The Boy scouts on Sturgeon Island

Chapter I. Out For A Royal Good Time

“ Will you do me a favor, Bumpus? ”

“ Sure I will, Giraffe; what is it you want now ? ”

“ Then tell me who that is talking to our scout¬ master, Dr. Philander Plobbs; because, you know, I’ve just come in after a scout ahead, and first thing I saw was a stranger among the patrol boys.”

“ Oh! you mean that thin chap who came along in his buggy a bit ago, chasing after us all the way from that town where we had a bite of lunch? Why, I understand he’s the son of the telegraph op¬ erator there. You know we made arrangements with him to try and get a message to us, if one came along.”

“ Whew! then I hope he ain't fetched a message that’ll spoil all our fun, just when we’ve got to the last leg of the journey, with the boat only a few miles further on! That’d be the limit, Bumpus. You don’t know anything about it, I reckon?”

“ Well, our scout-master looks kinder down in the mouth, and I’m afraid it must be some sort of a recall to duty for him,” remarked a third lad, also wearing the khaki garments of a Boy Scout, as he joined the pair who were talking.

“ I ! m afraid you’re right, Davy,” said the tall, angular fellow who seemed to own the queer name of Giraffe, though his long neck plainly proved why it had been given to him by his mates. “ But don’t it beat the Dutch how many times Doc Hobbs has had to give up a jolly trip, and hurry back home, just when the fun was going to begin, because the old doctor he works with needed him the worst kind? ”

“ But say,” spoke up the fat boy who answered to the designation of Bumpus, “ mebbe the Cran¬ ford Troop, and the Silver Fox Patrol in particular, ain’t lucky to have such a wide-awake, efficient as¬ sistant scout-master as our Thad Brewster, who knows more in a day about out-of-door things than Dr. Hobbs would in a year.”

“Yes, that’s right,” replied Giraffe; “but we’re going to know what’s in the wind now, because here’s the scout-master heading this way, with sev¬ eral of the other boys tagging at his heels; and sure as you live they’re grinning too. Looks to me like

ON STURGEON ISLAND.

Step Hen and Allan thought it a good joke, though they look solemn enough when Doc turns their way. He’s just got to leave us, you mark my words, fellows.”

It turned out that very way. An urgent mes¬ sage had come that necessitated the immediate re¬ turn of the scout-master. The old doctor with whom he practiced had been unlucky enough to fall, and break a leg; so it was absolutely essential that his assistant come back to look after the sick people of Cranford, hundreds of miles away.

While the scout-master is getting his personal be¬ longings together, and the six boys gathered around are trying to look terribly disappointed, it might be well to introduce the little party to such of our readers who have not had the pleasure of making their acquaintance in previous volumes of this series.

The Cranford Troop of Boy Scouts now con¬ sisted of two full patrols, and a third was in proc¬ ess of forming. The original patrol was known as the Silver Fox, and the six scouts who were with Doctor Hobbs, away up here on the border of Lake Superior, bent on a cruise on the great fresh water sea, all belonged to that division of the troop, so that they are old friends to those who have pe¬ rused any of the earlier books.

Thad Brewster, whom Bumpus had spoken of so highly, was a bright, energetic lad, who had alc ways delighted in investigating things connected with outdoor life. He had belonged to a troop before organizing the one at Cranford, and was well qualified for" being made the assistant scout¬ master, having received his credentials from the New York Headquarters long ago.

Allan Hollister, who would assume the responsibility should Thad be absent, was a boy who had spent quite a time in the Adirondacks before joining the scouts, and his knowledge was along practical lines.

Then there was another fellow, rather a mel¬ ancholy chap, who had a queer way of showing the whites of his eyes, and looking scared, at the least opportunity, only to make his chums laugh; for he would immediately afterwards grin—in school as a little fellow he had insisted that his name of Stephen should be pronounced as though it consisted of two syllables; and from that day to this he had come to be known as Step Hen Bingham.

