Part 13 (2/2)

”Oh! I'd like to believe that, Elmer,” he said, with half a sob, ”but there is no other family near enough for such a thing to happen. But I'm still hoping for the best. Mother told me to keep thinking that way. She will not believe he could be taken away from us while we need him so much. Yes, we must find him, poor, poor father!”

All this while they were heading in a certain direction that Elmer knew would, in due time, unless they changed their course, take them to the cabin in the clearing, where he had met Conrad's father and mother.

Just as he expected, however, eventually the boy brought them to a halt.

”See,” he called out, as he pointed ahead, ”there is where the trail lies. One way is home, the other the first lake, with the second one farther away. Now we must keep right on, and listen as we go. I shall call out, too, ever so often, for if he hears my voice and can answer he will let us know where he lies.”

As they started to follow what was a plain trail, every one had his senses on the alert, expecting to make some sort of discovery sooner or later. Rufus and the other tenderfoot scout were very much excited. It was their first experience on missionary work, and it gripped their hearts with an intensity they may never have felt before.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote B: See ”The Hickory Ridge Boy Scouts Storm-Bound.”]

CHAPTER XIV

SCOUTS TO THE RESCUE

EVERY step they took now was carrying them on toward the twin lakes that nestled amidst the woods and valleys, their presence really unsuspected by the vast majority of people living in towns within thirty miles of the place. Elmer himself was wild to try the fis.h.i.+ng there, for he fancied that the ba.s.s must be enormous fellows, and as gamey as could be found anywhere. Lil Artha, too, would be sure to want to make more than one trip across country, and spend a few hours casting in the almost virgin waters in the solitudes where sportsmen had possibly seldom invaded.

Conrad kept up amazingly, but then it was love that gave him additional strength, and Elmer knew full well what that could do for any one. Many times they heard some slight sound that gave them a start, for their nerves being on edge they imagined every such noise to be a feeble cry for help. The snappy bark of a red squirrel as he clung head downward to the lower trunk of a tree, and watched the intruders of his sacred realm; the sudden cawing of a startled crow; the rasping cry of a bluejay; or it might be the distant screech of an eagle poised above some fish-hawk that had darted down and secured its dinner which the bald-headed robber of the air would s.n.a.t.c.h away from him presently, after a swift pursuit upwards--all these they heard, and many times did one of the greenhorns ask to be told what it meant.

Still nothing was seen or heard to indicate that Jem Shock had been overtaken by a falling tree while on his way from the first lake. They did come across several such overthrown monarchs of the forest that had fallen close to the trail; and once the way was really blocked by a ma.s.s of broken limbs, together with the heavy trunk of a tree that had come cras.h.i.+ng down.

Conrad darted hastily forward before Elmer could interfere, and was looking, oh, so eagerly, and with such an expression of anxiety, for any sign to indicate that the dear one he sought might be lying under the wreckage.

”Father, father!” he called out, with such a plaintive ring to his voice that Rufus felt something rising in his throat; while Alec McGregor might have been seen to turn his head aside, and then violently blow his nose, as though he had taken cold.

But there was no response. Elmer and Lil Artha went all around the fallen tree, and even crawled underneath the same to make positive that Jem was not there. Finally even Conrad became a.s.sured as to this, for he expressed an eagerness to once more go on.

So they proceeded. From the lay of the land, and other signs that his quick eye caught, Elmer guessed that they could not be far away from the first lake. Perhaps he was guided somewhat in making this decision by the sight of that fish-hawk or osprey, which he knew would be apt to hover over a body of water, since it must obtain its whole sustenance from the lakes.

”What's that glistening in the sunlight yonder, Elmer?” suddenly asked Alec, who, it seemed, possessed a pair of incredibly keen eyes.

Lil Artha laughed.

”That's one on us, Elmer,” he remarked, ”when a tenderfoot is the first to discover the presence of water. I reckon now, Alec, you've got the making of a pretty good scout in you, if you stick at it; and they do say the Scotch are the most persevering chaps going. That's the lake, the first one Conrad told us about, I should say.”

”Yes, that's the first one,” hurriedly admitted the boy, ”and we'll soon reach its border. You will say that it's a lovely little sheet of water, too. Father told me he had never set eyes on one that struck him as more beautiful. And I love to sit and look out over it when the wind dimples the surface, or it is so quiet that you can see a picture all along the sh.o.r.e, with the trees reflected in the water like a big looking-gla.s.s.”

”Then we'll have to call it Mirror Lake,” said Lil Artha, struck by the wonderful poetic way in which the small boy described things, which may in part have come to him through his mother.

”Yes, that is what my mother calls it,” Conrad instantly told him; ”for once she crossed over with me to see the water. We shall be there very soon now, in less than ten minutes I think.”

Nothing further occurred to startle them during the balance of the time that was consumed in covering the ground separating them from the sh.o.r.e of the lake. When Elmer and his three comrades found themselves staring out upon that wonderfully clear and altogether charming body of water, they felt that words must fail to describe it and do justice. Elmer had looked upon a good many pretty lakes, both large and small, but never one the equal of this.

As for Lil Artha, he knew now what would be occupying considerable of his spare time during the balance of their stay in camp. Why, even as he looked he could see big ba.s.s ”break” here and there, as though they might be feeding on flies, late though the season was. All the sporting blood Lil Artha possessed was on fire at the sight. He had resolved to give up much of his love for hunting, because of the change that had taken place of late in his ideas concerning the cruelty of such sport; but nothing would ever cause him to lose that eager desire to match his wits and a slender line with a fly attached to the leader against the strength and cunning of a bronze-backed black ba.s.s, and see which could win in the struggle for supremacy.

”Oh! listen, please!” exclaimed the boy, anxiously, his very soul in his voice.

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