Boy Scouts on Picket Duty Page 11

  CHAPTER XI

  ABOARD THE "_ARROW_"

  It was not until the second day of the voyage back toward Santariothat Hugh felt quite himself again. The nervous strain of hisexperiences as a captive would have been enough to exhaust him,and in addition he had suffered real buffeting and hardship atthe hands of his captors.

  Dave stretched a hammock for him on deck at the captain's orders, andthere Hugh spent nearly the entire first day of the homeward trip.

  The other boys and Norton diverted his few waking hours with storiesand riddles and simple games, and Captain Vinton, himself, contributedmore than one tale from his store of recollections.

  "Tell you what, boys," the old captain said as he concluded one ofhis yarns, "we fellers these days meet with a few excitin'experiences now and then, but to get some idea of what lively timeson the water may be, go back to John Paul Jones and his day, or evento the sea fights of '62."

  "Have you read much of the history of those days, captain?" inquiredRoy Norton interestedly, while the boys leaned forward to hear thereply.

  "Son," said Captain Vinton in answer, turning to Alec Sands, hisblue eyes alight with a keen expression, "Son, go to my cabinand bring me an old, worn book from the shelf there: 'Famous AmericanNaval Commanders,' it is called."

  Until Alec's return, the captain looked out over the water withfar-seeing eyes, and the others, watching him, wondered what stirringscenes his imagination was picturing to him just then.

  He glanced up as Alec handed him the volume of naval history andgrasped it with the firm gentleness of a true book lover. He turnedit over thoughtfully, straightened its sagging covers, opened andclosed it several times, and finally spoke:

  "Thar's the answer to yer question, Norton," he said. "And that'sonly one of about a dozen hist'ries I've got on my old shelf.When times is dull or I'm waitin' fer a party who've gone intothe Everglades, or when the _Arrow_ is lyin' off shore in a deadcalm, then I start in at the first page of the book that happenster be on the end of the shelf, and I live over the old days ofthe privateers, when it meant somethin' to sail the seas."

  "Who is your _biggest_ hero?" asked Mark as the captain paused.

  The old man smiled humorously before he answered.

  "Wal', my biggest hero," he said, "is the littlest hero on recordas a sea-fighter, I guess. Like Napoleon Bonaparte, his bigness wasnot in his body but in his mind. And that's Paul Jones of the_Bonhomme Richard_."

  As the captain pronounced the name of his hero, he struck his wornbook a resounding slap, and his jaws clicked in emphasis of hisstatement.

  "Can't you tell us something about him?" asked Chester, fascinatedby the old captain's earnestness.

  "That's the ticket---I mean, please do," endorsed Billy heartily.

  "No, I can't do that," was the deliberate reply, as the captain roseto relieve Dave at the tiller, "but you can all borry the book andread the historian's account of the battle between the _Serapis_and the _Bonhomme Richard_. I git so excited when I read that,I hey ter go put my head in a pail o' water to cool it off! Fact!You know that's whar the cap'n of the _Serapis_ calls out: 'Hevye struck?' And John Paul Jones shouts back: 'Struck! I am justbeginnin' ter fight!'"

  As Captain Vinton straightened his rounded shoulders and deliveredthis emphatic quotation, he shook his fist at an imaginary enemyand then brought it down hard on the railing. Then he grinnedsheepishly.

  "You see how 'tis," he said, laughing at himself as he moved away."Guess I'll hev ter stop talkin' or go fer that pail o' water!"

  The boys, left to themselves, discussed the theme that the captain'swords had suggested, and were rather ashamed to see how vague theirknowledge of the famous battle was. So, at Alec's suggestion,Norton agreed to read the account of the fight as given in thecaptain's book; and grouped about Hugh's hammock, the boys listenedeagerly.

  "That makes our experiences on picket duty seem tame in comparison,"said Alec, commenting on the story when Norton had closed the book.

  "We were not all on the firing line," replied the young man, smiling."I'll venture to say that Hugh did not find his share at all tame."

  Hugh smiled and nodded ruefully as his mind flew back to his dangeroussituation as a captive of the desperate filibusters, and he felt thathe could understand a little of what it meant to be in the thick ofthe fight.

