CHAPTER IX.
WHAT THE LONE CABIN CONTAINED
When Elmer Chenowith looked through that opening, what he saw was so entirely different from what he had anticipated discovering that he could hardly believe his eyes at first.
With all the fancy of a boy, who gives free rein to his imagination, doubtless he had fully expected to discover several gruff-looking hoboes gathered there, perhaps engaged in torturing one of their kind, or some wretched party who had fallen into their power.
Nothing of the sort. The very first object Elmer saw was a small boy, dressed in ragged clothes, and who was trying to blow a dying fire into life again.
This did not look very alarming; and so Elmer cast his eyes further afield, with the result that presently another moving object riveted his attention. Why, surely that must be a girl, for her long hair seemed to indicate as much! What was she bending over? Was that a rude cot?
Then the strange truth burst upon Elmer like a cannon shot. The groans – they must indicate that a sick person lay there, and these two small children (for the boy could not be over six, while the girl might be eight) were trying to carry out the combined duties of nurse, doctor and cook!
"Oh!"
It was Red himself who gave utterance to this low exclamation. He was peering in at the opening over the shoulder of Mr. Garrabrant, and what he saw was so vastly different from his expectations that he received a severe "jolt," as he himself afterwards expressed it.
Perhaps the sound, low as it was, reached the ears of the little girl guardian of the sick bed. They saw her give a jump, and immediately a pair of startled blue eyes were staring in the direction of the opening.
"Come!" said Mr. Garrabrant to his boys, "there is no need of any more secrecy. I think we are needed here, and badly, too."
He led the way around the corner of the lone lodge, with the scouts tagging at his heels, only too willing to follow. Reaching the door of the cabin they were about to enter, when Mr. Garrabrant uttered an exclamation of alarm.
"Get on to the girl, would you?" gasped Lil Artha; and there was no need of his attempting to explain, since his chums could see for themselves.
Small though she was, the girl had snatched up a long-barreled gun, and was now actually menacing the intruders. Her white face had a desperate look upon it, as though at some time in the past the child had been warned that there were bad men to be met with in those woods. As for the little chap, he had hold of the hatchet with which at the time he must have been cutting kindling wood; for he clutched it in his puny hand, and looked like a dwarfed wildcat at bay.
Elmer, as long as he lived, would never forget that picture. And as for the other boys, not one of them could so much as utter a single word.
"Hold on, my child!" cried Mr. Garrabrant, raising his hands to show that they did not hold any sort of weapon; "we are friends, and would be only too glad to be of help to you. One of us is something of a doctor, if it happens that anyone is sick here. Please let us come in."
Perhaps it was the kindly look of the handsome young scout master – then again his voice may have influenced the frightened girl; or the fact that those in the open doorway were mostly boys might have had considerable to do with it. Then again that magical word "doctor" must have thrilled her through and through.
The gun fell to the floor, and the relieved girl burst into a flood of tears.
"It's dad!" she cried, moving a hand toward the rude cot behind her; and as the eyes of the boys flitted thither again, they saw a bearded and very sick looking man trying to raise himself up on his elbow.
Mr. Garrabrant immediately went toward him, uttering reassuring words, that no doubt did much to relieve the alarm of the occupant of the rude bed. Wisely had the long-headed scout master caused one of the boys to carry some food along, not knowing what necessity might arise. He saw that hunger was holding sway in this lone cabin as well as sickness. And while Red started the fire to going, Ty Collins proceeded to unwrap the package of meat and bread, as well as the coffee and tea he had "toted" all the way from camp.
Mr. Garrabrant with a few questions learned the simple story. The man was a charcoal burner in the summer season, while he pursued the arduous labor of a lumberman in the winter. A few months before his wife had suddenly died, leaving him with these two small but very independent children.
Abe Morris, his name was, while the boy carried that of Felix; and whenever the cabin dweller spoke of the girl it was always as "Little Lou." He had hated to leave the retired home where he had spent so many pleasant years, and near which his wife was buried. And so he had managed to get along, with the girl cooking his meals and playing the part of housekeeper wonderfully well; while even Felix could do his stunt of gathering firewood and looking after a few simple traps in which he caught muskrats.
When the boys heard that this small edition of a lad had been able to actually outwit the shrewd animals of the marsh, they looked at each other in dismay, as though wondering whether he might not have a better right to the title of scout that any among them.
