Part 6 (1/2)
Toby had adjusted the big parachute to his satisfaction, before he called this out; and it seemed to have been attached to his back by means of some device of his own. When open it resembled a large umbrella, only the ribs were made much more solid than the usual ones.
”It's lucky the ground's pretty soft down here, Toby!” called George; ”because you're apt to get a swift knock when you land. Be sure and keep that tongue of yours well inside your mouth, or you might bite it off.”
”Seems to me you do your share of biting, George; you've always got some ill-natured remark to make about everything I invent. Nothing venture, nothing gained, is my motto. And now I'll walk a little further out on this limb, so as to get a better chance to jump; and then watch me sail like a thistle-down!”
”Careful, there, Toby!” shouted Elmer, as the scout up in the tree started to move out further, looking very queer with that canopy over his head, and his waving arms a.s.sisting him to keep his balance.
Hardly had the scout master given this warning than what he possibly antic.i.p.ated happened. There was an ominous crack, and the rotten limb started to drop earthward. So did Toby, though the parachute caught the air, and sustained his weight pretty fairly. How it would have been had he been thousands of feet up, instead of a paltry thirty-five, was a question that could not be answered.
The four boys saw the limb come cras.h.i.+ng down, to break into fragments when it landed. Strange to say the ring-tailed animal that had accompanied the rotten limb in its sudden descent did not appear to have suffered any material damage from the drop; because it was seen to run away as soon as the termination of the unexpected aerial voyage had been reached.
As for Toby, he was certainly falling, but buoyed up by that stout material extended in the shape of a parachute, his descent was not nearly so rapid as it must otherwise have been.
He struck the ground with a resounding thump, and then fell over in a heap; though from the scrambling that ensued the others knew he could not have been hurt very much.
”How'd she go, Toby?” demanded Chatz, hurrying forward to a.s.sist the daring air navigator, if it turned out he needed any help.
”Kinder hard slap it gave me when I hit terra firma,” replied the other, whose lip was bleeding a little, showing that he must have bitten it; ”but all that's going to be remedied easy enough. What she needs is a little more canvas; ain't a big enough sail yet to hold me up. But whee! who'd ever expect that limb to snap off as sudden as that? See what it means to be prepared, fellows? Scouts ain't the only ones that ought to do that same; for if anybody ever needed to be ready, the air pilot does. He never knows what's going to happen to him next.”
”Well,” the scout master remarked, ”let's hope that's plenty for you to-day, Toby. We've stood and watched you make a record drop, and you came through in pretty decent shape; but enough's as good as a feast.
The next time things mightn't turn out as nice for you; and we don't want to carry a scout with a broken leg home in our wagon to-day.”
”But think of that little 'c.o.o.n coming down with it all, and then running away as if he didn't have a scratch to show for it?” George observed.
”He got off sound and unhurt, did he?” asked Toby; ”I'm real glad of that, 'cause I wouldn't want him to be injured. I reckon that 'c.o.o.n was a mascot to me, and gave me good luck. But do we get ready to start home so early in the afternoon, Elmer?”
Before any opinion could be advanced by the scout master, Chatz broke in hastily:
”I'm going to ask you a great favor, suh,” he told Elmer; ”and which I hope you can grant without interfering at all with any plans you have formed.”
”What's that, Chatz?” asked the other; although from the quick look he cast in the quarter where lay the haunted house, it was easy to see that he could give a pretty fair guess what it's nature would prove to be.
”Why, suh, we may never get the chance again, and I've always wanted to see what the inside of a haunted house looked like,” Chatz went on to say.
”Whee!” burst from the lips of Ted; while both George and Toby p.r.i.c.ked up their ears, and began to show considerable interest.
”You mean that while we're up here, and have half an hour or so on our hands,” Elmer suggested, ”we might as well take a look-in over there, and see if the rats and the owls are the only things living in the Cartaret house.”
”I'd like to very much, suh, believe me, I would,” Chatz continued, with one of his winning smiles that were very difficult to resist.
”What do the rest say about that?” and as Elmer made this remark he turned to the other three scouts.
”I vote in the affirmative!” Toby immediately answered.
”Thame here,” purred Ted.
”Oh! of course I'll join you in anything you hatch up, fellows,” George told them; ”though I don't take any stock in all this nonsense about ghosts and such. If you show me one, and I can pinch his arm, and feel the bones in his hand, I might believe in the stuff; but you never can, and that's a fact. Still, I'd like to see what the inside of this old Cartaret house is like. I don't believe there's a single fellow in Hickory Ridge that can boast he's been through it. Lead the way, then, Elmer, or Chatz. We'll follow you.”
That was always the way with George. He would oblige a comrade every time, but his chronic way of fault-finding, or unbelief, often took away much of the pleasure his accommodating nature might have afforded.
They had bundled the cooking utensils together, ready to be placed in the wagon when it was brought up; Toby also fastened his wonderful parachute in as small a compa.s.s as possible, and laid it down alongside the other things.