"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.
"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 thankGod 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."
"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," saidRand.
"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."
"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," proposedPepper.
"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."
"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, butI 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 BoyScouts, 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?" askedRand.
"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 inJack.
"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.