Banner Boy Scouts Afloat

by George A. Warren

  The Banner Boy Scouts Afloat

  OR

  The Secret of Cedar Island

  By GEORGE A. WARREN

  1913

  CONTENTS

  CHAPTER

  I THE MYSTERIOUS BOXES

  II GLORIOUS NEWS

  III FOR CEDAR ISLAND--GHOST OR NO GHOST

  IV LAYING IN THE STORES

  V JUST AFTER THE CLOCK STRUCK TEN

  VI THE GREAT CRUISE OF THE SCOUTS BEGUN

  VII STUCK FAST IN THE MUD

  VIII WHAT THE WATER GAUGE SHOWED

  IX ON THE SWIFT RADWAY

  X DODGING THE SNAGS AND THE SNARES

  XI THE CAMP ON CEDAR ISLAND

  XII WAS IT A BURSTING METEOR?

  XIII THE FOOTPRINTS IN THE SAND

  XIV TRYING TO FIGURE IT ALL OUT

  XV ORDERED OFF

  XVI UNDER COVER OF DARKNESS

  XVII PITCHING TENTS IN THE "SINK"

  XVIII WHAT LAY IN THE BRUSH

  XIX LAYING PLANS

  XX THE EXPLORING PARTY

  XXI A MYSTERY OF THE OPEN GLADE

  XXII THE WIGWAG MESSAGE

  XXIII STILL FLOUNDERING IN THE MIRE

  XXIV THE DISCOVERY

  XXV TIME TO GO BACK

  XXVI HONORABLE SCARS

  XXVII ANOTHER THREATENING PERIL

  XXVIII PREPARED FOR THE WORST

  XXIX LIFTING THE LID

  XXX GOOD-BYE TO CEDAR ISLAND

  XXXI A SCOUT'S DUTY

  XXXII CONCLUSION

  PREFACE

  Dear Boys:--

  It is with the greatest pleasure that I present you with the third volumeof the "Banner Boy Scouts Series." This is a complete story in itself;and yet most of the leading characters you, who have already read thefirst and second volumes, will easily remember. I trust you will heartilywelcome the appearance once more on the stage of Paul, Jack, Bobolink andall the other good fellows belonging to Stanhope Troop of Boy Scouts.

  Those of you who are old friends will recollect that while the Red FoxPatrol was forming, the boys had a most strenuous time, what with a deepmystery in their midst, and the bitter strife resulting from theircompetition with rival troops belonging to neighboring towns. How thebeautiful banner was cleverly won by Stanhope, I related in the firstvolume, called: "The Banner Boy Scouts."

  In the succeeding story the Stanhope Scouts went on their first longhike, to camp in the open. The remarkable adventures they met withwhile enjoying this experience; as well as the stirring account of howthey recovered a box of valuable papers that had been stolen from theoffice of Joe Clausin's father, form the main theme of "The Banner BoyScouts on a Tour."

  And now, in this third book, I have endeavored to interest you in anotherseries of happenings that befell these wide-awake boys before theirsummer vacation was over. I hope you will, after reading this storythrough to the last line, agree with me that what the young assistantscout master, Paul Morrison, and his chums of Stanhope Troop enduredwhile afloat all went to make them better and truer scouts in every senseof the word.

  Cordially yours

  GEORGE A. WARREN.

  CHAPTER I

  THE MYSTERIOUS BOXES

  "What are you limping for, Bobolink?"

  "Oh! shucks! I see there's no use trying to hide anything from your sharpeyes, Jack Stormways. Guess I just about walked my feet off today, goin'fishin' with our patrol leader, away over to the Radway River, and aboutsix miles up."

  "Have any luck, Bobolink?" instantly demanded the third member of thegroup of three half-grown boys, who were passing after nightfall throughsome of the partly deserted streets on the outskirts of the thriving townof Stanhope; and whose name it might be stated was Tom Betts.

  "Well, I should say, yes. Between us we got seven fine bass, and apickerel. By the way, I caught that pickerel; Paul, he looked after thebass end of the string, and like the bully chap he is divided with me;"and the boy who limped chuckled as he said this, showing that he couldappreciate a joke, even when it was on himself.

  About everybody in town called him Bobolink; and what boy could dootherwise, seeing that his real name was Robert O. Link?

  As the trio of lads were all dressed in the khaki suits known all overthe world nowadays as typifying Boy Scouts, it could be readily taken forgranted that they belonged to the Stanhope Troop.

  Already were there three full patrols enlisted, and wearing uniforms;while a fourth was in process of forming. The ones already in the fieldwere known as, first, the Red Fox, to which these three lads belonged;then the Gray Fox, and finally the Black Fox. But as they had aboutexhausted the color roster of the fox family, the chances were that thenext patrol would have to start on a new line when casting about for aname that would stamp their identity, and serve as a totem.

