far +the process had not reached perfection. He began to talk with a smile of +confidence.</p> + +<p>"I know a lot about buried treasure from what I've read and heard tell +of," said he, "so I decided to work out my own plans. Chick-chick and +Goosey offered to come with me, but I had ideas of my own. I knew a few +things about how to look. I knew it was no good to look on top of the +ground—might as well look up in trees. Then I knew there's always a +false scent thrown out to put searchers off the track. I figured that +the false scent was probably the story of the lake. So instead of +choosing any place in the Hollow I looked around until I found a heap of +rock near the timber. And then I chose one hundred feet from the timber +line southeast of the Hollow. I knew that the heap of rock wouldn't be +the only sign—there's always a second sign given in a treasure hunt. +Usually, in all the books I've read, the second sign is a tree or some +tall object which casts a shadow at a certain hour of the day at just +the point where you ought to dig."</p> + +<p>"What hour?" shouted a boy.</p> + +<p>"I'm coming to that. I looked around for the rock heap and decided to +pace off a hundred feet.<a class="pagenum" name="page_94" id="page_94" title="94"></a> I got no results worth while until I tried it +due south. This time it brought me to an old stump of a very peculiar +appearance that might have been there a hundred years. It was about ten +feet high, and of course the length of its shadow was different at +different times of the day. The only guide I had was in the heap of +rock. There were four rocks in it. As there is no sun at four o'clock in +the morning it was a sure thing that I must choose four in the +afternoon. So I waited until four o'clock and at the exact spot where +the peculiar knobby head of that stump threw its shadow I commenced to +dig."</p> + +<p>The boys were listening in strained silence. One of the younger ones +squeaked "Rah for Matty!" but drew no response.</p> + +<p>"I dug until supper time," continued Matt. "It was hard work, but I made +a pretty good hole though I found nothing. Nobody had been around to +bother me. I just stuck up a couple of sticks at supper time and came +in. This morning I was late getting to work. Digging alone so hard +yesterday had taken off some of my appetite, and I didn't dream of what +I was going to find so I didn't hurry much. But I found the ground +turned up easier and I had hardly dug twenty minutes before my spade +struck something that<a class="pagenum" name="page_95" id="page_95" title="95"></a> gave out a metallic ring. I scraped away the dirt +until I could see a metal object like the lid of a box about fourteen by +eighteen inches. The ground all around it was hard and I could not get +it loose. I tried to get my fingers under it but couldn't do it. The +dinner call was sounded. I wouldn't have come only I was obliged to have +some help anyway, and I thought I'd better tell the scout master all +about it and have him see fair play."</p> + +<p>"Which the scout master will proceed to do," added Mr. Newton. "We will +follow Matt to the scene of his explorations which we hope will turn out +to be the treasure, although one box fourteen by eighteen inches would +not hold a great deal of bullion. Still there may be other boxes. Who +were the boys who wanted to work with you, Matt?"</p> + +<p>"Chick-chick and Goosey," replied Matt.</p> + +<p>"Very well. You two boys may take a pick and a spade and help Matt get +his box out."</p> + +<p>The boys did not respond willingly.</p> + +<p>"We don't want to," said Chick-chick. "He didn't want us yesterday and +he won't want us to-day. Let Brick Mason and Apple do it."</p> + +<p>"I don't like that spirit, Henry, but we'll excuse you. Corliss and Glen +will do the work."<a class="pagenum" name="page_96" id="page_96" title="96"></a></p> + +<p>"You don't seem very much excited over this find," said Glen to Spencer, +as he pushed him along in his billy-cart.</p> + +<p>"I'd be more excited if they found a gushing spring, my boy. I don't +excite easily over buried gold."</p> + +<p>"Well, we'll soon see. If I get hold of that pick I'll soon have that +box loose."</p> + +<p>Matt Burton did not really relish Glen's aid, but he could offer no +valid objection. A few rapid and accurate strokes with the pick loosened +the hard earth, and Apple and Matt quickly spaded it out. As soon as a +grip could be obtained Matt seized the box. It certainly was heavy, +especially since he could not yet get a good grip on it. Apple lifted +one side and slowly but with great excitement they brought the +mysterious box from its hiding place.</p> + +<p>A look of disgust swept the features of Matt Burton as he looked at his +treasure and read the white letters on the side of the box.</p> + +<p>From the edge of the pit came a roar of laughter from Black Bob, the +cook, who had been eagerly watching the proceedings.</p> + +<p>"Ah ben missin' that yere bread box since yis'day two days gone," he +shouted. "Dat ah is mah treasure. Bring her up yere!"<a class="pagenum" name="page_97" id="page_97" title="97"></a></p> + +<p>Glen, on his knees, had thrown open the lid of the box. As he saw its +contents to be damp earth, tightly tamped, his roar of laughter equaled +that of Black Bob.</p> + +<p>"Wow!" he shouted. "Look at this. The treasure's name is Mud!"</p> + +<p>Matt's look of disgust had changed to fiery anger.</p> + +<p>"You're the one who put this trick up on me," he shouted. "You've been +rubbing me wrong ever since we let you in here from nowhere. Now I'm +going to pay you up!"</p> + +<p>He made a wild lunge forward at Glen, and in a second the two were +locked in a rough and tumble conflict in the narrow confines of the pit. +But the scout master reached down from above and seized each by the +collar, and Apple valiantly pushed himself in between their belligerent +forms.</p> + +<p>"Enough of that, boys," said Mr. Newton. "Climb out of that hole. Glen, +what have you to say to this charge."</p> + +<p>But Glen was spared from making an answer, for Henry Henry stood forth +and spoke.</p> + +<p>"He didn't do it, Mr. Newton. It was me," confessed Chick-chick, more +convincing than grammatical. "Goosey was in it with me. When Matt turned +us down yesterday we thought we'd give<a class="pagenum" name="page_98" id="page_98" title="98"></a> him something to dig for. Never +dreamed he'd make big blow 'bout it. Just s'posed be little joke all t' +himself. We came last night, dug down to hard pan; cut hole s' near +exact size o' bread box as we could, made it heavy with dirt and turned +it in upside down. Just joke, Mr. Newton."</p> + +<p>And as "just a joke" it did not seem so very reprehensible, for a good +joke that does no harm is not out of place in a scout camp. Mr. Newton +had a private conversation with Henry Henry about his joke, but +Chick-chick never told the boys what he said. The scout master also had +a private conversation with Matt Burton and this also was kept a secret, +but though it may have done Matt good it did not improve his attitude +toward "Brick" Mason.</p> + +<p>In most things Glen found the succeeding days marked by such happiness +as he had never before enjoyed. He was a boy among boys. No one asked +about his past. Scouts are taught to live in the present. It is not what +they have been, but what they are and are aiming to be that carries +weight. He found his word accepted as truth and so he made strong +efforts to make it true. He did not spend his days in perfect harmony. +The old disposition to have everything his own way still existed and +many an angry word flared up<a class="pagenum" name="page_99" id="page_99" title="99"></a> and many times he was near the fighting +line, but this had been so much a part of his every day living for so +many years that it troubled him but little. Even with Matt Burton he had +not come to blows, though Matt continued to assign to him disagreeable +tasks, so markedly indeed, that Mr. Newton announced that he would make +all assignments himself, henceforth. The treasure hunt proceeded with +more or less zest but neither real nor fancied treasure was discovered. +Nevertheless it supplied a new interest each day, and Glen +enthusiastically did his share in keeping the interest alive. Every part +of every day was in vivid contrast to the dull monotonous life he had +been living. And yet he was not satisfied, there remained an eager +longing for something, he knew not what; a great unsatisfied craving.</p> + +<p>Glen was always a sound sleeper. He dreamed of the camp one night. The +tussle with Matt Burton had really come, at last. He seemed to do very +well at first but Matt had seized a pickax (the very one used in +unearthing the bread box) and was beating him about the head with it. +Fortunately he awoke before he was badly damaged. Spencer was reaching +over from his cot and tapping his face with his cane.</p> + +<p>"Get up, Brick! Get up! Brick is a good name<a class="pagenum" name="page_100" id="page_100" title="100"></a> for you, my hard-baked +friend. Get up! This tent will be in the next county in five minutes. +Get up! You would sleep on, and come to no harm if we were carried +twenty miles, but being slightly crippled, I'd be sure to struggle and +get hurt. Get up!"</p> + +<p>The wind was blowing furiously and the tent almost capsized. Glen was +out of bed in a flash, wide awake. He knew where to get a heavy hammer +and made short work of driving home the stakes and securing the flapping +canvas.</p> + +<p>"Not very clever of you to plant your tent stakes so the first strong +wind would blow them out of the ground," said Spencer.</p> + +<p>"The wind didn't blow them out, and the strain of the ropes didn't pull +them out. I fixed those stakes just before I went to bed. Who do you +suppose yanked them up?"</p> + +<p>"I never was good at riddles," replied Spencer. "Maybe it was Mr. +Newton."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Glen, "or Apple! Just like 'em. Try another guess."</p> + +<p>"No, I'm afraid I would say something that might excite you. Go to +sleep. Every one has troubles, but it's no good weeping about 'em. +'Laugh and the world laughs with you.'"</p> + +<p>"I haven't any troubles and I can afford to<a class="pagenum" name="page_101" id="page_101" title="101"></a> laugh," said Glen. "The +day's beginning to break but I think I'll take a Sunday morning snooze."</p> + +<p>And over in the county into which Will Spencer had predicted they would +be blown a man was just awaking from his snooze. He had slept all night +in an automobile, as he frequently did. The automobile was no ordinary +car. It had a driver's seat in front and a closed car behind. Bright +colored letters announced to the world that J. Jervice supplied the +public with a full line of novelties, including rugs, curtains, rare +laces and Jervice's Live Stock Condition Powders.</p> + +<p>Mr. J. Jervice yawned and stretched, and rubbed his eyes.</p> + +<p>"I think I'll get on to Buffalo Center to-day," he soliloquized. "The +boss didn't say to come until to-morrow an' the rest o' the gang won't +be there until night, anyway. That'll give me a chance to do a nice +little business at that Boy Scout Camp I hear they've got there. It's +Sunday but I reckon I can sell a few things. Ought to get rid of some +flags and knives and a little tinware."</p> + +<p>It was nice that Glen could feel that he had no troubles, but perhaps he +did not know of the intentions of Mr. Jervice.</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em"> +<a class="pagenum" name="page_102" id="page_102" title="102"></a> +<a name="GLEN_ENLISTS_2348" id="GLEN_ENLISTS_2348"></a> +<h2>CHAPTER IX</h2> +<h3>GLEN ENLISTS</h3> +</div> + +<p>Sunday morning in camp. The fierce wind of the night had been succeeded +by a restful quiet; the sun shone bright in an atmosphere cooled and +freshened by the storm. Glen Mason both felt and saw a difference +throughout all the camp on this quiet morning; no one expected noise or +bustle; no one projected expeditions or sports; the peaceful rest of a +holy day marked the camp in its earliest hours.</p> + +<p>Black Bob had cooked his eggs and bacon according to a special formula +which he announced as "extra for Sunday," and thereby did he make his +contribution to the hallowing of the day. After breakfast was the +regular time for announcement of the "order of the day" by the +scoutmaster, and for any special remarks, any complaints, any petitions +or suggestions.</p> + +<p>"We are going to have a good day to-day, boys," said Mr. Newton. "We +have had a mighty fine week with our swimming and fishing and hikes, and +some of us, too, have found some 'treasure,'<a class="pagenum" name="page_103" id="page_103" title="103"></a> if not exactly what we +were searching for. This morning, after camp duties, every boy will find +a quiet spot apart from any disturbance and write a letter home. Tell +the folks how you feel, what you eat, what you do, how you sleep. Tell +them about the treasure hunt, tell them about last night's storm. I hope +the boy who got something special out of our 'near cyclone' last night +will tell his mother about it."</p> + +<p>"Who was it?" came a chorus of voices.</p> + +<p>"Don't bother about that," replied Mr. Newton. "Perhaps there was more +than one."</p> + +<p>"I'm not 'shamed of it," piped up Chick-chick. "I'm it. Got Mr. Newton +out o' bed, I did, I was s' scared. Always have been scared 'bout +wind—born that way. But Mr. Newton says, 'D'ye know who walketh upon +the wings of the wind?' An' I said, 'Death'; an' he said, 'God! It's in +the hundred an' fourth Psalm.' S' then he said, 'You c'n stay in my tent +till the blow is over,' an' I said, 'No. I'll go back to me tent like +Christian. With God on the wings I'm safe.' An' as I went back saw Brick +Mason outside his tent swingin' hammer, an' I says, 'Ain't ye scared, +Brick?' an' he says, 'No. I ain't scared. I'm mad.' An' that's all is to +it, 'cept'n 'bout the feller I saw when I first went out."<a class="pagenum" name="page_104" id="page_104" title="104"></a></p> + +<p>"Now that's fine, boys," said Mr. Newton. "There's a double victory in +that. Don't slight your letters. Make them long and newsy. Remember +there will be Sunday School around the long table at ten o'clock. This +afternoon a man is coming from town who has been all around the world +and has seen the battles of great nations as a war correspondent. He +will speak at three o'clock. By special request we will hold our +camp-fire to-night at the summit of Buffalo Mound. Every scout will +carry an armful of firewood and his blankets, as a part of the plan is +to spend the night in a bivouac on mother earth. Now to your letters."</p> + +<p>Glen sat looking out of his tent, just out of the glare of the sun. +Writing letters home was no novelty to him. At the school you were +supposed to do it at least once a month, and for a good letter you got +ten merits, but no boy ever wrote what he thought because your letters +were all read by the house officer. If he should write a letter home +to-day some reform school officer would be inquiring at the camp for him +day after to-morrow. But he would write some kind of a letter—it would +look queer if he did not, with all the other boys writing. He would +write just exactly what he thought, too, for once, and the mere<a class="pagenum" name="page_105" id="page_105" title="105"></a> fact +that the letter was never to be mailed need make no difference.</p> + +<p>For once (he wrote) I am being treated about right. There is just one +chap here doesn't treat me right and his time's coming. But I don't hate +him as bad as it seems like I would, and I don't want to get in bad with +the scoutmaster so I don't know as I'll do much. The Scoutmaster's a +Christian and I've got more use for Christians than I ever had before. +Mr. Newton sure treats me fine. Apple's a Christian, he says I ought to +be, too, and he's surely a peach. Mr. Gates is a Christian and nobody +ever treated me better. The old Supe is a Christian and I guess he would +have treated me right if I'd let him. Jolly Bill treats me fine, too, +and I don't know why he isn't one but it makes you feel as if him being +such a good fellow certainly ought to be. He says laugh and the world +laughs with you but it wouldn't have done much good to tell Chick-chick +that last night and it wouldn't have made him brave enough to go back to +his tent and fight it out. Chick-chick talked right up this morning. +He's never said anything about being one before but he's always acted +like one—kind of on the square. That's the kind I'm going to be; I mean +I would be if ever I got to be one, but I suppose I'd have to go back to +the school and I don't know about that. But I'd like to feel like Apple +and him, so sure-like and so safe. I think you'd better try to get me a +job and maybe I can work under another name. Everybody has to work and +I'm going to hold up my end. I wouldn't like to be like that J. Jervice +man with his tricks—the man that tried to sell me. I'd tell you all +about him but it would take a long time and this letter ain't ever going +to be sent, anyway. I'm going to do better than send a letter. Just as +soon as it's safe I'm coming to see you and I'm going to fix it so I can +earn a living for you and you won't have to work any more. So that's all +for this time anyway.</p> + +<p>His letter had not been written as easily as it<a class="pagenum" name="page_106" id="page_106" title="106"></a> reads, and all the +other boys had finished and were making a clamor for envelopes and +stamps, a disturbance in which Glen did not join since his letter was +never to be mailed.</p> + +<p>He would have tried to escape the afternoon talk, but Will Spencer +claimed him.</p> + +<p>"Push my old billy-cart right up alongside that speaker," he demanded. +"If he's done half they say he has I want to hear him."</p> + +<p>So Glen was not only present but in a prominent place where he was bound +to hear all that the speaker had to say. And a very interesting +narrative it was, though we have no space in this story for anything but +the few very last words.</p> + +<p>"And so it came about," said the war correspondent, "that after seeing +all sorts of soldiers in all manner of warfare, it fell to my lot to see +this one brave man holding up his banner against great hordes of +invaders in a crowded inland city of China, and he was single-handed. +And I was obliged to admit that he was the bravest soldier I had seen; +and since the appeal came to me so directly I volunteered. And thus it +happened that one who had been a reporter of scenes of carnage turned to +write the message of the Cross. And now I am going about enlisting +recruits for the army of righteousness and right glad I am<a class="pagenum" name="page_107" id="page_107" title="107"></a> that so many +of you are in that army, and right glad I shall be to talk with any of +you who need help."</p> + +<p>Many of the boys came to say a word to the speaker as they dispersed. +Glen stood there, next to Spencer's cart. He would not have said a word +had he been threatened with torture, but he was greatly concerned and +both his hand and heart throbbed with the hope that some one would +respond to the eloquent plea that had stirred him so deeply. When the +boys all had gone the response came from the least expected place. It +was from Jolly Bill who had lain in his cart in thrilled interest.</p> + +<p>"I've half a mind to do it, Glen," he whispered.</p> + +<p>"Oh, you must, Bill. It's just the one thing you need," urged Glen, as +earnestly as though he were himself an exhorter.</p> + +<p>"How is it?" asked Spencer, turning to the speaker. "You would hardly +care to enlist half a man, would you?"</p> + +<p>"No," said the war correspondent. "We don't care to do things by halves, +but we're mighty glad to enlist a whole man like you. Whatever accident +you have suffered hasn't cut you off from being a man after God's own +heart. Shake hands on that."<a class="pagenum" name="page_108" id="page_108" title="108"></a></p> + +<p>"I've been finding it pretty empty to 'Laugh and the world laughs with +you,'" admitted Spencer. "It's a hollow laugh a great deal of the time. +It doesn't ring true. I want a peace that will help me to have cheer +regardless of whether the world laughs with me or at me. I've known it +for a long time but this last week especially I've felt the need of the +kind of religion Mr. Newton practices."</p> + +<p>"It's the same kind that Apple has," ventured Glen.</p> + +<p>"It is for you, too," said the war correspondent. "It is for every one +who will have it."</p> + +<p>"You see, though, you don't know me," said Glen. "I've been a pretty +hard case."</p> + +<p>"Tell us about it," came the invitation.</p> + +<p>His mouth once opened Glen's story came rapidly, and in the glow of +confession he held nothing back, but his hearers were neither alienated +nor offended.</p> + +<p>"There's only one thing about a boy like you," said the speaker. "It +isn't how bad you have been. You can't have been so bad but Jesus has +cleared your debt. The one thing is, are you through with it all, are +you willing to turn away from yourself and enlist under the banner of +the cross?"<a class="pagenum" name="page_109" id="page_109" title="109"></a></p> + +<p>Glen's face worked with emotion such as he had not felt in many years.</p> + +<p>"I don't know what to do," he said, huskily. "I'm all up in the air. I'd +like to be a man like what you told about and like these people that +have been good to me lately. I'd do it even if I wouldn't like some of +the things I'd have to swallow. But I don't understand what I'd have to +do. I've never done anything of the kind."</p> + +<p>"You're a good deal like the soldier enlisting, son. He doesn't +understand anything. All he knows is that he wants to enlist himself. +And that's all you need to know. Your commander will see to the rest. +You won't learn everything in a day. You'll make mistakes; you'll break +rules; you'll have to be disciplined. But that is all in the bargain. +The only question is will you enlist?"</p> + +<p>And Glen enlisted!</p> + +<p>The war correspondent was compelled to leave, but before doing so he +gave Glen much assurance on many subjects.</p> + +<p>"About your school," he said. "I hesitate to advise you. I know your +Superintendent and will telephone to him to-morrow. Stay with Mr. Newton +until you hear from him."</p> + +<p>The scoutmaster walked with his guest through<a class="pagenum" name="page_110" id="page_110" title="110"></a> the woods to his car. +They had scarcely left before the camp had a visitor in the person of +Mr. J. Jervice. The boys crowded around him with great interest, for +although obliged to leave his car he had brought with him many diverting +trifles, for Mr. J. Jervice had no objection to Sunday trade if +conducted on a cash basis.</p> + +<p>Glen was still talking to Will Spencer. He was too much occupied with +his recent great experience to be easily diverted, and did not even see +his old friend Jervice. But Mr. J. Jervice having nothing of the kind to +occupy his attention was quick both to see and to speak. Matt Burton was +one of those who heard him speak.</p> + +<p>"The reform school boy!" he cried.</p> + +<p>"You say he has run away from the reform school?"</p> + +<p>"He said so himself," asserted Mr. J. Jervice, "and don't forget that I +am the one who gets the reward."</p> + +<p>"You may take him along with you back to where he came. The cheek of the +fellow! Come on, scouts, let's run him out. The scoutmaster isn't here +but I'm a patrol leader and I know what to do. Let's run him out."</p> + +<p>"Who's that you're going to run out?" asked Glen, coming up, attracted +by the loud talking.<a class="pagenum" name="page_111" id="page_111" title="111"></a></p> + +<p>"I'm going to run you out, you cheat of a runaway from the reform +school. You are a common thief, for all we know. You may be any kind—"</p> + +<p>Alas for Glen's discipline. Alas for his good resolves. Had he been +right in thinking that the service of Jesus was not for such as he? He +flew at Matt with the velocity and ferocity of a tiger. His strength was +that of a man, for he had worked hard at all kinds of manual labor. Two +or three quick, stinging blows and his passion came to a terrified end +as he saw Matt fall to the ground, white and unconscious.</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em"> +<a class="pagenum" name="page_112" id="page_112" title="112"></a> +<a name="J_JERVICE_AND_HIS_GANG_2584" id="J_JERVICE_AND_HIS_GANG_2584"></a> +<h2>CHAPTER X</h2> +<h3>J. JERVICE AND HIS GANG</h3> +</div> + +<p>Mr. Newton, returning to the camp he had left in such quiet peace, found +one boy white-faced and sober endeavoring to restore another who lay +prostrate on the ground, while some of the excited scouts were earnestly +trying to recall their first aid suggestions and others stood in anxious +contemplation. A pailful of cold water was being carried to the scene by +Chick-chick, but the victim of the fight was mercifully spared its +revivifying shock, for just as Mr. Newton came up he opened his eyes and +murmured, "Where am I?"