ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE [Pack Train Descending to Hunt’s Cove. Mount Jefferson in the Distance. (Frontispiece)] 222 [Crater Lake—Wizard Island, and Over it Llao Rock] 80 [Campers at the Rim of Crater Lake. Mid-July Snow in Foreground] 88 [The Boys Sliding Down Wizard Island Crater (Enlarged from a Movie)] 98 [The Boys Walking on the Snow Cornice of Garfield Peak (Enlarged from a Movie)] 108 [Looking Across Hunt’s Cove to Jefferson. Dotted Line Shows Route of Climb; Arrow Points to Place Where Dumplin’ Slipped] 252 [Crossing the Divide Near Mount Jefferson, on July 25th. Three Fingered Jack in Distance] 274 [Saint Peter’s Dome and Columbia River. Mount Adams in Far Distance] 286
Boy Scouts at Crater Lake
CHAPTER I
Bennie Visits the Public Library and Gives Spider a Surprise
Bennie Capen was sitting in the public library reading a book. Miss Lizzie Cox, the librarian, was watching him with some suspicion. Bennie was not what you might call one of her regular customers, and she was surprised to see him come in, ask for a certain book, and take it off to the reading table. She certainly watched him as if she suspected a nigger in the wood-pile somewhere. Bennie had a reputation in Southmead, but it wasn’t exactly a reputation for bookishness. Some people said he was a “bad boy,” some people laughed and said he was “full o’ pep,” and some people, including Mr. Rogers, the scout master of Bennie’s troop, said the trouble with Bennie was that his engine was too powerful for the chassis. Anyway, Miss Lizzie Cox, behind the delivery desk, frowned as she watched him through her gold-rimmed glasses, as if she expected to see him throw the book at little Bob Walters, across the table, or pull the hair of Lucy Smith, who was consulting the encyclopædia preparatory to writing a composition on “The Products of the Philippine Islands.”
However, Bennie did none of these things. He read steadily in his book, after first looking at all the pictures, and emitting several low whistles, each one of which brought a sharp, admonitory rap of her pencil on the desk from Miss Cox, and a loud “Silence!” Bennie grinned cheerfully each time, and went on reading and looking at the pictures. His eyes were bright, and every now and then he ran his fingers excitedly through his brown hair, till it stood straight up on his forehead.
By and by little Bob Walters returned the bound volume of St. Nicholas and went out. Lucy Smith exhausted the products of the Philippine Islands (or her own patience), and took refuge in “Vogue.” From the streets outside came the shouts of a snowball fight. But Bennie kept on reading. Finally the door opened, and another scout came in, a tall, slender boy with two books under his arm. He saw Bennie as he was walking up to the desk, and stopped, surprised. Then he stole over on tiptoe, and looked over Bennie’s shoulder at the book.
“Gosh all hemlock, Bennie,” he whispered, “plugging to get a hundred per cent in physical geography? You don’t care how much of a shock you give your dear teacher, do you?”
Bennie looked up, with his usual grin. “’Lo, Spider,” he said. “Say, this old book is some humdinger, I’ll tell the world.”
“Don’t tell the world so loud, or Miss Cox’ll be out over the desk,” Bob Chandler whispered back, catching a sight of the librarian’s face out of a corner of his eye. “What is the book?”