There could be no telling what they might find themselves up against.

Rumor had it that certain hard characters at one time made their headquarters somewhere up in the woods around the lakes, and who could say that the lone cabin might not prove to be a nest of yeggmen or hoboes?

"How does your thprain feel; think you can thtand it?" asked Ted of Red, as they got up from around the fire and prepared to sally forth on their mission of mercy.

"If you hadn't reminded me of it just then, I'd sure never have thought I had a game leg," remarked the other. "You're all to the good when it comes to doctoring a fellow, Ted; if only you wouldn't talk so much about sawing off legs and all such awful things."

"Well, I'll be along in ease you feel it again, and I'll make thure to carry a tin of that magic liniment," remarked the ambitious surgeon, as he reentered the tent, to make up a little package of things he thought might come in handy in case they found some one sick in the hut.

Meanwhile, acting on the suggestion of Elmer, the other boys selected such stout canes and cudgels as lay around camp.

"Be prepared!" grinned Lil Artha, as he swung a particularly dangerous looking club around his head until it fairly whistled through the air.

"That's the motto of the Boy Scouts, and I reckon it applies in a case of this kind, just as much as when stopping a runaway horse. I'm prepared to give a good account of myself, that's dead certain."

Mr. Garrabrant had fetched out a couple of lanterns, making sure that the oil receptacles were well filled, so that they would last through the journey, going and returning.

"Now we're off, boys," he remarked, with a pleasant smile. "The rest of you stay here and look close after the camp. I've appointed Mark c.u.mmings to serve in my place while I'm gone, and shall expect every scout to pay him just as much respect as though I were present. Lead off, Oscar, we're with you."

Red took up his place at the head of the little bunch. He carried one of the lanterns with which he cast sufficient light ahead to see where he was going.

"First to take you to the seven sentry chestnuts," he said. "We named 'em that, of course, when we came on 'em. The blazed trail commences right there, sir. We didn't think it worth while to do any more slicing of bark after that, because we knew we could easy enough find our way back to that place."

And he did lead the party to the seven chestnuts, with only one or two periods of hesitation, during which he had to puzzle things out.

"There's the first blaze on that oak yonder," he remarked, pointing as he spoke. "We tried to make the marks close enough so as to show by lantern light, because we both had an idea you'd want to come on before morning, sir."

Elmer was at the side of the leader by this time, prepared to lend his experience in case the other ran up against a snag. He took especial note of the general direction in which the numerous blazes seemed to run. And when presently Red confessed that he was "stumped" if he could see where the next mark ought to be, Elmer had them hold up while he walked forward in the quarter where, on general principles, he imagined the blaze should be. And in another minute his soft "cooee" told his comrades that he had, sure enough, found the missing mark.

Many times did Red have to fall back on Elmer to help him out. His blazes had apparently been further apart than he had realized at the time he made them. But the boy who had lived in Canada, and experienced all sorts of frontier life, knew just how to go about making the needed discovery; and in every instance success rewarded his efforts.

"We're getting close to the place now," Red finally announced, as he limped along, refusing to allow Ted the privilege of rubbing his strained leg again, because he did not want to waste the time.

"Then you recognize some of the landmarks?" suggested Mr. Garrabrant.

"Yes, sir, I do that," came the confident reply. "In another five minutes I think we'll be able to see something of that queer cabin that is half hidden in the dense undergrowth."

"Perhaps less than five minutes," remarked Elmer, quietly. "Look yonder, sir, and you'll just catch a glimpse of what seems to be a tiny speck of light. I think that must spring from the window of the hut Red speaks of."

"You are right again, Elmer, as always," replied the scout master, drawing in a long breath. "Now, forward, slowly, boys. Let no one stumble, if it can possibly be avoided; for we do not know what we may be up against. But if there is anyone suffering in that cabin, it is our duty to investigate, no matter what the danger. Elmer, lead the way with me, please."

Cautiously they crept forward, foot by foot. Doubtless many a heart beat faster than ordinary, because there was a certain air of mystery hovering over the whole affair, and they could imagine a dozen separate strange sights that might meet their vision once they peeped into the little window of that isolated cabin.

But no one would ever confess that such a thing as fear tugged at the strings of his heart. Already the discipline they had been under since joining the scout movement was bearing fruit; timidity was put aside with a stern hand, and keeping in a bunch they advanced until presently those in the lead were able to rise up from hands and knees, glueing their eager eyes upon the little opening through which came the light that had guided them to the spot.

And right then and there they heard a groan, so full of suffering and misery that it went straight to the heart of every boy who had been drafted by the scout master to accompany him on this strange night errand.

CHAPTER IX.