</p> + +<p>"All scouts are excused excepting Glen and Matt," announced Mr. Newton, +taking in the situation the more readily because of his previous +knowledge of Burton's baiting tendencies. "If there is to be any +fighting in this camp it will have to be done under my personal +supervision and according to my rules."</p> + +<p>As the scouts strolled off to the timber Matt sat up and looked around +him.<a class="pagenum" name="page_113" id="page_113" title="113"></a></p> + +<p>"He's an escaped reform school boy, Mr. Newton," he began at once.</p> + +<p>"And I suppose you told him so?" asked Mr. Newton.</p> + +<p>"I know I'm everything that's bad," said Glen, bitterly. "I told you it +was no good for me to enlist."</p> + +<p>"Do you want to back out?" asked the scoutmaster keenly.</p> + +<p>"I don't want to but I suppose I'll have to."</p> + +<p>"It rests with you. Your past record has nothing to do with it and would +have nothing if it were black as night. Do you want to back out?"</p> + +<p>"No, sir. And I'm sorry I got mad and hit Matt."</p> + +<p>"That speech shows that you have enlisted, boy. Matt," said the +scoutmaster, turning to the boy who was much bewildered by the +conversation as he had been by the blow, "you hear Glen's apology. Now +it's your turn."</p> + +<p>"But what I said is true," insisted Matt.</p> + +<p>"And Glen admits it and has told me all about it. None the less you owe +him an apology for throwing it in his face, just as much as he owed you +one for putting his fist in your face."</p> + +<p>"I don't apologize to anybody," said Matt, with an ugly frown. "I can go +home if you like."<a class="pagenum" name="page_114" id="page_114" title="114"></a></p> + +<p>"It shall be as Glen says," decided Mr. Newton.</p> + +<p>"I don't have anything against you, Matt," said Glen, in as gentle a +tone as ever he used in his life. "I started in to be a Christian this +afternoon, and part of it is being decent like Apple and Mr. Newton."</p> + +<p>"I've nothing to do with a reform school boy," said Matt, and he rose +unsteadily to his feet and walked moodily away.</p> + +<p>"You're bound to have a lot of that, Glen," said Mr. Newton. "It's part +of your discipline. And one of the things you will find hardest to learn +will be to take your medicine and take it quietly."</p> + +<p>Glen knew that. His new resolves had not changed his old impulses. If +any one flung a taunt at him his impulse would be to fling back a blow. +His determination would have to be just a little quicker than his +impulse. Meantime he found lots of pleasure in the companionship of +Apple and Chick-chick and several others. There was a new bond of +fellowship between them, a bond which Glen would have found it quite +impossible to state in words but which was none the less genuine and +fixed. This bond was to mean much<a class="pagenum" name="page_115" id="page_115" title="115"></a> in the next few days for they were to +be days of peril and adventure for Glen.</p> + +<p>Glen's adventures grew out of his being discovered at camp by Mr. J. +Jervice. Mr. Jervice had withdrawn behind some bushes when he saw the +conflict beginning between Matt and Glen. Strange to say, any form of +conflict was repugnant to the body of J. Jervice although the soul of +him rejoiced in it. Let him be safely out of the way and he exulted in +scenes of violence, but most cautiously he avoided any close proximity. +He believed in playing safe.</p> + +<p>When Jervice noted the vigor that Glen was able to put into his swinging +blows and then saw Matt stretched out on the ground, he felt very +certain that business called him in another direction. No telling upon +whom that wild boy might next turn his fury. So he withdrew deeper into +the bushes, and as he caught a view of Mr. Newton hurrying up he decided +on still more active measures, and scampered away as fast as his pack +and the undergrowth would let him.</p> + +<p>Jervice was decidedly peeved with Glen. This escaped reform school boy, +who should be just the same to him as ten dollars in the bank, had made +for him nothing but trouble. J. J. seldom<a class="pagenum" name="page_116" id="page_116" title="116"></a> cherished grudges—it was +poor business, being bad for one's judgment. But if ever he held a +grudge it was against the person who hurt his pocket-book and as Jervice +now figured it Glen had worsted him at least twenty dollars' worth. The +items were: First, ten dollars which he should have secured as a reward; +second, five dollars which he had been obliged to pay as license fee; +third, five dollars he had expected to make on his sales at Camp +Buffalo.</p> + +<p>Twenty dollars is no slight loss to any one, and although J. Jervice did +not toil as hard for his money as most people he loved it much better. +He made his money in various ways, some of them not nearly so honest as +peddling. He had some friends who were engaged in a rather peculiar +business. They went to any place where they understood money had been +gathered together, and quietly took it away. They generally notified Mr. +Jervice where they would be, and he then came along with his car, loaded +the plunder behind a secret partition and carried it away at his +leisure.</p> + +<p>The business of J. Jervice in this particular locality, however, was +somewhat of a variation from the usual procedure. Some friends of Mr. +Jervice's friends had done business in this neighborhood<a class="pagenum" name="page_117" id="page_117" title="117"></a> before. They +had met with misfortune and now suffered confinement at the hands of +certain stern authorities who would not even allow them to go out long +enough to settle up the loose ends of their affairs. Not having a J. +Jervice in their service they had cached certain products of their toil +in a cave the secret of which had been disclosed to them by a dissolute +Indian. Shut up as they were their only recourse had been to commission +the capable man who happened to lead the Jervice gang to recover for +them the property for which they had risked their liberty.</p> + +<p>This, therefore, had brought to Buffalo Center, first of all, a hard, +desperate man, who was the leader of the gang, then J. Jervice with his +autocar, and, shortly to follow, various other whose characters were +more widely known than commended.</p> + +<p>Incidentally the leader had found that the little bank at Buffalo Center +had its safe loaded with the sum of ten thousand dollars, which had been +placed therein for the convenience of a certain wheat buyer in making +some deals. This being rather in the line of work in which he had been +most successful the leader had decided to relieve this congestion of +cash and had so notified Mr. Jervice as soon as they met.<a class="pagenum" name="page_118" id="page_118" title="118"></a></p> + +<p>Mr. J. Jervice was thinking these things over as he went back to his +car. He had stopped running now that he was well clear of the camp. He +was walking slowly as one who is studying some great problem. It was not +the problem of transportation. This was his especial job and he knew +what to do about it. But this boy—this boy who owed him twenty dollars! +He began to see how he could get his money's worth. A plan formed in his +mind for using him.</p> + +<p>That night the friends of Mr. Jervice arrived in the neighborhood and +gathered without undue ostentation at his camping-place.</p> + +<p>They fell into a very solemn conference and they said many things with +which we are not greatly concerned. But Mr. Jervice made some remarks +which were more than interesting, and showed that though slight in frame +and deficient in courage he was a mighty plotter.</p> + +<p>"About that window you wanted me to get through," he said. "I can't get +through that place."</p> + +<p>"Yes, you can," insisted a big man who seemed to be the leader. "What's +more, you're the only runt in the gang, an' you'll have to do it. Us big +men can't train down to a hundred an' fifty pounds to get through that +window."<a class="pagenum" name="page_119" id="page_119" title="119"></a></p> + +<p>"Well, it ain't right for me to do it," objected Mr. Jervice. "It ain't +safe for me to be 'round the place, I tell you. I ain't very strong an' +I might break my neck."</p> + +<p>"You'd never do it more'n once, Jervice, so don't let that worry you. +You got to do this 'cause nobody else can't git through."</p> + +<p>"But I've got a better scheme."</p> + +<p>"Spit it out, an' don't waste no time talkin' nonsense, neither."</p> + +<p>"I've found a boy. He's strong an' active an' fairly big, but he ain't +so big he couldn't git through. He'd be just the one for it."</p> + +<p>"What do we want with boys? How would we be squaring him?"</p> + +<p>"He's the kind that wouldn't need much squaring. A little piece o' money +'d keep him quiet. He's jest run off f'm the reform school."</p> + +<p>"You're dead sure about him?"</p> + +<p>"I know how to make sure," said Mr. Jervice. "A reform school runaway is +just what we want."</p> + +<p>In which conclusion Mr. Jervice showed that he was not as clever as +supposed.</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em"> +<a class="pagenum" name="page_120" id="page_120" title="120"></a> +<a name="GLEN_FOLLOWS_A_FALSE_TRAIL_2777" id="GLEN_FOLLOWS_A_FALSE_TRAIL_2777"></a> +<h2>CHAPTER XI</h2> +<h3>GLEN FOLLOWS A FALSE TRAIL</h3> +</div> + +<p>Morning mail was a great institution in camp. Two scouts, specially +detailed, brought it from the Buffalo Center post-office, in a U. S. +mail pouch. Mr. Newton opened and distributed it, and happy were the +fellows who received letters with which they could retreat to some +corner and feast themselves not only once, but sometimes twice and +thrice, while pleased smiles circled their countenances.</p> + +<p>Because Glen expected none he was all the more surprised when a letter +was handed to him. It was a mysterious letter, indeed. The envelope was +mysterious, if a dirty and crumpled condition spelled mystery. The +writing and spelling were mysterious—most mysterious. Finally the +contents of the letter enjoined mystery.</p> + +<p>"Say nuffin to noboddy burn this at once," it cautioned. "This is +important. Your forchoon is maid and you git part of a big tressure if +you do exackly as told. Don't say a word to noboddy<a class="pagenum" name="page_121" id="page_121" title="121"></a> but cum at ten +o'clock to the blazed oke wich is just south of your camp if you tell +anyboddy or bring anyboddy you wont get to no nuffin about it."</p> + +<p>Glen's first impulse was to show the document to Jolly Bill. As Bill was +busy in conversation with Mr. Newton he had time to think it over. It +was something about the treasure, quite evidently. Very likely it was a +trick. Some one was trying to get a laugh on him. Very well. Glen was +not at all displeased. He would let them do their worst. It showed that +they had taken him in among them and were treating him exactly as one of +themselves. He was gratified. He would go along and see it through. If +they could make him bite, all right.</p> + +<p>There was no difficulty in locating the blazed oak which stood close to +the camp. Glen had no watch, but he went early enough to be quite sure +of being there by ten o'clock. Then he waited and waited. He was about +to give it up as a hoax, when a man slipped quietly out of the woods and +advanced toward him. Glen fell into a position of defense as he saw that +it was his old enemy, Jervice.</p> + +<p>"Now, don't go actin' up," begged Mr. Jervice. "I ain't goin' to do +nothin' only tell you how<a class="pagenum" name="page_122" id="page_122" title="122"></a> to git into a good thing. I'm the man as +wrote that letter."</p> + +<p>"You are!" exclaimed Glen. "What do <i>you</i> know about the treasure?"</p> + +<p>"I know all about it," Jervice assured him confidentially. "I'm the only +feller that can help you git a slice. They's jest one question—are you +willin' to go in an' will you keep mum. I don't tell nothin' till you +tell me."</p> + +<p>"Am I willing? Are you crazy? You bet I'm willing. Try me."</p> + +<p>"Well, listen here then. I thought you'd be the feller. Who can I get as +is good an' strong an' yet not much over boys' size, thinks I. Then I +thinks of you. 'That reform school boy,' I says to myself. 'He's the +very feller. Likely he's done this kind of a job before.'"</p> + +<p>"I've never had anything to do with treasure before, and I don't know +what you mean," said Glen. "Hurry up and tell about it. I want to be +back at camp for the swim at eleven o'clock."</p> + +<p>"Come over to my car," invited the artful Jervice. "It ain't very far +an' we won't be in no danger of being interrupted."</p> + +<p>"How's that boy you hit?" asked the peddler as they journeyed. "That was +a awful crack you give him."<a class="pagenum" name="page_123" id="page_123" title="123"></a></p> + +<p>"He's all right and able to be about," Glen assured him. "I'm sorry I +hit him."</p> + +<p>Neither Glen nor Jervice knew that Matt was not only able to be about +but was at that moment within ten feet of them, being, in fact, just +that distance above their heads in a tree which seemed to him to offer +such facilities as wild bees might desire in choosing a home. He kept +very quiet in his "honey tree" and looked down on them with contempt for +both.</p> + +<p>"Up to some tricks," he muttered to himself.</p> + +<p>The J. Jervice autowagon was not so very far away, but the two were well +out of range of Matt's vision before they reached it.</p> + +<p>"Now, to begin with," said J. Jervice. "Are you one o' them scouts or +ain't you?"</p> + +<p>"I am," replied Glen. "I'm a tenderfoot."</p> + +<p>"Tenderfoot, eh! Reckon you ain't so tender. Well, why don't ye wear one +o' them uniforms, so's to make ye look like one?"</p> + +<p>"I haven't any uniform, yet. Perhaps I could borrow one. What's that got +to do with a treasure hunt?"</p> + +<p>"It's got a whole lot to do with it. People knows that boys wearing them +uniforms is straight, an' we want you to look straight as a string."<a class="pagenum" name="page_124" id="page_124" title="124"></a></p> + +<p>"I'm going to get one as soon as I can," Glen assured him. "I want to +look straight—that is part of the oath, 'physically strong, mentally +awake and morally straight.'"</p> + +<p>"I don't know nothink about no oaths like that," objected Mr. Jervice, +in a dubious tone which indicated that he might know more about other +varieties. "We don't care about yer being so straight—jest so ye look +straight."</p> + +<p>"Well, hurry up and tell about the treasure," urged Glen. "Remember I +want to be back by eleven o'clock. You're awfully slow."</p> + +<p>"I'm comin' to that. Remember this now—you mustn't never tell nobody +nothink about it."</p> + +<p>"What do you mean—never tell anybody?" asked Glen. "I guess we know as +much about it as you do."</p> + +<p>"<i>You</i> know about it!" Mr. Jervice seemed incredulous. "What do you know +about it?"</p> + +<p>"Well, we know what Mr. Spencer told us the other night," insisted Glen.</p> + +<p>"What was that?" asked Mr. Jervice cautiously. "Sit down here an' tell +me about it."</p> + +<p>Glen sat down on the back step of the car and told the story of the lost +treasure as he remembered it.</p> + +<p>"So that's the treasure story, is it?" came a<a class="pagenum" name="page_125" id="page_125" title="125"></a> deep voice from the side +of the car. There stepped into view a man whom Glen had not seen before. +He was evidently associated with Mr. Jervice, but he did not in the +least resemble him, for instead of being a cringy weakling, he was big +and strong and hard.</p> + +<p>"That's the story as Mr. Spencer told it to us," replied Glen.</p> + +<p>"Say, that's mighty interesting to me," said the man. "Happened right +around this neighborhood, too? I'll bet them Indians put that treasure +in a cave an' hain't never done nothing about it since 'cause they +couldn't sell bullion without giving themselves away."</p> + +<p>"I suppose they'd find it hard to sell," said Glen.</p> + +<p>"You bet they'd find it hard to sell. They'd just been obliged to leave +it in the cave. Bet it's the same cave we're lookin' for. You know any +caves around here, boy?"</p> + +<p>"No, sir," replied Glen. "I haven't seen a cave in this country."</p> + +<p>"You know something about the country?"</p> + +<p>"A little bit," Glen cautiously admitted. "I've only been here a few +days."</p> + +<p>"Get that chart, Jervice, an' we'll see what he reckernises," ordered +the leader.<a class="pagenum" name="page_126" id="page_126" title="126"></a></p> + +<p>Mr. J. Jervice offered some protest and the two held a whispered +conversation of which Glen was evidently the subject.</p> + +<p>"Oh, shut up," exclaimed the big man, at last. "I can take care of the +kid all right. You git the chart."</p> + +<p>Mr. Jervice thereupon dived into the car and soon returned with a rough +map which he opened out before the leader.</p> + +<p>"Lookahere, boy, look at this," commanded the man. "This remind ye of +any place around your camp?"</p> + +<p>Glen looked at the chart and saw many things which had become familiar +to his eyes in the last few days. There was an elevation that was +undoubtedly Buffalo Mound, certain wavy lines that depicted a stream +down its west side could scarcely mean anything but Buffalo Creek. A big +star was quite conspicuous midway along the course of the stream and +Glen was curiously examining words which he made out to be "Deep +Springs" and "Twin Elms" when Mr. Jervice put his thumb over the spot.</p> + +<p>"Never mind 'bout readin' that too close," objected Mr. Jervice, "what +we want to know is did you ever see a place like that?"</p> + +<p>"I think I have," admitted Glen.<a class="pagenum" name="page_127" id="page_127" title="127"></a></p> + +<p>"Don't you know ye have?" insisted the big man in a harsh voice. "Ain't +that the place where yer camp is?"</p> + +<p>"It looks something like it," said Glen. "It's open country, open to +everybody. Why don't you go and see?"</p> + +<p>"There's reasons, boy. Some on 'em you wouldn't understand. We don't +mind telling you some of the trouble. Did ye know that all o' that +treasure was claimed by the heirs?"</p> + +<p>"Whose heirs?" asked Glen.</p> + +<p>"Heirs of the freighters as the Indians took it away from. Did you know +that a lot o' that bullion had been got out and was held in the bank +here at Buffalo Center?"</p> + +<p>"Mr. Spencer said nothing about it," replied Glen.</p> + +<p>"Because he don't know nothink 'bout it," said J. Jervice. "We know +because we represent the heirs. Now if you want to help us, your share +will be a hundred dollars; but, remember, you say nothink to nobuddy."</p> + +<p>"I won't say anything," Glen promised, rashly.</p> + +<p>"If you do you'll be in as bad as anybuddy, so yer better not. If yer +goin' to help, fust thing is to go back to camp an' git one o' them +suits like they call scout suits."<a class="pagenum" name="page_128" id="page_128" title="128"></a></p> + +<p>"I reckon I can borrow one," said Glen.</p> + +<p>"Then ye'll go down to Buffalo Center an' look out for the Bank. Walk +right in as if ye owned it, jest like a reg'lar boy scout might do."</p> + +<p>"I can do that," agreed Glen. "But what's that got to do with it?"</p> + +<p>"It's got a plenty. When nobuddy ain't lookin' much you take a good look +at a little winder that's clear in the back. You'll see it ain't got no +bars over it like the other winders. It's jest 'bout big enough to let a +boy through."</p> + +<p>"Well?" asked Glen, beginning to feel that it wasn't well at all, and +that this plan Mr. Jervice was unfolding had to do with a very different +treasure than he had supposed.</p> + +<p>"Jest imagine you've been dropped through that winder an' landed on the +floor. You've got to go f'm there to the front an' unbolt the door. We +can handle the lock all right but they got old fashioned bolts inside. +So just wait aroun' an' figure how you'd git acrost the room without +knockin' nothink over, an' look particular at the fastenings on that +front door so you'll—"</p> + +<p>"Stop right there," interrupted Glen. "I won't do anything of the kind."</p> + +<p>"What's the matter of you, backin' out<a class="pagenum" name="page_129" id="page_129" title="129"></a> thaterway?" exclaimed Mr. +Jervice. "Ain't I explained to you that the bank's got our bullion."</p> + +<p>"I'm not that green," retorted Glen. "You want to rob the bank. I'm +through with you."</p> + +<p>"Hold on, boy!" The strong hand of the big leader closed over his +shoulder. "Not yet you ain't. We can't let you go off thinkin' that way +about us."</p> + +<p>Glen wriggled around until he could look into the face of the man who +held him. His spirits dropped. It was no weak, trifling face such as J. +Jervice exhibited. A hard, rough look—a cruel, remorseless look—a +mean, ugly look—all these things he read in that face.</p> + +<p>"Mebbe ye'll know me when ye see me agen," said the man.</p> + +<p>Glen made no reply.</p> + +<p>"I ain't figurin' on you seein' much more o' me, though, nor any of us. +D'ye know what I'm goin' to do with you?"</p> + +<p>"Send me back to the reform school?" guessed Glen, wishing from the +bottom of his heart that he might get off so easily.</p> + +<p>The man laughed as if at an excellent joke.</p> + +<p>"You're funny, boy—positive funny, you are. Sendin' you to the +penitentiary would be easy along o' what I'm goin' to do to you."<a class="pagenum" name="page_130" id="page_130" title="130"></a></p> + +<p>"I've never hurt you," cried Glen. "Let me go."</p> + +<p>"It ain't safe, boy. They's jest one way you c'n make it safe. Come in +along of us an' do what we do. You wouldn't be a reform school runaway +if you hadn't never been up to nothink. This'll be easy for you."</p> + +<p>It was a temptation that would have tried boys of firmer principle than +Glen. This man might do something awful to him if he resisted. He was on +the point of yielding—and then came the vision of Matt Burton, white +and unconscious, and the recollection of his agony as he thought that he +had murdered Matt and lost his first chance to walk straight. Was it +better to choose one evil than another?</p> + +<p>"Do what you want to," he said bravely, to the big man. "I'm going to be +a true scout, if you—if you kill me for it."</p> + +<p>There was murder in the man's appearance, evidently enough, for J. +Jervice eagerly protested. "You don't want to do no murder, now. Murder +means hangin'!"</p> + +<p>"Shut up!" commanded the leader. "Look what ye got us into. What can we +do with him?"</p> + +<p>"We'll have to hide him till we git away," said Jervice.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style='width:350px'> +<a name="illus-001" id="illus-001"></a> +<img src="images/illus-131.jpg" alt=""Brave Man!" sneered the leader. "Get me a little rope an' I'll do him up scientific." Page 131" title="" width="350" /><br /> +<span class="caption">"Brave Man!" sneered the leader. "Get me a little rope an' I'll do him up scientific." Page 131</span> +</div> + +<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_131" id="page_131" title="131"></a>"No good trying to hide him round here. Them scouts will be missin' him +when he don't get to his meals an' swarm all over here. You run over to +the city—it's only twenty-four miles. You ought to be back easy by +night. You know who to leave him with."</p> + +<p>"He's a desperate hard boy to manage," complained J. Jervice with some +recollection of previous dealings. "I'm afeared one man can't handle +him."</p> + +<p>The leader laughed significantly.</p> + +<p>"One <i>man</i> could," he declared. "But that ain't saying the kid wouldn't +be too much for you."</p> + +<p>"Tie him up," urged Mr. Jervice. "I can handle him when he's tied."</p> + +<p>"Brave man!" sneered the leader. "Get me a little rope an' I'll do him +up scientific."</p> + +<p>He was as good as his word. When his scientific job was finished the +only thing Glen could do without restraint was to perspire. He could +make a few muffled noises, but no intelligible sound could he utter.</p> + +<p>"Now chuck him inside the car, please," begged Mr. Jervice. "He'll be +quiet now."</p> + +<p>"Quiet enough," said the leader. "But hustle your car out of here and +get him twenty miles away<a class="pagenum" name="page_132" id="page_132" title="132"></a> as quick as you can. We don't want no scouts +trackin' around while he's here."