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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 42077 ***
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original illustrations.
+      See 42077-h.htm or 42077-h.zip:
+      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/42077/42077-h/42077-h.htm)
+      or
+      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/42077/42077-h.zip)
+
+
+
+
+
+THE BOY SCOUTS AT THE PANAMA CANAL
+
+by
+
+LIEUT. HOWARD PAYSON
+
+Author of
+"The Boy Scouts of the Eagle Patrol,"
+"The Boy Scouts on the Range,"
+"The Boy Scouts and the Army Airship,"
+"The Boy Scouts' Mountain Camp,"
+"The Boy Scouts for Uncle Sam," etc.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+A. L. BURT COMPANY
+Publishers    New York
+Printed in U. S. A.
+
+Copyright, 1913
+by
+Hurst & Company
+Made in U. S. A.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+  CHAPTER                                                PAGE
+      I. Boy Scouts to the Rescue                           5
+     II. An Angry Farmer                                   16
+    III. On a Mission                                      27
+     IV. Some Up-to-date Advertising                       35
+      V. A Big Surprise                                    43
+     VI. Baseball                                          53
+    VII. A Test for the Eagles                             66
+   VIII. Skill vs. Muscle                                  85
+     IX. Fire!                                             91
+      X. A Scout Hero                                     100
+     XI. The Fire Test                                    113
+    XII. In Peril of His Life                             122
+   XIII. The Enemy's Move                                 131
+    XIV. A Novel Proposal                                 148
+     XV. Off for the Isthmus                              156
+    XVI. Something about the Canal                        167
+   XVII. At Old Panama                                    181
+  XVIII. Between Earth and Sky                            191
+    XIX. The Gatun Dam                                    200
+     XX. A Dynamite Volcano                               209
+    XXI. "Run for Your Lives!"                            217
+   XXII. The Boys Meet an Old Acquaintance                223
+  XXIII. Along the Chagres                                232
+   XXIV. The Trackless Jungle                             241
+    XXV. A Chapter of Accidents                           257
+   XXVI. The Ruined City                                  270
+  XXVII. "Be Prepared"                                    284
+
+
+
+
+                         The Boy Scouts at the
+                              Panama Canal
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER I.
+                       BOY SCOUTS TO THE RESCUE.
+
+
+Farmer Hiram Applegate had just finished breakfast. For this reason,
+perhaps, he felt exceptionally good-humored. Even the news he had read in
+his morning paper (of the day before) to the effect that his pet
+abomination and aversion, The Boy Scouts, had held a successful and
+popular review in New York and received personal commendation from the
+President failed to shake his equanimity.
+
+Outside the farmhouse the spring sun shone bright and warm. The air was
+crisp, and odorous with the scent of apple blossoms. Robins twittered
+cheerily, hens clucked and now and then a blue bird flashed among the
+orchard trees.
+
+As Hiram stepped out on his "vendetta," as he called his verandah--or, to
+use the old-fashioned word and the better one, "porch"--he was joined by
+a rather heavy-set youth with small, shifty eyes and a sallow skin which
+gave the impression of languishing for soap and water. A suit of loud
+pattern, new yellow boots with "nobby" toes, and a gaudy necktie did not
+add to young Jared Applegate's general appearance.
+
+"Pop," he began, after a glance at the old man's crabbed and wrinkled
+features, just then aglow with self-satisfaction, "Pop, how about that
+money I spoke about?"
+
+Old Applegate stared at his offspring from under his heavy, iron-gray
+brows.
+
+"A fine time to be askin' fer money!" he snorted indignantly, "you just
+back frum Panamy--under a cloud, too, and yet you start a pesterin' me
+fer money as ef it grew on trees."
+
+"What d'ye want it fer, hey?" he went on after a pause. "More Bye Scut
+nonsense?"
+
+Jared shook his head as if denying some discreditable imputation.
+
+"I've had nothing to do with the Boy Scouts since the day I was kicked
+out of--that is, since I left the Black Wolf troop in New York."
+
+"Dum glad of it, though you never tole me what you quit for," muttered
+the old man.
+
+"But to get back to that money," said Jared; "as I told you when I got
+back from the Isthmus, I need it. Need it bad, too, or I wouldn't ask
+you."
+
+"Makes no diff'rence. What d'ye want it fer,--hey?" he repeated, coming
+back to his original question.
+
+Jared decided that there was nothing for it but to tell the truth.
+
+"To go over what I told you the other night once more, I'm in debt. Debts
+I ran up on the Isthmus," was the rejoinder. "A chap can't live down
+there for nothing you know, and--"
+
+"By heck! You got a dern good salary as Mr. Mainwaring's sec'ty, didn't
+yer, an' a chance ter learn engin-e-ring thrun in. You git fired fer
+misbehavin' yerself an' then yer come down on the old man fer money. I
+ain't goin' ter stand it, I ain't, and that's flat!"
+
+The old man knocked the ashes out of his half-smoked pipe with
+unnecessary violence. Jared, eying him askance, saw that his father was
+working himself up into what Jared termed "a tantrum." Taking another
+tack, he resumed.
+
+"Sho, pop! It ain't as if you weren't going to get it back. And there'll
+be interest at six per cent., too."
+
+This was touching old Applegate on a tender point. If rumor in and about
+Hampton spoke correctly, the old man had made most of his large fortune,
+not so much by farming, but by running, at ruinous rates, a sort of
+private bank.
+
+"Wa'al," he said, his hard, rugged old face softening the least bit, "uv
+course you've tole me all that; but what you h'aint tole me is, how yer a
+goin' ter git ther money back,--an' the interest."
+
+He looked cunningly at his son as he spoke. Jared hesitated an instant
+before he replied. Then he said boldly enough:--
+
+"I can't tell you just what the business enterprise is that I expect to
+go into shortly. I'm--I'm under a sort of promise not to, you see. But if
+everything goes right, I'll be worth a good round sum before long."
+
+"Promises ain't security," retorted the old man warily. "I--Gee
+Whitakers! Thar's that spotted hawg out agin!"
+
+Across the dusty road the animal in question was passing as the farmer's
+eyes fell on it. In the center of the track it paused and began rooting
+about, grunting contentedly at its liberty.
+
+At the same moment a humming sound, almost like the drone of a big bumble
+bee, came out of the distance. As he heard the peculiar drone, a quick
+glance of recognition flashed across old Applegate's face.
+
+"It's that pesky Mainwaring gal an' her 'lectric auto!" he exploded
+vehemently. "That makes the third time in ther last two weeks that Jake's
+bin out when she come along. Ther fust time she knocked him over, ther
+second time she knocked him over, an' now--"
+
+A smart-looking little electric runabout, driven by a pretty young girl
+in motoring costume, whizzed round the corner. The ill-fated Jake looked
+up from his rooting as the car came dashing on. Possibly the recollection
+of those other two narrow escapes was upon him. At any rate, with a
+scared grunt and an angry squeal, he whisked his stump of a curly tail in
+the air and dashed for the picket fence in front of the Applegate place.
+
+But either Jake was too slow, or the electric was too fast. Just as the
+girl gave the steering wheel of the auto a quick twist to avoid the pig,
+one of the forewheels struck the luckless Jake "astern," as sailors would
+say.
+
+With an agonized wail Jake sailed through the air a few feet and then,
+alighting on his feet, galloped off unhurt but squealing as if he had
+been mortally injured.
+
+"Goodness," exclaimed the girl alarmedly, and then, "gracious!"
+
+The quick twist of the wheel had caused the car to give a jump and a skid
+and land in the ditch, where it came to a standstill. Farmer Applegate,
+rage tinting his face the color of a boiled beet, came storming down the
+path.
+
+"This is the time I got yer, hey?" he shouted at the alarmed occupant of
+the auto. "That makes three times you run over Jake. You got away them
+other times, but I got yer nailed now. Kaint git yer car out uv ther
+ditch, hey? Wa'al, it'll stay thar till yer pay up."
+
+"I'm--I'm dreadfully sorry," stammered the girl, "really I had no
+intention of hurting--er--Jake. In fact, he doesn't seem to be hurt at
+all."
+
+There appeared to be good reason for such a supposition. Jake, at the
+moment, was engaged in combat over a pile of corn fodder with several of
+his fellows.
+
+"Humph! Prob'ly hurt internal," grunted the farmer. "Anyhow, it's time
+you bubblists was taught a lesson."
+
+"Oh, of course I'm willing to pay," cried the girl, and out came a dainty
+hand-bag. "Er--how much will satisfy Jake's--I mean your--feelings?"
+
+The old farmer was quick to catch the note of amusement in the girl's
+voice.
+
+"You won't mend matters by bein' sassy," he growled; "besides, your pop
+fired my boy down on the Isthmus an' I ain't feelin' none too good toward
+yer."
+
+"I have nothing to do with my father's affairs," said the girl coldly,
+noting out of the corner of her eye Jared's figure slinking around the
+side of the porch; "how much do you want to help me get my car out of the
+ditch, for that's really what it amounts to, you know?"
+
+Ignoring the quiet sarcasm in her voice, old Applegate's face took on its
+crafty expression.
+
+"Wa'al, it's three times now you've run over Jake. Say five dollars each
+time,--that ud be yer fine for overspeedin', anyhow,--that makes it
+fifteen dollars."
+
+"Fifteen dollars!" The girl's voice showed her amazement at such a
+figure.
+
+"It ort'er be twenty," snorted old Applegate; "thar's ther injury to
+Jake's feelin's. You bang over him at sixty mile an hour an' scare him
+out'n all his fat an' six months' growth. Fifteen dollars is cheap,
+an'--you don't go till yer pay up, neither."
+
+"Why, it's simply extortion. I'll pay no such sum. Send your bill to my
+father. He'll settle it. And now help me out of this ditch, if you
+please."
+
+"Now, don't you git het up, miss. Thar's a speed law on Long Island, an'
+by heck, you pay er I'll hev yer up afore the justice. Lucindy!" he
+raised his voice in a call for his wife; Jared had vanished. A
+slovenly-looking woman, wiping her hands on a gingham apron, appeared on
+the porch.
+
+"Lucindy, how many miles an hour? Jake's bin run over agin," he added
+suggestively.
+
+"Wa'al," said Lucindy judicially, "it looked like sixty; but I reckin
+h'it warn't more'n twenty-five."
+
+"Humph!" snorted Applegate triumphantly, "an' ther speed limit's
+fifteen."
+
+"Why, I wasn't going more than ten miles!" cried the girl, flushing with
+indignation.
+
+"Huh! Tell that to ther justice. I'll git my son to push yer machine
+out'n ther ditch an' then I'll hop in aside yer an' we'll drive into
+town."
+
+"You'll do no such thing! Why, the idea! Take your hand off my car at
+once, or--oh, dear! What shall I do?" she broke off despairingly.
+
+"You'll drive me inter town or pay fifteen dollars, that's what you'll
+do," declared Farmer Applegate stubbornly; "now then--hullo, what in ther
+name uv early pertaties is this a-comin'?"
+
+Around the same corner from which the auto had appeared with such
+embarrassing results to its pretty young driver came three well-built
+lads. One of them was rather fat and his round, good-natured face was
+streaming with perspiration from the long "hike" on which they had been.
+But his companions looked trained to the minute, brown-faced,
+lithe-limbed, radiating health and strength from their khaki-clad forms.
+All three wore the same kind of uniform, gaiters, knickerbockers, coats
+of military cut and broad-brimmed campaign hats. In addition, each
+carried a staff.
+
+"Hullo, what's all this, Rob?" cried one of them as they came into full
+view of the strange scene,--the ditched auto, the flushed, embarrassed
+yet indignant girl, and the truculent farmer.
+
+"Consarn it all, it's them pesky Boy Scouts from Hampton," exclaimed
+Farmer Applegate disgustedly, as, in answer to the girl's appealing look,
+the three youths stepped up, their hands lifted in the scout salute and
+their hats raised.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER II.
+                            AN ANGRY FARMER.
+
+
+"Can we be of any assistance?" asked Rob Blake of the girl, whose alarmed
+looks made it evident that she was in an unpleasant situation. He ignored
+the red-faced, angry farmer, but took note out of the corner of his eye
+of Jared, who was peeping out at them from behind a shed. Apparently he
+had no wish to appear on the scene while his late employer's daughter was
+there. To himself he muttered:--
+
+"It's that stuck-up Rob Blake, that butter-firkin, Tubby Hopkins and that
+sissy, Merritt Crawford. They're always butting in when they're not
+wanted."
+
+The girl turned gratefully to the newcomers. Rob's firm voice and capable
+appearance made her feel, as did no less her scrutiny of his companions,
+that here were friends in need.
+
+"Oh, thank you so much!" she cried. "I am Lucy Mainwaring, and you, I'm
+sure, are Rob Blake, leader of the Eagle Patrol. I've heard lots about
+you from my brother Fred, who is leader of the Black Wolf Patrol, First
+New York Troop."
+
+"Yes, I'm Rob Blake, this is Merritt Crawford, my second in command, and
+this is Tub--I mean Robert Hopkins."
+
+"I know all on yer," growled out old Applegate, "an' I tell yer to keep
+out of this. Just 'cause yer a banker's son, young Blake, don't give you
+no right ter come interferin' where yer not wanted."
+
+"Oh, but they _are_ wanted!" cried the girl, before Rob could say a word.
+"This man says that I ran over one of his pigs. Why, it's absurd. I only
+just bumped the animal, and there he is over there now fighting for his
+breakfast."
+
+Her eyes fairly bubbled merriment as Jake's raucous squeals rose
+belligerently from the neighborhood of the hog pens. Tubby spoke up.
+
+"If he can eat, he's all right," announced the stout youth with his
+customary solemnity.
+
+"But I've grazed the wretched pig twice before," cried the girl, "and Mr.
+Applegate wants fifteen dollars or he won't help me out of this ditch."
+
+"That's right," confirmed the farmer, "fifteen dollars er she goes afore
+the justice fer--fer running over Jake."
+
+"But she didn't run over him," retorted Rob, "and anyhow, fifteen dollars
+is an outrageous price to ask for your real or fancied injuries."
+
+"The hog's injuries," corrected the farmer.
+
+"Same thing almost," whispered Merritt to Tubby with a chuckle.
+
+"Come on, boys," said Rob, "let's help this young lady out of the ditch."
+
+The girl turned on the power and the three Boy Scouts shoved with all
+their might at the rear of the machine. It quivered, started, stopped,
+and then fairly dashed up on to the road. So quickly had it all been done
+that before the farmer could make a move the runabout was on the
+thoroughfare.
+
+"Lucindy! Lucindy, let Towser loose!" yelled the old man as soon as he
+had recovered his senses.
+
+The woman ran off the porch and in a few seconds a big, savage-looking
+bull dog came bounding out, showing his red fangs and white teeth.
+
+The girl gave a little scream as the dog looked up at his master,
+apparently waiting an order to rush at the boys.
+
+"Go on!" Rob said to the girl in a quick, low whisper, "we'll be all
+right."
+
+"Oh, but I can't! You've helped me----"
+
+"That was our duty as Scouts. Now turn on your power and get away. We'll
+find a way to deal with the old man, never fear."
+
+Seeing that it was useless to remain, the girl applied the power once
+more and the machine shot out of sight.
+
+"Consarn you pesky brats," roared old Applegate, fairly beside himself.
+
+"Sic 'em, Towse!" he shouted the next instant.
+
+Rob had been prepared for some such move as this. As the dog, with a
+savage growl, sprang forward, he brought his staff into play. There was a
+flash of the implement, a quick twist, and the astonished Towser found
+himself spinning backward in the direction from which he had advanced.
+
+"Don't set that dog on us again," cried Rob, in a clear, commanding
+voice, "if you do, he'll get hurt."
+
+"Consarn you!" bellowed the farmer again, "air you aidin' and abettin'
+lawless acts?"
+
+"As far as that goes, your hog had no business in the middle of the
+road," was the quiet rejoinder.
+
+"I'll go to law about this," shouted the farmer furiously, brandishing
+his knotted fist. But he made no attempt to "sic" Towser on the boys
+again. As for that redoubtable animal, he stood by his master, his tail
+between his legs. To use the vernacular, he appeared to be wondering
+"what had struck him."
+
+As there was nothing to be gained by remaining, the three Boy Scouts
+started off anew on the last stage of their "hike," which had been one of
+twenty-four miles started the day before to visit a patrol in a distant
+town on the island. They struck off briskly, as boys will when home is
+almost in sight and appetites are keen. The farmer, seeing that nothing
+was to be gained by abusing them any further, contented himself by
+calling them "young varmints" and turned back toward his house.
+
+The boys had not proceeded many paces when they heard behind them the
+quick "chug-chug" of a motor cycle. Turning, they saw coming toward them
+a youth of about Rob's age, mounted on a red motor cycle which, from the
+noise it made, appeared to be of high power. As he drew alongside them
+they noticed that he, too, was in Scout uniform, and that from the handle
+bars on his machine fluttered a flag with a black wolf's head on it. The
+newcomer stopped his machine, nimbly alighted and gave the Scout salute,
+which the boys returned.
+
+"My name is Fred Mainwaring of the Black Wolf Patrol of the First New
+York Troop," he announced, "have you seen anything of a young lady
+driving an electric runabout?"
+
+The boys exchanged amused glances. Then Rob recounted the scene in front
+of the farmhouse. He also introduced himself and his patrol mates. Fred
+Mainwaring, a fine-looking, curly-haired lad, appeared much diverted.
+
+"That's just like sis," he exclaimed, "she's always getting in trouble
+with that auto of hers; doing things she aut-n't to, so to speak. Excuse
+the pun. It's a bad habit of mine. She went for a spin this morning and
+wouldn't wait for me, so now behold me in chase of her."
+
+After some more chat, during which Fred Mainwaring received a hearty
+invitation to visit the quarters of the Eagle Patrol in Hampton, the boys
+parted, very well pleased with each other. The young scouts of the Eagle
+Patrol already knew much about the Mainwaring family, Mr. Mainwaring
+having recently purchased an estate just out of Hampton. The newcomer to
+the community was preceded by an almost world-wide reputation as a
+skillful engineer. Many of the great problems in connection with Uncle
+Sam's "Big Ditch" had been successfully solved by him, and, although just
+now he was at home on a "furlough," he was shortly to leave once more for
+the Zone.
+
+During the course of their brief chat Fred had informed the boys that he
+and his sister were to accompany their father on the return voyage, Fred
+taking the position of secretary.
+
+"He had another chap before he came up from the tropics," he informed the
+boys. "I guess he lives somewhere round here. Jared Applegate his name
+was. Had to fire him, though, for some sort of crooked work. I don't know
+just what it was; but it must have been something pretty bad, for dad got
+mighty angry when he told about it. You see, in a way I feel responsible.
+Jared, who was working as a stenographer and typewriter in New York,
+belonged to my troop. I liked him after a fashion, and got dad to make
+him his secretary. It wasn't till after he'd left for Panama that I
+accidentally found out that Jared, who had been treasurer of the troop,
+had been stealing small sums from time to time.
+
+"I didn't notify dad for fear of worrying him; but of course Jared was
+dropped from the troop. When dad got back from the Isthmus this time I
+asked about Jared and found out that he had been discharged. Just what
+for, I don't know. Dad wouldn't tell me."
+
+"We know something of Jared's reputation about here," rejoined Rob. "It's
+none too good. By the way, that's his father's place back there where
+your sister had all the trouble."
+
+"I knew that his home was somewhere near Hampton," was the rejoinder.
+
+This conversation took place on the roadside not more than a few feet
+from a stone wall which bounded the outlying fields of the Applegate
+property. Behind this wall, if the four lads had known it, was concealed
+a listener to whom all their conversation was perfectly plain. Jared had
+watched the boys meeting from the dooryard and had crept cautiously along
+behind the stone wall till he arrived at a spot opposite that at which
+the group was chatting. "Listeners never hear good of themselves," says
+the old saw. Jared assuredly proved its truth that fine spring morning.
+
+An evil look passed over his countenance as he crouched behind the wall.
+His sallow face grew a pasty yellow, with anger. His shifty eyes
+glittered furiously as he heard his record discussed.
+
+"So that's the game, is it?" he muttered to himself, as the boys parted
+company, Fred Mainwaring shooting off like a red streak on his machine.
+"Well, I guess that before long I'll have my innings, and when I do I'll
+make it hot for all of you, especially old man Mainwaring. I'll get even
+with him if it takes me a year; but I don't think it'll be that long."
+
+He drew a letter from his pocket and glanced over it in the manner of one
+already familiar with a missive's contents, but who wishes, by a fresh
+perusal, to satisfy himself once more. This is what he read from the
+much-creased document:
+
+"If you have what you claim we will talk business with you. It will be
+made worth your while."
+
+The letter bore no signature nor address. It referred to a subject with
+which the writer, for an excellent reason, would not have cared to have
+his name linked. The "big ditch" project, the greatest of the age,
+perhaps of all time, had, inconceivable as it may seem, bitter and
+unscrupulous enemies. The person who had written that note to poor,
+sneaking Jared Applegate was one of these.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER III.
+                             ON A MISSION.
+
+
+While the three Boy Scouts are trudging back toward Hampton, we will take
+the opportunity to introduce them more fully to our readers who may not
+have met them before. Rob Blake, the son of the local banker in the
+seashore village of Hampton, Long Island, had, some time before the
+present story opens, founded the Eagle Patrol. The early days of its
+existence formed the basis of the first book of the series, for the lads
+flocked eagerly to its standard, and the Patrol was soon in a flourishing
+condition, with a well-equipped room above the local bank building, a
+fine, up-to-date structure. The adventures of the Patrol in camp and
+Scout life in general were various and exciting. The boys made some
+enemies, as was natural, for many boys wished to belong to their Patrol
+who could not be admitted; but in the end, thanks mainly to their Scout
+training, all things came out well for the Eagles.
+
+In the second volume we found "The Boy Scouts on the Range." In this book
+full details of Scout principles as put into practice in a wild and
+lawless country were related. The pursuit of Silver Tip, the giant
+grizzly, popularly supposed to bear a charmed life, was an interesting
+feature of their experience in the West. Indians and cattle rustlers made
+trouble for the boys and their friends, but, although the boys were
+several times placed in jeopardy and danger, they emerged with credit
+from all their dilemmas.
+
+Still following the lads' fortunes, we found them in the third volume of
+the series, "The Boy Scouts and the Army Airship," deeply interested in
+the subject of aerial navigation. They managed to give material aid in
+certain experiments that the government carried on at a lonely house on
+the sea coast near Hampton, and became involved in some thrilling
+incidents which still further put to the test their ability and
+cleverness.
+
+In "The Boy Scouts' Mountain Camp," the scene shifted to the Adirondacks,
+whither the boys went, primarily on a quiet camping trip. But they became
+involved in an exciting search for a long missing treasure, immured in an
+ancient and almost inaccessible cave in the heart of a wild region. How
+they won out against apparently insurmountable obstacles makes exciting
+and instructive reading.
+
+"The Boy Scouts for Uncle Sam," the fifth volume, related some surprising
+events that occurred when the boys' aid was called into requisition in
+connection with a new type of submarine which foreign powers were doing
+their best to appropriate, but which was intended for the United States
+Government. Readers of that volume will readily recall Rob's abduction
+and marooning on a desert island and the pernicious activities of a green
+motor boat which was used by the agents of a foreign power. Rob's
+marvelous swim across a narrow inlet, through which the tide boiled like
+a mill race, and the interchange of Scout signals with astonishing
+results, are only two of the incidents that go to show that the Eagle
+Patrol was always to be relied upon to do its duty and live up to the
+strict letter of the inspiring motto, "Be Prepared."
+
+
+For the next few days the lads of the Eagle Patrol were busy indeed with
+preparations for what was to them a very important piece of work. This
+was nothing more nor less than the placarding of the town with
+announcements that a team made up of the Eagles would play the Hampton
+nine in the first baseball game of the season, the proceeds to be equally
+divided. The Boy Scouts' half, of course, would go toward the general
+patrol fund for the purchase of equipment and so on.
+
+Each of the lads had a duty to perform in this connection. Hiram Nelson,
+whose father was in the printing business, was to get up the posters,
+which were to be printed on big, yellow sheets. Andy Bowles, whose uncle
+conducted a livery stable, arranged for rigs to convey the young
+bill-posters around the country; while Tubby Hopkins,--since the duty was
+partly of a culinary nature,--undertook to make the paste. This, despite
+unkind remarks to the effect that, unable to restrain his appetite, he
+might be tempted to eat it! In this manner the different duties were
+distributed and each member of the patrol took an active part in the
+work.
+
+Rather to Rob's surprise, and likewise to the astonishment of the other
+lads, Jared Applegate's name appeared as pitcher for the Hampton team.
+But, after all, there was nothing so very astonishing in this, for Jared,
+before he left for New York, had been a clever pitcher on the Hampton
+Academy team, which had beaten some of the best ball players on Long
+Island. Sam Lamb, the regular pitcher for the Hamptons, it was later
+learned, had sprained his wrist in jumping on a moving train, and Jared
+had eagerly volunteered to take his place. He had made open boasts about
+the town that he meant to "knock some of those tin soldier kids higher
+than so many kites."
+
+"Let him do his best," was all Rob had said, when Andy Bowles, the
+diminutive bugler of the Eagles, brought him this information.
+
+When not engaged in preparations for "billing" the surrounding country,
+which occupied almost all the time they could spare from their studies,
+the Scouts practiced hard and faithfully. They had a good team, but they
+had to admit that the town boys, too, played very good ball. As the day
+for the contest, a Saturday, drew near, excitement began to run high.
+Jared never spoke to any of the Scouts, all of whom, by this time, knew
+of his disgrace while a member of the Black Wolf Patrol. Possibly he did
+not wish to run a chance of being snubbed; but be that as it may, when he
+passed any of the uniformed youngsters he kept his eyes on the ground.
+This did not prevent him, however, from hanging around when the Scouts
+were at practice and making all sorts of contemptuous remarks concerning
+their play.
+
+The Saturday before the game, the lads started out in different
+directions to put up their bills. Those whose duties lay within easy
+distance of Hampton went on foot; but the others took rigs. Among the
+latter were Rob, Merritt and Tubby Hopkins. With them they carried a good
+thick bundle of bills, plenty of paste and long-handled brushes. It was a
+beautiful day and they were in high spirits as they drove along the
+pleasant country roads.
+
+Their way took them by Farmer Applegate's place.
+
+"Let's plaster up a few on the old grouch's barn," suggested Merritt with
+a laugh.
+
+"No; I don't want to do that," declared Rob positively, "although he
+isn't entitled to much consideration. It was a shame the way he treated
+Fred Mainwaring's sister."
+
+"Such a pretty girl, too," chuckled Tubby, with a mischievous look at
+Merritt. Rob intercepted the glance and turned red, at which both his
+companions teased him more than ever. Luckily for Rob's peace of mind,
+however, at this juncture something occurred to cause the current of
+Tubby's thoughts to flow in another direction.
+
+Beyond the farm buildings a spotted pig was nosing about contentedly in
+the middle of the road. As his eyes lighted on the porker, Tubby gave a
+shout of delight.
+
+"We can use him," he cried delightedly.
+
+"There you go again. Always thinking about something to eat," snorted
+Merritt.
+
+"Not this time," retorted Tubby indignantly; "anyhow, I've never heard of
+your being absent at meal times. But on this occasion it's alive and in
+his proper person that Jake is going to be useful to us."
+
+"In what way?" asked Rob.
+
+"As a living advertisement," chuckled the stout youth, his round cheeks
+shaking as he eyed the unsuspecting Jake.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER IV.
+                      SOME UP-TO-DATE ADVERTISING.
+
+
+By the time the buggy drew up alongside Jake, who was too engrossed in
+his rooting operations to perceive it, or at any rate to bestow any
+attention upon it, Tubby had disclosed his plan to his chums, who hailed
+it with shouts of delight. From his pockets the fat boy produced an apple
+and a bit of cake. Tubby never traveled far without provisions. "Keeping
+in touch with his base of supplies," he called it.
+
+It spoke volumes for his enthusiastic belief in the success of his plan
+that he was willing to offer both of these to Jake as soon as he had
+alighted from the buggy. Close behind him came Rob and Merritt, the
+latter with the horse's hitching rope in his hand.
+
+"Come, pig! pig! pig! Nice Jake!" warbled Tubby in the most dulcet voice
+he could assume.
+
+Jake looked up. His small eyes twinkled. Unsuspectingly he sniffed the
+air as he perceived a rosy apple temptingly held out toward him.
+
+"It's a shame," laughed Rob, half contritely, "if he hadn't caused a lot
+of trouble for a mighty nice girl I wouldn't stand for it."
+
+"Pig! pig! pig!" chortled Tubby persuasively.
+
+"Unk! unk! unk!" grunted Jake, wiggling his tail.
+
+"Wonderful how they understand each other, isn't it?" remarked Merritt
+with a grin. But Tubby was too intent on what he had in hand to resent
+the gross insult.
+
+Closer and closer shuffled Jake, his greedy little eyes on the apple. All
+at once he appeared to make up his mind in a hurry. He made a dart for
+the tempting bait.
+
+"Now," yelled Tubby.
+
+Quick as a flash, as soon as he heard the preconcerted signal, Merritt
+flung the looped hitching rope about the pig's neck. Jake gave a squeal
+and wriggled with might and main, but his ears held the rope from
+slipping off.
+
+"Give him the apple to keep him quiet," suggested Merritt, as Jake
+squealed at the top of his voice.
+
+Tubby proffered the apple and instantly Jake forgot his troubles in
+devouring it. In the meantime Tubby slipped to the wagon and selected a
+poster or two and a brush full of paste. Returning, amidst shouts of
+laughter from his fellow conspirators, he plentifully "shampooed" Jake
+with paste, and then slapped the gaudy yellow bills on till it appeared
+as if the astute Jake had enveloped himself in a bright orange overcoat.
+
+"Now cut him loose," ordered Rob, when Tubby, with all the satisfaction
+of a true artist, stepped back to view his completed work.
+
+Merritt slipped the noose, and off down the road toward the farm dashed
+the gaudily decorated Jake, conveying the news to all who might see that
+on Saturday, April --, there would be a Grand Baseball Game at Hampton,
+Boy Scouts of The Eagle Patrol _vs._ The Hampton Town Nine.
+
+As the boys, shouting and shaking with laughter, watched this truly
+original bit of advertising gallop off down the road, the one touch
+needed to complete the picture was filled in. From his dooryard emerged
+the farmer. The first thing his eyes lighted on was Jake. For one instant
+he regarded the alarmed animal in wonderment. Then, with a yell, he
+rushed into the house.
+
+"Ma! ma! Lucindy!" he bellowed at the top of his voice, "Jake's got the
+yaller fever, er the jaunders, er suthin'. Come on quick! He's comin'
+down ther road like ther Empire State Express, and as yaller as a bit of
+corn bread."
+
+At this stage of the proceedings the boys, their sides shaking with
+laughter, deemed it prudent to emulate the Arabs of the poem and
+"silently steal away."
+
+Looking back as they drove off they could see Lucindy and her spouse
+engaged in a mad chase after the overcoated Jake. Even at that distance
+the latter's piercing cries reached their ears with sharp distinctness
+and added to their merriment. Rob alone seemed a bit remorseful at the
+huge success of Tubby's novel advertising scheme.
+
+"Applegate's a pretty old man, fellows," he remarked, "and maybe we went
+a bit too far."
+
+"Well, if his age runs in proportion to his meanness, he'll outlive
+Methuselah," declared Merritt positively.
+
+The road they followed gradually led into a by-track that joined the main
+road they had left with one that traversed the north side of the island.
+It was sandy, and at places along its course high banks towered on each
+side of it. At length they emerged from one of these sunken lanes and
+found on their right an abandoned farm. Quite close to the roadside stood
+a big, rattletrap-looking barn. It had once been painted red, but neglect
+and the weather had caused the paint to shale off in huge patches,
+leaving blotches of bare wood that looked leprous with moss and lichen.
+
+"What do you say if we leave a few souvenirs pasted up there?" said
+Merritt.
