CHAPTER VII
DOCK GOES FROM BAD TO WORSE
Just at that instant, as luck would have it, a vagrant gust of wind,perhaps an advance courier of the prospective storm, swooped downacross the road. Before the boy who was stooping over could touch thepaper that had attracted his attention it was whisked suddenly away.
He made an ineffectual effort to seize upon it in the air, but missedit and had to stand there, while the paper floated far out over theriver, to fall finally on the moving current.
Carl quivered with another feeling besides anxiety and suspense; keendisappointment was wringing his heart cruelly. Just when their cleverlittle plot seemed on the point of working, a freak of fate had dashedhis hopes to the ground.
He had the greatest difficulty in suppressing the cry that tried tobubble from between his lips. Even Tom must have felt bitterlychagrinned when he saw the paper go swirling off, without having had achance to test its ability to deceive Dock Phillips, and perhaps leadhim into confessing his guilt.
The grocer's boy was now walking on again. Of course he knew nothingabout the character of the elusive paper, save that it had played him alittle trick. They could hear him whistling again in his loud way asthough he had already forgotten the circumstance.
"Hang the luck!" complained Carl, when he felt that it was safe to leta little of the compressed steam escape through the safety valve of hisvoice.
"That was a rough deal, all right," admitted Tom. "Who would havedreamed such a blast could sweep down and take that paper off? Too badyou had all your work for nothing, Carl."
"Oh! the work didn't amount to much," said the other boy, despondently;"but after hoping for such great things through our plan it's hard tofeel that you're up in the air as bad as ever."
"We might try it all over again some time, after Dock's kind offorgotten about this happening," suggested Tom. "But if he kept onseeing loose papers every little while he might get suspicious aboutit. Perhaps we can think up another plan that will have the earmarks ofsuccess about it."
"I never thought the river would play me such a trick," said Carl,looking out on the moving water; "up to now I've had a sort of friendlyfeeling for the old stream, but after this I'll be apt to look on it asan unprincipled foe."
"Oh! I wouldn't say that," urged Tom, always practical; "the riverwasn't to blame at all. And that gust of wind would have come whetherwe thought to place our bait on the road or not. I'd call it a piece ofhard luck, and let it go at that."
"We couldn't do anything, Tom, now our paper's gone off on thecurrent?"
"Oh well," replied the other purposely allowing himself to growhumorous so as to cause Carl to forget the keen bitterness of hisdisappointment; "perhaps if we went fishing to-morrow below here wemight take the trout that would have your paper tucked away in hislittle tummy."
"That's right, Tom," the other added; "we've read some thrilling yarnsabout jewels being recovered that way; and I remember that even a goldwatch was said to have been found, still running inside a fish aftermany moons."
"Yes, they tried to explain that phenomenon in a lot of ways, but Iguess it must have been meant for a joke, just as my idea was."
"It's all over for to-night then?"
"Yes, let's go home," replied Tom. "We have lots to talk over and do,too. Before long the exams will be coming on, and we want to pass withhonors if we expect to enjoy our vacation this summer."
"And it's pretty nearly decided I hear, that the Black Bear Patroltakes a long hike the first thing after school closes," Carl wassaying, as they started down the river road into Lenox.
"Ten days in camp or knocking about will do more to make us seasonedscouts than as many months at home," ventured Tom, knowingly.
"All the difference between theory and practice you mean," added Carl."On my own part I don't care how soon we get started. I've a whole lotof things written down to be attended to, once we get away fromcivilization. That long list Mr. Witherspoon gave me I've made up aname for."
"What is it, then?" asked Tom.
"Things for a Tenderfoot Scout to Look for on His First Visit to theStorehouse of Nature. What do you think of the title, Tom?"
"A pretty long one, it strikes me," answered the other; "but it coversthe ground. Every one of us must have a copy, and it'll be a lot of funto find out who'll be the first to answer all those questions."
"One thing I hope will happen before we start out on that hike," saidCarl.
"Of course you're referring to that paper again, and I don't blame youa bit. We'll do our level best to get hold of it before then," andtrying as well as he knew how to buoy up the drooping spirits of thedisappointed chum Tom locked arms with him, and in this fashion theywalked home.
The days again drifted along into weeks.
Scout matters were looking up decidedly in Lenox. There was even sometalk of a second rival organization among another set of boys, thoughMr. Witherspoon gave it as his opinion that nothing could ever be donewith such a wild crowd.
"There isn't a single one among them, from what I hear and know, whocould comply with the requirements every scout is expected to have asan asset when he makes application," was the way he put it. "Those boyscouldn't subscribe to any of the rules which govern scouts in theirdaily life. They'd have to turn over a new leaf for a fact before theycould don the khaki."