</p> + +<p>Glen's spirits took another slump. It was bad enough to be captured, but +his faith had been great in the scouts' deliverance. Following him +twenty or thirty miles was another thing.</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em"> +<a class="pagenum" name="page_133" id="page_133" title="133"></a> +<a name="THE_BEE_TREE_3108" id="THE_BEE_TREE_3108"></a> +<h2>CHAPTER XII</h2> +<h3>THE BEE TREE</h3> +</div> + +<p>Matt's presence in the tree beneath which Glen walked with J. Jervice +was neither accident nor coincidence. He had business there—business +which he considered important, which he did not wish, to share either +with J. Jervice or Glen Mason or any other person. At least he did not +wish to share it right at that moment; later on would be another story.</p> + +<p>Matt was making a bee tree. Perhaps you did not know that bee trees +could be made, nor how to make them. Matt himself was not very clear on +either of these heads. He was experimenting, and back of his experiment +was a desire to get even with Chick-chick.</p> + +<p>Henry Henry, commonly called Chick-chick, did not desire to shine as a +great athlete, sport leader, a water witch, or in any of the other +specialties in which Matt reveled, but he did pretend to know a little +something about beetles, bugs, butterflies and bees. He had long +cherished an ambition to find a "bee tree." At last night's camp<a class="pagenum" name="page_134" id="page_134" title="134"></a> fire +he had announced his positive belief, based on observations of the day, +that such a tree was somewhere in the vicinity of the blazed oak. He had +watched the bees until dark without definitely locating his tree but he +had not given up.</p> + +<p>Matt decided that it would be a great pity to let all Chick-chick's +efforts go for nothing. He proposed to help find such a tree, or to put +Chick-chick in the way of it so that he would be bound to find it. He +wanted the find to be public, and the interest in it to be so popular +that all thought of buried treasure—especially treasure buried in a +bread-box—would be obliterated forever from the minds of those in camp.</p> + +<p>Matt had gone to some little trouble in his fixing. He had neatly +lettered a sign: "Wild honey. Prepared by the Honey Bees for +Chick-chick." This he stuck into the bottom of the hollow limb, only an +end protruding. Then he put in a good chunk of honeycomb, begged from +Bob. From a small jar he then released some half dozen bees which he had +allowed himself to borrow from Mr. Ryder's hives. His supposition was +that these bees would fill up and fly back to the hives. Soon they would +return bringing their mates with them. In a short time a steady stream +of bees would be passing in and out of that hollow<a class="pagenum" name="page_135" id="page_135" title="135"></a> limb, which would be +just the time for Chick-chick to make his proud discovery and announce +it.</p> + +<p>After Matt had fixed the tree to his satisfaction his chief trouble was +to lead Chick-chick to make the discovery in a perfectly natural manner. +The best opportunity came as they went back to camp after the morning +swim. Chick-chick was always a wanderer, likely at any moment to dart +off in sudden pursuit of something. This morning it was a butterfly, and +to Matt's delight he ran in the direction of the loaded tree. The crowd +joined in the pursuit. They were within a short distance of Matt's tree +before they gave it up.</p> + +<p>"How about that bee tree you were going to get, Chick-chick?" suggested +Matt. "Round here somewhere, isn't it?"</p> + +<p>"Why not?" asked Chick-chick. "Why not. Why ain't this good place as any +for bee make her happy cupboard?"</p> + +<p>"Show it to us, Chick-chick. You're hiding it. We know what you are +trying to do. You want to keep all that honey for yourself."</p> + +<p>"Chick-chick wants all the honey for himself," chimed the chorus. "Lead +us to your bee tree, Chick-chick. Don't be selfish."</p> + +<p>"A'right, boys. There's bee tree in these woods. I don't want +dinner—want bee tree. All<a class="pagenum" name="page_136" id="page_136" title="136"></a> who feel just so an' similar follow me. Here +flies honey-bee right now. Watch her!"</p> + +<p>And the bee sailed right to Matt's tree.</p> + +<p>"Oh, look at the bees buzzing around that hole. Let me get at it," cried +an excited scout.</p> + +<p>"Not too familiar," warned Chick-chick. "Bees have feelin's. D'ye never +hear the piece:</p> + +<p style='margin-left:4em;'> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"How doth the little honey bee</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">In self defense excel.</span><br /> +She gives her life for one sharp sting<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Yet hath she spent it well."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>"Leave it to the expert, fellows," cried Matt. "Let him get at it. Make +way for the sum of all knowledge."</p> + +<p>"It's me he means," modestly admitted Chick-chick. "He wants me to +tackle this peculiar tree. Peculiar tree an' peculiar bees!"</p> + +<p>"Why peculiar?"</p> + +<p>"They've done changed theirselves since I saw 'em yes'day. To-day +they're Italians—the nicest kind of tame bees we have. Yes'day they was +wild, black Germans—nothing like this."</p> + +<p>"What changed 'em?"</p> + +<p>"Jes' naturally smart, reckon. See, they scratched the bark gettin' up +tree, too. Here's place one of 'em rested number nine shoe an' cut<a class="pagenum" name="page_137" id="page_137" title="137"></a> bark +through. Most remarkable honey bees ever heard of."</p> + +<p>"Why don't you go up an' find out about 'em?"</p> + +<p>"Answer me this botanical riddle first. What's difference between tree +and a plant?"</p> + +<p>"We give it up."</p> + +<p>"You too, Matt?"</p> + +<p>"Sure I give it up. What is it."</p> + +<p>"Well, Matty, Great an' Only; in this case ain't no difference. This is +tree an' plant too. 'Tain't a bee tree but it's bee plant, see. Watch +the bees. Ought to be comin' in loaded an' goin' away light. But they +ain't—they're doing just totherwise. Somebody's put some stuff up +there. Who d'ye reckon?"</p> + +<p>But Matt was already stealing away.</p> + +<p>"Let him go," directed Chick-chick. "Bees are all buzzing 'stung' they +are. But no stinger in me."</p> + +<p>After that, no one cared further what the tree held. They rushed back to +camp, for the dinner hour was upon them and their appetites were brisk +from their swim.</p> + +<p>Dinner was almost ended when Chick-chick, who was acting as a waiter, +was called to the end of the table where the scoutmaster sat with Will +Spencer.<a class="pagenum" name="page_138" id="page_138" title="138"></a></p> + +<p>"Mr. Spencer is wondering about Glen Mason," said Mr. Newton. "He hasn't +come in, yet, for dinner. Was he at the swim?"</p> + +<p>"No, sir. I haven't seen Brick since morning."</p> + +<p>The scoutmaster rose to his feet.</p> + +<p>"Mason has not appeared at dinner. Has any one seen him since ten +o'clock?"</p> + +<p>There was no answer; the boys waited in silence. At last Chick-chick +held out a crumpled sheet of paper.</p> + +<p>"I haven't seen him, but here's what found near tree where Matt thought +he'd found bee tree," he explained.</p> + +<p>It was the note from J. Jervice. Mr. Newton read it in silence.</p> + +<p>"I don't know who could have written such a note," he remarked, handing +it to Jolly Bill.</p> + +<p>Then Matt Burton found his voice.</p> + +<p>"I was in the neighborhood where the note was dropped this morning and I +saw Mason in company with the very disreputable peddler fellow who came +here Sunday. They seemed very intimate and were going off together."</p> + +<p>"What do you mean by going off together?"</p> + +<p>"I mean they were just walking along through the woods like they'd +always known each other and were planning something. The thought came<a class="pagenum" name="page_139" id="page_139" title="139"></a> +to me that they might be accomplices and the peddler had sent the boy +into our camp just to work something up."</p> + +<p>"He sure did it," volunteered Chick-chick.</p> + +<p>"Something up and something down," suggested an irresponsible listener.</p> + +<p>"That's enough, boys." Mr. Newton brought them sharply to order. "Burton +has no right to such a guess nor you to such remarks. They don't make +for harmony. They aren't helpful. You may all go now, except the patrol +leaders and assistants and the signal corps."</p> + +<p>When the little group had collected Mr. Newton continued his remarks.</p> + +<p>"Glen Mason is a scout—a member of this troop—and we are responsible +for him in more ways than one. Mr. Spencer and I know enough about him +to be sure that there is no reason why he should go away with the +peddler excepting under misrepresentation. Perhaps nothing out of the +way has happened, but we have just a suspicion that Jervice is making an +effort to get Glen into his hands for a reward which he thinks he will +get."</p> + +<p>"He'll have a sweet time holding him in his hands after he gets him," +interrupted Jolly Bill.</p> + +<p>"Unless he has help," corrected Mr. Newton.<a class="pagenum" name="page_140" id="page_140" title="140"></a> "And this is not +improbable. Because of this I want the scouts to divide into groups of +four and explore the territory I lay out. Each patrol leader and each +assistant will take three boys. Signal and make for headquarters at once +if you find anything. If there is any need of a rescue don't attempt it +without me. Henry may start at the place where he found the note."</p> + +<p>Thus it happened that a short time later, Chick-chick, Goosey and two +other scouts were making a careful search around the bee tree.</p> + +<p>"Everything's trampled flat around here. That crowd this morning did +it," announced Chick-chick. "Every fellow spread out ten yards to his +left."</p> + +<p>It was Goosey who found the trail.</p> + +<p>"Here it is," he cried. "It's Brick's trail all right. Mr. Spencer said +to look for marks of heel plate on the right shoe and here it is. There +was somebody with him."</p> + +<p>The ground being soft and damp in spots there was no difficulty in +following the trail. It led them to an open glen which showed a recent +camp fire and the travel of many feet. Leading off toward the road were +the broad depressions made by the tires of an automobile.</p> + +<p>"My find, now," cried Chick-chick. "Here's<a class="pagenum" name="page_141" id="page_141" title="141"></a> where we do some real fine +work, an' we can do it on the run, we can. See the tracks. What are +they?"</p> + +<p>"Automobile tracks," yelled the squad.</p> + +<p>"What kind of a tire made 'em?"</p> + +<p>There was no enthusiastic shout this time.</p> + +<p>"An automobile tire," ventured Goosey.</p> + +<p>"Jes' so, Goosey. Jes' so! It was rubber one, too, why don't you say? +Good, safe guess—rubber."</p> + +<p>"All right, Chick-chick. Be as funny as you want. If my father ran a +garage I reckon I'd know something about tires, too."</p> + +<p>"'Scuse me! You certainly right, Goosey. Who ought know automobile tires +if not me. What I want you see is these tires can be followed anywhere +'cause they're non-skid with that peculiar bar formation. They'll show +up on road so we can follow on dead run, we can."</p> + +<p>"How do you know we want to follow? What makes you suppose Mason has +gone in the car? Maybe we'll find his tracks going on away from here."</p> + +<p>"Bright thought, Goosey. Ev'body look for tracks leading 'way from +here."</p> + +<p>They searched industriously but in vain.</p> + +<p>"No good," decided Chick-chick. "Got old<a class="pagenum" name="page_142" id="page_142" title="142"></a> Brick in their wagon, all +right, all right. We must go after him, we must."</p> + +<p>"Mr. Newton said not to attempt any rescue."</p> + +<p>"We ain't was going to. Back to headquarters an' report an' me for my +motor-bike. Mr. Newton mebbe can get a car in Buffalo Center an' mebbe +he can't; but no heavy old buzz-wagon can get where my motor-bike can't +catch 'em."</p> + +<p>Mr. Newton agreed to Chick-chick's plan of chase rather more readily +than he had expected.</p> + +<p>"It's perhaps as good a thing as we can do," he asserted, discussing the +plan with Will Spencer. "I have a good many of the younger scouts in my +especial care and cannot afford to leave camp on a wild goose chase."</p> + +<p>"Motor-bike carries two," suggested Chick-chick. "Apple go with me?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. You and Corliss may go. Don't do anything foolish. If you overtake +the car get the peddler to stop. If Glen is a captive use your coolest +judgment about interfering. The man may be armed and it would be far +better to push on to the nearest town and get help than to risk a +bullet. Of course, if Glen should be going of his own wish you must just +come back and tell me."</p> + +<p>"No fear of that," said Spencer.<a class="pagenum" name="page_143" id="page_143" title="143"></a></p> + +<p>"What shall we do if he isn't to be seen and the peddler won't let us +look inside?" asked Apple.</p> + +<p>"A scout's judgment and ingenuity ought to be worth something in such a +case," replied Mr. Newton. "I prefer not to instruct you. I'm not +sending you two big fellows out as messenger boys but as scouts. Use all +the knowledge and courage and skill that you have, but don't take +unnecessary risks."</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em"> +<a class="pagenum" name="page_144" id="page_144" title="144"></a> +<a name="THE_CHASE_ON_THE_MOTORBIKE_3395" id="THE_CHASE_ON_THE_MOTORBIKE_3395"></a> +<h2>CHAPTER XIII</h2> +<h3>THE CHASE ON THE MOTOR-BIKE</h3> +</div> + +<p>The boys felt the importance of their commission as they rode away from +the camp on the motorcycle. They had no difficulty picking up the track +of the autocar. It ran directly to the village and on through.</p> + +<p>"Let's find out what the old car looks like," suggested Apple. "Maybe, +too, they can tell us just how long ago it passed."</p> + +<p>There was no difficulty in getting a description of the car—one +enthusiastic person even went so far as to detail all the various +articles advertised by J. Jervice for sale.</p> + +<p>"How many people were riding?" asked Apple.</p> + +<p>"A little man at the steering wheel and a big fellow perched up next to +him."</p> + +<p>"Didn't you see a boy on it?"</p> + +<p>"No boy anywhere unless he was inside. Of course we couldn't tell about +inside. It's jest like a wagon in a circus parade—nice paint on the +outside an' the inside left to yore 'magination."<a class="pagenum" name="page_145" id="page_145" title="145"></a></p> + +<p>"Two men on the wagon—one a big fellow!" exclaimed Apple, as they left +the fount of information. "We'll have to be pretty careful what we do."</p> + +<p>"Sure will," agreed Chick-chick. "They got over an hour's start, so +we'll have to go some—Hello, have they been stopping here?"</p> + +<p>"Looks like it. There's marks that show a man got off the car."</p> + +<p>"The big man," said Chick-chick. "Look where the tracks are headed, +Apple. He's gone back to the village. Didn't get back on car at all. +Good for us."</p> + +<p>Chick-chick had correctly guessed. After J. Jervice and his car were +safely through the village the big man had alighted.</p> + +<p>"I'm goin' back to lie aroun' an' meet the other fellows," he said to +Jervice. "You beat it along with your car. You can stop an' do a little +tradin' when ye get to the next county. That'll prove you wasn't +anywheer around if anythink should happen to-night. But be sure you git +rid of the kid an' start back so's to git here by midnight."</p> + +<p>Apple and Chick-chick took up the trail with renewed confidence now that +they felt they had only Jervice to reckon with. They had seen him<a class="pagenum" name="page_146" id="page_146" title="146"></a> at +the scout camp last Sunday and had no great respect for his dimensions +or prowess.</p> + +<p>It was late in the afternoon when first they saw the peddler's car in +the road ahead.</p> + +<p>"Let's trail along kind o' slow and watch him awhile," suggested Apple. +"Maybe he'll be stopping somewhere."</p> + +<p>As it happened this guess was well founded. Mr. J. Jervice had two +reasons for stopping. One was that he wanted himself to be seen a good, +long distance away from the bank, so that he could prove that he was far +distant from that region if any robbery occurred. The other was a +natural cupidity which sorely regretted the necessity of hurriedly +passing prosperous farm houses where perfectly good money was all ready +to exchange for his wares.</p> + +<p>A mile further on a splendid house came into view. Everything about it +spelled prosperity—its barns, and silos and windmills and fences all +showed that the residents believed in having what they needed and had +money to spend on their needs. The bait was irresistible. Mr. Jervice +stopped his car at the side of the road, clambered down from his seat +and went to lift the bars from the rear door.<a class="pagenum" name="page_147" id="page_147" title="147"></a></p> + +<p>Two boys on a motorcycle ditched their wheel a hundred yards away and +crept cautiously up.</p> + +<p>"He's going to the house to try to sell something," whispered Apple. "We +must keep him from locking those back doors so we can look inside."</p> + +<p>"We sure will," vowed Chick-chick.</p> + +<p>Crouching in the bushes at the side of the road their pulses throbbed in +great excitement as they observed that the peddler addressed some one +inside the car. His tone was low so they did not catch the words, but +they heard a mumble and saw his cruel laugh.</p> + +<p>"We'll teach him to laugh," whispered Chick-chick.</p> + +<p>"But supposing he shuts and locks that rear door before he goes up to +the house."</p> + +<p>"That's up to us. We'll watch him. If he locks it we must catch him as +he goes through that orchard and get the key away."</p> + +<p>They watched in great anxiety. Mr. Jervice closed the rear doors of his +van and put the heavy bars in their slots, but, secure in the isolation +of his surroundings, he did not apply the padlock. Wherein, Mr. Jervice +committed a grievous error.</p> + +<p>Scarcely was he concealed within the orchard<a class="pagenum" name="page_148" id="page_148" title="148"></a> than the two scouts rushed +to the car, lifted the bar and swung back the door. There lay their new +comrade, helplessly trussed and gagged, faint and weary with the close +confinement, almost ready to collapse.</p> + +<p>"Water!" he gasped, as Apple took the gag from his mouth. "Get me a +drink."</p> + +<p>Apple was able to supply him from his canteen, and even as he held it to +the parched lips, Chick-chick was slashing the cords that had been drawn +needlessly tight.</p> + +<p>"I think I can manage this little old machine, I can," announced +Chick-chick. "Apple, you can run my bike. Go back and get it."</p> + +<p>"Rub my wrists where the cords cut, while he's gone," Glen begged. "That +fellow that tied me up—he's a thief, that's what he is. He pulled 'em +tighter just to see me wince."</p> + +<p>He was too cramped to stand on his feet so Chick-chick kneeled down at +his side to rub some circulation into his wrists and ankles. Suddenly a +great noise of running was heard. Chick-chick looked out through the +crack of the door.</p> + +<p>"It's the peddler," he declared. "He's running like a bull was chasing +him, he is. He's headed straight for the car."</p> + +<p>"We'll give him a surprise," said Glen.<a class="pagenum" name="page_149" id="page_149" title="149"></a> "Probably he's run on to +somebody who knows that he's a thief and they're after him. I'll just +lie the way I was and you stand where the door will hide you."</p> + +<p>Glen missed his guess in one important trifle. J. Jervice did not wait +to be surprised. He was in such terror that he waited for nothing. He +threw a pack in at the door, slammed it, dropped the bar in place with +the incredible swiftness of long practice and in less than a minute had +his motor cranked and the car in motion.</p> + +<p>Coming up on the motorcycle a minute later Apple saw the car +disappearing around a turn in the road, and wildly chasing it a puffing, +panting old man, brandishing a heavy club.</p> + +<p>The positions of the scouts were changed for the better, but they yet +were a long distance from freedom. Instead of Glen tied and gagged in +the car with Chick-chick and Apple following on the motorcycle, Apple +now was following alone, while, imprisoned in the car, were both Glen +and Chick-chick with the fortunate difference that the gag and bonds +were removed.</p> + +<p>"We're shut in," whispered Chick-chick. "Pretty mess I made of rescue, I +did."</p> + +<p>"No mess at all," said Glen. "I'm free now and ready for anything, or +shall be when I get<a class="pagenum" name="page_150" id="page_150" title="150"></a> some circulation in my feet and hands. Can't move +till then, anyway. What d'ye s'pose Apple's doing?"</p> + +<p>"Following us along, Apple is, you bet. When he gets a chance he'll help +us out, he will. Say, what's loose board here?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know," replied Glen. "It's got a ring in it like it might be +intended to be lifted up."</p> + +<p>"Bet I know," said Chick-chick. "I reckon the transmission case is just +below here, an' this is fixed to lift out so you can see transmission +without crawling underneath."</p> + +<p>"It wouldn't make a big enough hole to let us out, would it?" asked +Glen.</p> + +<p>"No, it wouldn't. But if I can get to that transmission I can stop +car—won't run little bit."</p> + +<p>"Could you start it again?"</p> + +<p>"Depend on what I did to gears."</p> + +<p>"Let's try it."</p> + +<p>The board came up easily. Four bolts held the lid of the transmission +case but were readily removed with Chick-chick's pocket wrench.</p> + +<p>"Now we'll pack in something soft. Clog up the gears without breaking +'em."</p> + +<p>"What good will that do—except make him mad."</p> + +<p>"Help us out—it will. He isn't enough mechanic<a class="pagenum" name="page_151" id="page_151" title="151"></a> to find out why can't +run. Off he goes town after help. Leaves us here do as we please. We +know where trouble is. Fix it. Off we go."</p> + +<p>There was plenty of soft material to feed into the transmission case. +The car pulled unsteadily and stopped. The boys cautiously replaced the +board in the floor and awaited developments. They could hear J. Jervice +tinkering around, examining brakes and wheels and everything but the +transmission.</p> + +<p>"Hey, you!" he called after a few minutes. "You inside there! D'ye hear +me?"</p> + +<p>Then as it probably occurred to him that he could expect no great +volubility from a gagged prisoner he continued:</p> + +<p>"I've broke down an' I'm goin' to git help. When I bring a mechanic back +don't ye try makin' no racket or it'll be the worse for ye."</p> + +<p>The first positive assurance that he had gone was when Apple came up on +the motorcycle, lifted the bar and opened the doors. It did not take +them long to scramble out.</p> + +<p>The world looked very beautiful to the eyes of Glen Mason after his +hours of real peril and imprisonment. It was fine to be able once more +to stretch out and shake loose every little muscle, to be able to draw +in a long breath, just as deep<a class="pagenum" name="page_152" id="page_152" title="152"></a> as one wanted, free from the muffling of +a foul mouth gag. The world was a good old place in which to live and +surely Glen would henceforth try to live in it in an appreciable manner.</p> + +<p>"Look here, fellows," said Chick-chick. "I know all about this old +wagon. I can make it go ramblin' right along; handle it so it's +perfectly tame an' gentle—take the bit nice an' stand 'thout hitchin'. +What d 'ye say? Do we make the horsey go for Mr. Jervice?"</p> + +<p>"You mean run away with it?" asked Apple. "That wouldn't be right, would +it?"</p> + +<p>"You don't know much 'bout this gang, Apple. Brick's been telling me. +He's found out about 'em, Brick has. Regular band o' thieves, they are."</p> + +<p>"Thieves!" exclaimed Apple. "No wonder they acted mean."</p> + +<p>"No wonder. Wonder is they did no worse, it is. They think they're going +rob Buffalo Center bank to-night. We'll show 'em, we will."</p> + +<p>"Would taking their car away stop them?"</p> + +<p>"It would be apt to hinder," said Glen. "I think Jervice carries their +kit in his wagon and they depend on him to get their stuff hauled +away."<a class="pagenum" name="page_153" id="page_153" title="153"></a></p> + +<p>"Take away their little old wagon sure will bother 'em."</p> + +<p>"What would you do with it?"</p> + +<p>"Turn it round. Run back to Buffalo Center and give sheriff."