THE NIGHT ALARM
"It's gone!" exclaimed Jack, drawing a long breath.
"Seems like it," remarked Paul, with a trace of excitement in his usually steady voice; for that strange moving light mystified him.
"What do you suppose it could be?" asked his chum, relying as always upon the ability of Paul to solve the puzzles.
"Oh! well, that isn't hard to guess," returned the scout leader. "Somebody was moving about with a lantern, as sure as you live. The question that bothers me is to say who the fellow can be."
"There's Ted and his squad; we happen to know they're roaming around these regions somewhere," suggested Jack, quickly.
"That's true," said Paul, thoughtfully; "and it may be one of that crowd; but somehow I doubt it. In the first place I don't believe they were smart enough to fetch even a lantern along. You know they brag about how they can go into the woods with only a hatchet and a few cooking
things, and enjoy life. But we didn't come up here to endure things."
"Not much," declared Jack; "we want all the comforts of a well managed camp. And in the line of fun we've got a string of things laid out that will keep us doing stunts every hour of the time. But if not Ted's toadies, then who could be wandering about up there? Can you give a guess, Paul?"
Paul could; but then he debated with himself whether he ought to take Jack fully into his confidence. He decided that as they had been chums so long, and shared each other's confidences, he ought to speak. Besides, Joe had shown no intention of confiding anything in him.
So in low tones he told about the queer actions of Joe Clausin when that man in the vehicle had gone by; and the few words he had heard the boy scout mutter. After that he related the incident of his interview with Joe.
"Say, that is mighty funny," observed Jack, after he had listened to the whole story.
"Don't you think the same as I do, and that Joe recognized that man?"
"It looks that way to me. And he seemed to guess something that was anything but pleasant to him," replied his chum.
"Speak plainly, Jack," said Paul, eagerly, catching the other's eye, "you mean that he must
have connected the presence of that man here with the robbery of his father the other night? Is that it?"
"I reckon that was what flashed into Joe's mind," remarked Jack; "he thought this man was at the other side of the world, he said, did he? Well, the very fact that he had turned up here at such a time looks mighty suspicious. Paul, what if we happened to run across him while we were in camp here; wouldn't it be a great thing if we found that old tin box for Mr. Clausin?"
"I was thinking about something. Did you happen to get a good look at the face of that man as he drove past?" asked the scout leader, gravely.
"Well, no, I didn't, to tell the truth. I happened to be doing something just then, and when I looked up I only saw his back. But what of it?" asked Jack, knowing that his comrade would not speak in this way without a motive.
"I did, and it's been bothering me ever since," came the reply.
"How was that? Did you know him?" demanded Jack.
"I seemed to see something familiar about him, and yet I couldn't just get hold of it. And Jack, just while we were talking it over, and I was telling you about what Joe said to me in his con
fusion, it flashed over me who he made me think of."
"Who was that?" demanded his chum.
"Joe!" answered Paul, quietly.
Of course Jack was stirred deeply when he heard that.
"Oh! I wonder what it can mean?" he exclaimed. "I've known Joe for more than five years now, and so far I've never heard that he had a brother. You know they came to Stanhope from down in Jersey somewhere. Do you really think it might be so? This fellow, who was, as he believed at the other side of the world, in China or the Philippines perhaps, may have come home to rob his father!"
"Hold on," laughed Paul; "you're getting too far ahead, old hoss! Don't jump at things that way. This man looked too old to be any brother of Joe's. He might be an uncle, though. Uncles sometimes go bad, I guess, and do things that make their relatives ashamed of them. Suppose we leave it at that, and wait to see if we happen to learn anything more."
"But Joe knows," persisted Jack, doggedly.
"That's right," replied Paul, seriously; "but don't forget that it's his secret, and as true scouts we've no business to go prying into his affairs unless he asks our help. Forget it all for a while, and let's talk about what we have laid out for to
-morrow. I do hope Mr. Gordon shows up. I wonder if he can read the Indian talk I left in each place we stopped."
