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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Boy Scouts Patrol, by Ralph Victor
+
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+**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**
+
+**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971**
+
+*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!*****
+
+
+Title: The Boy Scouts Patrol
+
+Author: Ralph Victor
+
+Release Date: May, 2004  [EBook #5602]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on July 19, 2002]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THE BOY SCOUTS PATROL ***
+
+
+
+
+Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+THE BOY SCOUTS PATROL
+
+BY RALPH VICTOR
+
+
+ILLUSTRATED BY
+
+RUDOLF MENCL
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER
+
+I. A MONKEY TRICK
+
+II. FINDING MONEY
+
+III. TWO AND TWO
+
+IV. UP THE RIVER
+
+V. OUT OF THE RIVER
+
+VI. THE ENEMY MAKES A RAID
+
+VII. THE COLONEL
+
+VIII. TALKING IT OVER
+
+IX. THE PURSUIT
+
+X. LOOKING FOR A CLUE
+
+XI. FORMING THE PATROL
+
+XII. ORGANIZED
+
+XIII. A CHALLENGE
+
+XIV. A DEFIANCE
+
+XV. PEPPER TAKES A MESSAGE
+
+XVI. WHERE WAS PEPPER?
+
+XVII. THE MESSAGE
+
+XVIII. IN THE JUDGE'S OFFICE
+
+XIX. A NARROW ESCAPE
+
+XX. A NIGHT ALARM
+
+XXI. A SURPRISE
+
+XXII. THE RACE
+
+XXIII. CONCLUSION
+
+
+
+
+THE BOY SCOUTS PATROL
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+A MONKEY TRICK
+
+
+"I think--" began a tall, slenderly-built lad of sixteen, speaking
+in a somewhat indolent way; then suddenly he paused to look down
+through the trees to where the river gleamed below.
+
+"What's on your mind now, Rand?" his companion queried, a boy of
+about the same age, nearly as tall, but more stoutly built, and as
+light in complexion as the other was dark. The two were standing at
+the top of the road that wound down the side of the mountain from
+the town of Creston, which was perched, like the nest of some great
+bird, in a hollow of the Palisades.
+
+"I think--" repeated the first speaker, pausing again.
+
+"That's right, Randolph," approved his companion briskly, "always
+think twice before you speak once."
+
+"I always do, Donald Graeme," retorted Rand; "but what I was really
+going to say when you interrupted me with your irrelevant remark,
+was--"
+
+"Hurrah!" broke in Donald, waving his cap in answer to the hail of
+another boy who was just then seen hurrying down the road toward
+them. "Here comes Pepper in a rush, as usual."
+
+It was just after dawn of a June morning that the boys were
+assembling. It was still dark and gloomy, for it had rained during
+the night and the storm had not yet passed, but the boys having
+planned a fishing trip for this morning were not to be deterred by
+the fear of a wet jacket.
+
+"Hello, fellows!" panted the newcomer, who was smaller and slighter
+than either of the others, but who made up in activity and energy
+what he lacked in size. His hair was a glowing red and with it
+went a temper so quick that the nickname, Pepper, that some chum
+had given him, was most appropriate. It is doubtful if any of his
+comrades really knew his Christian name. Certainly he was always
+"Pepper" to every one, even at home, although he was christened
+Philip.
+
+"I say, I was afraid you'd be gone when I got here."
+
+"Well, we would have been," drawled Randolph, "only we knew you'd
+be late, and we took our time."
+
+"Now that isn't fair, Rand," laughed the other, "you know I'm not
+always late."
+
+"Well, maybe not ALWAYS," conceded Rand; "but almost always. What
+was the matter this morning--breakfast late?"
+
+"Now, you know I didn't wait for breakfast," protested Pepper,
+adding rather reluctantly, "though I did stop for a bite. But even
+if I am late I'm not last. Jack isn't here yet, and he left home
+first."
+
+"Oh, he's out on the trail somewhere, I suppose," surmised Donald.
+"He's always chasing for news. He'll be coming along presently
+with a whole budget. I believe he thinks the paper couldn't go on
+if it weren't for him."
+
+"'That reminds me,' as Dick Wilson says," interrupted Rand, taking
+a pamphlet from his pocket and holding it out to his companions,
+"speaking of trails, what do you think of that?"
+
+"What is it?" asked Pepper, eying it suspiciously. "Looks as if
+the cat had been walking on it." goodness, I hope not. I thought
+you were always hungry, but if you are only beginning I foresee a
+famine ahead of us. And to think of all the good food that is wasted
+on you, Pepper," went on Donald reflectively. "Why, to look at you
+any one might think that you never had had enough to eat."
+
+"That shows how deceiving looks are," replied Pepper. "Though I
+never did have enough," he added plaintively.
+
+"Of course not," returned Donald, "there isn't as much as that
+anywhere."
+
+"As much what?" asked Rand.
+
+"Food, grub, provisions, victuals," replied Donald, setting off
+along the road at a pace that put a stop to any more talk.
+
+They had gone perhaps about halfway down the hill toward the
+boathouse when a big bay horse, drawing a light wagon in which were
+three boys, came quickly around a turn in the road. It bore down
+on them so suddenly that only by a rapid scramble up the bank by
+the side of the road did Rand and Donald save themselves from being
+bowled over.
+
+The newcomers would have driven on with a jeering laugh only that
+Pepper, angry at what obedience, neatness and order are Scout
+virtues. Endurance, self-reliance, self-control and an effort to
+help some one else are Scout objectives."
+
+"Ah, cut it out!" protested Pepper. "As Alphonse says 'that makes
+me the ennui.' It sounds like a boarding school prospectus. Tell
+as what it's about."
+
+"Well, then," replied Rand, "in words adapted to your comprehension,
+it is about hunting, scouting, camping, tracking; and Colonel Snow
+is interested in the organization. He says that it is fine."
+
+"Speaking of tracking," interjected Donald, "in my opinion it were
+no bad plan to be making tracks toward the boathouse if we are going
+to get anywhere the day. It is getting bright in the east and it
+looks like a clear day, after all. And I may also take occasion
+to remark that I haven't had my breakfast yet, and this Boy Scout
+business doesn't sound inviting on an empty stomach. We can discuss
+it with more comfort when we have had a bite."
+
+"That's the talk!" approved Pepper. "That suits me down to the
+ground. I'm beginning to get hungry myself."
+
+"Beginning!" exclaimed Donald. "My
+
+"That isn't a bad guess," laughed Rand. "It is supposed to represent
+the track of a bear."
+
+"What are you going to do, Rand?" questioned Donald, "hunt bears?"
+
+"Not at present," answered Rand, "though I should like to well
+enough. This is a booklet about the Boy Scouts."
+
+"The Boy Scouts!" demanded Pepper; "what's them?"
+
+"Shades of Lindley Murray!" exclaimed Rand, "do I hear aright?
+What's them! And you a graduate of number one. Really, Pepper Blake,
+I don't believe we can let you in on this. What do you think about
+it, Don?"
+
+"I have my doubts about it," replied Donald gravely.
+
+"But what is it?" persisted Pepper. "It sounds good to me."
+
+"That is better," drawled Rand. "It not only sounds good, but it
+is good, as you elegantly express it. IT, according to the pamphlet
+that I have here, is an organization for boys between the ages of
+twelve and eighteen to train them in self-reliance, manhood and
+good citizenship. The movement is not essentially military," went
+on Rand, "but the military virtues of discipline, looked like
+a deliberate attempt to run over them, sprang to the horse's head
+as it was passing, catching the bridle, and with a loud "whoa" he
+brought the outfit to a stop.
+
+"What are you t-t-trying to do, Jim Rae!" he shouted to the youthful
+driver, "run over us?"
+
+"Aw, g-g-go on, kiddie!" retorted Jim, a stout lad of about Rand's
+age, with a freckled face and a shock of aggressive red hair,
+mimicking Pepper, who, when excited, sometimes stuttered. "Aw,
+g-g-go on. Little boys shouldn't play in the road."
+
+"If you can't d-drive without getting all over the road," went on
+Pepper, "why d-don't you let somebody d-drive that knows how--"
+
+"Aw, g-g-go chase yourself," cried Jim. "You ought to bring youse
+mamma along to take care of youse. Get up, Bill!" with a flourish
+of the whip and a jerk on the lines.
+
+The horse made a jump, but Pepper held firmly to the bridle and
+brought it to a stop.
+
+"Let go that horse!" shouted Jim.
+
+"Hit him with the whip, Jim," urged one of the boys in the wagon.
+
+"D-d-don't you dare hit me with that whip," warned Pepper as Jim
+snapped the whip close to him, "or you will wish you hadn't."
+
+"Aw, what would you do?" retorted Jim, tauntingly flourishing the
+lash dangerously close to Pepper's face. "You ain't big enough to
+scare me baby brother."
+
+"You had better not try it, Jim Rae," asserted Pepper, "or I'll
+pull you out of there so quick that you will think a cyclone struck
+you."
+
+"You mean a wind bag, don't you?" sneered Jim, aiming a blow at
+Pepper, who now loosened his hold upon the horse's bridle to jump
+toward the wagon, whereupon Jim changed his purpose and struck
+the horse with the whip. With a loud "giddap" they started with a
+bound, missing Pepper by a hair's breadth, and driving on down the
+road at a rattling pace.
+
+"That's a regular m-monkey trick, Jim Rae, all right!" shouted
+Pepper. "but I'll get even with you yet!"
+
+The only answer of the boys in the wagon was a taunting laugh
+as they drove away. Randolph and Donald had taken no part in the
+controversy, not exactly approving of Pepper's disputing with the
+enemy, but they had stood at hand ready for any emergency should
+one arise.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+FINDING MONEY
+
+
+The three boys stood for a moment looking after the rapidly
+disappearing wagon, then, stooping down, Rand picked up something
+from the road.
+
+"It isn't worth trying, Rand," advised Donald. "You couldn't hit
+him if you wanted to, and you wouldn't want to if you could. You
+can get even with him some better way."
+
+"Right as usual, Donald," laughed Rand, "but I wasn't looking for
+anything to throw at him. I just happened to see this lying on
+the ground and picked it up." Holding out a coin he had found, he
+added: "What do you make of it?"
+
+"W-w-what is it?" stammered Pepper, all excitement. "It l-looks
+like an old-fashioned cent."
+
+"You have got me," replied Donald. "I never saw any money like
+that."
+
+"Let's have a close look at it," put in Pepper.
+
+The boys studied over the coin, which was of the size of the early
+copper cent, for some time without being much the wiser.
+
+"See, there is a representation of a ship under full sail," remarked
+Rand, "with the name Constitution on it. I wonder what it means?"
+
+"And it has the words 'Webster Credit Current' around it," added
+Pepper.
+
+"And on the other side is shown the ship wrecked on some rocks.
+Something about wrecking the Constitution, I suppose," added Rand.
+"This side says, 'Van Buren Metallic Current,' with the date '1837',"
+put in Donald.
+
+"I have it!" suddenly ejaculated Rand.
+
+"Of course you have," admitted Donald, "but do you know what it
+is?"
+
+"I see I must speak by the book, as Hamlet says," laughed Rand. "I
+mean I know what it is."
+
+"What is it, then?" demanded Donald.
+
+"It is some kind of a token, I think," replied Rand, "but I will
+ask Uncle Floyd about it. He will sure know."
+
+"I w-w-wonder if there are any more of them," stammered Pepper,
+looking along the road. "Yes, here is another one."
+
+"Is it like this?" asked Rand.
+
+"It looks very similar," replied Pepper, still hunting about.
+
+"Find any more?" called Donald.
+
+"Not yet."
+
+Nor were there any more found, although they looked long and
+carefully up and down the road for some time.
+
+"What is the difference between them?" questioned Pepper, when they
+had finally given up the hunt and sat down by the side of the road
+to compare the two coins.
+
+"Why, instead of a ship this one shows, on the one side, a man in
+a chest with a sword in one hand and a bag of money in the other,
+and around the edge are the words, 'I take the responsibility.'
+The other side has the wreck like the first one," concluded Rand
+after he had examined them.
+
+"It's a very curious thing," he continued, handing the one coin
+back to Pepper.
+
+"I don't see anything very curious about them," demurred Donald.
+
+"I mean it is very curious how they got here," explained Rand.
+
+"I don't see anything very curious about that, either," went on
+Donald. "Why shouldn't they be here as well as anywhere?"
+
+"I don't know, I am sure," laughed Rand, "only I don't see why they
+should be here, or anywhere, for that matter."
+
+"Oh, I don't know," replied Donald. "Somebody probably dropped them
+as they were going along."
+
+"Undoubtedly," agreed Rand. "I don't believe that they grew here.
+But who dropped them and how did they happen along here?"
+
+"Ask Jack," suggested Donald, "he'll make a whole story out of it."
+
+"They certainly are not common," went on Rand, "and people don't
+usually carry them in their pockets. I'd like to know the history
+of these and how they came here, but I don't suppose I ever shall.
+But, speaking of curious things, what do you suppose Monkey Rae
+was doing with that horse and wagon?"
+
+"Driving them," drawled Pepper. "What do you think he was doing
+with them, using them for an aeroplane?"
+
+"No," returned Rand, "I thought maybe he was using them to dredge
+for clams. But, speaking of clams, which would you sooner do or go
+a-fishing?"
+
+"Go a-fishing!" cried Donald and Pepper, starting off on a run down
+the hill to the boat-house.
+
+"Well," began Pepper as soon as they were fairly inside the house,
+"didn't I hear somebody say breakfast?" at the same time starting
+to get out of the locker the various utensils that the boys kept
+at the house to cook with on their fishing trips.
+
+"Hold on there, Pepper," remonstrated Donald, as Pepper continued
+to pull out one pan after another. "We don't need ail that stuff.
+What do you think you are going to do, get up a banquet? If you are
+going to use ail those pots and pans, son, you will have to wash
+them by your lonesome."
+
+"Huh!" replied Pepper, "there wouldn't be any novelty about that.
+The dish-washing seems to gravitate my way anyhow."
+
+"That's because you use so many more of them than the rest of us,"
+explained Donald.
+
+"Why, I don't use any more of them than you do," expostulated
+Pepper.  "Well, maybe you don't use any more," admitted Don with
+a judicial air, "but you use them more."
+
+Pepper was about to retort in kind when there was a quick step
+outside the door and an alert-looking, brown-haired, brown-eyed
+boy, with his cap perched upon the back of his head, dashed into
+the room.
+
+"Hello, fellows!" he cried, "I thought I wasn't going to get here
+in time, but I see I struck it at the psychological moment. I am
+as hungry as a bull pup."
+
+"Hello, Jack!" responded Rand, "we began to think you weren't
+coming.  What's the latest in Creston?"
+
+"Oh, there is something worth while to-day," replied Jack, drawing
+a box up to the plank that served as a table. "Pass me some of
+those biscuits, Pepper, if you don't mind sparing a few, so I can
+eat while I talk."
+
+"Better not try it, Jack," cautioned Rand, "for if you eat as
+fast as you talk or talk as fast as you eat you will either starve
+yourself or choke."
+
+"All right," laughed Jack, "if that is the case I'll eat first
+and talk afterwards," and this he would do, notwithstanding the
+pleadings of the others, anxious to share in any exciting news.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+TWO AND TWO
+
+
+While the boys are finishing their breakfast it may be well to
+introduce them to the reader. The four, who were known among their
+acquaintances as the "inseparables," had been classmates for several
+terms at School No. I, of Creston, from which they had graduated
+the previous year and were now students of the Hilltop Academy,
+where they were preparing for college.
+
+Rand--Randolph in full, surname Peyton--who was slightly the eldest
+of the four, was the nephew of Mr. Scott, president of the Creston
+National Bank. He was a native of Virginia, having come to Creston
+after the death of his father some two years before this time, with
+his mother and sister. He was bright, but inclined to be indolent,
+except when aroused, when his energy knew no limit. He was slow
+in speech, having the soft Southern drawl with a tendency to slur
+his r's, and was a natural leader among his companions, both in
+their sports and their studies.
+
+Donald Graeme, sometimes nicknamed Old Solomon, was the son of the
+chief engineer of the Creston Paper Mills, and one of a considerable
+family of boys and girls. He was of Scotch descent and inherited
+many of the characteristics of his ancestry as well as many of their
+superstitions. Something of the burr clung to his tongue, and he
+was given to the occasional use of a Scotch word or phrase. He had
+also the Scotch canniness and never committed himself by a positive
+opinion. Although not as quick as Rand, he was more persistent and
+usually carried out, to the end, anything that he entered upon.
+
+Jack Blake was the oldest son of Mr. Blake, editor and publisher of
+the Crest, the newspaper of the town. Brought up in the newspaper
+atmosphere, Jack had early developed a nose for news and was the
+best reporter, although unofficial, on the paper. He was always
+on the lookout for items and always putting two and two together,
+sometimes with most surprising results.
+
+Lastly, Pepper Blake, Jack's younger brother, who was of a quicker,
+more nervous, disposition than the others and given to stammering
+when excited. Impetuous and quick-tempered, he was always getting
+into difficulties, but always finding a way out. Romantic and
+imaginative, but with a streak of hard horse-sense beneath.
+
+"Well," observed Rand, when Jack at last rose from his box with a
+sigh of satisfaction, "what is the exciting thing you have got to
+tell us this morning? Whose barn is being painted now?"
+
+"Judge Taylor's office was robbed last night," replied Jack
+laconically.
+
+"What's that!" cried Rand.
+
+"Judge Taylor's office was robbed last night," repeated Jack,
+enjoying the sensation his news had made.
+
+"W-w-what!" stammered Pepper. "Who did it?"
+
+"That's what we all want to know," answered Jack.
+
+"What did they get?" asked Donald.
+
+"How did they get in?" went on Pepper.
+
+"One at a time, boys," put in Rand. "Come, Jack, tell us the whole
+story."
+
+"Well, all I know is, Officer Dugan found a window open this morning
+and the place all upside down. The judge hadn't come down yet, so
+they don't know what's missing. From the tracks around it looks as
+if some boys were mixed up in it."
+
+"That's queer," commented Rand. "I wonder who it could have been,
+and what they were after?"
+
+"Money, of course," said Pepper.
+
+"I don't think so," returned Jack. "If it was money I think they
+would have picked out a more likely place. I guess it must have
+been papers, or something like that."
+
+"Pooh!" criticized Donald, "what would anybody in their senses want
+to steal papers for?"
+
+"There are more unlikely things than that," replied Jack. "I have
+read of such things."
+
+"Pshaw!" retorted Donald, "that's nothing. I've read of robbers'
+caves and all that sort of thing, but I've never seen any."
+
+"Which proves there never were any," retorted Jack sarcastically.
+
+"Have you got any dues, Sherlock?" asked Rand laughingly.
+
+"Not yet," replied Jack seriously, "but I am looking for them. They
+sometimes turn up in the most unexpected places."
+
+"Huh!" sniffed Donald, "your turnips run mostly to tops."
+
+While talking thus, the boys had been putting their supplies and
+tackle into the boat which they had run out into the river.
+
+"Which way do you want to go?" asked Rand when they were ready to
+start.
+
+"Up," said Pepper.
+
+"Down," said Jack.
+
+"What do you say, Don?" continued Rand. "Either way," replied
+Donald.  "Let them toss up for it."
+
+Taking the coin he had picked up in the road from his pocket Rand
+tossed it into the air. "What do you say, Jack?" he asked.
+
+"Heads!" responded Jack.
+
+"Tails it is," announced Rand as he picked it up. "Pepper wins.
+Up, we go."
+
+"What have you got there, Rand?" asked Jack, who had been eying
+the coin Rand had tossed; "something new?"
+
+"It's something that I found in the road this morning," replied
+Rand, handing the coin over to Jack. "Pepper found one, too."
+
+"Found it in the road!" cried Jack, instantly on the alert. "That's
+serious. Tell me about it."
+
+"There isn't much to tell," replied Rand. "Monkey Rae tried to run
+us down this morning and we had a near-fight and after he had gone
+we found them."
+
+"Well?" questioned Jack.
+
+"That's all," replied Rand.
+
+"Now I wonder," mused Jack, when the story of the encounter with
+Monkey Rae and his companions had been gone over in detail for his
+benefit, "what Monkey Rae has to do with these things," jingling
+the coins in his hand.
+
+"Not as much as you or I have," announced Donald. "I can no see
+any connection between the two."
+
+"Of course you can't, old wisdom," returned Jack. "You lack
+imagination, but I think it is there just the same. Whose horse
+and wagon was it?"
+
+"That's another strange part of it," replied Rand. "I never saw them
+before. I was wondering whose they were, and where he got them."
+
+"That's so," agreed Pepper. "I never thought of that; the truth
+is, I was so busy with Monkey that I didn't look at them."
+
+"Well," broke in Don, "if you ask my opinion I think it would
+be more to the purpose if we went on our own business instead of
+wasting time in speculating on what is no concern of ours."
+
+"All right, Solomon-Donald," said Rand; "it sounds wise."
+
+"Even if it is mostly sound," growled Jack.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+UP THE RIVER
+
+
+"Are you all ready?" called Rand, who was stroke. "Pull!"
