CHAPTER VII.
A JOB FOR THE BOY SCOUTS TO DO.
"What makes you so sure about that, Elmer?" asked Ty Collins, after the scouts had expressed their wonder that the leader should be able to speak so positively when as yet he had not even looked at the tell-tale cap.
"Listen, fellows," began Elmer; "all of you older scouts know that one of the things impressed upon a new beginner is the power of observation. Members of the organization are given tests at memorizing things they see in a store window, after looking in for just three minutes, and then writing out a list afterward. In that way they find it second nature to note everything they see, so that if asked about it afterward they are able to give a pretty good description even of little details. I'm saying this more for the benefit of the new members than anything else, you understand?"
"Sure we do, Elmer; go right along, please," remarked Ty.
"All right," continued the leader, impressively; "but it seems that every one of the scouts doesn't happen to apply those principles of observation and memory as much as he might. Now, to make my point plain, there were two of you with me to-day when we came on the Kent house, where we found things upset by the storm. And I suppose both of those scouts had just as many chances to look Matt Tubbs over as I did; yet it seems that neither Larry nor Jasper noticed that he wore a pair of worn tan shoes, had on brown trousers that had been patched in the seat; sported a new flannel shirt made of some rather flashy material that carried a good deal of red in it; wore a sporty tie of the same color; and had a gray cap on his head, with a little red button just over the peak!"
Exclamations of surprise broke out all around the speaker.
"Say, do you mean to tell us you noticed all those details, and right while we were all excited over the injuries of the farmer?" gasped Larry.
"I always said there was only one Elmer Chenowith," murmured Jasper, throwing up both hands, as though convinced.
"Why, there was nothing queer about that," laughed the acting scout-master. "As I told you just now, it grows to be second nature, after you've practiced the thing for a while. But did I prove my point, fellows?"
"You certainly did!" declared Jack Armitage.
"And do any of you still have any doubt about who it was hiding away on that rotten old shelf up there, and listening to all we did?" continued Elmer.
"I don't think you'd find any scout here willing to say a contrary word, after the way you clinched things," remarked Matty Eggleston.
"And you believe that was our old enemy, Matt Tubbs?" Elmer went on.
"No other fellow could have made so quick a get-away," remarked Red Huggins, as he shook his fiery head in a convincing way. "Mebbe I haven't seen him spin down from first base many a time, and get there at second long ahead of the ball. He can run some, that Matt Tubbs can. Even Lil Artha will admit that."
"But whatever made him hide here?" queried Chatz Maxfield.
"Why, that's as plain as the nose on your face, Chatz," broke out Larry.
"I'd thank you, suh, to make no personal allusions to my features," the hot-tempered Southern lad broke in.
"Oh! I didn't mean anything by that," laughed Larry. "But what else would tempt Matt Tubbs to hide in here, except that he was aching to watch our meeting, and find out how we did things. He reckoned we wouldn't be so obliging as to ask him to be present, and as he's starting a troop over in Fairfield, he wants to know how to run things, so he can have the track greased."
"Well, he heard some straight-out talk, then, that ought to do him a heap of good," remarked Matty.
"Aw! nothing would ever do that chump good; he's a bad egg all over. Like as not he was just itching to do something to give us a big scare. Say, perhaps he smashed that loft down on purpose to frighten us!"
It was Tom Cropsey who offered this rather startling suggestion; but the balance of the scouts were disposed to make light of his idea.
"I don't think," jeered Red. "Matt Tubbs is tricky and bold, but no one ever called him a fool, and that's what he would be if he broke that loft down on purpose, and took that tumble. Why, he might have broken his neck!"
"Never!" exclaimed Toby. "When a feller is born to be hung he could drop from the top of the highest tree, and never feaze his neck."
"Toby knows, fellows," sang out Red. "Believe him, he's a living example of the truth of that old saying. You remember, some of you, how he fell off the roof of the church that night, a year ago, when we were trying to get in the belfry to ring the bell? Some fellows would have had half a dozen of their slats caved in, even if they saved their neck. What happened to Toby? Why, he dropped into that big bunch of cedars and only had a few scratches to show for it. Yes, stake your faith on Toby; he knows what he's talking about."
Of course shouts told that the boys appreciated getting this one on Toby, who contented himself with shaking his fist at Red, and grinning.