Things had gone fairly well with the widower until a week back, when an accident had brought him almost to death's door. Managing to drag himself home, he had swooned from loss of blood. Since that time he had suffered tortures, more of the mind than of the body, since he dreaded the thought of what would become of his children should death claim him.
They had done wonderfully well. When Dr. Ted got busy, he praised the simple but clever work of that eight-year-old girl, in binding up such a severe wound. Perhaps Little Lou may have learned how to do this from the mother who was gone, or it might be it came just natural to her. When children live away from the world, and are forced to depend upon themselves for everything, it is amazing how they can do things that would puzzle those twice their age, when pampered in comfortable homes. Necessity forces them to reach out and attempt things, just as she teaches the child to use its limbs, and utter sounds.
Once they realized that these were kind friends who had come so opportunely to their rescue, Felix and Little Lou found their voices, and proved that they could talk, as Lil Artha put it, "a blue streak."
And when they sat down to a supper such as they had not tasted for many a day, both of the children of the charcoal burner were comparatively happy. As for the man himself, he wrung the hands of Mr. Garrabrant and each of the Boy Scouts as they took their leave, calling down blessings on their heads for what they had done.
"We're going to see you through, Abe," the scout master had said positively. "We intend being up here ten days or so, and during that time I fully expect our Dr. Ted will be able to have you hobbling around again. Then you've got to come down to Hickory Ridge when we send a vehicle of some sort up here for you. This is no place for a man to think of bringing up two such fine youngsters as you possess. They must have a chance to go to school, and I promise you all the work you want, so that you can live in or near town. It may have been different so long as your good wife was with you, but now it would be next door to a crime to think of staying here, even for the balance of the summer. You will come, won't you?"
"Sure I will, Mr. Garrabrant!" exclaimed the rough man; who, however, used better language than might have been expected. "And it's the luckiest day of my whole life when those two lads discovered my shack here. Heaven only knows what would have become of us only for that."
They left the queer home in the wilderness with Felix and Little Lou waving their hands vigorously after them, standing in the doorway, and plainly seen against the firelight behind.
And there was not one among those boys but who felt a warm sensation in the region of his heart, such as always comes when a kind deed has been performed.
Mr. Garrabrant had been greatly affected by the incident; nor did he hesitate to express himself warmly on the journey back to the camp, which by the way Elmer managed to accomplish without even one error of judgment, much to the admiration of his chums, who watched his actions eagerly, desirous of picking up points calculated to enhance their reputation as scouts.
"Boys, you may have made other tramps, going skating, hunting, playing baseball, and the like; but take my word for it, you never acquitted yourselves better than on this night. I'm proud of every one of you, and I thank you in the name of poor Abe Morris. And if there happens to be anyone here who has been wearing his badge upside down through the day, because he failed to find a chance to do anybody a good turn, I hereby give him full permission to set it right."
"Hurrah! that touches me, sir!" exclaimed Jack Armitage. "I've been wondering all along just how in the wide world I was going to find a chance to do my little kind deed stunt. There ain't any old ladies to help across the street up here; and dooryards to clear up of trash are as scarce as hens' teeth. But you've eased my mind a heap, Mr. Garrabrant. Perhaps you'll let me do some of the running over to Abe's cabin each day, to carry him supplies. That sturdy little chap just took my eye, and when I get back home I'm going to get father to give Abe a job in his flooring mill."
"That's nice of you, Jack," replied the pleased scout master. "And it does your heart credit. Between us all, it will be very strange if we can't fix up that little family, and bring some happiness to their bleak home. Think of those two brave kiddies keeping house for their father amid such desolate surroundings. No wonder they made me think of a pair of wildcats ready to defend their den as we bustled in. They seldom see a living soul but their father, now that the mother has been laid away. But we must be nearly back at camp, I should judge, Elmer? At any rate, I admit that I'm beginning to feel leg weary, not being used to this work of tramping over the side of a rough mountain."
"But just think of Red, here, thir," broke in Dr. Ted, who had a helping arm around the lame member of the expedition. "He thure detherves a medal for what he's done. Tramping all thith distance with that thore ankle ith – well, I wath going to thay heroic, but I guess he wouldn't like that. Anyhow, I think pretty much all the credit ought to go to Red."