+
+The boys bent to their work in earnest, and but few words were
+spoken while they sent the boat along, mile after mile, until they
+had gone some half dozen miles up the river.
+
+"Phew!" exclaimed Pepper at length, "what is the matter with stopping
+here?"
+
+"Tired?" asked Donald.
+
+"Well, I feel as if I had been doing something," replied Pepper,
+resting on his oar.
+
+"I suppose there isn't much choice in the matter," remarked Rand;
+"one place is probably as good as another."
+
+"Only some of them are better," put in Jack.
+
+"And this is one of them," asserted Pepper, "and there is a nice
+green place over there on the shore where we can put in and cook
+some fish for dinner."
+
+"If we have any to cook," suggested Donald. "You know you have
+first to catch your fish before you can cook them."
+
+"We'll do that, too, old Solomon the Second," returned Jack, who
+was in the bow. "That's what we came out for. Shall I let go the
+anchor, Rand?"
+
+"All right, let it go," ordered Rand. "Easy now, if you don't want
+to scare all the fish away. What are you trying to do?" as Jack gave
+the anchor a swing and, failing to let go of the painter, promptly
+went overboard with it.
+
+"I just went down to see if the anchor got to the bottom," explained
+Jack a moment later, as he scrambled over the side.
+
+"We thought you were going to dive for the fish," said Pepper,
+"like the hawks do."
+
+"Maybe I will try that later," replied Jack, shaking himself like
+a dog to get rid of some of the water. "Now, then, who is going to
+get the first bite."
+
+For the next few moments the boys were busy getting their tackle
+in order and into the water, after which they settled down to await
+results.
+
+"I had almost forgotten," broke in Jack after a pause, as the fish
+did not seem eager to be caught. "I met Colonel Snow this morning--"
+
+"Indeed," said Rand sarcastically, "that's news."
+
+"Now you needn't go off at half-cock," retorted Jack, "wait until
+I get through."
+
+"Well, what about it?" asked Donald.
+
+"Why, he said--Hurrah, I've got a bite!" cried Jack, pulling in
+his line.
+
+"He did!" exclaimed Rand. "That was a queer thing for him to say."
+
+"No, the colonel didn't say that," explained Jack, as he landed a
+good-sized perch in the bottom of the boat, "there's one for luck.
+That was a comment of my own. Wait until I put a fresh bait on and
+I will tell you what he did say. He said--"
+
+"Hurrah, I've got one!" interjected Pepper, pulling in his line
+and landing another fish.
+
+"Why, that's the same thing he didn't say before," commented Donald,
+referring to the colonel.
+
+"He said--" began Jack again, but the fish were now biting freely
+and the boys were so busy pulling them in that, for a time, they
+quite forgot the colonel and what it was that he said.
+
+"If you haven't forgotten," began Donald, a little later, when there
+came a lull in the biting, "I would like to know just what it was
+that the colonel did say."
+
+"Why, he said," resumed Jack, "that he wanted us to form a patrol."
+
+"A patrol!" repeated Donald. "For what? Ain't there enough police?"
+
+"This isn't a police patrol," laughed Jack, "this is a patrol in
+the Boy Scouts. It's a company of from six to eight boys. Two or
+more patrols form a troop under a scoutmaster who teaches them a
+lot of things."
+
+"What kind of things?" asked Pepper.
+
+"All kinds of things about woodcraft and how to hunt and fish and
+follow trails and camp out and--and--all the rest of it."
+
+"That's a pretty comprehensive programme," said Rand. "We were
+talking about that very thing this morning."
+
+"Gee!" cried Pepper. "T-t-that would be fine. Let's do it--"
+
+"There's quite a lot of things we have to do first," went on Jack.
+"Maybe Rand can tell you more about that part than I can."
+
+"For the first thing," said Rand, "we have to get at least six boys
+to start with."
+
+"That's two more than us," interjected Pepper; "that's easy."
+
+"And form a tenderfoot patrol," went on Rand.
+
+"Why tenderfoot?" put in Donald.
+
+"Because we are all tenderfeet until we learn to be scouts," continued
+Rand. "Then if we pass the examinations we become second-class
+scouts."
+
+"Second class!" objected Pepper. "Why can't we be first class?"
+
+"We can," replied Rand, "if we keep on and pass the examinations."
+
+"Examinations!" cried Pepper, "why that sounds like school."
+
+"What do we have to be examined in?" asked Donald.
+
+"On joining," went on Rand, reading from a pamphlet he had in his
+hand, "a boy must pass a test on the following points: Know the
+scout law and signs and salute."
+
+"The scout law!" said Pepper, "what's that?"
+
+"The scout law," read Rand, "is: "1. A Scout's honor is to be
+trusted.
+
+"2. A Scout is loyal to his country, his officers, his parents and
+his employers."
+
+"Wait a minute," interposed Jack, "until I land this fellow," and
+another fish was added to their mess. "All right, drive ahead."
+
+"3. A Scout's duty is to be useful and help others.
+
+"4. A Scout is a friend to ail, and a brother to every other Scout,
+no matter to what social class the other belongs.
+
+"5. A Scout is courteous."
+
+"Now it is my turn," interpolated Rand, pulling in another fish.
+
+"6," he went on, "A Scout is a friend to animals.
+
+"7. A Scout obeys orders by his parents, patrol leader, or Scoutmaster,
+without question.
+
+"8. A Scout smiles and whistles under all circumstances.
+
+"9. A Scout is thrifty."
+
+"Crickets!" cried Pepper when Rand finished, "there's a whole lot
+to learn, ain't there? We shall have to get busy. Is there any more
+to it?"
+
+"Know the composition of the National flag and how to fly it," read
+Rand.
+
+"I guess I can get ten on that, all right," remarked Pepper.
+
+"And tie four of the following knots: Reef, sheet-bend, clove-hitch,
+bow line, middleman's, fisherman's, sheepshank," finished Rand.
+
+"We can pass on that all right," commented Pepper. "Say, what time
+is it? I begin to feel as if I would like a bite--one of the other
+kind.  Don't you think we have fish enough?"
+
+"Do you think so?" asked Don gravely. "Better look them over and
+be sure. The rest of us may want some, you know."
+
+"Oh, I guess there is enough to go around," replied Pepper, with
+a laugh. "I am not so bad as that."
+
+"Well, if you are sure there are enough," said Rand, "we might go
+on shore and do some cooking. I say, pull up the anchor, Jack, and
+you needn't go after it, you know."
+
+"Oh, just as you say," replied Jack, hauling up the kedge.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+OUT OF THE RIVER
+
+
+"Here comes the Dart," announced Jack, as a hoarse whistle sounded
+down the river. The anchor had, by this time, been lifted into
+the boat and they had started to row toward the shore. "She has a
+whistle like an ocean liner."
+
+"You want to look out for the swell," warned Pepper, "she kicks up
+a bigger swell than any other boat on the river."
+
+"As big as the Hudson or Fulton?" asked Donald. "Why, they are half
+a dozen times as big as she is."
+
+"She isn't one-eighth their size," replied Jack, "but she has got
+more power, for her size, than any of them. She has three smokestacks
+like the Fulton. Just see her come!"
+
+The Dart, a long, low, white yacht, was coming up the river at full
+speed, the water curling away from her bow in a miniature cascade,
+the powerful engines driving her through the water with the speed
+of an express train.
+
+"Gee!" cried Pepper, "look at her come. Say, she'd make Fulton
+with the Clermont think he was traveling backward if he was here.
+She is sure some boat."
+
+"Who owns her?" asked Donald.
+
+"She belongs to Mr. Whilden," replied Jack. "He is president of
+the Dart Motor-cycle Company, you know."
+
+"Gee!" cried Pepper, "I wish he was my uncle, or something."
+
+"What for, Pepper?" queried Rand. "Want him to invite you to go
+yachting?"
+
+"That wouldn't be bad," affirmed Pepper, "and maybe if he liked my
+looks he might take a fancy to me and give me a cycle. Say, fellows,
+wouldn't it be great if we all had motor-cycles!"
+
+"In my opinion," interjected Donald, "'tis just a waste of time
+wishing for what ye'll no get."
+
+"Oh, there is no harm in wishing," returned Pepper. "You might just
+as well wish for a big thing as a little one."
+
+"Just look at the wave following her," interrupted Jack. "It must
+be more than five feet higher than the level of the river. We will
+have to keep head on if we don't want to be swamped."
+
+"See that canoe over there," broke in Pepper, and pointing to
+another boat. "They will be in trouble pretty soon if they don't
+watch out."
+
+"Where away?" asked Rand.
+
+"Over there by the other shore," replied Pepper. "They will turn
+turtle sure, if that wave catches them sideways."
+
+The boys were resting on their oars, watching the rapidly-approaching
+boat.
+
+"Maybe we had better row over that way," suggested Donald. "There
+are a couple of girls in the canoe and they may need some help."
+
+"That chap is all right," concluded Rand, after he had watched the
+canoe for a little while. "He knows how to handle it. He is doing
+fine. See, he is just touching the water with his paddle, so as to
+keep it head-on. Maybe he thinks we will need some help."
+
+Nevertheless, the boys kept on a course that would bring them near
+enough to the canoe to aid its occupants if they should need it.
+
+"Now look at that!" cried Donald suddenly, when the boys were a
+hundred yards from the canoe. "Did you ever see such a fool trick
+as that? Just when he was coming out all right, too. Pull for ail
+you are worth, boys!"
+
+Even as he spoke the boys had gripped their oars and sent their
+boat at racing speed for the canoe.
+
+What had called forth Donald's exclamation was, that just as the
+Dart was passing the canoe one of the girls, who was seated in the
+stern, had suddenly risen to her feet to wave her handkerchief at
+some one on the yacht. As she stood up the swell from the yacht
+caught the light craft, rolling it from side to side, and the girl
+losing her balance pitched headlong over the side of the boat,
+capsizing it. In a moment they were all struggling in the river.
+As the canoe went over the man caught the girl nearest to him and
+helped her to the boat and then turned to aid the other girl, but
+she had disappeared.
+
+"Nellie!" he called, striking out in the direction he had last seen
+her. "Nellie, Nellie! where are you?"
+
+By this time the boys had reached the scene of the upset.
+
+"Keep up your courage," shouted Rand, "we'll pick you up!"
+
+[Illustration: "They were all struggling in the water."]
+
+"Never mind me!" called the young man as they came near. "See if
+you can't save my sister. She doesn't know how to swim."
+
+"All right," called Rand, "we'll find her."
+
+"Where has she gone?" asked Donald.
+
+"I don't see anything of her," said Rand, who was standing in the
+bow of the boat intently watching for any sign of the girl. "Yes,
+there she is." A pale face had appeared for a moment on the surface.
+"Straight ahead, boys!"
+
+As the boat came to the spot where he had seen her Rand made a long
+dive overboard, coming up a moment later with the inanimate body
+of the girl. He was joined almost immediately by Donald, who had
+followed him overboard, and so aided him in supporting her until
+Pepper and Jack had reached them with the boat.
+
+It required no little effort on the part of the boys to get the
+helpless girl into the boat, but it was finally done, and they rowed
+back to the assistance of the others. The other girl was helped
+from the overturned canoe, to which she was clinging, into their
+boat which was now loaded to its full capacity.
+
+"Never mind me," called the man, who was about twenty-two or three
+years old, "I can hold on behind until we get ashore!"
+
+"Is she alive?" asked the other girl, as she was helped into the
+boat, looking fearfully at the girl lying in the stern. "Very much
+so," answered Pepper, who had been feeling her pulse. "The first
+thing to do is to get some of the water out of her lungs, if there
+is any there. Hold her with her head down. That's all right! Now,
+then, let's get ashore as fast as we can."
+
+As the canoe had overturned the captain of the Dart, who was in
+the pilot house, seeing the accident, had rung for slow speed and,
+putting the yacht about, hurried back to the place. But, except
+for the fortunate presence of the boys, it is doubtful if he would
+have arrived in time to be of any assistance.
+
+"Can we help you in any way?" called Mr. Whilden, the owner of the
+yacht, who was standing at the gangway as it ran down close to the
+boat. "I was afraid we wouldn't get here in time."
+
+"There is an unconscious girl here that would be better on your
+boat," replied Rand.
+
+"All right," responded Mr. Whilden, "we'll take her on board.
+Can you come alongside?" This end was shortly accomplished, then,
+lifting the girl up in their arms, Donald and Rand passed her to
+Mr. Whilden and the captain.
+
+"Have you a doctor on board?" called Pepper. "She needs attention
+right away."
+
+"Yes," responded a gentleman who was standing by. "I am a physician,
+I will take care of her."
+
+At this moment there was a scream from a lady on the yacht as she
+caught sight of the girl. "Why it is Nellie! She is dead!" she
+cried, and would have fallen to the deck if she had not been caught
+by Mr.  Whilden.
+
+"Impossible!" he exclaimed. "How in the world could Nellie get
+here?" adding a moment later as he looked more closely: "Surely it
+is she.  Is there any hope for her, Doctor?"
+
+"Of course there is," replied the physician. "She is coming around
+all right, thanks to these young men, who rescued her."
+
+"And where are they?" asked Mr. Whilden. "I had almost forgotten
+them in the excitement," turning to the boys, who had come on board
+to learn as to the fate of the girl. Shaking hands with them again
+and again, he explained: "She is my daughter. I hadn't any idea
+she was anywhere near, and I don't see how it happened yet. Why,
+hello, Frank!" addressing the young man who had been in the canoe,
+and who was now wringing the water from his clothes. "What in the
+world were you doing here?"
+
+"Why, Nellie and I," explained Frank, agitatedly--he had not yet
+recovered from the shock of his experience--"came down to visit
+Mabel, and we went out for a cruise on the river."
+
+"But how did it happen?" interrupted Mr. Whilden, "I thought you
+knew how to handle a canoe."
+
+"I thought I did, too," replied Frank, "but Nellie saw you on the
+deck and, forgetting where she was, attempted to stand up to wave
+her handkerchief to you, and, the next thing we knew we were all
+in the water."
+
+"I can't thank you enough," began Mr. Whilden, again turning to
+the boys.
+
+"Not at all," protested Rand, "we are very glad we were in time.
+Come on, boys, it is time we were getting along."
+
+"Now," went on Mr. Whilden, "isn't there something I can do for
+you?"
+
+"Nothing, thank you," replied Donald. "Now that Miss Nellie is all
+right--I see that she is herself again--we will say good-by and go
+on."
+
+"Good-by, then, and good luck," said Mr. Whilden, "and if I can
+ever do anything for you, be sure and let me know."
+
+"I want to thank you and to know you, too," added Frank.
+
+"All right," replied the boys as they pulled away from the yacht,
+"we shall be glad to see you anytime."
+
+Giving three blasts of her whistle as a farewell salute the Dart
+resumed her course up the river,
+
+"Who were the boys?" asked Mrs. Whilden a little later. "I want to
+reward them."
+
+"Why I don't know," replied Mr. Whilden. "I clear forgot to get
+their names, after all."
+
+"Well, I mean to find out for my own account," said Frank. "They
+are worth knowing."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE ENEMY MAKES A RAID
+
+
+"You think we had better stop and see if we can catch any more fish
+before we go ashore?" asked Rand, when the Dart had gone.
+
+"Why," asked Jack, "there's enough, ain't there?"
+
+"There was," allowed Rand, "but it is a good deal later now."
+
+"I think we had better go on," said Jack laughingly. "There is a
+good place I can see. That strip of beach over there is a natural
+landing place."
+
+"And a green spot back of it that would make a dandy place for a
+camp," added Pepper.
+
+"I wish we could come up here and camp," said Jack. "Wouldn't it
+be fine?"
+
+"I s-s-say!" cried Pepper.
+
+"Well, s-say it," said Donald.
+
+"Let's organize a patrol and come up here and camp out."
+
+"You hit the bullseye that time, Pepper," cried Jack enthusiastically.
+
+"'Twould no be a bad idea," admitted Don.
+
+"Ah done reckon dat am a fac', for shuah," drawled Rand in the
+negro dialect, of which he was master.
+
+"We will get Colonel Snow to start us," added Jack.
+
+"Agreed!" cried the others.
+
+"And we will see him just as soon as we go back."
+
+"And start the thing right away."
+
+Talking enthusiastically over their plans, the boys pulled the boat
+in to the shore.
+
+"See that curious-looking house up there," broke in Don. "I didn't
+know there was anybody living up here."
+
+"House! Where?" asked Rand.
+
+"There, among the trees. It is covered with bark so you would hardly
+notice it."
+
+"Oh, yes, looks like a big tree," said Jack. "Must be a hermit."
+
+"But I thought hermits always lived in caves," demurred Pepper.
+
+"Well, here is one that doesn't," replied Jack.
+
+"Let's go and see him," suggested Rand.
+
+"I don't think we had better," doubted Pepper. "If he's a hermit
+he doesn't want visitors, and maybe he is an outlaw."
+
+"An outlaw," laughed Jack. "What have you been reading lately?"
+
+"Why, there ain't 'no sich things,' at least around here," added
+Rand.
+
+"Well," persisted Pepper, "there's no use rushing into things you
+don't know anything about, and besides we want something to eat
+first."
+
+"Pepper wants to make sure of his dinner, whatever happens," said
+Rand.
+
+"Somebody else thinks the same way, too, from the smoke up there."
+
+"Smoke, where?" asked Donald.
+
+"Up there on the top of the mountain," replied Rand. "See that haze
+floating away."
+
+"I thought that was a cloud," said Jack. "I wonder what it means?"
+
+"That some hunters are making a fire to cook with," volunteered
+Donald.
+
+"Of course that is it," agreed Rand. "You can always depend upon
+old Solomon to knock the romance out of anything."
+
+"Well, I don't know," continued Jack. "It looks queer to me."
+
+"Oh, everything looks queer to you," argued Donald. "You are always
+seeing mysteries."
+
+"Yes," retorted Jack, "and you can't see them until they come up
+to you and hit you over the head. I've got more than half a notion
+to go there and see what it is. Any of you want to go?"
+
+"Not I," replied Rand. "It's a good two miles up there, if it is
+one, and my curiosity isn't strong enough to carry me that far."
+
+"Nor I," added Donald. "I can find all the trouble I want without
+going to the top of the mountain hunting for more."
+
+"Trouble," said Jack. "Now, who said anything about trouble?"
+
+By this time they had reached the shore and, jumping out of the
+boat, dragged it up on the beach.
+
+"Now," called Rand, when they had landed, "who wants to be cook?
+Don't all speak at once."
+
+"I'll do it," volunteered Jack, "but--"
+
+"Say no more," interjected Rand, "we couldn't do worse and Don is
+almost as bad. I reckon, Pepper, it must be you or I."
+
+"If we don't want to starve," agreed the boy.
+
+"If you and Jack will clean the fish and Don will bring the water
+and wash the dishes I'll do the cooking," went on Rand. "Is that
+fair?"
+
+"That's fair, all right," agreed the others.
+
+"All right, then," ordered Rand, "get busy."
+
+While Jack and Pepper were getting the fish ready, Rand brought
+the stove from the boat, set it up and had it burning, and the pan
+hot by the time Pepper came with the first installment of fish.
+
+"Gee! that smells good," called Jack a little later when the frying
+fish, under Rand's skillful manipulation, began to send forth savory
+odors. "You can sure cook, Rand."
+
+"Ah done reckon dat am a fac', foh shuah," said Rand.
+
+"Hurry up, Rand," broke in Pepper. "I can't wait much longer."
+
+"All ready, sah," called Rand. "Dem fishes am prognosticated to ah
+turn."
+
+Something passing on the river attracted attention, and the boys
+all walked a few paces toward the water.
+
+At this instant, as their backs were turned, a boy ran swiftly
+from a nearby clump of bushes, snatched the pan from the stove,
+overturning the latter as he did so, and silently dashed back into
+the woods.
+
+It was done so quickly and adroitly that Pepper, who was the first
+to catch sight of him, had scarcely time to shout:
+
+"There goes Monkey Rae, and he has got our fish."
+
+"What is it?" asked Rand in bewilderment.
+
+"Monkey Rae," cried Pepper; "he's stolen our fish! Come on, boys.
+After him!"
+
+"Well, of all things!" exclaimed Rand, "that takes the cake."
+
+"I t-t-think it takes t-t-the fish," amended Pepper, as he dashed
+away.
+
+The boys set out at once in pursuit of the thief, but he had too
+long a start, and perhaps, some knowledge of the locality, and
+after a vain hunt they straggled back to the boat without having
+found any trace of him.
+
+"Well, that's the meanest thing yet," grumbled Pepper, looking at
+the overturned stove. "The oil has all run out and we can't cook any
+more," he went on, with so gloomy an expression that, in spite of
+their anger against Monkey Rae, the others could not help laughing.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE COLONEL
+
+
+"What's the matter, boys?" said a cheery voice behind them, and
+they turned quickly to meet the smiling glance of a man who was
+sitting on a rock at the edge of the glade.
+
+He was tall, erect, and of military bearing. Quick and alert, in
+spite of his snow-white hair and mustache.
+
+"Why, Colonel Snow!" cried Jack in astonishment; "where did you
+come from?"
