active 1909-1917 Herbert Carter

“ And, Giraffe, inside of ten seconds there was a boy running madly down the hill, fighting a thousand mad hornets that stung him everywhere, and set him to yelling as if he were half crazy. When he got home finally, and saw his swollen face in the glass, and felt Rover licking his hand as if the good fellow did not dream that his master had betrayed him so meanly, what do you suppose that boy said to himself, if he had any conscience at all? ”

“ The current had got in its treacherous work, just as Thad and some of his chums had expected would be the case.
“He’s gone in, and the boat turned turtle!” cried Step Hen, aghast.
“Help! oh! somebody save my poor Johnny, because he can’t swim a stroke!” shrieked the woman, wringing her hands, and appealing to the detachment of scouts, of whose presence near the spot of the tragedy she had just become aware. ”

“ Well, supposing the man who was doing the cooking heard us when we let out those wild yells, and seeing soldiers coming down on him like wild cats, he just dodged below, and stayed there?”
“You mean all night long, Thad?”
“Yes, right up to the time we left the boat this morning,” the patrol leader went on to say solemnly.
“But could he stand it all that time?” asked Giraffe dubiously.
“It may not have been the most comfortable thing going,” admitted Thad; “but a fellow can stand for a whole lot when he just has to.” ”

“ ON THE RIVER ROAD.
“Well, wouldn’t that give you a heart-ache, now?” remarked Giraffe, making a wry face, as he looked at his seven mates.
“Just to think of it!” exclaimed Bumpus, “we were all sleeping sweetly like babes in the woods, out there in the hay, while our game passed us by. A healthy lot of scouts we seem like, don’t we? When people hear of this they’ll vote us a leather medal. Always on guard, hey? Never letting a single thing worth while slipping through our fingers? Oh! my stars, somebody fan me!”
Thad laughed at the fat scout. ”

“ The barn dance comes off next week, you know. And every one of us, I reckon, has promised to take somebody. Oh! we’ve just got to be home before then, Thad. Think what Sadie Bradley’d do if you gave her the mitten; and then how about Giraffe’s roly-poly sister, Polly, Allan; are you ready to forsake her? Perish the thought; the boys of the Silver Fox Patrol never were quitters, were they?”
Giraffe, whatever he may have thought about staying on the island as long as they could stand it, seeing that popular sentiment was against him, showed enough wisdom to quiet down. ”

“ That indeed was the whole secret of Thad’s success, and the cheerful spirit he invariably displayed when up against difficulties; and every boy who makes up his mind to look at his troubles in the same hopeful spirit will surely profit from such a course. Things are never at their worst, though we may temporarily think so. The few drops that came down did not last and as the scouts continued to push along the river road they kept their eyes on the watch for some valley farm, where they might possibly find shelter against the coming storm. ”

“ Giraffe went on to remark. “You know the old saying in pioneer days used to be that an Indian never ought to yell till he was in the woods; and a white man till he was out of the woods. So we’ll keep our breath a while. It’s all going to come out right, see if it ain’t.”
Giraffe undoubtedly added these concluding reassuring words for the particular benefit of Bumpus, who was looking, as the tall scout privately informed Step Hen back of his hand, “just as limp as a dish rag, so to speak.” ”

“ Giraffe, together with Thad and Allan, tried to follow the trail of the two tramps further, but soon gave it up. After all, the several reasons why they should turn to the other way of rounding up the concealed men appealed strongly to them.
Later on they returned to the camp, to sit around and wait for their breakfast to cook. Nobody looked very cheerful that morning. Somehow the fact that they were isolated there on that island with only one meal between them and dire hunger, loomed up like a great mountain before their mental vision. ”

“ GIRAFFE ADMITS THAT THE SHOE FITS.
“Look out, Bumpus!” shrieked Davy Jones, as though instantly realizing what a perilous position the stout scout would be in if that angry cow succeeded in bowling him over with her hornless head.
“Run! run, Bumpus; a wild bull is after you!” shouted Step Hen, who may have really believed what he was saying with such a vim; or else considered that by magnifying the danger he might add more or less to the sprinting ability of the said Bumpus. ”