+
+"Well, it wouldn't hurt the looks of the place, anyhow," decided Rob. "I
+doubt if many people come along this road anyway; but I guess we might as
+well get busy."
+
+"Well, you two fellows can do the work this time," declared Tubby,
+stretching out luxuriously in the rig.
+
+"What are you going to do?"
+
+"I'm going to drive down the road and hitch up in the shade of that tree
+and take a nap."
+
+"That's pretty cool!" exclaimed Merritt.
+
+"I know it is, at least it looks so," responded Tubby.
+
+"Seems to me it's up to you to do some work, too," protested Merritt.
+
+"As if I hadn't just done a big job in labeling that pig," replied Tubby,
+yawning; "it's your turn now."
+
+Seeing that it was useless to try to turn Tubby from his determination to
+rest, which, next to eating, was his favorite occupation, Rob and Merritt
+took up their brushes, paste and a roll of bills and set out for the
+barn. Tubby watched them languidly a minute and then drove off along the
+sandy track while the other two clambered up a bank.
+
+From the road the barn had appeared quite close; but when they reached
+the top of the bank they found that, actually, it stood back quite a
+little distance beyond a strip of grass and weeds. The boys waded through
+these almost knee-deep, and finally reached the side of the old barn.
+They set down their buckets and brushes and unrolled some bills
+preparatory to pasting them up.
+
+Suddenly Merritt raised a warning finger. Rob instantly divined that his
+chum enjoined silence.
+
+"Hark!" was the word that Merritt's lips framed rather than spoke.
+
+Inside the barn some one was talking,--several persons seemingly. After a
+minute the boys could distinguish words above the low hum of the
+speakers' voices. Suddenly they caught a name: "Mainwaring."
+
+"I guess maybe we might be interested in this," whispered Rob.
+
+By a common impulse the two Boy Scouts moved closer to the moldering wall
+of the old barn.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER V.
+                            A BIG SURPRISE.
+
+
+Time and weather had warped the boards of the structure till fair-sized
+cracks gaped here and there. The boys made for one of these, with the
+object of peering into the place and getting a glance at its occupants.
+At first they had thought that these were nothing more than a gang of
+tramps, but the name of the engineer, spoken with a foreign accent, had
+aroused them to a sense that, whoever was in the old barn, a subject was
+being discussed that might be of interest to their new friends.
+
+Applying their eyes to two cracks in the timbers, they saw that within
+the barn four persons were seated. One of these they recognized almost
+instantly as Jared Applegate. By his side sat a youth of about his own
+age, flashily dressed, with a general air of cheap smartness about him.
+The other two occupants of the place were of a different type. One was
+heavily built and dark in complexion, almost a light coffee color, in
+fact. His swarthy face was clean shaven and heavily jowled. Seated next
+to him on an old hay press was a man as dark as he, but more slender and
+dapper in appearance. Also he was younger, not more than thirty, while
+his companion was probably in the neighborhood of fifty, although as
+powerful and vigorous, so far as the boys could judge, as a man of half
+his years.
+
+"You say that you have duplicates of Mainwaring's plans, showing exactly
+the weakest points of the great dam?" the elder man was asking, just as
+the boys assumed positions of listening.
+
+Jared nodded. He glanced at the more slender of the two foreigners.
+
+"I guess Mr. Estrada has told you all about that," he said.
+
+"Of course, my dear Alverado," the dapper little man struck in, "you
+recollect that I spoke to you of Señor Applegate's visit to me at
+Washington."
+
+Rob started. The name Estrada, coupled with a mention of Washington,
+recalled to his mind something that sent a thrill through him taken in
+connection with the words of the man addressed as Alverado.
+
+Estrada,--José Estrada! That was the name of the ambassador of a South
+American republic that had several times been mentioned as being opposed
+to Uncle Sam's plans on the Isthmus. What if--but not wishing to miss a
+word of what followed, he gave over speculating and applied himself to
+listening with all his might. Jared gave a short, disagreeable laugh.
+
+"You can just bet I got duplicates of all the plans," he chuckled, "I had
+an idea that Mainwaring was going to fire me on account of--well, of
+something, and so I went to work and copied off all of his private papers
+I could. You see, it was common talk on the Isthmus that the place was
+alive with spies, and I figured out that anybody who was interested
+enough to hire spies must be mighty anxious to get at the real plans of
+the canal, and willing to pay big for them, too," he added with a greedy
+look on his face, which for an instant gave him a strong likeness to his
+father.
+
+Rob and Merritt exchanged glances. From even the little that they had
+heard it was plain enough what was going forward in the barn. There was
+no doubt now that Jared was bargaining with representatives of a foreign
+power that had good reason to dislike Uncle Sam; no question but that Mr.
+Mainwaring's plans, or at least copies of them, were in the hands of an
+unscrupulous young rascal who was willing to sell them to the highest
+bidder, without caring for what nefarious purpose they were to be used.
+
+The Boy Scouts' blood fairly boiled as they heard. They had always known
+Jared to be weak, unprincipled and dishonest, but that he would descend
+to such rascality as this was almost beyond belief. Merritt in his anger
+made a gesture of shaking his fist. It was an unfortunate move. A bit of
+board on which one of his feet rested gave way with a sharp crack under
+the sudden shifting of his weight.
+
+Instantly the men in the barn were on the alert.
+
+"What was that?" cried Estrada sharply.
+
+"Nothing. A rat, I guess; old barns like this are full of them," rejoined
+Jared, striving to appear at ease, but glancing nervously about him.
+
+"A rat, bah!" exclaimed Alverado, puffing out his fat jowls till he
+looked like a huge puff adder. "That was not a rat, _amigo_, that was a
+spy. This barn is not as secret a meeting place as you led us to
+believe."
+
+"Come on, Merritt," whispered Rob, "grab up everything and run for it.
+They'll be out here in a minute."
+
+Swiftly they gathered up their paste, brushes and bills, and crouching
+low ran toward what had been a smoke-house. Hardly had they darted within
+its dark and odorous interior when the conspirators in the barn came
+rushing out, looking in every direction. In Alverado's hand something
+glittered in the sunlight. The two Boy Scouts peering out through a
+knot-hole had no difficulty in recognizing the object, with an unpleasant
+thrill, as an automatic revolver.
+
+They now saw, too, something that they had been unable to perceive from
+the back of the barn. This was a big, red touring car drawn up close to
+the antiquated structure. But they had no time to waste in looking at the
+car. The movements of the searching party engrossed their attention too
+deeply.
+
+"Scatter in every direction," they heard Alverado order, "we must find
+out if anyone has been here listening, or if our ears deceived us."
+
+There was no doubt but that the search was to be a thorough one. Even the
+chauffeur of the car, which, the boys noticed in a quick, fleeting
+glance, bore no number, joined in the search. They rushed about like a
+pack of bloodhounds in every direction.
+
+"This is getting pretty warm," whispered Rob; "it's plain those chaps are
+thoroughly alarmed and don't mean to leave a stone unturned to find us."
+
+"Oh, that unlucky board!" groaned Merritt remorsefully. "I'm a fine
+specimen of a Scout to make such a mistake as that,--at such a critical
+time, too."
+
+"It was unfortunate; but accidents will happen," rejoined Rob quickly.
+"But it's no use crying over spilt milk."
+
+"What are we going to do?"
+
+"I'm trying to think."
+
+"Perhaps there is a chance that they will overlook us."
+
+"No danger of that, I'm afraid. From what little I saw of Mister Alverado
+he appears to be a very painstaking gentleman."
+
+"They're searching the house now."
+
+"Yes, that will take them some time; but you can depend on it that when
+they've finished they'll search the outbuildings."
+
+"Yes; and they've left that chauffeur on guard outside, too. Not a chance
+of our getting out of here."
+
+"Unless there's another door."
+
+"Cracky! Maybe there is. Let's look. But we've got to hurry up. Hark!"
+
+"They're coming out of the house and pointing over here," cried Rob the
+next instant.
+
+Both boys desperately sought to find some way out of the old smoke-house
+other than by the door by which they had entered. But no exit offered.
+Suddenly Rob had an inspiration. The smoke-house was roofed like an
+inverted V. The roof was covered with shingles. Apparently they were
+rotten, for in places the light came through. One side of the roof faced
+toward the abandoned farmhouse; the other faced back upon some fields.
+Rob thrust his fist with some violence against the shingles on the side
+of the smoke-house roof that faced the fields. To his joy the shingles
+gave way almost like rotten cardboard.
+
+"Hurrah! We've found a way out," he cried exultingly, although he was
+careful not to raise his voice much above a whisper. He rapidly enlarged
+the opening till it was big enough to crawl through. Luckily the search
+party had paused to examine a corn crib that lay between the smoke-house
+and the farmhouse, so that the boys had a few seconds' grace.
+
+"Now then, through you go!" breathed Rob as soon as he had pitched out
+the bills.
+
+Merritt scrambled through with Rob close on his heels. The apex of the
+roof, of course, screened them from view of the party now approaching the
+old smoke-house. It was a drop of not more than three feet to the ground,
+for the walls were low, and Rob had, of necessity, punctured the roof
+near the eaves.
+
+Ahead of them lay a meadow with a patch of woods beyond. Rank brush and
+tall weeds intervened. But they had to make a dash of some hundred feet
+across an open space. Somehow, just how they never knew, they got across
+it and plunged into the brush, making for the woods beyond.
+
+At the same instant Alverado and the others entered the smoke-house.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER VI.
+                               BASEBALL.
+
+
+"Of course they guessed how we made our escape, Rob."
+
+Merritt spoke as the two lads lay crouched in the thick brush far removed
+from harm's way.
+
+"Naturally. The fresh breaks in the roof would show them that. But,
+beyond that, they are none the wiser as to our identity, of which I am
+heartily glad."
+
+"I can understand that. You don't like the look of things."
+
+"Merritt," Rob spoke very soberly, laying his hand on the other's arm,
+"it looks to me as if we've stumbled on a monumental plot against Uncle
+Sam's canal. I don't know much of politics, but I do know enough to
+realize that there is a certain South American republic that thinks that
+the Canal Zone was stolen from her by trickery and deceit. I'm sorry to
+say, too, that I've heard that there are interests right here in the
+States that agree with her--people who think that the opening of the
+canal will result in enormous losses to freight, and who would like to
+see the canal completion delayed at all costs."
+
+"I see. You think that the two dark men were representatives of that
+republic you mentioned."
+
+"I _know_ one of them was," snapped Rob; "he is its representative at
+Washington."
+
+"Wow! Say, Rob, this is a big thing we've stumbled upon. We must bring it
+to the attention of the proper authorities."
+
+"That's our duty as Scouts."
+
+"Of course. But what steps do you propose to take?"
+
+"I don't just know yet. We must see Mr. Mainwaring, of course, first. It
+will be for him to decide. But--horrors, Merritt!--we've forgotten all
+about Tubby. He's asleep in the rig. Look, Jared and his friends are
+piling into the auto. If they go down that road they are sure to discover
+him. They may do him some injury."
+
+But the next instant both the anxious lads drew a sigh of relief. Instead
+of taking the by-road, the auto struck off across lots along a barely
+perceptible and weed-grown track. In a few moments it was out of sight
+and the coast was clear. Then, and not till then, the two Boy Scouts set
+out to rejoin Tubby. They found that rotund youth blissfully sleeping,
+while the old nag cropped grass at the roadside. They awakened their
+stout comrade and soon took the lees of sleep out of his eyes by relating
+all that had passed within the last hour. Tubby heartily agreed that the
+first thing to be done was to put Mr. Mainwaring on his guard.
+
+Naturally there was no more thought of bill posting, and filled with a
+sense of the duty that lay before them the three Boy Scouts drove rapidly
+back to Hampton. But there a disappointment awaited them. Mr. Mainwaring
+had been called away on business. He had gone west and would not be back
+for a week or more. So for the present the scene in the barn had to be
+forgotten, while more immediate matters were attended to. During the
+ensuing week nothing was seen of Jared, but the Saturday afternoon of the
+game found him "warming up" on the ball field with the orange and black
+of the Hampton team on his back.
+
+Rob and Merritt fairly boiled over with indignation as they watched him.
+But they decided not to say anything to him that might put him on his
+guard.
+
+"We'll give him all the rope he wants," declared Rob. Later he was
+bitterly to regret the adoption of this policy.
+
+The grounds began to fill up early. The game aroused widespread interest
+in that section of Long Island. As the local paper put it, "red-hot ball"
+was looked for. Enthusiastic young ladies were there by the score, waving
+flags from the bunches on sale about the field by hawkers. The
+grand-stand filled early. Rob's team-mates noticed his eyes frequently
+straying in that direction.
+
+"Looking for Lucy Mainwaring," whispered Tubby to Merritt with a grin on
+his round and blooming countenance.
+
+Finally the game was called and soon both teams were on the field. Hiram,
+captain of the Eagles, won the toss and chose to go to bat first. The
+game was started. Nelson promptly struck out. He could not help making a
+wry face as he threw down the willow.
+
+A broad grin was on Jared's face. He went through all sorts of antics, as
+Andy Bowles came to bat with a look of grim determination on his face.
+
+Jared was good; that was a fact which admitted no blinking, as the Eagles
+had to acknowledge. Andy was given first base on balls, tried to steal
+second, was thrown out and retired disgruntled to the bench. The Hampton
+rooters began to give their war cry. The Eagle supporters replied to it
+bravely. It was early in the game to be making any predictions. Rob was
+third batter. He struck out. Jared's delight was ill-concealed.
+
+"I'll shut 'em out," he bragged loudly, not caring who heard. "I'll show
+the tin soldiers some pitching."
+
+The Eagle supporters had to admit that things did not look very roseate,
+but they consoled themselves by recollecting the fact that practically
+the game had only begun.
+
+Hampton now went to the bat. Merritt occupied the pitcher's box. He had
+injured his arm somewhat in practice, but it was agreed, after a
+consultation, to put him up as first pitcher, holding Rob in reserve till
+they got the Hampton's gait. Merritt showed wonderful form. In one, two,
+three order he struck out Hampton's batters, including Jared.
+
+Great was the delight of the Eagles and their friends.
+
+"Good boy, Merritt! Good for you! Kr-e-e-e-ee-ee!" was heard on all sides
+as the Hamptons came running out to take their positions in the field.
+
+Merritt felt a glow of pleasure as Rob congratulated him.
+
+"I hope I can keep it up," was all he said.
+
+"I hope so, too; but I'd like to have a chance at Jared," responded Rob.
+
+The Eagles now came to the bat, Rob leading. Rob was not only a good
+pitcher but a sure batter. Whiz-z came Jared's ball. Rob met it and
+promptly drove a humming liner into right field. It was a safe base hit.
+
+"Oh, you Eagles!" chanted the crowd; those of them who were not lined up
+for Hampton, that is.
+
+Rob watched his chance and stole second, to the huge delight of his team
+supporters. An ugly look was on Jared's face. The next batter, Merritt,
+received first base on four balls. Cheers and yells greeted this. Jared's
+countenance grew blacker and blacker. He bit his lip impatiently.
+
+Suddenly Rob played dangerously off second base. The Hampton second
+baseman was close to him. It was a daring move. Jared saw it in a flash.
+The catcher's signal came. He threw the ball to the Hampton short stop on
+second base.
+
+But Jared's chagrin at the way his pitching was being "knocked about"
+unsteadied his aim. He threw wild. The ball passed above the short stop's
+outstretched finger tips. Rob darted off for third base like a jack
+rabbit.
+
+The right fielder got the ball and shot it to third base, but, although
+the ball and Rob seemed to arrive simultaneously, Rob was hugging the bag
+contentedly in the nick of time. This was a quick, stirring bit of play
+and brought yells from the crowd, among whom criticisms of Jared were
+freely expressed. He grew pale with rage and chagrin.
+
+Paul Perkins now came to bat. The dreamy lad struck out. His apparent
+unconcern made the crowd laugh. They laughed even more when Tubby, having
+struck out also, calmly picked up a bit of pie he had been munching when
+he came to bat and marched to his seat contentedly chewing it.
+
+At this stage of the game two were out, Merritt was on second and Rob on
+third.
+
+Now came the turn of Ernest Thompson, a big-eyed, serious-looking lad,
+one of the first recruits to the Eagle standard and a first-class scout.
+Jared was now on the broad grin. Thompson looked easy.
+
+"Look out, baby-face," chuckled Jared, poising himself.
+
+An in-curve shot from his hand. Ernest gazed at it in an uninterested
+manner and allowed it to go by.
+
+"Strike one!" came the sonorous voice of the umpire, who was Sim Giles,
+the postmaster.
+
+"Oh-h-h-h-h!" yelled the crowd.
+
+The next ball was of the same character. This time Ernest struck at the
+ball. He missed and the crowd yelled again. Jared began to regain
+self-confidence.
+
+"Strike two," was the cry.
+
+The third ball was high.
+
+"Ball one," declared Sim.
+
+Then came an out-curve. But it was too far out. Jared was a rather ragged
+pitcher.
+
+"Ball two," called Sim.
+
+Suddenly Jared threw to third base. But, quick as he was, he didn't catch
+Rob off.
+
+"How's that?" yelled Higgins, the Hampton third baseman, as he touched
+Rob.
+
+The umpire merely waved his hand in what he deemed a professional manner.
+
+"A thousand years late," chuckled Rob to Higgins.
+
+Jared heard him and flashed him an ugly look. Hatred gleamed in his eyes.
+Rob watched him narrowly and again stole off third.
+
+Bang!--came a swift straight ball at the dreamy Ernest. But he was not in
+"a trance," as Jared had scornfully thought. Crack!--went a hot grounder
+to short stop. Merritt stood fast at second, but Rob, like an arrow from
+a bow, shot off for home. The short stop fired in the sphere to the
+catcher as quickly as he could. But before the ball got there, Rob, his
+legs working like pistons, had passed the home plate.
+
+What a roar went up then! Flags waved and cheers resounded among the
+Eagle sympathizers.
+
+As the cheering died away the catcher, Hollis Powers, walked into the
+diamond to confer with Jared, who showed by his passionate gestures that
+he was mad clear through.
+
+"Look out or they'll knock you out of the box," yelled some one.
+
+This did not tend to improve Jared's temper. But, nevertheless, he struck
+out the next batter, Simon Jeffords, which helped in part to restore his
+balance. The Eagles then retired to the field.
+
+"How do you feel, Merritt?" was eagerly asked by his comrades before he
+took the pitcher's box.
+
+"All right, so far. You'll know soon enough when my wing gets sore," was
+the reply.
+
+Apparently Rob was not destined to pitch that day. Merritt struck out the
+first two batters, fielded a hot liner and threw out Jared before he got
+to first base. Jared was certainly piling up his list of grievances
+against the Boy Scouts. To add to his ill-feeling he had recognized Fred
+Mainwaring, nodded to the latter and received the cut direct. The fact
+that Lucy Mainwaring was a witness to this snub did not improve matters.
+
+"Good boy, Merritt!" yelled the Eagle supporters in a frenzy of delight.
+
+The third inning commenced with the Eagles at the bat. But now Jared
+appeared to have on his throwing clothes. The Scout batters couldn't
+hammer his pitching at all.
+
+In fact, all that occurred while they succeeded each other at the bat was
+a monotonous succession of calls from the umpire:
+
+"Strike one. Strike two. You're out."
+
+The Hampton villagers began to pluck up heart. They gave Jared warm
+support and cheers for his really excellent work and that of his
+team-mates. To the somewhat blank astonishment of the Eagles, they had
+not been able to find Jared's pitching at all in this inning. It began to
+look as if they were by no means to have things their own way.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER VII.
+                         A TEST FOR THE EAGLES.
+
+
+But Jared was to score still further. He came to bat confidently at the
+end of the third inning. With two of his side out and none on bases, he
+knocked a beautiful homer into left field. It was a really fine drive.
+The Hampton contingent went wild. The faces of the Eagle supporters, too,
+were cheerful, but anxious. As for Jared, he beamed, and then as his eyes
+met Rob's, he gave the latter a malevolent glance.
+
+At the end of the third inning each side had scored one run. The Eagles
+made no runs in the following three innings, while Hampton scored two, so
+that, when the seventh inning began, things looked rather gloomy for the
+Scouts. The score then stood three to one in favor of Hampton and the
+town players fairly swelled with confidence.
+
+It was already painfully evident that, exercise his will power as he
+would, Merritt's arm was getting sore. He had put redoubled efforts into
+his work but the score showed with how little success. At the beginning
+of the seventh, he told Captain Hiram that he thought the Hamptons had
+"found" his pitching, but he consented to stay in the box for one more
+inning.
+
+The inning commenced with Merritt at the bat. He was given first base on
+balls. Paul Perkins made a base hit to left field. He got safely to first
+with Merritt hugging second. Tubby Hopkins once more struck out with the
+same cheerful grin on his round countenance. Hiram sent a slow grounder
+to Jared and was promptly thrown out at first, but Merritt reached third,
+and Paul second, very nicely.
+
+Rob Blake now came to the bat. Jared determined to strike him out if it
+were humanly possible. After a lot of posing which he thought gave him
+quite a professional air, Jared delivered the best ball in his
+répertoire, a swift and vicious in-curve. It fairly hissed through the
+air.
+
+Crack!
+
+Rob's willow collided with the sphere and away it sped far into right
+field. Merritt and Paul scored amidst tremendous enthusiasm; hats were
+thrown in the air. Things once more looked rosy for the Eagles. Rob was
+easily the favorite of the moment.
+
+As for Jared, his feelings were not enviable. He felt that he would
+gladly have allowed the others to score if he had only been able to shut
+Rob out. He struck out the next batter, and then Hampton went to bat.
+
+Merritt's arm felt better and he went to the box without the misgivings
+that had assailed him earlier. But with the first ball he pitched he knew
+that he had deluded himself. The batter hit a fly to right field and was
+caught out. Merritt, summoning every ounce of resolution he could muster,
+struggled on right manfully. But it was a hopeless cause. Base hits were
+made with absurd ease. Jared was caught out on a fly. Finally there were
+two out and two on bases.
+
+Higgins came to bat and made a second home run amidst yells of delight
+from the Scouts' opponents.
+
+It began to look like grim defeat for the Scouts. The Hampton contingent
+was jubilant. Jared danced mockingly about whenever he could catch the
+eye of a Boy Scout.
+
+The next Hampton batter struck an easy fly to left field which was caught
+by Paul Perkins. The Scouts now came to the bat, beginning the eighth
+inning. The score was six to three in Hampton's favor. Things looked
+black, but with the true Scout spirit the lads of the Eagle put the best
+face possible on matters. They noted Jared's leering face without a sign
+that they saw his malignant triumph.
+
+Jared struck out the first three Scout batters with ridiculous ease. When
+the Hamptons came to the bat, the Eagles made a change in pitchers. It
+was Rob, cool, self-confident and determined, who occupied the box. This
+followed a consultation at which it was agreed that, splendidly as
+Merritt had done, his arm had gone back on him.
+
+As Hiram adjusted his catcher's mask and Rob took his new position,
+things grew very quiet. It was palpable to all that the change of
+pitchers denoted a crisis in the game for the Scouts. Rob faced the first
+batter without indulging in any of Jared Applegate's antics. Hiram
+signaled for a swift one. He braced himself as he saw it coming. He knew
+that Rob was a swift pitcher with a mighty right.
+
+"Strike one!" yelled the umpire a fraction of a second later.
+
+Jared, at the bat, looked angry and puzzled. He wondered why they hadn't
+put Rob in the box at first. He did not know that Rob, while a splendid
+pitcher, was not to be relied on through a long game as was Merritt.
+Another thing he didn't know was that Rob had determined with a grim
+resolution to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, if possible. That's
+a feeling that will carry any boy, or man either for that matter, a long
+way.
+
+Hiram signaled for another cannon-ball. It was plain that those were just
+the kind of missiles that were not at all to Jared's liking.
+
+The ball shot from Rob's hand apparently without effort. But it shot over
+the plate like a bullet.
+
+"Strike two!" bellowed the umpire.
+
+"Oh, you Rob!" yelled his friends.
+
+"K-r-ee-ee-ee-ee-ee!" shrilled the Scouts.
+
+But Rob took no notice; nor did he regard Jared's look of hatred, oddly
+mixed with worry. Rob's pitching bothered him. He wanted no more off that
+plate.
+
+But whi-z-z-z-z-z-z! came another "cannon ball" like a high powered
+projectile burning up the atmosphere. Jared swung wildly an inch too
+high.
+
+"Striker's out!" came the call of Jared's doom from the umpire.
+
+It was a furiously angry youth that strode to the bench.
+
+"Thought you were going to make ducks and drakes out of him, Jared?"
+grinned one of his fellow players.
+
+"So I was. I was just trying him out," grunted Jared disgustedly.
+
+The next two batters couldn't handle Rob's pitching at all. The game
+began to look as if it might be retrieved after all.
+
+"Blake! Blake! Blake!" chanted the crowd as Rob walked toward the
+batters' bench.
+
+Merritt was first at bat for the Scouts in the ninth inning. Jared began
+to pitch with as good an imitation of Rob's speed as he could muster.
+Merritt let the first ball sing past him.
+
+"Ball one."
+
+The second, also, went by in similar manner.
+
+"Ball two!" sang out Sim in his high, nasal voice.
+
+Jared pulled himself together. He sent the ball humming right over the
+home plate. Merritt swung at it and made a safe base hit to right field.
+Then came Hiram. He struck out. Jared and the Hamptonites began to feel
+better. Jared was still holding the Scouts down and they had a safe
+margin of runs.
+
+Paul Perkins struck out this time. Then came Ernest Thompson, who
+dreamily submitted to the same process.
+
+Rob Blake now came to the bat. His exhibition of pitching just previously
+earned him a round of applause. Jared looked positively bilious. He had
+actually been holding himself in reserve for Rob. It was his intention to
+shut him right out. Rob ignored Jared's first ball.
+
+"Ball one!" was the cry.
+
+"Ball two!" followed in rapid succession. Rob smiled easily. Jared's
+dislike of the boy at the bat was making him irritable and uneasy.
+
+But he rallied his skill and threw what looked like an easy pitch. Rob
+struck at it but fanned the empty air.
+
+Jared grinned, the Hamptonites yelled and the umpire called:--
+
+"Strike one!"
+
+"All right for you, Mister Casey at the bat," snarled Jared, "watch out
+for this one."
+
+It came like a flash, a tricky, wavy curve. Rob swung with all his
+strength and--missed!
+
+"Strike two!"
+
+A groan went up from the Scout supporters. Their chances of victory
+looked slim indeed now.
+
+"Wake up! You're in a trance!" scoffed Jared, grinning at Rob. "Get out
+of the straw."
+
+"The straw in the red barn!" suddenly flashed Rob, in a low, but
+far-reaching voice. It was pregnant with meaning and Jared turned white
+as death. He fumbled the ball with trembling fingers.
+
+"W-w-what do you mean?" he managed to gasp.
+
+"Play ball!" yelled the crowd impatiently.
+
+Jared, his fright still on him, pitched. He made a wild fling. Rob
+trotted to first base. Merritt boomeranged to second.
+
+Simon Jeffords got his base on balls, advancing Rob to second and Merritt
+to third. Everybody began to sit up and take renewed notice. A home run
+now would add four to the Scout score. Could they get it? Jared had shown
+that he could hold them down. Could he still keep up his gait?
+
+And now out strolled Tubby Hopkins. He paused first to insert a huge
+chunk of chewing gum in his capacious cheek and then, not noticing in the
+least the laughter and joking that greeted his appearance, he lounged to
+his place, his jaws moving rhythmically.
+
+"It's up to you, Tubby. Bring home the bacon!" some one yelled.
+
+"He's got the bacon with him," shouted some other humorist.
+
+Jared fixed his eyes quizzically on Tubby.
+
+"Like a bottle of anti-fat, kid?" he sneered; and then, "Oh, what I won't
+do to you! How do you like 'em?"
+
+Tubby stopped chewing an instant. His large eyes opened wide as if he had
+just heard Jared's voice.
+
+"Oh, I like 'em Panama fashion, if you've got any of those about you
+to-day," he said with a cherubic smile.
+
+Zang! came the ball. It was as swift as any that Jared had yet thrown. He
+would have liked to see it knock the disconcerting fat youth on the head.
+But it did no such thing. With an agility unsuspected except by those who
+knew him, Tubby swung viciously at the spheroid.
+
+"Bin-go!" yelled the rooters.
+
+Off into left field a hot liner whizzed its way.
+
+"Go on!" shrieked the Eagles and their supporters, dancing up and down in
+excitement.
+
+Off darted Merritt from third. He shot across the home plate an instant
+later and scored amidst loud cheering. Hot after him flashed Rob, with
+Simon close behind. Excitement rose to a point where it was almost
+unbearable.
+
+Tubby had shot like a stone from a sling the instant he made his hit. And
+now more like a steam roller the fat youth cavorted over the bases while
+the crowd went crazy. Pandemonium reigned.
+
+"Home! Home! Home!" shrieked the raucous crowd in a frenzy.
+
+Boys hugged each other and the Scouts danced up and down.
+
+Tubby, with amazing speed, his short fat legs working like piston rods,
+flashed by first, second and third bases. The next instant a yell went up
+that split the air. A rotund form sky-hooted across the home plate and
+then, tripping up, went rolling like a tub of butter into the arms of Rob
+and his team-mates. Tubby had made one of the most sensational plays ever
+seen on the Hampton field, and foes as well as friends generously
+applauded the fat boy. But he paid no attention to the plaudits.
+
+"Great Scotland! I've lost my gum," were his first words on being helped
+to his feet. "Anybody got a chew?"
+
+"A barrel full, if you want them!" yelled the delighted Scouts, dancing
+about the boy who had hit out a home run with bases full.
+
+The next batter, Walter Lonsdale, struck out. Then the town team went to
+bat for its last chance. The score now stood thus:
+
+                    Eagles: seven.    Hamptons: six
+
+Rob resumed his place in the pitcher's box. Higgins struck out. But Jared
+got his base on balls. Maybe Rob was overconfident. Conners came next.
+Two strikes had been called on him, when Rob, like a flash, hurled the
+ball to first. With neatness and expedition Jared was put out.
+
+Incidentally, Conners had been so rattled by Rob's pitching that, when
+the latter threw to first, Conners frantically struck at an imaginary
+ball, causing a roar of laughter. This disconcerted him so badly that he
+missed the next ball and struck out.
+
+The Scouts had indeed snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. The game
+was theirs but by so narrow a margin that they hardly liked to think
+about it.
+
+In an instant the crowd broke all boundaries and surged about the
+victorious Eagles.
+
+"Three cheers for Home-run Tubby!" yelled somebody.
+
+In a flash the fat youth was hoisted on half a dozen shoulders. Then
+began a triumphal march around the field to the music of Andy Bowles'
+bugle, which he had suddenly produced from some mysterious hiding place.
+
+"You see, I knew that I'd need it," he explained afterward.
+
+Rob, arm in arm with Merritt, brought up the rear of the tumultuous riot
+of enthusiasts. Suddenly Rob's eye caught sight of a figure in the
+uniform of the Hampton's players sneaking up behind a corner of the
+grand-stand which it was evident the crowd must pass in their march of
+victory. It was Jared Applegate. With him was the same young man the boys
+had seen in the barn the week before, as well as two other youths of bad
+character in the village, Hodge Berry and Maxwell Ramsay.
+
+"What mischief is Jared up to?" breathed Rob, clutching Merritt's arm.
+
+"I don't know, but he looks as sneaky as a pole cat. Let's watch him."
+
+The two scouts followed, at a slight distance, the group of which Jared
+was the center. They saw the boys that they were watching sneak in behind
+the grand-stand, while Jared stooped and picked up a heavy stone. As the
+crowd, with Tubby's rubicund countenance shining above their heads, came
+swinging around the corner on their way off the ball field, Rob gave a
+sharp exclamation and sprang forward.
+
+Like a flash he gripped Jared's arm just as it was about to launch the
+stone at Tubby's head.
+
+"You--you rascal!" he managed to exclaim, forcing Jared's arm down with a
+firm wrist hold.
+
+The next instant Hodge Berry and Max Ramsay, both of whom had played in
+the Hampton team, sprang at Rob furiously.