"Now, just you hold your horses there!" declared the party in question, trying to repress a groan, as he had a rude twinge of pain shoot up his left leg. "I owe all this to myself, and more, because I made the mistake of running off without finding out what that groan meant. I've wanted to kick myself ever since. It ain't often I play the part of a sneak, and it makes me sore. So whenever my leg hurts I just grin and say to myself: 'Serves you right, you coward, for running away, instead of investigating, like a true scout should have done!'"
"You are too severe on yourself, Oscar," remarked Mr. Garrabrant, soothingly; for he knew the impulsive and warm-hearted nature of the boy who was taking himself so much to task. "When your companion suggested that perhaps there was a case of smallpox in that hut, it was your duty to come to me and report, rather than take the awful responsibility on your young shoulders. And I mean to see to it that you get many good marks for what you have done this night – not you alone, but every boy who accompanied me on this errand of mercy."
"There's the camp fire, sir!" exclaimed Elmer, at this moment.
"I bet you Redth glad to see it, poor old chap!" remarked Dr. Ted.
"Shucks! I reckon I could have stood it a little while longer!" declared the limping one; but when he presently reached the home camp, and sank down on a blanket, the pain he had been silently enduring all the return trip was too much for him, and Red actually fainted.
Of course he was quickly brought to, and Dr. Ted looked to the injured limb.
"You'll have to lie around pretty much all the balance of the time we're run up in thith neck of the woodth, old fellow," was his announcement; which dictum made Red do what the pain had failed to accomplish, groan dismally.
Of course those who had been left behind were fairly clamorous to know what had happened. So sitting there by the crackling fire, with all those bright and eager faces surrounding him, the scout master, assisted at times by Elmer, Ted or Lil Artha, described their long jaunt over the grim mountainside, the finding of the lone cabin, just as Red and Larry had said, and what wonderful discovery they had made upon peering in through the open window.
And every boy felt that a golden opportunity had come to their organization that night to live up to the high ideals the Boy Scout movement stands for.
CHAPTER X.
WIGWAGGING FROM THE MOUNTAIN PEAK
"Another fine day for a few more tests, and such things, fellows!" sang out Chatz Maxfield, on the following morning, after they had finished breakfast.
The night had actually passed without any sign of alarm. Although Chatz had fully anticipated a return of his stalking ghost, while he stood out his turn as a sentry, he had met with disappointment, for nothing happened. Still, he did not wholly give up hope of meeting up with the "misty white object" again. The jeers of his mates had begun to take effect, and Chatz really wanted to have the thing settled, one way or the other, as soon as possible. Either there were such things as ghosts, or there were not. And he wished to be convinced, declaring that he was open to conviction, if only they could prove to the contrary.
"Yes," remarked Mark Cummings, who was near by, with others of the scouts; "and I guess Mr. Garrabrant has laid out a bully and strenuous old day for the lot of us, barring Red and Ginger, who are to keep camp. He speaks of sending one bunch to the top of Mount Pisgah, as this peak is called, while another tries to climb Mount Horab yonder. They ought to get up there about noon, and for two hours wigwag to each other, sending and receiving messages that are to be kept in books provided for the purpose. Then, at night, when we all meet again around the camp fire, we'll have heaps of fun, seeing just how stupid we've been in our Signal Corps work."
"Don't you forget, Mark," said Red, who was lounging on a log close by, "that you promised to let me try a few prints from those negatives you developed and fixed. I'm a pretty good hand at that work, so they tell me at home, and I'd like to see how we all look up here in camp."
"All right, Red," replied Mark, cheerfully. "You shall do the job, and welcome. I've seen some of your work, and it's sure the best ever. I'll fix up a place in the tent here, where you can hobble if you want to, after you've done your printing and want to fix the pictures."
"But you want to go easy on that leg, remember," warned Dr. Ted, shaking a finger at his patient, just as he had seen the old family doctor do many a time.
"You and Jack are bound over the side of the mountain to visit the Abe Morris family, I heard?" remarked Chatz, speaking to Ted.
"Yeth, it is a professional visit on my part," replied the other, pretending to look very dignified. "But Mr. Garrabrant hath promithed that everyone of you shall have a turn to accompany me day by day, tho ath to make the acquaintance of those two brave kiddies, as he calls them, Felix and Little Lou."
