The Boy Scouts at the Panama-Pacific Exposition.

by Howard Payson.

CHAPTER I.

TWO SCOUTS ON A MOTORBOAT.

"Seems to me, Rob, I ought to know that old tub of a motorboat we're overhauling."

"Why, yes, Andy, it's Captain Jerry Martin's _Sea Gull_. Time was when she had a reputation for speed, but her engine is a back number now."

"Huh! that must have been away in Noah's time, I reckon, Rob. Why, we could make circles around her, if we chose to drive our little _Tramp_ to the limit."

"As we happen to be in no hurry to-day, there's no use making the old skipper feel that his boat is down and out. With vacation opening up before us, I've been trying to settle on some scheme for the scouts of the Eagle Patrol to have a rousing good time this summer."

"Well, I know where I'd be if I had the cold cash to pay my expenses; and, Rob, chances are you feel the same way about it."

"Now, I suppose you're thinking of Tubby Hopkins' great good luck in having his uncle, Dr. Mark Matthews, the famous globe-trotter, carry him off three days ago for an extended trip to the big show out in California?"

"Just what was on my mind, Rob. I don't believe I ever wished so much for anything as a chance to hike away out to the Pacific. Nothing comes my way any more, seems like. Some of us scouts were lucky enough to have our turn down in Mexico that time Tubby's uncle was taken sick, and couldn't get there to meet his old friend, General Villa, so as to dispose of the cattle on his ranch before they were stolen by the raiding Mexican rival armies. How the rest of the boys envied us that glorious trip, Rob!"

"I admit it was a rare streak of good fortune to have things come our way as they did," the boy named Rob remarked, as he gave a slight turn to the wheel of the bustling little motorboat, aboard which he and Andy were the sole pa.s.sengers. "We ran up against quite an interesting bunch of experiences, you remember, Andy, that none of us will ever be apt to forget."

"As if that wasn't enough fun for Tubby and Merritt and you," continued the boy called Andy at the wheelsman, "it came about that you all got a chance to go across the water to England and Belgium late last summer on an important mission for Merritt's family, and saw a heap of what was going on in the fighting zone where the Germans are up against the armies of France, Belgium and Great Britain."[1]

"We've shaken hands with ourselves dozens of times since, I give you my word, Andy, on account of that fine streak of luck. Yes, we did encounter a whole lot of remarkable adventures over there, and saw sights we'll never forget. Some of them I wish I could put out of my mind, because they were mighty unpleasant. But that page is turned down, Andy; and now the next thing to consider is what we are going to do this summer to make the time pa.s.s happily."

"Oh! I suppose I shouldn't complain," Andy Bowles continued, trying to smile away the discontented frown that had settled across his forehead.

"Here, in this good old Long Island town of Hampton, there are lots of ways a pack of lively up-to-date Boy Scouts can have good times during vacation. With the big bay at our doors, and a bully little motorboat like this to go fishing or cruising in, there's no reason for us not to be hustling most of our spare time."

"Yes," Rob Blake went on to add, wishing to soothe the ruffled spirit of his comrade, "and you know what glorious camping trips we can have with a lot of the boys, just as we used to in other summers. There is the full Eagle Patrol, except our fat chum, Tubby, who's gone to see the sights of the Panama-Pacific Exposition, and Merritt Crawford, who expects to be away for a month and more with his folks."

"Besides," continued Andy Bowles, as though the fact gave him more or less solid satisfaction, "all the other patrols are full-eight each in the Hawk, the Black Fox and the Badger, with a new one forming in the bargain. Boy Scout activities are at flood-tide around Hampton these days."

"One reason for that, I take it," mused the skipper of the little _Tramp_, "is the fact that through our activities in the past we have managed to keep our troop in the public eye, more or less. People know what the Eagles have done, and on the whole they favor their boys joining the newer patrols. There's been a big change in the young fellows of Hampton, I'm told, since this Boy Scout movement first came to town."

When the young leader of the Eagle Patrol made this modest a.s.sertion, he certainly hit the truth squarely on the head. During the last two years the members of the Eagle Patrol had made a name for themselves in Boy Scout annals-as the new reader will find out for himself if he cares to read the earlier books of this fascinating series.

Among other things they had, through a happy chance, become a.s.sociated with certain scientific gentlemen connected with the United States Government, who were experimenting with a new and secret model for a big airship patterned somewhat after the famous Zeppelins of the Germans.

On another occasion they had been enabled to a.s.sist in saving the design of a wonderful submarine, also intended for the use of the Government, and the secret of which it appeared was coveted by emissaries of a nation supposed to be hostile to the United States, and desirous of learning all about such an important discovery that was apt to play an important part in future ocean warfare.

Some of the scouts later on were given a chance to pay a visit to the wonderful ca.n.a.l that was then being dug across the Isthmus-at Panama; and the record of how they made themselves exceedingly useful while down there will always be a bright page in the history of the Hampton Troop.

Mention has already been made by Andy Bowles, the bugler of the troop, of the trip to Mexico, with its attendant adventures; and also of the foreign tour undertaken by several of the Eagles on the previous summer, just when hostilities had broken out between the nations of Europe; and Belgium, where they were compelled to visit, was torn from end to end with the mad struggles of warring factions.

