CHAPTER II
GLORIOUS NEWS
"Look! there he goes scooting away over past that other pile of lumber!"said Tom Betts, pointing as he spoke; and both the others caught aglimpse of a dim figure that was bending over while hurrying away, as ifanxious not to be seen.
"Well, what d'ye think of the nerve of that?" ejaculated Bobolink, makinga move as though in his impetuous way he was sorely tempted to chaseafter the disappearing figure of the unknown; only that the more cautiousJack threw out a hand, and caught hold of his sleeve.
"Never mind him, boys," remarked the son of the lumber man. "Perhaps itwas only a tramp from the railroad, after all, meaning to find a place tosleep among the lumber piles. But I'm going to tell my father about it,all the same. Seems to me he ought to have some one like Hans stay hereevery night. Some of those hoboes will set fire to things, either byaccident, or because they are mad at the town for not handing enough goodthings out to suit their appetites."
They walked on, and in another minute were at the office door. There theysat down on the stoop to rest and talk; but only a few minutes had passedwhen they heard the sound of approaching footsteps; and a small but veryerect figure appeared, carrying an old-fashioned musket of the vintage of'61 over his shoulder.
"Hello! Hans, on time all right, I see!" called out Jack.
"Dot is me, I dells you, every time. I am punctuality idself. I sets meder clock, undt figure dot all oudt, so I haf yust der time to valk here.Der sooner you obens der door, Misder Jack, der sooner I pe on der chob,"was the reply of the little man who had been hired to watch the mill, andthose strange boxes, during the night.
Evidently Hans was "strictly business." He had been hired to watch, andhe wanted to be earning his wages as quickly as possible.
So Jack used his key, and the four entered the office. It was quite agood-sized room. The windows were covered with heavy wire netting, and itseemed strong enough to resist any ordinary degree of force. After thatattempt to rob his safe, Mr. Stormways had taken precautions against asimilar raid.
The watchman also carried a lantern, which he now lighted. No sooner hadthis been done than Bobolink uttered an exclamation.
"I reckon now, Jack, that these three big boxes are the ones theprofessor wants watched?" he observed, pointing as he spoke to severalcumbersome cases that stood in a group, occupying considerable space.
Tom Betts, also looking, saw that they were unusually well fastened. Inaddition to the ordinary nailing, they were bound along the edges withheavy twisted wire, through which frequent nails had been driven. Whenthey came to be opened, the job would prove no easy one.
"Yes, those are the ones; and Hans is to spend most all his time righthere in the office," Jack went on to say. "I'm going to ask my father ifhe ought not to hire you to be night watchman right along, Hans. Thisplant of ours is getting too big a thing to leave unguarded, with so manytramps coming along the road in the good old summer time. I suppose you'dlike the job, all right?"
"Sure," replied the bustling little man, his eyes sparkling. "I alwaysdid enchoy vorkin' for Misder Stormways. Undt it habbens dot yust now Iam oudt off a chob. Dot vill pe allright. I hopes me idt turns out so.Undt now, off you like, you could lock der door some. I stay me heretill somepody gomes der mornin' py."
"Oh! you keep the key, Hans," replied Jack. "You might want to chase outafter some one; but father told me to warn you not to be tempted to gofar away. You see, he's storing these cases for a friend, and it seemsthat somebody wants to either get at 'em, or steal them. They're whatyou're hired to protect, Hans. And now let us out, and lock the doorafter we're gone."
Anxious to get to the church before the meeting could be called to order,the three scouts did not linger, although Hans was such an amusing littleman that they would have liked nothing better than to spend an hour inhis society, listening to stories about his adventures--for the Dutchmanhad roamed pretty much all over the world since his boyhood.
"Shucks! I forgot to examine those boxes," lamented Bobolink, when theywere on the way past the end of the lumber yard.
Jack was glancing sharply about, wondering whether that tall, skulkingfigure they had glimpsed could be some one who had a peculiar interest inthe boxes stored in the office of the mill until Professor Hackett calledfor them; or just an ordinary "Weary Willie," looking for a soft board tosleep on, before he continued his hike along the railroad track.
But look as he would, he could see no further sign of a trespasser. Ofcourse that was no sign the unknown might not be within twenty feet ofthem, right then. The tall piles of lumber offered splendid hiding-placesif any one was disposed to take advantages of the nooks; Jack hadexplored many a snug hole, when roaming through the yard at varioustimes, and ought to know about it.
"Oh! I took care of that part," chuckled Tom Betts. "I saw you weretalking with Jack and old Hans, so I just stepped up, and walked aroundthe boxes. There isn't a thing on 'em but the name of the professor, andJack's dad's address in Stanhope."
"And they didn't look much like animal cages to me," muttered Bobolink;upon which both of the others emitted exclamations of surprise, whereuponthe speaker seemed to think he ought to make some sort of explanation, sohe went on hastily: "You see, Jack, I somehow got a silly idea in my mindthat p'raps this little professor was some sort of an animal trainer, andmeant to come up here, just to have things quiet while he did his littlestunts. But that was a punk notion for me, all right; there ain't anysmell of animals about those boxes, not a whiff."
"But what in the wide world gave you that queer notion?" asked Tom.
"Don't know," replied Bobolink, "'less it was what Jack said aboutthe professor writing up from Coney Island near New York City; that'sthe place where all the freaks show every summer. I've been downthere myself."