They were soon deep in the various interesting features of the programme as mapped out for the next day. Having now settled into what they expected would be the permanent camp of the tour, the boys were wild to get down to business, and show their efficiency in the various lines which they favored.
"Listen to 'em gabble like a pack of old women," laughed Jack, as the friendly argument about the crackling fire grew more heated.
"Bob Tice is demanding why they didn't think to bring a portable dark room along, so he could develop his films in the daytime," said Paul, after listening a minute; "and Jud is explaining to the novice that with his new film tank there's no need of any such thing, for he can do all that work right in the tent at noon."
Many other subjects were discussed about that blazing fire, and much information passed around.
Strict discipline was maintained in camp, just as though the scoutmaster himself were present to enforce it.
At the hour appointed, Bobolink tooted his bugle, and immediate preparations for retiring commenced. Twenty minutes later taps sounded,
and every light had to go out save the one fire that occupied the centre of the camp.
Three sentries paced to and fro, and they had been given to understand that any failure to keep constant watch would meet with prompt punishment. They knew that Paul meant to enforce his orders; and suspecting that he might creep out under the rear of his tent to make a secret rounds, they were one and all determined that nothing should cause them to fail in their duties.
Paul was asleep in his tent with two of his mates, when something suddenly awoke him. He sat up to listen, and again heard the sound. It was a dull thud, as of a hard object falling to the ground. Then came a distinct splash in the nearby lake.
"What in goodness can it be?" he thought, as he listened for a repetition of the strange sounds. "Hello! what's going on, Paul?" Jack asked at that moment, raising his head as if he too had been awakened by the several thumps, and wondered what his chum was doing sitting up.
"That's what I'm trying to guess," replied Paul, quietly.
"Sounds as if it was hailing to beat the band!" exclaimed Jack, as a series of continuous thumps came.
Just then some one burst in at the open flap of the tent. It proved to be Bluff Shipley, who had
been appointed sentry from the Red Fox Patrol.
"Paul, c-c-come out here, q-q-quick!" he cried, in considerable excitement; and as this condition was always bad for the poor fellow's twisted tongue, he began to "fall all over himself," as Jack expressed it, when he attempted to go on and explain what had happened.
In the jumble, however, Paul caught something that gave him the clue he wanted—"Ted Slavin" and "rocks!"
He quickly got inside some clothes, not even waiting in his hurry to remove his pajamas. When he crawled out of the tent he found a number of the scouts had been aroused. Their angry shouts were heard on every hand; for a shower of stones was descending upon the camp from some point further up the abrupt side of the mountain.
"It's that Slavin crowd, as usual!" cried Jud, furiously, rubbing his arm where he had been struck.
"We've just got to get after them with a hot stick!" exclaimed Wallace, who was usually the warmest advocate of peace in the troop; but this constant and vicious annoyance on the part of their rivals was proving too much for even his temper.
"Come on, fellows; us to the attack!" called Bobolink, with his accustomed vim; "this is the limit, and we've just got to flag 'em!"
All discipline was forgotten in the excitement of the moment. Nor did Paul try to show his authority. He was very nearly as indignant as any of them; and had they been able to locate the enemy, possibly there might have ensued a scramble that would hardly have been to the credit of the well known peaceful principles of the scouts.
But the stone throwing seemed to cease about the time the scouts began to climb the side of the rocky elevation. Doubtless Ted and his allies knew that it would be dangerous for them to remain longer; and having stirred up a hornets' nest below, they probably crept away over a path they had mapped out, which would lead to their cave camp.
The boys came back in bunches of twos and threes presently, heated with their useless search, and breathing out all sorts of threats against the disturbers of their peace. On the next night Paul meant to have a vidette posted on the mountain side, whose one particular duty would be to look out for prowlers.
There was no further alarm that night. Possibly Ted and his crowd believed that it would not be wise to go in too strongly for these things. And so another day dawned, that was fated to be full of strenuous doings between sunrise and sunset.