READY FOR THE START
On the following day, which was Saturday, there was considerable visiting among the scouts who so proudly wore their new khaki suits. Conferences were of hourly occurrence, blankets brought out for inspection and comment, packs made up and taken to pieces again, and all manner of advice asked concerning the best way to carry the same.
Each boy had a written list of what he was expected to provide. This was a part of the wonderful system Tom Chesney had inaugurated. He had told them it was copied from the methods in vogue in the German army, so that in case of a hurried mobilization every man capable of bearing arms in the whole empire would know exactly what his particular duty was.
This scout was to carry a generous frying-pan, made of sheet-steel to reduce the weight; another had to look out for the coffee-pot, which was also to hold enough for at least six thirsty campers. So it went on through the whole list of necessities.
There were to be two messes of five or six each, and the second had a duplicate list of cooking utensils, as well as food to look after. Nothing had been omitted that Tom, assisted by several others who had had more or less camping experience, could think of.
It was about eleven this Saturday morning when Tom, doing a little work among his vegetables in the kitchen garden, heard his name called. Glancing up he discovered Carl standing there by the fence that separated the garden from the highway.
Immediately Tom realized that something new must have happened to make his chum appear so downcast. His first fear was that Mr. Culpepper had been asked by Carl’s mother for the securities, and had flatly denied ever having had them.
“Hello! what’s gone wrong now, Carl?” he asked, as he hurried over to join the boy who was leaning both elbows on the picket fence, and holding his head in his hands.
“It seems as though everything is going wrong with us nowadays, Tom,” sighed poor Carl.
“Anything more about that stolen paper?” asked Tom.
“No, it’s something else this time,” Carl replied. “Just as if we didn’t have enough to worry about already.”
“No one sick over at your house, is there?” demanded the other, anxiously.
“I’m glad to say that isn’t the case,” Carl told him. “Fact is, some bad news came in a letter mother had this morning from a lawyer in the city who manages her small affairs.”
“Was it about that tenement house she owns, and the rents from which comes part of her income?” continued Tom, quick to make a guess, for he knew something about the affairs of Carl’s folks.
The other nodded his head as he went on to explain:
“It burned down, and through some mistake of a clerk part of the insurance was allowed to lapse, so that we will not be able to collect on more than half. Isn’t that hard luck though, Tom?”
“I should say it is,” declared the other, with a look of sympathy on his face. “But if it was the fault of the lawyer’s clerk why shouldn’t he be held responsible for the loss? I’d think that was only fair in the eye of the law.”
“Oh!” said Carl, quickly, “but my mother says he’s really a poor man, and hasn’t anything. Besides, he’s been conducting her little business since father died without charging a cent for his labor, so you see there’s no hope of our collecting more than half of the insurance.”
“Too bad, and I’m mighty sorry,” Tom told him.
“Coming on top of our losing that paper you can imagine how my mother feels,” continued the other; “though she tries to be cheerful, and keeps on telling me she knows everything is sure to come out right in the end. Still I can see that while she puts on a brave face it’s only to keep me from feeling so blue. When she’s all alone I’m sure she cries, for I can see her eyes are red when I happen to come in on her unexpectedly.”
“Nothing can be done, I suppose, Carl?”
“Not a thing,” the other boy replied. “That is what makes me furious. If you can only see what’s hitting you, and strike back, it does a whole lot of good. Unless something crops up to make things look brighter between now and fall there’s one thing certain.”
“What’s that?” asked Tom, though he believed he could give a pretty good guess, knowing the independent spirit of his chum so well.
“I shall have to quit school, and go to work at something or other. My mother will never be able to meet expenses, even in the quiet way we live, now that part of her little income is cut off. A few hundred dollars a year means a lot to us, you see.”
“Oh, I hope it won’t come to that,” said Tom. “A whole lot may happen between now and the beginning of the fall term. For all we know that missing paper may be recovered, which would put your folks on Easy street.”
“That’s about the last hope, then,” admitted Carl. “It’s all I’m counting on; and even then the chances seem to be against us.”
“But you won’t think of backing down about going on this grand hike over Big Bear Mountain, I hope?” remarked the patrol leader.
“I believe I’d lack the heart to do it, Tom, leaving mother feeling so bad; only for one thing.”
“Meaning the fact that Dock Phillips is somewhere up there on the mountain; that’s what you’ve got in your mind, isn’t it, Carl?”
“Yes, and what you said last night keeps haunting me all the time, Tom. What if I did run across the chance to make Dock own up, and got him to give me that precious paper? It would make everything look bright again—for with the boom on in the oil region that stock must be worth thousands of dollars to-day, if only we can get hold of the certificate again.”
“Well, you’re going to; things often work in a queer way, and that’s what is happening now. And I feel as sure as anything that Mr. Culpepper’s stinginess in holding out against Dock’s demands is going to be his undoing.”
Such confident talk as this could not help having its effect on Carl. He had in fact come over to Tom’s house knowing that he was sure to get comfort there.
“You make me feel better already, Tom,” he asserted, as he took the hand the other boy thrust over the top of the garden fence; “and I’m going to try and look at it as a true scout should, believing that the sun is still shining back of the clouds.”
“I’m about through with my work here in the garden,” Tom told him, “so suppose you come around to the gate, or hop over the fence here. We’ll go up to my room and take a look over the stuff that I expect to pack out of Lenox Monday A. M. I want to ask your opinion about several things, and was thinking of calling you up on the ’phone when I heard you speak just now.”
Of course the main object Tom had in view was not so much getting Carl’s opinion as to arouse his interest in the projected trip, so that for the time being he might forget his troubles.
The two boys spent an hour chatting, and consulting a map Tom produced that was supposed to cover most of the Big Bear Mountain territory. It had been made by an old surveyor some years back, simply to amuse himself, and while not quite up to date might be said to be fairly accurate.
Mr. Witherspoon had secured this chart and loaned it to Tom, for there was always a possibility of his receiving a sudden call on business that would take him away from town, when the duty of engineering the trip must fall to the leader of the Black Bear Patrol as the second in command.
That was going to be an unusually long and tedious Sunday for a good many boys in Lenox. Doubtless they would have their thoughts drawn from the sermon, as they sat with their folks in the family pews. And, too, looking out of the window at the waving trees they would probably picture themselves far away on the wooded slope of Big Bear Mountain, perhaps making their first camp, and starting the glorious fire around which, as the night drew on, they would gather to tell stories and sing school songs.
And it could be set down as certain that few of those who expected to join the adventurous spirits starting forth on the long mountain hike slept very soundly on the last night.
When the hour agreed on, seven o’clock, came around, there was a scene of bustle under the tower of the church, where the scouts had gathered, together with many friends both young and old who meant to give them a noisy send-off on their hike over Big Bear Mountain.