"Listen to him, would you, Jack, owning up that he's a sure enough freak?Well, some of us had a little idea that way, Bobolink, but we neverthought you'd admit it so coolly," remarked Tom Betts, laughingly.
"And the wild animal show down there is just immense," the other went on,not heeding the slur cast upon his reputation; for like many boys,Bobolink had a pretty tough skin, and was not easily offended; "and Iguess I've thought about what I saw done there heaps of times. So Coneystands for wild animal trainin' to me. But that guess was away wide ofthe mark. Forget it, fellows. Only whenever Jack here learns what was inthose boxes, he must let his chums know. It's little enough to pay fordraggin' a lame scout all the way out here tonight; think so, Jack?"
"I sure do, and you'll have it, if ever I find out," was the reply."Perhaps, after they've been taken away by the professor, my fathermightn't mind telling me what was in them. And we'll let it rest atthat, now."
"But you mark me, if Bobolink gets any peace of mind till he learns,"warned Tom.
Chatting on various matters connected more or less with the doings of theBoy Scout movement, and what a fine thing it was proving for the youth ofthe whole land, Jack and his chums presently brought up at the churchwhich had the bell tower; and where a splendid meeting room had beengiven over for their occupancy in the basement, in which a gymnasium wasfitted up for use in the fall and winter.
In that tower hung a big bell, whose brazen tongue had once upon a timealarmed the good people of Stanhope by ding-donging at a most unusualhour. It had come through a prank played upon the scouts by several toughboys of the town whose enmity Paul Morrison and his chums had beenunfortunate enough to incur. But for the details of that exciting episodethe reader will have to be referred back to the preceding volume.
Jack Stormways never glanced up at that tower but that he was forciblyreminded of that startling adventure; and a smile would creep over hisface as he remembered some of the most striking features connected withthe event.
In the big room the three scouts found quite a crowd awaiting theircoming. Indeed, it seemed as though nearly every member of the troop hadmade it an especial point to attend this meeting just as though theyknew there was somet
hing unusual about to come before them forconsideration.
As many of these lads will be apt to figure in the pages of this story,it might be just as well to listen to the secretary, as he calls theroster of the Stanhope Troop. Once this duty had devolved upon one of theoriginal Red Fox Patrol; but with the idea of sharing theresponsibilities in a more general way, it had been transferred to theshoulders of Phil Towns, who belonged to the second patrol.
RED FOX PATROL
1--Paul Morrison, patrol leader, and also assistant scout master.2--Jack Stormways.3--Bobolink, the official bugler.4--Bluff Shipley, the drummer.5--Nuthin, whose real name was Albert Cypher.6--William Carberry, one of the twins.7--Wallace Carberry, the other.8--Tom Betts.
GRAY FOX PATROL
1--Jud Elderkin, patrol leader.2--Joe Clausin.3--Andy Flinn.4--Phil Towns.5--Horace Poole.6--Bob Tice.7--Curly Baxter.8--Cliff Jones, whose entire name was Clifford Ellsworth Fairfax Jones.
BLACK FOX PATROL
1--Frank Savage, patrol leader.2--Billie Little, a very tall lad, and of course always called LittleBillie.3--Nat Smith.4--Sandy Griggs.5--Old Dan Tucker.6--"Red" Conklin.7--"Spider" Sexton.8--"Gusty" Bellows.
Unattached, but to belong to a fourth patrol, later on:
George Hurst."Lub" Ketcham.
Thus it will be seen that there were now twenty-six lads connected withthe wide awake Stanhope Troop, and more coming.
After the roll call, they proceeded to the regular business, with PaulMorrison in the chair, he being the president of the association. It wassurprising how well many of these boyish meetings were conducted; Pauland some of his comrades knew considerable about parliamentary law, andlong ago the hilarious members of the troop had learned that when oncethe meeting was called to order they must put all joking aside.
Many a good debate had been heard within those same walls since thescouts received permission to meet there; and yet in camp, when the rigiddiscipline was relaxed, these same fellows could be as full of fun andfrolic as any lads going.
Tonight it had been whispered around that Paul had some sort ofimportant communication to make. No one could give a guess as to what itmight be, although all sorts of hazards were attempted, only to bejeered at as absurd.
And so, while the meeting progressed, they were growing more and moreexcited, until finally it was as much as some of them could do to repressa cheer when Paul, having made sure that there was no other business tobe transacted, arose with a smile, and announced that he had a certaincommunication to lay before them.
"Are you ready to hear it?" he asked; "every fellow who is raisehis hand."
Needless to say, not a single hand remained unraised. Paul deliberatelycounted them to the bitter end.
"Just twenty-four; and as that is the total number present, we'll call itunanimous," he said, just to tantalize them a little; and then, with anair of business he went on: "Two splendid gentlemen of this town, by nameMr. Everett and Colonel Bliss, happen to own motorboats. As they havegone to Europe, to be away until late in the Fall, they thought it wouldshow how they appreciated the work of the Stanhope Troop of Boy Scouts ifthey offered the free use of their two boats to us, to make a cruisewherever we thought best during the balance of vacation time. Now, all infavor of accepting this magnificent offer from our fellow townsmensignify by saying 'aye!'"
Hardly had the words fallen from the speaker's lips when a thunderous"aye" made the stout walls of the building tremble.