The other three boys were the ones who engaged in the little talk with which this story opens. Bumpus really had another name, though few people ever thought to call him by it; yet on the register at school he was marked down as Cornelius Jasper Hawtree; while the fellow who had that strange “ rubber-neck ” that he was so fond of stretchingto its limit, was Conrad Stedman.

Davy Jones, too, was a remarkable character,

ON STURGEON ISLAND.

as may be made evident before the last word is said in this story. He seemed to be as nimble as they make boys; and was forever doing what he called “ stunts,” daring any of his comrades to hang by their toes from the limb of a tree twenty feet from the ground; walking a tight-rope which he stretched across a deep gully, and all sorts of other dangerous enterprises of that nature. Often he was called “ Monkey,” and no nick-name ever given by boy playmates fitted better than his.

Once Davy had been a victim to fits, and on this account gained great consideration from his teachers at school, as well as from his comrades. But latterly there had arisen a suspicion that these “ fits ” that doubled him up so suddenly always seemed to come just when there was some hard work to be done; and once the suspicion that Davy was shamming broke in upon the rest, they shamed him into declaring himself radically cured. It was either that, or take a ducking every time he felt one of those spells coming on; so Davy always declared the camp air had effected a miracle in his case, and that he owed a great deal to his having joined the scouts.

“ Too bad, boys,” said Dr. Hobbs, who was a mighty fine young man, and well liked by all the scouts in Cranford Troop, although they saw so little of him because his pressing duties called him away so often; “ but I’ve got to go home on the first train. Doctor Green has a broken leg, and there’s nobody to make the rounds among our sick people in Cranford. I never was more dis¬ appointed in my life, because we’ve fixed things for a glorious cruise up here on Old Superior.”

The boys assured him that they deeply sympa¬ thized with him, because they knew it would break their hearts to be deprived of their outing, now that they had come so far.

“ Fortunately,” continued Dr. Hobbs, with a twinkle in his kindly eyes, “ that isn’t at all neces¬ sary; because all arrangements have been made, the boat is waiting only a few miles away, and you have an efficient assistant scout-master in this fine chap here, Thad Brewster, who will take charge while I’m away, as he has done on numerous other sad occasions.”

“Hurrah!” burst from Bumpus; “that’s the kind of stuff we like to hear. Not that we won’t miss you, Doctor, because you know boys from the ground up, and we all feel like you’re an older brother to us; but we’ve been out with Thad so much, we’re kinder used to his ways.”

“ Well,” continued the scout-master, with a long sigh, “ I’ve got to hurry off if I expect to catch that afternoon train, and there’s no other until morning; so good-bye, boys. Take good care of yourselves, and write to me as often as you can. I’ll try and picture the jolly happenings of this

ON STURGEON ISLAND.

Lake Superior cruise as I read your accounts of it.”

He squeezed the hand of every one of the six lively lads; and there was a huskiness in his voice as he bade them a last good-bye that told better than words how sorry he was to leave the merry bunch, just when they were almost, as Rumpus put it, “ in sight of the Promised Water.”

So the vehicle passed from sight, and the last they saw of Doctor Hobbs was a hand waving his campaign hat to them just before a bend in the country road was reached.

All of them now turned to Thad to see what his plan of campaign would be.

“ It’s just this way, fellows,” he remarked, with one of his smiles that had made him the most popu¬ lar boy in all Cranford, barring none; “we’ve got about three miles to hit it up before we reach the lake shore. Then we’ll make camp and spend another night, which I hope will be our last ashore for some little time. Because, unless there’s a hitch to the program, we ought to come on the landing where our boat is going to be in waiting, by ten o'clock to-morrow.”

“ Hurrah! ” cried Bumpus, who was already weary of “ hiking,” because his build made him less active than some of the other scouts, notably Davy and Giraffe.

