The Boy Scouts of Lenox Part 23

Indeed, there did seem to be an unusual spirit of animation among the boys that evening. Every fellow was anxious to a.s.sist in getting supper ready, so that after all it began to look at one time like a case of "too many cooks spoiling the broth."

When the first batch of fish had been browned they were kept hot on a clean stone close to the fire while the other lot was cooked. As their supply of coffee had gone together with numerous other things, the boys had to drink cold water for supper. Loud were the lamentations over this.

"The smell of coffee, bacon, or fried onions is what always makes it seem like camping out," declared Josh, sadly; "and now we haven't got a single one of those lovely things left. Our breakfast is going to be a pretty limited one; and as for other meals to-morrow, where they are going to come from is a question I'd like somebody to settle."

"Listen," said Tom. "I'm going to get you up at daylight, Josh."

"Me? What for? Do we have to start in fis.h.i.+ng that early, or else go hungry?"

"I want you to go along with me, that's all, Josh."

"Along--where to, may I ask?" continued the other scout, wonderingly.

"Back to where we took Walter," replied Tom; "I think when that gentleman hears what's happened to us, after we tell Mr. Witherspoon, he might be willing to sell us some supplies, such as coffee and bacon, and even loan us an extra frying-pan, as well as some sort of tin to boil coffee in."

So, after all, the boys who gathered around the camp fire that evening, after such an eventful day, did not seem to be cast down one-half as much as undoubtedly the four young rascals who had played this mean trick upon them expected would be the case.

CHAPTER XXII

THE CABIN IN THE WOODS

It was just about an hour after dawn, and the sun had hardly got started on his journey toward the zenith, when two boys in the khaki garb of scouts arrived at the house to which Walter Dougla.s.s had been carried on a litter.

Mr. Witherspoon on coming out to get a breath of air before breakfast was announced was surprised and pleased to see Tom and Josh.

"Why, this is splendid of you, boys!" he remarked, as they came toward him. "Of course you were anxious to know about your comrade. We got him safely home, and called the doctor, who said he would not have to set the limb again, since you scouts had done the job in first-cla.s.s style.

It's a feather in your cap, for he is sure to tell it everywhere. Now, what makes you look so glum, Josh?"

That gave them a chance to explain. When the scout master heard of the latest outrage of which the Tony Pollock crowd had been guilty, he was much annoyed.

"We thought," Tom went on to say, "that perhaps by coming over here before you got started we might influence the gentleman to spare us a small amount of coffee, a strip of bacon, and some sort of tin to make the coffee in."

"No harm trying," Mr. Witherspoon immediately remarked; "and it does you credit to have thought up such a scheme. I've found him an accommodating gentleman. If he has anything he can spare I'm sure we'll be welcome to it."

When the matter was mentioned to Mr. Clark, he immediately offered to help them out as far as he could do so.

"I can give you plenty of eggs," he said, "and enough coffee for several meals. It happens that I'm shy on bacon just now, and intended to run in to town to stock up either to-day or to-morrow, when I have my eggs to dispose of. What I can spare, you're entirely welcome to."

Nor would he allow them to pay a cent for what he handed over to them.

"What I've heard about you boys from Mr. Witherspoon here has aroused my interest greatly," he told Tom and Josh as they were about to depart; "and I'd be glad to know more about such a splendid movement as this promises to be. You must keep me informed of your progress. I would appreciate an occasional letter. Then, if it happens that your account of the outing is ever put in print, Tom, remember me with a copy."

"I certainly will, sir," the patrol leader promised, for he realized that the gentleman and his wife led a lonely life of it, removed from a.s.sociation as they were, with most of their fellows.

They reached the camp in three-quarters of an hour after leaving the house, and received a noisy welcome from the rest of the boys, who gave their leaders the regular scout salute as they came into camp.

Then once again the affair was discussed, this time with Mr.

Witherspoon to listen and give occasional comments. It ended in their original plan's being sustained. They would not give up, and would try to carry out the plan as arranged before the hike was started.

Tom had an idea that they must be near the cabin of Larry Henderson, the naturalist whom he had met in Lenox, at the time of the s...o...b..ll battle with the Pollock crowd.

"He gave me directions how to find his cabin," Tom explained to his companions when they were discussing this matter, "and I believe we must be somewhere near there right now. I asked Mr. Clark, and what he could tell me only confirmed my idea."

"But Tom, do you think we could get some supplies from him?" asked Josh.

"There's a reasonable chance of that," he was told. "I understood him to say he always kept a supply of all sorts of food on hand. It was to lay in a lot that took him down to Lenox that time, you know."

"Then goodness knows I hope we can run on his shack to-day," said Felix fervently. "We want most of all coffee, potatoes, onions, bacon, ham, and, well anything that can stop the gap when ten campers are half starved."

"Shall we get started right away, Tom?" asked George, who looked distressed, as though he had not been wholly satisfied with the amount of his breakfast.

"There's nothing to delay us, since we have no tents to come down," Tom told him. "Every fellow fold up a blanket, and make his pack ready."

"It's going to be marching in light order with us nowadays," sighed Felix, "with all our good stuff stolen. That's the only compensation I can see about it."

"Tom, you've studied your chart good and hard, let's hope," commented Josh; "so we won't run any chance of going past the place without knowing it?"

"He gave me certain land marks that I couldn't very well miss seeing,"

explained the patrol leader.

"According to my way of thinking," Felix was saying, "we must be half around the foot of Big Bear Mountain by this time."

"You've got the right idea of it," admitted the one who carried the chart; "and Mr. Henderson's cabin isn't far away from here. That crag up on the side of the mountain was one of the things he told me about.

When we can get it in a direct line with that peak up there we will be within shouting distance of his place."

Tom continued to keep on his guard as they pressed onward. Every one was alive to the necessity of finding the cabin of the old naturalist as soon as possible. Farms were so rare up here that they found they could not count on getting their supplies from such places; and the possibility of going hungry was not a pleasant prospect.

After all it was an hour after noon when Tom announced the fact that the several land marks which had been given to him were in conjunction.

"The cabin must be around here somewheres," he said, positively.

Hardly had he spoken when Josh was noticed to be sniffing the air in a suspicious fas.h.i.+on.

"What is it, Josh?" asked the scout master.

"I smell smoke, that's all," was the answer.

Others could do the same, now that their attention was called to the fact.

"With the breeze coming from over that way, it ought to be plain enough we must look for the cabin there," remarked Tom.

The further they advanced the plainer became the evidence that there was a fire of some sort ahead of them. Presently they got a whiff of cooking, at which some of the hungry scouts began to sniff the air like war horses when the odor of burnt powder comes down the breeze from the battlefield.

"There it is!" exclaimed one of the watchful boys, suddenly.