THE BOY SCOUTS
AND
THE PRIZE PENNANT

BY
SCOUT MASTER ROBERT SHALER

AUTHOR OF “THE BOY SCOUTS OF THE SIGNAL CORPS,” “THE BOY SCOUTS OF PIONEER CAMP,” “THE BOY SCOUTS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY,” “THE BOY SCOUTS OF THE LIFE SAVING CREW,” ETC., ETC.

NEW YORK
HURST & COMPANY
PUBLISHERS

Copyright, 1914,
BY
HURST & COMPANY

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE I. [The Value of Woodcraft] 5 II. [The Lesson of the Riven Oak] 18 III. [Scout Law] 32 IV. [Getting Convincing Proof] 46 V. [The Wrecked Balloon] 59 VI. [Engineering in a Treetop] 72 VII. [“First Aid to the Injured”] 84 VIII. [The Value of Strategy] 95 IX. [Out for a Record] 107 X. [A Big Count for the Wolf Patrol] 121 XI. [The Field Tests] 134 XII. [Victory Well Won] 148

Boy Scouts and the Prize Pennant.

CHAPTER I.
THE VALUE OF WOODCRAFT.

“Wasn’t that the far-away hoot of an owl just then, Mr. Scout Master?”

“I wonder if it could be one of those tenderfoot recruits that expect to make up the new Owl patrol of our troop? How about that, Hugh?”

“As you’ve put it up to me straight, Billy, I’ll tell you what I think. It’s out of the question for one of those greenhorns to be away up here in the woods; and it was too deep and heavy to be the call of even a big Virginia horned owl. If you fellows will take the trouble to look up through the treetops you’ll notice that there’s a lot of queer flying clouds racing overhead right now.”

“Whew! do you mean it’s going to storm, Hugh?” demanded the boy who had answered to the name of Billy. He seemed to be a good-natured, easy-going lad, though just now his face bore an expression of sudden concern.

“I’m sure that was the distant growl of thunder we heard,” came the answer from Hugh Hardin, an athletic fellow who had long been the leader of the Wolf patrol. Very lately, on the resignation of the assistant scout master of the troop, Hugh had been elected to that office, receiving a certificate from Boy Scout Headquarters in New York City that fully qualified him to serve in place of the real chief should the latter be unable to accompany the troop.

There were just four of the lads up in the woods, where they had come to spy out the chances for gathering a bountiful nut crop later on in the fall. Incidentally they practiced certain maneuvers that had to do with scout lore and knowledge of woodcraft.

Besides Hugh and Billy Worth, there were Bud Morgan and Arthur Cameron, the latter of whom had made rapid progress to the grade of a second-class scout, with aspirations for even better things.

All of these boys belonged to the Wolf patrol, the doings of which have been told in the various stories preceding this volume. And though they were by this time pretty well versed in a knowledge of the great outdoors, the fact that a storm was sweeping toward them, with not a single house within a radius of several miles, was enough to create considerable consternation among them.

“We ought to do something right away, hadn’t we, Hugh?” demanded Arthur, possibly a trifle more inclined to be timid than any of his mates.

“If we only had plenty of time,” spoke up confident Billy, “we might make a lean-to out of branches that would shed rain. I’ve helped do it before, and we didn’t get wet, so you could notice. But listen to that growl, will you? No time for us to cut brush and branches, because before we got her half done the old rain would be howling down on top of us. Let’s cut and run for it, fellows!”

“That’s all right, but run where?” demanded Hugh. “It would be silly for us to think we could make as fast time as the storm.”

“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.

They went stumbling along through the woods, with Arthur bringing up the rear, as he did not seem to be quite as expert at this sort of thing as the balance of the scouts. Evidently Hugh was taking them on the back trail, because presently Billy recognized a fine white birch that he had marked down when passing, meaning to come back one of these days and strip that splendid mottled bark from its trunk, for some purpose he had in mind.

This fact told him that Hugh must have noticed some feature of the landscape, as he was always keeping his eyes about him, that offered a bare chance of safety from the storm that was chasing after them so swiftly.

“It’ll have to bob up mighty quick, then,” Billy was saying to himself, as he felt the first drop of rain splash against his neck, “for we are going to get it like cats and dogs right away. Hello! where’s Arthur?”

The thunder had been rolling just before, but ceased in time for Hugh to hear this last startled exclamation from Billy. He instantly stopped short in his tracks, and the three scouts came together in a bunch.

“Arthur! Whooee!” shouted Billy.

A rather faint voice answered him from back on the trail.

“Here I am; got caught by the ankle, and had all the breath knocked out of me! Go along, and leave me to look out for myself, fellows!”

“Not much we will,” said Hugh, as he immediately started back again on the run. “We Wolves stick together, come what will. Sink or swim, we never desert a comrade, do we, boys?”

“I guess not,” added Billy, and then quailed as a fierce flash dazzled his eyes; “but this settles it for our dry suits. We’re up against it, all right, boys!”

They quickly reached the place where their unlucky chum was sitting up, trying to work his foot loose from the grip of the vine that had caught him fast. Perhaps Arthur would have succeeded in doing this in due time; but he was out of breath now, and trembling so with excitement that he did not seem able to go at the job the right way.

After taking one look, Hugh gave the imprisoned foot a backward wrench and it came free.

“Hurrah for you, Hugh!” gasped the relieved scout, as he scrambled to his feet; “but you oughtn’t to have come back. I was to blame, and stood ready to take my medicine.”

“Scouts always stand by each other,” said Billy, who now proceeded to occupy a place in the rear, so as to keep an eye on the one who seemed prone to do what he had been warned against.

Either the way was freer of obstacles from that point on, or else Arthur had had his lesson and watched his steps more carefully; at any rate, he managed to keep up with those ahead of him, and did not again come to grief.

Two minutes later, and Hugh turned abruptly to the right.

“Here she comes, fellows!” cried Billy, as he heard an ominous rushing sound some little distance in the rear, which he knew must be made by the descending rain.

“And here’s where we score a mark in our favor in the contest for the prize banner!” Hugh added. “Don’t you see where the rocks crop up on this little rise? I noticed several ledges standing out that ought to shelter us from most of the rain, unless the storm shifts and comes back again. Now, each fellow find a place to crawl under the rock!”

Encouraged by these words, the other three scouts hurried forward. Hugh generously pointed out the first refuge, and told Arthur and Bud to get under shelter as fast as they could manage it.

“How about you and Billy?” cried Arthur, unwilling to profit in this way from the scout master’s discovery.

“Move along in here; a scout’s first duty is to obey orders!” Hugh called back over his shoulder as he hurried on.

It was beginning to rain in earnest, and that rushing sound told that within half a minute they might expect to be fairly overwhelmed by the deluge that was coming with that mighty wind and terrific bombardment of thunder.

Talking was no longer possible. One could not have heard distinctly even if a speaker’s lips were pressed against one’s ear. Hugh understood this, and so he clutched Billy’s arm, dragging him toward a spot where he had discovered another shelf of rock, when that last brilliant flash lighted up their surroundings.

They were not a second too soon; for even as the two boys scrambled hastily under the friendly shelter, down came the rain with such a rush that it seemed as if a cloud must have burst.

Crouching there in the semi-gloom, the two boys looked out on such a spectacle as doubtless neither of them had ever seen before.

