THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED TO

THE ROTARY CLUB OF AMERICA

WHOSE MEMBERS HAVE SHOWN THEIR VITAL INTEREST

IN THE FUTURE CITIZENSHIP OF OUR COUNTRY BY

THEIR SPLENDID WORK AMONG THE BOYS OF AMERICA

CONTENTS
I[A Shot]
II[A Promise]
III[The Parting]
IV[The Sufferer]
V[A Plain Duty]
VI[First Aid—Last Aid]
VII[Little Drops of Water]
VIII[Barrett’s]
IX[On the Trail]
X[Luke Meadows]
XI[Westy Martin, Scout]
XII[Guilty]
XIII[The Penalty]
XIV[For Better or Worse]
XV[Return of the Prodigal]
XVI[Aunt Mira and Ira]
XVII[The Homecoming]
XVIII[A Ray of Sunshine]
XIX[Pee-Wee on the Job]
XX[Some Noise]
XXI[One Good Turn]
XXII[Warde and Westy]
XXIII[Ira Goes A-Hunting]
XXIV[Clews]
XXV[A Bargain]
XXVI[The Marked Article]
XXVII[Enter the Contemptible Scoundrel]
XXVIII[Proofs]
XXIX[The Rally]
XXX[Open to the Public]
XXXI[Shootin’ Up the Meetin’]
XXXII[The Boy Edwin Carlisle]
XXXIII[Mrs. Temple’s Lucky Number]
XXXIV[Westward Ho]
XXXV[The Stranger]
XXXVI[An Important Paper]
XXXVII[Parlor Scouts]
XXXVIII[Something “Real”]

WESTY MARTIN

CHAPTER I
A SHOT

A quick, sharp report rent the air. Followed several seconds of deathlike silence. Then the lesser sound of a twig falling in the still forest. Again silence. A silence, tense, portentous. Then the sound of foliage being disturbed and of some one running.

Westy Martin paused, every nerve on edge. It was odd that a boy who carried his own rifle slung over his shoulder should experience a kind of panic fear after the first shocking sound of a gunshot. He had many times heard the report of his own gun, but never where it could do harm. Never in the solemn depths of the forest. He did not reach for his gun now to be ready for danger; strangely enough he feared to touch it.