"Didn't think you took it to heart so, Ted," remarked Elmer, as he confronted the other, while the rest of the stay-at-homes were busily debating some question near the camp fire.

"Oh!" exclaimed the scowling one, disconsolately; "it ain't about losing my chance in that blooming old compet.i.tion, by falling all over mythelf in the thtart! Oh! no, that doethn't bother me one little bit, becauth you thee, I just knew I had no chance against thuch a hustler as Lil Artha."

"Then your breakfast must have disagreed with you," persisted Elmer, "though it's the first time I ever knew you had a weak stomach, Ted."

"You're away off again, partner," grumbled Ted. "Fact ith, to tell the honest truth now, like every good scout ought to do, you're all too plagued healthy a bunch to thuit me, that'th what."

"What's that--healthy?" remarked Elmer, and then a faint grin began to creep over his face, as he caught on to the meaning of the words. "Oh! I see now; your heart's just set on doing good to others, ain't it? You dream of binding up cuts, and putting soothing liniment on bruises. And so far, not one of the boys has had the kindness to fall down the rocks, cut himself with the ax, or even get such a silly thing as a headache.

It's a shame, that's what it is, Ted!"

"Well, you can poke fun all you want," grumbled the would-be surgeon, with an obstinate shake of his head, "but after a fellowth gone to all the trouble to lay in a thtock of medicine, and studied up on cuts and bruises and all thuch things till he just feels bristling all over with valuable knowledge, it'th mean of the fellowth to take thuch good care of their precious fingers and toes. What d'ye suppose I'm going to do for a thubject, if this awful drought keepth on? Why, I don't believe fourteen wild boys ever kept together tho long before, without lots of things happening that would be just pie for a fellow of my build. Now--"

But the lamentations of poor Dr. Ted were interrupted at this point, so Elmer never really knew just how far the matter went, or if after all it were a joke.

Toby Jones had sprang to his feet, showing the utmost excitement, and dancing around as though he had suddenly sat upon a wasp's nest.

"What ails the fellow?" remarked Elmer; "he seems to be pointing up at the top of the mountain, as if he saw something there. Well, I declare, if that doesn't just beat the Dutch now; and to think that it was Toby, the boy who is wild over aviation, who first discovered it"; and meanwhile Toby had found his voice to shriek: "A balloon! look at the balloon, would you, fellows? And she's coming right down here into my hungry arms! Oh! glory! such great luck!"

CHAPTER VII.

THE LOST SKY TRAVELER.

HALF a dozen boys started to cry out at once, as they stared at the great bulky object that was apparently settling down, after pa.s.sing around a spur of the mountain above.

"She's coming right at us, fellows!" shouted one.

"Ain't that a pilot hanging to the old basket?" demanded a second.

"Nixy it ain't, Jasper. Go get your gla.s.ses, so you can see better. That basket is plumb empty, and that's a fact. The bally old balloon's deserted, boys!" Lil Artha declared, and as he was known to have particularly trustworthy vision, the balance of the group accepted his word as the right thing.

Apparently the balloon had been steadily losing gas of late, for the enormous bag had a collapsed look. It seemed to have gotten into some circular current of air, once beyond the mountain, for it kept moving around in spirals, all the time dropping slowly but positively. So that unless a new breeze caught it, the chance seemed to be that it would actually alight on the sh.o.r.e of the lake, close to the camp.

"Get ready to man the boats if it falls in the lake, boys!" called Mr.

Garrabrant, who recognized the fact that such a balloon must be worth considerable to his little troop in the way of salvage, and was determined to do what he could to save it from sinking out of sight.

But in the end it managed to drop on the pebbly beach. The very first to touch the collapsed gas bag was the exuberant Toby Jones, wild with delight over this remarkable happening that had come to him.

"I claim it by right of discovery, and the first to lay a hand on the balloon!" he shouted, as he fondly ran his fingers along the strong material of which the air vessel was constructed.

"Where on earth could it have come from?" more than one of the boys asked, as they surveyed the immense girth of silken cloth with wondering eyes.

"There's a circus over at Warrendale," announced Ted. "Perhaps she broke away from there in a wind storm, or else bucked the aviators out. Whew!

think of tumbling down hundreds of feet! Guess I couldn't 'a' been of much use around there, if that's what happened to the air navigators; the more the pity," and Ted actually looked discontented, as though another golden opportunity had slipped past him.

"Sounds like a good guess, Ted," remarked Elmer; "but there happen to be several things to knock it silly."

"As what?" demanded the boy with the long legs, who always wanted to be shown.

