Part 20 (1/2)

”Proven beyond the least doubt!” cried Mark, smiling broadly. ”Bruno came on my cap while he was scouring the country. He fetched it home, as he does other things that have belonged to people. And when he was going past those peach trees he got scent of the fact that some one had been there during his absence. So perhaps he laid the cap down, to nose all around, and forgot to pick it up again!”

”That's just my theory to a dot,” laughed Elmer; ”so on the whole, I guess, Mark, you'd better call it solved, and let the matter drop.”

”I'm only too willing,” replied the other, nodding. ”But don't you think we owe it to the colonel to take him into the secret?”

”I sure do,” replied Elmer; ”because he was puzzled as much as we were.

Still, you remember he was ready to own up that he couldn't believe you guilty; no matter if a dozen caps bearing your initials were found under his trees.”

”That shows what it means tuh have a good reputation,” remarked Phil Lally between his set teeth. ”But, boys, never again for me. I've seen what a fool road I was trampin' with that habit of mine, and I've changed my course. I'm goin' tuh make good this time, or bust a b'iler tryin'.”

”You'll make it, never fear, Phil, with such a good friend to help you as the gentleman you work for. I believe in you,” said Elmer, thrusting out his hand; for something told him that the young fellow needed all the encouragement possible at this critical stage in his uplifting.

So they did go in to see the colonel, who was deeply interested in the theory. Elmer had to explain how his chum's cap chanced to be found that morning under the raided trees, when it was lost the evening previous away over on the bank of the little Sunflower River.

”No doubt of it, Elmer,” he declared immediately. ”You've proved it beyond the shadow of a doubt. If Bruno had put his visiting card inside the lining he couldn't have done more when he made these tears with his sharp teeth. Seems to me as if I can see where every tooth went in. But let's forget all about that matter now, and talk about your magnificent victory of yesterday.”

”We may have beaten the Fairfield team by the narrow margin of one run, sir,” remarked Elmer, ”but there was one fellow against us who did a heap more than that, I give it to you straight.”

”Who was that, Elmer, and what did he do that was so great? I'm sure, after seeing the game I fail to catch your meaning,” remarked the gentleman.

”It was Matt Tubbs, sir; and he won a victory over himself which I take it counts for more than just a single little tally in a baseball game.

If that had been the same old Matt Tubbs of old, we'd never have finished that game, for he'd have ended it in a row. As it was, he shook hands with every Hickory Ridge player, and complimented them on the fierce fight they put up. It was just fine! And they used to say Matt Tubbs was a rowdy who could never be made to see how he was wronging his family, all Fairfield, and himself worst of all, by his ugly ways. Don't tell me, anybody, that this Boy Scout movement isn't working wonders in lots of cases.”

”I believe you, Elmer,” replied the colonel, softly. ”I have been pretty much a gruff old soldier myself, and often scorned such an idea as gaining anything worth while without a fight for it; but I'm beginning to look at things in another light, boys, another light. Peace has its victories as well as war; and they count most in the long run, I reckon.

I'm going to take more interest in these boys than ever I did before, because I'm learning something in my old age.”

But the great victory over Fairfield was not the only event that marked the closing days of that summer vacation, and in another volume we shall have something to say about an occurrence which the Hickory Ridge Boy Scouts were inclined to set down in their troop log-book as a matter of history never to be forgotten.

THE END.

ADDENDA

BOY SCOUT NATURE LORE

BOY SCOUT NATURE LORE TO BE FOUND IN THE HICKORY RIDGE BOY SCOUT SERIES.

Wild Animals of the United States } Tracking } in Number I.

THE CAMPFIRES OF THE WOLF PATROL.

Trees and Wild Flowers of the United States in Number II.

WOODCRAFT, OR HOW A PATROL LEADER MADE GOOD.