It did not seem to be a mere summer storm, but very much after the type of a cyclone, such as sweeps irresistibly over sections of the country at times, tearing up great trees by the roots, and carrying off everything that happens to be in its narrow path.

Right before their eyes they saw several trees crash down. All around them the forest bent far over before the howling wind. By pressing back as far as they were able, the boys managed to keep beyond the reach of the downpour. Had it caught them napping, it would have soaked them to the skin “in three shakes of a wolf’s tail,” as Billy confidently remarked in his chum’s ear, during a brief interval when the awful clamor eased up a little.

CHAPTER II.
THE LESSON OF THE RIVEN OAK.

The minutes dragged slowly along. For some time it seemed as though there was going to be no let-up to the sudden storm; and already Billy was worrying over how they would get home without a soaking. But Hugh had noticed that it was less dark and gloomy than before, and he drew his own conclusions from this fact. Besides, the crashes of thunder certainly came from further away now, and that was convincing as well as encouraging to the young leader of the Wolf patrol.

“Do we have to stay here all night, or take our dose walking home, Hugh?” asked Billy, who apparently had failed to notice all these favorable signs.

“Oh! hardly as bad as that,” came the confident answer. “You can see that the worst is past by the way the clouds lighten; and that last thunder clap was surely a mile away, for I counted half a dozen seconds between the flash and the beginning of the crash. Let’s be satisfied with the way we’ve managed to cheat the rain and kept our jackets fairly dry. I believe in letting well enough alone.”

Billy began to notice the various indications, since his attention had been called to them by his more observing companion; and he quickly found reason to agree with Hugh that they would soon see the last of the rain.

“Jiminy! if it came down as heavy as this near home,” he said humorously, for Billy could joke, no matter what the conditions were, “we’ll need a boat to paddle along the pike. And say, think of little Pioneer Lake, will you? Won’t it be over the dam and rushing down like a mill race, though?”

The boys could now exchange remarks, because the thunder had rolled further away, although occasionally a terrific crash near at hand startled Billy, who liked to thrust his head out from under his shelter, just as a tortoise might from his shell, only to jerk it back again when a dazzling flash was instantly succeeded by a stunning bang.

“Whew! that was the worst knock of all we’ve had!” he ejaculated the next moment, shivering so that Hugh could feel his form tremble.

“You have to watch out in a bad storm for those same after-claps,” the other informed him. “They nearly always come, and do a heap of damage. There’s something in the air that draws the lightning back again to repeat. And chances are that bolt shattered a tree into splinters, because I’m sure I heard the sound of falling limbs and branches.”

“Oh! Hugh, don’t you think it came right from the quarter where that big hollow oak stood which Arthur wanted all of us to use as a shelter from the storm?” Billy asked, considerable awe in his voice.

“I was thinking that myself,” replied the other soberly; “and when we go on, we’ll find out. If it should happen that way, the sight of it would be the greatest object lesson ever to Arthur; yes, to all of us.”

“I should say yes,” muttered Billy, as in imagination he pictured that lofty oak lying in ruins; “and I guess you did us all a great favor, Hugh, when you refused to let any scout find shelter under its branches, even if they did look mighty tempting.”

That one grand crash seemed to mark the winding up of the furious storm; for the rain stopped altogether, and gradually the surrounding woods became lighter. Still, no scout ventured to crawl forth, such was the spirit of obedience which had been fostered in the Wolf patrol in times past, when all manner of strange adventures had been the portion of the eight boys constituting it. Until the leader gave the signal, they must remain where they were; although one and all of them secretly confessed to being heartily tired of crouching in that strained attitude.

When Arthur and Bud heard the peculiar howl of the wolf—“How-oo-ooo”—softly repeated three times, they knew that this was the signal for release; and accordingly both boys came crawling out from their place of concealment, stretching their cramped limbs with more or less animation and gratitude.

“Let me tell you it’s few scouts who would have noticed these rocky shelves in the formation of the hill,” Billy told the others impressively, “and then have remembered them just when a hiding-place from the storm was needed! When we report this adventure to the committee in charge of that banner, I hope they’ll agree that our patrol deserves a good big ten-point mark placed on record, for doing the right thing at the right time.”

“And let me tell you, the other patrol leaders’ll be warm under the collar when they hear about it, especially Alec Sands,” Bud went on to say reflectively. “Time was when he just hated Hugh here like everything. Then for a while Alec turned right around, so that he seemed to be as good a friend as Hugh had in the whole troop; but I’ve taken notice lately that Alec’s showing signs of his old trouble. You know he’s a spoiled darling at home and thinks everything ought to come his way. He’s straining every nerve to count points, and says he’s got that fine banner as good as won. Huh! like fun he has! Wait till the Wolf patrol is heard from!”

“That’s the way to talk, Bud,” commented Billy; “it gives us all a nice warm feeling. I only wish we could manage to get a photograph of these shelter caves that came in so handy. Nothing like being able to show the proof, when you’re going to make a report to the committee.”

“Well, you’ll have to come back here on a clear day, then,” said Hugh; “because there isn’t half enough light now to take them, and we haven’t any flashlight apparatus along. If all of you are ready, let’s be making tracks toward home.”

Billy noticed that the leader took great pains to walk along the same trail they had used in advancing, and he could give a pretty fair guess why this should be so.

That was characteristic of Billy; he often acted as though sleepy; but, once he was aroused, he could make as good use of his eyes and ears as the next fellow. Just then he fancied that Hugh expected to spring a considerable surprise on his chums before they had gone many rods.

“Looks as if we would be pretty wet, after all, the way the drops come down from the trees,” Arthur remarked, as he started to draw the collar of his coat up about his neck. “But then, none of us are made of salt, are we, boys?”

“Well, I should say not,” declared Bud, “after all we’ve been through since the Wolf patrol was first started, and Lieutenant Denmead consented to serve as our Scout Master. And he’s worked wonders for the lot of us, everybody says. Some of the boys in the troop have improved five hundred per cent. since they joined the scouts. They’ve learned that a fellow can get heaps and heaps of fun out of life without playing mean tricks or being cruel to birds and animals.”

“Hear! hear!” exclaimed Billy, softly clapping his hands in applause.

“If to-morrow is fine, I hope the whole bunch will come up here again,” urged Arthur at this point. “We surely must get photographs of those queer rocky shelters, to show the judges when we put in our claim for ten points. Hugh, will you come, for one?”

“I certainly will, Arthur, and hope both the other fellows will be along, for they ought to be in the pictures.”

“Oh! there’s only going to be one, you know, Hugh; unless we happen to strike a bevy of young partridges with their mother. I’ve got a quail sitting on her nest, but always wanted a group picture of the partridge family.”

“Well, we’ll have to order up one for you, then, Arthur,” chuckled Bud.

Just then Arthur, not looking very closely where he stepped, stumbled over something that lay in the trail.

“Look here, fellows, what does this mean?” he exclaimed, stooping to pick up the object. “A splinter of wood torn from a tree, and as fresh as anything! Why, I wonder if the lightning could have done that? Look around, fellows, and—oh! just see what happened to that tree! Why, the whole ground’s covered with the wreckage! What a terrible thing a bolt of lightning is, isn’t it, Hugh?”