+
+"You're going to get a licking you won't forget in a hurry," they cried.
+
+The crowd had swung on, not noticing the dramatic scene that was
+occurring so close to them. Rob dropped Jared's wrist and turned to face
+his opponents.
+
+Something in his face made them halt an instant, and in that brief space
+of time Merritt was at his side. The strange youth who had said nothing
+so far now started to speak, but Rob checked him.
+
+Utterly ignoring the others, he addressed himself to Jared.
+
+"Well, what do you want?" he demanded.
+
+"I want to get square with you," replied Jared in a furious tone. He
+appeared almost beside himself with rage.
+
+"Humph! and so you've brought a bunch of your amiable friends along to
+help you in case it proved too big a job to tackle alone."
+
+"See here," exclaimed the stranger, stepping forward a pace, "I don't
+know who you are except by name, but I'm not going to have you insult me.
+Jared here is a chum of mine. I knew him in New York----"
+
+"Sorry for you," flashed out Rob curtly.
+
+"None of your lip," growled Max Ramsay sullenly; and yet, so electrical
+had the atmosphere become, and so capable of handling himself did the
+clean-living young scout look, that, uneven as the odds were, no further
+hostile move was made.
+
+"Jared said he had a bone to pick with you," went on the strange youth.
+"He told us he wanted to have it out with you Scouts. He invited us
+along. I'm not going to take any part in it, you can be assured of that.
+There'll be fair play."
+
+"Like stone throwing, for instance," retorted Rob contemptuously.
+
+"I guess you're scared," sneered Jared.
+
+"Who says so?"
+
+"I do. You act so. You're afraid of me."
+
+Jared was quite quick enough to see that Rob was unwilling to get into a
+fight. The leader of the Eagle Patrol abhorred, above all things, to be
+mixed up in a disgraceful set-to. But even Rob, who had unusual
+self-control, was fast beginning to lose patience.
+
+"I don't know what harm I've ever done you, Jared," he said quietly, "but
+if you feel so, why I can't help it."
+
+"I hate you, Rob Blake," exclaimed Jared through his clenched teeth, "and
+I'm going to polish you off once and for all,--do you hear me?"
+
+"I'm not deaf. Let us pass, please," said Rob, still with that same calm,
+unruffled manner.
+
+"Not till you've given me satisfaction."
+
+Jared interpreted Rob's manner amiss. He was sure now that Rob would
+avoid a fistic discussion at all hazards. He determined to show his
+friends what a terrible person he was.
+
+"Well, you heard what I said," repeated Jared, thrusting out his jaw and
+stepping closer to the unmoved Rob, "you've got to give me
+satisfaction--understand?"
+
+"Do you want me to fight you?" asked Rob, without the flicker of an eye.
+
+"Yes, I do," whipped out Jared boldly.
+
+At the same instant, thinking to catch Rob off his guard, he aimed a
+vicious blow at the lad in front of him. Rob merely stepped to one side.
+Jared almost lost his balance as his fist encountered thin air, and just
+saved himself from taking an ignominious tumble.
+
+"So; you're a coward, eh?" cried Jared furiously.
+
+"Possibly that's your opinion," spoke Rob calmly. "I don't like fighting,
+Jared, it's not gentlemanly and it's not a Scout principle; but if you
+_want fight, you're going to get it!_"
+
+"Good for you!" cried Merritt, who had stood silent, well knowing Rob's
+ability to handle himself, for the Scouts had many friendly sparring
+bouts with the gloves. The noble art of self-defense was cultivated by
+all of them, but as a means of self-defense and for the joy of the sport
+only.
+
+Rob whipped off his coat in a jiffy. Jared, with a slight quiver of his
+lower lip, did the same. Both boys stood ready to defend themselves, and,
+while the shouts of the crowd bearing Tubby aloft died away in the
+distance, the fight, into which Rob had been unwillingly dragged, began.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER VIII.
+                           SKILL VS. MUSCLE.
+
+
+Jared was heavily built and strong, but his science was nothing to boast
+of. Jared had never had the application to build himself up physically.
+Yet he was no mean opponent, as Rob saw. The leader of the Eagles was not
+as heavily muscled or as weighty as Jared, but he more than made up for
+it in his cat-like quickness and ability to spar.
+
+The farmer's son saw this and realized that his best opportunity to put a
+quietus on his hated opponent was to land a heavy blow before Rob's
+perfect training had a chance to assert itself. He rushed in wildly,
+determined to battle his way through Rob's defense and beat him down by
+sheer weight and force.
+
+But in this he had reckoned altogether without his host. Rob cleverly
+dodged Jared's savage swings, and, watching his opportunity, countered
+with amazing swiftness. None of the onlookers saw the blow, but they
+heard the sharp crack of Rob's knuckles on Jared's jaw. As for Jared, he
+beheld a swimming galaxy of brilliant constellations.
+
+Rob saw that he was dazed for an instant and dropped his hands to his
+side.
+
+"We'll stop right here if you like, Jared," he said.
+
+"Not much you won't," shouted Jared, shaking his head, "I've only begun."
+
+"Well, don't keep on the way you're going," laughed Merritt cheerfully.
+Jared's friends began to look rather gloomy. In their hearts both Max
+Ramsay and Hodge Berry felt heartily glad that they hadn't tackled the
+Boy Scout.
+
+Once more Jared rushed in on Rob. A second later his nose stopped a solid
+blow straight from the shoulder. It felt to Jared as if he had
+inadvertently collided with the rock of Gibraltar.
+
+"Ouch!" he yelled in spite of himself.
+
+Then, losing his head completely, he rushed at Rob and seized him in a
+wrestling grip. Rob, caught off his guard, lost his feet and the two
+toppled to the ground, going at it in rough-and-tumble fashion.
+
+"Magnificent, but not war!" cried Merritt as he danced about.
+
+Over and over they rolled, Jared managing in this style of battling to
+get in some heavy blows that caused Rob to gasp. But in a short time Rob
+had Jared fairly howling for mercy.
+
+"Help!" he bawled out, "take him away, you fellows! He's not fighting
+fair."
+
+"Don't be a cry baby," was all the consolation he got from his friends.
+"Give it to him hard."
+
+Thus counseled, Jared made one last effort to triumph over Rob. He
+suddenly disengaged himself and jumped to his feet. Rob was up as quick
+as the other and met Jared's last rush calmly. Jared, by this time, had
+lost his head utterly. He waved his arms wildly in a whirlwind of blows
+that Rob contented himself by ducking and dodging. He had no wish to
+punish Jared any more severely.
+
+Suddenly the battle came to an abrupt termination, and that through no
+effort of Rob's. It had rained the week before, and back of the
+grandstand was a depression in which water had gathered in sufficient
+quantity to form a small pond.
+
+His wild evolutions had brought Jared close to the edge of this miniature
+lake. The ground there was muddy and slippery, and, before he knew what
+had happened, Jared's feet slipped from under him. He staggered,
+clutching at the air to save himself; but although his friends rushed
+forward to help him, they were too late. With a mighty splash the
+luckless Jared toppled backward into the pond.
+
+He was helped out, a truly pitiable object; but even his friends could
+not help laughing at him. Plastered with mud and streaming with water,
+his enraged countenance excited nothing but mirth.
+
+"Come on," said Max Ramsay as soon as he could for laughing, "we'll get
+you to the buggy, Jared, and you can drive out home. Good thing you won't
+have to go through the village."
+
+"Shake hands, Jared," exclaimed Rob impulsively, for the moment
+forgetting what they had overheard at the barn, in his sympathy for
+Jared's plight.
+
+He extended his hand, but Jared dashed it furiously aside.
+
+"I'll get even with you, you--you tin soldier!" he shouted, shaking with
+rage, and also with the chill of his immersion.
+
+"I'm sorry you feel that way about it," rejoined Rob, as he turned aside
+and put on his coat, which Merritt had held for him.
+
+"Yes, and you'll be sorrier yet," snarled Jared, as his friends walked
+him off toward the shed where his buggy was tied.
+
+Just then, from across lots, there came a summons:--
+
+"Hey, Rob! Where have you got to?"
+
+"I'm coming right along," was Rob's reply; "wait a second."
+
+He jammed on his cap and stepped out from behind the grandstand. Running
+toward him was Tubby, who had somehow escaped from his admirers.
+
+"What's up?" cried Rob, as he saw the lad's flushed, excited face.
+
+"Say, you know that note you left for Mr. Mainwaring?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Well, he's just got back. He's over in that auto yonder and asked me to
+find you as soon as possible."
+
+Tubby pointed to the road on the outskirts of the village, where a big
+torpedo-bodied auto was drawn up. In it was seated a man of past middle
+age, with iron-gray hair and keen eyes, who was watching the boys closely
+as they came toward him.
+
+As they drew nearer he got out of the car and addressed the chauffeur.
+
+"You needn't wait for me, Manning. I'll walk home," he said.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER IX.
+                                 FIRE!
+
+
+"A most remarkable story; but I happen to know certain things that fit in
+with it in every way. Boys, you have done me a great service to-day."
+
+Mr. Mainwaring paused as he spoke and looked kindly and admiringly at the
+three Boy Scouts who had unfolded to him the story of their experiences
+at the old barn. The tale had been told as they strolled along the road
+leading to the engineer's home, on a hill outside Hampton.
+
+It had occupied some time in the telling, and dusk was drawing in so
+that, much against their will, the boys were compelled to decline Mr.
+Mainwaring's invitation to visit his library and see some interesting
+drawings and data relating to the Panama Canal. But they made an
+engagement to come at some other time and hear from the great engineer
+about some of the wonders that had been accomplished in the magic land
+lying nine degrees north of the equator--a land which, so far as the
+Canal Zone is concerned, has been turned by Uncle Sam's canal commission
+into a land as healthful as any, if due precautions are observed.
+
+It was almost dark as the boys hastened on their homeward way. There was
+a meeting called in the Eagle rooms over the bank that night, and they
+were all three in a hurry to get home and change and eat supper. As they
+walked along at a brisk pace, the conversation naturally was chiefly
+concerned with the topic which they had just been discussing with Mr.
+Mainwaring.
+
+"I wonder what he'll do about it?" said Merritt.
+
+"Well, as he said, it's a mighty delicate matter as things are now,"
+rejoined Rob. "To make a hasty move might force the plotters to rush
+things before any precaution could be taken against them. Even to take
+Jared before the authorities might be premature, so Mr. Mainwaring said.
+I gathered, in fact, that he means to let matters lie quiet for a time
+and watch every move of those whom he suspects."
+
+"They ought to clap the whole outfit in jail," sputtered Tubby, "and give
+them nothing to eat but bread and water."
+
+"The last part of that remark would be a fearful punishment to Tubby, all
+right," chuckled Merritt, nudging Rob.
+
+"What a lucky chap Fred Mainwaring is," said Rob presently. "Just think,
+when his father goes back to Panama he's to go, too. His dad says that
+every American boy who can ought to see the Big Ditch before the water is
+in it, and that, even if Fred does miss some schooling, he will be
+getting some education that can't be obtained from books."
+
+"That's the sort I'd like," sighed Tubby, who was a notoriously unwilling
+worshipper at the shrine of knowledge.
+
+"How about a cook book?" chuckled Merritt mischievously, and then dodged
+aside just in time to avoid a blow from Tubby's chubby fist.
+
+Suddenly, behind them came the sound of wheels and the staccato rattle of
+a horse's hoofs tapping the road at a rapid trot.
+
+"Out of the road, fellows, here comes a rig," cried Rob.
+
+So fast was it coming that they had hardly time to step aside before the
+buggy, which held two occupants, was beside them. The driver pulled the
+horse up almost on its haunches and hailed them as they stood in the dark
+shadow of some big maples at the side of the road.
+
+"Hey, you fellows! Got the time? We've got to make that seven-thirty
+train out of Hampton and my watch is broken."
+
+Rob, and his companions, too, recognized the voice instantly.
+
+"It's just seven o'clock, Jared," said Rob, "you'll have plenty of time."
+
+"Confusion," muttered another voice in the rig, that of the strange young
+man who now appeared to be Jared's shadow. "It's those Boy Scouts."
+
+Jared picked up his whip and aimed a vicious slash into the darkness. It
+is not likely that he had any hope of striking one of the lads he
+disliked so much, but he intended it probably just to show his hatred of
+them in a graphic manner. The next instant the same whip cracked over the
+flanks of his horse and the buggy dashed off into the gathering gloom.
+
+"Whew!" whistled Rob, "so Jared is going to beat a retreat, eh?"
+
+"Looks like it. I saw a suit case strapped on the back of that rig."
+
+"We ought to stop him."
+
+"How? By what right? What excuse could we offer?"
+
+"That's so; but just the same it looks as if he's going to give Mr.
+Mainwaring the slip and join those plotters some place."
+
+"It certainly does," admitted Merritt. "I guess we ought to call up Mr.
+Mainwaring and ask him if there is anything we can do."
+
+"That's a good idea, Merritt. At any rate, having done that, we shall
+have performed our duty."
+
+Hardly had the words left his lips before there came booming out on the
+night air a sound that thrilled them all to the heart. Clear and loud,
+with a note of clamorous terror, there came winging toward them the clang
+of the fire alarm! Stroke after stroke struck with a heavy hammer on the
+tire of an old locomotive wheel--that was the only alarm Hampton boasted.
+The wheel hung outside the fire house of the Vigilant Engine Company
+Number One. There was no Number Two.
+
+"Gee whiz, fellows! The fire alarm!" cried Tubby, pulling up short in the
+road.
+
+They stood breathlessly listening, while out on the dusk the clamorous
+notes of the steel tocsin went clanging and jangling. A thrilling,
+soul-stirring cry at any time, it was doubly so to these lads, members of
+a body enlisted in the cause of helping those who needed aid.
+
+They were standing on the main street at a point where the stores and
+business houses had given place to residences surrounded by lawns and
+trees. Out of the houses there came rushing men and women and children,
+all in high excitement.
+
+"Fire," cried some of the men.
+
+"Where?" came back in a dozen voices.
+
+But nobody knew accurately. Suddenly a man, hatless and coatless, came
+sprinting up the street.
+
+"It's the 'cademy!" he was yelling, "the 'cademy's on fire!"
+
+"The Academy!" gasped Rob, aghast at the thought that the private school
+which most of the boys enrolled as Scouts attended was in flames.
+
+"It's up to us to do something and do it quick!" he cried the next
+instant. "Merritt, run as quick as you can to Andy's house. Tell him to
+sound the Assembly. There's lots of work for the Eagles to-night."
+
+A boy that Merritt knew was hastening by on a bicycle.
+
+"Lend me your wheel for Scout duty, will you?" asked Merritt
+breathlessly.
+
+The boy eagerly assented.
+
+"I guess they'll need all the help they can get," he volunteered as
+Merritt sprinted off up the street, "my pop has been on the 'phone and
+they say it's a mighty bad blaze."
+
+It seemed an eternity, but in reality it was only a few minutes before
+Merritt reached Andy's home. The little bugler was just rushing out as
+Merritt dashed up. They almost collided.
+
+"Sound the assembly!" panted Merritt. "The Academy's on fire."
+
+"Wow! Wait a second. I knew of the fire and was going to get hold of Rob
+for instructions."
+
+Andy darted back to the house. He was out again in a flash and sounding
+the sharp, clear notes of the assembly call. Then came another urgent
+summons, the quick, imperative "fire call."
+
+"There go the firemen on the run," exclaimed Andy, as several of the
+Vigilants dashed by the house. "Come on, Merritt; the others will all
+beat it to the fire-house at top speed."
+
+"Rob's already there, I guess," panted Merritt as they ran side by side,
+balancing the bicycle. As they proceeded, Boy Scouts came from some of
+the houses and joined them.
+
+"The Academy! The Academy's on fire," they shouted.
+
+Against the darkening sky a red gush of flame leaped up suddenly.
+
+"Come on, fellows!" implored Merritt. "It's going up like a pack of
+fire-works. We've got to hustle if we want to be of any use."
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER X.
+                             A SCOUT HERO.
+
+
+At the fire-house they found Rob and Tubby helping to drag out the
+antiquated apparatus which was the best that Hampton boasted. Glad enough
+of the aid of the Boy Scouts, the firemen greeted them warmly. They
+recalled a former occasion when the khaki-clad lads had been of signal
+service to them.
+
+Accordingly, while some of the men hitched up a pair of bony old nags to
+the engine, and others got the fire lighted, the hose cart was rushed out
+and the ropes unraveled.
+
+"Fall in, boys," shouted Rob.
+
+They obeyed his order with military promptitude. The long rope was
+swiftly seized. Rob was in front, as became the leader of the troop.
+
+"All ready!" came the cry.
+
+"Heave!" shouted Rob.
+
+Like one boy the Eagles bent to the work. Off they scampered down the
+street, Andy's bugle calling to clear the way. Men and women on their way
+to the fire scattered to right and left as the hose cart came lumbering
+along, drawn by its willing young escort at almost as fast a gait as
+horses could have dragged it.
+
+"'Ray for the Boy Scouts," shrilled a small boy.
+
+The excited crowd took up the cry as the hose cart went roaring by,
+speeding toward the sinister glow on the sky ahead of them.
+
+A throng rushed behind it, making believe to aid greatly by pushing the
+lumbering vehicle.
+
+Suddenly a terrible thought flashed across Rob's mind. The house occupied
+by the janitor of the school was undergoing extensive repairs and he and
+his family had been given temporary quarters in some rooms at the top of
+the school building.
+
+The sudden realization of this sent a thrill shooting through the boy.
+What if they were caught in a fiery trap, unable to escape?
+
+"Oh, I hope they are all right," Rob found himself muttering half aloud
+as at the head of a line of straining boys he galloped along.
+
+"Hey! Here comes the engine," went up a sudden shout from the crowd
+behind.
+
+Glancing back Rob saw the engine, the pride of the Vigilants, coming
+careening down the street. Its whistle wailed in a melancholy fashion and
+from its stack there streamed sparks in sufficient volume to render timid
+folks apprehensive that another fire would be started.
+
+"Pull out! Pull out!" cried Rob, as he saw it, "here comes the engine."
+
+But there was no need to tell his followers that. Every boy in the
+village knew the old Vigilant and had seen it go screeching and lurching
+to a dozen fires. They rushed the hose cart up on the sidewalk as the
+engine came swinging nearer. It looked quite inspiring with its flaming
+stack, hissing jets of steam and thunder of horses' hoofs. The driver, Ed
+Blossom, was belaboring his steeds furiously.
+
+Suddenly, out into the middle of the road darted a tiny little girl. In
+the excitement and confusion no one noticed her at first. She stood there
+apparently oblivious of the approaching fire engine for one instant.
+Then, although she saw her doom thundering down on her, she still stood
+as helplessly as a tiny bird fascinated by a glowing-eyed serpent.
+
+"Out of the way! Run! Run!" shrieked a dozen frenzied voices as several
+people perceived the child's danger.
+
+"Great Scotland! She'll be killed," cried Merritt.
+
+The engine was almost opposite the hose cart as the Scouts took in the
+scene, but with one spring Merritt darted right in the path of the heavy
+machine. It happened so quickly that no one quite knew what had happened
+until they saw a second figure in the path of the Juggernaut.
+
+To snatch up the child was the work of an instant; but in that instant,
+as a groan from the horror-stricken onlookers testified, it looked as if
+Merritt's doom had been sealed.
+
+Ed Blossom tugged frantically at his horses' bits and swerved them a
+trifle as he saw what was before him. As Merritt sprang backward with the
+agility of an acrobat, clasping the child in his arms, Ed succeeded in
+swinging just a little more. The horses grazed Merritt as they snorted
+and reared.
+
+Suddenly there came a crash and a loud, tearing, ripping sound and the
+rear of the fire-engine was seen to collapse on one side. In pulling out
+to avoid running down Merritt and the little girl, Ed Blossom had quite
+forgotten, under the stress of the moment, the trees that grew on each
+side of the road. The hub of the rear wheel had struck one of these and
+the wheel had been torn off completely. If Ed had not been strapped to
+his seat he would have been hurled to the road.
+
+A half hysterical woman fell on Merritt's neck and covered him with
+tearful thanks. Then she snatched up the child and vanished in the crowd,
+leaving the Boy Scout free and greatly relieved that her gratitude was to
+be spared him just at that time.
+
+There was a quick hand-clasp from Rob, "Well done, old man." And then
+they all turned toward the wreck of the engine. Steam was hissing in
+clouds from the crippled bit of apparatus. Merritt heard someone say that
+the pump had been broken. He knew then that the engine was out of
+commission for that night.
+
+Men had already unhitched the plunging horses and tied them to a tree.
+But it was soon evident that the engine must lie where it was for the
+present.
+
+"Can't do nawthin' with her," decided the foreman and Ed Blossom, after a
+necessarily hurried examination, "but say," continued the foreman,
+enthusiastically, as if the breakage of the engine was only a secondary
+consideration, "that rescue of the little gal was as plucky a thing as I
+ever seen."
+
+And there was no one in that crowd who did not agree with him. But there
+was no time to linger by the engine. The thing to be done was to push on
+to the fire. The crowd rushed along and the foreman stopped to say to Rob
+aside:--
+
+"You boys must help us keep the crowd back while we form a bucket line;
+it's our only chance to save the place now--and a mighty slim one," he
+added, as again a red tongue of flame slashed the dark firmament like a
+scarlet scimitar.
+
+"There goes the last of the old 'cademy!" cried a man as he saw. "In an
+hour's time there won't be a stick of it left."
+
+Without the engine to pump a stream through the pipes, the hose cart was
+useless and was abandoned where it rested. Under the foreman's directions
+the Boy Scouts invaded houses and borrowed and commandeered every bucket,
+pail or can they could find. Everything that would hold water was rushed
+to the scene.
+
+There was a creek opposite the blazing Academy, and while the Boy Scouts
+held back the crowd the firemen formed a double line and passed the
+filled utensils rapidly from hand to hand. As fast as they were emptied
+they came back again to be refilled by those at the creek end of the
+line. With improvised staves, cut and broken from shrubs, the boys held
+the crowd back. The method was this: each lad held the ends of two
+staves, the other ends of which were grasped by his comrades on either
+side of him. This formed a sort of fence and to the credit of the Hampton
+citizens be it said they had too much respect for the good work of the
+Boy Scouts to try and press forward unduly.
+
+The Boy Scouts were on duty now. Alert, watchful, aching to be taking
+part in the active scene before them, they schooled themselves into doing
+their best in the--by comparison--hum-drum task assigned to them.
+
+The Academy, an aged brick building, was wreathed in flames. From the
+cupola on top, from which had sounded for so many years the morning
+summons to study, was spouting vivid fire. They could see Dr. Ezekiel
+Jones, the head of the school, and some of the other instructors running
+about in the brilliantly lighted grounds and saving armfuls of books and
+papers. The fire appeared to be on the middle floors. At any rate up to
+this time it had been possible for the men bent on saving what they could
+to dart in at the big front doors, reappearing with what they had been
+able to salvage from the flames.
+
+With the pitifully inadequate means at their command, the firemen could
+do little more than work like fiends at passing buckets. It was necessary
+to be doing something, but even the stoutest hearted and most hopeful of
+the onlookers knew that the case was hopeless.
+
+Suddenly there appeared, from no one knew exactly where, a little
+pale-faced man with sandy whiskers. He wore overalls and was hatless. A
+woman, a white-faced woman, clung to his arm desperately.
+
+"No, Eben," she kept screaming, "not you, too! Not you, too!"
+
+"Let me go, Jane!" the pallid little man kept shouting in reply. "It's
+our baby, we've got to get him out!"
+
+He made a struggle toward the blazing building, but the woman clung to
+him frenziedly. Now a fireman rushed at him and added his strength to the
+woman's.
+
+"Great Scotland," gasped Merritt, who stood next to Rob, "it's old Duffy,
+the janitor, and his wife!"
+
+"What is it?" cried Rob, without replying, as a fireman hastened past
+him. "What's the matter?"
+
+"Her baby. She's left it in the 'cademy," came the choking answer. The
+man, whose face was white with helpless horror, hurried on to obey some
+order, while a shudder of sympathy and fear ran through the crowd. Now
+came more details as men hastened back and forth. The woman, thinking
+that her husband had the baby, had rushed from the house at the first
+alarm. For his part, old Duffy, the janitor, never dreaming that the fire
+would gain such rapid headway, had tried to fight it alone, thinking all
+the time that his wife had the infant. The true situation had just been
+discovered and the man was frantic to get back into the place although he
+was a semi-invalid, known to suffer with heart disease.
+
+The flames were leaping up more savagely every minute. For all the effect
+that the feeble dribble supplied by the bucket brigade had, they might as
+well have given up their efforts.
+
+Rob felt his heart give a bound as he watched the janitor and his wife
+kindly, but firmly, forced back.
+
+His pulses throbbed wildly. He gave one look at the red inferno before
+him. Then,--
+
+"Here, spread your arms and take my place in line," he snapped out
+suddenly to Merritt.
+
+The next instant his lithe young figure darted across the flame-lit open
+space in front of the school. He knew the interior of the old building
+like a book, and that would aid him in the task he had steeled himself to
+perform. He rushed up to the group about the shrieking woman.
+
+"What room is your child in?" he cried, his heart seeming to rise in his
+throat and choke back the words.
+
+"That one on the south corner," cried the woman mechanically, staring at
+him with frightened eyes. "See, the flames are getting nearer to it! Oh,
+my baby! My baby!"
+
+She gave a terrible scream and sank back. Had they not caught her she
+would have fallen. When she opened her eyes again there was a roar all
+about her that was not the roar of the flames.
+
+It was the tremendous, awe-stricken turmoil of the crowd. They had seen a
+boyish figure dart from the fainting woman's side, shake off a dozen
+detaining hands, and then, wrapping his coat about his head, dash by a
+back entrance into the burning building.
+
+As he flung open the door and vanished, a great puff of smoke rolled out.
+The cry of awed admiration for such bravery changed to a groan of
+despair,--the terrible voice of massed human beings seeing a lad go to
+his death. For, as the flames crackled upward more relentlessly than
+before, it did not seem within the bounds of possibility that anyone
+could enter the place and emerge alive.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XI.
+                             THE FIRE TEST.
+
+
+Touched with reckless bravery, foolhardiness in fact, as Rob's act had
+appeared to be, yet he had not acted without taking due thought. As
+always in emergencies, his mind worked with great swiftness. He had no
+sooner made up his mind that it was his duty, cost what it might, to save
+that innocent little one's life, than he had hit upon a plan.
+
+If the child was lodged in the center of the building, he knew full well
+that long before its life must have been yielded up to the fire demon.
+But if the quarters of the janitor were, as he believed, in the south
+corner of the school, then there was still a chance. The mother's words
+had put him out of all doubt on this score and Rob instantly determined
+to face the most daring act of his life.
+
+The rooms at the south side of the building had been used by the Academy
+boys as a gymnasium before their present quarters were built, so that Rob
+was thoroughly familiar with the stairways leading to them. So far as he
+could see it would be possible, by using a side door, to dodge the flames
+shooting up the center of the building. There was a winding stairway that
+existed on this side of the structure quite independent of the main
+flight which, by this time, must have fallen in.
+
+With Rob, to arrive at a decision was to act upon it. As we have seen, he
+had lost no time in making for the doorway. He had, in fact, a double
+reason for his haste. For one thing, every second would count, and, for
+another, he realized that to many in the crowd his act would appear to
+border on madness, and that an attempt might be made to hold him back.
+
+"The boy's a fool!" yelled someone in the crowd behind Merritt.
+
+Quick as a flash Rob's chum faced around, indignation shining in his
+eyes, which had, a second before, been dimmed with tears.
+
+"No, sir; however Rob makes out, he's a hero," he shot back, while a
+murmur of approbation ran through the crowd.
+
+"Keep your places, boys," he ordered the next instant, for the Scouts,
+half wild with anxiety and excitement, were beginning to waver and allow
+the crowd to surge forward. Merritt's words stiffened them. In a moment
+they were recalled to a sense of that duty of which they had just
+witnessed such a conspicuous example.
+
+The instant Rob crossed the threshold of that door he found himself
+surrounded by smoke. But he bent low, and throwing his coat more closely
+above his head, he crouched on all fours so as to get below the level of
+the acrid fumes that made his eyes smart cruelly. Suddenly he stumbled
+over something, and as he saw in the dim light what it was he gave a glad
+gasp. It was a bucket of water, left on the stairway after the regular
+Saturday scrubbing.
+
+Rob was a Scout who knew, from careful study of his Manual, just what to
+do in emergencies. He recalled now that in case of being compelled to
+enter a smoky, blazing building, it was recommended to bind a wet cloth
+over mouth and nostrils in such a way as to act as a respirator.
+Instantly he saturated his handkerchief in the water and bound it on his
+face in the manner advocated.
+
+Then he began what was to prove a terrible climb. The school was three
+stories in height, the lower two floors containing study rooms and
+offices and the top floor lumber rooms and the apartments occupied
+temporarily by the janitor.
+
+Breathing with more ease now that he had bound up his face, Rob fought
+his way upward. It was as murky as a pit, and it seemed that the stairs
+were interminable. Suddenly he stumbled and fell headlong. He had gained
+the first landing. Through a door opening upon it jets of flame, like
+serpents' tongues, were beginning to shoot. Rob staggered toward the door
+and slammed it to. He knew that this was absolutely necessary, for in the
+case of the staircase being in flames when it came time for him to
+retrace his steps his retreat would be cut off.
+
+But that was a thought he did not dare to dwell upon. Steeling himself
+anew he pushed stubbornly on to the next flight.
+
+"It's lucky I know this place as well as I do," he thought, as he gamely
+kept up the fight against what appeared almost overwhelming odds.
+
+As he climbed higher it grew hotter. The place was like the interior of a
+volcano. Beyond the wall of the stairway Rob could hear the flames
+roaring like the beat of the surf on a rocky coast. It almost seemed as
+if the fire demon possessed an articulate voice and was howling his rage
+and defiance at the boy who had dared to face his terrors. But, hot as it
+was growing, Rob yet found some small grain of comfort in the fact that
+the smoke was not so thick.
+
+He breathed more freely even if his throat was becoming dry as dust and
+whistled in an odd way as he climbed higher. At last he reached the
+summit of the second flight.
+
+He paused irresolutely on the landing. Several doors opened off it. Now
+that he was actually there, Rob was confused for an instant. He was not
+quite so sure of his bearings as he had thought he would be. But the roar
+of the flames below and about him warned him to lose not a second of
+precious time in procrastination.
+
+He plunged into the door nearest at hand. Within he found himself in a
+room which was evidently a dining room. Supper was ready spread on the
+table. A lamp illumined the scene. How odd it seemed to be gazing at this
+peaceful domestic setting, while below and to one side of him, devouring
+flames were roaring and leaping. Save for a strong smell of smoke and a
+slight bluish haze, the room might have been a thousand miles away from
+the flaming building in which it was located.
+
+Suddenly, as the boy stood there looking swiftly about him, there came a
+crash that shook the whole place like an earthquake.
+
+"A floor's fallen!" gasped Rob. "Pray heaven it's not taken any part of
+that stairway with it!"
+
+Brave as he was, the young scout turned pale and actually shook for an
+instant like a leaf. He knew full well that if that stairway, or any part
+of it, was gone, he was doomed to die as irrevocably as if a death
+sentence had been pronounced upon him. All at once, from a room opening
+off the dining room came a wailing cry.
+
+"Muvver! Muvver, I'se fwightened!"
+
+Rob's heart gave a quick bound and he galvanized into instant action, a
+great contrast to his temporary state of stupefaction!
+
+"All right, youngster. Don't cry, I'm coming," he called out, plunging
+forward.
+
+Inside the room was a small crib, with a child about three years old
+lying on it clasping a doll in her arms.
+
+"Who's oo?" she demanded in some alarm, as Rob, with his handkerchief
+tied over his face, advanced.
+
+"Me? Why--why, I'm a fireman," exclaimed Rob; and then, with an
+inspiration, "Let's play that the place is on fire and I'm going to save
+you."
+
+The child clapped her hands and her eyes shone. Rob picked her out of her
+crib and carried her tenderly out of the room.
