CHAPTER VIII
SIGNS OF TROUBLE AHEAD
"Was it about Dock?" asked Carl, eagerly, while Tom could see that thecolor had left his face all of a sudden.
"Yes," continued Mrs. Joslyn, "Dock seems to have fallen into the habitof staying out until midnight, with some of those young fellows wholoaf on the corners and get into every kind of mischief they can thinkup."
"That's what we've been told was going on, ma'am," said Tom.
"I could hear his father scolding him furiously, while his mother wascrying, and trying to make peace. Dock was ugly, too, and for a time Ithought his father was going to throw him out of the house. But in theend it quieted down."
"That's a new streak in Dock's father, I should say," remarked Tom."Time was when he used to come home himself at all hours of the night,and in a condition that must have made his wife's heart sick."
"Yes, but you know he's turned over a new leaf, and acts as if he meantto stick to the water wagon," Mrs. Joslyn explained. "Somehow it's madehim just the other way, very severe with Dock. I guess he's afraid nowthe boy will copy his bad example, and that's peeving Mr. Phillips."
"But he let Dock stay in the house, you say?" Carl continued. "Then Iwonder why he didn't show up for orders this morning. The other boytold my mother Dock was sick and couldn't come."
Mrs. Joslyn smiled.
"Yes, he says that," she observed. "I went over to take back a dish Ihad borrowed, and he was lying on the lounge, smoking a cigarette. Hesaid he was real sick, but between you and me, Carl, I'm of the opinionhe's just tired of his job, and means to throw it up. He'd rather loafthan work any day."
Carl breathed more freely. It was of course none of his business whatDock did with himself, though he might think the other was a mean shirkto hang around idle when his people needed every dollar they couldscrape up.
"Thank you for telling me this, Mrs. Joslyn," he said as with his chumhe prepared to take his departure; "it relieves my mind in severalways. And please don't whisper my secret to any one. I still hope tobe able to get that paper from Dock sooner or later, if he doesn't cometo terms with Amasa Culpepper."
"I promise you faithfully Carl," the little woman told him. "I guessI'm able to hold my tongue, even if they do say my sex never can. AndCarl, you must let me know if anything happens to alter conditions,because I'm dreadfully interested. This is the first time in all mylife I've been connected with a secret."
"I certainly will let you know, Mrs. Joslyn," Carl promised.
"And furthermore," she continued, "if I happen to see Dock doinganything that looks queer or suspicious I'll get word to you. He mighthappen to have his hiding-place somewhere around the back yard or thehen house, you know. He may have buried the paper in the garden. I'llkeep an eye on the neighbors while he's home."
Tom was chuckling at a great rate as he and Carl went down the street.
"It looks as if you've got Mrs. Joslyn a whole lot interested, Carl,"he told the other. "She's just burning with curiosity to find outsomething. Every time Dock steps out to feed the chickens she's goingto drop whatever she may be doing, and focus her eyes on him, even ifher pork chops burn to black leather."
"I wonder what he's meaning to do?" remarked Carl, in a speculativeway.
"Oh! just as Mrs. Joslyn told us, Dock's a lazy fellow," Tom suggested;"and now that his father is working steadily he thinks it's time forhim to have a rest. Then we believe he's expecting sooner or later toget a big lot of money from Mr. Culpepper, when they come to terms."
"Yes," added Carl. "And in the meantime perhaps he's got Amasa to handhim over a few dollars a week, just to keep him quiet. That wouldsupply his cigarettes, you know, and give him spending money."
"Well, it's a question how long his father will put up with it," Tommused. "One of these fine days we'll likely hear that Dock has beenkicked out, and taken to the road."
"He's going with that Tony Pollock crowd you know," Carl hinted; "andsome of them would put him up for a time. But I'm hoping we'll find achance to make him own up, and hand back the thing he stole. I'd liketo see my mother look happy again."
"Does Amasa still drop in to call now and then?" asked the other.
"Yes, but my mother insists that I sit up until he goes whenever hedoes. You'd have a fit laughing, Tom, to see the black looks he givesme. I pretend to be studying to beat the band, and in the end he hasto take his hat and go. I'm allowed to sleep an hour later after thosenights, you see, to make up. It's getting to be a regular nuisance, andmother says she means to send him about his business; but somehow hishide is so thick he can't take an ordinary hint. I think his middlename should have been Rhinoceros instead of Reuben."
"What will she do when you're away with the rest of us on that ten dayhike over Big Bear Mountain?" asked Tom.
"Oh! she says she'll have told Mr. Culpepper before then she doesn'twant him to call again," explained Carl; "either that or else she'llhave to keep all the rest of the children up, and get them to rompinglike wild Indians. You know Amasa is nervous, and can't stand noise."
Tom laughed at the picture thus drawn of three boisterous youngstersemployed in causing an ardent wooer to take his departure.
"It's only a few days now before we can get started, you know, Carl.Nearly all the preparations have been made. Each scout will have hisnew uniform on, with a few extra clothes in his pack."
"We won't try to carry any tent, will we, Tom?"
