The High School Boys' Training Hike

by H. Irving Hancock

  CHAPTER VI

  THE NO-BREAKFAST PLAN

  "Let's get the tent down, fellows," Dick called. "Greg is loadingthe bedding on to the wagon now."

  "Haven't, you forgotten something?" Danny Grin asked.

  "What?" challenged Dick smilingly.

  "Well, a little thing like breakfast, for instance?"

  "We don't get that until after we've had our swim," Prescott rejoinedcheerily.

  "I suppose that's all right," observed Tom, his jaw dropping."Still, in that case, Mr. Trainer, why didn't you camp nearerto a stream?"

  "The nearest stream fit for swimming is two miles from here,"Dick replied. "At least, that's what I judge from the map."

  "There's the creek the bull-heads came from," suggested Hazeltonhopefully. "That's close at hand."

  "I know it is," Dick replied, "but I've had a look at it. Thatcreek is both shallow and muddy. No sort of place for swimming."

  One thing these Gridley High School boys had learned in the footballsquad, and that was discipline. So, though there were some gloomylooks, all remembered that Dick had been chosen trainer duringthe hike, and that his word, in training matters, was to be theirlaw. So the tent came down, in pretty nearly record time, andwas loaded on the wagon. The horse was harnessed, also withoutbreakfast, and the party started down the road with Harry Hazeltonholding the reins.

  "I hope it's a short two miles," growled Reade to Darrin.

  "Humph! A fine Indian you'd make, Tom!" jibed Dave. "An Indianis trained in being hungry. It's a part of the work that he hasto undergo before he is allowed to be one of the men of the tribe."

  "That's just the trouble with me," Tom admitted. "I've neverbeen trained to be an Indian, and I am inclined to think thatit requires training, and a lot of it."

  Outwardly Tom didn't "grump" any, but he made a resolve that,hereafter, his voice would be strong for halting right on thebank of a swimming place.

  "Can't we hit up the pace a bit?" asked Tom.

  "Yes," nodded Dick. "All who want to travel fast can hike rightahead. Just keep on the main road."

  Tom, Greg and Dan immediately forged ahead, taking long, rapidsteps.

  "But don't go in the water until we come up," Dick called afterthem. "Remember, the morning is hot, and you'll be too overheatedto go in at once."

  "Eh?" muttered Tom, with a sidelong look at his two fast-timecompanions. "Humph!"

  Then they fell back with the wagon again.

  "There doesn't seem to be any way to beat the clock to breakfast,"observed Dan, after he had walked several rods down the road.

  "I've talked with old soldiers," Dick went on, "who have toldme all sorts of tales of war time, about the commissary trainnot catching up with the fighting line for four days at a stretch.Yet here you fellows feel almost ill if you have to put off breakfasthalf an hour. What kind of men would you boys make if it cameto the stern part of life?"

  "If going without breakfast is part of the making of a man," saidDanny Grin solemnly, "then I'd rather be a child some more."

  "You always will be a child," Dave observed dryly. "Birthdayswon't make any great difference in your real age, Danny boy."

  "After that kind of a roast," grinned Reade, "I believe I'll takea reef in a few of the bitter things I was about to say."

  Dick laughed pleasantly. Somehow, with the walk, all soon beganto feel better. That first fainting, yearning desire for foodwas beginning to pass.

  "Do you know what the greatest trouble is with the American people?"asked Dick, after they had covered a mile.

  "I don't," Tom admitted. "Do you, Dick?"

  "I've been forming an idea," Prescott went on. "Our fault, ifI can gather it rightly from what I've been reading, is that weAmericans are inclined to be too babyish."

  "Tell that to the countries we've been at war with in the past,"jeered Tom Reade.

