active 1909-1917 Herbert Carter

“ He was beginning to get back his breath now, and even moved a little further away from the edge of the precipice, as though it possessed only terrors for him. Nor could Thad blame him in the least; for it must have been frightful torture to be left all alone on a narrow shelf of rock, where he could not have any too good a foothold at the best, and might slip off if, overpowered by exhaustion, he dared allow himself to lose consciousness in sleep. ”

“ Thad!" gasped the poor fellow, whose face was as white as chalk when he turned it appealingly upward; nevertheless Smithy had learned the quality of obedience, and particularly when he heard the acting scoutmaster speak; so that almost mechanically he groped around with his free hand until his fingers came in contact with the taut rope, when they closed upon it tenaciously; just as a drowning man will cling to the first thing he clutches that seems to hold out a single ray of hope. ”

“ Seeing that Kracker was too furious to even control his voice, the shorter fellow, whom Thad took to be Waffles, again put in his talk.
"It's plain to be seen you critters don't know the kunnel," he observed, bitterly, just as though he himself had had a long experience, and knew what it meant to stir up that vile temper too far. "He never gives a thing up. He's jest like a bulldog that gits a grip. ”

“ Our chum Step Hen did, and I reckon he wasn't much impressed with him, from the way he talked. And as you belong to the scouts, our first duty is to stand by you through thick and thin."
"Only as long as you believe in my word, Thad," added the other.
"That's true," returned the other, quickly; "even a scout has no business sticking up for a comrade when he knows the other is in the wrong; but we believe in you, Aleck. And if only you could find that mine, I feel sure all of this funny business would stop. ”

“ Rawson, sir? Now where's the warrant for arresting Aleck, your nephew? Call the boy in, Thad; I want to shake hands with him, and tell him Bob McNulty is ready to back him up in holding that mine. And he's got a whole lot to be thankful for, I tell you, boys, that when things looked darkest for him, a lucky chance, or some people would call it the favor of Providence, sent you scouts into this valley to camp. Not another word, Mr. Rawson, if you know what's good for you, sir! ”

“ Yes, no brave man would act as Kracker had done, and when it came right down to the point of facing death, he was pretty sure to quail.
Thad turned, and spoke a few reassuring words to Aleck.
"Remember, we don't mean to let him lay a finger on you, boy. I've drawn a line out between that rock, and the scrub oak over yonder; and if he crosses that we're going to make him wish he hadn't. There'll be some work for me to do picking bird shot out of his fat legs, and binding up his other wounds; for we've sure got to stop him coming in to this camp, no matter what happens!" ”

“ But while Thad had been prompt to knock the revolver from the hand of Kracker, he was just as quick to leap alongside the young Crow boy, and grasp his wrist.
"Give me that knife, Fox!" he said sternly.
The Indian looked up in his face; for a moment it seemed as though he might be about to mutiny, and positively refuse the order; then his whim changed, and opening his fingers he allowed the shining blade to fall to the ground.
"Ugh! hunt him long time; now find, make give up what snake in the grass steal away from teepee in reservation!" he grunted, disconsolately. ”

“ When scouts were in a region where danger of any kind might be expected to lurk, "discretion must take the part of valor, and noise be utterly prohibited." He could distinctly remember the patrol leader saying just those very words, and not so long ago, either. So the explosive Giraffe had to bottle up his enthusiasm for another occasion, when the cork might safely be removed.
The scouts had already discovered that in one thing they guessed truly; for Aleck Rawson did prove to be a boy, about the size of Thad, and possibly in the neighborhood of sixteen years of age. ”

“ Well, it takes a lot of different people to make a world, don't it, fellers?"
"That's right, it does," remarked Davy Jones, who had managed to snap off several pictures as they came along; but was trying to save most of his exposures for things that would count, live subjects, in fact.
"How much further do we have to climb, Toby?" asked Smithy, trying to appear rather indifferent about it, though the others just knew he must feel the strain more than any of them; because Smithy had never been much of an athlete, and up to date had yet to play in his first baseball game, strange to say. ”

“ That drop is all of three hundred feet, I reckons," the guide made answer.
"And think of those sharks aleavin' that boy part way down the face of that awful precipice!" said Giraffe, gritting his teeth in a way he had of doing when he wished to let everybody know just how mad he was.
"It's taken a whole hour for us to climb up here," remarked Thad; "and we can hardly count on getting back to the camp in less than another, even if things go right with us." ”