+
+"Oh, I saw you some time ago as you were coming ashore," replied
+the colonel, "and I walked down to meet you. What's the trouble,
+the enemy been making an attack?"
+
+"Looks that way," answered Rand. "Monkey Rae made a raid on the
+commissary and carried off the fish we had cooked."
+
+"That's nothing to be concerned over," continued the colonel. "Why
+don't you cook some more?"
+
+"Can't," replied Pepper, "he upset the stove and spilled all the
+oil we had."
+
+"Stove!" ejaculated the colonel in scorn. "What do you want with
+a stove?"
+
+"Why, you can't cook without a stove," replied Pepper, "and, besides,
+he stole our pan."
+
+"Pan!" exclaimed the colonel, "and plates, too. When you are out
+on a tramp all you need is a knife, a tincup and a match. Anybody
+got a match?"
+
+"Yes, sir," replied Jack, "lots of them."
+
+"We only need one," answered the colonel. "A good scout doesn't
+use more than one match to light a fire. Why, when I was out in
+Arizona we would make one match do for a whole company."
+
+"Crickets!" exclaimed Pepper, "that was going some."
+
+"Suppose you let me show you how to cook without a stove. Jack,
+see if you can't find some dry leaves and small twigs. Rand, you
+can get some bigger pieces, plenty of them. That's the kind. And,
+Pepper, you and Don bring up a lot of that clay from down there by
+the water.  That's the stuff. Now wrap your fish up in a coat of
+clay. Never mind the scales. Coat them all over and pile them up
+here as fast as you get them ready. If we only had some flour we'd
+have a dinner in the real scout style."
+
+"I don't see how you are going to cook them in that clay," put in
+Jack.
+
+"We are going to bake them," replied the colonel. "Build a good,
+hot fire on top of them."
+
+"Like they do with a clam bake?" inquired Rand.
+
+"That's the idea," said the colonel, who, while talking, had been
+packing the fish in two layers on a flat rock. "Now put your leaves
+on--not too many--lay on your pieces, Rand, pile them up so as to
+leave a draught. That's it; now, Jack, touch it off."
+
+Jack struck a match which flickered for a minute and went out.
+
+"Tut! Tut!" cried the colonel, "that won't do!"
+
+"Oh, it doesn't matter," said Jack, "I've plenty more."
+
+"No," corrected the colonel, "you should rely on only one. Now,
+suppose we are out on the plains and this is your last match. Let
+me show you how to do it."
+
+Stooping down, the colonel waited a moment until there was a lull
+in the wind, when he struck the match, shielding it with his hand
+until it blazed up, and then touched it to the leaves, which,
+catching the fire, were soon blazing fiercely.
+
+"Now, then," went on the colonel, "we don't want the enemy swooping
+down on us again. Don't you think it would be a good plan to throw
+out a picket to keep guard?"
+
+"I think it would," replied Rand, "although I don't think that he
+will come back."
+
+"You mustn't depend upon that," cautioned the colonel. "Always think
+he will do the most unlikely thing. A good scout is always on the
+alert, especially in the enemy's country."
+
+"We didn't know we were in the enemy's country," said Rand, "but
+I guess it is the enemy's country, wherever Monkey is. I'll take
+the first turn," going off and circling about the place. "I guess
+he's gone," he said to himself, but no harm looking!"
+
+"Now," said the colonel, after a time, "I think our fish must be
+pretty nearly cooked. Rake one of them out, Don, and try it, but
+don't disturb the others until you find out. How is it?"
+
+"Fine!" cried Pepper, who had assisted in the operation. "Couldn't
+be better. Hadn't we better put on some more?"
+
+"You will have to build another fire," replied the colonel. "Now,
+see how well you can do it. Do it just as I did and light it from
+this fire. We had only one match, you know."
+
+"But what do you do when that is gone?" asked Pepper.
+
+"Oh, that's a different story," laughed the colonel. "We'll come
+to that later."
+
+"Now," began the colonel, when they had finished their meal,
+unanimously voting it the best dinner they had ever eaten, "I know
+you all have been wondering how I happened to be here when you came
+along."
+
+"Yes, sir," admitted Jack, "we were talking about you just before
+we came ashore."
+
+"Speaking of angels, I see," said the colonel. "The fact is, boys,
+I've got a little shack down here in the woods and whenever I get
+tired of town I come out here and get a breath of the woods, and
+I was out here to-day."
+
+"That was lucky for us," interjected Donald.
+
+"Is that your house above here?" asked Rand, "the one covered with
+bark. We saw it as we came along. Pepper was sure an outlaw lived
+there."
+
+"And you weren't so far out of the way at that, were you, Pepper?"
+answered the colonel. "How would you like to take a look at it?"
+
+"'Twould be most interesting," said Donald.
+
+"Come along then. I see the enemy were out in force," he added when
+they had gone part of the way.
+
+"How was that?" asked Rand.
+
+"Monkey Rae," replied the colonel. "There were a number of them."
+
+"Of Monkey Raes?" cried Rand. "Gee! I hope not."
+
+"I mean," laughed the colonel, "there were more with him."
+
+"Yes," said Rand, "he and Sam Hopkins and Red Burns are always
+together."
+
+"Who was the man with them?" went on the colonel.
+
+"Was there a man with them?" asked Jack. "I wonder who he could
+have been?"
+
+"A man who walked with a limp," continued the colonel.
+
+"Man with a limp," mused Jack. "What was he like, did you see him?"
+
+"No," replied the colonel. "I only see his track. They came along
+this way."
+
+"Where do you see that?" asked Rand.
+
+"Here is the trail," replied the colonel, pointing it out as he
+spoke. "Here is the print of a foot on the dirt and here is another.
+Here is a bigger and a heavier one; a man made those. You can see
+one of them is deeper than the other, showing more weight on that
+side."
+
+"But, how can you see all that?" questioned Pepper. "You have hardly
+looked at them, and I couldn't see them at all until you pointed
+them out."
+
+"Practice and observation," answered the colonel. "That trail is
+as plain as day. There wasn't any attempt to hide it. Why, out on
+the plains a scout would follow it at a gallop. See how far you
+can track it."
+
+"'Twill no be far, in my opinion," confessed Donald. "'Tis no over
+plain."
+
+But with much care and patience the boys were able to follow the
+track for a considerable distance, losing it every now and then and
+picking it up again, Rand being the quickest and Donald the most
+persistent; ail of them getting a little more expert as they went
+on.
+
+"Where does it go now?" asked Jack after a while, when they had
+lost it and were unable to pick it up again.
+
+"That's doing very well for a beginning," commended the colonel.
+"They went off here, I think to avoid the house, and we are almost
+there."
+
+A short walk brought them to the shack, which was set in a little
+clearing in the woods. It was one-story high and about sixteen feet
+square, with a small kitchen in the back. It was provided with two
+doors, numerous windows, and had a small porch in front. It was
+ceiled inside and scantily furnished with a few chairs, a couple
+of tables and a couch, but the walls were ornamented with the heads
+of deer and elk, as well as the skins of smaller animals, and the
+floor was covered with bear and panther skins. Over the big fireplace
+hung a shotgun with a couple of rifles, and several Indian bows
+stood in one corner.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+TALKING IT OVER
+
+
+"I thought you didn't use a stove," remarked Jack, opening his eyes
+in astonishment at the sight of the colonel's well-appointed kitchen.
+
+"Why not?" asked the colonel, smiling at Jack's surprise. "I don't
+sleep on the ground from choice, when I have a comfortable bed."
+
+"But, you said--" continued Jack.
+
+"This is a permanent headquarters," the colonel went on. "When I
+go on a march I don't carry all these things with me. What we don't
+have we get along without, as part of the day's task."
+
+"That's a grand pair of horns on that elk's head," admired Rand,
+who was looking at the trophies of the chase that hung on the walls.
+"Isn't there a story that goes with that?"
+
+"Not much of a story," replied the colonel. "It was killed on a trip
+I made up in the Canadian Northwest, and it was a narrow escape for
+me, too. It was killed by an arrow from one of those bows there."
+
+"An arrow!" exclaimed Rand. "I didn't know that an elk could be
+killed with an arrow."
+
+"An arrow is as deadly as a bullet at short range," replied the
+colonel. "You have read of the English archers and their famous
+long-bows, haven't you?"
+
+"And Robin Hood," put in Pepper.
+
+"Robin Hood, of course," continued the colonel. "The Indians were
+dangerous foes, too, even when they had nothing but their bows and
+arrows."
+
+"I wonder if I could learn to shoot with one of them," mused Rand,
+drawing back one of the bows, a feat that required all of his
+strength. "Say, boys, I've got an idea."
+
+"Hold fast to it," counseled Donald. "You may no get another."
+
+"Let's organize an Indian patrol, and we can carry bows and arrows."
+
+"It might be worth thinking about," admitted Donald.
+
+"That's what we wanted to talk to you about, colonel," said Jack,
+"but I am afraid it's too late to take the matter up to-day."
+
+"Why too late?"
+
+"Because it is time we were starting for home," answered Jack.
+
+"No trouble about that," replied the colonel. "I will walk back
+with you, and we can talk it over as we go along. Let's see, there
+are four of you here?"
+
+"Yes, there are four of us," replied Pepper.
+
+"Then you need two more to start with."
+
+"Don't you lock your door when you go out?" was Jack's irrelevant
+query when they were ready to start.
+
+"Not usually," replied the colonel. "There is no one to bother us
+up here in the woods. Do you think there is any need of it?" he
+asked quizzically.
+
+"I should think there was," declared Pepper, "if Monkey Rae is
+about."
+
+"I hadn't thought of that," admitted the colonel. "Giving me some
+of my own advice, aren't you? Always be prepared. I don't know but
+what I had better follow it."
+
+Going back into the house he returned with a padlock with which he
+fastened the door.
+
+"There's Gerald Moore, he would join us," began Jack, taking up
+the subject of the patrol again.
+
+"Gerald Moore!" exclaimed Rand in a doubtful tone.
+
+"What is the matter with him?" asked the colonel.
+
+"He is the son of the janitor at the bank," replied Rand, "and--"
+
+"Anything wrong about him?" continued the colonel.
+
+"No," replied Rand, "but--"
+
+"Oh!" said the colonel dryly, "I see. I suppose you all know the
+scout law."
+
+"Not yet," replied Jack. "Rand read it to us, but we haven't learned
+it yet."
+
+"Let me see," continued the colonel musingly, "how does number four
+go?"
+
+"It says," read Rand, "a scout is a friend to all and a brother to
+every other scout, no matter to what social class the other belongs.
+A scout accepts the other man as he finds him, and makes the best
+of him."
+
+The colonel made no comment, and the boys walked on in silence.
+
+"I was wrong," acknowledged Rand after a little hesitation. "I have
+no objection to Gerald."
+
+"When we are going into battle, my boy," said the colonel, stopping
+on the way for a moment, "we don't stop to consider to what class
+the man who is fighting alongside of us belongs, and this is a
+battle you are going into, one to make the most you can out of your
+lives, and if you can help some one else at the same time so much
+the greater is your reward."
+
+"I see," replied Rand, "and I won't forget it."
+
+"He was in our class, at school," went on Jack.
+
+"He quotes poetry," added Pepper.
+
+"Who does?" asked the colonel.
+
+"Gerald."
+
+"That's bad," said the colonel gravely, "but perhaps you could cure
+him of it."
+
+"He says he is descended from Tom Moore," continued Pepper.
+
+"Well, we needn't hold that against him," suggested Donald. "It
+was no altogether his fault."
+
+"Then there's Dick Wilson," proposed Jack. "He was in our class,
+too."
+
+"All right," agreed the others, "it's Gerald and Dick."
+
+"Very well, then," observed the colonel, "we will consider that
+settled. When you are ready let me know and I will swear you in.
+You know what you have to do?"
+
+"Yes, sir," the boys answered.
+
+By this time they came within sight of the landing where they had
+left the boat, and Pepper, who had run on ahead, suddenly raised
+such an outcry that the others rushed forward in alarm.
+
+"What is the matter?" shouted Rand.
+
+"The b-boat," stammered Pepper.
+
+"What is the matter with it?" asked Donald.
+
+"It's g-g-gone!"
+
+"Gone! where?" demanded Jack.
+
+"How should I know?" replied Pepper. "All I know is that it is
+gone."
+
+Sure enough, there was no boat to be seen.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE PURSUIT
+
+
+"It must have drifted away," said Rand.
+
+"Sure of that?" asked Jack.
+
+"I knew it!" suddenly broke in Pepper.
+
+"Then why didn't you tell us," demanded Rand. "What did you know?"
+
+"Monkey Rae," replied Pepper.
+
+"Well, what about him?" cried Jack.
+
+"He has taken the boat," answered Pepper.
+
+"How do you know?" questioned Donald.
+
+"There is his track on the sand."
+
+"He is certainly very much in evidence," said the colonel.
+
+"I wish I could get hold of him once," cried Rand vindictively.
+
+"I'd much prefer to get hold of the boat just now," put in Donald.
+
+"There is certainly something queer going on here," observed Jack.
+
+"More mysteries, Jack?" asked Rand.
+
+"Yes," answered Jack. "That man is mixed up in this, too."
+
+"What man?" asked Rand.
+
+"The man with the limp," replied Jack.
+
+"Where is he?"
+
+"He was here, and I believe he went off in the boat," went on Jack.
+"You can see his tracks around here."
+
+"Jack is right," confirmed the colonel, "the man has undoubtedly
+gone off with the boat."
+
+"Hem," said Pepper, "there doesn't seem to be anything safe here.
+
+"What are we going to do now?" asked Rand.
+
+"Walk home, I guess," said Donald. "I don't know how else we will
+get there."
+
+"There they go now!" cried Jack, suddenly pointing to their boat
+near the other side of the river. "Oh, if we only had a boat to
+follow them in."
+
+"I have one," said the colonel. "We can take that. Come on, boys!"
+
+Starting off at a pace that kept the four youths on a run to keep
+up with him, the colonel led the way back to the house. Just before
+coming to it he stopped.
+
+"Take that path to the left, it leads down to the landing," he
+directed. "Get the boat you will find there ready, and I will be
+with you in a minute."
+
+"Are you going with us?" asked Rand.
+
+"Do you think I am going to be left out of this?" returned the
+colonel. "Not for a minute!"
+
+Following the colonel's directions, the boys went down to the
+landing where they found the Scout, a 25-foot cat-boat, moored.
+Jumping on board they made ready to cast her loose, took the stops
+off the sail and had it partly hoisted when the colonel came along
+bringing with him a gun.
+
+"Are you going to shoot them?" asked Pepper.
+
+"I hope not," replied the colonel, "but it is just as well to be
+prepared for all emergencies. You are first-rate sailors," he added,
+stepping on board. "Cast her off and up with the sail."
+
+"How is that?" called Rand.
+
+"A little more on the peak; that's it, now pull it home and make
+fast."
+
+During this time the boat had drifted away from the landing and
+now, as the wind filled the sail she glided out into the river,
+running free.
+
+"See anything of them?" asked the colonel.
+
+"Not yet," answered Rand, who was in the bow looking up the river.
+
+"'Tis my opinion," said Donald, "that we'll be no likely to find
+them." "There they are!" cried Jack.
+
+"Where away?" asked the colonel.
+
+"Over there by the other shore," replied Jack. "You can just see
+them."
+
+"They have such a long start," doubted Rand, "that we will never
+catch them."
+
+"You can't most always tell until you try," observed Jack.
+
+"And sometimes not then," added Pepper.
+
+With the wind on her quarter the Scout sped up the river on a course
+that would bring her near to the opposite shore, a little in front
+of the boat they were pursuing, the occupants of which, evidently
+having no thought of pursuit, were rowing in a leisurely fashion.
+It was not until the Scout was almost upon them that they gave it
+any attention, and then only enough to change their course sufficiently
+to keep out of her way.
+
+"Boat, ahoy!" finally shouted the colonel.
+
+To this hail those in the small boat made no answer, but apparently
+realizing that the Scout was pursuing them, changed their course
+to run directly to the shore.
+
+"In with the sheet!" called the colonel, quickly bringing the
+Scout around; "there, that will do!" as Rand and Donald hauled in
+the sail until it was trimmed in as close as it would hold the wind,
+the boat laying over until her gunwale was under water. Holding
+her up in the wind until the peaks shivered, the colonel kept her
+on that course until she had run some hundred feet beyond the other
+boat.
+
+"Look out, boys!" called the colonel; "we are going about," at the
+same time bringing the boat up in the wind, and then, as the sail
+filled again, heading for the other boat.
+
+But the man in the small boat was as wary as the colonel, and as
+the Scout came about he changed his course at nearly right angles,
+and then as the sailboat went by, resumed his former course.
+
+"He's an old fox and not easily to be caught," decided the colonel,
+when this maneuver had been repeated two or three times. "He is
+making for the other shore, and if he gets in among the shallows
+over there I am afraid we will lose him yet."
+
+The Scout was now so close to the smaller boat that the occupants
+could easily be distinguished.
+
+"There is Monkey Rae," declared Pepper.
+
+"And Sam and Red," added Jack, "but I don't know who the man is."
+
+"Boat, ahoy!" shouted the colonel.
+
+"What do you want?" snarled the man.
+
+"You!" shouted the colonel. "Lay to until we come alongside!"
+
+"Come on," responded the man, "and you will get more than you are
+looking for!" at the same time displaying a pistol, which he pointed
+toward the larger boat.
+
+"Drop that!" commanded the colonel, going forward and covering
+the man with the gun, while Rand took the helm. "If you make any
+attempt to use that pistol I will disable you at once."
+
+With a muttered imprecation the man let the pistol fall and, seizing
+the oars, began rowing for the shore.
+
+"Shall we follow him?" asked Rand.
+
+"There is a sand-bar there, I think," replied the colonel. "If
+you pull up the centerboard, perhaps we can slide over it. It's no
+use," he added a moment later as the boat fell off, "we shall have
+to go round."
+
+By this time the small boat had been pulled in close to the shore,
+where the man, picking up a package from the bottom of the boat,
+sprang over the side and, followed by the boys, ran up the shore
+and disappeared in the woods, leaving the boat to drift.
+
+"Shall we follow them?" asked Rand.
+
+"I don't want them," said Donald.
+
+"Better let them go, I think," added the colonel.
+
+"Well, I hope I have seen the last of Monkey Rae for a good while,"
+went on Pepper.
+
+"Then as Dogberry says: 'Let us call the watch together and thank
+God we are rid of a knave,'" quoted Rand.
+
+Picking up the drifting boat the Scout was headed down the river
+and in a few minutes they were off the colonel's landing. Here, the
+boys would have taken their boat and rowed home, but the colonel
+insisted on carrying them down to Creston, which was quickly done
+in the bracing breeze.
+
+"Remember, as soon as you are ready," he said as he left them, "I
+will swear you in as Scouts."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+LOOKING FOR A CLUE
+
+
+"Hello, Jack," called Rand, meeting the former on the street the
+following morning, hurrying along in his usual fashion, "what's
+the latest?"
+
+"About what?" asked Jack in turn.
+
+"About everything. Anything new about the robbing of Judge Taylor's
+office the other night?"
+
+"Haven't heard much yet," replied Jack. "I was just going around
+there to see if they had found out anything more."
+
+"Looking for clues?" questioned Rand.
+
+"Not so much for clues as news," responded Jack. "Perhaps I can
+pick up some of both. You never can tell when they'll pop up. Don't
+you want to go along?"
+
+"And see how you do it," laughed Rand. "I don't mind if I do.
+Written up yesterday's story yet?"
+
+"About your heroic rescue of a lovely maiden from the angry waves.
+Of course; did it last night. Want to see it? I was going to put
+a head on it: 'Heroic Rescue by a Creston Boy.'"
+
+"You don't mean it, Jack Blake!"
+
+"Wait until you see it on the first page, double leaded, with a
+scarehead."
+
+"Really and truly?"
+
+"Really and truly."
+
+"Please don't, Jack."
+
+"Why, don't you want it?" asked Jack in mock surprise. "I thought
+you would be delighted to see your name in print."
+
+"You know I don't want to be made ridiculous!"
+
+"All right," responded Jack, "I'll kill it if you say so, but it
+would have made a sensation."
+
+"I don't doubt that," laughed Rand, "but I'd rather not be the
+victim. I wonder," he went on musingly, "if we will ever see them
+again."
+
+"Who?"
+
+"The Whildens."
+
+"Hardly likely," replied Jack. "If we do they will probably have
+forgotten us."
+
+"Still I'd like to know how she came out."
+
+"Oh, she came out all right," replied Jack lightly. "A little cold
+water won't hurt her. You know, the doctor said she was out of
+danger.
+
+"It's a curious thing how they got in," he went on after a little
+pause, his thought turning on the robbery, which was uppermost in
+his mind just then.
+
+"I don't see anything curious about it," returned Rand.
+
+"You don't!" cried Jack. "Maybe you can explain how they did it
+then."
+
+"I don't know as it needs any explaining," retorted Rand. "They
+got in a trough of the waves, and--"
+
+"Trough of the waves!" cried Jack.
+
+"What are you talking about?"
+
+"Why, about the Whildens, of course. What are you talking about?"