“ Let’s get a move on, then,” suggested Step

Hen. “ I can see that poor old Giraffe here is nearly perishing for a little bite of supper. ’

A rippling laugh ran around at this, for every one knew the failing of the long-legged scout, whose stowage capacity when it came time to eat had never as yet within the memory of any comrade been fully tested; for they always declared that his legs must be hollow, for otherwise it was a mys¬ tery where all the food he devoured went to, since he never seemed to get any stouter after a meal than he was before.

The march was accordingly resumed, with Thad and Allan leading the van. The boys were going light, because they did not intend to do much camping on this trip, as it was expected that the boat would accommodate all of them with sleeping quarters.

Each one had a blanket strapped to his back, and with this were a few necessities in the line of cooking utensils and food. Most of their lug¬ gage had been sent on by another route, as had also their supplies. Doctor Hobbs had wished them to go to the landing where their boat was to meet them, by following this roundabout course, hav¬ ing had some reason of his own for visiting the country. His folks in Cranford owned con¬ siderable land in this vicinity, and it was said that there were out-croppings of valuable copper to be found upon it; which accounted for the

ON STURGEON ISLAND.

young man’s desire to make inquiries while up in this region.

Joking and laughing, and even singing snatches of school songs, the boys of the Silver Fox Patrol tramped along the road that was to bring them to the shore of the lake by and by.

It was about half-past four when they obtained their first glimpse of the apparently boundless body of water, said to be the largest fresh water sea in the whole world. Shortly afterwards they reached the shore and were looking almost in awe out upon the vast expanse of water, upon the bosom of which they anticipated making their home for some weeks, during vacation time.

“ Here’s the finest camp site you ever struck in your born days, fellers! ” called out Giraffe, as he waved his arm around at the trees that grew close to the edge of the inland sea; and every one of the other five scouts agreed with him.

They had made many camps in the last two years, for they had wandered far from the home town,— down in Tennessee, up in Maine, and away out to the Rockies on one memorable occasion; but no better place to spend a night had ever greeted their eyes.

It was soon a bustling scene, with a fire being started, and arrangements made to build a sort of lean-to shelter, that would even shed rain in a pinch should a storm come upon them during the night they expected to spend here.

Davy, as usual, was climbing trees, and spying into every hole he could find. W hen Monkey Jones had a chance to exercise his peculiar gifts like this present opportunity afforded him it was utterly out of the question to hold him in. And so he swung daringly from one limb to another, just for all the world like a squirrel, chattering at times in a way that Giraffe always declared left no doubt in his mind concerning Davy’s having de¬ scended from the original tree-climbing tribe that sported tails.

There was one very large tree close by, that is, large considering that in this section there were few that could boast a girth of more than a foot; but this one was really what Bumpus called a “ whopper; ” and Davy sported among the higher branches with all the delight of a child with a new toy; giving the others more than one thrill as he swooped this way and that with reckless abandon.

But suddenly he sent out a shout that caused every fellow to take notice; and Bumpus actually turned pale with apprehension, as he vainly looked around for some sort of weapon with which to de¬ fend himself; because he always believed he must be a shining mark for any hungry wild beast, on account of his plumpness.

“ Oh! ” shouted the boy in the tree, “ a panther, fellers, a really true panther! ”

ON STURGEON ISLAND.

Chapter II. Thad Goes After The Yellow Eyes

“He says a panther is up there!” echoed Giraffe, stretching that long neck of his at a fear¬ ful rate, in the endeavor'to locate the animal in question.

All of them became immediately intensely in¬ terested in the further doings of Davy Jones. The boy chanced to be in a position where he could not apparently pass down the trunk of the tree, for fear lest he come in contact with the sharp claws of the dreaded beast which he claimed was hiding up there somewhere; but then that was a small matter to one so active as the Jones boy.

He immediately started to fearlessly slide down the outside of the tree, making use of the branches as he came along, to stay his progress when it threatened to become too rapid.

The sight of Davy spinning down from that height with such perfect abandon, was one none of those fellows would ever forget.

