The Boy Scouts Down in Dixie; or, The Strange Secret of Alligator Swamp

by Herbert Carter

  CHAPTER X. WAS THE MYSTERY SOLVED?

  "Oh! joy! joy!" cried Giraffe, upon hearing this great news.

  "Thad, we all look on you as a public benefactor!" Bob White chipped in;though thus far he had said very little about the annoyance the strangeodor was causing them; because he was a boy of few words as a rule; andthen again, he had not been compelled to remain in the same boat, orsleep under the same canvas as the scout on whose soiled garmentssuspicion had fallen.

  "The best news I've heard in many a long day!" declared Smithy.

  "Now!" was all Davy Jones gave utterance to, but the word was utteredwith what seemed to be almost savage satisfaction; and his eyes at thetime were turned full on poor Bumpus, who of course squirmed uneasily inhis seat by the fire, where he was fixing the coffee, and lookedunhappy, as well as anxious.

  "Please go on and tell us, Mr. Scout-master!" called out Step Hen; "ifthis old stuffy cold in the head I've got from Bumpus has kept me fromhaving the pleasure of enjoying the mystery with you all, I've sureheard enough grunting and complaining to excite my curiosity to thelimit. What's the answer?"

  "Gather around, then," said Thad; and they began to form a circle;"here, we want you too, Bumpus, so leave your coffee-making, while youlisten, and give your vote; for if the majority decides I'm right, wewon't be bothered any more with an unpleasant neighbor."

  "Say, I hope you don't mean to kill him?" remarked Davy, pretending toshoot a glance of brotherly commiseration in the direction of the fatscout; "or chase him out of the camp to herd by himself."

  But somehow Bumpus had taken new courage from what he heard Thad remark,and as he came shuffling up with the rest, he was saying to himself:

  "Huh! think you're smart, don't you, Davy Jones, but just wait. Who'safraid, anyway?"

  "All here, Thad!" sang out Allan, impatiently.

  "And waiting to hear the explanation of the mystery that's beenbothering the whole patrol--leastwise, all but Bumpus and Step Hen, whoain't any good just now at ferreting out things, because they do nothingbut blow, blow all day long," and Giraffe loomed head and shouldersabove the rest of his mates as he faced Thad.

  "Well, I'm going to pass it along now, and I want every one to take agood whiff, after which he is to give his opinion whether this is theoffending package or not."

  Saying this the scout-master picked up a stout paper bag that had beenlying at his feet, the top tied with a string, and handed it solemnly toGiraffe, who happened to be his next neighbor on the right.

  "Our fine onions!" gasped Step Hen, as he recognized the shape of thebag.

  Giraffe held the package up close to his nose, and seemed to draw in along breath, after which he gave utterance to the one expressive word:

  "Je_ru_salem!"

  "What do you say, Giraffe?" demanded the patrol leader, grimly, "guiltyor not guilty?"

  The elongated scout immediately wagged his head vigorously in theaffirmative.

  "About the same class of odor that's been bothering us right along,Thad, sure it is; and I just reckon you've been and run our troubledown. Them onions are getting old and soft, and everybody knows how rankthey are when that happens. Whew! who's next?"

  "Pass it along!" demanded Bob White at his right shoulder; "I'm a goodjudge of onions, and I'll soon settle this thing for you all."

  He too held the offending bag up near his nose; it hardly needed wordsto tell what his verdict was, for his face became screwed up in a mannerthat could only stand for condemnation.

  "Giraffe, I'm with you!" he observed, as he hastened to give the bag toSmithy, next in line.

  And so it went the rounds, even the grinning Bumpus being allowed tohave his chance at declaring what he thought.

  "Well, I should say it _was_ bad," the fat boy remarked, as he held itclose, and kept sniffing away vigorously. "If that's the stuff I don'twonder you fellows kept kicking up such a row about it. But it was meanto pick on me for nothing. I tell you these old clothes ain't so _very_tough after all. Maybe you'll get down on your ham-bones now, and tellme how sorry you all are. Maybe you'll be begging me to let you comeback in the boat with you, Giraffe; but don't bother, because I'm agoingto stick with Thad. He never took a mean advantage of me like some orthe rest did, just because I'm little and can't stand up for myself.Huh! who's so smart now, tell me?"

  Giraffe and Davy answered him not a word. No doubt, just then theyreally felt humiliated, as though conscience stricken, in that they hadaccused and condemned poor Bumpus without a hearing.

  "But what's going to be done about it?" asked Smithy. "We surely can'tthink of carrying those offensive onions along with us any more, afterall the trouble they've gone and made for us."

  "Course not, they've just got to go!" declared Davy, positively.

  Giraffe looked unhappy.