+
+"Now I'm going to cover your face just like real firemen do," he said, as
+they emerged on the landing and the hot breath of the furnace below was
+spewed up at them.
+
+"Is dat in de game," inquired the child doubtfully, "an' will oo cover
+dolly's, too?"
+
+"Yes, it's all part of the game," Rob reassured her. "Now then, there we
+are."
+
+He enveloped the child in his coat which he had already removed and
+started for the landing. Suddenly he stopped, and from under the coat
+came a muffled but inquisitive voice:
+
+"Is 'oo cwyin', Mister Fireman?"
+
+No, Rob was not crying; but he had just seen something that made his
+breath come heavingly and his heart almost stop beating. Below him he
+could see a dull red glow, growing momentarily brighter. No need was
+there for him to speculate on what that meant.
+
+The stairway was on fire. His one means of escape from the blazing
+building was cut off.
+
+For an instant Rob's head swam dizzily. He felt sick and shaky. Was he to
+die there in that inferno of flames? A cry was forced wildly from his
+cracked lips.
+
+"Not like this! Oh, not like this!" he begged, raising his eyes upward.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XII.
+                         IN PERIL OF HIS LIFE.
+
+
+In the meantime, outside the building suspense had reached almost the
+breaking point. The Scouts still stood steady and staunch, but their
+faces were white and drawn. When the crash that announced the falling
+floor came, a man, wrought beyond the bearing point, cried out:
+
+"There goes his last chance, poor kid!"
+
+"Shut up, can't you," breathed a fierce, tense voice in his ear the next
+instant. "Don't you see his father and mother back there?"
+
+It was only too true. Attracted by the excitement, Rob's father and
+mother had driven to the scene in their car. They reached it just in time
+to hear of Rob's heroic act. Now, white-faced and trembling, they sat
+hand in hand wretchedly waiting for news. As time passed and the flames
+rose higher without a sign of the daring lad, their hearts almost ceased
+to beat. Seconds seemed hours, minutes eternity.
+
+Then suddenly came a fearful cry. On the roof there had appeared the
+figure of Rob with a bundle which the crowd readily guessed to be the
+janitor's child clasped tightly in his arms. The flames, leaping from the
+cupola, illumined his form brightly and showed his pale, tense face.
+Thwarted in his effort to descend by the stairway, Rob had managed to
+reach the roof through a scuttle.
+
+"He's done it! Hurrah! The boy's saved the baby!" went up an
+ear-splitting cry from the unthinking in the crowd.
+
+The others knew only too well that the reason that Rob had appeared on
+the roof betokened the terrible fact that his escape had been cut off. He
+was making a last desperate stand, with the flames drawing closer, and
+threatening to burst through the roof at any moment.
+
+Every eye in that crowd was fixed on the solitary figure on the roof.
+
+"Ladders! Get ladders," yelled the foreman, hoping against hope that one
+could be found tall enough to reach to that height.
+
+Rob came forward to the cornice, and looked over as if gauging the
+height. They saw him shake his head. Then he looked behind him. Alas,
+there, too, all hope of escape was cut off. Between himself and an iron
+fire-escape at the back of the building, tongues of flame were now
+shooting through the roof.
+
+"He's shouting something. Keep still, for heaven's sake!" came Merritt's
+voice suddenly.
+
+A death-like silence followed. Then above the roar and crackle came a
+faint sound. It was Rob calling out some commands.
+
+"A rope!--shoot it up here," was all they could distinguish.
+
+Merritt darted forward and stood below the walls.
+
+"Louder, Rob! Louder!" he besought.
+
+"A rope! Bow--arrow--shoot it up!" came Rob's voice, audible to few, but
+his chum Merritt was the only one that understood. He was back among the
+Scouts in a flash. He seized Paul Perkins by the shoulder.
+
+"Paul, your house is nearest. Run! Run as you never ran before and get
+your archery bow and lots of arrows."
+
+Paul didn't stop to ask the meaning of this strange command, but darted
+off at top speed, the crowd opening for him.
+
+"Ropes! Ropes and lots of string!" shouted Merritt next, appealing to the
+throng. Those who were closest realized that a plan to save Rob--although
+what it was they couldn't imagine--was to be tried. Neighbors of the
+Academy ran off at once and in a few minutes the Scouts were busy, under
+Merritt's directions, knotting ropes together to form one long line.
+
+When this had been done, Merritt measured with his eye the height of the
+Academy walls. Then he set them to work knotting light twine together in
+as long a line as they could make. By this time Paul was back with the
+bow and arrow that the Scouts used at archery practice.
+
+"Give it here," ordered Merritt tersely if ungrammatically.
+
+What he was going to try was a repetition of the trick that had rescued
+some of the Eagle Patrol when they were imprisoned on the top of Ruby
+Glow in the Adirondacks on their memorable treasure hunt.
+
+With a hand that was far from steady, Merritt knotted the end of the
+light string to an arrow. Then, placing the arrow in position, he drew
+the bow. It was plain enough to the dullest-witted now what he meant to
+do. His plan was to shoot the arrow, with the string attached, up on the
+roof where Rob could seize it. This done, it would be possible for the
+latter--if he had time--to haul up the rope, knot it to a chimney and
+slide down. It was a daring, desperate plan, but none other offered, and
+the fact that Rob had suggested it showed that his nerve was not likely
+to fail him in what might be aptly described as a supreme test.
+
+Amid a dead silence Merritt let the arrow fly. It shot through the air,
+but instead of reaching the roof it struck the wall and rebounded. A cry
+went up from the watching crowd as it fell, having failed to accomplish
+its purpose. If Rob's face changed as he stood up there on the edge of
+the fire-illumined roof, it was not visible to those below him, keen as
+his disappointment must have been.
+
+But Merritt was almost sobbing as he picked up the arrow and fitted it
+afresh for another trial. As he drew the bow with every ounce of strength
+he possessed, his lips moved in prayer that his next effort might be
+successful. At any moment now, the foreman of the fire-fighters told him,
+the roof might collapse, carrying with it the brave boy and his childish
+burden.
+
+On the outskirts of the crowd, too, a white-faced man and woman were
+imploring Divine Providence to nerve Merritt's arm and aim. For one
+instant the bowstring was drawn taut till it seemed that the bow must
+snap under the terrific pressure.
+
+Then suddenly the string fell slack, the arrow whizzed through the air
+and a mighty cheer split the sky as it winged true and swift to the roof
+top, falling almost at Rob's feet. Hand over hand he drew in the string,
+and at last he had hauled up enough rope to knot one end fast about some
+ornamental stone work at a corner of the building.
+
+While doing this he had laid the child down. Now he was seen to pick her
+up again, and holding her in his arms for an instant he appeared to
+consider. To slide down that rope he must have at least one arm free. How
+was he going to do it? The crowd almost forebore to breathe as they
+sensed what the boy on the roof was puzzling over.
+
+It was Rob's scout training that solved the problem--one of life and
+death for him--as this same training is doing all over the world for lads
+in every grade of life to-day. He was seen to give the child some
+emphatic instructions and then throw her over his left shoulder much as
+he might have done with a bag of meal. In this position the child's head
+hung down between his shoulders. Her legs were across his chest.
+
+Seizing the baby's left arm so that it came over his right shoulder, Rob
+extended his left hand between its knees and grasped the little one's
+wrist firmly. In this position she was held perfectly securely in what
+all Boy Scouts know as "The Fireman's Lift," one of the most useful
+accomplishments a Boy Scout can master.
+
+This done, the most difficult, dangerous part of Rob's task came. He had
+to slide down that rope with his burden on his shoulder with only his
+right arm and his legs to depend on for a grip. But it had to be done.
+Without hesitation he swung himself from the coping and gripped the rope.
+
+For one terrible instant he shot down for a foot or so before he
+succeeded in checking his downward plunge. But his knees gripped the rope
+and his right arm stood the strain, although he felt as if it must snap.
+
+How he reached the ground Rob never knew. Those last terrible moments on
+the roof had come very near to breaking his nerve. He was conscious of a
+sudden flare of light and a crash as his feet touched the ground. It
+crossed his mind hazily that part of the roof must have fallen
+in--perhaps the part on which he had been standing. Then came a rush of
+feet, shouts, cries, and arms flung about him, and through it all Rob
+could hear his mother's glad cry of relief after the awful tension she
+had endured. He tried to say something and failed, and then everything
+raced round and round him at breakneck speed.
+
+"He's fainting!" he was conscious that somebody was shouting, and he
+could hear himself, only it seemed like somebody else, saying:
+
+"No, I'm all right," and then everything grew blank to the Boy Scout who
+had won, through "Being Prepared" for a great emergency.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XIII.
+                           THE ENEMY'S MOVE.
+
+
+Rob Blake was sitting on the porch of his home in Hampton. In his hand
+was a book on Woodcraft. But he was not just now devoting his attention
+to the volume. Instead he let it hang idly from one hand while he gazed
+up through the maple tops and dreamed of many things. As Rob himself
+would have put it, the "spring was in his blood." More strongly than
+usual that morning he felt the "red gods calling."
+
+Suddenly two hands were thrown over his eyes from behind and a voice
+cried:
+
+"Surrender, you leader of the Eagles! That's one time you're caught
+napping."
+
+"Tubby!" exclaimed Rob, springing up and facing round.
+
+"How in the world did you get in?" he asked the next minute. "I never
+heard you coming, and----"
+
+He broke off with a laugh as his eyes fell on a big section of apple pie
+with one crescent-shaped bite missing, that the fat boy was regarding
+affectionately.
+
+"Oh, I see. The back door, eh?" he inquired.
+
+"Ye-es," drawled Tubby, "and I must say your cook makes good pie and is
+inclined to look favorably on a starving Scout."
+
+"Starving! Why, it's not two hours since breakfast!"
+
+"Well, two hours is a long time--sometimes," mumbled Tubby, who had taken
+another bite while Rob was speaking.
+
+"What news from the Academy, Tubby?"
+
+"Haven't you heard? They haven't been able to find another building big
+enough to house the scholars, so I guess it's a holiday till the
+beginning of September for all of us," cried Tubby with shining eyes.
+"Hullo, what's that? A Latin grammar?"
+
+He picked up a volume that lay on an adjoining chair. He regarded it
+attentively for a few seconds and then flung it forth into the garden
+where it landed in a rose bush.
+
+"Let it lie there till September," he chuckled. "Well, how are you
+anyhow, old fellow?" he rattled on. "It's a week since the fire and you
+ought to be feeling fit again."
+
+"Never felt better in my life, although I was knocked out quite a bit;
+but you see I've had very good care, and----"
+
+"Oh yes, Lucy Mainwaring has been to see you--once or twice, hasn't she?"
+and Tubby, with an air of apparent abstraction, fell to studying a white
+cloud that happened to be drifting by far above them. Suddenly he faced
+about with a mischievous laugh.
+
+"You looked sort of pale when I came in, Rob," he chuckled, "but you've
+got plenty of color now."
+
+Rob, boy-like, looked embarrassed and changed the subject rather
+abruptly.
+
+"Everything fixed for that meeting at headquarters to-night?" he asked.
+
+A rather odd look passed over the fat boy's face.
+
+"Oh yes, it's all ready," he said with rather a marked emphasis on the
+words.
+
+"Good; you and Merritt must have worked hard."
+
+"We've all taken our part. The hall looks bully. It'll be dandy to have
+you around again."
+
+The meeting the boys referred to was the regular weekly meeting of the
+patrol. But when Rob reached the hall above the bank that night he felt
+rather astonished to find that chairs and stools had been arranged all
+over the spacious hall, and that decorations consisting of the Stars and
+Stripes and the Eagle Patrol flags were strung everywhere. Off the main
+hall opened the Scouts' gymnasium and general store room. In this room
+Rob found his Scouts assembled. They greeted him with a cheer as he
+appeared. Rob began to feel uneasy. He hated anything like that, but he
+took the congratulations that were showered upon him in the spirit in
+which they were offered.
+
+When he found an opportunity he drew Merritt aside.
+
+"What are all the chairs arranged outside for?" he asked suspiciously.
+
+"Oh, just so that the folks can see what we've been doing with our time
+during the winter," was the reply. "We've arranged some single stick
+bouts and an exhibition drill and so on--you don't mind, do you?"
+
+"No, it's a fine idea," declared Rob warmly. "How soon will the
+company--audience I mean--arrive?"
+
+"Guess they're beginning to come now," said Merritt as the sound of feet
+tramping into the hall became audible.
+
+"Better send out Walter and Martin to act as ushers, hadn't you?"
+
+"Yes, I guess so," and Merritt hastened off to dispatch the two second
+class Scouts referred to.
+
+The hall filled rapidly. In the front rows Rob could see his parents and
+beside them Commodore Wingate, the scout master of the district, and the
+parents of most of the boys. The other chairs were filled with villagers
+and all at once--Rob's heart beat rather quicker--down the aisle came the
+Mainwaring party. They took the three seats which had been apparently
+reserved for them close to Rob's parents.
+
+Little Andy Bowles, who arrived late, came into the gym in a state of
+high excitement.
+
+Like most of the other scouts he had come in by the back stairway which
+led directly into the gym. He came straight up to Rob.
+
+"Say," he exclaimed, after he had given the scout salute and
+congratulated his leader, "say, who do you think are hanging about
+outside?"
+
+"No idea," rejoined Rob.
+
+"Why, Hodge Berry and Max Ramsay and some of that bunch. They pretended
+not to notice me, but I'm sure they're up to some mischief. I could tell
+that by the way they sneaked off when they saw me."
+
+"I don't see what harm they can do us," rejoined Rob, "although I don't
+doubt they'd like to work off some mean trick. Run along and put on your
+best uniform, Andy, you're late."
+
+Everyone of note in Hampton was in the hall by this time, and when
+Commodore Wingate arose to make a preliminary address he was warmly
+applauded. He dwelt at some length on the new spirit that the Boy Scouts
+had brought into Hampton, and explained that while some misinformed
+persons appeared to think that the scout movement was a warlike one, it
+was in reality a great influence for peace. He reviewed the work of the
+Eagles for the past year and enumerated at some length the various
+services they had done in the village. These included the clearing up and
+beautifying of vacant lots, the aiding of indigent or poor people, many
+little acts of kindness and help, and the setting generally of a good
+example to the youth of the town and neighborhood.
+
+"But," he went on to say, after an impressive pause, "it remained for the
+well-remembered night of the Academy fire to bring into notice the two
+most conspicuous acts of heroism the scouts have yet performed.
+
+"I doubt if the annals of the Boy Scouts of any country show two more
+noble, self-sacrificing acts than those performed on that night by Leader
+Rob Blake of the Eagles,"--here such loud applause broke out that the
+speaker was compelled to pause for some minutes. When quiet was restored
+he went on, "and Merritt Crawford, his able lieutenant." More applause.
+
+While this was going on Rob was shaking his fist at Merritt indignantly.
+Modest as most true heroes, he had, of course, already quietly received
+the thanks of the janitor's wife and the man himself for his daring
+rescue and hoped that the matter would end there. But this public
+acknowledgment was too much for him. As for Merritt, he was chuckling for
+a minute, but as his own name was announced he turned a fiery red and
+cried out in a voice that was audible to the front rows:
+
+"Commodore, I thought you were going to leave me out!"
+
+This caused a great laugh among those who heard it, and Rob felt
+revenged. But the worst ordeal for the two boys still was ahead of them.
+Above the din of applause that greeted the close of Mr. Wingate's speech,
+they heard that gentleman cry for silence. When quiet was restored he
+turned around toward the gymnasium door and cried:
+
+"I now ask Rob Blake and Merritt Crawford to come forward and receive a
+slight token of esteem from their fellow townsmen."
+
+"Go on!" cried the Scouts behind Rob and Merritt, under cover of a
+vigorous salvo of hand-clapping.
+
+There was no use hanging back, and Rob and Merritt, looking very ill at
+ease, stepped out before the crowd. If the applause had been loud before
+it was terrific then. The hall fairly shook under it. Timid folks glanced
+upward at the roof to make sure it was not going to be blown off by
+enthusiasm. But at last, from sheer weariness, even the most vigorous
+applauders ceased. Then came a cry in a stentorian voice, traced to the
+foreman of the Fire Vigilants.
+
+"Three cheers for Rob Blake and Merritt Crawford!"
+
+"Second the motion!" came a tempest of cries from all parts of the hall.
+
+Commodore Wingate drew from his coat tail pockets two velvet boxes. He
+opened them and in each there lay, glittering on a bed of purple plush,
+two miniature firemen's helmets of solid gold set with diamonds. On the
+back of each was inscribed: "From a grateful community to a Boy Scout
+hero." Then followed the date, the name of the boy receiving the gift and
+the village seal. Stepping forward the Scout Master pinned to the breast
+of each lad the gleaming trophies which would ever be among their
+proudest possessions.
+
+In the fresh applause that followed there were a few who did not join.
+These were Max Ramsay, Hodge Berry and their cronies, all of whom
+cordially disliked the Boy Scouts and hated to see them the idols of the
+village. While the applause was still sounding in lusty salvoes they
+slipped out with mischievous looks on their faces. Perhaps Andy Bowles'
+guess that they were up to some prank designed to work harm to the Boy
+Scouts was not so far from the mark.
+
+To relate in detail all that took place that evening would occupy too
+much space. Suffice it to say that the drills and exercises went off with
+a snap, and that some of the games played proved full of laughter and
+merriment. As the audience filed out, more than one former lukewarm
+citizen was heard to remark that the Boy Scout organization was a "mighty
+fine thing for lads, and that the Eagles in particular not only shone
+themselves, but reflected credit on their home town."
+
+But with the departure of the crowd, all was not over. For some time, the
+boys' gym buzzed with chat and laughter. Naturally, Rob and Merritt were
+the centers of attraction, and the two gold, diamond-studded helmets were
+handed about till it seemed that they must actually wear out from
+constant handling! At last it was too late to delay their departure for
+home any longer. When the impromptu meeting did finally break up,
+however, every fellow belonging to the Eagles felt deep down in his heart
+that their organization, despite criticism and even open enmity, had
+proved its right to exist, and, what was more, had even proved its
+necessity in raising ideals and standards among the lads of the
+community.
+
+"We'll march out, fellows," declared Rob, "and as each chap's home or
+corner is reached he can fall out of the ranks."
+
+"Good idea," was the cry, and then:
+
+"Fall in! Fall in!" shouted Merritt.
+
+"Lights out," was the next order and the pushing of the electric light
+switch plunged the place into darkness.
+
+"March!" and off they went, two by two, each Scout marching as smartly as
+a trained veteran.
+
+Outside, on the landing, it was very dark. The blackness was made, so to
+speak, doubly black by the fact that they had just been in a brilliantly
+lighted room.
+
+"Look out for the steps, boys! They're steep!" warned Rob, as his
+detachment of young Scouts marched downward.
+
+Hardly had he spoken when the two lads marching in front, Hiram and Paul,
+gave a stumble and a yell. The next instant they rolled down the steep
+stairway to the street. Before they could take advantage of the warning,
+three more pairs, including Merritt, had likewise executed a bob forward
+and gone toppling down the staircase to the sidewalk. They all landed in
+a heap.
+
+"Look out there! The steps have been soaped!" Rob had just time to call
+out and save the rest from disaster.
+
+The light from a street lamp gave a feeble gleam on the struggling group
+below. The rest of the boys, huddled for a moment above, by exercising
+great care, managed to get over the well-soaped and slippery steps
+without coming to grief. One of them was Andy Bowles.
+
+"I just thought that Max Ramsay and Hodge Berry and their bunch were up
+to some tricks when I saw them round here, and I guess I was right, too.
+How about it, Rob?"
+
+"I'm inclined to think you were," responded Bob. "How are you, fellows?
+All right?" he asked as the downfallen Scouts picked themselves up.
+
+"All present and accounted for," declared Merritt, as they all stood up,
+vigorously brushing dust and dirt from their trig uniforms, "except for a
+few bruises I guess we're all right."
+
+"Hark!" cried Hiram suddenly, "what's that?"
+
+From somewhere near by, possibly from some bushes that grew further down
+the street came the sound of suppressed giggling and cat-calls. There was
+no doubt as to what excited the merriment of the unseen scoffers, nor was
+there, in fact, any difficulty in guessing their identity.
+
+Rob hardly knew whether to laugh or be angry. Others of the Patrol had no
+such hesitancy.
+
+"It's that Max Ramsay crowd," shouted Tubby angrily. "Come out here if
+you're not cowards."
+
+A sound of scuffling and retreating footsteps followed this challenge.
+
+"There they go," shouted Hiram, "the sneaks!"
+
+"Let's capture some of them and make them pay dearly for those soapy
+stairs!" shouted Paul.
+
+"What about it, Rob?" asked Merritt anxiously.
+
+But Rob shook his head.
+
+"Let them go," he said. "None of us are hurt, and if they are mean enough
+to find satisfaction in such tricks, let them."
+
+"Well, I'll take it out of them for this skinned ankle sooner or later,"
+declared Tubby, hopping about and nursing the injured member.
+
+"Same here," came from one or two of the Scouts angrily. "They won't get
+away with anything like that."
+
+"Humph! I've just recollected," said Tubby suddenly. "There's some rule
+or other that says Scouts mustn't fight."
+
+Rob was instantly appealed to by half a dozen anxious voices owned by the
+victims of the soapy stairs.
+
+"Well," he said, "of course no Scout is supposed to engage in fisticuffs
+except in actual self-defense; but--well I guess there's a limit."
+
+"And it's been reached," muttered Tubby vindictively.
+
+"Fall in!" cried Rob.
+
+"Humph! I just fell down," grunted Tubby.
+
+And then, without more discussion of the mean trick that had been played
+them, the Scouts marched off. After that glorious evening they all felt
+that they could well afford to ignore such contemptible pranks as those
+of Max Ramsay and his crowd.
+
+
+As for Rob and Merritt, proud as they felt of the honor that had been
+paid them that night, they somehow could not help valuing even more
+highly the quiet thanks that had come to them from full hearts before the
+public demonstration had been thought of. It is a Scout's duty to do his
+work without hope of reward, save that which comes from a sense of work
+well done, which, after all, is the best reward and the most enduring
+that any boy, or man, either, for that matter, can have.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XIV.
+                           A NOVEL PROPOSAL.
+
+
+"Well, what do you think of my proposal?"
+
+Mr. Mainwaring's eyes twinkled as he regarded the three lads seated
+opposite him in the library of his home which he had called Ancon Hill,
+possibly in remembrance of that other Ancon Hill in the far off Canal
+Zone.
+
+Tubby gulped; Merritt's eyes shone and his face flushed excitedly, but he
+couldn't find words just then.
+
+"Well, Rob, what do _you_ say to transplanting the Boy Scouts, or part of
+them, down along the big Ditch?"
+
+"I--I--that is, we--it's too big--too glorious to just realize it all at
+once, isn't it, fellows?" stammered Rob.
+
+"Pshaw! I thought the motto of your clan was 'Be Prepared'. Now you ought
+to be just as much prepared to accept my invitation to go to Panama as
+you would be to cook a meal in a given time or light a fire with one
+match."
+
+Mr. Mainwaring regarded the young faces opposite him with a quizzical
+look. Then he spoke again.
+
+"I know just what you fellows are thinking," he said. "You'd like to go,
+but----"
+
+"It's--it's our folks, you see----" Tubby managed to sputter. The others
+nodded solemnly. This proposal of Mr. Mainwaring's, that while the
+Academy was closed they should go as his guests to the Canal Zone and see
+the wonders of that region, both natural and man-made, had fairly taken
+them off their feet, as the saying is.
+
+"We'll come to that part of it later," responded Mr. Mainwaring. "I
+shouldn't be surprised," he added with a twinkle in his eyes, "if it
+could all be arranged satisfactorily. You see, I'm not going to take you
+lads down there to idle. Far from it. Idleness is the worst thing for
+boys or men. I've work for you to do. As I told you, this young scamp
+Jared, who is really more fool than knave, has skipped out for the
+Isthmus. That I have found out as you know. With him went Alverado and
+Estrada, the latter having suddenly resigned his diplomatic post at
+Washington. A third party went also, who I more than suspect is the
+keen-faced young man you told me you had seen in Jared's company at the
+barn, at the ball game, and also on the evening Jared took his abrupt
+departure.
+
+"Now, of course, they are on the _qui vive_ on the Isthmus for this
+precious outfit who, undoubtedly, mean mischief of some sort. Just what
+it is I am not prepared to say, but I can tell you that I have a shrewd
+suspicion. Now you boys have plenty of pluck, resource and
+enterprise--don't turn red, I'm not in the habit of flattering anybody
+and I mean it. You are the only people that I know of that have actually
+seen Alverado and who would be able to pick out this miserable, misled
+Jared."
+
+"You want us to do detective work!" gasped Tubby in an awe-struck tone.
+
+Mr. Mainwaring laughed and threw up his hands.
+
+"Heaven save the mark! I suspect you of reading dime novels, Master
+Tubby. No, there is nothing Old-Sleuth-like about what I would want you
+to do; nothing very thrilling or exciting about it. I'd simply want you
+to accompany me and maybe point out the men you have seen plotting
+together, for the benefit of the Isthmian police; so you see there is no
+danger, no glamour, no promise of adventure about it; only a hum-drum
+trip, but one that I am sure will prove full of interest."
+
+Had Mr. Mainwaring possessed a prophetic eye he might not have spoken
+exactly as recorded above. But not being blessed with such an organ he,
+of course, had no means of knowing into what danger and adventure the Boy
+Scouts were destined to be thrust while on the Isthmus.
+
+"Oh, but we'd like to go!" sighed Rob.
+
+"It's like a beautiful dream," struck in Merritt with a far-away look in
+his eyes.
+
+"I suppose that there's plenty to eat down that way?" asked Tubby rather
+suspiciously.
+
+The tension was relieved by a hearty laugh from them all.
+
+"Well, I only asked, you know," remarked Tubby in an injured tone.
+
+"And now that that's all explained," said Mr. Mainwaring, after the
+merriment had subsided, "I may as well tell you that all your parents
+know of my wish and are quite willing that you should go, in spite of the
+fact that for some weeks they will be deprived of your interesting
+society. And----"
+
+But all discipline was at an end for the nonce. The boys' spirits fairly
+broke bounds. They leaped up, joined hands and danced round in a circle.
+It was like some impossible, glorious dream coming true; for each of them
+had long cherished a desire to see Uncle Sam's wonderful digging
+operations which, under the Stars and Stripes, were to join two mighty
+oceans.
+
+In the midst of the excitement the door opened and in came Fred
+Mainwaring; but Lucy was not with him, rather to the disappointment of
+one of the Scouts. Fred, after the boys had all shaken hands warmly and
+indulged in another war dance, announced that his sister had had to leave
+suddenly for the West the night before, as her mother, who was stopping
+with relatives there, had absolutely forbidden the project of taking her
+along.
+
+It was not till after they had taken their leave and were walking with
+Fred down the drive leading to the road back to Hampton that Lucy's
+brother seized an opportunity to draw Rob aside.
+
+"What are you looking so glum about?" he demanded with a twinkle in his
+eyes.
+
+"Who? Me?" rejoined Rob indignantly, "I never felt better in my life."
+
+But his looks belied him. And, strange to say, Rob's gloom dated from the
+moment that Fred had announced Lucy's departure.
+
+"Say, old fellow," laughed Fred merrily, "if you don't remind me of the
+ostrich in the fable! Here,--here's her address,--take it and be happy.
+Bless you, my children," and without waiting for an answer, Fred thrust a
+bit of paper into Rob's hand and darted off with a merry:--
+
+"See you to-morrow. We'll have lots to talk about."
+
+Rob rejoined his companions, who had walked on some distance ahead. His
+gloomy look had vanished like snow in the spring.
+
+"Isn't it great, glittering, glorious?" cried Merritt as he came up.
+
+"I simply can't believe it yet," cried Tubby. "I'm afraid I'll wake up
+like I do some nights when I'm dreaming about a banquet at which I'm an
+honored guest."
+
+"----and I can always send postcards from the Isthmus," breathed Rob,
+which remark did not seem very germane to the conversation. His
+companions looked at him in amazement for an instant and then,
+comprehending, broke into a roar of laughter, for which Rob chased them
+half way back to Hampton, catching Tubby at last and belaboring that
+stout youth till he roared for mercy.
+
+But the fat boy had his revenge. As soon as he was released he sought a
+safe refuge and then, holding his staff like a guitar, he rolled his eyes
+upward in imitation of a troubadour, and howled at the top of his
+voice:--
+
+  "On a bee-yoot-i-ful night!
+  With a bee-yoot-i-ful gy-url!"
+
+Rob didn't know whether to laugh or be angry.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XV.
+                          OFF FOR THE ISTHMUS.
+
+
+The _S.S. Caribbean_ lay at her dock at the foot of West Twenty-fifth
+Street, New York City, with steam up in readiness for her departure for
+Colon, which, as every boy knows, is the easterly port of the Canal Zone
+and the terminus on that side of the Isthmus of the Panama Railroad.
+Everything appeared to be a perfect maze of confusion. Derricks rattled,
+steam winches roared and wagons clattered about the dock in every
+direction. From the 'scape pipe of the big steamer white wisps of steam
+were pouring, while black smoke rolled from the squat, black funnel. At
+the foremast flew the Blue Peter, that blue flag with a square white
+center that, all the world over, signifies "Sailing day."
+
+Down Twenty-fourth Street, hurrying with all their might, came three boys
+whom, even had they not worn their Scout uniforms, we should have had no
+difficulty in recognizing as Rob, Merritt and Tubby. All were laden down
+with packages,--things bought at the last moment. The main part of their
+equipment was already on board. As we know, their numerous camping
+expeditions had provided for them so amply in that way that it had hardly
+been necessary to buy anything in that line. Tents, cooking outfits, and
+so on, they had long possessed.
+
+But on board the ship, in the stateroom they were all three to share,
+reposed their proudest possessions: three blue-steel automatic revolvers
+with their cartridge belts, etc., and three brand new automatic rifles of
+heavy caliber. The latter had been the gift of Mr. Mainwaring, while the
+revolvers the boys had bought themselves on his recommendation. It was
+quite likely, it appeared, that they would explore some of the upper
+reaches of the Chagres River, a region infested by big snakes, jaguars
+and alligators, and weapons were more or less of a necessity.
+
+Good-byes had been said early that morning when an admiring, if slightly
+envious, cohort of Scouts, with the village band at their heads, had
+escorted them to the train for New York. It had been a period of glorious
+excitement up to that time, but when the moment came to say the last
+good-byes and they had waved and given the Scout cry for the last time,
+the three lads felt strangely sober. This supernatural depression of
+spirits had endured till they reached New York, where their last shopping
+excursion for some time diverted their thoughts and drove away the blues.
+So that it was a laughing, merrily chatting trio that came at a brisk
+walk down Twenty-fourth Street on its way to meet Mr. Mainwaring and Fred
+at the steamer. All felt that their departure for the tropics meant a new
+epoch in their lives. As for their friends at home, the Hampton local
+paper had devoted a column to the lads' departure, calling them
+"Hampton's Boy Scout Pioneers."
+
+How much they wished that they could have brought all the Eagles with
+them to share their anticipated experiences! But that was manifestly
+impossible, and so, as the next best thing, Tubby carried a camera and an
+ample supply of films with which to make all the pictures he could to be
+shown to admiring audiences on their return.
+
+The water front opposite the sailing place of the West India and South
+American ships is a busy spot. Life boils over thereabouts and the boys
+felt quite bewildered as they faced the broad street packed with rumbling
+wagons and swearing drivers and stevedores that lay between them and the
+dock bearing in big white letters the magic words: Panama Steamship
+Company.
+
+They were just about to cross the street when their attention was
+suddenly distracted by the sound of some sort of scuffle or argument
+going on near at hand. Facing about they were not long in discovering
+what the trouble was. Drawn up against the curb was a small peddler's
+hand-cart, covered with rosy apples piled high in tempting fashion.
+Behind it stood a kindly-looking old woman who just at that moment
+appeared to be very much flustered and excited. The cause was soon
+apparent.