  "Oh, I guess it's a different breed of Americans that we sendto the front in war time," Prescott continued. "But, take youfellows; some of you have been almost kicking because breakfastis put off a bit. Most Americans are like that. Yet, it isn'tbecause we have such healthy stomachs, either, for foreignersknow us as a race of dyspeptics. Take a bit of cold weather inwinter---really cold, biting weather and just notice how Americanskick and worry about it. Take any time when we have a successionof rainy days, and notice how Americans growl over the continuedwet. Whatever happens that is in the least disagreeable, seewhat a row we Americans raise about it."

  "I imagine it's a nervous vent for the race," advanced Dave Darrin.

  "But why must Americans have a nervous vent?" Dick inquired."In other words, what business have we with diseased nerves!Don't you imagine that all our kicking, many times every day ofour lives, makes the need of nervous vent more and more pronounced?"

  "Oh, I don't know about that," argued Tom. "I hate to hear anyfellow talk disparagingly about his own country or its people.It doesn't sound just right. In war time, or during any greatnational disaster or calamity, the Americans who do things alwaysseem to rise to the occasion. We're a truly great people, allright. But I don't make that claim because I consider myselfever likely to be one of the great ones."

  "Why are we a great people?" pursued Prescott.

  "We are the richest nation in the world," argued Reade. "Thatmust show that we are people capable of making great successes."

  "Is our greatness due to ourselves, or to the fact that the UnitedStates embraces the greatest natural resources in the world?"demanded Dick Prescott.

  "It's partly due to the people, and partly due to the resourcesof the country," Dave contended.

  Dick kept them arguing. Harry Hazelton, as driver, remained silent,but the others argued against Dick, trying to overthrow all hisdisparaging utterances against the American people.

  Finally Reade grew warm, indeed.

  "Cut it out, Dick---do!" he urged. "This doesn't really soundlike you. I hate to hear a fellow go on running down his owncountrymen. I tell you, it isn't patriotic."

  "But just stop to consider this point," Prescott urged, and startedon a new, cynical line of argument.

  "I still contend that we're the greatest people on earth," Readeinsisted almost angrily. "We ought to be, anyway, for Americansdon't come of any one line of stock. We're descended frompioneers---the pick and cream of all the peoples of Europe."

  But Dick kept up his line of discussion until they came to theriver for which he had headed them. They followed the windingstream into the woods where the trees partially hid them fromthe observation of passers-by on the road, From this point theycould easily keep a watch on the wagon while in the water.

  "Now, let's sit down and cool off for five minutes," proposedDick, as he filled the feed bag for the horse. "After that we'llbe ready for a swim."

  "But, with regard to what you were saying about frayed Americannerves, poor stomachs and all-around babyishness-----" Tom beganall over again.

  "Stop it!" laughed Dick. "We don't need that line of talk anylonger."

  "Then why did you start it?" asked Dave.

  "We've covered the two miles that you all thought such a hardship,"chuckled Prescott.

  "Then you-----" began Reade, opening his eyes wider as a dawninglight came into them. "Come on, Dave! Catch him! The water'shandy!"

  But Dick, with a light laugh, bounded away, shinned up a tree,and, sitting in a crotch, swung his feet toward the faces ofTom, Dave and Harry as they tried to get him and drag him down.

  "You've got a strategic position, just now," growled Reade. "Butjust you wait until we catch you down on the ground again!"

  "You fellows must feel pretty well sold," Greg taunted them."I kept out of the row, for I saw, at the outset, that Dick wasgoing to start something for the sole purpose of keeping us arguinguntil we forgot all about our breakfasts."

  "That's just like Dick Prescott!" uttered Tom ruefully. "We neverget to know him so well that he can't start us all on a new tacka
nd have more fun with us."

  "Well, you forgot your supposed starvation, didn't you?" chuckledDick from his tree.

  Two or three minutes later he swung down from the tree to theground, rapidly removing his clothing and donning swimming trunks.He was not molested; the other five were too busy preparing forthe bath.

  "The water's great to-day!" shouted Dick, rising and "blowing"after a shallow dive from a tree trunk at the shore.

