The Banner Boy Scouts on a Tour Part 24

On the march the scouts had more than a few times amused themselves by practicing some of the many maneuvres they had learned. For instance, a detail was left with signal flags on a prominent knoll; and later on, when the main company had arrived at a certain point half a mile further along the road, a series of communications would be exchanged between the two detachments.

As a record of all such wigwagging was kept, it would be easy to learn just how proficient they had become in manipulating the various colored flags, or in making the many different arm gestures that conveyed the meaning of the intended message.

Among their supplies they also carried a complete telegraph equipment.

After they were finally located in a definite camp it was intended to have one or more stations, and both send and receive messages from time to time.

Thus, in these and many more genuinely interesting as well as instructive ways, they expected to make their tour a most profitable one.

Some of the boys became quite sober as they saw the grand view of the plateau and valley blotted out after leaving the noon camp. They brightened up after a while, however, since there were dozens of things to draw their attention, and arouse their boyish interest.

Dobbin had all he could do to pull the wagon over the rough road, so full of stones, and so overgrown had it become. Still, Paul noticed as he went along, that those marks of the wheels, and the prints of a horse's hoofs showed, telling that the vehicle occupied by the stranger, whom Joe Clausin seemed to have recognized, must have kept on this way.

They were now surrounded by the very wildest kind of scenery. It looked as though a tremendous convulsion of Nature must have occurred at some remote age; for giant rocks were piled up in great heaps on every hand, many of them covered with creeping vines. Trees grew in crevices, and wherever they could lodge.

"Whew! ain't this the toughest place ever, though?" remarked William, as he gaped around him at the frowning heights, and the little precipices that the road skirted.

"It's just what they told us, though, even if we wouldn't believe what we heard," declared Wallace, who was deeply interested in the big ferns that cropped up, and dozens of other things most boys would never have noticed.

Several were kept busy snapping off photographs.

"Better go slow with that, fellows," warned Paul; "because we expect to be here ten days or so, and you'll find lots of chances to get action in your pictures, with this grand scenery for a background. And the one whose films run out will wish he'd been more careful. I'd advise that you don't take too many duplicates; because, you see, good pictures can be pa.s.sed around to all, and the greater variety we have the better."

After that the camera brigade, taking warning, got together, and formed a set of rules that would prevent waste. It was a point worth noting.

When they had been moving in and out along this rough and winding road for some time, anxious glances began to be taken ahead.

"Where's that fine old lake, I wonder?" grumbled one.

"Perhaps there ain't anything doing," observed another lame one, as he limped heroically along in the midst of the trailing band, and tried to forget the sore feeling in his feet.

"Well," quoth William, with one of his famous grins, "it wouldn't be the first time we'd been stung; and I guess it won't be the last. But don't holler before you're hurt, fellows; because there's water ahead I reckon, if the signs don't lie."

"How d'ye know, old wiseacre?" demanded Bob Tice, of the second patrol; for at the time they were marching without the least semblance of order.

William struck one of his amusing att.i.tudes, and slapped himself on the chest, as much as to say: "Look at me, and take pattern, because I'm the one who knows this game from Alpha to Omega, the beginning and the end!"

"Hark! and I'll give you a pointer, fellows. A true scout must always keep his eyes wide open. No sleepy fellow can ever make a howling success of this business. I leave it to Paul here, if that ain't the truth?" and William turned to the other, who was smiling as though he suspected what had happened to meet the eyes of the speaker.

"That," said Paul, "is one of our beliefs, sure enough. A scout must always be on the alert, or else he may miss many things that would give him valuable information. William, suppose you go on and spin your yarn in your own way. I saw what you did; but I'm glad I didn't cut in.

Strike up, now, and then we'll move on again, for Dobbin is coming yonder."

"Yes," remarked the party addressed, "and if you notice the old duffer you can see that he's showing more animation than he's exhibited this hour back. It ain't that Curley's been using the whip either, for that don't hurt Dobbin any, his hide is so thick. He smells water in the air, fellows, that's what!"

"Was that what you noticed?" demanded Tom Betts, who seemed to have fully recovered from his accident of the morning.

