“Sorry,” he apologized. “I didn’t hear. Guess I was half asleep.”
He launched into the song which was sung to the tune of “Hail, hail, the gang’s all here.” The Cubs joined in, singing lustily.
At its conclusion, the boys all repeated the Law of the Pack, and the council fire came to an end.
As the Den fathers were tramping out the last of the coals, Dan walked over to the clump of bushes which had been directly in his line of vision. He was relieved to find no one hiding there.
But on the ground beneath a blackberry bush was a sheet of paper torn from a cheap writing tablet. Unable to read it in the darkness, Dan took it to Mr. Hatfield.
The beam of his flashlight picked out the scrawled words: “GET OFF THIS ISLAND. STAY AWAY!”
“A warning, eh?” Mr. Hatfield commented. “This little affair has gone quite far enough!”
“Whoever left the note must have done it only a few minutes ago,” Dan said. “I thought I saw someone in the bushes just as you asked me to lead that song.”
“The coward!” Mr. Hatfield muttered, folding the warning and placing it in his pocket. “Afraid to show his face. Instead he throws rocks and sneaks up in the darkness.”
More annoyed than afraid, the Cub leader made a thorough inspection of the bush where the unknown intruder had hidden only a few minutes before. A few large footprints had been imbedded in the moist turf. But the one who had left the note, had fled.