"For instance, you know where Warrendale lies, off to the east from here," the scout leader explained, in the most accommodating way possible, "while this thing must have come from the west! You saw it sail over the mountain up there, and we've been having constant west winds for several days now. Isn't that so, Mr. Garrabrant?"

"Every word of it, Elmer," replied the gentleman, who was never happier than when listening to this wide-awake scout substantiating his claim.

"And besides, here's a name sewed to the balloon--_Republic_! Seems to me, sir, I've seen that name before. Unless I'm away off it was one of the big gas bags entered for that long-distance endurance race, which was to come off away out in St. Louis, or somewhere along the Mississippi River."

"Oh! my, just to think of it, fellows!" gasped Toby, his face fairly aglow with overwhelming delight, while he continued to fondle the material of which the collapsible balloon was constructed, as though he might be almost worshiping the same.

"Why, that's hundreds and hundreds of miles away!" declared another incredulous one.

"Don't seem possible, does it, that a balloon could sail that far?" a third had the temerity to remark, when Toby turned upon him instantly, saying:

"Say, you don't read the papers, do you? If you did you'd know that in a drifting race a balloon went all the way without touching ground from St. Louis up into New England, while another pa.s.sed over into Canada away up above Quebec, and won the race. Others fell near Baltimore, and such places. There can't be any doubt about it, boys, this wanderer has drifted all the way from the old Mississippi. But whatever could have become of her crew?"

The thought saddened them for the time being, but it was difficult for Toby to subdue the excitement under which he was laboring.

"Oh! if I only knew how to manufacture gas so as to fill her up again, mebbe I wouldn't like to take a spin, and surprise the Hickory Ridge people, though! Think how my dad's eyes would bulge out, fellows, when I landed right in his dooryard, and asked how ma was? Ted, you know lots of things--can't you tell me how to make hot air?"

Ted did not answer, only grinned and looked toward Lil Artha so very suggestively that the rest burst out into a howl, for the long-legged boy was known to be something of an orator, who could speak for half an hour if warmed up to his subject.

"None for sale!" remarked that individual, promptly, whereat Toby pretended to be grievously disappointed, for he gave the tall boy a look of scorn, saying:

"There he goes again, fellows; declining to make a martyr of himself for the sake of science. Why, I even heard Dr. Ted offering to sew on his finger again so neat that no one could tell where it had been separated, and would you believe it, Lil Artha was mean enough to abjectly decline?

But I'm going to think over it, and if I can only fill this big bag with gas I'll leave camp on a little foraging expedition, to bring back more grub. For Ginger is eating us out of house and home, ain't he, Mr.

Garrabrant?"

So they laughed and joked as they continued to gather around the balloon that had seemingly dropped from the skies. Elmer alone was thoughtful.

He could not but wonder what the story connected with the _Republic_ might be. Had the brave pilot and his a.s.sistant been thrown out in some storm which they were endeavoring to ride out? If that proved true, then the history of the fallen balloon must be a tragic one.

Under the direction of the scout master they dragged the tremendous bag, now emptied of its gaseous contents, and piled it up close to the camp.

When the time came for the return trip possibly they might find some means for transporting the balloon to the home town, and when the fact of its discovery was published in the great New York dailies, the name of Hickory Ridge would become famous.

This new event afforded plenty of topics for conversation. As usual the boys argued the matter pro and con. They even took sides, and debated with considerable heat the various phases of the happening.

Some of them got out paper and pencil to figure just how many hours it might take a balloon to come all the way from St. Louis for instance, granting that a westerly breeze prevailed. All sorts of ideas prevailed as to the number of miles an hour the wind had blown, ranging from five to fifty.

In the end, after all theories had been ventilated, the boys were no nearer a solution of the mystery than before, only it seemed now to be the consensus of opinion that the _Republic_ must have been entered in some race, and possibly away out on the bank of the mighty river that divides our republic almost in half.

"About time some of our strollers turned up, I should think," remarked Mr. Garrabrant, as he and Elmer sat in front of the tents, listening to the jabbering of the disputants, though all the argument was carried on in good temper.

"Speak of an angel, and you hear its wings," laughed the scout leader, as a shrill halloo came from the woods close by.

Two of the boys who had gone forth to observe such things as they came across, presently appeared in camp. They looked tired and hungry, and began to sniff the appetizing odors that were beginning to permeate the camp, for several messes of beans were cooking, and Ginger was employed in preparing a heap of big onions for a grand fry that would just about fill the bill, most of the boys thought.

But while the incidents accompanying their long walk and climb were still fresh in their memories they were made to sit down alone, and write a list of those things they could recall, and which had impressed them most of all.