Tom Slade on Mystery Trail Part 2

"Yop; go on," Tom said.

"So they elected me to win the Eagle award. Some choice, hey? I had seven badges to begin with; maybe that's why they wished it onto me. I had camping, cooking, athletics, pioneering, angling, that's a cinch, that's easy, and, let's see--carpentry and bugling. That's the easiest one of the lot, just blow through the cornet and claim the badge. It's a shame to take it."

"You mean you've won thirteen more since you've been here?" Tom asked.

"That's it," said Hervey. "First I got my fists on the eleven that have _got_ to be included in the twenty-one, and then I made up a list of ten others and went to it. I chose easy ones, but some of them didn't turn out to be so easy. Music--oh, boy! And when I started to play the piano, they said I wasn't playing at all, but that I really meant it. Can you beat that?"

Tom could not help smiling.

"So you see I've been pretty busy since I've been here, too busy to talk to interviewers, hey? I've piled up thirteen since I've been here; that's a little over six weeks. That isn't so bad, is it?"

"It's good," Tom said, by no means carried away by enthusiasm.

"I thought you'd say so. So now I've got twenty and I know them all by heart. Want to hear me stand up in front of the cla.s.s and say them?"

"All right," Tom said.

"No sooner said than stung," Hervey flung back at him. "Well, I've got first aid, physical development, life saving, personal health, public health, cooking, camping, bird study----"

"That's a good one," Tom said.

"You said it; and I've got pioneering, pathfinding, athletics, and then come the ten that I selected myself; angling, bugling, carpentry, conservation or whatever you call it, and cycling and firemanship and music hath charms, not, and seamanship and signaling. And two-thirds of the stalking badge. I bet you'll say that's a good one."

"There's one good one that you left out," Tom said. "I thought you'd think of it on account of that last one."

"You mean stalking?"

"I mean another that has something to do with that?"

"Now you've got me guessing," Hervey said.

"Well, how do you want me to help you?" Tom asked, thus stifling his companion's inquisitiveness.

"Well," said Hervey, ready, even eager to adapt himself to Tom's mood, "all I've got to do is to track an animal for a half a mile or so----"

"A quarter of a mile," Tom said.

"And then I'm an Eagle Scout," Hervey concluded. "But if I want to be in on the hand-outs Sat.u.r.day night, I've got to do it between now and Sat.u.r.day, and that's what has me worried. I want to go home from here an Eagle Scout. Gee, I don't want all my work to go for nothing."

"You want what you want when you want it, don't you?" Tom said, smiling a little.

"It's on account of my troop, too," Hervey said. "It isn't just myself that I'm thinking about. Jiminies, maybe I didn't choose the best ones, you know more about the handbook than I do, that's sure, and I suppose that one badge was just as easy as another to _you_. Maybe you think I just chose easy ones, hey?"

"Well, what's on your mind?" Tom said.

"Do you know where there are any wild animal tracks?" Hervey blurted out with amusing simplicity. "I don't mean just exactly where, but do you know a good place to hunt for any? A couple of fellows told me you would know, because you know everything of that sort. So I thought maybe you could give me a tip where to look. I found a horseshoe last night so maybe I'll be lucky. All I want is to get started on a trail."

"Sometimes there are different trails and they take you to the same place," Tom said.

No doubt this was one of the sort of remarks that Tom was famous for making which had either no particular meaning or a meaning poorly expressed.

Hervey stared at him for a few seconds, then said, "I don't care whether it's easy or hard, if that's what you mean. Is it true that there are wild cats up in these mountains?"

"Some," Tom said.

"Well, if you were in my place, where would you go to look for a trail?

I mean a real trail, not a cow or a horse or Chocolate Drop's kitten.

[Chocolate Drop was the negro cook at Temple Camp.] If I can just dig up the trail of a wild animal somewhere, right away quick, the Eagle award is mine--ours. See? Can you give me a tip?"

Tom's answer was characteristic of him and it was not altogether satisfactory.

"I'm not so stuck on eagles," he said.

CHAPTER V

WHAT'S IN A NAME?

"_You're not?_" Hervey asked in puzzled dismay. "You can bet that every time I look at that little old gold eagle on top of the flag pole I say, 'Me for you, kiddo.'"

"I like Star Scout better," Tom said, unmoved by his companion's consternation.

"Why, that means only ten merit badges," Hervey said.

"It's fun studying the stars," Tom added.

"Oh, sure," Hervey agreed. "But star and eagle, they're just names.

What's in a name, hey? Is that the badge you meant that I forgot about?

The astronomy badge?"

"No, it isn't," Tom said. "You're too excitable to study the stars. It's got to be something livelier."

"You've got me down pat, that's sure," Hervey laughed.

Tom smiled, too. "Well, you want the Eagle badge, do you?" he said.

"You seem to think it doesn't amount to much," Hervey complained.

"I think it amounts to a whole lot," Tom said.

"When I get my mind on a thing----" Hervey announced.

"That's the trouble with you," Tom said.

"There you go," Hervey shot back at him; "you've been through the game and walked away with every honor in the book, and you know the book by heart and you can track with your eyes shut and you've been to France and all that and you think I'm just a kid, but it means something to be an Eagle Scout, I can tell you."