“I reckon,” remarked Step Hen, after listening to these warnings, “that there ain’t any place agoing where the watchwords of Boy Scouts come in better’n they do down here; because, seems to me a fellow’s got to ‘be prepared’ about all the time. What with hungry alligators ready to make a meal off your feet; poisonous snakes dropping off slanting trees; bobcats waiting in the crotches above for a chance to scratch you into ribbons; escaped convicts atrying to steal about everything you own; and so-forth, it wouldn’t be a bad scheme to own three pair of eyes and ears to keep on guard.”
Thad was keeping up his watchful tactics of the preceding afternoon as they thus slowly advanced into the depths of Alligator Swamp. He did not wish to make an error of judgment, if it could possibly be avoided; for only too well did the boy know from past experiences how such a mistake can keep on swelling until the final consequences are simply tremendous.
So they kept on marking each bend that they turned, and Thad saw to it that he could pick up one “blaze,” if it could be termed such, from another. He also broke a smaller branch, always on the side they came from; so that if in doubt later on, it would be easy to make sure which way to go, a very wise precaution indeed, and one that Allan highly commended when he saw what was being done.
They did not hurry, since nothing was to be gained by making speed at the sacrifice of safety. And as they thus journeyed, it was perhaps only natural that, with the two canoes close together, one of the scouts should ask Thad further questions in connection with this man who had apparently taken such a peculiar dislike to the Brewster family, in that he could be suspected of having kidnapped the little girl sister whom Thad remembered so well as a baby.
“I was only a small chap at the time, which was nearly ten years ago,” Thad told them, as a strange look came over his young face, when thus recalling the past; “but I can remember him very well as a dashing looking man, smart enough too, but with a horrible temper, and some bad habits that finally got him into trouble; for he took things belonging to my folks, and was discharged from his position as manager of the property.
“That downfall he seemed to foolishly lay at the door of my mother, though to tell the truth she was only too lenient with the rascal, who should have been prosecuted, and sent to the penitentiary for a term of years. Then, later on, my baby sister strangely disappeared, and my mother never fully recovered from the shock; because although for some years she spent money like water, and had the best detectives in the country searching everywhere; but they never were able to find the least trace of poor little Pauline.
“Of course, sooner or later suspicion fell upon this Felix Jasper, and as he was located in New Orleans a close watch was kept upon his movements; but they found no reason to cause his arrest; and so it went until my poor mother finally left me alone, and Daddy Brewster, a brother of my father’s, came and brought me to his home in Cranford, where I met you fellows.”
“Which, I take it, was a red letter day for old Cranford!” declared Step Hen; “because right from the first you managed to inject more ginger into the boys than they’d ever known before. When you went off that summer to visit some other relative, and came back filled chuck full with Boy Scout business, didn’t you get every fellow in Cranford excited, and wasn’t the Silver Fox Patrol formed as a result?”
“Yes,” added Davy, for the subject was one that appealed to Thad’s close chums very much, “and whenever we played baseball, or any other game, wasn’t it you who took the lead, and made the name of Cranford respected through the whole county, where before it had always stood close to the bottom of the list? I should say we did strike it lucky when you came along the pike, Thad.”
“That’ll be enough for you, Davy; and suppose we change the subject,” remarked the scout-master; although his eyes snapped, and his cheeks grew red with pleasure to know that his comrades appreciated him so much.