Part 1 (1/2)

Endurance Test.

by Alan Douglas.

CHAPTER I.

SURPRISING LANDY.

”LET Adam Limburger have a try, fellows!”

”Yes, give the new tenderfoot scout a chance to show what he can do in the water.”

”That's the ticket; just watch him take the high dive, will you, boys?”

”Mine gootness gracious, poys, oxcuse me, if you blease. If you d.i.n.k I can dot blunge make vidoudt upsetting mineself, you haf anudder guess coming.”

”Try it, Adam!”

”You've just got to, you know, old chap! Everybody's jumped but you; and all the while you've just sat there on the bank and watched us cutting up!”

”Shut your eyes, Adam, if you're timid, and then go; head or feet first, we don't care which, so long as you make a big splash.”

”Ach, idt vould not, pe sooch a surprises if Adam he preaks his neck: put, poys, if dot happens, somepody carry de news to mine mudder. Py chimineddy, here I go!”

”Get out of the way, Ty Collins, if you don't want to get squashed; for here comes Adam down the shoot-the-shoot plunge!”

A number of lads were in swimming out in the country quite a number of miles away from the home town of Hickory Ridge. Besides the stout German who was standing in a hesitating way on the springboard that had been thrust out from the high bank, some ten feet above the water, there were Elmer Chenowith, Ty Collins, Landy Smith, and Ted Burgoyne, the latter of whom, though afflicted with a decided lisp, was looked upon with considerable respect among his fellows in the Boy Scout troop, because of his knowledge of medicine and the rudiments of surgery.

They had been splas.h.i.+ng and having a splendid time for at least ten minutes after entering the water, when somebody happened to notice that the new recruit in the Hickory Ridge troop of Boy Scouts, Adam Litzburgh, a name that had been quickly corrupted into Limburger by the boys, did not seem to enter into the sport, but contented himself with either dipping his feet into the water, as if afraid, or else sitting ash.o.r.e in the shade watching his new mates.

Adam seemed to be inclined toward stoutness, although hardly in the same cla.s.s with Landy, who had long been bantered by his chums on account of his ever-increasing tendency to put on flesh in spite of all he could do.

”Lock at the board bend, would you, fellows!” cried Ty Collins, as the German recruit stood there, balancing at the end, as though fearful of what the result would be should he jump.

”He's glued to it, that's what,” said Landy, who was anxious to discover whether Adam would make a greater splash than he himself produced when he came down like a huge frog into the water of the Sweet.w.a.ter River; for this was not the familiar ”swimming-hole” of the Hickory Ridge boys, but miles farther away from home.

Adam made several violent gestures as though he might be going to jump, and then shook his head vigorously in the negative.

”Noddings doing, poys!” he grinned.

”Hey, none of that crawfis.h.i.+ng, now, Adam!” cried Ty. ”You've just _got_ to jump, once anyhow. We'll stand by and yank you out if you can't swim.

Perhaps the boys over in your beloved Yarmany don't learn as early as Yankees do. Go on, now!”

”Want us to come up there and push you off, you Dutch cheese!” called Landy, in the hope of arousing the belligerent nature of the Teuton, and thus making him conquer his timidity.

”Vell, py s.h.i.+miny crickets, off you d.i.n.k you can scare Adam Litzburgh, poys, you haf anudder guess goming. Look oudt pelow!”

Elmer had been watching the antics of Adam with a critical eye. Before these last words were spoken he had turned to Ted, who chanced to be swimming near him, and remarked significantly:

”That fellow is pulling the wool over the eyes of Ty and Landy.”