+
+"Oh, pshaw! I was talking about the burglars."
+
+"Oh, I see," said Rand. "How did they get in?"
+
+"That is what we would all like to know," replied Jack. "There isn't
+anything to show how they got in or how they went out, unless they
+went out through the door and locked it after them."
+
+"That is possible, isn't it?" asked Rand.
+
+"I suppose it is possible," admitted Jack, "but I don't see how
+they managed it."
+
+"Not if they had a key?"
+
+"It must have been that way," agreed Jack, "but where did they get
+this key? That don't lessen the puzzle. It was a Yale lock, and
+keys to them are not to be had easily, and they must have had one
+for the front door, too."
+
+"Well, if they could get the one they could get the other," said
+Rand.
+
+"I suppose so," agreed Jack. "It probably wouldn't be much harder
+to get two than one."
+
+"Why couldn't they get in through a window?" pursued Rand.
+
+"The windows were all locked on the inside as well as the doors."
+
+"I see. They must have been professionals."
+
+"Then I don't see what they wanted there."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Because they wouldn't get enough swag to make it worth while,"
+answered Jack,
+
+"Swag?" questioned Rand.
+
+"Oh, that's slang for plunder," explained Jack.
+
+"You seem to be pretty well up in their slang," commented Rand.
+
+"Oh, that's part of the newspaper business," was Jack's response.
+
+By this time they had come to the building in which Judge Taylor
+had his office, which was on one of the main street corners of the
+town.  A little description of the building is necessary here to
+make the situation clear. It was an old-fashioned, two-story brick
+structure, having been erected some years before. At the time of
+its erection there were no other buildings near it, and there were
+windows on all four sides. Some time later another building had been
+put on the adjoining lot, leaving a space of a little more than a
+foot between the two, thus making the windows on that side practically
+useless.  The wall of the other building upon that side was blank,
+and it was upon this space that the side windows of the judge's
+office opened.  In the rear was a yard of the width of the building
+and about twenty feet deep, with a low fence upon the side next to
+the street.
+
+"Let's take a look around before we go upstairs," proposed Jack.
+
+"All right," responded Rand. "I'm green at this business, you know."
+
+Going in at the front door Jack led the way into the hall, from
+which a broad flight of stairs ascended to the second story. By
+the side of the stairs was a narrow passage, through which Jack
+continued to a small hallway in the rear, in which were two doors,
+one giving access to the cellar, the other opening on the yard in
+the rear.
+
+"Do you think that they could have come in through the cellar?"
+asked Rand, when they entered the back hall.
+
+"I had thought of that," replied Jack, "but every one says that
+these doors were bolted, and I don't see how they could bolt the
+doors after they had gone out."
+
+"It does seem just a little difficult," admitted Rand.
+
+Going out in the yard, the boys examined the rear of the building.
+
+"They couldn't have got to the windows up there without a ladder,"
+decided Rand, after a study of the situation. "And you say the
+windows were fastened?"
+
+"That's what they say," responded Jack, "and I don't believe burglars
+carry ladders around in their kits. Besides there is an electric
+light right here, so that a ladder could be seen quite plainly from
+the street. "I wonder," he mused, looking into the space between
+the buildings, "if any one could get up through there."
+
+"Not unless he could fly," returned Rand. "There isn't room enough
+for a man to get in there, and he couldn't manage a ladder if he
+got in."
+
+"A boy might," remarked Jack.
+
+"But this wasn't a boy's work," objected Rand.
+
+"Can't always tell," replied Jack, "almost anything is possible."
+
+Going back into the building, Jack led the way up to Judge Taylor's
+office, where they found an officer in consultation with the judge.
+
+"Good morning, judge," said Jack as they entered. "We came in to
+see if there was anything new about the robbery."
+
+"Good morning, boys," replied the judge. "Looking for news, as
+usual, eh, Jack? Well, I am sorry to say there isn't any. We are
+just as much in the dark as ever. It is beyond my comprehension
+how any one could get in and out of this place and not leave any
+signs to show how they did it."
+
+"It beats me," chimed in the officer. "It was a good job, too.
+Looks as if there were two or three in it, the way they handled
+the safe," pointing to the large, old-fashioned safe, good enough
+in its day, but not offering much resistance to modern tools, which
+was standing in the middle of the room.
+
+"They certainly made junk of it," remarked Rand; "how did they do
+it?"
+
+"Steel wedges," replied the officer. "It wasn't very much of a job
+for yeggmen, such as these must have been. They drove the wedges
+in alongside of the door and burst it open,"
+
+"But didn't that make a good deal of noise?"
+
+"Not if they used pieces of cloth to deaden the sound of the blows,"
+explained the officer.
+
+"Did they get very much?" asked Rand.
+
+"Not very much," replied the judge, "some papers and a few coins."
+
+"Hello!" interjected Jack, who had picked up a sheet of paper from
+the floor.
+
+"Found something?" asked the judge; "what is it?"
+
+"What do you make of that?" asked Jack, handing him the paper.
+
+"Not very much," answered the judge, looking it over. "There seems
+to be a smudge of dirt on it, that is all."
+
+"Nor I," chimed in the officer. "Nothing there."
+
+"Looks to me like finger marks," said Rand.
+
+"That's it, exactly!" cried Jack excitedly. "Look at it this way!"
+
+"I see," said the judge, "some one has left the impression of a
+dusty hand."
+
+"It was a small hand, too," went on Jack, "not much bigger than
+mine."
+
+"That seems right, too," assented the judge, "but what do you make
+of it?"
+
+"It was a boy or a small man who made it," continued Jack.
+
+"That's logical," agreed the judge, "but--"
+
+"That may be," criticized the officer, "but I don't see that it
+leads anywhere."
+
+"One minute," returned Jack, "his hand was dusty because he came
+in through a dusty way."
+
+"Plato, thou reasoneth well," laughed the judge, "but we are still
+up against the original puzzle. What was that way?"
+
+"How long since these windows have been opened?" asked Jack, going
+to one of the windows that looked on the wall of the next building.
+
+"Not in years, I think," answered the judge. "Why?"
+
+Without replying Jack opened one of the windows and looked out;
+then going to a second he did the same.
+
+"You don't think that they came in that way, do you?" questioned
+the officer.
+
+"What do you expect to find, Jack?" asked Rand.
+
+"There you are!" he cried triumphantly, when he came to the third
+window; "there is where they got in!"
+
+"How do you make that out?" demanded the judge.
+
+"See there!" replied Jack, "this window sill is almost free of dust,
+while the others have half an inch or so on them. It was rubbed off
+of this one by some one climbing through; see, there is the print
+of a hand---"
+
+"By the shade of Coke, I think you are right!" exclaimed the judge,
+"but how in the world could any one get up to this window?"
+
+"A boy might work his way up between the walls," answered Jack.
+"Lots of boys could do it."
+
+"I guess you have hit it," assented the officer. "Then the boy opened
+the doors and the others walked in as easily as if they owned the
+place. A man with one eye could see it now."
+
+"And went out the same way," concluded the judge. "But why did they
+need to make such a mystery of it?"
+
+"Wanted to give us something to think about, I guess," hazarded the
+officer. "Perhaps they wanted to make it look like an inside job.
+Looks as if there were two or three men and a boy mixed up in it.
+That's a due, anyway, and I will send word around the country to
+look out for them."
+
+"Do you think that they came from around here?" asked Rand.
+
+"Don't think so. I don't think we have any one here smart enough
+to pull off a job like that. Hello, what now?" as Jack, acting upon
+a sudden thought, rushed from the room. "What is he after now?"
+
+"I don't know, I'm sure," answered Rand. "Just thought of something,
+I guess. He often does that when he has an idea strike him."
+
+"Here he comes back," said the officer a moment later, when Jack
+was heard bounding up the stairs. "I wonder what he has got now?"
+
+"Found something more?" questioned the judge, when Jack came into
+the room with a rush.
+
+"Found these between the buildings," replied Jack, showing a thin
+steel wedge and a small steel cold chisel. "It just happened to
+strike me that they might have forgotten something, so I took a
+look around and I found these."
+
+"Some of the tools they used on the safe," said the officer, taking
+them. "Nice bit of work they are. It wasn't any burglar who made
+them. Now, if we could find where they were made we might get on
+the track of these fellows."
+
+"Why, I saw one just like that in Wilson's blacksmith shop the
+other day," observed Rand.
+
+"Wasn't just like it, was it?" asked the officer.
+
+"Looks like the same one," replied Rand, taking the chisel in his
+hand.
+
+"Guess they wouldn't look so much alike if they were together,"
+demurred the officer, though he noted it down with the thought,
+"That's clue worth following."
+
+"See if you can find anything else," suggested the judge, but a
+careful search about the office failed to reveal any more clues,
+and the boys finally went off to see, as Jack expressed it, what
+they could pick up on the outside.
+
+"Come in again, Jack," said the judge when the boys were leaving,
+"always glad to see you. You have cleared up part of the mystery,
+anyhow. You are so much better a detective than we are," he added
+laughingly, "that I don't know but what we shall have to put the
+case in your hands."
+
+"Oh, it wasn't anything, judge," responded Jack, "just putting two
+and two together."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+FORMING THE PATROL
+
+
+"Don't you think," began Pepper.
+
+"Why not, Pepper?" asked Rand.
+
+"What objection is there to our thinking?"
+
+The four boys were, a couple of days later, on their way back to
+the town from the river, where they had been for an early morning
+swim.
+
+"None whatever," retorted Pepper, "if you were capable of doing
+it."
+
+"Now listen to that!" cried Rand. "Pepper thinks he's the only one
+that can think. If you have got any thinks in your think-tank open
+the valve and let some of them escape."
+
+"One at a time, Pepper," added Donald; "make it easy for us."
+
+"All through your interruptions?" asked Pepper; "because, if you
+are, I'll elucidate."
+
+"Ah, what's that?" cried Rand, "you'll do what? How do you spell
+it?"
+
+"Elucidate--explain--make dear," replied Pepper. "Do I make myself
+comprehensible?"
+
+"Another one," groaned Rand. "Say, Pepper, skip the hard ones, and
+tell us what's troubling you."
+
+"What I was going to say," went on Pepper, "was, don't you think--now
+don't interrupt--that it would be a good idea to have Gerald Moore
+and Dick Wilson meet with us to have a talk about the Scout business?"
+
+"Seems as if it might be," admitted Donald.
+
+"What made you think of having Gerald join us, Jack?" asked Rand.
+"I suppose you had some good reason."
+
+"Well, I hardly know," responded Jack. "It just came into my head
+while the colonel was talking the other day. He's an all-around
+good fellow, you know, even if he does not have much money. Full
+of fun, and you can depend upon him every time."
+
+"That's reason enough," agreed Rand. "I don't know much about him,
+except that he was in our class at school, and I'm afraid I have
+had a little grudge against him."
+
+"What for?" cried Pepper.
+
+"I guess it was because he made me work so hard to keep up with
+him in the class," responded Rand laughingly. "It was all I could
+do, too."
+
+"Dick's a jolly good fellow, too," put in Pepper.
+
+"For he's a jolly good fellow, for he's a jolly good fellow, for
+he's a jolly good fellow," sang Jack, whereupon they ail joined in
+the refrain.
+
+"Said anything to them about it?" asked Don, when they had sung it
+over and over until they were tired.
+
+"Well, hardly," replied Jack, "considering it was only the day
+before yesterday that we thought of it, though I suppose if we are
+going to do anything it is time we were getting about it."
+
+"Ah reckon dat am so," drawled Rand, then changing his tone he went
+on: "What do you say to having a meeting to-night and talking it
+over? We can have Gerald and Dick come and make a start if we like."
+
+"That's the way, Rand," approved Pepper, "if you are going to do
+things, do them!"
+
+"I see no objection," concluded Donald.
+
+"Of course you don't," returned Pepper. "Do you know why?"
+
+"Why, Pepper?" asked Donald.
+
+"Because there isn't any," retorted Pepper.
+
+"Where will we meet?" asked Jack.
+
+"I will ask Uncle Floyd if we can have the room in the attic for
+a club room," went on Rand. "I know he will be interested in what
+we are doing."
+
+"Then we are all fixed," cried Jack.
+
+"What shall we call it?" asked Pepper.
+
+"Call the room?"
+
+"Of course not," returned Pepper; "I mean the patrol."
+
+"Better wait until it is started," advised Donald, "it's no sure
+yet."
+
+"All right, Solomon," conceded Pepper, "but if Randolph says so
+it's as good as done."
+
+"Then we will consider that settled," concluded Rand, who, as a
+matter of course, assumed the leadership, as he usually did in most
+things the boys undertook. "Wait a minute," he went on as they were
+about to separate when they came to his house, "I will ask uncle
+now."
+
+Then a few minutes later he called from the house: "It's all right,
+uncle says that we can have it."
+
+"Hurrah!" cried Pepper.
+
+"Three cheers for Mr. Scott!" after which the three went off,
+singing "For he's a jolly good fellow."
+
+"What is the first thing to do?" asked Pepper when they met that
+evening in the room which Mr. Scott had allowed them to use.
+
+"Well, if we are all agreed," replied Rand, "I suppose the way to
+organize is to organize."
+
+"Then I move that we form a patrol of the Boy Scouts," proposed
+Pepper.
+
+"Second the motion," added Jack.
+
+"In my opinion--" began Donald deliberately, as usual.
+
+"Now for a solid chunk of wisdom," volunteered Pepper.
+
+"The first thing to do is to select a chairman."
+
+"Anything to please," assented Jack. "I move that Randolph Peyton
+be chosen as chairman of the meeting. All in favor, say aye!"
+
+"Aye!" shouted the boys in a chorus that made the room ring again.
+
+"Now then, Mr. Chairman," said Jack, "get busy."
+
+"I nominate Donald Graeme for secretary," cried Pepper.
+
+"All in favor--" began Rand.
+
+"Aye!" shouted the boys again.
+
+"Then," announced Rand, "I think we are ready for business. Now,
+Pepper, your motion would be in order."
+
+"In my opinion--" interrupted Donald.
+
+"Now for another chunk," sighed Pepper.
+
+"Order!" called Rand.
+
+"It would no be a bad idea," went on Donald, "to read over the
+requirements again, so we will know what we are about."
+
+"Oh," protested Pepper, "this is too much. Say, fellows, wake me
+up when he gets through."
+
+"Now," said Rand, when Donald had finished the reading, "shall we
+go ahead?"
+
+"How is it, Don?" asked Pepper; "any more objections?"
+
+"I don't see any," returned Donald.
+
+"All right, then, Mr. Chairman," cried Pepper; "let her go!"
+
+"I move that we form a patrol of the Boy Scouts," said Jack.
+
+"Second it," cried Gerald.
+
+"Aye!" shouted the boys before Rand had time to put the motion.
+
+"Carried," decided Rand. "Now," he went on, "I wonder how many of
+you can pass the examination."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+ORGANIZED
+
+
+"Oh," returned Pepper, "that's easy. First class in Scout lore,
+stand up!"
+
+"Is it?" asked Rand, "then tell us the composition of the American
+flag."
+
+"Red, white and blue," said Pepper confidently.
+
+"Good--as far as it goes," returned Rand, "but that applies just
+as well to the French tricolor. What do you say, Jack?"
+
+"Stars and stripes," replied Jack.
+
+"Good," said Rand, "but not good enough. What do you say, Gerald?"
+
+"Forty-six stars representing the forty-six States of the Union,
+in a blue field in the upper right-hand corner," replied Gerald,
+"with thirteen alternate stripes of red and white, representing
+the thirteen original States."
+
+"Correct," commended Rand. "Now, how many red and how many white
+stripes?"
+
+"Blessed if I know," admitted Pepper.
+
+"I thought you said it was easy," said Rand. "There are seven red
+and six white, beginning and ending with red."
+
+"Gee!" cried Pepper, "there's a lot more to it than I thought, but
+I guess we have got it now, all right."
+
+"Now about the knots," went on Rand, whereupon they fell to tying
+the different knots until they had mastered them all before it was
+time to go home.
+
+"Well, young gentlemen," began the colonel, a few days later,
+when the six boys met at his house in the woods to be sworn in as
+tenderfeet, "I suppose you know the requirements and that you are
+ail ready?"
+
+"All ready!" responded Pepper.
+
+"Know the Scout law and are willing to obey it."
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"The composition of the American flag."
+
+"I think we do," responded Pepper, repeating what he had learned
+the other night.
+
+"And know how to fly it?"
+
+"Union up," replied Jack.
+
+"What does it mean with the Union down?"
+
+"Signal of distress."
+
+"Very good," commended the colonel, "and now about the knots?"
+producing some pieces of rope. "Can you tie them?"
+
+"Like an old salt," replied Pepper.
+
+The boys set to work on the knots and in a few minutes had them
+all tied, to the colonel's satisfaction, whereupon he proceeded to
+administer the Scout's oath.
+
+"Raise your right hands, with the thumb resting on the nail of
+the little finger, the other three fingers pointing upward. This
+represents the three promises of the oath. Now, repeat after me:
+On my honor I promise that I will do my best:
+
+"1. To do my duty to God and my country.
+
+"2. To help other people at all times.
+
+"3. To obey the Scout law.
+
+"You all promise this--"
+
+"We do," responded the boys.
+
+"Then," concluded the colonel, "you are now members of the Boy
+Scouts, and I know you will be an honor to it."
+
+"We will do our best," responded Rand.
+
+"And now," continued the colonel, "in celebration of the organization
+of--By the way, you haven't chosen a name yet, have you? What kind
+of a name do you want?"
+
+"Oh, I s-s-say," stammered Pepper.
+
+"Sing it, Pepper," suggested Donald.
+
+"L-let's have an Indian name."
+
+"Want to indulge your savage instincts and live in a wigwam?" asked
+Rand.
+
+"It's a tepee, not a wigwam," corrected Pepper. "But we can go
+hunting and have a good time in the woods."
+
+"All right, Pepper," agreed Gerald, "an Indian name is good enough
+for me."
+
+"Have you any name in mind?" asked the colonel.
+
+"The Oneidas used to roam about here, didn't they?" asked Jack.
+
+"No," replied the colonel, "they were farther north."
+
+"What Indians were in this section?" asked Rand.
+
+"The Haverstraws held all the land about here," replied the colonel.
+
+"We want something more original than that," said Jack.
+
+"Something aboriginal," put in Gerald.
+
+"I guess that's it," laughed Jack. "How about Mohicans?"
+
+"I have it!" cried Pepper. "What's the matter with Uncas?"
+
+"Who were they?" asked Dick.
+
+"It wasn't they," replied Pepper, "it was him. Don't you remember
+he was the last of the Mohicans."
+
+"That's a very good name," commended the colonel.
+
+"Then Uncas it is," agreed the boys.
+
+"Now that you have agreed upon a name," continued the colonel,
+"what do you say to having a real Scout dinner in the woods?"
+
+"That s-strikes me favorably," exclaimed Pepper.
+
+"Then if you will make a fire I will go on a hunting expedition
+and see what game I can secure," said the colonel. "Better get to
+work, boys, for I won't be long. You will find some meal and salt
+in the shack, Rand, to make some bread."
+
+"All right," responded the boys, "we will have everything ready
+when you get back."
+
+The boys fell to work at once, Jack and Don gathering the wood for
+the fire, while Rand and Pepper mixed the dough for the bread, Dick
+and Gerald agreeing to do the cleaning up afterwards. By the time
+the colonel came back the fire was blazing and the bread baking on
+some stones, which were set up in front of the fire.
+
+"How did you make out?" asked Pepper of the colonel when he returned.
+
+"Pretty well," replied the colonel; "I got a saddle of venison and
+a couple of prairie chickens."
+
+"Really?" asked Pepper, his eyes snapping.
+
+"Well, we'll call them that," replied the colonel.
+
+Under the colonel's direction the chickens and the saddle of mutton
+were suspended over the fire and kept slowly turning until they
+were thoroughly roasted.
+
+"Done to a turn," as Gerald expressed it.
+
+"Better put out a sentinel, hadn't you?" suggested the colonel
+when they had all gathered about the fire to watch the cooking of
+the dinner.
+
+"A sentinel!" exclaimed Rand. "What for?"
+
+"Well, we don't want our dinner carried off before our eyes," replied
+the colonel. "Are you sure that your agile enemy isn't watching
+us from somewhere and just waiting for it to be done to his taste
+before making a raid on us?"
+
+"Monkey Rae!" cried Pepper, starting up. "You haven't seen anything
+of him, have you?"
+
+"No," replied the colonel; "but, still it's well to be on the
+lookout for him. He's rather a tricky sort of a chap, I believe."
+
+"He certainly is," admitted Rand, "but it's mostly fun with him;
+but Sam Tompkins, he's quite a different sort."
+
+"What is the matter with him?" asked the colonel.
+
+"I don't know," drawled Rand, "except he was just born that way.
+I think he is bad just from love of it."
+
+"Isn't that rather a sweeping condemnation, Randolph?" asked the
+colonel.
+
+"Oh, he's the worst of the bunch," put in Pepper decidedly.
+
+"That's all true," added Jack. "There hasn't been any mischief
+perpetrated in town for the last four or five years that he hasn't
+been at the bottom of it."