“ The guide had told him more than enough to stamp Kracker in his mind as a very unprincipled man. Thad believed the prospector was so determined to discover the hidden silver mine that there was almost nothing he would not attempt in order to carry out his designs. And since their camp now sheltered the boy against whom all his animosity seemed to be aroused, it was at least possible that he might pay them a visit, backed by his followers, men quite as reckless as himself. ”

“ Toby Smathers added, straining his eyes to catch the first glimpse of the newcomers; for in this wild region, strangers are not to be always recognized as friends until they have proven themselves such.
"There's two of 'em," remarked Step Hen, "and they're men, I c'n see."
"Hello! there, don't shoot, we're friends, all right!" called a voice, so peculiar in itself that Toby immediately laughed aloud, as though he had no difficulty in recognizing it.
"Is that Sheriff Bob McNulty?" he asked. ”

“ Have you got your gun all ready to shoot, Aleck?"
"Believe me, yes; and while I don't want to brag, still I've always called myself a pretty good shot, even at a jumping wolf," replied the other; since he now knew that Thad did not mean to be deterred by any sort of ordinary difficulty, Aleck [Page 211] began to seem like himself, being able to keep his feelings in restraint.
That was the influence of a cool, determined comrade, like the scoutmaster. Such a firm, collected spirit always exerts considerable influence over those with whom it comes in personal contact.
Thad held the lantern. ”

“ He bent his head back, and gave utterance to a low cry of satisfaction.
"Well, if that doesn't beat anything?" he ejaculated, apparently highly pleased; "it's the head, as sure as I live, and towering right above us, almost. No wonder I couldn't see it, looking away off, and thinking it lay further on. We've found the land-mark dad set down in his little map, Thad. And now to discover the crack in the wall, hidden by the hanging vines, where he followed a fox in, just out of curiosity, and discovered the richest silver lode he ever knew about. Oh! I'm just shaking all over with excitement. ”

“ The men were now close enough to make sure that those facing them were only boys. Thad could see that Kracker was looking closely, as though anxious to settle that point first of all; and it agreed exactly with the opinion he already entertained for the big prospector; namely, that he was what Giraffe would call "a wind-bag," or a puff-ball, like those every one has stepped on in the fields, that go off with a pop, emit a little cloud of dust, and then collapse. ”

“ Toby was examining the ground around the ashes with those snapping eyes of his, small in point of size, but capable of taking in every point going.
"How d'ye suppose he did do it?" persisted Step Hen, who was very determined, once he had set his mind on anything—stubbornness some of his camp-mates called it.
[Page 25] "Oh! there are ways easier to grasp in your mind than explain," Allan remarked. "You just seem to know a thing. Some hidden instinct tells you, I might say. You feel a deadness in the ashes that's different from fresh ones. ”

“ Naturally enough, Kracker and his one remaining companion, hearing the cries of the fallen Waffles, would think that they were being actually set upon by their enemies, and that no matter what followed, they must fight.
It was to offset this that Thad first of all turned his attention. A collision must be averted at all hazards. It would be a terrible thing if the scouts became embroiled in a fight with such men, and either received wounds, or were compelled to give them. ”

“ Lying there, resting the back of his head on both hands, and looking upward to where some buzzards were wheeling against the sky, Step Hen could hardly believe that he had actually descended all that distance in safety. He shuddered as he contemplated what an ugly tumble he must have experienced, if those fighting eagles had succeeded in knocking him off the ledge. ”

“ CHAPTER XXVII. THE TURN OF THE TIDE.
"Hold on, Fox! that man has been punished enough; and besides you've recovered the belt, so there's been no real harm done. Let him get up!"
It was Thad who said this, as he and Aleck broke cover, and appeared before the astonished eyes of the two who were on the ground, the Crow boy flourishing his knife in a way calculated to make any one's blood run cold.
The Fox seemed to recognize that Thad spoke as one having authority. He had seen him manage things in the camp of the scouts, and noticed how willingly the rest of the boys recognized his leadership. ”

“ Why, just to look at him you'd think he was sending a message like we do with the wigwag flags in the day time."
"Well, that's just what Giraffe is pretending to do, right now," said Thad, after he had taken one quick look. "Only instead of using flags, he's taking a light to make the letters with. Giraffe is a pretty good hand at heliograph work and all kinds of wigwagging, you know. I've talked with him by means of a piece of looking glass, on a sunshiny day, more than a mile away; and we managed to understand each other first-rate. Leave Giraffe alone, Step Hen. ”

