Great Hike; or, The Pride of the Khaki Troop

by Burt L. Standish

  CHAPTER II.

  JASPER'S IDEA TAKES ROOT.

  "HOOP-LA, somebody grab me before I drop!" shouted Landy, as he kepttrying to get a grip with his fat legs on the foliage of the outerbranches which seemed to take particular delight in evading hisambitious designs.

  "Get a feather bed under him!" shrieked Ty, although at the same time hewas changing his position in the tree with all possible haste, meaningto assist the clinging boy, if it could possibly be done.

  "Oh, save me first, and joke about it afterward!" cried Landy, who wasreally alarmed and under a tremendous strain, both bodily and mentally.

  "If I only had a rope with a loop in it, I could lasso him!" declaredJasper.

  "But you haven't, you see," cried Landy. "Think up something else! Hurryalong, boys; I can't hold out much longer. I'm no Elmer as a gymnast.I'm slipping right now, I tell you. Wow! Is that measly old ladder underme, and will I come down with a splash on it?"

  He panted as he uttered this complaint, and the boys saw that his faceresembled the setting sun, as he looked up to them almost piteously. Butwho could reach him there? On the very outer edge of the big tree, withthe ground fully twenty feet below, and nothing to break his fall, itbegan to look like a serious business for poor Landy.

  Dr. Ted realized that there was real danger of the boy getting a brokenleg if he fell that distance. Landy was not like agile Lil Artha, orsome other members of the troop. His weight made him solid, and beingwithout any spring, he would likely come down with a dull, sickeningthud.

  "Hold on as long as you can, Landy!" yelled Ted, even neglecting to lispin his great excitement.

  He was slipping down the tree like a "greased pig," as Jasper termed it,though what that sort of animal would be doing up in an apple tree henever took the trouble to explain.

  Ty saw what the idea was. He had been about to try and reach Landy bystanding far out on a limb; but the prospect of success was very small.And so he followed Ted down the tree, slipping from limb to limb withthe agility that some boys can only display when the owner of theorchard is seen coming on the full run with a ferocious bulldog at hisheels.

  "Oh, hurry! hurry! I'm near gone, and can't hold out much longer!What're you doing down there to help me, boys?" wailed the one whoselegs swung back and forth like a couple of pendulums, as they vainlysought for a chance to grip something that would ease the strain on hisarms above.

  "The ladder! They've gone to set it up again, Landy! Just hold on half aminute longer. And there's Elmer jumped off his bicycle; and he'salready raising it up. Set your teeth, Landy; take a fresh grip, andit's going to be all right!"

  So the excited Jasper shouted as he sat there in the tree, unable tolend a helping hand, but at least capable of offering good advice.

  A boy who had been coming toward the place on a wheel, seeing the stateof affairs, had instantly sized up the situation; and even while thosein the tree were shouting back and forth, and before they could getstarted, Elmer Chenowith, jumping from his saddle, had limped forward towhere the unlucky ladder lay.

  By the time Ted, followed by Ty, landed on the ground, he had raised itsingle-handed, and with a readiness that told of long familiarity withladders; for one not accustomed to such things would never know thesecret of bracing the bottom against some root and then lifting rapidly.

  So just in the nick of time the treacherous ladder was dropped againstthe outer branches of the tree, alongside the hanging boy. Elmer himselfflew up the rounds, for he feared that Landy, always more or lessclumsy, might not be able to swing his form around, and take advantageof the opening.

  But desperation gave Landy new abilities, and he managed by a violenteffort to roll around to the outer side of the leaning ladder. Utterlyexhausted by the strain he had been under, the fat boy must have slippedhelplessly down only that Elmer managed to clutch him.

  Step by step the gasping Landy was lowered until he reached the bottomround. He was no longer furiously red, but had turned a sickly white.

  "Here, let him down on the ground," said Dr. Ted, taking command at thatpoint as though it were his acknowledged right. "He's only getting thereaction now. I'll fix him up, boys, and he'll be picking apples againbefore ten minutes, believe me."

  He was as good as his word, for Landy soon recovered; but it was noticedthat from that moment the fat boy showed great caution how he climbed upthat ladder, by which he had once been betrayed.

  "What was all that talk going on as I passed?" asked Elmer, a bright,wide-awake young fellow, whose year out on a Canadian ranch belongingto an uncle was proving of considerable value to him in his experienceas a scout.

  "What did you hear?" asked Jasper, assuming a little of his formerimportance.

  "Seemed to me it smacked of a contest," Elmer replied, "and somebody wastelling how a few of us could keep tabs on the same, while using ourwheels. That struck me as interesting, and so, wanting to know more, Ijust wheeled around, and was coming in through the back gate to thegarden when the ladder fell. Now tell me the rest, fellows, because youall know that I'm head over ears interested in anything that touches oncontests of any sort."

  "Well," spoke up Ty, grinning; "somehow we got to talking about who thebest all-round walker and runner in the troop might be. A lot of nameswere mentioned, including my own. Then there were Red, Lil Artha, Matty,George Robbins and Jack Armitage. Even Landy here threatened to enterfor the big hike."

  "But what was the idea?" asked Elmer, his face aglow with interest.

  "To fix up a long-distance hike, say for twenty-four consecutive hours;and a few fellows, mounted on their wheels, kind of superintend thingsby keeping tabs along the line. The contestant coming in ahead at theend of the walk to be declared the pride of the troop, and the greatestever."

  Jasper rattled all this off with a fluency that told how he had indeedbeen deliberating over the scheme for some little time, and only sprangit on his chums now because the talk had gotten around to the subject.