  "Me, too," exclaimed Billy, shuddering at a sudden recollection."I haven't told you fellows that I came near having my ear shotoff, that time the other night when I was separated from the restof you for a while. Excuse me from anything nearer real battle firethan that!"

  Just at that moment, a soft, regular thump-thump-thump from the deckbehind Hugh's hammock made all the boys turn quickly.

  There stood Dave, skillfully flinging gayly colored hoops over a postat some distance from him.

  "Oh, ho! A game of ring-toss, is it?" cried Chester, rising eagerly."Say, boys, let's form rival teams and have a tournament."

  "Good!" echoed Billy. "The Pickets versus the Pirates!"

  "That sounds exciting!" called Hugh, sitting up in the hammock. "Countme in on that, boys. Guess I can get up long enough to take my turnnow and then."

  "Let Dave and Mr. Norton choose sides," suggested Alec, "Dave forthe Pirates and Mr. Norton for the Pickets."

  "Hurrah!" cried Mark. "On with the game!"

  In less time than it takes to tell it, Dave, grinning broadly at hisprominence, and Norton, entering into the contest with his usualspirit of enthusiasm, had chosen sides and a list was hastilywritten and posted on the cabin wall as follows:

  Pirates vs Pickets

  Dave Norton

  Hugh Billy

  Chester Alec

  Mark Captain Vinton

  "Oh, but I can't play!" protested the captain. "I've got my handsfull with the _Arrow_!"

  "We'll take turns and spell you at the helm," returned Norton."All hands on board are enlisted in this fight."

  Pleased at his insistence, the old captain yielded the wheel wheneverit came his turn to toss, and he proved to be an adept at the game,to everybody's delight.

  Norton and Dave had agreed that the contest should consist of fivecomplete rounds, giving just twenty opportunities to each side.Only the total successful tosses would determine the winning score,but the best individual records would decide who should be theteam captains in subsequent games.

  The fun of the thing entered into every one of the contestants, yetnot one of them failed to put his best efforts into the game.

  "Now we'll see some accurate shooting," called Billy as Hugh tookthe rings for his fourth turn.

  "No fair trying to rattle me," returned Hugh, laughing good-naturedly."I'm still the interesting invalid."

  "Hush!" whispered the irrepressible Billy quite audibly. "Don't saya word, boys! It might shake his nerve, you know, and he mightsuffer a relapse!"

  "You teaser!" commented Hugh, beginning his play.

  One after another, Hugh steadily tossed the rings over the post.

  "Pshaw! You can't disturb him," ejaculated Alec. "He is as calmas the sea is just now."

  "Five!" counted Chester softly. "Six! You put every one over thistime, Hugh. Billy's jollying just inspired you!"

  "And now it is his turn," said Hugh, returning to his hammock. "Nowwe shall see something!"

  Billy flushed a little, grinned, set his teeth, poised his bodyfirmly, and then swung into the position of the famous "disk thrower."

  Thump! The first ring struck the deck a good foot beyond the post,rebounded, and rolled rapidly toward the railing.

  Roy Norton stopped it with his foot and called, "Steady, Billy!Take your time."

  Thump! The second ring, tossed more cautiously, dropped at leastsix inches in front of the goal.

  Thump! Thump! Thump! Three more landed in quick succession, drapingthemselves gracefully against the standard that upheld the post.

  "One more, Billy. Make this one
count," coached his captain urgently.

  By this time, Billy's face was scarlet and his hand shaking. He tooka long breath, fixed his eye on the top of the slender post, andtossed the ring desperately. It fell well to the right of the goaland rolled up against Dave's feet.

  Dave quickly stooped to pick it up, trying to hide the wide smilethat parted his lips.

  Billy's scout friends made no attempt to be so polite. Pickets andPirates alike, they burst into a roar of laughter.

  Captain Vinton, his weather-beaten face wrinkled into a dozenhumorous lines, called out:

  "Billy, words is sometimes like a boomerang---they fly back and ketchye, ef ye don't watch out!"

  And so the contest progressed; now luck favored the Pirates, and againCaptain Vinton's skill brought up the uncertain score of the Pickets.

  At the end of the final round, however, Dave's team had a cleanbalance of ten counts over the combined records of the Pickets, thewinners showing a total of ninety-five successful throws out of apossible one hundred and twenty.

