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CHAPTER VII.
TUBBY REFUSES TO FORGET

"Too bad they got you, too, Joe!" said the wounded man; and yet there was something like satisfaction on his face, along with the grin he gave; because misery likes company, and if his companion had managed to escape it would have seemed doubly hard for him to be retaken, and badly hurt at that.

"This man isn't able to walk all the way back to the road, Chief," Rob went on to say, indicating the tall fellow, who lay there with his leg bound up the best Merritt could do with so little at hand to aid him.

"I reckon, son," returned the big officer, so pleased with the success that had come to him that he was ready to grant almost any favor these scouts asked, "we'll just have to carry him, then."

"And that would hurt him almost as much as limping along," Rob continued; "so if you hold up for a little bit, we'll try and fix a stretcher that ought to answer; though it's going to be a mighty poor sort of thing, without even a camp hatchet to cut poles with. Get busy with me, boys, and show the Chief what you know."

Now this was one of the things in which all the Eagles had been thoroughly drilled. They knew how to go to work to make a comfortable stretcher on which an injured person might be carried for miles. But just as the patrol leader said, not having a hatchet handy was likely to prove something of a handicap. However, scouts always try to do the best they can, no matter what difficulties they run up against, and Merritt was the first to start scurrying around, looking for stout poles that would serve for the sides and handles of the stretcher.

Once more did those three police officers stand and watch what the boys were doing with both wonder and interest written on their faces. Why, they had never dreamed that half-grown lads could be so resourceful; and even after a number of fairly straight poles had been collected, calculated to bear easily the weight of the injured man, none of the men could guess just how these were to be utilized, or fastened together.

Judge of their astonishment, then, when they saw the boys make another little side hunt and come back with strands of pliable vines that could be twisted about the poles, fastening them together, each live vine stronger three times over than a cord of the same size would have been.

Each scout took pride in being able to render his share of the work; and Rob, on his part, was filled with satisfaction to find how well things began to shape themselves under the nimble fingers of his chums and himself.

As the rude but effective stretcher began to assume its desired form, the Chief gave each of his men a nod and a wink, as though calling their attention to the clever way in which these ready lads met an emergency by "being prepared"; letting them understand, also, that a useful lesson might be drawn from the happening.

Even the two captured rogues manifested considerable interest in what was going on, the wounded fellow because he had good reason to be thankful for receiving so much consideration, and the shorter rascal because he had never been given a chance to see scouts work before.

"There's your stretcher, Chief," said Rob, when less than ten minutes had slipped by, "and it's going to answer all right, I think."

"No question about that, lad," replied the big officer; "and made so strong into the bargain that it would bear even my weight without trouble. And now let's get Con on it so we can start for the wagon."

This was quickly done. The man winced when they moved him, but other than that managed to repress all signs of his suffering. The two men accompanying the Chief took hold of the handles that had been provided, and had not the slightest trouble in walking away with the wounded rogue on the stretcher. As for the Chief, he took the other prisoner in charge. Rob walked in the van, accompanied by his chums, and tried to pick out the easiest way, always thinking of the pain that the wretched Con must be enduring every time one of the bearers stumbled over a root.

"This is what I call great work," Tubby said, as he managed to keep alongside the one who bore the torch, so that he could get the full benefit of its light; for he did not fancy going down on all fours every little while when some vine happened to be in the path.

"And I'll surely never forget this scene," Andy remarked, showing that it had made a great impression on him. "Lots of times I'll shut my eyes, and see us all stringing along this way with that fellow laid out on the stretcher. And say, when you look around and see how these old vines hang down, you'd almost believe we were making our way through some tropical forest like lots of men we've read about."

"Well," spoke up Tubby briskly, "mebbe, now, we may be doing that same thing before a great while, if only Uncle Mark makes up his mind to send me down there to Mexico to straighten out his mixed affairs. I almost believe he would right now, if only Rob, here, was going to be along, because he's heard so much about him. And it wouldn't cost us a red cent, either, because Uncle Mark'll stand for it. But the trouble is we're bound to school right now, and can't get away, hang the luck!"

"Careful there, Tubby," warned Merritt just then; "you're getting too excited, and you don't watch your steps as you ought. That time you nearly knocked me down banging against me so suddenly."

"But aren't we nearly to the road, Rob?" pleaded Tubby, who was breathing hard, partly on account of his exertions in keeping close to the leader, and also because he persisted in wasting so much wind in talking.

"More than half way, Tubby, so cheer up; the worst is yet to come," chuckled the patrol leader. And then as the fat scout gave a dismal groan Rob hastened to add: "That was only said for fun, because we are going to have it easier right along after this. I think in five minutes we shall come out on the road."

