"Thank you, Thad," replied Smithy, actually with tears in his eyes; "but if I have, you can lay it partly to the fact that up to now I've been half starved in respect to all the things that most boys know and do, and just wild to learn; and also that I've had the finest chum that ever drew breath to coach me. Oh! yes, there are dozens of other things I've learned that are bound to widen the horizon of any boy. It was a fortunate day for me when you coaxed my mother to let me join the Boy Scouts. Nobody else could have done it but you, Thad."
Smithy was growing more and more excited; and Thad thought best to end that sort of talk. Besides, the time and place were hardly suited for an exchange of opinions with respect to the advantages of the scout movement.
"We'll talk it over another time, Smithy," he said, kindly. "Just now we ought to bend our minds wholly on finding the right sort of tree for my wigwag station. Come along, and let's take a look at that tree just up the bank yonder. Seems to me it ought to answer my purpose."
So he led the way to the tree in question, which happened to be close by. It was little effort for Thad to climb up into the branches, leaving Smithy below; with directions to return to the beach when he heard a whistle from his chief; it being Thad's idea that the presence of some one below might draw attention to his flag work above, and interrupt the message.
The higher he climbed the better he was satisfied; for he found that the tree was dead from a point half-way up, and consequently there was a stronger chance that he could manage to attract the attention of Allan, on the hill a mile and a half away.
Finding the perch that seemed to answer his purpose best, Thad broke off a few small dead branches that threatened to interfere with the free use of his arm. After that he gave the whistle to let Smithy know the signalman was fixed, and that he had better go back to the beach to wait.
As yet he had seen nothing of Allan. The bald top of the hill was in plain sight from where the scout-master sat, perched aloft, but he scanned it in vain. Thad would not allow himself to doubt that presently the second in command of the patrol would show up there. He knew Allan was a stickler for obeying orders to the very letter, and if his superior had said that he should reach the crown of that hill at exactly seven minutes after ten, the chances were fifty to one Allan would make his appearance on the second; or there would be trouble in the camp.
So, to amuse himself while waiting Thad turned partly around, and looked after Davy. At first he was astonished not to see the floating log on the troubled surface of the lake to leeward, where it had been moving at a pretty fast clip when the scout-messenger left the island.
He experienced a sudden sensation of alarm, but immediately took a fresh grip on himself. Surely the waves were not so very boisterous now, for the wind seemed to be diminishing, if anything. And Davy was a pretty fair swimmer, all things considered.
Thad presently gave expression to a little sigh of relief; for far away, just under the fringe of trees bordering the extreme end of Lake Omega, he had discovered a moving object. It was the flash of a breaking wave over the same that had attracted his attention first; and he now made out the floating log.