+
+"He puts the other boys up to do all kinds of things and keeps in
+the dark himself," continued Pepper.
+
+"He would have been put away long ago," went on Jack, "if it wasn't
+for his father's political pull."
+
+"Where did you learn all these things, Jack?" asked the colonel.
+
+"Oh, we find out a good many things in the newspaper business, you
+know."
+
+"So it seems," admitted the colonel. "What has Master Tompkins been
+doing lately?"
+
+"That's hard to tell," replied Jack laughingly, "he does so many
+things. I hear he is going to get up an opposition patrol."
+
+"Who would he get to join it?" asked Gerald, scornfully.
+
+"Oh, he can find plenty to do that," replied Jack. "You know he
+always has plenty of money to spend."
+
+"There's Monkey Rae and Looney Burns," said Pepper, "they would be
+in it."
+
+"And Kid Murphy," added Dick.
+
+"I wonder--" began Jack, and stopped, seemingly lost in thought.
+
+"What is it now, Jack?" asked Rand, "trying to put two and two
+together?"
+
+"I was," replied Jack, "but it don't seem to come out four."
+
+"What is it this time, addition or multiplication?" asked Donald.
+
+"Must be division, I think," laughed Jack. "I was wondering if Sam
+had anything to do with the robbery of Judge Taylor's office."
+
+"Of course not," asserted Pepper. "What would he want to do that
+for?"
+
+"I don't know," answered Jack, "or what any one else would, for
+that matter. But it would be just like him."
+
+"I don't think he was guilty of that," remarked the colonel, "that
+was the work of men."
+
+"But there was a boy in it," asserted Jack.
+
+"It wouldn't be Sam," declared Pepper. "He might put others up to
+it, but you wouldn't find him climbing in any windows!"
+
+"See anything of Monkey lately?" interjected Rand.
+
+"Not since the day he stole the fish," returned Pepper.
+
+"Haven't seen him in three or four days," said Dick. "It's queer,
+too, for he used to come in the shop almost every day. Nor Sam
+either; they must be camping out somewhere."
+
+"Hope it isn't around here!" cried Pepper. "Say, fellows, we had
+better take a scout through the woods and make sure."
+
+"Come along, then," said Rand, "and we will rout him out if he is
+anywhere about."
+
+Starting out under the leadership of Rand the boys explored the
+woods in every direction for some distance from the camp without
+seeing any signs of any one being in the neighborhood.
+
+"Going back to the flag," said the colonel, when the boys had
+returned, "while we are waiting for the dinner to be done, can any
+of you tell the history of the flag? Of its origin and how it came
+into being?"
+
+"The first American flag was made in Philadelphia by Betsy Ross,
+in 1775, was it not?"
+
+"According to tradition," replied the colonel, "but history
+doesn't bear it out. The earliest flag to be used by the colonies
+was the Liberty Flag, which was presented to the Council of Safety
+of Charleston, by Colonel Moultrie, in September, 1775."
+
+"What was it like?" asked Rand.
+
+"It was adapted from the Boston Liberty Tree, and was a blue flag
+with crescent in the dexter corner and the word 'Liberty' running
+lengthwise."
+
+"There were other flags, too, weren't there?" asked Jack.
+
+"Yes, there was the Rattlesnake Flag."
+
+"The Rattlesnake Flag!" cried Pepper. "What was that like?"
+
+"The Rattlesnake Flag was of the same date, 1775. It was a yellow
+flag with the representation of a rattlesnake coiled, ready to
+strike, in green, and the motto below it: 'Don't tread on me.'"
+
+"Gee!" said Pepper, "it must have been a beauty."
+
+"Were there any more?" asked Gerald.
+
+"There was the Pine Tree Flag, with the motto 'An Appeal to Heaven.'
+This motto was adopted April, 1776, by the Provincial Congress of
+Massachusetts as the one to be borne as the Flag of the Cruisers of
+that colony. The first armed vessel commissioned under Washington
+sailed under this flag. It is thought that this flag was used at
+the battle of Bunker Hill."
+
+"I didn't know," said Rand, "that the American flag had such a
+history. Can you tell us when the first Union flag was made?"
+
+"The first Union flag was raised by Washington at Cambridge, January
+2, 1776. This flag represented the union of the colonies--not
+then an established nation--and while this flag, by its stripes,
+represented the thirteen colonies, the canton was the king's colors."
+
+"Then, when did the stars and stripes become the national flag?"
+asked Jack.
+
+"On the 14th of June, 1777, Congress adopted the resolution that the
+flag of the thirteen United States be thirteen stripes alternating
+red and white, and that the Union be thirteen stars, white in a
+blue field, representing a new constellation. But I think the dinner
+must be ready by this time, and I have no doubt you are. You know
+the Scout motto is, 'Be prepared.'"
+
+"We will do our best," responded Pepper.
+
+"Well," said the colonel when, a little later, the dinner had been
+eaten to the last scrap, "how do you like Scout fare?"
+
+"It's ail right," conceded Pepper, "as far as it goes," looking
+longingly about him.
+
+"You think there wasn't enough of it," laughed the colonel. "You
+have a real Scout appetite."
+
+"To change the subject, what about uniforms?" inquired Jack.
+
+"We will have to have them, I suppose," replied Gerald.
+
+"Sure," returned Pepper; "that's all right, they won't cost much."
+
+"I have an idea," broke in Rand.
+
+"Clutch it, Randolph, ere it flies!" cried Pepper; "what is it?"
+
+"I think," went on Rand, "that it would be a good idea if we, each
+one of us, earned the money ourselves to buy our uniforms."
+
+"'Tis no a bad idea," assented Donald.
+
+"I think it is a very good one," commended the colonel. "You have
+caught the spirit of the organization."
+
+"How shall we do it?" asked Jack.
+
+"Any way you like," replied Rand. "We will have to work it out,
+each one for himself."
+
+"All right," responded Pepper, "I am going to get busy right away."
+
+"Right now, Pepper?" asked Dick.
+
+"Now, that don't remind you of anything," warned Pepper. "Not just
+this minute, but as soon as I get back to town."
+
+"What's your scheme, Pepper?" asked Donald.
+
+"Can't give it away," replied Pepper, "or you would all want to do
+it."
+
+"I think," broke in the colonel, "it is time we were starting back.
+If you like, we will have a game on the way."
+
+"A game?" asked Jack.
+
+"Yes; a chase."
+
+"Hare and hounds?" asked Pepper.
+
+"In a way," replied the colonel. "Gerald, you and Pepper will be
+the hares and the rest of us the hounds."
+
+"Do you mean to scatter papers?" asked Rand.
+
+"Hardly," replied the colonel. "Nothing as plain as that. Remember,
+we are scouts, and we are going to try and follow the trail they
+leave. Now, then, hares, off with you. Go any way you choose, and
+in ten minutes we will take up the trail and see if we can follow
+it."
+
+With a whoop Gerald and Pepper were off, racing down the road.
+
+"Now, boys," went on the colonel, when the hares had gone, "study
+their foot-prints so that you will know them again."
+
+"They all look alike to me," replied Rand.
+
+"Study them a little," suggested the colonel; "isn't there any
+difference between them?"
+
+"I think," began Jack hesitatingly, "that one is broader than the
+other."
+
+"That's one thing; anything else?"
+
+"This one shows the whole of the sole," said Donald.
+
+"And this one only part," added Rand.
+
+"This one is pressed in deeper on one side than the other," put in
+Jack.
+
+"You are getting the idea," said the colonel. "Think you would know
+them again?"
+
+"I think I would," responded Jack.
+
+"Then follow them."
+
+Starting off, the boys followed the trail, each one alert to notice
+any little peculiarity in the foot-prints that would enable them to
+recognize it again. The trail was readily followed along the road
+until it turned off into the woods, when they lost it.
+
+"Keep on," directed the colonel, "perhaps you can pick it up again."
+
+Scattering through the woods the boys diligently sought for the
+foot-prints, but were unable to discover them.
+
+"We have lost them," announced Rand, after they had searched for
+some time. "Can you help us to find it?"
+
+"It is a little difficult," the colonel answered, "but there is
+a trace here and there," pointing out slight indentations on the
+ground. "It is quite hard here and they didn't leave much impression."
+
+"Here it is again!" cried Rand a little later, when they came to a
+spot of soft earth. "Here is Pepper's track. I think I would know
+it anywhere now."
+
+"Good!" commended the colonel; "you are learning fast. You will be
+able soon to follow any trail."
+
+Going under the colonel's guidance the boys followed the trail
+through the woods until it came out again on the road, where Gerald
+and Pepper were waiting for them.
+
+"Not at all bad for a first attempt," said the colonel. "We will
+try it again some day soon."
+
+Which happened sooner and in a more unexpected way than any of them
+anticipated.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+A CHALLENGE
+
+
+"Well done, Pepper!" cried Rand, as the former, drawing back a
+stout bow nearly as tall as himself, let fly an arrow that struck
+in the third circle of the target set up at the opposite end of
+the green.
+
+"'Tis a promising laddie ye are," commented Gerald Moore after a
+preliminary flourish of his bugle. "Ave ye live to be a hundhred
+and don't lave aff practice 'tis a foine shot ye'll be, I dunno."
+
+"Let's see what you can do," retorted Pepper, with a laugh. "I
+don't believe you can better it."
+
+"Begorrah, Oi don't belave it mesilf," replied Gerald, shooting
+an arrow that struck just on the outer edge of the target. "Faith,
+'twas a narrow escape Oi made, and it's toime Oi was making another,"
+starting off on a run as the others made for him.
+
+"That reminds me," broke in Dick Wilson.
+
+"It's your turn, Dick," interrupted Rand, as Dick, stepping
+in front of the target, after much careful aiming, shot his arrow
+close beside Pepper's.
+
+"Shure Oi wouldn't have belaved av Oi hadn't seen it," remarked
+Gerald, who had cautiously ventured back.
+
+This was some days later than the events recorded in the previous
+chapters, since which time, Rand had been selected as leader and
+Don as corporal, while Gerald, from his fun-loving proclivities,
+had been named the "Patrol's jester."
+
+The mystery surrounding the robbery had not been cleared up, and
+was a frequent subject for conversation. Monkey Rae had not been
+seen about.
+
+They had met upon this occasion for archery practice on the lawn in
+front of Mr. Scott's residence, where Rand was living. Immediately
+upon the formation of the Patrol Mr. Scott, who was one of the
+patrons of the Scout organization, had presented each member with
+a fine English bow and quiver of arrows, in the proper method of
+using which they were being instructed by Colonel Snow.
+
+They were all dressed in the Scout uniform, which they wore when
+on Scout duty or out on an expedition, and were not a little proud
+of the fact that each one had bought his uniform with money earned
+by himself, the first money that some of them had ever earned.
+This the boys had done in various ways, each according to his own
+fancy, such as going errands, selling papers, working in stores and
+shops, etc.  They were also provided with small bugle horns, upon
+which they had learned to sound various signals and calls.
+
+"Now, Rand," said Donald, "show us how to do it."
+
+"If I can," answered Rand, taking position in front of the target.
+"As good Hubert said: 'A man can but do his best.'"
+
+Drawing back his bow to the full length of the arrow, with a quick
+glance at the target, he let fly the arrow, which whistled through
+the air and struck fair on the outer edge of the bull's-eye.
+
+"A rare good shot, Master Locksley," said a laughing voice, and
+Rand turned to meet a frank-faced lad of his own age in the Scout
+uniform, who wore a first class scout's badge, and who gave the
+Scout salute as he stepped forward.
+
+"Cans't thou mend it, brave yeoman," replied Rand in the language
+of Robin Hood's day, in which the other had spoken, returning the
+salute.
+
+"I doubt it much," returned the newcomer, taking the bow which
+Rand had offered and stretching it the length of his arm. "A good
+bow and worthy of your skill. With your permission I will essay a
+shot."
+
+"Rather we crave the favor," answered Rand, extending his quiver
+to the stranger, who carefully selecting an arrow, fitted it to
+the bow.  Then drawing the bow back the full length of the arrow
+he measured the distance with his eye, and, loosing the string,
+the arrow sped straight to the center of the bull's-eye.
+
+With one accord the boys put their bugles to their lips and sounded
+the Scout salute.
+
+"By my faith," cried Rand, in generous admiration of the other's
+skill, "'twas a noble shot and well placed. You might be the bold
+Robin himself returned."
+
+"It was but a chance shot that I might not be able to repeat,"
+returned the other modestly. "But I was a member of an archery club
+in our place and that brings me to my errand here. You are Randolph
+Peyton, leader of the Uncas Patrol, if I am not mistaken. I was
+told in the town that I would find you here."
+
+"That is my name," replied Rand.
+
+"My name is Wat Watson," announced the other with a smile. "It is
+an alterative sort of a name, but all I have. I have here," presenting
+a paper to Rand, "a challenge from the Highpoint Patrol."
+
+"A challenge!" exclaimed Rand. "Not for an archery contest, I
+hope, or we are beaten before we begin. Master Watson, permit me
+to present Don Graeme, Jack Blake and his brother, Pepper, Dick
+Wilson, and last, but not least in his own estimation, Gerald
+Moore."
+
+"I am heartily glad to meet you all," said Wat, shaking hands all
+around, "and hope I may often have the pleasure."
+
+"The same to you," responded the boys.
+
+"And may you live to be a hundred," added Gerald, "and may Oi be
+wid ye."
+
+The paper which Nat had brought and which Rand had opened, ran:
+
+"To the Uncas Patrol, Greeting:
+
+"The Highpoint Patrol, of the Boy Scouts, hereby challenges the
+Uncas Patrol to a contest for the Scout championship of the Hudson,
+to be rowed by crews selected from said patrols, at such time and
+place as may be hereafter agreed upon.
+
+"HIGHPOINT PATROL. JACK DUDLEY, Leader. TOM BROWN, Corporal."
+
+"Well, boys, what do you say?" asked Rand, when he had finished
+reading the challenge. "After the prowess exhibited by their
+messenger, do you think we dare accept?" Whereupon there arose a
+babble of voices in which all sorts of opinions were expressed.
+
+"Shure they can't bate us more than three miles," concluded Gerald.
+
+"Then I suppose we may accept," said Rand.
+
+"Shall I so report?" asked Wat.
+
+"You can report that the challenge has been received and that we
+will send our answer by messenger."
+
+"Thank you," replied Wat, "and now I must be off. Be sure and come
+and see us; we will try and treat you right."
+
+"There can't be any doubt of that," replied Rand. "But, just a
+moment," as Mrs. Peyton appeared on the green with a tray of cakes.
+She was followed by a maid with a pail of lemonade.
+
+"Isn't it time for a feast and a war dance or something?" she asked.
+
+"We have just been having a pow-wow," replied Rand, "and our throats
+are dry with much talking. We have just concluded a treaty with
+the tribe of Highpoint and are ready for the feast of amity."
+
+Wat would have declined to join in the festivities, but the boys
+were importunate, and the next half-hour was spent in an interchange
+of talk, in which the words: Scouts, patrol, tests, boats, were of
+frequent occurrence, and during which the cake and lemonade vanished
+as quickly as snowflakes in July, after which the Uncas escorted
+the messenger for a distance on his way, finally bidding him good-by
+with three cheers and a flourish on their bugles.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+A DEFIANCE
+
+
+"Well," began Rand on the evening of the day on which the challenge
+had been received from the Highpoint Patrol, "what shall we do with
+this challenge?"
+
+"Accept it, av coorse," cried Gerald. "Shure, they can't bate us
+more thin foor miles."
+
+"But we only row three," put in Jack.
+
+"Thin it's a safe bet," went on Gerald, "Aven Don might bet on
+that."
+
+"What's that?" asked Donald.
+
+"That they won't bate us more than foor miles," replied Gerald.
+
+"In my opinion," began Donald, "'tis no good accepting, for we have
+no boat, and if we did we have no time for practice, and---"
+
+"Can't you think of a few more while you are at it," laughed Rand.
+"As for a boat we can get the use of the old shell of the Creston
+Club."
+
+"And we no have any crew to speak of," continued Donald.
+
+"That's easily got over," went on Rand. "There is Jack, Dick and
+you and I for the crew, with Gerald for coxswain."
+
+"And where do I come in?" questioned Pepper.
+
+"You don't come in," answered Gerald. "You stand on the bank and
+root for us."
+
+"Root!" cried Pepper; "what do you think I am--a pig?"
+
+"That reminds me--" broke in Dick.
+
+"No it don't," objected Donald; "we have no time to listen to your
+anecdotes."
+
+"Do you think we have any chance against them?" asked Jack.
+
+"I would no say we had no chance," replied Donald; "but, in my
+opinion, 'tis no much to brag about."
+
+"That reminds me--" began Dick once more.
+
+"What, against?" said Donald.
+
+"Oh, let him get it off his mind," advised Jack. "What does it
+remind you of?"
+
+"It reminds me of the hunter that came over here from New York last
+fall and met old Uncle Zac Williams back in the country and asked
+him if there was any hunting around here.
+
+"'Plenty of it," said Uncle Zac.
+
+"'Where is the best place to go?' asked the hunter.
+
+"'Oh, mos' anywhere,' said Uncle Zac; 'yo' can't miss hit.'
+
+"So the hunter went on, and that night as he was going home he met
+Uncle Zac again.
+
+"'Hello!' he said, 'ain't you the man that told me there was plenty
+of hunting around here?'
+
+"'I reckon I be,' replied Uncle Zac.
+
+"'Well, I've hunted all around here and I haven't seen the first
+thing to shoot.'
+
+"'Waal, ther wasn't nothin' ther matter with ther huntin' was ther?'
+said Uncle Zac."
+
+"All right," said Donald, when Dick had finished, "we'll forgive
+you this time, but don't let it happen again."
+
+The boys were in their club room in the attic of Mr. Scott's house,
+which had been given over to Rand's use. By one of the windows
+was the instruments of a wireless station with which Rand and his
+chums had experimented, and scattered about the room were golf
+clubs, baseball bats and other implements and apparatus of boyish
+sports.
+
+"It isn't a question of winning or losing," went on Rand. "There
+would not be any sport in it if we only went in when we thought
+we would win. We will do our best and if we lose we will cheer our
+loudest for the winners."
+
+"That's the talk!" cried Jack. "We may not win success, but we'll
+deserve it."
+
+"Then," continued Rand, "we agree to accept the challenge of the
+Highpoints. How's this for a reply?"
+
+"TO THE HIGHPOINT PATROL, GREETING:
+
+"The Uncas Patrol accepts with pieasure your courteous challenge
+to a contest on the Hudson. Time and place to be agreed upon."
+
+"In my opinion," said Donald, "you should say 'rowing match' as
+being more specific."
+
+"All right," replied Rand. "Are there any further additions or
+amendments? If not, I will declare it approved as read."
+
+"Now, who will volunteer to carry it to Highpoint?"
+
+"I will!" cried Dick.
+
+"I will make the attempt," announced Donald.
+
+"Lave it to me," said Gerald.
+
+"I'll take it," responded Jack.
+
+"I ought to be the one," pleaded Pepper. "You know I am not in the
+race."
+
+"You can't all go," decided Rand; "how shall we settle it?"
+
+"Take a vote on it," suggested Jack.
+
+"We will each one write a name on a slip of paper and put it in
+the box," proposed Pepper.
+
+For a moment each boy was busy with paper and pencil and then the
+ballots were thrown upon the table to be counted by Rand.
+
+"Each one of you has received one vote; you each voted for yourself,"
+announced Rand, when he had gone over them. "You will have to draw
+lots."
+
+"Let's toss up for it," said Donald. "Toss up your lucky penny,
+Rand."
+
+"How can you manage that?" asked Jack, "there are five of us and
+only one penny."
+
+"That's easily fixed," replied Donald, "Jack and I will toss first
+and the winner takes the next one."
+
+"Very well," agreed Rand, "what do you say, Jack?" giving the coin
+a toss in the air.
+
+"Head!" said Jack.
+
+"Tail it is," returned Rand, as he picked it up. "Now, Gerald, it
+is your choice."
+
+"Head," replied Gerald.
+
+"Tail again," said Rand.
+
+"Faith, thot's the toime tail came out a head," commented Gerald.
+
+"Now, Dick."
+
+"Head," replied Dick.
+
+"Tail again," announced Rand. "Luck is with you, Donald. There is
+only Pepper left now."
+
+"Only Pepper!" exclaimed that individual indignantly. "What is the
+matter with me?"
+
+"Notin' at ail, me darlint," broke in Gerald; "shure, your the
+biggest banana in the bunch, av people only knew it."
+
+"Well, Pepper?" said Rand.
+
+"Heads."
+
+"Head it is," announced Rand. "You're it, Pepper."
+
+"Begorrah, 'tis a long tail that has no head," commented Gerald.
+
+"Master Pepper Blake," began Rand, "has been chosen to carry our
+message of defiance to the tribe of the Highpoints."
+
+"When do I go?"
+
+"At the rise of the sun to-morrow," replied Rand, "you must be
+prepared to take the trail."
+
+"Before breakfast?"
+
+"We will not require that sacrifice of you," said Rand. "Here is
+the message. Fail not on your honor to deliver it. You are going
+through a hostile country beset with enemies--"
+
+"Monkey Rae's," murmured Gerald.