  "And me so fond of fried onions I always said I'd never be caughtcamping without some along," he whimpered, mournfully.

  "But you're the one that made the biggest fuss of the whole lot!" criedBumpus; "why, you even made _me_ nervous, and I was afraid my fightingblood would be worked up soon, if things kept on like they were. Sureyou couldn't vote to keep the old things, after Thad's found out whatthey stand for?"

  "I s'pose not, boys," replied the tall scout, sadly; "we'll have to dowithout the appetizing onion after this; but it's going to be hard onme. My appetite'll fall away, and you'll see me getting thinner andthinner every day."

  "Well, we can use you for a bread knife then," remarked Bumpus,composedly; "because if you grew much sharper than you are, that's aboutthe only thing you'd be good for. But if them onions smell so rank,what's the use of throwing the same away, when we'll be apt to knowthey're around all night. They ought to be put underground, don't youthink, Thad?"

  "That's a good idea, Bumpus; give me the camp hatchet, and I'll dig agrave over here, so we can have a regular burial. Form in line, fellows,for the ceremony."

  Entering into the spirit of the occasion the whole eight scouts formedinto a procession, and with Thad in the lead, bearing the hatchet in onehand, and the condemned bag of soft onions in the other, held as faraway from his nose as possible, they started to walk solemnly along,heading for a spot that the leader had picked out as suitable for theceremony of burial.

  And as they thus stalked along the boys began to chant in unison thatold song: "John Brown's body lies amouldering in the grave, as we gomarching on!"

  And so, with the hatchet a hole was speedily excavated, and theoffending object placed therein; after which the earth was hastilyscraped over, until six inches of soil rested upon the bag.

  "There, that's what I call a good job!" remarked Giraffe, with arelieved look on his face, as they started back to where the fire burnedmerrily. "It'll seem like another world, now that we won't have to keepsniffing around all the time."

  "Yes, and saying all sorts of mean things about my bully old suit that'sstood by me through thick and thin, until I've just come to love thesame!" Bumpus up and told the chief offender.

  "Oh! well, let it go at that, Bumpus," muttered the tall scout. "Afellow is apt to get on the wrong trail once in a while, you know; evenThad here will do that same. We thought we was right, and actedaccordingly. And now we'll give you a little rest, though we'd all beglad if you did make up your mind to change that greasy old suit foryour spic and span clean one. Guess you'll take a notion that way somefine day, won't you?"

  "Huh! keep on guessing!" grunted Bumpus; though he appeared to bewearing a perpetual grin, now that his innocence seemed to have been soamply proven.

  After this little incident preparations for passing the night werecontinued, the tents being raised, and the fire encouraged to reach thatstage where Giraffe and his assistant might have all the red coalsneeded in order to properly carry out the cooking operations as usual.

  Davy was wandering around, still eying Bumpus suspiciously, as thoughnot wholly satisfied in his mind that all the trouble was over; but
thefat scout had been vindicated at the hands of Thad, so what cared he ifDavy chose to show his poor judgment, when everybody else seemedsatisfied.

  Once Davy even wandered over to where the burial of the onions had takenplace, and with his foot scraped even more soil over the spot, as thoughhe wanted to be doubly sure they had confined everything in that hole.

  When the supper was finally ready it was a merry group that squattedaround, for Giraffe always felt particularly joyous when about tosatisfy his acute hunger, and on this particular occasion he believed hehad a double reason to rejoice, in that the food supply was bounteous,and a baffling mystery had been solved, so there would be no furtherreason for his keeping awake nights, trying to guess the answer, andmaking things unpleasant for poor Bumpus.

  They chattered about nearly everything under the sun, as they sat theremunching away at the repast; which consisted of breakfast bacon (as theyhad come to term the real stuff, since plain salt pork is called "bacon"in the South) fried potatoes, with just one onion cut up in the same, togive a flavor, and which Giraffe had saved from the wreck before theexplosion came; some toast made from the last loaf of bread they hadalong; cheese for those who liked it; some pork chops; and last but notleast, the usual coffee that did not seem to keep anybody awake, thougha number were not in the habit of drinking it save at breakfast when athome; but then lots of things are done with impunity in camp that no onedares think of when under his own roof-tree.

  "And after this, sweet balmy sleep!" said Smithy, who was somewhat givento spouting poetry, and showing a spirit of romance.

  "Yes," added Giraffe, "and we're all of us tired enough to enjoy a goodeight hour snooze, unless Thad wants us to keep watch and watch, which Ihope he won't."

  "And I do hope," remarked Bumpus, sweetly, "that I'll be able to crawlinto my bully old blanket and hit the straw, without hearing any coarseremarks about it's being time old suits of khaki that have stood thewear of time were called in!"