When he finally landed on the ground they gath¬ ered around him with some misgivings, for Davy was addicted to practical jokes, and some of his chums suspected that even now he was, as Step Hen suggested, “ putting up a job on his unsuspect¬ ing comrades.”

One look at his really white face told them that at least Davy’s fright had been genuine. He may not have seen a truly savage panther up there in the tree, but he firmly believed he did.

“Where was it, Davy?” demanded Giraffe, who had hastened to snatch up the camp hatchet in lieu of any better weapon with which to defend himself.

“ Did it try to grab you? ” asked Rumpus, with a tremor in his voice that he tried in vain to conceal by a great show of assumed bluster.

“And was there only one up there?” queried Step Hen, anxiously, fingering the double-barreled Marlin shotgun, which was the only firearm they had with them, as this expedition had not been or¬ ganized with any idea of hunting; and the season for game was not on as yet, either, even in this northern country; though Giraffe, who owned the gun, had fetched it in the hope that they might be forgiven if they knocked over a few wild ducks, should their rations run low.

“ I—I didn’t wait to ask,” stammered Davy; “ fact is, boys, I didn’t really see the terrible beast at all, only his big yellow eyes! ”

“Oh! is that so, Davy?” exclaimed Thad, turn-

ON STURGEON ISLAND.

ing to give Allan a wink, as much as to let him understand that the truth would soon be coming now.

“ But see here,” Step Hen wanted to know; “ however was you agoin’ to see his eyes and net glimpse the panther himself; that’s a thing you’ve got to explain, Davy Jones.”

The other bent a look of commiseration on the speaker.

“ What’s the answer to that ? ” he went on to say, recovering his voice more and more with each passing second, now that his personal safety seemed assured; “ I’ll tell you, Step Hen. You see, there’s a big yawning gap in the tree up there, as black inside as your hat after night. And when I just happened to look that way what did I see but a pair of round yellow eyes astaring straight at me! Guess I’ve seen a panther, and I ought to know how his eyes look in the dark—just like you’ve seen the old cat alooking at you to home, when you went into a dark room. Wow! say, did you notice me acoming down that tree outside like greased lightning? I own up I expected I’d be pounced on any second, and that made me in some¬ thing like a hurry, fellows! ”

One or two of the scouts snickered at this. The sound appeared to annoy Davy, who was plainly very much in earnest.

“ Huh! easy to laugh, you fellows,” he remarked,.

with deep satire in his voice. “ Mebbe, n6w, you don’t believe what I’m telling you! Mebbe one of you’d like to just climb up there, and see for yourself what it is? I dare you, Bumpus!”

“ You’ll have to excuse me, Davy; it’s too big a job for a boy built like me, you understand, though sure I’d like to accommodate first rate, ” replied the scout with the red hair and mild blue eyes,” shrinking back, and shrugging his shoulders.

“ Then how about you, Step Hen,” pursued Davy, determined to put it to each of the scoffers in turn until he had shown them up in good style; “ I notice that you’re looking like you didn’t reckon there couldn’t abeen such a thing as a gen¬ uine panther around this region in the last twenty years and more. Suppose you tumble up there, and take a look-in! ”

But the party indicated smiled sweetly, and laid his hand on the region of his stomach, as he went on to say:

“ Why, really and truly, Davy, I think I’m going to have one of those nasty cramps just like you used to have so often. There’s a gripe cornin’ on right now, and you see how unpleasant it w r ould be to find myself doubled-up while I was thirty feet, from the ground. I’m afraid I’ll have to pass this time.”

“ Then, there’s Giraffe who’ll be sure to volun¬ teer,” continued the other, bound to take all the

ON STURGEON ISLAND.

scoffer? in by turns. “ He’s of an investigating turn of mind, and if he wants to, I reckon he might take that gun along, so he could have some show, if the thing jumped right out in his face! ”

“ Well, now,” the long-legged scout answered, with a whimsical grin, “ I’d like to accommodate you the worst kind, Davy, but you know how it is with me. I ain’t worth a cooky before I’ve had my feed. Feel sorter weak about the knees, to tell you the honest truth; and I never was as keen about climbing to the top of tall trees as you were, Davy. Count me out, please, that’s a good fellow.”