  An efficient scout master had been secured in the person of a young manby the name of Mr. Gordon, who cheerfully accompanied the lads on theiroutings, and attended many of their meetings. But being a travelingsalesman, Mr. Gordon often had to be away from home for weeks at a time.

  When these lapses occurred, his duties fell upon the shoulders of PaulMorrison, who not only filled the position of leader to the Red FoxPatrol, but being a first-class scout, had received his commission fromHeadquarters that entitled him to act as assistant scout master to thewhole troop during the absence of Mr. Gordon.

  "How did you like it up on the Radway?" continued the one who had madethe first inquiry, Jack Stormways, whose father owned a lumber yard andplaning mill just outside the limits of the town, which was really thegoal of their present after-supper walk.

  "Great place, all right," replied Bobolink. "Paul kept calling myattention to all the things worth seeing. He seems to think a heap of theold Radway. For my part, I rather fancy our own tight little river, theBushkill."

  "Well, d'ye know, that's one reason I asked how you liked it," Jack wenton. "Paul seemed so much taken with that region over there, I've begun toget a notion in my head he's fixing a big surprise, and that perhaps atthe meeting to-night he may spring it on us."

  "Tell me about that, will you?" exclaimed Bobolink, who was given tocertain harmless slang ways whenever he became in the least excited, asat present. "Now that you've been and gone and given me a pointer, I c'njust begin to get a line on a few of the questions he asked me. Well,I'm willing to leave it to Paul. He always thinks of the whole shootingmatch when trying to give the troop a bully good time. Just rememberwhat we went through with when we camped out up on Rattlesnake Mountain,will you?"

  "That's right," declared Tom Betts, eagerly; "say, didn't we have thetime of our lives, though?"

  "And yet Paul said only today that as we had so long a time beforevacation ends this year, a chance might pop up for another trip,"Bobolink remarked, significantly.

  "Did, eh? Well, don't that go to prove what I said; and you just waittill we get back to the meeting room in the church. Paul's just burstingwith some sort of secret, and I reckon he'll just have to tell usto-night," and Jack laughed good-naturedly as he still led his twocomrades on toward the retired lane, where his father's big mill adjoinedthe storage place for lumber; convenient to the river, and at the sametime near the railroad, so that a spur track could enter the yard.

  Besides these three boys five others constituted the Red Fox Patrol ofStanhope Troop. In the first story of this series, which appeared underthe name of "The Banner Boy Scouts; Or, The Struggle for Leadership,"the reader was told about the formation of the Red Fox Patrol, and howsome of the boys learned a lesson in scout methods of returning good forevil; also how a cross old farmer was taught that he owed a duty to thecommunity in which he lived
, as well as to himself. In that story it wasalso disclosed how a resident of the town offered a beautiful banner tothat troop which excelled in an open tournament also participated in bytwo other troops of Boy Scouts from the towns of Aldine and Manchester;the former on the east bank of the Bushkill, about six miles up-stream,and the latter a bustling manufacturing place about seven miles down, andalso on the same bank as Aldine.

  In this competition, after a lively duel between the three wide awaketroops, Stanhope won handsomely; and had therefore been given the banner,which Wallace Carberry proudly carried at the head of the processionwhenever they paraded.

  The second book, "The Banner Boy Scouts on a Tour; Or, The Mystery ofRattlesnake Mountain," was given over almost exclusively to descriptionsof the wonderful things that came to pass when Stanhope Troop spent apart of their vacation camping out in order that those who were backwardin their knowledge of how to take care of themselves when in the openshould have a good chance to learn many of the secrets of Nature.

  So many strange things happened to the boys when up on RattlesnakeMountain that it would be utterly impossible to even mention them here;but if you wish to know all about the mystery they solved, and thenumerous other exciting events that befell them, you must get thesecond volume.

  There was to be a special meeting, which the acting scout master hadcalled for this evening; and Bobolink, Jack, and Tom Betts expected tobe back from their errand in time to answer to their names when the rollwas called.

  It was only to oblige Jack that the other two had left home half an hourearlier than was really necessary. Jack had asked them, over thetelephone, to drop around, as he had to go out to his father's millbefore he could attend the meeting in the church, where a room in thebasement had been kindly loaned to them by the trustees.

  "What's all this mean about you going to the mill at this queer oldhour?" Bobolink was saying, as the three boys continued to walk onabreast, the speaker carrying the silver-plated bugle which he knew howto manipulate so well when the occasion allowed its use.

  "Why, you see it's this way," Jack went on to explain. "My father knows aman of the name of Professor Hackett, though what he's a professor ofyou needn't ask me, because I don't know. But he's a bright littlegentleman, all right; and somehow or other he looks like he's just cramfull of some secret that's trying to break out all over him."

  Bobolink laughed aloud.

  "Well, that's a funny description you give of the gentleman, I must say,Jack; but go on--what's he got to do with our making this trip to the bigmill tonight?"