"But perhaps we don't all believe the same way," Elmer remarked, after the clamor had died away, and all eyes were turned again on him.
"Tell us what you think, Elmer?" asked several.
"Let us take it for granted then," said the scout-master, "that the spy was Matt, and that he deliberately hid in the old shop for the purpose of watching what we did; how do we know that he had any real mean object in view? At the best it has been only guess work, founded on his bad reputation."
"That counts for a heap, I've found, to my cost," declared Red, who for years had been unusually fond of practical jokes and pranks, and several times floundered in hot water because of this failing.
"Well, all I can say is this," Elmer continued; "if Matt Tubbs, or any other of the Fairfield boys, took the trouble to walk all the way over from his home this evening, four miles and more, just to get a chance to hide here, and see what we did, he must be head over ears in earnest in what he's got afoot. And, fellows, we happen to know that means the new troop Fairfield is trying to organize."
Some nodded, as if he had carried them with him; a few shook their heads, meaning to imply that their distrust of the bully of Fairfield was so deep-seated that they would have to be given stronger evidence than this if they were expected to come around to Elmer's way of thinking.
"Well," the leader went on, "we may never know the facts, but this I say, that if Matt Tubbs is trying to make a start along the right lines, we ought to do anything in our power to help him. And if the chance opens, I promise you I'm going to do that same thing, and not throw sticks in his way."
"Hear! hear! that's the kind of talk that tells, Elmer!" cried Mark.
Elmer had managed to secure possession of the cap that had been found. He showed no manifestation of giving it back again, and from the way he presently thrust the thing in one of the pockets of his khaki coat, it was evident that he had use for it.
None of the boys who noted this act thought it strange. Elmer frequently did things that might not seem clear to them on the surface, but they knew him well enough by this time to feel confident that there was a motive worth while back of the act, and which in good time would be made plain.
The meeting soon broke up, the scouts heading toward the town of Hickory Ridge, in regular formation of twos, with Elmer and his closest chum, Mark, heading the line.
By degrees their number lessened as a boy would drop out here, and another there, when the nearest point to their several homes was reached.
"We had a fine meeting, eh, Mark?" said Elmer, as the two stood for a few minutes on a corner ere separating.
"A dandy meeting," was the reply, given enthusiastically, and with boyish vim.
"The addition of the four new recruits," Elmer went on, "fills out our two patrols to their limit, and now we can begin to drum up new names for the Eagle. By Fall we ought to have six more good fellows come around, and finish that patrol."
"Mr. Garrabrant will be pleased when he comes back and learns what we've done," Mark chuckled, as if he himself were greatly overjoyed.
"That's so, because he's got the good of the troop at heart," said the leader of the Wolf Patrol, earnestly. "We're lucky to have such a wide-awake scout-master as Mr. Garrabrant. A whole lot depends on what kind of a man is in charge of the troop. They say, you know, Mark, 'as the twig's inclined the tree is bent'; and in most cases you can judge the kind of troop by the caliber of the scout-master. If he's weak there can be no order kept up. If he's too severe the boys will rebel. I reckon it takes a mighty smart man to handle twenty or thirty lively boys, and get out the best they have in them."
"I've often thought of that, Elmer. I like to study people, you remember. And I think all of our boys like Mr. Garrabrant the best kind. Going to bed now? Well, good night. See you to-morrow, if we get together, a dozen of us, for that little hike."
And separating, the two chums headed for their several homes.
On the following day Elmer, upon arriving at a place of meeting in the morning, somewhere in the neighborhood of nine o'clock, found a group of his fellow scouts anxiously awaiting his coming. Most of them had come direct from home, and each carried the staff that was supposed to be of more or less help to the owner while on the road. This was just six feet in length, stout, and in some instances made of bamboo, and in others of clear ash; marked off in feet and inches so that it could be used also for measuring distances, being two meters in length, and with a grip for the hand midway between the ends.
"Just ten here," remarked Elmer, after he had counted the khaki-clad boys. "All who volunteered for the hike but one, and he, Red Huggins, usually as prompt a fellow as there is in the troop, but behind time for once."
"Going to wait for him?" demanded one of the others, impatient to be off.
"We'll give him the usual ten minutes allowance," replied Elmer. "If he doesn't show up then, I suppose we'll have to go without him."
