How he reached the ground Rob never knew. Those last terrible moments on the roof had come very near to breaking his nerve. He was conscious of a sudden flare of light and a crash as his feet touched the ground. It crossed his mind hazily that part of the roof must have fallen in—perhaps the part on which he had been standing. Then came a rush of feet, shouts, cries, and arms flung about him, and through it all Rob could hear his mother’s glad cry of relief after the awful tension she had endured. He tried to say something and failed, and then everything raced round and round him at breakneck speed.
“He’s fainting!” he was conscious that somebody was shouting, and he could hear himself, only it seemed like somebody else, saying:
“No, I’m all right,” and then everything grew blank to the Boy Scout who had won, through “Being Prepared” for a great emergency.
CHAPTER XIII.
THE ENEMY’S MOVE.
Rob Blake was sitting on the porch of his home in Hampton. In his hand was a book on Woodcraft. But he was not just now devoting his attention to the volume. Instead he let it hang idly from one hand while he gazed up through the maple tops and dreamed of many things. As Rob himself would have put it, the “spring was in his blood.” More strongly than usual that morning he felt the “red gods calling.”
Suddenly two hands were thrown over his eyes from behind and a voice cried:
“Surrender, you leader of the Eagles! That’s one time you’re caught napping.”
“Tubby!” exclaimed Rob, springing up and facing round.
“How in the world did you get in?” he asked the next minute. “I never heard you coming, and——”
He broke off with a laugh as his eyes fell on a big section of apple pie with one crescent-shaped bite missing, that the fat boy was regarding affectionately.