Mr. Hatfield directed the boys to seat themselves about the camp fire.
Mr. Holloway, who had a deep base voice, then led the assembly in singing “Home on the Range,” repeating it twice in the hope of gaining more time.
Next came the branding ceremony, or the induction of new families into the Pack. All regular Cubs were recognized as such by branding them as “old hands.” Boys who had qualified for advancement in rank next came forward to receive certificates and badges.
Though Mr. Hatfield and Mr. Holloway ran off the ceremonies as slowly as possible, all too soon it came time for the competitive events.
“Without Dan and Brad, we haven’t a chance to win,” Midge remarked to Chips. “It makes me sick! After all the work we’ve done. Then to lose out to Den 1!”
“We haven’t lost yet.”
“No, but we will. You know that. Look at Ross Langdon! He’s strutting around like a peacock. Figures Den 1 already has won the silver plaque.”
Deep gloom had settled upon all the Den 2 Cubs. Their uneasiness was shared not only by Mr. Hatfield and Mr. Holloway, but by parents of the three missing boys. Repeatedly, the grown-ups whispered together, apparently uncertain whether to continue the pow-wow or to halt it and organize a search for Brad, Dan and Red.
It was Dan’s mother who decided the matter.
“The pow-wow must go on as planned,” she declared. “My son wouldn’t have disappeared without good reason. I’m confident he’ll get word to us as quickly as he can. Meanwhile, he’d want the affair to continue exactly as planned.”