+
+"And the message must be delivered under all circumstances. It
+contains information of the utmost importance, which must not be
+allowed to fall into the enemies's hands. I will meet you to-morrow
+at the great oak to give you your final instructions."
+
+"Very well, sir," replied Pepper, "I will not fail to carry out
+your commands to the letter."
+
+"Bravo, boys, well done!" commended Mr. Scott, who had been standing
+in the doorway, unseen by the boys, enjoying the fun. "If I was
+only a little younger, there is nothing I would like better than
+to be an Indian brave with you."
+
+For a moment the boys were silent in the presence of the bank
+president, whom they all regarded with more or less awe, until
+Gerald broke the silence.
+
+"Shure, 'tis niver too late to have fun, Mister Scott," he said.
+"We'd be plased to have ye for one of us. We'll make ye prisident
+an' ye'll find it a hape more fun than bein' the prisident av the
+bank."
+
+"I don't doubt it," replied Mr. Scott laughingly, "but I'm afraid
+I am almost too old to keep up the pace you set. But I'll tell you
+what I am going to do. I am going on an outing some of these days
+and I am going to invite you all to go along with me."
+
+"Hurrah!" cried the boys with a will.
+
+"Ready Uncas!" called Don, raising his bugle, "the Scout salute!"
+
+As the room rang with the noise Mr. Scott clapped his hands to his
+ears.
+
+"Thanks," he said; "Mrs. Scott sent me up here to see if there was
+anything the matter, you were so quiet, but after that I think she
+will conclude that you are all right."
+
+"What is that you have there, Rand?" he added as he caught sight
+of the coin that Rand had been using to toss up. "Where did you
+get it?"
+
+"Those are the ones that we found in the road," replied Rand. "Do
+you know what they are?"
+
+"Yes," answered Mr. Scott; "they are a political token issued in
+the time of Van Buren during the controversy over the currency. By
+the way, I shouldn't be surprised if these were some of the coins
+that were stolen out of Judge Taylor's office when it was broken
+into."
+
+"Then the robbers must have gone away over that road," mused Rand,
+"and that is how they got there."
+
+"That was doubtless the way of it," concluded Jack.
+
+"Ay, but you thought there was some connection with them and Monkey
+Rae," reminded Donald.
+
+"Are you sure there isn't?" answered Jack.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+PEPPER TAKES THE MESSAGE
+
+
+When Rand arrived at the great oak, which stood at the fork of
+the road on the outskirts of Creston, on the following morning, he
+found Pepper impatiently awaiting his arrival.
+
+"I thought you were never coming," grumbled Pepper, when Rand made
+his appearance. "I expected to be half way there by this time."
+
+"Plenty of time," said Rand. "How long do you think it will take
+you to get there and back?"
+
+"How far is it?"
+
+"Five miles, as the crow flies," returned Rand, "and near six by
+the road."
+
+"That's an hour and a half on the road each way and an hour to
+stop.  I ought to do it in four hours and a half."
+
+"Then you should be back by dinner time," concluded Rand. "We will
+meet you here at 1 o'clock. Which road are you going to take?"
+
+"The upper road," decided Pepper, "it runs through the woods, but
+it's by far the shortest way."
+
+With a whistle the boy started off along the thoroughfare at a good
+pace. "Look for me at 1 sharp," he called back as he went off.
+
+He had gone perhaps a quarter of a mile on his way when, as he was
+passing a small clump of bushes by the side of the road, there was
+a rustle behind the bushes, and a voice cried:
+
+"Halt!"
+
+Pepper, however, broke into a run which carried him past the clump,
+when again came the command:
+
+"Halt, or I'll shoot!"
+
+The boy hesitated for a moment as to whether he should stop or run,
+and as he did so Gerald and Jack came out upon the scene.
+
+"Did we scare you?" asked Gerald.
+
+"No," replied Pepper stoutly, "I thought it was a joke."
+
+"We just wanted to test your courage," said Jack.
+
+"That reminds me--" began Dick, who had now joined the others.
+
+"That it is time for me to be getting along," broke in Pepper.
+"Good-by, fellows," starting off again.
+
+"Good luck," called the boys after him.
+
+The road which he was following ran through the woods along the
+top of the mountain and was comparatively little traveled, most
+persons preferring the lower road which, although longer, was not
+near so rough or hilly.
+
+Pepper met but few people on the way, and had gone rather more than
+half the distance when, as he was descending the slope of a small
+hill, he observed coming down the opposite slope a horse and wagon,
+about which there was something familiar.
+
+"That looks like the rig that Monkey Rae was driving the other day,"
+he thought, as he looked at it again. "If he is in it, I think I
+had better do the disappearance act until he goes by."
+
+Stepping from the road he waited behind a small thicket until the
+wagon came nearer, when he saw that it was being driven by the man
+who had been with Monkey when they had taken the boat, and that,
+following the wagon was a big, ugly-looking, mongrel dog, that was
+dashing from one side of the road to the other, interspersed with
+little excursions into the woods.
+
+"Gee!" thought Pepper, "I wouldn't want to fall into their hands.
+I think it's to the woods for mine," at the same time making his
+way as quickly as possible deeper into the underbrush.
+
+"I didn't get out of the way any too soon," he continued to himself,
+for on coming to the place where Pepper had left the road the dog
+stopped, sniffed at the ground and gave vent to a gruff bark.
+
+"What is it, Tige, old boy?" called the man, stopping his horse.
+"Sic 'em!"
+
+With a deep growl the dog started on the boy's trail. Pepper could
+hear him crashing his way through the underbrush and ran as fast
+as he could, looking about him, as he ran, for a stick or a stone
+with which to defend himself, but could see none, and all the time
+the dog was coming closer and closer, his growl becoming more and
+more menacing. It was nearly upon him, and he imagined that he could
+feel its hot breath and expected every moment to feel the snap of
+its jaws, when he saw, a little way ahead of him, what looked like
+a stout black stick lying upon the ground. "Gee! that's lucky,"
+thought Pepper, running to where the stick lay and, stooping to
+pick it up when, to his astonishment and terror, the supposed stick
+glided from under his hand and he saw that he had been about to
+grasp a large-sized snake. Springing to his feet he made a wild jump
+upward and, as luck would have it, caught at the branch of a tree
+above his head, and, getting a firm grasp, drew himself up just as
+the dog, with its teeth snapping, sprang at him.
+
+"Crickets!" said the boy to himself, "but that was a close shave,"
+meantime climbing up into the tree to a more comfortable perch.
+"I don't know which of them I like the least. It looks as though
+there was going to be something doing now."
+
+So intent had been the dog in its pursuit of Pepper that he did
+not see the snake until he had run onto it as it lay coiled upon
+the ground when, with a cry of alarm, the dog bounded into the air,
+clearing the snake by half a dozen feet. Apparently forgetting the
+quarry which it had been so eagerly pursuing, the dog now turned
+its attention to the snake, which was the largest that Pepper had
+ever seen.
+
+For a few moments Pepper was too fascinated to move, as he watched
+the strangest combat that he had ever seen going on beneath him. A
+combat in which neither of the combatants seemed desirous of assuming
+the aggressive. Lying in a close coil, with its head rising from
+the center, its forked tongue darting in and out, and emitting every
+now and then an angry hiss, the snake, swaying its head from side
+to side, closely followed in its movements those of the dog, which
+circled about it barking furiously, and apparently watching for an
+opportunity to seize it back of the head, but which the snake was
+too wary to permit.
+
+[Illustration: "The strangest combat that he had ever seen."]
+
+"This beats the circus," thought Pepper, after he had watched the
+fight for a little time, "but this isn't getting the message to
+Highpoint. I don't believe I have time to wait for the finale. I
+wonder how I am going to get out of this. If I drop down there they
+will be making a show of me. Looks as though I might get over into
+that next tree. I'll try it, anyhow."
+
+The trees here had grown so close together that many of the branches
+were in-lacing, and it seemed possible to Pepper that he could get
+from the one tree into the other.
+
+"It looks kind of thin," thought Pepper, when he had picked out a
+limb which extended into the adjoining tree, "but, perhaps, it will
+do."
+
+Crawling out upon the branch until it bent and swayed dangerously
+under his weight, he caught a branch of the other tree and swung
+himself over, narrowly missing a fall.
+
+"So far, so good," soliloquized Pepper, working his way toward the
+trunk. "I rather like this way of going. Now for the next one."
+
+The next tree was a little farther away, but by climbing out on a
+bough that extended into the other tree he crept on until he could
+just touch one of the opposite branches, but could not get a hold.
+
+"Looks as if I would have to go back," he decided, after he had
+tried and failed to get a hold on the other tree. But this, he
+found, was more easily said than done, for when he attempted to turn
+around he slipped and only his quick clutch of the swaying branch
+saved him from a tumble.
+
+"This is a nice scrape I have got into," he thought, when he tried
+to climb back onto the limb from which he had slipped, but found
+it impossible. "I can't get back, and I don't see how I am to go
+on. I hope it will let me down easy."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+WHERE WAS PEPPER?
+
+
+"Two o'clock," said Rand, closing his watch with a snap. "An hour
+behind time."
+
+The boys had been waiting at the great oak since just after noon,
+but Pepper had not yet come.
+
+"Perhaps he got off the road and got lost in the woods," suggested
+Jack.
+
+"Maybe he got back sooner than he expected by some other road and
+went home," said Gerald. "Shall I run over and see?"
+
+"Go ahead," replied Rand. "We will wait for you here."
+
+Darting off, Gerald was gone but a few minutes, returning on the
+run to report that Pepper had not been back since morning.
+
+"Perhaps he has got hurt somehow," put in Dick.
+
+"It is no way impossible," assented Donald. "It might no be a bad
+idea to walk along the road until we meet him."
+
+"Which way did he go?" asked Jack.
+
+"The upper road," replied Rand.
+
+The boys acted upon the suggested and proceeded along the road,
+slowly at first, then more rapidly as their comrade did not appear.
+They had covered more than half the distance to Highpoint.
+
+"Listen!" said Jack suddenly, as they stopped for a moment. "What
+is that?"
+
+Faint and far in the distance sounded what seemed like a bugle
+call.
+
+"It is a bugle call," cried Dick. "It must be Pepper."
+
+"It may be possible," admitted Donald.
+
+Putting his bugle to his lips Rand blew a long, clear call, but it
+brought no response.
+
+"Which way did the sound come from?" asked Gerald.
+
+"From over that way," replied Dick, indicating with his hand.
+
+"What would he be doing away off there?" demanded Donald.
+
+"There is it again," said Gerald, as the sound was repeated.
+
+"It is over this way," declared Jack, designating another direction.
+
+"No, it's over this way," asserted Dick, but still at variance with
+the others.
+
+"Wait," said Rand, "maybe we can hear it again."
+
+The boys stood silent for a few moments, when the call came faintly
+once again.
+
+"It is over this way," declared Rand, leading the way to the right,
+but, although they stopped from time to time to listen, they did not
+hear the sound again, nor did they find any trace of their missing
+comrade. For a half hour or more they continued their search, but
+in vain, and they were returning to the road when they heard the
+call again, but so faintly that it was lost almost as soon as heard.
+
+"He is going away," decided Rand. "There is certainly something
+queer about it."
+
+"In my opinion," began Donald, "'tis no use looking any more."
+
+"Why not?" asked Rand.
+
+"Because it was no mortal sound," replied Donald.
+
+"Nonsense!" exclaimed Rand.
+
+"Nonsense or no," retorted Donald stoutly, "I don't like it."
+
+"What is it, then, Donald, if it isn't mortal?" asked Rand.
+
+"I can no rightly say," responded Donald, "but I don't believe you
+will ever find him."
+
+"Pooh!" returned Rand; "he may be along any minute."
+
+"Let us go on to Highpoint," proposed Jack, "and see if he has been
+there."
+
+As nothing better was suggested the boys set out for Highpoint,
+which they soon reached, and a short hunt enabled them to find Jack
+Dudley, the leader of the Highpoint Patrol, from whom they learned
+that Pepper had not been there.
+
+"What time did he start?" asked Dudley.
+
+"Eight o'clock," replied Rand.
+
+"It's very strange," said Dudley. "He may have met with some accident.
+I will hunt up our patrol and will help you search for him.  If you
+will go back and start from the point where you searched before we
+will take up the scout from here and keep on until we find him, or
+we join forces again, unless you have something better to propose."
+
+"I don't think there is any better way," said Rand, with which the
+others agreed, and thanking him for his offer, the Uncas boys, now
+thoroughly alarmed, set out again upon the search.
+
+It was 5 o'clock when they got back to Creston, searching on the
+way, and Pepper had not returned, or trace of him found.
+
+"What shall we do next?" asked Jack, as they stood undecided in
+the road.
+
+"What is it now?" asked Colonel Snow, who had come up unperceived.
+
+"We can't find Pepper," answered the boys.
+
+"What is it," went on the colonel, "a game of hide and seek?"
+
+"No, sir," responded Rand; "he went over to Highpoint this morning
+with a message; I mean he started for Highpoint, but he hasn't been
+there and he hasn't come back. We are afraid he is lost."
+
+"Lost!" exclaimed the colonel. "How could that be."
+
+"We don't know," answered Jack; "but we have hunted all over for
+him, and he isn't anywhere about."
+
+"All over?" said the colonel. "He couldn't very well be all over at
+once, could he? But, come along, and we will see if we can't find
+him. Which way did he go?"
+
+"On the upper road," answered Rand; "but we have been all along
+that."
+
+"Well, we'll see if we can't pick up his trail," went on the colonel
+at once, leading off at a rapid pace. "Did any of you pick it up?"
+
+"There are lots of tracks," replied Rand, "but I did not pick his
+out."
+
+"Some who are expert, you know, can read tracks as readily as you
+read the paper. These look much alike, but we will follow them up
+and see if any diverge or break away from the road."
+
+Walking rapidly along the road the colonel indicated one he thought
+might be Pepper's track, which the boys followed, with some success,
+after it had been pointed out until, all at once, the marks indicated
+that the person had come to a sudden stop and had turned aside.
+
+"He left the road here for some reason," decided the colonel, "or
+the one who made the trail did. He went through here, you can see
+how these bushes have been thrust aside."
+
+"I do now," replied Rand, "but I wouldn't have noticed it myself."
+
+"Did he have a dog with him?" continued the colonel, following the
+trail through the woods.
+
+"No," answered Rand.
+
+"Probably the dog came from the other direction. Looks as if Pepper
+was trying to get away from the dog. They were both in a hurry. It
+stops here; he must have taken to a tree."
+
+"Pepper!" he shouted, "where are you?"
+
+But neither his calls nor those of the boys brought any response.
+
+"He isn't here," went on the colonel; "but there has been a
+disturbance of some kind. There are dog's tracks all around as if
+the animal had struggled with something, but no footprints. There
+is the track of a snake, too."
+
+"A snake!" cried Jack, in alarm. "Do you think it could have bitten
+him?"
+
+"No," said the colonel, "if he had been bitten we would still have
+his trail. He seems to have vanished into the air."
+
+"I don't see how he could do that," declared Don.
+
+"Neither do I," replied the colonel. "Spread out around the tree
+and see if you can find where he came down."
+
+But a thorough search failed to reveal, to the investigators, any
+trace.
+
+"I never saw anything like this," declared the colonel. "He seems
+to have disappeared completely."
+
+"But where could he have gone?" asked Jack, anxious for the safety
+of his brother.
+
+"I wish I knew," returned the colonel. "If there were any birds around
+here big enough we might suspect that one of them had carried him
+off, but we will evidently have to await Pepper's own explanation
+of the enigma." Then he added after a moment:
+
+"Well, boys, we have got to the end of the trail. I don't know what
+to do next."
+
+"That reminds me," started Dick, when there was a hiss, a snarl and
+a flash through the air from the tree, under whose branches they
+were standing, and an immense wild cat, spitting and clawing, landed
+on Dick's back.
+
+"Help! Murder!" shouted Dick. "Take it off!"
+
+For an instant the boys were so dumfounded by the suddenness of
+the attack that they all jumped in different directions, but the
+colonel, with a well-directed blow from the heavy stick he carried,
+knocked the animal off of Dick, but not before his coat had been
+torn and Dick himself scratched by its claws.
+
+Snarling and spitting the cat now crouched, facing the colonel,
+and seemed about to spring.
+
+"Knock him over the head!" shouted Donald. "Hit it in the head with
+a stone," looking about for a weapon.
+
+"Look out!" called Rand, "give me a chance at it!" drawing back his
+bow and letting fly an arrow which pierced the animal's body and
+knocked it sprawling, when Gerald added a blow from a well-directed
+stone. With a wild scream the cat bounded into the air and fell
+motionless to the ground.
+
+"Look out, Rand!" cautioned Dick, creeping back from the bushes
+into which he had fled as soon as he had gained his feet, as Rand
+went up to where the cat was lying. "Take care it don't spring on
+you!"
+
+"No danger," replied Rand: "it's dead."
+
+"Faith, thin, Oi w'udn't trust it, dead or alive," said Gerald.
+
+"That was a good shot, Rand," commended the colonel, "and just in
+time. A full-grown wild cat is an enemy not to be despised."
+
+"I should say not," agreed Dick. "Ugh! I feel as if I had been
+scraped with a curry-comb. I wonder," with a look at his clothes,
+"if I couldn't get a job somewhere as a scarecrow?"
+
+"But what has become of Pepper?" asked Don.
+
+"That is the puzzle that we have got to solve," replied the colonel.
+"For the present the only thing we can do is to go back to Creston
+and see if we can't pick up some new clues."
+
+The boys, with Colonel Snow, slowly made their way back to the
+town, carrying with them the body of the cat, the skin of which
+Rand proposed to have tanned for a trophy for the club room.
+
+As they entered the town they were met by Officer Dugan, who put
+his hand on Rand's shoulder.
+
+"I have a warrant for your arrest," he said.
+
+The party were amazed, and the colonel was the first to speak.
+
+"For what?" he asked.
+
+"For robbing Judge Taylor's office," replied the officer.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+THE MESSAGE
+
+
+For a moment or two Pepper hung at the extremity of the branch
+to which he was clinging, when all at once there came an ominous
+cracking and the end broke away, but fortunately it had swung so
+low toward the ground that he dropped at the foot of the tree, not
+much the worse for his experience.
+
+It had ail happened so quickly that, before he had time to utter
+a cry Pepper found himself lying on the ground flat on his back.
+
+"My goodness gracious!" exclaimed Pepper, feeling himself all over
+to make sure that he was ail there. "The farther I go the worse it
+gets.  This is certainly the worst yet. I think the ground is good
+enough for me after that."
+
+A little dazed by his fall, Pepper, without stopping to consider
+his direction, started off as fast as he could go, turning this way
+and that as he went, to avoid the thicker growths of under-brush,
+until he had gone a mile or more, getting ail the time deeper into
+the forest.
+
+"I think," he mused, when he stopped for a breathing spell, looking
+about for some clue to guide him, "I had better be getting back to
+the road. Now, I wonder which way it is. Let me see, which is the
+North. That must be it, because this side of the trees have moss
+on them; then the road must be off this way."
+
+Starting off in the direction he had decided upon Pepper pursued
+his way, swerving now to the right and again to the left to avoid
+some all but impassable thicket or some swampy bit of ground, until
+he judged that he had gone at least a mile.
+
+"Crickets!" he exclaimed at length. "I wonder where that road has
+gone. I was not that far from it, I know. I must have traveled
+about four miles since I left it, in the wrong direction at that.
+Gee! It must be pretty near noon, by the way I feel." Looking at
+his watch he saw it was 12 o'clock, and sat down to eat his lunch.
+
+"Lucky I brought it along," he thought; "for, from the looks of
+things, I don't know when I am going to get any more. I wonder if
+the boys are waiting for me to return? Looks as though they would
+have quite a wait.
+
+"Now, which way shall I go?" he questioned when he had finished.
+"There doesn't seem to be any choice in the matter, one way looks
+as promising as another."
+
+Striking off at right angles from the way he had been going he
+decided to try that course for a while, but after traveling for
+an hour through the underbrush, which seemed to be getting thicker
+and more difficult to get through the farther he went, he again
+came to a halt.
+
+"Looks as if I was lost," he mused, "and the farther I go the more
+lost I am. I suppose if Don were here he would toss up for the way
+to go, and I guess that's as good a way as any."
+
+Taking a coin from his pocket he closed his hand upon the metal
+without looking at it. "if it is head," he decided, "I will go to
+the right, and if it is tail I will go to the left. It's head,"
+opening his hand. "Now, I'll bet that isn't the right way, but I'll
+try it anyhow."
+
+Taking the course the coin had indicated Pepper plunged into the
+brush and doggedly pushed on, although he was getting tired and
+somewhat discouraged.
+
+"I am going to keep on this way," he determined, "until I get to the
+road or come out on the other side, if it brings me out in California."
+
+Stopping to rest, after he had forced his way through a particularly
+heavy growth of brush, he was startled at hearing the angry bark
+of a dog not far away.
