The Boy Patrol Around the Council Fire

by Edward Sylvester Ellis

  CHAPTER XIX -- The Final Test

  "Mr. George Burton may think he has a mighty smart dog," reflected HokeButler, as he picked his way up the small stream, "and he isn't anyslouch, but there are some things he can't do, and one of them is tofollow a fellow's trail through the water. Funny that when Burton shutus off from the lake he forgot this brook. Since he didn't mention it, Ihave the right to use it.

  "Now," continued the logical young man, "while I keep to the water Idon't leave any scent; I'm like the fawn which the hound can't trackthrough the woods, and when Zip comes to the point where I stepped intothe water, he'll be up against it--hello!"

  He had come to a place where the brook expanded into a pool and morethan fifty feet across. Opposite to where he halted, the foaming currenttumbled over a series of boulders, and then spread out into the calmexpanse, whose outlet was the small stream which Hoke had ascended tothis point. The water lost a good deal of its limpidity, so that thebottom could be traced only a little way from where he stood.

  "That's bully!" exclaimed the Scout, after brief reflection; "I'll walkacross the pond--it can't be deep--and step ashore on the other side,Zip won't come within a mile of the spot."

  He began wading, cautiously feeling each step before advancing. Sincethe depth was unknown he could not be too careful, though confident thatthe little lake was shallow in every part.

  Half across the icy water reached to his knees. He pressed slowly on,thrusting out a foot and making sure of a firm support.

  "It ought now to grow more shallow," he reflected as he felt his wayforward; "when I get to shore I may as well go back to the bungalow andwait till Zip returns disgusted. I guess Burton can take a joke whenit's on him, and he'll laugh with the rest of us----"

  At that instant, Hoke stepped into an unseen hole and dropped out ofsight. The sudden clasp of the icy element made him gasp, and when hishead popped up, he spat and struck out frantically for land. It wasremarkable that the only spot in the pond where the water was over hishead was barely two yards across, and beyond it the depth was so slightthat while swimming, one of Hoke's feet struck bottom. He straightenedup, and strode to land, shivering in his dripping garments.

  "Who'd have thought that? I didn't dream of anything of the kind--wheredid _you_ come from?"

  This angry question was addressed to Zip, who thrust his muzzle againstHoke's knee, looked up and wagged his tail.

  "I'd like to know what led you here, when you hadn't any scent tofollow."

  "It was his nose," remarked young Burton some time later, when Hokehaving exchanged his wet clothing told his story to the laughing groupon the piazza.

  "I left no scent when I stepped into the brook," replied Hoke.

  "Therefore he knew you were in the brook; and set out to find where youhad left it."

  "He had to follow both sides in turn."

  "Not at all; from one bank he could detect, without the leastdifficulty, the scent on the other side. He failed to take it up, andtherefore knew you had still kept to the stream. If you had not been insight when he reached the pond, he would have circled around it andnothing could have prevented his discovering your trail within the nextfew minutes. But he saw you feeling your way across, and the directionin which your face was turned told him where you would come out,--so hetrotted around to welcome you when you reached land."

  "Why didn't he jump in to help me out of the hole?"

  "The bloodhound is content to leave that kind of work to his brother theNewfoundland, and a few others. You are ready to admit, Hoke, that thereare bigger fools than Zip."

  "Yes,--and here sits one of them. Mike doesn't seem to care to matchwith him."

  "There's where you're mistook, as Bridget Lanigan said whin she pickedup a red hot poker thinking it was a ribbon she had dropped from herhair. Come, boys."

  Mike sprang from his seat and addressed Alvin and Chester. There wasmuch chaffing as the three passed into the bungalow and out at the rear.Zip had taken his place beside his master's chair, where he sat with hislong tongue hanging far out, his mouth wide open, and his big earsdangling below his massive jaws. He manifested no further interest inwhat was going on around him, though he must have understood everything.

  The agreement with Mike was that the dog should remain on the piazzawith his master and the other scouts until a full hour should havepassed. Then he was to be allowed to smell of a pair of shoes which thefugitive left behind him. These belonged to Alvin Landon, who hadbrought some extra footgear. They had been worn by Mike for several dayswhen he replaced them with his own, which he had on at the time he leftthe bungalow. Thus far everything was plain and above board.

  "I don't know what Mike has up his sleeve," remarked young Burton; "nodoubt it is something ingenious, for he and his two chums have beenwhispering and chuckling a good deal together, but Zip will defeat himas sure as the sun is shining in the sky. You have noticed that my dogdoes very little baying,--or rather, Isaac and Hoke have noticed it."

  "But he gets there all the same," laughed Rothstein; "I should like toknow what plan Mike has in mind."

