Part 25 (1/2)
CHAPTER XXIV
LOYAL SCOUTS TO THE RESCUE
This a.s.sertion on the part of their leader was so tremendous that for almost a dozen seconds the boys could not utter a single word; but just stood there, and gazed at Thad, speechless.
But it is a very difficult thing to muzzle some lads for any length of time; and Giraffe presently burst out with:
”Jumped on poor b.u.mpus right here, did they, Thad? And p'raps pounded him into a condition where he just couldn't give the alarm, no matter how hard he tried? Oh! mebbe I don't wish I could have been there to touch up the scoundrels with this fine hatchet? What I'd a done to 'em would have been a caution, let me warn you! But how do you tell all this from the signs, Thad? We're only a bunch of next door to tenderfeet scouts when it comes to reading trail talk; but we know enough to understand when she's explained to us. Please open up, and tell us now.”
”And then we must decide what we'll do, so as to rescue our chum,” said Step Hen angrily; ”because scouts always stand by each other, you know, through thick and thin; and b.u.mpus is the best fellow agoing, you bear me saying that?”
”Well, it's this way,” said the scout-master, always ready to oblige his mates whenever he could do so; ”you can see that some sort of a scuffle has taken place where we're standing right now. Other feet than those of b.u.mpus are marked; and then they all start away from here, heading in that direction. But although b.u.mpus walked to this spot there's never a sign of his footprints, which I know so well leading off from here.”
”What's the answer to that?” asked Davy.
”Why,” broke in Giraffe, quickly, ”that's as plain as the nose on your face, Davy. Our chum was carried away! Either he couldn't walk because he'd been tapped on the head, and was senseless; or else they had got him tied up that quick.”
”Is that so, Thad?” demanded Step Hem
”Giraffe has got the answer all right,” came the reply. ”I can see where these fellows must have been hiding, and let b.u.mpus pa.s.s them by.
Then one dropped down on top of him, so that he couldn't so much as draw in his breath before they had him. This is what I was thinking about when I said we shouldn't be caught off our guard; and that we'd be foolish if we separated at all, for they could pick us off one by one, where they'd be afraid to tackle the whole bunch. It came quicker than I thought it would, though.”
”Well, we ain't going to stand for this, I hope?” remarked Giraffe.
”We'd be a fine lot of scouts, wouldn't we,” broke in Davy, indignantly, ”if we were ready to desert our chum when he was in hard luck? Anybody that knows what the boys of the Silver Fox Patrol of Cranford Troop are would make certain that could never go down with them. Sure we ain't ameaning to keep on hiding our light under a bushel, and sneaking off, while b.u.mpus, good old b.u.mpus, is in the hands of the enemy, and p'raps with a splitting headache in the bargain.”
”Headache!” echoed Step Hen; ”just wait till we get our chance, and if they ain't the fas.h.i.+on among these here poachers, then I don't know beans, and I think I do. Wow! you hear me talking, fellows!” and he caused his club to fairly whistle through the air, as though getting into the swing, so that he would know just how to go about laying out one of the law-breakers when they finally rounded them up.
”Hope we ain't meaning to waste any more time around here than's necessary, Mr. Scout-master?” Giraffe observed, grimly, running his finger suggestively along the edge of the camp hatchet, which they kept in pretty good condition, so that it would really cut quite well.
”We're off right away,” said the other.
”And Thad,” observed Allan, speaking for the first time, because he was usually a boy of few words, and one who left it to some of the others to do pretty much all the talking, ”the new trail, where we fail to find any mark of b.u.mpus' shoes leads this way, which I take it is toward that shack you said you'd seen last night when you took that little scout on the sly?”
”It sure does, Allan,” came the reply.
”Well, then, we must expect that was where they carried our chum; and so we'll make for the cabin now,” Allan continued.
”We'll see it soon enough,” Thad told them, ”because it's only a little ways from where they have their powerboat hidden. Move along as still as you can, boys; and no more talking now--except in whispers.”
Every scout must have felt his heart beating like a trip-hammer as the forward progress was continued. The very atmosphere around them seemed to be charged with electricity; at least one would imagine so to see the way they looked suddenly from right to left with quick movements, as they went stooping along.
It was only a s.p.a.ce of sixty seconds or so when Thad came to a stop.
They knew from this that the cabin spoken of must already have been sighted; and this proved to be the case, as was made apparent when they came to examine the territory just ahead.
Among the rocks and undergrowth it could hardly be seen; indeed, if they had not known of its presence there, possibly none of them would have thought a cabin was so near by.
They stared hard at it, but failed to see the first sign of any living being in the neighborhood.