At that Davy laughed outright.

“ I see you’ve got cold feet in the bargain, Giraffe,” he asserted. “ Well, then, if anybody’s going to climb up there and poke that ugly old beast out of his den it’ll have to be either our scout¬ master, or Allen; for I tell you right now you don’t catch me monkeying with a buzz-saw after I’ve had my fingers zipped.”

“ I’ll go,” said Thad, quietly.

“ Here, take this, Thad,” urged Step Hen, try¬ ing to force the shotgun into the hands of the other, as he stepped toward the base of the big tree.

Thad and Allan again exchanged looks.

“ Don’t think I’ll need it, do you, Allan?” the former asked.

“ Hardly,” came the reply; “ and even if you did carry it up, the chances are you couldn’t find a way to hold on, and shoot at the same time. Here, let me take that thing, Step Hen; you’re that nervous, if anything did happen to fluster you, I honestly believe you’d up and bang away, and p’raps fill our chum with bird-shot in the bargain.”

Step Hen disavowed any such weakness, but nevertheless he was apparently glad to hand over the weapon; because he realized that Allan knew much better how to use firearms than he did, and if there was any occasion for shooting, the responsi¬ bility would be off his shoulders; for Step Hen never liked to find himself placed where he was in the limelight, and had to make good, or be dis¬ graced.

Thad did not appear to be at all worried as he took a last good look aloft, as though wishing to assure himself that there was no panther in sight among the thick branches above, before he trusted himself up there.

His good common sense told him that the chances were as ten to one that Davy had not seen what he claimed at all; but his fears had worked overtime, and simply magnified some trifling thing.

Of course had Thad really believed there was any chance of meeting such a savage beast as a panther he would never have ventured to make that climb; or if he did he must have surely taken the gun along with him.

The others gathered around near the foot of the

ON STURGEON ISLAND.

tree, and tried to follow the daring climber with their eyes, meanwhile exchanging more or less humorous remarks in connection with his mission.

All of them, saving possibly Allan, seemed to be a little nervous concerning the outcome; because Davy kept on asserting his positive belief that it was a real true panther that lay in the aperture above, and not a make-believe.

“ I only hope Thad can dodge right smart if the old thing does come whooping out at him! ” was the way Davy put it; at which the eyes of Bumpue grew rounder and rounder, and he began to quietly edge away from under the tree, an inch at a time; fo~ he hoped none of his chums would notice his timidity, because Bumpus was proud of having done certain things in the line of bagging big game, on the occasion of their trip to the Far West.

“ There,” remarked Step Hen, “ he’s getting up pretty far now, and I reckon must be close by the place where you saw your old panther, Davy.”

“ Yes,” added Giraffe, “ and you notice that Thad’s marking time, so to speak, for he’s hanging out there, and trying to see what’s above him.”

“ A scout should always use a certain amount of caution,” interposed Allan; “ there are times when a fellow might take chances, if it’s a case of neces¬ sity, and quick action is necessary in order to save life; but right now Thad’s only carrying out the rule he’s always laid down for the rest of us.

Be prepared, you know, is the slogan of every scout'; and that’s what he’s doing. He wants to be sure of his ground before he jumps.-”

“ Huh! ” grunted Davy, “ if I’d stopped to count ten before I slid down, I wonder now what would have happened to me. Some fellers act from im¬ pulse every time, and you can’t change the spots of the leopard, they say. What’s dyed in the wool can’t be washed out, as look as Bumpus here with his carroty hair.”