  Captain Vinton had the best individual score, securing twenty-sixout of a possible thirty points, while Hugh, thanks perhaps toBilly's inspiring comments, stood next with a record of twenty-four.

  The sun was setting redly over an almost calm sea as the gameswere finished. Dave, beaming at the success of his team, vanishedwithout urging and soon the welcome odors of supper cooking werewafted to the eager nostrils of the hungry boys.

  That evening they all gathered around the old captain as he sat atthe helm and guided the lazily-moving craft, begging him for anothertale from his own reminiscences or from his favorite history.

  "Wal', boys," agreed the captain at length, "I'll tell you aboutone sea fight that I almost witnessed myself. Fact is, I was alittle too young to be thar, but my father was mighty nigh bein' inthe thick of it, and I've heard him tell the tale a hundred times efI hev once.

  "It was in March, '62," the captain resumed after a little pause."The North was consid'rably stirred up over rumors of how theConfederates hed raised the _Merrimac_ and made out of her a terribleironclad vessel, warranted to resist all ord'nary attacks. Thenthese rumors were followed by news of the destruction of two sailin'frigates, the _Cumberland_ and the _Congress_.

  "The Union forces were pretty uneasy when they heard what hedhappened off Hampton Roads, but they were all pinnin' their faithto a little new ironclad just built on Long Island and alreadyspeedin' south ter meet the _Merrimac_. My old dad, servin' onthe _Roanoke_, was lucky enough to see both them craft:---thebig, clumsy _Merrimac_, all covered with railroad iron and smearedwith grease, and the nifty little _Monitor_, that they said lookedlike 'a cheese box on a raft'!

  "Wal', 'course you boys hev all read about what happened when thelittle fellow steamed out ter meet the big fellow, the day after thefrigates were destroyed.

  "Fer four hours, Dad said, the two ironclads jest pestered each otherwith hot fire, but the shot and shell slid off them like water from aduck's back. The little _Monitor_ darted around the big _Merrimac_like a bee buzzin' round a boy that had plagued it.

  "Thar wa'n't no great harm done---except that Lieutenant Worden, whowas in command of the Monitor, got hurt by the bits of a shell thatdrove into his face---but the little ironclad hed proved two things.Fust, that she could hold her own; and next that the day of woodenvessels in naval warfare was over.

  "As you boys know, warships now-a-days are all ironclad. Folks heycalled 'em 'indestructible,' but I guess thar ain't no sech wordallowable any more. Between the new explosives and the airships---wal',they say we ain't heard the last word yet, by a long shot!"

  The old captain rose as he spoke, shaking his head thoughtfully andgazing out over the sea and into the sky.

  "Wal', boys, off to yer bunks now! We'll hev a fairly calm night, butthar'll be wet decks to-morrow!"

  CHAPTER XII

  A SURPRISING ADVENTURE

  The captain's prophecy was literally fulfilled, and the boys had noopportunity for fairweather games the next day. Instead, clad inoilskins, they lounged about the wet decks, watching the captain'sskillful handling of the boat, ringing the big fog bell when theatmosphere grew thick, and clinging to the railing when the slooppitched and tossed restlessly on the heaving sea.

  Dave retired as usual in rough weather into sullen silence, comingon deck most reluctantly only when his services were demanded bythe captain.

  Late in the day, the storm increased to a gale of some littleviolence, and the captain decided to make for the nearest harbor.He had hoped to reach the home haven that night, but his policywas to meet disappointment rather than to run risks.

  "Mebbe I hev a surprise up my sleeve fer you boys," Captain Lem said,his eyes twinkling as he saw their long faces on hearing the newsof delay. "Wouldn't mind addin' a little excitement ter the end ofthe trip, would ye?"

  "We're aching for it," returned Billy promptly. "This has been anawfully long day, you know, captain."

  "Wal', ef I've got my bearin's all right, we'll spend the evenin' ina right cheerful place. That's all I kin say now, but you boys gocollect your belongin's, so's we kin land fer the night ef mycalc'lations hold good."

  Just as the early darkness of the rainy night shut down over therolling sea, the boys discovered a gleaming light, high and steady,not far off toward the Florida coast.

