"Oh! rats, just go and play with the monkey, to kill time," laughed Lil Artha.
"I'm just wild to see what Ginger does when we take him to meet his 'debble,'" observed Toby, who had of course been hovering over that magical balloon pretty much all the morning; indeed, so long as that was around they could hardly get the ambitious amateur aviator to do anything worth while.
"Somebody coming back yonder; I saw 'em flit past that open place," remarked Nat Scott, pointing upward.
"Yes, that's Ted and Chatz, returning from the lone cabin. They promised to be back early, because they didn't want to miss the fun when Ginger came," declared the scout leader.
Within the next half hour not only did Ted and his companion arrive, but the two videttes and signal men reached camp. Having discharged the duty to which they had been assigned, Matty Eggleston and Jack Armitage had lost no time in heading once more down the mountain.
Now an hour had gone, and the half was passing slowly. All eyes were turned down the lake to the spot where the creek began, anticipating seeing the boat shoot into view.
"Hurrah! there they come!" shouted one who had climbed a tree, the better to get the first glimpse of the returning couple.
As the boat slipped out on the silvery surface of the lonely lake, so well named Solitude, the cheers that arose must have been particularly pleasing to the young man who was devoting so much of his time to the task of trying to make the Hickory Ridge Boy Scouts the best troops in the county.
But it was Ginger who deliberately dropped his oars, to rise to his feet, and with his black hand over his heart, make several salaams. He came near taking a header over the side of the boat in his eagerness to return the compliments which he really believed the boys were meaning for him, at which of course there was an uproarious laugh all around.
Then came the landing. Ty Collins made sure that the boat contained a lot of packages, and his eyes shone with pleasure as he saw that one of them bore the unmistakable outlines of a whole ham.