"And," said Josh Kingsley, "when such tough fellows as Tony Pollock,Asa Green, Wedge McGuffey and Dock Phillips start to turning leaves youcan begin to see angel wings sprouting back of their shoulder blades."
There were already five boys who had given in their names to make up asecond patrol. When it was filled they meant to join the troop, andqualify for a better standing than greenhorns or tenderfeet.
Larry Henderson had long since gone back to his wilderness home beyondBear Mountain. Twice had Tom received a letter from the old naturalist,in which he asked a great many questions, all concerning the boys ofLenox, in whom he had not lost interest, and what progress the newtroop was making.
He also expressed a hearty wish that should they ever take a tripthrough the section of country where he lived they would not neglect tolook him up in his cabin.
One thing Tom and Carl had noticed of late, and this was that DockPhillips had taken to going with that tough crowd again. For a whilehis work in the grocery store had tired him so much each day that whenevening came he had been content to go to his home, eat his supper, andthen crawl in between the sheets.
Once more Dock was to be seen hanging around the street corners late atnight with that group of rowdies that gave the uniformed force so muchtrouble. Some of them only escaped arrest on numerous occasions becausetheir fathers happened to be local politicians whom the police did notwish to offend.
Tom and Carl talked this fact over and arrived at a conclusion, whichmay, and again may not, have been the true explanation.
"Dock's getting tired of holding down his job," Tom had said, "He'sbeen out of school so long now that he can't be sent back; and hedoesn't like hard work either. Since his father signed the pledge he'sbeen working steadily enough, and perhaps Dock gets into trouble athome because of his temper."
"I happen to know he does for a fact," assented Carl. "He's been actinghateful, staying out up to midnight every night, and his father hasthreatened to pitch him out. I rather think he's lazy, and wants toloaf."
"Perhaps he thinks that he ought to be drawing a regular salary becauseof that paper he's got hidden away, and which is worth so much to AmasaCulpepper, as well as to you. To keep him quiet it may be, the old manis paying him a few dollars every week on the sly, even though herefuses to come down with a big lump sum."
"Tom, would it be right for me to have another talk with Dock, and makehim an offer?" ventured Carl, hesitatingly.
"Do you mean try to find out what the sum is he asked Amasa to payhim?" questioned Tom; "and agree to hand it over to him just as soon asthe stock of the oil well company can be sold, after your mother getsit again?"<
br />
"Yes, like that. Would it be wrong in me? anything like compounding afelony?" Carl continued.
"I don't see how that could be wrong," the other boy answered, afterstopping to think it all over. "You have a right to offer a reward andno questions asked for the return of your own lost or stolen property."
"Then I'd like to try it before we settle on leaving town, Tom."
"It would do no harm, I should think," his chum advised him. "The onlydanger I can see would be if Dock took the alarm and went to Mr.Culpepper, to tell him you were trying to outbid him for the possessionof the paper."
"That would be apt to make him come to time with a jump, wouldn't it?"said Carl.
"Unless he got it into his head that Dock was only trying to frightenhim into meeting the stiff price at which he held the paper," said Tom."He might make out that he didn't care a pin, with the idea of forcingDock to come down."
"Yes, because he would believe Dock wouldn't dare put his neck in thenoose by confessing to us he had stolen the paper. Then would youadvise me to try the plan I spoke of?"
"If you get a good chance I should say yes."
That was on a Wednesday afternoon, and Carl went home, his head filledwith a programme he had laid out that concerned the cornering of DockPhillips.
On Thursday he learned, when home for lunch, that a new boy had comefor orders from the grocery. Carl was immediately filled with alarm. Inimagination he could see Dock and Mr. Culpepper coming to terms atlast.
After school that afternoon he waited for Tom, to whom the startlingnews was disclosed. The stunning effect of it did not seem to affectTom's quick acting mind.
"Let's find out just what's happened," he remarked. "Perhaps over atJoslyn's, next door to the Phillips's, we might pick up a clue."
"Yes, and I know Mrs. Joslyn right well in the bargain," said Carl,showing interest at once. "I'm sure that if I told her as a secret justwhy we wanted to know about Dock she'd tell me if anything had happenedthere lately."
To the Joslyn house the two boys went. Mrs. Joslyn was an energeticlittle woman, and said to be able to mind her own business.
She listened with growing eagerness to the story, and at its conclusionsaid:
"I'm sorry for your mother, Carl, and I don't know that I can help youany; but there was something strange that happened at the Phillips'house last night."
Boy Scouts of Lenox; Or, The Hike Over Big Bear Mountain Page 8