  "Jimmy!" cried Billy excitedly. "Bet the captain is going to take usto a lighthouse for the night!"

  "Can't be your uncle's light, Mark, where we saw the spongers on theway down," commented Chester thoughtfully. "We're too near home forthat."

  "I have an _idea_---" began Hugh slowly.

  "And so have I!" interrupted Alec, glancing at Mark.

  At that moment, Roy Norton began to ring the fog bell under thecaptain's directions.

  "Ding! Ding! Ding, ding, ding!" resounded the heavy iron tongue.

  There was a pause, and then the signal was repeated. A longersilence followed and again the slow, clear signal was twice repeated.

  By this time, the captain had guided his dauntless little vesselinto slightly quieter waters, although she still pitched and tossedin a way that would have alarmed a "landlubber."

  Then came a new sound, louder than the noise of the pounding waves,deeper than the clang of the iron bell.

  "Boom! Boom! Boom, boom, boom!" An answering signal had broken thesilence where the steady light shone.

  Mark started, as though recognizing the sound.

  "Why, that-----" he began bewilderedly, "that is the signal gun atRed Key! Captain, are you signaling to my father?"

  "Jest so," Captain Vinton replied. "Keeper Anderson knows my knockon his door!"

  "How shall we land?" asked Chester excitedly, as he saw Dave makingready to drop anchor.

  At that moment a rocket went streaking up toward heaven and a secondlater a slender rope fell writhing across the deck, where Roy stoodswinging a torch.

  "Hurray!" called Hugh, seizing the rope just as Norton, at thecaptain's orders, also grasped it. "Hurray! It's the breechesbuoy!"

  It will be recalled by those who followed the adventures of "_TheBoy Scouts of the Life Saving Crew_," that Hugh and Billy, Chesterand Alec had been at the Red Key Station on the night of a thrillingrescue. They had accompanied and in a slight way assisted thelife-savers on their patrols, at the launching of the life boat,and in the final use of the breeches buoy.

  It was most exciting to return to the scene of their memorableexperience in this unexpected fashion.

  The boys hauled willingly on the rope and soon it was taut, the oddconveyance swinging by the deck railing.

  "You go first, Mark. While yer father knows my knock and realizesthat I didn't give my danger signal, still he may be a mite anxiousto see you, knowin' you was comin' home with me on the _Arrow_."

  Obeying the captain's directions and grasping his waterproof bundleof clothes, Mark thrust his legs into the breeches buoy, the signalwas given, and the trip through t
he waves began.

  Soon the strange vehicle was back again, and this time Chester,buttoning his oilskins about him closely, was ordered ashore.

  In a brief time Hugh, and then Billy, Alec, and Norton had followedthe others.

  Meanwhile, Captain Vinton, with Dave's help, had made everythingshipshape on board the _Arrow_. Then, sending Dave shoreward inthe breeches buoy, the captain himself, true to tradition, waited tobe the last to leave his ship.

  Although they had not encountered a moment of real danger, the boyshad been given an experience of actual rescue. When Captain Vintonjoined them on shore, they greeted him enthusiastically and thenstood back to watch his meeting with Keeper Anderson.

  The latter grasped the captain's hand in a hearty grip.

  "Good for you, Lem, you old sea-dog!" cried the keeper. "You didn'tscare us any and it was great fun for my boy and his friends. Markhas gone in to see his mother---she'll be some surprised---and totell her to fix up some hot coffee and things for you 'survivors.'"

  "Haw! haw! haw!" laughed the old captain. "This was the easiestshipwreck I ever managed to survive! He! he! he!"

  In great good nature the two men walked toward the keeper's house,while the boys followed, eagerly renewing their acquaintance withthe stalwart men of the life-saving crew.

  Roy Norton was an interested observer, and when he, too, had met Mrs.Anderson and Ruth, and heard the story of their first excitingencounter, he no longer wondered at the boys' enthusiasm.

  That night the crowd slept, as four of them had before, in hastilyarranged shakedowns; and when morning dawned, they looked out upon asea so blue and sparkling they could scarcely realize that it wasthe gray, angry, heaving expanse of the night before.

  The _Arrow_ dipped and rose jauntily on the sapphire water, givingno sign that she, too, had spent a restless night pulling and tuggingat her deeply embedded anchor.

