"Just what I did, and tell me if you can remember the nature of the task they were to handle during our absence?" the scout-master continued.
"Allan was going to show them some more interesting things about following a trail," Smithy immediately replied; "how to tell what sort of little animal like a fox, a woodchuck, a mink, a muskrat or an otter had made the marks; what it was trying to do; and how it was captured by the men who make a business of collecting skins, or as they call them, pelts."
"Just so," Thad observed, "only it was to be this afternoon Allan meant to show them all that. If you think again, now, Smithy, I'm sure you'll recollect there was another piece of scout business, and a very important one too, that they were to practice this morning."
"Yes, I remember it all now—wigwagging it was," the tenderfoot went on to say with eagerness, and not a little satisfaction, because he had recalled everything that Thad wanted him to. "Allan was to go up to the top of that little bare hill back of the camp, and two of the other fellows were to hike over to another about a mile or so away. Then they would exchange sentences by means of the signal flag, waved up and down and every which way, according to the alphabet used in the U. S. Signal Corps. And to-night the result was to be given to you to correct."
"I see your memory is in good working order, Smithy, for that is exactly what sort of a task I set the boys we left behind. And now, I've just thought up a dandy scheme that if it can only be carried out, may gain us just about two hours over Davy's best time, in letting our chums know what a hole we're in."
Smithy looked interested. Indeed, whatever Thad did always excited his enthusiasm; for he believed the young scout-master to be the smartest boy he had ever heard of in all his life.
"It's something to do with this same wigwagging, Thad, I'm sure of that?" he remarked, drawing a big breath in his new excitement.
"Well, there's no use wasting any more time in beating around the bush, so I'll tell you right now what the idea is," Thad continued, smiling at the eagerness of his comrade. "Suppose I could climb to the top of some tree, and attract the attention of Allan, as he stood on that bald hill, which is in plain sight from here; don't you understand that by making use of my handkerchief, and the code, I might be able to tell him what's happened, and get him to send Giraffe to Rockford so as to call the Faversham Chief over the 'phone?"
Smith's face was wreathed in a smile of mingled admiration and delight as he caught the full meaning of the bright thought that had come to the mind of his companion, the scout-master.