“One of the most fearful things known,” Hugh replied; “but look again, Arthur, and tell me if you think you ever saw this same tree before!”

Billy fairly held his breath as he waited to hear what the other’s reply would be, for he had already seen that which told him the truth.

“Why, you don’t expect me to have a speaking acquaintance with every tree in the woods, do you, Hugh?” remarked Arthur. And then, seeing that the other was really in earnest, he looked again, and more closely, after which he continued: “Well, now that you mention it, seems to me there is something familiar about that riven stump. My stars! Hugh, it’s the big oak with the hollow trunk!”

There was a vein of awe in the boy’s voice when he said this, and his eyes were staring as hard as could be at the telltale evidence before him.

“And, Arthur, it doesn’t look quite so cozy in that hollow as when you wanted us to hide there from the storm, does it?” Hugh asked him.

The boy turned a white face toward the patrol leader, and there actually were tears in his eyes as he said slowly:

“Just to think what would have happened to the bunch of us boys if everybody else had been as foolish as I was! It scares me just to look at the awful smash that bolt made of the big oak. And that shows how valuable it is to know what is safe and what isn’t. Hugh, after this I’m going in for woodcraft and everything connected with it. I’ve been fiddling too much with this camera business, perhaps.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t say that, Arthur,” the patrol leader rejoined. “Photography happens to be your hobby, just as geology and surveying are Bud’s. You’ve made some cracking good pictures, too, since you put your mind on it. I’m sure that when you turn in the ones you expect to show of flashlight views of wild animals, taken in their native haunts, the series will bring quite a few points to the Wolf patrol for that prize banner.”

“I hope so,” said Arthur, “but that does not change my resolution about woodcraft. You must have guessed it was this tree that the last bolt struck, Hugh. I can see now why you kept following our back tracks so closely, even when there was a better trail at hand. You wanted to show me this sight, so it could be an object lesson. Well, let me tell you all I’ll never forget it as long as I live; and some fine day p’r’aps I can keep other foolish boys from getting under a big tree when a storm is coming up.”

“I was just thinking of something, Hugh,” remarked Billy, who had indeed been looking unusually serious for him while this conversation was going on.

“Well, give us the benefit of your wisdom, then, Billy Wolf,” Bud entreated.

“Here’s where we’ve got a fighting chance to pull down the biggest wad of points you ever heard of. Wasn’t it two hundred and fifty that was to go to the patrol containing a scout who had been instrumental in saving a human life since the contest started? Well, what’s the matter with our claiming a thousand? Hasn’t our leader saved all our lives by his judgment in this hollow tree business? How about that, Hugh? Think we’d stand any show of getting our claim admitted by the committee?”

“Well, that’s too fine a question for me to settle offhand,” the other replied with a laugh; “but I rather think it meant saving a life at the risk of one’s own; and you know that it was only my knowledge of these things that counted in this case. Still, Arthur must take a picture of this tree to-morrow, and we can put in a claim for points in woodcraft. It will be a good thing for every scout in the troop to hear about; and when they see what happened to the big oak with the fine hollow in its trunk, they’ll never allow themselves to be tempted to crawl into such a trap when lightning is in the air.”

As the four boys hurried on Bud remarked drily: “A little common sense went a long way this time.”

CHAPTER III.
SCOUT LAW.

No doubt in four families that same evening, while the good people of the house gathered about the board, there was considerable interest taken in certain versions of that day’s adventures. More than one mother’s cheeks grew pale as she learned how close her boy had been to a sudden death, while the father nodded his head and remarked in this wise:

“Now, I shouldn’t be surprised if Boy Scout training did amount to considerable, after all. That was a simple thing to know, but it proved to be mighty practical in application. Beware of trees and barns during a thunder storm. I’m glad you showed such good sense, son.”

The account given in Hugh Hardin’s home was much more modest than in any of the others. He shared the credit for discovering the wonderful shelves of rocks and the determination not to stay under the tree, so that any one listening might have received the impression that all four lads had simultaneously settled upon those important points. Hugh used the word “we” constantly, and it was not until later, when his folks met with the parents of the other boys, that they learned just where all the thoughtfulness lay.

The following day dawned as “fine as silk,” as Arthur gleefully told Hugh over the ’phone, when asking what would be the best time for them to start out on their second trip to the woods.

“This is just the dandiest day for taking pictures that ever could be, Hugh,” he went on to say. “The air is as clear as a bell, and you know that counts for a heap. My book of instructions says that’s why they get such fine views out in California, where the atmosphere is extremely rarefied.”

“Whew! does it say all that?” laughed Hugh. “Then I don’t wonder you’re anxious to take advantage of a day like this. That storm has cleared the air in a great way, for a fact.”

“Well, if they’d had it as severe here as we did up there in the woods,” continued Arthur, “it would have been tough on church steeples and such. I believe there wouldn’t have been one left in town. But only a few trees were blown down, and one house struck.”

“Where was that?” asked Hugh. “I hadn’t heard about any such thing.”

“Luckiest thing ever,” said Arthur; “it happened to be that old deserted building that was called Sutton’s Folly. Lightning set it afire, and in the storm the Excelsior Company couldn’t get out there to do their little business; so it burned to the ground, some people say. Others speak of the ruins standing, and looking queer. I’m bound out that way right now to try for a picture. How about the time we start up into the woods, Hugh? Would one o’clock do?”

“Make it one, and if either of the other boys can’t get off I’ll let you know, Arthur,” the other informed him.

“That goes, then, and meet at the church as before. By the way, Mr. Assistant Scout Master, although it’s only seven o’clock, you’ll be interested to know that I’m wearing my badge right-side up already. Haven’t missed connections now for twelve days; but it never came so early in the morning before.”

“Good for you, Arthur; how did it happen?” asked Hugh, always interested in anything that had to do with the application of scout principles. “Help the hired girl up with a bucket of coal, or run an errand for the folks?”

“Well, I did go on an errand before breakfast, but as that is a part of my regular home duties I never count it as worth while mentioning. I’d be pretty small to change my badge on that account. It was this way, Hugh. I have to go for milk, you see, because we get our supply now from old Mrs. Grady. She keeps just one cow, and it helps her out to sell all she can spare; but she’s so crippled with the rheumatics that she can’t walk much and people have to come to her. Are you listening, Hugh?”

“Sure I am; go right along, Arthur, but cut the story short. I think I’m wanted about now to carry a message downtown for my mother. What happened?”

“Why, it isn’t much to tell. You know the Sprawl family that live in the old shack down near the blacksmith shop? The man is a cobbler when he cares to work at all, and there are about forty-eleven youngsters flocking around the door all the time, barefooted and dirty.”

“Yes, I’ve often carried them things from our house,” Hugh assured him.

“Well, I came on one of the little Sprawl girls a-cryin’ on the road and searching in the grass. She carried an old battered pitcher in her hand, and when I asked her what was the matter she said she had been sent for five cents’ worth of milk and had lost the money. You ought to have seen how her face lighted up through the tears and the dirt when I drew out a nickel and gave it to her! Guess that entitled me to turn my badge, even if it wasn’t much, didn’t it, Chief?”

“I should say it did, and you’ll get a heap more satisfaction out of remembering the look on that little girl’s face than you’d ever have had from spending your nickel for a glass of soda water. But I’ll have to break away, Arthur. Look for us at one, alongside the church. I have a few stunts for us to practice while up there among the cliffs of the mountainside. So-long!”