+
+Above the quavering voice of the old woman came a loud, blustering one
+that the boys were swift to recognize.
+
+"Max Ramsay! What in the world is he doing here?"
+
+"And Hodge Berry is with him and two other boys that look like city
+fellows," struck in Merritt. "What are they up to?"
+
+"It's plain enough that they are plaguing that poor old woman," exclaimed
+Rob, "and it wouldn't surprise me if they had come down here to see us
+off on the steamer and try to make trouble of some kind. I heard they
+were staying with Ramsay's cousins in the city till the school was
+rebuilt."
+
+"Well, it's a shame, anyhow," cried Merritt indignantly.
+
+He had just seen what the Hampton worthies and their friends were up to.
+They had amused themselves by plaguing the old woman till she was half
+beside herself, and then, while she was berating one of them, the others
+would steal some apples.
+
+"Why, it's downright thievery," cried Rob.
+
+"That's just what it is. Just what I'd expect from such cads," cried
+Merritt, fully as angry.
+
+"They look like good apples, too," commented Tubby, regarding the fruit
+with the eye of an expert in such matters.
+
+"Well, if you aren't the limit," exclaimed Merritt, giving him a
+disgusted look.
+
+"Haven't I got a right to give my opinion?" asked the fat Scout demurely.
+
+"Well, of all the mean skunks," cried Rob indignantly, with a darkening
+brow. "See, the poor old woman is lame. She's got a crutch there. She
+can't get after them and that's why they are so bold."
+
+"Come on, and stop it," exclaimed Merritt impulsively, "I can't stand for
+anything like that."
+
+"Better get a policeman," suggested Tubby prudently.
+
+"I don't see one in sight," rejoined Rob; "I guess it's up to us to stop
+it."
+
+"Here's where I get even for that tumble I took, Scout rules or no Scout
+rules," muttered Tubby to himself as the three lads advanced.
+
+Max Ramsay was contentedly munching a big red apple as they approached.
+He was too much, engrossed with laughing at the anger of the old woman
+and the mean pranks of his friends to notice the trio of determined
+looking lads nearing him. He had already swooped down on the stand and
+was now trying to divert the old woman's attention from the raids of his
+companions.
+
+"Drop that apple, Max Ramsay!"
+
+That was the first warning that Max had that the three Scouts from
+Hampton were on the scene. He and his companions had, as Rob guessed,
+come down to the steamer to make trouble for the boys if they could. But
+on the way they had stopped to divert themselves at the old apple woman's
+expense.
+
+Max turned a trifle pale for an instant, but then he bethought himself of
+his companions and grew defiant again.
+
+"As if I'd drop it for you," he said sneeringly.
+
+Rob's arm flashed out and seized Max's wrist. The next instant the apple
+was flying across the street.
+
+"Ouch!" grunted Max, "what are you trying to do? Break my arm? Hey,
+fellows!"
+
+His companions, their attention thus drawn, rallied to Max's support. But
+Rob, crimson with just anger, never noticed them. Nothing made the young
+Scout leader more angry than cruelty or injustice to children, the old
+and feeble, or dumb animals. His eyes fairly blazed now as he faced Max,
+who looked mean and cringing beside him.
+
+"Now get out of this, you coward," he exclaimed, grabbing Max's shoulder
+and giving that worthy a good shove. "Be off and take your friends with
+you. You ought to be ashamed of yourselves, treating a poor old woman
+this way."
+
+"Let's give 'em a good punching," muttered Tubby belligerently.
+
+"That's what I say," chimed in Merritt; but Rob held back his two
+fire-eating chums.
+
+"Oh, we're not scared of the whole bunch of you namby-pamby sissies,"
+cried Hodge Berry, a hulking lad who, however, took good care to keep out
+of reach of Rob's fists. He had once witnessed what they could do and had
+no desire for a personal experience. Now Max's two city cousins chimed
+in.
+
+"Why don't you give those toy soldiers a good hiding?" said one.
+
+"Yes; those Boy Scouts are too dern busy," put in the other, a
+pale-faced, pimply lad of about seventeen.
+
+But despite these brave remarks, neither of them made any effort to back
+up Max or Hodge Berry.
+
+"All right for you. We'll fix you some time," snarled Max.
+
+"Why not do it now?" inquired Tubby. "You're four to three, that's good
+odds."
+
+"Oh, we could lick you if we wanted to. We'll do it, too, when you get
+back from Panama, if you ever do. I hope the 'gators eat you."
+
+"Thank you," said Rob, laughing in spite of himself; "and as for fighting
+you fellows, why I don't much believe in it, but if you don't make
+yourselves scarce, I'll give you rowdies a lesson you won't forget."
+
+"Yah-h-h-h-h!" was all that the apple raiders could think of to say, but
+they faded away from the scene in as dignified a manner as they could
+muster.
+
+The three Scouts then bought some apples from the old woman, who poured
+out her thanks so profusely that a small crowd began to gather about her
+and listen.
+
+"Come on, fellows," said Rob, "let's get out of this."
+
+They hurried away, followed by the old woman's "Wurra wurras," and "God
+bless yez fer foine byes now, even if ye do wear haythenish clothes."
+
+When they were out of earshot, Rob turned his attention to his badge,
+which he was wearing upside down. Like many other Scouts, he didn't turn
+it the right way up till he had lived up to the Scout rules of doing a
+daily kind deed. He now turned his badge the right way and so did his
+chums, who had adopted this rule also.
+
+"I'd have felt better if I could have got a good crack at those chaps,
+though," said Tubby between bites at his apple.
+
+Suddenly a steamer's whistle boomed out above the dock-side uproar.
+
+"Gee whiz, fellows, that's the 'all ashore' whistle. We've got to
+hustle!" cried Rob.
+
+The three Scouts broke into a run, each congratulating himself that he
+could present himself before Mr. Mainwaring with an "upturned badge."
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XVI.
+                       SOMETHING ABOUT THE CANAL.
+
+
+"Suppose you tell us what you know about Panama and the canal?" remarked
+Tubby to Rob as the three boys perched in the bow of the _Caribbean_,
+three days out, watching the flying fish as the vessel's prow sent them
+scattering like coveys of birds from big patches of yellow gulf weed.
+
+"Yes, that's a good idea," supplemented Merritt, "I guess we won't get
+much time to study books down there. Mr. Mainwaring said this morning
+that, after he had given the work a preliminary look-over, he was going
+to hunt for the source of that tributary of the Chagres that he thinks is
+responsible for the big floods every rainy season."
+
+"Well, I don't suppose I know much more about it than you two fellows
+do," rejoined Rob modestly, "but I've been reading up on it."
+
+Here he looked at Tubby, who had done nothing much on the steamer but
+consume three huge meals a day, with "snacks" in between, and amuse
+himself. One of these amusements had been stuffing some of those
+odd-looking pills known as "Pharaoh's Serpents" into the captain's pipe.
+Almost every boy can guess what happened when the glowing tobacco reached
+the "Serpents" and big, wriggly, writhing things began to climb out of
+the pipe bowl.
+
+"Ach himmel, der sea serpent," yelled the skipper, who was a German.
+
+"Oh-h-h-h-h-h!" screamed a lot of ladies to whom he happened to be
+talking.
+
+It was just at this juncture that the captain had caught sight of Tubby
+doubled up with laughter behind a ventilator. He chased and captured the
+fat youth, who then and there received a spanking for which he got no
+sympathy, even from his fellow Scouts. Except for spilling "sneezing
+powder" in the main dining room at dinner time and burning an old
+gentleman's bald head by sun rays concentrated in a magnifying glass,
+Tubby had done nothing out of the way since.
+
+"Fire away. Unload your knowledge," ordered Merritt, luxuriously
+stretching out under the awning.
+
+"All right, here goes. To begin at the beginning, of course you know that
+Panama was discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1502."
+
+"Ginger snaps!" interrupted Tubby. "Is there anything, except Coney
+Island, that he didn't discover?"
+
+"Shut up, can't you," cried Merritt indignantly. "Go on, Rob, it's just
+the nature of the beast. Never mind him."
+
+"Well," resumed Rob, "Columbus discovered the Chagres River and sailed up
+it. He called the beautiful harbor by which he entered it Porto Bello.
+Then came Balboa, who was the first to cross the Isthmus and view the
+Pacific. It was about this time that a road was built across and the city
+of Panama founded on the Pacific side. It was from Panama that Pizarro
+set out to begin his brutal campaign which ended in the practical
+extinction of the Incas of Peru."
+
+"Oh, cut out the history and let's get down to the canal," muttered
+Tubby; "I hate history, anyhow."
+
+"It's my belief that you like nothing but eating," declared Merritt
+indignantly.
+
+"And sleeping," put in Tubby without a smile.
+
+"The road was fifty miles long and well paved and provided with
+substantial bridges, some of which are yet standing although the road is
+almost impassable," went on Rob. "It was the war between Mexico and Uncle
+Sam in 1846-47 that brought about a change. But in the meantime, I forgot
+to tell you that old Panama was sacked by Captain Henry Morgan and his
+pirates in 1671, great stores of gold taken and the inhabitants put to
+the torture. The city was never rebuilt, but its ruins still stand some
+miles from the site of the present city."
+
+"Well, what happened in the Mexican war?" asked Tubby.
+
+"I'm coming to that. At that time there were not more than 9,000 miles of
+railroad in America, and it was a hard matter to get as far west as
+Chicago by rail.
+
+"Between the East and the Pacific Coast lay great prairies, practically
+unexplored. Indians were thickly scattered over this region and very
+hostile to the white man. The journey across took months. The lack of a
+short route to the Pacific coast set everybody to thinking. Then, in
+1849, came the great gold rush to California. Hundreds of miners went by
+way of the Isthmus, but there was no railroad and they got sick, and many
+of them died on the way across. It became clear that there must be a
+railroad and, at last, in 1855, after unheard of difficulties had been
+mastered, one was completed with American capital.
+
+"From the first it paid tremendously, in the space of forty-seven years
+making $38,000,000 of clear profit for its projectors. But to build that
+forty-eight miles of track had cost 2,000 recorded human lives, five
+years of labor, and $8,000,000."
+
+"First history, then a railroad year book, and now, I suppose, we'll get
+down to the canal," grunted Tubby.
+
+"Yes, that's coming now," smiled Rob. "In the first place, the idea of
+building a canal across the narrow strip of land forming the Isthmus had
+been a dream even of the early Spaniards. Then a Scotchman founded a
+colony which was to grow rich on the products of the Isthmus and also dig
+a canal. Disease and failure soon put an end to this enterprise. In fact,
+from the earliest days Panama and the Isthmus have always been known as
+one of the most unhealthy spots on earth. As you may know, it is only
+nine degrees north of the equator, and the rainy season lasts more than
+half the year. But nowadays, with modern medicine and modern hygienic
+methods, it is quite safe, with reasonable care, to penetrate the jungle.
+Mr. Mainwaring told me that," he added.
+
+"Well, after various schemes had been gotten up and had fallen through, a
+French company, backed by the money of almost everyone in France who
+could by hook or crook secure stock, in 1882 turned the first shovelful
+of earth for a canal. It was to have been a sea-level one, that is, one
+without locks, and was projected and engineered by Ferdinand De Lesseps,
+the aged builder of the Suez canal.
+
+"We know now that a sea-level canal would not be feasible on the Isthmus.
+It would take too long to build and cost a prohibitive sum, almost double
+what a lock canal costs. For seven years digging went on, with fearful
+loss of life among the laborers and engineers from yellow fever. Then, in
+1899, it was discovered that almost half of the $400,000,000 raised had
+been squandered in mismanagement and waste, and by far the larger part
+had gone in what we should nowadays call 'graft'. An investigation was
+made. Several of the promoters of the canal committed suicide, and De
+Lesseps went mad and died in an asylum. Such was the tragic history of
+the French era; but brighter days were to come.
+
+"It was in 1898 when the _Oregon_ made her record run from San Francisco
+to join the Atlantic fleet in the West Indies and fight the Spaniards off
+Cuba, that Americans began to think that a short cut was needed. With our
+acquisition of the Philippines, a 'door' between the Pacific and Atlantic
+was declared to be almost a necessity. There was much discussion at
+Washington, but finally in 1903 President Roosevelt and Congress decided
+that if we could purchase from the French all they had left at Panama and
+could, in addition, buy a strip or 'zone' across the Isthmus for canal
+building purposes, it would be fitting and right for the United States to
+take up the work.
+
+"After some dickering, the French company, took $40,000,000 for what they
+owned, and, in 1904, the Panama Republic, a newly created nation, sold
+the United States for $10,000,000 a strip of land ten miles wide and
+fifty miles long, which strip of land is now known as the Canal Zone.
+
+"The first thing that the Americans did after they took hold was to start
+a campaign against disease. No canal could be dug while yellow fever had
+to be reckoned with. Under the masterly hand of Col. W. C. Gorgas, the
+Zone has been cleaned up till disease is almost rarer than in cities of
+the north. Mosquitoes have been wiped out, streets paved, filth and
+garbage, which used to lie and rot under the hot sun, all swept away, and
+good comfortable houses put up for workmen and their bosses. The men who
+stand the climate best among the laborers are Jamaican negroes. Hindus,
+Italians and Spaniards are also employed for lighter work, but for
+'making the dirt fly' the Sambo is the real thing.
+
+"Anything else you'd like to know?"
+
+"Well, yes," said Merritt. "Just why is this Chagres River such an
+important part of the canal?"
+
+"Well, it's this way, as I understand it," said Rob. "In the first place,
+the canal is fifty miles long,--forty-one miles through the land and nine
+miles of channel dredged out in the harbors of Colon and Panama. From
+Colon to Bah Bohia the route passes for twelve miles through low, swampy
+ground not much above sea level. Then it cuts into the hills and is
+practically a more or less shallow ditch as far as a place called
+Miraflores, nine miles away. The highest point of land that the canal
+must traverse is Gold Hill, at the famous Culebra, where it is 662 feet
+above the sea level.
+
+"But right here occurs a 'saddle' through which the canal must run. This,
+at its lowest point, is 312 feet above sea level. Right here is the
+notorious Culebra Cut, which is an immense excavation nine miles long
+and, in places, more than three hundred feet deep in solid rock,--think
+of that!
+
+"Bad as Culebra has been as an obstacle, however, the Chagres River is
+worse. For 23 miles the canal must follow the valley of this river and
+cross and recross its bed. The Chagres is an unruly stream. At times it
+is small, and then again it swells to tremendous size, sweeping all
+before it and causing great floods. To build the canal the problem was to
+turn the Chagres into a friend, instead of an enemy, and that, it is
+believed, has been done in an unique way.
+
+"You must now roughly picture a cross section of the canal route as a
+flat-topped pyramid. Suppose the top of the pyramid to be hollow and that
+through that hollow flows the Chagres River. Well, on one side of your
+cup or hollow is the famous Gatun Dam, in the construction of which
+2,250,000 barrels of cement have been used. Below the Gatun Dam is a
+'flight,' just like a succession of steps of locks. These will be used to
+lower vessels from the 'cup' at the top to the Atlantic level,--or to
+raise them, as the case may be.
+
+"On the other end of the cup, on the Pacific end that is, will be another
+flight of locks, the Pedro Miguel and Miraflores locks, which will raise
+or lower vessels from and to the Pacific. Is that clear? There's a big
+cup at the top of our pyramid, and steps, or 'locks,' lead down to the
+levels of the oceans on each side."
+
+"Oh, it's as clear as mud," muttered Tubby, "go on."
+
+"Now, then, we get to the Chagres and the part it plays," went on Rob
+serenely. "That whole 'cup' at the top of our pyramid is actually an
+artificial lake of vast size. As a matter of fact, it will be 165 square
+miles in area. At Gatun a great dam will hold it in, and at Pedro Miguel
+the locks will perform the same office. This lake is the valley of
+Chagres, and the Chagres will be relied on to keep it filled. This
+immense Gatun Lake, as it is called, is the 'keystone' of the canal. Any
+weakness in the Gatun Dam would ruin the whole project. You can see, of
+course, why this is so, because the water in that Gatun Lake will be
+relied upon to fill the locks which will raise vessels up or down."
+
+"But suppose the Chagres River cuts up ugly, as you said it does
+sometimes?" asked Merritt.
+
+"Well," said Rob, "I heard Mr. Mainwaring say that the great lake will be
+so big that a flood would affect its level no more than a cup of water
+poured into a bath tub. The river will merely serve to keep the lake
+filled and supply the water needed to work the locks."
+
+"That's a very good description, Master Rob," said a voice at their
+elbows.
+
+They started and looked up, and there was Mr. Mainwaring himself looking
+down at them.
+
+"We have changed the Chagres from a dangerous enemy into an excellent
+friend," he said, "but, as Rob pointed out, the Gatun is unavoidably the
+spot at which an enemy who wished to harm us could do almost
+irretrievable damage at the expenditure of a few dollars' worth of
+dynamite, if," he paused for an instant, "if he knew just where to place
+it."
+
+"Does anyone possess such knowledge?" asked Rob.
+
+"Yes, anyone possessing a duplicate of my plans would know just how to
+set about dealing the canal a fearful blow," was the slow response.
+
+Rob's pulses beat fast and thick. He caught his breath. Jared had such
+duplicate plans, and was in the hands of men who could work on his weak
+nature to give them up. He glanced up at Mr. Mainwaring, expecting to see
+signs of anxiety on his face. But the engineer was perfectly calm.
+
+"After all that 'dry history,' as Tubby called it," said he, with a
+smile, "let's go and play shuffle board. Fred is waiting for us."
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XVII.
+                             AT OLD PANAMA.
+
+
+The week following the conversation recorded in the last chapter found
+the travelers located at the Hotel Grand Central, in Panama City. Colon,
+although the Americans have done much to clean it up and make it more
+presentable than in former days, does not hold much of interest. Besides,
+Mr. Mainwaring's offices were at Panama, which made his presence there a
+necessity.
+
+The boys had passed a busy time sight-seeing in the old city. They had
+climbed the Cathedral towers, gazing out over the glittering bay dotted
+with small but beautiful islands, where the wealthy Panamans spent the
+heated months. They had explored nooks and corners and inspected the
+oldest church on the continent.
+
+On the particular day on which this chapter opens they had planned an
+expedition to Old Panama city, which lies about five miles from the
+present town. Mr. Mainwaring was busy, but Fred had obtained leave to
+accompany the boys, his duties as his father's secretary not being very
+onerous. They set out in high spirits along the road leading to the ruins
+of the golden city sacked by Morgan and his buccaneers.
+
+The drive was made in an aged hack, and hardly had the boys left the
+outskirts of the town before they were exclaiming over the luxuriant
+tropical vegetation and the odd sights that met their eyes on every side.
+Once or twice they crossed small streams, and laughed at the sight of
+native women pounding clothes on rocks at the water side with big, flat
+clubs.
+
+"Heaven help the buttons!" cried Merritt. "This must be a paradise for
+button manufacturers."
+
+"I guess they don't bother much with them, at least not the natives that
+we've passed," chuckled Fred.
+
+"Oh, look at that bunch of bananas!" cried Tubby presently, as they
+passed by a clump of green banana plants laden with fruit. "Let's hop out
+and get some."
+
+But the fruit was green and uneatable. Bananas, as Tubby did not know,
+are picked and shipped while green, and grow yellow and ripe on the
+voyage north in the holds of the fruit steamers, which are kept carefully
+at a uniform temperature.
+
+"It's odd that we've seen nothing of Jared or his friends," remarked Rob,
+as, after the discovery of Tubby's mistake, they drove on again. "Has
+your dad notified the police?"
+
+"Yes, indeed," rejoined Fred Mainwaring, "but nothing has come of it as
+yet. Of course, a careful lookout is being kept. Say, fellows," he
+exclaimed in a cautious tone, "do you know I believe that some plot is on
+foot to injure the great Gatun Dam and delay the opening of the canal? At
+least, I'm pretty sure, from things I've heard dad say, that such is the
+case."
+
+"And you think, or rather he thinks, that Jared is mixed up in it?" asked
+Tubby breathlessly.
+
+"That's what. At least he is mixed up in it to this extent, that he is
+supplying the plotters with plans of the dam and so on in order that they
+can strike their blow at the weakest part of it."
+
+"Gee whiz! I'd like to get my hands on that Jared just once," exclaimed
+Merritt angrily. "What a skunk he is."
+
+"It's a pity we ever let him get away from Hampton," muttered Merritt.
+"Of course, we found out that he and the man with him bought tickets for
+New York, but that was only a blind clew at best."
+
+"Well, we don't actually know that he is on the Zone at all," struck in
+Rob; "although all the steamship offices were quizzed, we couldn't find
+out that anybody answering Jared's description had taken passage for the
+Isthmus."
+
+"So far as that is concerned," remarked Fred, "dad says that that proves
+nothing. He might have shipped from San Francisco or New Orleans, or even
+from some Canadian port for some other destination, and then worked his
+way up here on a sailing vessel or coasting steamer."
+
+"And that's just about what he would have done," cried Rob. "Both
+Alverado and Estrada have plenty of sympathizers in Bogota who would help
+them in any plot against Uncle Sam. But, after all, the whole thing may
+be a false alarm."
+
+"You wouldn't think so if you could have heard what dad said at that
+meeting of the Canal heads the other day," rejoined Fred. "Of course I
+can't tell you what took place, although I was present in my capacity as
+secretary; but from what I heard a strict watch is to be kept and the
+guards doubled."
+
+"If Estrada and Alverado know the country well, it's quite likely that
+they aren't in the city at all," struck in Merritt. "The country outside
+the actual Canal Zone is a trackless jungle. They may be hiding up in
+there some place."
+
+"That's quite likely, too," rejoined Fred. "I heard dad saying something
+about that the other day. By the way, we are going to start up the
+Chagres day after to-morrow; won't that be bully? That's my idea of
+sport,--following up a tropic river looking for a tributary."
+
+"What's your dad going to do with the tributary when he finds it?" asked
+the practical Tubby.
+
+"That hasn't been settled yet," was the rejoinder. "Of course, if it
+proves to be the branch that feeds the Chagres and causes all the trouble
+in flood time, it will be dammed or something so as to make it harmless."
+
+"Say, don't talk so loud," whispered Rob in a cautious tone, for the boys
+from their first low tones had gradually drifted into louder talk, "that
+driver is listening to every word we're saying."
+
+"Just like an inquisitive nigger," growled Fred resentfully.
+
+"He's not a nigger," declared Rob; "he looks to me more like a
+Latin-American of some sort. He may be a fellow countryman of this
+Estrada. In that case, I hope he didn't overhear anything."
+
+"Well, you were talking as loud as any of us," declared Tubby.
+
+"Yes, that's so. I kind of wish I hadn't."
+
+"Look!" cried Merritt suddenly.
+
+He had good reason to exclaim. Ahead of them, rising majestically above
+the brilliant-hued tropical greenery, was a vast gray tower, square and
+massive, and pierced with square windows. At its summit it was overgrown
+with mosses, lichens and many-hued flowers of gorgeous coloring. But for
+this, it might have seemed anything but a ruin.
+
+"The ruined tower of the old cathedral church of St. Augustin!" cried
+Rob.
+
+"And that's all that remains of the city from which Morgan took so much
+plunder that it required seventy-five mules and six hundred prisoners to
+pack it across the Isthmus to Porto Bello," chimed in Merritt, who, it
+will be seen from this remark, had been reading up on Panama.
+
+Leaving the rig behind them, the four lads made their way to the foot of
+the tower. They elected to push their way through a tangle of brush
+instead of following the regular footpath. As Tubby said, it seemed more
+like coming to a ruin than by strolling up to it on a beaten track. Their
+tough khaki uniforms resisted the thorns and brambles valiantly, and they
+arrived at the foot of the massive old tower out of breath but undamaged,
+except for sundry scratches on their hands.
+
+They entered the old tower through a tumble-down doorway. The walls, they
+noticed as they passed through, were three feet or more thick, which
+perhaps accounted for the sturdy piles standing so long after the rest of
+the city had vanished. Inside was a crumbled stairway of stone up which
+the four Scouts were soon scrambling. They clambered to the very top and
+then Rob and Fred drew from their pockets two pennants. One bore the
+"totem" of the Eagles; the other was emblazoned with the Patrol emblem of
+the Black Wolves.
+
+"I thought of this just before we left," said Rob, as he drew out the
+Eagle flag; "I guess we're the first Boy Scouts on the Isthmus and so
+we'll be the first to unfurl our totems above old Panama."
+
+"But how are you going to make the flag fast?" asked Tubby.
+
+"See that prickly branch growing right out from the edge of the tower? I
+guess I'll make mine fast to that," said Rob, "it'll be as good as a flag
+pole."
+
+"Look out you don't slip," warned Merritt, as Rob made his way over
+roughly piled stones that had crumbled from the parapet and gained the
+edge of the tower. At that point a staff-like thorn bush raised one bare
+arm aloft. As Rob had said, it did indeed make a regular flag pole.
+
+Balancing himself carefully, the leader of the Eagle Patrol reached out
+and peered over the edge.
+
+"Wow, fellows, but it looks a long way to the ground!" he exclaimed. "If
+I ever fell, I'd land with a bump all right."
+
+Clasping the flag in one hand, he leaned out and laid hold of the upright
+branch. There was a sudden cracking sound. The horrified Scouts, who were
+watching Rob, saw him make a desperate grab at the wall to recover
+himself as the branch snapped.
+
+But Rob's effort came too late.
+
+"He's gone!" yelled Tubby, turning as white as a ghost as Rob, without a
+sound, plunged over the parapet and out of sight.
+
+His chums turned sick and faint. They dared not go to the edge to gaze
+upon what they knew must lie at the foot of the tower. They simply stood
+like figures carved out of wood waiting for the sound of Rob's crashing
+fall.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XVIII.
+                         BETWEEN EARTH AND SKY.
+
+
+But no such sound came. Instead they heard something that brought them
+instantly to the alert.
+
+"Hey, fellows! Come quick!"
+
+It was Rob's voice, coming up to them over the edge of that dizzy height.
+
+In three bounds, careless of the consequences of a false step, they were
+on the parapet of the tower where they had last seen Rob, as he reached
+out for the treacherous "flag pole."
+
+"Look, boys! Look! There he is! Hold on, Rob, old fellow. Hold on, for
+heaven's sake," cried Merritt.
+
+Rob, his feet dug into the rough interstices of the old ruinous wall, was
+clinging to a stoutly rooted bush that had broken his fall and given him
+one second in which to stay his awful plunge into space. But his position
+even now was bad enough.
+
+His face was as white as chalk, and the sweat streamed down it in rivers
+as he gazed up at his comrades above. He was fully thirty feet below
+them, and they had no rope, no means of saving him from his fearful
+position! In the very nature of things his muscles, strong as they were,
+were bound to give out before long. It was not in flesh and blood to
+endure such a tension long; and then---- But they dared not think of
+that.
+
+It was a moment for quick action and nimble wits. The shrub to which Rob
+was clinging appeared to be firmly rooted. In fact, it must have been, to
+have withstood the strain of his crashing fall. Then, too, his toes were
+driven home into a crack of the wall, relieving to some extent the weight
+brought to bear on the shrub. But this could not last indefinitely.
+
+Suddenly Merritt noticed something. Just above the place where Rob clung
+to the wall, a hundred feet above the waving banana fronds, was an
+opening. As he saw this a sudden idea struck him. He thought he saw a
+way, a desperate way, it is true, but still a way to rescue Rob from his
+perilous position.
+
+"How long can you hold on, Rob?" he called down.
+
+"Not much longer I'm afraid," came back in a voice that could hardly have
+been recognized as Rob's, "can't you get a rope?"
+
+Merritt shook his head. He knew that a search for such an article would
+take too much precious time.
+
+"No; but you hold on, old chap. Keep up a good heart and we'll get you
+out of that, never fear."
+
+Turning to his companions he hastily explained his plan. An instant later
+the three Scouts were rushing down the crazy stone staircase headed for
+the opening above Rob. As soon as they reached it Merritt peered out. Rob
+was still there, but he looked up appealingly at his chum. Merritt knew
+what the look meant. Rob couldn't hold on much longer, but dared not
+waste breath in speaking.
+
+"Now, then, fellows," spoke Merritt, turning to his chums, "what we're
+going to do is easy enough if you keep cool; but if you get rattled it
+may fail."
+
+"We'll keep cool all right, Merritt," Fred assured him, though his breath
+was coming fast.
+
+As for Tubby, his countenance did not betray the flicker of a muscle.
+Merritt knew he could rely on the fat boy, but of Fred's more emotional
+nature he had not been quite so sure.
+
+Suddenly his eye caught sight of something that would make his task
+easier. In the wall of the opening was a big, rusty iron staple. What its
+former use had been there was no means of guessing; but Merritt regarded
+it with delight. It made the daring thing he was about to attempt a
+little more certain of success.
+
+"Tubby, you just hook your belt through that staple," he ordered, "and
+then hang on to Fred's feet for all you are worth. Fred, you lie down
+right here,--with your hands just at the edge,--that's right."
+
+The boys obeyed Merritt's orders, but Tubby looked at him with
+apprehension.
+
+"You'll never do it," he quavered.
+
+"Nonsense, of course I will, if you fellows carry out your part. It's
+nothing more than wall scaling, only we're doing it the other way round."
+
+When all was ready Tubby was lying flat with his belt hooked through the
+iron staple. He had fast hold of Fred's ankles, while the latter's hands
+came just to the edge of the opening. Merritt was to form the last link
+in this human chain that was to rescue Rob Blake, if such a thing was
+possible.
+
+Merritt had already seen that the bush to which Rob clung was not more
+than four feet below the opening. His daring plan was to lower
+himself,--with Fred clinging to his ankles,--till he could reach Rob's
+hands and help him up to safety.
+
+Without a word Merritt threw himself on his stomach, after taking off his
+coat and hat, and wriggled to the edge. One look at Rob's upturned face
+told him that he had no time to lose. Seconds, yes, fractions of seconds,
+would count now.
+
+"Catch hold, Fred!"
+
+Fred gripped the daring Scout's ankles tightly.
+
+"Now hang on like grim death."
+
+Merritt clenched his teeth and slowly wriggled his way over the edge.
+Hanging head downward he extended his hands toward the shrub where Rob
+was clinging.
+
+"Hold on for your lives!" he shouted to those above, and then to Rob:--
+
+"Let go with one hand and grab my right wrist, Rob."
+
+For an instant Rob hesitated. He _dared_ not let go. But again came
+Merritt's voice. This time it was sharp and imperative.
+
+"Let go and grab me!"
+
+Rob's grip with his left was relaxed and he seized Merritt's wrist,
+giving it a jerk that almost pulled his arm out of the socket. For an
+instant his heart was in his mouth. If the boys above weren't strong
+enough to hold them, they would both be dashed downward to the ground
+that looked so fearfully far below. But both Tubby and Fred were heavy
+youths, and then, too, the belt that was looped through that
+accommodating iron staple was an anchor in itself.
+
+There was a slight give and a sag, but the "human chain" held.
+
+"Now the other hand," ordered Merritt, drawing a breath of relief.
+
+Rob obeyed instantly this time. But he was a fairly heavy youth and it
+was a good thing that he could take part of the weight off his rescuer's
+arms by digging his toes into the cracks of the ruinous tower. Otherwise
+this story might have had a different ending.
+
+"Now, Rob, use me as a ladder. Don't look down for heaven's sake, but
+reach up and grab my belt. Use the cracks in the wall like the rungs of a
+ladder and clamber up."
+
+"Let me rest a minute. I'm winded and dizzy," breathed Rob, whose nerve
+was badly shaken.
+
+"Not a minute. Go on now!"
+
+Merritt spoke sharply purposely. Rob rallied and did as he was told. He
+seized Merritt's belt as the other boy hung head downward, and, digging
+his toes into the cracks of the wall, he drew himself up till he could,
+with his other hand, lay hold of the edge of the opening. After this it
+was an easy matter, thanks to the ruinous condition of the wall which
+offered plenty of foothold, to clamber to safety. Reaching it, Rob lay
+back white and panting.
+
+But in a few seconds he was able to help his chums haul the courageous
+Merritt out of danger.
