“Whoop! I’ve guessed a way out of the trouble!” ejaculated Arthur, beginning to show signs of sudden excitement.
“Then, for goodness sake, tell us what it is,” urged Bud, as a third peal of thunder broke in upon their hearing, considerably louder than either that had gone before.
“There, look at that whopping big oak tree, fellows! Don’t you see that it’s hollow to the core?” declared Arthur, pointing as he spoke. “Why, chances are the whole kitting lot of us could squeeze inside; and if the storm comes from the direction of that thunder, not a drop of rain would beat in on us. Well, why don’t somebody say what you think of my bully scheme?”
“How about that, Hugh?” asked Billy, as if in doubt. “Seems to me I’ve been given to understand that a big tree isn’t the best place to get under when a thunder and lightning storm is buzzing around. Hope I’m mistaken, though, because that idea seems to be our best hold just now.”
“Well, Hugh doesn’t think so, you notice,” suggested Bud, who had been watching the face of the acting scout master all the while, as well as the gathering gloom that preceded the passage of the heavy black clouds would permit.
“It would be the very last thing we ought to do, boys,” remarked Hugh, with resolution marking his whole manner. “Of course, that tree might never be struck, for it’s stood through heaps and heaps of other storms; but all the same the risk is there. Many a foolish man has been killed just by doing something like that. No, we’ve either got to take our ducking and stand for it, or else find some other place under shelter.”
“But just where could we go, Hugh?” Arthur questioned uneasily, as all of them saw a vivid flash of lightning shoot across the heavens where a small clearing permitted a view. It was soon followed by a detonating crash that seemed to make the very ground tremble underfoot.
“A barn would be just as bad as a tree, wouldn’t it, Hugh?” asked Bud, who, it appeared, knew something about such things.
“Every whit as bad,” the other told him; “but hurry and come along after me, fellows. I’ve got a little scheme that it may pay to try and work. All depends on how long that rain pleases to hold off. Given five minutes, and I reckon we might make shelter. This way, everybody, and take care you don’t get your feet caught in some root or vine that will throw you!”
Somehow all of the other scouts seemed to have the utmost confidence in their young leader. Hugh had been tested many a time, and seldom failed his chums when a sudden necessity like the present arose.