CHAPTER IV.
WHEN SCOUTCRAFT WAS IN DEMAND.
"Looks like the rig, all right, Chief!" one of the men called out.
The tall man he addressed did not reply; for, truth to tell, at thatparticular minute he was staring very hard at the three scouts who satthere on the seat of the wagon. There was not a great deal of light, butevidently he had made a discovery that astounded him.
"Why, they're a lot of boys, after all!" exclaimed the man who hadadvanced to the other side of the wagon, holding something up thatglittered like a revolver.
"Yes, and wearing scouts' uniforms at that!" added the tall man whom oneof the others had called "Chief." As he pushed still closer to the wagonhe went on to say, "I think I ought to know this lad here. Is it you,Rob Blake?"
"Just who it is, Chief," replied the other soberly; "and you can hardlyblame us for having our breath taken away on being held up so suddenlyat the point of the pistol and told that we were under arrest!"
"But the white horse deceived us, Rob," hastily answered the other, whowas really the new head of the Hampton police force, a man who had madeit his business to get acquainted with every boy in town, believing thathe could nip lots of impending trouble in the bud by letting boys knowthat he was interested in all they did, and ready to prove himself theirbest friend. "You see, we've been 'phoned that a couple of desperate menwho escaped from the jail over at Riverhead had stolen a wagon and awhite horse and were heading this way. So we came out to lay for therascals. Sorry to have bothered you, boys."
"Well, this may prove to be the very horse and wagon they told youabout, Chief," Rob went on to say; while the other two officers nowcrowded up close to catch all that passed.
"Just what it might!" added Andy, wishing to let everybody know that hewas in the affair, if he didn't happen to be holding either the lines orthe whip.
"Please tell us, won't you, Chief, whether one of the men that brokejail limped like he had a bad leg or a sprained ankle?" Tubby brokeout, before Rob could get in another word.
"What's that you're telling me, my lad?" exclaimed the officer eagerly."Now, I didn't think it worth while to mention the fact to you, but thetruth is the taller man of the two did have a bad fall when he brokeout, and he must have injured himself in some way. Do you mean thatyou've set eyes on that precious pair of rogues?"
"It was this way," Rob started to say, meaning to make his explanationsas brief as possible. "We had been up the bay to get half a bushel ofselect oysters from old Cap. Jenkins over at his beds; and on the wayhome we had the misfortune to spring a leak, so that we had to beach thesailboat and start along the road, as night was coming on, and we wantedto get back in time for supper."
"That's right, supper was the main thing we had in mind, Chief, believeme," Tubby volunteered just then; after which he again relapsed intosilence, and allowed Rob to finish his story.
"Of course we wanted to get a ride if we could, Chief, because the sackwas heavy," the patrol leader went on to say, "and, well, boys alwayslike to ride better than they do to walk. Pretty soon we heard a horseand wagon coming after us, and one of the two men aboard was whippingthe poor beast dreadfully. Well, we lined up, and as soon as they camealong all of us stepped out to ask if we could have a lift as far asHampton; when, would you believe me, the men jumped out of the wagon asif they'd seen a ghost, and went back along the road as fast as theycould tear, soon breaking into the scrub, and disappearing."
"Leaving you the rig; is that it, Rob?" asked the officer, laughing ashe spoke.
"Just what they did, sir," continued the patrol leader; "and you may besure we couldn't even get our breath together to call out and thank thembefore they'd vanished. Well, we got to talking it over, and made up ourminds the men must have stolen the rig, and were badly frightened by thesight of our scout uniforms, thinking we might be soldiers meaning toarrest them. And after we had waited a little while, thinking they mightcome back, why, we just made up our minds there wasn't any use looking agift horse in the mouth; but that we'd take the rig to town so as toturn it over to you at Police Headquarters. And here it is at yourservice, Chief."
"But I hope you'll let us ride to town in it?" Tubby struck in.
"Well, you've all done me a great favor, boys," the tall official wenton to say; "and if so be you feel that you must get along home, why,take the rig and leave it in front of my office. But if you could put usin the way of nabbing that pair of escaped rogues, you'd be doing agreat thing. They're a bad crowd, and the longer they stay loose, theworse it is going to be for the community."
"We can help you some there, Chief!" Rob hastened to declare.
"I should say we could!" added Andy with emphasis.
"We happen to know just where they left the road and plunged into thebrush; and perhaps we might even be of some assistance to you infollowing their trail, Chief; because, you understand, scouts aresupposed to know more or less about such things. Woodcraft comes underthe head of a scout's education. What d'ye say, fellows; shall we turnaround right now and take these officers to the place where the leaningwhite birch hangs over the road?"
Every voice came in a decided affirmative. Even Tubby, who had beenamusing himself while holding on to the sides of the wagon by figuringout just how long he must wait until he could hope to find himselfseated at the supper table, heroically pushed aside all suchtemptations, and proved that he could rise to an occasion like a truescout.