When Hugh had attended to his errand downtown, he walked around to the sporting-goods store, in the window of which was exposed the handsome silk banner which had been offered by a leading gentleman of the town as a prize to the patrol winning the highest number of points in the competition that had been arranged by the efficient Scout Master.

There was hardly a time throughout each day that one or more lads did not have their noses pressed against the glass of that window, while they indulged in all manner of talk and speculations concerning the possible destination of that beautiful prize.

Doubtless many unique, and perhaps even remarkable, expedients would be resorted to by the energetic and ambitious members of the Hawk, the Otter, the Fox and the Wolf patrols of the Boy Scout Troop, in order to sum up the largest number of points in the contest. And when the time came to read off the list of things accomplished and to award the prize to the lucky patrol, there would be surprises all along the line.

Two boys were standing at the window as Hugh approached: Billy Worth and Bud Morgan. They turned toward Hugh with something like a mixture of indignation and amusement written upon their faces; and Billy immediately fired the first shot, as usual, for he was ready with his speech, if sometimes hesitating when it came to quick action.

“What do you think, Hugh? Alec Sands and Sam Winter of the Otters were just here, and you should have heard them talk! It was ‘our’ banner, and ‘how proud we’ll be when we march with that waving over the Otters’! I tell you, I was mad enough at first to eat my hat; and then Bud whispered that they were doing it just to get my goat, so I cooled down and added to the merriment by asking all sorts of questions about just how they felt so dead sure of winning.”

“Yes,” added Bud, “but it didn’t work, Billy. Alec was too sly to give his secret away. He only put on that wise look of his, winked his eye, and said: ‘You Wolves just wait and hear something drop. You’re going to get the biggest surprise of your lives before long. And let me tell you right here, we’ve got that banner cinched!’ And then they walked away, chuckling and looking back at us as though they might be having lots of fun.”

“Well, chances are they were, if you fellows let them see you were worried any by their big claims,” Hugh declared.

“What do you think about it, Hugh?” asked Billy. “Have they found out some way to add a lot of tallies to their string,—an easy way, and yet one that would come inside the restrictions set by the committee? If that’s so, then the rest of the patrols might only be wasting their time trying.”

“Don’t you believe that,” the other instantly told him. “No matter if they are beaten in the race, there’s no discounting the good the patrols will get out of the effort they make to roll up a strong count. Lots of things are bound to be attempted that would never have been thought of only for this keen competition. In my opinion, this is going to be the best thing that ever happened for the troop. And the whole town has got the fever by now, so that even men and women are interested. When the time comes for counting the tallies and telling how each bunch was won, there won’t be standing room in the biggest hall in town for the crowd that’ll want to be there.”

“Then you think Alec might have been boasting, just to rub it into us, knowing all the time we’d tell you about it?” remarked Billy.

“We all know that Alec is as smart as a steel trap,” said Hugh thoughtfully. “Now, it’s just barely possible that the Otters haven’t any wonderful run of luck at all, and that he’s adopted this scheme, thinking he may discourage the rest of us. You know, if some boys once get the notion in their heads that they’re beaten long before the end of the race, they’re apt to throw up the sponge and quit. He may think that we are that kind.”

Billy snorted with disdain as he said hastily,

“Huh! guess Alec isn’t much on reading character, then, if he thinks Hugh Hardin would get weak-kneed for a little thing like that. And every one of the Wolves are made of the stuff that fights harder than ever when they see that they’re up against a tough job. But anyway, you’ve made me feel better, Hugh. Someway I always do seem to look at things in a different light when you are around.”

“How are you fellows fixed for meeting Arthur and myself at one o’clock to-day?” the other calmly asked, though it must have given him a flash of pleasure to hear Billy’s remark.

“Does that mean we’re going for another hike to-day?” asked Bud. “I’m on deck, you may be sure; only I hope we won’t run across another storm like that one yesterday. It was the worst I ever struck.”

“No danger of that, with this fine bracing air and that cloudless sky,” Hugh replied. “Arthur is wild to get pictures of those places where we met our adventure yesterday; and I have a few tests connected with cliff climbing that I’d like to put through while up there in that rough country. Can you go, Billy?”

“Count on my being there at one, prompt, Chief,” came the immediate reply. “You know I’m never half so happy as when out in the woods. We might have another lesson in that Injun picture writing while we’re at it, Hugh. Never thought I could be so wrapped up in anything as that study’s turned out for me.”

“If we have time we will,” said Hugh. “By the way, I notice that neither of you scouts have turned your badges yet for to-day. Arthur was telling me over the ’phone of a nice little stunt he’d pulled off that let him make the change; and while he’s out a drink of soda water, he’s in a whole bushel of good feeling in his heart. No, I won’t tell you how it was; you must ask him that. And I’ve got to be off now, as my folks will be wanting what I came downtown after. Better get busy, Billy, and you too, Bud. The sooner it’s done, the quicker your mind will be free for the whole day.”

“Oh! I’ve got that all down fine,” laughed Billy. “All this week I’ve agreed to help our old gardener weed his onion bed, working half an hour a day, because he gets such a stiff back bending over, you know. And I’ll move along home to do my stunt right away.”

“And as for me,” added Bud, “I think I know how I can surprise my mother by doing a number of things to lighten her work this morning. You’ll see me wearing this old badge right-side up when I get to the church at one!”

It was odd how many opportunities came to these scouts, alertly watching for chances, to live up to that law of their organization that required a daily good deed. And, regarding their acts in the light of duty, they reported them to one another quite without boastfulness. Each scout felt it a reflection upon himself if he were long seen wearing his badge upside-down, the position in which he was obliged to place it at the beginning of the day. And as his own judgment decided when he might conscientiously reverse the badge, he was careful to merit the privilege.

CHAPTER IV.
GETTING CONVINCING PROOF.

“Here’s where we’ll have to leave the wheels, fellows, and climb the rest of the way,” said Hugh, at about two o’clock that same afternoon.

The four members of the Wolf patrol had concluded that they could save themselves considerable time by making use of their bicycles; it had been Bud’s suggestion, and being duly O.K.’d by the leader, the order went forth to come to the place of meeting prepared for a run along the good road that would take them pretty nearly three-fourths of the way to where they had planned to go.

So, dismounting, they looked for a convenient hiding-place, where the wheels might be considered safe until they came that way again, homeward bound.

Arthur carried his dearly loved camera, with which he had become very expert of late; and, as has been said before, the really fine pictures he was turning out proved that he had a natural bent in that direction worth cultivating. He was forever trying new experiments, and, with the assistance of Hugh, had already managed to obtain quite a few clever photographs of wild animals, such as could be found in that neighborhood. Indeed, they had several times arranged a sort of trap, so that a mink or muskrat in starting to carry off the bait, actually took its own picture by setting off a flashlight cartridge.

As the four boys started up the steep road, talking vigorously about the happenings of the previous day, it was noticed that Hugh was carrying a coil of rope over his shoulder. He had brought it along fastened to the handle-bars of his wheel, and, remembering what he had said about practicing cliff-climbing, Billy and Bud could readily guess what this might be for.