When about that time had expired, Rob flashed the light of his torch ahead, and then called out:

"There's the white birch that hangs over the road, boys; and the wagon is not far away from that, you remember."

"What d'ye think of that, Chief? If he didn't go and fetch us straight back to the place we started from!" Andy called out.

"That was easy," Rob told him; "because I only had to follow our own trail, you understand. And here we are!"

The horse whinnied at their approach, just as though he might have known they were friends; and possibly the poor tired beast was as hungry for a good feed of oats as animals of his class can get.

The rude stretcher, having served its purpose, was cast aside, and the wounded man made as comfortable as possible in the bed of the wagon. All of the scouts but Merritt settled themselves as best they could, as did also two of the officers. The Chief and his prisoner occupied the seat with the driver, where the recaptured rogue could be constantly watched.

In this way, then, they set out to cover the two miles or more that lay between them and Hampton. Naturally the scouts felt quite jolly over the remarkable success that had accompanied their labors of the evening.

"Well, who would have thought when the water came a-rushing into our boat, so we had to run her ashore and leave her there till morning, that we'd come on the finest chance ever to show what we knew about scoutcraft?" Andy burst out after they had been rumbling along the road steadily for a short time. Merritt had been cautioned not to try and make speed on account of the poor fellow who had hard work to repress a groan with every jolt.

"That's the way things come around, sometimes," Rob told him. "You never can tell how they're going to turn out. Lots of times I've heard my father say that the very things he looked on as disasters proved to be blessings in disguise. And for one, I could almost forgive the fellow who played that miserable trick on us, because of the great time we've had since landing."

"Well, I don't join with you there," grumbled Tubby, who did not often hold a grudge against anybody, and therefore made his present action the more singular. "What if that plug had dropped out when we were out in the middle of the bay, with the wind and waves like they were? Wouldn't we have been in danger of our lives? I can see a feller of my size swimming a mile and more! Huh! that was a coward's trick, let me tell you. And just wait and see if I don't fasten the guilt on the wretch that played it on us. I've got all the evidence needed right here in my pocket; and given a little time, I'll fix him, – but I'm not mentioning any names yet!"

Both Andy and Rob pretended to consider Tubby's intention to play detective in the nature of a great joke, because they did not believe that the fat scout had any particular gift along such lines; but he certainly seemed in deadly earnest, and took himself seriously, for a fact.

"We are likely to be late to supper to-night, boys!" Rob remarked, as they saw the lights of Hampton ahead, and knew that presently they would be in the home town.

"What of that, when we've got such a splendid excuse?" Tubby said, as he puffed himself up with pride. "I know my maw and Uncle Mark'll listen a-holding their breath while I tell of all the wonderful adventures that came our way since we started after Rob's select oysters! Um! don't I wish I had a few to sample right this minute! But then, I ought to be home pretty quick now, and I guess I can hold in. Friday night we always have Boston baked beans at our house; and you know I'm particularly fond of those. And this is Friday, isn't it?"

He heaved a contented sigh, as though making up his mind that supper would taste all the finer for being held back so long; and that was Tubby's way all over.

"I'll jump out here, Chief," said Rob, as Merritt held up the horse, knowing they were close to the banker's house. "I reckon I can tote that sack of oysters such a short way. So-long, fellows; see you first thing in the morning, Merritt. I'd like mighty much to get my boat home before that old hurricane from the West Indies comes tearing up the coast. Good night, Chief, and I'm glad we were able to lend you a hand. I hope you get a doctor busy with that swollen leg Con's carrying around with him. It'd be rough if blood poisoning set in."

So saying, the patrol leader allowed the two boys in the body of the wagon to heave the half bushel of prime shellfish over his right shoulder, and walked off with his burden as though it did not amount to much, anyway.

The cheery words of the policemen followed him; but pleasant as these may have been, it was something entirely different that caused Rob to laugh softly to himself as he heard it. And this was the shrill "k-r-e-e-e" of the Eagles, sent after him by his chums, as a token of their esteem, and in recognition of the great aid scoutcraft had proven to them during the last hour or more.

Thus closed one of the most interesting experiences that had ever fallen to the lot of the Eagle Patrol scouts; one that they would be apt to remember years afterwards, when time had caused them to forget many other adventures that had come their way. And doubtless Tubby did keep his folks breathless while he narrated the exciting details over the supper table – after he had taken off the first sharp edge of his wonderful appetite.

CHAPTER VIII.
A DAZZLING PLAN

Rob was up and around at daybreak the following morning, for as yet the anticipated storm had not come up the coast, and it seemed as though he might manage to get his stranded sailboat back home before the wind assumed hurricane force.