"That's been settled," came the ready answer. "At the meeting when Iwas elected patrol leader we discussed this trip, and it took likewildfire. In the first place we haven't a tent worth carrying; and thenagain it would make too heavy a load. All of us have been studying upon how to make brush shelters when in the woods, and even if it rains Ithink we'll get on fairly well."
"Each scout has a rubber poncho, which can be made mighty useful in apinch, I should think," said Carl. "Then besides our clothes and ablanket, we'll have to carry a cooking outfit, as light as it can bemade, and what grub we expect to eat up."
"Oh! most of that we'll rustle for on the way," the patrol leader toldhim. "We'll find farms scattered along our route, and it'll be easyenough to buy eggs, milk, perhaps a home-cured ham, some chickens, andother things like bread and butter."
"That's a great scheme, Tom, and it makes my mouth fairly water just totalk about it. Sounds like an army foraging, only instead of takingthings we'll expect to pay cash for them. How many are going along onthe hike?"
"I have yet to hear of any member of the Black Bear Patrol who dreamsof backing out; and there are several others who've told me they hopeto join us. The way it looks now only a bad case of sickness would beable to keep any scout from being in line on that wonderful morningwhen Lenox Troop marches out of town headed for Big Bear Mountain."
"One good thing, we don't have to pack any heavy guns along with us,"declared Carl.
"No, that's absolutely forbidden," the patrol leader declared; "we cantake a fishing rod if we feel like it, because there's a chance to pickup some trout or bass before we come back on the down-river boat tendays later."
"I like that idea of making the return trip by water," Carl continued."It will be great after so much tramping and camping. Besides, some ofthe boys have never been fifteen miles up the river before, and so thetrip is going to be a picnic for them."
"Come over to-night and do your cramming for the exam with me,"suggested Tom.
"I'd like to the worst kind," the other boy said with a grimace; "butthis is the night Mr. Culpepper generally pops in, and you see I'm onguard. But I'm hoping mother will give him his walking papers prettysoon now."
"You would have to put a bomb under his chair to convince Amasa thathis space was more desired than his company," laughed Tom, as he strodeoff toward his own comfortable home.
The days passed, and since school would be over for the year at the endof the week, in the bustle of examinations and all that they meant foreach boy scout, the intended outing was over-shadowed for
the timebeing.
When, however, several of the scouts got together of course the talksoon drifted toward the subject of the hike, and many were thewonderful projects advanced, each of which seemed to give promise of aglorious prospect ahead.
So Friday night finally came.
School had been dismissed with all the accustomed ceremonies thatafternoon, and there were few of the boys who had not gone up to ahigher grade, so that when the last meeting before their expectedvacation trip was called to order by the president of the organizationit was a care-free and happy assemblage that answered the roll-call.
Mr. Witherspoon, the scout master, was on hand, but he seldominterfered with the routine of the meeting. It was his opinion thatboys got on much better if allowed to manage things as much as possibleafter their own ideas. If his advice was needed at any time he stoodready to give it; and meanwhile he meant to act more as a big brotherto the troop than its leading officer.
Of course Mr. Witherspoon expected to start out on the hike with theboys. His only fear was that he might not be allowed to finish theouting in their company, since he was liable to be called away at anytime on urgent business.
The usual routine of the meeting was gone through with, and then ageneral discussion took place in connection with the anticipated hike.They had laid out the plan of campaign as well as they could,considering that none of the boys had actually been over the entireroute before.
"That makes it all the more interesting," Tom had told them; "becausewe'll be apt to meet with a few surprises on the way. None of us wouldlike to have anything all cut and dried ahead of time, I'm sure."
"It's generally the unexpected that gives the most pleasure," declaredJosh Kingsley, who was known to have leanings toward being a greatinventor some fine day, and always hoped to make an important discoverywhile he experimented in his workshop in the old red barn back of hishome.
"Well," remarked George Cooper, getting slowly to his feet, "there maybe some things that drop in on you unexpected like that don't seem togive you a whit of pleasure, and I can name one right now."
"Oh come, George, you old growler, you're just trying to throw coldwater on our big scheme," complained Felix Robbins, trying to pull theother down.
"I've seen him shaking his head lots of times all evening," assertedBilly Button, "and I just guessed George was aching to make us feelbad. He's never so happy as when he's making other folks miserable."
George refused to take his seat. He even shrugged his shoulders asthough he thought his comrades were hardly treating him fairly.
"Listen, fellows," he said, solemnly and ponderously; "I don't like tobe the bird of ill omen that carries the bad news; but honest togoodness I'm afraid there's a heap of trouble looming up on the horizonfor us unless we change our plans for a hike over Big Bear Mountain."
"What sort of trouble do you mean, George?" asked the patrol leader.
"Only this, Mr. President," said George, "on the way here I learnedthat Tony Pollock, Wedge McGuffey, Asa Green and Dock Phillips hadstarted off this very afternoon, meaning to spend a week or moretramping over Big Bear Mountain; and I guess they've got it in for ourcrowd."
Boy Scouts of Lenox; Or, The Hike Over Big Bear Mountain Page 9