“ Why, I’ll be all skin and bone if things keep on going from bad to worse like that.”
“Bob White won’t think it’s so tough, if he can have his grits,” remarked Allan; “but breakfast to a New England boy stands for ham and eggs, flapjacks with maple syrup, and always coffee and cold pie.”
“Stop stretching out the agony, can’t you?” said Giraffe, holding both hands to his ears as though trying to shut out the mention of such delightful dishes; “it’s cruelty to animals to talk that way, Allan. But, Thad, what are we going to do about this same thing? ”

“ Tell us how you know all that, won’t you, Davy Jones?”
“Sure I will, Giraffe, with the greatest of pleasure, while we’re sitting here on this log, resting up. In the first place just notice how gray the sky’s gotten since we had that snack at the farm house about noon!”
“Oh! shucks! that’s no positive sign; it often clouds up, and never a drop falls.”
“There’s going to be quite some drops come this time, and don’t you forget it, Step Hen. Why, can’t you feel the dampness in the air?” ”

“ Step Hen asked.
“If nothing happens to us until morning comes,” replied Thad, “we’ll find some way to get ashore, when we can see how to work.”
“Sure thing!” added Davy. “But I hope now we don’t strike any old cataract or falls, where we’d be swept over a dam, and get wrecked. Seems to me I’ve heard of such things along the Susquehanna.”
His words must have brought a new spasm of alarm to the heart of Bumpus, for he clutched Thad’s sleeve, as though imploring him to set that fear at rest.
“If there are,” the patrol leader told them, “it must be a good deal further upstream than where we are. ”

“ Step Hen quickly admitted.
“Oh! any old place is good enough for me,” sighed Bumpus.
“If you can only be sure there are no rats around, I believe I’d enjoy sleeping in a hay mow,” Davy told them.
“I’ve never had the experience,” remarked Smithy with a shrug of his shoulders, and a grimace; “and I must confess I don’t hanker much for it. Bad enough to have to roll up in your own blanket any old time; but spiders and hornets and all that horrible set are to be found in haylofts, they tell me. I’m more afraid of them than an alligator or a wild bull. ”

“ Thad now declared; “yes, I can begin to get a glimpse of the same through that thin screen of bushes.”
“Wow! looks like a houseboat to me, boys, or what out on the Ohio and the Mississippi they call a shanty boat, which is a cabin built on a monitor or float!” was what Step Hen announced.
“I believe you’re right there, Step Hen,” Allan put in; “but no matter, any port in a storm; and when a crowd of scouts are hard pushed they can squeeze in small quarters. We’ll fix it somehow with the owner of that craft to let us pile in with him till the clouds roll by.” ”

“ At the same time they discovered the forward part of the boat to be rising.
“We’re ashore!” shouted Giraffe, looking ready to plunge out of the door and take any sort of a ducking rather than stay aboard, to risk death in the flood.
“Hold on!” cried Thad, clutching him just in time to prevent any rashness; “you don’t want to leap before you look. There’s water on this side where the shore ought to be. I think the boat’s only shoved up on a sunken rock! If you jumped now you’d find yourself in the river!”
“Yes, and she’s swinging around right now, let me tell you, Giraffe!” added Davy Jones ”

“ Step Hen assured him. “Of course we have to put in one night; but that ought to be all. The river will fall nearly as fast as it rose; and already Thad’s thinking up some scheme that’s going to take us ashore.”
“Any wings to it, Thad?” asked Giraffe laughingly; “or shall we make a balloon, and go flying over Cranford, to make the folks’ eyes stick out of their heads with wondering what those frisky Silver Fox scouts will be doing next, to get themselves in the spotlight?”
“Oh! I haven’t had time enough yet to get to that,” Thad told him; “just give me a chance to sleep over it first. ”