He had noted one thing, and this was that neither of his comrades of the preceding day had shown up. But then Elmer had not expected they would. Practice had made him almost immune to fatigue, after a ten mile walk, but the same could not be said of Larry, and especially in the case of little Jasper Merriweather.
On the whole, considering what excitement the boys had endured on the previous day, Elmer thought they had done very well. They must be feeling more or less stiff this morning, and would need a lay-off. Besides, they had not promised to get around to start on this walk.
Impatient Chatz took out a nickel watch, and began to keep tabs on the passing of those ten minutes. The rest chattered like magpies, and seemed to be pleased at the idea of having a few hours with Elmer abroad. For the young leader knew so many of the secrets of the great out-doors, and was so ready to impart information to his chums, that it was really a treat to be with him.
"Five minutes gone, and no sign of him yet, suh!" announced the timekeeper, after a short interval, during which all eyes were turned down the road, to the corner around which it was expected the absent member would come, should he show up at all.
"Oh! well, there are enough of us without Red; though he's always good company on a hike," remarked Lil Artha, who had really given up an anticipated trip in an automobile over fifty miles of territory, just to accompany Elmer in his hike, so great a fascination did the new life have for the tall boy.
"I thought I thaw him right then, fellows!" exclaimed Dr. Ted, pointing to a place where there was a gap in the trees and fences.
Elmer nodded encouragingly.
"Good for you, Ted," he said. "I was wondering whether anybody would notice that the road could be seen through that little opening, and anyone coming discovered some time before he reached the corner. That was Red, I do believe; for I had a glimpse of him as he passed."
Ted Burgoyne looked satisfied. In fact, the boys had reached a point by now when words of praise from the assistant scout-master meant a whole lot to them, for it always signified that something worth while had been done.
Nothing more was said about it, but there was a heap of thinking done; and no doubt every fellow present was making up his mind to be more vigilant, so that he might be the next to deserve favorable notice from the leader.
"You were right, Ted, for there he comes now," remarked Toby, as a figure came around the corner.
It was Red Huggins, sure enough; and he seemed to be hurrying.
"Knows he's late, and expects to be hauled over the coals," chuckled Ty Collins.
Elmer said nothing. But he was watching the coming of the late scout with an expression of rising curiosity on his face. Truth to tell, he noted something that none of the others had. Red Huggins looked more than "peeved" because he was arriving late at the meeting-place, when a scout is supposed to be always punctual to the minute. He was worried, worked up over something or other!
"Hurry up here, old molasses in Winter!" called Lil Artha. "Why, we were just going to leave you in the lurch. What sort of an excuse can you give for holding eleven comrades nearly ten minutes each? That means more'n an hour wasted. It's a crying shame, that's what!"
Red had by now reached them. He was panting a little, as though he might have run some distance, in order to make up for lost time.
"Wasn't altogether my fault, fellows," he started to explain.
"Oh! come now, no excuses are going to pass here!" broke in Toby.
"Give him a chance to say what he wants to, boys," remarked Elmer; and the late comer darted him a look of thanks.
"I was just going to start out," Red began, "when father came home. He had been out trying a new horse he bought; and at first I thought he might have had a runaway, he looked that excited. But one of our neighbors came hurrying in, saying he had just heard the news over the telephone, and asking father what it meant."
"News! What's that? Something happened since we left home?" and the scouts began to look at each other, while several grew a little white.
"Yes," Red went on, rapidly; "it happened that my father was one of those who brought the news to town. I got so stuck on what they were saying that I clean forgot everything else; and that made me late. Then father saw me in my scout uniform, and he said he wondered if Elmer Chenowith, who was so smart about following a trail, could lend a hand—that it seemed a job for the scouts, if ever there was one!"
"Oh! speak out, and tell us what's happened!" cried Toby, catching hold of Red by his sleeve and shaking him a little.
"Well, you know Mrs. Gruber, the woman who lives in that little house half a mile or so up the Jericho Road—she's got just one child, a little girl, with the sunniest smile and the prettiest golden hair you ever saw. Well, seems like she separated from her husband, Dolph Gruber, because of his bad habits. Father says Dolph came home last night, made no end of a row, struck his wife, and went away with little Ruth, saying her mother would never see her again. And that's what he meant, fellows, when he said it was a job for the scouts. Elmer, do you dare tackle it, and try to get back that little girl again for her nearly crazy mother?"