As for Arthur, he seemed so engrossed with what he expected to do in taking a number of views calculated to back up their story about the storm, that he paid no attention to anything else. That was the trouble with Arthur; once he got interested in any particular line of work, he threw his whole energies into it, perhaps to the neglect of other equally important matters.

They were soon climbing the trail that led to the scene of their previous adventure. Billy seemed unusually wideawake on this afternoon, and full of animation. His eyes were on the alert all the time, and if there was a squirrel that leaped from one tree to another in making for its hole, a rabbit that suddenly flashed out of sight among the bushes, or a red-headed woodpecker hammering at some rotten treetop, Billy was the one to discover it first of all.

Several times Arthur manifested a disposition to stop and take pictures. There were trees that had been blown down which seemed to offer an inviting field, and might have made good views; but Hugh advised that he “hold his horses” awhile.

“You can take plenty of pictures of fallen trees whenever you feel like it,” the patrol leader told the artist; “and just now you ought to make every film count for the Wolf patrol. Perhaps you may want to snap off several shots at the wreck of the big hollow oak; and then there are the rocks that made us such a fine shelter. They ought to show up just right in this afternoon sun, for they face the west.”

“I do believe you even thought of that when you agreed to the time for this hike, Hugh,” Arthur returned thoughtfully. “It seems to me you just look away ahead pretty much all the time, and figure things out long before they happen.”

“Oh! hardly all that,” laughed Hugh; “and in this case you’re away off, because it never occurred to me until I spoke. But besides those pictures, there may be some other things turn up before we get back that will be worth while snapping. I’ve got a few stunts figured out, you know, that will give you a chance to do some quick work, if you want to finish out a film.”

“We must be getting close to where that old tree went to smash when the lightning struck it, Hugh,” remarked Bud.

“There she is, right ahead there!” cried Billy, before the leader could answer. “And say, boys, let me tell you the wreck looks just as fierce as it did yesterday. I’ve been wondering whether we mightn’t have magnified things a little, seeing we were so worked up over the escape; but just look at the way the limbs are scattered around! It’s going to be a hard thing for you to get a proper focus on all that stuff, Art, and us grouped in the bargain.”

But the experienced photographer had already cast a quick look around, and seemed fully confident that he could manage nicely.

“Plenty of sunlight at this early hour,” he remarked first of all; “but by three o’clock the shadows of those other trees would have bothered me. And now, you fellows stand just by that little open place, where you won’t be in the line of the riven stump. The hole must show that I wanted you to crawl into before the storm broke. After I get you well focussed, I expect to join you. I’ve got an extra long rubber tube, you notice, connected with my rapid drop-shutter; so when we’re all fixed, I’ll press the bulb, and the thing’s done.”

He was very particular how he placed them all, and after he had viewed the scene from under his light-proof cloth, he came back several times to make alterations.

Finally, even the particular artist seemed to be satisfied.

“Nobody move a hand or foot, or more than breathe, till I come back and join you,” he told them, as he hurried to his camera which he had mounted on its tripod. “That’s going to be a Jim Dandy view, I’m giving it to you straight, fellows; and above all, the hole shows up fine. You see, that’s what will gain us points in this game, if anything will, and the committee must be able to tell that the oak tree struck by lightning was hollow, so that they can know how close a call we had. Steady there, Billy Worth; don’t act so frisky. We don’t want to spoil this picture, let me tell you; and I’m going to take a second snap, to make doubly sure of it.”

When the official photographer of the Wolf patrol had rejoined his three waiting chums, he stooped to secure possession of the bulb that completed the long thin line of rubber tubing.

“Now, look natural, everybody!” he remarked. “I’m going to press her. All ready? Here she goes! There, that counts for one snapshot! Now wait here where you are till I turn another exposure, and we’ll make a second picture.”

This was soon accomplished, and Arthur declared that he would have excellent results to show for all their work.

“You’ve got to print a copy for each one of us, too,” remarked Billy seriously. “I’m going to have an enlargement made, which I can frame and hang over the desk in my den at home. Every time I look up at it I’ll remember what it means, and feel thankful that I joined the scouts and that Hugh was along with us! It gives me a cold shiver to think what might have happened if the other three of us had been by ourselves. Neither Bud nor myself would have known enough to put up any objection when you made your bid for shelter, Arthur.”

“Oh! forget that, can’t you?” pleaded Bud. “Let’s move on, fellows, and find something more cheerful to look at than heaps of kindling wood, great splinters, and broken branches every-which-way.”

“Do we start for the bully rocks now, Hugh?” asked Billy, when the artist had gathered his traps together and seemed ready to continue the tramp.

“That’s the next thing on the program; and after we’ve taken what views we want there, why, I’ll show you what I want to try out. It struck me yesterday as we were looking for new nut trees up here, and I saw how fine the cliffs stood up in several places.”

“P’r’aps, Hugh,” chuckled Billy, “you might be aiming to give the Excelsior fire-fighters a few object lessons on how to save people from ten-story tenement buildings; but as we haven’t anything taller than three stories in our town, I don’t see just how they’ll profit by it.”

“Of course I wasn’t thinking of the fire company when I laid out these plans,” the patrol leader said; “but this rope-climbing business is like a good many other things scouts learn: they don’t ever expect to have to depend on such a thing to save either their own life, or that of another person; but if the time ever does come, it’s handy to know how.”

“You’re right there, Hugh,” admitted Billy; “it’s just like a man insuring his house against fire. I don’t reckon anybody ever believes his house is going to burn down; but he only wants to have his mind easy.”

“Well, lots of the stunts scouts learn are just so much insurance, as you might say,” Hugh declared. “And the more a boy stocks up with this stuff, the better he’s equipped for life. That’s where it counts big, I’m telling you.”

“And there is where we tucked ourselves away from the cloud-burst!” announced Billy, being the first to glimpse the queer rocky formations in the shape of shelves, that jutted out for six feet or so from the face of the hill.

Again Arthur “got busy” and made his arrangements. Hugh seldom offered any suggestion, for he saw that the other was better qualified to manage this thing than any of the rest. Once more they posed while the proper focus was being secured; and then Arthur injected himself into the group, gave the customary warning, and finally pressed the magic bulb that completed the circuit.

Since so much depended on getting a sure-shot of the queer shelter which Hugh had discovered, Arthur repeated the attempt once more; in case one exposure should have some mishap come to it, he could turn to the other. He had learned that in all important cases, where extra value is placed on a picture, it is a good thing to make doubly sure; because it is often utterly impossible to secure the same conditions twice, and a valuable opportunity may be lost.

After this, Hugh assumed charge of things. He was really anxious to try out several ideas of his own connected with cliff climbing, which had been one of the features of past contests in which the scouts had indulged to a limited degree. Now he believed he had hit on a series of experiments that would not only prove fascinating sport, but give them all considerable training in rope-climbing, as well as a knowledge of how Alpine guides manage to keep from falling when mounting dizzy heights.

Twenty minutes after taking the last picture, the four scouts were climbing the rugged mountainside. Far above them they could see the bare ridges of a higher peak, where many of their earlier outings had been conducted in the days when the troop was still young.

They were chattering like a flock of magpies, when Billy suddenly gave a cry of excitement. As before, those quick eyes of his had been roving to the right, to the left and straight ahead, always discovering new things.

