CHAPTER XV.
VICTORY--SISS! BOOM! HURRAH!
ELMER was as good as his word. He knew how to cripple the car, and inalmost no time he had secured the vital plug without which the machinewas valueless for following after Lil Artha, and making him any moretrouble.
Then he and his two chums hurried back along the road, meaning to lookup their motorcycles; and once mounted upon these they could speedilyovertake Lil Artha; to form a guard of honor about him while he coveredthe last few miles of his long and adventurous hike, that was to bringnew glory to the khaki troop of Hickory Ridge.
Nat ran on ahead. They knew full well that it was not any eagerness tobe the first to discover the marked spot near which the machines hadbeen secreted that influenced him to do this, but some other motive,possibly not quite so worthy of commendation.
But even Elmer did not say a word. In the first place he did not thinkNat would be successful in overtaking one of the Fairfield schemers; andthen again, Elmer was not feeling any too kindly toward fellows whocould try to put through such a mean plot for defeating the ambitions ofthe leader in the great hike.
"Hold on, there; come back, Nat!" called Toby, presently. "You've goneand overrun the place. It's lucky Elmer here took note of this big oaktree; or a pretty time we'd have finding our wheels again."
Nat did return, but with a bad grace. He was mumbling something about"hard lines when everything goes against a fellow," and all that sort ofstuff; but no one appeared to pay any attention to his complaint.
They quickly found the three motorcycles, just as they had left them;and again Toby started out to lead the way, only to make a mess of it.
"What's wrong this time, Elmer?" he asked, when the patrol leader gavehim to understand that they would be a long time getting out of thewoods if they kept on the route he, Toby, had started to follow. "I madesure to notice that the wind was on the same side as when you led us outbefore."
"Yes, but since then the wind's taken a sudden shift. You should havepaid attention to that just when we left the road," remarked the other."A woodsman never goes by what it was a while ago. He knows changes areliable to come around most any old time; and that's what happened here.Wind whipped around about ten degrees, and is heading from the southwestquarter now. That may mean rain before long, boys."
"Let her come if she wants," declared Toby, who was something of aphilosopher at times. "Can't do any more than soak us through, and atthis time of year that's nothing. I've fallen into a pond more timesthan I've got fingers on both hands. They just can't drown me, and thatgoes, boys."
"So long as Lil Artha comes in well to the front, and the Hickory Ridgescouts win the big hike, what do we care?" Nat spoke up. "Besides, we'vehad a little mite of fun, you know, fellows."
"Fun for the boys, but how about the frogs?" laughed Elmer, as hepushed his machine through the low brush, heading for the road again.
"Let the bullfrogs look out for themselves, that's all," declared Nat."Any silly gump who will duck his head about, when a feller's holdin' alighted match close to his nose, just ought to get burnt. Say, think ofthat guy minus one of his eyebrows; and he's got big ones too, at that!Won't he be the sight, though!"
So, joking and laughing, they pushed on. Presently the road beingreached, they proceeded to get a start. Fortunately the incline wasdownhill, if anything, which promised to make it easier for a mount. Hadthe opposite been the case one or more of the boys might have had somedifficulty in getting started.
Elmer was away first, with a merry splutter of explosive sounds; but hequickly shut off most of his power in order to wait for the others. Tobycame along after two efforts at mounting; but Nat seemed to be havingone of his old troubles. This time, however, the fault apparently lay inNat, and not in his motor, for they could hear the racket the enginekept up.
"Here he comes like a skyrocket!" announced Toby, as the character ofthe sounds from the rear changed; and sure enough they quickly heard Natwhooping it up.
"Clear the track, there! Get out of the road everybody, and give meroom. Hi! My old ice wagon's taken the bitt in her mouth; she's runningaway with me, Elmer! Look out there!"
Luckily Elmer had insisted that each of them light the acetylene gaslamps belonging to their motorcycles before attempting to make a start.Hence they were able to see Nat bearing down upon them with a rush, andget to one side of the road in a hurry.
He went whizzing past amid a rattle and confusion, for, as usual, Nathad paid no attention to his muffler.
"Somebody head me off!" came floating back, as the runaway machine wentwhirling along the road leading to Little Falls.
"Good gracious! What can we do?" gasped Toby.
"You stick by Lil Artha!"
Even as he shouted these words Elmer was giving his machine its head,and quickly he vanished from the view of the other around a bend.
It was no easy task that now presented itself to the young patrolleader. Had it been a runaway horse there might have been some hope ofthe rider controlling it; but with a motorcycle that took what seemed tobe a fiendish pleasure in doing just the things its owner did not wantdone, the case was a different matter.
Something had become jammed, so that poor Nat, having opened his engineup wide on starting, was unable to shut off power. And there he was,rushing along at a reckless speed, headed for Little Falls by the mostdirect route.
Somebody shouted out something as Elmer sped along. He guessed it mustbe Lil Artha, who had discreetly sought the side of the road upon seeingthat fierce light bearing down upon him. But Elmer could not find timeto reply. Besides, there was Toby, who would be along presently, and ina condition to tell the tall scout just what was taking place.
Elmer was keeping a bright lookout ahead. He knew that, given a fairfield, he could easily overtake the runaway motorcycle; but this thingof rushing along in the darkness was no child's play. At any second hemight bang into some obstacle that would give him a nasty tumble.