+
+"Crickets!" he cried, "I hope I haven't run across that beast again
+I think I had better look for a stick while I have time. I don't
+want to be picking up any more snakes"
+
+Looking about him he found a good-sized stick lying upon the ground,
+which he scrutinized closely before venturing to take possession.
+
+In addition to the barking of the dog he could now hear voices,
+and thus encouraged, he advanced in the direction from which came
+the sounds.
+
+"Perhaps I can find some one who can direct me how to get out of
+this," he thought. A few minutes' walk brought him near to a small
+opening in the woods in which stood a rudely-built cabin, and
+a little way off a smaller shack which, apparently, was used as
+a stable, as there was a wagon standing beside it, which Pepper
+recognized as the one he had seen on the road, and as the very one
+Monkey had been driving when he nearly run them down. There were
+a couple of kegs in the wagon and several tin cans. Perched on the
+roof of the cabin was a boy, whom he recognized as Sam Tompkins,
+who had, apparently, climbed there to escape the dog, which was
+jumping up, trying to get at him.
+
+While Pepper watched, the man whom he had seen driving the wagon,
+came from the inside of the house and drove the dog away, at the
+same time calling to Sam to come down.
+
+"That's what you get for teasing him," he growled. "He'll take a
+piece out of you yet."
+
+Making a surly response Sam slipped down from the roof and disappeared
+into the house.
+
+"Gee!" exclaimed Pepper. "I am glad I didn't walk in on them. Now,
+I wonder what is going on here?"
+
+From a large chimney, which was built at the back of the cabin,
+which was nearest Pepper, the smoke from a wood fire was rising,
+and there was an unpleasant odor in the air.
+
+"That must be the smoke we saw from the river the other day,"
+concluded Pepper. "I wonder what they are cooking there? I can't
+say I like the smell of it, whatever it is, and I don't think this
+is any good place for me, either."
+
+Slipping back as quietly as he had come, Pepper started on his
+away again. When he had gotten far enough from the place so that,
+he thought, it would not attract the attention of those there,
+Pepper sounded a call on his bugle.
+
+"Perhaps the boys are out looking for me when I didn't get back
+on time," he said, sounding the call from time to time as he went
+on, but which brought no response.
+
+"Thank goodness! I've got to the end of the woods," he exclaimed
+a little later, when he saw an open space not far ahead of him.
+
+Hurrying forward he found himself, not, as he had expected, on
+the road, but on the top of a high bluff which descended almost
+perpendicularly for a hundred feet to a roadway, which was a
+welcome sight. Just below him, looking over the edge, he saw that
+there was a broad ledge about ten feet down and that, below this
+again, the cliff sloped at an acute angle to another narrow ledge,
+but below this again there was seemingly nothing but the bare side
+of the cliff.
+
+"No use trying to get down that way," he soliloquized. "I'll just
+follow along the edge and see where I come out."
+
+Turning, he was about to step back when the earth, where he was
+standing, gave way, sliding down to the ledge below and carrying
+him with it.
+
+"Goodness!" he cried, picking himself up and shaking off the dirt
+with which he was covered. "I wonder what next? Now, how am I
+going to get out of this? I doubt if I can get back up there, and
+it don't look inviting below."
+
+It was impossible to climb up the side of the cliff, as it was
+almost perpendicular, but upon the small ledge below he noticed
+that a stunted tree was growing from the rocks.
+
+"I wonder if I can catch that tree," considered Pepper, preparing
+to slide down to the ledge. "I guess it ain't a question of can,
+I've just got to do it, and I won't be any worse off there than I
+am here, and I may be a good deal better."
+
+Carefully calculating his distance he let go, sliding down until
+he reached the ledge where he clutched a tree and held on until he
+could gain a footing. The ledge, which was about a foot in width,
+ran but a short distance in either direction, but to the right,
+a few feet below, was another level space, which Pepper judged he
+might gain.  Moving cautiously along until he was over the point
+he let himself down to the lower ledge. Following this along he was
+able to gain another, and so on, slipping at times and tumbling,
+until he finally came out upon a small plateau at the foot of the
+hill.
+
+"Thank goodness!" he cried as he got up and shook himself. "I've
+got to the bottom, anyhow. I hope there isn't anything more coming
+my way or I won't get that message there to-day, and I've got to
+move pretty quick, as it is."
+
+He had gone but a short distance when he heard a loud "hello," and
+looked up to see a strange boy in the Scout uniform standing on
+the rocks not far above him.
+
+"Hello!" called the boy again; "who are you?"
+
+"Hello!" he replied. "Pepper Blake. Who are you?"
+
+"Tom Brown," replied the other, then, with his trumpet, sending out
+a call that went echoing among the rocks until it brought back an
+answering call. "Say, hold on until I get down there," he said,
+addressing Pepper, then clambering down until he stood beside the
+lost boy. "Do you know we have been hunting all over for you?"
+
+"No," replied Pepper; "but I am mighty glad to see you just the
+same."
+
+"How did you get down here?" went on Tom.
+
+"Tumbled down, mainly," was the reply. "I took a drop from the top
+of the hill yonder."
+
+By this time several more of the boys, who were members of the
+Highpoint Patrol, had joined them and began to ply the object of
+their search with questions.
+
+"Hold on a minute," said one of them. "Say, Pepper, ain't you
+hungry?"
+
+"Well, I had a bite," he confessed; "but that was a good while ago,
+and I want to get on with this message."
+
+"I guess you have got there," said the boy, with a laugh. "I am
+Jack Dudley, the Leader; you can give it to me."
+
+"All right," replied Pepper, with a sigh of relief; "I got it to
+you, anyhow."
+
+"You certainly did," said Jack. "Lucky we brought along a day's
+rations. We didn't know how long we might be out. Now," as the
+boys got out their supplies from their knapsacks and spread them
+out on the rocks, "tell us how you got here." Whereupon Pepper
+related the story of his adventures.
+
+"My goodness!" exclaimed Tom, when the story was finished, "I don't
+believe it is safe for you to be out alone. What do you say, boys,
+don't you think we ought to see him safe home?"
+
+"Sure," agreed the others.
+
+"It's getting dark now," continued Tom, "and there is no telling
+what he will find on the road."
+
+So, in spite of Pepper's protests that he was all right and that
+once put upon the right road he could take care of himself, the
+boys insisted upon escorting him to the outskirts of Creston, which
+they reached without further misadventure.
+
+"Do you think you will be safe now?" asked Tom as they were about
+to leave him.
+
+"Of course I will," replied Pepper, with a laugh; "why, I am almost
+home."
+
+"Well, then, good night," they called, and with three cheers for
+Pepper, the messenger of the Uncas, the Highpoint boys turned about
+and went on their way home.
+
+Tired, but happy that he had succeeded in delivering the message,
+Pepper hurried on home. He was almost there when he was accosted by
+a schoolmate and was told that his brother Jack and others had been
+seen going into Judge Taylor's office. It was but a step farther,
+so thither he directed his course.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+IN THE JUDGE'S OFFICE
+
+
+Colonel Snow and the greatly excited boys accompanied the officer
+and his charge to the judge's office.
+
+"Good evening, Colonel; good evening, boys," said the judge, greeting
+them pleasantly when they came in under the escort of the officer.
+"I am glad to see you. Is this an official visit?"
+
+"Good evening, Judge," replied Rand. "I suppose it must be. The
+officer said I was under arrest."
+
+"Gracious, no! Not at all," said the judge. "That was a blunder,
+indeed. I merely told him I wanted to see you. I wanted to see if
+you could throw any light on the robbing of my office."
+
+"Have you any reason to think that they know anything about it?"
+demanded the colonel indignantly.
+
+"No sufficient reason," replied the judge. "Now, don't get excited,"
+as the colonel was about to speak, "but there has been a lot of
+loose talk circulating, and I thought I would like to settle it."
+
+"Loose talk!" exclaimed the colonel; "about whom?"
+
+"About Randolph, Dick Wilson and young Blake," explained the judge;
+"and, by the way, where is Pepper? I don't see him here."
+
+"We don't know where he is," replied Jack. "We have been hunting
+for him all the afternoon, but we couldn't find him."
+
+"How is that?" questioned the judge.
+
+Whereupon the story of the unavailing search was told.
+
+"That is certainly remarkable," admitted the judge. "Perhaps we
+had better put this matter off until we see if we can't find him.
+Have you any plans, Colonel?"
+
+"No," replied the colonel, forgetting his anger over the blundering
+arrest. "I am at a complete loss how to proceed. If the ground had
+opened and swallowed him he could not have disappeared more suddenly
+and more completely."
+
+"We shall certainly have to start another search. The question is
+where to begin," mused the judge, and just then, catching sight
+of Officer Dugan, his mind reverting to the latter's inexcusable
+blunder, he gave the chagrined minion of the law a severe reprimand.
+How far the angry judge might have proceeded is not known, for just
+at this moment Pepper appeared in the doorway.
+
+"Pepper!" cried Jack. "Where in the world have you been?"
+
+"Where in the world haven't I been?" he responded.
+
+"You evidently found yourself," asserted the colonel.
+
+"Is it really you, Pepper?" asked Gerald; "and where did you hide
+yourself?" and other questions came thick and fast.
+
+"Just returned from delivery of the message to the Highpoint Scouts,"
+finally answered the boy when he was afforded an opportunity to
+speak.
+
+"Highpoint! Why, we went to Highpoint!" cried Rand, "and you had
+not been there. Which way did you go?"
+
+"Don't know," replied the messenger. "Round by Robin Hood's barn,
+I guess; but I came out on the side of the cliff, and the Highpoints
+fortunately found me."
+
+"But how did you get out of the tree?" asked the colonel. "We
+couldn't find any trail."
+
+"Did you know I was up a tree? Well, I climbed into the next tree,"
+was the reply.
+
+"Ah!" said the colonel, "that accounts for it. I never thought of
+that."
+
+"Tell us about it," requested the judge.
+
+"There isn't very much to tell," said Pepper, repeating the details
+of his trip, from the time of meeting the horse and wagon with
+Monkey Rae and the man.
+
+"Of course," muttered Jack, "you could bet Monkey would be in it
+somewhere."
+
+"S-s-say," went on Pepper, "how did that fight come out? I didn't
+have time to stop and see."
+
+"I should think not," observed the judge; "it was your busy day."
+
+"I think it must have been a draw," answered the colonel, "for each
+went his own way. But to return to our business. You said, Judge,
+there was some talk about these boys; what is it?"
+
+"Well, you know," began the judge, "my office was broken into some
+time ago and some things taken."
+
+"You don't think that these boys had anything to do with it, do
+you?" interrupted the colonel.
+
+"Of course not," the judge assured him; "but there were some boys'
+tracks--now let me go on--and it has been said that these boys were
+out very early on that morning, and that they have been spending
+money pretty freely of late, buying uniforms and other things."
+
+"But we earned that money ourselves," interrupted Pepper indignantly.
+
+"Don't get hot, Pepper," counseled Donald.
+
+"I don't doubt it," replied the judge; "and then it is reported
+that Randolph and Pepper claimed to have found money on the road."
+
+"I don't know as you could call it money," demurred Rand, showing
+the coin that he had found. "I found this and Pepper found another."
+
+"Ah!" remarked the judge, taking the coin, "that looks like one of
+those stolen from me. Where did you find it?"
+
+"On the Mountain Road," answered Rand. "We did not know that they
+were yours, or we should have returned them."
+
+"I don't know that they are mine," said the judge, "although they
+are similar. You had better keep them for the present. So that is
+the way they went," he mused; "they probably escaped in a boat.
+I'm afraid there isn't much chance of capturing them. That is all,
+boys. I just wanted to have a talk with you to straighten things
+out."
+
+"Where did all these stories come from?" asked the colonel.
+
+"Oh, I think it is mostly boys' talk," said the judge. "I think
+Tompkins said he heard it from his boy."
+
+"Sam Tompkins!" cried Jack, "of course. He's trying to throw
+suspicion on us, but I guess he knows a lot more about it than we
+do."
+
+"I think you have hit it, Jack," agreed the judge. "I believe that
+is a clue worth following up."
+
+"But what about the tools?" asked the officer.
+
+"Oh, yes," continued the judge, "I had forgotten about them. Do
+you know anything about these tools, Dick?"
+
+"Yes, sir; they came from our shop," he answered.
+
+"Ah! that's what I thought," said the officer to himself. "It isn't
+going to end here."
+
+"They were taken from there," went on Dick. "We missed them several
+days before the robbery, but I don't know who took them."
+
+"Then they must have been taken by some one around here," concluded
+the judge. "It seems to me that the farther we go the more mysterious
+it gets. Jack, I think that you had better set your wits to work
+and see if you can't clear it up."
+
+"Very well, Judge," answered Jack, who had been going over the matter
+in his mind. "I think I have a clue that I am going to follow up
+and see what comes of it."
+
+"Good," commented the judge. "While I do not believe for an instant
+that any of you young gentlemen had anything to do with the robbery,
+I would like to see it brought home to those who did it."
+
+"And I, too," added the colonel.
+
+"Good night, boys," continued the judge. "You have had rather an
+exciting day, and I think you had better be getting home. I think
+you want to look out for Pepper so that nothing more happens to
+him to-night."
+
+"Good night, Judge," responded the boys, Jack adding as they went
+out, "I won't leave him out of sight until I have him safe in the
+house."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+A NARROW ESCAPE
+
+
+"Row, brothers, row," said Gerald "Kape it up, you're doin' fine."
+
+"How are we going?" asked Rand.
+
+"Almost as fasht as Oi c'ud walk," replied Gerald in his richest
+brogue. "Av ye hit it up a bit mebbe ye c'ud be in toime to see
+the ind av it to-morrow, Oi dunno."
+
+"But truly, Geraid," asked Donald, "how are we doing?"
+
+"As weil as c'ud be ixpected av a lot of farmers," replied the
+irrepressible Gerald. "Ye moight do worse, Oi dunno. Mebbe av ye
+tho't ye were hoeing potatoes ye c'ud do betther. Can't ye hit up
+a bit?"
+
+"I guess we can; a little," replied Rand, who was rowing stroke,
+slightly increasing his effort. "How is that?"
+
+"Betther," responded the other, and the boat shot ahead a little
+faster.
+
+The Uncas crew were out for a final spin over the course before the
+race, which had been set for the following day. Beside the Uncas
+and the Highpoint, the Alton, from farther up the river, had also
+entered. It was not thought, even by their friends, that the Uncas
+had much chance against the others, whose crews, particularly the
+Alton's, were much heavier and stronger.
+
+"Is that better?" asked Rand, after they had rowed a short time.
+
+"'Tis a thrifle betther," replied Gerald. "Av ye do as well to-morrow,
+mebbe we won't be disgraced intirely, Oi dunno."
+
+"Come now, Gerald," pleaded Jack, "tell us how we are doing?"
+
+"Shure, Oi don't want to discourage ye intirely," replied Gerald,
+"but ye didn't do any betther than three minutes in the lasht
+moile."
+
+"Three minutes!" shouted Don; "did we do it in that?"
+
+"Hurrah!" cried Jack; "we'll be in it yet."
+
+"In what?" asked Dick.
+
+"In the water," chuckled Jack.
+
+"You will be," retorted Donald, "if you spring anything like that
+on us again."
+
+"That reminds me--" began Dick.
+
+"What does?" asked Donald.
+
+"What is the matter, Gerald?" broke in Rand, as the coxswain, with
+a sudden exclamation, threw the rudder hard down and called:
+
+"Up oars, all!"
+
+The boys raised their oars just in time as the shell grazed the
+stern of a heavy skiff, which a boy, who was rowing, had stopped
+just in the course of the shell.
+
+"Hey, there!" shouted Rand as the boats swept apart: "what are you
+trying to do, run us down?"
+
+"What are you trying to do, yourself?" retorted a man, who was
+sitting in the stern of the skiff. "Don't you think anybody has any
+right on the river but you? Think you own the whole place, don't
+you?"
+
+"But you had plenty of room without getting in the way," persisted
+Rand. "I think you did it on purpose."
+
+"Aw, go wan!" returned the man. "Don't get too funny or I'll come
+over there and take you over my knee."
+
+"Come over and try it, if you think you can do it," replied Rand
+hotly.
+
+"Monkey Rae again," murmured Jack. "I thought we had got rid of
+him."
+
+"Keep cool, Rand," advised Don; "it isn't worth while making a fuss
+over."
+
+"He ought to have his head punched," put in Dick.
+
+"Who?" asked Jack. "Don?"
+
+"No; that fellow in the boat," answered Dick.
+
+"That isn't the way to teach him good manners," objected Jack.
+
+"It's the only way you can teach some people," argued Dick. "Who
+is he?"
+
+"Oh, that's the man that took our boat up the river," replied Jack.
+
+"What do you think he was trying to do?" went on Dick.
+
+"Trying to steal it, of course," replied Jack.
+
+"I mean now."
+
+"Oh, smash us up so we couldn't row to-morrow," guessed Jack.
+
+"But what for?" persisted Dick.
+
+"Oh, just pure ugliness, I guess," replied Jack.
+
+"Then, you know, Monkey has it in for Rand for the thrashing he
+once gave him for beating his dog."
+
+"Does he carry malice like that?" asked Donald.
+
+"He will carry it all his life," replied Jack, "and then some more.
+Then Monkey doesn't like any of us because he was always behind us
+in school. He says we got ahead by favor, for we aren't any smarter
+than he is."
+
+"Let fall!" ordered Gerald. "Let's try it again."
+
+The boys bent to their work, but they had lost their vim, and they
+did not strike their pace again.
+
+"I don't understand about Monkey," began Jack, as they drew into
+the landing. "There is something back of all this, and I mean to
+find out what it is."
+
+"What have you been doing," cried Pepper, who was waiting for them
+on the landing, "fishing?"
+
+"No; monkeying," answered Rand. "Jim Rae got in the way, and we
+had to stop for fear of smashing into him."
+
+"Why didn't you do it and get rid of him?" asked Pepper.
+
+"It would more likely have got rid of us," replied Rand; "and I
+guess that is what he was trying to do."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+A NIGHT ALARM
+
+
+"Who's there?" called Rand sharply. He was sitting with Donald and
+Pepper on the steps of the piazza, in front of Mr. Scott's house.
+
+"There is nobody there," declared Donald; "it's just your imagination."
+
+"But I certainly saw something move behind that bush over there,"
+insisted Rand.
+
+"And I, too," confirmed Pepper.
+
+"You are always seeing things, even when there ain't any," continued
+Donald.
+
+"And you can't see them until they hit you with a club," retorted
+Pepper.
+
+"Any one there?" called Rand again, going to the spot which Pepper
+pointed out, and followed by the others.
+
+"Sh!" was the whispered reply from behind the bushes. "It is only
+I."
+
+"Who are you?" demanded Rand.
+
+"Win Moore," replied a small boy, coming out.
+
+"Why, hello, Win," said Rand; "what were you trying to do, play
+spook?"
+
+"No," replied Win, "but I thought maybe Gerald was here."
+
+"He isn't here," answered Rand. "Do you want to see him?"
+
+"Yes," hesitated Win; "I have something to tell him."
+
+"I am sorry he isn't here," continued Rand. "Anything I can do for
+you?"
+
+"There isn't any one around, is there?" went on Win doubtfully.
+
+"Nobody but Pepper, Don and I," replied Rand. "You know them. What
+is it?"
+
+"They are going to smash the shell to-night," whispered Win, looking
+fearfully about him.
+
+"They are going to do what?" exclaimed Donald.
+
+"Say it again," said Rand, doubting that he had heard aright.
+
+"They are going to smash the shell to-night, so you can't row
+to-morrow," repeated Win.
+
+"Who are?" demanded Donald, still incredulous.
+
+"Monkey Rae and Sam Tompkins," answered Win.
+
+"How do you know?" asked Pepper.
+
+"I heard them planning," explained Win. "I was up in the woods
+to-day and I heard some one talking, and I listened to hear who it
+was."
+
+"What did they say?"
+
+"Monkey said he guessed there'd be a surprise party here in the
+morning, when you found you didn't have any boat to row with. Sam
+asked how they could do it, and Monkey said they would go down to
+the boathouse to-night, after it got dark, and fix it. Sam didn't
+want to go very much, but Monkey said it was all right, and nobody
+would know who did it."
+
+"Do you think he meant our shell?"
+
+"Sure," replied Win. "He said he was going to get square with Rand
+Peyton and Pepper Blake. So I hid in the bushes until they went
+away, and I came down here to tell Gerald."
+
+"Thank you, Win," said Rand; "we are ever so much obliged to you."
+
+"Don't let them know I told you," pleaded Win, "or they will half
+kill me for telling."
+
+"Sure not," promised Rand. "You can slip off again and no one will
+know you have been here."
+
+"Well, what do you think of that!" exclaimed Pepper, when Win had
+gone.
+
+"Shure, an' phat mischief are ye's plotting now?" demanded Gerald,
+who came across the lawn as his brother slipped away.
+
+"More monkey tricks," responded Rand. "Monkey is going to surprise
+us to-night."
+
+"Is he now?" asked Gerald; "and phat is he up to now?"
+
+"He is going to smash the shell so we can't row to-morrow," replied
+Donald.