"Then that's settled," said Rob, proud of his mates of the Eagle Patrol;"and if you will wait till we turn the horse around, Chief, you can havemy seat here."
Merritt quickly backed the wagon into the side of the road, and facedthe animal in the direction from which he had just come.
Meanwhile Rob and Andy had crawled over the rear of the seat and joinedTubby, who seemed pleased when he found that he was going to havecompany. The Chief and one of his men occupied the seat, along with thescout who was doing the driving; while the other officer contentedhimself with sitting so that his legs dangled over the tail board.
In this fashion, then, they started to retrace the ground the boys hadso recently gone over. Of course the Chief had a dozen questions to askin connection with the actions of the two men, as to what they said andwhat they did.
"The only words any of us heard them say were: 'Holy smoke, looky here,Con!'" Rob told him. "But they made up for it by doing some tallsprinting, lame man or not, that would have won them a prize at anathletic meet."
"Well, right there you've settled the thing and clinched it into thebargain," the tall police officer remarked with a satisfied chuckle;"because, don't you know, one of the rascals went by the name of ConKeating. And if the taller of the pair has a broken leg, why we ought tobe able to run them down, and bag him, anyway, even if the other givesus the slip. But I'm hoping he'll stick to his pal until we can come upwith them."
"We ought to be nearly back to where we picked up the wagon, now, hadn'twe, Rob?" asked Merritt, who was straining his eyes trying to make out awhite birch tree leaning over the road on the left.
"One more bend and we'll be there," answered Rob, with such absoluteconfidence that every one of the other scouts knew he had been keepingtabs of the conditions, and could tell to a fraction just when theywere drawing near the point that had been marked down in their memories.
A minute later and it turned out that Rob was perfectly correct; becauseMerritt discovered the landmark for himself.
"There it is, Chief, just ahead of us," he remarked, "where you see thatwhite birch bending over. We made it a point to mark the place, thinkingthat p'raps you or somebody else would want to know about the men whoran away."
"A clever bit of business, my lad," remarked the other admiringly. And,indeed, what he had seen of these Scouts during the few months he hadbeen in charge of the Hampton police had caused the Chief to entertain avery high opinion of their ability, and make him a firm advocate for thecause they represented.
The horse was pulled up close to where t
he white slender birch could beseen through the gathering gloom.
"Wait till I strike a match, and I'll try to find a piece of lightwoodto make a torch," said Rob, jumping from the wagon.
"No use bothering that way, lad," called out the Chief; "because I'vegot something along with me that goes away ahead of any wood torch youever saw."
"Then you must mean an electric hand torch," Tubby ventured to remark."I know, because I've got one at home."
"Much good that does you," jeered Andy. "A torch, like a gun, is thekind of thing that when you do want it you want it badly."
"Well, how was I to guess all that would happen?" demanded Tubbyindignantly. "Don't you think that if I had known we would get that holein the boat, have a horse and wagon shoved on us this way, and be heldup by the Chief and his men, I'd gone and made sure to fetch my littletorch along? Sure I would."
"And if I'd known all that," chuckled Andy, always ready to have thelast word, "d'ye know what I would have done the first thing? Why, toldRob about that old plug in the bottom of his boat, and seen to it thatit was driven in so hard it never could work loose. And that would havesaved us from all the rest of the business!"
"All right," rejoined Tubby, with a never-say-die accent to his voice;"all I can remark is that we would have lost a heap of entertainingexperiences, that's what!"
They had all left the wagon before this, and Merritt managed to securethe horse to a tree near by; so that in case they found the animal thereon their return, after striving to locate the two escaped jail birds,they might have a pleasant means of transportation to Hampton town.
When the police officer had produced his little electric hand torch,which was capable of being carried in a vest pocket and yet gave quite afine glow when the current was switched on, he told Rob that he hadbetter take possession of the light, as he would really be the one toneed it. As for himself and his men, they meant to keep themselves inconstant readiness for grappling with the two desperate rogues, shouldthey have the good fortune to come up with them.
Nothing could have pleased Rob more than this splendid chance to showwhat the education of a scout along the line of woodcraft was doing forthe boys of the Eagle Patrol. Here was an opportunity to make a test oftheir knowledge. If they proved equal to the task of finding those twomen who were doing all in their power to elude recapture, it wouldcertainly go far to witness that these scouts had not studied the art oftrailing in vain.
And hence it was with considerable satisfaction, as well as a firmdetermination to exhaust every means he had in his power in order tocome up with the fugitives, that the young leader of the Eagles acceptedthat handy electric torch, and immediately commenced to flash its whiteglow over the ground in the vicinity of the white birch.
Men and boys trailed along after Rob; Tubby, Merritt and Andy makingsure to keep well in the rear, so that they might not interfere with theplans of the Chief.
Boy Scouts Under Fire in Mexico Page 4