  In a moment they were all in the water.

  "Come on! Follow your leader!" shouted Tom Reade, striking outlustily upstream.

  "Come back and give us a handicap!" roared Dave. "How do youexpect us to catch you when you get the lead over us with yourlong legs and arms?"

  But Tom dived under water, swimming there. The others followedsuit, each remaining under as long as possible, for, in this "stunt,"there was no way of knowing when the leader came up. Tom remainedunder less than fifteen seconds. Then, showing his head, andwith rapid overhand strokes he made for the nearer bank, slippingashore and hiding behind some bushes.

  It was Hazy who had to come up first after Tom.

  "Whew! Tom must have met someone he knows on the bottom," calledHarry, as Greg's head rose above the surface.

  Dave came up next, then Dick, and then Dan.

  "Tom ought to be a fish!" uttered Darrin admiringly. "I stayedunder water as long as I could."

  Yet after going a few yards further up stream Dick Prescott turned,gazing anxiously down stream.

  "Fellows," he suggested, "something must have happened to old Tom."

  "Or else he's playing a joke on us," hinted Danny Grin, suspiciously.

  "It's some joke to remain under water four times as long as theaverage swimmer can do it," retorted Prescott.

  "But Tom may not be under water," spoke up Greg.

  "He didn't have time to get anywhere else," Dave declared.

  "It may be a joke, but I don't want to take any chances," Dicksaid earnestly. "Let's go down stream. Spread out, and everynow and then bob under and take as near a look at the bottom asyou can."

  "It doesn't look right," Dave admitted as they all started back.

  Several times they went under water, the best swimmers among themgetting close to bottom. So they continued on down the streamfor some distance.

  "Now, all together. Go under water all at the same time," orderedDick.

  Below the surface of the river they went. One after another theirheads presently appeared above the surface once more.

  "Have you fellows lost anything?" quizzed Reade, suddenly appearingon the bank.

  "That's what I call a mean trick on us!" cried Dave, flushingslightly.

  "You fellows were in for a swim, weren't you?" Reade drawled."You have been having it."

  With that he took to the water himself. There was something sojovial and harmless about Reade that, despite their recent anxietyconcerning him, they made no effort to duck him.

  "The water is fine this morning," called Tom presently, as theyall swam about.

  "Then why didn't you stay in?" demanded Darry rather cuttingly.

  "Say, I'm beginning to feel glad that I waited breakfast for theswim," Reade announced.

  "Stick to the truth!" mocked Dick.

  "But I really am beginning to feel that a little exercise is thebest course before breakfast," Tom declared.

  "The next thing we hear," scoffed Hazy, "you'll be telling usthat you really don't want any breakfast."

  "I'll tell you fellows what I'll do," Tom called. "I'll agreeto put off eating until noon if you'll all stick to the idea."

  But that suggestion did not prove popular.

  "I mean it," Reade insisted. "I hardly care, now, whether I eatany breakfast or not."

  "What's that noise below? Come on!" called Prescott, landingand running along the bank. Tom was close behind him, the othersfollowing.

  In their search for Tom they had gotten farther away from thewagon than they realized. During their brief absence from thespot two tramps had come upon the camp wagon and the piles ofdiscarded clothing. It was plain that the wagon contained allthat was needed for several meals---and the tramps were hungry.

  Yet the only safe way to enjoy that food would be to partake ofit at a safe distance from the rightful owners.

  For that reason, after a few whispered words, the tramps hastilygathered up all the clothing of the high school swimmers, dumpingit in the wagon. Then they mounted to the seat.

  Just as Dick Prescott and his chums broke from cover they beheldthe tramps in the act of driving from the woods out on the road.

  Once in the road the tramps urged the horse to a gallop. It wasout of the question for the boys, clad as they were in only swimmingtrunks to pursue the thieves.

  "I---I---take back all I said about not wanting any breakfast!"gasped Tom Reade, turning to his dismayed chums.