  After an early breakfast, the four boys said their farewells to Markand Ruth and their parents, and, with the captain and Norton, wentout to the _Arrow_ in boats manned by members of the life-saving crew.

  Not many hours later, they reached Alec's home in Santario, andthere they found Mr. Sands, waiting a little anxiously for theirsafe return. He had learned from the morning papers that theprevious night's storm had been severe at sea, and he had notknown how or where the _Arrow_ might have weathered the gale.

  When he had been told of the "rescue" off Red Key Life SavingStation, he exclaimed impatiently, "Why in the name of sense, didn'tyou telephone me from Red Key? Here I have spent many hours inneedless anxiety."

  The boys looked at one another in silence.

  "It simply never occurred to us that we were back within communicatingdistance," replied Alec at last. "We haven't seen or heard atelephone since we left home."

  "And really, Mr. Sands," said Roy Norton quickly, "when you hearwhat strange, unusual experiences the boys have had, you will notwonder at their forgetting the convenience of a little, every-daymatter like the telephone. For myself, I offer no excuse. Ishould have been more thoughtful. But I, too, have dropped thecustoms and responsibilities of home life about as thoroughly ashave the boys, I am afraid."

  "That is all right, Norton," said Mr. Sands. "I spoke hastily,for my nerves were a little frazzled.

  "Now, boys, make yourselves comfortable and clean, and then come outon the veranda and tell me the tale of the exciting trip."

  It was an eager quartette of boys who responded to this invitation;and when they finally started to relate their experiences, Mr. Sandsfound it necessary to hear them in turn in order to get any clearidea of connecting events.

  At length, however, he had followed them on their trip south, inimagination; had seen the panting tarpon on the deck of the _Arrow_;had taken the winding waterways into the Everglades; had encounteredthe revenue cutter and the filibuster; had watched through a nightof adventure with the scouts on picket duty; and had finally swungsafely through the dashing waves to the Life Saving Station.

  "Well, boys, I little thought when I put you aboard Captain Lem'ssloop for a little cruise south that you would see so much varietyand excitement. But if you are not sorry, I am not. You are allhome again, safe and sound, and none the worse for your experiences.Take it easy, now, for the rest of your stay here and have the besttime you can."

  This advice the boys were not at all reluctant to follow. For a dayor two they lounged about the broad piazzas in hammocks and easychairs, reading books from Mr. Sands' well stocked library or fromAlec's own bookshelf.

  On the second evening of this quiet home life, however, Billy'suneasy spirit led him to say:

  "Fellow scouts, I move you, sirs, that we take to the road. My hikingmuscles are aching for use. We have sailed and paddled and motored.Now I propose, sirs, that we tramp."

  "Second the motion!" echoed Chester.

  "What do you think of the idea, Alec?" asked Hugh, turning to theiryoung host. "Will your father think we are ungrateful guests if wego off for a day or two so soon after the cruise?"

  "We'll plan a trip," replied Alec readily, "and submit the schemeto him to-night. If he has no objections, we will telephone Markand ask him to join us, and perhaps Norton can go along, too."

  Alec's suggestion was carried out, and Mr. Sands not only approvedthe plan but added interest to it by producing some excellent roadmaps and proposing a tour of adventure.

  "Suppose," said he, "instead of traveling as one company, you divideyour forces, three of you taking one route and three another toyour night's camping place. Here is a good spot to camp,"indicating it on the map, "and I will send the machine there withthe essential supplies so that you can 'hike' without being heavilyburdened. How does that strike you?"

  "As being far better than our first plan," applauded Billy.

  The other boys agreed enthusiastically, and the details were promptlyarranged.

  Early the next morning, as the arching sky and gray waters began totake on a rosy glow from the approaching sunrise, the automobile shotout of the driveway between the palms and down the shell road in thedirection of Red Key, carrying Alec and Chester to meet Mark Anderson.

  The whir of the motor drowned the twitterings of the awakening birds,but could not dull the fresh odor of the jasmine, nor the beauty ofthe flowering vines and dew-wet hedges.

  Even Chester was stirred by the "newness" of the whole world.