+
+It was some time before they felt able to leave the ruined tower, such a
+bad shaking up had all their nerves received; but at last a move was
+made. Needless to say, the Scout totems were not flung to the breeze that
+day.
+
+"I don't see how we ever did it," exclaimed Fred, as they reached the
+ground and Tubby began taking pictures of the tower while the others
+looked up at the spot where Rob had clung in such dire peril.
+
+"I guess 'being prepared,' having good, healthy muscles and all that had
+a whole heap to do with it," said Tubby, snapping his shutter; "and now
+let's get a move on and get back to dinner, or second breakfast, as they
+call it here. I don't know how you fellows feel, but I'm one aching
+void."
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XIX.
+                             THE GATUN DAM.
+
+
+The scene changes to a day when the boys had their first view of the
+mighty Gatun Dam, a work that, as President Taft said, is "as solid as
+the everlasting hills." Picture a vast valley hemmed in by hills heavily
+timbered with tropical growth. Across the valley floor the current of the
+muddy Chagres slowly serpentines, with workmen's huts clustered along its
+sides, and everywhere preparations being made to hem it in, much as the
+Liliputians set about harnessing Gulliver, a giant to them.
+
+The floor of the valley, once a trackless jungle and destined within a
+short time from the moment that the Boy Scouts gazed upon it to become a
+mighty lake, was crisscrossed in every direction by lines of railroad
+along which contractors' engines were puffing and hauling long winding
+trains of dirt cars. In places, great steam shovels were at work eating
+out whole hillsides, taking great mouthfuls at a time.
+
+"Like Tubby eating pie," laughed Merritt, as he watched one of them.
+
+Across the valley floor, the huge dam, a veritable mountain of concrete,
+was rising. Busy human ants swarmed everywhere and, at the spot on which
+the boys stood, with Mr. Mainwaring and some assistant engineers to
+explain things, hundreds of black workmen were working like beavers on
+the summit of the great wall. Where they stood the wonderful dam was 100
+feet wide, just one-fourth the length of the steamer on which they had
+come to the Isthmus.
+
+At the base of the dam the width of the gigantic structure is 1,900 feet,
+and its massive foundations go down into the earth for many feet more.
+
+"Just think," exclaimed Rob, aglow with the wonder of it all, "before
+long all this valley floor will be a huge inland sea across which vessels
+can push their way from Pedro Miguel to Gatun."
+
+The roar of an excavating machine drowned his comrades' replies, but
+their looks showed how deeply they were impressed.
+
+"It makes you feel like a--a fly speck," exclaimed Tubby, when the uproar
+ceased for an instant.
+
+Up along a line of rails glided a movable steam shovel. On a side track a
+busy little locomotive had already bunted a train of flat cars. There was
+a loud clatter of chains; two white spouts of steam leaped high above the
+shelter which protected the steam shovel's engineer from the burning sun.
+Down swung the huge steel dipper. Almost like a hungry human being,
+rather like some famished giant, it swung its iron-toothed jaws apart and
+bit deep into a bank which had to be moved. In an instant its mouth was
+closed again and the receptacle was full of rough, broken material. Big
+rocks were among the earth, but that made no difference to this devouring
+leviathan.
+
+"Hi!" shouted a big shining negro man on the flat car.
+
+The big steam shovel gave a sharp scream of warning, the steam spurted
+forth again from the vent pipes and up swung the load. The long arm
+slowly reached out above the flat car. A mighty scampering of the negro
+loaders followed.
+
+"Hi!" came the cry of the boss negro again.
+
+The bottom of the dipper opened. There was a roar of falling rock and
+earth and a flat car was filled. Then the process was repeated till the
+hillock that was to be removed melted away like a plate of ice cream
+before a healthy boy.
+
+Thus, amid shouting, seeming confusion, the clanging and crash of metal,
+the scream of steam whistles, shouted orders and the noise of steam and
+the fog of smoke, the work went on,--the mighty job that Uncle Sam,
+contractor, is putting through for the benefit of the civilized world.
+
+Mr. Mainwaring told the boys that there is keen rivalry among the
+steam-shovel men. Prizes are given every month for the record amount of
+dirt that flies. Each shovel is pushed to the limit of its capacity. In
+an eight-hour day one of the steam shovels excavated and loaded on flat
+cars 3,500 cubic yards. This means about 160 carloads for the day, or a
+carload every three minutes.
+
+The boys noticed, too, that the negroes, Italians and Spaniards toiled
+away at their tasks without appearing to take much interest in their work
+beyond keeping just hard enough at it to avoid getting into trouble. But
+on the faces of the "gold-men," as the engineers and American officials
+are termed, was the stern determination of men animated by a great
+purpose. Off duty, the gold-men, so called because they are paid in
+American gold and not in Panama coinage, are a joking, jolly lot of men,
+who like to play tennis and baseball, and indulge in all sorts of sports.
+But on duty, clad in khaki and gaiters, with great sun helmets to keep
+off the baleful rays of the tropical sun, they are like changed men.
+
+The expression the boys noticed on their faces as they hurried about with
+blue prints or levels and theodolites was set and stern. They seemed to
+be, in a way, instruments of a great destiny. Each bore himself as if he
+knew that the work in hand required the best that was in him.
+
+"It seems to me," said Mr. Mainwaring, "that these great steam shovels
+and their crews, the activity and all the purposeful bustle and hustle
+down here, represent more fully than anything that I have ever seen the
+determined, fearless American spirit that has overridden what appeared to
+be impossibilities, and is carrying the Canal through to a triumphant
+completion. It's a great thing for a boy to be able to say that he has
+seen such a work, and it will be a still greater thing if he takes to
+heart the lessons to be learned here on every hand."
+
+Here he looked at Tubby who, not paying any attention to this
+"preachifying," as he mentally termed it, was drinking the milk out of a
+cocoanut. The fat boy had become very fond of the cocoanut, which can be
+bought on the Isthmus for little or nothing. He had slung several around
+his waist and at intervals, amidst the dust and turmoil of the work on
+the great dam, he refreshed himself by a copious draught of their cool
+contents.
+
+At the boys' feet, as they stood on the lofty concrete battlement, lay
+the cut for the Gatun locks, which will raise and lower vessels
+eighty-five feet. There are no such locks anywhere in the world. While
+the boys watched, a steady stream of concrete was being poured into giant
+moulds for the locks, and rows of arc-light poles, like gaunt trees,
+showed that under the glare of electric lights the work was pushed
+forward even at night. Not a minute of time was wasted all through that
+vast system. They soon had become aware of that.
+
+While the boys stood there an erect, military-looking man came up to Mr.
+Mainwaring, who greeted him with every appearance of respect. The
+newcomer was tall, bore an air of authority, and was dressed in a white
+military uniform.
+
+"Colonel," the boys heard Mr. Mainwaring say, after a few minutes' grave
+conversation, "I wish to introduce to you my son Fred and his three
+chums,--all, as you see, Boy Scouts."
+
+Tubby hastened to chuck his empty cocoanut shell off the top of the dam
+as he saw that a social ceremony was going forward. The shell lit on a
+negro's skull far below and bounded off with a loud crack.
+
+"Mah goodness, dem musquitoes is wusser dan ebber to-day," the negro
+remarked to the man shoveling at his side, which would have made Tubby
+laugh if he had heard it.
+
+After a few kind words to the chums, the military-looking man passed on,
+stopping every now and then to examine the work with every appearance of
+minutest care.
+
+"Wonder what kind of a boss he is?" remarked Tubby nonchalantly after he
+had passed on. "Steam shovel boss, concrete boss, dynamite boss,
+engineering boss or surveying boss,--there are other kinds but I forget
+'em."
+
+"Why, you chump," roared Fred, "don't you know who that was?"
+
+"I didn't catch his name," rejoined Tubby.
+
+"Well, that wasn't anybody more important than Lieut.-Col. George W.
+Goethals, chairman of the Isthmian Canal Commission, and known as the
+'man who dug the ditch.'"
+
+"Oh-h-h-h-h-h!" mumbled Tubby, a great light breaking upon him, "I guess
+I'll take another cocoanut on that."
+
+And the fat boy selected a fine specimen from the several that adorned
+his belt like scalps hanging round an Indian warrior.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XX.
+                          A DYNAMITE VOLCANO.
+
+
+After a while, despite the thrilling novelty of the scene and the
+significant interest it held for the four American lads, the dust, the
+heat, the noise and the confusion and bustle became wearisome, and they
+began looking about, boy like, for something new.
+
+A white man in a duck uniform and pith helmet hastened by in company with
+a colored man who looked different from any negro the boys had yet seen.
+The man had straight black hair, long and glossy. He wore a small sort of
+skull cap and white clothes with odd velvet shoes not unlike those
+affected by Chinese.
+
+"Hullo, Raynor!" shouted Mr. Mainwaring to the white man, as the pair
+hustled by along the rampart-like heights of the big dam, "where are you
+bound for?"
+
+The dark man and his companion came to a halt, the former standing in a
+respectful attitude and saluting Mr. Mainwaring.
+
+"We're going to shoot a test hole," was the reply.
+
+"Do you mind taking these lads along? As you see, they are Boy Scouts,
+and anxious to see all that they can."
+
+"I'll be delighted to. I've a kid brother at home whose letters are full
+of the doings of his patrol. Come along, young men. I'll show you
+something that will make your eyes open."
+
+"I'll meet you here in time for dinner," said Mr. Mainwaring.
+
+"We'll be here," rejoined Tubby, whose eyes had brightened at the mention
+of a meal. Although he had devoured the milk and creamy meat of two huge
+cocoanuts, the stout youth was still ready for another chance at edibles.
+
+Mr. Raynor hastened on, beckoning to the boys to follow him.
+
+"What is a test hole?" asked Rob, as the boys trudged along the top of
+the dam beside him.
+
+"It is a hole blown in the ground so that we can tell what sort of
+foundation we are working on," was the reply.
+
+"Blown in the ground?" asked Tubby with round inquiring eyes.
+
+"Yes. Dynamited, perhaps I should have said. Ram Chunda there," he
+motioned back at the dark man who was trotting along behind, "is the boss
+dynamiter. He's going to shoot the hole."
+
+"Oh, he's a Hindoo?" exclaimed Rob as he heard the name of the dark
+satellite. "We thought he was a negro."
+
+"Oh, no. We couldn't trust negroes with dynamite. Almost all the dynamite
+men on the canal are Hindoos. They are not fit for the heavy work; but we
+find them reliable and trust-worthy around explosives."
+
+"What's that?" asked Merritt presently, indicating a small hut painted a
+bright red.
+
+"That's a dynamite hut. See, there are several workmen waiting to have
+explosives served out to them."
+
+"Can anybody get the stuff who wants it?" asked Merritt.
+
+"No, indeed. That would never do. They have to bring an order signed by
+the boss on their particular section."
+
+Ram Chunda, however, appeared to have his supply of explosives elsewhere
+for they did not stop at the dynamite hut but passed on.
+
+"How much dynamite is stored there?" asked Rob, as they hurried along.
+
+"Oh, enough to blow the whole dam up, I guess," was the careless reply,
+to which the boys did not attach much significance at the time, although
+they were to recollect those words with peculiar vividness later.
+
+Before long they reached a place where ladders were stretched from the
+ground to the top of the dam.
+
+"We'll go down these," announced Mr. Raynor, halting. "Ram, you go first.
+You boys can follow. All got steady heads, I hope?"
+
+"I think so," murmured Fred, with a vivid recollection in his mind of the
+scene on the ruined tower of St. Augustin, "two of us have, anyhow."
+
+The engineer did not, of course, understand the allusion nor, to the joy
+of Rob and Merritt, did he ask any explanation. Neither boy liked to
+recall those awful moments when they hung suspended in mid-air between
+life and death.
+
+The ladders were long and steep, but the descent was made without
+incident. At the base of the dam, however, was a steep sort of embankment
+of loose sand and gravel. Tubby, who was behind Ram Chunda, looked down
+and saw this, which appeared to offer a secure "jumping off" place.
+
+With a whoop he jumped from the last ladder while still several feet
+above the top of the bank. His feet struck it with a scrunch. But the
+loose, shaly stuff was treacherous. With an alarmed yell the fat boy, the
+cocoanuts round his belt rattling like castanets, rolled down the bank,
+revolving like a barrel.
+
+The others looked on in some alarm. Suddenly Tubby struck the bottom of
+the bank and simultaneously there came a series of sounds like a volley
+of musketry.
+
+Pop! pop! pop! pop!
+
+"Gracious, it's Tubby," cried Rob, tracing the source of the sounds.
+
+"Is he blowing up?" demanded Fred Mainwaring in genuine alarm.
+
+"Sounds like it!" exclaimed Merritt apprehensively.
+
+The engineer and the Hindoo looked on in amazement. The fat boy continued
+to pop loudly. Suddenly, still popping spasmodically, he struggled to his
+feet. What a sight he presented!
+
+He was covered from head to foot with a milky fluid which was flowing
+down him and on which the gravel had stuck and plastered him with yellow
+mud.
+
+"Tubby, are you hurt?" yelled Merritt.
+
+"Bob," shrilled Rob, for once, in his alarm, giving Tubby his real first
+name, "what's the trouble? Are you injured?"
+
+"No, but those cocoanuts have blown up!" shouted Tubby angrily. "One
+after another they busted! I thought I was in a battle for a minute."
+
+"Well, you look as if you'd been through a hard siege," declared Rob,
+who, now that his apprehension was over, joined the others in a hearty
+laugh and a scramble down the gravel bank.
+
+"What made 'em bust?" demanded Tubby, ruefully, surveying his drenched
+uniform and brushing himself off as best he could.
+
+As soon as he could speak for laughing the engineer explained. Cocoanuts
+in their natural state are shielded by great masses of leaves which keep
+their milky contents cool. Tubby, in his greed, had girded himself about
+with the succulent nuts and then spent a long morning in the hot sun.
+This, combined with his activities, had caused the milk to heat up and
+ferment.
+
+If the fat boy had not taken his tumble down the bank it is not likely
+that the nuts would have exploded. But the fall was what proved too much
+for the already fermented milk. Like so much gunpowder it had expanded
+and blown the "eyes," or thin parts, out of each cocoanut, spraying the
+unfortunate Tubby with milk, and making the sharp series of reports that
+had so alarmed them.
+
+Even Ram Chunda's immobile face bore the trace of a smile at Tubby's
+disaster. In fact, the boy got no sympathy from anyone.
+
+"I'll pack no more cocoanuts with me," he was heard to mutter, "they are
+as dangerous as Anarchists' bombs and a whole lot messier. Gee, my
+uniform's a sight!"
+
+But as the unanimous verdict seemed to be "Serves you right," Tubby had
+few remarks on his disaster to offer for the public benefit.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXI.
+                         "RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!"
+
+
+Ram Chunda approached a small hut painted red like the other dynamite
+shed, and came out with his arms laden with what were apparently
+cylindrical tin cans. He selected a number of these, handling them with
+no more apparent care than if they had been tins of tomatoes, instead of
+charges of dynamite.
+
+"T-t-t-tell him to be a little c-c-c-careful, won't you?" begged Tubby.
+"That stuff would blow up worse than cocoanuts if he dropped it."
+
+"Yes, we'd never know what struck us," said the engineer carelessly, "but
+don't worry about Ram, he knows what he's doing."
+
+He spoke with the indifference of one who has handled high explosives for
+years, but the boys' emotions were very different. They eyed Ram Chunda
+askance as he stumbled occasionally on a rock or hillock of earth.
+
+In this manner they walked quite a distance back from the dam to a point
+where no tracks or workmen were visible.
+
+"Right here is where, before long, we are going to build a wing dam to
+strengthen the main one," explained the engineer.
+
+"Then what's the use of blowing it up?" asked Tubby stolidly. The fat boy
+was, to tell the truth, in a state of alarm over what was to come.
+
+"Why, we want to see just what lies underneath before we start to dig a
+foundation, otherwise it would be so much wasted labor," was the
+response.
+
+There were already several test holes drilled in the ground, but the
+object of dynamiting was to loosen up the soil beneath to ascertain if
+there was any substratum of water.
+
+"Ever see them shoot an oil well?" asked the engineer, as he peered about
+looking for a suitable hole to start on.
+
+The boys shook their heads. They had heard of the operation but had never
+had an opportunity to witness such a proceeding.
+
+"Now is your chance then," said Mr. Raynor. "Ram," calling to the Hindoo,
+"we try 'um this fellow number one shot."
+
+The Hindoo nodded and, carrying his armful of explosives, hurried to his
+boss's side.
+
+"Gee! This is only Number One," muttered Tubby in an alarmed undertone.
+
+"Don't be a scare-cat, Tubby," laughed Merritt, although his own heart
+was beating a bit fast.
+
+"Scare-cat nothing. I--I guess I'll go home to dinner. Once is quite
+enough to be blown up in one morning," quoth the fat youth, "besides, I
+promised my mother I wouldn't get into danger."
+
+"I guess over-eating is the only danger you'll be in," chortled Fred.
+
+Tubby looked pained but said nothing. With round eyes he began to watch
+the proceedings of the Hindoo "dynamite man."
+
+The latter cautiously lowered into the hole selected several of his tin
+cylinders. The rest of the operation, as Mr. Raynor had explained, would
+be similar to that of shooting an oil well. That is to say, a heavy
+cylindrical iron weight would be dropped on the explosive mass at the
+bottom of the hole, causing it to detonate.
+
+With as much care now as if he were handling eggs, Ram lowered the final
+cylinder of dynamite into the hole. Then he attached a long string to the
+weight and gave a shout.
+
+"Get back to a safe distance, boys," cried Mr. Raynor, running toward
+them.
+
+They needed no second warning, but beat a rapid retreat toward the great
+concrete rampart of the dam.
+
+"I'd climb over to the other side if I had the time," Tubby declared,
+feeling perhaps that he would be safe enough behind that man-made cliff.
+
+At last all was in readiness. Some laborers near at hand, glad of any
+excuse to drop work, laid down their shovels to see what would happen
+when the "Go-devil," as they called it, was set off.
+
+Mr. Raynor gave a look behind him at Ram who was crouching low at quite a
+distance from the hole.
+
+"All right!" he shouted.
+
+Ram gave the string a jerk and dropped it. Then he too started sprinting
+toward the boys.
+
+"He's dropped it!" exclaimed Mr. Raynor. "Watch it now!"
+
+It seemed to the boys as if Ram, swiftly as he ran, would never get to a
+place of safety. Their hearts fairly stood in their mouths as they
+watched him running like a greyhound.
+
+Suddenly came a subdued roar. The earth shook. The solid ground trembled
+as if it had been a jelly. A second later, from the mouth of the hole
+there shot a mighty column of earth, stones and smoke. It was accompanied
+by a screaming, whistling sound and then came the detonation of a mighty
+roar. Up and up shot the column as if it meant to pierce the blue sky.
+The workmen shouted and ran for places of safety.
+
+Suddenly Mr. Raynor, who had been watching with hawk-like eyes, gave a
+sharp, commanding cry:
+
+"Run, boys! Run for your lives! After me!"
+
+For an instant they hesitated. Why should they run? There appeared to be
+no danger. At the distance that they were from the spouting column it did
+not appear possible that they would be in jeopardy from it even when it
+collapsed and came crashing to earth.
+
+"What's the matter?" cried Rob.
+
+"Don't stop to ask questions. Run! Run! Run, I tell you!" roared the
+engineer.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXII.
+                   THE BOYS MEET AN OLD ACQUAINTANCE.
+
+
+The boys needed no further urging. Taking to their heels they ran like so
+many scared jackrabbits after the engineer. Tubby, his fat, stumpy legs
+working like piston rods, was in the lead.
+
+"I knew something was going to bust," he yelled, as he sprinted along,
+"and it has!"
+
+Suddenly Mr. Raynor, who was heading apparently for a piled-up mass of
+rocks, stopped and glanced back.
+
+"Too late! Duck!" he shouted the next instant.
+
+Down flopped the boys, but as they threw themselves face downward they
+felt as if they were being lifted from the ground by a giant hand and
+then slammed down again. It seemed almost as if a heavy weight had been
+hurled down on them.
+
+Then came a terrific, blasting roar and blinding flash as if a huge gun
+had been set off quite close to them.
+
+The fearful concussion and their lack of knowledge of what was happening
+scared and shocked them half out of their wits. Gravel and small rocks
+fell about them. If it had not been for their broad-brimmed Scout hats,
+which protected the back of their heads, they would have been cut and
+bruised by the hail of débris.
+
+"You can get up now," came Mr. Raynor's voice presently, "but I don't
+mind saying that that was about as narrow a squeak as I've ever
+experienced."
+
+"It sure _was_ a test hole," muttered Tubby; "it tested me all right and
+I don't want any more of it."
+
+"What on earth happened?" demanded Rob, brushing dirt and dust from his
+uniform.
+
+"That's what I'd like to know," said Fred.
+
+"I thought the world was coming to an end," declared Merritt.
+
+"Or a giant cocoanut was blowing up," murmured Tubby.
+
+At that moment Ram came running up. He looked embarrassed and dabbed at a
+small cut on his forehead with a handkerchief.
+
+"Him hurte you?" he asked rather anxiously, looking askance at Mr.
+Raynor.
+
+"More good luck than thanks to you that we were not all killed," declared
+the engineer angrily. "What made you do it, you rascal?"
+
+"Me very sorry. Ram forget," said the man contritely.
+
+But his repentance had no effect on the thoroughly angry engineer. He
+told the man that he was too grossly careless to work on the dynamite
+gang and ordered him to report at his office that night and be assigned
+to some other work.
+
+Tubby nodded sagely as he heard this. He was confirmed, it seemed, in his
+opinion that the man had been careless and he felt like telling the
+engineer so. But Rob asked a question.
+
+"You haven't told us yet just what it was that happened?" he said.
+
+"Yes, what was it?" put in Fred.
+
+"Oh, nothing to speak of but an explosion of fifteen pounds of dynamite
+about as close to us as I'd care to have such a thing happen," said the
+engineer grimly.
+
+"Gee whiz! As bad as that!" exclaimed Merritt looking aghast. "Why we
+might all have been----"
+
+"Hoisted sky-high. Oh, you don't need to tell me that. That careless
+fellow Ram left one of his cans of dynamite lying on the ground not far
+from the test hole. I didn't notice it and he didn't either, I guess,
+till he shot the well. Then just as that column of stones and stuff was
+sky-hooting up, I happened to see that can lying there. It gave me a
+turn, I tell you. I figured out what would happen if a rock ever hit and
+we standing where we were."
+
+"What would have happened?" asked Tubby innocently, his eyes like two
+saucers.
+
+"Happened! Why we'd all have had through tickets to Kingdom Come, that's
+what would have happened."
+
+"But you haven't told it all," exclaimed Rob, who had just comprehended
+something. "Boys, that weight that fell on us was Mr. Raynor's body. He
+just shoved us in front of him and shielded us with his own body. He
+saved our lives."
+
+"That's what I call being a real hero," cried Fred.
+
+"Three cheers and a tiger for Mr. Raynor!" yelled Merritt.
+
+"Pshaw! You drop that now!" protested the engineer. "I just fell on you
+because I couldn't help it, I reckon."
+
+"We know better than that, don't we, fellows?" cried Rob.
+
+"You bet we do," was the response given with deep conviction and
+unanimity.
+
+"Well, say no more about it," begged the engineer. "I promised to take
+good care of you and I was almost responsible for getting you injured, so
+I guess we're quits."
+
+As Mr. Raynor had to visit other parts of the workings, and also to take
+samples of the earth blown up by Ram's unlucky blast, the boys bade him
+good-bye soon after.
+
+"Well, so long," he said. "I hope you'll drop in and see me some time if
+you are going to be about here long. I may have something else
+interesting to show you."
+
+The boys said they would. Then up came Ram Chunda, grinning like a
+monkey.
+
+"Me velly solly," he said, "white sahib no be mad. You come see me some
+time, eh?"
+
+"Yes, we'll come and see you when you're in your little casket or else
+get our lives insured first, you--you anarchist you!" sputtered Tubby.
+
+The engineer had advised them not to climb the ladders but to walk along
+the foot of the dam till they reached a place where a flight of steps had
+been moulded in the concrete. Accordingly, after leaving him they trudged
+along at the foot of the gigantic stone cliff, looking up every now and
+then to marvel at its height and massiveness.
+
+They found plenty to look at and were in no hurry. That is, none of them
+was in a hurry but Tubby, who was keen to find out if it was not time to
+go back to Mr. Mainwaring's bungalow for dinner.
+
+It was hot work walking, and they paused frequently. At length they came
+to a place where a small tree at the foot of the dam afforded a patch of
+shade.
+
+"Let's sit down and rest a while," said Fred. "I'm tuckered out."
+
+"Wish this was a cocoanut tree," said Tubby as they reclined in the
+grateful bit of shade. "I'd climb it and get all you fellows something to
+eat."
+
+"Or blow us up," laughed Fred mischievously.
+
+"Say, fellows," said Rob presently, "look up above us on the top of the
+dam. There's a big concrete mixing machine up there."
+
+"Hope they don't drop anything down on us," said Fred apprehensively.
+
+"Not much danger of that, I just saw a man peeking down at us. They would
+warn us if we were in danger."
+
+"I don't know, those niggers are none too careful. Remember that fellow
+Ram; he came pretty near ramming us," punned Fred.
+
+"Look out!" yelled Merritt suddenly.
+
+But he was too late. A bucket full of liquid cement came spattering down
+on them, going all over their uniforms and making them sad sights indeed.
+Luckily the stuff was almost as thin as water or they might have been
+injured.
+
+Rob looked up and gave an indignant shout. A mocking face peered over the
+edge of the parapet and grinned jeeringly at him. As he saw this
+countenance Rob gave a violent start and fairly staggered backward.
+
+It was the face of Jared Applegate into which he had looked. It was his
+hand that had thrown the bucket of liquid cement over them, ruining their
+uniforms.
+
+"Fellows!" shouted Rob in high excitement.
+
+But Jared's face had vanished as swiftly as it had appeared.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXIII.
+                           ALONG THE CHAGRES.
+
+
+"Well, did you ever!! Jared of all people!"
+
+"What on earth is he doing here?"
+
+"That's plain enough," was Rob's reply to the last exclamation, which had
+proceeded from Tubby following Rob's hasty recital of what he had seen on
+the top of the dam.
+
+"That's plain enough," he repeated. "Jared is a pretty slick sort of
+article, or, at any rate, the men with whom he is in league are cunning
+and clever. What better place could Jared be, watched as he is, than
+holding down a job as a canal worker, bossing some small undertaking? Who
+would ever dream of looking for him in such a position?"
+
+"That's so," agreed Fred, "and then, too, he gets a chance to survey the
+ground thoroughly and lay plans for whatever sort of deviltry that gang
+is up to. Maybe Alverado and Estrada are working on menial jobs, too,
+with the same end in view."
+
+"Quite likely," replied Rob, "and also that mysterious chap we've seen
+with Jared on several occasions. Anyhow, our duty now is plain enough. We
+must make all haste back to Mr. Mainwaring and report to him what we have
+discovered."
+
+"Let's get some of this mess cleaned off us first," said the practical
+Merritt. "We look more like drowned rats than Scouts, in our present
+plight."
+
+The boys set to work trying to remove the traces of the ducking that had
+been given them by the malignant Jared, who had undoubtedly recognized
+them. Had they known that he was actually on the lookout for them, they
+would have been much astonished. Yet such was the case, as will appear
+before long.
+
+Luckily the mixture of cement that had been doused over them was a very
+watery one, the rinsings of a cement bucket, in fact, so that in a short
+time the hot sun had dried out most of the traces of their adventure.
+
+But Mr. Mainwaring greeted them with exclamations of astonishment.
+
+"What in the world have you lads been up to now," he exclaimed half
+laughingly as they rejoined him, "taking a swim with your uniforms on?"
+
+"Well, we did have an involuntary bath," admitted Rob, and he went on to
+tell just what had happened.
+
+"Jove!" exclaimed Mr. Mainwaring when he had finished, "this is getting
+interesting, and perhaps explains many annoying things that have been
+happening about here recently. Derrick booms have collapsed without
+apparent cause and an investigation has shown that acid has been poured
+on the supporting ropes by some malignantly disposed persons. Blasts have
+been set off prematurely, narrowly avoiding injury, and the work has been
+delayed by many such tricks. It wouldn't surprise me a bit if your friend
+Jared and the Latin Americans who are interested in delaying the canal
+construction are at the bottom of this. I'll dispatch men at once to get
+hold of this chap Jared and we'll make him confess all about it."
+
+As he spoke there was a sudden crash behind him as a workman, who had
+been standing close to him and who must have overheard every word,
+dropped a heavy bucket. They all faced round and saw a man shuffling off
+rapidly. Something familiar about him struck Rob, but for the life of him
+he could not place the man. It was not until later that he recalled where
+they had seen him before. He was the man who had driven them to the ruins
+of old Panama on that memorable morning, and who must have heard some of
+their talk. But what was he doing on the canal work? Was he allied with
+the forces that were trying to defeat the completion of the canal? Had he
+told the plotters of what he had overheard and warned them that vigilant
+retribution was on their trail?
+
+All these were questions that for the time had to wait. Rob decided not
+to say anything just then. After all he might have been mistaken. In the
+meantime the searchers sent out after Jared reported that they could not
+find him. Undoubtedly after venting his malice on the boys he had made
+off. Rob was not mistaken in his identification of the cabman. The fellow
+was allied with the plotters by close ties both of nationality and
+sentiment. He had been set to driving a hack in Panama so that he might
+carry on his spy work without being suspected. It was by chance that the
+boys had happened to take his cab. But what he had overheard that day had
+caused him to hasten to the dam and inform his confederates, who, as Rob
+had guessed, were constantly about there disguised as workmen.
+
+In that vast enterprise, employing thousands of laborers, it was a simple
+enough matter for any able bodied men to obtain employment, and no
+questions were asked so long as the laborer proved able to earn his pay.
+At dinner time Mr. Mainwaring was unusually silent. There was no question
+in his mind now but that there were plotters mingled in among the
+workmen. That night orders for extra vigilance in patroling the dam were
+issued, and that night, also, Mr. Mainwaring announced that he intended
+to start the next day on his search for the troublesome tributary of the
+Chagres River which it was his intention to devise a means to control.
+
+As may be imagined, this was great news to the boys, and they passed an
+all but sleepless night in their room in Mr. Mainwaring's bungalow, which
+stood in a row of "gold-men's" houses, among which it was the largest and
+best finished.
+
+The boys' equipment had been brought up from Panama with them and was, as
+usual, all in readiness for instant transportation. These Boy Scouts
+lived up to their "Be Prepared" motto all the time, and to the finest
+detail. When their camping equipment had been packed up on the submarine
+island everything had been stowed away with military precision so that
+they knew, without going through a lot of troublesome overhauling, that
+everything, down to their small pocket water filters, was in its right
+place.
+
+A wagon transported their goods and chattels to the landing place on the
+Chagres the next morning, right after an early breakfast. Mr. Raynor was
+to accompany his chief in the capacity of assistant, and the surveying
+instruments and other paraphernalia almost filled one of the odd native
+canoes they were to use. Another canoe held the camping outfits. But they
+were not to paddle their way laboriously up the swiftly flowing river.
+
+To the delight of the boys a light draught launch, fitted with powerful
+engines and a spidery stern paddle wheel, was to do the towing while they
+took it easy. This suited Tubby down to the ground, and Rob's cup of
+satisfaction was full to the brim when he learned that he and Merritt
+were to alternate as engineers. As we know, both boys were familiar with
+the management of gasolene engines, and they gazed with approval at the
+fourteen horse-power, twin-cylinder engine of the _Pathfinder_, as the
+launch was called.
+
+Before they left, the chief of the Gatun Guards, as the police that
+watched the big dam were called, reported to Mr. Mainwaring that nothing
+suspicious had occurred during the night and also that no trace could be
+found of the men wanted. This was disappointing, but the boys were so
+keyed up with the expectation of the wonders that awaited them in the
+tropical forests through which the Chagres wound its way on its higher
+reaches, that they gave but scant thought to Jared and the plotters.