“Oh! what in Sam Hill is that thing over yonder coming straight this way?” he yelled, clutching Hugh by the arm. “If I’d been reading ‘Baron Munchausen’ or ‘Sinbad the Sailor,’ I’d think it was a giant roc flying toward us; but it seems more like a battered old balloon dropping down to the ground.”

“It is a balloon,” said Hugh, after looking intently; “and I believe I can see a man in the swinging basket, waving his arms to us, as though he might have lost all control and wanted us to help save him!”

The other scouts were of the same mind when they had looked closer. It gave them a thrill to realize that all of a sudden, out of the clear sky, an opportunity had arisen whereby they might be of use to one in great peril.

CHAPTER V.
THE WRECKED BALLOON.

“It’s sinking right along, isn’t it, Hugh?” exclaimed Bud in an awed tone, as he kept his eyes fastened on the strange object that had so unexpectedly dawned upon their vision.

As it happened that the trees grew sparsely in that quarter, they were able to watch the approach of the sky traveler in his disabled balloon. All of the boys took it for granted that he must have ascended at some fair ground, and met with an accident that had prevented a return to earth under normal conditions.

“There’s no question about that,” the patrol leader replied to Bud’s question; “and now it is easy to see that there is a man in that wobbling basket.”

“Yes, and as you said, he’s making motions to us to do something,” added Arthur, as he hurriedly opened his camera and prepared to take a snapshot of the balloon.

“What can we do to help him, Hugh?” Billy demanded, apparently ready to dash forward at headlong speed if only the order came from the patrol leader.

“Nothing just now, the way things stand,” came the reply. “He is coming as straight toward us as if we had a line and were pulling him. Wait till the balloon gets here, and if there happens to be a trailing rope, we’ll grab hold of that, and wind it around a stump or a rock to anchor the old runaway.”

“That sounds sensible, Hugh,” admitted Billy, always ready to agree with the leader.

“Look at the thing swing up and down, will you?” cried Bud. “Boys, it will be a lucky thing for the professor if he gets out of that scrape with his life. As for me, you’d have to ring the bell lots of times before I’d go up a mile high in one of those flimsy silk bags. Wow! did you see how close it came to that tall tree right then? That would have done the business, I reckon. And there are lots more of the same kind ahead of him yet.”

“Do you see a trailing rope, boys?” asked Hugh. “Sometimes they let one down and have a weight on it for a drag anchor. Seems to me I can glimpse something of the kind now and then.”

“You’re right, Hugh, it’s there!” ejaculated Arthur, who had already snapped off one view of the advancing balloon.

“Everybody get ready to lay hold and fight like everything to check the runaway,” Billy remarked, squaring himself for action in a way he had, just as if he expected to enter a contest of skill and endurance with a prize at stake.

“Isn’t she rising again?” shrilled the excited Bud anxiously.

“Course not, Bud,” Billy told him; “you’re just imagining things again! Hugh, give us a tip if there’s any chance of the old balloon slipping past to one side!”

“Spread out a little, fellows, like a fan; that’s all we need do,” the patrol leader directed. “It looks to me as if we were in the direct line of her flight, and if the wind doesn’t change or a sudden flaw strike in, why, inside of two minutes we’ll either have grabbed that rope or missed connections.”

“Oh! don’t let us make a foozle of it like that!” exclaimed Arthur, who sometimes played golf with an uncle who was very fond of the sport.

He had not dropped his camera, for he meant to take another snapshot when the oncoming balloon had reached a certain large tree that he had selected and for which he had set his focus.

It was this same tree that Hugh was observing with more or less concern. He feared that should there prove to be only a little slant of wind that way, it might catch the drifting balloon and bring about a terrible catastrophe.

As it was, the escape must be a narrow one, for the balloon was heading so as barely to pass the obstruction. And just then, to Hugh’s dismay, he actually felt a puff of air on his right cheek! Up to that moment, the breeze had been coming directly from a quarter in front; but this variation would seem to indicate that a “flaw” could be expected. In mountainous regions there is never any reliance to be placed on the wind, which may seem to blow from half a dozen points of the compass in as many minutes, owing, of course, to the gullies and defiles and cliffs that obstruct a free passage.

“Hugh, she’s veering!” shouted Bud.

“And starting to head straight for that other big tree there, too!” yelped Billy, in turn.

If any one could have seen those boys at that moment, he would surely have realized what an intense interest they were taking in the advance of the drifting balloon and its ill-fated aeronaut. Every face had lost its color, and every eye was bright with excitement.

Now the body of the tree in question was almost in line with the spot where the boys were standing, and were the balloon so lucky as to clear this obstacle, it might pass close enough for these agile lads to race over and make a try for the dangling drag rope.

Hugh himself began to believe it was going to prove otherwise; and that after safely passing through all sorts of other perils, the man who had been a sky pilot was fated to be thrown out of his basket by a collision with that miserable tall and bushy tree that blocked the way.

Still, none of them dared make a start, until they saw what would happen. They could do nothing to prevent a collision; and should there be none, they wanted to remain where they were, so as to be ready for the rescue act that they had quickly planned.

Already the drifting balloon was close to the tree, and seemed to be setting toward it more and more, just as though there might be a great magnet attracting it; or, as Billy later on described it, “It was like a silly moth plunging straight for a lighted candle that was sure to singe its wings.”

Just as the collision actually came, all of the boys seemed to hold their very breath with awe. Arthur, however, having that instinct for securing all manner of strange pictures, mechanically raised his camera and prepared to take another snapshot view at the most critical second.

They could all plainly hear the dreadful scraping sound as the balloon dragged through the treetop. The silken covering must have been badly torn in its passage, for the rush of escaping gas came to the ears of the scouts, and they could see how quickly the immense bag began to collapse after it had dragged away from the tree.

“Come on, boys; we’ve got to get there in a big hurry!” exclaimed Hugh, as he started running with might and main, the others trooping after him. Arthur, of course, brought up the rear, since he had been compelled to snatch up certain parts of his photographic outfit from the ground where he had dropped them.

The balloon was rapidly falling to the ground, the basket being more or less enveloped in the voluminous folds of the immense silk bag.

Indeed, before the boys could reach the spot, the whole fabric had collapsed and grounded there, coming down with such force that it would seem as though the unfortunate pilot must either have been killed outright or at least suffered serious injuries.

In the latter case, perhaps the scouts might find themselves called upon to show “first aid to the injured.” Indeed, on a number of other occasions they had proved themselves apt pupils in the art; and it would be a lucky thing for the balloonist, should he be badly hurt, that fortune had allowed him to fall into the hands of trained boys. Ignorant countrymen would let him bleed to death, simply through a lack of knowledge of the essential things that should be promptly done.

Hugh led the van, with Billy a close second, while Bud kept pretty close at the latter’s heels. And in this manner they arrived at the place where the remains of the wrecked balloon lay in a great pile.

“Get busy, everybody!” called the patrol leader excitedly. “He might be smothered if he lay under that stuff long, with its smell of gas!”

“Whew! isn’t it rank, though?” gasped Billy, as he tugged away at the folds of the heavy silk gas envelope, and fell several times while struggling to lift more than his share of the burden.

Then Bud arrived to lend his assistance; and the way those three boys struggled to turn the entire mass over was worth seeing. Arthur was struck with the possibilities for a new picture as he saw them fighting with the remnants of the once great balloon; and obedient to his instinct, he halted and busied himself getting the proper focus.

