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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 Fire Fighters + or Jack Danby's Bravest Deed + +Author: Robert Maitland + +Release Date: November 24, 2008 [EBook #26875] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BOY SCOUT FIRE FIGHTERS *** + + + + +Produced by Al Haines + + + + + +</pre> + + +<A NAME="img-cover"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-cover.jpg" ALT="Cover art" BORDER="2" WIDTH="457" HEIGHT="716"> +<H3 CLASS="h3center" STYLE="width: 457px"> +Cover art +</H3> +</CENTER> + +<BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +<I>Boy Scout Series Volume 4</I> +</H3> + +<BR><BR> + +<H1 ALIGN="center"> +The Boy Scout Fire Fighters +</H1> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +OR +</H3> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +Jack Danby's Bravest Deed +</H2> + +<BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +BY +</H3> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +Major Robert Maitland +</H2> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +THE SAALFIELD PUBLISHING COMPANY +<BR> +CHICAGO —— AKRON, OHIO —— NEW YORK +</H4> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H5 ALIGN="center"> +Copyright, 1912 +<BR> +By +<BR> +The Saalfield Publishing Co. +</H5> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CONTENTS +</H2> + +<TABLE ALIGN="center" WIDTH="80%"> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">Chapter</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> </TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">I </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap01">AT THE EDGE OF THE FIRE</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">II </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap02">FIGHTING THE FIRE</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">III </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap03">WHAT THE SPY SAW</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">IV </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap04">THE DOUBLE HEADER</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">V </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap05">TOM BINNS' BAD LUCK</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VI </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap06">THE ATTACK ON THE STATION</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap07">JACK DANBY'S PERIL</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VIII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap08">THE RESCUE</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">IX </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap09">A SWIMMING PARTY</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">X </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap10">THE BURNING LAUNCH</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XI </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap11">THE MYSTERY DEEPENS</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap12">AN UNGRATEFUL PARENT</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XIII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap13">THE MOVING PICTURES</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XIV </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap14">A FOOLISH STRIKE</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XV </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap15">THE DYNAMITERS</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XVI </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap16">OFF ON A LONG HIKE</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XVII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap17">A TIMELY WARNING</A></TD> +</TR> + +</TABLE> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="transnote"> +[Transcriber's notes: +<BR><BR> +Two chapters in the source book were misnumbered. Chapters in this +ebook have been renumbered. +<BR><BR> +The last numbered page in the source book was page 168, but damage to +the book indicates that a number of pages were missing after that +point. Since the original book did not have a table of contents, it is +unknown what may be missing.] +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap01"></A> + +<H1 ALIGN="center"> +The Boy Scout Fire Fighters +</H1> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER I +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +AT THE EDGE OF THE FIRE +</H3> + +<P> +A pall of smoke, dark, ugly, threatening, hung over a wood in which the +Thirty-ninth Troop of the Boy Scouts had been spending a Saturday +afternoon in camp. They had been hard at work at signal practice, +semaphoring, and acquiring speed in Morse signaling with flags, which +makes wireless unnecessary when there are enough signalers, covering +enough ground. +</P> + +<P> +The Scout camp was near the edge of the woods. Beyond its site +stretched level fields, sloping gradually upward from them toward a +wooded mountain. The smoke came from the mountain, and in the growing +blackness over the mountain a circular ring proclaimed the spreading +fire. +</P> + +<P> +"Gee, that looks like some fire, Jack," said Pete Stubbs, a Tenderfoot +Scout, to his chum, Jack Danby, head office-boy in the place where he +and Pete both worked. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm afraid it is," said Jack, looking anxiously toward it. +</P> + +<P> +"I never saw one as big as that before," said Pete. "I've heard about +them, but we never had one like that anywhere around here." +</P> + +<P> +"We used to have pretty bad ones up at Woodleigh," returned Jack. "I +don't like the looks of that fire a bit. It's burning slowly enough +now, but if they don't look out, it'll get away from them and come +sweeping down over the fields here." +</P> + +<P> +"Say, Jack, that's right, too! I should think they'd want to be more +careful there in the farmhouses. There's some of them pretty close to +the edge of the woods over there." +</P> + +<P> +Scout-Master Thomas Durland, who was in charge of the Troop, came up to +them just then. +</P> + +<P> +"Danby," he said, "take your signaling flags, and go over toward that +fire. I want you to examine the situation and report if there seems to +be any danger of the fire spreading to the lowlands and endangering +anything there." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, sir," said Jack at once, raising his hand in the Scout salute and +standing at attention as the Scout-Master, the highest officer of the +Troop of Scouts, spoke to him. His hand was at his forehead, three +middle fingers raised, and thumb bent over little finger. +</P> + +<P> +"Take Scout Stubbs with you," said the Scout-Master. "You may need +help in examining the country over there. I don't know much about it. +What we want to find out is whether the ground is bare, and so likely +to resist the fire, or if it is covered with stubble and short, dry +growth that will burn quickly." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, sir!" +</P> + +<P> +"Look out for water, too. There may be some brooks so small that we +can't see them from here. But I'm afraid not. Every brook around here +seems to be dried up. The drought has been so bad that there is almost +no water left. A great many springs, even, that have never failed in +the memory of the oldest inhabitants, have run dry in the last month or +so. The wind is blowing this way, and the fire seems to be running +over from the other side of Bald Mountain there. From the looks of the +smoke, there must be a lot of fire on the other side." +</P> + +<P> +No more orders were needed. The two Scouts, hurrying off, went across +the clear space at the Scout pace, fifty steps running, then fifty +steps walking. That is a better pace for fast travelling, except very +short distances, than a steady run, for it can be kept up much longer +without tiring, and Boy Scouts everywhere have learned to use it. +</P> + +<P> +"Why do they call that Bald Mountain, I wonder?" said Pete, as they +went along. "It isn't bald any more'n I am. There are trees all over +the top." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know, Pete. Places get funny names, sometimes, just the same +way that people do. It doesn't make much difference, though, in the +case of a mountain." +</P> + +<P> +"Nor people, either, Jack," said Pete Stubbs, stoutly. He had noticed +a queer look on his chum's face, and he remembered something that he +always had to be reminded of—the strange mystery of Jack's name. +</P> + +<P> +He was called Jack Danby, but he himself, and a few of his best +friends, knew, that he had no real right to that name. What his own +real name was was something that was known to only one man, as far as +his knowledge went, and that one a man who was his bitter enemy, and +far more bent on harming him than doing him the favor of clearing up +the mystery of his birth and his strange boyhood at Woodleigh. There +Jack had lived in a cabin in the woods with a quaint old character +called Dan. He had always been known as Jack, and people had spoken of +him as Dan's boy. By an easy corruption that had been transformed into +Danby, and the name had stuck. +</P> + +<P> +He had come to the city through the very Troop of Boy Scouts to which +he now belonged. They had been in camp near Woodleigh, and Jack had +played various pranks on them before he had struck up a great +friendship with one of them, little Tom Binns, and so had been allowed +by Durland to join the Scouts. More than that, Durland had persuaded +him to come to the city, and had found a job for him, in which Jack had +covered himself with glory, and done credit both himself and Durland, +who had recommended him. +</P> + +<P> +"Gee, it's getting smoky," said Pete, as they reached the first gentle +rise at the foot of the mountain, though it had seemed to rise abruptly +when viewed from a distance. +</P> + +<P> +"A woods fire always makes this sort of a thick, choking smoke. +There's a lot of damp stuff that burns with the dry wood. Leaves that +lie on the ground and rot make a good deal of the smoke, and then +there's a lot of moisture in the trees even in the driest weather." +</P> + +<P> +"Sure there is, Jack! They take all the water there is when the rain +falls and keep it for the dry weather, don't they, like a camel?" +</P> + +<P> +"That's a funny idea, Pete, comparing a tree to a camel, but I don't +know that it's so bad, at that. It is rather on the same principle, +when you come to think of it." +</P> + +<P> +Men were working in the fields as they approached the fire. They +seemed indifferent to the danger that Durland feared. One boy not much +older than themselves stared at the carroty head of Pete Stubbs, and +laughed aloud. +</P> + +<P> +"Hey, Carrots," he cried, "ain't you afraid of settin' yourself on +fire?" +</P> + +<P> +"You ain't so good lookin' yourself!" Pete flamed back, but Jack put a +hand on his arm. +</P> + +<P> +"Easy there, Pete!" he said. "We're on Scout duty now. Don't mind +him." +</P> + +<P> +A little further on they met an older man, who seemed to be the farmer. +</P> + +<P> +"Aren't you afraid the fire may spread this way?" asked Jack, stopping +to speak to him. +</P> + +<P> +"Naw! Ain't never come here yet. Reckon it won't now, neither." +</P> + +<P> +"There always has to be a first time for everything, you know," said +Jack, secretly annoyed at the stolid indifference of the farmer, who +seemed interested in nothing but the tobacco he was chewing. +</P> + +<P> +"Tain't no consarn of your'n, be it?" asked the farmer, looking at them +as if he had small use for boys who were not working. He forgot that +Pete and Jack, coming from the city, might work almost as hard there +through the week as he did on his farm, without the healthful outdoor +life to lessen the weariness. +</P> + +<P> +"Sure it ain't!" said Pete, goaded into replying. "We thought maybe +you'd like to know there was a good chance that your place might be +burnt up. If you don't care, we don't. That's a lead pipe cinch!" +</P> + +<P> +"Come on, Pete," said Jack. "They'll be looking for a signal pretty +soon. If we don't hurry, it'll be too dark for them to see our flags +when we really have something to report." +</P> + +<P> +The fields nearest the mountain and the fire were full of stubble that +would burn like tinder, as Jack knew. The corn had been cut, and the +dry stalks, that would carry the flames and give them fresh fuel to +feed on, remained. Not far beyond, too, were several great haystacks, +and in other fields the hay had been cut and was piled ready for +carrying into the barns the next day. If the fire, with a good start, +ever did leap across the cleared space from the woods it would be hard, +if not impossible, to prevent it from spreading thus right up to the +outhouses, the barns, and the farmhouses themselves. Moreover, there +was no water here. There were the courses of two little brooks that in +rainy weather had watered the land, but now these were dried up, and +there was no hope of succor from that side. +</P> + +<P> +As they approached the woods, too, Jack looked gravely at what he saw. +Timber had been cut here the previous winter, and badly and wastefully +cut, too, in a way that was now a serious menace. The stumps, high +above ground, much higher than they should have been, offered fresh +fuel for the fire, dead and dry as they were, and over the ground were +scattered numerous rotting branches that should have been gathered up +and carried in for firewood. +</P> + +<P> +"Looks bad, doesn't it?" Jack said to Pete. +</P> + +<P> +"It certainly does," rejoined his companion. "Now we've got to find a +place where we can do the signaling." +</P> + +<P> +"I see a place," said Jack, "and I think I can reach it pretty easily, +too. See that rock up there, that sticks out from the side of the +mountain? I bet you can see that a long way off. You go on up to +where the fire's burning. Get as near as you can, and see how fast +it's coming. Then work your way back to the rock and tell me what +you've seen." +</P> + +<P> +"Right, oh!" said Pete. "I'm off, Jack!" +</P> + +<P> +Though the smoke was thick, now, and oppressive, so that he coughed a +good deal, and his eyes ran and smarted from the acrid smell, Jack made +his way steadfastly toward the rock, which he reached without great +difficulty. He was perhaps a mile from the Scout camp, and there, he +knew, they were looking anxiously for the first flashing of his red and +white flags to announce that he was ready to report. +</P> + +<P> +He stood out on the rock, and, after a minute of hard waving of his +flags, he caught the answer. Thus communication was established, and +he began to make his report. He had no fear of being misunderstood, +for it was Dick Crawford, the Assistant Scout-Master and his good +friend, who was holding the flags at the other end, and not some novice +who was getting practice in signaling, one of the pieces of Scout lore +in which Jack had speedily become an adept. +</P> + +<P> +"Bad fire," he wig-wagged back. "Seems to be spreading fast. Ground +very bad. Likely to spread, I think. Fields full of stubble. No +water at all. Brooks and springs all dried up." +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Durland says have you warned men working in the fields?" +</P> + +<P> +"Not yet," was the answer from Jack. "But they think it's all right, +and seem to think we're playing a game." +</P> + +<P> +Then Jack dropped his flags in token of his desire to stop for a +minute, and turned to Pete Stubbs, who had come up. +</P> + +<P> +"It's burning mighty fast," said Pete. "The woods are awfully dry up +there. There's no green stuff at all to hold it in check. If those +people on the farm down there don't look out, they'll be in a lot of +trouble." +</P> + +<P> +Jack sent that information, too, and then came orders from Dick +Crawford. +</P> + +<P> +"Return to camp," the Assistant Scout-Master flashed. "Warn farmer and +men of danger. Suggest a back fire in their fields, to give clear +space fire cannot jump. Then report, verbally, result of warning." +</P> + +<P> +The warning was a waste of breath and effort. +</P> + +<P> +"Think you can learn me my business?" asked the farmer, indignantly. +"I don't need no Boy Scouts to tell me how to look after my property. +Be off with you, now, and don't bother us! We're busy here, working +for a living. Haven't got time to run around playing the way you do." +</P> + +<P> +Jack felt that it was useless to argue. This farmer was one who +believed that all boys were full of mischief. He didn't know anything +about the Boy Scout movement and the new sort of boy that it has +produced and is producing, in ever growing numbers. So Jack and Pete +went on to camp, and there Jack made his report to Durland. +</P> + +<P> +"It would serve him right to have his place burned," said Durland, "but +we can't work on that theory. And there are others who would suffer, +too, and that wouldn't be right. So we'll just go over there and stop +that fire ourselves." +</P> + +<P> +There was a chorus of cheers in reply to that. The idea of having a +chance to fight a really big fire like this awoke all the enthusiasm of +the Scouts of the three Patrols, the Whip-poor-wills, the Raccoons and +the Crows, this last the one to which Jack and Pete belonged. +</P> + +<P> +So off they went, with Durland in the lead. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap02"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER II +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +FIGHTING THE FIRE +</H3> + +<P> +The three Patrols of the Troop had been nearly at full strength when +the hike to the camping ground began, and Durland had at his disposal, +therefore, when he led them across the open fields toward the burning +mountain, about twenty quick, disciplined and thoroughly enthusiastic +Scouts, ready to do anything that was ordered, and to do it with a will. +</P> + +<P> +"What's it like over there, Jack?" asked Tom Binns, who was Jack +Danby's particular chum among the Scouts, and the one who had really +induced him to join the Crows. +</P> + +<P> +"It's going to be pretty hot work, Tom," said Jack. "There's no water +at all, and the only chance to stop that fire is by back firing." +</P> + +<P> +"That's pretty dangerous, isn't it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, unless the man who's doing it knows exactly what he wants to do +and exactly how to do it. But I guess Mr. Durland and Dick Crawford +won't make any mistakes." +</P> + +<P> +"It's lucky for these farmers that Mr. Durland knows a fire when he +sees it, isn't it, Jack? If they let that fire alone, Bob Hart said it +would sweep over the whole place and burn up the farmhouses." +</P> + +<P> +"Sure it would! The trouble is they never believe anything until they +see it. They think that just because there never was a really bad fire +here before, there never will be." +</P> + +<P> +"There have been fires on Bald Mountain before, though, Jack. I've +seen them myself." +</P> + +<P> +"That's true enough—and that's just the trouble. This is the trouble. +There's been scarcely any rain here for the last two months, and +everything is fearfully dry. If the brooks were full the fire wouldn't +be so likely to jump them. But, as it is, any old thing may happen. +That's the danger—and they can't see it." +</P> + +<P> +Each Scout was carrying his Scout axe and stick, a stout pole that was +useful in a hundred different ways on every hike. The axes were out +now, and the sharp knives that each Scout carried were also ready for +instant use. Durland, at the head of the little column in which the +Scouts had formed, was casting his keen eye over the whole landscape. +Now he gave the order to halt. +</P> + +<P> +The Scouts had reached the edge of the fertile land. The course of the +little stream was directly before them, and on the other side was the +land that had been partially cleared of timber the year before, filled +with stumps and dry brush. +</P> + +<P> +"Go over and borrow a few shovels from the farmhouse over there," +directed Durland. "Crawford, take a couple of Scouts and get them. I +want those shovels, whether they want to lend them to you or not. It's +for their own sake—we can't stand on ceremony if they won't or can't +understand the danger." +</P> + +<P> +"Come on, Danby and Binns," said Dick Crawford, a happy smile on his +lips, and the light of battle in his eyes. "We'll get those shovels if +they're to be found there, believe me!" +</P> + +<P> +The farmer and most of the men, of course, were in the fields, still at +work. If they had seen the advance of the Scouts they had paid no +attention whatever, and seemed to have no curiosity, even when three of +the Scouts left the main body, and went over to the farmhouse. There +Dick and the others found a woman, hatchet faced and determined, with a +bulldog and a hulking, overgrown boy for company. She sat on the back +porch, peeling potatoes, and there was no welcome in the look she gave +them. +</P> + +<P> +"Be off with you!" she shrilled at them. "You'll get no hand-outs +here! You're worse'n tramps, you boys be, running over honest people's +land, and stealing fruit. Be off now, or I'll set the dog onto ye!" +</P> + +<P> +"We only want to borrow some shovels, ma'am," explained Dick Crawford, +politely, trying to hide a smile at her vehement way of expressing +herself. +</P> + +<P> +"What next?" she cried. "Shovels, is it? And a fine chance we'd have +of ever seeing them ag'in if we let you have them, wouldn't we? Here, +Tige! Sic 'em, boy, sic 'em!" +</P> + +<P> +The dog's hair rose on his back, and he growled menacingly as he +advanced toward them. But there Jack Danby was in his own element. +There had never been an animal yet, wild or tame, that he had ever +seen, with which he could not make friends. He dropped to one knee +now, while the others watched him, and spoke to the dog. In a moment +the savagery went out of the bulldog, who, as it seemed, was really +little more than a puppy, and he came playfully up to Jack, anxious to +be friendly. +</P> + +<P> +"The dog knows, you see," said Dick. "A dog will never make friends +with anyone who is unworthy, ma'am. Don't you think you could follow +his example, and trust us?" +</P> + +<P> +"You'll get no shovels here," said the woman, with a surly look. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I don't know!" said little Tom Binns, under his breath. His eyes +had been busy, darting all around, and he had seen a number of shovels, +scattered with other farm implements, under a pile of brushwood. He +leaped over to this pile now, suddenly, before the loutish boy who was +helping with the potatoes could make a move to stop him, and in a +moment he was dancing off, his arms full of shovels. Dick Crawford saw +what had happened, and could not help approving. +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you," he said to the enraged woman, who rose and seemed about to +take a hand herself, physically. "I'm sorry we had to help ourselves, +but it's necessary to save your home, though your own men don't seem to +think so." +</P> + +<P> +They were off then, with the woman shouting after them, and trying to +induce the dog, who stood wagging his tail, to give chase. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't like to take things that way," said Dick, "but if ever the end +justified the means, this was the time. We had to have those shovels, +and it's just as I told her—it's for their sake that we took them, not +for ours at all." +</P> + +<P> +"What will we do with these shovels when we get them?" asked Tom Binns, +who had distributed his load so that each of the others had some +shovels to carry. They made a heavy load, even so, and Tom couldn't +have carried them all for more than a few steps without dropping from +their weight. +</P> + +<P> +"I guess Mr. Durland intends to dig a trench, and then start a back +fire," said Crawford. "You see, the wind is so strong that if we +started a back fire without precaution like that it would be simply +hastening destruction of the property we are trying to save, and it +would be better not to interfere at all than to do that. With the +trench, you see, the fire we start will be quickly stopped, and the +other fire won't have anything to feed on when it once reaches the part +that we've burned over." +</P> + +<P> +Crawford had guessed aright the reason for getting the shovels, for +Durland, as soon as the three Scouts reached the stream with their +precious burden of shovels, picked out the strongest Scouts and set +them to work digging the trench. He took a shovel himself, and set the +best of examples by the way he made the dirt fly. +</P> + +<P> +They were working on a sort of a ridge. On each side there was a +natural barrier to the advance of the fire, fortunately, in the form of +rock quarries, where there was absolutely nothing that the fire could +feed on. Therefore, if it hadn't been checked, it would have swept +over the place where they had dug their trench, as through the mouth of +a funnel, and mushroomed out again beyond the quarries. +</P> + +<P> +The trench was dug in an amazingly short time. It was rough work, but +effective, the ditch, about two feet deep and seven or eight feet wide, +extending for nearly two hundred feet. On the side of this furthest +from the fire Durland now lined up the Scouts, each armed with a branch +covered with leaves at one end. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm going to start a back fire now," he said. "I don't think it will +be big enough to leap the trench, but to make sure, you will all stay +lined up on your side of the ditch, and beat out every spark that comes +across and catches the dry grass on your side. Then we'll be +absolutely safe." +</P> + +<P> +He and Crawford, skilled in the ways of the woods, soon had the brush +on the other side burning. The rate at which the little fire they set +spread, showed beyond a doubt how quickly the great fire that was +sweeping down the mountain would have crossed the supposed clearing. +</P> + +<P> +"Gee, see how it licks around those stumps!" said Tom Binns. "It's +just as if they'd started a fire in a furnace or a big open fireplace." +</P> + +<P> +"That's the wind," said Jack. "It's blowing pretty hard. I think the +danger will be pretty well over by tonight, for the time being, at +least. Unless I'm very much mistaken, there's rain coming behind that +wind." +</P> + +<P> +"It's hard to tell," said Bob Hart, Patrol Leader of the Crows, waiting +with his branch for the time to beat out sparks. "The smoke darkens +the sky so that all weather signs fail. The sun glows red through it, +and you can't really tell, here, whether there are any rain clouds or +not. But it's a wet wind, certainly, and I guess you're right, Jack." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't see how you can tell about the weather as well as you do, +Jack," said Pete Stubbs. "You never seem to be wrong, and since I've +known you, you've guessed better than the papers two or three times." +</P> + +<P> +"I've lived in the woods nearly all my life, Pete. That's why I can +sometimes tell. I'm not always right, by a good deal, but the sky and +the trees and the birds are pretty good weather prophets as a rule. In +the country you have to be able to tell about the weather." +</P> + +<P> +"That's right," said Bob Hart. "I've known farmers, when there was a +moon, to keep men working until after midnight to get the hay in, just +because they were sure there'd be a storm the next day. And they were +right, too, though everyone else laughed at them." +</P> + +<P> +"It means an awful lot to a farmer to get his hay in before the rain +comes," said Jack. "It means the difference between a good year and a +bad year, often. Many a farm has been lost just because a crop like +that failed and the farmer couldn't pay a mortgage when he had expected +to." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, if they're all as stupid as this fellow, they deserve to lose +their farms," said Bob Hart. +</P> + +<P> +"Here he comes now, and he looks mad enough to shoot us!" +</P> + +<P> +It was true. The irate farmer was coming, pitchfork in hand, with his +two sturdy sons and a couple of farm hands, who grinned as if they +neither knew nor cared what would happen, but were glad of a chance for +a little excitement. +</P> + +<P> +"Who gave you leave to dig your ditch here?" he shouted. "This is my +land, I reckon. Be off with you now! And look at the fire you +started!" +</P> + +<P> +Indignantly he made for Bob Hart with his pitchfork. He was worked up +to a regular fury, and it might have fared ill with the Patrol Leader +had it not been for Jack Danby's quick leap to the rescue. +</P> + +<P> +"You don't want to use that pitchfork," shouted Jack, springing +forward. And, before the astonished farmer realized what the Scout was +up to, the pitchfork had been seized from his hand. +</P> + +<P> +"What's the trouble here?" cried Durland, rushing up just then. "Shame +on you, my man! Can't you see that we've saved your farm?" +</P> + +<P> +He seized the farmer by the shoulders and spun him around to face the +sea of fire that was billowing down the slopes from the blazing +mountain, that was now a real torch. The fire had passed beyond the +stage of the slow burning circle that is so characteristic of wood +fires. It was rushing relentlessly forward, and even now it was at the +edge of the clearing. +</P> + +<P> +"There!" cried Durland. "You can see now how it would have eaten that +cleared timber lot of yours. See?" +</P> + +<P> +The back fire had been started half way in the timber lot. It had +traveled fast, and before the onrushing big fire was a space a hundred +yards wide of blackened ground, where the saving flames Durland had +lighted had had their will. As far as that space came the big fire. +Then, because there was nothing left to feed it and the gap was too +wide for it to leap, it stopped, and there was an open space, already +burnt over, where only sparks and glowing embers remained. +</P> + +<P> +"Jumping wildcats!" exclaimed the farmer, in awe. "That was a purty +sizable fire! I say, stranger, I guess I was a leetle mite hasty just +now. You've saved us from a bad fire, all right, though I swum I don't +see how you thought to do it." +</P> + +<P> +"This is exceptional for this part of the country," said Durland, with +a smile. "But I have lived in countries where whole towns have been +swept away by a sudden shift of the wind just because the people +thought they were safe, and I have learned that the only way to fight +fire is with more fire. Also, that you never can tell what a big fire +is going to do, and that the only way to be on the safe side is to +figure that the fire is going after you just as if it was human. It +wants to destroy you, as it seems, and it keeps on looking for the weak +spot that you haven't guarded." +</P> + +<P> +"You come right back to the house, all of you," said the farmer, "and +the wife will give you a supper that you don't see the like of in town +very often, I'll warrant ye!" +</P> + +<P> +Durland was glad to accept the invitation for the whole Troop, for the +Scouts had had no time to cook their own supper. He felt, too, that +his Troop had won a sturdy friend, and that pleased him. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap03"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER III +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +WHAT THE SPY SAW +</H3> + +<P> +The boys who had fought the fire and saved the farm were so tired the +next day that most of them, including Jack Danby and Pete Stubbs, were +glad to spend the whole day in rest. The work had been more exhausting +than they had been able thoroughly to understand in the heat and rush +of getting it done. The next day saw them with aching muscles, sore +feet, and eyes that still smarted from the acrid wood smoke. It was +Sunday, so, of course, there was no reason why they should not rest as +much as they liked. +</P> + +<P> +"We sure want to rest up today, Jack," said Pete Stubbs, in the +afternoon, when they had gone to Grant park to lie on the grass and +watch a game of baseball that was being played by two teams of young +men who had no other day for games of any sort. "Tomorrow's field day, +you know." +</P> + +<P> +"I know it is, Pete. I've been practicing long enough to remember +that!" +</P> + +<P> +Monday of that week was a holiday in that State, and all the Scouts had +the day to themselves. Durland, always trying to think of things to +make life in his Troop interesting and happy, had devised the plan of a +field day, in which there should be games of all sorts. There was to +be a baseball tournament between the three Patrols for the championship +of the Troop, and a set of athletic games, including running, jumping, +and all sorts of sports. There were eight Scouts in each Patrol, and, +to make up a full nine, each had been allowed to select one boy from +its waiting list so that the roster might be complete. +</P> + +<P> +Jack Danby was the hope of the Crow Patrol in these sports. He was a +wonderfully fine athlete for a boy of his age, and was proficient in +many games. There had been no other real candidate for the post of +pitcher on the Crow baseball team, and he was expected to make a new +record in strike-outs the next day. +</P> + +<P> +"How's your arm, Jack?" asked Pete Stubbs, anxiously. "You didn't +strain it yesterday, did you, digging that ditch?" +</P> + +<P> +"Not a bit," said Jack, with a laugh. "It did it good, I think. I'm +not much of a pitcher, but if we get licked tomorrow the work I did +yesterday won't be any excuse. I'm as fit as any of the others, and I +won't mind admitting that anyone who pitches better than I do tomorrow +deserves to win." +</P> + +<P> +"Gee, Jack, I hope I do some hitting! I'm crazy to make a home run!" +</P> + +<P> +"Don't worry about it, Pete. That's the worst way you can do if you +really want to bat well. And remember that while it's fine to knock +out a home run and have everyone yelling and cheering you, the fellow +that sacrifices is often the one that wins the game." +</P> + +<P> +"It seems hard, though, Jack, just to bunt and know you're going to be +thrown out when you really might be able to make a hit." +</P> + +<P> +"It's the team that counts, though, Pete. Always remember that. And a +Scout ought to be able to obey his captain's orders just as well in a +baseball game as any other time. Just remember that there's a reason +for everything, even if you can't always understand it yourself, and +you won't mind making a sacrifice hit when what you want to do is to +knock the cover off the ball." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm going to play short stop tomorrow, Jack. Bob Hart brought me in +from the outfield and put Jack Binns out there. He says Tom can play +better with the sun in his eyes than anyone on the team. I missed a +catch the last game we had because I couldn't see the ball." +</P> + +<P> +"It's a mighty hard thing to do, to play the sun field well," said +Jack. "I wonder how that new pitcher the Raccoons have will do?" +</P> + +<P> +"He's their extra pitcher, and I guess he's a good one, Jack. He +pitched for the Bliss School team last spring, and they say his +pitching was what won the county championship for them." +</P> + +<P> +"Don't you believe it, Pete! He had a good team behind him. That won +the championship. No one man ever won a championship for a team, or +ever will. He's a good pitcher, and he probably helped them a lot, but +it's the team that does the work, every time." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I don't know, Jack. In their big game, with the High School, he +struck out fourteen men and the other side didn't get a run. His team +only made one run off the High School pitcher, so he had to do it +pretty nearly by himself. I hope you beat him, anyhow. He's got an +awful swelled head. They say the only reason he wants to join the +Scouts is so that he can get a chance to show he's a better pitcher +than you are. That's Homer Lawrence all over!" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I guess he's all right. I think he's a pretty nice fellow. I was +talking to him the other day." +</P> + +<P> +"His father's one of the richest men in this town, Jack. He has all +the money he wants, and he's been taking lessons in pitching from one +of the State League players. That's why he's so good, I guess. The +other fellows don't have a chance to learn things that way." +</P> + +<P> +"It isn't always the fellows who had the most lessons who are the best +players, Pete. Ty Cobb never had any lessons in baseball but he's a +pretty good player. And there are lots of others." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't think it's fair, anyhow, Jack. The Raccoons oughtn't to have +picked him out. He's a long way off from the top of their list, and I +don't believe he'll get in this year." +</P> + +<P> +"That's the rule we made, Pete. Each Patrol needed an extra player, +and they were allowed to pick anyone at all they liked from their +waiting lists. So it's perfectly fair, and we haven't any kick coming." +</P> + +<P> +Jack was willing to rest for quite a while after that, but presently he +began to feel more energetic. +</P> + +<P> +"Come on, Pete," he said, "I'll pitch a few balls to you somewhere, if +we can get a bat and a ball, and perhaps that'll help you in your +batting tomorrow." +</P> + +<P> +So they left the park, and went back toward their homes. At Jack's +room they got a bat and ball, and then wondered where they should go +for their practice. +</P> + +<P> +"I know!" cried Pete. "Down by the river there. There's nothing doing +there on Sundays—it's quiet as can be. And maybe we'll find some +little kid around to chase balls for us." +</P> + +<P> +"Any place you like, Pete; it's all the same to me. I'll be glad to +limber my arm up a little, too. It feels a tiny bit stiff, and a good +work-out will be fine for it." +</P> + +<P> +Because it was Sunday they tried to keep their bat out of sight. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't think it's wrong for us to practice this way," said Jack. "We +have to work all week, and I think we need exercise. If we can't get +it except on Sunday afternoons, it's all right to practice a little, +though I wouldn't play in a regular game, because I do get a chance for +playing on Saturdays now. They don't give you Saturday afternoon off +in every office, though, I can tell you." +</P> + +<P> +First of all Pete, highly elated at the chance to further his secret +ambition of developing into a catcher, put on a big mitt and Jack +pitched all sorts of curves to him. Then he took his bat and tried to +straighten out the elusive, deceptive balls that Jack pitched. +</P> + +<P> +"Gee, I can hardly see the ball, much less hit it!" exclaimed Pete, +after whiffing ingloriously at the air two or three times and barely +tapping the sphere on several other occasions. +</P> + +<P> +"Keep on trying, Pete. Those aren't really bard to hit. The trouble +is you don't watch the ball." +</P> + +<P> +"It never goes where I think it will, Jack." +</P> + +<P> +"That's the whole idea of pitching, Pete. Keep your eyes on the ball +after I pitch it, not on me. Then you can see just what it does. Now +you think I'm going to pitch one sort of a ball, and if I pitch +anything else, you're up in the air right away." +</P> + +<P> +At last, in huge disgust, Pete hurled his bat away from him, after +making a mighty swing at a slow floater. He seemed to be furious. +</P> + +<P> +"Easy there, Pete!" said Jack, amused at this display of temper, as he +picked up the bat and advanced toward Pete to return it to him. +</P> + +<P> +"I wasn't mad," said Pete, in a low whisper. "I just wanted to talk to +you without anyone knowing that I wanted to. Say, Jack, there's +someone watching us." +</P> + +<P> +"Watching us, Pete? Why should anyone do that?" +</P> + +<P> +"It's Lawrence,—that chap that's going to pitch for the Raccoons, +Jack. I'm sure of it! He and Harry Norman are behind that fence over +there—the sneaks!" +</P> + +<P> +Jack dropped back to his position without saying anything more. He was +careful for a minute or two not to look in the direction of the fence +that Pete had referred to. But when he did look, his keen eyes were +not long in finding out that Pete had been right. There were spies +behind the fence, and they were studying every ball he pitched. +</P> + +<P> +A few moments later he found, or made, another chance to speak to Pete. +</P> + +<P> +"You were right, Pete," he said. "They are watching us from there." +</P> + +<P> +"Let's chase them out of there, Jack!" +</P> + +<P> +"Not a bit of it, Pete. I don't want them to know we've found out +they're there—not now, at any rate. If they're mean enough to try to +find something out by spying that way, I'll be mean enough to give them +something to look at that won't do them much good!" +</P> + +<P> +"Say, Jack, that's the stuff! That's better than giving them a +licking, too. What'll you do?" +</P> + +<P> +"Just wait and see! And hit these balls just as hard as you can." +</P> + +<P> +The ball looked as big as a house now to Pete as it came sailing up to +him. Mysteriously all the "stuff" that Jack had been "putting on" the +ball was gone and done with. The balls Jack pitched now were either +straight or broke so widely that almost anyone could have batted home +runs galore off him. And Pete, who saw the point, swung wildly at +every one of them, hitting them easily. +</P> + +<P> +"That's a fine joke," said Pete. "They won't find out very much about +what you can do as a pitcher from that—that's a sure thing! If +Lawrence thinks that's the best thing you can do when you get in the +box I'm afraid he'll get an awful jolt tomorrow." +</P> + +<P> +"I hope so, Pete. The sneak—you were quite right. If he'd come right +out to me and told me he wanted to watch me pitch, I wouldn't have +minded. But that's a mean trick!" +</P> + +<P> +"It won't do him much good, that's one good thing. Say, I don't +believe he's as good himself as they make out, or he wouldn't have +played such a trick. I bet he's got a big yellow streak in him." +</P> + +<P> +"We'll find that out tomorrow, Pete. I hope not, because he certainly +knows how to pitch. If he does a thing like that, though, he'd be apt +to try to cheat in the game, or do something like that, I'm afraid. I +don't care, though. If he wants to win in any such fashion as that, +he's welcome to the victory. He must want to win worse than I do." +</P> + +<P> +"I didn't think Harry Norman would play a dirty trick on you after the +way you saved his life, Jack. I was surprised to see him there." +</P> + +<P> +"He doesn't like me. I've always been willing to be friendly with him, +even when I had to fight him up at Woodleigh. He forced me into that." +</P> + +<P> +"He isn't a Scout, is he?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, he doesn't like the Scouts. I guess he'll never join, either." +</P> + +<P> +"He's no great loss, I guess. We can get along better without him than +with him if he's going to do things like that. I bet Lawrence won't +join either, when this game's over." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap04"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER IV +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE DOUBLE HEADER +</H3> + +<P> +Pete Stubbs had wanted to tell everyone of the trick that Lawrence had +tried to play on Jack, and of Jack Danby's clever way of turning the +tables on him, but Jack dissuaded him. +</P> + +<P> +"That won't do any good," he said. "After all, he may not have meant +to do anything wrong, and we'd better give him the benefit of the +doubt." +</P> + +<P> +"Aw, sure he meant to be mean, Jack! I ain't got no use for him. If +we told the others he'd get a ragging he wouldn't forget in a hurry, +I'll bet." +</P> + +<P> +"I guess you can stand it if I can, Pete. Keep quiet about it, because +I want you to." +</P> + +<P> +"All right, Jack, if you want me to, I will. Say, there's one thing I +hadn't thought of. If he takes all that trouble to find out how you +pitch, he must be afraid of you!" +</P> + +<P> +"I hope he is, Pete. That's half the battle, you know, making the +other fellow think you're better than he is, whether you are or +not—and thinking so yourself. Often it makes it come out right." +</P> + +<P> +Full grown men would have been appalled by the program that had been +mapped out for the Boy Scout Field Day. +</P> + +<P> +Baseball filled the morning and early afternoon. There were to be +three games in all. First the Crows were to play the Whip-poor-wills. +Then the Whip-poor-wills were to play the Raccoons, and finally the +Crows and Raccoons were to meet. There was to be an hour of rest for +the baseball players between the games, and during that time there were +to be running races and jumping contests, and also a race for small +sailing boats on the lake, with crews from the three Patrols for three +catboats. Durland owned one, Dick Crawford another, and the third, the +one to be used by the Crows, was lent by Mr. Simms, the president of +the company that employed Jack Danby and Pete Stubbs. +</P> + +<P> +The first event of all on the program was the baseball game between +Crows and Whip-poor-wills. The Whip-poor-wills, or the Willies, as +they were called for short, by the rooters, were not as strong as the +Crows and the Raccoons, and were expected to lose both their games, +leaving the championship to be fought out between the Crows arid the +Raccoons in the afternoon. +</P> + +<P> +Bob Hart, captain of the Crows, came up to Jack Danby in the early +morning at the campfire. +</P> + +<P> +"We'll let Tom Binns pitch the first game, Jack," he said, "and save +you for the Raccoons. They're saving Lawrence, too, and he'll pitch +against you. So you want to be fresh and ready for him. You play left +field. That'll give you some exercise, and won't tire your arm out." +</P> + +<P> +"I think I could pitch the two games, if you wanted me to," said Jack, +"but I'll be glad to see Tom get a chance to pitch. He's a good +pitcher, and he ought to beat them easily." +</P> + +<P> +So the teams lined up with Jack in left field, and the game began. +</P> + +<P> +"Gee," said Pete, in the fourth inning, as he and Jack waited their +turn to bat, "we can't seem to hit their pitcher at all. Tom's +pitching an elegant game, but I thought we'd have eight or nine runs by +this time, and the score's really two to one in their favor." +</P> + +<P> +"There's plenty of time to begin hitting later, Pete. No need to worry +about that yet. There's nine innings in a ball game, and a run in the +ninth counts for just as much as one we make now." +</P> + +<P> +Pete Stubbs made a home run and tied the score in the sixth inning, and +after that, until the ninth there was no more scoring. +</P> + +<P> +The despised Willies were playing better than they knew how, as Pete +Stubbs said, and the Raccoons, who stood around to watch the game, +began to look anxious, for they had expected to see the Crows walk away +with the game. +</P> + +<P> +But in the ninth inning there was quite a break in the game. Bob Hart, +who batted first, led off with a screaming two bagger, and went to +third, when Tom Binns was thrown out. Pete Stubbs batted next, and was +so anxious to make a hit that he popped up a little fly to the first +baseman. But Jack Danby, with a rousing drive to center field, put his +team ahead, for he ran so fast that he beat the throw to the plate, and +made a home run, as Pete had done before him. +</P> + +<P> +"That's great, Jack!" cried Tom Binns. "Gee, I thought we'd never get +a lead on them! They can't hit much, but they've certainly got a good +pitcher." +</P> + +<P> +Jack trotted contentedly out to his position for the last half of the +ninth inning. The Crows seemed certain to win now, because Tom Binns' +pitching had been getting better every inning, and in the last two +times they had been at bat the Whip-poor-wills hadn't been able to get +a man to first base, much less get anywhere near making a run. +</P> + +<P> +The first man up now made a little tap, and the ball rolled toward the +third baseman, who muffed it. The next got a base on balls, and the +third was hit. The whole game was changed in a second. Tom Binns +seemed to be rattled. Try as he would, he couldn't get the ball over +the plate, despite Bob Hart's efforts to steady him, and in a moment he +passed the fourth batter, forcing in a run, and leaving the +Whip-poor-wills only one run behind, with the bases full and none out. +</P> + +<P> +Two or three of the Crow fielders looked anxiously at Jack, and Pete +Stubbs called from his position at shortstop. +</P> + +<P> +"I say, Bob," he cried, "better change pitchers. Tom's wild and can't +see the plate." +</P> + +<P> +Jack himself was more than anxious. He felt desperately sorry for poor +little Tom Binns, who had been tremendously proud of being chosen to +pitch for his team, and he was afraid, as were the others, that the +sudden rally was more than Tom could check. +</P> + +<P> +"He's going to leave him in," cried the center fielder to Jack as Hart +shook his head at Pete's suggestion that he take Tom out of the box. +And Tom began pitching again to the fifth Whip-poor-will who stood at +the plate brandishing his bat. +</P> + +<P> +Jack Danby knew a lot about baseball that was planted in him by sheer +instinct. And now he did something that was against orders and +entirely different from what any other amateur outfielder would have +thought of doing. It smacked more of big league baseball, where +thinking is quick. He crept in, inch by inch, almost, while Tom Binns +pitched two balls and a strike, until he was not more than thirty feet +behind the third baseman. +</P> + +<P> +"If they hit a long fly one run will come in," he reasoned to himself. +"A good single, even, will score two runs and win the game. The only +chance is to make a double play. That's why the infielders are all +drawn in close, so that they can throw to the plate. And that batter +will try his hardest to push the ball over their heads." +</P> + +<P> +"Crack!" +</P> + +<P> +The sound of the bat meeting the ball fairly came to him, and in a +moment he saw the sphere sailing for the outfield, and about to pass +squarely over the place the shortstop had just left. +</P> + +<P> +It looked like a sure hit, and the base runners started at once with +the ball. The center fielder, running in desperately, was too far out +to have a chance to catch the ball. But suddenly there was a shout. +Jack Danby, who had crept far in without being noticed, sprinted over, +and, by a wonderful jumping dive, caught the ball. Like a flash he +threw it to third base, and the runner who had started thence for the +plate was doubled easily. He had reached home, and there was no chance +for him to turn back. The runner from second, too, had turned third +base, and, as soon as the third baseman had stepped on his bag he +turned and threw to second base, completing as pretty a triple play as +was ever made, and winning the game for the Crows. +</P> + +<P> +"That was a wonderful play, Jack!" said Scout-Master Durland, who +served as umpire. "I never saw a better one, even in a big league +game. You were out of position, but if you hadn't been, that ball +would have fallen fair, and Tom Binns would have lost his game. +Really, though, you're the one that deserves the credit for winning it, +for your batting put your team ahead, and your fielding kept the +Whip-poor-wills from nosing you out in the finish." +</P> + +<P> +The Whip-poor-wills, disappointed by losing when victory seemed to be +within their grasp after such a gallant up-hill fight, seemed to have +shot their bolt. Their pitcher had outdone himself against the hard +hitters of the Crows, in holding them down so well, and when, after an +hour's rest, they lined up against the Raccoons, it seemed that they +were a different team. The Raccoons simply toyed with them. They +piled up runs in almost every inning, and won with ridiculous ease, by +a score of twenty to three. +</P> + +<P> +Harry Norman, who had come out with his friend Lawrence to watch the +sport, came up to Jack after the Raccoons had given this impressive +exhibition of their strength. +</P> + +<P> +"Gee," he said, "you might as well forfeit this game, Danby! You +haven't got a chance against the Raccoons, especially when Homer +Lawrence begins pitching for them. Look at the way they beat the +Whip-poor-wills, and the trouble you had with them. You only beat them +four to three, and you wouldn't have done that if you hadn't made that +lucky catch in the ninth inning." +</P> + +<P> +"That wasn't a lucky catch," protested Pete Stubbs. "Jack knew that +the ball might be hit that way, and he took a chance, because if the +ball had been hit to his regular position it would have meant a run +anyhow. That isn't luck—that's baseball strategy!" +</P> + +<P> +"There wasn't any luck about the twenty runs the Raccoons made anyhow," +said Norman, with a sneer. "And I'll bet you five dollars they beat +you. Money talks—there you are!" +</P> + +<P> +"We can't afford to bet," said Jack, quietly, while Pete Stubbs looked +angry enough to cry, almost. "We only get small salaries, Norman, and +we have to use all the money we make to live on. We support ourselves, +you know." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I suppose that's right," said Norman, contemptuously. Like many +other boys who are fortunate enough to have wealthy parents and to be +relieved from the need of starting out when they are little more than +children to earn their own way in the world, Norman had an idea that he +was, for that reason, superior to boys like Jack and Pete, when, as a +matter of fact, it is just the other way around. +</P> + +<P> +"Scouts don't bet, anyway," said Dick Crawford, who had overheard the +conversation, and showed, by his manner, that he had little use for +Norman, of whom he had heard many things that were far from pleasant. +"We don't want to win money from one another, and betting on friendly +games leads to hard feelings and all sorts of trouble. It's a good +thing to let alone. Come on to lunch, now, fellows. It's all ready." +</P> + +<P> +The members of the Crow Patrol and two or three volunteers who were +trying to prove that they were really qualified to be Scouts, though +they had to wait for vacancies before they could join, had prepared +lunch while the second baseball game was being played. +</P> + +<P> +"Guess I won't eat much today," said Pete Stubbs, sorrowfully. "I like +eating, but if I eat too much I'm never able to play a good game of +ball afterward." +</P> + +<P> +"Satisfy your hunger, Pete, and don't eat too much," advised Jack. +"Then you'll be all right. The trouble with you is that when you get +hold of something you like, you always feel that you have to eat all +you can hold of it. Don't starve yourself now—just eat a good meal, +and stop before you get so full that you feel as if you couldn't eat +another mouthful." +</P> + +<P> +"I guess he never gets enough to eat except when he's out this way," +said Harry Norman, beneath his breath. +</P> + +<P> +Jack Danby heard him and was furious, but he restrained himself, +although an attack on his friend angered him more than a similar remark +aimed at himself would have done. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't want any more trouble with you, Norman," he said very quietly, +taking the rich boy aside. "But don't say that sort of thing around +here. Remember that you're a guest, and that Pete is one of your hosts +and helped to pay for the spread that you're going to enjoy." +</P> + +<P> +"Mind your own business!" said Norman, rudely. "I didn't say anything +about you. I will if you don't look out—I'll tell them you haven't +got any right to your name, and that you don't know who your father and +mother were!" +</P> + +<P> +Jack bit his lips and clenched his fists for a moment, but he +controlled himself, and managed to let the insult pass by without +giving Norman the thrashing he deserved. +</P> + +<P> +After lunch, when the mess had been cleared away, the dishes had been +washed and everything had been made neat and orderly, the championship +game between the Raccoons and the Crows was called. +</P> + +<P> +There was quite a crowd out to see this game. Boys from the +neighborhood, attracted by the prowess of the rival pitchers, turned +out in good numbers. Many of Lawrence's school friends were also on +hand, and practically every boy employed in the office with Pete and +Jack was on hand, ready to yell his head off for the success of the +Crows. The defeated Whip-poor-wills were anxious for the Crows to win, +for the Raccoons had taunted them unmercifully on the poor showing they +had made in their second game, and they wanted to see the team that had +beaten them so badly humiliated in its turn. So the crowd of Crow +rooters was a little the larger, and if Jack Danby could win this game, +his victory was certain to be a popular one, at least. But few +thought that he would have a chance against the clever and experienced +Lawrence. +</P> + +<P> +"I've got an idea that the best way to beat Lawrence is to let him beat +himself," said Jack Danby to Bob Hart before the game. "He knows how +to pitch two good curves, and he's been striking out ten and twelve +fellows in every game he played just because they've swiped at those +curve balls." +</P> + +<P> +"That's just what I'm afraid our fellows will do," said Bob. "That's +what's been worrying me." +</P> + +<P> +"Well," said Jack, "about every one of those curves breaks outside the +plate. That is, if the batter didn't swing at them, the umpire would +have to call them balls. Just watch him in practice and you'll see +what I mean. Why not wait him out and make him pitch over the plate?" +</P> + +<P> +"Say, that's a good idea, Jack! I'll call the fellows together, and +we'll see how that works. I think that's a good way to save the +game—hanged if I don't!" +</P> + +<P> +And Bob Hart gave his orders accordingly. But it was harder to get the +Crows to do it than to tell them. Time after time they struck at +tempting balls, that looked as if they were going to split the plate, +only to have them break away out of reach of the swinging bats. So, in +the early stages of the game, Lawrence looked just as formidable as he +had in the school games in which his reputation had been made. Bob +Hart himself, and Jack, and Pete Stubbs, who could and would always +obey orders, made him pitch to them, and, because they waited and +refused to bite at his tempting curves, they put the star pitcher in +the hole each time. +</P> + +<P> +He was a good pitcher as far as he went, but his equipment was not as +large as it should have been. He knew how to pitch a few balls very +well, but if they failed him, he was in trouble. He had nothing but +his wide curves—no straight, fast ball with a jump, no drop, no change +of pace. The first time Jack Danby came up, in the second inning, he +let the first three balls that Lawrence pitched go by, and Durland +called every one a ball. Then, when Lawrence had to put his ball +straight over or give him a pass, Jack smashed it to right for two +bases. But he was left on second, for the two who followed him were +over anxious, and were victims on strikes. +</P> + +<P> +But Jack himself was pitching high class ball. He didn't try to strike +out every man who faced him, but made it next to impossible for the +Raccoons to make long hits off him, and he did have some fun with +Lawrence, striking him out three times in the first six innings. +</P> + +<P> +In the seventh inning Bob Hart waited and got a base on balls. By that +time the Crows had begun to understand, and they waited now while +Lawrence's best curves went to waste, never offering to hit at any ball +that didn't come straight for the plate. Three passes in quick +succession filled the bases, and then Jack Danby was up again. +</P> + +<P> +Lawrence was no poor player. He had a head as well as a good pitching +arm, and he set a trap for Jack. His first three balls were +curves—and called balls. Jack waited. Twice before, in the same +situation, Lawrence had had to pitch him a ball he could hit and he had +swung at it. And now Lawrence expected him to do the same thing, and +sent up a floater that looked good for a home run. But Jack only +smiled, and the ball broke away from the plate. +</P> + +<P> +It was the fourth ball, and it forced in the first run of the game. +Moreover, Lawrence, fooled and outguessed, went up in the air, and the +Crows made six runs in that one inning, and five more for good measure +in the eighth, while Jack shut out the Raccoons. +</P> + +<P> +The Crows, thanks to Jack, also won in the races and jumping contests, +so it was a great day for them. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap05"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER V +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +TOM BINNS' BAD LUCK +</H3> + +<P> +Jack Danby and Tom Binns, Second Class Scouts, were ready now to become +First Class Scouts, and so to earn the right to wear the full Scout +badge, and compete for all the medals and special badges of merit for +which Scouts are eligible. They had passed all the tests save one. +They had proved their efficiency in signaling, in scout and camp craft, +in the tying of knots, had given evidence of their ability to save +those who were drowning and give first aid to the injured, and they had +only to make a hike of seven miles, alone or together, to receive the +coveted promotion. +</P> + +<P> +They determined, with Scout-Master Durland's permission, to make this +hike together the Saturday afternoon following the Field Day that had +brought so much glory to Jack Danby and his Patrol, the Crows. +Although Tom Binns had been a Scout longer than Jack, Jack had been a +Tenderfoot Scout for only thirty days, the shortest time in which a +Scout can pass out of the Tenderfoot class, and he was fully as good a +Scout now as many of the older ones who had had the right to wear the +First Class Scout's badge for a long time. +</P> + +<P> +"Gee, Jack, I wonder if we'll ever get to be Patrol Leaders and +Scout-Masters?" asked Tom Binns, as they met after work that Saturday, +and prepared to start on their hike. +</P> + +<P> +"Why not, Tom? Everyone has to make a start. And Mr. Durland wasn't a +Scout when he was our age, because there weren't any Boy Scouts then." +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose it's a lot of responsibility, but then that's a good thing, +too." +</P> + +<P> +"You bet it is! That's one of the things I like best about being a +Scout. It teaches you to be responsible, and to understand that you've +got to do things just because you are responsible for seeing that +they're done, and not just because someone keeps standing over you and +telling you what to do." +</P> + +<P> +"Where shall we go, Jack?" +</P> + +<P> +"The camp for the Troop hike today is out at Beaver Dam. I thought we +might start from the other side of the lake there, go to Haskell +Crossing, and get back to camp in time for supper. Then we could get +our badges from Mr. Durland, I guess." +</P> + +<P> +"That's a fine idea, Jack. I don't know that country very well, +though. Do you?" +</P> + +<P> +"No. That's one reason for going that way. We know that we'll find a +place where we can make a fire and cook our supper, though. We don't +need to eat it unless we're particularly hungry, but we've got to cook +it." +</P> + +<P> +"Say, Jack, if fellows make that hike alone, who's going to tell +whether they really did it or not? If a fellow wasn't straight, he +could go off somewhere; and then report that he'd hiked the fourteen +miles, and there wouldn't be anyone to prove that he hadn't." +</P> + +<P> +"I know, but we're all on our honor, Pete, and a chap who had got to be +a Second Glass Scout wouldn't ever play a trick like that. It wouldn't +pay." +</P> + +<P> +"I guess that's true, too, Jack. That's another fine thing about being +a Scout. When you see a fellow give you the Scout sign in a strange +place, you know he's all right, just because he is a Scout, even if you +never saw him before." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. That's why we've all got to be so careful to keep up the honor +of the Scouts, and not do anything ourselves, nor let any other Scout +do anything that would give outsiders a chance to say that we preached +one thing and did another." +</P> + +<P> +They took the trolley to their starting point, on the side of Lake +Whitney away from Beaver Dam, where their fellow Scouts were to gather +later in the afternoon for a practice camp, such as Durland and +Crawford arranged for nearly every half holiday. +</P> + +<P> +"How will we know when we've gone seven miles?" asked Tom. +</P> + +<P> +"It's just about seven miles—perhaps a little more—to Haskell +Crossing, so we can tell without any trouble. That's one reason I +picked out the place. The trail through these woods is pretty rough, +but we can follow it all right." +</P> + +<P> +"Whose land is this, Jack?" +</P> + +<P> +"No one knows, exactly. It's a sort of a no man's land. Or, at least, +two sets of heirs to an old estate are fighting about it in the courts. +They've been trying for years to get it settled between them, but the +courts haven't decided yet, and they may not for a long time." +</P> + +<P> +"And meantime no one can use it?" +</P> + +<P> +"That's it. It seems silly, doesn't it? If the courts take so long to +decide it must mean, I should think, that both sides were partly right, +and I should think they'd want to settle it between themselves, and so +each get some use out of the land. There's an old house, more than a +hundred and fifty years old, in the woods, too." +</P> + +<P> +"Doesn't anyone live in it?" +</P> + +<P> +"No one now. Tramps go there sometimes, I've heard, because it is so +lonely. Some people say it's haunted, but I guess the tramps played +ghost, just so that people would stay away and let them alone." +</P> + +<P> +"Gee, if there's a ghost around, I hope he stays in when we're passing. +I'm afraid of them!" +</P> + +<P> +"Why, how could a ghost hurt you, Tom? Anyhow, you don't need to worry +about ghosts in the daytime. They only come out at night." +</P> + +<P> +"It's pretty dark in here, Jack. The woods are mighty thick." +</P> + +<P> +"I believe you <I>are</I> scared, Tom," said Jack, laughing. "Well, don't +you worry! I'm pretty sure that if anyone ever did see a real thing +here that he thought was a ghost it was a tramp in disguise. And I +don't believe you're afraid of a tramp—though I'd rather meet a ghost, +myself, than a vicious tramp." +</P> + +<P> +"Gee, that railroad train's whistle sounds good," said Tom, a few +minutes later. "That must be at the crossing." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. It isn't much further now. And the house is near the crossing, +too. I believe the people who lived in it made a great fuss when the +railroad went through, and that was about the time when the quarrel +started. They said it would spoil their property to have the station +so near them—instead of which, if they could only see it, it's made it +a whole lot more valuable." +</P> + +<P> +Suddenly Tom, who was walking as fast as he could and was ahead of +Jack, stumbled and fell against a root. When Jack got beside him he +was white with pain. +</P> + +<P> +"I guess I must have twisted my foot pretty badly," he said. "I don't +believe I can stand on it for a while." +</P> + +<P> +He put a hand on Jack's shoulder and tried to walk, but found the pain +too great. +</P> + +<P> +"Here, let me see it," cried Jack. "I may be able to do something to +make it better." +</P> + +<P> +Tenderly he removed Tom's shoe, and turning the stocking back from the +injured ankle, rubbed and examined it thoroughly. +</P> + +<P> +"I may hurt you when I rub it around, Tom," he said, "but it won't hurt +your ankle for more than a minute." +</P> + +<P> +For two or three minutes, while Tom, with set teeth, endured the pain +without even a whimper, Jack rubbed and massaged the ankle, already +slightly swollen. +</P> + +<P> +"It's just a strain, I think, Tom," he said. "I'll find a spring or a +brook, if they're not all dried up around here, and make a cold +compress for it. Next to blazing hot water, that's the best thing to +do for it, and I think you'll be able to get to Haskell Crossing pretty +soon, with a little help from me. Then we can get a train or a trolley +back." +</P> + +<P> +"Gee, I never thought, Jack! You can't do that! If you go back with +me, you won't be able to get your First Class Scout badge." +</P> + +<P> +"What of it, Tom? I guess I can wait a week or two for that without +suffering very much. And you didn't think I'd leave you alone here, or +to go home alone, did you? You can't walk back on that foot—that's +one sure thing." +</P> + +<P> +Tom protested that all Jack should do was to get him to the station, +whence he said he could manage to get home all right, but Jack wouldn't +hear of such an idea, and, after he had put the cold water bandage on +Tom's ankle, he helped his comrade the short distance that remained to +the track, and the little flag station at Haskell Crossing. +</P> + +<P> +The sun was low on the horizon when they got there. In the little +shanty that served as a station, loafing and wishing for something to +do, was a red-headed, gawky youth whose business it was to set signals +and listen at a telegraph key for the orders that went flashing up and +down the line. +</P> + +<P> +"There's no train back to town for four hours," he told them, when they +asked how soon they could get a train. "One went a few minutes +ago—you must have heard it whistle. Hurt, there, sonny?" +</P> + +<P> +"Twisted my ankle a bit," said Tom Binns, with a plucky smile. +</P> + +<P> +"Sho, that's too bad," said the red-headed one. "Here, come into the +station and set down! There's a place in the freight daypo where you +can be more comfortable like." +</P> + +<P> +The shanty was divided into two parts. One was for the sale of +tickets, though Jack guessed that there were few purchasers, the other +held a few empty milk cans, which showed pretty well what made up the +bulk of the freight handled there. But there was a pile of sacks in +one corner, also, and on those, arranged and spread out like a bed, Tom +was made fairly comfortable. Rest was what his ankle needed, and he +could rest there as well as anywhere else. +</P> + +<P> +"I ain't got but a little lunch here," said the red-headed telegrapher, +station agent and baggage man rolled into one, regretfully. "But +you're welcome to share it with me." +</P> + +<P> +"No need of that, thanks," said Jack, heartily. "We were going to cook +our supper in the woods, and if you'll show me a place where I can +build a fire, I'll cook it now. We've got plenty for you, too, and +I'll give you some bacon and eggs and coffee if you like them." +</P> + +<P> +"Say, you're all right! My name's Hank Hudson, and if there's anything +I sure do hanker after, it's bacon and eggs. I can't get a hot supper +on this job—I have to tote everything along with me from home, and +it's all cold victuals I get." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, we'll have a treat for you tonight, then, and I'm glad we will. +It's mighty nice of you to let Tom Binns lie in the depot." +</P> + +<P> +Jack was as good as his word. Hudson showed him a place where a +natural fireplace, as it seemed, was all ready and waiting for the fire +to be made, and Jack, in a comparatively short time, sent up a fragrant +odor of frying bacon and eggs, and of rich, steaming coffee that would +have given a wooden Indian an appetite. He carried the meal to the +station, too, and the three of them ate it together, while Hudson's +cold lunch, despised now, and not to be compared with the fine fare +Jack provided, was cast aside in a corner of the station. +</P> + +<P> +"Do many trains pass here that don't stop?" asked Tom. +</P> + +<P> +"Sure they do!" said Hudson. "This last hour is about the quietest one +of the whole day. I have to watch them all, too, and report when they +pass here, so that the despatchers can keep track of them." +</P> + +<P> +"What would happen if you didn't?" +</P> + +<P> +"Can't tell! But there might easily be a bad wreck. If the despatcher +thought he would get a flash from here as soon as the Thunderbolt +passed, for instance, and I was asleep when she went by, he might let +something into the track ahead of her, and then there'd be a fine lot +of trouble. You can see that!" +</P> + +<P> +"I should say so! You've a pretty responsible place here, I should +think. Do you like it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Sure! I think the work's great! I'd rather work on a railroad than +anything I can think of. But it gets awful lonely here sometimes. +That's the worst part of it. The work's easy enough, but it's not +having anyone to talk to, except the fellows and the girls on the wire, +that makes it a hard job." +</P> + +<P> +"You talk to all of them, I guess, don't you?" +</P> + +<P> +"Sure." Hudson walked over to the telegraph instrument by the window +and threw his switch. "There's a girl at Beaver Dam calls me about +this time every evening. Things are slack, you know. They send her in +a hot supper from the restaurant there, and she calls every evening and +tells me what she had and how good it was, so that I'll be jealous. +I'll have something to surprise her with tonight though—Hullo! There +she is now!" +</P> + +<P> +Both boys knew the Morse code, from their signal work with the Boy +Scouts, and Jack, indeed, had experimented a little with wireless, so +that he could read the code of dots and dashes, if it was not sent too +fast. +</P> + +<P> +"H-K—H-K—H-K—" he heard now, and, in a minute more, he was trying to +interpret the swift interchange of chaffing messages between the two +operators. +</P> + +<P> +"That's the only break in the loneliness," said Hudson, "unless someone +comes in for a visit the way you have. I wish there were more of +them—except for those tramps back there in the woods. They hang +around a lot, and they get my goat!" +</P> + +<P> +"In the big house in the woods there, you mean?" asked Jack. "The one +they say is haunted?" +</P> + +<P> +Hudson laughed. +</P> + +<P> +"That's the one. They say it's haunted, but it's Willies and Tired +Toms that haunt it, believe me! They come over here and look up the +place, and they'd have stolen everything in it long ago if there'd been +anything to steal. They let me alone because they're pretty sure I +haven't got any money, and they know I've got a gun, too." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap06"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER VI +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE ATTACK ON THE STATION +</H3> + +<P> +"What time does the Thunderbolt go through?" asked Jack. +</P> + +<P> +"Eight thirty-four she's due, but she's sometimes a few minutes late. +Then, at eight forty-two there's the second section of the Thunderbolt, +when there's one running—and there is to-night, and your train for +town gets in here at eight fifty-seven." +</P> + +<P> +"What's the next station below this?" +</P> + +<P> +"Conway. That's about eleven miles down the line, and away from the +city. 'Tisn't much more of a station than this. Just an operator who +doubles up on all the other jobs same way I do." +</P> + +<P> +"I've got to go wash dishes and make up our packs," said Jack. "It's +eight o'clock now, and that doesn't leave so very much more time than +we need. I've got to put out the fire, too." +</P> + +<P> +He went off with the dishes on which they had eaten their simple but +delicious supper, and left Hank Hudson to talk to Tom Binns and watch +his key, which might at any moment click out some important order that +would make the difference between safety and disaster for a train laden +with passengers. +</P> + +<P> +The fire on which he had cooked their supper was still glowing in the +woods about a hundred yards from the railway tracks, and he hurried +toward it to extinguish it, in accordance with the strictest of all +Scout rules for camping. Fires left carelessly burning after a picnic +have caused many a terrible and disastrous forest fire, and it is the +duty of every Scout to make sure that he gives no chance for such a +result to follow any encampment in which he has had a part. +</P> + +<P> +As he made his way toward the fire he thought once or twice that he +heard the sounds of a man or an animal moving through the woods, and +once, too, he thought he heard a hoarse and raucous laugh. But he +decided, after stopping to listen once or twice, that he had been +mistaken, and he laughed at himself when he was startled as he got near +the dancing shadows east by the dying fire, by what looked like the +shadows of three men. +</P> + +<P> +There was no danger in the fire he had built as long as the wind held +steady, and he might have left it to burn itself out with little fear +of any adverse happening as a result. But that was not thorough, nor +was it the way of a Scout. A wind may shift at any moment, and a fire +that is perfectly safe with a northwest wind may be the means of +starting a conflagration no one can hope to check if the wind shifts +even a point or two. +</P> + +<P> +So Jack put his fire out thoroughly, and made certain that no live +embers remained to start it up anew. Then he washed his dishes, and +made his way back toward Hank Hudson's cabin. +</P> + +<P> +Inside the cabin, as he approached, he could hear slight sounds, and +then, insistent, compelling, the clatter of the telegraph key. +</P> + +<P> +He stopped to listen a moment to its clicking, and then found, to his +surprise, that it was "H-K," the call for Haskell Crossing, that was +sounding. +</P> + +<P> +"Why doesn't Hudson answer?" he asked himself. +</P> + +<P> +Still the call sounded. There was a continued noise within the +station—someone was there, and it must, surely, be Hudson. He could +not fail to hear the chatter of his sounder, and yet he was ignoring +the steady call from his instrument—a call more than likely to be of +the last importance. +</P> + +<P> +Jack, sure now that something must be wrong, did not rush hastily and +impulsively for the door of the cabin. Instead, he crept up quietly +toward the side, where there was a window, that would give him a chance +to look in without being seen himself. +</P> + +<P> +And, when he got there, he saw what was wrong. Hudson, his face livid, +a red handkerchief stuffed into his mouth, was tied in a chair, his +arms, legs and body being securely tied up, so that there was no chance +for him to work himself free. He could hear what went on, but he could +do nothing, and there was no chance for him to reach that key and +answer the insistent urging of the wire, though Jack could see, from +the look in his eyes, that he knew an attempt was being made to raise +his office. +</P> + +<P> +"They'll think he's deserted his key," said Jack to himself. "That's +what's worrying him." +</P> + +<P> +Apparently Hudson was alone in the station, and Jack was just on the +point of rushing in to free the operator when the door into the freight +station opened, and three burly men, dressed like tramps, appeared, +dragging poor little Tom Binns with them, despite his twisted ankle. +</P> + +<P> +Tom was trying to cry out and give the alarm, as Jack could see, but in +vain, for one of the ruffians had his hand over his mouth, and there +was no chance for Tom's cries to be heard. +</P> + +<P> +Jack, horror struck, but, knowing that aid was far away, watched the +scene that followed with distended eyes. He was powerless against +three such men as the tramps that had attacked Hudson and Tom Binns, +and the nearest station, as he knew, was eleven miles distant. But he +felt that he must try to find out, at least, what the attack meant. +Hudson, as the assailants must know, had no money to make such an +attack worth while, and, even if they could blow or otherwise open the +little safe it was unlikely that more than a few dollars would be +there—a poor reward for such a desperate business. +</P> + +<P> +Suddenly, however, a thought came to him that terrified him a thousand +times more than what he had already seen. +</P> + +<P> +"The key!" he thought, almost shouting the words aloud and betraying +himself in his excitement. That was it! These men were train +robbers—or, worse, possibly, train wreckers. They would endanger +every life on the onrushing Thunderbolt to gain their ends. That was +why they had put Hank Hudson out of business, why they were guarding +Tom Binns with such care, crippled as he seemed to be. Men in their +desperate business could take no chances. It was all or nothing for +them—success, and the chance to rifle the registered mail and the +valuable express pouches, or failure and death on the gallows or a life +in prison. +</P> + +<P> +For a moment Jack had the impulse to seek safety in flight. If they +caught him spying on them they were likely to have little mercy for +him, and well he knew it. But the impulse lasted scarcely a second. +</P> + +<P> +"I guess if I'm ever to make good as a Scout, this is one of my +chances," he said to himself, grimly. "I'm going to stay right by this +window and try to hear what they say to one another. They may give +away their plans and give me some sort of a chance to foil them." +</P> + +<P> +Jack was frightened, and he was brave enough to admit that to himself. +Even the river pirates that he and Pete Stubbs had helped to thwart +when they tried to steal the fittings from Mr. Simms' yacht were mild +mannered criminals compared to these. Each of them wore a black mask +that hid his eyes and the upper part of his face, but Jack, trying +desperately to discover something that would enable him to identify +them should he ever have the chance, picked out lines about the lower +parts of their faces that would, he thought, make it impossible for him +to mistake them should he ever have the chance to see them again. One +had a prominent, undershot jaw. Another bore a furrow across his chin, +the mark of a bullet, as Jack guessed, that was white against the +stubble of his beard. And another had lost part of his right ear, +which was not hidden by his mask. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm really more certain of knowing them again now than if they hadn't +worn those masks," said Jack, to himself. "The masks made me look more +attentively at the part of each one's face that I could see." +</P> + +<P> +"Hey, Tom," said one of the men, gruffly, looking at his watch, "got +them tied? I thought there was another one of the young rips." +</P> + +<P> +"If there was, he ain't a comin' back here, or he'd have been here long +ago," said Tom, scowling fiercely at his two captives. "What's the +time, Bo?" +</P> + +<P> +"Time enough. She ain't due for ten or twelve minutes yet, even if +she's on time. Wish't I could tell what that key was saying." +</P> + +<P> +"Don't make no difference. It'll be saying a lot more when we get +through tonight," said the other. +</P> + +<P> +All the time the monotonous calling of the key had kept up—"H-K—H-K." +Now suddenly there was a change. "B-D—B-D—" clicked the instrument, +and Jack knew that the sender had given up Haskell Crossing and was +trying now to raise Beaver Dam, the next station up toward the city. +</P> + +<P> +Beaver Dam answered at once, and Jack listened intently to the wire +conversation that followed and was sounded by Hudson's open key. +</P> + +<P> +"Hello, B-D," it called. "What's the matter with Hudson? I've been +trying to raise him for half an hour." +</P> + +<P> +"I heard you. He must be asleep or sick—sick most likely." +</P> + +<P> +"That's what I thought. There's a hand car with another operator +ordered down. But it'll have to run behind the Thunderbolt. She's an +hour late and trying to make up time." +</P> + +<P> +"That's bad! It'll tie up the whole line." +</P> + +<P> +"So long!" +</P> + +<P> +"So long! I'll pass on word." +</P> + +<P> +Jack's heart leaped within him. The train the robbers were waiting for +was an hour late. All sorts of things might happen in an hour. He +could only wait. But there was more chance now, at least. +</P> + +<P> +The robbers waited patiently until the limited was twenty minutes +overdue. Then they began to get nervous. +</P> + +<P> +"Sure the tie will throw her off the rails?" asked one. +</P> + +<P> +"Go out and see for yourself if you're nervous." +</P> + +<P> +And the first speaker followed the suggestion. The others fidgeted +about for a few minutes. +</P> + +<P> +"Let's get out, then," said one of those who remained. "Those kids are +tied up safe enough. No need to stay here. Let's get some fresh air +and look to see if she's coming." +</P> + +<P> +And in a moment the station was empty, save for the two prisoners. +</P> + +<P> +Jack acted on the instant. In a second he was at the key, pounding +away, and calling B-D, B-D, in frantic efforts to get an answer and +have the limited stopped and help rushed. +</P> + +<P> +"O-K—" came the answer at last, and in a frenzied rush, but with the +hand of an inexperienced operator, Jack sent the story over the wire. +He had won! +</P> + +<P> +He was in time, he was sure. The train had not yet passed the last +telegraph station before Haskell Crossing, and it would be stopped +before it could rush on to destruction. Then, swiftly, he rushed over +to the chair in which Hudson was strapped, and quickly cut the ropes +that held the operator. As quickly he snatched the gag from his mouth. +</P> + +<P> +"Gee, that was great!" cried Hudson. "I didn't know you knew how to +handle a key. You did fine!" +</P> + +<P> +"I guess they got the message in time to stop the train. Don't you +think so?" +</P> + +<P> +"Listen to it now." +</P> + +<P> +The key was clicking away furiously. The sounds were so fast that +Jack, who was only an amateur and a beginner as a telegrapher, after +all, could not understand. +</P> + +<P> +"Beaver Dam's sending the word along the line," said Hudson. "The +warning's been acknowledged and the train will be held up. They're +going to send help, too. I hope those fellows don't come back here too +soon. If they'll hold off a few minutes we'll be all right, thanks to +you." +</P> + +<P> +"Haven't you got a gun, Hank?" asked Jack. +</P> + +<P> +"Gee, what a fool I am! Of course I have! A peach, too. They gave us +new automatic revolvers—only they don't revolve—a few weeks ago. +I'll get it." +</P> + +<P> +He was not a moment too soon. The steps of the train wreckers, as they +returned, were heard outside, and in a moment Jack disappeared again. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll be outside," he called to Hudson, from the window. +</P> + +<P> +"Pretend to be tied up still, and get them covered. Then try to hold +them in there with your pistol. Don't shoot unless you have to, but +remember that they're bad men, and don't hesitate to shoot if that's +the only thing you can do." +</P> + +<P> +In another minute the three tramps were inside the little station +again. Hudson had thrown the ropes about his body again, and had +stuffed the handkerchief in his mouth. They gave him a hasty glance. +</P> + +<P> +"There's something wrong, Tom," said one of them, anxiously. "That +train ought to have been here a good hour ago. Wonder if that clicking +key means that there's anything loose that we ought to know about. We +ought to have had someone along that knows how to read that thing." +</P> + +<P> +"Throw up your hands!" +</P> + +<P> +Jack exulted as he heard Hudson, in a firm, ringing voice, give the +order. The operator had nerve—they would catch the robbers in the +neatest sort of a trap. +</P> + +<P> +He slipped around to the door. +</P> + +<P> +There was a snarl of rage from one of the men, while the others stood +in helpless surprise. The one who had cried out rushed at Hudson, and +a bullet whizzed by his ear. +</P> + +<P> +"Stop!" cried Hudson, savagely. "I'll shoot to hit you next time." +</P> + +<P> +"He's got us—better keep quiet," exclaimed another of the men, with a +savage curse. "That's what we got for leaving them alone here." +</P> + +<P> +Jack stepped into the station. +</P> + +<P> +"Keep them covered, Hank," he said. "You forgot me, too, you see," he +said to the men. "Now, keep your hands up and you won't get hurt. You +won't need your pistols where you're going, so I'll just take them away +from you now." +</P> + +<P> +He was as good as his word, searching them for their concealed weapons, +and putting all three of the pistols that he found in a heap beside +Hudson. Then he released Tom Binns, and in the same moment there was +the sound of a distant whistle. A few minutes later an engineer drew +up outside, drawing a single car, and from it a dozen armed men +streamed into the station, sent post haste from Beaver Dam. +</P> + +<P> +"Good work, indeed!" said one man, who was the chief of the railroad +detective bureau, Captain Haskins, famed in a dozen states. "This is a +fine haul. Omaha Pete, Tom Galway, and 'Frisco Sammy. Glad to see +you, boys! There are rewards of about eleven thousand dollars for the +three of you. You'll be as welcome as the flowers that bloom in the +spring when the police get hold of you." +</P> + +<P> +He was curious to know how the three boys, for Hank Hudson himself was +little more than a boy, had effected such a capture, and he was +unstinting in his praise when he heard the story. Hudson insisted on +giving Jack Danby most of the credit, but Jack wouldn't have it that +way. +</P> + +<P> +"You did the trick with your gun," he said. "I may have given you the +chance and helped to save the train, but you were the one that caught +them." +</P> + +<P> +"There's credit enough for both of you," said Haskins, kindly. "And +I'm here to see that you get what's coming to you, too, rewards and +all. The road can afford to be grateful to a boy who saved the +Thunderbolt from being wrecked." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap07"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER VII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +JACK DANBY'S PERIL +</H3> + +<P> +Tom Binns was in no condition to go to the Scout camp opposite Beaver +Dam, and he was taken back to the city by one of the railway +detectives. Jack Danby was going home with him, but Tom wouldn't hear +of it. +</P> + +<P> +"They'll be wondering why we didn't turn up after our hike, and maybe +they'll think there's something wrong with us," he said. "You go on to +the camp, Jack, and explain. I'll be all right, sure, tomorrow." +</P> + +<P> +So Jack, reluctantly enough, for he felt, in a way, that he was +deserting his plucky little comrade, got off the train at Beaver Dam, +and rowed across the lake to the twinkling fire that showed where the +rest of the Scouts were gathered. +</P> + +<P> +He was welcomed with a shout. +</P> + +<P> +"But where's Tom Binns?" cried Pete Stubbs finally, when they realized, +suddenly, that the little fellow wasn't with them. +</P> + +<P> +Then Jack explained. He told of the accident that had turned out, in +the end, to be so fortunate a happening, since, had it not been for +Tom's twisted ankle, they would never have reached the station, and the +train might have been wrecked, with a terrible loss of life. +</P> + +<P> +"So we couldn't finish our hike tonight, of course," said Jack. "We'll +do it the next time, though. And a week or so doesn't make much +difference." +</P> + +<P> +A tall, bearded man, with a slouch hat, was sitting with Scout-Master +Durland at the fire, and at Jack's last words he turned to the +Scout-Master with a smile. +</P> + +<P> +"I think you can afford to waive the strict letter of the rule this +time, Durland," he said. "These boys of yours have certainly proved +their right to be regarded as First Class Scouts. I don't know that +there's any special badge of merit or honor, except the one for +lifesaving, that they are entitled to, but I shall make it my business +to see that the Scout council takes some action on the heroism of Scout +Danby." +</P> + +<P> +Then Jack learned that the stranger was a member of the National Scout +Council, one of the highest officers of the organization, and a man +famous all over the world as a pioneer and a worker for the things that +the Boy Scouts stand for. +</P> + +<P> +"You think that Scout Danby is entitled to his badge, then?" said +Durland, unsmiling, and, at the other's quick nod, he called Jack up to +the center of the group around the fire, and pinned the full Scout +badge, of which Jack had thus far been wearing only the bar, to his +breast. +</P> + +<P> +"You have earned this badge by close attention to duty, and by being +always prepared," said the Scout-Master, while the Scouts of the three +Patrols cheered the reward. "We are all proud of you, Danby, and we +know that you will never do anything to bring discredit upon your +badge, nor do anything that is not strictly in accordance with the +Scout oath that you took when you were first enrolled as a Tenderfoot +Scout." +</P> + +<P> +There was another burst of cheering at that, and all of the Scouts who +were present crowded up to shake hands with Jack and congratulate him. +Dick Crawford was one of the first, and gripped Jack's hand heartily. +</P> + +<P> +"I guess you'll get a big reward out of the railroad," he said. +"That's a splendid thing for you, Jack. You can use it to go to +college, if you want to. They ought to be generous." +</P> + +<P> +"The detective did say something about a reward, Dick, but I'd +forgotten all about it for the moment. It will be divided up among Tom +Binns, Hudson and myself, of course, if there is one. But I wasn't +thinking about that." +</P> + +<P> +"I know you weren't, Jack, but that's no reason why you shouldn't have +it. It wouldn't be right to do a fine thing just because there was a +reward, but that's no reason why you shouldn't take it. You helped to +capture those fellows, and the chances are that they are well-known +thieves, who are wanted for more than one crime." +</P> + +<P> +"The detective recognized them, I think, Dick. He called them by name, +and seemed to know all about them. I suppose men who would dare to try +to do a thing like that must be old stagers. No man who was committing +his first crime would try anything so fiendish as wrecking a train and +taking the chance of killing a lot of innocent people, do you think?" +</P> + +<P> +"I should say not! And there wasn't any chance about it, either. If +the train had been wrecked, going at sixty miles an hour or so, as it +would have been, if it was late, and trying to make up lost time, there +couldn't have been any result but a terrible wreck." +</P> + +<P> +"I wonder if there were only three of them?" said Jack, thoughtfully. +"I've been thinking since that there may have been others in the gang +that weren't caught. There must have been someone to set the blockade +for the train, and I don't believe those fellows we caught had time to +do everything. They had to put Hudson out of the way, you see, and +keep him from using the telegraph to give warning. I've got an idea +there was at least one other man in it, and maybe more than that, who +didn't show up in the station at all." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, if that's so, you'd better look out for yourself, Jack, in case +they try to get even with you for spoiling their little game. They'd +be apt to try to take that out of you." +</P> + +<P> +"Perhaps they won't know I had anything to do with it. And, anyhow, +I'm not sure there was anyone else mixed up in it. That's only a guess +anyhow." +</P> + +<P> +"I'd be careful, just the same. Don't go around alone at night—though +you'll be safe enough in the city, I guess, unless some of those people +that were mixed up in that kidnapping case get after you." +</P> + +<P> +"They haven't anything more against me, or any more reason to be sore +at me, than at anyone else that was concerned in the whole job, anyhow. +But I'll keep my eyes open. I'll be glad to turn in pretty soon. I'm +pretty tired." +</P> + +<P> +"I should think you would be. I am myself, and I haven't done as much +as you." +</P> + +<P> +Soon after that sentries were posted, and the Scouts, wrapped in their +blankets, were all asleep in their lean-tos. Jack's sleeping partner, +Tom Binns, was not there, so he slept alone, on the edge of the camp, +and some distance from the campfire. +</P> + +<P> +Tired as he was, he did not get to sleep at once. Out on the lake +puffing motor boats, running back and forth from the big summer hotel +at the head of the lake to the cottages that were clustered near the +dam, made the night noisy. Those people were late risers and they went +to bed late as well. There was a dance at the hotel, and it was well +attended. So the sharp beat of the engines of the little boats +disturbed those who were trying to sleep. Jack was so tired, too, that +it was hard for him to get to sleep. +</P> + +<P> +He kept thinking of everything that had happened at Haskell Crossing, +and of the desperate minutes in which, while he knew the fate that was +in store for the onrushing train, he had been powerless to prevent the +catastrophe that threatened. And then suddenly, while he was half +asleep and half awake, he remembered something that had escaped him +before, something he had seen and that had been recorded in his brain, +although it was only now that the picture stood out vividly and with +meaning. +</P> + +<P> +There had been three men in the room with Hank Hudson and Tom Binns +while he had waited at the window and spied upon them. And three men +had returned, after he had seized the chance to give the warning that +had saved the train. But they were not the same three. He remembered +now, with a sudden flash of clear understanding that one of the three +had been a stranger—that of the three who were caught, one was a man +he had not seen before. +</P> + +<P> +He started up in his blanket. +</P> + +<P> +"Then there <I>were</I> four of them!" he cried, half aloud. "And one of +them is free, and able to plan new deviltries. I wish they'd caught +them all!" +</P> + +<P> +But even that thought, disturbing as it was, did not keep him awake +much longer. As he lay there, his tired body resting with the very act +of lying down, he grew gradually more drowsy, and he drifted off asleep +at last with the humming of a power boat on the lake beating against +his ears. +</P> + +<P> +He slept a long time. The camp was quiet. In the distance an owl +hooted now and then, and until long after midnight the sounds of +activity persisted on the lake. The moon had risen early, and was +setting soon after midnight, so that it was very dark under the trees, +though out on the lake, once the shadow of the trees around the shore +was passed, the stars gave abundant light. And, because he was so +tired, and trusted so entirely to the sentries, Jack had no thought of +watchfulness when he fell asleep, and slept more heavily than was usual +with him when he was in camp with the Scouts. +</P> + +<P> +The sentries were posted on all sides of the camp, as a rule, but no +one had foreseen the need of any watch on the side of the camp nearest +the lake. Yet it was from that spot that danger came, in the end. +</P> + +<P> +It was two o'clock when a launch, with silenced engine, glided up to +the beach near the camp, as silently as a rowboat might have done, and +grated softly on the shelving beach. One man, slight and delicate in +appearance, was at her wheel, and from the bow, as she touched bottom, +another stepped out into the water and made his way cautiously, and in +roundabout fashion, toward the sleepers. He was big, strong, and +massive. His face was concealed, or nearly concealed, by a black mask +that hid his eyes and his nose and he walked with the stealthy +footsteps of one long used to avoiding detection as he moved about his +business. He seemed to know what he was doing, and where to go, and +one might have guessed that he had been spying on the camp, to learn +the way in which the sleepers were disposed. He avoided the lean-tos +near the fire, and, sneaking back and around through the woods, he +approached Jack Danby's lean-to from behind. +</P> + +<P> +For a moment, silent and ominous in the darkness, he stood there, +studying the situation, as it seemed, and making up his mind just how +to accomplish his purpose. Then, drawing a handkerchief from his +pocket, he took the cork from a small bottle and poured its contents on +the handkerchief. At once a strong, sickly, sweetish smell arose, +unhealthy, and unpleasant, in contrast to the strong, fresh smells of +the sleeping woods. Holding this handkerchief in his hand, the +newcomer, a savage grin of ugly satisfaction on his lips, approached +Jack Danby, and, with a motion so swift as to be hardly visible, flung +his hand, with the handkerchief flat on his palm, over Jack Danby's +face. +</P> + +<P> +Jack awoke at once and struggled for a second. But he could not cry +out, and in a moment the handkerchief, soaked with chloroform, had done +its work, and he lay unconscious. +</P> + +<P> +Jack was entirely helpless, drugged as he was, and, with a triumphant +leer, the man who had drugged him picked him up, and, moving as +cautiously as ever, carried him to the motor boat. But he had +underestimated the watchfulness of the Scout sentries. At the sudden, +sharp explosions of the engine as it was started, and the launch backed +off the beach, there was a sudden cry from one of the watchers, and in +a moment his shrill whistle aroused the camp, so that a dozen Scouts, +turning out hastily, saw the motor boat back out and turn, as if to +race for the outlet at the foot of the lake, nearly ten miles away. +</P> + +<P> +For a moment all was confusion in the camp. Awakened suddenly from a +sound sleep, the Scouts could not at first tell what had happened. +</P> + +<P> +The sentry who gave the alarm had seen only the one thing—the motor +boat backing out from the beach. +</P> + +<P> +"It's nothing," said Bob Hart, sleepily. "Someone mistook this for +their own landing, and, when they found out their mistake, backed out +and went for their own cottage." +</P> + +<P> +But Dick Crawford thought suddenly of Jack Danby. +</P> + +<P> +"Jack!" he shouted. "Jack Danby!" +</P> + +<P> +There was no answer, and a swift rush to his lean-to proved that it was +empty. Durland and Dick Crawford ran there together, and Durland +recognized the smell of the chloroform at once. +</P> + +<P> +"There's been foul play here!" he cried, furiously. "Someone has +drugged Jack and carried him away." +</P> + +<P> +He called for Crawford then, but the Assistant Scout-Master was already +gone to the rescue. +</P> + +<P> +"Get to the outlet as soon as you can!" he shouted, and they heard him +breaking through the woods to the road that was near by. "I'm going +there on my wheel!" +</P> + +<P> +Dick had ridden to the camp on his motorcycle, and now they heard the +sharp clatter of its engine as he started it. +</P> + +<P> +"If they're making for the outlet, he'll head them off," said Durland. +"Hart, take your Patrol and go up to the dam there, in case they went +that way. The rest of you follow me. We'll take Crawford's route, +and see if we can't get there in time to help him. I'm afraid Danby is +in the gravest sort of danger." +</P> + +<P> +They followed him with a shout, half dressed as most of them were. +Jack Danby didn't lack friends, at least, even if he did have powerful +and determined enemies. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap08"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER VIII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE RESCUE +</H3> + +<P> +Needless to say, it was some time after he was roughly thrown into the +bottom of the motor boat before Jack came to his senses. The +chloroform had taken effect quickly, and the soaked handkerchief had +not remained very long over his mouth and nostrils, or Jack might have +ended his career then and there. As it was, however, the rush of the +cool night air as the swift motor boat sped along the quiet waters of +the lake did a good deal to revive him, and it was, comparatively +speaking, only a short time before he realized where he was—or, +rather, realized that he had been snatched from his blanket, and was +being carried off somewhere, probably by those who had anything but +good-will toward him. +</P> + +<P> +His first impulse was to cry out, but he checked himself, for he +realized that his best chance just then was to feign an ignorance of +his surroundings that would throw his abductors off their guard. If he +made them think that he was still senseless, he might find some way of +escape opening before him, and he might, too, overhear something that +he could turn to his own advantage. +</P> + +<P> +It was pitch dark in the bottom of the boat, and his eyes, moreover, +were aching. His whole head throbbed as he came out of the effects of +the deadly drug that had been used to make him helpless, and he decided +that the first thing he should do was to give nature and the healing +air a chance to restore him to his senses and some semblance of a +better physical condition. He was in no state now to do anything to +help himself, and he had no idea of whether or not any of his comrades +had taken the alarm when he was carried off. He was senseless when the +men who had caught him were making their escape, and he had no way of +telling what had happened. +</P> + +<P> +He guessed, even before he saw the evil face of the man who sat up in +the bow, stripped now of his black mask, and gloating over his success, +that it was one of the trapped and disappointed train wreckers who now +had him in his power, and he shivered a little at the thought of what +his fate might be. A man who had planned such a fiendish crime was not +likely to be anything but brutal in his treatment of one of those who +had helped to foil him, and Jack understood that perfectly well. If he +had needed anything more to make him realize his position it was +supplied in a moment. +</P> + +<P> +"I wonder if that young whelp's shammin', or if we really knocked him +out with the dope?" asked the man who had worn the mask. +</P> + +<P> +And, by way of finding out, he lurched back, and kicked Jack brutally +in the ribs. Jack expected the blow, and managed to relax so that no +bones were broken by the kick, though he was sore for hours. Moreover +he fortified himself so that, although the pain of the kick was far +from trifling, he did not cry out. +</P> + +<P> +Satisfied, the man made his way to the bow. +</P> + +<P> +"Dead to the world!" he said. "That's all right! We'll get him +through the lock. That's better. I don't want to knock him on the +head and throw him overboard here—his body would turn up too soon. +Once we're through the lock we can get down the river all right, and +they'll never know what happened to him. I hope Dick don't make any +mistake about meeting us with the big boat. This is a tidy little +craft, but she's not meant for deep water sailing." +</P> + +<P> +"How about the others?" asked the man at the wheel, in a nervous, timid +tone that made Jack grin. Only one of his captors was formidable, +anyhow, and that was something to be thankful for. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't care about the others," replied the other, with a vile oath. +"They'll have to save themselves. And they'll be in jail for the next +ten years, sure. More fools they for gettin' caught! An' it was only +kids as did them up. If they'd taken my advice, it wouldn't never have +happened." +</P> + +<P> +"You oughtn't to have stopped for this kid. It was too risky." +</P> + +<P> +"Risk? My eye! Ain't everythin' we do risky? An' it's the only +chance the others have got, anyhow. He's the biggest witness against +them. He saw their mugs—no one else did. They'll have trouble +getting off, anyhow, even if he ain't there. But he'd finish them, +sure. An' he cost me twenty thousand dollars with his infernal buttin' +in, too. I ain't overlookin' a chance to get hunk with him, the little +rip!" +</P> + +<P> +He was almost shouting in his rage. +</P> + +<P> +"Easy there!" said the timid one, in a low tone. "We're getting near +the lock. Look out, or you'll have everyone on to us." +</P> + +<P> +"Right, oh! I'll shut up. Time enough to attend to him later, anyhow." +</P> + +<P> +The boat slowed down, now, and Jack guessed that they were near the +lock that formed the outlet of the lake into the river that ran through +the city, the same river on which he had his exciting experience with +the river pirates. Late as it was, the lock was quickly opened at the +insistent, shrill call of the power boat's whistle, and in a moment it +was in the narrow channel that led from river to lake. +</P> + +<P> +It was Jack's chance. Here, where the banks were close on either side, +if he could slip overboard, there was a chance to swim to the safety of +the shore. He was still weak and dizzy from the effects of the drug, +but he had an idea that if he could get into the water it would +complete the work of reviving him, and he determined to make the +effort. Both of the men who made up the crew of the little craft were +busy as they passed through the lock, and, thinking him unconscious, +they paid no attention to him. +</P> + +<P> +Silently he slipped to the side. And, a second later, he dropped +overboard. Silent as he was, he made a splash as he struck the water, +and, at the sudden curse from the robber in front, and his quick leap +around, Jack determined on the boldest and the riskiest move he could +have made. But it was also the safest. Instead of striking out at +once for the shore, he slipped around behind the motor boat, and clung +to the stern as it swept along, clear of the propeller, but hidden by +the shadow from the overhanging stern. +</P> + +<P> +At the same moment there was a sudden outburst of shouts from the +shore, and where all had been silence and darkness lights sprang out +and the forms of excited, running men and boys appeared. +</P> + +<P> +The headlight of an automobile was suddenly thrown on the scene, and +Jack, guessing who was there, called out that he was safe and in the +water. +</P> + +<P> +"Swim ashore, Jack," shouted Dick Crawford's welcome voice, and a +moment later, all fear of his captors gone now, Jack was helped up the +steep bank. +</P> + +<P> +"We got them in a trap," cried Dick Crawford. "I figured they'd have +to come this way. They can't turn around, and the gate of the lock is +closed against them at the river end. They're bottled in here, and +they can't escape, no matter which way they turn." +</P> + +<P> +In the power boat the big man who had carried Jack off was standing up +now, cursing volubly, and trying to see what lay ahead of him. But it +did not take him long to see and realize that all hope of escape in +that direction was cut off. The boat had come to a full stop, and he +looked about him in desperation, his mask on his face again. He held a +revolver in his hand, but, for some reason, he did not fire. +</P> + +<P> +"Careful, fellows!" cried Dick Crawford. "He's got a gun there, and +you can't tell how soon he'll begin shooting." +</P> + +<P> +"Not very soon, Dick," said Jack Danby, with a laugh. "He left his gun +within reach of me, thinking I was still senseless, and I took all the +cartridges out. There was a box half full of cartridges and I dropped +that overboard, too, so I guess his teeth are drawn unless one of them +has another gun." +</P> + +<P> +"Good work, Jack! He'd find it hard to hit any of us, but it's good to +think he can't even try, anyhow. You surely had your nerve with you to +think of that." +</P> + +<P> +"I had to, Dick. I was going to make a break for it here in the lock, +anyhow, and I didn't want him to be able to take a shot at me from +behind while I was trying to climb up to the shore. It would have been +too easy for him to hit me, and from the way he talked there's nothing +he'd like better than to use me as a target." +</P> + +<P> +Suddenly the roar of the boat's engine broke put again. +</P> + +<P> +"What's he trying to do now?" shouted Dick, racing for the opening of +the lock. +</P> + +<P> +The gate that barred the boat was in place. But suddenly Dick +understood. The desperado in the launch intended to be true to his +nature. He saw just one chance of escape in a thousand, and he meant +to take it, perilous as it was. +</P> + +<P> +Straight for the gate he drove the boat. The man at the wheel was +crying out in piteous fear and the burly ruffian stepped back from the +bow, crushed his friend to the deck of the boat with a brutal blow, and +took the wheel himself. +</P> + +<P> +"They'll both be killed," cried Dick. "He can't mean to drive against +the gate." +</P> + +<P> +But that was just what was in the desperate robber's mind. He saw and +weighed the chances that were against him, but he was ready to risk +life itself for liberty, and, in that desperate moment even Dick and +Jack, debased as they knew the man to be, could not but admire his +daredevil courage. +</P> + +<P> +At top speed the launch crushed into the barrier. There was a terrific +crash, and those, including Durland, who stood on the gate, leaped back +precipitately. +</P> + +<P> +For an instant the timbers shivered. Then, with a crash, they gave +way, and the launch hurled through and dropped to the surface of the +river. There, for a moment, it spun around. But the boat was well +built. It stood the shock, and the next second, swaying from side to +side, it was dashing away, past the possibility of pursuit. Jack was +saved, but the villain had escaped—for the time at least. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap09"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER IX +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +A SWIMMING PARTY +</H3> + +<P> +Though Jack Danby, partly through his own courage and determination, +and partly by reason of Dick Crawford's quick thinking, had escaped +from the hands of the desperado who had so evidently determined to +murder him, Scout-Master Durland was anything but easy in his mind +regarding his friend, as he was proud to call the young Scout who had +done so well whenever he had been put to the test. +</P> + +<P> +He did not want to alarm Jack himself without cause, but to Dick +Crawford he spoke without hesitation. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm worried about Jack, Dick," he said. "These villains are quite +capable of making another attack on him, and that would never do." +</P> + +<P> +"I should say not, sir! He might not get off so lightly another time." +</P> + +<P> +"That's just what I'm afraid of. If they strike against him once more +they are more than likely to realize that to have a chance against him, +they must strike quickly. If that scoundrel had had the slightest idea +that the alarm had been given, or that poor Jack was conscious, I am +afraid Danby would have had very little chance of his life." +</P> + +<P> +"It makes me sick to think of what they might have done. That was what +I was thinking of all along as I rode for the lock." +</P> + +<P> +"You made good time getting there, Dick." +</P> + +<P> +"I felt as if I had to! I was helpless as long as they were out on the +lake, where it was broad. Even a boat would have been useless. If +they had seen a boat making for them, they would have known at once +that they were in danger, and would have either gotten rid of Jack or +made a desperate stand, with a good chance of beating off any attack. +The lock was the only place to reach them—and that meant fast moving, +or I would have been too late." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, what I meant to say was that we ought, if it is at all possible, +to take steps to see that Jack does not again expose himself to any +such risk. He is too valuable a Scout to have him take chances that +are not necessary." +</P> + +<P> +"Especially since he doesn't seem to know what fear is. He never stops +to think of the effect of anything he does upon himself. He goes ahead +and trusts to luck, if he thinks that it is his duty to do anything, if +there seems to be danger. So, when there is no need of his being in +peril, it is only right to do all we can to guard him." +</P> + +<P> +"Tom Binns and Pete Stubbs are devoted to him, aren't they, Dick?" +</P> + +<P> +"I think either one of them would go through fire or water for him if +there was need." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, then, suppose you get hold of them quietly, without letting Jack +learn anything about what you are planning, and have them keep a close +watch on his movements. They can do it without arousing his suspicion, +and, if he seems likely to do anything that would give these fellows a +chance to get at him, we will interfere, if possible, and spoil their +little plan." +</P> + +<P> +"That's the idea, sir! Those two boys will be trustworthy, and they've +got a lot of good horse sense, too." +</P> + +<P> +"This may prove a very important commission for the two of them, though +I hope, of course, that we are afraid of a shadow, and that Jack has +nothing more to fear from these men." +</P> + +<P> +Tom Binns and Pete Stubbs were delighted when Dick Crawford told them +what he wanted them to do. +</P> + +<P> +"Gee, Dick," said Pete, "that makes us like a couple of sure enough +detectives, don't it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes—except that you're supposed to prevent anything crooked from +being done, and not simply to find out how it was done afterward, and +who did it. We don't want any work for detectives that Jack Danby is +the centre of." +</P> + +<P> +"I understand," said Tom Binns. "Pete and I are just to keep our eyes +open, and if we think Jack is running into any danger, we're to let you +know, so that you can help to keep him out of it." +</P> + +<P> +"I think there's more than one person would like to see Jack out of the +way," said Pete Stubbs, thoughtfully. "You know, he's told me +something lately about this queer business of his name. It looks +mighty funny to me. There are people, he says, who know who his father +and mother were, and who are mighty angry and sorry that he's left +Woodleigh and dropped out of their sight." +</P> + +<P> +"Is that so, Pete?" asked Dick, surprised, since he had heard nothing +of all this. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, indeed! There was a man who has been up at Woodleigh, trying to +find out exactly where Jack had gone, and what he was doing. Jack +seemed to think that this man was satisfied to have him up at +Woodleigh, where people wouldn't see much of him and weren't likely to +be curious about who he was." +</P> + +<P> +"And where anyone who wanted to could keep tabs on him pretty well, eh? +That's easier to do in a little country place like that, where everyone +knows the business of everyone else, than it would be in a big city +like this, isn't it?" +</P> + +<P> +Dick was very thoughtful. +</P> + +<P> +"I've heard funny stories about Jack Danby and his name," he went on. +"In fact, Jack's told me himself that Danby really isn't his name at +all, and that he has no idea of what his real name is. As he gets +older, naturally, it means a great deal to him that he isn't like all +the rest of us, and doesn't know all about himself. It doesn't make +any difference to his real friends, but it bothers him, naturally. I +think we'll have to see if we can't help him solve that mystery, don't +you?" +</P> + +<P> +"I'd give anything if I could make Jack happy by telling him all about +himself!" cried little Tom Binns, full of love and loyalty for the +friend who had always done so much for him. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, we'll see," said Dick. "Meantime, if Jack has the best name in +the world, it wouldn't do him much good if it had to be carved on a +tombstone before he's had a chance to use it at all, and if that fellow +that carried him off from our camp ever gets another chance at him, +that's what he'll be needing." +</P> + +<P> +It wasn't like Dick Crawford to be alarmed by anything as a rule, and +the two Scouts were mightily impressed by his solemn tone and the +warning he gave, as he meant them to be. He didn't want them to go +into the work of guarding Jack as if he were simply a figure in a new +and fascinating game. He wanted them to take the task very seriously, +and give their best efforts to it. And, after such a speech, he had no +doubt that they would carry out his intentions, and that if there were +any way of making Jack safe from future attacks they would find it. +</P> + +<P> +Jack himself suffered no ill effects worth mentioning from his rough +experience, unpleasant as it had been. +</P> + +<P> +"Gee, Jack," said Pete Stubbs, when he saw his chum the morning after +his rescue, "one would think, just to look at you, that you liked +having a chap chloroform you and kick you around a little bit of a +boat. You look great!" +</P> + +<P> +"I had a good night's sleep, Pete. That's why. Look at the time—it's +the middle of the afternoon, isn't it? I felt a lot more tired the day +after that baseball double header than I do right now. They didn't +really hurt me, you see. And that swim in the cold water was just what +I needed to make me feel fine after it, too. That chased the headache +the drug gave me, and set me up in fine shape." +</P> + +<P> +"I tell you why, Jack. It's because you always take a lot of exercise +and look after yourself all the time, that things like that don't upset +you." +</P> + +<P> +"Say, Pete, Tom Binns is coming around here again, later. I feel so +good that I think I'd like to go and do something this afternoon. What +do you say? I think it would be fine to go down to the lake and have a +great old swim. Summer don't last so long that I want to miss any of +the swimming while it's as good as it is now." +</P> + +<P> +"I'll go you!" said Pete, never thinking that it might be just such +expeditions that Dick Crawford was afraid of. "Say, wouldn't it be +fine to live in a place where you can go swimming all the year round, +like Florida, or California, or some place like that?" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know that it would, Pete. I think all the seasons are good, +in their own time. You wouldn't like never to see the snow, or to be +in a place where it never froze and made ice for skating, would you?" +</P> + +<P> +"Say, Jack, I never thought of that! That's a funny thing about you. +You never go off the way the rest of us do, without thinking about +things. You think of all sides of anything. I wish I was like that. +I wouldn't make so many fool breaks!" +</P> + +<P> +"Old Dan used to catch me up every time I said anything in a hurry," +explained Jack, with a smile. "I guess that's the reason I'm that way, +if I really am, Pete. It isn't that I'm any more likely to think of +things than you, but that I've been trained that way. Whenever I said +anything reckless, or quick, Old Dan used to ask me why I said it, and +make me try to prove it. So I got to thinking about everything I said +before I let myself say it, and I've sort of kept up the habit." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm going to try to be like that, too, Jack. I think it's a good way +to be." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, here's Tom Binns! Want to go swimming with us, Tom?" +</P> + +<P> +"You bet I do, Jack! Sure you feel well enough, though? You don't +want to take any chances on being sick after what you were up against +last night, you know." +</P> + +<P> +"No. I'll be all right. Come on." +</P> + +<P> +So they went off. The day was warm, but overcast, and there was a +threat of a thunderstorm in the sultriness of it. But they cared +little for that. +</P> + +<P> +"If we're going to get wet," said Pete, "we might as well do it +comfortably. We won't be any wetter for a thunderstorm than if the sun +were shining if we're in swimming." +</P> + +<P> +They changed their clothes in a little hut at the camping place, and +went in from the little sandy beach there, the presence of which was +one of the reasons the Scouts had favored it for a camping ground. +</P> + +<P> +They had not been in the water very long before great drops of water, +began to fall, and then, with a howling of wind, the threatened storm +came down. They laughed and enjoyed the novelty of being in the water +in such weather, since they were in a sheltered cove. Presently the +wind died down and furious thunder and lightning came to take its +place, but that didn't bother them, either. It was not until, after a +vivid flash and an immediate roar of thunder, cries of distress came +from the lake, that they were aroused. They looked out, and saw a +burning launch. +</P> + +<P> +"Gee," cried Pete Stubbs, his face white, "the lightning must have +fired their gasolene tank! Let's get out there and see if we can't +help." +</P> + +<P> +At once they swam to the rescue. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap10"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER X +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE BURNING LAUNCH +</H3> + +<P> +The launch fortunately was not very far out. Had it been more than a +hundred feet or so from shore no one could have done much for the +unfortunate party on board, since beyond the shelter of the cove the +lake was like a stormy sea, with white-capped waves defying swimmers, +and giving even the stoutest of the craft that had been caught in the +squall all they could do to make headway against the wind. +</P> + +<P> +The three Scouts, swimming strong and fast, saw as soon as they were +within plain sight of the launch that she was doomed. The fire had +spread with a rapidity that would have been astonishing had it been +anything but gasolene that supplied fuel for the flames over the after +portion of the boat, where the tank had been. Up in the bow, huddled +together, and shrieking for help, were two men and two women. They +seemed to be terrified, and none of them had thought to seek safety by +dropping overboard. They seemed, indeed, to prefer to stay and wait +for the fire to reach them, which it threatened to do at any moment. +</P> + +<P> +It was no time to waste breath on words, but Jack, who had taken +command of the situation, as he always seemed to do, held his head well +out of the water to see what lay in front of them and then turned to +his companions. +</P> + +<P> +"They can't swim," he said. "We'll have to make them jump overboard, +though, and take a chance in the water. Then, if they don't get +troublesome, we'll probably be able to keep them up until help comes. +You know how to choke them if they try to drag you down. And don't +hesitate, even if it's a woman. It's better to be rough with them than +to let them drown." +</P> + +<P> +Even in the water the heat from the blazing launch was terrific as the +three Scouts approached the burning boat. For those on board it was +even worse. The flames were almost touching them as Jack and the +others got within a boat length of the burning boat, and Jack cupped +his hands and shouted through them, so that those on board could hear +him above the roar of the flames and their own cries of terror and +distress. +</P> + +<P> +"Jump into the water!" he cried. "Don't struggle, and we'll be able to +hold you up all right. But jump quick—it's your only chance!" +</P> + +<P> +One of the women—she was a girl, not more than twenty, Jack +thought—jumped at once. Sparks had set her hair on fire, but the +water put that out as soon as she was in it, and Pete Stubbs, who was +nearest to her, swam to her at once, and supported her in the water. +She was plucky, and made no attempt to interfere with him. He told her +to put her hand on his shoulder and keep perfectly still, and she +obeyed without question. +</P> + +<P> +"Good work!" cried Jack. "Swim ashore with her, Pete, and then come +back here. We need all the help we can get if these others are scared +to jump." +</P> + +<P> +But whether they were scared or not, the fire left them no choice after +a moment more. One after another the three of them jumped. +</P> + +<P> +The two men, who were both fairly young, seemed to be plucky enough. +They waited quietly enough for Tom Binns to swim to them, and, by +treading water, he was able to let each one of them put a hand on his +shoulder, so that they could keep their own heads out of water. He +couldn't swim with them, but he could, at least, keep them from sinking +until help came. That could not be very long, since the blazing launch +was a signal of danger and the need of help for everyone who could see +it. +</P> + +<P> +But Jack's task was more difficult and dangerous by far, both for +himself and for the woman he was trying to save. She had been mad with +terror when she jumped, and, as soon as she felt Jack's arm about her, +after she had struck the water, she fastened both her arms about him +convulsively, and began dragging him down with her. Her strength was +greater than Jack's, since she was a big, powerful woman, and Jack had +no chance to break her hold on him by ordinary methods. +</P> + +<P> +"Let go!" he cried. "I'll save you if you'll leave me alone and just +put your hand on my shoulder. You'll drag us both down if you keep +this up!" +</P> + +<P> +But she only shrieked the louder, when her lungs were not so full of +water as to silence her, and Jack felt his strength going, and knew, +that in order to save either of them, he must be brutal. So, without a +moment's hesitation he seized her hair, which had come down about her +shoulders, and pulled until he wondered why it did not come out by the +roots. +</P> + +<P> +She continued to shriek, but it was with pain now instead of fright, +and in a moment her arms relaxed their desperate grip about Jack's arms +and shoulders, so that he was free. She continued to struggle like a +madwoman, however, and, since there was nothing else to do, Jack hit +her again and again, until she was afraid of him, and ready to do what +he told her. +</P> + +<P> +It had taken him some time, and as he turned with the woman he had +saved, limp and helpless now, to swim for the shore, Pete Stubbs passed +him. +</P> + +<P> +"Want any help, Jack?" cried Pete. +</P> + +<P> +"No, thanks! We're all right now. Go on out and help Tom and the two +he's got, Pete. You two can get them ashore all right, I guess." +</P> + +<P> +Only the woman that Jack had saved was in need of attention when they +were all finally ashore. She was half drowned, thanks to the struggle +she had put up after she had jumped into the water, but it was not much +of a task to revive her, and when she had regained her senses she, like +the others, was grateful. Jack himself was tired and pretty well +exhausted by his exertions, but he cared little for that, since he had +been successful. A few minutes' rest, and he was all right. +</P> + +<P> +"Our launch—it's burned up, I guess!" cried the girl who had been so +sensible and plucky, the one who had let Pete Stubbs tow her ashore +without making a single movement to hamper him in any way. "Look, the +fire seems to be out, but I don't believe there's much left of the poor +little boat." +</P> + +<P> +The driving rain and the lake water had, indeed, put the fire out, and +the blackened hull of the launch, which had drifted slightly toward the +shore, was floating quietly now. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll swim out and see what sort of shape she's in," said Jack. +"Perhaps she's worth saving yet. The engine may be all right, with a +little repair work, and I think I can tow her in without much trouble. +She's drifted pretty close in already." +</P> + +<P> +He plunged in at once, without heeding the protests from the rescued +ones, who said he had already done more than enough for them. A minute +of fast swimming took him out to the launch, and he climbed aboard, +cautiously, to see what damage had been done. The boat smelled most +unpleasantly of the fire, and he found that the engine would need a +good deal of attention before it would be of service again. But the +forward part of the boat had suffered comparatively slight damage, as +Jack saw with pleasure. Then, suddenly, as he looked around him, he +saw something that made him jump. +</P> + +<P> +"It can't be!" he exclaimed to himself. +</P> + +<P> +But a few moments of examination convinced him that he had made no +mistake. He searched the boat then from stem to stern, and, when he +had satisfied himself, he dropped overboard again, after making a rope +he had carried with him from the shore fast to the launch, and towed +her leisurely in, until her keel grated on the beach, and the men who +had been on board pulled her up beyond high water mark. +</P> + +<P> +As soon as he could then Jack drew Pete Stubbs aside. +</P> + +<P> +"Say, Pete," he said, in a low tone, and tremendously excited, "here's +a queer business! That launch is the one that was used to carry me off +last night. I'm absolutely certain! I stayed on board long enough to +make sure. Do you suppose these people can be mixed up with that +scoundrel? It's the same boat—and if you'll notice, when you get a +chance, she's been patched up in front, right where she must have been +smashed up in going through that lock. What do you make of that?" +</P> + +<P> +Pete looked frightened as he realized what it might mean. +</P> + +<P> +"I know one thing we ought to do," he said. "That is let Tom Binns get +hold of Dick Crawford right away and tell him about this. There's +something mighty funny doing, and I don't think we can get at the +bottom of it by ourselves." +</P> + +<P> +"That's a good idea, Pete! Tom's the fastest runner. You get him off +by himself and tell him to get Dick Crawford. They'll have to stay +around here until their clothes dry off, anyhow, so I guess we can +manage to hold them here until he comes back." +</P> + +<P> +Tom had already put on his clothes, and he was able to slip off +quietly, so as not to arouse the suspicions of the shivering castaways, +who, muffled in blankets that were kept by the Boy Scouts in the hut +near the beach, were waiting while their clothes dried out. +</P> + +<P> +When he had gone off Jack and Pete busied themselves with making a +fire. It was still raining, but not very hard, but if the clothes of +those from the burned boat were to be dried that night a fire was +necessary. And, as they worked, Jack got a chance to examine the party +more closely. +</P> + +<P> +The men didn't please him very much as he looked them over. They +looked like cheap, flashy fellows, who might be fond of drinking and +smoking because they thought it made them look like men. Indeed, one +of them, as soon as the fire was made, and he had seated himself as +close to it as possible, asked Jack if he had a cigarette or the +makings of one, and seemed scornful when Jack told him that he never +smoked. +</P> + +<P> +The woman who had given Jack so much trouble, too, was hard of face and +unpleasant in her speech. She scowled at Jack as if she resented the +rough way he had handled her, and seemed entirely forgetful now of the +fact that he had had to treat her in just that way to save his life—to +say nothing of her own. But the younger girl, whose hair had been on +fire when she jumped, was sweet of face, and had been trying to show +how grateful she was ever since she had been brought ashore. She +looked sadly out of place when compared to her companions, and Jack +wondered mightily how she came to be with them. He couldn't say +anything about it, however, and he and Pete busied themselves with +trying to make those they had rescued comfortable. After all, Jack +thought, these people had been in the gravest sort of peril, and it +made no difference whether they were pleasant or not. To go to the +rescue had been no more than their duty as Scouts, and no Scout is ever +supposed to stop and think about personal likes or dislikes when he has +a chance to be of service to anyone in trouble or danger and needs help +a Scout can give. +</P> + +<P> +Jack, looking around for Pete Stubbs after he had been off to bring up +a fresh supply of dry firewood, since the wood all about the fire +itself was damp and too wet to burn with the bright heat that was +needed to dry the clothes of the victims of the fire, found that his +red-headed chum was missing. The two women, in fact, were the only +ones about. He looked in surprise for the men of the party, and then +spoke. +</P> + +<P> +"Your friends haven't gone off without their clothes?" he said. +</P> + +<P> +"No," replied the older woman. "They've just gone off to have a look +at the launch, and they look like red Indians. I'm sure our clothes +are taking long enough to dry—and when we get them, I suppose we'll +have to walk miles and miles to get anywhere!" +</P> + +<P> +"We're lucky to be able to walk at all," said the girl, interrupting, +then. "I think we ought to be very grateful, Mrs. Broom, instead of +complaining so much about what's a very little discomfort, anyhow." +</P> + +<P> +Jack liked her for that speech, as he had already liked her for the +pluck she had shown. But before he could answer her, he was seized +suddenly from behind, and a cloth was thrown over his head, so that he +could not cry out. He heard the girl scream, and one of the men shout +roughly to her to keep out and not interfere. Then he was carried away +swiftly. +</P> + +<P> +But his captivity did not last very long. Before he had been carried +more than a hundred paces the man who was carrying his head stumbled +suddenly, and, cursing, went down in a heap. The one behind, who had +Jack's feet, fell over him, and Jack, active as a cat, worked himself +free in a second, and twisted the bag from his head. +</P> + +<P> +"Soak 'em, Jack!" cried a cheery voice, and he realized that Pete +Stubbs, alarmed in some way, had been ready to rescue him, and had +seized the exact moment to do it. Now Pete, with a cry of exultation, +snatched the blankets from the two men, who were struggling with one +another on the ground, and ran off with them. +</P> + +<P> +"Get their clothes, Jack!" he shouted. "They were carrying them in a +bundle. They can't go very far that way." +</P> + +<P> +Jack laughed as he saw the dark bundle of clothes and picked it up. +Then he ran swiftly after Pete, chuckling at the savage threats and +exclamations from the two men, who, without a stitch of clothing, would +certainly not dare to pursue them very far, for fear of being seen in +that state of nature, as well as for the brambles and thorns that would +scratch them if they attempted to make their way through the woods +without the protection of clothes and, more especially, shoes. +</P> + +<P> +At the camp they found Dick Crawford, who had returned with Tom Binns. +The two women, their clothes dry by this time, had taken possession of +the hut to make themselves presentable, and Dick in silent astonishment +heard Jack's story. +</P> + +<P> +"There's something queer behind all this," said he. "The attack those +fellows made on Jack shows that they are pretty hard characters. Why, +he'd just saved their lives for them!" +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap11"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XI +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE MYSTERY DEEPENS +</H3> + +<P> +They stood together for a moment, puzzled and silent, trying to figure +out what it could mean. The two women were quiet. So far they had had +nothing to do with the attack on Jack. In the distance, perhaps a +hundred feet or so away, they could hear the men, whose clothes Jack +and Pete had taken, cursing and demanding that their property be +returned. +</P> + +<P> +"Keep quiet, you!" Dick Crawford called to them. "You'll get your +things when you've given some account of yourselves and we're ready to +give them to you. If you make any more disturbance around here, you +won't get them at all. Remember that!" +</P> + +<P> +A deep silence followed, and Pete laughed. +</P> + +<P> +"Guess that scared them some, Dick," he said. "I don't think they'd +fancy the idea of going back to the city that way. In funny papers, if +a man loses his clothes, he always fetches up with a barrel. But I +always did wonder where he found the barrel!" +</P> + +<P> +Dick looked doubtfully at the little heap of clothing. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't suppose we ought to leave them out there without any clothes +at all," said he. "But I do think, after the way they've acted, that +we've got a right to look and see if there are any weapons. They would +be useless, in any case, after the wetting they've had, but—" +</P> + +<P> +He picked up the coats of the two men and shook out the pockets. Sure +enough, a pistol fell from each, and from one there also dropped a +black mask. +</P> + +<P> +"That doesn't look very well for them," he said. "I think, Tom, you'd +better go to a telephone and see if you can get Captain Haskin to meet +us here. He or some of his railroad detectives may know something +about these people." +</P> + +<P> +Tom hurried off at once to obey the order, for such it was, though +Dick, as he almost always did, had put the order in the form of a +simple request. Then Dick looked more carefully at the things that had +fallen from the pockets. +</P> + +<P> +"Hello!" he cried, suddenly. "Say, Jack, look here! Here's a letter +postmarked from Woodleigh. That's where you came from, isn't it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, it is!" cried Jack, on the alert, as always, at a sign of any +sort from the town where he had spent his boyhood. +</P> + +<P> +"I think we've got a right to open this," said Dick, "though looking at +letters that aren't addressed to one is pretty small business, as a +rule. However, when people do the sort of thing that these fellows so +nearly got away with tonight they don't have a right to expect decent +treatment from others." +</P> + +<P> +He looked grave when he had finished reading. +</P> + +<P> +"This letter seems to concern you, Jack," he said. "It's from a lawyer +up there, and it's addressed to a man called Silas Broom, at the +General Delivery window of the post office in the city here. It says +that the boy Jack Danby, about whom Mr. Broom was making inquiries, +left Woodleigh some months ago, and has since, it is supposed, been +working near here. Now why does anyone want to know about you? And +why does this fellow Broom, if that is really his name, have to hear +this? He is a great scoundrel, whatever his name is." +</P> + +<P> +"You quit callin' my husband names. Who are you, I'd like to know?" +</P> + +<P> +The older woman emerged suddenly from the hut, in time to hear Dick's +last words, and she faced him now like a fury, her arms akimbo, and her +eyes snapping. She looked around suspiciously, too. +</P> + +<P> +"Where's Silas?" she asked, angrily. "What have you done with him? +Ain't those his clothes there?" +</P> + +<P> +She snatched the clothes up in an instant. Before Dick, who was +astonished by her appearance, could check her she had torn the coat +from his hands. +</P> + +<P> +"Silas!" she yelled. "Where are you, honey?" +</P> + +<P> +"Here I am—out in the woods," cried her husband, frantically. +"They've stolen my clothes, Carrie. Get 'em, and bring 'em here, will +you?" +</P> + +<P> +"Comin'!" she called, and darted off with surprising speed, considering +her weight and the terrible exhaustion that had seemed to afflict her +when she was being brought ashore from the launch. +</P> + +<P> +Dick and the two Scouts were laughing, although a bit ruefully, as she +vanished. +</P> + +<P> +"I can't touch a woman," said Dick, sadly. "I'm afraid I'll have to +admit that I'd like to—but I guess she could lick me at that, if she +was put to it. Is that the one you dragged ashore, Jack?" +</P> + +<P> +"That's the one!" said Jack. "It's a wonder she didn't drown the two +of us. But she certainly seems to have recovered pretty completely." +</P> + +<P> +"It's bad business," said Dick, frowning. "Those fellows will get away +now. The only hold we had on them was that they didn't have any +clothes. Now they'll make tracks, and all ye can do is to tell Captain +Haskin what they looked like and what they did. I think we look pretty +foolish, myself." +</P> + +<P> +Just then the girl, who had won Jack's admiration by her courage when +she was in real danger and by her reproof of the others when they had +shown their ingratitude, stepped into the firelight, fully dressed. +She did not look at all as if she belonged with the others. She was +more refined, gentler, and sweeter in every way. Dick Crawford stared +at her in astonishment. Jack had told him about her, but, since seeing +the others, he had thought that Jack had made a mistake in praising her. +</P> + +<P> +"I beg your pardon," he said, speaking to her as she stopped and looked +about her, evidently puzzled by the absence of her companions. "But +I'm afraid we'll have to ask you to tell us what you can of the people +you were with. You are not related to them, are you?" +</P> + +<P> +"No," she said. "No, indeed! I came with them because they promised +to show me how to reach a certain person for whom my father has been +searching for a long time. Then, of course, there was the fire on the +launch. But even before that they had kept putting me off, and I +didn't like the way they were acting at all. Where are they now?" +</P> + +<P> +"I wish I knew!" said Dick. "However, we can talk more about them +later. I think that now the best thing we can do is to get you back to +the city. Your father will meet you there, I suppose, won't he?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," she said. "My father is not at all well, and he is quite an old +man. We are staying at the Hotel Lincoln. I came with them alone, +though father didn't want me to, because they were so very positive +that our chase was nearly over." +</P> + +<P> +"I think it's my duty to tell you," said Dick, "that these people who +were with you seem to be a very bad lot. They made an attempt to +kidnap this boy, who helped to save the lives of your whole party, and +we have every reason to suppose that they are associated with a gang of +thieves who have a grudge against him. I think you had better let us +take you back to your father. And if you will follow my advice, you +will have nothing more to do with any of them. They will only lead you +into danger and trouble." +</P> + +<P> +Dick was anxious to question the girl further, but she was much shaken, +and in no condition to tell him anything more. So they all went back +to town together, and Dick himself acted as Miss Burton's escort to her +hotel. +</P> + +<P> +"I will follow your advice," she promised him. "If any of those people +try to see me again, I will refuse to have anything to do with them. +But won't you come to see us, and perhaps you will be able to help us +in our search?" +</P> + +<P> +"I'll be glad to do that," said Dick. "But if those people approach +you again, it might be better to pretend that you still trust them. +Don't put yourself in their hands in any way, but try to get them to +talk to you. In that way you may be able to get valuable information +that would otherwise not be available at all." +</P> + +<P> +Captain Haskin, the head of the detective service of the railroad on +which Jack Danby's bravery had averted a terrible wreck, was much +concerned when he heard the story of the rescue and the ungrateful +conduct of those whose lives had been saved. +</P> + +<P> +"We've got to look after Danby," he said. "He's an important witness +for us, and if he turns up missing, it's going to be more difficult to +get a conviction, though perhaps not impossible. But I think there's +more than that in their attempt to get rid of him." +</P> + +<P> +"What do you mean, Captain?" asked Dick Crawford. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, I don't know, my boy. But these people are not loyal enough to +one another as a rule to lead them to run such risks as these villains +have encountered just to get rid of a witness who may be damaging to +some of them who have been captured. When one or two of them are +caught, those who escape are usually so glad to get off free themselves +that they disappear and make no effort to help those who were not so +fortunate. The fact that they have kept after Danby this way is very +suspicious." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I happen to know," said Dick, "that there are people who seem to +have a grudge against Jack, or at least who have an interest in +maintaining a mystery that exists as to his birth. I don't like to +talk about that as a rule, because it's his own-business, but I'd +better tell you. He does not know his real name, or who his parents +were, and it is the ambition of his life to discover them. Since he +came away from Woodleigh, attempts have been made to find out what has +become of him, and a man who was concerned in an attempt to rob me of a +considerable sum of money that I was carrying for my employer is one of +those who seems most anxious to find out all about Jack. He knows the +secret of his birth." +</P> + +<P> +"That would explain," said the detective, "the whole business at once. +Now, you see, you've given me something to work on. The railroad can't +feel at ease until all the men concerned in that plot that so nearly +wrecked the Limited the other night are safely in jail. It isn't that +we're vindictive, but when men are ready to imperil the lives of the +passengers on the trains we run, it isn't safe for us to let them be at +large. They may make another attempt, and there is no way of being +sure that the next time we shall be able to stop them. It was all a +matter of luck that blocked their plan before—and we can't trust to +luck in such matters. It might cost a hundred lives to do so." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, if we can help you in any way, you can depend on us to do +anything in our power, Captain. I think any of our boys in the Scouts +would do anything for Jack Danby, and, of course, we want to do +anything we can to help the railroad safeguard its trains, for the sake +of all the people who have to ride on them." +</P> + +<P> +"The most important thing right now is to see that nothing happens to +Danby. They have been so bold and so determined in their efforts to +put him out of the way already that I am afraid they are not likely to +stop at the two attempts. One thing seems very curious to me. The man +who carried him off from the camp was entirely willing to kill +him—planned to do so, didn't he?" +</P> + +<P> +"So Jack says. And he is not the sort to be scared by idle threats." +</P> + +<P> +"Just so! But now here is a queer thing. These people that tried to +carry him off to-day used the same boat as the man who took him from +the camp. Presumably they would have served him the same way as the +other scoundrel would have done. And yet they seem also to want to get +in touch with Jack himself—and not for the purpose of killing him.. +It looks as if they were working at cross purposes—as if they did not +know that the boy who foiled the train-wrecking plot and the one they +have lost are one and the same. Don't you see?" +</P> + +<P> +"I certainly do! Say, this is a confused affair, isn't it?" +</P> + +<P> +"It's like a Chinese puzzle. But we'll work it out somehow." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap12"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +AN UNGRATEFUL PARENT +</H3> + +<P> +When his work was done the next day, Jack Danby found Dick Crawford +waiting for him. +</P> + +<P> +"Jack," said the Assistant Scout-Master, "I don't want to raise any +false hopes in you, but I think we're on the verge of finding out +something about you—about who you really are, and all that." +</P> + +<P> +"How, Dick? I'd give anything if that were true!" +</P> + +<P> +"We were awfully stupid not to think of it last night, Jack. You know +that pretty girl, that Miss Burton, who was on the burning launch? She +wasn't like the others—we all saw that. She wasn't their sort at all! +Well, she said she was with them because she believed that they were +going to be able to lead her to someone that her father had been +searching for." +</P> + +<P> +"You mean I might be the one they were looking for, Dick?" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know, Jack, but it looks possible. Not that she might not be +looking for someone else. But she was with these people, and one of +those men had a letter about you from the lawyer up at Woodleigh. I +don't believe they really meant to lead her to you at all. I think +that there are people who are spending their time in making it +impossible for those who are really interested in you to get any trace +of you." +</P> + +<P> +"Then why should they have told her they could find me, if it really is +I she's looking for?" +</P> + +<P> +"They might think it better to fool her, Jack, than to let her deal +with people who would treat her honestly. If she thought they were +helping her, and trying to earn a reward, if there is one, she and her +father would be unlikely to go to anyone else. And as long as they +could convince her that they were doing their best they would be in +complete control of the situation, you see." +</P> + +<P> +"That certainly sounds as if it might be right, Dick. What do you +think we'd better do?" +</P> + +<P> +"Go and see Mr. Burton and his daughter right away. I'm certain of one +thing: that girl is all right. She's true and honest, no matter what +sort of people may have deceived her and have induced her to fall into +their plans and ways. She thinks she's doing the right thing. Depend +on that!" +</P> + +<P> +"I think you're right about her, Dick. I thought she was different +from the others at once. She was so plucky and so cool, and she helped +Pete all she could when he swam ashore with her, instead of getting +frightened and making it harder, as the old woman did. She was all +right." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, we'll go there right away. They're at the Hotel Lincoln. +That's the best hotel in town, you know, so I guess they're people who +are pretty well to do." +</P> + +<P> +They had not long to wait at the hotel before they were asked to go up +to the suite of rooms occupied by Mr. Burton and his daughter. +</P> + +<P> +The girl, who looked much better, naturally, since she had had a good +rest, and a change of clothing, greeted them with a good deal of +friendly interest, but her father, who walked with a stick, seemed to +be querulous and inclined to distrust them. +</P> + +<P> +"A fine lot of people we've run into since we've come here!" he said. +"Molly, who are these people?" +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Crawford warned me against Broom and his wife, father," she said. +"I told you of that. And this is Jack Danby, who helped to save us all +from the launch." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, what do you want? What do you want?" asked Mr. Burton, +peevishly. "Money? I'll give you some—but don't come bothering me!" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't want any of your money, sir, and neither does Danby," said +Dick, indignant and surprised by this reception. He looked at the +girl. She seemed to be as angry as he was himself, and had flushed +until her face was a bright pink. He thought she looked even prettier +than before, but she also looked frightened, as if, while angry, she +dared not provoke her father further by seeming to resent what he said. +</P> + +<P> +"We came here," said Dick, facing the old man, "because we have an idea +that we can help you in your search. You are looking for a boy, are +you not?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, yes!" said the old man. "It's a wild goose chase—we'll never +find him! It's a cousin of Molly's—my daughter—and my nephew. A +worthless young scamp, probably, even if he's alive. No use looking +for him—let him stay lost, I say! He's less trouble that way." +</P> + +<P> +"The reason I say that I think we may be able to help you, sir, is that +we think the gang that had your daughter with them yesterday are on the +trail of the boy you are looking for. Can you not tell us what you +know of his movements?" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't see why I should! You're probably just another of the +blackmailing crowd that's been after my money since I was fool enough +to allow myself to be persuaded to look for the boy. He was stolen +from my brother's house when he was a very small boy. We had reason to +suspect a man who had a grudge against my brother. That's the only +clue we have." +</P> + +<P> +"That's not worth very much by itself, sir. But it happens that I know +of a boy who was mysteriously brought up by an old man. He knows +nothing of his parentage. But he does know, and his friends know, +also, that there are people who know all about him, and that these +people are very anxious to keep him from learning the truth about +himself. And these people who have been trying to locate this boy +lately are connected with the ones who were with your daughter last +night—people with whom no young woman ought ever to be trusted by her +father!" +</P> + +<P> +Dick was furious by this time at the way in which Mr. Burton treated +him, and he forgot, for the moment, the respect due to age and +infirmity. He regarded Burton as a careless father, who should be made +to understand that he had been criminally careless in allowing so +beautiful a girl to be left in the power of wretches like those who had +been on the boat when it took fire, and he had no mind to be polite and +diplomatic. +</P> + +<P> +"Get out of my room, you impudent young rascal!" shouted Mr. Burton +when he realized what Dick was saying. "Don't you think I can see +through your game, eh?" +</P> + +<P> +He shook his stick threateningly at Dick. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm not afraid of you, sir," said Dick. "I told the truth, and I +think you know it. We're not going to stay here—but I warn you that +you may be sorry before this business is cleared up. You'll trust a +scoundrel like Broom, and yet, when we come to you with an offer to +help you in your search, you insult us!" +</P> + +<P> +Molly Burton, frightened and distressed by the turn matters had taken, +tried to make peace, but her efforts were of no avail. Her father +ordered the two of them out of his rooms, and they could do nothing but +go. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, we didn't gain much by going there," said Dick. "I'm sorry I +lost my temper, Jack, but it would have been pretty hard not to, when +he was talking and acting that way." +</P> + +<P> +"I wonder if he can really be my uncle, though, Dick. I don't know +that I'd be so crazy to have him for a relative, but I would like to +think that pretty girl was my cousin!" +</P> + +<P> +"She's all right, isn't she, Jack? But we have gained something, at +any rate. We've got some sort of a starting point. Now, if we can get +Captain Haskin to help us, we may be able to start with the time when +you turned up at Woodleigh, and trace some of Old Dan's movements. In +that way, you see, it may be possible to get at the truth. It's a +little more than we knew before we went to see them, at any rate." +</P> + +<P> +"I think if we could see Miss Burton alone, Dick, she would treat us +better, and tell us anything she knew." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm sure of that, Jack. I'll try to see her, too. It seems wrong to +try to do anything of that sort without letting her father know, but we +haven't any choice. He certainly wouldn't allow her to see me if he +knew that she was planning anything of that sort. I'll try that in the +morning." +</P> + +<P> +But in the morning when Dick went to the hotel, he was told that Mr. +Burton and his daughter were gone, and that they had left no address. +No one at the hotel could give him any idea of where they might be +found, and they had left no orders, it was said, about the forwarding +of any letters that might come for them. Dick, resourceful as he was, +felt that he was facing a blind wall. There was nothing more for him +to do. He could only wait, and trust that chance, or the detective +abilities of Captain Haskin, would enable him to pick up the trail +again. +</P> + +<P> +Jack Danby, needless to say, was bitterly disappointed when he heard +what Dick had to tell him the next evening, after his fruitless effort +to see the Burtons again. Jack had never wavered in his belief that +some time he would settle the mystery of his birth, that had worried +him ever since he had been able to understand that he was set apart +from others. To see a chance now and then just as he felt that he was +about to read the secret have that chance vanish, was doubly hard. It +was worse than if he had never had the hope of success. +</P> + +<P> +But he tried hard not to let Dick Crawford see how badly the incident +made him feel. Dick had done what he had for the best, and he had +honestly thought that there was a chance for Jack's great ambition to +be realized. He felt as disappointed as did Jack himself. +</P> + +<P> +"Gee, Jack," he said, "who'd ever guess that a sweet girl like that +would have such an old curmudgeon of a father? He's the limit! But +there's nothing we can do right away. I think Captain Haskin will be +able to find out where they came from, and where they've gone to +without any trouble—that's the sort of thing detectives are supposed +to be able to do." +</P> + +<P> +"But if the old gentleman won't help us at all it's going to be pretty +hard to get anything done. I've seen crusty old fellows like that +before. When they've been deceived in a person it takes a long time +before they're willing to trust anyone else—and, of course, you can't +blame them so very much, at that. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm not going to give up, Dick, anyhow. I'm surer than ever now that +the secret of who I am is worth a lot of trouble, and I'll find out +what it is if I never do anything else!" +</P> + +<P> +"At that rate you're bound to win, Jack. Keep on trying." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap13"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XIII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE MOVING PICTURES +</H3> + +<P> +Captain Haskin, though he took no one into his confidence as to just +what he was doing, impressed Dick and Jack alike as a man who, once +started, would never drop any undertaking until he was successful. He +might not always succeed, but failure in his case would never be due to +lack of effort. So they were not surprised when he came to them a day +or two after the Burtons had left town and told them that he had what +might be a valuable clue. +</P> + +<P> +"I want you to come to the theatre with me," he said. He smiled as he +said it. "That may seem like a frivolous thing to do when we are at +work on a mystery of this sort, but you'll see what I mean when we get +there." +</P> + +<P> +Dick and Jack, who liked the railroad detective and trusted him +implicitly, were certainly surprised, but they made no bones about +accompanying him. He had called for them at Dick's house, where Jack +was spending the evening, and he said he wanted Tom Binns and Pete +Stubbs to be along, too. So they rode with him in the automobile which +he was using, and picked up the other Scouts. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't believe you ever saw the particular theatre I'm going to take +you to," he said, when he had all four of them in the car. "It isn't +much of a theatre, even for a moving picture place. It's a little +place over near the river, and the films are cheap and not very good. +But you'll see why I picked it out later." +</P> + +<P> +It was a long ride, after they had picked up Tom Binns, even in the +detective's big car. As they rode, Haskin kept looking around behind +him. +</P> + +<P> +"I've had a queer feeling two or three times to-day," he said, "that I +was being followed. I've shadowed so many people in my time that I'm +pretty well acquainted with the ways of doing it, and I must say I +don't like the look of things. Those fellows are desperate enough to +do anything at all, but if they're actually shadowing the detective +who's in charge of the efforts to run them down and catch them they've +got even more nerve than I thought was possible." +</P> + +<P> +Two or three times, now, as they made their way along, at a slow pace +by Haskin's direction, those in the car got a glimpse of a smaller +automobile that seemed to hang pretty persistently on their track. +They were evidently never out of sight of the occupants of the other +car for very long. +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose they know what they're doing," said Haskin, finally, "but +what their game is, is beyond me. I'm not trying to hide from them or +anyone else. I don't see why they should want to track me down this +way. Go ahead, full speed, now! We'll give them a chase for it, if +they're looking for that." +</P> + +<P> +It was not long before the car pulled up in a dirty, tumbledown street +near the water front, before a shop that had been turned into a moving +picture theatre. Haskin paid their way in, and they found themselves +in a darkened hall and the pictures were being thrown on to the screen +as they entered. +</P> + +<P> +"One of the things these people do to attract people to their theatre," +explained Haskin, as they took their seats, "is to have a film made +every week right here in the district where it is to be shown. For +instance, this week they are showing a picture that was made on the +river front a few days ago. People come and think that perhaps they'll +see themselves or their friends in the 'movies.' It's lots of fun for +them, you see, and it's a good idea for the company that invented it." +</P> + +<P> +Jack and Dick suddenly began to understand. +</P> + +<P> +"Is there anyone we know in the pictures, Captain?" asked Jack. +</P> + +<P> +"That's what I hope, Jack. What I do know is that there is a section +of the film that shows three of the men who tried to wreck the train +the other night. They are talking with some other men, and it is +because I think that one of these others may be this man Broom that I +want you to see it and identify him, if you can. Then, you see, we can +send out his picture and have a much better chance of catching him." +</P> + +<P> +Haskin had looked around carefully before he spoke. He had no idea +that there would be anyone around who would be able to make head or +tail out of what he was saying, but he was trained to take chances only +when he had to. But there seemed to be no one near except a sleepy, +slouchy sailor in a seat immediately behind him. The man had been +drinking, and his heavy breathing convinced Haskin that he was +harmlessly asleep. +</P> + +<P> +But the next time he looked around the sailor was gone. He must have +moved very quietly to escape the notice of Haskin, and he was just +passing out through the door when the detective saw him. +</P> + +<P> +"That's bad business!" he said to himself. "It was mighty careless of +me. I ought to have known better, certainly, than to talk that way, +even if there didn't seem to be anyone around to hear me. I only hope +he didn't understand, or that he really is what he seems to be—just a +sailor on a spree." +</P> + +<P> +They had a long and tedious wait for the time to come when the +all-important film should be begun. What was reeled off first had +little interest for any of them. The three Scouts all liked the moving +picture shows well enough, but they preferred the other kind, the sort +shown in the better houses uptown, and they could not get up much +interest in the pictures that seemed to delight those who were seated +all about them. +</P> + +<P> +The place grew constantly more and more crowded. It was evidently a +popular diversion near the river, and the attraction of the local +scenes film, with the chance that any spectator might suddenly find +himself a part of the performance, was what pleased them the most and +attracted the greatest attention. +</P> + +<P> +At last it was time for that particular film to be begun. It was quite +a long one, as it turned out, and it was not until a number of pictures +had been shown that Haskin suddenly leaned forward and pointed to a +little pier, beside which a motor boat was bobbing up and down. +</P> + +<P> +Jack, with a gasp, and a queer little thrill running up and down his +back, recognized three men who stood by the boat. They were quarreling +about something, and were by no means still, but there was no mistaking +them. They were three of the men that he had seen in the little +station on the night that the attempt to wreck the Limited had failed. +And, from the edge of the screen, another man was walking toward them. +</P> + +<P> +"There," said Haskin, "that's the fellow I want you to watch. Is that +Broom? If it is—" +</P> + +<P> +He couldn't finish. There was a sudden sputtering by the film. The +lights went out—only to give place to a dark, red glare near the film. +And, at the same moment, there was a wild shriek from the back of the +hall—"Fire!" +</P> + +<P> +The lights winked on again in a moment, and then went out and on again, +alternating for two or three minutes, so that at one moment the little, +crowded theatre was black as ink and the next as light as day. Most of +those in the audience were women and children, and they were in a panic +in a moment. +</P> + +<P> +"Come on, Scouts!" roared Dick Crawford. "If they don't stop crowding +and pushing, not one of these people will get out of this place alive." +</P> + +<P> +The three Scouts knew what to do and how to do it. They were prepared +for this as well as for any other emergency. They were, perhaps, the +only cool-headed ones in the place. Adding their voices to Dick's, and +with Haskin to help them, they managed somehow to restore some sort of +order. They fought their way through the packed aisles, and, though +the fire was gaining, back by the film, they made the people pass out +in good order. Great as was the peril, not one of them flinched. +</P> + +<P> +Jack Danby, in the center aisle, had to bear the brunt of the wild rush +for the door, but he managed to keep the people from piling up against +the door, and so making a human dam that would have kept everyone from +safety. One or two men, and the braver of the women, inspired by the +actions of the Scouts, pulled themselves together, and helped them, and +before the flames had made much headway, everyone, it seemed, was out. +But Jack Danby remembered seeing a child fall just before the last +group had gone through the door. He did not see it outside, and, +despite protests from all who saw him, he made his way back. +</P> + +<P> +The lights had gone out for good now, but there was plenty of chance to +see even in that grimy, smoke-filled place, by the fitful glare of the +flames that were reaching out and licking up the seats and the tawdry +decorations now. And he had not very far to go before he found what he +was looking for—the body of a little girl who had fallen and been +overcome by the smoke. He picked her up and with little difficulty +carried her out to the street, where a fireman took her from him. +</P> + +<P> +The firemen made short work of the blaze, and Haskin, with the four +Scouts, walked away and reached the automobile, which had been forced +to move several blocks on account of the fire. +</P> + +<P> +"That fire wasn't any accident," said Haskin, gravely. "Now I know why +those fellows were following me. They were afraid of something of this +sort. My heavens, what cold-blooded scoundrels they are! They were +willing to wreck that train—now they took the chance of killing +everyone in that little theatre to keep me from seeing that film—and, +I suppose, with the idea that they could get rid of me and the most +dangerous witness against them at the same time, and by a single blow." +</P> + +<P> +"Do you really think they did that?" cried Dick, shocked by the idea. +</P> + +<P> +"I think so, yes. But it's one thing to think so, and to say that I +think so, and it's quite another to prove it. That's the trouble! But +I'm going to try pretty hard, and I'll fix the blame on them and see +that they go to jail for it if there's any human way of doing it. It's +a pity they succeeded as well as they did. They've destroyed that +film, and it would have been mighty useful as evidence against them, +let me tell you!" +</P> + +<P> +"Is there no duplicate?" +</P> + +<P> +"I'm afraid not. But we'll try, anyway. There's no harm in that." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap14"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XIV +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +A FOOLISH STRIKE +</H3> + +<P> +The next morning Jack Danby, arriving at the factory, found Pete Stubbs +already there, for it was his duty that week to arrive a little in +advance of the rest of the boys, and open up. He was wearing a glum +face. +</P> + +<P> +"Gee, Jack, here's a peck of trouble," he said. "I got down here and +found that Mr. Simms, the big boss, and Mr. Carew, the manager, had +been here since five o'clock." +</P> + +<P> +"What's wrong, Pete?" +</P> + +<P> +"I dunno, for sure, Jack, but I heard somethin' bein' said about a +strike. And there ain't a man here yet!" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, we're not on strike, Pete. I guess we'd better get busy and do +our work just as if there wasn't anything wrong. Then <I>we'll</I> be all +right, anyhow." +</P> + +<P> +They were busy for a few minutes, as the other office boys and the +clerks began to appear. +</P> + +<P> +"Keep quiet about anything you know or suspect, Pete," said Jack, +warningly, as the rooms began to fill up. "It's all right to tell me, +but you'd better let the others hear anything there is to be known from +Mr. Carew. He'll tell us all, probably, when he gets ready." +</P> + +<P> +But the morning was well advanced before the conference in Mr. Carew's +room was over. There was an unusual silence about the big factory. +None of the machinery was running, which was sufficiently out of the +ordinary to excite a lot of talk and gossip, although Pete gave out +none of the information with which he was almost bursting. Finally, +however, Mr. Carew came out. +</P> + +<P> +"This company," he said, when everyone had turned in silence to face +him, "has done business for a good many years and has never had any +sort of trouble, until now, with any of the people who have worked for +it. Now, unfortunately, some malcontents among the hands here have +spread their ideas, and a strike has been called. We have tried to +reason with the men, but they have quit work, and this factory will be +closed for at least a week, beginning to-day." +</P> + +<P> +"Gee, Jack, that's just what I was afraid of," said Pete, his face +falling. "That means a week's wages gone!" +</P> + +<P> +Murmurs arose from all over the room. But Carew, a smile on his face, +held up his hand for silence, and went on. +</P> + +<P> +"The company has no intention of making you suffer," he said. "Your +wages will go on just the same, and we will simply consider this week's +lay-off as a sort of a vacation. That will be all for now. You will +get notice when it is time for you to return to work." +</P> + +<P> +There was a wild cheer then. A week's wages meant a great deal to most +of the boys and clerks employed in and about the factory, and the +revulsion of feeling when they learned that they were not to lose their +pay was enough to justify even a louder cheer than they gave. +</P> + +<P> +"Danby and Stubbs," said Mr. Carew next, "I wish you'd wait when the +others go, and come into my office. I want to talk to you." +</P> + +<P> +They waited accordingly, and when they went into Mr. Carew's room they +found Mr. Simms, the president of the company, waiting there with the +manager. +</P> + +<P> +"This is very serious business, boys," said Mr. Simms, gravely. "A +strike is one thing, and if the men stopped at a strike they would be +entirely within their rights. Unfortunately, some of them, bad +workers, who had been threatened with dismissal, and others who were +discontented, for one reason or another, have succeeded in stirring up +a lot of hard feeling. And there is no telling what may happen." +</P> + +<P> +"Do you think they'll try to put the place on the bum, sir?" cried +Pete, the irrepressible, his eyes flashing. +</P> + +<P> +Both the men laughed, though their faces showed that they were too +worried to do much laughing. +</P> + +<P> +"I certainly hope they won't attempt anything of the sort, for their +sake, as well as ours, Pete," said Mr. Simms. "If they were let alone, +our old men, even if they were to go on strike, wouldn't make a move +against the company's property. But these rascals who are leading them +want to make it impossible for them to back down and come back to work. +And I am afraid that there are no lengths at which they would stop in +the effort to injure us." +</P> + +<P> +"Here is the point, boys," said Mr. Carew. "We know, from past +experience with you, that you are trustworthy, and loyal to us. Now, +what we want to do is to get through this strike with as little trouble +as possible. We don't want any shooting, as there might be if we +brought in armed men to guard the property. What we want is to prevent +any attempt to destroy the place by getting ample warning of anything +that is tried." +</P> + +<P> +"And you're going to let us look out for them?" cried Pete. "Gee, +that's great, Jack! We can do it, too, can't we?" +</P> + +<P> +"The idea we had," said Carew, "was that you boys, and perhaps some of +your companions in the Boy Scouts, being used to tracking and trailing +in the woods, could keep a better watch than our regular watchmen. +They are faithful enough, and would mean well, but what we are afraid +of is that a lot of clever scoundrels could get inside and set the +place on fire before they knew it. They wouldn't expect boys to be on +the lookout, and we can arrange to have the place protected amply if we +can have a few minutes warning. In that way the plans of the violent +ones among the men would be blocked, and at the same time there would +be no danger of bloodshed, or of anyone being hurt. I would rather +lose a year's pay than have a man of them all injured." +</P> + +<P> +"And I a year's profits, or a good deal more," said Mr. Simms. +"Understand me, boys, we want you to do this in a way that will not get +you yourselves into any danger. Simply stay here tonight, after, the +place is closed up. Mr. Carew and I and a few other men will be +inside, but we don't want to show ourselves. I am having telephones +put in all over the factory, with instruments out in the courtyards, so +that you can get word to us without delay if you see anything +suspicious. Now suppose you run home and get your Scout uniforms. We +will have plenty to eat here, and we will have cots rigged up for you, +too, so that you can sleep in the day time." +</P> + +<P> +"This is almost as good as being in the militia, isn't it, Jack?" said +Pete, as they hurried out. +</P> + +<P> +"I think it's a lot better, Pete. In the militia, if there's a strike, +the men sometimes have to fire into a crowd, and a lot of foolish +people who don't mean any harm may get hurt or killed. I'd hate to +have to do anything like that. I suppose it's necessary, but I'd feel +like a murderer if I'd ever fired into a crowd that way, I know." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, this is going to be a great lark, anyhow, Jack. I'd rather do +this than work, any day!" +</P> + +<P> +"It may be pretty hard work before we're through, Pete. Look over +there!" +</P> + +<P> +They were leaving the factory then, and across the street was a crowd +of men, in their working clothes, sullen and unhappy in appearance. +Two or three men, dressed more like brokers than workmen, were passing +to and fro among them, and leaving a wake of scowls and curses wherever +they passed. +</P> + +<P> +"Strikers!" said Pete. "Gosh, but they don't look like the crowd that +we see coming to work every morning, do they, Jack? They look +different—like wild men, almost." +</P> + +<P> +"It's too bad," said Jack. "I'm mighty sorry to see them go out, +because I know that they're treated as well here as they would be +anywhere in the state, and a lot better than at most places. It's men +like Big Ed Willis, who never wants to work at all, who make the +trouble." +</P> + +<P> +"Just listen here, young feller," said a big man, who appeared suddenly +from behind them, "keep a quiet tongue in yer head about me. I'm Big +Ed, I am, and I'll smash your ugly face in for ye, if ye don't look +out! There's a strike on for higher wages and shorter hours here, see, +and we don't want no scabs, man or boy, goin' into that factory." +</P> + +<P> +"We're not in the union, Ed Willis," said Jack, unafraid. "We make our +own rules about working or not working, and don't you forget it! You +can beat me up easily enough, if you want to, but you won't be much of +a man if you try it." +</P> + +<P> +"For two cents I'd smash you in the jaw, so I would!" said Willis, +blustering, like the true bully he was. +</P> + +<P> +"Let the kid alone, Ed," cried another man, coming across the street. +"He ain't in the union. I think we're fools to strike ourselves. +Don't go to making no more trouble without you need to." +</P> + +<P> +"I'll let you off this time," said Big Ed, a little abashed. "But see +to it that you keep away from the factory over there." +</P> + +<P> +"You mind your business and we'll mind ours!" said Jack. "That'll keep +you plenty busy enough, Ed Willis!" +</P> + +<P> +"Gee, I thought he was going to hit you that time, Jack," said Pete +Stubbs. "I'm pretty small, and if I hit him he'd never know it unless +someone told him, but I was going to smash him behind the ear with a +stone if he tried that." +</P> + +<P> +"He's all bluff and talk," said Jack, disgustedly. "If he does any +fighting, it'll be by letting someone else strike the blows while he +looks on from a place where he knows he won't be hit. There's lots of +fighters like that." +</P> + +<P> +They hurried on home then, and changed from the clothes they wore every +day to work in to their Boy Scout uniforms. Each of them took, too, +his axe and Scout knife, in case of emergencies, though it was hard to +imagine any use they were likely to have for them. +</P> + +<P> +"Look here, Pete," said Jack, when they had changed their clothes and +were ready to start back to the factory, "if we go in the way we came +out they'll see us, and they're likely to watch for us to come out +again. That wouldn't be much use, so I think we'd better try to get +back without being seen." +</P> + +<P> +"How can we do that, Jack?" +</P> + +<P> +"I know a good way. We'll go down to the freight yard and find a car +that is going to be shunted onto the private track. There's a car-load +of wagon wheels due to-day, I know, and the chances are that we can +find that and hide in it. The men at the freight yard would never +know, and when we got inside we could get out and the strikers wouldn't +know we were inside at all." +</P> + +<P> +"That's a fine idea, Jack. We'll do that. Say, that'll be a great +joke on Ed Willis and those other toughs he's got on his side, won't +it?" +</P> + +<P> +"I'll bet they'll never guess we're inside at all, Pete!" +</P> + +<P> +Both boys knew their way around the freight yards very well indeed. +Both had been sent there a good many times by Mr. Carew to look up +delayed shipments, that were needed in the factory, and, as a +consequence, the men at work in the yards, knowing that they worked in +the factory, were not suspicious when Jack began asking about the wagon +wheels. They found the car with little difficulty, and, once they had +discovered that it was to be shunted into the private spur of track +leading into the factory within an hour or two, they did not hesitate +to get inside and hide themselves in one dark corner of the car. +</P> + +<P> +There was plenty of room for them, and they crouched behind a case of +wheels, and told one another stories. It was good fun, they thought, +and they only wished that it was time for their ride to begin. +</P> + +<P> +"Listen!" whispered Pete, suddenly. "That sounds like someone fumbling +for the catch of the car door, Jack." +</P> + +<P> +It was dark in the car, and suddenly, there was a stream of light as +the door was pushed cautiously open. +</P> + +<P> +"Right, oh, Ed," said a hoarse voice, trying to be quiet. "We can +shove the stuff right in here. Then, about midnight, we can get in and +let it off. They'll never open this car up tonight, and they won't +know the stuff's in here." +</P> + +<P> +"Not unless it goes off as she bumps over the frogs going into the +spur," said Big Ed Willis, chuckling. "But if she lets go then +there'll be a pretty big explosion, just the same. May leave a bit of +the factory standing, but it'll take them a long time to make repairs. +It would blow Number Four shop and this car to smithereens, anyhow." +</P> + +<P> +Horrified, but unable to make a move, the two Scouts saw three heavy +boxes being loaded gingerly onto the car and hidden under some sacking. +</P> + +<P> +"There!" said Big Ed. "That's a good job, well done! And it looks +mighty neat. No one'd ever guess, just to look at that sacking, that +there was enough dynamite underneath it to blow half the town up if it +was set properly." +</P> + +<P> +Scarcely had the two men closed the door when the Scouts made a +simultaneous leap for it. But, as they moved, they felt the bump of +the freight engine against the car and a moment later it began to move. +It was too late for them to get off, and they could only sit and watch +that pile of sacking, with its deadly secret beneath it, wondering if +every moment was not to be their last. Every time the car jolted over +a frog in the rail they jumped, wondering why the deadly stuff did not +explode, and Jack was not ashamed to admit afterward that he was sick +with fear during the whole terrible ride. But it ended at last, with +the dynamite still safe and undisturbed, and they breathed great sighs +of relief as they realized that the first and probably the worst of +their perils was really over. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Simms was incredulous when they reached him and told him of what +they had discovered, but the dynamite was a witness not to be +discredited, and he had to believe when he saw that. With the utmost +care it was removed and placed in water, and then they began to make +fresh plans. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap15"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XV +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE DYNAMITERS +</H3> + +<P> +"Well," said Mr. Simms, "that is a providential discovery, certainly! +If they had been allowed to reach that car of dynamite and set off all +that stuff there would have been precious little left of us or the +factories tomorrow morning. Now the question is what to do to prevent +them from doing anything else?" +</P> + +<P> +"I think we'd better leave the car just as it is, and even fix +something under that sacking to look like the dynamite," said Jack. +"If they get to it at all they will be in a terrible hurry, certainly, +and they won't stop to look to see if it's the right stuff. Then, if +we are watching them we can catch them red-handed, and it will be just +the ones that are making all the trouble that will be caught. Big Ed +Willis and his gang are perfectly willing to sneak up in the night and +set some dynamite to blow up innocent people, but they'll leave others +to bear the brunt of their crimes, every time." +</P> + +<P> +"That's a good idea," said Carew. "I think we'd better fix that up +right away, Mr. Simms. Now, how about you, boys? Do you think you can +keep a sharp enough lookout to be able to spot those fellows when they +come in?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, sir, I do! They'll be careful to dodge the places that would +ordinarily be watched. I think they'll try to come in by the fence +near the railroad spur. They'll know that the main gates would be +closely guarded, and the spur itself. But the fence near the spur is +easy to climb, and I think that's where they'll try to get in." +</P> + +<P> +"And I'll tell you how to catch, them, too, Mr. Carew," said Pete +Stubbs. "They'll have to get inside the car to fix that dynamite, you +know, and get it ready to set off, and if Jack and I are right behind +them, I don't see why we can't lock them inside the car. Then, if the +gate is open, we can start the car rolling down the grade, and it will +run right outside of the yard and down toward the freight yard. If we +really catch them we'll have plenty of time to give the alarm, and they +can be taken right out of the car. If they made a racket here they +might make trouble." +</P> + +<P> +"That's so," said Jack. "I think Pete's got the right idea, Mr. Carew. +You see, those strikers, if they have an inkling of what's going to +happen, are likely to be pretty close by, watching for the chance to +rush in after the explosion, if I know anything about the way Big Ed +manages things." +</P> + +<P> +"You mean they might make an attempt at a rescue?" +</P> + +<P> +"That's just the danger I should guess, sir. Big Ed and his precious +friends probably plan to set a time fuse, and then disappear, and get +as far as possible away before the explosion, so that they can have +witnesses to prove that they were a long way off when the explosion +took place." +</P> + +<P> +They spent the afternoon not in sleep, as Jack and Pete had planned to +do, but in going all over the ground outside the shops of the big +factory, trying to determine the places most likely to be selected by +Willis and his gang in their effort to reach the dynamite. Then, when +they were satisfied that they had inspected the whole place, and that +they could find their way even if they were blindfolded, Jack and Pete +rested. +</P> + +<P> +After supper Mr. Simms insisted that they should have some sleep. He +told them they would have a hard night's work ahead of them, and that, +as there was no telling at what time the attempt to reach the dynamite +would be made, they must guard against the danger of getting sleepy. +</P> + +<P> +"We're still depending a good deal on you two," he said, "although you +have, of course, already made the complete success of this plot +impossible. But if they got to that car without being seen, and +discovered that their dynamite had been taken away, they might still +make an effort to set the whole place on fire, and, if they succeeded +in that, and had a mob outside to hamper the firemen, there might be +terrible damage, that would cripple the company for a long time." +</P> + +<P> +It was about ten o'clock when Pete and Jack, in their Scout uniforms, +hard to detect at any distance, even in broad daylight, and making them +almost invisible at night, took up their vigil. The place seemed to be +as silent and deserted as a tomb. Lights were few and far between, but +each of them carried an electric torch supplied by Mr. Carew. These +they did not intend to use except in an emergency, since to use them +would mean betraying their position to the enemy, and it was their +chief opportunity to succeed that they were not known to Willis and the +others to be in the place at all. The strikers would be on the lookout +for regular watchmen, not for keen-eyed boys. +</P> + +<P> +There was a high wall around the greater portion of the grounds, topped +with broken glass, so that the place was really well fortified against +the attack of a mob. But the danger tonight was even greater than it +would have been from a mob, more insidious, and harder to guard against. +</P> + +<P> +The two Scouts, to make sure, if that were possible, that there should +be no surprise, agreed to patrol the whole wall, and thus have the best +possible chance of seeing anyone who tried to climb over. They could +do this, meeting in the center of the trip, and leaving no spot +unwatched for more than two or three minutes. +</P> + +<P> +"If I hear anyone, Pete, or see anything wrong," said Jack, "I'll give +the Patrol call—the cry of a crow." +</P> + +<P> +"Sure! I'll understand, if I hear it, and I'll give the same call if +I'm the one that sees something." +</P> + +<P> +"Right! If we hear that call the one who hears it will stop patrolling +at once and go for the sound." +</P> + +<P> +"They can't see us if we keep in the shadow, can they, Jack?" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't believe so, Pete. It is a pretty heavy shadow, and anyone +coming over the wall is likely to have his eyes more or less dazzled by +the arc lights on the other side." +</P> + +<P> +"Don't call unless you have to, Pete. Remember that they're not fools, +these fellows, and they're apt to know that such a call means danger, +even if they don't know who's here. We don't want just to scare them +off—they might come back if we did that. We want to catch the +ring-leaders." +</P> + +<P> +They started from the railroad spur, so they would meet there each time +as they completed a round of the walls, since that was where they felt +the enemy was most likely to appear. +</P> + +<P> +"Sleepy, Pete?" asked Jack, when they had been at it nearly an hour. +</P> + +<P> +"I would be, I think, if I wasn't walking around, Jack. That's fine, +though. It helps to keep me awake." +</P> + +<P> +"Same here! I've heard of being so tired that you can go to sleep +standing up, or even when you're walking about, but it doesn't seem +possible to me." +</P> + +<P> +For a long time they kept up the patrol. All sorts of strange noises +startled them, but, with their training as Boy Scouts, which had +accustomed them to the night noises of the woods, and to keeping their +heads, they did not give the alarm. At last, however, after Jack had +met Pete and passed on, he heard the sound of a crow's call. +</P> + +<P> +Gently and silently he slipped back. As he came near the spur he saw +two dark figures climbing over the wall. And a moment later Pete, +moving with the stealth of an Indian, touched his hand. +</P> + +<P> +"I guess they're here, Jack," he whispered, tense with excitement and +delighted that the long vigil was over at last. +</P> + +<P> +Big Ed Willis was easy to recognize. The other man was a stranger to +them, and, since both wore handkerchiefs over the upper part of their +faces, it was impossible to tell what he looked like. +</P> + +<P> +The strikers, full of their murderous intention, moved quietly and +cautiously along toward the car, which stood by itself. It was on a +sharp grade, but a billet of wood held it in place. The two Scouts, +hardly daring to breathe, lest they be heard, followed the men not more +than twenty paces behind them. They wore moccasins instead of their +stout Scout shoes, so that their movements were without noise, and they +could see and hear everything the two men did. +</P> + +<P> +"We'll both have to get in the car," they heard Big Ed whisper. "The +stuff's heavy, and we want to fix the fuses in there, so that we'll +have less time to spend out in the open, where someone might see us." +</P> + +<P> +"Right!" said the other man. "Come on, then!" +</P> + +<P> +"As soon as they get inside, Pete," whispered Jack, now, with a little +thrill of exultation at the way the strikers were walking into the trap +set for them, "kick that bit of wood that holds the car out of the way. +I don't believe it will start moving right away. Then rush around and +help me with the door, if I need you." +</P> + +<P> +"All right, Jack! Be ready to slam it shut as soon as you hear me +coming, will you?" +</P> + +<P> +In a moment, as Jack crouched outside the door, with the heavy hasp in +his hand, he heard the slight jar that showed that Pete had done his +part. At once he slid the door close, and pushed the hasp in. With +Pete to help him, they had it securely locked in a moment, so that no +one inside could hope to get out. Then, while a yell of rage and +surprise, mingled with terror, came from inside the car, the two boys +leaned all their weight against it. So slight was the resistance it +could offer, owing to the grade, that it started to roll at once. +</P> + +<P> +"Come on, Pete," cried Jack. "Get aboard the car—swing up the way the +brakemen do." +</P> + +<P> +Yelling in triumph, to let Carew and the others know that they had +succeeded, the two Scouts leaped to the top of the car. A man had been +stationed in a nearby building, and, as he saw the car begin to move, +he leaped to the gates and opened them. Then he swung aboard and +joined the two boys on the top of the car. +</P> + +<P> +Carew had telephoned to the freight yard as soon as he knew the men +were locked in the car, and by the time it rolled into the freight yard +and came to a stop on the level section of track there a score of men +stood ready to capture the strikers as they emerged. The regular +police were not on hand, but Captain Haskin, and some of his railroad +detectives, well armed, were ready and waiting, and they were so strong +that there was no chance for Ed Willis and his chum to make a +successful rush. +</P> + +<P> +"Surrender, you two!" cried Haskin, as the door was opened. "Don't +attempt to escape or make any trouble, or you'll be riddled with +bullets. We've got you covered!" +</P> + +<P> +"Don't shoot, boss! We'll come down!" +</P> + +<P> +Big Ed Willis, all the bluff stripped from him, so that his real +cowardice was exposed, was the speaker. His tone trembled and terror +filled him. He crawled out abjectly, and held up his hands for the +handcuffs which Haskin at once fitted on. +</P> + +<P> +"You're a fine sort of a low hound!" exclaimed the other. "I thought +you were a man, Willis, when you proposed this game. I'd never have +gone in with you if I'd thought you were going to quit cold this way." +</P> + +<P> +But he saw that he could do nothing, single-handed, against such a show +of force as Haskin and his men made, and he, too, came out of the car +and surrendered. Haskin whipped the handkerchief from his face, and +Jack, with a cry of surprise, saw that he knew him. It was Silas +Broom—the man of the burning launch. +</P> + +<P> +"That's Broom, Captain Haskin—the man that escaped!" +</P> + +<P> +"I thought so," said Haskin, grimly. "He has some other names, but +that will do for the present. You see it didn't do you any good to +have that film destroyed, Broom!" +</P> + +<P> +"I didn't do that," cried Broom. "So help me, I didn't!" +</P> + +<P> +"I never said you did, did I?" asked Haskin, with a smile that wasn't +pleasant to see. "Better wait until you're accused of a crime next +time before you're so ready to deny it. The cap seemed to fit you when +I threw it." +</P> + +<P> +Broom, snarling, turned on Jack then. +</P> + +<P> +"It's you, is it, you young whelp?" he gritted. "I might have guessed +it. It's a pity I didn't smash your brains out the other day when I +had you in my power. You're the one that's been in the way every time +we've turned a trick for the last two weeks. But we'll get you yet—be +sure of that!" +</P> + +<P> +"Never mind him, Jack," said Pete. "He talks mighty big, but he can't +do anything to you. Every time they've tried it, they've got into +pretty serious trouble. I guess they'll learn to let you alone before +long. If they don't, they'll all be in jail anyhow, won't they, +Captain Haskin?" +</P> + +<P> +"It looks that way, my boy," said the detective. "Take these fellows +off, men. Turn them over to the police at headquarters. Tell them +that Mr. Simms and the railroad will both make a complaint. The +federal marshal will be after them, too, for trying to transport +dynamite on a railroad car. That's a very serious offense nowadays, +under the Interstate Commerce Law." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap16"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XVI +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +OFF ON A LONG HIKE +</H3> + +<P> +Jack and Pete, with a week's vacation on their hands, were puzzled as +to what they should do. But Dick Crawford, anxious to get Jack away +from the city for a time, until things should blow over, suggested a +plan. +</P> + +<P> +"I heard from Jim Burroughs the other day," he said. "You remember +Jim, the fellow that is engaged to Miss Benton, up at Eagle Lake?" +</P> + +<P> +"Sure—she's Chris Benton's sister," said Pete Stubbs. +</P> + +<P> +Dick smiled. +</P> + +<P> +"You'll get over thinking about girls as some fellows' sisters when you +get a little older, Pete," he said. "Then you'll remember that the +fellows you know are girls' brothers. Anyhow, Jim says they're all up +in camp there again, and they were asking me if some of the Scouts +couldn't go up there to see them. Why don't you make a long hike and +go up there? You could tramp it in two days, easily enough, and the +weather's just right for a hike like that." +</P> + +<P> +"Say, I think that would be fine!" cried Pete. "Let's do it, Jack, +shall we?" +</P> + +<P> +"I'd like to, if I thought we wouldn't be in the way," said Jack, his +eyes lighting. +</P> + +<P> +"You won't be in the way," said Dick. "I know they'd be glad to see +you. Come on over to Scout headquarters and we'll see what we've got +in the way of equipment for your hike." +</P> + +<P> +At headquarters they found everything they needed. They made up a +couple of packs for each them to carry, with a frying-pan, a coffee +pot, and the other cooking utensils necessary for their two days in the +open, since they would cook their own meals and travel exactly as if +they were in a hostile country, where they could expect no aid from +those whose houses they passed. +</P> + +<P> +"Let's take sleeping bags instead of a tent," said Jack. "I think it's +much better fun to sleep that way. The weather seems likely to be +good, and, anyhow, if it gets very bad, we can find some sort of +shelter. They're a lot easier to carry, too." +</P> + +<P> +Scout-Master Durland, when he heard of the plan, approved it heartily. +</P> + +<P> +They planned to ride for the first twenty miles of their journey by +trolley, since that would take them out into the real country and +beyond the suburbs, where there were many paved streets, which were +anything but ideal for tramping. +</P> + +<P> +"Now we're really off, Jack," cried Pete, as they stepped off the car +the next morning. They had taken the car on its first trip, and it was +but little after seven o'clock when they finally reached the open road +and started off at a good round pace. +</P> + +<P> +"It's fine to travel on a regular schedule," said Pete. "Now we don't +have to hurry. We know just when we ought to reach every place we're +coming to, and how long we can stay. That's much better than just +going off for a long walk." +</P> + +<P> +"Sure it is! It's systematic, and it pays just as well to be +systematic when you're starting out to have a good time as it does when +you're at work. I've found that out." +</P> + +<P> +"I never used to think so. When I first went to work I hated having to +do everything according to rules. But now I know that it's the only +way to get things done on time. The work's been much easier at the +office since we began doing everything that way." +</P> + +<P> +"Look at our Scout camps, Pete. If we didn't do things according to a +system we'd never get through with the work. As it is, we all know +just what to do, and just how to do it. So it takes only about half as +long to cook meals and clean up after them, and we have lots more time +for games and trailing and swimming and things like that. It surely +does pay." +</P> + +<P> +"Gee, I hope it doesn't rain, Jack. It would be too bad if we had to +run into a storm after having good weather all this time when we were +at work." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't believe it's going to rain. But it ought to, really, and it +seems selfish to wish for dry weather when the country needs rain so +badly." +</P> + +<P> +"It's been a mighty dry summer, hasn't it, Jack?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. These fires in the forests around here show that. They started +much earlier than they usually do. As a rule October is the time for +the worst fires." +</P> + +<P> +"They seem to be pretty well out around here, though." +</P> + +<P> +"That's because there are so many people to keep them under. But up in +the big woods, where we're going, they're likely to have bad ones, when +they start. You see a fire can get going pretty well up there before +anyone discovers it, and then it's the hardest sort of work to stop it +before it's done an awful lot of damage." +</P> + +<P> +"How do those fires in the woods start, Jack?" +</P> + +<P> +"That's pretty hard to say, Pete. Careless campers start a whole lot +of them. They build fires, and just leave them going when they get +through. Then the sparks begin to fly, and the fire spreads." +</P> + +<P> +"They ought to be arrested!" +</P> + +<P> +"They are, if anyone can prove that they really did start the fire. +But that's pretty hard to do." +</P> + +<P> +"Don't the fires start other ways, too?" +</P> + +<P> +"You bet they do! Sometimes the sparks from an engine will set the dry +leaves on the ground on fire, and, if there happens to be a wind, that +will start the biggest sort of a fire." +</P> + +<P> +"Isn't there any way to prevent that?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes—but it's expensive and difficult. But gradually they're giving +up the coal engines in the woods, and use oil burners instead. There +are no sparks and hot cinders to drop from an oil burning engine, you +see, and it makes it much safer and cleaner, as well." +</P> + +<P> +"How about when a fire just starts? That happens sometimes, doesn't +it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, and that's the hardest sort of a fire of all to control or to +find. Sometimes, when the leaves and branches get all wet, they will +get terribly hot when the sun blazes down on them. Then, because +they're wet, some sort of a gas develops, and the fire starts with what +they call spontaneous combustion." +</P> + +<P> +"They have a fire patrol in some places, don't they?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, and they ought to have one wherever there are woods. Out west +the government forest service keeps men who do nothing all day long but +keep on the lookout for fires. Up on the high peaks they have signal +stations, with semaphores and telephone wires, and men with telescopes +who look out all day long for the first sign of smoke." +</P> + +<P> +"I think that must be a great life. They call them forest rangers, +don't they?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. And it is a great job. Those fellows have to know all the +different trees by sight. They have to be able to plant new trees, and +cut down others when the trees need to be thinned out. Forestry is a +science now, and they're teaching it in the colleges. An awful lot of +our forests have been wasted altogether." +</P> + +<P> +"They'll grow again, won't they, Jack?" +</P> + +<P> +"Y-e-s. They will if the work is done properly. But you see those +great big mills, that use up thousands of feet of timber every +season—even millions—don't stop to cut with an idea of reforestation. +They just chop and chop and chop, and when they've cut all the timber +they can, they move on to another section, where they start in and do +it all over again. I'm working to get a Conservation badge, you know. +That's how I've happened to read about all these things." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm going to try to get a Conservation badge, too, Jack. I can start +working for it as soon as I'm a First-Class Scout, can't I?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. And this hike will be one of your tests for your First-Class +badge, too. You're only supposed to have to go seven miles, and we'll +make a whole lot more than that. How about your other qualifications? +Coming along all right with them?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, indeed. I think I can qualify in a couple of weeks." +</P> + +<P> +"That's fine, Pete! You know I enlisted you, and a Scout is judged +partly by the sort of recruits he brings into the Troop. They'll never +have a chance to blame me for enlisting you if you keep on the way +you've begun." +</P> + +<P> +They were going along at a good pace all this time, not too fast, but +swinging steadily along. The road did not seem long, because their +hard, young bodies were used to exercise, and they took the walking as +a matter of course. +</P> + +<P> +"They'll be expecting us up at the Bentons, won't they, Jack?" +</P> + +<P> +"Dick Crawford said he would write and let Jim Burroughs know we were +coming, Pete. So I guess they'll be on the lookout all right." +</P> + +<P> +"Do you remember the night we got to the lake, and Jim Burroughs and +Miss Benton were lost in the woods?" +</P> + +<P> +"I certainly do! They would have had a bad night of it if we hadn't +found them, I'm afraid. But all's well that ends well. It didn't hurt +them at all, as it turned out, and I guess it taught them both to be +more careful about going out in woods when they weren't sure of the +trail." +</P> + +<P> +"Gee, Jack, I could have got lost myself then. I didn't know how to +travel by the stars, and I wasn't any too sure how to use a compass." +</P> + +<P> +They had traveled more than half the distance when they picked out a +sleeping place that night. They went to a farmer's house, and when he +found that all they wanted was permission to camp in his wood lot, and +to make a fire there, he told them they could do as they liked. He +invited them to spend the night in the house, too, but they told him +they preferred to sleep out-of-doors, and, laughing at them, he +consented. +</P> + +<P> +They were off at five in the morning, and at noon, when they built a +fire and cooked their dinner, they could see the wooded crests of the +hills that were their destination rising before them. +</P> + +<P> +"Look at that haze, Jack," said Pete. "That isn't a storm, is it, +coming along?" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't think so, Pete. I don't like the looks of it. It looks to me +more like smoke, from a woods fire. I've been thinking I smelled smoke +for some time, too." +</P> + +<P> +"Could you smell it as far as this?" +</P> + +<P> +"Smoke from a big forest fire sometimes travels for two or three +hundred miles, if the wind's right, Pete. In the city, even, in the +fall, there will be smoky days, though there isn't a forest fire of any +sort for a good many miles." +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose that's because the wood smoke is so thick." +</P> + +<P> +The further they traveled, the thicker grew the smoke. There could no +longer be any mistake about it. The woods in front of them were well +alight. +</P> + +<P> +"I only hope the fire doesn't reach Eagle Lake," said Jack. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap17"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XVI +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +A TIMELY WARNING +</H3> + +<P> +It was nearly dark when they finally arrived at the lake. Chris Benton +and Jim Burroughs were waiting for them at the landing with a couple of +canoes, and they were soon skimming over the placid waters of the lake +to the Benton camp. +</P> + +<P> +"This smoke's pretty thick here," said Jack. +</P> + +<P> +"The woods are on fire all around us," said Chris. +</P> + +<P> +"That's the trouble," said Jim Burroughs. "The summer's been mighty +dry. See how low the lake is. A lot of the streams around here have +dried up. This lake is partly spring fed, and it doesn't depend +altogether on the little brooks that flow into it. Otherwise I'm +afraid this wouldn't be much of a place just now." +</P> + +<P> +"Is there any danger of the fire coming this way, Jim?" asked Jack. +</P> + +<P> +"Not a bit, Jack. The wind's the other way, and if it shifts it's +certain to bring rain with it and put the fire out, anyhow. It would +take a good, strong, east wind to blow the fire over this way, and that +would mean a regular rain storm, sure. So we're safe enough here. +Fires never have reached Eagle Lake." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm glad of that. It would be a shame to have any fire here. It +might burn up the camps, you know, and that would be a pity." +</P> + +<P> +"It sure would! But I guess we're safe enough here. The guides all +say so, and they ought to know, certainly. They've lived in the woods +most of their lives, from what they say, and they don't seem to think +that there's any danger at all." +</P> + +<P> +"They certainly ought to know," agreed Jack. "They know more than we +do, anyhow. That's a sure thing." +</P> + +<P> +The two Scouts were pretty well tired out from their long hike, and +they enjoyed their comfortable beds that night. It was warm, and even +though the air was full of smoke, it was strong and bracing. So they +awoke in the morning refreshed and full of life, and, when Chris hailed +them, they joined him with a will in a plunge into the chilly water of +the lake. +</P> + +<P> +"How far away is the fire, Jim?" Jack asked, after breakfast. +</P> + +<P> +"Two or three miles to the west, I guess," said Jim, carelessly. "It +won't come any nearer, either, Jack." +</P> + +<P> +"I think I'll go take a look at it," said Jack. "Coming, Pete and +Chris?" +</P> + +<P> +"Sure we are!" they cried. +</P> + +<P> +Their eyes smarted, and their throats were parched as they made their +way toward the burning timber, but they didn't mind such small +discomforts, and soon Jack had a chance to see a real woods fire +burning at its height. +</P> + +<P> +"This is the real thing, Pete," he said, when they got a good look at +the fire from the ridge where they had found Bess Benton on the first +night they had been at Eagle Lake, some weeks earlier. +</P> + +<P> +"Gee," said Pete, "I thought that fire we helped to stop near the city +was big enough, but this beats it all hollow, doesn't it, Jack?" +</P> + +<P> +"Come on!" said Jack, with sudden determination. "This isn't safe, no +matter what the guides say. If the wind changes this fire would sweep +right down to the edge of the lake. A little rain wouldn't make any +impression on it at all." +</P> + +<P> +Jack, once his mind was made up, wasn't afraid of ridicule or anything +else. He went back to camp, and sought out Mr. Benton. +</P> + +<P> +"I think that fire's mighty dangerous, Mr. Benton," he said. "I know +the guides say you're perfectly safe here, but I've lived in a place +where they had big woods fires nearly every year, and this is the +biggest fire I ever saw. It would take a week's soaking rain to stop +it, and if the wind turns to the east, even if it does bring some rain, +it will turn that fire straight for the lake here, and burn up +everything it meets on the way." +</P> + +<P> +"What would you advise, Jack?" asked Mr. Benton. There was a twinkle +in his eye, for he thought the guides knew more than Jack, but he +wanted to humor the Scout, who stood very high in his estimation. +</P> + +<P> +"I'd dig a deep, broad ditch, and fill it with water. I'd make it at +least five feet deep, and ten or twelve feet broad, Mr. Benton. That +would give us a chance to keep the fire from reaching the buildings +here. There's still some water in that brook that runs down from the +ridge, though there won't be very long, and you could divert that into +the ditch, and then dam the ditch at the lake, so that you'd have quite +a little pond behind the houses on the side nearest the fire. If you +could get half a dozen men they could dig a ditch like that, roughly, +in a day. And I'd certainly do it, sir!" +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Benton was impressed, despite himself, by Jack's earnestness. His +camp had cost him nearly ten thousand dollars, and practically nothing +would survive the fire if it should sweep over it. So, after a little +thought, and not heeding the laughter of Jim Burroughs and the guides, +he decided to take Jack's advice. +</P> + +<P> +The guides, pressed into service for the digging of the ditch, thought +that the task was foolish. They grumbled at having to do it, but they +had no choice but to obey, once Mr. Benton had given the order. And +before they were half done, the wind, which had died away completely, +began to come again in short puffs from the east. +</P> + +<P> +"That means rain," said Jim. "Jack, you young rascal, I believe you +started this scare just to see us all work!" +</P> + +<P> +"I've known the wind to blow from the northeast for a whole day before +the rain came," said Jack, "especially at this time of the year." +</P> + +<P> +The fire was a mile nearer the camp when the ditch was finished. It +wasn't much of a ditch, and it wouldn't last very long, but looking it +over, Jack decided that it was much better than nothing. And it held +the water, at least, which was the most important thing. +</P> + +<P> +As the wind continued to come from the east, without a sign of the +hoped for rain, Mr. Benton looked very grave. +</P> + +<P> +"I think you've saved us from a real disaster by your insistence, +Jack," he said. "I'm certainly glad that we took your advice." +</P> + +<P> +The roaring of the fire could be plainly heard now. The smoke was so +thick that all of them went around with wet cloths tied over their +mouths, and smoked glasses to protect their eyes. Even the guides +looked serious, and seemed to have a new and greater respect for Jack +Danby and the precaution he had forced them to take. +</P> + +<P> +"Never saw nothin' like this," said one of them. "Never in all the +years I've been in the woods. The youngster sure do know a fire when +he sees it." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm sorry I laughed at you, Jack, old man," said Jim Burroughs, +choking as he spoke. "You certainly had the right dope on this fire. +Gosh, listen to it roaring back there!" +</P> + +<P> +The ditch was in the form of a rough half circle, and went completely +around the Benton clearing. It was dug so that the brook from the +ridge ran into it and filled it, and a space of a foot or so was left +untouched at each end of it where it reached the lake. This made a +natural dam, and held the water in, so that, as the brook continued to +flow in, a small pond was formed behind the clearing, just as Dick had +suggested. That made a wide space for the fire to leap, and Jack felt +that, even if the fire swept completely around his ditch, the men in +the clearing, by constant vigilance, would be able to beat out any +sparks and flying embers that might otherwise have set fire to the +buildings. But, as a further precaution, the boats of the camp, with +water and provisions, were kept ready, so that the family might take to +the lake if the need arose. +</P> + +<P> +"Gee," said Pete, suddenly after nightfall, "we forgot the stuff at +Camp Simms, Jack!" +</P> + +<P> +"So we did!" cried Jack. "Well, there's time enough yet. The fire +will burn right over the camp site there, but it's better cleared than +this, and there won't be much damage if we take the stuff from the +shack and bring it all over here. We can't save the shack, but that +can be built up again in a hurry after the fire's all over. Come on!" +</P> + +<P> +They told the others what they planned to do, and Jim Burroughs +volunteered to go with them and help them. In an hour they had brought +everything portable from Camp Simms to the Benton camp, which was not +very far away, and then they felt that they had taken every possible +precaution. There was nothing more to do after that but wait on the +fire. It could not be hurried, and, so great had it become, it could +not be delayed or checked by any human agency. +</P> + +<P> +There was no question in the mind of any of them now of the wisdom of +Jack's fears. Had it not been for the ditch, they admitted, they could +not have done anything to save the camp. +</P> + +<P> +"There'll be no sleep for any of us to-night," said Mr. Benton. "We'll +have to be ready when it gets near enough to keep it from jumping the +ditch and the pond. There's nothing else to stop it, certainly." +</P> + +<P> +The guides were on watch, beyond the water, like pickets, and before +long they were driven in by the advancing fire. The heat was terrific, +and, under Mr. Benton's direction, lines of hose were laid to the lake, +and with the windmill that pumped fresh water to give pressure, the +hose was played constantly on the roofs and walls of the buildings of +the camp, to make it harder for flying sparks to set them afire. +</P> + +<P> +There was plenty of hose, and as the fire advanced Jack was thankful +for that. Water was better than branches and sticks for beating out +any fire that leaped the water wall, and the hose was easier to handle, +too. +</P> + +<P> +Soon after eleven great drops of water began to fall, and then there +was a steady downpour of rain. +</P> + +<P> +"There's your rain, at last, Jim," said Jack. "You can see how much +effect it has. It's like pouring water from a flower pot down a +volcano and hoping to put it out. The fire doesn't even know it's +raining!" +</P> + +<P> +"I guess you're right, Jack," said Jim. "Don't rub it in, though. +I'll admit that you saved the situation by making us do what you +wanted." +</P> + +<P> +Now began the real fight with the fire. Roaring, bellowing, furious in +its onslaught, it swept all about the ditch that held it from its prey. +It seemed maddened with rage at the obstacle that man had opposed to +its conquering rush, and, raging, it flung sparks and flaming embers at +the defenders of the camp. +</P> + +<P> +For two hours they worked, looking, through the light of the lurid +flames, like fiends. Their faces were blackened by the smoke, but they +never ceased their efforts. Buckets of water were placed all about the +clearing, and into these they plunged the cloths that they kept over +their faces. Other buckets of barley water, with dippers, were also +there, and when there was a chance for a moment's pause, they drank +deep draughts of the most cooling and refreshing drink that man has yet +devised. Barley water with a little lemon juice did more to moisten +parched throats and mouths than the most elaborate drink could have +done. It was food and drink alike. +</P> + +<P> +The rain came down to help them all this time, pouring a great volume +of water on the fire. And, after about two hours of fighting, the fire +was beaten. It had burned over the whole section near the camp. The +lake stopped it, and the fire, growling and angry, died away because +there was nothing else for it to burn. But the vigil lasted all night. +</P> + +<P> +Morning saw Camp Benton standing like an oasis in a desert of blackened +trees and stumps. The whole side of the lake was a wilderness. But +the camp, thanks to the Boy Scout fire fighters, was saved. +</P> + +<P> +"You're certainly welcome guests!" said Mr. Benton. "Thanks to you, we +still have the camp. The trees will grow again. And now I think we +can all go to sleep for about twenty-four hours." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap18"></A> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +<I>THE BRADEN BOOKS</I> +</H4> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +FAR PAST THE FRONTIER. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +By JAMES A. BRADEN +</H3> + +<P> +The sub-title "Two Boy Pioneers" indicates the nature of this +story—that it has to do with the days when the Ohio Valley and the +Northwest country were sparsely settled. Such a topic is an unfailing +fund of interest to boys, especially when involving a couple of +stalwart young men who leave the East to make their fortunes and to +incur untold dangers. +</P> + +<P> +"Strong, vigorous, healthy, manly."—<I>Seattle Times</I>. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CONNECTICUT BOYS IN THE WESTERN RESERVE +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +By JAMES A. BRADEN +</H3> + +<P> +The author once more sends his heroes toward the setting sun. "In all +the glowing enthusiasm of youth, the youngsters seek their fortunes in +the great, fertile wilderness of northern Ohio, and eventually achieve +fair success, though their progress is hindered and sometimes halted by +adventures innumerable. It is a lively, wholesome tale, never dull, +and absorbing in interest for boys who love the fabled life of the +frontier."—Chicago Tribune. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE TRAIL OF THE SENECA +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +By JAMES A. BRADEN +</H3> + +<P> +In which we follow the romantic careers of John Jerome and Return +Kingdom a little farther. +</P> + +<P> +These two self-reliant boys are living peaceably in their cabin on the +Cuyahoga when an Indian warrior is found dead in the woods nearby. The +Seneca accuses John of witchcraft. This means death at the stake if he +is captured. They decide that the Seneca's charge is made to shield +himself, and set out to prove it. Mad Anthony, then on the Ohio, comes +to their aid, but all their efforts prove futile and the lone cabin is +found in ashes on their return. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CAPTIVES THREE +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +By JAMES A. BRADEN +</H3> + +<P> +A tale of frontier life, and how three children—two boys and a +girl—attempt to reach the settlements in a canoe, but are captured by +the Indians. A common enough occurrence in the days of our +great-grandfathers has been woven into a thrilling story. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +The Saalfield Publishing Co,<BR> +AKRON, OHIO<BR> +</H3> + +<BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE BOY SCOUT SERIES<BR> +</H3> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +1 THE BOY SCOUTS IN CAMP<BR> +2 THE BOY SCOUTS TO THE RESCUE<BR> +3 THE BOY SCOUTS ON THE TRAIL<BR> +4 THE BOY SCOUT FIRE-FIGHTERS<BR> +5 THE BOY SCOUTS AFLOAT<BR> +6 THE BOY SCOUT PATHFINDERS<BR> +7 THE BOY SCOUT AUTOMOBILISTS<BR> +8 THE BOY SCOUT AVIATORS<BR> +9 THE BOY SCOUTS' CHAMPION RECRUIT<BR> +10 THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE<BR> +11 THE BOY SCOUTS' CHALLENGE<BR> +12 THE BOY SCOUTS' VICTORY<BR> +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR><BR> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Boy Scout Fire Fighters, by Robert Maitland + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BOY SCOUT FIRE FIGHTERS *** + +***** This file should be named 26875-h.htm or 26875-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/6/8/7/26875/ + +Produced by Al Haines + +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. 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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: + + https://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/26875-h/images/img-cover.jpg b/26875-h/images/img-cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d488841 --- /dev/null +++ b/26875-h/images/img-cover.jpg diff --git a/26875.txt b/26875.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5f6cea7 --- /dev/null +++ b/26875.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4852 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Boy Scout Fire Fighters, by Robert Maitland + +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 Fire Fighters + or Jack Danby's Bravest Deed + +Author: Robert Maitland + +Release Date: November 24, 2008 [EBook #26875] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BOY SCOUT FIRE FIGHTERS *** + + + + +Produced by Al Haines + + + + + + + + + + +[Illustration: Cover art] + + + + + +Boy Scout Series Volume 4 + + + +The Boy Scout Fire Fighters + +OR + +Jack Danby's Bravest Deed + + + +BY + +Major Robert Maitland + + + + +THE SAALFIELD PUBLISHING COMPANY + +CHICAGO ---- AKRON, OHIO ---- NEW YORK + + + + +Copyright, 1912 + +By + +The Saalfield Publishing Co. + + + + +CONTENTS + +Chapter + + I AT THE EDGE OF THE FIRE + II FIGHTING THE FIRE + III WHAT THE SPY SAW + IV THE DOUBLE HEADER + V TOM BINNS' BAD LUCK + VI THE ATTACK ON THE STATION + VII JACK DANBY'S PERIL + VIII THE RESCUE + IX A SWIMMING PARTY + X THE BURNING LAUNCH + XI THE MYSTERY DEEPENS + XII AN UNGRATEFUL PARENT + XIII THE MOVING PICTURES + XIV A FOOLISH STRIKE + XV THE DYNAMITERS + XVI OFF ON A LONG HIKE + XVII A TIMELY WARNING + + + +[Transcriber's notes: + +Two chapters in the source book were misnumbered. Chapters in this +ebook have been renumbered. + +The last numbered page in the source book was page 168, but damage to +the book indicates that a number of pages were missing after that +point. Since the original book did not have a table of contents, it is +unknown what may be missing.] + + + + +The Boy Scout Fire Fighters + + +CHAPTER I + +AT THE EDGE OF THE FIRE + +A pall of smoke, dark, ugly, threatening, hung over a wood in which the +Thirty-ninth Troop of the Boy Scouts had been spending a Saturday +afternoon in camp. They had been hard at work at signal practice, +semaphoring, and acquiring speed in Morse signaling with flags, which +makes wireless unnecessary when there are enough signalers, covering +enough ground. + +The Scout camp was near the edge of the woods. Beyond its site +stretched level fields, sloping gradually upward from them toward a +wooded mountain. The smoke came from the mountain, and in the growing +blackness over the mountain a circular ring proclaimed the spreading +fire. + +"Gee, that looks like some fire, Jack," said Pete Stubbs, a Tenderfoot +Scout, to his chum, Jack Danby, head office-boy in the place where he +and Pete both worked. + +"I'm afraid it is," said Jack, looking anxiously toward it. + +"I never saw one as big as that before," said Pete. "I've heard about +them, but we never had one like that anywhere around here." + +"We used to have pretty bad ones up at Woodleigh," returned Jack. "I +don't like the looks of that fire a bit. It's burning slowly enough +now, but if they don't look out, it'll get away from them and come +sweeping down over the fields here." + +"Say, Jack, that's right, too! I should think they'd want to be more +careful there in the farmhouses. There's some of them pretty close to +the edge of the woods over there." + +Scout-Master Thomas Durland, who was in charge of the Troop, came up to +them just then. + +"Danby," he said, "take your signaling flags, and go over toward that +fire. I want you to examine the situation and report if there seems to +be any danger of the fire spreading to the lowlands and endangering +anything there." + +"Yes, sir," said Jack at once, raising his hand in the Scout salute and +standing at attention as the Scout-Master, the highest officer of the +Troop of Scouts, spoke to him. His hand was at his forehead, three +middle fingers raised, and thumb bent over little finger. + +"Take Scout Stubbs with you," said the Scout-Master. "You may need +help in examining the country over there. I don't know much about it. +What we want to find out is whether the ground is bare, and so likely +to resist the fire, or if it is covered with stubble and short, dry +growth that will burn quickly." + +"Yes, sir!" + +"Look out for water, too. There may be some brooks so small that we +can't see them from here. But I'm afraid not. Every brook around here +seems to be dried up. The drought has been so bad that there is almost +no water left. A great many springs, even, that have never failed in +the memory of the oldest inhabitants, have run dry in the last month or +so. The wind is blowing this way, and the fire seems to be running +over from the other side of Bald Mountain there. From the looks of the +smoke, there must be a lot of fire on the other side." + +No more orders were needed. The two Scouts, hurrying off, went across +the clear space at the Scout pace, fifty steps running, then fifty +steps walking. That is a better pace for fast travelling, except very +short distances, than a steady run, for it can be kept up much longer +without tiring, and Boy Scouts everywhere have learned to use it. + +"Why do they call that Bald Mountain, I wonder?" said Pete, as they +went along. "It isn't bald any more'n I am. There are trees all over +the top." + +"I don't know, Pete. Places get funny names, sometimes, just the same +way that people do. It doesn't make much difference, though, in the +case of a mountain." + +"Nor people, either, Jack," said Pete Stubbs, stoutly. He had noticed +a queer look on his chum's face, and he remembered something that he +always had to be reminded of--the strange mystery of Jack's name. + +He was called Jack Danby, but he himself, and a few of his best +friends, knew, that he had no real right to that name. What his own +real name was was something that was known to only one man, as far as +his knowledge went, and that one a man who was his bitter enemy, and +far more bent on harming him than doing him the favor of clearing up +the mystery of his birth and his strange boyhood at Woodleigh. There +Jack had lived in a cabin in the woods with a quaint old character +called Dan. He had always been known as Jack, and people had spoken of +him as Dan's boy. By an easy corruption that had been transformed into +Danby, and the name had stuck. + +He had come to the city through the very Troop of Boy Scouts to which +he now belonged. They had been in camp near Woodleigh, and Jack had +played various pranks on them before he had struck up a great +friendship with one of them, little Tom Binns, and so had been allowed +by Durland to join the Scouts. More than that, Durland had persuaded +him to come to the city, and had found a job for him, in which Jack had +covered himself with glory, and done credit both himself and Durland, +who had recommended him. + +"Gee, it's getting smoky," said Pete, as they reached the first gentle +rise at the foot of the mountain, though it had seemed to rise abruptly +when viewed from a distance. + +"A woods fire always makes this sort of a thick, choking smoke. +There's a lot of damp stuff that burns with the dry wood. Leaves that +lie on the ground and rot make a good deal of the smoke, and then +there's a lot of moisture in the trees even in the driest weather." + +"Sure there is, Jack! They take all the water there is when the rain +falls and keep it for the dry weather, don't they, like a camel?" + +"That's a funny idea, Pete, comparing a tree to a camel, but I don't +know that it's so bad, at that. It is rather on the same principle, +when you come to think of it." + +Men were working in the fields as they approached the fire. They +seemed indifferent to the danger that Durland feared. One boy not much +older than themselves stared at the carroty head of Pete Stubbs, and +laughed aloud. + +"Hey, Carrots," he cried, "ain't you afraid of settin' yourself on +fire?" + +"You ain't so good lookin' yourself!" Pete flamed back, but Jack put a +hand on his arm. + +"Easy there, Pete!" he said. "We're on Scout duty now. Don't mind +him." + +A little further on they met an older man, who seemed to be the farmer. + +"Aren't you afraid the fire may spread this way?" asked Jack, stopping +to speak to him. + +"Naw! Ain't never come here yet. Reckon it won't now, neither." + +"There always has to be a first time for everything, you know," said +Jack, secretly annoyed at the stolid indifference of the farmer, who +seemed interested in nothing but the tobacco he was chewing. + +"Tain't no consarn of your'n, be it?" asked the farmer, looking at them +as if he had small use for boys who were not working. He forgot that +Pete and Jack, coming from the city, might work almost as hard there +through the week as he did on his farm, without the healthful outdoor +life to lessen the weariness. + +"Sure it ain't!" said Pete, goaded into replying. "We thought maybe +you'd like to know there was a good chance that your place might be +burnt up. If you don't care, we don't. That's a lead pipe cinch!" + +"Come on, Pete," said Jack. "They'll be looking for a signal pretty +soon. If we don't hurry, it'll be too dark for them to see our flags +when we really have something to report." + +The fields nearest the mountain and the fire were full of stubble that +would burn like tinder, as Jack knew. The corn had been cut, and the +dry stalks, that would carry the flames and give them fresh fuel to +feed on, remained. Not far beyond, too, were several great haystacks, +and in other fields the hay had been cut and was piled ready for +carrying into the barns the next day. If the fire, with a good start, +ever did leap across the cleared space from the woods it would be hard, +if not impossible, to prevent it from spreading thus right up to the +outhouses, the barns, and the farmhouses themselves. Moreover, there +was no water here. There were the courses of two little brooks that in +rainy weather had watered the land, but now these were dried up, and +there was no hope of succor from that side. + +As they approached the woods, too, Jack looked gravely at what he saw. +Timber had been cut here the previous winter, and badly and wastefully +cut, too, in a way that was now a serious menace. The stumps, high +above ground, much higher than they should have been, offered fresh +fuel for the fire, dead and dry as they were, and over the ground were +scattered numerous rotting branches that should have been gathered up +and carried in for firewood. + +"Looks bad, doesn't it?" Jack said to Pete. + +"It certainly does," rejoined his companion. "Now we've got to find a +place where we can do the signaling." + +"I see a place," said Jack, "and I think I can reach it pretty easily, +too. See that rock up there, that sticks out from the side of the +mountain? I bet you can see that a long way off. You go on up to +where the fire's burning. Get as near as you can, and see how fast +it's coming. Then work your way back to the rock and tell me what +you've seen." + +"Right, oh!" said Pete. "I'm off, Jack!" + +Though the smoke was thick, now, and oppressive, so that he coughed a +good deal, and his eyes ran and smarted from the acrid smell, Jack made +his way steadfastly toward the rock, which he reached without great +difficulty. He was perhaps a mile from the Scout camp, and there, he +knew, they were looking anxiously for the first flashing of his red and +white flags to announce that he was ready to report. + +He stood out on the rock, and, after a minute of hard waving of his +flags, he caught the answer. Thus communication was established, and +he began to make his report. He had no fear of being misunderstood, +for it was Dick Crawford, the Assistant Scout-Master and his good +friend, who was holding the flags at the other end, and not some novice +who was getting practice in signaling, one of the pieces of Scout lore +in which Jack had speedily become an adept. + +"Bad fire," he wig-wagged back. "Seems to be spreading fast. Ground +very bad. Likely to spread, I think. Fields full of stubble. No +water at all. Brooks and springs all dried up." + +"Mr. Durland says have you warned men working in the fields?" + +"Not yet," was the answer from Jack. "But they think it's all right, +and seem to think we're playing a game." + +Then Jack dropped his flags in token of his desire to stop for a +minute, and turned to Pete Stubbs, who had come up. + +"It's burning mighty fast," said Pete. "The woods are awfully dry up +there. There's no green stuff at all to hold it in check. If those +people on the farm down there don't look out, they'll be in a lot of +trouble." + +Jack sent that information, too, and then came orders from Dick +Crawford. + +"Return to camp," the Assistant Scout-Master flashed. "Warn farmer and +men of danger. Suggest a back fire in their fields, to give clear +space fire cannot jump. Then report, verbally, result of warning." + +The warning was a waste of breath and effort. + +"Think you can learn me my business?" asked the farmer, indignantly. +"I don't need no Boy Scouts to tell me how to look after my property. +Be off with you, now, and don't bother us! We're busy here, working +for a living. Haven't got time to run around playing the way you do." + +Jack felt that it was useless to argue. This farmer was one who +believed that all boys were full of mischief. He didn't know anything +about the Boy Scout movement and the new sort of boy that it has +produced and is producing, in ever growing numbers. So Jack and Pete +went on to camp, and there Jack made his report to Durland. + +"It would serve him right to have his place burned," said Durland, "but +we can't work on that theory. And there are others who would suffer, +too, and that wouldn't be right. So we'll just go over there and stop +that fire ourselves." + +There was a chorus of cheers in reply to that. The idea of having a +chance to fight a really big fire like this awoke all the enthusiasm of +the Scouts of the three Patrols, the Whip-poor-wills, the Raccoons and +the Crows, this last the one to which Jack and Pete belonged. + +So off they went, with Durland in the lead. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +FIGHTING THE FIRE + +The three Patrols of the Troop had been nearly at full strength when +the hike to the camping ground began, and Durland had at his disposal, +therefore, when he led them across the open fields toward the burning +mountain, about twenty quick, disciplined and thoroughly enthusiastic +Scouts, ready to do anything that was ordered, and to do it with a will. + +"What's it like over there, Jack?" asked Tom Binns, who was Jack +Danby's particular chum among the Scouts, and the one who had really +induced him to join the Crows. + +"It's going to be pretty hot work, Tom," said Jack. "There's no water +at all, and the only chance to stop that fire is by back firing." + +"That's pretty dangerous, isn't it?" + +"Yes, unless the man who's doing it knows exactly what he wants to do +and exactly how to do it. But I guess Mr. Durland and Dick Crawford +won't make any mistakes." + +"It's lucky for these farmers that Mr. Durland knows a fire when he +sees it, isn't it, Jack? If they let that fire alone, Bob Hart said it +would sweep over the whole place and burn up the farmhouses." + +"Sure it would! The trouble is they never believe anything until they +see it. They think that just because there never was a really bad fire +here before, there never will be." + +"There have been fires on Bald Mountain before, though, Jack. I've +seen them myself." + +"That's true enough--and that's just the trouble. This is the trouble. +There's been scarcely any rain here for the last two months, and +everything is fearfully dry. If the brooks were full the fire wouldn't +be so likely to jump them. But, as it is, any old thing may happen. +That's the danger--and they can't see it." + +Each Scout was carrying his Scout axe and stick, a stout pole that was +useful in a hundred different ways on every hike. The axes were out +now, and the sharp knives that each Scout carried were also ready for +instant use. Durland, at the head of the little column in which the +Scouts had formed, was casting his keen eye over the whole landscape. +Now he gave the order to halt. + +The Scouts had reached the edge of the fertile land. The course of the +little stream was directly before them, and on the other side was the +land that had been partially cleared of timber the year before, filled +with stumps and dry brush. + +"Go over and borrow a few shovels from the farmhouse over there," +directed Durland. "Crawford, take a couple of Scouts and get them. I +want those shovels, whether they want to lend them to you or not. It's +for their own sake--we can't stand on ceremony if they won't or can't +understand the danger." + +"Come on, Danby and Binns," said Dick Crawford, a happy smile on his +lips, and the light of battle in his eyes. "We'll get those shovels if +they're to be found there, believe me!" + +The farmer and most of the men, of course, were in the fields, still at +work. If they had seen the advance of the Scouts they had paid no +attention whatever, and seemed to have no curiosity, even when three of +the Scouts left the main body, and went over to the farmhouse. There +Dick and the others found a woman, hatchet faced and determined, with a +bulldog and a hulking, overgrown boy for company. She sat on the back +porch, peeling potatoes, and there was no welcome in the look she gave +them. + +"Be off with you!" she shrilled at them. "You'll get no hand-outs +here! You're worse'n tramps, you boys be, running over honest people's +land, and stealing fruit. Be off now, or I'll set the dog onto ye!" + +"We only want to borrow some shovels, ma'am," explained Dick Crawford, +politely, trying to hide a smile at her vehement way of expressing +herself. + +"What next?" she cried. "Shovels, is it? And a fine chance we'd have +of ever seeing them ag'in if we let you have them, wouldn't we? Here, +Tige! Sic 'em, boy, sic 'em!" + +The dog's hair rose on his back, and he growled menacingly as he +advanced toward them. But there Jack Danby was in his own element. +There had never been an animal yet, wild or tame, that he had ever +seen, with which he could not make friends. He dropped to one knee +now, while the others watched him, and spoke to the dog. In a moment +the savagery went out of the bulldog, who, as it seemed, was really +little more than a puppy, and he came playfully up to Jack, anxious to +be friendly. + +"The dog knows, you see," said Dick. "A dog will never make friends +with anyone who is unworthy, ma'am. Don't you think you could follow +his example, and trust us?" + +"You'll get no shovels here," said the woman, with a surly look. + +"Oh, I don't know!" said little Tom Binns, under his breath. His eyes +had been busy, darting all around, and he had seen a number of shovels, +scattered with other farm implements, under a pile of brushwood. He +leaped over to this pile now, suddenly, before the loutish boy who was +helping with the potatoes could make a move to stop him, and in a +moment he was dancing off, his arms full of shovels. Dick Crawford saw +what had happened, and could not help approving. + +"Thank you," he said to the enraged woman, who rose and seemed about to +take a hand herself, physically. "I'm sorry we had to help ourselves, +but it's necessary to save your home, though your own men don't seem to +think so." + +They were off then, with the woman shouting after them, and trying to +induce the dog, who stood wagging his tail, to give chase. + +"I don't like to take things that way," said Dick, "but if ever the end +justified the means, this was the time. We had to have those shovels, +and it's just as I told her--it's for their sake that we took them, not +for ours at all." + +"What will we do with these shovels when we get them?" asked Tom Binns, +who had distributed his load so that each of the others had some +shovels to carry. They made a heavy load, even so, and Tom couldn't +have carried them all for more than a few steps without dropping from +their weight. + +"I guess Mr. Durland intends to dig a trench, and then start a back +fire," said Crawford. "You see, the wind is so strong that if we +started a back fire without precaution like that it would be simply +hastening destruction of the property we are trying to save, and it +would be better not to interfere at all than to do that. With the +trench, you see, the fire we start will be quickly stopped, and the +other fire won't have anything to feed on when it once reaches the part +that we've burned over." + +Crawford had guessed aright the reason for getting the shovels, for +Durland, as soon as the three Scouts reached the stream with their +precious burden of shovels, picked out the strongest Scouts and set +them to work digging the trench. He took a shovel himself, and set the +best of examples by the way he made the dirt fly. + +They were working on a sort of a ridge. On each side there was a +natural barrier to the advance of the fire, fortunately, in the form of +rock quarries, where there was absolutely nothing that the fire could +feed on. Therefore, if it hadn't been checked, it would have swept +over the place where they had dug their trench, as through the mouth of +a funnel, and mushroomed out again beyond the quarries. + +The trench was dug in an amazingly short time. It was rough work, but +effective, the ditch, about two feet deep and seven or eight feet wide, +extending for nearly two hundred feet. On the side of this furthest +from the fire Durland now lined up the Scouts, each armed with a branch +covered with leaves at one end. + +"I'm going to start a back fire now," he said. "I don't think it will +be big enough to leap the trench, but to make sure, you will all stay +lined up on your side of the ditch, and beat out every spark that comes +across and catches the dry grass on your side. Then we'll be +absolutely safe." + +He and Crawford, skilled in the ways of the woods, soon had the brush +on the other side burning. The rate at which the little fire they set +spread, showed beyond a doubt how quickly the great fire that was +sweeping down the mountain would have crossed the supposed clearing. + +"Gee, see how it licks around those stumps!" said Tom Binns. "It's +just as if they'd started a fire in a furnace or a big open fireplace." + +"That's the wind," said Jack. "It's blowing pretty hard. I think the +danger will be pretty well over by tonight, for the time being, at +least. Unless I'm very much mistaken, there's rain coming behind that +wind." + +"It's hard to tell," said Bob Hart, Patrol Leader of the Crows, waiting +with his branch for the time to beat out sparks. "The smoke darkens +the sky so that all weather signs fail. The sun glows red through it, +and you can't really tell, here, whether there are any rain clouds or +not. But it's a wet wind, certainly, and I guess you're right, Jack." + +"I don't see how you can tell about the weather as well as you do, +Jack," said Pete Stubbs. "You never seem to be wrong, and since I've +known you, you've guessed better than the papers two or three times." + +"I've lived in the woods nearly all my life, Pete. That's why I can +sometimes tell. I'm not always right, by a good deal, but the sky and +the trees and the birds are pretty good weather prophets as a rule. In +the country you have to be able to tell about the weather." + +"That's right," said Bob Hart. "I've known farmers, when there was a +moon, to keep men working until after midnight to get the hay in, just +because they were sure there'd be a storm the next day. And they were +right, too, though everyone else laughed at them." + +"It means an awful lot to a farmer to get his hay in before the rain +comes," said Jack. "It means the difference between a good year and a +bad year, often. Many a farm has been lost just because a crop like +that failed and the farmer couldn't pay a mortgage when he had expected +to." + +"Well, if they're all as stupid as this fellow, they deserve to lose +their farms," said Bob Hart. + +"Here he comes now, and he looks mad enough to shoot us!" + +It was true. The irate farmer was coming, pitchfork in hand, with his +two sturdy sons and a couple of farm hands, who grinned as if they +neither knew nor cared what would happen, but were glad of a chance for +a little excitement. + +"Who gave you leave to dig your ditch here?" he shouted. "This is my +land, I reckon. Be off with you now! And look at the fire you +started!" + +Indignantly he made for Bob Hart with his pitchfork. He was worked up +to a regular fury, and it might have fared ill with the Patrol Leader +had it not been for Jack Danby's quick leap to the rescue. + +"You don't want to use that pitchfork," shouted Jack, springing +forward. And, before the astonished farmer realized what the Scout was +up to, the pitchfork had been seized from his hand. + +"What's the trouble here?" cried Durland, rushing up just then. "Shame +on you, my man! Can't you see that we've saved your farm?" + +He seized the farmer by the shoulders and spun him around to face the +sea of fire that was billowing down the slopes from the blazing +mountain, that was now a real torch. The fire had passed beyond the +stage of the slow burning circle that is so characteristic of wood +fires. It was rushing relentlessly forward, and even now it was at the +edge of the clearing. + +"There!" cried Durland. "You can see now how it would have eaten that +cleared timber lot of yours. See?" + +The back fire had been started half way in the timber lot. It had +traveled fast, and before the onrushing big fire was a space a hundred +yards wide of blackened ground, where the saving flames Durland had +lighted had had their will. As far as that space came the big fire. +Then, because there was nothing left to feed it and the gap was too +wide for it to leap, it stopped, and there was an open space, already +burnt over, where only sparks and glowing embers remained. + +"Jumping wildcats!" exclaimed the farmer, in awe. "That was a purty +sizable fire! I say, stranger, I guess I was a leetle mite hasty just +now. You've saved us from a bad fire, all right, though I swum I don't +see how you thought to do it." + +"This is exceptional for this part of the country," said Durland, with +a smile. "But I have lived in countries where whole towns have been +swept away by a sudden shift of the wind just because the people +thought they were safe, and I have learned that the only way to fight +fire is with more fire. Also, that you never can tell what a big fire +is going to do, and that the only way to be on the safe side is to +figure that the fire is going after you just as if it was human. It +wants to destroy you, as it seems, and it keeps on looking for the weak +spot that you haven't guarded." + +"You come right back to the house, all of you," said the farmer, "and +the wife will give you a supper that you don't see the like of in town +very often, I'll warrant ye!" + +Durland was glad to accept the invitation for the whole Troop, for the +Scouts had had no time to cook their own supper. He felt, too, that +his Troop had won a sturdy friend, and that pleased him. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +WHAT THE SPY SAW + +The boys who had fought the fire and saved the farm were so tired the +next day that most of them, including Jack Danby and Pete Stubbs, were +glad to spend the whole day in rest. The work had been more exhausting +than they had been able thoroughly to understand in the heat and rush +of getting it done. The next day saw them with aching muscles, sore +feet, and eyes that still smarted from the acrid wood smoke. It was +Sunday, so, of course, there was no reason why they should not rest as +much as they liked. + +"We sure want to rest up today, Jack," said Pete Stubbs, in the +afternoon, when they had gone to Grant park to lie on the grass and +watch a game of baseball that was being played by two teams of young +men who had no other day for games of any sort. "Tomorrow's field day, +you know." + +"I know it is, Pete. I've been practicing long enough to remember +that!" + +Monday of that week was a holiday in that State, and all the Scouts had +the day to themselves. Durland, always trying to think of things to +make life in his Troop interesting and happy, had devised the plan of a +field day, in which there should be games of all sorts. There was to +be a baseball tournament between the three Patrols for the championship +of the Troop, and a set of athletic games, including running, jumping, +and all sorts of sports. There were eight Scouts in each Patrol, and, +to make up a full nine, each had been allowed to select one boy from +its waiting list so that the roster might be complete. + +Jack Danby was the hope of the Crow Patrol in these sports. He was a +wonderfully fine athlete for a boy of his age, and was proficient in +many games. There had been no other real candidate for the post of +pitcher on the Crow baseball team, and he was expected to make a new +record in strike-outs the next day. + +"How's your arm, Jack?" asked Pete Stubbs, anxiously. "You didn't +strain it yesterday, did you, digging that ditch?" + +"Not a bit," said Jack, with a laugh. "It did it good, I think. I'm +not much of a pitcher, but if we get licked tomorrow the work I did +yesterday won't be any excuse. I'm as fit as any of the others, and I +won't mind admitting that anyone who pitches better than I do tomorrow +deserves to win." + +"Gee, Jack, I hope I do some hitting! I'm crazy to make a home run!" + +"Don't worry about it, Pete. That's the worst way you can do if you +really want to bat well. And remember that while it's fine to knock +out a home run and have everyone yelling and cheering you, the fellow +that sacrifices is often the one that wins the game." + +"It seems hard, though, Jack, just to bunt and know you're going to be +thrown out when you really might be able to make a hit." + +"It's the team that counts, though, Pete. Always remember that. And a +Scout ought to be able to obey his captain's orders just as well in a +baseball game as any other time. Just remember that there's a reason +for everything, even if you can't always understand it yourself, and +you won't mind making a sacrifice hit when what you want to do is to +knock the cover off the ball." + +"I'm going to play short stop tomorrow, Jack. Bob Hart brought me in +from the outfield and put Jack Binns out there. He says Tom can play +better with the sun in his eyes than anyone on the team. I missed a +catch the last game we had because I couldn't see the ball." + +"It's a mighty hard thing to do, to play the sun field well," said +Jack. "I wonder how that new pitcher the Raccoons have will do?" + +"He's their extra pitcher, and I guess he's a good one, Jack. He +pitched for the Bliss School team last spring, and they say his +pitching was what won the county championship for them." + +"Don't you believe it, Pete! He had a good team behind him. That won +the championship. No one man ever won a championship for a team, or +ever will. He's a good pitcher, and he probably helped them a lot, but +it's the team that does the work, every time." + +"Well, I don't know, Jack. In their big game, with the High School, he +struck out fourteen men and the other side didn't get a run. His team +only made one run off the High School pitcher, so he had to do it +pretty nearly by himself. I hope you beat him, anyhow. He's got an +awful swelled head. They say the only reason he wants to join the +Scouts is so that he can get a chance to show he's a better pitcher +than you are. That's Homer Lawrence all over!" + +"Oh, I guess he's all right. I think he's a pretty nice fellow. I was +talking to him the other day." + +"His father's one of the richest men in this town, Jack. He has all +the money he wants, and he's been taking lessons in pitching from one +of the State League players. That's why he's so good, I guess. The +other fellows don't have a chance to learn things that way." + +"It isn't always the fellows who had the most lessons who are the best +players, Pete. Ty Cobb never had any lessons in baseball but he's a +pretty good player. And there are lots of others." + +"I don't think it's fair, anyhow, Jack. The Raccoons oughtn't to have +picked him out. He's a long way off from the top of their list, and I +don't believe he'll get in this year." + +"That's the rule we made, Pete. Each Patrol needed an extra player, +and they were allowed to pick anyone at all they liked from their +waiting lists. So it's perfectly fair, and we haven't any kick coming." + +Jack was willing to rest for quite a while after that, but presently he +began to feel more energetic. + +"Come on, Pete," he said, "I'll pitch a few balls to you somewhere, if +we can get a bat and a ball, and perhaps that'll help you in your +batting tomorrow." + +So they left the park, and went back toward their homes. At Jack's +room they got a bat and ball, and then wondered where they should go +for their practice. + +"I know!" cried Pete. "Down by the river there. There's nothing doing +there on Sundays--it's quiet as can be. And maybe we'll find some +little kid around to chase balls for us." + +"Any place you like, Pete; it's all the same to me. I'll be glad to +limber my arm up a little, too. It feels a tiny bit stiff, and a good +work-out will be fine for it." + +Because it was Sunday they tried to keep their bat out of sight. + +"I don't think it's wrong for us to practice this way," said Jack. "We +have to work all week, and I think we need exercise. If we can't get +it except on Sunday afternoons, it's all right to practice a little, +though I wouldn't play in a regular game, because I do get a chance for +playing on Saturdays now. They don't give you Saturday afternoon off +in every office, though, I can tell you." + +First of all Pete, highly elated at the chance to further his secret +ambition of developing into a catcher, put on a big mitt and Jack +pitched all sorts of curves to him. Then he took his bat and tried to +straighten out the elusive, deceptive balls that Jack pitched. + +"Gee, I can hardly see the ball, much less hit it!" exclaimed Pete, +after whiffing ingloriously at the air two or three times and barely +tapping the sphere on several other occasions. + +"Keep on trying, Pete. Those aren't really bard to hit. The trouble +is you don't watch the ball." + +"It never goes where I think it will, Jack." + +"That's the whole idea of pitching, Pete. Keep your eyes on the ball +after I pitch it, not on me. Then you can see just what it does. Now +you think I'm going to pitch one sort of a ball, and if I pitch +anything else, you're up in the air right away." + +At last, in huge disgust, Pete hurled his bat away from him, after +making a mighty swing at a slow floater. He seemed to be furious. + +"Easy there, Pete!" said Jack, amused at this display of temper, as he +picked up the bat and advanced toward Pete to return it to him. + +"I wasn't mad," said Pete, in a low whisper. "I just wanted to talk to +you without anyone knowing that I wanted to. Say, Jack, there's +someone watching us." + +"Watching us, Pete? Why should anyone do that?" + +"It's Lawrence,--that chap that's going to pitch for the Raccoons, +Jack. I'm sure of it! He and Harry Norman are behind that fence over +there--the sneaks!" + +Jack dropped back to his position without saying anything more. He was +careful for a minute or two not to look in the direction of the fence +that Pete had referred to. But when he did look, his keen eyes were +not long in finding out that Pete had been right. There were spies +behind the fence, and they were studying every ball he pitched. + +A few moments later he found, or made, another chance to speak to Pete. + +"You were right, Pete," he said. "They are watching us from there." + +"Let's chase them out of there, Jack!" + +"Not a bit of it, Pete. I don't want them to know we've found out +they're there--not now, at any rate. If they're mean enough to try to +find something out by spying that way, I'll be mean enough to give them +something to look at that won't do them much good!" + +"Say, Jack, that's the stuff! That's better than giving them a +licking, too. What'll you do?" + +"Just wait and see! And hit these balls just as hard as you can." + +The ball looked as big as a house now to Pete as it came sailing up to +him. Mysteriously all the "stuff" that Jack had been "putting on" the +ball was gone and done with. The balls Jack pitched now were either +straight or broke so widely that almost anyone could have batted home +runs galore off him. And Pete, who saw the point, swung wildly at +every one of them, hitting them easily. + +"That's a fine joke," said Pete. "They won't find out very much about +what you can do as a pitcher from that--that's a sure thing! If +Lawrence thinks that's the best thing you can do when you get in the +box I'm afraid he'll get an awful jolt tomorrow." + +"I hope so, Pete. The sneak--you were quite right. If he'd come right +out to me and told me he wanted to watch me pitch, I wouldn't have +minded. But that's a mean trick!" + +"It won't do him much good, that's one good thing. Say, I don't +believe he's as good himself as they make out, or he wouldn't have +played such a trick. I bet he's got a big yellow streak in him." + +"We'll find that out tomorrow, Pete. I hope not, because he certainly +knows how to pitch. If he does a thing like that, though, he'd be apt +to try to cheat in the game, or do something like that, I'm afraid. I +don't care, though. If he wants to win in any such fashion as that, +he's welcome to the victory. He must want to win worse than I do." + +"I didn't think Harry Norman would play a dirty trick on you after the +way you saved his life, Jack. I was surprised to see him there." + +"He doesn't like me. I've always been willing to be friendly with him, +even when I had to fight him up at Woodleigh. He forced me into that." + +"He isn't a Scout, is he?" + +"No, he doesn't like the Scouts. I guess he'll never join, either." + +"He's no great loss, I guess. We can get along better without him than +with him if he's going to do things like that. I bet Lawrence won't +join either, when this game's over." + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE DOUBLE HEADER + +Pete Stubbs had wanted to tell everyone of the trick that Lawrence had +tried to play on Jack, and of Jack Danby's clever way of turning the +tables on him, but Jack dissuaded him. + +"That won't do any good," he said. "After all, he may not have meant +to do anything wrong, and we'd better give him the benefit of the +doubt." + +"Aw, sure he meant to be mean, Jack! I ain't got no use for him. If +we told the others he'd get a ragging he wouldn't forget in a hurry, +I'll bet." + +"I guess you can stand it if I can, Pete. Keep quiet about it, because +I want you to." + +"All right, Jack, if you want me to, I will. Say, there's one thing I +hadn't thought of. If he takes all that trouble to find out how you +pitch, he must be afraid of you!" + +"I hope he is, Pete. That's half the battle, you know, making the +other fellow think you're better than he is, whether you are or +not--and thinking so yourself. Often it makes it come out right." + +Full grown men would have been appalled by the program that had been +mapped out for the Boy Scout Field Day. + +Baseball filled the morning and early afternoon. There were to be +three games in all. First the Crows were to play the Whip-poor-wills. +Then the Whip-poor-wills were to play the Raccoons, and finally the +Crows and Raccoons were to meet. There was to be an hour of rest for +the baseball players between the games, and during that time there were +to be running races and jumping contests, and also a race for small +sailing boats on the lake, with crews from the three Patrols for three +catboats. Durland owned one, Dick Crawford another, and the third, the +one to be used by the Crows, was lent by Mr. Simms, the president of +the company that employed Jack Danby and Pete Stubbs. + +The first event of all on the program was the baseball game between +Crows and Whip-poor-wills. The Whip-poor-wills, or the Willies, as +they were called for short, by the rooters, were not as strong as the +Crows and the Raccoons, and were expected to lose both their games, +leaving the championship to be fought out between the Crows arid the +Raccoons in the afternoon. + +Bob Hart, captain of the Crows, came up to Jack Danby in the early +morning at the campfire. + +"We'll let Tom Binns pitch the first game, Jack," he said, "and save +you for the Raccoons. They're saving Lawrence, too, and he'll pitch +against you. So you want to be fresh and ready for him. You play left +field. That'll give you some exercise, and won't tire your arm out." + +"I think I could pitch the two games, if you wanted me to," said Jack, +"but I'll be glad to see Tom get a chance to pitch. He's a good +pitcher, and he ought to beat them easily." + +So the teams lined up with Jack in left field, and the game began. + +"Gee," said Pete, in the fourth inning, as he and Jack waited their +turn to bat, "we can't seem to hit their pitcher at all. Tom's +pitching an elegant game, but I thought we'd have eight or nine runs by +this time, and the score's really two to one in their favor." + +"There's plenty of time to begin hitting later, Pete. No need to worry +about that yet. There's nine innings in a ball game, and a run in the +ninth counts for just as much as one we make now." + +Pete Stubbs made a home run and tied the score in the sixth inning, and +after that, until the ninth there was no more scoring. + +The despised Willies were playing better than they knew how, as Pete +Stubbs said, and the Raccoons, who stood around to watch the game, +began to look anxious, for they had expected to see the Crows walk away +with the game. + +But in the ninth inning there was quite a break in the game. Bob Hart, +who batted first, led off with a screaming two bagger, and went to +third, when Tom Binns was thrown out. Pete Stubbs batted next, and was +so anxious to make a hit that he popped up a little fly to the first +baseman. But Jack Danby, with a rousing drive to center field, put his +team ahead, for he ran so fast that he beat the throw to the plate, and +made a home run, as Pete had done before him. + +"That's great, Jack!" cried Tom Binns. "Gee, I thought we'd never get +a lead on them! They can't hit much, but they've certainly got a good +pitcher." + +Jack trotted contentedly out to his position for the last half of the +ninth inning. The Crows seemed certain to win now, because Tom Binns' +pitching had been getting better every inning, and in the last two +times they had been at bat the Whip-poor-wills hadn't been able to get +a man to first base, much less get anywhere near making a run. + +The first man up now made a little tap, and the ball rolled toward the +third baseman, who muffed it. The next got a base on balls, and the +third was hit. The whole game was changed in a second. Tom Binns +seemed to be rattled. Try as he would, he couldn't get the ball over +the plate, despite Bob Hart's efforts to steady him, and in a moment he +passed the fourth batter, forcing in a run, and leaving the +Whip-poor-wills only one run behind, with the bases full and none out. + +Two or three of the Crow fielders looked anxiously at Jack, and Pete +Stubbs called from his position at shortstop. + +"I say, Bob," he cried, "better change pitchers. Tom's wild and can't +see the plate." + +Jack himself was more than anxious. He felt desperately sorry for poor +little Tom Binns, who had been tremendously proud of being chosen to +pitch for his team, and he was afraid, as were the others, that the +sudden rally was more than Tom could check. + +"He's going to leave him in," cried the center fielder to Jack as Hart +shook his head at Pete's suggestion that he take Tom out of the box. +And Tom began pitching again to the fifth Whip-poor-will who stood at +the plate brandishing his bat. + +Jack Danby knew a lot about baseball that was planted in him by sheer +instinct. And now he did something that was against orders and +entirely different from what any other amateur outfielder would have +thought of doing. It smacked more of big league baseball, where +thinking is quick. He crept in, inch by inch, almost, while Tom Binns +pitched two balls and a strike, until he was not more than thirty feet +behind the third baseman. + +"If they hit a long fly one run will come in," he reasoned to himself. +"A good single, even, will score two runs and win the game. The only +chance is to make a double play. That's why the infielders are all +drawn in close, so that they can throw to the plate. And that batter +will try his hardest to push the ball over their heads." + +"Crack!" + +The sound of the bat meeting the ball fairly came to him, and in a +moment he saw the sphere sailing for the outfield, and about to pass +squarely over the place the shortstop had just left. + +It looked like a sure hit, and the base runners started at once with +the ball. The center fielder, running in desperately, was too far out +to have a chance to catch the ball. But suddenly there was a shout. +Jack Danby, who had crept far in without being noticed, sprinted over, +and, by a wonderful jumping dive, caught the ball. Like a flash he +threw it to third base, and the runner who had started thence for the +plate was doubled easily. He had reached home, and there was no chance +for him to turn back. The runner from second, too, had turned third +base, and, as soon as the third baseman had stepped on his bag he +turned and threw to second base, completing as pretty a triple play as +was ever made, and winning the game for the Crows. + +"That was a wonderful play, Jack!" said Scout-Master Durland, who +served as umpire. "I never saw a better one, even in a big league +game. You were out of position, but if you hadn't been, that ball +would have fallen fair, and Tom Binns would have lost his game. +Really, though, you're the one that deserves the credit for winning it, +for your batting put your team ahead, and your fielding kept the +Whip-poor-wills from nosing you out in the finish." + +The Whip-poor-wills, disappointed by losing when victory