CHAPTER XIV.
A NOVEL PROPOSAL.
“Well, what do you think of my proposal?”
Mr. Mainwaring’s eyes twinkled as he regarded the three lads seated opposite him in the library of his home which he had called Ancon Hill, possibly in remembrance of that other Ancon Hill in the far off Canal Zone.
Tubby gulped; Merritt’s eyes shone and his face flushed excitedly, but he couldn’t find words just then.
“Well, Rob, what do you say to transplanting the Boy Scouts, or part of them, down along the big Ditch?”
“I—I—that is, we—it’s too big—too glorious to just realize it all at once, isn’t it, fellows?” stammered Rob.
“Pshaw! I thought the motto of your clan was ‘Be Prepared’. Now you ought to be just as much prepared to accept my invitation to go to Panama as you would be to cook a meal in a given time or light a fire with one match.”
Mr. Mainwaring regarded the young faces opposite him with a quizzical look. Then he spoke again.
“I know just what you fellows are thinking,” he said. “You’d like to go, but——”
“It’s—it’s our folks, you see——” Tubby managed to sputter. The others nodded solemnly. This proposal of Mr. Mainwaring’s, that while the Academy was closed they should go as his guests to the Canal Zone and see the wonders of that region, both natural and man-made, had fairly taken them off their feet, as the saying is.