</p> + +<p>"All right," agreed Apple. "You'll have to get busy if you want to get +it back before dark. I suppose I'll have to ride the motor-bike."</p> + +<p>"Reckon you're elected, Apple. Brick can't ride it, an' I can't run more +'n one at a time."</p> + +<p>"Well, I'll not get far ahead of you. I'll keep you in sight, anyway."</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em"> +<a class="pagenum" name="page_154" id="page_154" title="154"></a> +<a name="SAFE_AT_CAMP_BUFFALO_3651" id="SAFE_AT_CAMP_BUFFALO_3651"></a> +<h2>CHAPTER XIV</h2> +<h3>SAFE AT CAMP BUFFALO</h3> +</div> + +<p>Riding triumphantly on the driver's seat with Chick-chick made the +return journey very different from the miserable trip Glen had made +inside the car, bound and gagged, and horribly jolted at every +irregularity of the road.</p> + +<p>"Shall we leave car at Buffalo Center, or run right on to camp an' show +the booty?" asked Chick-chick.</p> + +<p>"We haven't made the trip yet," Glen reminded him. "If we're lucky +enough to get all the way to Buffalo Center we'd better deliver it to +the first officer we see, sheriff or constable," counseled Glen. "We +don't want to be arrested for stealing. It won't do for me to be +arrested for anything."</p> + +<p>"But don't you think we ought let scoutmaster see it? Let him have say +about it. Don't you think?"</p> + +<p>"Perhaps we ought," agreed Glen, who saw clearly that Chick-chick longed +for the honor of<a class="pagenum" name="page_155" id="page_155" title="155"></a> driving his captured car proudly into camp—an +exciting honor which he was not reluctant to share.</p> + +<p>"It certainly would be fine if we could make it."</p> + +<p>But it was not to be. Daylight was still pretty good, so that they could +see a long distance back along the road. And so, when they still had +several miles to go, they looked back and saw their nemesis overhauling +them.</p> + +<p>"That car's coming like fury," observed Glen. "I'll bet it's Jervice and +his friends hot after us."</p> + +<p>"'Fraid so," sighed Chick-chick. "Gettin' all speed out of the old wagon +I can."</p> + +<p>"We'd better try to catch Apple and all get on the motor-bike," +suggested Glen.</p> + +<p>"Can't catch Apple unless he takes notion to turn an' see we want him. +Think we can hide, I do."</p> + +<p>"Hide the car, too?"</p> + +<p>"Hide the car. Saw place on way out. It's less'n mile from here. There's +creek pretty near dry, and bridge over it. But there's ford by side of +bridge, too. We forded it coming out."</p> + +<p>"Can you get the car down?"</p> + +<p>"Think I can. Think can run down by ford an' get under bridge. They'll +go shooting by without seeing us, they will."<a class="pagenum" name="page_156" id="page_156" title="156"></a></p> + +<p>It was time to be taking some action. As they mounted the hill they were +evidently seen by the pursuers who sent a pistol shot after them, though +not with any possibility of reaching them. At the foot of this hill lay +the creek.</p> + +<p>Chick-chick slackened speed and scanned the bank eagerly to see if the +car could make the descent. Dusk was already present under the heavy +timber by the creek, and he left the road slowly with the double object +of feeling his way and leaving as little track as possible.</p> + +<p>Glen leaped from the car and bent back the brush flattened out by the +wheels and kicked dust over the tracks left by the car in turning. Then +he rushed down and found that by skillful driving Chick-chick had +managed to make the descent safely and drive the car under the arch of +the bridge, so concealed by the abutments and by outgrowing bushes that +there would be little likelihood of attracting notice from above +excepting from careful searchers.</p> + +<p>A few seconds later the noise overhead told them that the pursuing car +had rushed on, still hot in the chase.</p> + +<p>"What's to do, now, Brick?" asked Chick-chick. "Got old car down pretty +easy, we did. Don't<a class="pagenum" name="page_157" id="page_157" title="157"></a> know about getting back. Reckon I could cross over +an' climb t'other side."</p> + +<p>"I don't believe we want to try it," counseled Glen. "We are only a +couple of miles from Buffalo Center. They'll be there in a minute or +two. When they find we've dodged 'em they'll start back hunting for us. +We'll meet 'em and there'll be real trouble. We don't want their car, +anyway."</p> + +<p>"Let's walk on an' catch Apple, then," suggested Chick-chick. "When he +finds we don't come he'll either wait for us or start back. We can all +ride into camp on the bike, we can."</p> + +<p>"Leave the wagon just like this?"</p> + +<p>"Why not? 'Tain't ours: All we've done is interfere with burglars. If +this car carries the burgling things to rob the bank they won't be able +to burgle to-night, anyway. Let's look for that chart they showed you. +If it's anything about the treasure it's ours."</p> + +<p>"He said he kept it on the shelf with his railroad guides. I'm afraid he +put it in his pocket after they'd looked at it."</p> + +<p>They found the shelf with the railroad folders, but no chart of any +description was there.</p> + +<p>"'Fraid you'd see more of it than they wanted," suggested Chick-chick.<a class="pagenum" name="page_158" id="page_158" title="158"></a></p> + +<p>"They need not," said Glen. "I don't care what's on their chart."</p> + +<p>"Why not?" asked Chick-chick. "Why not? They got chart cave. Cave is +somewhere between our camp an' top Buffalo Mound. They say Indian cave +an' think Indians have hid treasure there; why not?"</p> + +<p>"What makes you think the cave is between our camp and the top of +Buffalo Mound?"</p> + +<p>"Didn't you say Jervice man stuck his thumb over—so shut out your look. +What he do that for if cave ain't there?"</p> + +<p>"You jump too quick, Chick-chick. I'm not sure there's a cave at all. I +just know that they talked as if they were looking for a cave or a hole +in the ground or some place where somebody had hid a lot of plunder."</p> + +<p>"Sure you know it. An' why wouldn't it be a cave? An' didn't you say the +big man said he'd bet Indians had bullion hid in same cave they were +hunting. Didn't you?"</p> + +<p>"That isn't saying it's so," objected Glen.</p> + +<p>"It's sayin' it's worth lookin'," affirmed Chick-chick. "Didn't one of +'em say chart was drawn from description Indians gave?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, but they might have been fooling 'em."</p> + +<p>"An' they might not. If it's Indian cave it's<a class="pagenum" name="page_159" id="page_159" title="159"></a> got our treasure. You +draw copy that chart from memory soon as we get back, you do."</p> + +<p>"I can't draw," objected Glen. "Maybe I can remember enough about it to +tell you or Apple how to put it on paper."</p> + +<p>"Here's Apple coming now," said Chick-chick. "He's the boy to draw. +Draws better 'n flax seed poultice. You'll draw him all maps he wants +when we get to camp, won't ye, Apple?"</p> + +<p>"If we ever get back," said Apple. "It's getting dark. Father will be +anxious. Why are you leaving the car?"</p> + +<p>"Don't want it," explained Chick-chick. "Isn't ours. 'Fraid somebody see +us with it an' think our name is Jervice. We all get on little old bike +an' hike along sudden, we do."</p> + +<p>Three boys was no special load for the motor-bike. They were constantly +on the look out for the pursuing car which they expected to meet coming +back, but nothing did they see of it. They rushed through Buffalo Center +and a few minutes later Chick-chick blew his horn for the camp.</p> + +<p>Great was the excitement when it was seen that the search party not only +had returned but had brought the missing boy. Glen was almost mobbed by +the crowd of scouts who pulled him one<a class="pagenum" name="page_160" id="page_160" title="160"></a> way and another in vociferous +and jovial greeting. It was an experience such as had never happened in +all his life, and his heart throbbed with thankfulness, and unbidden and +unexpected tears rushed to his eyes that he should be honored with such +a welcome by such loyal comrades. "God is good," came the thought, and +he knew that henceforth he would live a richer, deeper and more loyal +life because of this experience.</p> + +<p>Off to one corner Apple had a noisy audience and there were yet others +who gathered about Chick-chick as he retailed to them in his jerky +fashion such things as he deemed proper for them to know. Loud and +furious discussions were heard from every group.</p> + +<p>"There won't be any looting of the Buffalo Center Bank while the scouts +are in camp, that's a cinch," proclaimed big Tom Scoresby.</p> + +<p>"Tom'll see to that," added Chick-chick.</p> + +<p>"If Tom doesn't do it alone, the scouts will," insisted Tom. "We +wouldn't let robbers loot a bank with us in camp not a mile away, would +we, Mr. Newton?"</p> + +<p>"We wouldn't expect to have anything of the kind going on," agreed Mr. +Newton.</p> + +<p>"Great yarn, this," Matt Burton, was saying to his own little group. "I +reckon we're expected<a class="pagenum" name="page_161" id="page_161" title="161"></a> to swallow it with our eyes shut. I never heard +such stuff."</p> + +<p>"What d'ye mean it's a yarn, Matt?" asked a scout.</p> + +<p>"This story about those fellows being bank robbers. Why that scared +little old peddler would be afraid to rob a sandbank. If anybody gave +him a cross look, he'd die."</p> + +<p>"You don't mean to say Brick Mason's lying?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, no! He just has dreams."</p> + +<p>"Did he dream himself tied up with cords cutting in so sharp they left +red welts and took half hour to get circulation going?" demanded +Chick-chick who had overheard.</p> + +<p>"Red welts nothing!" retorted Matt. "I could raise red welts all over my +body and never feel it."</p> + +<p>"You keep makin' insinuations an' I know fellow'll raise red welts on +you so you won't feel anything for month," threatened Chick-chick. "I +felt those welts. Saw 'em too. Plain as the ridges on a non-skid tire. +Anybody's thinks Brick had 'em made for fun can get all that kind o' fun +he wants."</p> + +<p>"What's the trouble, scouts?"</p> + +<p>It was Mr. Newton, his attention drawn by the angry tones.<a class="pagenum" name="page_162" id="page_162" title="162"></a></p> + +<p>"Explainin' 'bout Brick's body marks," said Chick-chick.</p> + +<p>"I think you've talked long enough." Mr. Newton easily guessed the +quarrel. "Go along with Corliss and Glen and work your tongue on your +supper. You other fellows see they get filled up."</p> + +<p>Glen had rushed to Will Spencer at his first free moment, but the supper +table gave him his first real chance for conversation with him. Will had +his billy cart pushed up where he could clap Glen on the shoulder and +tell him again how glad he was to see him safe and sound.</p> + +<p>"Nice, comfortable day you've given your Uncle Bill," he said in +cheerful accusation.</p> + +<p>"Did you worry about me?" asked Glen.</p> + +<p>"Not so much about you," explained Jolly Bill. "But I had a terrible +time making my mind easy about that poor peddler and worrying about what +would happen to him when you found he'd run off with you."</p> + +<p>"I didn't believe there was anything J. Jervice could do to me, but I +found people worse than him. I believe he's one of a robber gang—"</p> + +<p>"I don't understand these references to robbers," interrupted Mr. +Newton. "Perhaps you'd better make it clear to us."<a class="pagenum" name="page_163" id="page_163" title="163"></a></p> + +<p>So for the benefit of the two men, Glen went over the whole story, +telling them all about his capture, his suspicions of the gang, the +chart he had seen, and the way they had treated him when he refused to +acquiesce in their plans.</p> + +<p>"That sounds very grave," said Mr. Newton, busy already penciling a +note. "I'll get you to take this letter to town, Henry, just as soon as +you have finished your supper."</p> + +<p>"You think they intended to rob the bank to-night?" asked Spencer.</p> + +<p>"That was their original plan, I am sure; but I don't know—"</p> + +<p>He was interrupted by a very earnest and eager delegation of scouts, +with big Tom Scoresby at its head. Tom saluted and asked permission to +address a request to the scoutmaster.</p> + +<p>"We want to go out and capture these bank robbers before they get far +away," he explained. "According to what Chick-chick says, the peddler's +car is within three miles of here. Our plan is to go after it and use it +to catch the thieves."</p> + +<p>"How many scouts are in for this?" asked Mr. Newton.</p> + +<p>As with one voice fifteen scouts shouted "I." Others came running to +swell the number.</p> + +<p>"Let us think this over quietly, scouts. It<a class="pagenum" name="page_164" id="page_164" title="164"></a> would be a great thing for +us to capture this gang of thieves, wouldn't it?"</p> + +<p>There was no doubt that the sentiment met with unanimous favor.</p> + +<p>"Why would it be such a fine thing?"</p> + +<p>Dead silence prevailed for a moment after this direct question; then all +manner of answers filled the air.</p> + +<p>"Show what scouts can do!"</p> + +<p>"Put an end to bank robbing!"</p> + +<p>"Protect our fellow citizens!"</p> + +<p>"Glory for troop 3!"</p> + +<p>"A scout is helpful!"</p> + +<p>"Great sport to catch robbers!"</p> + +<p>"A scout is brave!"</p> + +<p>"Show we're good as men!"</p> + +<p>These were some of the answers that were shot at the scoutmaster.</p> + +<p>When quiet prevailed Mr. Newton resumed his talk.</p> + +<p>"A man asked me once if I didn't think the National Council made a +mistake in its decree that every organization of scouts must have a +scoutmaster.</p> + +<p>"'You baby your boys,'" he said. 'You ought to put them on their own +responsibility.'</p> + +<p>"But he forgot that certain things, such as a<a class="pagenum" name="page_165" id="page_165" title="165"></a> tempered judgment, come +only by experience. A scout is brave and a scout is helpful, true +enough. But a scout must learn how to use his bravery and when to be +helpful.</p> + +<p>"Now suppose I allowed you to organize for a robber hunt, and suppose +that, during that hunt, some robber was so unfair as to fire real +cartridges and hit some member of our expedition. What good would it do +to tell the boy's mother that her son was brave, or helpful, or +adventurous, or daring? What would it avail to tell her that in +preparation for manhood scouts must develop daring and courage?"</p> + +<p>He paused, but the silence was broken by no reply.</p> + +<p>"I can conceive of circumstances in which the risk of your lives would +be your duty, and I hope that, should they come, no scout of this troop +will count life dearer than honor. But this is not one of them. This is +a plain case for plain handling, and I want to tell you how I have +handled it.</p> + +<p>"There is a deputy sheriff in the village and I have sent word to him of +the circumstances and of our suspicions. He, being a regularly appointed +officer of the law, will take such steps as seem best to protect the +bank and to apprehend the robbers. He is not likely to call for help<a class="pagenum" name="page_166" id="page_166" title="166"></a> +from this camp for he knows that there are but two citizens here who +could legally be enlisted in his posse. One of them is crippled, and the +other has a squad of young boys in his care; but if the sheriff should +feel a need to call upon these men, I venture to say that neither will +hold back."</p> + +<p>The boys moved away in rather an unusual silence. It was broken by a +voice from a distant group, speaking loudly in heavy sarcasm.</p> + +<p>"No need to bother about what the sheriff will do. He won't do a thing +because he'll know that the whole thing is a plant."</p> + +<p>The words rang out quite distinctly above the rather subdued hum of the +other voices.</p> + +<p>"The Great an' Only Matty!" exclaimed Chick-chick in disgust. "He sure +knows all about it if it's <i>plant</i>."</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em"> +<a class="pagenum" name="page_167" id="page_167" title="167"></a> +<a name="STRENGTH_AND_LOYALTY_4001" id="STRENGTH_AND_LOYALTY_4001"></a> +<h2>CHAPTER XV</h2> +<h3>STRENGTH AND LOYALTY</h3> +</div> + +<p>Glen found next day that he had suddenly become somewhat of a hero. +Apple and Chick-chick had privately given very good accounts of his +fortitude and resource. He felt about as happy as ever in his life and +all manner of good impulses stirred within him.</p> + +<p>None of the three who had taken chief part in yesterday's adventure felt +very much inclined to energy this bright morning. Glen lay in the warm +grass close to Jolly Bill and his billy-cart in peaceful comfort. His +muscular arms were a senna brown, his bare chest the same color, +excepting where it was marked by a dull blue design similar to that +which caused an anchor and various rings to appear prominently upon his +arms.</p> + +<p>"'Lo, Brick," said the cheery voice of Chick-chick, whose light hearted +philosophy and undisturbed equanimity under all circumstances Glen +greatly admired. "Some strong man, ain't you, Brick?"<a class="pagenum" name="page_168" id="page_168" title="168"></a></p> + +<p>"Pretty strong for a boy," Glen admitted.</p> + +<p>"Say, Brick, Goosey wants ask you question," jerked out Chick-chick. +"Goosey so bashful wouldn't come alone, he wouldn't."</p> + +<p>"I'd like fine to be strong like you, Brick," said Goosey. "Some of us +kids have been talking about it and one fellow says he's noticed that +strong men like sailors and railroad men always have tattoo marks like +you got. A brakeman told him that's what made him strong. Some of <i>us</i> +want you to fix us up."</p> + +<p>Glen laughed, but it was a bitter laugh.</p> + +<p>"Do you know how much I'd give to have these marks cleared off, if I had +the money?" he asked, savagely.</p> + +<p>"Cleared off!" exclaimed Goosey. "Why, Brick, they're just handsome. +That anchor on your arm and the flag on your chest—why we kids think +they're great!"</p> + +<p>"Wait till you kids get to be a little bit older and find out what real +people think of 'em—I mean people that are people. They call 'em +gallows marks in the school back there. The chaplain he's strong against +'em. I 'member when he caught a kid having some ink pricked in by one of +us."</p> + +<p>"Got after you, did he?" asked Chick-chick.<a class="pagenum" name="page_169" id="page_169" title="169"></a></p> + +<p>"Well, he says, 'You kids know why I always wear a bandage round my +right arm when I play tennis?' I'd often wondered. 'I suppose it's to +strengthen the arm,' I guessed."</p> + +<p>"Was it?" asked Goosey, eagerly. If there was anything that would +strengthen an arm he wanted to know it.</p> + +<p>"Strengthen the arm nothing!" replied Glen, with contempt. "He rolled up +his sleeve and snowed us where he had a woman's head tattooed in. I +s'pose you'd say it was a peach of a head, Goosey."</p> + +<p>"Wasn't it done right?" asked Goosey.</p> + +<p>"Done fine. Done as well as they're ever done. But he was ashamed of it. +He put on that bandage just so it wouldn't show when his sleeve was +rolled up."</p> + +<p>"I don't understand that," said Goosey, in evident disappointment.</p> + +<p>Chick-chick, too, inclined to the opinion that the chaplain was over +nice.</p> + +<p>"You'd understand if he spoke to you about it," said Glen. "He says to +us: 'Every once in a while you'll find a good man and a smart man that +is all marked up with tattoo marks, but where they're carried by one +clean, smart man, there's a hundred bums and tramps that have 'em. If<a class="pagenum" name="page_170" id="page_170" title="170"></a> a +good man has 'em it's a safe bet that he didn't put 'em on when he was +doing well. It means that some time in his life he was down in bad +company. It's the poorest kind of advertising."</p> + +<p>"That's why he hid 'em up, then."</p> + +<p>"Chiefly. He says 'One reason I cover this up is so it won't set foolish +ideas into boys' heads. There's many a business man would pay ten +thousand dollars to get rid of the ugly marks. There are all kinds of +ways but none of 'em work well and most of 'em cost the fellow that owns +the skin an awful lot o' pain as well as the money. The way to get rid +of tattoo marks,' he says, 'is not to put 'em on.'"</p> + +<p>"But since you can't help having 'em, you aren't going to let 'em keep +you down, are you, Brick, old top?"</p> + +<p>It was Jolly Bill who asked the question. They had thought him asleep in +his cart.</p> + +<p>"No, nor anything else," declared Glen. "I'm not so far behind. Somebody +asked me once, 'How does it come you talk so well?' They don't +understand that we learn as much in the state schools as in the regular +public school, and we have to do our best or make a show at it, whether +we want to or not."</p> + +<p>"But, Brick," persisted Goosey. "You said a<a class="pagenum" name="page_171" id="page_171" title="171"></a> lot about the tattoo marks, +but you didn't say yet whether it makes you strong."</p> + +<p>"Chick-chick," commanded Jolly Bill. "You lead that little boy away. +Whatever made you bring him here with his sad story? What is there in a +little India ink, pricked beneath the skin, to make you strong—does it +make father's shirts strong when mother uses it to put his initials in +the corner? Lead him off, Chick-chick."</p> + +<p>"That's all right," Goosey observed. "Matt Burton thinks it's what makes +Brick strong. Matt says no reform school boy could knock him down if he +hadn't been doped up with some stimulant."</p> + +<p>"You mustn't pay too much attention to what Matt Burton says," counseled +Spencer.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I don't. Matt says there wasn't any thief and there isn't any cave, +and I believe there is. Matt says he wouldn't believe it, anyway, 'cause +Brick says it's so."</p> + +<p>"You'd better run along, little boy, before you say something Matt'll be +sorry for," said Spencer.</p> + +<p>Glen had stood a good deal from Matt and had borne it quietly. It was +not that it did not sting, but that he believed he was "taking his +medicine." Let no one suppose, however, that because<a class="pagenum" name="page_172" id="page_172" title="172"></a> he had started on +the up route, Glen Mason disclosed any anatomical peculiarities such as +the sprouting of wings. His capacity for taking a wrong view of matters +was as great as ever. The only difference was that he resisted it +occasionally. But there was a limit to his resistance, and so nearly had +he reached it that this report of Goosey's decided him to take a +sufficient vacation from his good principles to allow of the +administration to Matt Burton of one good, swift punch.</p> + +<p>Goosey said that Matt was walking toward Buffalo Center when last seen. +There was only one road to the village, so with his bottled up vengeance +in his heart Glen struck out along this road.</p> + +<p>There, on the main street of the little town, right at the Bank corner, +stood Matt talking to a couple of men who sat on the low railing which +served for ornament rather than protection to the bank front. One of the +men wore a star on his coat; the other was a rough looking individual +who yet had an official air.</p> + +<p>It was no part of Glen's program to create a public disturbance, but he +was quite resolved not to let Matt get far out of his sight. A good plan +was to hike through the alley and come up on the south side of the bank +building, where, hidden by<a class="pagenum" name="page_173" id="page_173" title="173"></a> a convenient pillar, he would be able to +hear what was going on without being seen.</p> + +<p>Glen lost no time getting through the alley, and in a few moments, +flattened against the wall at the southwest corner, could hear all that +Matt said to the men as they sat on the rail at the west front.</p> + +<p>"What we want," said one man, "is to catch 'em in the act. They was +timid last night and the fust little noise we made they was off. Are you +one o' them scouts as seen 'em yestiddy?"</p> + +<p>"I have seen the little peddler," asserted Matt. "I didn't think he had +spunk enough to rob a blind man."</p> + +<p>"Mebbe he has—mebbe he ain't. It don't allus take spunk. Yore chief +said they was another fellow—desp'rit villain. Did ye see him?"</p> + +<p>"No, I didn't," Matt admitted reluctantly. "I don't often have any luck. +It takes fellows like Glen Mason."</p> + +<p>"Name sounds familiar. Mason! Glen Mason! Let me look at that circ'lar I +got in my pocket. Thought that was it. Fellow, that name, just run off +f'm the reform school. Here's the bill about it."