He was just starting in to have a bit of breakfast, having made the coffee, as every Boy Scout who is worth his salt is taught to do, when a cheery whistle from without announced the coming of Merritt. As it had been arranged between them that Rob would attend to the breakfast part, the Crawford boy was soon partaking of his share.

"Think we'll be able to get back with the boat?" he asked Rob, as he swallowed his hot coffee in such large quantities that the tears came into his eyes.

"I don't see why we shouldn't," answered the other; "the wind has shifted quite a lot, and once we start we'll be able to make it with about three tacks."

"How about that hole? I don't reckon you'll spend much time fixing that now?" Merritt went on to say.

"I should guess not," laughed Rob. "If a plug that wasn't pounded in any too well in the first place held out all that time before working loose, I can fill up the hole with a fresh piece of wood that will never drop out. Besides, we can keep an eye on it. Any more coffee, Merritt?"

"I'm done, and ready to take that little spin right away. Got your sweater on, I see, Rob. You'll need it, and then some, on the boat, with this wind blowing. I've fetched along my heavy storm coat into the bargain."

"I was meaning to carry mine, you can understand," Rob rejoined, as he picked it up from the chair where he had tossed it.

As soon as both of them were mounted on their wheels, they sped away along the road in the direction of the place where the sailboat had been left. And, as there had been no unusually strong wind from a quarter that would bring the seas into the little sheltered cove, Rob had no fear that his property could have been damaged since they abandoned it on the preceding evening.

Of course they covered the same stretch of road over which they had come while in the wagon drawn by the white nag; and, as they swung past the identical birch tree that marked the spot where the fugitives had turned into the thick undergrowth, Merritt drew the fact to his chum's attention.

"I'll never see a white birch again as long as I live," he said earnestly, "but I'll remember that one and all that happened to us around here. But that cove can't be much more than half a mile away now, Rob. Do you say the same?"

"We're bearing down on the place right now, and you'll find that it lies where that bush stands that holds its red leaves, while others are bare or brown."

"If you say so, I know it's going to be that way," returned the corporal, "because you always look out to mark things down so in your mind. Now, it never occurred to me to take any notice of what the side of the road looked like when we came out on it. I seemed to think that, because I knew that cove so well, I could find it again as easy as falling off a log; but chances are I'd have run away over the mark, if left to myself, because I thought it was further along."

"I've found it pays always to notice things as you go," said Rob, as they jumped from their saddles and pushed the wheels ahead of them while passing along what seemed to be a trail leading toward the shore; "it saves lots of time, and you have a sort of satisfied feeling, just as if you were ready for anything."

They came directly on the cove, and found the boat just as they had left it. Of course the first thing to be done was to lower the water that was in the stern of the boat. This Merritt proceeded to do with a small pail Rob had brought along, while the other boy whittled a stick of white pine until it suited his idea of what a proper plug should be, after which he proceeded to pound it into the round hole in the bottom of the sailboat's hull.

After that they finished the job of clearing the water out, and then the boat was launched. Pushing out into deeper water, they soon had the sail up, and were buffeting the waves. Of course they lost ground until the centerboard could be used, after which they were able to make a course that would take them considerably nearer Hampton.

It was quite a wild dash, and both scouts enjoyed fighting wind and wave until, some two hours after starting, they managed to run into sheltered water, and could feel that the victory had been won.

"And none too soon, let me tell you, my boy," said Rob, as he pointed out to where the white-caps were rushing furiously along before a wind that was rapidly assuming the proportions of a storm.

"Gee whiz! but were we out in that sea?" exclaimed Merritt, as though hardly able to believe his eyes. "Why, I didn't dream it was half that rough while we were booming along. But then we had our hands full managing things, and couldn't do much looking around, could we? I'm glad it's all over. Listen to the wind howl as it cuts around the corners of the yacht club building! Looks as though we might get all the hurricane Hampton can stand before another night comes."

They did.

The weather sharps at Washington had not sent out those storm warnings without good cause, for there had never been such a wicked gale along the south shore of Long Island at that late season of the year as this one.

Although it was Saturday and a holiday, few boys dared venture out, and then only to run from one house to another, clad in waterproofs, their heads covered with rubber capes such as duck shooters sport in rainy weather, when holding forth in their "point" blinds.

The storm raged all that night, and the following day also, doing all manner of serious damage along the South Shore, where boats were sunk, piers swept away, and even houses demolished.

On Monday morning it showed signs of abating, so that Merritt managed to get over to the Blake home. He was just in time to catch up with Tubby and Andy, who, unable to stay indoors any longer, had determined to seek company.

"Whee! isn't this the limit, though?" called out Tubby as the corporal of the Eagles came up, after being compelled to duck his head and fight against the fury of the still stiff wind.