Besides, he had to keep watch over the leading machine, so that he mightnot run into Nat; which would be the worst sort of calamity that couldhappen to them both.
At least he was gaining fast now; he could tell that by the glow fromthe other lamp which lighted up the road ahead.
Presently he found himself within speaking distance. He could justbarely see Nat humped there in his saddle, giving his entire attentionto keeping his runaway machine in the road.
"Hello, Nat ahoy!" he called aloud, so that the sound of his voice mightreach the other above the clattering of his "cantankerous" motor, as Nathimself was fond of calling his engine, which was now on such a wildplunge.
"Hey, that you, Elmer?" came back to him; and the patrol leader imaginedthere was a trace of alarm as well as vexation in the voice.
"Yes, can't you keep over on the left side of the road? I want to comecloser to you so we can talk," Elmer called.
"All right. Half is good enough for me; so come right along, Elmer."
In another minute they were nearly abreast, each striving to keep to hisside of the thoroughfare as best he could.
"Steady, now, Nat," said Elmer. "Be careful how you let her yaw thisway, for I'm only a length behind you; and a mix-up wouldn't be thenicest thing going."
"I'm holding her steady, Elmer. Now, tell me how I'm going to get thecurb on her, won't you?"
So Elmer began by asking questions concerning what seemed to have becomejammed; and in this way he quickly understood the situation. A fewsuggestions followed, which, upon being put into practice, broughtforth a loud cheer from the relieved owner of the runaway motorcycle.
"It's all right now, Elmer! That last move did the business for her! Sheminds her head now; see, I can slow down just as I please. But, wow,that was a lively dash as long as it lasted. I sure began to think I'dbump into Little Falls like a falling comet, and run up against a stonewall; when good-by to my neck."
"Well, suppose then we turn around, and see if we can pick up theothers. Try it first, and see
if things work smooth," and Elmer jumpedfrom his saddle as he said this, assisting Nat make the test.
Having made sure of this they returned along the road, though at a muchless rapid pace than they had recently shown in covering it. The lightfrom Toby's lamp told them when they were nearing the walking Lil Artha;and presently the four Hickory Ridge scouts were together.
"I tell you what," remarked Toby, heaving a sigh, "I'll be awful glad toget you safe back home again, Nat Scott. What you haven't tried the lastfew hours ain't worth telling. And now that your old huckleberry of amachine has taken to cutting up monkey shines a feller's life ain't safenohow."
Lil Artha seemed to be in the best of humor. Things were, as he himselfremarked, "breaking all right for a fellow of his size," and he had nocause for complaint.
"Just a few little incidents to liven up the last quarter of a pokeyhike, boys," he observed, as he strode along, with those lengthy legscovering a yard at each and every step. "Why, I'll be entering LittleFalls like a conquering hero, with a guard of honor around me. Shouldn'twonder but what we'll run across Mr. Garrabrant there, keeping companywith the other scout master."
"That's just what you'll do," remarked Elmer over his shoulder as herode slowly along in the van of the procession; "because he went aheadwith that idea in view, to be on hand to receive the first contestantwho showed up."
They enlivened the journey with all sorts of conversation and jokes.Wearied as Lil Artha must certainly be, after coming all these longmiles since sunup, his chums sought to make him forget the fact bykeeping him in high spirits.
Nothing happened to interfere with their plans. Those who were inclinedto act ugly toward the possible winner were a long way in the rear, andonly concerned about getting home again with the car that belonged tothe father of one of the quartette.
It was not a great while after nine o'clock when the lights ahead toldthat they were approaching a town.
"That's Little Falls, brother!" called Elmer, cheerily.
"Well, honest now, I ain't sorry to know it," declared Lil Artha;"though, if I had to do it, I reckon I could crawl along a littlefarther, p'raps a dozen or two miles. If anything's won this walk forme, fellows, it's just been pluck. You can tell me all you want to aboutathletes and such, but in my opinion that's what counts above conditionand everything else. As long as you keep up heart you've got a look-in;but when the sinking spell comes, good-by."
Ten minutes later they entered among the houses. Immediately some boysin khaki who were posted along the road as a sort of vedette corps,began to call out to one another, uttering cries like the fox and thebear, which doubtless denoted the nature of their patrols.
Presently there was quite a crowd accompanying Lil Artha as he headedfor the church where the local troop of Boy Scouts had theirheadquarters.
Here there were many lights, and a lot of people assembled. When LilArtha passed through the open doorway a tremendous outburst of applausegreeted his appearance. He doubtless felt something of the thrill ofvictory that used to come to the Grecian victor in those old days of theMarathon races.
Mr. Garrabrant beamed with pleasure when he saw that it was a HickoryRidge boy who had come in first. Heartily did he shake hands with LilArtha and congratulate him on his pluck in making the entire distancewith hours to spare.
And when a little later on, while waiting to see if Felix came in beforethe storm broke, the scout master listened with the greatest possibleinterest while Elmer related what was known about the evil intentions ofthose four scheming lads from Fairfield; and also laughed when he heardhow their designs had been signally defeated by the bravery andintelligence of Lil Artha's faithful chums.
Great Hike; or, The Pride of the Khaki Troop Page 17