+
+"Faith, I think he'll find it a hard nut to crack," asserted Gerald,
+dropping his brogue in his indignation. "Though there isn't anything
+surprising about that. I don't think Monkey could surprise us,
+except by trying to be good."
+
+"And I don't believe he'll try that," laughed Pepper.
+
+"What shall we do about it?" asked Gerald. "Tell the colonel?"
+
+"I am no sure there is anything to it," said Donald. "And it may
+be possible we can take care of Monkey and Sam ourselves. In my
+opinion, it would no be a bad plan to go down to the boathouse and
+capture them if they come."
+
+"That isn't a bad idea," agreed Rand. "We can slip away, one at
+a time, so if they see us they won't suspect anything. I will go
+first and the rest of you can join me later. There isn't any moon
+to-night, and we can easily find places to hide around the house."
+
+"Faith," whispered Gerald, "we'll beat them at their own game."
+
+Acting upon Rand's suggestion the boys separated, each taking a
+different course, meeting later at the boathouse. The place was in
+darkness when Rand, who was the first to arrive, got there. Making
+a hasty examination by the light of a match he saw that the shell
+was all right. Keeping in the dark, he waited until the others,
+slipping up like so many shadows, had come.
+
+"Seen or heard anything?" asked Donald, as they consulted behind
+the house.
+
+"Not a thing," responded Rand. "Perhaps they have given it up."
+
+"You can no depend upon what they may do," commented Donald.
+
+"That's right, old Solomon," agreed Pepper; "so it's just as well
+to be prepared for anything."
+
+"What shall we do if they come?" asked Donald.
+
+"Jump out and scare them to death," suggested Gerald.
+
+"No," advised Rand. "Let's give them a chance to get in. If they
+go to the door or window, Don or I will give the call and we will
+all rush on them and grab them."
+
+"Don't wait too long or they may spoil the shell," said Pepper.
+
+"We will just give them a chance to get inside," went on Rand,
+detailing his plans. "I think it will be better if we each hide
+in a different place. Pepper can go over there behind those bushes
+and watch the road. Don can watch the door, and I will go on the
+other side and look out for the window."
+
+"And phat will Oi be doing?" asked Gerald, who could not resist
+his fun-making instincts.
+
+"You can hide down by the shore and watch the river."
+
+"We ought to have some kind of a signal if we hear them coming,"
+suggested Pepper.
+
+"Like Paul Revere, 'one if by land, and two if by sea,'" quoted
+Rand.  "If you hear them coming down the road, Pepper, you can give
+the whip-poor-will call, and Gerald, if he hears anything, can give
+the owl call."
+
+"Owl right," responded Gerald, as they each went to their appointed
+stations.
+
+The night was warm and pleasant. No sound, except the soft lapping
+of the waves on the shore, the chirp of a cricket or the occasional
+croak of a tree frog, disturbed the quiet of the night. As the time
+wore on, without any disturbance, the watches began to doze until
+Gerald was suddenly roused with a start by a splash in the water
+and saw a boat gliding silently toward the landing.
+
+"Faith, it looks as if there might be some fun after all," whispered
+Gerald to himself, softly hooting a couple of times and concealing
+himself behind an upturned boat.
+
+"What was that?" asked one of the rowers at the sound of Gerald's
+call.
+
+"Aw, it's nothing but an owl," replied the other. "Whatcher 'fraid
+of?"
+
+The boat was now at the landing, and the taller of the two stepping
+out fastened the boat and went toward the house, calling upon his
+companion to follow.
+
+"There will be some fun here in the morning," chuckied the foremost,
+whom Gerald now recognized as Monkey Rae.
+
+"Sure there ain't anybody 'round?" asked the other, hesitating.
+
+"Of course there ain't," responded Monkey confidently. "Aw, come
+on!  What yer 'fraid of? Nobody knows anything about it but you
+and I, and we ain't a-shoutin' it."
+
+"I thought I heard a noise," demurred the other.
+
+"Oh, bother!" returned Monkey impatiently. "You're always hearing
+something."
+
+"How are we going to get in?"
+
+"Don't worry about that," answered Monkey, "I fixed the window all
+right to-day."
+
+While talking Monkey had opened the window and started to crawl
+into the house. "If you're afraid to come in," he said scornfully
+to the other, "stay outside and keep watch. It won't take me more
+than a minute to crack this shell."
+
+At this instant Rand, with a shrill, clear whistle, sprang out from
+his hiding place and in a moment all was confusion.
+
+"Shure, the fat's in the fire now," chuckled Gerald to himself.
+
+As the whistle sounded Monkey sprang back through the window,
+landing in a heap almost at Rand's feet, but was up and off before
+Rand could get a hold on him, and sped after his companion, who
+had started off at the first alarm, in a race down the landing to
+their boat.
+
+"Hi! stop them, Gerald!" shouted Rand, dashing after them.
+
+Donald, at the alarm, rushed toward the window, and, tripping over a
+coil of rope, stumbled against a stack of oars, sending them down
+with a crash that could be heard a mile. Picking himself up, he
+ran after Rand down the landing.
+
+There was a splash in the water, and the sound of rapidly receding
+oars, but there was no one at the landing.
+
+"What has become of Gerald?" asked Rand, looking around.
+
+"He can't be far off," replied Donald, "Give him a call."
+
+"Hello-o-o, Gerald!" shouted Rand, but Gerald did not answer.
+
+"Hello, there! What's ail the noise about?" demanded Colonel Snow,
+who had followed Pepper onto the landing. "Why, boys, what are you
+doing here?"
+
+"We can't find Gerald," explained Donald, who was looking in ail
+kinds of impossible places.
+
+"I shouldn't think you would in such a place as that," said the
+colonel, as Donald turned over some small boxes. "What is it now,
+hide and seek, or has Gerald been losing himself?"
+
+"I don't know," replied Rand. "We heard that Monkey Rae was going
+to smash the shell tonight, so we came down to catch him, but he
+got away from us."
+
+"Monkey Rae again!" exclaimed the colonel. "I should think there
+was at least half a dozen of him the way he gets around. But what
+has that got to do with Gerald?"
+
+"Why, Gerald was out here on the landing, and now we can't find
+him.  I don't know what has become of him, or if he is just hiding
+for fun," explained Rand; "though I don't see where he could hide
+here," he added.
+
+"Sure of that?" questioned the colonel. "Let's take another look
+around." Lighting a lantern from the boathouse they made a thorough
+search of the place without finding anything of their missing
+comrade.
+
+"Perhaps he got tired of waiting and went home," suggested the
+colonel.
+
+"That wouldn't be Gerald," averred Rand and Donald. "He wouldn't
+go off and leave us without saying anything and, besides, he was
+here when they came, for he gave us the signal."
+
+"Well, he isn't here now," decided the colonel after another look
+around. "Hello, Gerald!" he called, and the boys sounded the call
+on their bugles.
+
+"He ought to answer that if he is anywhere around," said Rand.
+
+"Do you think they could have carried him off?" asked Pepper.
+
+"I don't know what to think," replied the colonel. "It's queer.
+You boys certainly have an amazing faculty for getting into trouble."
+
+"But how did you get here?" asked Rand.
+
+"I was just taking a stroll," replied the colonel, "when I heard
+the noise and came down to see what it was."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+A SURPRISE
+
+
+"W-W-WHAT was that?" stammered Pepper. "I t-thought I heard a cry.
+T-t-there it is again," as a faint call came from the river.
+
+The three boys were standing on the landing with Colonel Snow,
+still discussing the mysterious disappearance of Gerald.
+
+"T-that you, Gerald?" shouted Pepper.
+
+"Where are you?" cried Donald; but, without waiting for a reply, he
+threw off his coat and shoes and plunged into the river, swimming
+in the direction from which the cry had come,
+
+"He's all right!" came the reassuring cry from Donald a little
+later.  "I have got him," and shortly afterwards reappeared paddling
+a boat in which was the bewildered Gerald, who was helped onto the
+landing by the colonel and the others.
+
+"H-h-how did you g-get into the boat, Gerald?" asked Pepper when
+Gerald had somewhat recovered from the effects of his experience.
+"Did you think it was a good time to take a row?"
+
+"It looks that way," replied Gerald. "But when Rand called to me to
+stop them I ran out to try and head them off, but something gave
+me a rap on the head and the next thing I knew I found myself lying
+in that boat. Say, I feel as if I had a head like a pumpkin."
+
+"I s-should think it would feel more like a s-squash," commented
+Pepper.
+
+"That is going altogether too far," asserted the colonel indignantly.
+"It might have had a very serious ending. I think that there is a
+bad quarter-of-an-hour in store for that Rae boy if I can get hold
+of him in the morning."
+
+As there was no likelihood that Monkey Rae would return to renew
+his attempt to injure the boat the house was locked and the boys
+went back to the town discussing, as they went, the events of the
+evening.  The colonel was very indignant.
+
+When they came near to the top of the hill they were met by Jack,
+who was running at full speed down the road.
+
+"Hello!" called Rand when he came near. "Where are you going in
+such a hurry?"
+
+"Hello," returned Jack, slowing up and joining the others. "Where
+have you been? I have been looking all over for you."
+
+"Down to the boathouse," replied Rand.
+
+"Down to the boathouse!" exclaimed Jack. "What took you down there
+tonight?"
+
+"Why, we heard that Monkey was g-going to s-smash the boat," answered
+Pepper.
+
+"Monkey!" cried Jack. "I wish I had been there----"
+
+"Wouldn't have done you any good," said Donald. "He was too quick
+for us."
+
+"Was any one with him?" asked Jack.
+
+"Only Sam Tompkins."
+
+"Ah!" returned Jack. "What did I tell you?"
+
+"Don't know," replied Pepper; "you tell us so many things that we
+can't remember them all. What did you tell us this time?"
+
+"About Monkey Rae and Sam Tompkins, and the queer coins you picked
+up in the road that day."
+
+"I believe you did say something about Monkey and the coins,"
+admitted Donald, "but I no paid much attention to it."
+
+"But what has that got to do with the present excitement?" asked
+Rand.
+
+"Listen to this," exclaimed Jack, stopping under an electric light
+to read a circular that he drew from his pocket.
+
+"Three hundred dollars reward. Escaped from jail. Three hundred
+dollars will be paid for the arrest and detention of one James Rae,
+alias 'Limpy,' who escaped from the jail at Melton on June fifth.
+Said Rae is about forty years old, stoutly built, and five feet
+eight inches in height. Has smooth face, red hair, and walks with
+a limp.  James Robinson, Sheriff."
+
+"W-w-why, t-t-that must be M-M-Monkey Rae's father," stammered Pepper
+when Jack had finished reading. "I knew he was away somewhere, but
+I didn't know he was in prison."
+
+"Shure, there's lots of things ye don't know, me darlint," interjected
+Gerald.
+
+"And he is the man who was with Monkey on the river," added Rand.
+
+"And the man that was in the boat the other day," put in Dick.
+
+"I hope they catch him!" said Pepper vindictively.
+
+"Go for him, Pepper," encouraged Gerald.
+
+"And that is what Monkey stole the fish for," continued Pepper.
+
+"Of course it was," replied Jack. "Didn't I tell you there was
+something back of this monkey business?"
+
+"But I no see it yet," remarked Donald.
+
+"Of course you don't," said Jack. "You want it explained with a
+diagram. It was Rae who robbed Judge Taylor's office, and Monkey
+and Sam Tompkins helped him. He was hiding in the woods when we
+saw him."
+
+"But what has that got to do with the coins?" demanded Donald.
+
+"Why, they stole them out of the judge's office and lost them where
+Rand and Pepper found them. I've been studying this thing out ever
+since the night we were in the judge's office. You see, there was
+suspicion of some of us and I wanted to clear it off. It's all as
+clear as day now."
+
+"Whin the fog's so thick ye c'ud cut it with a knife," put in
+Gerald.  "Give us a diagram av it."
+
+"Why, the robbery was done by Rae and some of his pals," explained
+Jack. "They sent Monkey up between the buildings and he opened the
+window and got in and then opened the doors for the others. When
+they got through all they had to do was to walk out, and Monkey
+closed and fastened the doors after them and went down the same
+way as he got in."
+
+"But how do you know that Rae did it?" asked Rand.
+
+"By putting two and two together," replied Jack. "I knew that the
+coins you found were like some that had been stolen. Monkey Rae
+and Sam went over the road just before you found them. They had
+not been lying there long, or they would have been covered up in
+the dirt, or some one else would have found them."
+
+"'Tis no way impossible," admitted Donald.
+
+"Then some of the tools they used had been taken from Wilson's
+blacksmith shop, and you know Dick said that Monkey and Sam used
+to come in there almost every day, so that it was quite probable
+that they took them; that's number two."
+
+"Go on," urged Rand. "It is growing interesting."
+
+"Well, there isn't much more; but I saw, from this circular, that
+Rae had escaped from prison, so I concluded that the man we saw in
+the boat was Rae, and I put the two and two together and worked it
+out that it was he who robbed the judge's office."
+
+"What was he after?" asked Pepper.
+
+"I don't know exactly," replied Jack; "but it was papers of some
+kind."
+
+"Well, it does look as if you were right," conceded Donald; "but
+you haven't got any proof."
+
+"No," admitted Jack; "but I have given the officer the tip, and
+told him about the shack in the woods where Pepper saw Rae. They
+are going to make a raid on it tomorrow, and perhaps they will find
+some of the stolen property in their possession; then we have the
+impression of a hand on this paper, and we can get one of Monkey's
+hands and see if they aren't the same."
+
+"Faith, hunting is wan thing and finding's anither," commented
+Gerald.
+
+Which proved to be quite true in this case, for when the officers
+reached the cabin in the woods they found it deserted and dismantled.
+The occupants had evidently taken alarm and disappeared, leaving
+no trace, although the boys were destined to meet them again under
+decidedly unpleasant circumstances.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+THE RACE
+
+
+The race had been set for 9 o'clock in the morning, but, with
+the sun, there had come up a strong breeze from the west that had
+stirred up the water into such a lumpy condition that any kind of
+time would be impossible, and the advantage would be all on the
+side of the Altons. So the race was put off from time to time in
+the hope that the wind would die down so as to equalize the chances,
+and it was not until late in the afternoon that the committee
+decided to have it rowed, although the wind was still blowing and
+the water rough.
+
+The course, as agreed upon, was a straight-away three miles over
+a clear stretch of the river from off the Creston landing.
+
+"What have you got there?" asked Dick, as Rand pulled a coin from
+his pocket and began rubbing it up on his sleeve.
+
+"That's his mascot," laughed Jack. "It's the coin he found in the
+road, and he keeps it for luck."
+
+"Well, I guess it has its work cut out for it, all right," went on
+Dick. "He will have his hands full--if it is a he--to keep us in
+the procession. Alton has a crew of blacksmiths."
+
+"So much the more weight to carry," replied Rand, who made the best
+of everything.
+
+"Not much chance for us," put in Jack.
+
+"Oh, I don't know," returned Rand.
+
+"'Stranger things than that have happened,' as the old woman said
+when she kissed her cow."
+
+"You mean as the man said when he married his cook," corrected
+Donald.
+
+"Well, there wasn't anything strange about that," returned Rand,
+"if she was a good cook."
+
+"Or if her cooking was good," added Jack.
+
+"Are you ready, all?" now called the starter, and each one of
+the different crews grasped his oar with quickened tension as the
+coxswains responded: "Ready!" and there followed the sharp report
+of the pistol.
+
+As the report rang out the oars of the three crews, all like a
+piece of accurate machinery, struck the water at the same instant
+and the boats leaped forward as if shot from a spring.
+
+At the start the weight of the Alton crew told, and their boat
+darted to the front, only to be hugged a moment later by Highpoint,
+while the Uncas trailed just behind them.
+
+"Easy, boys, easy," cautioned Gerald. "There are three miles of
+it, you know."
+
+The three boats were all together. Alton a bit in the lead, but
+without any daylight showing between them. The Uncas last, but
+still in the race.
+
+"Shure, 'tis foine, ye'r doing," cried Gerald. "Ye have thim all
+scared. See how they are running away from ye!"
+
+For the first mile there was no change, Alton still leading, but
+the pace was telling, and Highpoint was creeping up--Uncas still
+in the rear.
+
+In the next mile there was still no change in the order, and it
+looked like Alton's race, but as the second mile was passed Highpoint
+poked its nose in front, Uncas still hugging them. "Now, then!"
+cried Gerald, as they entered on the last half mile, "hit it up,
+boys; we are still in it!"
+
+"The mascot's working overtime," panted Dick, "but he's making
+good."
+
+The boys quickened their stroke in response to Gerald's call, and
+inch by inch, the Uncas pulled up on their rivals and, just as the
+finish was reached, slid across the line a scant six inches in
+front.  It was only six inches, but enough, and though the boys
+could scarce sit up, their fatigue was forgotten in the joy of the
+unexpected victory.
+
+"Tra-la-la," trilled Gerald on his bugle, but its notes were drowned
+by the call of the leader of the Highpoints for three cheers for
+the Uncas, which were given with a will by both the losing crews.
+
+After cheering each other, until they were hoarse, the three crews
+went their ways with an agreement to row another race later in the
+season.
+
+"That's one for the mascot," drawled Rand, when the boat had been
+rowed to the landing, where the colonel, with Pepper and others,
+were waiting for them.
+
+"Well, boys," said the colonel, after he had congratulated them on
+their victory, "you look as if you had been doing a day's work on
+a farm."
+
+"Well, I don't know," responded Rand. "It was hard work, but I think,
+after all, I had rather be the man with the row than the man with
+the hoe."
+
+"That reminds me--" began Dick.
+
+"It does, eh?" questioned Donald. "Well, I don't know why, I am
+sure."
+
+"That, speaking of roses--" went on Dick.
+
+"Roses!" ejaculated Jack. "Who said anything about roses?"
+
+"Well, talking about roses, anyhow--" continued Dick.
+
+"I don't see anything about here to remind you of roses," contended
+Donald.
+
+"Can you tell me," persisted Dick, "what kind of rows never come
+singly?"
+
+"The kind you have to hoe," responded Donald, whose father had a
+garden.
+
+"I guess that's right, Don," agreed the colonel
+
+"Shad roes," proclaimed Dick.
+
+"Pooh!" sniffed Don; "that has an ancient and fishlike flavor."
+
+"Which reminds me," remarked the colonel, "that I provided some
+refreshments, as a consolation for your defeat, but as you won I
+suppose you won't care for them now."
+
+"Speaking for myself," said Dick modestly; "it sounds good to me."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+CONCLUSION
+
+
+"I hope I am not too late to congratulate you on your victory," said
+a pleasant voice, and the boys looked up to see a young gentleman
+standing in the doorway of the room, where, having finished the
+repast the colonel had provided, they were sitting around talking
+over the details of the race.
+
+"I have been looking for you for a couple of weeks," he went
+on, coming into the room and offering his hand to Rand. "It was a
+splendid race and pluckily rowed, and you deserved to win."
+
+"Thank you," replied Rand. "Did you say you were looking for me?"
+
+"For all of you," replied the gentleman. "I see you don't remember
+me. I am Frank Whilden, whose sister you saved from drowning the
+other day. Come in, Nellie," he called to a young girl who was
+standing outside. "These are the young men who came to our rescue."
+
+"I just want to thank you all--" began Nellie.
+
+"Oh, it was no anything," returned Donald.
+
+"It was very much to me," began Nellie.
+
+"I mean," explained Donald confusedly "it's no great thing to make
+a claver about."
+
+"But it was a great thing to have saved you," interposed Rand, with
+an emphasis on the you.
+
+"That's very nice," replied Nellie. "Won't you shake hands with
+me, all around?"
+
+"Faith, you won't be asking me twice to do myself the favor," replied
+Gerald. "Sure I wasn't there to have the pleasure of saving you,
+but I would have been there if you had sent me word."
+
+"Don't forget the most important part, Nellie," her brother reminded
+her when she had finished shaking hands.
+
+"Mother sends her regards to you all," went on Nellie, "and hopes
+you will accept the little present she has sent you."
+
+"But we don't want any reward for what we did," protested Rand.
+"It was reward enough to have helped you."
+
+"This isn't a reward," continued Nellie; "just a little token of
+her esteem. We had it sent down to-day. Frank and I thought if you
+didn't win the race it might console you a little. We do hope you
+will like it."
+
+Frank had gone from the room, but returned now with a handsome Dart
+motorcycle.
+
+"Crickets!" cried Pepper. "I-i-it's a beauty, ain't it?" while the
+boys gathered around it to examine it. "S-s-say----"
+
+"Whistle it, Pepper," said Jack. "I don't know what it is you want
+to say, but I guess we all agree with you."
+
+"We can take turns using it."
+
+"We can draw lots for the first ride on it."
+
+"Or toss up for it," proposed Donald.
+
+"I am glad you like it," began Nellie.
+
+"We most certainly do," chorused the boys; "and we are ever so much
+obliged. We couldn't have had anything that would have suited us
+nearly so well."
+
+"There are five more just like it outside," went on Nellie; "one
+for each of you, and we hope you will get a lot of pleasure from
+them."
+
+"But we can't accept all these," protested Rand, while the others
+stood silent in stupefied amazement.
+
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+
+
+
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