Yes, surely the Eagles could rest upon their laurels from this time on, and history would accord them the laurel wreath as the most enterprising patrol known to the Boy Scouts of America.

Still, what boy is ever satisfied with what has happened in the past? The present and the near future is what engages his attention and excites his interest. Even sensible Rob Blake secretly sighed when he contemplated having to put in the whole summer around the home town while Tubby Hopkins was having such a glorious time out there on the Coast; and his other chum, Merritt Crawford, was up in Canada with his folks at a camp.

It was a beautiful and warm day in the early summer. The sun shone from an unclouded sky, but there was enough sea breeze to fan their heated brows, and to make them think that there could be few things equal to being in a speedy little motorboat, spinning over the surface of that lovely land-locked bay, with the ocean booming on the outer edge of the sandy strip to the south.

They could have quite an extended view from far out in the bay, with the houses scattered along the sh.o.r.e, and the white sails of pleasure craft or fishing and clamming boats dotting the water far and near.

Just ahead of them the old launch that had seen better days was churning up the water with its noisy propeller, though not making remarkable headway at that. As the two scouts gradually drew up on the _Sea Gull_, they made out that besides the ancient skipper there was just one pa.s.senger aboard.

"Why," said Andy Bowles presently, as this person chanced to turn his face toward them by accident, "that must be the old gent I saw drop off the nine-thirty train from New York this morning when I was heading for your house. Yes, and now I think of it, I heard him ask Dan Trotter at the station where Judge Collins lived, and how he could get to his house at the Point."

"Some friend of the Judge, then," suggested Rob; "and I guess he has a host of them here and abroad; for he's wealthy, and interested in all sorts of scientific matters. They say that at his city house in the winter he entertains, at times, all the big guns from the different colleges of the world."

"Which reminds me, Rob. There was an odd tw.a.n.g in this old fellow's manner of speech that made me think of Sandy Ferguson, the Scotchman who has the bagpipes, you remember, and always insists in marching in all the parades in Hampton."

"Then, perhaps, he's some famous Scotch professor," observed the skipper of the _Tramp_, "who wants to see the judge so much that he's chased away out here to his summer home on invitation."

"He has a red face, wears big gla.s.ses, and is scrawny enough for a Scotchman, anyway," chuckled Andy, "but do you know I always like to listen to one of the Highland folks talk. It was the 'burr' in his speech that made me stop and listen as far as I did. He's got it down pat, Rob."

"Don't say anything more now, Andy; we're drawing up pretty close, and he might not like it if he thought we were talking about him. That old motor does make lots of noise, but sometimes it misses, and then there's a lapse, you know."

"But they're heading straight for the Point where the Collins Castle is located, you notice, Rob, so I guess Cap. Jerry is ferrying him across. I only hope the old tub doesn't take a notion to founder before it gets to the dock a mile away from here."

"Oh! it's stood lots of pounding, and only has to be bailed out frequently on account of leaking like a sieve," Rob said in a low tone.

"Jerry has all that down to a fine point, and just once in so often he gets busy and lowers the bilge water with the pump he keeps rigged handy."

"Excuse me from running around in such a trap," muttered Andy, who was rather inclined to be "fussy" with regard to everything he handled, and tried to have his possessions kept up to top-notch condition-what he himself called "apple-pie shape."

"The professor is like most Englishmen, for he loves his pipe," remarked Rob, as he watched the pa.s.senger aboard the old launch filling his little black pipe with tobacco taken from a rubber pouch. "I hope, when he strikes that match, and then throws it away after lighting up, he knows enough about motorboats to see that it goes overboard, and not into the bottom of the craft. Sometimes a leak will spread a film of gasolene over the bilge water, and there's always more or less danger of an explosion."

"Yes," added Andy seriously, "there have been a number on the bay the last three seasons, and two people that I can remember were so badly burned that they died after being rescued."

Both of the boys watched with more or less interest, and possibly with suspended breath, while the red-faced pa.s.senger in Captain Jerry's old launch puffed several times at his pipe, then tossed the match aside.

"Oh! it didn't go overboard, for a fact, Rob!" gasped Andy; but there was no time to say another word, for suddenly they saw a flash of flame spring up aboard the old _Sea Gull_, and in an instant it seemed as though the launch was aflame from stem to stern!

Suddenly they saw a flash of flame spring up aboard the old _Sea Gull_.

CHAPTER II.

PROMPT WORK, AND A RESCUE.

Fortunately Rob Blake had wonderful presence of mind in a sudden emergency. Some boys would have been so badly shocked by what was happening near at hand, that for the time being, they must have been unable to make any move toward rendering first aid to the afflicted.

No sooner did the leader of the Eagle Patrol see that terrible outburst of fire than he started his little motor on at full speed, heading straight toward the imperiled launch.

"Quick! get hold of that fire extinguisher we carry!" he called out to his companion, who was staring, with open mouth and awe-filled eyes, at the scene of commotion close by.

"But, Rob, will the fluid put out a gasolene fire?" exclaimed Andy, though at the same time hastening to throw back the lid of a locker and s.n.a.t.c.h out the bra.s.s tube which had been lying there for just such a time of sudden need.