"That's just fine, Oscar," commented the scout master, as though pleased at so great a show of forethought in two of his charges. "It shows what this business is already doing for all of you—teaching you to use your heads at any and all times. That was well done, and I imagine we'll have little or no difficulty in tracing your progress back, even if you are too tired to accompany us, for we will have Elmer along."
"Oh! but I'm bound to go, if I have to drag my game leg behind me," asserted Red. "You see, both of us feel sore over coming away without trying longer to find out what it was groaning so in that cabin, and we want to make good."
"Does it hurt you very much, Red?" asked the solicitous Ted, coming up with a face that seemed marked with feeling.
"Sure it does, Ted," replied the other, promptly, "and I'm going to ask you to rub some liniment on right away. Reckon I just sprained it a little, slipping down the side of the mountain."
"Good for you, Red!" ejaculated the pleased amateur surgeon, as he clasped the other by the arm. "Come right along with me, and I'll fix you up in a jiffy. Only too glad to be of thervice. And Red, you're the only gentleman—" he suddenly paused, gave one smiling look around at the frowning faces of his mates, and then completed his sentence: "who hath applied to me for treatment. I'll never forget this kindneth, never!"
"Hold on!" remarked the scout master. "We must know a little more about this matter before you drag your patient away; though of course we expect him to survive the treatment. Tell us about the lone cabin, Oscar. How did you happen on it?"
"We had turned," Red started to say, "and were heading toward home, when all of a sudden I thought I heard a plain human groan. Larry said he had caught some sort of sound, too. So we began to advance in that direction, going slow-like, because you see we didn't know what sort of trickery we might be up against. Then we caught sight of a cabin that was half hidden among the trees and bushes."
"Ugh!" Larry broke in with, "it just gave us both the creeps, sir, to see how awful lonely the old place looked, run down and neglected like. If Chatz had been along, he'd sure have believed his pet ghost lived there."
"But surely two sensible chaps like you and Oscar wouldn't think of such a thing as that?" remarked Mr. Garrabrant.
"Oh! no, sir," replied Red, after shooting a swift look toward his comrade in misery. "But you see, the groans kept on acomin' out of that window, and we could hear voices too. We didn't hardly now what to do, go on and knock at the door, or hurry back here to report. Larry, he gave me a cold chill, I admit sir, when he just accidentally said that it might be a ease of smallpox in that hut— you know there were some cases this last spring to the north of the Ridge."