"I'm right glad to hear that, suh," remarked Chatz; "from what you all tell me, I'm quite anxious to meet up with that boy and girl. And if Jack falls through with his plan of getting Abe employment in his father's mill, I think I know just where he would fit into a good position."
The two companies left camp about eight o'clock. Dr. Ted and Jack Armitage waved them good-by, for they too were getting ready to start on their errand to the lone cabin in the woods.
Elmer headed one group of scouts, while Mr. Garrabrant had charge of the other. They carried plenty of lunch along, though it was expected that they would surely be back before evening had set in.
The scout master was not at all positive about his thorough knowledge of woodcraft; for as yet it was almost wholly theoretical rather than practical with him.
"I am not above getting lost, in spite of my book knowledge," he had laughed, as he selected what boys were to accompany him; "and that is why I take Matty Eggleston, Mark Cummings, and Arthur Stansbury among my followers; because next to Elmer, they are known to possess practical ideas concerning this traveling in unknown timber. So good-by, lads; we'll look to have a good talk with you across the valley."
So day after day he expected to put the scouts "through their paces," as Lil Artha called it. To-day it was to be the great hike to the tops of the mountains, and the wigwagging contest between the two factions. To-morrow he meant to have Elmer give further lessons along the line of following a trail, showing just how an experienced woodsman can tell from many sources how long ago the party had passed; the number of which it consisted; whether they were men, women or children; white or Indians; and even describing some of the marked peculiarities of the members comprising it.
Then later on they would have swimming contests; first aid to the injured lessons; resuscitating a person who has come near being drowned; cooking rivalry; athletics; and many other things connected with the open life.
It proved a long and arduous tramp for Elmer and his companions. He had had the privilege of choosing which mountain he would attempt to scale, and just like an ambitious boy, had selected the one he felt sure would be the more difficult.
Those who followed his lead had many times to beg of him to halt and take a little breathing spell, for the way was very rough and much climbing of rocks had to be done in order to mount upward.
"Wow! are we ever going to get up there?" grunted Toby, who had just hated to come on this expedition at all, when he would much rather have liked hanging around camp, and examining the deflated balloon; no doubt dreaming dreams of the time when he hoped to have the chance to soar away among the clouds in one of those gas bags.
"Seems like that mountain top is just nigh as far away from us as ever," complained Larry Billings, who was puffing at a great rate, as he seemed to be rather short winded, and had to be taken to task several times for his faulty manner of walking.
"Oh! no, you're greatly mistaken there," laughed Elmer. "Distances are deceptive in the mountains, to anyone not used to measuring them with the eye. Just wait a little, and all at once you're going to realize that we're getting up handsomely. Look across the valley, and see how high we are right now! That proves it, Larry."
"Hey! what's that moving, away up on that other hill, Elmer?" cried Jasper Merriweather, the novice and real tenderfoot of the crowd; who, under the careful supervision of the scout leader of the Wolf Patrol, was actually doing himself proud, and gaining new confidence in his abilities with each passing hour.
Elmer followed the line of his outstretched finger.
"You deserve considerable praise, Jasper, for making that discovery," he declared, presently. "I can see what you mean now; though when I looked across before I didn't happen to notice. Yes, that's our other squad, climbing up just like we are, and not making any better job of it either, I think."
"Ho! they ain't near as far up, for a fact," said Nat Scott, with pardonable pride, since he had developed into a pretty good climber.
"Well, that mountain is not so tall as ours; but then it may be even rougher, for all we know," observed Elmer. "I picked out this one because it was so high, and I always want to tackle the hardest job, if I've got any choice. It makes you feel all the better if you win out. But come on, fellows, let's pitch in. Given one more good hour's work, and I think we ought to be pretty near the crown."
"I hope so!" sighed poor Larry, who was puffing still, and rubbing his leg where he had hurt it a little on the previous day; though it was nothing so bad as Red's injury, aggravated as it had been by his stubborn determination to return to the lone hut and accompany the relief party.
Once more they struggled upward. Sometimes they found the going so very difficult that they were obliged to give each other a helping hand.
Of course the view grew finer the higher they went.
"Say, Elmer," remarked Toby, as they halted later on to get their breath; "d'ye suppose now we'll be able to glimpse dear old Hickory Ridge when we get up to the top of this mole hill?"