The “click” of his camera told Hugh what had happened; but just then he made a discovery that put both Arthur and his propensity for securing “worth-while” pictures out of his mind.

As he feverishly worked alongside the other two scouts, Hugh had expected at any second to uncover the white face of the aeronaut, lying there where he might have fainted at receiving such hard treatment. And the patrol leader had kept his jaws set very tight, so that he might be prepared for any pitiful sight.

His surprise had rapidly grown as they had neared the end of the pile of crumpled silk, and without discovering the first sign of a human being.

“Why, Hugh, he isn’t here, after all!” cried Billy, in what must be confessed was a relieved tone of voice, as though he, too, might have been dreading what they might presently uncover.

“We all of us got fooled, that’s what!” added Bud, trying to laugh, though the effort sounded a bit hysterical.

“What’s all that?” demanded Arthur, who had arrived just in time to hear this last remark.

“Why, there wasn’t any man in the basket after all, don’t you see?” Billy explained, indicating how they had carefully gone over the entire pile of wreckage, even overturning the basket, as though it might have hidden something.

“That’s where you’re mistaken, then, because I saw him as plain as anything,” the newcomer asserted, and Arthur could be pretty stubborn when he wished.

“All right, then, get busy and find him, if you can,” Bud told him. “We throw up the job, don’t we, fellows? Hello! what’s Hugh going to do now?” Their attention being called to the leader by this remark from Bud, the others saw that Hugh had hurried back and up the rise a little.

Presently he stopped, and seemed to be looking earnestly toward the crest of the big tree, about where the basket of the runaway balloon had crashed through when that flaw came in the wind.

The other scouts stared hard, as they began to comprehend what this act on the part of their leader might mean; and presently they were thrilled to hear Hugh call out:

“Boys, there was a man in the basket, and he’s caught fast in the tree near the very top! Yes, and he lies there as if he might be dead, or else had swooned away!”

CHAPTER VI.
ENGINEERING IN A TREETOP.

What the patrol leader had called out, as he hurriedly returned to them, gave the other three scouts a great surprise. They stepped back a few paces and strained their eyes in the effort to locate the object mentioned by Hugh.

It is always much easier to see and do things when some other person has first marked out the way. Columbus had an experience along those lines, you will remember, after he returned from discovering America. The jealous Spanish courtiers and sea commanders sneeringly declared that his task had been very simple, as all he had had to do was just to “keep on steering straight westward”!

So it was that when Hugh had found out the truth and imparted the information to the rest of the boys, Billy and Arthur quickly discovered, also, the unlucky aeronaut.

“Show me, won’t you?” begged Bud, who appeared unable to locate the exact spot in his excitement. So they bent their heads close together, allowing him to get the range of their extended fingers.

“There he is,” said Billy, “just where that last fair-sized branch shoots out toward the left. Look hard, and you’ll be sure to see something caught in the crotch. That’s the man, Bud. And believe me, it must have been a whopper of a jar when he struck there, after being dragged by that runaway balloon.”

“I wonder if he is dead?” said Arthur in an awed half whisper.

“Don’t you believe it,” Billy declared.

“But he might be, Billy,” added Bud, taking sides with Arthur, “because, as you just said, he must have been slammed into that crotch terribly hard.”

“But you never saw anybody that was dead move his arm, did you?” demanded the positive Billy.

At that the others showed signs of surrender.

“Course not,” remarked Bud; “and if you saw him do that, he must be alive. What do you think, Hugh?”

“I’m not so sure as Billy,” returned the patrol leader, “but I thought I saw his arm move once. That might have been only when it slipped down from some position. But I’m going to find out right away, boys.”

“Hugh’s going to climb the tree,” suggested Bud quickly, taking it for granted that this was what the other meant when he made his last remark.

“But whether the poor fellow’s alive or not, how are we going to get him down from away up there?” asked Arthur.

“Leave that to Hugh,” said Billy wisely.

The first thing Hugh did was to glance hastily around him, as though looking for something he expected to need.

“Oh! it’s that long rope he brought with him to use in the cliff-climbing experiments!” exclaimed Arthur, as he saw the other bend down and secure the article in question, which he must have dropped when he arrived under the tree where the wandering balloon had met its final Waterloo.

Billy looked relieved. His faith, then, had not been misplaced, for Hugh now had means in his possession for lowering the unfortunate aeronaut. Just how the boy would go about it, of course Billy did not exactly know; but he smiled, and took a new interest in the matter.

“Somebody cut away that rope from the basket,” Hugh directed first of all.

“You mean the one that was trailing down?” asked Bud, as he immediately produced his pocket knife, the blades of which he always kept in prime condition.

“Yes, be quick, Bud. I’m going to knot it to my rope, if it seems stout enough,” the leader told him. “That ought to give me a long enough line to double from the ground up to that place.”

“Oh! I see how you mean to do it, Hugh!” observed Billy, wagging his head as though understanding Hugh’s solution for the puzzle.

Already Bud had cut the trailer rope just where it was fastened to the overturned basket. As he did so, he could not fail to notice that a number of seemingly valuable instruments, such as are used by aeronauts in their daring voyages among the clouds, were scattered about, and that a little box lay near them.

“Here it is, Hugh!” he remarked, coming up on the run with the line coiled on his left arm, where he had hurriedly placed it while on the move.

“Stretch it out, while I make a safe knot, one of the best we had to learn before we could be tenderfeet,” Hugh told him.

Bud hastened to cast the coils down, while Billy picked up one end and ran off with it.

While the leader was undoubtedly in something of a hurry, he did not mean in the least to neglect his duty; and never was a knot made more amply secure than the one that united those two ropes. Hugh tested it to his heart’s content, and then appeared satisfied that it would easily bear all the weight that must be placed upon it when they started to lower the aeronaut.

“Next thing is to examine the rope from the balloon, to make sure it’s all right,” Hugh said; “I know mine is up to standard, because before I came out to-day I tested it with a weight three times as heavy as Billy here, and that’s going some, let me tell you.”

He quickly ran over the rope, looking for defects and straining at each portion. In this way possibly precious seconds passed; but it was Hugh’s policy that “haste often makes waste.” He agreed with the backwoods Congressman, Davy Crockett, that it was always better to be sure he was right before going ahead.

“All right, is she, Hugh?” asked Bud eagerly, as the other reached the end of the second rope.

“Yes,” came the reply; “and now I want you fellows to keep hold of this end down here. You understand what I expect to do, don’t you?”

“I reckon it’s to pass the rope over a limb above the man, and then fasten it snug and tight to his body the best way you can,” replied Billy.

“Then we are to haul in the slack, till we get a tight rope,” added Arthur, taking up the thread of the explanation.

And finally Bud broke in with his share,

“And after you manage to get him started out of the crotch, which we’ll help by pulling on the rope, why, all we have to do is to lower away, you keeping him free from other branches till we get him safe down.”

“That’s the ticket,” announced Hugh; “and I’m off!”

Most boys are good climbers, and Hugh was especially at home in a tree. He could do all sorts of agile tricks, using some convenient limb as his trapeze, when he felt in the humor for exercising. But just now he was out for business, and once the boys had boosted him up to the first limb, in order to hasten his progress, he had but one object in view, which was to reach the spot where the man who had been torn from the basket of the balloon was caught and held fast.