  "Cripes, Alec, as Captain Vinton would say, this morning air and theview are worth crawling out at an unearthly hour to enjoy!" heexclaimed. "That ocean looks about a million miles wide, too; youcan't even tell where the sky begins."

  "There is Mark!" was Chester's next comment as the machine swungaround a curve that had hidden an intersecting road.

  "'Morning, Mark," called Alec in greeting as the two boys jumped outof the car to join the waiting lad. "Now we're off!"

  He turned to the chauffeur, assuring himself that the man understoodthe directions for reaching their camp with supplies late thatafternoon, and then fell into step with the other scouts for theirall-day hike. Beneath their feet the broken shells of the roadcrackled, overhead the towering palms waved, near the roadside thestiff grass bent noisily in the breeze, and around them momentarilyday grew clearer and brighter.

  As the morning advanced and the boys strode on nearing the pine woods,robins and bluebirds, shrikes and chewinks greeted them; and as theystopped for luncheon near a broad, open trail in the barren woodlanda buzzard sailed above the tree-tops and peered at them curiously.

  In the meantime Norton, Hugh and Billy had started promptly twentyminutes after the departure of the machine. Billy was in highspirits and declared that he scented adventure in the air. Foran hour, however, nothing occurred to disturb the peaceful swayof Nature, and Billy was about to abandon his attitude of expectation.

  Suddenly the stillness was broken by the uneven rattle of rapidlymoving wheels over the shell road. Then the clatter of pounding hoofsfurther shattered the silence.


  "It comes!" shouted Billy dramatically. Around a bend in the roadcame a galloping white horse, old and lean, dragging at its heels areeling hurdy-gurdy cart.

  Billy sprang for the horse's head. Almost at his touch the oldcreature stopped submissively.

  "The poor old nag is all in," said Billy sympathetically, pattingher quivering neck.

  Meanwhile Hugh and Roy Norton had righted the music cart, and Hughimpulsively seized the handle of the machine and turned it to testits condition.

  "Hi---yi---yi!"

  A dark-skinned foreigner came into sight, running toward them downthe road.

  He frowned at them darkly and dashed up to the old horse, swinginga short whip threateningly. Before the lash could fall on thestill trembling beast, however, Hugh and Billy had sprung simultaneouslyupon the man.

  "None of that!" cried Hugh, wresting the whip from the man's grasp.

  The infuriated foreigner turned upon him with an avalanche of rapidwords, struggling to break away from his captors.

  At that Norton stepped into view before him. With a few gestures,a few faltering Italian and French words, and with great calmnessand good nature, he managed to tell the man that his wagon was safe,and that the boys were willing to let him go if he would not beatthe poor, tired, old horse.

  Norton's manner, more than anything else, impressed the angry man.His scowls gave way to a pleasant expression and he noddedsmilingly. The boys stepped back and the hurdy-gurdy driver busiedhimself at once, testing the harness and wheels and even pattingthe thin old nag.

  Then he climbed upon his seat and gathered up the reins. Hughpicked up the fallen whip and handed it to him. The dark foreignersmiled suddenly and, reaching over, put the whip into its socket.Then, clucking to his horse, he moved slowly down the road.

  "Well, what do you think of that?" cried Billy, puzzled at thesudden capitulation.

  "That?" returned Norton. "That is a bit of southern Europe---tempestand sunshine, rage and child-like faith combined."

  "Like a small boy, he needed to be managed," said Hugh, "and youknew how to do it."

  With a new respect for Roy Norton, the two scouts joined him againon their inland hike. But they did not forget the incident, nor didthey fail to relate it that evening to the other three boys, whomthey found already established at camp around a blazing fire.

  The next morning the returning parties exchanged routes for thehomeward trip, but nothing more exciting was encountered thanglimpses of orange groves, of pine barrens, of cypress swamps,and of numberless birds.

  But their "hiking muscles" had been well exercised and they feltnearer to the heart of Florida because of their long tramp.

  There were a number of letters waiting for the boys, some from theirhome people and others from the scouts who were enjoying the"Geological Survey" at Pioneer Camp. These the boys shared, eagerlydiscussing the news and wondering what plans would be made for thefall and winter.

  Some of the things that actually did happen the following fall arerelated in "The Boy Scouts of the Flying Squadron."

  THE END