+
+At last all was in readiness; Mr. Mainwaring, who had the steering wheel,
+gave the signal to start the engines.
+
+Rob gave the big fly-wheel a twist against the compression, while Merritt
+turned on the gasolene and set the spark. The engine gave a chug and a
+snort and the big stern paddle wheel, which gave the boat such an odd
+look but was necessary for shoal water navigation, began to beat the
+water.
+
+The boys gave a shout and their patrol cries. From the bow of the
+_Pathfinder_, as a compliment to them, fluttered the pennants of the
+Eagles and the Black Wolves, the same which it had been designed to plant
+at old Panama. At the stern waved Old Glory. Astern towed the two
+dugouts, loaded deep down with "duffle."
+
+Thus started a trip that was to prove one of the most adventurous that
+lads ever embarked upon "by flood or field."
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXIV.
+                         THE TRACKLESS JUNGLE.
+
+
+As they slowly ascended the sluggish, though powerful current of the
+muddy Chagres, Mr. Raynor told them something about the object of their
+expedition. In the foothills of the Cordillero de Bando, a sort of
+backbone of mountains extending throughout the length of the Isthmus,
+many small rivers rise, some of which feed the Chagres and contribute to
+its floods. The largest of these, a stream known as the Rio Chepalto,
+was, in the rainy season, quite a formidable torrent. Mr. Mainwaring's
+idea was to construct a dam or dig some sort of a connecting link which
+would divert the waters of the Chepalto in flood time into one of the
+small rivers that flowed seaward, thus further taming the Chagres.
+
+The Gatun valley was soon left behind and the Chagres plunged into a
+steaming, luxuriant forest. Between banks overgrown in wild profusion
+with every sort of tropical growth, its chocolate colored current flowed
+silently along. In places, muddy bayous led off from the main stream and
+these, the boys were told, were the haunts of crocodiles and alligators.
+
+Everywhere amidst the luxuriant tangle on the banks were vivid splashes
+of color, scarlet, yellow, and blue. These were the flowers of a score of
+varieties of tropic shrubs and flowering bushes. They filled the air with
+a rank, sweet smell that was almost overpowering. From the tangle, too,
+there shot up majestic trees, from whose branches drooped long lianas, or
+creepers, some of them thick as a man's thigh. Here was a clump of
+brilliantly green and feathery bamboo, there shot up a grove of coco-bola
+trees, while once in a while, but this rarely, there loomed in sight a
+group of the kings of the tropical forests--a majestic gathering of
+towering mahogany trees.
+
+There were also clumps of banana plants growing to a height of fifteen or
+twenty feet, with immense broad leaves often six feet in length.
+Curiously enough, the banana bunches appeared to be hanging upside down.
+Beyond the fruit extended a stem like a snake, ending in a big blossom
+something like a red-brown water lily. There were occasional clumps of
+cocoanut trees, too, at which Tubby looked with a strange mixture of awe
+and longing.
+
+Occasionally, through all this brilliant jungle gaily colored parrots or
+a flock of screaming macaws would fly, alarmed by the chugging of the
+launch. In some of the bayous, pelicans or big blue herons stood like
+sentinels on one leg, watching the progress of the invaders. But,
+beautiful as it all was, the boys missed the songs of the woodland birds
+in the north. Except for the shrieking of the parrots and macaws, or the
+occasional sullen splash of some unseen creature plunging into the river,
+the vast forests that reached for miles all about them were silent.
+
+Suddenly the launch came to a stop with a soft bump. The boys looked
+rather alarmed. Had they collided with some huge creature that made its
+home in the tepid waters of the Chagres? They were soon relieved of any
+anxiety on that score.
+
+"Well, we're aground at last," remarked Mr. Mainwaring in a
+matter-of-fact tone.
+
+"You talk as if you had expected such a thing to happen," said Rob in
+some surprise.
+
+"Yes indeed," rejoined the engineer, "in fact, I'm astonished that it
+didn't happen before. The river is full of sand banks, and sometimes it
+is impossible to see the channel. I see you've got the engine stopped
+already. You had better reverse now and we'll soon get off again."
+
+"I should think that it would be quicker to go through the forests,"
+remarked Rob, when without much trouble they "got going" again.
+
+"It would be almost twice as quick, but nobody knows the paths but the
+Indians."
+
+"Indians!" exclaimed Tubby. "Are there Indians here?"
+
+He clutched his rifle with a determined look, for of course the boys had
+brought their weapons along.
+
+"Yes indeed, plenty of them, but I guess we won't see any. They are the
+San Blas tribe and so small as to be almost pigmies."
+
+"I know, I've seen pictures of them," cried Rob. "They look something
+like Japs only they've got big round heads and long, straight black
+hair."
+
+"That's it," rejoined Mr. Mainwaring; "they're harmless enough unless
+their particular territory is invaded. No white man has ever penetrated
+far into their country and come back to tell the tale. But they say that
+back among the forests and mountains to which they alone know the way are
+deposits of emerald and gold of priceless value."
+
+"I should think somebody would form an expedition and raid the place,"
+said Tubby in a war-like manner.
+
+"More easily said than done," Mr. Raynor struck in; "it's been tried, but
+fever and poisoned arrows wiped out all but a few poor, half-crazed
+wretches who struggled back to civilization more dead than alive."
+
+"Do they ever come down to this part of the country?" asked Merritt.
+
+"Only occasionally, when a hunting expedition has led them far afield,"
+rejoined Mr. Mainwaring. "This Rio Chepalto that we are going to try to
+diverge runs back into their country; but where it joins the Chagres is
+not forbidden ground. Their territory begins higher up."
+
+Suddenly there came another soft bump.
+
+"Aground again!" cried Rob, stopping the engine. "Shall I reverse?"
+
+"Yes; do so at once," was the order.
+
+But this time the matter of getting off the sand bank was not so simple.
+The two tow ropes attached to the canoe became entangled in the paddle
+wheel as the _Pathfinder_ backed up, and they came to a stop. An
+investigation showed that it might take some time to get it free. Tubby
+was prompt in asking permission to go into the forest to see if he
+couldn't bring down some game of some kind.
+
+"You and Fred will have to go alone then," said Mr. Mainwaring, "and
+don't go far from the river. We'll recall you by three blasts on the
+whistle. Rob and Merritt will be needed to help us get untangled and to
+work the engine."
+
+"Never mind, we'll bring back some game that will make their eyes bulge,"
+declared Tubby valiantly. "Come on, Fred."
+
+"Wait till I shove the landing plank ashore," said Fred, catching hold of
+a plank that was used for that purpose. The launch lay quite close to the
+shore and the plank, which was ten feet long, was of sufficient length to
+form a bridge.
+
+"Never mind the plank," quoth Tubby, "I'll just step on this old log here
+and----"
+
+"Look out, boy!" came a sharp cry from Mr. Raynor.
+
+But it was too late. Tubby had already stepped over the side of the
+launch. As his foot touched the log a surprising thing happened. What had
+seemed a balk of old rotten timber gave a leap that threw Tubby into the
+water, and at the same instant a vast pair of jaws, armed with double
+rows of gleaming teeth, flashed wide open. The alligator--for that was
+what Tubby's "log" was--gave a menacing, hissing sound and a flourish of
+its formidable tail.
+
+The next instant a rifle cracked sharply. The creature gave a roar as a
+bullet crashed down its open throat. Rob, seeing Tubby's peril, had
+snatched Fred's rifle from him and pumped a bullet into the monster
+reptile where it would do the most good. He pumped the repeating
+mechanism and two more bullets drove into the 'gator before it sank,
+crimsoning the muddy water. They saw no more of it and Mr. Mainwaring
+declared that Rob must have killed it.
+
+Tubby, up to his waist in water, gasped as he beheld his narrow escape
+and Rob's prompt action.
+
+"Gee whiz! This is a funny country," he mumbled, after he had been
+lectured for his carelessness. "Cocoanuts explode and old rotten logs
+turn into alligators."
+
+On his promise to be careful and keep well within call, Tubby was allowed
+to go on shore with Fred and you may be sure he used the landing plank
+this time. The two boys struck off straight into the jungle and then kept
+a course that lay parallel to the river bank. All at once Tubby gave a
+violent exclamation and almost fell over backward. A lizard, but a lizard
+almost as big as himself, had run through the jungle right in front of
+him.
+
+"A Panama water-lizard," declared Fred, who had put in more time studying
+the country from books than had Tubby. "It's harmless."
+
+"It doesn't look so," was Tubby's comment.
+
+But a more thrilling encounter lay just ahead of them. Hanging from a
+tree, and slowly swaying to and fro, was what looked like a beautifully
+marked liana or hanging creeper.
+
+"Oh, what a beauty," exclaimed Fred, stepping forward, but the next
+instant he recoiled with a yell of alarm.
+
+The creeper had emitted a loud, angry hiss and then they saw that it was
+no creeper at all, but a brilliantly colored snake, at least fifteen feet
+long, that was swinging from a limb around which its tail was coiled.
+Tubby echoed Fred's yell of alarm and the next instant both boys took to
+their heels in mad flight. The serpent had swiftly and silently begun
+writhing its way to the ground.
+
+"Run for your life!" cried Tubby wildly. "He's after us."
+
+Stumbling over creepers, falling headlong, and then struggling to their
+feet again, and keeping on with their mad rush, the two terrified boys
+ran for their lives. Behind them came a thrashing sound as the big snake
+made its way after them.
+
+In their alarm they lost all sense of direction or distance. All they
+knew was that the big reptile was pursuing them, and they raced along
+without considering anything but escaping from it. It never even occurred
+to them to open fire on it with their rifles.
+
+How far they ran they had no idea. All they knew was that at last, when,
+from sheer exhaustion they paused, there was no sound of pursuit. The
+vast woods were silent. All at once they had a fresh fright. This time
+from overhead. There was a mighty commotion in the tree-tops accompanied
+by shrill barks and cries.
+
+"Gracious, what's coming now?" gasped Tubby. "I wish we were back on the
+launch!"
+
+But it was only a troop of white-faced, long-tailed monkeys swinging by,
+traveling along the tree-top high road at almost incredible speed. They
+paused as they saw the boys standing there below them. Gathering together
+they began to chatter and make a terrible noise.
+
+Then, making horrible grimaces and yelling angrily, they broke off sticks
+and began to pelt the two lads furiously with them. Suddenly Tubby raised
+his rifle and fired at them. Instantly they made off, shrieking at the
+top of their voices and swinging from limb to limb by means of their long
+tails which they used as conveniently as hands.
+
+The monkeys gone with their bewildering chatter, the boys began to look
+about them. They were standing in a spot where the undergrowth was not so
+dense, but they could see that they were in the depths of the forest. As
+they looked around them the same thought clutched uncomfortably hard at
+the heart of each. How far had they come on their wild run to escape the
+great serpent? Also, in what direction had their retreat led them? Tubby
+was the first to give these disquieting thoughts words.
+
+"Where are we, Fred?"
+
+"I--I don't know. Haven't you got your compass?"
+
+"Yes, but I didn't take any bearings when we left the river."
+
+"Let's strike out and try to get back. At any rate we'll hear the whistle
+before long."
+
+"That's so. I forgot that. Better sit down here and wait till we hear it,
+then. No use wandering about, we might go in a wrong direction."
+
+But had the boys known it, the launch whistle, not a very powerful one,
+was at that very minute blowing repeatedly for them. Their wild dash to
+escape from the huge snake had carried them far into the jungle.
+
+They sat there for a long time, each busied with his own thoughts. At
+last Tubby rose.
+
+"It's funny we don't hear that whistle, Fred," he said, "but I've been
+thinking that maybe we ran further than we thought from that beast in the
+tree. Now I'm pretty sure the river lies that way," he pointed in a
+directly opposite direction. "Let's strike out for it."
+
+"All right," agreed Fred, whose face had begun to assume an alarmed look.
+"S-s-s-s-say, Tubby, you don't think we're lost, do you?"
+
+Tubby was quick to note the quaver in Fred's voice, and he bravely put on
+a careless air.
+
+"Lost! Not a bit of it. Two Boy Scouts lost in a bit of timber like this?
+Not much. Come on, old chap, and we'll be laughing over our scare within
+an hour's time."
+
+But hour after hour went by and still the two lads, now thoroughly
+scared, though neither had yet admitted it, plunged along through the
+jungle. At last when they reached a small open space, Fred could stand it
+no longer. He sank down on a fallen tree trunk and fairly gave way to his
+fears.
+
+"We're lost, Tubby," he moaned, "and it's no use going any further. I
+can't, in fact. I'm dead tired out. What on earth shall we do?"
+
+The fat boy looked at his comrade with alarmed eyes. It was plain that
+Fred was on the verge of a nervous collapse. Their position was bad
+enough without that. And yet Tubby could find no words to comfort his
+companion. What Fred had said was the truth; they were lost in the
+trackless jungle, a terrifying situation indeed. From time to time during
+their wanderings they had fired their rifles, hoping to hear some
+response, but none had come.
+
+Tubby, however, had, whenever possible, marked the trail either by
+barking or blazing a tree with his knife in Indian fashion, or by leaving
+grass and stone signs in a manner familiar to all first-class Scouts.
+This was now the only crumb of comfort he could offer to Fred.
+
+"Cheer up. Maybe they'll pick up the trail," he said as hopefully as he
+could.
+
+"But if they don't, we--gracious! Look there!"
+
+Facing the two lost boys was a party of squat, copper-colored little men
+with big round heads and straight black hair. They carried bows and
+arrows and spears. Their clothes consisted of old sacking, bits of cloth,
+anything in fact that would partially cover them. They evidently formed a
+hunting party, for some of them carried wild pigs and one or two had a
+deer slung on a branch between them. They had crept up quite silently and
+now regarded the interlopers intently.
+
+For an instant the two white boys stood stock-still, as if turned to
+stone. Then by a natural impulse, they turned and started to run. But a
+spear whizzed through the air after them, transfixing itself quivering in
+a tree just above their heads.
+
+This brought them to a halt. Weapons they had none, for when they paused
+they had laid down their rifles and in their precipitate, startled flight
+had forgotten to pick them up again.
+
+Utterly unnerved by this added sheaf to their bundle of misfortunes, the
+two Boy Scouts stood facing the Indians who, they had no doubt, formed a
+hunting or scouting party sent out by the San Blas tribes that made their
+homes back in the mysterious recesses of the mountains where rose the
+headwaters of the Chepalta.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXV.
+                        A CHAPTER OF ACCIDENTS.
+
+
+In the meantime Rob and Merritt, working waist deep in the muddy
+shallows, had succeeded, after some rather arduous work, in clearing the
+stern wheel of its entangling rope. The line had become twisted in and
+out of the shaft in such a way that it was necessary in places to cut it
+loose.
+
+When this had been done, Mr. Mainwaring decided that before blowing the
+whistle to summon back the young hunters they would give the machinery a
+test. Accordingly, when the canoes had been secured to the shore, Rob
+reversed the engine and started it up.
+
+For a moment it whirled and chugged away, straining to back the launch
+off the muddy shallows in which she had grounded. The lightly built craft
+trembled under the effort. The engine snorted and puffed as more power
+was applied.
+
+"Hooray! We're afloat once more!" cried Merritt triumphantly, as the
+launch was caught in the current and swung free. But at the same instant
+came an ominous cracking sound. The engine raced wildly and then stopped
+as Rob shut off the power.
+
+"What's the matter now?" cried Mr. Raynor apprehensively, as the launch
+began to drift downstream in a helpless way.
+
+"Wait a minute. I'll see," cried Rob, and then the next instant, "The
+driving chain has snapped!"
+
+"Throw out the anchor before we drift any more," cried Mr. Mainwaring.
+
+This was done and then Rob set about making an investigation. As he had
+declared, the driving chain, which drove the stern wheel just as a
+bicycle sprocket is revolved, had parted in the middle. Undoubtedly the
+strain that had been placed on it when they were backing the launch off
+had proved too much for its strength.
+
+They regarded the accident with some dismay.
+
+"Great Scotland! That means we are stuck," exclaimed Merritt.
+
+"Unquestionably, unless we can make some repairs," admitted Mr.
+Mainwaring.
+
+"Do you think you can fix it, Rob?" asked Mr. Raynor.
+
+"I might manage to make a temporary link out of wire," replied Rob, "but
+I'm afraid it wouldn't hold long against the current."
+
+"Isn't there a spare chain in the tool locker?" asked Merritt.
+
+Mr. Mainwaring shook his head.
+
+"There's nothing for it but to turn back and get a new link forged," he
+said. "Too bad!"
+
+"It is indeed," agreed Rob. "Shall I make a link out of steel wire? I
+guess that would be strong enough to carry us down with the stream if we
+go slowly."
+
+"Yes, do so," was the reply. "Merritt, will you sound the return whistle
+for Bob Hopkins and Fred?"
+
+Merritt pulled the cord connecting with the compressed air whistle and
+tugged it lustily. Then he paused and blew again, keeping this up for
+some time. No reply had come; but as yet they felt no anxiety. It was
+likely that the boys would take some time in returning, and the
+possibility of their being out of ear-shot of the whistle did not occur
+to any of the party.
+
+But when an hour had passed and then another dragged its slow length away
+without bringing any signs of the absentees, anxiety gave place to alarm
+and alarm to genuine fear that harm might have overtaken them. They
+looked blankly at each other. For a time no one spoke.
+
+Suddenly, from a great distance as it seemed, there came the sound of a
+rifle shot.
+
+Had they but known it, the sound was caused by Tubby's shot at the band
+of monkeys. Although ignorant of its cause, it made the dismayed little
+party's spirits pick up a bit to hear at least some sound of the two
+young hunters, even though they knew that they must be some distance off.
+
+"Raynor," ordered Mr. Mainwaring, "I don't know whether that shot was
+merely a signal that they are coming, or a signal of distress. In any
+event I am going ashore. Rob, you may come with me if you like. Bring
+your rifle. Merritt, you keep guard with Mr. Raynor."
+
+The engineer merely nodded in answer to his chief's orders. Merritt
+looked rather disappointed. He would have liked to accompany the
+searchers, but as he knew that was impossible he put the best face
+possible on the matter and helped Rob and Mr. Mainwaring to get ashore by
+means of the plank.
+
+Almost instantly the jungle swallowed them up. As they vanished from
+sight, Raynor sighed. Merritt looking up saw that he looked distressed.
+He ventured to ask him what was the matter.
+
+"I don't just know why, my boy, but I've got an idea that the lads are in
+trouble in the woods yonder," he said. "I don't like the idea of that
+distant shot."
+
+"You--you don't think that there are any Indians off in the forest, do
+you?" asked Merritt, turning a shade paler.
+
+"I don't think anything. I don't want to say anything till I'm sure; but
+we're not so far from San Blas country that a wandering hunting party
+might not happen along through the forest. They have the jungle
+honeycombed with paths known only to themselves."
+
+"But supposing--just supposing that the boys did fall in with them, would
+the Indians do them any harm?"
+
+"Impossible to say, Merritt. This I do know, however, that the Indians'
+minds have been worked on by those who are opposed to the canal until
+they have been taught to regard all white men as their enemies. They have
+been told that the making of the canal will flood out their hunting
+grounds and drive them into remoter parts of the country. Naturally, they
+regard white men with suspicion and hatred."
+
+While this conversation was going on, Mr. Mainwaring, whose face was
+sadly troubled, and his young companion, had been pushing their way
+through the jungle. Fortunately the trail of Tubby and Fred was pretty
+well marked where they had shoved their way through the underbrush.
+Finally they came to the spot where the two boys had met with the
+serpent. Rob examined the ground with the instinct of a true scout and
+skillful trapper. Traces of a sudden stoppage and a precipitate flight
+off into the jungle were plainly visible.
+
+But what had caused the boys to beat such a rapid retreat was by no means
+so plain.
+
+"Can you make out anything, Rob?" asked Mr. Mainwaring, after a pause.
+
+"No, sir," said Rob perplexedly, "except that something appears to have
+frightened them just at this point. You can see by their footmarks in
+this soft mud that they were running fast when they made off. And see
+here, sir, where one of them fell and scrambled up again, going on as
+quickly as before."
+
+"Jove, you can read all that in those tracks?"
+
+"That's part of the Boy Scout training, sir," rejoined Rob modestly.
+
+"It's wonderful! Wonderful! But tell me, can you see the signs of any
+wild beasts?"
+
+"Not one. That's what makes it so mysterious. It is plain that something
+was after them and yet there are no tracks."
+
+"Well, we had better follow up the trail they have left through the
+jungle. That is our only course, in fact."
+
+On and on they pursued the trail, going slowly of necessity. Here they
+would lose the trail for a time and then again in a few minutes Rob's
+cleverness as a Scout would pick it up again by means of a broken blade
+of grass or a creeper that had been brushed aside. Never had the young
+leader's well-trained faculties been more on the alert than now as he
+followed his chum's trail through the trackless jungle.
+
+And all the while poor Tubby and Fred were wandering further and further
+from them. At length they reached the open space where the boys had
+paused a while and Tubby had shot at the monkeys overhead. All at once
+Rob darted forward. On the ground he had spied a brass shell. They
+examined it and found that it tallied with the caliber of Tubby's rifle,
+but beyond this there was no further clue.
+
+Suddenly Rob gave a cry of delight. He eagerly examined what appeared to
+Mr. Mainwaring to be nothing more than a clump of pampas grass slightly
+bent over to the left. But Rob's quick eye had caught sight of a band of
+grass tied round its top just below the bend. To an ordinary person's eye
+this would have meant nothing. But to Rob, trained in scouting, it meant
+that the two lads they were pursuing had turned to the left.
+
+On they went again, never flagging through the hot noonday, but patiently
+picking up the trail as they went along. Now a scratch on the bark of a
+limb would show Rob the direction, presently some trampled grass or
+flowers led him on, again he would stumble on one of Tubby's stone or
+grass signs.
+
+All the time the trail kept getting fresher. Their hopes rose high.
+
+"We're catching up on them," cried Rob. "It's slow but sure; we're
+catching up."
+
+Presently they stood in the space under the tall trees where Tubby and
+Fred had paused and where the San Blas Indians had surprised them. Rob,
+like a pointer dog, went rapidly hither and thither, crouched low,
+looking for the tiny signs which mean so little to an untrained and so
+much to a carefully educated eye.
+
+Suddenly he gave a sharp cry. It brought Mr. Mainwaring to his side in an
+instant.
+
+"Look, sir! Here in this soft earth! The print of bare feet! Very small
+bare feet! What does it mean?"
+
+"Indians!" exclaimed Mr. Mainwaring, his face working. "The trail ends
+here, Rob. Oh, my poor boy! My poor boy!"
+
+And, quite overcome, Mr. Mainwaring sank down on the same log on which,
+had he but known it, his son Fred had collapsed but a short time before.
+It was a long time that he sat there with his head buried in his hands,
+and when he raised his face Rob saw that it was white and strangely
+drawn, but full of determination.
+
+"What are we to do, sir?" demanded Rob. "I'm afraid that, as you say,
+there is no doubt they have been carried off; but luckily, I see no signs
+of a struggle. Perhaps there is hope."
+
+Mr. Mainwaring had said nothing and Rob had not told him of his discovery
+of a spear that still stuck in the tree into which it had darted
+quivering above Tubby's head. He could not find it in his heart to
+increase Mr. Mainwaring's distress, and, agitated as he himself was, Rob
+had still thoughtfulness enough not to add to another's burdens.
+
+Presently he repeated his question.
+
+"Have you any plan, sir?"
+
+Mr. Mainwaring sprang to his feet; his eyes had a hard glint in them.
+
+"Yes, I have a plan," he exclaimed, "the only plan that can save them. We
+must return at once, get a powerful force and ransack this forest from
+end to end. Perhaps if the Indians learn of this, and learn of it they
+will quick enough, they will give the boys up."
+
+Slowly, each busied with his own thoughts, they made their way back
+toward the river. But before they reached it, it began to grow dusk. An
+uneasy wind sighed in the tops of the forest trees. But for this a
+death-like stillness prevailed.
+
+"We must hurry. A storm is coming on," said Mr. Mainwaring looking
+upward.
+
+Before long they could catch the glint of the river through the trees.
+But here a fresh surprise awaited them. There lay the canoes, just as
+they had left them; everything looked the same, but of the launch there
+was not a sign!
+
+They could hardly believe their eyes, but the fact remained that the
+_Pathfinder_ had vanished; nor was there any trace of its two occupants.
+It was at this moment that Rob noticed that the river seemed to be
+flowing more swiftly and that its level had risen.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXVI.
+                            THE RUINED CITY.
+
+
+It would have been worse than useless for Tubby or Fred to have attempted
+flight, as the stout youth had rightly conjectured. Resistance would have
+been equally foolhardy. This would have been so in any case, but any move
+against the Indians was now rendered doubly dangerous by the fact that
+two of the odd-looking little natives had picked up the two rifles the
+boys had so foolishly forgotten and were examining them in a way that
+showed that they had knowledge enough of the white man's weapons to use
+them, should occasion offer.
+
+After a vast deal of jabbering in their unknown tongue, two of the
+Indians bound Tubby's hands behind his back while the others stood guard
+to protect their companions against any sudden move. Then came Fred's
+turn. This done, the boys were led across the open space to a clump of
+trees from amidst which the Indians had first appeared.
+
+To Tubby's astonishment he saw that a narrow, but well beaten trail ran
+through the jungle from this point. But in what direction it led he was,
+of course, ignorant. He guessed, however, that it must be one of the
+secret Indian paths to which Mr. Raynor had referred. On either side of
+the narrow trail the jungle grew up thick and impenetrable. Two Indians
+walked in front, then came the boys, behind marched the other Indians.
+
+"W-w-w-w-what is going to become of us?" quavered Fred as they moved
+along at a swift though steady pace.
+
+"I don't know. I guess we are bound for some village or other back in the
+San Blas country. It's a good sign though that they haven't offered us
+any violence."
+
+Fred could not but agree that this was so. But little more talk was
+indulged in between the two captives. It was not a situation that adapted
+itself to conversation. Hour after hour they trudged along through the
+tropical forest until at last they came upon something startling.
+
+In front of them, as they rounded a curve in the crooked trail, there
+suddenly rose up something that seemed menacingly to dispute their
+further passage through the forest.
+
+There, facing them, was a hideous monster carved out of a white stone or
+marble, they could not be sure which. The thing loomed ghastly white
+against a background of dark trees. Spots of rank moss grew on its
+glaring stone face. Its stumpy hands were folded and tucked up on its
+breast; its legs and feet, shaped like a water creature's, were drawn up
+under its belly. But it was the awful face with its sinister glare that
+gave the boys a start that quivered through their frames. As if in proof
+of its antiquity the statue was broken in places and leaned slightly to
+one side. Through the cracks in the white stone, great, twisted, gnarled
+tree trunks, like serpents, writhed in and out. Altogether it was as
+horrible an object to come upon in the depths of a great forest as the
+mind could conceive. Small wonder the boys shuddered at it. The Indians,
+however, did not appear to regard it with much awe.
+
+"What an awful looking thing!" shuddered Fred, who had turned pale.
+
+"Pshaw! It's only an old idol," Tubby scoffed, assuming a bold air for
+Fred's comfort. "Lots of 'em in this part of the world. Crackers! Fred, I
+shouldn't wonder but what we are coming to one of those ancient cities
+that have long been supposed to exist in this part of the world. I
+think--Great Cæsar! Look there, will you?"
+
+A wilderness of ruins suddenly opened before them as they topped a small
+rise. Everywhere was a confusion of tumbled idols, pillars, blocks of
+stone, heavy walls, flights of steps, some whole, some tumbling with
+decay, others still upright. Roots, branches and curling vines writhed in
+and out of the scene of desolation like great snakes. Here and there
+trees shot up from the empty walls of roofless palaces. Their restless
+shadows waved mournfully above the ruins. Further back stood a building
+that surmounted a sort of platform of white stone. It was reached by a
+flight of steps on one side. On the other the walls towered up steep and
+slippery. They would not have afforded foothold to a fly.
+
+The Indians marched the boys up the steps leading to this dismal palace.
+From the top of the platform they could see over the ruined city in all
+directions. And off to one side was a sight that made Tubby's heart beat
+more quickly. He had caught the glint of a river, and on its banks he had
+seen three canoes drawn up. If only they could reach that stream they
+might still escape. But such a prospect appeared to be remote in the
+extreme.
+
+They were marshaled into the chamber within the walls they had noticed
+from below. It was of massive but rude architecture and was roofless, but
+the walls sloped inward, making any idea of climbing them out of the
+question. From cracks in the walls grew tropic plants and creepers. To
+the boys' surprise, once within this place, their hands were untied. But
+this in itself was a bad sign so far as hope of escape went. It meant
+that the Indians knew there was no hope of their captives getting away.
+
+Two guards were set to watch them at the door, and then the others left.
+The guards took up their station at the door with their wicked-looking
+spears all ready for instant action. Tubby, with his ruling passion still
+strong--and as a matter of fact he was fearfully hungry and faint after
+their long march--eyed longingly some red fruit that grew on one of the
+shrubs clinging to the wall. He was about to pluck some when Fred drew
+him back.
+
+"Don't touch those, Tubby, they're not good to eat," he exclaimed. "I
+recognize the leaf. It's just like a deadly nightshade leaf at home. I
+guess they are a giant variety of that poisonous plant."
+
+"Phew! I'm glad I didn't touch 'em. Would they kill you?"
+
+"If you ate many. A few would only put you to sleep. They contain a drug
+called bella-donna which is a narcotic."
+
+Just then one of the natives appeared with two earthenware bowls full of
+half raw meat. The boys were hungry or they could not have touched the
+stuff. As it was, they ate all they could, but left quite a quantity. As
+they ate their guards eyed them in an odd way. It looked as if they were
+hungry, too, and would have liked to eat.
+
+The boys could see out through the door, and, after eating all they
+could, they amused themselves by looking over the ruined city. They could
+see smoke rising some distance off among the trees, and guessed that the
+main camp of the Indians was there. Probably, they guessed--and in this
+they were right--the superstitious Indians did not like to camp among the
+ruins of the lost race, although they had no objection to jailing their
+prisoners there.
+
+As it grew dusk, the sky clouded over. Thunder began to rumble in the
+distance and the wind moaned in a most melancholy way among the trees
+that overshadowed the ruins. Far off they could hear the Indians shouting
+and singing in a coarse, unmusical way. Seemingly they were celebrating
+the success of their chase and capture of the two white boys.
+
+At any rate, they appeared to forget the two guards utterly. It grew dark
+and the men still sat there. They had lighted a small fire outside the
+ruined temple, or whatever it had been, and the glow of it revealed their
+still and silent figures to the boy captives. One of them took some kind
+of cake from his girdle presently and took a bite of it. Then he offered
+it to his companion who bit into it hungrily. It was plain that the two
+Indians were getting hungry.
+
+Tubby was about to try to conciliate them by offering them what the boys
+had left in their bowls, when he had a sudden inspiration. He went to the
+wall and began picking some of the berries Fred had told him not to
+touch. Fred, who had fallen into a fitful slumber, did not notice him,
+and Tubby proceeded uninterruptedly with what he was about.
+
+It was about a quarter of an hour later and the rumble of the approaching
+storm was growing nearer and nearer when Tubby arose and, picking up the
+two bowls, approached the guards. Instantly they sprang to their feet and
+presented their spear blades at him. But Tubby, by signs, explained that
+he and his companion had not been able to eat all their rations and
+wanted to give them the rest.
+
+As Tubby's shrewd mind had guessed from what he had seen, the two guards
+were famished. They saw no harm in taking the meat from the prisoner who
+was kind enough to offer it. They grabbed the bowls and in a minute, as
+it appeared to the astonished fat boy, they had emptied them. Tubby
+regarded the two Indians admiringly. He had never seen edibles disposed
+of so swiftly.
+
+When they had eaten, the guards became stern again. They motioned Tubby
+back to the interior of the ruinous structure. The stout boy obeyed and
+sank down on the floor apparently composing himself to sleep, but in
+reality he was watching the two guards with intent eyes. Suddenly he gave
+a grunt of satisfaction. The guards began to nod sleepily. One almost
+fell over. He recovered himself, but in an instant he was off to sleep
+again; as for his companion, after an ineffectual effort to awaken his
+comrade, he too sank into a deep slumber, falling across the threshold of
+the place.
