They had done wonderfully well. When Dr. Ted got busy, he praised the simple but clever work of that eight-year-old girl, in binding up such a severe wound. Perhaps Little Lou may have learned how to do this from the mother who was gone, or it might be it came just natural to her.

When children live away from the world, and are forced to depend upon themselves for everything, it is amazing how they can do things that would puzzle those twice their age, when pampered in comfortable homes.

Necessity forces them to reach out and attempt things, just as she teaches the child to use its limbs, and utter sounds.

Once they realized that these were kind friends who had come so opportunely to their rescue, Felix and Little Lou found their voices, and proved that they could talk, as Lil Artha put it, "a blue streak."

And when they sat down to a supper such as they had not tasted for many a day, both of the children of the charcoal burner were comparatively happy. As for the man himself, he wrung the hands of Mr. Garrabrant and each of the Boy Scouts as they took their leave, calling down blessings on their heads for what they had done.

"We're going to see you through, Abe," the scout master had said positively. "We intend being up here ten days or so, and during that time I fully expect our Dr. Ted will be able to have you hobbling around again. Then you've got to come down to Hickory Ridge when we send a vehicle of some sort up here for you. This is no place for a man to think of bringing up two such fine youngsters as you possess. They must have a chance to go to school, and I promise you all the work you want, so that you can live in or near town. It may have been different so long as your good wife was with you, but now it would be next door to a crime to think of staying here, even for the balance of the summer. You will come, won't you?"

"Sure I will, Mr. Garrabrant!" exclaimed the rough man; who, however, used better language than might have been expected. "And it's the luckiest day of my whole life when those two lads discovered my shack here. Heaven only knows what would have become of us only for that."

They left the queer home in the wilderness with Felix and Little Lou waving their hands vigorously after them, standing in the doorway, and plainly seen against the firelight behind.

And there was not one among those boys but who felt a warm sensation in the region of his heart, such as always comes when a kind deed has been performed.

Mr. Garrabrant had been greatly affected by the incident; nor did he hesitate to express himself warmly on the journey back to the camp, which by the way Elmer managed to accomplish without even one error of judgment, much to the admiration of his chums, who watched his actions eagerly, desirous of picking up points calculated to enhance their reputation as scouts.

"Boys, you may have made other tramps, going skating, hunting, playing baseball, and the like; but take my word for it, you never acquitted yourselves better than on this night. I'm proud of every one of you, and I thank you in the name of poor Abe Morris. And if there happens to be anyone here who has been wearing his badge upside down through the day, because he failed to find a chance to do anybody a good turn, I hereby give him full permission to set it right."

"Hurrah! that touches me, sir!" exclaimed Jack Armitage. "I've been wondering all along just how in the wide world I was going to find a chance to do my little kind deed stunt. There ain't any old ladies to help across the street up here; and dooryards to clear up of trash are as scarce as hens' teeth. But you've eased my mind a heap, Mr.

Garrabrant. Perhaps you'll let me do some of the running over to Abe's cabin each day, to carry him supplies. That st.u.r.dy little chap just took my eye, and when I get back home I'm going to get father to give Abe a job in his flooring mill."

"That's nice of you, Jack," replied the pleased scout master. "And it does your heart credit. Between us all, it will be very strange if we can't fix up that little family, and bring some happiness to their bleak home. Think of those two brave kiddies keeping house for their father amid such desolate surroundings. No wonder they made me think of a pair of wildcats ready to defend their den as we bustled in. They seldom see a living soul but their father, now that the mother has been laid away.

But we must be nearly back at camp, I should judge, Elmer? At any rate, I admit that I'm beginning to feel leg weary, not being used to this work of tramping over the side of a rough mountain."

"But just think of Red, here, thir," broke in Dr. Ted, who had a helping arm around the lame member of the expedition. "He thure detherves a medal for what he's done. Tramping all thith distance with that th.o.r.e ankle ith--well, I wath going to thay heroic, but I guess he wouldn't like that. Anyhow, I think pretty much all the credit ought to go to Red."

"Now, just you hold your horses there!" declared the party in question, trying to repress a groan, as he had a rude twinge of pain shoot up his left leg. "I owe all this to myself, and more, because I made the mistake of running off without finding out what that groan meant. I've wanted to kick myself ever since. It ain't often I play the part of a sneak, and it makes me sore. So whenever my leg hurts I just grin and say to myself: 'Serves you right, you coward, for running away, instead of investigating, like a true scout should have done!'"

"You are too severe on yourself, Oscar," remarked Mr. Garrabrant, soothingly; for he knew the impulsive and warm-hearted nature of the boy who was taking himself so much to task. "When your companion suggested that perhaps there was a case of smallpox in that hut, it was your duty to come to me and report, rather than take the awful responsibility on your young shoulders. And I mean to see to it that you get many good marks for what you have done this night--not you alone, but every boy who accompanied me on this errand of mercy."

"There's the camp fire, sir!" exclaimed Elmer, at this moment.

"I bet you Redth glad to see it, poor old chap!" remarked Dr. Ted.

"Shucks! I reckon I could have stood it a little while longer!" declared the limping one; but when he presently reached the home camp, and sank down on a blanket, the pain he had been silently enduring all the return trip was too much for him, and Red actually fainted.

Of course he was quickly brought to, and Dr. Ted looked to the injured limb.

"You'll have to lie around pretty much all the balance of the time we're run up in thith neck of the woodth, old fellow," was his announcement; which dictum made Red do what the pain had failed to accomplish, groan dismally.

Of course those who had been left behind were fairly clamorous to know what had happened. So sitting there by the crackling fire, with all those bright and eager faces surrounding him, the scout master, a.s.sisted at times by Elmer, Ted or Lil Artha, described their long jaunt over the grim mountainside, the finding of the lone cabin, just as Red and Larry had said, and what wonderful discovery they had made upon peering in through the open window.