seemed to be +within their grasp after such a gallant up-hill fight, seemed to have +shot their bolt. Their pitcher had outdone himself against the hard +hitters of the Crows, in holding them down so well, and when, after an +hour's rest, they lined up against the Raccoons, it seemed that they +were a different team. The Raccoons simply toyed with them. They +piled up runs in almost every inning, and won with ridiculous ease, by +a score of twenty to three. + +Harry Norman, who had come out with his friend Lawrence to watch the +sport, came up to Jack after the Raccoons had given this impressive +exhibition of their strength. + +"Gee," he said, "you might as well forfeit this game, Danby! You +haven't got a chance against the Raccoons, especially when Homer +Lawrence begins pitching for them. Look at the way they beat the +Whip-poor-wills, and the trouble you had with them. You only beat them +four to three, and you wouldn't have done that if you hadn't made that +lucky catch in the ninth inning." + +"That wasn't a lucky catch," protested Pete Stubbs. "Jack knew that +the ball might be hit that way, and he took a chance, because if the +ball had been hit to his regular position it would have meant a run +anyhow. That isn't luck--that's baseball strategy!" + +"There wasn't any luck about the twenty runs the Raccoons made anyhow," +said Norman, with a sneer. "And I'll bet you five dollars they beat +you. Money talks--there you are!" + +"We can't afford to bet," said Jack, quietly, while Pete Stubbs looked +angry enough to cry, almost. "We only get small salaries, Norman, and +we have to use all the money we make to live on. We support ourselves, +you know." + +"Oh, I suppose that's right," said Norman, contemptuously. Like many +other boys who are fortunate enough to have wealthy parents and to be +relieved from the need of starting out when they are little more than +children to earn their own way in the world, Norman had an idea that he +was, for that reason, superior to boys like Jack and Pete, when, as a +matter of fact, it is just the other way around. + +"Scouts don't bet, anyway," said Dick Crawford, who had overheard the +conversation, and showed, by his manner, that he had little use for +Norman, of whom he had heard many things that were far from pleasant. +"We don't want to win money from one another, and betting on friendly +games leads to hard feelings and all sorts of trouble. It's a good +thing to let alone. Come on to lunch, now, fellows. It's all ready." + +The members of the Crow Patrol and two or three volunteers who were +trying to prove that they were really qualified to be Scouts, though +they had to wait for vacancies before they could join, had prepared +lunch while the second baseball game was being played. + +"Guess I won't eat much today," said Pete Stubbs, sorrowfully. "I like +eating, but if I eat too much I'm never able to play a good game of +ball afterward." + +"Satisfy your hunger, Pete, and don't eat too much," advised Jack. +"Then you'll be all right. The trouble with you is that when you get +hold of something you like, you always feel that you have to eat all +you can hold of it. Don't starve yourself now--just eat a good meal, +and stop before you get so full that you feel as if you couldn't eat +another mouthful." + +"I guess he never gets enough to eat except when he's out this way," +said Harry Norman, beneath his breath. + +Jack Danby heard him and was furious, but he restrained himself, +although an attack on his friend angered him more than a similar remark +aimed at himself would have done. + +"I don't want any more trouble with you, Norman," he said very quietly, +taking the rich boy aside. "But don't say that sort of thing around +here. Remember that you're a guest, and that Pete is one of your hosts +and helped to pay for the spread that you're going to enjoy." + +"Mind your own business!" said Norman, rudely. "I didn't say anything +about you. I will if you don't look out--I'll tell them you haven't +got any right to your name, and that you don't know who your father and +mother were!" + +Jack bit his lips and clenched his fists for a moment, but he +controlled himself, and managed to let the insult pass by without +giving Norman the thrashing he deserved. + +After lunch, when the mess had been cleared away, the dishes had been +washed and everything had been made neat and orderly, the championship +game between the Raccoons and the Crows was called. + +There was quite a crowd out to see this game. Boys from the +neighborhood, attracted by the prowess of the rival pitchers, turned +out in good numbers. Many of Lawrence's school friends were also on +hand, and practically every boy employed in the office with Pete and +Jack was on hand, ready to yell his head off for the success of the +Crows. The defeated Whip-poor-wills were anxious for the Crows to win, +for the Raccoons had taunted them unmercifully on the poor showing they +had made in their second game, and they wanted to see the team that had +beaten them so badly humiliated in its turn. So the crowd of Crow +rooters was a little the larger, and if Jack Danby could win this game, +his victory was certain to be a popular one, at least. But few +thought that he would have a chance against the clever and experienced +Lawrence. + +"I've got an idea that the best way to beat Lawrence is to let him beat +himself," said Jack Danby to Bob Hart before the game. "He knows how +to pitch two good curves, and he's been striking out ten and twelve +fellows in every game he played just because they've swiped at those +curve balls." + +"That's just what I'm afraid our fellows will do," said Bob. "That's +what's been worrying me." + +"Well," said Jack, "about every one of those curves breaks outside the +plate. That is, if the batter didn't swing at them, the umpire would +have to call them balls. Just watch him in practice and you'll see +what I mean. Why not wait him out and make him pitch over the plate?" + +"Say, that's a good idea, Jack! I'll call the fellows together, and +we'll see how that works. I think that's a good way to save the +game--hanged if I don't!" + +And Bob Hart gave his orders accordingly. But it was harder to get the +Crows to do it than to tell them. Time after time they struck at +tempting balls, that looked as if they were going to split the plate, +only to have them break away out of reach of the swinging bats. So, in +the early stages of the game, Lawrence looked just as formidable as he +had in the school games in which his reputation had been made. Bob +Hart himself, and Jack, and Pete Stubbs, who could and would always +obey orders, made him pitch to them, and, because they waited and +refused to bite at his tempting curves, they put the star pitcher in +the hole each time. + +He was a good pitcher as far as he went, but his equipment was not as +large as it should have been. He knew how to pitch a few balls very +well, but if they failed him, he was in trouble. He had nothing but +his wide curves--no straight, fast ball with a jump, no drop, no change +of pace. The first time Jack Danby came up, in the second inning, he +let the first three balls that Lawrence pitched go by, and Durland +called every one a ball. Then, when Lawrence had to put his ball +straight over or give him a pass, Jack smashed it to right for two +bases. But he was left on second, for the two who followed him were +over anxious, and were victims on strikes. + +But Jack himself was pitching high class ball. He didn't try to strike +out every man who faced him, but made it next to impossible for the +Raccoons to make long hits off him, and he did have some fun with +Lawrence, striking him out three times in the first six innings. + +In the seventh inning Bob Hart waited and got a base on balls. By that +time the Crows had begun to understand, and they waited now while +Lawrence's best curves went to waste, never offering to hit at any ball +that didn't come straight for the plate. Three passes in quick +succession filled the bases, and then Jack Danby was up again. + +Lawrence was no poor player. He had a head as well as a good pitching +arm, and he set a trap for Jack. His first three balls were +curves--and called balls. Jack waited. Twice before, in the same +situation, Lawrence had had to pitch him a ball he could hit and he had +swung at it. And now Lawrence expected him to do the same thing, and +sent up a floater that looked good for a home run. But Jack only +smiled, and the ball broke away from the plate. + +It was the fourth ball, and it forced in the first run of the game. +Moreover, Lawrence, fooled and outguessed, went up in the air, and the +Crows made six runs in that one inning, and five more for good measure +in the eighth, while Jack shut out the Raccoons. + +The Crows, thanks to Jack, also won in the races and jumping contests, +so it was a great day for them. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +TOM BINNS' BAD LUCK + +Jack Danby and Tom Binns, Second Class Scouts, were ready now to become +First Class Scouts, and so to earn the right to wear the full Scout +badge, and compete for all the medals and special badges of merit for +which Scouts are eligible. They had passed all the tests save one. +They had proved their efficiency in signaling, in scout and camp craft, +in the tying of knots, had given evidence of their ability to save +those who were drowning and give first aid to the injured, and they had +only to make a hike of seven miles, alone or together, to receive the +coveted promotion. + +They determined, with Scout-Master Durland's permission, to make this +hike together the Saturday afternoon following the Field Day that had +brought so much glory to Jack Danby and his Patrol, the Crows. +Although Tom Binns had been a Scout longer than Jack, Jack had been a +Tenderfoot Scout for only thirty days, the shortest time in which a +Scout can pass out of the Tenderfoot class, and he was fully as good a +Scout now as many of the older ones who had had the right to wear the +First Class Scout's badge for a long time. + +"Gee, Jack, I wonder if we'll ever get to be Patrol Leaders and +Scout-Masters?" asked Tom Binns, as they met after work that Saturday, +and prepared to start on their hike. + +"Why not, Tom? Everyone has to make a start. And Mr. Durland wasn't a +Scout when he was our age, because there weren't any Boy Scouts then." + +"I suppose it's a lot of responsibility, but then that's a good thing, +too." + +"You bet it is! That's one of the things I like best about being a +Scout. It teaches you to be responsible, and to understand that you've +got to do things just because you are responsible for seeing that +they're done, and not just because someone keeps standing over you and +telling you what to do." + +"Where shall we go, Jack?" + +"The camp for the Troop hike today is out at Beaver Dam. I thought we +might start from the other side of the lake there, go to Haskell +Crossing, and get back to camp in time for supper. Then we could get +our badges from Mr. Durland, I guess." + +"That's a fine idea, Jack. I don't know that country very well, +though. Do you?" + +"No. That's one reason for going that way. We know that we'll find a +place where we can make a fire and cook our supper, though. We don't +need to eat it unless we're particularly hungry, but we've got to cook +it." + +"Say, Jack, if fellows make that hike alone, who's going to tell +whether they really did it or not? If a fellow wasn't straight, he +could go off somewhere; and then report that he'd hiked the fourteen +miles, and there wouldn't be anyone to prove that he hadn't." + +"I know, but we're all on our honor, Pete, and a chap who had got to be +a Second Glass Scout wouldn't ever play a trick like that. It wouldn't +pay." + +"I guess that's true, too, Jack. That's another fine thing about being +a Scout. When you see a fellow give you the Scout sign in a strange +place, you know he's all right, just because he is a Scout, even if you +never saw him before." + +"Yes. That's why we've all got to be so careful to keep up the honor +of the Scouts, and not do anything ourselves, nor let any other Scout +do anything that would give outsiders a chance to say that we preached +one thing and did another." + +They took the trolley to their starting point, on the side of Lake +Whitney away from Beaver Dam, where their fellow Scouts were to gather +later in the afternoon for a practice camp, such as Durland and +Crawford arranged for nearly every half holiday. + +"How will we know when we've gone seven miles?" asked Tom. + +"It's just about seven miles--perhaps a little more--to Haskell +Crossing, so we can tell without any trouble. That's one reason I +picked out the place. The trail through these woods is pretty rough, +but we can follow it all right." + +"Whose land is this, Jack?" + +"No one knows, exactly. It's a sort of a no man's land. Or, at least, +two sets of heirs to an old estate are fighting about it in the courts. +They've been trying for years to get it settled between them, but the +courts haven't decided yet, and they may not for a long time." + +"And meantime no one can use it?" + +"That's it. It seems silly, doesn't it? If the courts take so long to +decide it must mean, I should think, that both sides were partly right, +and I should think they'd want to settle it between themselves, and so +each get some use out of the land. There's an old house, more than a +hundred and fifty years old, in the woods, too." + +"Doesn't anyone live in it?" + +"No one now. Tramps go there sometimes, I've heard, because it is so +lonely. Some people say it's haunted, but I guess the tramps played +ghost, just so that people would stay away and let them alone." + +"Gee, if there's a ghost around, I hope he stays in when we're passing. +I'm afraid of them!" + +"Why, how could a ghost hurt you, Tom? Anyhow, you don't need to worry +about ghosts in the daytime. They only come out at night." + +"It's pretty dark in here, Jack. The woods are mighty thick." + +"I believe you _are_ scared, Tom," said Jack, laughing. "Well, don't +you worry! I'm pretty sure that if anyone ever did see a real thing +here that he thought was a ghost it was a tramp in disguise. And I +don't believe you're afraid of a tramp--though I'd rather meet a ghost, +myself, than a vicious tramp." + +"Gee, that railroad train's whistle sounds good," said Tom, a few +minutes later. "That must be at the crossing." + +"Yes. It isn't much further now. And the house is near the crossing, +too. I believe the people who lived in it made a great fuss when the +railroad went through, and that was about the time when the quarrel +started. They said it would spoil their property to have the station +so near them--instead of which, if they could only see it, it's made it +a whole lot more valuable." + +Suddenly Tom, who was walking as fast as he could and was ahead of +Jack, stumbled and fell against a root. When Jack got beside him he +was white with pain. + +"I guess I must have twisted my foot pretty badly," he said. "I don't +believe I can stand on it for a while." + +He put a hand on Jack's shoulder and tried to walk, but found the pain +too great. + +"Here, let me see it," cried Jack. "I may be able to do something to +make it better." + +Tenderly he removed Tom's shoe, and turning the stocking back from the +injured ankle, rubbed and examined it thoroughly. + +"I may hurt you when I rub it around, Tom," he said, "but it won't hurt +your ankle for more than a minute." + +For two or three minutes, while Tom, with set teeth, endured the pain +without even a whimper, Jack rubbed and massaged the ankle, already +slightly swollen. + +"It's just a strain, I think, Tom," he said. "I'll find a spring or a +brook, if they're not all dried up around here, and make a cold +compress for it. Next to blazing hot water, that's the best thing to +do for it, and I think you'll be able to get to Haskell Crossing pretty +soon, with a little help from me. Then we can get a train or a trolley +back." + +"Gee, I never thought, Jack! You can't do that! If you go back with +me, you won't be able to get your First Class Scout badge." + +"What of it, Tom? I guess I can wait a week or two for that without +suffering very much. And you didn't think I'd leave you alone here, or +to go home alone, did you? You can't walk back on that foot--that's +one sure thing." + +Tom protested that all Jack should do was to get him to the station, +whence he said he could manage to get home all right, but Jack wouldn't +hear of such an idea, and, after he had put the cold water bandage on +Tom's ankle, he helped his comrade the short distance that remained to +the track, and the little flag station at Haskell Crossing. + +The sun was low on the horizon when they got there. In the little +shanty that served as a station, loafing and wishing for something to +do, was a red-headed, gawky youth whose business it was to set signals +and listen at a telegraph key for the orders that went flashing up and +down the line. + +"There's no train back to town for four hours," he told them, when they +asked how soon they could get a train. "One went a few minutes +ago--you must have heard it whistle. Hurt, there, sonny?" + +"Twisted my ankle a bit," said Tom Binns, with a plucky smile. + +"Sho, that's too bad," said the red-headed one. "Here, come into the +station and set down! There's a place in the freight daypo where you +can be more comfortable like." + +The shanty was divided into two parts. One was for the sale of +tickets, though Jack guessed that there were few purchasers, the other +held a few empty milk cans, which showed pretty well what made up the +bulk of the freight handled there. But there was a pile of sacks in +one corner, also, and on those, arranged and spread out like a bed, Tom +was made fairly comfortable. Rest was what his ankle needed, and he +could rest there as well as anywhere else. + +"I ain't got but a little lunch here," said the red-headed telegrapher, +station agent and baggage man rolled into one, regretfully. "But +you're welcome to share it with me." + +"No need of that, thanks," said Jack, heartily. "We were going to cook +our supper in the woods, and if you'll show me a place where I can +build a fire, I'll cook it now. We've got plenty for you, too, and +I'll give you some bacon and eggs and coffee if you like them." + +"Say, you're all right! My name's Hank Hudson, and if there's anything +I sure do hanker after, it's bacon and eggs. I can't get a hot supper +on this job--I have to tote everything along with me from home, and +it's all cold victuals I get." + +"Well, we'll have a treat for you tonight, then, and I'm glad we will. +It's mighty nice of you to let Tom Binns lie in the depot." + +Jack was as good as his word. Hudson showed him a place where a +natural fireplace, as it seemed, was all ready and waiting for the fire +to be made, and Jack, in a comparatively short time, sent up a fragrant +odor of frying bacon and eggs, and of rich, steaming coffee that would +have given a wooden Indian an appetite. He carried the meal to the +station, too, and the three of them ate it together, while Hudson's +cold lunch, despised now, and not to be compared with the fine fare +Jack provided, was cast aside in a corner of the station. + +"Do many trains pass here that don't stop?" asked Tom. + +"Sure they do!" said Hudson. "This last hour is about the quietest one +of the whole day. I have to watch them all, too, and report when they +pass here, so that the despatchers can keep track of them." + +"What would happen if you didn't?" + +"Can't tell! But there might easily be a bad wreck. If the despatcher +thought he would get a flash from here as soon as the Thunderbolt +passed, for instance, and I was asleep when she went by, he might let +something into the track ahead of her, and then there'd be a fine lot +of trouble. You can see that!" + +"I should say so! You've a pretty responsible place here, I should +think. Do you like it?" + +"Sure! I think the work's great! I'd rather work on a railroad than +anything I can think of. But it gets awful lonely here sometimes. +That's the worst part of it. The work's easy enough, but it's not +having anyone to talk to, except the fellows and the girls on the wire, +that makes it a hard job." + +"You talk to all of them, I guess, don't you?" + +"Sure." Hudson walked over to the telegraph instrument by the window +and threw his switch. "There's a girl at Beaver Dam calls me about +this time every evening. Things are slack, you know. They send her in +a hot supper from the restaurant there, and she calls every evening and +tells me what she had and how good it was, so that I'll be jealous. +I'll have something to surprise her with tonight though--Hullo! There +she is now!" + +Both boys knew the Morse code, from their signal work with the Boy +Scouts, and Jack, indeed, had experimented a little with wireless, so +that he could read the code of dots and dashes, if it was not sent too +fast. + +"H-K--H-K--H-K--" he heard now, and, in a minute more, he was trying to +interpret the swift interchange of chaffing messages between the two +operators. + +"That's the only break in the loneliness," said Hudson, "unless someone +comes in for a visit the way you have. I wish there were more of +them--except for those tramps back there in the woods. They hang +around a lot, and they get my goat!" + +"In the big house in the woods there, you mean?" asked Jack. "The one +they say is haunted?" + +Hudson laughed. + +"That's the one. They say it's haunted, but it's Willies and Tired +Toms that haunt it, believe me! They come over here and look up the +place, and they'd have stolen everything in it long ago if there'd been +anything to steal. They let me alone because they're pretty sure I +haven't got any money, and they know I've got a gun, too." + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE ATTACK ON THE STATION + +"What time does the Thunderbolt go through?" asked Jack. + +"Eight thirty-four she's due, but she's sometimes a few minutes late. +Then, at eight forty-two there's the second section of the Thunderbolt, +when there's one running--and there is to-night, and your train for +town gets in here at eight fifty-seven." + +"What's the next station below this?" + +"Conway. That's about eleven miles down the line, and away from the +city. 'Tisn't much more of a station than this. Just an operator who +doubles up on all the other jobs same way I do." + +"I've got to go wash dishes and make up our packs," said Jack. "It's +eight o'clock now, and that doesn't leave so very much more time than +we need. I've got to put out the fire, too." + +He went off with the dishes on which they had eaten their simple but +delicious supper, and left Hank Hudson to talk to Tom Binns and watch +his key, which might at any moment click out some important order that +would make the difference between safety and disaster for a train laden +with passengers. + +The fire on which he had cooked their supper was still glowing in the +woods about a hundred yards from the railway tracks, and he hurried +toward it to extinguish it, in accordance with the strictest of all +Scout rules for camping. Fires left carelessly burning after a picnic +have caused many a terrible and disastrous forest fire, and it is the +duty of every Scout to make sure that he gives no chance for such a +result to follow any encampment in which he has had a part. + +As he made his way toward the fire he thought once or twice that he +heard the sounds of a man or an animal moving through the woods, and +once, too, he thought he heard a hoarse and raucous laugh. But he +decided, after stopping to listen once or twice, that he had been +mistaken, and he laughed at himself when he was startled as he got near +the dancing shadows east by the dying fire, by what looked like the +shadows of three men. + +There was no danger in the fire he had built as long as the wind held +steady, and he might have left it to burn itself out with little fear +of any adverse happening as a result. But that was not thorough, nor +was it the way of a Scout. A wind may shift at any moment, and a fire +that is perfectly safe with a northwest wind may be the means of +starting a conflagration no one can hope to check if the wind shifts +even a point or two. + +So Jack put his fire out thoroughly, and made certain that no live +embers remained to start it up anew. Then he washed his dishes, and +made his way back toward Hank Hudson's cabin. + +Inside the cabin, as he approached, he could hear slight sounds, and +then, insistent, compelling, the clatter of the telegraph key. + +He stopped to listen a moment to its clicking, and then found, to his +surprise, that it was "H-K," the call for Haskell Crossing, that was +sounding. + +"Why doesn't Hudson answer?" he asked himself. + +Still the call sounded. There was a continued noise within the +station--someone was there, and it must, surely, be Hudson. He could +not fail to hear the chatter of his sounder, and yet he was ignoring +the steady call from his instrument--a call more than likely to be of +the last importance. + +Jack, sure now that something must be wrong, did not rush hastily and +impulsively for the door of the cabin. Instead, he crept up quietly +toward the side, where there was a window, that would give him a chance +to look in without being seen himself. + +And, when he got there, he saw what was wrong. Hudson, his face livid, +a red handkerchief stuffed into his mouth, was tied in a chair, his +arms, legs and body being securely tied up, so that there was no chance +for him to work himself free. He could hear what went on, but he could +do nothing, and there was no chance for him to reach that key and +answer the insistent urging of the wire, though Jack could see, from +the look in his eyes, that he knew an attempt was being made to raise +his office. + +"They'll think he's deserted his key," said Jack to himself. "That's +what's worrying him." + +Apparently Hudson was alone in the station, and Jack was just on the +point of rushing in to free the operator when the door into the freight +station opened, and three burly men, dressed like tramps, appeared, +dragging poor little Tom Binns with them, despite his twisted ankle. + +Tom was trying to cry out and give the alarm, as Jack could see, but in +vain, for one of the ruffians had his hand over his mouth, and there +was no chance for Tom's cries to be heard. + +Jack, horror struck, but, knowing that aid was far away, watched the +scene that followed with distended eyes. He was powerless against +three such men as the tramps that had attacked Hudson and Tom Binns, +and the nearest station, as he knew, was eleven miles distant. But he +felt that he must try to find out, at least, what the attack meant. +Hudson, as the assailants must know, had no money to make such an +attack worth while, and, even if they could blow or otherwise open the +little safe it was unlikely that more than a few dollars would be +there--a poor reward for such a desperate business. + +Suddenly, however, a thought came to him that terrified him a thousand +times more than what he had already seen. + +"The key!" he thought, almost shouting the words aloud and betraying +himself in his excitement. That was it! These men were train +robbers--or, worse, possibly, train wreckers. They would endanger +every life on the onrushing Thunderbolt to gain their ends. That was +why they had put Hank Hudson out of business, why they were guarding +Tom Binns with such care, crippled as he seemed to be. Men in their +desperate business could take no chances. It was all or nothing for +them--success, and the chance to rifle the registered mail and the +valuable express pouches, or failure and death on the gallows or a life +in prison. + +For a moment Jack had the impulse to seek safety in flight. If they +caught him spying on them they were likely to have little mercy for +him, and well he knew it. But the impulse lasted scarcely a second. + +"I guess if I'm ever to make good as a Scout, this is one of my +chances," he said to himself, grimly. "I'm going to stay right by this +window and try to hear what they say to one another. They may give +away their plans and give me some sort of a chance to foil them." + +Jack was frightened, and he was brave enough to admit that to himself. +Even the river pirates that he and Pete Stubbs had helped to thwart +when they tried to steal the fittings from Mr. Simms' yacht were mild +mannered criminals compared to these. Each of them wore a black mask +that hid his eyes and the upper part of his face, but Jack, trying +desperately to discover something that would enable him to identify +them should he ever have the chance, picked out lines about the lower +parts of their faces that would, he thought, make it impossible for him +to mistake them should he ever have the chance to see them again. One +had a prominent, undershot jaw. Another bore a furrow across his chin, +the mark of a bullet, as Jack guessed, that was white against the +stubble of his beard. And another had lost part of his right ear, +which was not hidden by his mask. + +"I'm really more certain of knowing them again now than if they hadn't +worn those masks," said Jack, to himself. "The masks made me look more +attentively at the part of each one's face that I could see." + +"Hey, Tom," said one of the men, gruffly, looking at his watch, "got +them tied? I thought there was another one of the young rips." + +"If there was, he ain't a comin' back here, or he'd have been here long +ago," said Tom, scowling fiercely at his two captives. "What's the +time, Bo?" + +"Time enough. She ain't due for ten or twelve minutes yet, even if +she's on time. Wish't I could tell what that key was saying." + +"Don't make no difference. It'll be saying a lot more when we get +through tonight," said the other. + +All the time the monotonous calling of the key had kept up--"H-K--H-K." +Now suddenly there was a change. "B-D--B-D--" clicked the instrument, +and Jack knew that the sender had given up Haskell Crossing and was +trying now to raise Beaver Dam, the next station up toward the city. + +Beaver Dam answered at once, and Jack listened intently to the wire +conversation that followed and was sounded by Hudson's open key. + +"Hello, B-D," it called. "What's the matter with Hudson? I've been +trying to raise him for half an hour." + +"I heard you. He must be asleep or sick--sick most likely." + +"That's what I thought. There's a hand car with another operator +ordered down. But it'll have to run behind the Thunderbolt. She's an +hour late and trying to make up time." + +"That's bad! It'll tie up the whole line." + +"So long!" + +"So long! I'll pass on word." + +Jack's heart leaped within him. The train the robbers were waiting for +was an hour late. All sorts of things might happen in an hour. He +could only wait. But there was more chance now, at least. + +The robbers waited patiently until the limited was twenty minutes +overdue. Then they began to get nervous. + +"Sure the tie will throw her off the rails?" asked one. + +"Go out and see for yourself if you're nervous." + +And the first speaker followed the suggestion. The others fidgeted +about for a few minutes. + +"Let's get out, then," said one of those who remained. "Those kids are +tied up safe enough. No need to stay here. Let's get some fresh air +and look to see if she's coming." + +And in a moment the station was empty, save for the two prisoners. + +Jack acted on the instant. In a second he was at the key, pounding +away, and calling B-D, B-D, in frantic efforts to get an answer and +have the limited stopped and help rushed. + +"O-K--" came the answer at last, and in a frenzied rush, but with the +hand of an inexperienced operator, Jack sent the story over the wire. +He had won! + +He was in time, he was sure. The train had not yet passed the last +telegraph station before Haskell Crossing, and it would be stopped +before it could rush on to destruction. Then, swiftly, he rushed over +to the chair in which Hudson was strapped, and quickly cut the ropes +that held the operator. As quickly he snatched the gag from his mouth. + +"Gee, that was great!" cried Hudson. "I didn't know you knew how to +handle a key. You did fine!" + +"I guess they got the message in time to stop the train. Don't you +think so?" + +"Listen to it now." + +The key was clicking away furiously. The sounds were so fast that +Jack, who was only an amateur and a beginner as a telegrapher, after +all, could not understand. + +"Beaver Dam's sending the word along the line," said Hudson. "The +warning's been acknowledged and the train will be held up. They're +going to send help, too. I hope those fellows don't come back here too +soon. If they'll hold off a few minutes we'll be all right, thanks to +you." + +"Haven't you got a gun, Hank?" asked Jack. + +"Gee, what a fool I am! Of course I have! A peach, too. They gave us +new automatic revolvers--only they don't revolve--a few weeks ago. +I'll get it." + +He was not a moment too soon. The steps of the train wreckers, as they +returned, were heard outside, and in a moment Jack disappeared again. + +"I'll be outside," he called to Hudson, from the window. + +"Pretend to be tied up still, and get them covered. Then try to hold +them in there with your pistol. Don't shoot unless you have to, but +remember that they're bad men, and don't hesitate to shoot if that's +the only thing you can do." + +In another minute the three tramps were inside the little station +again. Hudson had thrown the ropes about his body again, and had +stuffed the handkerchief in his mouth. They gave him a hasty glance. + +"There's something wrong, Tom," said one of them, anxiously. "That +train ought to have been here a good hour ago. Wonder if that clicking +key means that there's anything loose that we ought to know about. We +ought to have had someone along that knows how to read that thing." + +"Throw up your hands!" + +Jack exulted as he heard Hudson, in a firm, ringing voice, give the +order. The operator had nerve--they would catch the robbers in the +neatest sort of a trap. + +He slipped around to the door. + +There was a snarl of rage from one of the men, while the others stood +in helpless surprise. The one who had cried out rushed at Hudson, and +a bullet whizzed by his ear. + +"Stop!" cried Hudson, savagely. "I'll shoot to hit you next time." + +"He's got us--better keep quiet," exclaimed another of the men, with a +savage curse. "That's what we got for leaving them alone here." + +Jack stepped into the station. + +"Keep them covered, Hank," he said. "You forgot me, too, you see," he +said to the men. "Now, keep your hands up and you won't get hurt. You +won't need your pistols where you're going, so I'll just take them away +from you now." + +He was as good as his word, searching them for their concealed weapons, +and putting all three of the pistols that he found in a heap beside +Hudson. Then he released Tom Binns, and in the same moment there was +the sound of a distant whistle. A few minutes later an engineer drew +up outside, drawing a single car, and from it a dozen armed men +streamed into the station, sent post haste from Beaver Dam. + +"Good work, indeed!" said one man, who was the chief of the railroad +detective bureau, Captain Haskins, famed in a dozen states. "This is a +fine haul. Omaha Pete, Tom Galway, and 'Frisco Sammy. Glad to see +you, boys! There are rewards of about eleven thousand dollars for the +three of you. You'll be as welcome as the flowers that bloom in the +spring when the police get hold of you." + +He was curious to know how the three boys, for Hank Hudson himself was +little more than a boy, had effected such a capture, and he was +unstinting in his praise when he heard the story. Hudson insisted on +giving Jack Danby most of the credit, but Jack wouldn't have it that +way. + +"You did the trick with your gun," he said. "I may have given you the +chance and helped to save the train, but you were the one that caught +them." + +"There's credit enough for both of you," said Haskins, kindly. "And +I'm here to see that you get what's coming to you, too, rewards and +all. The road can afford to be grateful to a boy who saved the +Thunderbolt from being wrecked." + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +JACK DANBY'S PERIL + +Tom Binns was in no condition to go to the Scout camp opposite Beaver +Dam, and he was taken back to the city by one of the railway +detectives. Jack Danby was going home with him, but Tom wouldn't hear +of it. + +"They'll be wondering why we didn't turn up after our hike, and maybe +they'll think there's something wrong with us," he said. "You go on to +the camp, Jack, and explain. I'll be all right, sure, tomorrow." + +So Jack, reluctantly enough, for he felt, in a way, that he was +deserting his plucky little comrade, got off the train at Beaver Dam, +and rowed across the lake to the twinkling fire that showed where the +rest of the Scouts were gathered. + +He was welcomed with a shout. + +"But where's Tom Binns?" cried Pete Stubbs finally, when they realized, +suddenly, that the little fellow wasn't with them. + +Then Jack explained. He told of the accident that had turned out, in +the end, to be so fortunate a happening, since, had it not been for +Tom's twisted ankle, they would never have reached the station, and the +train might have been wrecked, with a terrible loss of life. + +"So we couldn't finish our hike tonight, of course," said Jack. "We'll +do it the next time, though. And a week or so doesn't make much +difference." + +A tall, bearded man, with a slouch hat, was sitting with Scout-Master +Durland at the fire, and at Jack's last words he turned to the +Scout-Master with a smile. + +"I think you can afford to waive the strict letter of the rule this +time, Durland," he said. "These boys of yours have certainly proved +their right to be regarded as First Class Scouts. I don't know that +there's any special badge of merit or honor, except the one for +lifesaving, that they are entitled to, but I shall make it my business +to see that the Scout council takes some action on the heroism of Scout +Danby." + +Then Jack learned that the stranger was a member of the National Scout +Council, one of the highest officers of the organization, and a man +famous all over the world as a pioneer and a worker for the things that +the Boy Scouts stand for. + +"You think that Scout Danby is entitled to his badge, then?" said +Durland, unsmiling, and, at the other's quick nod, he called Jack up to +the center of the group around the fire, and pinned the full Scout +badge, of which Jack had thus far been wearing only the bar, to his +breast. + +"You have earned this badge by close attention to duty, and by being +always prepared," said the Scout-Master, while the Scouts of the three +Patrols cheered the reward. "We are all proud of you, Danby, and we +know that you will never do anything to bring discredit upon your +badge, nor do anything that is not strictly in accordance with the +Scout oath that you took when you were first enrolled as a Tenderfoot +Scout." + +There was another burst of cheering at that, and all of the Scouts who +were present crowded up to shake hands with Jack and congratulate him. +Dick Crawford was one of the first, and gripped Jack's hand heartily. + +"I guess you'll get a big reward out of the railroad," he said. +"That's a splendid thing for you, Jack. You can use it to go to +college, if you want to. They ought to be generous." + +"The detective did say something about a reward, Dick, but I'd +forgotten all about it for the moment. It will be divided up among Tom +Binns, Hudson and myself, of course, if there is one. But I wasn't +thinking about that." + +"I know you weren't, Jack, but that's no reason why you shouldn't have +it. It wouldn't be right to do a fine thing just because there was a +reward, but that's no reason why you shouldn't take it. You helped to +capture those fellows, and the chances are that they are well-known +thieves, who are wanted for more than one crime." + +"The detective recognized them, I think, Dick. He called them by name, +and seemed to know all about them. I suppose men who would dare to try +to do a thing like that must be old stagers. No man who was committing +his first crime would try anything so fiendish as wrecking a train and +taking the chance of killing a lot of innocent people, do you think?" + +"I should say not! And there wasn't any chance about it, either. If +the train had been wrecked, going at sixty miles an hour or so, as it +would have been, if it was late, and trying to make up lost time, there +couldn't have been any result but a terrible wreck." + +"I wonder if there were only three of them?" said Jack, thoughtfully. +"I've been thinking since that there may have been others in the gang +that weren't caught. There must have been someone to set the blockade +for the train, and I don't believe those fellows we caught had time to +do everything. They had to put Hudson out of the way, you see, and +keep him from using the telegraph to give warning. I've got an idea +there was at least one other man in it, and maybe more than that, who +didn't show up in the station at all." + +"Well, if that's so, you'd better look out for yourself, Jack, in case +they try to get even with you for spoiling their little game. They'd +be apt to try to take that out of you." + +"Perhaps they won't know I had anything to do with it. And, anyhow, +I'm not sure there was anyone else mixed up in it. That's only a guess +anyhow." + +"I'd be careful, just the same. Don't go around alone at night--though +you'll be safe enough in the city, I guess, unless some of those people +that were mixed up in that kidnapping case get after you." + +"They haven't anything more against me, or any more reason to be sore +at me, than at anyone else that was concerned in the whole job, anyhow. +But I'll keep my eyes open. I'll be glad to turn in pretty soon. I'm +pretty tired." + +"I should think you would be. I am myself, and I haven't done as much +as you." + +Soon after that sentries were posted, and the Scouts, wrapped in their +blankets, were all asleep in their lean-tos. Jack's sleeping partner, +Tom Binns, was not there, so he slept alone, on the edge of the camp, +and some distance from the campfire. + +Tired as he was, he did not get to sleep at once. Out on the lake +puffing motor boats, running back and forth from the big summer hotel +at the head of the lake to the cottages that were clustered near the +dam, made the night noisy. Those people were late risers and they went +to bed late as well. There was a dance at the hotel, and it was well +attended. So the sharp beat of the engines of the little boats +disturbed those who were trying to sleep. Jack was so tired, too, that +it was hard for him to get to sleep. + +He kept thinking of everything that had happened at Haskell Crossing, +and of the desperate minutes in which, while he knew the fate that was +in store for the onrushing train, he had been powerless to prevent the +catastrophe that threatened. And then suddenly, while he was half +asleep and half awake, he remembered something that had escaped him +before, something he had seen and that had been recorded in his brain, +although it was only now that the picture stood out vividly and with +meaning. + +There had been three men in the room with Hank Hudson and Tom Binns +while he had waited at the window and spied upon them. And three men +had returned, after he had seized the chance to give the warning that +had saved the train. But they were not the same three. He remembered +now, with a sudden flash of clear understanding that one of the three +had been a stranger--that of the three who were caught, one was a man +he had not seen before. + +He started up in his blanket. + +"Then there _were_ four of them!" he cried, half aloud. "And one of +them is free, and able to plan new deviltries. I wish they'd caught +them all!" + +But even that thought, disturbing as it was, did not keep him awake +much longer. As he lay there, his tired body resting with the very act +of lying down, he grew gradually more drowsy, and he drifted off asleep +at last with the humming of a power boat on the lake beating against +his ears. + +He slept a long time. The camp was quiet. In the distance an owl +hooted now and then, and until long after midnight the sounds of +activity persisted on the lake. The moon had risen early, and was +setting soon after midnight, so that it was very dark under the trees, +though out on the lake, once the shadow of the trees around the shore +was passed, the stars gave abundant light. And, because he was so +tired, and trusted so entirely to the sentries, Jack had no thought of +watchfulness when he fell asleep, and slept more heavily than was usual +with him when he was in camp with the Scouts. + +The sentries were posted on all sides of the camp, as a rule, but no +one had foreseen the need of any watch on the side of the camp nearest +the lake. Yet it was from that spot that danger came, in the end. + +It was two o'clock when a launch, with silenced engine, glided up to +the beach near the camp, as silently as a rowboat might have done, and +grated softly on the shelving beach. One man, slight and delicate in +appearance, was at her wheel, and from the bow, as she touched bottom, +another stepped out into the water and made his way cautiously, and in +roundabout fashion, toward the sleepers. He was big, strong, and +massive. His face was concealed, or nearly concealed, by a black mask +that hid his eyes and his nose and he walked with the stealthy +footsteps of one long used to avoiding detection as he moved about his +business. He seemed to know what he was doing, and where to go, and +one might have guessed that he had been spying on the camp, to learn +the way in which the sleepers were disposed. He avoided the lean-tos +near the fire, and, sneaking back and around through the woods, he +approached Jack Danby's lean-to from behind. + +For a moment, silent and ominous in the darkness, he stood there, +studying the situation, as it seemed, and making up his mind just how +to accomplish his purpose. Then, drawing a handkerchief from his +pocket, he took the cork from a small bottle and poured its contents on +the handkerchief. At once a strong, sickly, sweetish smell arose, +unhealthy, and unpleasant, in contrast to the strong, fresh smells of +the sleeping woods. Holding this handkerchief in his hand, the +newcomer, a savage grin of ugly satisfaction on his lips, approached +Jack Danby, and, with a motion so swift as to be hardly visible, flung +his hand, with the handkerchief flat on his palm, over Jack Danby's +face. + +Jack awoke at once and struggled for a second. But he could not cry +out, and in a moment the handkerchief, soaked with chloroform, had done +its work, and he lay unconscious. + +Jack was entirely helpless, drugged as he was, and, with a triumphant +leer, the man who had drugged him picked him up, and, moving as +cautiously as ever, carried him to the motor boat. But he had +underestimated the watchfulness of the Scout sentries. At the sudden, +sharp explosions of the engine as it was started, and the launch backed +off the beach, there was a sudden cry from one of the watchers, and in +a moment his shrill whistle aroused the camp, so that a dozen Scouts, +turning out hastily, saw the motor boat back out and turn, as if to +race for the outlet at the foot of the lake, nearly ten miles away. + +For a moment all was confusion in the camp. Awakened suddenly from a +sound sleep, the Scouts could not at first tell what had happened. + +The sentry who gave the alarm had seen only the one thing--the motor +boat backing out from the beach. + +"It's nothing," said Bob Hart, sleepily. "Someone mistook this for +their own landing, and, when they found out their mistake, backed out +and went for their own cottage." + +But Dick Crawford thought suddenly of Jack Danby. + +"Jack!" he shouted. "Jack Danby!" + +There was no answer, and a swift rush to his lean-to proved that it was +empty. Durland and Dick Crawford ran there together, and Durland +recognized the smell of the chloroform at once. + +"There's been foul play here!" he cried, furiously. "Someone has +drugged Jack and carried him away." + +He called for Crawford then, but the Assistant Scout-Master was already +gone to the rescue. + +"Get to the outlet as soon as you can!" he shouted, and they heard him +breaking through the woods to the road that was near by. "I'm going +there on my wheel!" + +Dick had ridden to the camp on his motorcycle, and now they heard the +sharp clatter of its engine as he started it. + +"If they're making for the outlet, he'll head them off," said Durland. +"Hart, take your Patrol and go up to the dam there, in case they went +that way. The rest of you follow me. We'll take Crawford's route, +and see if we can't get there in time to help him. I'm afraid Danby is +in the gravest sort of danger." + +They followed him with a shout, half dressed as most of them were. +Jack Danby didn't lack friends, at least, even if he did have powerful +and determined enemies. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE RESCUE + +Needless to say, it was some time after he was roughly thrown into the +bottom of the motor boat before Jack came to his senses. The +chloroform had taken effect quickly, and the soaked handkerchief had +not remained very long over his mouth and nostrils, or Jack might have +ended his career then and there. As it was, however, the rush of the +cool night air as the swift motor boat sped along the quiet waters of +the lake did a good deal to revive him, and it was, comparatively +speaking, only a short time before he realized where he was--or, +rather, realized that he had been snatched from his blanket, and was +being carried off somewhere, probably by those who had anything but +good-will toward him. + +His first impulse was to cry out, but he checked himself, for he +realized that his best chance just then was to feign an ignorance of +his surroundings that would throw his abductors off their guard. If he +made them think that he was still senseless, he might find some way of +escape opening before him, and he might, too, overhear something that +he could turn to his own advantage. + +It was pitch dark in the bottom of the boat, and his eyes, moreover, +were aching. His whole head throbbed as he came out of the effects of +the deadly drug that had been used to make him helpless, and he decided +that the first thing he should do was to give nature and the healing +air a chance to restore him to his senses and some semblance of a +better physical condition. He was in no state now to do anything to +help himself, and he had no idea of whether or not any of his comrades +had taken the alarm when he was carried off. He was senseless when the +men who had caught him were making their escape, and he had no way of +telling what had happened. + +He guessed, even before he saw the evil face of the man who sat up in +the bow, stripped now of his black mask, and gloating over his success, +that it was one of the trapped and disappointed train wreckers who now +had him in his power, and he shivered a little at the thought of what +his fate might be. A man who had planned such a fiendish crime was not +likely to be anything but brutal in his treatment of one of those who +had helped to foil him, and Jack understood that perfectly well. If he +had needed anything more to make him realize his position it was +supplied in a moment. + +"I wonder if that young whelp's shammin', or if we really knocked him +out with the dope?" asked the man who had worn the mask. + +And, by way of finding out, he lurched back, and kicked Jack brutally +in the ribs. Jack expected the blow, and managed to relax so that no +bones were broken by the kick, though he was sore for hours. Moreover +he fortified himself so that, although the pain of the kick was far +from trifling, he did not cry out. + +Satisfied, the man made his way to the bow. + +"Dead to the world!" he said. "That's all right! We'll get him +through the lock. That's better. I don't want to knock him on the +head and throw him overboard here--his body would turn up too soon. +Once we're through the lock we can get down the river all right, and +they'll never know what happened to him. I hope Dick don't make any +mistake about meeting us with the big boat. This is a tidy little +craft, but she's not meant for deep water sailing." + +"How about the others?" asked the man at the wheel, in a nervous, timid +tone that made Jack grin. Only one of his captors was formidable, +anyhow, and that was something to be thankful for. + +"I don't care about the others," replied the other, with a vile oath. +"They'll have to save themselves. And they'll be in jail for the next +ten years, sure. More fools they for gettin' caught! An' it was only +kids as did them up. If they'd taken my advice, it wouldn't never have +happened." + +"You oughtn't to have stopped for this kid. It was too risky." + +"Risk? My eye! Ain't everythin' we do risky? An' it's the only +chance the others have got, anyhow. He's the biggest witness against +them. He saw their mugs--no one else did. They'll have trouble +getting off, anyhow, even if he ain't there. But he'd finish them, +sure. An' he cost me twenty thousand dollars with his infernal buttin' +in, too. I ain't overlookin' a chance to get hunk with him, the little +rip!" + +He was almost shouting in his rage. + +"Easy there!" said the timid one, in a low tone. "We're getting near +the lock. Look out, or you'll have everyone on to us." + +"Right, oh! I'll shut up. Time enough to attend to him later, anyhow." + +The boat slowed down, now, and Jack guessed that they were near the +lock that formed the outlet of the lake into the river that ran through +the city, the same river on which he had his exciting experience with +the river pirates. Late as it was, the lock was quickly opened at the +insistent, shrill call of the power boat's whistle, and in a moment it +was in the narrow channel that led from river to lake. + +It was Jack's chance. Here, where the banks were close on either side, +if he could slip overboard, there was a chance to swim to the safety of +the shore. He was still weak and dizzy from the effects of the drug, +but he had an idea that if he could get into the water it would +complete the work of reviving him, and he determined to make the +effort. Both of the men who made up the crew of the little craft were +busy as they passed through the lock, and, thinking him unconscious, +they paid no attention to him. + +Silently he slipped to the side. And, a second later, he dropped +overboard. Silent as he was, he made a splash as he struck the water, +and, at the sudden curse from the robber in front, and his quick leap +around, Jack determined on the boldest and the riskiest move he could +have made. But it was also the safest. Instead of striking out at +once for the shore, he slipped around behind the motor boat, and clung +to the stern as it swept along, clear of the propeller, but hidden by +the shadow from the overhanging stern. + +At the same moment there was a sudden outburst of shouts from the +shore, and where all had been silence and darkness lights sprang out +and the forms of excited, running men and boys appeared. + +The headlight of an automobile was suddenly thrown on the scene, and +Jack, guessing who was there, called out that he was safe and in the +water. + +"Swim ashore, Jack," shouted Dick Crawford's welcome voice, and a +moment later, all fear of his captors gone now, Jack was helped up the +steep bank. + +"We got them in a trap," cried Dick Crawford. "I figured they'd have +to come this way. They can't turn around, and the gate of the lock is +closed against them at the river end. They're bottled in here, and +they can't escape, no matter which way they turn." + +In the power boat the big man who had carried Jack off was standing up +now, cursing volubly, and trying to see what lay ahead of him. But it +did not take him long to see and realize that all hope of escape in +that direction was cut off. The boat had come to a full stop, and he +looked about him in desperation, his mask on his face again. He held a +revolver in his hand, but, for some reason, he did not fire. + +"Careful, fellows!" cried Dick Crawford. "He's got a gun there, and +you can't tell how soon he'll begin shooting." + +"Not very soon, Dick," said Jack Danby, with a laugh. "He left his gun +within reach of me, thinking I was still senseless, and I took all the +cartridges out. There was a box half full of cartridges and I dropped +that overboard, too, so I guess his teeth are drawn unless one of them +has another gun." + +"Good work, Jack! He'd find it hard to hit any of us, but it's good to +think he can't even try, anyhow. You surely had your nerve with you to +think of that." + +"I had to, Dick. I was going to make a break for it here in the lock, +anyhow, and I didn't want him to be able to take a shot at me from +behind while I was trying to climb up to the shore. It would have been +too easy for him to hit me, and from the way he talked there's nothing +he'd like better than to use me as a target." + +Suddenly the roar of the boat's engine broke put again. + +"What's he trying to do now?" shouted Dick, racing for the opening of +the lock. + +The gate that barred the boat was in place. But suddenly Dick +understood. The desperado in the launch intended to be true to his +nature. He saw just one chance of escape in a thousand, and he meant +to take it, perilous as it was. + +Straight for the gate he drove the boat. The man at the wheel was +crying out in piteous fear and the burly ruffian stepped back from the +bow, crushed his friend to the deck of the boat with a brutal blow, and +took the wheel himself. + +"They'll both be killed," cried Dick. "He can't mean to drive against +the gate." + +But that was just what was in the desperate robber's mind. He saw and +weighed the chances that were against him, but he was ready to risk +life itself for liberty, and, in that desperate moment even Dick and +Jack, debased as they knew the man to be, could not but admire his +daredevil courage. + +At top speed the launch crushed into the barrier. There was a terrific +crash, and those, including Durland, who stood on the gate, leaped back +precipitately. + +For an instant the timbers shivered. Then, with a crash, they gave +way, and the launch hurled through and dropped to the surface of the +river. There, for a moment, it spun around. But the boat was well +built. It stood the shock, and the next second, swaying from side to +side, it was dashing away, past the possibility of pursuit. Jack was +saved, but the villain had escaped--for the time at least. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +A SWIMMING PARTY + +Though Jack Danby, partly through his own courage and determination, +and partly by reason of Dick Crawford's quick thinking, had escaped +from the hands of the desperado who had so evidently determined to +murder him, Scout-Master Durland was anything but easy in his mind +regarding his friend, as he was proud to call the young Scout who had +done so well whenever he had been put to the test. + +He did not want to alarm Jack himself without cause, but to Dick +Crawford he spoke without hesitation. + +"I'm worried about Jack, Dick," he said. "These villains are quite +capable of making another attack on him, and that would never do." + +"I should say not, sir! He might not get off so lightly another time." + +"That's just what I'm afraid of. If they strike against him once more +they are more than likely to realize that to have a chance against him, +they must strike quickly. If that scoundrel had had the slightest idea +that the alarm had been given, or that poor Jack was conscious, I am +afraid Danby would have had very little chance of his life." + +"It makes me sick to think of what they might have done. That was what +I was thinking of all along as I rode for the lock." + +"You made good time getting there, Dick." + +"I felt as if I had to! I was helpless as long as they were out on the +lake, where it was broad. Even a boat would have been useless. If +they had seen a boat making for them, they would have known at once +that they were in danger, and would have either gotten rid of Jack or +made a desperate stand, with a good chance of beating off any attack. +The lock was the only place to reach them--and that meant fast moving, +or I would have been too late." + +"Well, what I meant to say was that we ought, if it is at all possible, +to take steps to see that Jack does not again expose himself to any +such risk. He is too valuable a Scout to have him take chances that +are not necessary." + +"Especially since he doesn't seem to know what fear is. He never stops +to think of the effect of anything he does upon himself. He goes ahead +and trusts to luck, if he thinks that it is his duty to do anything, if +there seems to be danger. So, when there is no need of his being in +peril, it is only right to do all we can to guard him." + +"Tom Binns and Pete Stubbs are devoted to him, aren't they, Dick?" + +"I think either one of them would go through fire or water for him if +there was need." + +"Well, then, suppose you get hold of them quietly, without letting Jack +learn anything about what you are planning, and have them keep a close +watch on his movements. They can do it without arousing his suspicion, +and, if he seems likely to do anything that would give these fellows a +chance to get at him, we will interfere, if possible, and spoil their +little plan." + +"That's the idea, sir! Those two boys will be trustworthy, and they've +got a lot of good horse sense, too." + +"This may prove a very important commission for the two of them, though +I hope, of course, that we are afraid of a shadow, and that Jack has +nothing more to fear from these men." + +Tom Binns and Pete Stubbs were delighted when Dick Crawford told them +what he wanted them to do. + +"Gee, Dick," said Pete, "that makes us like a couple of sure enough +detectives, don't it?" + +"Yes--except that you're supposed to prevent anything crooked from +being done, and not simply to find out how it was done afterward, and +who did it. We don't want any work for detectives that Jack Danby is +the centre of." + +"I understand," said Tom Binns. "Pete and I are just to keep our eyes +open, and if we think Jack is running into any danger, we're to let you +know, so that you can help to keep him out of it." + +"I think there's more than one person would like to see Jack out of the +way," said Pete Stubbs, thoughtfully. "You know, he's told me +something lately about this queer business of his name. It looks +mighty funny to me. There are people, he says, who know who his father +and mother were, and who are mighty angry and sorry that he's left +Woodleigh and dropped out of their sight." + +"Is that so, Pete?" asked Dick, surprised, since he had heard nothing +of all this. + +"Yes, indeed! There was a man who has been up at Woodleigh, trying to +find out exactly where Jack had gone, and what he was doing. Jack +seemed to think that this man was satisfied to have him up at +Woodleigh, where people wouldn't see much of him and weren't likely to +be curious about who he was." + +"And where anyone who wanted to could keep tabs on him pretty well, eh? +That's easier to do in a little country place like that, where everyone +knows the business of everyone else, than it would be in a big city +like this, isn't it?" + +Dick was very thoughtful. + +"I've heard funny stories about Jack Danby and his name," he went on. +"In fact, Jack's told me himself that Danby really isn't his name at +all, and that he has no idea of what his real name is. As he gets +older, naturally, it means a great deal to him that he isn't like all +the rest of us, and doesn't know all about himself. It doesn't make +any difference to his real friends, but it bothers him, naturally. I +think we'll have to see if we can't help him solve that mystery, don't +you?" + +"I'd give anything if I could make Jack happy by telling him all about +himself!" cried little Tom Binns, full of love and loyalty for the +friend who had always done so much for him. + +"Well, we'll see," said Dick. "Meantime, if Jack has the best name in +the world, it wouldn't do him much good if it had to be carved on a +tombstone before he's had a chance to use it at all, and if that fellow +that carried him off from our camp ever gets another chance at him, +that's what he'll be needing." + +It wasn't like Dick Crawford to be alarmed by anything as a rule, and +the two Scouts were mightily impressed by his solemn tone and the +warning he gave, as he meant them to be. He didn't want them to go +into the work of guarding Jack as if he were simply a figure in a new +and fascinating game. He wanted them to take the task very seriously, +and give their best efforts to it. And, after such a speech, he had no +doubt that they would carry out his intentions, and that if there were +any way of making Jack safe from future attacks they would find it. + +Jack himself suffered no ill effects worth mentioning from his rough +experience, unpleasant as it had been. + +"Gee, Jack," said Pete Stubbs, when he saw his chum the morning after +his rescue, "one would think, just to look at you, that you liked +having a chap chloroform you and kick you around a little bit of a +boat. You look great!" + +"I had a good night's sleep, Pete. That's why. Look at the time--it's +the middle of the afternoon, isn't it? I felt a lot more tired the day +after that baseball double header than I do right now. They didn't +really hurt me, you see. And that swim in the cold water was just what +I needed to make me feel fine after it, too. That chased the headache +the drug gave me, and set me up in fine shape." + +"I tell you why, Jack. It's because you always take a lot of exercise +and look after yourself all the time, that things like that don't upset +you." + +"Say, Pete, Tom Binns is coming around here again, later. I feel so +good that I think I'd like to go and do something this afternoon. What +do you say? I think it would be fine to go down to the lake and have a +great old swim. Summer don't last so long that I want to miss any of +the swimming while it's as good as it is now." + +"I'll go you!" said Pete, never thinking that it might be just such +expeditions that Dick Crawford was afraid of. "Say, wouldn't it be +fine to live in a place where you can go swimming all the year round, +like Florida, or California, or some place like that?" + +"I don't know that it would, Pete. I think all the seasons are good, +in their own time. You wouldn't like never to see the snow, or to be +in a place where it never froze and made ice for skating, would you?" + +"Say, Jack, I never thought of that! That's a funny thing about you. +You never go off the way the rest of us do, without thinking about +things. You think of all sides of anything. I wish I was like that. +I wouldn't make so many fool breaks!" + +"Old Dan used to catch me up every time I said anything in a hurry," +explained Jack, with a smile. "I guess that's the reason I'm that way, +if I really am, Pete. It isn't that I'm any more likely to think of +things than you, but that I've been trained that way. Whenever I said +anything reckless, or quick, Old Dan used to ask me why I said it, and +make me try to prove it. So I got to thinking about everything I said +before I let myself say it, and I've sort of kept up the habit." + +"I'm going to try to be like that, too, Jack. I think it's a good way +to be." + +"Well, here's Tom Binns! Want to go swimming with us, Tom?" + +"You bet I do, Jack! Sure you feel well enough, though? You don't +want to take any chances on being sick after what you were up against +last night, you know." + +"No. I'll be all right. Come on." + +So they went off. The day was warm, but overcast, and there was a +threat of a thunderstorm in the sultriness of it. But they cared +little for that. + +"If we're going to get wet," said Pete, "we might as well do it +comfortably. We won't be any wetter for a thunderstorm than if the sun +were shining if we're in swimming." + +They changed their clothes in a little hut at the camping place, and +went in from the little sandy beach there, the presence of which was +one of the reasons the Scouts had favored it for a camping ground. + +They had not been in the water very long before great drops of water, +began to fall, and then, with a howling of wind, the threatened storm +came down. They laughed and enjoyed the novelty of being in the water +in such weather, since they were in a sheltered cove. Presently the +wind died down and furious thunder and lightning came to take its +place, but that didn't bother them, either. It was not until, after a +vivid flash and an immediate roar of thunder, cries of distress came +from the lake, that they were aroused. They looked out, and saw a +burning launch. + +"Gee," cried Pete Stubbs, his face white, "the lightning must have +fired their gasolene tank! Let's get out there and see if we can't +help." + +At once they swam to the rescue. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE BURNING LAUNCH + +The launch fortunately was not very far out. Had it been more than a +hundred feet or so from shore no one could have done much for the +unfortunate party on board, since beyond the shelter of the cove the +lake was like a stormy sea, with white-capped waves defying swimmers, +and giving even the stoutest of the craft that had been caught in the +squall all they could do to make headway against the wind. + +The three Scouts, swimming strong and fast, saw as soon as they were +within plain sight of the launch that she was doomed. The fire had +spread with a rapidity that would have been astonishing had it been +anything but gasolene that supplied fuel for the flames over the after +portion of the boat, where the tank had been. Up in the bow, huddled +together, and shrieking for help, were two men and two women. They +seemed to be terrified, and none of them had thought to seek safety by +dropping overboard. They seemed, indeed, to prefer to stay and wait +for the fire to reach them, which it threatened to do at any moment. + +It was no time to waste breath on words, but Jack, who had taken +command of the situation, as he always seemed to do, held his head well +out of the water to see what lay in front of them and then turned to +his companions. + +"They can't swim," he said. "We'll have to make them jump overboard, +though, and take a chance in the water. Then, if they don't get +troublesome, we'll probably be able to keep them up until help comes. +You know how to choke them if they try to drag you down. And don't +hesitate, even if it's a woman. It's better to be rough with them than +to let them drown." + +Even in the water the heat from the blazing launch was terrific as the +three Scouts approached the burning boat. For those on board it was +even worse. The flames were almost touching them as Jack and the +others got within a boat length of the burning boat, and Jack cupped +his hands and shouted through them, so that those on board could hear +him above the roar of the flames and their own cries of terror and +distress. + +"Jump into the water!" he cried. "Don't struggle, and we'll be able to +hold you up all right. But jump quick--it's your only chance!" + +One of the women--she was a girl, not more than twenty, Jack +thought--jumped at once. Sparks had set her hair on fire, but the +water put that out as soon as she was in it, and Pete Stubbs, who was +nearest to her, swam to her at once, and supported her in the water. +She was plucky, and made no attempt to interfere with him. He told her +to put her hand on his shoulder and keep perfectly still, and she +obeyed without question. + +"Good work!" cried Jack. "Swim ashore with her, Pete, and then come +back here. We need all the help we can get if these others are scared +to jump." + +But whether they were scared or not, the fire left them no choice after +a moment more. One after another the three of them jumped. + +The two men, who were both fairly young, seemed to be plucky enough. +They waited quietly enough for Tom Binns to swim to them, and, by +treading water, he was able to let each one of them put a hand on his +shoulder, so that they could keep their own heads out of water. He +couldn't swim with them, but he could, at least, keep them from sinking +until help came. That could not be very long, since the blazing launch +was a signal of danger and the need of help for everyone who could see +it. + +But Jack's task was more difficult and dangerous by far, both for +himself and for the woman he was trying to save. She had been mad with +terror when she jumped, and, as soon as she felt Jack's arm about her, +after she had struck the water, she fastened both her arms about him +convulsively, and began dragging him down with her. Her strength was +greater than Jack's, since she was a big, powerful woman, and Jack had +no chance to break her hold on him by ordinary methods. + +"Let go!" he cried. "I'll save you if you'll leave me alone and just +put your hand on my shoulder. You'll drag us both down if you keep +this up!" + +But she only shrieked the louder, when her lungs were not so full of +water as to silence her, and Jack felt his strength going, and knew, +that in order to save either of them, he must be brutal. So, without a +moment's hesitation he seized her hair, which had come down about her +shoulders, and pulled until he wondered why it did not come out by the +roots. + +She continued to shriek, but it was with pain now instead of fright, +and in a moment her arms relaxed their desperate grip about Jack's arms +and shoulders, so that he was free. She continued to struggle like a +madwoman, however, and, since there was nothing else to do, Jack hit +her again and again, until she was afraid of him, and ready to do what +he told her. + +It had taken him some time, and as he turned with the woman he had +saved, limp and helpless now, to swim for the shore, Pete Stubbs passed +him. + +"Want any help, Jack?" cried Pete. + +"No, thanks! We're all right now. Go on out and help Tom and the two +he's got, Pete. You two can get them ashore all right, I guess." + +Only the woman that Jack had saved was in need of attention when they +were all finally ashore. She was half drowned, thanks to the struggle +she had put up after she had jumped into the water, but it was not much +of a task to revive her, and when she had regained her senses she, like +the others, was grateful. Jack himself was tired and pretty well +exhausted by his exertions, but he cared little for that, since he had +been successful. A few minutes' rest, and he was all right. + +"Our launch--it's burned up, I guess!" cried the girl who had been so +sensible and plucky, the one who had let Pete Stubbs tow her ashore +without making a single movement to hamper him in any way. "Look, the +fire seems to be out, but I don't believe there's much left of the poor +little boat." + +The driving rain and the lake water had, indeed, put the fire out, and +the blackened hull of the launch, which had drifted slightly toward the +shore, was floating quietly now. + +"I'll swim out and see what sort of shape she's in," said Jack. +"Perhaps she's worth saving yet. The engine may be all right, with a +little repair work, and I think I can tow her in without much trouble. +She's drifted pretty close in already." + +He plunged in at once, without heeding the protests from the rescued +ones, who said he had already done more than enough for them. A minute +of fast swimming took him out to the launch, and he climbed aboard, +cautiously, to see what damage had been done. The boat smelled most +unpleasantly of the fire, and he found that the engine would need a +good deal of attention before it would be of service again. But the +forward part of the boat had suffered comparatively slight damage, as +Jack saw with pleasure. Then, suddenly, as he looked around him, he +saw something that made him jump. + +"It can't be!" he exclaimed to himself. + +But a few moments of examination convinced him that he had made no +mistake. He searched the boat then from stem to stern, and, when he +had satisfied himself, he dropped overboard again, after making a rope +he had carried with him from the shore fast to the launch, and towed +her leisurely in, until her keel grated on the beach, and the men who +had been on board pulled her up beyond high water mark. + +As soon as he could then Jack drew Pete Stubbs aside. + +"Say, Pete," he said, in a low tone, and tremendously excited, "here's +a queer business! That launch is the one that was used to carry me off +last night. I'm absolutely certain! I stayed on board long enough to +make sure. Do you suppose these people can be mixed up with that +scoundrel? It's the same boat--and if you'll notice, when you get a +chance, she's been patched up in front, right where she must have been +smashed up in going through that lock. What do you make of that?" + +Pete looked frightened as he realized what it might mean. + +"I know one thing we ought to do," he said. "That is let Tom Binns get +hold of Dick Crawford right away and tell him about this. There's +something mighty funny doing, and I don't think we can get at the +bottom of it by ourselves." + +"That's a good idea, Pete! Tom's the fastest runner. You get him off +by himself and tell him to get Dick Crawford. They'll have to stay +around here until their clothes dry off, anyhow, so I guess we can +manage to hold them here until he comes back." + +Tom had already put on his clothes, and he was able to slip off +quietly, so as not to arouse the suspicions of the shivering castaways, +who, muffled in blankets that were kept by the Boy Scouts in the hut +near the beach, were waiting while their clothes dried out. + +When he had gone off Jack and Pete busied themselves with making a +fire. It was still raining, but not very hard, but if the clothes of +those from the burned boat were to be dried that night a fire was +necessary. And, as they worked, Jack got a chance to examine the party +more closely. + +The men didn't please him very much as he looked them over. They +looked like cheap, flashy fellows, who might be fond of drinking and +smoking because they thought it made them look like men. Indeed, one +of them, as soon as the fire was made, and he had seated himself as +close to it as possible, asked Jack if he had a cigarette or the +makings of one, and seemed scornful when Jack told him that he never +smoked. + +The woman who had given Jack so much trouble, too, was hard of face and +unpleasant in her speech. She scowled at Jack as if she resented the +rough way he had handled her, and seemed entirely forgetful now of the +fact that he had had to treat her in just that way to save his life--to +say nothing of her own. But the younger girl, whose hair had been on +fire when she jumped, was sweet of face, and had been trying to show +how grateful she was ever since she had been brought ashore. She +looked sadly out of place when compared to her companions, and Jack +wondered mightily how she came to be with them. He couldn't say +anything about it, however, and he and Pete busied themselves with +trying to make those they had rescued comfortable. After all, Jack +thought, these people had been in the gravest sort of peril, and it +made no difference whether they were pleasant or not. To go to the +rescue had been no more than their duty as Scouts, and no Scout is ever +supposed to stop and think about personal likes or dislikes when he has +a chance to be of service to anyone in trouble or danger and needs help +a Scout can give. + +Jack, looking around for Pete Stubbs after he had been off to bring up +a fresh supply of dry firewood, since the wood all about the fire +itself was damp and too wet to burn with the bright heat that was +needed to dry the clothes of the victims of the fire, found that his +red-headed chum was missing. The two women, in fact, were the only +ones about. He looked in surprise for the men of the party, and then +spoke. + +"Your friends haven't gone off without their clothes?" he said. + +"No," replied the older woman. "They've just gone off to have a look +at the launch, and they look like red Indians. I'm sure our clothes +are taking long enough to dry--and when we get them, I suppose we'll +have to walk miles and miles to get anywhere!" + +"We're lucky to be able to walk at all," said the girl, interrupting, +then. "I think we ought to be very grateful, Mrs. Broom, instead of +complaining so much about what's a very little discomfort, anyhow." + +Jack liked her for that speech, as he had already liked her for the +pluck she had shown. But before he could answer her, he was seized +suddenly from behind, and a cloth was thrown over his head, so that he +could not cry out. He heard the girl scream, and one of the men shout +roughly to her to keep out and not interfere. Then he was carried away +swiftly. + +But his captivity did not last very long. Before he had been carried +more than a hundred paces the man who was carrying his head stumbled +suddenly, and, cursing, went down in a heap. The one behind, who had +Jack's feet, fell over him, and Jack, active as a cat, worked himself +free in a second, and twisted the bag from his head. + +"Soak 'em, Jack!" cried a cheery voice, and he realized that Pete +Stubbs, alarmed in some way, had been ready to rescue him, and had +seized the exact moment to do it. Now Pete, with a cry of exultation, +snatched the blankets from the two men, who were struggling with one +another on the ground, and ran off with them. + +"Get their clothes, Jack!" he shouted. "They were carrying them in a +bundle. They can't go very far that way." + +Jack laughed as he saw the dark bundle of clothes and picked it up. +Then he ran swiftly after Pete, chuckling at the savage threats and +exclamations from the two men, who, without a stitch of clothing, would +certainly not dare to pursue them very far, for fear of being seen in +that state of nature, as well as for the brambles and thorns that would +scratch them if they attempted to make their way through the woods +without the protection of clothes and, more especially, shoes. + +At the camp they found Dick Crawford, who had returned with Tom Binns. +The two women, their clothes dry by this time, had taken possession of +the hut to make themselves presentable, and Dick in silent astonishment +heard Jack's story. + +"There's something queer behind all this," said he. "The attack those +fellows made on Jack shows that they are pretty hard characters. Why, +he'd just saved their lives for them!" + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE MYSTERY DEEPENS + +They stood together for a moment, puzzled and silent, trying to figure +out what it could mean. The two women were quiet. So far they had had +nothing to do with the attack on Jack. In the distance, perhaps a +hundred feet or so away, they could hear the men, whose clothes Jack +and Pete had taken, cursing and demanding that their property be +returned. + +"Keep quiet, you!" Dick Crawford called to them. "You'll get your +things when you've given some account of yourselves and we're ready to +give them to you. If you make any more disturbance around here, you +won't get them at all. Remember that!" + +A deep silence followed, and Pete laughed. + +"Guess that scared them some, Dick," he said. "I don't think they'd +fancy the idea of going back to the city that way. In funny papers, if +a man loses his clothes, he always fetches up with a barrel. But I +always did wonder where he found the barrel!" + +Dick looked doubtfully at the little heap of clothing. + +"I don't suppose we ought to leave them out there without any clothes +at all," said he. "But I do think, after the way they've acted, that +we've got a right to look and see if there are any weapons. They would +be useless, in any case, after the wetting they've had, but--" + +He picked up the coats of the two men and shook out the pockets. Sure +enough, a pistol fell from each, and from one there also dropped a +black mask. + +"That doesn't look very well for them," he said. "I think, Tom, you'd +better go to a telephone and see if you can get Captain Haskin to meet +us here. He or some of his railroad detectives may know something +about these people." + +Tom hurried off at once to obey the order, for such it was, though +Dick, as he almost always did, had put the order in the form of a +simple request. Then Dick looked more carefully at the things that had +fallen from the pockets. + +"Hello!" he cried, suddenly. "Say, Jack, look here! Here's a letter +postmarked from Woodleigh. That's where you came from, isn't it?" + +"Yes, it is!" cried Jack, on the alert, as always, at a sign of any +sort from the town where he had spent his boyhood. + +"I think we've got a right to open this," said Dick, "though looking at +letters that aren't addressed to one is pretty small business, as a +rule. However, when people do the sort of thing that these fellows so +nearly got away with tonight they don't have a right to expect decent +treatment from others." + +He looked grave when he had finished reading. + +"This letter seems to concern you, Jack," he said. "It's from a lawyer +up there, and it's addressed to a man called Silas Broom, at the +General Delivery window of the post office in the city here. It says +that the boy Jack Danby, about whom Mr. Broom was making inquiries, +left Woodleigh some months ago, and has since, it is supposed, been +working near here. Now why does anyone want to know about you? And +why does this fellow Broom, if that is really his name, have to hear +this? He is a great scoundrel, whatever his name is." + +"You quit callin' my husband names. Who are you, I'd like to know?" + +The older woman emerged suddenly from the hut, in time to hear Dick's +last words, and she faced him now like a fury, her arms akimbo, and her +eyes snapping. She looked around suspiciously, too. + +"Where's Silas?" she asked, angrily. "What have you done with him? +Ain't those his clothes there?" + +She snatched the clothes up in an instant. Before Dick, who was +astonished by her appearance, could check her she had torn the coat +from his hands. + +"Silas!" she yelled. "Where are you, honey?" + +"Here I am--out in the woods," cried her husband, frantically. +"They've stolen my clothes, Carrie. Get 'em, and bring 'em here, will +you?" + +"Comin'!" she called, and darted off with surprising speed, considering +her weight and the terrible exhaustion that had seemed to afflict her +when she was being brought ashore from the launch. + +Dick and the two Scouts were laughing, although a bit ruefully, as she +vanished. + +"I can't touch a woman," said Dick, sadly. "I'm afraid I'll have to +admit that I'd like to--but I guess she could lick me at that, if she +was put to it. Is that the one you dragged ashore, Jack?" + +"That's the one!" said Jack. "It's a wonder she didn't drown the two +of us. But she certainly seems to have recovered pretty completely." + +"It's bad business," said Dick, frowning. "Those fellows will get away +now. The only hold we had on them was that they didn't have any +clothes. Now they'll make tracks, and all ye can do is to tell Captain +Haskin what they looked like and what they did. I think we look pretty +foolish, myself." + +Just then the girl, who had won Jack's admiration by her courage when +she was in real danger and by her reproof of the others when they had +shown their ingratitude, stepped into the firelight, fully dressed. +She did not look at all as if she belonged with the others. She was +more refined, gentler, and sweeter in every way. Dick Crawford stared +at her in astonishment. Jack had told him about her, but, since seeing +the others, he had thought that Jack had made a mistake in praising her. + +"I beg your pardon," he said, speaking to her as she stopped and looked +about her, evidently puzzled by the absence of her companions. "But +I'm afraid we'll have to ask you to tell us what you can of the people +you were with. You are not related to them, are you?" + +"No," she said. "No, indeed! I came with them because they promised +to show me how to reach a certain person for whom my father has been +searching for a long time. Then, of course, there was the fire on the +launch. But even before that they had kept putting me off, and I +didn't like the way they were acting at all. Where are they now?" + +"I wish I knew!" said Dick. "However, we can talk more about them +later. I think that now the best thing we can do is to get you back to +the city. Your father will meet you there, I suppose, won't he?" + +"Yes," she said. "My father is not at all well, and he is quite an old +man. We are staying at the Hotel Lincoln. I came with them alone, +though father didn't want me to, because they were so very positive +that our chase was nearly over." + +"I think it's my duty to tell you," said Dick, "that these people who +were with you seem to be a very bad lot. They made an attempt to +kidnap this boy, who helped to save the lives of your whole party, and +we have every reason to suppose that they are associated with a gang of +thieves who have a grudge against him. I think you had better let us +take you back to your father. And if you will follow my advice, you +will have nothing more to do with any of them. They will only lead you +into danger and trouble." + +Dick was anxious to question the girl further, but she was much shaken, +and in no condition to tell him anything more. So they all went back +to town together, and Dick himself acted as Miss Burton's escort to her +hotel. + +"I will follow your advice," she promised him. "If any of those people +try to see me again, I will refuse to have anything to do with them. +But won't you come to see us, and perhaps you will be able to help us +in our search?" + +"I'll be glad to do that," said Dick. "But if those people approach +you again, it might be better to pretend that you still trust them. +Don't put yourself in their hands in any way, but try to get them to +talk to you. In that way you may be able to get valuable information +that would otherwise not be available at all." + +Captain Haskin, the head of the detective service of the railroad on +which Jack Danby's bravery had averted a terrible wreck, was much +concerned when he heard the story of the rescue and the ungrateful +conduct of those whose lives had been saved. + +"We've got to look after Danby," he said. "He's an important witness +for us, and if he turns up missing, it's going to be more difficult to +get a conviction, though perhaps not impossible. But I think there's +more than that in their attempt to get rid of him." + +"What do you mean, Captain?" asked Dick Crawford. + +"Why, I don't know, my boy. But these people are not loyal enough to +one another as a rule to lead them to run such risks as these villains +have encountered just to get rid of a witness who may be damaging to +some of them who have been captured. When one or two of them are +caught, those who escape are usually so glad to get off free themselves +that they disappear and make no effort to help those who were not so +fortunate. The fact that they have kept after Danby this way is very +suspicious." + +"Well, I happen to know," said Dick, "that there are people who seem to +have a grudge against Jack, or at least who have an interest in +maintaining a mystery that exists as to his birth. I don't like to +talk about that as a rule, because it's his own-business, but I'd +better tell you. He does not know his real name, or who his parents +were, and it is the ambition of his life to discover them. Since he +came away from Woodleigh, attempts have been made to find out what has +become of him, and a man who was concerned in an attempt to rob me of a +considerable sum of money that I was carrying for my employer is one of +those who seems most anxious to find out all about Jack. He knows the +secret of his birth." + +"That would explain," said the detective, "the whole business at once. +Now, you see, you've given me something to work on. The railroad can't +feel at ease until all the men concerned in that plot that so nearly +wrecked the Limited the other night are safely in jail. It isn't that +we're vindictive, but when men are ready to imperil the lives of the +passengers on the trains we run, it isn't safe for us to let them be at +large. They may make another attempt, and there is no way of being +sure that the next time we shall be able to stop them. It was all a +matter of luck that blocked their plan before--and we can't trust to +luck in such matters. It might cost a hundred lives to do so." + +"Well, if we can help you in any way, you can depend on us to do +anything in our power, Captain. I think any of our boys in the Scouts +would do anything for Jack Danby, and, of course, we want to do +anything we can to help the railroad safeguard its trains, for the sake +of all the people who have to ride on them." + +"The most important thing right now is to see that nothing happens to +Danby. They have been so bold and so determined in their efforts to +put him out of the way already that I am afraid they are not likely to +stop at the two attempts. One thing seems very curious to me. The man +who carried him off from the camp was entirely willing to kill +him--planned to do so, didn't he?" + +"So Jack says. And he is not the sort to be scared by idle threats." + +"Just so! But now here is a queer thing. These people that tried to +carry him off to-day used the same boat as the man who took him from +the camp. Presumably they would have served him the same way as the +other scoundrel would have done. And yet they seem also to want to get +in touch with Jack himself--and not for the purpose of killing him.. +It looks as if they were working at cross purposes--as if they did not +know that the boy who foiled the train-wrecking plot and the one they +have lost are one and the same. Don't you see?" + +"I certainly do! Say, this is a confused affair, isn't it?" + +"It's like a Chinese puzzle. But we'll work it out somehow." + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +AN UNGRATEFUL PARENT + +When his work was done the next day, Jack Danby found Dick Crawford +waiting for him. + +"Jack," said the Assistant Scout-Master, "I don't want to raise any +false hopes in you, but I think we're on the verge of finding out +something about you--about who you really are, and all that." + +"How, Dick? I'd give anything if that were true!" + +"We were awfully stupid not to think of it last night, Jack. You know +that pretty girl, that Miss Burton, who was on the burning launch? She +wasn't like the others--we all saw that. She wasn't their sort at all! +Well, she said she was with them because she believed that they were +going to be able to lead her to someone that her father had been +searching for." + +"You mean I might be the one they were looking for, Dick?" + +"I don't know, Jack, but it looks possible. Not that she might not be +looking for someone else. But she was with these people, and one of +those men had a letter about you from the lawyer up at Woodleigh. I +don't believe they really meant to lead her to you at all. I think +that there are people who are spending their time in making it +impossible for those who are really interested in you to get any trace +of you." + +"Then why should they have told her they could find me, if it really is +I she's looking for?" + +"They might think it better to fool her, Jack, than to let her deal +with people who would treat her honestly. If she thought they were +helping her, and trying to earn a reward, if there is one, she and her +father would be unlikely to go to anyone else. And as long as they +could convince her that they were doing their best they would be in +complete control of the situation, you see." + +"That certainly sounds as if it might be right, Dick. What do you +think we'd better do?" + +"Go and see Mr. Burton and his daughter right away. I'm certain of one +thing: that girl is all right. She's true and honest, no matter what +sort of people may have deceived her and have induced her to fall into +their plans and ways. She thinks she's doing the right thing. Depend +on that!" + +"I think you're right about her, Dick. I thought she was different +from the others at once. She was so plucky and so cool, and she helped +Pete all she could when he swam ashore with her, instead of getting +frightened and making it harder, as the old woman did. She was all +right." + +"Well, we'll go there right away. They're at the Hotel Lincoln. +That's the best hotel in town, you know, so I guess they're people who +are pretty well to do." + +They had not long to wait at the hotel before they were asked to go up +to the suite of rooms occupied by Mr. Burton and his daughter. + +The girl, who looked much better, naturally, since she had had a good +rest, and a change of clothing, greeted them with a good deal of +friendly interest, but her father, who walked with a stick, seemed to +be querulous and inclined to distrust them. + +"A fine lot of people we've run into since we've come here!" he said. +"Molly, who are these people?" + +"Mr. Crawford warned me against Broom and his wife, father," she said. +"I told you of that. And this is Jack Danby, who helped to save us all +from the launch." + +"Well, what do you want? What do you want?" asked Mr. Burton, +peevishly. "Money? I'll give you some--but don't come bothering me!" + +"I don't want any of your money, sir, and neither does Danby," said +Dick, indignant and surprised by this reception. He looked at the +girl. She seemed to be as angry as he was himself, and had flushed +until her face was a bright pink. He thought she looked even prettier +than before, but she also looked frightened, as if, while angry, she +dared not provoke her father further by seeming to resent what he said. + +"We came here," said Dick, facing the old man, "because we have an idea +that we can help you in your search. You are looking for a boy, are +you not?" + +"Yes, yes!" said the old man. "It's a wild goose chase--we'll never +find him! It's a cousin of Molly's--my daughter--and my nephew. A +worthless young scamp, probably, even if he's alive. No use looking +for him--let him stay lost, I say! He's less trouble that way." + +"The reason I say that I think we may be able to help you, sir, is that +we think the gang that had your daughter with them yesterday are on the +trail of the boy you are looking for. Can you not tell us what you +know of his movements?" + +"I don't see why I should! You're probably just another of the +blackmailing crowd that's been after my money since I was fool enough +to allow myself to be persuaded to look for the boy. He was stolen +from my brother's house when he was a very small boy. We had reason to +suspect a man who had a grudge against my brother. That's the only +clue we have." + +"That's not worth very much by itself, sir. But it happens that I know +of a boy who was mysteriously brought up by an old man. He knows +nothing of his parentage. But he does know, and his friends know, +also, that there are people who know all about him, and that these +people are very anxious to keep him from learning the truth about +himself. And these people who have been trying to locate this boy +lately are connected with the ones who were with your daughter last +night--people with whom no young woman ought ever to be trusted by her +father!" + +Dick was furious by this time at the way in which Mr. Burton treated +him, and he forgot, for the moment, the respect due to age and +infirmity. He regarded Burton as a careless father, who should be made +to understand that he had been criminally careless in allowing so +beautiful a girl to be left in the power of wretches like those who had +been on the boat when it took fire, and he had no mind to be polite and +diplomatic. + +"Get out of my room, you impudent young rascal!" shouted Mr. Burton +when he realized what Dick was saying. "Don't you think I can see +through your game, eh?" + +He shook his stick threateningly at Dick. + +"I'm not afraid of you, sir," said Dick. "I told the truth, and I +think you know it. We're not going to stay here--but I warn you that +you may be sorry before this business is cleared up. You'll trust a +scoundrel like Broom, and yet, when we come to you with an offer to +help you in your search, you insult us!" + +Molly Burton, frightened and distressed by the turn matters had taken, +tried to make peace, but her efforts were of no avail. Her father +ordered the two of them out of his rooms, and they could do nothing but +go. + +"Well, we didn't gain much by going there," said Dick. "I'm sorry I +lost my temper, Jack, but it would have been pretty hard not to, when +he was talking and acting that way." + +"I wonder if he can really be my uncle, though, Dick. I don't know +that I'd be so crazy to have him for a relative, but I would like to +think that pretty girl was my cousin!" + +"She's all right, isn't she, Jack? But we have gained something, at +any rate. We've got some sort of a starting point. Now, if we can get +Captain Haskin to help us, we may be able to start with the time when +you turned up at Woodleigh, and trace some of Old Dan's movements. In +that way, you see, it may be possible to get at the truth. It's a +little more than we knew before we went to see them, at any rate." + +"I think if we could see Miss Burton alone, Dick, she would treat us +better, and tell us anything she knew." + +"I'm sure of that, Jack. I'll try to see her, too. It seems wrong to +try to do anything of that sort without letting her father know, but we +haven't any choice. He certainly wouldn't allow her to see me if he +knew that she was planning anything of that sort. I'll try that in the +morning." + +But in the morning when Dick went to the hotel, he was told that Mr. +Burton and his daughter were gone, and that they had left no address. +No one at the hotel could give him any idea of where they might be +found, and they had left no orders, it was said, about the forwarding +of any letters that might come for them. Dick, resourceful as he was, +felt that he was facing a blind wall. There was nothing more for him +to do. He could only wait, and trust that chance, or the detective +abilities of Captain Haskin, would enable him to pick up the trail +again. + +Jack Danby, needless to say, was bitterly disappointed when he heard +what Dick had to tell him the next evening, after his fruitless effort +to see the Burtons again. Jack had never wavered in his belief that +some time he would settle the mystery of his birth, that had worried +him ever since he had been able to understand that he was set apart +from others. To see a chance now and then just as he felt that he was +about to read the secret have that chance vanish, was doubly hard. It +was worse than if he had never had the hope of success. + +But he tried hard not to let Dick Crawford see how badly the incident +made him feel. Dick had done what he had for the best, and he had +honestly thought that there was a chance for Jack's great ambition to +be realized. He felt as disappointed as did Jack himself. + +"Gee, Jack," he said, "who'd ever guess that a sweet girl like that +would have such an old curmudgeon of a father? He's the limit! But +there's nothing we can do right away. I think Captain Haskin will be +able to find out where they came from, and where they've gone to +without any trouble--that's the sort of thing detectives are supposed +to be able to do." + +"But if the old gentleman won't help us at all it's going to be pretty +hard to get anything done. I've seen crusty old fellows like that +before. When they've been deceived in a person it takes a long time +before they're willing to trust anyone else--and, of course, you can't +blame them so very much, at that. + +"I'm not going to give up, Dick, anyhow. I'm surer than ever now that +the secret of who I am is worth a lot of trouble, and I'll find out +what it is if I never do anything else!" + +"At that rate you're bound to win, Jack. Keep on trying." + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE MOVING PICTURES + +Captain Haskin, though he took no one into his confidence as to just +what he was doing, impressed Dick and Jack alike as a man who, once +started, would never drop any undertaking until he was successful. He +might not always succeed, but failure in his case would never be due to +lack of effort. So they were not surprised when he came to them a day +or two after the Burtons had left town and told them that he had what +might be a valuable clue. + +"I want you to come to the theatre with me," he said. He smiled as he +said it. "That may seem like a frivolous thing to do when we are at +work on a mystery of this sort, but you'll see what I mean when we get +there." + +Dick and Jack, who liked the railroad detective and trusted him +implicitly, were certainly surprised, but they made no bones about +accompanying him. He had called for them at Dick's house, where Jack +was spending the evening, and he said he wanted Tom Binns and Pete +Stubbs to be along, too. So they rode with him in the automobile which +he was using, and picked up the other Scouts. + +"I don't believe you ever saw the particular theatre I'm going to take +you to," he said, when he had all four of them in the car. "It isn't +much of a theatre, even for a moving picture place. It's a little +place over near the river, and the films are cheap and not very good. +But you'll see why I picked it out later." + +It was a long ride, after they had picked up Tom Binns, even in the +detective's big car. As they rode, Haskin kept looking around behind +him. + +"I've had a queer feeling two or three times to-day," he said, "that I +was being followed. I've shadowed so many people in my time that I'm +pretty well acquainted with the ways of doing it, and I must say I +don't like the look of things. Those fellows are desperate enough to +do anything at all, but if they're actually shadowing the detective +who's in charge of the efforts to run them down and catch them they've +got even more nerve than I thought was possible." + +Two or three times, now, as they made their way along, at a slow pace +by Haskin's direction, those in the car got a glimpse of a smaller +automobile that seemed to hang pretty persistently on their track. +They were evidently never out of sight of the occupants of the other +car for very long. + +"I suppose they know what they're doing," said Haskin, finally, "but +what their game is, is beyond me. I'm not trying to hide from them or +anyone else. I don't see why they should want to track me down this +way. Go ahead, full speed, now! We'll give them a chase for it, if +they're looking for that." + +It was not long before the car pulled up in a dirty, tumbledown street +near the water front, before a shop that had been turned into a moving +picture theatre. Haskin paid their way in, and they found themselves +in a darkened hall and the pictures were being thrown on to the screen +as they entered. + +"One of the things these people do to attract people to their theatre," +explained Haskin, as they took their seats, "is to have a film made +every week right here in the district where it is to be shown. For +instance, this week they are showing a picture that was made on the +river front a few days ago. People come and think that perhaps they'll +see themselves or their friends in the 'movies.' It's lots of fun for +them, you see, and it's a good idea for the company that invented it." + +Jack and Dick suddenly began to understand. + +"Is there anyone we know in the pictures, Captain?" asked Jack. + +"That's what I hope, Jack. What I do know is that there is a section +of the film that shows three of the men who tried to wreck the train +the other night. They are talking with some other men, and it is +because I think that one of these others may be this man Broom that I +want you to see it and identify him, if you can. Then, you see, we can +send out his picture and have a much better chance of catching him." + +Haskin had looked around carefully before he spoke. He had no idea +that there would be anyone around who would be able to make head or +tail out of what he was saying, but he was trained to take chances only +when he had to. But there seemed to be no one near except a sleepy, +slouchy sailor in a seat immediately behind him. The man had been +drinking, and his heavy breathing convinced Haskin that he was +harmlessly asleep. + +But the next time he looked around the sailor was gone. He must have +moved very quietly to escape the notice of Haskin, and he was just +passing out through the door when the detective saw him. + +"That's bad business!" he said to himself. "It was mighty careless of +me. I ought to have known better, certainly, than to talk that way, +even if there didn't seem to be anyone around to hear me. I only hope +he didn't understand, or that he really is what he seems to be--just a +sailor on a spree." + +They had a long and tedious wait for the time to come when the +all-important film should be begun. What was reeled off first had +little interest for any of them. The three Scouts all liked the moving +picture shows well enough, but they preferred the other kind, the sort +shown in the better houses uptown, and they could not get up much +interest in the pictures that seemed to delight those who were seated +all about them. + +The place grew constantly more and more crowded. It was evidently a +popular diversion near the river, and the attraction of the local +scenes film, with the chance that any spectator might suddenly find +himself a part of the performance, was what pleased them the most and +attracted the greatest attention. + +At last it was time for that particular film to be begun. It was quite +a long one, as it turned out, and it was not until a number of pictures +had been shown that Haskin suddenly leaned forward and pointed to a +little pier, beside which a motor boat was bobbing up and down. + +Jack, with a gasp, and a queer little thrill running up and down his +back, recognized three men who stood by the boat. They were quarreling +about something, and were by no means still, but there was no mistaking +them. They were three of the men that he had seen in the little +station on the night that the attempt to wreck the Limited had failed. +And, from the edge of the screen, another man was walking toward them. + +"There," said Haskin, "that's the fellow I want you to watch. Is that +Broom? If it is--" + +He couldn't finish. There was a sudden sputtering by the film. The +lights went out--only to give place to a dark, red glare near the film. +And, at the same moment, there was a wild shriek from the back of the +hall--"Fire!" + +The lights winked on again in a moment, and then went out and on again, +alternating for two or three minutes, so that at one moment the little, +crowded theatre was black as ink and the next as light as day. Most of +those in the audience were women and children, and they were in a panic +in a moment. + +"Come on, Scouts!" roared Dick Crawford. "If they don't stop crowding +and pushing, not one of these people will get out of this place alive." + +The three Scouts knew what to do and how to do it. They were prepared +for this as well as for any other emergency. They were, perhaps, the +only cool-headed ones in the place. Adding their voices to Dick's, and +with Haskin to help them, they managed somehow to restore some sort of +order. They fought their way through the packed aisles, and, though +the fire was gaining, back by the film, they made the people pass out +in good order. Great as was the peril, not one of them flinched. + +Jack Danby, in the center aisle, had to bear the brunt of the wild rush +for the door, but he managed to keep the people from piling up against +the door, and so making a human dam that would have kept everyone from +safety. One or two men, and the braver of the women, inspired by the +actions of the Scouts, pulled themselves together, and helped them, and +before the flames had made much headway, everyone, it seemed, was out. +But Jack Danby remembered seeing a child fall just before the last +group had gone through the door. He did not see it outside, and, +despite protests from all who saw him, he made his way back. + +The lights had gone out for good now, but there was plenty of chance to +see even in that grimy, smoke-filled place, by the fitful glare of the +flames that were reaching out and licking up the seats and the tawdry +decorations now. And he had not very far to go before he found what he +was looking for--the body of a little girl who had fallen and been +overcome by the smoke. He picked her up and with little difficulty +carried her out to the street, where a fireman took her from him. + +The firemen made short work of the blaze, and Haskin, with the four +Scouts, walked away and reached the automobile, which had been forced +to move several blocks on account of the fire. + +"That fire wasn't any accident," said Haskin, gravely. "Now I know why +those fellows were following me. They were afraid of something of this +sort. My heavens, what cold-blooded scoundrels they are! They were +willing to wreck that train--now they took the chance of killing +everyone in that little theatre to keep me from seeing that film--and, +I suppose, with the idea that they could get rid of me and the most +dangerous witness against them at the same time, and by a single blow." + +"Do you really think they did that?" cried Dick, shocked by the idea. + +"I think so, yes. But it's one thing to think so, and to say that I +think so, and it's quite another to prove it. That's the trouble! But +I'm going to try pretty hard, and I'll fix the blame on them and see +that they go to jail for it if there's any human way of doing it. It's +a pity they succeeded as well as they did. They've destroyed that +film, and it would have been mighty useful as evidence against them, +let me tell you!" + +"Is there no duplicate?" + +"I'm afraid not. But we'll try, anyway. There's no harm in that." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +A FOOLISH STRIKE + +The next morning Jack Danby, arriving at the factory, found Pete Stubbs +already there, for it was his duty that week to arrive a little in +advance of the rest of the boys, and open up. He was wearing a glum +face. + +"Gee, Jack, here's a peck of trouble," he said. "I got down here and +found that Mr. Simms, the big boss, and Mr. Carew, the manager, had +been here since five o'clock." + +"What's wrong, Pete?" + +"I dunno, for sure, Jack, but I heard somethin' bein' said about a +strike. And there ain't a man here yet!" + +"Well, we're not on strike, Pete. I guess we'd better get busy and do +our work just as if there wasn't anything wrong. Then _we'll_ be all +right, anyhow." + +They were busy for a few minutes, as the other office boys and the +clerks began to appear. + +"Keep quiet about anything you know or suspect, Pete," said Jack, +warningly, as the rooms began to fill up. "It's all right to tell me, +but you'd better let the others hear anything there is to be known from +Mr. Carew. He'll tell us all, probably, when he gets ready." + +But the morning was well advanced before the conference in Mr. Carew's +room was over. There was an unusual silence about the big factory. +None of the machinery was running, which was sufficiently out of the +ordinary to excite a lot of talk and gossip, although Pete gave out +none of the information with which he was almost bursting. Finally, +however, Mr. Carew came out. + +"This company," he said, when everyone had turned in silence to face +him, "has done business for a good many years and has never had any +sort of trouble, until now, with any of the people who have worked for +it. Now, unfortunately, some malcontents among the hands here have +spread their ideas, and a strike has been called. We have tried to +reason with the men, but they have quit work, and this factory will be +closed for at least a week, beginning to-day." + +"Gee, Jack, that's just what I was afraid of," said Pete, his face +falling. "That means a week's wages gone!" + +Murmurs arose from all over the room. But Carew, a smile on his face, +held up his hand for silence, and went on. + +"The company has no intention of making you suffer," he said. "Your +wages will go on just the same, and we will simply consider this week's +lay-off as a sort of a vacation. That will be all for now. You will +get notice when it is time for you to return to work." + +There was a wild cheer then. A week's wages meant a great deal to most +of the boys and clerks employed in and about the factory, and the +revulsion of feeling when they learned that they were not to lose their +pay was enough to justify even a louder cheer than they gave. + +"Danby and Stubbs," said Mr. Carew next, "I wish you'd wait when the +others go, and come into my office. I want to talk to you." + +They waited accordingly, and when they went into Mr. Carew's room they +found Mr. Simms, the president of the company, waiting there with the +manager. + +"This is very serious business, boys," said Mr. Simms, gravely. "A +strike is one thing, and if the men stopped at a strike they would be +entirely within their rights. Unfortunately, some of them, bad +workers, who had been threatened with dismissal, and others who were +discontented, for one reason or another, have succeeded in stirring up +a lot of hard feeling. And there is no telling what may happen." + +"Do you think they'll try to put the place on the bum, sir?" cried +Pete, the irrepressible, his eyes flashing. + +Both the men laughed, though their faces showed that they were too +worried to do much laughing. + +"I certainly hope they won't attempt anything of the sort, for their +sake, as well as ours, Pete," said Mr. Simms. "If they were let alone, +our old men, even if they were to go on strike, wouldn't make a move +against the company's property. But these rascals who are leading them +want to make it impossible for them to back down and come back to work. +And I am afraid that there are no lengths at which they would stop in +the effort to injure us." + +"Here is the point, boys," said Mr. Carew. "We know, from past +experience with you, that you are trustworthy, and loyal to us. Now, +what we want to do is to get through this strike with as little trouble +as possible. We don't want any shooting, as there might be if we +brought in armed men to guard the property. What we want is to prevent +any attempt to destroy the place by getting ample warning of anything +that is tried." + +"And you're going to let us look out for them?" cried Pete. "Gee, +that's great, Jack! We can do it, too, can't we?" + +"The idea we had," said Carew, "was that you boys, and perhaps some of +your companions in the Boy Scouts, being used to tracking and trailing +in the woods, could keep a better watch than our regular watchmen. +They are faithful enough, and would mean well, but what we are afraid +of is that a lot of clever scoundrels could get inside and set the +place on fire before they knew it. They wouldn't expect boys to be on +the lookout, and we can arrange to have the place protected amply if we +can have a few minutes warning. In that way the plans of the violent +ones among the men would be blocked, and at the same time there would +be no danger of bloodshed, or of anyone being hurt. I would rather +lose a year's pay than have a man of them all injured." + +"And I a year's profits, or a good deal more," said Mr. Simms. +"Understand me, boys, we want you to do this in a way that will not get +you yourselves into any danger. Simply stay here tonight, after, the +place is closed up. Mr. Carew and I and a few other men will be +inside, but we don't want to show ourselves. I am having telephones +put in all over the factory, with instruments out in the courtyards, so +that you can get word to us without delay if you see anything +suspicious. Now suppose you run home and get your Scout uniforms. We +will have plenty to eat here, and we will have cots rigged up for you, +too, so that you can sleep in the day time." + +"This is almost as good as being in the militia, isn't it, Jack?" said +Pete, as they hurried out. + +"I think it's a lot better, Pete. In the militia, if there's a strike, +the men sometimes have to fire into a crowd, and a lot of foolish +people who don't mean any harm may get hurt or killed. I'd hate to +have to do anything like that. I suppose it's necessary, but I'd feel +like a murderer if I'd ever fired into a crowd that way, I know." + +"Well, this is going to be a great lark, anyhow, Jack. I'd rather do +this than work, any day!" + +"It may be pretty hard work before we're through, Pete. Look over +there!" + +They were leaving the factory then, and across the street was a crowd +of men, in their working clothes, sullen and unhappy in appearance. +Two or three men, dressed more like brokers than workmen, were passing +to and fro among them, and leaving a wake of scowls and curses wherever +they passed. + +"Strikers!" said Pete. "Gosh, but they don't look like the crowd that +we see coming to work every morning, do they, Jack? They look +different--like wild men, almost." + +"It's too bad," said Jack. "I'm mighty sorry to see them go out, +because I know that they're treated as well here as they would be +anywhere in the state, and a lot better than at most places. It's men +like Big Ed Willis, who never wants to work at all, who make the +trouble." + +"Just listen here, young feller," said a big man, who appeared suddenly +from behind them, "keep a quiet tongue in yer head about me. I'm Big +Ed, I am, and I'll smash your ugly face in for ye, if ye don't look +out! There's a strike on for higher wages and shorter hours here, see, +and we don't want no scabs, man or boy, goin' into that factory." + +"We're not in the union, Ed Willis," said Jack, unafraid. "We make our +own rules about working or not working, and don't you forget it! You +can beat me up easily enough, if you want to, but you won't be much of +a man if you try it." + +"For two cents I'd smash you in the jaw, so I would!" said Willis, +blustering, like the true bully he was. + +"Let the kid alone, Ed," cried another man, coming across the street. +"He ain't in the union. I think we're fools to strike ourselves. +Don't go to making no more trouble without you need to." + +"I'll let you off this time," said Big Ed, a little abashed. "But see +to it that you keep away from the factory over there." + +"You mind your business and we'll mind ours!" said Jack. "That'll keep +you plenty busy enough, Ed Willis!" + +"Gee, I thought he was going to hit you that time, Jack," said Pete +Stubbs. "I'm pretty small, and if I hit him he'd never know it unless +someone told him, but I was going to smash him behind the ear with a +stone if he tried that." + +"He's all bluff and talk," said Jack, disgustedly. "If he does any +fighting, it'll be by letting someone else strike the blows while he +looks on from a place where he knows he won't be hit. There's lots of +fighters like that." + +They hurried on home then, and changed from the clothes they wore every +day to work in to their Boy Scout uniforms. Each of them took, too, +his axe and Scout knife, in case of emergencies, though it was hard to +imagine any use they were likely to have for them. + +"Look here, Pete," said Jack, when they had changed their clothes and +were ready to start back to the factory, "if we go in the way we came +out they'll see us, and they're likely to watch for us to come out +again. That wouldn't be much use, so I think we'd better try to get +back without being seen." + +"How can we do that, Jack?" + +"I know a good way. We'll go down to the freight yard and find a car +that is going to be shunted onto the private track. There's a car-load +of wagon wheels due to-day, I know, and the chances are that we can +find that and hide in it. The men at the freight yard would never +know, and when we got inside we could get out and the strikers wouldn't +know we were inside at all." + +"That's a fine idea, Jack. We'll do that. Say, that'll be a great +joke on Ed Willis and those other toughs he's got on his side, won't +it?" + +"I'll bet they'll never guess we're inside at all, Pete!" + +Both boys knew their way around the freight yards very well indeed. +Both had been sent there a good many times by Mr. Carew to look up +delayed shipments, that were needed in the factory, and, as a +consequence, the men at work in the yards, knowing that they worked in +the factory, were not suspicious when Jack began asking about the wagon +wheels. They found the car with little difficulty, and, once they had +discovered that it was to be shunted into the private spur of track +leading into the factory within an hour or two, they did not hesitate +to get inside and hide themselves in one dark corner of the car. + +There was plenty of room for them, and they crouched behind a case of +wheels, and told one another stories. It was good fun, they thought, +and they only wished that it was time for their ride to begin. + +"Listen!" whispered Pete, suddenly. "That sounds like someone fumbling +for the catch of the car door, Jack." + +It was dark in the car, and suddenly, there was a stream of light as +the door was pushed cautiously open. + +"Right, oh, Ed," said a hoarse voice, trying to be quiet. "We can +shove the stuff right in here. Then, about midnight, we can get in and +let it off. They'll never open this car up tonight, and they won't +know the stuff's in here." + +"Not unless it goes off as she bumps over the frogs going into the +spur," said Big Ed Willis, chuckling. "But if she lets go then +there'll be a pretty big explosion, just the same. May leave a bit of +the factory standing, but it'll take them a long time to make repairs. +It would blow Number Four shop and this car to smithereens, anyhow." + +Horrified, but unable to make a move, the two Scouts saw three heavy +boxes being loaded gingerly onto the car and hidden under some sacking. + +"There!" said Big Ed. "That's a good job, well done! And it looks +mighty neat. No one'd ever guess, just to look at that sacking, that +there was enough dynamite underneath it to blow half the town up if it +was set properly." + +Scarcely had the two men closed the door when the Scouts made a +simultaneous leap for it. But, as they moved, they felt the bump of +the freight engine against the car and a moment later it began to move. +It was too late for them to get off, and they could only sit and watch +that pile of sacking, with its deadly secret beneath it, wondering if +every moment was not to be their last. Every time the car jolted over +a frog in the rail they jumped, wondering why the deadly stuff did not +explode, and Jack was not ashamed to admit afterward that he was sick +with fear during the whole terrible ride. But it ended at last, with +the dynamite still safe and undisturbed, and they breathed great sighs +of relief as they realized that the first and probably the worst of +their perils was really over. + +Mr. Simms was incredulous when they reached him and told him of what +they had discovered, but the dynamite was a witness not to be +discredited, and he had to believe when he saw that. With the utmost +care it was removed and placed in water, and then they began to make +fresh plans. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE DYNAMITERS + +"Well," said Mr. Simms, "that is a providential discovery, certainly! +If they had been allowed to reach that car of dynamite and set off all +that stuff there would have been precious little left of us or the +factories tomorrow morning. Now the question is what to do to prevent +them from doing anything else?" + +"I think we'd better leave the car just as it is, and even fix +something under that sacking to look like the dynamite," said Jack. +"If they get to it at all they will be in a terrible hurry, certainly, +and they won't stop to look to see if it's the right stuff. Then, if +we are watching them we can catch them red-handed, and it will be just +the ones that are making all the trouble that will be caught. Big Ed +Willis and his gang are perfectly willing to sneak up in the night and +set some dynamite to blow up innocent people, but they'll leave others +to bear the brunt of their crimes, every time." + +"That's a good idea," said Carew. "I think we'd better fix that up +right away, Mr. Simms. Now, how about you, boys? Do you think you can +keep a sharp enough lookout to be able to spot those fellows when they +come in?" + +"Yes, sir, I do! They'll be careful to dodge the places that would +ordinarily be watched. I think they'll try to come in by the fence +near the railroad spur. They'll know that the main gates would be +closely guarded, and the spur itself. But the fence near the spur is +easy to climb, and I think that's where they'll try to get in." + +"And I'll tell you how to catch, them, too, Mr. Carew," said Pete +Stubbs. "They'll have to get inside the car to fix that dynamite, you +know, and get it ready to set off, and if Jack and I are right behind +them, I don't see why we can't lock them inside the car. Then, if the +gate is open, we can start the car rolling down the grade, and it will +run right outside of the yard and down toward the freight yard. If we +really catch them we'll have plenty of time to give the alarm, and they +can be taken right out of the car. If they made a racket here they +might make trouble." + +"That's so," said Jack. "I think Pete's got the right idea, Mr. Carew. +You see, those strikers, if they have an inkling of what's going to +happen, are likely to be pretty close by, watching for the chance to +rush in after the explosion, if I know anything about the way Big Ed +manages things." + +"You mean they might make an attempt at a rescue?" + +"That's just the danger I should guess, sir. Big Ed and his precious +friends probably plan to set a time fuse, and then disappear, and get +as far as possible away before the explosion, so that they can have +witnesses to prove that they were a long way off when the explosion +took place." + +They spent the afternoon not in sleep, as Jack and Pete had planned to +do, but in going all over the ground outside the shops of the big +factory, trying to determine the places most likely to be selected by +Willis and his gang in their effort to reach the dynamite. Then, when +they were satisfied that they had inspected the whole place, and that +they could find their way even if they were blindfolded, Jack and Pete +rested. + +After supper Mr. Simms insisted that they should have some sleep. He +told them they would have a hard night's work ahead of them, and that, +as there was no telling at what time the attempt to reach the dynamite +would be made, they must guard against the danger of getting sleepy. + +"We're still depending a good deal on you two," he said, "although you +have, of course, already made the complete success of this plot +impossible. But if they got to that car without being seen, and +discovered that their dynamite had been taken away, they might still +make an effort to set the whole place on fire, and, if they succeeded +in that, and had a mob outside to hamper the firemen, there might be +terrible damage, that would cripple the company for a long time." + +It was about ten o'clock when Pete and Jack, in their Scout uniforms, +hard to detect at any distance, even in broad daylight, and making them +almost invisible at night, took up their vigil. The place seemed to be +as silent and deserted as a tomb. Lights were few and far between, but +each of them carried an electric torch supplied by Mr. Carew. These +they did not intend to use except in an emergency, since to use them +would mean betraying their position to the enemy, and it was their +chief opportunity to succeed that they were not known to Willis and the +others to be in the place at all. The strikers would be on the lookout +for regular watchmen, not for keen-eyed boys. + +There was a high wall around the greater portion of the grounds, topped +with broken glass, so that the place was really well fortified against +the attack of a mob. But the danger tonight was even greater than it +would have been from a mob, more insidious, and harder to guard against. + +The two Scouts, to make sure, if that were possible, that there should +be no surprise, agreed to patrol the whole wall, and thus have the best +possible chance of seeing anyone who tried to climb over. They could +do this, meeting in the center of the trip, and leaving no spot +unwatched for more than two or three minutes. + +"If I hear anyone, Pete, or see anything wrong," said Jack, "I'll give +the Patrol call--the cry of a crow." + +"Sure! I'll understand, if I hear it, and I'll give the same call if +I'm the one that sees something." + +"Right! If we hear that call the one who hears it will stop patrolling +at once and go for the sound." + +"They can't see us if we keep in the shadow, can they, Jack?" + +"I don't believe so, Pete. It is a pretty heavy shadow, and anyone +coming over the wall is likely to have his eyes more or less dazzled by +the arc lights on the other side." + +"Don't call unless you have to, Pete. Remember that they're not fools, +these fellows, and they're apt to know that such a call means danger, +even if they don't know who's here. We don't want just to scare them +off--they might come back if we did that. We want to catch the +ring-leaders." + +They started from the railroad spur, so they would meet there each time +as they completed a round of the walls, since that was where they felt +the enemy was most likely to appear. + +"Sleepy, Pete?" asked Jack, when they had been at it nearly an hour. + +"I would be, I think, if I wasn't walking around, Jack. That's fine, +though. It helps to keep me awake." + +"Same here! I've heard of being so tired that you can go to sleep +standing up, or even when you're walking about, but it doesn't seem +possible to me." + +For a long time they kept up the patrol. All sorts of strange noises +startled them, but, with their training as Boy Scouts, which had +accustomed them to the night noises of the woods, and to keeping their +heads, they did not give the alarm. At last, however, after Jack had +met Pete and passed on, he heard the sound of a crow's call. + +Gently and silently he slipped back. As he came near the spur he saw +two dark figures climbing over the wall. And a moment later Pete, +moving with the stealth of an Indian, touched his hand. + +"I guess they're here, Jack," he whispered, tense with excitement and +delighted that the long vigil was over at last. + +Big Ed Willis was easy to recognize. The other man was a stranger to +them, and, since both wore handkerchiefs over the upper part of their +faces, it was impossible to tell what he looked like. + +The strikers, full of their murderous intention, moved quietly and +cautiously along toward the car, which stood by itself. It was on a +sharp grade, but a billet of wood held it in place. The two Scouts, +hardly daring to breathe, lest they be heard, followed the men not more +than twenty paces behind them. They wore moccasins instead of their +stout Scout shoes, so that their movements were without noise, and they +could see and hear everything the two men did. + +"We'll both have to get in the car," they heard Big Ed whisper. "The +stuff's heavy, and we want to fix the fuses in there, so that we'll +have less time to spend out in the open, where someone might see us." + +"Right!" said the other man. "Come on, then!" + +"As soon as they get inside, Pete," whispered Jack, now, with a little +thrill of exultation at the way the strikers were walking into the trap +set for them, "kick that bit of wood that holds the car out of the way. +I don't believe it will start moving right away. Then rush around and +help me with the door, if I need you." + +"All right, Jack! Be ready to slam it shut as soon as you hear me +coming, will you?" + +In a moment, as Jack crouched outside the door, with the heavy hasp in +his hand, he heard the slight jar that showed that Pete had done his +part. At once he slid the door close, and pushed the hasp in. With +Pete to help him, they had it securely locked in a moment, so that no +one inside could hope to get out. Then, while a yell of rage and +surprise, mingled with terror, came from inside the car, the two boys +leaned all their weight against it. So slight was the resistance it +could offer, owing to the grade, that it started to roll at once. + +"Come on, Pete," cried Jack. "Get aboard the car--swing up the way the +brakemen do." + +Yelling in triumph, to let Carew and the others know that they had +succeeded, the two Scouts leaped to the top of the car. A man had been +stationed in a nearby building, and, as he saw the car begin to move, +he leaped to the gates and opened them. Then he swung aboard and +joined the two boys on the top of the car. + +Carew had telephoned to the freight yard as soon as he knew the men +were locked in the car, and by the time it rolled into the freight yard +and came to a stop on the level section of track there a score of men +stood ready to capture the strikers as they emerged. The regular +police were not on hand, but Captain Haskin, and some of his railroad +detectives, well armed, were ready and waiting, and they were so strong +that there was no chance for Ed Willis and his chum to make a +successful rush. + +"Surrender, you two!" cried Haskin, as the door was opened. "Don't +attempt to escape or make any trouble, or you'll be riddled with +bullets. We've got you covered!" + +"Don't shoot, boss! We'll come down!" + +Big Ed Willis, all the bluff stripped from him, so that his real +cowardice was exposed, was the speaker. His tone trembled and terror +filled him. He crawled out abjectly, and held up his hands for the +handcuffs which Haskin at once fitted on. + +"You're a fine sort of a low hound!" exclaimed the other. "I thought +you were a man, Willis, when you proposed this game. I'd never have +gone in with you if I'd thought you were going to quit cold this way." + +But he saw that he could do nothing, single-handed, against such a show +of force as Haskin and his men made, and he, too, came out of the car +and surrendered. Haskin whipped the handkerchief from his face, and +Jack, with a cry of surprise, saw that he knew him. It was Silas +Broom--the man of the burning launch. + +"That's Broom, Captain Haskin--the man that escaped!" + +"I thought so," said Haskin, grimly. "He has some other names, but +that will do for the present. You see it didn't do you any good to +have that film destroyed, Broom!" + +"I didn't do that," cried Broom. "So help me, I didn't!" + +"I never said you did, did I?" asked Haskin, with a smile that wasn't +pleasant to see. "Better wait until you're accused of a crime next +time before you're so ready to deny it. The cap seemed to fit you when +I threw it." + +Broom, snarling, turned on Jack then. + +"It's you, is it, you young whelp?" he gritted. "I might have guessed +it. It's a pity I didn't smash your brains out the other day when I +had you in my power. You're the one that's been in the way every time +we've turned a trick for the last two weeks. But we'll get you yet--be +sure of that!" + +"Never mind him, Jack," said Pete. "He talks mighty big, but he can't +do anything to you. Every time they've tried it, they've got into +pretty serious trouble. I guess they'll learn to let you alone before +long. If they don't, they'll all be in jail anyhow, won't they, +Captain Haskin?" + +"It looks that way, my boy," said the detective. "Take these fellows +off, men. Turn them over to the police at headquarters. Tell them +that Mr. Simms and the railroad will both make a complaint. The +federal marshal will be after them, too, for trying to transport +dynamite on a railroad car. That's a very serious offense nowadays, +under the Interstate Commerce Law." + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +OFF ON A LONG HIKE + +Jack and Pete, with a week's vacation on their hands, were puzzled as +to what they should do. But Dick Crawford, anxious to get Jack away +from the city for a time, until things should blow over, suggested a +plan. + +"I heard from Jim Burroughs the other day," he said. "You remember +Jim, the fellow that is engaged to Miss Benton, up at Eagle Lake?" + +"Sure--she's Chris Benton's sister," said Pete Stubbs. + +Dick smiled. + +"You'll get over thinking about girls as some fellows' sisters when you +get a little older, Pete," he said. "Then you'll remember that the +fellows you know are girls' brothers. Anyhow, Jim says they're all up +in camp there again, and they were asking me if some of the Scouts +couldn't go up there to see them. Why don't you make a long hike and +go up there? You could tramp it in two days, easily enough, and the +weather's just right for a hike like that." + +"Say, I think that would be fine!" cried Pete. "Let's do it, Jack, +shall we?" + +"I'd like to, if I thought we wouldn't be in the way," said Jack, his +eyes lighting. + +"You won't be in the way," said Dick. "I know they'd be glad to see +you. Come on over to Scout headquarters and we'll see what we've got +in the way of equipment for your hike." + +At headquarters they found everything they needed. They made up a +couple of packs for each them to carry, with a frying-pan, a coffee +pot, and the other cooking utensils necessary for their two days in the +open, since they would cook their own meals and travel exactly as if +they were in a hostile country, where they could expect no aid from +those whose houses they passed. + +"Let's take sleeping bags instead of a tent," said Jack. "I think it's +much better fun to sleep that way. The weather seems likely to be +good, and, anyhow, if it gets very bad, we can find some sort of +shelter. They're a lot easier to carry, too." + +Scout-Master Durland, when he heard of the plan, approved it heartily. + +They planned to ride for the first twenty miles of their journey by +trolley, since that would take them out into the real country and +beyond the suburbs, where there were many paved streets, which were +anything but ideal for tramping. + +"Now we're really off, Jack," cried Pete, as they stepped off the car +the next morning. They had taken the car on its first trip, and it was +but little after seven o'clock when they finally reached the open road +and started off at a good round pace. + +"It's fine to travel on a regular schedule," said Pete. "Now we don't +have to hurry. We know just when we ought to reach every place we're +coming to, and how long we can stay. That's much better than just +going off for a long walk." + +"Sure it is! It's systematic, and it pays just as well to be +systematic when you're starting out to have a good time as it does when +you're at work. I've found that out." + +"I never used to think so. When I first went to work I hated having to +do everything according to rules. But now I know that it's the only +way to get things done on time. The work's been much easier at the +office since we began doing everything that way." + +"Look at our Scout camps, Pete. If we didn't do things according to a +system we'd never get through with the work. As it is, we all know +just what to do, and just how to do it. So it takes only about half as +long to cook meals and clean up after them, and we have lots more time +for games and trailing and swimming and things like that. It surely +does pay." + +"Gee, I hope it doesn't rain, Jack. It would be too bad if we had to +run into a storm after having good weather all this time when we were +at work." + +"I don't believe it's going to rain. But it ought to, really, and it +seems selfish to wish for dry weather when the country needs rain so +badly." + +"It's been a mighty dry summer, hasn't it, Jack?" + +"Yes. These fires in the forests around here show that. They started +much earlier than they usually do. As a rule October is the time for +the worst fires." + +"They seem to be pretty well out around here, though." + +"That's because there are so many people to keep them under. But up in +the big woods, where we're going, they're likely to have bad ones, when +they start. You see a fire can get going pretty well up there before +anyone discovers it, and then it's the hardest sort of work to stop it +before it's done an awful lot of damage." + +"How do those fires in the woods start, Jack?" + +"That's pretty hard to say, Pete. Careless campers start a whole lot +of them. They build fires, and just leave them going when they get +through. Then the sparks begin to fly, and the fire spreads." + +"They ought to be arrested!" + +"They are, if anyone can prove that they really did start the fire. +But that's pretty hard to do." + +"Don't the fires start other ways, too?" + +"You bet they do! Sometimes the sparks from an engine will set the dry +leaves on the ground on fire, and, if there happens to be a wind, that +will start the biggest sort of a fire." + +"Isn't there any way to prevent that?" + +"Yes--but it's expensive and difficult. But gradually they're giving +up the coal engines in the woods, and use oil burners instead. There +are no sparks and hot cinders to drop from an oil burning engine, you +see, and it makes it much safer and cleaner, as well." + +"How about when a fire just starts? That happens sometimes, doesn't +it?" + +"Yes, and that's the hardest sort of a fire of all to control or to +find. Sometimes, when the leaves and branches get all wet, they will +get terribly hot when the sun blazes down on them. Then, because +they're wet, some sort of a gas develops, and the fire starts with what +they call spontaneous combustion." + +"They have a fire patrol in some places, don't they?" + +"Yes, and they ought to have one wherever there are woods. Out west +the government forest service keeps men who do nothing all day long but +keep on the lookout for fires. Up on the high peaks they have signal +stations, with semaphores and telephone wires, and men with telescopes +who look out all day long for the first sign of smoke." + +"I think that must be a great life. They call them forest rangers, +don't they?" + +"Yes. And it is a great job. Those fellows have to know all the +different trees by sight. They have to be able to plant new trees, and +cut down others when the trees need to be thinned out. Forestry is a +science now, and they're teaching it in the colleges. An awful lot of +our forests have been wasted altogether." + +"They'll grow again, won't they, Jack?" + +"Y-e-s. They will if the work is done properly. But you see those +great big mills, that use up thousands of feet of timber every +season--even millions--don't stop to cut with an idea of reforestation. +They just chop and chop and chop, and when they've cut all the timber +they can, they move on to another section, where they start in and do +it all over again. I'm working to get a Conservation badge, you know. +That's how I've happened to read about all these things." + +"I'm going to try to get a Conservation badge, too, Jack. I can start +working for it as soon as I'm a First-Class Scout, can't I?" + +"Yes. And this hike will be one of your tests for your First-Class +badge, too. You're only supposed to have to go seven miles, and we'll +make a whole lot more than that. How about your other qualifications? +Coming along all right with them?" + +"Yes, indeed. I think I can qualify in a couple of weeks." + +"That's fine, Pete! You know I enlisted you, and a Scout is judged +partly by the sort of recruits he brings into the Troop. They'll never +have a chance to blame me for enlisting you if you keep on the way +you've begun." + +They were going along at a good pace all this time, not too fast, but +swinging steadily along. The road did not seem long, because their +hard, young bodies were used to exercise, and they took the walking as +a matter of course. + +"They'll be expecting us up at the Bentons, won't they, Jack?" + +"Dick Crawford said he would write and let Jim Burroughs know we were +coming, Pete. So I guess they'll be on the lookout all right." + +"Do you remember the night we got to the lake, and Jim Burroughs and +Miss Benton were lost in the woods?" + +"I certainly do! They would have had a bad night of it if we hadn't +found them, I'm afraid. But all's well that ends well. It didn't hurt +them at all, as it turned out, and I guess it taught them both to be +more careful about going out in woods when they weren't sure of the +trail." + +"Gee, Jack, I could have got lost myself then. I didn't know how to +travel by the stars, and I wasn't any too sure how to use a compass." + +They had traveled more than half the distance when they picked out a +sleeping place that night. They went to a farmer's house, and when he +found that all they wanted was permission to camp in his wood lot, and +to make a fire there, he told them they could do as they liked. He +invited them to spend the night in the house, too, but they told him +they preferred to sleep out-of-doors, and, laughing at them, he +consented. + +They were off at five in the morning, and at noon, when they built a +fire and cooked their dinner, they could see the wooded crests of the +hills that were their destination rising before them. + +"Look at that haze, Jack," said Pete. "That isn't a storm, is it, +coming along?" + +"I don't think so, Pete. I don't like the looks of it. It looks to me +more like smoke, from a woods fire. I've been thinking I smelled smoke +for some time, too." + +"Could you smell it as far as this?" + +"Smoke from a big forest fire sometimes travels for two or three +hundred miles, if the wind's right, Pete. In the city, even, in the +fall, there will be smoky days, though there isn't a forest fire of any +sort for a good many miles." + +"I suppose that's because the wood smoke is so thick." + +The further they traveled, the thicker grew the smoke. There could no +longer be any mistake about it. The woods in front of them were well +alight. + +"I only hope the fire doesn't reach Eagle Lake," said Jack. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +A TIMELY WARNING + +It was nearly dark when they finally arrived at the lake. Chris Benton +and Jim Burroughs were waiting for them at the landing with a couple of +canoes, and they were soon skimming over the placid waters of the lake +to the Benton camp. + +"This smoke's pretty thick here," said Jack. + +"The woods are on fire all around us," said Chris. + +"That's the trouble," said Jim Burroughs. "The summer's been mighty +dry. See how low the lake is. A lot of the streams around here have +dried up. This lake is partly spring fed, and it doesn't depend +altogether on the little brooks that flow into it. Otherwise I'm +afraid this wouldn't be much of a place just now." + +"Is there any danger of the fire coming this way, Jim?" asked Jack. + +"Not a bit, Jack. The wind's the other way, and if it shifts it's +certain to bring rain with it and put the fire out, anyhow. It would +take a good, strong, east wind to blow the fire over this way, and that +would mean a regular rain storm, sure. So we're safe enough here. +Fires never have reached Eagle Lake." + +"I'm glad of that. It would be a shame to have any fire here. It +might burn up the camps, you know, and that would be a pity." + +"It sure would! But I guess we're safe enough here. The guides all +say so, and they ought to know, certainly. They've lived in the woods +most of their lives, from what they say, and they don't seem to think +that there's any danger at all." + +"They certainly ought to know," agreed Jack. "They know more than we +do, anyhow. That's a sure thing." + +The two Scouts were pretty well tired out from their long hike, and +they enjoyed their comfortable beds that night. It was warm, and even +though the air was full of smoke, it was strong and bracing. So they +awoke in the morning refreshed and full of life, and, when Chris hailed +them, they joined him with a will in a plunge into the chilly water of +the lake. + +"How far away is the fire, Jim?" Jack asked, after breakfast. + +"Two or three miles to the west, I guess," said Jim, carelessly. "It +won't come any nearer, either, Jack." + +"I think I'll go take a look at it," said Jack. "Coming, Pete and +Chris?" + +"Sure we are!" they cried. + +Their eyes smarted, and their throats were parched as they made their +way toward the burning timber, but they didn't mind such small +discomforts, and soon Jack had a chance to see a real woods fire +burning at its height. + +"This is the real thing, Pete," he said, when they got a good look at +the fire from the ridge where they had found Bess Benton on the first +night they had been at Eagle Lake, some weeks earlier. + +"Gee," said Pete, "I thought that fire we helped to stop near the city +was big enough, but this beats it all hollow, doesn't it, Jack?" + +"Come on!" said Jack, with sudden determination. "This isn't safe, no +matter what the guides say. If the wind changes this fire would sweep +right down to the edge of the lake. A little rain wouldn't make any +impression on it at all." + +Jack, once his mind was made up, wasn't afraid of ridicule or anything +else. He went back to camp, and sought out Mr. Benton. + +"I think that fire's mighty dangerous, Mr. Benton," he said. "I know +the guides say you're perfectly safe here, but I've lived in a place +where they had big woods fires nearly every year, and this is the +biggest fire I ever saw. It would take a week's soaking rain to stop +it, and if the wind turns to the east, even if it does bring some rain, +it will turn that fire straight for the lake here, and burn up +everything it meets on the way." + +"What would you advise, Jack?" asked Mr. Benton. There was a twinkle +in his eye, for he thought the guides knew more than Jack, but he +wanted to humor the Scout, who stood very high in his estimation. + +"I'd dig a deep, broad ditch, and fill it with water. I'd make it at +least five feet deep, and ten or twelve feet broad, Mr. Benton. That +would give us a chance to keep the fire from reaching the buildings +here. There's still some water in that brook that runs down from the +ridge, though there won't be very long, and you could divert that into +the ditch, and then dam the ditch at the lake, so that you'd have quite +a little pond behind the houses on the side nearest the fire. If you +could get half a dozen men they could dig a ditch like that, roughly, +in a day. And I'd certainly do it, sir!" + +Mr. Benton was impressed, despite himself, by Jack's earnestness. His +camp had cost him nearly ten thousand dollars, and practically nothing +would survive the fire if it should sweep over it. So, after a little +thought, and not heeding the laughter of Jim Burroughs and the guides, +he decided to take Jack's advice. + +The guides, pressed into service for the digging of the ditch, thought +that the task was foolish. They grumbled at having to do it, but they +had no choice but to obey, once Mr. Benton had given the order. And +before they were half done, the wind, which had died away completely, +began to come again in short puffs from the east. + +"That means rain," said Jim. "Jack, you young rascal, I believe you +started this scare just to see us all work!" + +"I've known the wind to blow from the northeast for a whole day before +the rain came," said Jack, "especially at this time of the year." + +The fire was a mile nearer the camp when the ditch was finished. It +wasn't much of a ditch, and it wouldn't last very long, but looking it +over, Jack decided that it was much better than nothing. And it held +the water, at least, which was the most important thing. + +As the wind continued to come from the east, without a sign of the +hoped for rain, Mr. Benton looked very grave. + +"I think you've saved us from a real disaster by your insistence, +Jack," he said. "I'm certainly glad that we took your advice." + +The roaring of the fire could be plainly heard now. The smoke was so +thick that all of them went around with wet cloths tied over their +mouths, and smoked glasses to protect their eyes. Even the guides +looked serious, and seemed to have a new and greater respect for Jack +Danby and the precaution he had forced them to take. + +"Never saw nothin' like this," said one of them. "Never in all the +years I've been in the woods. The youngster sure do know a fire when +he sees it." + +"I'm sorry I laughed at you, Jack, old man," said Jim Burroughs, +choking as he spoke. "You certainly had the right dope on this fire. +Gosh, listen to it roaring back there!" + +The ditch was in the form of a rough half circle, and went completely +around the Benton clearing. It was dug so that the brook from the +ridge ran into it and filled it, and a space of a foot or so was left +untouched at each end of it where it reached the lake. This made a +natural dam, and held the water in, so that, as the brook continued to +flow in, a small pond was formed behind the clearing, just as Dick had +suggested. That made a wide space for the fire to leap, and Jack felt +that, even if the fire swept completely around his ditch, the men in +the clearing, by constant vigilance, would be able to beat out any +sparks and flying embers that might otherwise have set fire to the +buildings. But, as a further precaution, the boats of the camp, with +water and provisions, were kept ready, so that the family might take to +the lake if the need arose. + +"Gee," said Pete, suddenly after nightfall, "we forgot the stuff at +Camp Simms, Jack!" + +"So we did!" cried Jack. "Well, there's time enough yet. The fire +will burn right over the camp site there, but it's better cleared than +this, and there won't be much damage if we take the stuff from the +shack and bring it all over here. We can't save the shack, but that +can be built up again in a hurry after the fire's all over. Come on!" + +They told the others what they planned to do, and Jim Burroughs +volunteered to go with them and help them. In an hour they had brought +everything portable from Camp Simms to the Benton camp, which was not +very far away, and then they felt that they had taken every possible +precaution. There was nothing more to do after that but wait on the +fire. It could not be hurried, and, so great had it become, it could +not be delayed or checked by any human agency. + +There was no question in the mind of any of them now of the wisdom of +Jack's fears. Had it not been for the ditch, they admitted, they could +not have done anything to save the camp. + +"There'll be no sleep for any of us to-night," said Mr. Benton. "We'll +have to be ready when it gets near enough to keep it from jumping the +ditch and the pond. There's nothing else to stop it, certainly." + +The guides were on watch, beyond the water, like pickets, and before +long they were driven in by the advancing fire. The heat was terrific, +and, under Mr. Benton's direction, lines of hose were laid to the lake, +and with the windmill that pumped fresh water to give pressure, the +hose was played constantly on the roofs and walls of the buildings of +the camp, to make it harder for flying sparks to set them afire. + +There was plenty of hose, and as the fire advanced Jack was thankful +for that. Water was better than branches and sticks for beating out +any fire that leaped the water wall, and the hose was easier to handle, +too. + +Soon after eleven great drops of water began to fall, and then there +was a steady downpour of rain. + +"There's your rain, at last, Jim," said Jack. "You can see how much +effect it has. It's like pouring water from a flower pot down a +volcano and hoping to put it out. The fire doesn't even know it's +raining!" + +"I guess you're right, Jack," said Jim. "Don't rub it in, though. +I'll admit that you saved the situation by making us do what you +wanted." + +Now began the real fight with the fire. Roaring, bellowing, furious in +its onslaught, it swept all about the ditch that held it from its prey. +It seemed maddened with rage at the obstacle that man had opposed to +its conquering rush, and, raging, it flung sparks and flaming embers at +the defenders of the camp. + +For two hours they worked, looking, through the light of the lurid +flames, like fiends. Their faces were blackened by the smoke, but they +never ceased their efforts. Buckets of water were placed all about the +clearing, and into these they plunged the cloths that they kept over +their faces. Other buckets of barley water, with dippers, were also +there, and when there was a chance for a moment's pause, they drank +deep draughts of the most cooling and refreshing drink that man has yet +devised. Barley water with a little lemon juice did more to moisten +parched throats and mouths than the most elaborate drink could have +done. It was food and drink alike. + +The rain came down to help them all this time, pouring a great volume +of water on the fire. And, after about two hours of fighting, the fire +was beaten. It had burned over the whole section near the camp. The +lake stopped it, and the fire, growling and angry, died away because +there was nothing else for it to burn. But the vigil lasted all night. + +Morning saw Camp Benton standing like an oasis in a desert of blackened +trees and stumps. The whole side of the lake was a wilderness. But +the camp, thanks to the Boy Scout fire fighters, was saved. + +"You're certainly welcome guests!" said Mr. Benton. "Thanks to you, we +still have the camp. The trees will grow again. And now I think we +can all go to sleep for about twenty-four hours." + + + + +_THE BRADEN BOOKS_ + + +FAR PAST THE FRONTIER. + +By JAMES A. BRADEN + +The sub-title "Two Boy Pioneers" indicates the nature of this +story--that it has to do with the days when the Ohio Valley and the +Northwest country were sparsely settled. Such a topic is an unfailing +fund of interest to boys, especially when involving a couple of +stalwart young men who leave the East to make their fortunes and to +incur untold dangers. + +"Strong, vigorous, healthy, manly."--_Seattle Times_. + + +CONNECTICUT BOYS IN THE WESTERN RESERVE + +By JAMES A. BRADEN + +The author once more sends his heroes toward the setting sun. "In all +the glowing enthusiasm of youth, the youngsters seek their fortunes in +the great, fertile wilderness of northern Ohio, and eventually achieve +fair success, though their progress is hindered and sometimes halted by +adventures innumerable. It is a lively, wholesome tale, never dull, +and absorbing in interest for boys who love the fabled life of the +frontier."--Chicago Tribune. + + +THE TRAIL OF THE SENECA + +By JAMES A. BRADEN + +In which we follow the romantic careers of John Jerome and Return +Kingdom a little farther. + +These two self-reliant boys are living peaceably in their cabin on the +Cuyahoga when an Indian warrior is found dead in the woods nearby. The +Seneca accuses John of witchcraft. This means death at the stake if he +is captured. They decide that the Seneca's charge is made to shield +himself, and set out to prove it. Mad Anthony, then on the Ohio, comes +to their aid, but all their efforts prove futile and the lone cabin is +found in ashes on their return. + + +CAPTIVES THREE + +By JAMES A. BRADEN + +A tale of frontier life, and how three children--two boys and a +girl--attempt to reach the settlements in a canoe, but are captured by +the Indians. A common enough occurrence in the days of our +great-grandfathers has been woven into a thrilling story. + + +The Saalfield Publishing Co, + AKRON, OHIO + + + THE BOY SCOUT SERIES + + 1 THE BOY SCOUTS IN CAMP + 2 THE BOY SCOUTS TO THE RESCUE + 3 THE BOY SCOUTS ON THE TRAIL + 4 THE BOY SCOUT FIRE-FIGHTERS + 5 THE BOY SCOUTS AFLOAT + 6 THE BOY SCOUT PATHFINDERS + 7 THE BOY SCOUT AUTOMOBILISTS + 8 THE BOY SCOUT AVIATORS + 9 THE BOY SCOUTS' CHAMPION RECRUIT + 10 THE BOY SCOUTS' DEFIANCE + 11 THE BOY SCOUTS' CHALLENGE + 12 THE BOY SCOUTS' VICTORY + + + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Boy Scout Fire Fighters, by Robert Maitland + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BOY SCOUT FIRE FIGHTERS *** + +***** This file should be named 26875.txt or 26875.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/6/8/7/26875/ + +Produced by Al Haines + +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. 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