WHAT THE LONE CABIN CONTAINED.

WHEN Elmer Chenowith looked through that opening, what he saw was so entirely different from what he had antic.i.p.ated discovering that he could hardly believe his eyes at first.

With all the fancy of a boy, who gives free rein to his imagination, doubtless he had fully expected to discover several gruff-looking hoboes gathered there, perhaps engaged in torturing one of their kind, or some wretched party who had fallen into their power.

Nothing of the sort. The very first object Elmer saw was a small boy, dressed in ragged clothes, and who was trying to blow a dying fire into life again.

This did not look very alarming; and so Elmer cast his eyes further afield, with the result that presently another moving object riveted his attention. Why, surely that must be a girl, for her long hair seemed to indicate as much! What was she bending over? Was that a rude cot?

Then the strange truth burst upon Elmer like a cannon shot. The groans--they must indicate that a sick person lay there, and these two small children (for the boy could not be over six, while the girl might be eight) were trying to carry out the combined duties of nurse, doctor and cook!

"Oh!"

It was Red himself who gave utterance to this low exclamation. He was peering in at the opening over the shoulder of Mr. Garrabrant, and what he saw was so vastly different from his expectations that he received a severe "jolt," as he himself afterwards expressed it.

Perhaps the sound, low as it was, reached the ears of the little girl guardian of the sick bed. They saw her give a jump, and immediately a pair of startled blue eyes were staring in the direction of the opening.

"Come!" said Mr. Garrabrant to his boys, "there is no need of any more secrecy. I think we are needed here, and badly, too."

He led the way around the corner of the lone lodge, with the scouts tagging at his heels, only too willing to follow. Reaching the door of the cabin they were about to enter, when Mr. Garrabrant uttered an exclamation of alarm.

"Get on to the girl, would you?" gasped Lil Artha; and there was no need of his attempting to explain, since his chums could see for themselves.

Small though she was, the girl had s.n.a.t.c.hed up a long-barreled gun, and was now actually menacing the intruders. Her white face had a desperate look upon it, as though at some time in the past the child had been warned that there were bad men to be met with in those woods. As for the little chap, he had hold of the hatchet with which at the time he must have been cutting kindling wood; for he clutched it in his puny hand, and looked like a dwarfed wildcat at bay.

Elmer, as long as he lived, would never forget that picture. And as for the other boys, not one of them could so much as utter a single word.

"Hold on, my child!" cried Mr. Garrabrant, raising his hands to show that they did not hold any sort of weapon; "we are friends, and would be only too glad to be of help to you. One of us is something of a doctor, if it happens that anyone is sick here. Please let us come in."

Perhaps it was the kindly look of the handsome young scout master--then again his voice may have influenced the frightened girl; or the fact that those in the open doorway were mostly boys might have had considerable to do with it. Then again that magical word "doctor" must have thrilled her through and through.

The gun fell to the floor, and the relieved girl burst into a flood of tears.

"It's dad!" she cried, moving a hand toward the rude cot behind her; and as the eyes of the boys flitted thither again, they saw a bearded and very sick looking man trying to raise himself up on his elbow.

Mr. Garrabrant immediately went toward him, uttering rea.s.suring words, that no doubt did much to relieve the alarm of the occupant of the rude bed. Wisely had the long-headed scout master caused one of the boys to carry some food along, not knowing what necessity might arise. He saw that hunger was holding sway in this lone cabin as well as sickness. And while Red started the fire to going, Ty Collins proceeded to unwrap the package of meat and bread, as well as the coffee and tea he had "toted"

all the way from camp.

Mr. Garrabrant with a few questions learned the simple story. The man was a charcoal burner in the summer season, while he pursued the arduous labor of a lumberman in the winter. A few months before his wife had suddenly died, leaving him with these two small but very independent children.

Abe Morris, his name was, while the boy carried that of Felix; and whenever the cabin dweller spoke of the girl it was always as "Little Lou." He had hated to leave the retired home where he had spent so many pleasant years, and near which his wife was buried. And so he had managed to get along, with the girl cooking his meals and playing the part of housekeeper wonderfully well; while even Felix could do his stunt of gathering firewood and looking after a few simple traps in which he caught muskrats.

When the boys heard that this small edition of a lad had been able to actually outwit the shrewd animals of the marsh, they looked at each other in dismay, as though wondering whether he might not have a better right to the t.i.tle of scout that any among them.

Things had gone fairly well with the widower until a week back, when an accident had brought him almost to death's door. Managing to drag himself home, he had swooned from loss of blood. Since that time he had suffered tortures, more of the mind than of the body, since he dreaded the thought of what would become of his children should death claim him.