The others stood below, in as good positions as they could find, where they might watch his progress. It was hardly a minute after his start before Billy announced that he had arrived close to the dark spot that told of the unlucky aeronaut’s presence.

“Hurrah! he’s up to the place, boys!” he announced joyously; and then, elevating his voice until you would have thought he was trying to address some one on a distant mountain peak instead of a chum just sixty feet away, he roared out: “Say, how is it, Hugh? Can you make it with the rope?”

There was a brief silence, and they understood that the comrade aloft was investigating to ascertain just the best way to manage. Billy guessed what might be the trouble, for at that distance from the ground the branches must be rather small, and Hugh was finding some difficulty in selecting one that could be depended on to bear a good weight, above the burden to be lowered.

Waiting for a signal from above, the three scouts bunched together down on the ground. Billy and Bud had taken possession of the rope, but Arthur did not seem to object. Perhaps he realized that there was only room for two to retain a firm hold, and as both fellows were stout and strong, they could manage better alone. Besides, Arthur had a little scheme of his own which he wanted very much to put through; and he was patiently waiting his opportunity.

“Ready down there?” called the boy in the treetop.

“Yes. Tell us what to do first, Hugh!” answered Billy promptly.

“Strain on the rope, gently, you know, at first. We’ve got to raise him a foot or so before I can swing him out of the crotch. Start away hauling, boys!” came down from above in distinct tones.

So Billy and Bud took in what small amount of slack there was, and, when the rope became taut, they started to pull. The resistance was considerable; but then, Hugh was up there engineering the job and they had the utmost confidence in his ability to run things.

“Stop! That’s enough!” sounded suddenly. “Now wait a second till I get things free. Start lowering very slowly, remember, and no slipping! Go on! That’s the way, boys! A little more, now! Careful, you’re going a bit too fast! Easy! Easy now!”

So encouraging and admonishing, Hugh kept along with the descending burden. This was necessary because the branches were thick, and there was always a possibility of things getting clogged.

Now they could plainly see the man held in the folds of rope. He seemed to dangle there just as Hugh had caught him in the loop, and it was utterly impossible to tell whether he were alive or dead. The boys experienced a strange feeling at the very thought of lowering a body out of a treetop; surely such a happening could never before have come the way of any Boy Scout.

Both Billy and Bud stuck to their duty manfully, however, despite their intense anxiety. They had been given their share in the rescue work by the patrol leader, and both were firmly resolved that no accident should happen through any fault on their part.

CHAPTER VII.
“FIRST AID TO THE INJURED.”

“Oh! that is going to be a regular dandy picture, I tell you, fellows!” Arthur burst out suddenly, while the others were “resting on their oars” for a brief interval. Hugh was clambering down from one limb to another, in order to keep in touch with the descending weight.

“Say, if he hasn’t gone and snapped the whole business, just as we stand!” ejaculated Bud, apparently disgusted that Arthur could bother with such a minor thing when matters of so serious a nature gripped their attention.

“Why shouldn’t I?” demanded the official photographer warmly. “Why, the sun fell full on the poor fellow’s swinging form, and I could see Hugh’s face as plain as print; while you two were in the finest pose ever. You just wait and see how it turns out!—Besides, don’t we want something to show how Hugh engineered this job so finely? Suppose Alec tries to say that it was all made up: You watch me give him a shock when I hold up a print of this splendid rescue work! Oh, I’m not so green as you’d think. I sometimes look ahead a little.”

But the boys were not paying any further attention to Arthur. Hugh had given a signal to commence lowering once more, and the two, who had braced their feet against a convenient root so as to secure a better foundation, let the rope slip softly through their hands, already burning from having felt the contact so long.

Things had apparently arrived at the last stage, for there was the patrol leader crouching on the lower limb, so that he could drop to the ground and receive the oncoming body of the unfortunate aeronaut. As Hugh jumped he gave the word to those at the rope, who continued to lower away carefully, with the air of veterans who knew their business from beginning to end.

A click announced that Arthur could not resist the fascinating prospect of still another picture to add to the value of those he had already secured. All that would be needed now, to make it a complete story, was a photograph of the aeronaut himself at the end, signed with his autograph!

When finally their task was completed, Billy and Bud found that they did not have more than a yard of rope left, showing that Hugh’s calculations had been pretty close.

Hugh was already bending over the figure of the aeronaut, releasing the tightened loop of the rope, which had been cruelly pressing in around his chest under his arms.

The man seemed to be of middle age and medium stature. His thin face was perfectly colorless just then, and it gave the boys a creepy feeling to look at it, so ghastly did it appear.

“How about him, Hugh?” asked Arthur, who had by this time joined the little group around the patrol leader and the wrecked air pilot.

“He’s alive, all right, for I can feel him breathing,” came the welcome response; “but I’m afraid that one arm is broken and badly bruised. You see, he was caught by that crotch up above,—yet perhaps, after all, it served him a good turn, boys.”

“Wow! I should say, yes,” muttered Billy, glancing up as though mentally figuring with what terrific force the man must have struck the hard ground had he dropped the additional sixty feet.

“Better even a fractured arm than a broken neck, I’d say!” ventured Bud sagely.

Meanwhile, in order to make sure of the extent of the man’s injuries, Hugh was trying to get his heavy jacket off. The aeronaut had undoubtedly found no chance to exchange this for anything lighter while rapidly descending from the colder upper regions of space, after his accident in the first place.

Billy hastened to help the patrol leader, and between them they managed to remove the coat, which was so thick in texture that it must have protected the poor fellow’s arm more or less when so violently caught by the crotch in the tree.

After that, Hugh began to open his shirt sleeve. He already knew that it was going to prove a bad job, for this was saturated with fresh blood. The sight made Bud set his teeth together and draw a long breath; while even Billy made a grimace, as though he did not particularly fancy his work, though sticking bravely to it.

Arthur was of course busying himself as usual, fussing with that eternal camera again; and had any of the other three been paying the least attention to him, they must surely have heard that suggestive “click” that told he had secured yet another picture of the wounded man and his attendants.

When he had torn back the discolored sleeve of the man’s shirt, Hugh made a quick, gentle examination, while the others watched all he did with deepest interest. As every scout is supposed to learn more or less in connection with field surgery, especially how to manage a broken or sprained limb so as to give relief until a regular doctor can take charge, Billy and Bud understood just what their comrade was trying to do when they saw him fearlessly working at the dangling arm, the very sight of which gave them a cold chill.

He seemed to have managed to get the fractured bones somewhat in place, for his next movement was to pull out a small package from an inner pocket of his khaki coat, and quickly remove the wrapping paper and rubber band that protected it.

With a wisdom that would have done credit to an older head, Hugh had carried a roll of broad, surgical, bandage tape along with him when starting out on the trip. Probably he had had it along on the preceding day also, though there had been no call for its services. His experience and training had led him to “be prepared” for any accident that might happen to his comrades as they tramped and climbed in the woods.

“Give me a helping hand, Billy, won’t you?” asked the patrol leader.

“Sure thing,” muttered the other, steeling himself for the effort and trying to look as though he enjoyed the experience.

“I’d like to wash all this blood off, if I could, only there’s no water handy,” remarked Hugh, regretfully.