As he mentioned that next on the list came the Otters, there was tremendous applause; and while the hand-clapping was going on, with Alec smiling and the rest of the patrol trying to look unconscious of their extreme popularity, Billy leaned over and said in Bud’s ear:
“Don’t you see he’s climbing up step by step, Bud? First the lowly Foxes, then the more wideawake Hawks; after them the hustling Otters; and after that, the deluge,—which means the Wolf patrol. He’s saving the best till the last, I tell you!”
Whereupon Bud took heart of grace and breathed freely once more, for he had almost felt as though that wild applause foretold the end, with Alec and his seven Otters carrying off the banner.
The list of wonderful things those eight boys had managed to accomplish certainly interested the audience, to judge from the frequent clapping of hands when incident after incident was narrated, as proven and accepted by the committee. It was early apparent that Alec had closely studied the possibilities offered by the program set forth by those in charge of the competition, and devoted the whole energies of himself and comrades to doing only those things that offered the best results in points.
It seemed as though the narrator would never get through telling what they had carried out. Billy fidgeted in his seat, and every time a new exploit was described he would feverishly count up the points in that long string seen upon the elevated blackboard, holding tight to his chair and struggling between hope and fear.
Finally the last of the doings of that gallant band of Otters had been told, and it was to be noted that it had taken place only that afternoon, showing how brimful of determination to excel Alec and his chums had been.
Then came the last patrol on the list. Every one knew how there had been constant rivalry between the Otters and the Wolves, although usually carried on in the friendly way scout competitions should be. They also knew what a clever leader Hugh Hardin had proven himself in times past, for the town had cheered the boy’s name on more than a few occasions.
It was also pretty generally understood that Alec had felt terribly hurt when, at the choice of a new assistant scout master from among the thirty-two boys constituting the troop at the time, he had received just seven votes, and these his own faithful Otters. This would in a measure account for his feverish desire to win out in this contest, and carry off the prize banner. It would in some sense show that the boys had made a terrible blunder when they had failed to put him in the position of assistant scout master.
As the committeeman told of the numerous ingenious ways in which the boys of the Wolf patrol had won their points, there were just as many bursts of applause as before. And when after a time the gentleman announced that he was all through except a single mention, a hush fell on the audience, for most of those present had counted up, and knew that the Otters were still seventy points in the lead.
Then a call was made for Professor Perkins, who, with the air of a man accustomed to addressing audiences, mounted the platform. He began by telling who he was, and what he had attempted to accomplish. Then, amidst a great silence, he gave a thrilling account of his accident; how he had signaled to a party of boys in the khaki he had now come to love; how he was thrown out of the basket of the balloon and held fast in the treetop; how the lads had rescued him; how Hugh had set his broken arm, and after that, with the help of his chums, saved his valuable effects from the escaped convicts.