  "We shall learn when he comes back and we hear his story."

  Prompt to the minute, Burton directed the attention of Zip to the pairof shoes that had been placed on the ground at the foot of the steps.

  "Find him," was the command of his master, and the hound fairly boundedout of sight around the corner of the building. He bayed once as hepicked up the scent, and then vanished like a bolt from a crossbow. Thecrowd of Boy Scouts resumed their chat and awaited as patiently as theycould the issue of the novel test.

  Meanwhile, Mike Murphy and his two chums set to work to carry out thescheme which they had formulated, and which each one was confident mustresult in the humiliation of the wonderful dog and his owner. Withabundance of time at their command they did not hasten, but walked witha moderate pace to a point some two hundred yards from the bungalow.They had straggled along side by side, without trying to make theirtrail hard to follow, and now halted.

  "This is far enough," remarked Alvin, as the three peered around withoutseeing any one.

  His companions agreed. Then Alvin and Mike sat down on the ground andexchanged shoes. Not only that, but the former stooped and the lattermounted his back, his arms loosely around Alvin's neck with his legsprojecting in front and supported by the crooked elbows of his carrier.Then he resumed his walk with Chester trailing behind.

  When the distance from the bungalow had been doubled, Alvin asked:

  "How much do you weigh, Mike?"

  "A hundred and forty-three pounds--when ye started."

  "I think it is about a ton now; how far do you expect me to carry you?"

  "Not far,--say two or three miles."

  "I rather guess not; Chest, it's time you took a turn."

  "Oh, wait awhile; you have only just begun."

  "This isn't as much fun as I thought," growled Alvin, resuming the taskthat was fast becoming onerous.

  "I'm enj'ying mesilf, as Jerry Dunn said whin he tackled threep'licemen. When I git tired I'll sing out, and we'll make a change."

  Chester's sense of justice led him soon after to help in shifting Miketo his own shoulders, and the progress was resumed much the same asbefore.

  You will perceive the trick the boys were playing upon the bloodhound.Mike had not only changed shoes with Alvin Landon, but his new ones werenot permitted to touch ground while they traveled a fourth of a milethrough the unbroken woods. Moreover, for this distance the leaves weretrampled by Mike's shoes, but they were on the feet of Alvin.

  The next step in this curious mixup was for Alvin, still wearing Mike'sshoes, to diverge to the left, while Chester, with Mike on hisshoulders, went a considerable distance to the right, where he haltedand the Irish youth slipped to the ground and stood in the footgear ofAlvin, who was so far away that he could not be seen among the trees.

  All this was prearranged, as was that which followed. Mike started offalone, aiming
to return to the bungalow by a long roundabout course,while the other two came together at a new point, and made their way bya more direct route to where their friends were awaiting them.

  "I wonder that Zip doesn't show up," said Alvin, when they caught sightof the building, and he looked back; "it is considerably past the hour,and he ought to be in sight."

  "It can't be he was sharp enough to detect our track."

  "Impossible!"

  And yet that is precisely what he did do, and later, when all weregathered on the piazza, including the dog, who arrived less than tenminutes after the astounded Mike, George Burton complacently explainedhow it had all come about.

  "It was an ingenious scheme, Mike, and deserved success, but it did notbother Zip for more than a few minutes. If a dog can smile, he must havegrinned when he penetrated your strategy. You made one mistake which wasnatural."

  "It looks to me as if our greatest mistake was in thinking the pupdidn't know more than ten times all of us together," said Mike with asniff.

  "That, too, was natural in the circumstances, but when you changed yourshoes with Alvin, then was the time you three should have partedcompany. Instead, you stayed together, and Zip kept to the trail, for itwas the only one for him to follow. Had you separated, he probably wouldhave followed Alvin for awhile, but not long. He would have detected thedeception, run back to the point of separation and hit the right one."

  "But he virtually did that afterward," remarked Scout Master Hall.

  "A proof of the truth of what I said. No doubt Zip trailed Alvin for alittle way or until he discovered that the scent had changed and he wason the wrong track. Then he turned back and hunted out the right one."

  "If that explanation is correct," said the amazed Mr. Hall, "it provesthat the bloodhound was able to detect the emanations, or whatever itwas that exhaled from Alvin's feet, and could be differentiated fromMike's even though it must have passed through the leather worn for daysby Mike."

  "Unbelievable as it sounds we have to admit it, but," added Burton, "wemustn't lose sight of what doubtless was a contributing factor. It wasnot Mike's shoes alone that told the secret, but his clothes. He brushedthe trees and limbs when carried on the backs of his friends, and whilewalking. It was that which was probably the surest clue to Zip, as itwas with Isaac and Hoke, and made it impossible for any one of the threeto mislead the dog."