“ Young as they are they understand that an enemy is near. Ten to one the hair on each little back is standing up like bristles, right now. But seems to me we've gone about as close as we ought to, Aleck?"
Thad came to a halt. The light of the lantern showed them a dim, half crouching figure ahead. It was the mother wolf. Undoubtedly she might have found means of escape by retiring further into the place; but nothing would induce her to abandon her whelps. ”

“ Once or twice Thad had seen something move back of the three men. He dared not take his eyes off them long enough to look carefully, and at first could not decide whether it was a prowling wolf, bold enough to come thus near the camp in broad daylight; or a human being.
He even suspected at one moment that possibly the invaders might have been in greater numbers than any of the scouts dreamed ”

“ There were tears in Aleck Rawson's blue eyes as he said this last, and somehow every one of the scouts was deeply affected. It does not take much [Page 65] to arouse the boyish spirit of enthusiasm as a rule; and what they had already seen and heard of young Aleck Rawson, made the members of the Silver Fox Patrol ready to enlist heart and soul in his cause.
"There are nine of us here," said Thad, quietly, but with a firmness that thrilled the newcomer in the camp; "it's true that all but one of us are boys; but then we've got guns, and can use them too, if we have to. ”

“ This done, the patrol leader hastened to lower the lantern so that he could examine the ground close to the bottom of the fissure in the rock.
"Plenty of tracks, all right," was his first comment.
"Can you make them out, and is it a bear?" asked Aleck, almost unconsciously swinging his gun a little further to the front, while his fingers sought the lock.
"Well, no; the marks differ very much from the tracks of a bear, either a black or a cinnamon. They look more like made by a dog's paws," Thad replied. ”

“ Any one who has seen them leap boldly from a ledge, and strike upon their great rounded horns far below, is ready to declare that there is not a remarkable spectacle in all the world of wild sport that can equal the sight.
Possibly the Fox knew something concerning these queer mountain sheep; but as Giraffe said aside to Step Hen, "it would needs be a monstrous lemon squeezer that could ever hope to extract any information from an Indian." Aleck, on his part, had often heard stories told about the animals now occupying so prominent a part in the conversation of the scouts ”

“ But then, it was very important, Thad thought, that they keep the lantern intact; and of course he had never been alongside Aleck in action, so he could not tell just what sort of coolness the other would display when a time of excitement arrived.
Besides, when one is perfectly at home with a gun, it is possible to shoot without ever raising the weapon to the shoulder. Instinct takes the place of aim on such an occasion; some people call it "shooting from the hip," and that would be as good a designation for the method of pulling a hasty trigger, as any other. ”

“ Some of the boys are getting anxious to make a try for a big-horn. Why, there's Smithy, a fellow we never expected would ever take the least interest in shooting, because his nature has seemed so mild, and sissy-like—I even heard him declare he wanted to make a try and see what he could do. Owned up that his father used to be a great hunter years ago; but that he guessed he'd inherited his mother's gentle disposition; while his hobble-dehoy sister she wants to play baseball, hockey, tennis, and those kinds of games all the while. And Thad, I think we ought to encourage that idea in Smithy. ”

“ There'll be enough of us left behind to take care of Colonel Kracker and his friends, if so be they do chance to call on us."
"Bring us back some nice juicy mutton, Step Hen!" called Giraffe.
"And Davy, be sure you snap 'em off in the air; we ain't from Missouri, but we like to be shown," added Bumpus.
"I say, Smithy, the country expects every man to do his duty, suh; and if you get your chance, I give you my word, suh, that little gun can be depended on every single time!" shouted the Southerner, Bob White. ”

“ Taking the creature fairly across the neck he sent it spinning away.
"Look out there!" shouted Giraffe, giving a hop, skip and a jump in another direction; "he may be playing possum on us! Keep clear of him, everybody; and you, Bumpus, hit him again as hard as you can. It ain't the easiest thing agoin' to kill a snake, let me tell you."
Accordingly the fat scout raised his pole, and brought it down several times with might and main, on the neck of the fearful looking reptile; until finally Thad declared that it was beyond ever doing any harm again. ”

“ When he got back to the side of the guide again Step Hen discovered that Toby had found the place he was looking for, close to where the big-horn lay. Already smoke was beginning to rise, showing that Giraffe might not be the only one in the party who knew just how to go about making a cooking fire.
The scout watched Toby with considerable interest. He learned that when a man has lived all his life in the borderland, he has picked up a good many useful little wrinkles that a wideawake scout ought to know; and Step Hen determined to profit by his experience in the company of Toby Smathers. ”