+
+Instantly Tubby was all activity. Quickly he aroused Fred.
+
+"Wake up! Quick! Don't ask questions. Follow me."
+
+"Why? What?" began Fred sleepily.
+
+"Not a word. We've got to move quick. I squeezed the juice of those
+berries you told me about into the remains of our supper. The guards ate
+it. They're fast asleep. It's up to us to cut and run for those canoes on
+the river bank."
+
+Fred was alert in an instant. As he rose softly to his feet a vivid flash
+of lightning illumined his face. Tubby saw that it was set and determined
+as became a Black Wolf Scout. He gripped Fred's hand tightly.
+
+"Whatever happens, keep your nerve," he enjoined.
+
+Then, hand in hand and on tiptoe, the two boys crept toward the doorway.
+As they were stepping over one of the sleeping guards Tubby, by the glow
+of the fire, saw that a small bag that the fellow had had tied at his
+waist had burst as he fell headlong in his slumber, and that a lot of
+odd-looking pebbles lay scattered about near it. Yielding to he knew not
+what impulse, he stooped and stuffed a handful of the rocks into the
+pocket of his Scout coat.
+
+It was work to bring the lads' hearts into their mouths, this advance out
+upon the open platform with the firelight on them to betray their every
+movement. Far off they could catch the glow of the Indians' campfire; but
+for all they knew other guards might be about and at any minute they
+expected to hear a spear or an arrow whiz by them. But nothing of the
+sort happened. They reached the river bank in safety.
+
+The lightning was now flashing incessantly. By its gleam they saw the
+canoes, with their paddles alongside, lying as they had last seen them.
+Tubby advanced, and, catching hold of one, turned it over. The next
+instant he gave a terrified yell. As he had turned it, there had leaped
+from under it, where he had evidently been sleeping, an Indian armed with
+a spear.
+
+Before he could cast it, Tubby ducked low and rushed in on the man like a
+young bullock. The little San Blas native went down in the mud with a
+splash. Tubby wrested the spear from him and sent it flying. As the
+Indian struggled to his feet Fred gave him a blow on the mouth that must
+have driven some of his teeth in, to judge by the sound.
+
+"Quick!" ordered Tubby in a tense undertone, "into the water with those
+other canoes now."
+
+"But we only want one."
+
+"We don't want 'em to chase us, do we?" exclaimed the fat boy sharply.
+"Over with 'em I say."
+
+Fred shoved the two dugouts off. In a jiffy the current caught them and
+they went sailing out of sight. At the same instant there came another
+flash of lightning. It showed the river, swollen and angry, racing
+furiously along.
+
+"Can you handle a paddle, Fred?" asked Tubby.
+
+"Yes; I had a canoe on the Hudson," was the reply.
+
+"Well, this is going to beat any Hudson you ever saw. There's a storm in
+the mountains evidently, and the river is rising every minute. It can't
+be helped, though. Take a paddle and shove off."
+
+Luckily both boys knew something about canoes or the start of that dugout
+would likewise have been its finish. But they saved it by skillful, swift
+handling from a capsize. The next instant they were in it, being hurled
+off at a dizzy pace down the rushing current. Behind them came yells and
+savage shouts. Their escape had evidently been discovered, probably when
+a change of guards was made.
+
+"Whoop!" shouted Tubby back defiantly. "We're off on the Chagres Limited,
+you shirtless sons of iniquity; it'll take better men than you to catch
+us now!"
+
+The cranky canoe rocked wildly, and then shot off into the darkness,
+hurtled along by the sweeping current of an unknown river.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXVII.
+                             "BE PREPARED."
+
+
+We must now go back to Mr. Raynor and Merritt whom we left in the launch,
+a prey to no very enviable thoughts. As the sound of Rob's and Mr.
+Mainwaring's footsteps died away in the forest, they fell to speculating
+on the fate of their young comrades. All at once Merritt turned to his
+companion with an exclamation.
+
+"Isn't the river current flowing more swiftly?" he asked.
+
+Mr. Raynor gazed over the side at the muddy stream.
+
+"It surely is," he decided. "I shouldn't wonder but there's a storm back
+in the mountains."
+
+As the stream flowed more swiftly and with greater volume Merritt looked
+with some anxiety at their anchor rope. It was not a particularly thick
+one and the stream was tugging frantically at the launch. Suddenly,
+without the slightest warning, there was a sharp snapping sound and the
+rope parted. Before they had time to exchange a word, the launch was a
+hundred yards down stream. It was almost impossible to turn her about or
+direct her course, but accident accomplished for them what they had not
+been able to do for themselves. The _Pathfinder_ suddenly struck a sand
+bank, gave a giddy sort of yaw and swung round, heading bow on down the
+stream.
+
+The next instant the current which was still rising caught her and shot
+her off down stream with her bow pointing in the right direction. Mr.
+Raynor grabbed the spokes of the steering wheel before the craft had a
+chance to smash into the bank and Merritt set the engine slowly going on
+reverse so as to check, as much as possible, the furious speed. He had
+grave doubts of the patched-up link holding, but he nursed it along as
+carefully as he could.
+
+It was not till they had gone some distance that either of them had a
+chance to speak, and then naturally their first words were about those
+they had left behind. What anxieties beset them may be imagined. Two of
+their number were lost; the pair that had set out to find them would
+return either with or without the castaways, but in any case to find the
+launch gone. That it was all as unavoidable as fate made no difference to
+the seriousness of the situation.
+
+The _Pathfinder_, handled with consummate skill by Mr. Raynor, reached
+the Gatun settlement that evening, and the news spread like wildfire that
+the boys were lost and that Mr. Mainwaring had been left, by force of
+circumstances, in the forest. Everyone there appreciated the gravity of
+the situation. The river was rising and it might be impossible to ascend
+it for a week, even if then.
+
+From the vivid flashes of lightning visible in the far-off peaks it was
+clear that back in the wild Cordillera the storm was raging savagely. The
+water continued to rise. After supper Mr. Raynor, in charge during Mr.
+Mainwaring's absence, wrote out a telegram to Lieut. Col. Goethals
+informing him of what had happened. Merritt, who was aching for something
+to do, volunteered to take it to the little telegraph office by the
+railroad track; for the head official of the canal was in Colon
+inspecting the work there, having left the day before in his private car.
+
+Mr. Raynor, perhaps seeing that Merritt would feel better with some
+employment to take his mind off his worry, readily consented. The Boy
+Scout set out at once. As he went he looked back at the distant peaks
+several times. The lightning was playing a witches' dance above them, and
+he thought with a pang of those near and dear to him who might be
+wandering at that very moment among them.
+
+The operator at the Gatun station was a talkative chap and he chatted to
+Merritt while he waited for an open wire. He told him that he had had a
+busy evening and grumbled quizzically at his own good nature in trying to
+please other people.
+
+"Why, only half an hour ago," he said, "a chap, a young American, I
+guess, was in here and borrowed two of my batteries. Said he was
+experimenting. Well, I knew him by sight and I let him have 'em. What's
+the result? I've had to charge two more and the line don't work as good."
+
+Merritt only half listened to the voluble operator's relation of his
+troubles. But presently he looked up languidly as the operator said
+brusquely:
+
+"Why, here's the chap coming back now. Well, if he's after any more
+batteries he don't get 'em."
+
+A footfall sounded on the platform outside, the door opened and in came a
+man at sight of whom Merritt almost fell off his chair. It was the young
+man that he had seen in the barn with Jared and with whom the latter had
+driven to the station the night of the fire in Hampton.
+
+Merritt was sitting back in a corner. For the sake of coolness, there was
+only one lamp in the place, a shaded one above the operator's table. A
+pile of boxes stood close to Merritt and he slipped in behind them. He
+had reasons of his own for not wanting to be seen just then.
+
+"No more batteries," began the operator truculently as the stranger came
+in. But the other laughed.
+
+"It's not batteries this time," he said with a slightly foreign accent.
+"It's a telegram I want to send."
+
+"Oh, that's different. There's one ahead of you, though."
+
+"All right; there is no hurry. I'll write mine out now."
+
+The man sat down and rapidly wrote on a sending blank. He handed it in.
+The operator looked at it a minute and then handed it back.
+
+"Sorry; I can't take it."
+
+"Why not? I can pay you."
+
+The man drew out a roll of bills.
+
+"That's not it. Your message is in cipher and we are not allowed to take
+such telegrams in the zone."
+
+"Whose orders?"
+
+"Lieut. Col. Goethals and the U. S. Government."
+
+"Curse them both," ground out the stranger angrily. The operator jumped
+to his feet.
+
+"See here, friend," he said, "I'm an American and I think Goethals is a
+mighty fine man, too. See the point? There's the door. Now get! I'm
+blamed sorry I lent you those batteries, but I'd rather you didn't return
+them than come back."
+
+Without a word the man turned and half slunk out of the door. As he
+passed close by Merritt, the Boy Scout heard him mutter:
+
+"Yes, and you and all Yankees will be sorrier yet before morning."
+
+Merritt looked around. There was an open door behind him. Quick as a
+flash he slipped through it and the next moment was following the man
+through a clump of bananas that grew on each side of the road. Dodging
+among the broad leaves Merritt kept his quarry in sight and stuck close
+to his heels. The man walked on and then suddenly turned aside from the
+main road that led back to the "gold-men's" quarters and headed down into
+a sort of wild gully running to the river.
+
+With Merritt close on his heels and blessing the shrubs that grew at the
+path-side, the man, quite unconscious that anyone was on his tracks, kept
+on. At length he came to a more or less tumble-down hut not far from the
+river bank.
+
+He paused here a minute and gave three low whistles. In response out came
+an old negro.
+
+"Dis funny time ob night to call?" said the old darky questioningly.
+
+"This is a _good time of night to call_," said the man with a peculiar
+emphasis. To Merritt it sounded as if the words just spoken were a sort
+of countersign. At any rate nothing more was said. The old negro admitted
+the stranger to the hut and closed the door.
+
+"Now what sort of work is on foot," muttered Merritt to himself. "What
+mischief are those rascals up to? It's all most mysterious. This fellow
+whom we've seen with Jared first borrows electric batteries and then
+tries to send a cipher message. I can't make it out."
+
+He stood a moment irresolute as to what course to pursue. Should he go
+back and tell Mr. Raynor what he had discovered? But the next minute he
+decided not to. After all he had no proof; he would try to peep into the
+hut and see what was going on. Cautiously he reconnoitered, completely
+circling the hut. But not a gleam of light was visible.
+
+Bit by bit he crept closer, using the utmost caution. At length he got
+close to the rear wall and here, to his huge delight, he found a crack
+through which he could peer at what was going on within. What he saw made
+his heart leap. Round a table were seated Estrada, Alverado, the strange
+man and Jared Applegate. Jared's face was white and frightened but the
+others wore a sort of deadly composure. In the background stood the old
+darky who had opened the door. On the table was a smoky kerosene lamp.
+
+But on the table also were some objects that puzzled Merritt. There was a
+brass lever, not unlike a telegraph key, and by it an array of batteries
+with wires leading from them. The strange man was seated near the brass
+key, with which he was toying carelessly, and yet with a certain caution.
+
+"Be careful," Alverado was warning him, "don't be premature, my dear
+Castro; in your eagerness you have already broken two batteries."
+
+"Yes, but the accommodating station agent replaced them. Ha! ha! if he
+had known what they were for! But he wouldn't handle cipher, confound
+him!"
+
+"That was the order of these hated Yankees. But after to-night we shall
+triumph over them. One touch of that key in the right direction and----"
+
+Estrada, who was speaking, spread his hands expressively. The others'
+eyes blazed; only Jared cowered and looked badly frightened.
+
+"Why can't you put it off till I get out of the country?" he begged.
+
+"So we would have, because of the service you did us in showing us where
+to place the--the little matter you know of. But you have been well
+rewarded. Why repine? As for putting it off, what time like the present?
+Mainwaring is away and those cursed little rats of spies, Boy Scouts, as
+you call them, are with him. We are safe."
+
+But Jared only cowered and quivered the more. As for Alverado, who had
+uttered the words just recorded, he lit a fresh cigarette and regarded
+the whining youth with scorn.
+
+Merritt's blood almost froze as he looked on at this strange scene. He
+had a quick mind, and from almost the first he had guessed what that
+paraphernalia on the table meant, what the "patriots," as they doubtless
+called themselves, were waiting for. But the Boy Scout did not wait. He
+ran, as if on wings, from that hut in the hollow, his pulses beating like
+snare drums and a fearful doubt assailing his mind.
+
+"Would he be too late?" That was the fear that pounded at Merritt's brain
+as he raced along for the "gold-men's" row of houses. At the summit of
+the little hill, leading up from the hollow of the hut, he stumbled over
+something, something that entangled his foot. He leaned to examine it and
+then gave an astonished cry. The next moment he had whipped out his scout
+knife and cut his foot loose of the encumbrance. After that for some
+reason he went more slowly, but still he ran, ran to summon aid for Uncle
+Sam against a gang of foul plotters.
+
+                            * * * * * * * *
+
+Half an hour later the scene in the hut was not much changed, but a tense
+silence had fallen over its inmates. On every face was a strained,
+anxious look, yet underlaid by an expression of exultation. Jared alone
+was missing. In an agony of fear and remorse he had broken from the hut a
+short time before. They had not tried to check him.
+
+"Ready?" said Estrada, who held a watch. He was deadly pale.
+
+The strange young man by the table shoved back a stray lock of black hair
+with long, thin fingers. One hand trembled on that brass key that Merritt
+had noticed.
+
+"Let the invader! the usurper! the tyrant take warning from to-night!"
+cried Alverado solemnly in a declamatory tone.
+
+Suddenly there came a crash outside. The door was carried inward off its
+hinges. A crowd of men, in the uniform of the Gatun police, burst into
+the room.
+
+"Seize that man!" cried Mr. Raynor, who was in the lead. He pointed to
+the strange young man whose fingers were already pressing the key
+downward.
+
+"Betrayed!" shrieked Alverado as a revolver was knocked upward out of his
+hand.
+
+The police, taking no chances after this, sprang forward toward the man
+at the key with leveled weapons.
+
+"Surrender!" they called out.
+
+"Not till I've blown Uncle Sam's work to Kingdom Come!" cried the wretch
+with a hideous laugh.
+
+His fingers pressed the key. But no earth-shaking explosion followed. The
+tons of dynamite that had been cunningly concealed in a spill-way half a
+mile off did not explode. The Gatun Dam was not hoisted skyward and the
+work of years ruined.
+
+There was only a feeble "click," echoed by two more as the handcuffs were
+snapped on Alverado and Estrada.
+
+Mr. Raynor fairly embraced Merritt and the rest crowded round him.
+
+"If it hadn't been for you, my boy, and your presence of mind in guessing
+what that wire was you stumbled across and cutting it, the dam might have
+been blown up in accordance with this wretch's desires," he declared, and
+then, as the miscreant, who had in vain tried to send the fatal spark to
+the dynamite, was made a prisoner, Mr. Raynor raised his voice:
+
+"Three cheers for the Boy Scouts!" he cried, "and in particular for
+Merritt Crawford of the Eagles. Had it not been for his quick wits in
+guessing that a plot was on foot when he saw that wretch yonder at the
+Gatun station, this might have been a black night for Uncle Sam and the
+Panama Canal."
+
+The cheers were given with right good will. Soon afterward the prisoners,
+including the old black man, were marched off to the lock-up maintained
+at Gatun for offenders on the canal work, although, it is safe to say, it
+never before housed such monsters as the would-be dynamiters of the Gatun
+Dam.
+
+"If only the rest were here and safe," said Merritt to Mr. Raynor late
+that night, "I should be perfectly happy. As it is I don't feel as if I
+could rest till we are reunited."
+
+                            * * * * * * * *
+
+It was the next day that the entire community, already wild with
+excitement over the discovery of the plot against the dam and the capture
+of the chief conspirators, was treated to a fresh thrill. Down the river,
+which had somewhat subsided, came two canoes. In the first one were Rob
+and Mr. Mainwaring. In the second sat Tubby and Fred. How they had met is
+soon explained.
+
+As Tubby had guessed, the river they had seen from the ruins was the
+Chepalta. Its swift current had carried them into the Chagres itself and
+in course of time they came to the spot where Mr. Mainwaring and Fred,
+sadly distressed and worried over the loss of the launch, had decided to
+spend the night. They had built a roaring fire to keep off serpents or
+wild beasts, and Tubby and Fred, as soon as they saw the blaze, had made
+for it. In a few seconds a joyful reunion had taken place. As more sleep
+that night was out of the question, they had waited till the first flush
+of dawn and then emptied one of the provision canoes. In this Mr.
+Mainwaring and Rob seated themselves and they all paddled back to
+civilization.
+
+Their amazement when they heard of what had been taking place at Gatun
+during their absence may be, to use a phrase hackneyed but apt, "better
+imagined than described." There is no space here to relate all that
+followed or to give the details of the trial and sentencing of the
+rascally plotters. It was found, for they confessed in hope of immunity,
+that the plot was far more widely organized than had been thought. Dozens
+of laborers were implicated before the end, and it was the number engaged
+that had made it possible for them to elude the vigilance of the Gatun
+Guards, secrete so much dynamite and then connect it with wires to the
+lonely hut in the hollow. As for the strange young man, it was found that
+he had been a chemist specializing on explosives, who had thought to
+avenge his country's fancied wrongs by enlisting with the plotters.
+
+Had it not been for Merritt, who received the personal congratulations of
+Col. Goethals and the Commission, there is little doubt but that the
+great dam might have been damaged almost beyond hope of reconstruction.
+The boy bore his honors modestly, as became a true Scout, and of course
+the story did not get to the newspapers, so that he was spared the
+embarrassment of being interviewed and lionized. His comrades felt for
+him nothing but pride and admiration.
+
+Those pebbles that Tubby picked up proved to be raw emeralds of great
+value and you may be sure that each of his friends was presented with
+one. The chums of Lucy Mainwaring, too, have noticed that she now wears a
+brooch set with a magnificent emerald, by which she seems to set great
+store. Who gave it to her we will leave our readers to guess.
+
+Jared Applegate managed in some way to evade the drag-net set for him,
+and has not been seen or heard of since the night he slipped out of the
+hut overcome at the last minute by the thought of the terrible crime he
+had committed.
+
+
+I should like to linger with you in this fascinating old land with its
+new interests and tell you how the ruined city in which Tubby and Fred
+passed such an uncomfortable time was explored and rare treasures of
+antiquity found. I should also like to relate more of the adventures that
+befell the chums among the "Gold-men" of the Isthmus, but I must content
+myself with what has been written and my readers with the prophecy that
+the future will be able to recall no more noble achievement than this
+that has been the subject of our tale.
+
+You are assured, however, that the Boy Scouts returned to their studies
+and to the States better citizens, better patriots and better Scouts for
+the exciting times they spent on Uncle Sam's big ditch--the eighth
+wonder, and the greatest of the world. Let every American boy, who gets a
+chance, see it. It will strengthen and cement his love for the Stars and
+Stripes and for the U. S. A., the country that put the gigantic
+enterprise through in spite of almost overwhelming difficulties.
+
+And now the time has come to say good-bye to the Boy Scouts. So wishing
+them well in everything they undertake and hoping that they may ever be
+"good scouts and true," the author bids a reluctant adieu to them and to
+the readers who have followed the "Eagles" through their many adventures.
+
+
+                                THE END
+
+
+                          _SAVE THE WRAPPER!_
+
+_If_ you have enjoyed reading about the adventures of the new friends you
+have made in this book and would like to read more clean, wholesome
+stories of their entertaining experiences, turn to the book jacket--on
+the inside of it, a comprehensive list of Burt's fine series of carefully
+selected books for young people has been placed for your convenience.
+
+_Orders for these books, placed with your bookstore or sent to the
+Publishers, will receive prompt attention._
+
+
+                            BOY SCOUT SERIES
+                        By LIEUT. HOWARD PAYSON
+
+A lively, interesting series of stories of travel, life in camp, hunting,
+hiking, sports and adventure. No boy should miss these tales of
+self-reliance, resourcefulness and courage, in which every enjoyment
+known to scout activity is accurately depicted.
+
+                      Attractively Bound in Cloth.
+
+  THE BOY SCOUTS OF THE EAGLE PATROL
+    A speed boat race and an old sea captain give the Eagle Patrol a busy
+    summer.
+  THE BOY SCOUTS ON THE RANGE
+    Rob Blake and his friends among the cowboys and Indians in Arizona.
+  THE BOY SCOUTS AND THE ARMY AIRSHIP
+    The Hampton Academy boys discover a plot to steal Government airplane
+    plans.
+  THE BOY SCOUTS' MOUNTAIN CAMP
+    The Boy Scouts find a band of "Moonshiners," a lost cave and a hidden
+    fortune.
+  THE BOY SCOUTS FOR UNCLE SAM
+    The trial trip of a new submarine, a strange derelict and a treasure
+    hunt.
+  THE BOY SCOUTS AT THE PANAMA CANAL
+    Hunting and exploring in the tangled forests of Panama.
+  THE BOY SCOUTS UNDER FIRE IN MEXICO
+    Searching for General Villa in War-torn Mexico.
+  THE BOY SCOUTS ON BELGIAN BATTLEFIELDS
+    Between the lines in Belgium during the World War.
+  THE BOY SCOUTS WITH THE ALLIES IN FRANCE
+    Raiding Uhlans, spies, and air-raids in War-wrecked France.
+  THE BOY SCOUTS AT THE PANAMA-PACIFIC EXPOSITION
+    The adventures of four scouts at the Exposition in San Francisco.
+  THE BOY SCOUTS UNDER SEALED ORDERS
+    The Boy Scouts' exciting experiences while searching for stolen
+    Government property.
+  THE BOY SCOUTS' CAMPAIGN FOR PREPAREDNESS
+    The Eagle Patrol on duty in a Government munition plant.
+
+
+  For Sale by All Booksellers, or Sent Postpaid on Receipt of Price by
+                             the Publishers
+                           A. L. BURT COMPANY
+                    114-120 EAST 23d STREET NEW YORK
+
+
+                         The Golden Boys Series
+
+                         BY L. P. WYMAN, PH.D.
+                 Dean of Pennsylvania Military College.
+
+
+A new series of instructive copyright stories for boys of High School
+Age.
+
+                        Handsome Cloth Binding.
+
+                          PRICE, 50 CENTS EACH
+                           POSTAGE 10c EXTRA
+
+  THE GOLDEN BOYS AND THEIR NEW ELECTRIC CELL
+  THE GOLDEN BOYS AT THE FORTRESS
+  THE GOLDEN BOYS IN THE MAINE WOODS
+  THE GOLDEN BOYS WITH THE LUMBER JACKS
+  THE GOLDEN BOYS RESCUED BY RADIO
+  THE GOLDEN BOYS ALONG THE RIVER ALLAGASH
+  THE GOLDEN BOYS AT THE HAUNTED CAMP
+  THE GOLDEN BOYS ON THE RIVER DRIVE
+  THE GOLDEN BOYS SAVE THE CHAMBERLAIN DAM
+  THE GOLDEN BOYS ON THE TRAIL
+
+For sale by all booksellers, or sent on receipt of price by the Publishers
+            A. L. BURT COMPANY, 114-120 E. 23d St., NEW YORK
+
+
+                            _The Boy Allies_
+            (Registered in the United States Patent Office)
+                            _With the Army_
+
+                           BY CLAIR W. HAYES
+
+                        For Boys 12 to 16 Years.
+                  All Cloth Bound    Copyright Titles
+
+
+In this series we follow the fortunes of two American lads unable to
+leave Europe after war is declared. They meet the soldiers of the Allies,
+and decide to cast their lot with them. Their experiences and escapes are
+many, and furnish plenty of good, healthy action that every boy loves.
+
+  THE BOY ALLIES AT LIEGE; or, Through Lines of Steel.
+  THE BOY ALLIES ON THE FIRING LINE; or, Twelve Days' Battle Along the
+          Marne.
+  THE BOY ALLIES WITH THE COSSACKS; or, A Wild Dash Over the Carpathians.
+  THE BOY ALLIES IN THE TRENCHES; or, Midst Shot and Shell Along the
+          Aisne.
+  THE BOY ALLIES IN GREAT PERIL; or, With the Italian Army in the Alps.
+  THE BOY ALLIES IN THE BALKAN CAMPAIGN; or, The Struggle to Save a
+          Nation.
+  THE BOY ALLIES ON THE SOMME; or, Courage and Bravery Rewarded.
+  THE BOY ALLIES AT VERDUN; or, Saving France from the Enemy.
+  THE BOY ALLIES UNDER THE STARS AND STRIPES; or, Leading the American
+          Troops to the Firing Line.
+  THE BOY ALLIES WITH HAIG IN FLANDERS; or, The Fighting Canadians of
+          Vimy Ridge.
+  THE BOY ALLIES WITH PERSHING IN FRANCE; or, Over the Top at Chateau
+          Thierry.
+  THE BOY ALLIES WITH MARSHAL FOCH; or, The Closing Days of the Great
+          World War.
+
+For sale by all booksellers, or sent on receipt of price by the Publishers
+                           A. L. BURT COMPANY
+                  114-128 EAST 23d STREET    NEW YORK
+
+
+                            _The Boy Allies_
+            (Registered in the United States Patent Office)
+                            _With the Navy_
+
+                       BY ENSIGN ROBERT L. DRAKE
+
+                        For Boys 12 to 16 Years.
+                  All Cloth Bound    Copyright Titles
+
+                          PRICE, 50 CENTS EACH
+                           Postage 10c Extra
+
+
+Frank Chadwick and Jack Templeton, young American lads, meet each other
+in an unusual way soon after the declaration of war. Circumstances place
+them on board the British cruiser, "The Sylph," and from there on, they
+share adventures with the sailors of the Allies. Ensign Robert L. Drake,
+the author, is an experienced naval officer, and he describes admirably
+the many exciting adventures of the two boys.
+
+  THE BOY ALLIES ON THE NORTH SEA PATROL; or, Striking the First Blow at
+          the German Fleet.
+  THE BOY ALLIES UNDER TWO FLAGS; or, Sweeping the Enemy from the Sea.
+  THE BOY ALLIES WITH THE FLYING SQUADRON; or, The Naval Raiders of the
+          Great War.
+  THE BOY ALLIES WITH THE TERROR OF THE SEA; or, The Last Shot of
+          Submarine D-16.
+  THE BOY ALLIES UNDER THE SEA; or, The Vanishing Submarine.
+  THE BOY ALLIES IN THE BALTIC; or, Through Fields of Ice to Aid the
+          Czar.
+  THE BOY ALLIES AT JUTLAND; or, The Greatest Naval Battle of History.
+  THE BOY ALLIES WITH UNCLE SAM'S CRUISERS; or, Convoying the American
+          Army Across the Atlantic.
+  THE BOY ALLIES WITH THE SUBMARINE D-32; or, The Fall of the Russian
+          Empire.
+  THE BOY ALLIES WITH THE VICTORIOUS FLEETS; or, The Fall of the German
+          Navy.
+
+For sale by all booksellers, or sent on receipt of price by the Publishers
+            A. L. BURT COMPANY, 114-120 E. 23d St., NEW YORK
+
+
+                         The Radio Boys Series
+
+                         BY GERALD BRECKENRIDGE
+
+         A new series of copyright titles for boys of all ages.
+
+               Cloth Bound, with Attractive Cover Designs
+
+                          PRICE, 50 CENTS EACH
+                           POSTAGE 10c EXTRA
+
+  THE RADIO BOYS ON THE MEXICAN BORDER
+  THE RADIO BOYS ON SECRET SERVICE DUTY
+  THE RADIO BOYS WITH THE REVENUE GUARDS
+  THE RADIO BOYS' SEARCH FOR THE INCA'S TREASURE
+  THE RADIO BOYS RESCUE THE LOST ALASKA EXPEDITION
+  THE RADIO BOYS IN DARKEST AFRICA
+  THE RADIO BOYS SEEK THE LOST ATLANTIS
+  THE RADIO BOYS WITH THE BORDER PATROL
+  THE RADIO BOYS AS SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE
+
+For sale by all booksellers, or sent on receipt of price by the Publishers
+            A L. BURT COMPANY, 114-120 E. 23d St., NEW YORK
+
+
+                        The Lakewood Boys Series
+
+                         By L. P. WYMAN, Ph. D.
+
+
+A new series of copyright stories for boys of High School Age by the
+Author of "The Golden Boys Series."
+
+               Cloth Bound with Attractive Cover Designs.
+
+                          PRICE, 50 CENTS EACH
+                           POSTAGE 10c EXTRA
+
+  THE LAKEWOOD BOYS ON THE LAZY S
+  THE LAKEWOOD BOYS AND THE LOST MINE
+  THE LAKEWOOD BOYS IN THE FROZEN NORTH
+  THE LAKEWOOD BOYS AND THE POLO PONIES
+  THE LAKEWOOD BOYS IN THE SOUTH SEA ISLANDS
+  THE LAKEWOOD BOYS IN MONTANA
+  THE LAKEWOOD BOYS IN THE AFRICAN JUNGLE
+
+For sale by all booksellers, or sent on receipt of price by the Publishers
+            A. L. BURT COMPANY, 114-120 E. 23d St., NEW YORK
+
+
+                           Border Boys Series
+
+                         By Fremont B. Deering
+
+Mexican and Canadian Frontier Stories for Boys 12 to 16 Years.
+
+                          PRICE, 50 CENTS EACH
+                           POSTAGE 10c EXTRA
+
+                  _With Individual Jackets in Colors._
+                              Cloth Bound
+
+  BORDER BOYS ON THE TRAIL
+  BORDER BOYS ACROSS THE FRONTIER
+  BORDER BOYS WITH THE MEXICAN RANGERS
+  BORDER BOYS WITH THE TEXAS RANGERS
+  BORDER BOYS IN THE CANADIAN ROCKIES
+  BORDER BOYS ALONG THE ST. LAWRENCE RIVER
+
+For sale by all booksellers, or sent on receipt of price by the Publishers
+            A. L. BURT COMPANY, 114-120 E. 23d St., NEW YORK
+
+
+                         The Ranger Boys Series
+
+                         BY CLAUDE H. LA BELLE
+
+A new series of copyright titles for Boys 12 to 16 years telling of the
+adventures of three boys with the Forest Rangers in the state of Maine.
+
+                        Handsome Cloth Binding.
+
+                          PRICE, 50 CENTS EACH
+                           POSTAGE 10c EXTRA
+
+  THE RANGER BOYS TO THE RESCUE
+  THE RANGER BOYS FIND THE HERMIT
+  THE RANGER BOYS AND THE BORDER SMUGGLERS
+  THE RANGER BOYS OUTWIT THE TIMBER THIEVES
+  THE RANGER BOYS AND THEIR REWARD
+
+For sale by all booksellers, or sent on receipt of price by the Publishers
+            A. L. BURT COMPANY, 114-120 E. 23d St., NEW YORK
+
+
+                         FRANK ARMSTRONG SERIES
+
+                          By MATTHEW M. COLTON
+
+Six Exceptional Stories of College Life, Describing Athletics from Start
+to Finish. For Boys 10 to 15 Years.
+
+
+                          PRICE, 50 CENTS EACH
+                           POSTAGE 10c EXTRA
+
+                              Cloth Bound
+                  _With Attractive Jackets in Colors._
+
+  FRANK ARMSTRONG'S VACATION
+  FRANK ARMSTRONG AT QUEENS
+  FRANK ARMSTRONG'S SECOND TERM
+  FRANK ARMSTRONG, DROP KICKER
+  FRANK ARMSTRONG, CAPTAIN OF THE NINE
+  FRANK ARMSTRONG AT COLLEGE
+
+For sale by all booksellers, or sent on receipt of price by the Publishers
+            A. L. BURT COMPANY, 114-120 E. 23d St., NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+                            * * * * * * * *
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+--Obvious typographical errors were corrected without comment.
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 42077 ***