</p> + +<p>Glen was seized with a paralyzing terror. This constable or sheriff or +whatever he was had only<a class="pagenum" name="page_174" id="page_174" title="174"></a> to reach around the corner to lay hands right +on him. He forgot all about revenge on Matt—what he now wanted was to +get away.</p> + +<p>Then he heard the officer's next question.</p> + +<p>"This Glen Mason fellow you speak about—is he one of your regular +scouts?"</p> + +<p>Glen waited in breathless suspense to hear how Judas would betray him. +The answer left him high and dry, gasping with surprise.</p> + +<p>"Yes, he's a regular scout," said Matt. "He's a tenderfoot. I suppose it +isn't such a very uncommon name."</p> + +<p>After all, Matt was a scout—a scout and a patrol leader. He might be +conceited, he might be supercilious, he might and did need a lot of +nonsense sweated out of him. But he was a scout, and—a scout is loyal! +He would have loved dearly to see Glen Mason sent back to the reform +school and thus removed from disputing his preeminence. But he was no +Judas—his should not be the tongue to betray a fellow scout.</p> + +<p>Glen straightened the fist that he had clenched so fiercely at his side, +and drew a deep breath as he settled himself down more closely into the +protection of his pillar.</p> + +<p>"I'd like to see the feller that seen the robbers an' took the ride in +their car. I'd like to see<a class="pagenum" name="page_175" id="page_175" title="175"></a> the car. I didn't see it when they went +through here yestiddy." It was the rough voice again.</p> + +<p>"Why not go now and see it?" asked Matt. "The bridge where the boys hid +it is only a couple of miles away."</p> + +<p>"No good," replied the man. "Them boys wasn't as smart as they thunk. We +sent up to get the car fust thing after yore chief sent the word to us +last night, but all they was left of it was tracks."</p> + +<p>So the car was gone. Glen could easily understand how they discovered +it. They had only to run back to where the peculiar tires ended their +journey and then search to find where they had left the track. So the +ford would have been discovered and then the car.</p> + +<p>"If I'd been driving I'd have run it right up to the sheriff's office +and claimed the reward," boasted Matt.</p> + +<p>"Mebbe you would—mebbe you wouldn't. Mebbe you'd got a few slugs o' +lead under your vest. Them fellers must ha' been pretty clos't around to +get that car away so quick. I think them boys was clever. Anyway they +wasn't no reward then. They is now—five hundred dollars. The Bankers' +Association offered it soon as they heard the story."<a class="pagenum" name="page_176" id="page_176" title="176"></a></p> + +<p>"When are you going to hunt them out?" asked Matt.</p> + +<p>"Huntin' right now, son. Huntin' while we set gassin' with you. We hunts +in our sleep."</p> + +<p>"No joking, now. When are you going to get up a posse? I want to go +along."</p> + +<p>"We'll send for ye when we feel that we need ye, son. Come along, Ike. I +hear Number Three whistlin' fer the crossin'. Watch the blind baggage."</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em"> +<a class="pagenum" name="page_177" id="page_177" title="177"></a> +<a name="DETECTIVE_MATTY_4241" id="DETECTIVE_MATTY_4241"></a> +<h2>CHAPTER XVI</h2> +<h3>DETECTIVE MATTY</h3> +</div> + +<p>Glen managed to get back to the camp without coming under Matt's notice. +His animosity had all disappeared. This one act of loyalty on Matt's +part wiped out a great load of snubs and grudges. He knew that his +connection with the reform school was quite generally known at the camp, +for Mr. Newton himself—subsequent to the disclosures of J. Jervice—had +seen fit to explain to the scouts that Glen might be considered as +staying under his parole, and had further expressed his conviction that +the authorities would certainly make the parole permanent in view of all +the facts. An explanation made to friendly boys, however, was a vastly +different thing from making one to officers who had a chance to earn a +reward. He felt, therefore, that Matt had saved him from a real danger.</p> + +<p>Chick-chick and Apple were anxiously awaiting his coming that they might +complete the map which they were preparing from his recollection of the +chart shown by Jervice. Mr. Newton had<a class="pagenum" name="page_178" id="page_178" title="178"></a> decided that the information +Glen had gained from the robbers' chart was his exclusive property, +since it had been obtained by him while in peril of life and limb. But +Glen was not disposed to take advantage of this, and with the help of +Apple and Chick-chick as chartographers was preparing a chart for the +free use of the entire camp.</p> + +<p>"We have everything sketched in that you told us," said Apple. "What we +want now is to be as nearly sure as possible where the big star was."</p> + +<p>"It looked to be about half way down the side of the Mound," said Glen. +"Right near it I saw marks for 'Twin Elms' and 'Deep Springs.'"</p> + +<p>"We've been looking along Buffalo Creek and we can't find any Twin Elms. +There's only one place where two elms are anywhere near together and one +of them is a great big elm, and the other a little sapling that isn't +more than five years old. That would throw it out altogether as far as +locating our cave."</p> + +<p>"How about Deep Springs?"</p> + +<p>"Well, there's the Ice Box. The Springs must be deep there because it's +so cold. We used to swim there last year but it's really too cold for +fun. That's just about half way down the Mound, but there's no elms +anywhere near."<a class="pagenum" name="page_179" id="page_179" title="179"></a></p> + +<p>"How would it be to mark that for 'Deep Springs' and put the mark for +'Twin Elms' just where the two elms you speak about are?"</p> + +<p>"An' then put big star between 'em an' everything be over but pickin' up +treasure," put in Chick-chick, sarcastically.</p> + +<p>"No, it wouldn't do," said Apple. "We don't know that Deep Springs and +the Ice Box are the same and we are pretty sure Twin Elms couldn't be +the old tree and the sapling. The only thing I know to do is to make the +marks just like you saw them and let the scouts figure them out for +themselves. If we go putting our own ideas in we will likely spoil the +whole thing."</p> + +<p>"Great head, this," endorsed Chick-chick, patting the curly head +appreciatively.</p> + +<p>They took the chart out and nailed it to a tree near the cook shack and +in a few moments it was being studied by the entire troop which had just +gathered for dinner.</p> + +<p>It might well be doubted whether the chart served any purpose of +enlightenment, after all. It showed certain local land marks and several +crosses were designated at different spots but just what they +represented was still a mystery. The principal cross was the one over +which Mr. Jervice had placed his thumb, and this inclined the majority<a class="pagenum" name="page_180" id="page_180" title="180"></a> +to decide to hunt in that direction, but unfortunately it was hard to +find "Twin Elms" thereabout, and the "Deep Springs" were only a matter +of surmise. It had certainly served the purpose of reviving interest in +the treasure hunt and mysterious rumors of a cave in which a robber band +had hidden booty did not lessen it.</p> + +<p>Will Spencer while pleased at the renewed activity was by no means sure +that it would help his search.</p> + +<p>"Think we'll have to push on back to our cornfield and do some exploring +from the old bed of the lake back to its source, Glen," said he. "Gold +is nothing to us. What we want is water."</p> + +<p>"Supposing some of these scouts should find all that bullion, you'd +think differently," said Glen.</p> + +<p>Spencer laughed.</p> + +<p>"You're having a good vacation about it," he said. "We'll stay this week +out since we're both having such a good time. Next week you push your +Uncle Bill and his billy cart back to Ryder's farmhouse and we begin +over again."</p> + +<p>"Any time you say," agreed Glen. "Here's Goosey looking as if he was +excited about something."</p> + +<p>"Found the treasure, son?" asked Will.<a class="pagenum" name="page_181" id="page_181" title="181"></a></p> + +<p>"Not yet," admitted Goosey. "But I've got an idea."</p> + +<p>"When you're looking for treasure look for signs of old water-courses. +If you find one, follow it along and see if it leads to a spring."</p> + +<p>"What good'll that do?" asked Goosey.</p> + +<p>"Twenty dollars' worth," replied Jolly Bill. "Twenty dollars in coin of +the realm. This old buried treasure may be in such shape that you can't +cash it. My money will be straight goods."</p> + +<p>"Guess I'll find the gold the Indians stole," said Goosey. "I've got a +scheme, leastways Matty's got one, and he's letting me in on it."</p> + +<p>It was not until next day that Goosey, under pressure from Chick-chick, +disclosed more of Matty's wonderful scheme.</p> + +<p>"You know, Matty's read a lot about detecting things and he knows all +about how to do it."</p> + +<p>"Yes, we ought to know about that, Goosey. See how he found the bread +box."</p> + +<p>"Well, he admits he slipped up there. But this time it's different. He +says he ain't soft enough to suppose Brick Mason is giving out +information to help people find the treasure when—"</p> + +<p>"Hold on, Goosey. Thought Matt didn't believe there was any treasure. He +believes whole thing fake—Matt does."<a class="pagenum" name="page_182" id="page_182" title="182"></a></p> + +<p>"Well, after he talked to the deputy sheriff and found out there was a +big reward offered he changed his mind. He says it ain't reasonable the +Bankers' Association would offer a reward just for nothing. So then he +says, of course Brick Mason's chart is a blind. Brick wants everybody to +be wasting their time on a wrong scent while he goes after the real +thing."</p> + +<p>"Real clever; Matty is. Wish he was as white as Brick."</p> + +<p>"Well, Matt's clever, anyway; no gettin' around that. What does he do to +get on the right track? He goes an' hunts up the Indian—the one as told +us to look for heap rock."</p> + +<p>"Bright idea. Of course Indian wouldn't tell Matt anything but truth—he +wouldn't."</p> + +<p>"No, because Matt gave him two dollars. So Indian told him there was a +cave and he wasn't sure about the treasure because he's superstitious +and he's too much afraid of the dead men to look. But the cave isn't +anywhere near Buffalo Creek. It's on down below."</p> + +<p>"You mean below camp?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, down in the woods somewhere around Vinegar Creek. You know Buffalo +Creek gets pretty rapid after it passes the Ice Box. Runs down with lots +of force into Vinegar Creek. It's<a class="pagenum" name="page_183" id="page_183" title="183"></a> quite a gully down there and for five +dollars more the Indian's willing to show Matt the exact place."</p> + +<p>"Worth that much to Matty?"</p> + +<p>"Worth it! You ain't talkin' sense. Matt doesn't need money so awful +bad, but there's just two things he'd like better than anything else in +the world. One is to find the treasure and so kill that everlastin' joke +about the bread box. T'other's to catch the bank robbers an' so show +that he's the smartest boy in camp."</p> + +<p>"That five dollars won't get him to it—it won't."</p> + +<p>"Well, Matt's lucky this time, as it happens. He isn't going to have to +pay the Indian the five. He's found a better way. Last night he went +down to kinder look things over an' he found a couple o' men camping. +First off he hoped they were the robbers but they're pretty nice men and +they're engineers. Matt wouldn't have told them anything but when he +found they were surveyin' Vinegar Creek and goin' on up to Buffalo next +he could see right off that they had good chances of runnin' right into +the cave, so he gets ahead of 'em by tellin' all about it and making 'em +promise equal shares if they found anything."</p> + +<p>"Clever Matty!" exclaimed Chick-chick.</p> + +<p>"Yes, he's clever, Matty is. No good paying<a class="pagenum" name="page_184" id="page_184" title="184"></a> any five dollars to any +Indian when he's got as good a thing as that. These engineers want to +see our camp so Matty's to bring 'em up this afternoon while everybody's +at the swim. He doesn't want the crowd around to be pestering 'em with +questions."</p> + +<p>When this information was carried to Jolly Bill he was more disturbed +than he cared to acknowledge. He had a very well defined feeling that +his scheme to restore Buffalo Lake had become common property and that +these engineers were competitors. He felt some safety in the fact that +he held options on the land; yet he had a strong desire to see this +surveying corps and talk with the men about their work.</p> + +<p>Thus it happened that Glen was in camp when the surveyors came—he +stayed at Spencer's request to engineer the billy-cart. The engineers +were young fellows, not overly clean; perhaps it was not to be expected +in following such work. They were genial enough to the few people who +were in camp. At first they did not seem inclined to pay much attention +to Spencer, but after he had asked them one or two questions they began +to take notice.</p> + +<p>"Where are you running your levels for the Vinegar Creek survey?" asked +Spencer.<a class="pagenum" name="page_185" id="page_185" title="185"></a></p> + +<p>"Running what?" said one.</p> + +<p>"Oh, levels," said the other. "We haven't got to that yet."</p> + +<p>"Find it rather hard to carry your lines through all that brush, don't +you?"</p> + +<p>"We will if we have to do it."</p> + +<p>"What elevation do you work from?"</p> + +<p>"We ain't quite decided. You see, we only just made camp. Mebbe we'll +work up here first."</p> + +<p>"You'll have to see Mr. Newton about that," said Spencer.</p> + +<p>"We'll see him," said the spokesman. "We're going to look along up this +creek a piece, now."</p> + +<p>"Think perhaps you'll start your survey at an obtuse angle or an angle +of sixty degrees, which?" asked Spencer gravely.</p> + +<p>"Sixty degrees," replied the man, as if glad to get off so easily.</p> + +<p>"Now, I'm quite sure they're no engineers," said Spencer to Glen as the +two men followed Matt along the bank of Buffalo Creek. "I rather thought +they weren't from the start, which is why I asked such foolish +questions. Well, that relieves my anxiety about competition."</p> + +<p>"What do you reckon they are?" asked Glen.</p> + +<p>"Two farmer boys who want to work Matt for something, I suppose. We +ought to warn him to<a class="pagenum" name="page_186" id="page_186" title="186"></a> be on guard, but really I think a few lessons will +do Matt lots of good."</p> + +<p>"He did me a good turn yesterday," said Glen. "I'd like to put him +next."</p> + +<p>"You can try it," agreed Will. "But Matt is one of the class of people +who would rather be fooled than warned."</p> + +<p>Glen ran along after the trio. The noise of his approach caught Matt's +ear and he turned with a look of disgust on his face.</p> + +<p>"You aren't in on this," he exclaimed angrily. "These two men are my +friends and our business is private."</p> + +<p>"I just wanted to tell you something, Burton," said Glen. "I'll go back +as soon as I've said it."</p> + +<p>"Fire away," instructed Matt. "The quicker you get rid of it and go the +way you came, the better."</p> + +<p>"Come over here and I'll tell you."</p> + +<p>"These men are my friends, I tell you. Whatever you have to say to me +they can hear."</p> + +<p>"They're not scouts," objected Glen.</p> + +<p>"You're not much of a one," retorted Matt.</p> + +<p>The words Glen had for Matt were not to be bawled into the ears of +strangers, so he left the foolish boy to follow his own tactics. It was +not too late for the swim and Glen was glad to have<a class="pagenum" name="page_187" id="page_187" title="187"></a> at least a few +minutes of his favorite sport.</p> + +<p>He was dressing when some one tapped him on the shoulder and he looked +up into the comical face of Chick-chick.</p> + +<p>"Hey, Brick. Found something, I have," he announced.</p> + +<p>"What is it?" asked Glen.</p> + +<p>"Hssh! Not so loud! Don't want whole camp to know. It's secret. +Footprints on sands of time."</p> + +<p>"You're talking nonsense," said Glen.</p> + +<p>"No nonsense about it. It's wheelprints 'stead o' footprints, that's +all. Come an' see. I was chasin' butterfly down near Vinegar Creek an' I +ran on it by accident, I did."</p> + +<p>The two boys managed to slip away from the crowd and Chick-chick +mysteriously led the way down the road in the direction of the heavy +woods that marked the location of Vinegar Creek.</p> + +<p>"While back I heard a car chuggin' along. Funny for car be down here, +don't ye know. Then there's somethin' 'bout an engine's voice—every +engine got voice of its own and you 'member it after you get 'quainted. +Seemed to me I knew that voice. Looked at car an' didn't look like +anything ever seen. Car all stripped off—nothing much left but chassis. +Then I came down to road<a class="pagenum" name="page_188" id="page_188" title="188"></a> an' looked at tracks. Wait bit. Soon be there, +we will."</p> + +<p>He led on for another hundred yards until they reached a point where an +old woods trail struck out into the highway. Here Chick-chick paused.</p> + +<p>"Look at this, Brick," he said. "Ever see tire-tracks look like that, +did you?"</p> + +<p>Glen looked at the tracks. They were exactly like those he had smoothed +away when concealing the departure of the J. Jervice car at the ford.</p> + +<p>"Verdict of Jury 'Guilty as charged'!" exclaimed Chick-chick, looking +into his eyes. "Come on, Brick, let's follow 'long this old cow-path +till we see our beloved car once more."</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em"> +<a class="pagenum" name="page_189" id="page_189" title="189"></a> +<a name="THE_END_OF_THE_JERVICE_GANG_4556" id="THE_END_OF_THE_JERVICE_GANG_4556"></a> +<h2>CHAPTER XVII</h2> +<h3>THE END OF THE JERVICE GANG</h3> +</div> + +<p>All that Glen could do was to follow where Chick-chick led and try to go +just as noiselessly, and to flit carefully from one screen of cover to +the next in just as unobtrusive a way. It was an old sport with +Chick-chick, but though Glen was an amateur at it he made a very good +performance.</p> + +<p>It was not reasonable to suppose that an automobile could get very far +along such a road, yet they had traveled a quarter mile before the +tracks swung entirely away from the old path and followed a strip of +comparatively bare ground that led in toward the creek.</p> + +<p>"There she is!" at last Chick-chick whispered. "Don't look bit like gay +old friend we left, she don't."</p> + +<p>She did not. If it were the same car it meant that the gang, feeling +that so conspicuous a mark as the J. Jervice car originally presented +would be a fatal advertisement of their identity, and yet desirous of +making use of the car, had stripped<a class="pagenum" name="page_190" id="page_190" title="190"></a> it clean of the betraying top and +had taken away everything that could mark it for a peddler's car.</p> + +<p>Their plan would have worked successfully but for the betraying tires, +and the sharp eye and quick mind of scout Henry Henry, commonly known as +Chick-chick.</p> + +<p>"Are you sure it's the same?" whispered Glen.</p> + +<p>"Surest thing on wheels," affirmed Chick-chick. "Bet you find drygoods +in the transmission case if dare look."</p> + +<p>"Why do you suppose they've left it here?"</p> + +<p>"Good, safe place. Nobody see. Camp not far away, reckon. Better lay +pretty low here. There's only two of us."</p> + +<p>Late in the afternoon two tired but excited scouts found their way into +camp and proceeded to disturb Mr. Newton in his afternoon study hour.</p> + +<p>"Is it true that there's reward of five hundred dollars for the bank +robbers?" one asked.</p> + +<p>"I believe so," said Mr. Newton. "The sheriff himself and quite a few +deputies are trying to earn it, too. They are covering this county and +several neighboring counties, too."</p> + +<p>"Sheriff out this way?" asked Chick-chick.</p> + +<p>"He was in Buffalo Center this morning," replied Mr. Newton.<a class="pagenum" name="page_191" id="page_191" title="191"></a></p> + +<p>"We know where gang is, Mr. Newton. We want go right down get that +reward, we do."</p> + +<p>"The reward is for their apprehension, Henry. So you see you wouldn't +get it, because, so far, you don't appear to have apprehended them."</p> + +<p>Chick-chick's countenance fell, but he brightened again in a minute.</p> + +<p>"We can do it all right, all right. Maybe better get sheriff help us."</p> + +<p>He proceeded to tell Mr. Newton of their discovery.</p> + +<p>"And you saw them so clearly you are quite sure they are the same men?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir," replied Glen. "We located their camp by a line of +smoke—leastways Chick-chick did. Then we climbed a big tree near by and +looked right down on 'em. I saw Jervice and the big man, and one other +man I never had seen before."</p> + +<p>"What shall we do about this?" Mr. Newton asked of Will Spencer, who had +been studying with him.</p> + +<p>"Get 'em," replied Will, his eyes sparkling. "I wish I were more of a +man, so I could help."</p> + +<p>"Hold on, Will," said Mr. Newton, kindly. "You have just as good other +work, you know. And wishing won't make you agile and active<a class="pagenum" name="page_192" id="page_192" title="192"></a> any more +than it will make these boys into grown men. What's the wise thing to +do?"</p> + +<p>"You good, old scoutmaster!" exclaimed Will. "Of course you're right. +You being the only real man here the thing to do is to see if that +sheriff is still at Buffalo Center."</p> + +<p>"But you ain't going to shut us out?" cried Glen and Chick-chick in +unison.</p> + +<p>Mr. Newton and Spencer laughed at their eagerness.</p> + +<p>"You are big fellows, both of you," said Mr. Newton. "I've no desire to +rob you of your glory or reward. You must come with me to see the +sheriff, or perhaps you'd better go alone on Henry's motorcycle to save +time. He will have to come this way to go after the men, and I've no +doubt he will want you to show the way. Perhaps he'll let me go, too. +Only no foolishness, remember—no attempt at single-handed captures—no +stepping in the way of a piece of heavy artillery just to show that you +bear a charmed life. After you've shown the way your job will be to stay +in the background."</p> + +<p>The sheriff was still staying at Buffalo Center's little hotel. +Chick-chick was disappointed to find that he did not at all come up to +his ideas of a sheriff. Glen whose dealings with sheriffs had<a class="pagenum" name="page_193" id="page_193" title="193"></a> not been +so limited was not so surprised. The sheriff was so much like the other +farmers lounging around the hotel office that they had to inquire for +him. There was this much to say for him—he was not big, but he looked +as if he might be quick and keen.</p> + +<p>"Better come in here," said the sheriff, leading the way into the little +parlor. "Now, tell me all about it."</p> + +<p>Glen acted as spokesman, for Chick-chick was still quite excited.</p> + +<p>"So you're the boys that got the car away from the peddler, are ye?" +asked the sheriff. "I reckon ye ought to know the car an' the man too. +You was expectin' to see this man Jervice, wasn't ye?"</p> + +<p>"We were after we saw the car," Glen agreed.</p> + +<p>"Now, don't ye reckon that mebbe, seein' the man at a distance like an' +being as you was expectin' to see Jervice an' the big man, you might +just imagined they was what you saw?"</p> + +<p>"No, sir. It wasn't possible to be mistaken. We were near enough so we +could both see the man very clearly."</p> + +<p>"Well; this other fellow, now; the one you never had seen before? What +did he look like?"</p> + +<p>"Big man," said Chick-chick. "Over six foot.<a class="pagenum" name="page_194" id="page_194" title="194"></a> Black hair, no hair on his +face. I got good look once and face was all one side like this, it was."</p> + +<p>Chick-chick drew his face to one side in a peculiar manner. Mimicry was +one of his talents.</p> + +<p>"That's the feller," said the sheriff. "If you saw him that's the gang. +That was Black Coventry to the letter. There ought to be two more of 'em +and the gang would be complete. You can show us the way, can you?"</p> + +<p>The sheriff had one of his deputies with him at the hotel. He deputized +two active young farmers who were present and the four started on +horseback following Chick-chick's motorcycle.</p> + +<p>They found Mr. Newton waiting at the roadside near the camp. Chick-chick +began an introduction but the sheriff interrupted.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I know Captain Newton. Remember when ye was Captain of Battery +A—let's see, twelve years ago, that was. Come along of us, Captain. +Ye're just the man we need an' we're short handed, anyway."