After that the meeting was dissolved, and three of the lads hurried away to start packing their duffel according to arrangements, getting it in as small a compass as possible.
They were frequently interrupted by other boy friends, calling to find out if this startling rumor had any truth back of it. The visitors asked unlimited questions, while they loudly bewailed their hard luck in not getting a chance to accompany the four fortunate ones.
Sim Jeffords and Hiram Nelson, indeed, went so far as to threaten jokingly to start a rival expedition, and clean out all the rebels and Regulars in the Mexican State of Chihuahua. While Fred Mainwaring, Lucy's brother, who was at home at this time, boldly declared he had half a mind to buy a ticket through to El Paso and wait for the four scouts there, in hopes of thus forcing them to take him on.
In the town it became a subject of common talk, and all sorts of ideas were passed around concerning this new and most extraordinary scheme of the scouts. Some people who were not in love with the organization, like old Hiram Applegate, the farmer who had caused the boys so much trouble in a previous story, openly scoffed at the idea of half-grown lads undertaking such a risky mission. He said their parents must be crazy to allow it; but when casual mention was made of his own wild son, Jared, who had gone rapidly to the bad, and had not been heard from since his misdeeds at Panama came near getting him into trouble with the United States Government, Hiram suddenly remembered he had an engagement elsewhere.
Even the old-time enemies of the Eagles, Max Ramsay, Hodge Berry, and a few of the members of the rival Hawk Patrol, investigated the exciting news, and tried to prove to their own satisfaction that the people of Hampton were prejudiced in favor of Rob Blake and his crowd, because all sorts of splendid things seemed to be continually coming their way. They were wilfully blind to the fact that the boys of the Eagle Patrol had surely deserved all the good fortune that had been showered upon them thus far. This was because they had set their standard high, and tried to conform to the rules that govern the scout movement.
That was a long night to four boys at least in Hampton. At noon on the following day a great crowd gathered at the station to see them leave for New York, where they expected to take the night train for the Far Southwest. Rob and his three chums felt their hearts beat a lively tattoo as they saw the faces of home folks and patrol comrades among those present.
As the train pulled out of the station amidst loud shouts and good wishes, and waving hats and handkerchiefs, the boys could distinguish one sound that thrilled them to the core, and made them remember the vows they had taken always to be true scouts.
This was the shrill "k-r-e-e-e" of the Eagles, given in concert by the other members of the patrol to which all of the travelers belonged; and the last thing they saw as they leaned from the windows was the swarm of campaign hats that went flying up into the air.
Then, as the scene was blotted out in the cloud of fine sand raised by the train, the four boys, thus boldly starting on a long and hazardous journey in quest of Uncle Mark's last remnant of his fortune, sank back in their seats and just looked at each other, too overcome to say a single word. Behind lay home and all the dear ones; while beyond was the land of revolution and turmoil—Mexico!