"I hear it's done all manner of things around here," Andy remarked earnestly. "I hope, Merritt, you and Rob managed to get that boat home; because if she's up in that cove still there won't be two sticks of her left fastened together. Why, the seas rose higher than they ever did before, so I heard, and they must have pounded in along that shore like hot cakes!"

"Oh! we managed to work her down, never fear," Merritt assured him; "and chances are she's O. K. now. Hello! Rob, we thought we'd step in and see how you all managed to hold out through the storm!"

"No damage done at our house; but I heard that the poor old Academy got caught again," the patrol leader remarked.

At which Andy threw up his hands, exclaiming,

"Don't tell me it was burned again, after the other bad blaze that let us out of school long enough for some of you fellows to run down to Panama, and have all kinds of fun!"

"No fire this time, but wind and rain," Rob said soberly. "Why, they say the whole roof was carried two hundred yards away, so that the rain beat in, and played hob with everything! The Academy is next door to a ruin right now. It begins to look as if we might have to be given another long vacation till they get a new roof on; and that may be a month, perhaps two!"

The three boys who heard this interesting news somehow did not seem to feel particularly sorry. Indeed, as soon as he could find his voice, Tubby burst out into a regular cowboy yell.

"Hooray! that means we'll have a chance to take Uncle Mark at his word if so be he wants the lot of us to hike down there over the Rio Grande, and see what can be done with his cattle on that ranch in Mexico! Again I say, 'Hooray for everybody.' Oh! say, tell me about that, won't you? It sounds too good to be true, Rob! Are you dead sure that that accommodating new roof went sailing away? And did it land two hundred yards off? Wouldn't I have liked to be around to see her go, though! And it will surely take the carpenters six weeks or two months to get a new one on and the rooms fixed over. Talk about luck, it never rains but it pours!"

"Yes," said Rob, laughing at the extravagant actions and words by means of which Tubby tried to express his joy; "we've just seen it pour the worst ever. If an inch fell on poor old Hampton, I'd say there was a foot solid came down; and without a roof on top, the inside of the Academy must look pretty tough."

"But about this queer old uncle of yours, Tubby, how is it we never met him?" inquired Merritt. "Tell us all about him, won't you? He must be some traveler; because I heard you say once he'd just been nearly a year in Africa exploring over the course Livingstone and Stanley took a long while back."

"Why," Tubby immediately started in to say, "Uncle Mark Matthews is a brother of my mother. He's always been a queer sort of fish, crazy about hunting orchids, and all that sort of stuff, you know. Spent years and years down in tropical South America, where no white man had ever been before; and has a whole raft of strange plants, birds, butterflies and what-not named after him. He settled down in Mexico some years ago, and got together quite a respectable lot of prize cattle on a ranch that's in the northern part of the country. And that is where a lot of this fighting business has been going on between the rebels under Villa and the troops of Huerta, now playing his little part as president of the republic.

"About a year or more ago it seems that Uncle Mark got the old fever on him again; and this time it was Africa that called him. He wanted to do something big over there before he found himself too old, he says. Anyway, he put his ranch in charge of a man he believed he could trust with things, even if he was a greaser; and away he cut for the heart of the Dark Continent.

"Well, he came near losing his life there, dying of the jungle fever, or some kind of thing like that; and when, after a hard fight, he managed to reach the coast, heading for America, first thing he heard was that there were hot times all around where his prize ranch was located; and also that if his bunch of cattle worth a fortune hadn't been confiscated yet, they'd soon be lost to him. It seems that Uncle Mark has lost a good part of the big pile he once owned, and if this ranch was sacked he'd be in a bad hole; and that is what is worrying him right now.

"If it is going to be saved at all, somebody has just got to go down there and do the business; and Uncle Mark is too sick a man to dream of trying it. That's why he's been talking to me as he has. You see, ordinarily he wouldn't think of entrusting such a risky job to a boy of my age; but ever since he's come to Hampton he's been hearing about what clever chaps the Boy Scouts are, and particularly you, Rob, and Merritt, here; and he told me again last night that if only it might be fixed so you could go along – yes, and you, too, Andy, don't think I'd leave you out of this deal – he'd hand the whole business over to me to handle. And let me tell you, it looks like things might be shaping that way right now, when you give me to understand, Rob, that the Academy is a wreck, and that there can't be any school for six or eight weeks. And that's why I'm tickled to death, and feel like throwing my hat over the church steeple with joy. Because, don't you see, fellers, it's going to mean a glorious trip for the whole four of us, a chance to see what Mexico looks like in war times, and perhaps even an opportunity to run across some of the natives who are doing all the fighting!"

But Rob looked serious, as though there were things that he wanted explained before he could consent to consider such a wild goose chase.