And every boy felt that a golden opportunity had come to their organization that night to live up to the high ideals the Boy Scout movement stands for.

CHAPTER X.

WIGWAGGING FROM THE MOUNTAIN PEAK.

"IANOTHER fine day for a few more tests, and such things, fellows!" sang out Chatz Maxfield, on the following morning, after they had finished breakfast.

The night had actually pa.s.sed without any sign of alarm. Although Chatz had fully antic.i.p.ated a return of his stalking ghost, while he stood out his turn as a sentry, he had met with disappointment, for nothing happened. Still, he did not wholly give up hope of meeting up with the "misty white object" again. The jeers of his mates had begun to take effect, and Chatz really wanted to have the thing settled, one way or the other, as soon as possible. Either there were such things as ghosts, or there were not. And he wished to be convinced, declaring that he was open to conviction, if only they could prove to the contrary.

"Yes," remarked Mark c.u.mmings, who was near by, with others of the scouts; "and I guess Mr. Garrabrant has laid out a bully and strenuous old day for the lot of us, barring Red and Ginger, who are to keep camp.

He speaks of sending one bunch to the top of Mount Pisgah, as this peak is called, while another tries to climb Mount Horab yonder. They ought to get up there about noon, and for two hours wigwag to each other, sending and receiving messages that are to be kept in books provided for the purpose. Then, at night, when we all meet again around the camp fire, we'll have heaps of fun, seeing just how stupid we've been in our Signal Corps work."

"Don't you forget, Mark," said Red, who was lounging on a log close by, "that you promised to let me try a few prints from those negatives you developed and fixed. I'm a pretty good hand at that work, so they tell me at home, and I'd like to see how we all look up here in camp."

"All right, Red," replied Mark, cheerfully. "You shall do the job, and welcome. I've seen some of your work, and it's sure the best ever. I'll fix up a place in the tent here, where you can hobble if you want to, after you've done your printing and want to fix the pictures."

"But you want to go easy on that leg, remember," warned Dr. Ted, shaking a finger at his patient, just as he had seen the old family doctor do many a time.

"You and Jack are bound over the side of the mountain to visit the Abe Morris family, I heard?" remarked Chatz, speaking to Ted.

"Yeth, it is a professional visit on my part," replied the other, pretending to look very dignified. "But Mr. Garrabrant hath promithed that everyone of you shall have a turn to accompany me day by day, tho ath to make the acquaintance of those two brave kiddies, as he calls them, Felix and Little Lou."

"I'm right glad to hear that, suh," remarked Chatz; "from what you all tell me, I'm quite anxious to meet up with that boy and girl. And if Jack falls through with his plan of getting Abe employment in his father's mill, I think I know just where he would fit into a good position."

The two companies left camp about eight o'clock. Dr. Ted and Jack Armitage waved them good-by, for they too were getting ready to start on their errand to the lone cabin in the woods.

Elmer headed one group of scouts, while Mr. Garrabrant had charge of the other. They carried plenty of lunch along, though it was expected that they would surely be back before evening had set in.

The scout master was not at all positive about his thorough knowledge of woodcraft; for as yet it was almost wholly theoretical rather than practical with him.

"I am not above getting lost, in spite of my book knowledge," he had laughed, as he selected what boys were to accompany him; "and that is why I take Matty Eggleston, Mark c.u.mmings, and Arthur Stansbury among my followers; because next to Elmer, they are known to possess practical ideas concerning this traveling in unknown timber. So good-by, lads; we'll look to have a good talk with you across the valley."

So day after day he expected to put the scouts "through their paces," as Lil Artha called it. To-day it was to be the great hike to the tops of the mountains, and the wigwagging contest between the two factions.

To-morrow he meant to have Elmer give further lessons along the line of following a trail, showing just how an experienced woodsman can tell from many sources how long ago the party had pa.s.sed; the number of which it consisted; whether they were men, women or children; white or Indians; and even describing some of the marked peculiarities of the members comprising it.

Then later on they would have swimming contests; first aid to the injured lessons; resuscitating a person who has come near being drowned; cooking rivalry; athletics; and many other things connected with the open life.

It proved a long and arduous tramp for Elmer and his companions. He had had the privilege of choosing which mountain he would attempt to scale, and just like an ambitious boy, had selected the one he felt sure would be the more difficult.

Those who followed his lead had many times to beg of him to halt and take a little breathing spell, for the way was very rough and much climbing of rocks had to be done in order to mount upward.

"Wow! are we ever going to get up there?" grunted Toby, who had just hated to come on this expedition at all, when he would much rather have liked hanging around camp, and examining the deflated balloon; no doubt dreaming dreams of the time when he hoped to have the chance to soar away among the clouds in one of those gas bags.

"Seems like that mountain top is just nigh as far away from us as ever,"

complained Larry Billings, who was puffing at a great rate, as he seemed to be rather short winded, and had to be taken to task several times for his faulty manner of walking.

"Oh! no, you're greatly mistaken there," laughed Elmer. "Distances are deceptive in the mountains, to anyone not used to measuring them with the eye. Just wait a little, and all at once you're going to realize that we're getting up handsomely. Look across the valley, and see how high we are right now! That proves it, Larry."

"Hey! what's that moving, away up on that other hill, Elmer?" cried Jasper Merriweather, the novice and real tenderfoot of the crowd; who, under the careful supervision of the scout leader of the Wolf Patrol, was actually doing himself proud, and gaining new confidence in his abilities with each pa.s.sing hour.

Elmer followed the line of his outstretched finger.