  "I just guess it's got everything to do with it," replied the other. "Yousee, the professor had a number of big cases sent up here on the train,and they came today, and were taken to the mill; for my father promisedto keep them there a couple of days until the owner could take them away.What under the sun's in those big boxes I couldn't tell you from Adam;all I know is that he seems to be mighty much afraid somebody's going tosteal them."

  "Wow! and are we going there to stand guard over the blooming oldthings?" exclaimed Bobolink in dismay; for he would not want to miss thatspecial meeting for anything.

  "Oh! not quite so bad as that," answered Jack, with a laugh. "But yousee, that professor wrote my father that he wanted him to hire a trustyman who would stay in the mill over night until he could get up herefrom New York and take the boxes away, somewhere or other."

  "Oh, that's it, eh? And where do we find the guardian of the treasure? Ishe going to bob up on the road to the mill?" Tom Betts demanded.

  "He promised father to be on deck at seven-thirty, and it'll be close onthat by the time we get there, I reckon," Jack continued.

  "And what have you got to do about it?" asked Bobolink.

  "Let him in, and lock the door after he's on duty," replied Jack,promptly. "You see, ever since that attempt was made to burn the mill,when those hoboes, or yeggs, thought they'd find money in the safe, andhad their trouble for their pains, my father has been mighty careful howhe leaves the office unfastened. He couldn't see this man, Hans Waggoner,who used to work for us, but talked with him over the 'phone, and toldhim I'd be there to meet him, and let him in. That's all there is to it,boys, believe me."

  "Only, you don't know what's in those boxes, and you'd give a cookie tofind out?" suggested Bobolink.

  "It isn't so bad as that," replied the other. "Of course I'm a littlecurious about what they might hold, that they have to be speciallyguarded; but I guess it's none of my business, and I'm not going tomonkey around, trying to find out."

  "Say, d'ye suppose your dad knows?" asked Tom.

  "Sure he must," came from Jack, instantly. "He'd be silly to let anybodystore a lot of cases that might hold dynamite, or any other oldexplosive, in his planing mill, without knowing all about 'em; wouldn'the? But my father don't think it's any of my affair, you see. Andbesides, I wouldn't be surprised if that funny little professor had boundhim not to tell anybody about it. They got the boxes in on the sly, andthat's a fact, boys."

  "Oh! splash! now you've got me worked up with guessing, and I'll never beable to sleep till I know all about it," grumbled Bobolink.

  "You're just as curious as any old woman I ever heard of," declared Jack.

  "He always was," said Tom Betts, with a chuckle, "and I could string offmore'n a few times when that same curiosity hauled Bobolink into a peckof trouble. But p'raps your father might let out the secret to you, afterthe old boxes have been taken away, and then you can ease his mind.Because it's just like he says, and he'll keep on dreamin' the mostwonderful things about those cases you ever heard tell about. Thatimagination of Bobolink is something awful."

  "Huh!" grunted the one under discussion, "not much worse than someothers I know about right now; only they c'n keep a tight grip ontheirs, and I'm that simple I just have to blurt everything out. Both ofyou fellers'd like to know nearly as much as I would, what thatmysterious little old man has got hid away in those big cases. Of courseyou would. But you jump on the lid, and hold it down. It gets away withme; that's all."

  "All the same, it's mighty good of you fellows, coming all the way outhere with me tonight; and even when Bobolink's got a stone bruise on hisheel, or something like that," Jack went on to say, with a vein ofsincere affection in his voice; for the boys making up the Red Fox Patrolof Stanhope Troop were very fond of each other.

  "Oh! rats! what's the good of being a scout if you can't do a comrade alittle favor once in a while?" asked Bobolink, impetuously. "But there'sthe mill looming up ahead, Jack, in the dark. Half a moon don't give awhole lot of light, now, does it; and especially when it's a cloudy nightin the bargain?"

  "Well, I declare!" exclaimed Jack.

  "What is it; did you see anything?" demanded Tom Betts, hastily.

  "I'm not dead sure," admitted Jack; "you see, just as Bobolink said, thelight's mighty poor, and a fellow could easily be mistaken; but Ithought I saw something that looked like a tall man scuttle away aroundthat corner of the mill, and dodge behind that pile of lumber!"

  "Whew!" ejaculated Bobolink, showing the utmost interest, for excitementappealed to him.

  "Say, perhaps Hans has arrived ahead of the half hour," suggestedTom Betts.

  "No, it wasn't Hans, because I know him well, and he's a little runt of aDutchman, but a fighter from the word go; and my father knows nobody'sgoing to get away with those boxes of the professor while Hans and hismusket, that was used in the Civil War, are on guard. That was a tallman, and he ran like he'd just heard us coming, and wanted to hide. Iguess somebody else is curious about those boxes, besides Bobolink."