</p> + +<p>"I've no horse," objected the scoutmaster.</p> + +<p>"Jump up back o' me. It ain't so awful far f'm what these boys say. +We'll have to foot it, anyway, for quite some distance, if we want to +s'prise 'em."</p> + +<p>When the place where the wood-road turned<a class="pagenum" name="page_195" id="page_195" title="195"></a> off was reached the sheriff +decided to leave the horses.</p> + +<p>"One o' you boys stay here now with the deputy an' help guard these +horses," instructed the sheriff. "Which'll it be?"</p> + +<p>"I guess it's Chick-chick's find," volunteered Glen. "I'll stay."</p> + +<p>"Keep your eyes sharp open," the sheriff instructed his deputy. "If +they'd get started afore we could get to their car they might slip by +us. Then, there ought to be two more of 'em somewheres around, too. +Might be comin' up any minute. They're slick."</p> + +<p>After the men had gone Glen found it anxious work waiting with the +deputy and the horses while Chick-chick led the sheriff's posse to +glory.</p> + +<p>"I suppose we'll hear 'em shooting most any minute," he said to the +deputy.</p> + +<p>"Mebbe we will—mebbe we won't," replied the deputy. "We won't if things +go the way the old man intends."</p> + +<p>"How is that?" asked Glen.</p> + +<p>"There won't be any shootin' unless they's some break in his +calc'lations. His way don't make much allowance for it. He'll get up +there right silent an' have his men posted convenient; then he'll step +out an' say 'Come along o' me,<a class="pagenum" name="page_196" id="page_196" title="196"></a> Coventry. No good fussin'. My men got ye +dead to rights.' An' mos' generally they come."</p> + +<p>"How about the other two men?" asked Glen.</p> + +<p>"Mebbe they're there; mebbe they ain't. It was putty clever of 'em to +hide right around here, knowing they was looked for all over the +country."</p> + +<p>"Don't you suppose they're staying here so as to look for that stuff in +the cave?"</p> + +<p>"We don't take much stock in that story," said the deputy. "We don't +know that they is any cave. What they was after wasn't in no river bank, +it was in the bank of Buffalo Center."</p> + +<p>He appreciated his little joke and chuckled over it very heartily. His +merriment, however, did not prevent him from being the first one to see +a little group coming down the main road.</p> + +<p>"Three of 'em!" he said. "One of 'em's from your camp. Who's the other +two?"</p> + +<p>"The scout is Matt Burton," said Glen. "The other two must be the +engineers that he found camping down here. Say, I'll tell you something. +They aren't engineers. What's the matter with them being the other two +of Jervice's gang?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing the matter at all," said the deputy. "Lay low now, and we'll +get 'em. They're looking awful suspicious like at our tracks in the +road. They don't understand 'em. If they break an'<a class="pagenum" name="page_197" id="page_197" title="197"></a> run you stay here +with the horses an' I'll give 'em a chase."</p> + +<p>"They've grabbed hold of Matt as if they were going to work some rough +house play with him," said Glen. "Look what they're doing."</p> + +<p>"They think he's sold 'em out," said the deputy. "They got a notion that +he's leading 'em into something."</p> + +<p>Just then Matt, who was not deficient in courage, made a lunge at one of +the men, broke loose and started to run. He was overtaken in a minute by +the other man who hit him such a blow as to stretch him full length in +the dust of the road.</p> + +<p>"Hold on there, hold on," the deputy counseled Glen. "You can't do +anything chasin' after 'em. Just let 'em stay here till the sheriff gets +back an' he'll pick 'em up easy. Now, take a holt o' this gun. You +needn't shoot it, but it'll look better if you have one. I'm goin' to +sneak up a piece and get back of 'em. I'll take this rope along an' +mebbe I can git it over one of 'em. I won't be far behind 'em any time. +You stay here with the hosses an' if they seem like to pass along +without noticing don't you so much as cheep. All you got to do is mind +the hosses."</p> + +<p>When the two men, with Matt between them,<a class="pagenum" name="page_198" id="page_198" title="198"></a> reached the turn of the road +and saw that the tracks led directly to the camp they came to a dead +halt. Glen could now hear distinctly what they said.</p> + +<p>"It's a frame up," declared one. "This kid thinks he's smart leading us +into a trap. Back we go. Nobody won't draw on us, neither. You go first, +Jack. I'll be right next to you with my hands on your shoulders. This +smart kid'll foller me the same way. They won't nobody try no gun play +for fear of hittin' the kid. Jest as soon as we git out of range we'll +make a streak for it, an' the kid'll go with us."</p> + +<p>The man spoke in a loud voice undoubtedly for the benefit of some person +or persons who might be supposed to be within bullet range and be +desirous of picking them off from ambush rather than risk a personal +encounter. Perhaps he had heard some warning noise. He had not made so +bad a guess, for a good marksman, concealed in Glen's position, would +have had them at his mercy.</p> + +<p>Glen watched the peculiar parade as the three walked back up the road at +a lock-step gait that was quite fast for unpracticed performers. He would +have been glad to give some word of encouragement to Matt for he still +remembered the good turn of the day before. But his business was to +watch over the horses. It would never do to betray their hiding place to +these desperate men who might overpower him and be off before the deputy +could reach them.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style='width:350px'> +<a name="illus-002" id="illus-002"></a> +<img src="images/illus-198.jpg" alt="Glen watched the three walk back up the road at a lock-step gait. Page 198" title="" width="350" /><br /> +<span class="caption">Glen watched the three walk back up the road at a lock-step gait. Page 198</span> +</div> + +<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_199" id="page_199" title="199"></a>Where was that deputy?</p> + +<p>He said that he would not be far behind the desperadoes at any time; but +Glen had seen no sign of him since he slipped so quietly away with his +long rope. He watched the marching figures going back along the +road—farther away—farther yet. Soon they would be feeling safe out of +range and would break and run.</p> + +<p>Where was the deputy?</p> + +<p>Glen found his answer even though he did not see his man. A long rope +circled through the air. It fell neatly over the three close-locked +heads and tightened suddenly as it dropped below their shoulders. There +was a frantic struggle from the tied up trio and suddenly the deputy +came into view belaying his rope to a tree.</p> + +<p>Glen turned his eyes from this scene as he heard the noise of voices +behind him. It was the sheriff's party returning. He waved his hand to +them for speed and was glad to see the sheriff, Mr. Newton and +Chick-chick start toward him<a class="pagenum" name="page_200" id="page_200" title="200"></a> on the run. The other members of the party +were evidently convoying prisoners.</p> + +<p>One of the men in the road had freed his hands but the deputy had +persuaded him to put them above his head, and stood in the road guarding +his capture as the relief party came up.</p> + +<p>"So you got 'em?" exclaimed the sheriff. "That makes the haul complete. +Our three below are coming along like lambs."</p> + +<p>"These three," said the deputy, solemnly, "being trussed up the way they +is, looks more like chickens."</p> + +<p>"Loosen up on 'em," said Glen. "That one's a scout. You could easily +tell he isn't one of 'em. Didn't you see the way they knocked him over?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. He's a scout," confirmed Mr. Newton, coming up. "He has simply +been deceived by these fellows, supposing they were honest men. I hope +they haven't hurt you much, Burton."</p> + +<p>"Hurt me!" cried Matt. "They were two to one and they knocked me down +but they couldn't hurt me. Let me give this big fellow just one—"</p> + +<p>"That'll do, young fellow," said the sheriff. "These men are in the +hands of the law, now. They'll get whatever's coming to 'em."</p> + +<p>It was a triumphant procession that wound its way back to town. Three of +the prisoners were<a class="pagenum" name="page_201" id="page_201" title="201"></a> placed in their car which Chick-chick was called +upon to engineer under the guardianship of the sheriff. This left Glen +to ride the motorcycle alone. Still desirous to repay Matt's good turn +he offered him passage but Matt preferred to ride the sheriff's horse. +He was unable to understand or appreciate any friendly offers from Glen, +for he felt that his share in the proceedings had been ludicrous if not +contemptible and expected scant mercy from either Glen or Chick-chick. +As a matter of fact, Glen would have been very glad to have his company, +both that he might repay his good turn and that he might have the +advantage of his experience in cycling, for Glen was a rank novice and +found great difficulty in getting back to camp.</p> + +<p>Chick-chick drove the car all the way to the little calaboose where the +sheriff expected to confine the men until train time. The sheriff +expressed himself under great obligations.</p> + +<p>"I don't hardly know what to say about the reward, son," he said. "It'll +have to split up a good many ways so there won't be an awful big slice +for any one of us."</p> + +<p>"I'll leave it to you," agreed Chick-chick, magnanimously. "Maybe you'd +let me speak word to Jervice."<a class="pagenum" name="page_202" id="page_202" title="202"></a></p> + +<p>"Sure I will. You can talk a book into his ear if you like. But that +ain't sayin' as he'll say anything to you."</p> + +<p>The sheriff had guessed correctly. Mr. J. Jervice was singularly +uncommunicative.</p> + +<p>"What's meanin' of 'Twin Elms' and 'Deep Springs'?" asked Chick-chick.</p> + +<p>Mr. Jervice shook his head at such foolishness.</p> + +<p>"You won't get any good out of it," insisted the inquisitive boy. "Give +me your chart now and I'll use influence with Judge to get you easy +sentence, I will."</p> + +<p>Mr. Jervice shook his head and turned away.</p> + +<p>"What's that young fool saying about 'Twin Elms' and 'Deep Springs'?" +asked the big leader.</p> + +<p>Mr. Jervice muttered something in reply.</p> + +<p>"You take it from me, young feller," said the man, angrily. "The thing +you'd orter do is to git them names out o' your mind. They ain't no such +places."</p> + +<p>Chick-chick went back to receive the adulation of the camp but he was +not satisfied.</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em"> +<a class="pagenum" name="page_203" id="page_203" title="203"></a> +<a name="GLEN_AND_APPLE_FIND_THE_CAVE_4928" id="GLEN_AND_APPLE_FIND_THE_CAVE_4928"></a> +<h2>CHAPTER XVIII</h2> +<h3>GLEN AND APPLE FIND THE CAVE</h3> +</div> + +<p>As might be expected, the excitement in camp that evening was intense. +Chick-chick and Brick Mason were heroes. No one could do too much for +them. Even Will Spencer was excited.</p> + +<p>"It's a fine thing for you, Glen," he said. "I'm glad you had the chance +and that you did so well with it. Mr. Newton says the sheriff will give +you and the deputy full credit for the capture of the two fellows that +came down with Matt."</p> + +<p>"I'm mighty tickled," Glen admitted. "I don't think it'll amount to so +very much, though, because there's so many will have to divide the +reward."</p> + +<p>"Brick, Brick, where did you get that head?" exclaimed Jolly Bill. "I'm +not talking about the reward. Can't you see anything better than that?"</p> + +<p>"Why, I don't know that I do. I'm afraid I never will be smart."</p> + +<p>"Yes, you will. You're getting too much for<a class="pagenum" name="page_204" id="page_204" title="204"></a> me already. But, don't you +see, old brick head, how much better chance this gives you to get your +discharge from the reform school? 'Single-handed, he engaged in a +terrific conflict with two desperadoes and delivered them into the hands +of the officers of the law.' How does that sound? You begin to see where +you get off?"</p> + +<p>"Maybe so. All I did was to hold the horses, but I'll be glad of any +credit that comes to me. I expected we'd hear from the school before +now."</p> + +<p>"Don't you fear but what you'll hear quick enough. Your friend who was +here last Sunday is looking after your interests or they'd have yanked +you back before now. I only hope they let you stay another week or two +so you'll do me some good."</p> + +<p>"I surely hope they do," said Glen. "I'm having such a fine time I wish +it would go on forever. You think you'll get along all right while I go +up the Mound to-night?"</p> + +<p>"I'll be all right. Bob and I will keep the camp from running away. +Maybe it'll rain again, like it did when you tried it Sunday night. +You'll be mighty glad to get back to us if it does."</p> + +<p>"No, we're going to stick it out to-night whatever happens," said Glen. +"The fellows are going to take their ponchos and stay all night<a class="pagenum" name="page_205" id="page_205" title="205"></a> +whatever the weather. Going clear to the top of Buffalo Mound. I'm going +with Apple and he has a waterproof sleeping bag big enough for two. +We're going to have a great time. I tell you, Will, this camp life with +people like Apple and the scoutmaster and you is more like heaven than +anything I ever dreamed of."</p> + +<p>A great deal of satisfaction and joy had come into Glen Mason's life in +the last few days. He felt it in the companionship of Apple and +Chick-chick as they marched up Buffalo Mound together that night, +carrying their firewood and blankets for the bivouac. There was a new +bond of fellowship between them, a bond which Glen would have found it +quite impossible to state in words but which was none the less genuine +and fixed. The little service at the camp-fire meant more to him than +anything he had ever experienced; he had really started his journey, he +was definitely lined up with God's people, he had enlisted for actual +service. In the few quiet minutes while he lay wrapped in his blanket +waiting for sleep to come, and meanwhile looking up at the starry vault +which seemed to him to represent God's heaven, he experienced the +greatest peace that had ever come into his life.</p> + +<p>Only hardened campaigners and boys can sleep<a class="pagenum" name="page_206" id="page_206" title="206"></a> the dreamless sleep of +nature next to mother earth, with no soft mattress to pad the irregular +outlines of bony prominences, and even boys are apt to waken earlier +than common. So it is no wonder that daybreak found Glen and Apple glad +to shake themselves free from their blankets and climb the few feet +necessary to get the best of the justly celebrated view from Buffalo +Mound. Miles and miles over the flat prairie country could they see in +the clear morning air, and with the assistance of Mr. Newton's field +glass they could draw far away objects very near to their field of +vision. It was interesting to see the little towns, each with its two or +three church spires, its one or two large buildings and its collection +of dwellings; to see eight towns in six different counties from the same +spot was an exciting experience for these boys.</p> + +<p>But they did not get their real excitement until they turned their glass +down the west side of the Mound, and there came in the range of their +vision an Indian engaged in some mysterious occupation on the bank of +Buffalo Creek.</p> + +<p>"He's at the Ice Box," declared Apple. "Now what do you suppose that +Indian's doing? Look at him dive."</p> + +<p>"How can he stay under so long?" asked Glen,<a class="pagenum" name="page_207" id="page_207" title="207"></a> after they had watched two +or three minutes without seeing a head appear.</p> + +<p>"I can't tell you. Maybe he swam under water and has come up in some +other place that we can't see."</p> + +<p>But fully ten minutes later, while they still watched in great +curiosity, his head came into sight at about the place where he had +dived in, and a moment later they saw him draw his glistening body out +of the water.</p> + +<p>"Where's he been?" said Apple. "He hasn't been under water all that +time."</p> + +<p>"But neither did he come up anywhere that I could see," said Glen. "I +know what's happened," he added in an excited tone. "He's been in the +cave."</p> + +<p>"I believe you," said Apple. "We guessed right. Ice Box and Deep Springs +mean the same place. I don't know about any Twin Elms but that cave is +there, at the Ice Box. I don't know why we never saw it, unless because +it's on the far bank and we always looked this side."</p> + +<p>"Maybe its entrance is under water," suggested Glen. "That Indian dived, +you see, and we didn't see a sign of him again until he came back."</p> + +<p>"That's the way of it, Glen. And that's the same Indian told us to look +for heap rock. I<a class="pagenum" name="page_208" id="page_208" title="208"></a> believe—" it was the romantic side of Apple now +appearing—"I believe he is the tribal guardian of the treasure and he +stays around here to guard it from our search."</p> + +<p>"Maybe so," agreed Glen. "Anyway if the treasure's there we'll soon know +it. You think you can keep in your head the exact location where he +dived?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. It's just at the bend of the Ice Box. Right opposite on the other +bank are those two old stumps—"</p> + +<p>"Hold on," shouted Glen excitedly, seized with a great idea. "I'll bet +you those are the stumps of elm trees—the Twin Elms."</p> + +<p>"You're right, Glen. I'm sure you're right. I can hardly wait to find +out."</p> + +<p>"We don't want all the camp following us into this. When will be the +best time to hunt for it?"</p> + +<p>"What's the matter with right now?" suggested Apple. "It's only a little +after five. Breakfast won't be called until eight. Father won't care +where we go so long as we get to camp in time for breakfast."</p> + +<p>"But the Indian! What will he be doing while we explore his cave?"</p> + +<p>"He won't be there. He hiked through the<a class="pagenum" name="page_209" id="page_209" title="209"></a> timber, and he's less likely +to be there now than he would be later on in the day."</p> + +<p>"It's all right with me," declared Glen. "Now's as good as any time. +We'll get our blankets and tell your father we will be at camp in time +for breakfast."</p> + +<p>When a couple of boys have a great secret which they have just +discovered they are likely to overdo the secrecy of it. Glen and Apple +made a wide detour through the fields and when they at last approached +the Ice Box it was from an entirely different angle. Taking warning from +the exposure of the Indian they took off their clothes in the shelter of +some bushes and made a quick rush into the water.</p> + +<p>"Be careful, now," warned Apple. "It's cold as ice and swift as the +rapids. Must be some big springs around here."</p> + +<p>But Glen was always at home in the water and needed no warning.</p> + +<p>"Here it is, I'll bet," he cried. "Just under the ledge, you see. The +opening's only about two feet wide and the space above water to the +ledge isn't more than a foot and a half. That's why it's all covered up +when the water's high. Come on. Let me go first."</p> + +<p>Once inside this narrow passage they were<a class="pagenum" name="page_210" id="page_210" title="210"></a> indeed in a cave. For a few +feet around the small opening daylight shone dimly in, but it was lost +in impenetrable gloom above and to the rear. A mass of something dense +loomed in front of them and Apple swimming boldly up declared, it to be +a pile of stone.</p> + +<p>"It's the heap stone the Indian spoke about, Brick," he shouted. "We've +sure found it. Let's go back and get some lanterns and things."</p> + +<p>Out in the broad light of day the romance did not seem quite so +absolutely sure, and the nearer they drew to the camp the less positive +did they become about their discovery.</p> + +<p>"We wouldn't like the camp to have the laugh on us like they did on +Matt," admitted Apple. "I guess we'd better make sure before we have +very much to say about it."</p> + +<p>"I reckon we had," Glen agreed. "We can keep it to ourselves for awhile +without anybody carrying it away. That Indian couldn't carry it very far +by himself. Once we are sure, then we can tell the whole camp. Wish we +could find Chick-chick. We could tell him right now."</p> + +<p>It was a hard thing to be discreetly silent until their opportunity for +thorough search came, and fortunate that they had not long to wait. That +very afternoon it rained and most of the boys stayed in camp. +Chick-chick was still away on some mysterious errand. Glen and Apple +appeared clad in bathing suits and tennis shoes.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style='width:350px'> +<a name="illus-003" id="illus-003"></a> +<img src="images/illus-211.jpg" alt="With the lighted lanterns they could get a better idea of their surroundings. Page 211" title="" width="350" /><br /> +<span class="caption">With the lighted lanterns they could get a better idea of their surroundings. Page 211</span> +</div> + +<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_211" id="page_211" title="211"></a>"We +don't mind the rain," Apple announced. "We are going out. Look for +us when you see us."</p> + +<p>They had already cached a couple of lanterns, a pick and two spades near +the Ice Box and it was no trick at all to get them into the cave. With +the lighted lanterns they could get a better idea of their surroundings. +The floor of the cave was waist deep in water which seemed to rush on in +a swift current and escape again into the creek through a counter +opening a few feet away. The cave was quite long. It did not, as they +supposed, have its beginning at the opening where they entered, but +extended some distance back into the gloom, and as the current was quite +swift back there it was evident that there were other hidden openings. +The vault of the cave was high, so high that they could not see the top +by the feeble light of their lanterns. But the thing that they could see +and that thrust from their minds every other subject was a solid arch of +masonry.</p> + +<p>"I was right!" shouted Apple. "I was right! That's no natural formation. +That has been<a class="pagenum" name="page_212" id="page_212" title="212"></a> built up by men's hands years ago. It's sure to be the +hiding place of the treasure. What else could it be?"</p> + +<p>"It couldn't be anything else," agreed Glen. "We'll mighty soon see. Get +up to the top and I'll hand you the things."</p> + +<p>"I'm up," said Apple. "Are you coming too?"</p> + +<p>"Sure thing. The way to tear this down is a stone at a time beginning +at the top."</p> + +<p>"Let me have the pick, then."</p> + +<p>"No, you hold the lantern and let me use the pick. I'm the biggest."</p> + +<p>Splash! The first big stone disappeared in the water. Another splash and +the second followed. But prying them loose was no easy job and they did +not follow one after the other in the rapid succession the boys would +have liked. In less than half an hour they decided that an enormous lot +of work had been done in the effort to bury the treasure.</p> + +<p>"We think this is pretty hard work getting these stones loose and +pitching 'em down in the water," said Apple, reflectively, "but think of +carrying all of 'em in from outside to build this."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps there were more than two to do it," said Glen.</p> + +<p>"Of course there were," said the more romantic<a class="pagenum" name="page_213" id="page_213" title="213"></a> Apple, his imagination +stirred by the picture. "There was a small army of them. I can imagine I +see them coming in here in a long procession each carrying his load, +giving way to the next, and slipping away quietly in the gloom."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps they didn't do that way at all," said Glen, the practical. "If +you swing your lantern away up you can see that this cave has high +ledges running away back. Perhaps they managed to get rock from some of +those ledges."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps they did. But it was hard work, anyway, and it's hard work +breaking it up. But if we can just manage to do this just by our two +selves, and then go back to the fellows and tell 'em we've found the +treasure—"</p> + +<p>"Say, that will be fine," agreed Glen.