  "How's that strike you, Elmer?" asked Ty.

  "Yeth, give uth your opinion, Mr. Thcoutmaster!" echoed Ted.

  "Boys, it's just dandy, and that's a fact!" declared Elmer. "We can makeup the arrangements to-night, if you'll all come around to my house.I'll get a lot of the other boys on the phone. I was thinking thismorning that we ought to have a meeting about now, anyway, for there area lot of matters that need attention."

  "Then if you say so, it will be a go," declared Jasper, highly pleasedbecause his little scheme had met with such instant approval at thehands of one in whom he placed the utmost confidence.

  "Sure to be, Jasper," came the reply. "And it does you great credit too.Some of us were wondering what we might do to stir things up a little.With school opening just two weeks off, we want to make the most of thefew days left of our vacation. Now this big hike will be just thething."

  "Besides, you see, Elmer," the small scout continued, eagerly, "it'sgoing to settle a dispute between the lot of us here. Some think onefellow is going to have a walkover, and others hold different opinions.Of course we all know you're bound to be shut out, on account of thatsore foot of yours. And as Mark is out of town, he can't enter the gameeither. But we think the six fellows we picked out ought to make thingslively enough to suit anybody."

  "They will, for a fact," replied Elmer. "Of course I pin my faith on LilArtha, but I may be mistaken just as well as any one of you. But I mustbe going, fellows, as I was on an errand, and just ran around here tosee how you were getting on. Better not try those gymnastics again,Landy. That was an ugly scrape for even an acrobat, let alone a fellowas chunky as you are."

  "Elmer, never again," said the fat boy, solemnly, as he slowly shook hishead. "I'll be sore for a week after that job. My arms feel right nowlike they'd been nearly pulled out of their sockets. Gee, but nobodycan understand just how it feels to be hanging twenty feet up, on theoutside branches of a tree, and slowly slipping, slipping! And I lost abasket of the biggest pippins you ever saw; every one a prize w
inner,but now all bruised and wasted!"

  "You'd have been the biggest squashed pippin of the lot if you went downthat time," sang out Ty from the top of the tree.

  "Now that's real cruel of you, Ty," complained Landy; but he did nottake the jibes of his comrades much to heart, for he was fond of a jokehimself.

  "Remember, every one of you drop around to-night," said Elmer, as hepicked up his wheel, which he had hastily thrown aside at the moment hediscovered how necessary prompt action was required in order to saveLandy.

  "Any chance of striking some of that delightful sponge cake yourhousekeeper makes to beat the Dutch?" asked Landy, who had neverforgotten the treat set before the scouts the last time some of themwere invited around to Elmer's home.

  "Seems to me Mrs. Gregg was making a big batch this very morning when Ileft home," called back Elmer; just as if he hadn't asked her to do thesame, since he intended having the boys in khaki there that night.

  "Then count me in," declared the fat boy, firmly; "even if my arms areso sore I'll have to ask somebody to raise the cake to my mouth. Yum,yum; that was the finest thing that ever came down the pike, barringnone! And you tell her that, Elmer, with my compliments."

  "All right, I will," sang out the departing one, as he passed out of therear gate, mounted on his wheel and riding as one to the manner born.

  The apple picking went on, with the heap at the base of the treegrowing in size as basket after basket was added to it. And theconversation between the five lads covered a great variety of subjectsas they stripped the big tree of its golden freight.

  "What makes me sore," remarked Landy with a big sigh, "is the fact thatI upset the basket that held the finest apples going. You see, my dadexpected to show some of these at the fair next week, if they turned outas well as they looked from the ground. And I was just saying to myselfthat I had the beauts, when the silly old ladder went back on poorlittle Philander."

  "Don't weep, old chap," called out Ty. "If you look over that last lot Isent down on my little cable here, you'll find them the mates of theones you dropped. And for a wonder, too, I got that basket down safewithout an upset."

  "Thanks, you make me happy again, Ty," remarked Landy. "And for thatyou'll be remembered in my last will."

  "Huh!" grunted Jasper; "he deserves a heap of credit for letting allthose fine pippins get past him; because he acted like he meant togobble every extra good one that came along. I've counted about a dozenhe's got away with up to now; and I think even at that he's just takenthe edge off his appetite."

  "Well, in that case I'll get down and pick out a basket from the pile totake in the house, before Ty starts at full speed," and Landy didactually head for the ground to put his threat into execution.

  So they kept up a crossfire of remarks, sometimes more or less witty,until the last apple that could be reached was bagged. Then the game wasdeclared off, and Landy invited his chums in to help dispose of a quartof peanuts he happened to have in his room.

  "We'll all be around to-night at Elmer's house, I suppose?" remarked Tyas, with Ted, Jasper and Chatz, he started for the door.

  "Count on me, if I have to be carried on a stretcher," vowed Landy,laughing at the speaker, as he recalled to mind the attractive lure thathad been held out for their attendance.

  "And I'm anxious to have this thing put through," declared Jasper;"because, you see, it was partly my suggestion; and besides, I've got ahunch that the Fairfield troop are figuring on a long hike, to try outtheir best fellows. I'd like to see our Lil Artha or Matty Eggleston upagainst the best they have. It'd be a hike worth hearing about, believeme, fellows."

  "And perhaps we _can_ fix up a match; I'm going to mention the thing toElmer, anyhow," remarked Chatz, who really had no small nature, andcould see one of his comrades winning laurels without showing theslightest envy.

  And talking it over earnestly, they left Landy, heading for theirvarious homes.