“ You leave my hair alone, Davy Jones, and pay attention to your own business,” complained the stout scout, aggressively. “ You just know you’re agoing to get it when Thad makes his report, and you're trying to draw attention somewhere else. Make me think of what I read about the pearl div¬ ers when they see an old hungry man-eating shark waiting above ’em; they stir up the sand with the sharp-pointed stick they carry; and when the water gets foggy they swim away without the fish being able to see ’em. And you’re atrying right now to befog the real case, which is, did you really see any¬ thing, or get scared at your own shadow.”

“ Hear! hear! ” crowed Giraffe, who always liked to see Bumpus aroused, and when this occurred he often made out to back him up with approval, just as some boys would sick one dog on another, or tempt rival roosters to come to a “ scrap.”

“ You fellows let up, and watch what Thad’s

ON STURGEON ISLAND.

agoin’ to do,” Step Hen advised them at that junc¬ ture; and so for the time being Davy and Bumpus forgot their complaint and riveted their eyes on the boy who was up in the tree.

“ I can’t hardly see him any more, the branches are so thick,” complained Bumpus ducking his head this way and that.

“ That’s because he’s gone on again,” argued Giraffe; “seems like he didn’t find any signs of a real panther when he took that survey.”

“ Hold your horses! ” was all Davy allowed him¬ self to say, though no doubt he himself had com¬ menced to have serious doubts by now.

Half a minute later and there broke out a series of strange sounds from up above their heads.

“ Listen to that, now, would you ? ” cried Davy, bristling with importance again. “ Don’t that sound like Thad might a hit up against something big? Hear him talking, will you? Didn’t you catch what he said right then—‘ no, you don’t grab me, you rascal; I’m afraid I’ll have to knock you on the head yet! ’ Say, don’t that sound like Thad had found my panther, and was keeping him off with that club he took up with him. Oh! what’s that?”

Something came crashing down as Davy uttered this last exclamation. The boys were horrified at first, because they imagined it might be Thad and the panther, that, meeting in midair, had lost'their grip, and were falling to the ground, fully forty feet below.

“Why, it’s only his club!” cried Giraffe, quickly.

“ Then he must have let it get knocked out of his hand! ” ejaculated Bumpus. “ Oh! poor Thad, he’ll be in a bad fix without a single thing to fight that animal with! ”

“ That’s where you’re mistaken, because I can see him now, and he’s acoming down the tree right smart! ” Step Hen announced; which intelligence allowed Bumpus to breathe freely again, for his face was getting fiery red with the suspense that had gripped him.

“That’s so!” echoed Giraffe, “and I’m looking to see if there’s any signs of a big cat trailing after him; but so far nothing ain’t come in sight.”

The five scouts on the ground hastened to close in around the foot of the big tree, so as to welcome their patrol leader when he dropped from the lower limb.

“ Seems to me Thad acts kind of clumsy, for him,” announced Step Hen; “ now, if it’d been Bumpus here I could understand it, because, well I won’t say what I was agoing to, because it might make hard feelings between us; and with all his shortcomings Bumpus is a good sort of a chap.”

“ Huh! dassent, that’s what! ” grunted the party

ON STURGEON ISLAND.

indicated, making a threatening gesture in the direction of his fellow-scout.

The arrival of the scout-master caused them to forget all other things. Thad, as soon as he found his feet fixed on solid ground once more, strode straight up until he faced Davy Jones, and suddenly called out:

“ There’s your panther, Davy! ” inere was a craning of necks, a gasping of breaths, and then a series of yells broke forth that made the nearby woods fairly ring with the echoea

Chapter III. The Camp On The Lake Shore

“Why, it’s only a big owl!” shouted Giraffe.

“ Hey, Davy, shake hands with your yellow¬ eyed panther! ” roared Step Hen.

Bumpus snatched up his bugle, for he held that office in the Cranford Troop, and let out a piercing series of blasts that would have undoubtedly frightened any wild animal, had there been such within a mile of the camp on the lake shore.

It was a large owl that Thad grasped in such fashion that the bird could not reach him with its curved beak, though it made several vicious lunges, as though anxious to fight the whole patrol at once.