“ Bumpus finally remarked, showing what was constantly on his mind; “they’ve just got to pass by this way sooner or later. Course we’ll see ’em then; and so don’t be surprised if the brush begins to move over yonder, because it’ll be one of our chums.”
“But wouldn’t it be the proper caper for them to warn us before they show up?” asked Smithy. “They know you’ve got a gun, and that’s always a dangerous toy for a boy to handle, according to my way of thinking. Why, you might imagine they were the tramps, and give them a shot before you saw they were our chums.” ”

“ Only too well did Thad know what was the matter, when he burst from the door of the barn, and saw that the darkness of the night was split by a glare from up in the direction of the farmhouse on the rise. Through the bare branches of the trees he could see tongues of flames.
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“The house is on fire, Allan!” he shouted. “We must get all the boys out, and do what we can to fight the flames. Hi! everybody on deck—Giraffe, Step Hen, Davy, and the rest of you, hurry out here and lend a hand! You’re wanted, and wanted badly into the bargain!” ”

“ Slowly the scouts came forward, converging toward the common center, which of course was the smoky fire, alongside of which those two old tomato cans stood, each secured at the end of a bunch of metal ribs taken from a cast-off umbrella.
That successful surround would have made a picture worthy of being framed and hung upon the wall of their meeting room in the home town, some of the scouts may have proudly thought, as they walked slowly forward, thrilled with the consciousness of power. ”

“ Thad explained that they were a patrol of Boy Scouts from Cranford, on a hike, and not having tents along with them, made bold to ask the farmer if they might sleep in his haymow, and cook their supper in the open space before the barns.
There was something inviting about Thad Brewster’s manner that drew most people toward him. That same farmer might have been tempted to say no under ordinary conditions, for he looked like a severe man; but somehow he was quite captivated by the manly appearance of these lads. ”

“ If that doesn’t tell the story, then I’m away off in my guess. I just wager we’ve been cleaned out for keeps, and our little tummies will call in vain for their accustomed rations. I wonder how it feels to starve to death!”
“Oh! quit talking that way, Step Hen,” wailed Bumpus; “we ain’t going to waste away like all that. Give Thad a chance to think up how to win out. Besides, didn’t you hear Giraffe say there was lots of fat game on this island; yes, and fish in the river to boot. I’m not going to give up so easy; there’s always something to fall back on, if it gets to the worst.” ”

“ But the other member of the home guard had seen some of the boys who went off arming themselves with stout cudgels, and he thought it wise to imitate their example, though at the same time seriously doubting his ability to make good use of the same, should an emergency arise.
“Yes, what you say is true, Bumpus,” he remarked seriously. “The motto of all good scouts is ‘Be prepared,’ and we must surely live up to it. While I sincerely hope nothing will happen to call for a defense of the camp, still I’m ready to assume my share of the burden in case of necessity.” ”

“ Thad and Allan would not allow anyone to relax their efforts in the slightest degree, even when it became positive that they were quickly putting out the last of the fire. Until every spark had been properly extinguished there must lie no stoppage to the good work. A fire is only put out when there is no longer any danger of its awakening to new life when one’s back is turned. ”

“ Bumpus declared, as he opened his coat to let the warm rays strike him more fully.
Giraffe of course had his fire going; life would be shorn of much of its bright features if he were prevented from pursuing his favorite hobby. The old ax served to supply them with heavier fuel, which seemed to burn splendidly after being in part dried out.
Seeing Thad beckoning, the tall scout stepped over beside him.
“Do you want to do an errand for me, Giraffe?” asked the patrol leader. ”

“ They must then depend on information given by the inmates of such houses as they came upon along the road.
“It’s sure commencing to get dark, Thad,” grumbled Giraffe, after a while, as if to explain why he had stubbed his toe, when by rights all that clumsy business was supposed to be monopolized by poor Bumpus.
“That’s partly because we happen to be passing under a big patch of woods here on the right,” the patrol leader explained; “which helps to shut out more or less of the light from the west. Over there across the river the sky is so gloomy you couldn’t expect it to help out any.” ”