"Not much. It's only what my dad would call corroborative evidence, or proof," remarked William; whose father, although a blacksmith, was considered one of the best read men in Stanhope, and able to argue with Judge Holt on legal matters.

"What did you see, then? Don't bait us so, William. Did you get a squint of the pond through the trees? Funny n.o.body else saw it then," grumbled Jud.

"Y-y-yes, for g-g-goodness sake t-t-tell us before we d-d-drop dead!"

cried Bluff, who always stuttered worse when excited.

"I just happened to be looking up over the tops of that big clump of trees ahead when I saw a bird; and he told me there was water below,"

remarked William, calmly.

"I didn't hear a single squawk," remarked Andy Flinn, warmly; "and even if I had, d'ye expect me to belave that ye understand the birrd language. Oh! come off. Be aisy with us, and roll your hoop, William!"

"Oh!" William blazed up, "you doubt my word, but that bird told me just as plain as words could there was water below. He was circling up, so as to get above the trees, and put for his nest. And, fellows, when I tell you it was a fish-hawk, with his dinner in his claws, you can understand what I guessed right then and there."

"Hurrah! for William! He's our keen-eyes! Nothing escapes his eagle vision. He's all to the good!" came the shouts, amid more or less laughter.

And after that there was no holding the eager scouts in. It seemed as though they could themselves scent the water, just as the wise old Dobbin had; for helter-skelter the entire troop started to make a wild dash ahead.

Even the cripples forgot to limp, and stifled their groans; for they surprised themselves by their ability to sprint with the rest.

The first to round the clump of rocks and scrub gave a shout that echoed from the adjacent mountain side; while, he waved his hat above his head to indicate his delight.

As the others skirted the obstruction they too gave way to enthusiasm, and the cheers that rolled forth must have startled the hawks, and wearers of fur in this remote region, since they could never before have heard a genuine boyish whoop.

There was a lake before them, as wild looking a body of clear water as any one could ever expect to find, even in the Adirondacks. Indeed, Paul, and several others, who had been around more or less, declared that they had never before looked on so desolate a picture.

Nowhere was there the slightest sign of human habitation. And upon the lonely sheet of water not a solitary craft of any description could be discovered. So far as they could see the Banner Boy Scouts owned the whole region!

"Alabama! here we rest!" chorused the whole troop, gleefully, as they started on a run for the near sh.o.r.e of the lake.

"Don't go far away, any fellow," warned Paul, knowing the weakness of boys when new and novel scenes beckon them on.

He had good reason to speak in this manner; for judging from the appearance of the country by which the lake was surrounded, any fellow who was unlucky enough to get lost, before he secured his bearings, might have a serious time of it.

Of course the boys had been taught various ways of telling the four points of the compa.s.s. Sun, moon and stars could be depended on when visible. On a cloudy day or night the bark of the trees would serve as a guide; since the green, mossy side was almost invariably toward the north. Besides, Paul knew how to make a compa.s.s out of his watch, though he generally carried a real magnetic needle in his pocket for emergencies.

He and Wallace, accompanied by Jack, set to work looking the ground over, with the idea of picking out the best place suitable for a camp.

"It must be not far from the lake, because we want this nice view," said Paul. "Then it ought to slope just a little, so as to drain, in case of a heavy rain storm. We don't want to be under any of those big trees either; and you can see why, if you notice what happened to one of them long ago."

"Yes, that's so," declared Jack; "for a bolt of lightning did knock that one down, sure as you're born. How's this place, Paul?"

A selection was presently made that answered the purpose. Paul was of the opinion that it would be open to the sweep of the western wind in case of a violent wind storm; but then they hoped nothing of the sort would visit them while up here in camp.

Once the word was given, and every boy got busy. Tents were pitched with rapidity, and having had one rude experience every fellow made sure that his pins were driven deep into the ground. In some places where this was not possible they made use of obliging rocks to hold the canvas snugly down.

The flag pole was cut, and planted under Paul's directions; and soon Old Glory floated proudly in the breeze, with their prize banner just below it.

"What shall we call the camp?" went up the cry.

"We had Camp Misery and Camp Rescue; what's the objection to calling this Camp Surprise?" asked Wallace, quickly.