</p> + +<p>Suddenly there was a splash at the entrance. "Hush!" said Glen. +"Somebody's coming."</p> + +<p>"It's the Indian!" he whispered, a sudden terror seizing him.</p> + +<p>"Worse than that!" said Apple, as he saw the figure that minute outlined +against the entrance. "Worse than that!" he repeated with a severity +unusual in his gentle speech. "It's Matt Burton!"</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em"> +<a class="pagenum" name="page_214" id="page_214" title="214"></a> +<a name="BURIED_IN_THE_CAVE_5205" id="BURIED_IN_THE_CAVE_5205"></a> +<h2>CHAPTER XIX</h2> +<h3>BURIED IN THE CAVE</h3> +</div> + +<p>The two boys looked suspiciously at Matt as he advanced, but neither +words of cheer nor resentment came to their Lips. A few days ago Glen's +greeting would have been quick and stinging. His silence spoke well for +the first lessons of self-control. Apple felt so keenly Matt's injustice +to Glen that the cordiality which was his natural offering to good and +bad alike was completely choked.</p> + +<p>But another splash caused all three to turn their looks again to the +entrance and in a moment another head bobbed in sight. It was +Chick-chick this time.</p> + +<p>"'Lo, fellers!" he called out cheerfully. "D'ye know it's rainin' in +solid sheets outside. Jest had to get in out of it. Old Matt, he's +follerin' you. I's follerin' Matt. He dived. I dived. 'Tain't much drier +in here than outside but anyway ye don't need umbrellas. Mighty little +bit of openin' ye came through there. Skinned me elbow, I did."<a class="pagenum" name="page_215" id="page_215" title="215"></a></p> + +<p>"Come up here, Chick-chick," invited Apple. "We can use you. It's dry up +here. And I don't know why you came, Matt, but since you're here you +might as well help, too."</p> + +<p>"I came to see what you were doing," said Matt. "I knew you didn't go +out of camp in your bathing suits just for nothing and anyway I wanted +to see if I could track you."</p> + +<p>"Didn't bring your bread-box 'long, did ye, Matt?" asked Chick-chick +innocently.</p> + +<p>"Maybe I'd have better luck finding things if I was a confederate of +those that hid them."</p> + +<p>Was Matt trying to intimate that Glen had found the cave because of some +confederacy with the Jervice gang? Glen felt his anger rising.</p> + +<p>"That's enough of that," said Apple. "If you fellows want to help you +can take turns one on top and one in the water. Come on up, +Chick-chick."</p> + +<p>With four pairs of hands they made quicker progress. Both the additional +workers were strong and active, and Matt especially was urged on by the +desire to show that he could do as much or a little more than any one +else. Suddenly he stopped in his work and looked about in evident +perplexity.</p> + +<p>"What's the matter?" asked Apple. "Too<a class="pagenum" name="page_216" id="page_216" title="216"></a> much cold water? Maybe you'd +better get out of it for awhile."</p> + +<p>"Yes, there's too much of it, and it's too cold too. But what's +bothering me is why there's so much. It was up to my waist when I began +work. Then I threw down a big rock a foot high and stood on it and now +it's more than waist high again. It must be rising."</p> + +<p>"I thought we were getting this pile pulled down awfully quick," said +Glen. "That's what's made it. The water has risen up to cover it."</p> + +<p>Chick-chick straightened himself up and looked around in the gloom. Then +he lifted the lantern by the light of which he had been working and +swung it far over his head.</p> + +<p>"Where's the opening we came in at?" he shouted.</p> + +<p>They all looked in the direction where they expected it to be but not +even the faintest glimmer of daylight shone in to tell of an opening.</p> + +<p>"Do you suppose we've worked away here so long that it has got to be +dark without our knowing it?" asked Apple.</p> + +<p>"No. 'Tisn't more'n an hour since Matt and I invited ourselves in," +objected Chick-chick. "Wasn't much past four then."</p> + +<p>"It's the rising water," said Matt. "I was<a class="pagenum" name="page_217" id="page_217" title="217"></a> so busy and it came up so +gradually I didn't notice it. The creek must be rising from the heavy +rain."</p> + +<p>"Another thing is we've thrown so much rock and rubbish down there that +we've probably choked up that outlet below. There's no sign of it now," +observed Glen.</p> + +<p>"Say, fellers, I'm gettin' homesick," said Chick-chick. "Let's get out +o' here."</p> + +<p>"All right for me, Chick-chick," said Apple. "I'm not much of a swimmer +in the dark. You lead the way."</p> + +<p>"Not for Chick-chick. I'm no water-witch nor a pathfinder, I ain't. +'Twouldn't do for humble bug-hunter to take such honor. Let Matt and +Brick draw straws for it."</p> + +<p>"I'm willing to try it," Glen volunteered.</p> + +<p>"I'm not afraid of it," said Matt, his natural bravery pushing him to +the front at such a crisis. "Let me try."</p> + +<p>"I hold big rock in one hand an' little rock in t'other. Fellow that +guesses big rock goes," said Chick-chick.</p> + +<p>"Right!" said Matt.</p> + +<p>"An' Brick guesses left," said Chick-chick for Glen. "Matt gets the +try."</p> + +<p>Matt waited for no counsel.<a class="pagenum" name="page_218" id="page_218" title="218"></a></p> + +<p>"I know just about where the opening lies," he said, stepping on the +pile of masonry. "I'll dive clear through the passage."</p> + +<p>With a quick spring he disappeared beneath the turbid water.</p> + +<p>The boys waited an anxious minute, swinging their lanterns far out over +the current. Suddenly Glen thrust the lantern he held into Apple's hand +and made a quick jump into the swirl of waters. He was up in a moment +with a heavy burden.</p> + +<p>"It's Matt!" he cried. "I saw his hand sticking out of the water and +jumped for it. He's hurt himself."</p> + +<p>The boys were down by his side in a moment, Apple holding a lantern high +above his head.</p> + +<p>"We must get him up on one of those ledges," said Glen. "He's breathing, +but he isn't conscious."</p> + +<p>It would have been a hard task under ordinary circumstances, but in +their excitement the three scouts made light work of it. One ledge +shelved down toward the water making their ascent easier, and from there +they managed to lift the injured boy still higher, well out of reach of +the water.</p> + +<p>Blood was pouring persistently from a wound<a class="pagenum" name="page_219" id="page_219" title="219"></a> in the scalp, but with his +knowledge of "first aid" Apple was able to stop this quickly by making +pressure. They had no bandage material of any description but they took +turns in making pressure with their fingers until the blood seemed +inclined no longer to flow and the wound showed a tendency to be covered +by a firm clot. Matt came to himself for a few minutes, spoke a few +half-conscious words and then drifted off again into quiet; but this +time it seemed more like the quiet of sleep so they made no effort to +disturb him.</p> + +<p>"He must have hit his head against something pretty sharp when he +dived," said Glen. "I'll go more carefully and just swim gently along +the side where the opening ought to be and reach out with my hands for +it."</p> + +<p>But while they were attending Matt the water had made a very appreciable +rise. It would scarcely be possible to feel along the edges now. The +water was too high.</p> + +<p>"I'll have to swim under water, fellows," said Glen.</p> + +<p>"Don't ye do it, Brick," advised Chick-chick. "You don't want to chance +Apple and me having to make another rescue, with Matt on our hands +already."<a class="pagenum" name="page_220" id="page_220" title="220"></a></p> + +<p>"You won't have to make any rescue. I'll swim easily and feel well in +front of me."</p> + +<p>"I don't like you to try it," said Apple. "We'd be in an awful fix if +anything happened to you. There's no danger of the water coming up on +these ledges, and it's bound to go down when the rain is over and the +creek drops."</p> + +<p>"Cheerful lookout, waiting here for that," said Glen. "The folks at the +camp will go crazy if we don't show up by night. I've got to get out to +carry the news and get help for Matt."</p> + +<p>He jumped into the water without further argument and soon they could +dimly see him feeling his way along the edge of the cave. It seemed a +terribly long time before he came back.</p> + +<p>"Haven't found it yet," he said with an attempt at cheer. "It seems as +if it ought to be easy enough to find a two foot opening but the top +shelves down pretty sharp just there and the opening is now probably +five or six feet from the surface. It's mighty discouraging to swim +around under there and not find anything. I must rest up a bit."</p> + +<p>"Why are you putting that light out, Chick-chick?" asked Apple.</p> + +<p>"We c'n see jest's well with one as two, an'<a class="pagenum" name="page_221" id="page_221" title="221"></a> I've an idea we may need +it wuss later on," replied Chick-chick, significantly.</p> + +<p>"You're not getting scared, Chick-chick?" said Glen.</p> + +<p>"No, I'm not gettin' scared. I'm just tryin' to use me thinker a bit. We +got a boy here that may need 'tention. Won't do to be without light. You +fellers got any matches?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I have some," said Apple. "I've kept 'em dry, too."</p> + +<p>"All right, then. If Brick has to quit experimentin' in the water +without findin' anything, we'll put out t'other light, too, an' just use +'em when we need 'em. This water's goin' to go down sooner or later, but +while we have to wait a light when we need it will be awfully handy."</p> + +<p>"I'm not through, yet," said Glen. "As soon as I find that opening I'll +run to camp and get a rope, and we'll have you fellows out in no time. +I've got marks outside to show me how to get back in all right."</p> + +<p>Glen stayed away longer the next time, but he came back, shivering and +exhausted.</p> + +<p>"I'm afraid it's no good for awhile, fellows," he admitted. "Once I +thought I had it but a big log barred the way. Then I thought I'd feel<a class="pagenum" name="page_222" id="page_222" title="222"></a> +where the current rushed in strongest and try there, but it's strong +everywhere."</p> + +<p>Just then Matt stirred and tried to rise but was held back by Apple.</p> + +<p>"My head aches!" he murmured. "I can't find it."</p> + +<p>"All right, Matty, old boy. You did your best. Lie back and go to +sleep."</p> + +<p>"I've slept enough," he declared. "What's the matter? Didn't we get out +of that cave?"</p> + +<p>"No. But it's all right. We'll get out after awhile. You just lie back."</p> + +<p>"I'm all right now. Let me up. I remember diving and that's all. Who +pulled me out of the water?"</p> + +<p>"It was Brick, and it's just as good you should know it," said Apple. +"He saw your hand waving around and jumped for you."</p> + +<p>"It was easy enough," said Glen. "The water was only about shoulder high +then."</p> + +<p>"I would have done it for you," said Matt. "But I don't know that you +had any cause to do it for me. It makes me feel pretty small after I've +been such a beastly prig. I'll get even with you some way but I don't +know how. Let me try diving for that hole again."</p> + +<p>"Too big hole in yer head," objected Chick-chick.<a class="pagenum" name="page_223" id="page_223" title="223"></a> "The water 'd wash +all your brains out. Awful strong current down there."</p> + +<p>"Better not stir much," counseled Apple. "There's quite a bad cut you've +got on top and we had a time getting the bleeding stopped. If you move +about much you're likely to unsettle the clot and start it again. Better +lie still."</p> + +<p>"But I'm not just going to lie down and die here. I want to get out."</p> + +<p>"Easy now, Matt. You don't help us by acting that way and you won't help +us if you get your head started again either. Look at that water. +Brick's worked in it till he's just about all in. You can't do any +better than he."</p> + +<p>"Who says I can't?" he cried, bristling at once.</p> + +<p>"I'd say you can't if 'twould do any good," replied Chick-chick. "That's +no way to act at such time 's this. Ye ain't bein' like a man or a +Christian. See, ye've started the blood again and it's trickling down +your face. Now lie down."</p> + +<p>In the face of such conditions Matt had sense enough to desist from +further opposition. He lay down again and soon the bleeding stopped.</p> + +<p>"Chick-chick," he said, in subdued tones. "I give you leave to kick me +if I act the fool again."</p> + +<p>"There wouldn't be any pleasure in it, now," said Chick-chick. "Hold +your offer till we get t'<a class="pagenum" name="page_224" id="page_224" title="224"></a> camp if ye want t' please me. What I say is +let's put all lights out and everybody go to sleep."</p> + +<p>"Suppose the water comes up on us," objected Matt.</p> + +<p>"It won't. It can't rise much higher'n the creek level an' we're way +above it now. Let's go to sleep."</p> + +<p>"I can't," Matt still objected.</p> + +<p>"What's matter? Head hurt ye?"</p> + +<p>"Not so much. And I don't mind it so bad when we're all awake talking, +but I'm afraid to have us go to sleep."</p> + +<p>"You 'fraid, Brick?"</p> + +<p>"No," said Glen. "I'm too tired."</p> + +<p>"You 'fraid, Apple?"</p> + +<p>"No, I'm scared, but I'm not afraid. But I don't wonder so much at Matt. +I know how I'd be if I didn't know God had a firm hold of me, right now. +Let's sing a little."</p> + +<p>He started a familiar camp song, and from one song they went to another. +When they were singing "Where He leads me I will follow" Chick-chick +held up his hand.</p> + +<p>"Matt's asleep," he whispered. "I'll bet his head's made him 'bout half +crazy. Hope he sleeps till morning."</p> + +<p>How many hours they slept they could not tell,<a class="pagenum" name="page_225" id="page_225" title="225"></a> for there were no +timepieces. They would rouse, turn over, and drop asleep again, for each +one was determined to sleep away as much of the waiting time as +possible. It was probably early morning when at last Glen arose, +stretched himself and carefully lighted a lantern.</p> + +<p>"It's going down, boys," he announced. "The opening isn't uncovered yet, +but it's two or three feet lower than it was last night."</p> + +<p>They were all wide awake now, and all leaned over the ledge to form +their own opinion.</p> + +<p>"The current seems to run differently," said Glen. "It acts as if the +rock we threw in has stopped up the old outlet and it was running back +of the heap we pulled down instead."</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir. Strikes me just that way," said Chick-chick.</p> + +<p>"I'm going to take the other lantern and explore a little," said Glen. +"You fellows needn't come. I'll holler if I find anything."</p> + +<p>He disappeared behind the ruined arch, swimming and wading, but he was +back in a minute, all excitement.</p> + +<p>"There's a regular passage out this way, fellows. Seems to go clear +through the Mound. The water's rushing down in a torrent. Come and +see."<a class="pagenum" name="page_226" id="page_226" title="226"></a></p> + +<p>They needed no invitation, for they were down before he finished +speaking. Around the crumbled masonry he led them, and pointed to an +opening like a natural tunnel which, seemed to lead far into the bowels +of the earth.</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em"> +<a class="pagenum" name="page_227" id="page_227" title="227"></a> +<a name="THE_TREASURE_OF_BUFFALO_LAKE_5540" id="THE_TREASURE_OF_BUFFALO_LAKE_5540"></a> +<h2>CHAPTER XX</h2> +<h3>THE TREASURE OF BUFFALO LAKE</h3> +</div> + +<p>The cavernous opening into which the boys swung their lanterns in a vain +attempt to penetrate its gloom seemed indeed to lead into the heart of +Buffalo Mound. A muddy, turbulent stream was rushing down it at a +tremendous rate, but there was room enough left to allow the passage of +an agile boy, willing to bend himself double, and the water was not deep +enough to be an obstacle.</p> + +<p>"It may show us a way out," exclaimed Glen. "I'm bound to see where it +goes. Who'll go with me?"</p> + +<p>"We'll all go, Brick. You don't leave me behind in this dark cave, you +don't," declared Chick-chick.</p> + +<p>"How about your head, Matt?" asked Apple.</p> + +<p>"It's good enough now," said Matt. "I'm sure going to be along on this."</p> + +<p>With Glen in the lead they crept one after another along the narrow +passage, Apple bringing up the rear and trailing behind him the +cumbersome pick. At a place where the passage widened<a class="pagenum" name="page_228" id="page_228" title="228"></a> out into a roomy +vault which gave space for them to stand erect Glen halted the little +company and pointed onward to show how the tunnel, leaving this vault, +suddenly seemed to narrow so that there was scarcely room for a head +above water.</p> + +<p>"It's going to be pretty risky here, fellows. I think we'd better go one +at a time. I'll crawl as far as I can. If I don't come back while you +count a hundred let Chick-chick crawl after me. If I'm stuck or choked +he can pull on my feet and pull me back. Then Matt can do the same for +him and Apple for him. I'll either get through or be back by the time +you count a hundred."</p> + +<p>It seemed a long count, and it was hard for them to keep from unseemly +hurry. At ninety Chick-chick got down on his knees in the tunnel and as +Apple said "One hundred" he disappeared. Matt and Apple counted again +and this time it was Matt who disappeared, and Apple was left alone. But +he stuck bravely to his counting until another hundred was numbered, +then he pushed his pick ahead of him and crawled into the passage, his +head scraping the top, his lips scarcely an inch above the swiftly +moving water. It seemed a long time before the passage widened,<a class="pagenum" name="page_229" id="page_229" title="229"></a> but +there were no obstacles, and in a little while he crawled into a larger +space where the three dripping boys were waiting for him.</p> + +<p>"There's a light away on ahead," announced Glen. "I believe it's +daylight."</p> + +<p>It was almost a race after that. Nothing was considered in their mad +rush, and at every turn the light ahead became clearer until Glen, still +in the lead, made a turning and gave a great shout. The next moment all +of them could see unmistakable daylight shining through a small opening.</p> + +<p>Glen was lying at full length in the stream, trying to enlarge the +opening with his hands, when they reached him.</p> + +<p>"It's Buffalo Hollow!" he cried. "We've come clear through the Mound. +This opening isn't big enough to let any of us in or out, but the +water's going out in a good stream now, and soon it will make Buffalo +Lake."</p> + +<p>Apple's pick was brought into use and with its aid the boys made the +opening large enough to scramble through one after the other.</p> + +<p>It was scarcely break of day; the sun was just showing signs of rising +for his daily task. Oh, how good it felt to be out there in full +liberty, able to look around and see all the beautiful things<a class="pagenum" name="page_230" id="page_230" title="230"></a> of God's +creation; how good to be able to stand erect and stretch out every +muscle. Apple had scarcely found his feet before he was off at breakneck +speed in the direction of the camp.</p> + +<p>"He wants his father should know he's safe," explained Chick-chick, as +they looked after the flying figure. "Come on, Brick. They'll be +worrying about us, too. You better keep close, Matt. Your head might +go bad, it might."</p> + +<p>Apple was the center of an excited crowd of scouts for there had been no +sleep in camp that night. Already they were wigwagging the news of the +discovery.</p> + +<p>"There's a big smoke all ready to be started on top o' the Mound," +explained a scout. "Soon as they get our message they'll start it and +then everybody will know and they'll all come in."</p> + +<p>Almost as he spoke the signal shot out its flames and smoke and in less +than twenty minutes the scoutmaster was folding his son in his embrace +and wildly shaking the hands of his lost scouts.</p> + +<p>Glen was not there. He had gone quietly into the tent where he had +expected to find his friend Spencer.</p> + +<p>"Good old scout!" cried Will, as he wrung his hand. "You've been giving +me more worry than all the rest of my children put together, but I +forgive<a class="pagenum" name="page_231" id="page_231" title="231"></a> everything now you have returned. Wherever you've been I hope +this will be a lesson to you and you'll never go treasure hunting +again."</p> + +<p>Glen's reply was startling.</p> + +<p>"There is no need," he said. "The treasure is found!"</p> + +<p>"Found again!" shouted Spencer. "Where? In a bread-box?"</p> + +<p>"No, sir. No bread-box this time. Found in the heart of Buffalo Mound. +It is pouring into Buffalo Hollow now and by this time to-morrow there +will once more be a Buffalo Lake!"</p> + +<hr class='major' /> + +<p>With the crowd of people who came from town to see the marvel of the +refilling of Buffalo Lake was a skillful surgeon. He examined Matt's +scalp-wound.</p> + +<p>"I can fix that up with the aid of the scoutmaster's first aid kit," he +announced. "You'll need a few stitches but I guess you are man enough to +stand that."</p> + +<p>"I can stand it," said Matt. "But have all the fellows go away so they +won't hear me if I holler."</p> + +<p>"All but one or two," agreed the doctor. "I'll need one or two boys to +hold things."</p> + +<p>"Use the fellows who were with me, then!" asked Matt. "They know just +about how foolish<a class="pagenum" name="page_232" id="page_232" title="232"></a> I can be so it won't be anything new to them."</p> + +<p>The doctor laughed.</p> + +<p>"That's the way heroes talk sometimes," he said. "I'm glad to hear you +say it."</p> + +<p>"They know all about me being a hero," said Matt. "But they know I +learned something in that cave."</p> + +<p>"All ready, now," said the doctor. "You hold the bowl," he said to +Apple. "And now that you have scrubbed your hands you may hold this pan +of instruments," he said to Chick-chick. "And I guess we haven't +anything for you to hold," to Glen.</p> + +<p>"He's going to be the anesthetic," said Matt. "Take hold of my hands, +Brick, and if I holler, punch me."</p> + +<p>It was the first time he had addressed Glen by the name which had become +so familiar to the others, and both knew that in the word all +differences were swept away.</p> + +<p>That day there was great rejoicing all through the camp at the return of +the lost boys, great rejoicing at the success that seemed sure to come +to the plans of Jolly Bill Spencer, and mingled with the rejoicing an +underlying vein of excited speculation whether a close search of the +cave would not disclose the ancient treasure of bullion<a class="pagenum" name="page_233" id="page_233" title="233"></a> or at the very +least some booty stored there by the robber band.</p> + +<p>Tom Scoresby again headed a delegation to approach the scoutmaster for +permission to explore the cave.</p> + +<p>"What do you think?" asked Mr. Newton. "Who has first right there—who +are the discoverers?"</p> + +<p>"Apple and Brick and maybe Chick-chick and Matty," replied honest Tom. +"But I reckon they wouldn't want to keep us out."</p> + +<p>"It isn't my cave," disclaimed Matt, who sat there with his head swathed +in bandages. "I just butted in. I got all that was coming to me."</p> + +<p>"'Tain't mine," said Chick-chick. "But if there's any treasure I want +some, I do."</p> + +<p>Glen and Apple only laughed, but Mr. Newton felt that he could speak for +them.</p> + +<p>"This is Sunday, boys," he declared. "No one will run away with that +cave over night. I don't think that Indian will be back in a hurry. +Tomorrow, after camp drill, all first class scouts—the good +swimmers—may explore the cave. Mr. Spencer claims the water rights. All +bullion and other treasure found and not claimed by the authorities will +be shared alike by all in the camp."</p> + +<p>Monday morning found the whole camp at the<a class="pagenum" name="page_234" id="page_234" title="234"></a> Ice Box. The stream still +was high so that it was no easy matter to gain access to the cave, but +no scout who had passed the swimming test for "first class" thought of +shirking the attempt. Mr. Newton himself led the way and Glen and Apple +were not far behind.</p> + +<p>The many lights relieved the pitchy darkness of the cave enough to show +the high ledges that ran still further back into the gloom.</p> + +<p>"We will explore these ledges one at a time," said Mr. Newton. "Let +every scout make sure of his footing before he steps. Don't get +excited."