"Well, then, suppose now we ride on behind Lil Artha for another mile. Then he can hold up when I give a little whistle, or he hears the faint howl of a wolf in the distance. The three of us will then proceed to hide our motorcycles somewhere in the woods, marking the place at the roadside so we can find 'em again easy later on to-night. After that we'll haul upon our chum, and keep a little distance behind him as he tramps on toward Little Falls."
"Bully idea!" declared the object of all this attention, shaking the hand of the one who had suggested it. "And a feller don't have to have more'n two eyes, with a mite of common sense back of 'em, to know what's goin' to happen when the Fairfield bullies jump out on me."
"Whack! whack! that's two down; one with the right, and t'other with the left duke, leaving only two for you three boys," declared Nat, making a violent lunge in either direction, as though getting in trim after these months of idleness, when following the mild paths of peace.
Toby laughed.
"Say, what d'ye suppose we'll be doing all that while?" he demanded. "Don't be so greedy, Nathan. It's one apiece all around. Nothin' could be fairer than that, and I put it up to Elmer here. Who wants to get cheated out of his share, tell me that!"
"I reckon that ought to be understood in the beginning," remarked Elmer, dryly. "Get this notion out of your heads, fellows. All we want is to protect Lil Artha. If talking would do it I'd say leave it to me entirely; but we all know it needs something stronger. So let each fellow try to capture one of the bunch in ambush and hold him. Perhaps they'll skedaddle as soon as they see us coming, and the job will be done without one blow."
"But if they do resist when we're trying to defend our chum, what then?" asked Nat, with the most agonizing appeal in his voice, as though he saw his dearest hopes fading, fading gradually away.
"Oh, that goes without saying," chuckled Elmer. "I don't think there's any real need of my giving you fellows orders along that line, because you know what the only remedy is. Only, please don't forget for one minute that you are scouts, and as such should hold your hand the instant the white flag goes up."
"Sure we will, Elmer, if we see it!" chuckled Nat. "You make me happy again. Gee! I was afraid you might say that under no circumstances was a poor fellow allowed to defend himself—that, like a lot of old women, all we could do was to grab an enemy and hold on, no matter how he scratched and bit and gouged. It's all right. We've got our orders, fellows. Nuff said."
All this time they had been walking at a rather stiff pace along the road that led in the direction of Little Falls, distant something like nine miles. When Lil Artha had said that he believed he was in possession of his second wind, he evidently knew what he was talking about. At least the others were hard pushed to keep up with the long-legged contestant, hampered as they were by their heavy machines, which had to be trundled along with considerable effort.