"Sure we will," replied the leader, cheerily. "And that alone ought to pay us for all our trouble. We've only been away a couple of days or so, but I reckon it seems an age to a lot of us, since we saw the home folks."
There was an ominous silence after that remark. Doubtless every scout was allowing his thoughts to roam tenderly back to that beloved home which he knew sheltered those who were so dear to his heart. And possibly, unseen by his fellows, a tear may even have rolled unbidden down more than one cheek. For they were but boys, after all, and same of them had never even been so far away from the home nest before.
Elmer proved to be a true prophet, for ere the full hour was up even the doubting Larry was obliged to confess that they had gained a point not far from the summit.
This seemed to inspire the laggards to renewed efforts, so that presently, with loud cries of delight and admiration, the whole bunch struggled to the apex and had the view of their lives around them.
"Ain't this just too grand for anything?" gasped Larry, as he squatted down on a stone and tried to pick out the distant village on the ridge where home lay.
The others were doing the same; and all manner of exclamations followed, as this one or that discovered familiar landmarks, by means of which their untrained eyes could find the one particular spot about which their thoughts clustered just then.
It was not far from noon, and when Elmer declared that they had well earned the right to eat the hearty luncheon carried along, he was greeted with cries of joy: for it was a jolly hungry batch of scouts that gathered on that mountain top.
While they ate they discovered that their mates had also managed to reach their goal. But no communication was attempted until they had thoroughly rested.
Then Mr. Garrabrant started operations himself, after which he probably handed the flags over to the scout who was to make the first test of his knowledge along the line of wigwagging a message, and receiving a reply.
It proved to be interesting work, and all the boys with Elmer declared that it held a peculiar fascination and charm about it. Of course, in war times, such business must carry along with it more or less danger. They could easily picture how an operator must take great risks first of all to mount to some exposed position, where his flag could readily be seen, and then keep up a constant signaling with another flagman far away, while the enemy would doubtless be making every effort to break up the serious communications that might spell disaster for their cause.
"Anyhow, it won't take us near so long to go down the mountain as it did to climb up here," remarked Larry, with satisfaction in his voice.
"All the same," remarked Elmer, "every fellow has got to be mighty careful just how he goes. No rushing things, you understand. It's easier to take a tumble going down than coming up. And we want no more cripples on this trip."
About three o'clock they started to descend from the peak. Every boy had to just tear himself away, after one last look at the distant ridge that lay bathed in the warm sunshine. And no one had a word to say for quite a time.
The descent was made in safety, though several times one of the boys would slip on a piece of loose shale; and once Larry might have had a severe fall only that Elmer, happening to be close beside him at the time, shot out a hand and clutched him as he was plunging headlong, after catching his heel in a root.
They all breathed a sigh of relief when the bottom of the mountain was reached. After that the going was much easier, and they soon drew near the camp.
"Wonder if the other fellows made as quick a getdown as we did?" remarked Toby, who was hobbling along, footsore, and with his muscles paining from the many severe strains they had been compelled to endure during the day; but only too glad to realize that he would soon arrive where he could once more be in touch with that wonderful sky traveler that had so fortunately dropped into their hands.
"I think it will be pretty near a tie," laughed Elmer; "for just a bit ago I had a glimpse of them, where the timber opened up, and I judged that they were as close to home and supper as we are. Put your best leg forward, boys, and don't let on that any of you are near tuckered out. Where's your pride, Larry? Brace up, and look as if you felt as fresh as a daisy!"
Larry tried to obey; but it was hard to smile when he felt as though he had been "drawn through a straw," as he declared.
"Listen!" cried Elmer, five minutes later, throwing up his hand for silence.
"It's Ginger, and he's yelling to beat the band!" exclaimed Toby.
"Oh! I wonder what's happened!" gasped Jasper.
"Run for all you're worth, fellows!" said Elmer, starting off himself at full speed.
Quickly they broke cover, and neared the camp, to see the other party close by, also on the run. Ginger was dancing up and down, still whooping things up, while Red stood just outside of a tent looking startled and puzzled.
"What's that Ginger's yelling?" called Toby, and it thrilled them as they heard.
"'Twar de debble dat time nigh got me! He's gwine tuh grab us all away in de chariot ob fire! I'se a gone coon, I is! Runnin' ain't no use;" and Ginger threw himself on his knees with clasped hands and rolling eyes.