</p> + +<p>Alas! there was unfortunately little to create excitement. Farm +products—potatoes—bacon—several suits of clothes—old pipes—several +tools—pieces of chain—bottles that once had held liquor—even an old +straw hat; but of treasure that could create even a moment's excitement +there seemed to be none.</p> + +<p>"I know who brought this collection here," said Apple. "The Indian! It's +his treasure house all right, and that's why he went in here that +morning."</p> + +<p>"That's all right," said Tom Scoresby, "but there ought to be a lot of +real treasure around here. If no bullion, anyway there ought to be the +bank robber's stuff."<a class="pagenum" name="page_235" id="page_235" title="235"></a></p> + +<p>But all their searching was of no avail. When they returned through the +narrow opening they went empty handed.</p> + +<p>Waiting on the bank with the younger boys was Matt Burton. He had not +been allowed to enter the cave for fear that the swim under water might +infect his wound. He was greatly disappointed at their failure and, +since characteristics do not change over night, it is not surprising +that he had a very strong opinion that if their party had been increased +by just one member the result would have been different. Let this be +said of Matt—he tried to conceal this feeling.</p> + +<p>"Where d'ye look, Brick?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"We explored every ledge and went into places that grown men couldn't +have squeezed through."</p> + +<p>"Did you dig?"</p> + +<p>"There isn't much chance to dig. The inside of the cave is a shale that +no one could dig into. It would have to be blasted."</p> + +<p>"Then there must have been some holes or something—oh, say, did you +lift up that shelf of rock we lay on that night?"</p> + +<p>"No, we didn't find any loose rock to lift."</p> + +<p>"That rock was loose. I remember how it seemed to tip when we moved. In +all I've read about treasure there never was any left just on<a class="pagenum" name="page_236" id="page_236" title="236"></a> top of +the ground, except in Treasure Island, and even that was buried until +Ben Gunn carried it to the cave. I'd like to look under that rock."</p> + +<p>"We'll go back with you, Matty," chorused a dozen scouts, only too glad +of further exploration.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Newton, the water's gone down so much I'm sure I can get through +without wetting my head. Please let me try it," begged Matt.</p> + +<p>"If ye don't he'll be so excited his brains'll spill out o' that gash, +they will," urged Chick-chick.</p> + +<p>"I'll give him all the help he needs," offered Glen.</p> + +<p>"I'll go along myself," said Mr. Newton. "I guess we can manage him +between us."</p> + +<p>So back the whole expedition went convoying Matty to the cave. He led +them straight to the ledge of rock and the stamp of a foot was enough to +show its lack of balance.</p> + +<p>The boys were greatly excited—even Mr. Newton showed immense interest.</p> + +<p>"Use the pickaxes to pry, boys. Get under these loose corners," directed +the scoutmaster. "Tom and Glen, you two are the strongest—one at each +corner now."</p> + +<p>The broad slab of rock started easily enough<a class="pagenum" name="page_237" id="page_237" title="237"></a> at their energetic effort. +A seam appeared to widen—a crack was disclosed—there followed space +sufficient to allow a hand to be inserted and then a dozen willing +scouts helped with the lift. In a couple of minutes the big slab was +thrown over with a crash, and below appeared a cavity that was evidently +the work of men's hands.</p> + +<p>Dark as Erebus was the interior, baffling the peering eyes of the +scouts, until Mr. Newton, hanging a lantern on each point of a pickax, +dangled it into the depths. A vault some four or five feet deep and +running far back into the cave was disclosed. It was partly filled with +an assortment almost as miscellaneous as the treasure left on the ledges +by the Indian; a riding saddle, an old coat, several pieces of +artillery, some tools which may have been accessory to the trade of +burglary, and scattered among these things many articles of personal +property which, were undoubtedly of great value.</p> + +<p>But the thing upon which the eyes of the scouts rested with greatest +interest was a metal box, probably secured from some bank, which rested +conspicuously on the top of the plunder.</p> + +<p>"Matt and Glen get first selection," said Mr. Newton. "It's their find, +whatever it is."</p> + +<p>"Well take the box," said the boys.<a class="pagenum" name="page_238" id="page_238" title="238"></a></p> + +<p>Although not of great size the box was rather heavy, but its handling +was no task for two such athletes. To the great disappointment of all it +was locked.</p> + +<p>"Never mind," said Mr. Newton. "We will open it when we get to camp. Now +the rest of you take each what you can carry. Bear in mind that the +question of property rights in this discovery is not to be considered at +present. That will come later. All we do now is to carry it to camp."</p> + +<p>They made a queer procession as they came one by one through the small +opening. Matt and Glen came first pushing their box ahead of them on the +raft which had been used in bringing over their tools and lanterns. The +scouts who followed in their wake found it no easy matter to keep their +treasure clear of the water as they crossed the swift little stream.</p> + +<p>"These robbers chose safe place for their plunder all right, all right," +said Chick-chick to Apple, "but mighty inconvenient, it is."</p> + +<p>"I don't see why they did it," Apple replied. "They ought to have rented +a safety deposit box in some bank."</p> + +<p>From the other bank their passage was watched not only by the excited +group of younger scouts<a class="pagenum" name="page_239" id="page_239" title="239"></a> but by three new arrivals. They were the +sheriff, a deputy and Mr. J. Jervice.</p> + +<p>"The kids has found the loot," exclaimed Mr. Jervice. "They're bringing +it over now."</p> + +<p>"I guess I'll have to take care o' that stuff for you, Cap," said the +sheriff to Mr. Newton.</p> + +<p>"It's just as you say," replied Mr. Newton. "We would hardly have known +the proper thing to do with it. But I want to notify you that if there +is any reward for its recovery we claim it."</p> + +<p>"We'll see you get it," said the sheriff. "This man Jervice tells us +that there's a lot o' valuable bonds and securities in the box. That's +what they was down here after, mostly. Jervice thought we'd let him off +if he gave the story away to us. The old gang got the location of the +cave from an Indian, but Jervice couldn't find the Indian."</p> + +<p>"The Indian's gone," said Mr. Newton. "I doubt if he ever comes back. +There's a lot of stuff in the cave yet and you'd better get a boat and a +wagon. Some of the scouts will help you."</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em"> +<a class="pagenum" name="page_240" id="page_240" title="240"></a> +<a name="WHAT_BECAME_OF_THEM_5879" id="WHAT_BECAME_OF_THEM_5879"></a> +<h2>CHAPTER XXI</h2> +<h3>WHAT BECAME OF THEM</h3> +</div> + +<p>The morning of the fourth day found the water still flowing into the +lake in a steady stream.</p> + +<p>"It's a sure thing now," said Spencer. "I must get to town and arrange +to close up those options and organize the Buffalo Lake Summer Colony. +I'm not going to tell you how much I expect to clear on this deal, but +your share won't be less than a thousand dollars."</p> + +<p>"It will be enough to buy mother a home!" said Glen.</p> + +<p>"That's the thought, boy. And we'll see if we can't get you paroled from +the school so you can live at home and work for her. I'm going back with +you to the school, myself, but I believe that war-correspondent friend +of yours has matters moving already."</p> + +<p>The war-correspondent friend, taking an unusual interest in the case, +had been doing his best, but he had found it a case of many +complications. That very day, however, he had received<a class="pagenum" name="page_241" id="page_241" title="241"></a> an official +communication of favorable tone from his friend, the Superintendent.</p> + +<p>"The Board of Control," wrote the Superintendent, "finds in the case of +Glen Mason some very unusual and delicate features. It is not the desire +of the Board to reward a boy for running away by granting him an +unconditional parole. Neither is it their desire to keep in the +institution a boy who has been found worthy of parole privileges. In +this case the boy voluntarily offers to return. Not only so but he has +undergone such a transformation that he returns as a reformed character. +Furthermore he has rendered a service to the State in assisting in the +apprehension of two dangerous characters. Added to all this he is +greatly needed at home for the support which a boy of his age and +intelligence can give to his mother. In consideration of all these +things the Board is inclined to grant a parole subject to the usual +conditions."</p> + +<p>In a personal note which accompanied this letter the Superintendent made +a few additional remarks to his old friend.</p> + +<p>"Another rather unusual element is that Mason's running away has been +altogether too well done. He has been too fortunate. Usually such a boy +would get into bad hands and go from<a class="pagenum" name="page_242" id="page_242" title="242"></a> bad to worse. It would never do +for us to have him back at the school telling about all his good times +and how he was to have a thousand dollars for his part in discovering +this wonderful lake about which you phoned me this morning. Every boy in +the school would be keen to try the adventure. I am glad for Glen that +he has surrendered his life to God's guidance and I know that he has +found the one real, safe way of life. So I surrender him gladly, and I +feel sure that you and Mr. Newton will not forget your promises of +guidance and support."</p> + +<p>Glen went home with Will Spencer to stay with him while he wound up his +business affairs and disposed of his options on the Buffalo Lake +property to a syndicate.</p> + +<p>"I'm going to take you out to see an old friend, Glen," said Spencer one +day. "I still have a great deal of business to care for before I can go +away. You know I want to go to that famous hospital, where, if they +can't make a whole man of me, they will make me look and walk like one +just the same. I can't go yet, but I have something planned for you +right this very day. It's a surprise."</p> + +<p>They traveled along a road that was vaguely familiar and after a few +miles Glen recognized<a class="pagenum" name="page_243" id="page_243" title="243"></a> that they were drawing near the Gates' home. They +were evidently expected, for the whole family ran out to greet them.</p> + +<p>"It seems mighty good to get back here," said Glen. "I wish I could stay +as long as I liked but I must get away and finish that trip home that I +told you I was making."</p> + +<p>"Would you like to stay here, Glen?" asked Mr. Gates.</p> + +<p>"I surely would," replied Glen.</p> + +<p>"Would you like to stay and work with me and learn how to run a farm?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know anything I'd like better."</p> + +<p>"Step out here into the road with me. Do you see that cottage at the +corner? It was empty when you were here. It is a tenant cottage which I +rent to the man who works for me. Yesterday there moved into there a +very nice lady with a little girl and a little boy. There is an older +brother whom they are expecting, who is coming here to work for me. +Run—"</p> + +<p>But he did not need to tell Glen to run along. Ever since he had been +given a new heart and a new life he had felt a yearning for the mother +of whom he had been so unworthy. He wanted to tell her that he was a +different boy, to show her that he was worthy of trust, to shoulder her<a class="pagenum" name="page_244" id="page_244" title="244"></a> +burdens, to relieve her of responsibilities, to turn the bitter years +into sweet. He did not run, but he walked with a swift and steady gait, +with erect head and a clear resolve in his heart. After all he was +coming home triumphant, a victor, one who had sought treasure and found +it, one who had found the greatest riches of God's mercy.</p> + +<hr class='major' /> + +<p>Mr. Gates was not a hard man to work for. Glen became more and more +convinced of this as the days went by, but the crowning proof came one +year later when the kind employer ordered him to drop his work and take +a week's vacation at the Scout camp at Buffalo Lake.</p> + +<p>Glen planned a great surprise, but some one gave his secret away for he +was met at the station at Buffalo Center by the entire troop. +Chick-chick jumped up on the steps before the train stopped and at peril +of life and limb pulled him off the train into the receptive arms of +Apple and Matt. Big Tom Scoresby gave him grip for grip in a mighty +scout handshake—the only scout who could match him. Goosey hung on to +his elbow waiting for his turn. All affectation of reserve disappeared +on this great occasion—the greeting of Brick Mason—his welcome to +camp—good old Brick! Glen was glad to shake hands with Mr.<a class="pagenum" name="page_245" id="page_245" title="245"></a> Newton for +a good long minute so that he might wink back the suspicious moisture +that threatened to rush past the guardian eyelashes.</p> + +<p>"Brick rides on my old motor-bike," exclaimed Chick-chick. "Same old +bike—it is."</p> + +<p>"Brick walks with the troop," Glen decided. "Where did we get this dandy +road?"</p> + +<p>"Built by the Buffalo Lake Summer Colony," explained Apple. "Do you +notice all the new stores in town—all because of the Colony? Wait until +you get to the Lake and you'll see something worth while."</p> + +<p>A few minutes later Glen stood before Troop Three's splendid new +club-house in appreciative silence.</p> + +<p>"Do you see what we've named it?" said Matt, patting him on the +shoulder. "Look up over the porch."</p> + +<p>Carved in ancient script were the words:</p> + +<p class='center'> +YE BREAD BOX +</p> + +<p>"And you don't object to that?" asked Glen, looking into Matt's face.</p> + +<p>"I object?" exclaimed Matt. "It's a compliment. I've learned to take a +joke as well as give one. We named it because the money that built it +was our share of the reward for the box in<a class="pagenum" name="page_246" id="page_246" title="246"></a> the cave, and the second box +was a lot like the first box only different."</p> + +<p>"Different inside an' out," put in Chick-chick. "Jus' like old Matty is, +it was. Good old Bread Box. Go on in an' see what's inside, Brick."</p> + +<p>"All right," Glen agreed. "Lead the way."</p> + +<p>"Don't be 'fraid, Brick. Go in all your own self. It's a surprise."</p> + +<p>Cautiously Glen pushed open the handsome door and stepped inside. +Nothing happened. He looked around the spacious room with its home-like +accommodations and its air of easy comfort. From a chair by the window a +gentleman arose and started leisurely toward him. Glen covered the +intervening space in two jumps.</p> + +<p>"Will!" he shouted. "Will Spencer! Look out—you'll fall!"</p> + +<p>"Never more, you good old scout," said Jolly Bill, as he flung a strong +arm around Glen's broad shoulders. "I can walk as gracefully as you if +not as powerfully. I'm all O. K., warranted not to slip or stumble, +ready to give a Castle Cakewalk or an imitation of a Highland fling at a +moment's notice. What do you think of your new home?"</p> + +<p>"Splendid!" replied Glen. "Too fine for a scout camp, though. It makes +it too easy."<a class="pagenum" name="page_247" id="page_247" title="247"></a></p> + +<p>"And the easy life isn't the best life is it, you hard old Brick? But +Mr. Newton understands that. This isn't the camp—just the club-house. +You'll find the camp a half mile up Buffalo Creek as wild as ever, and +do you know what they've named it this year?"</p> + +<p>"I give it up," said Glen.</p> + +<p>"It's named in honor of the scout who has done most with his +opportunities this year."</p> + +<p>"It's Burton, then," Glen guessed.</p> + +<p>"You have another guess coming yet," said Jolly Bill. "They've named it +Camp Mason!"</p> + +<hr class='major' /> + +<p>Now if you want to follow the further adventures of Glen and his scout +chums you will find them recorded in another book "Boy Scouts to the +Rescue."</p> + +<p style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:3em; text-align:center;'>FINIS</p> + +<hr class='full' /> + +<h2><a name="THE_BOY_SCOUT_LIFE_SERIES" id="THE_BOY_SCOUT_LIFE_SERIES"></a>THE BOY SCOUT LIFE SERIES</h2> + +<p class='center'>Published with the approval of<br />The Boy Scouts of America</p> + +<p>In the boys' world of story books, none better than those about boy +scouts arrest and grip attention. In a most alluring way, the stories in +the BOY SCOUT LIFE SERIES tell of the glorious good times and wonderful +adventures of boy scouts.</p> + +<p>All the books were written by authors possessed of an intimate knowledge +of this greatest of all movements organized for the welfare of boys, and +are published with the approval of the National Headquarters of the Boy +Scouts of America.</p> + +<p>The Chief Scout Librarian, Mr. F. K. Mathiews, writes concerning them: +"It is a bully bunch of books. I hope you will sell 100,000 copies of +each one, for these stories are the sort that will help instead of hurt +our movement."</p> + +<p> +THE BOY SCOUT FIRE FIGHTERS—CRUMP<br /> +THE BOY SCOUTS OF THE LIGHTHOUSE TROOP—McCLANE<br /> +THE BOY SCOUT TRAIL BLAZERS—CHELEY<br /> +THE BOY SCOUT TREASURE HUNTERS—LERRIGO<br /> +BOY SCOUTS AFLOAT—WALDEN<br /> +BOY SCOUTS COURAGEOUS—MATHIEWS<br /> +BOY SCOUTS TO THE RESCUE—LERRIGO<br /> +BOY SCOUTS ON THE TRAIL—GARTH<br /> +THE BOY SCOUTS IN AFRICA—CORCORAN<br /> +</p> + +<hr class='minor' /> + +<p class='center'>BARSE & HOPKINS<br />PUBLISHERS</p> + +<p class='center'>New York, N. Y. Newark, N. J.</p> + +<hr class='dashed' /> + +<h2><a name="The_Camp_Fire_Boys_Series" id="The_Camp_Fire_Boys_Series"></a>The Camp Fire Boys Series</h2> + +<p class='center'>By OLIVER LEE CLIFTON</p> + +<p class='center'><i>For Boys from 8 to 14</i></p> + +<p>A group of resourceful boys living in a small town form a camping and +hiking club, which brings them all sorts of outdoor adventures. In the +first story, "At Log Cabin Bend," they solve a series of mysteries but +not until after some lively thrills which will cause other boys to sit +on the edge of their chairs. The next story telling of their search for +a lost army aviator in "Muskrat Swamp" is just as lively. The boys are +all likable and manly—just the sort of fellows that every other +wide-awake boy would be glad to go hiking with.</p> + +<p> +THE CAMP FIRE BOYS AT LOG CABIN BEND<br /> +THE CAMP FIRE BOYS IN MUSKRAT SWAMP<br /> +THE CAMP FIRE BOYS AT SILVER FOX FARM<br /> +THE CAMP FIRE BOYS' CANOE CRUISE.<br /> +THE CAMP FIRE BOYS' TRACKING SQUAD<br /> +</p> + +<hr class='minor' /> +<p class='center'>BARSE & HOPKINS<br />PUBLISHERS</p> +<p class='center'>New York, N. Y. Newark, N. J.</p> + +<hr class='dashed' /> + +<h2>THE BOBBY BLAKE SERIES</h2> + +<p class='center'>BY FRANK A. WARNER</p> + +<p class='center'>BOOKS FOR BOYS FROM EIGHT TO TWELVE YEARS OLD</p> + +<p>True stories of life at a modern American boarding school. Bobby attends +this institution of learning with his particular chum and the boys have +no end of good times. The tales of outdoor life, especially the exciting +times they have when engaged in sports against rival schools, are +written in a manner so true, so realistic, that the reader, too, is +bound to share with these boys their thrills and pleasures.</p> + +<table summary='booklist'> +<tr><td align='right'>1 </td><td>BOBBY BLAKE AT ROCKLEDGE SCHOOL.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>2 </td><td>BOBBY BLAKE AT BASS COVE.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>3 </td><td>BOBBY BLAKE ON A CRUISE.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>4 </td><td>BOBBY BLAKE AND HIS SCHOOL CHUMS.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>5 </td><td>BOBBY BLAKE AT SNOWTOP CAMP.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>6 </td><td>BOBBY BLAKE ON THE SCHOOL NINE.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>7 </td><td>BOBBY BLAKE ON A RANCH.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>8 </td><td>BOBBY BLAKE ON AN AUTO TOUR.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>9 </td><td>BOBBY BLAKE ON THE SCHOOL ELEVEN.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>10 </td><td>BOBBY BLAKE ON A PLANTATION.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>11 </td><td>BOBBY BLAKE IN THE FROZEN NORTH.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>12 </td><td>BOBBY BLAKE ON MYSTERY MOUNTAIN.</td></tr> +</table> + +<hr class='minor' /> +<p class='center'>BARSE & HOPKINS<br />PUBLISHERS</p> +<p class='center'>New York, N. Y. Newark, N. J.</p> + +<hr class='dashed' /> + +<h2>THE BIG LEAGUE SERIES<br /><span class="smcap" style='font-size:smaller'>(Trade Mark Registered)</span></h2> + +<p class='center'>By BURT L. STANDISH</p> + +<p class='center'>Endorsed by such stars of baseballdom as Christy Mathewson, Ty Cobb and +Walter Johnson.</p> + +<p>An American boy with plenty of grit—baseball at its finest—and the +girl in the case—these are the elements which compose the most +successful of juvenile fiction. You don't have to be a "fan" to enjoy +these books; all you need to be is really human and alive with plenty of +red blood in your veins.</p> + +<p>The author managed a "Bush League" team a number of years ago and is +thoroughly familiar with the actions of baseball players on and off the +field. Every American, young or old, who has enjoyed the thrills and +excitement of our national game, is sure to read with delight these +splendid stories of baseball and romance.</p> + +<p class='center'>Cloth Large 12 mo. Illustrated</p> + +<table summary='booklist'> +<tr><td align='right'>1 </td><td>LEFTY O' THE BUSH.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>2 </td><td>LEFTY O' THE BIG LEAGUE.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>3 </td><td>LEFTY O' THE BLUE STOCKINGS.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>4 </td><td>LEFTY O' THE TRAINING CAMP.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>5 </td><td>BRICK KING, BACKSTOP.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>6 </td><td>THE MAKING OF A BIG LEAGUER.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>7 </td><td>COURTNEY OF THE CENTER GARDEN.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>8 </td><td>COVERING THE LOOK-IN CORNER.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>9 </td><td>LEFTY LOCKE, PITCHER-MANAGER.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>10 </td><td>GUARDING THE KEYSTONE SACK.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>11 </td><td>THE MAN ON FIRST.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>12 </td><td>LEGO LAMB, SOUTHPAW.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>13 </td><td>THE GRIP OF THE GAME.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>14 </td><td>LEFTY LOCKE, OWNER.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>15 </td><td>LEFTY LOCKE WINS OUT.</td></tr> +</table> + +<hr class='minor' /> +<p class='center'>BARSE & HOPKINS<br />PUBLISHERS</p> +<p class='center'>New York, N. Y. Newark, N. J.</p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Boy Scout Treasure Hunters, by +Charles Henry Lerrigo + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BOY SCOUT TREASURE HUNTERS *** + +***** This file should be named 22644-h.htm or 22644-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/2/6/4/22644/ + +Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +http://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at http://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + + +</pre> + +</body> +</html> diff --git a/22644-h/images/illus-131.jpg b/22644-h/images/illus-131.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ab8d40a --- /dev/null +++ b/22644-h/images/illus-131.jpg diff --git a/22644-h/images/illus-198.jpg b/22644-h/images/illus-198.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e3fe9b6 --- /dev/null +++ b/22644-h/images/illus-198.jpg diff --git a/22644-h/images/illus-211.jpg b/22644-h/images/illus-211.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ffa84a0 --- /dev/null +++ b/22644-h/images/illus-211.jpg diff --git a/22644-h/images/illus-emb.png b/22644-h/images/illus-emb.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..bdd8527 --- /dev/null +++ b/22644-h/images/illus-emb.png diff --git a/22644-h/images/illus-fpc.jpg b/22644-h/images/illus-fpc.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..2a8eb29 --- /dev/null +++ b/22644-h/images/illus-fpc.jpg |
