CHAPTER XXVII.
THE WIGWAG TELEGRAPH.
Thad now devoted himself to the task of communicating all he had to sayto his second in command, and as briefly as possible. Time was a factorin the affair; and it would not pay to waste more minutes than wereabsolutely necessary. The full particulars must be kept, to thrill thepatrol as they sat around the next blazing camp-fire, each one tellinghis individual part of the story.
Fortunately Thad and Allan had long been practicing this exchange offlag signals together; and in this way had become fairly expert in theuse of the little telegraphic code that takes the place of thedot-and-dash of the wire process. With but his handkerchief to use inplace of the flag, Thad knew he would be hampered more or less; but hehad faith in the ability of his chum to grasp the truth, once he caughtan inkling of the peril that threatened.
And now Allan was signaling that he understood the chief wished to sendan important message, which he was ready to receive.
So Thad commenced by asking:
"Who have you close by to send with a message to Rockford?"
Allan asked him to repeat; and no wonder, for he could not exactly graspsuch an astonishing query; but on its being waved again he repliedpromptly:
"Giraffe, Bumpus; other two gone signal station beyond."
"O. K. Send Giraffe at once. Tell him to make it as fast as he can. AtRockford get Chief Police at Faversham on 'phone; name MalcolmHotchkiss. Tell him all that happened to us, about bear men, and thatone of them asked Davy to let chief know if he saw footprint of markedshoe around. Believe that man on island, and that he is thief wanted byauthorities. How?"
This last was the query they understood between them. It meant that thesender wished to know if the burden of his message was being fullysensed by the one at the receiving end.
"O. K. Tremendous! Go on!" came the immediate reply.
Such long messages took more or less time, and would have beenimpossible only that in their enthusiasm the two scouts had abbreviatedthe code, so that they were able to really exchange sentences in ashort-hand way.
Thad went on to give the other more knowledge, believing that Giraffeought to be posted up to a certain point, so that he could urge theChief of the Faversham police to hasten his movements; for if nightfell, without the hidden men being captured, they could get away undercover of darkness.
"Davy gone ashore behind floating log. Just landed at end of lake.Thought of this scheme after he left. Man with owner of bear we believeto be officer of law, looking for these rascals. Let Giraffe have yourcompass. Give him map I left in tent. Our boat taken, and we can't getashore, for Smithy not able to swim. Let all practice for day drop, andkeep in camp, ready to take another message."
Then Thad made the winding-up movement that told Allan he did not wishto consume more time by further talk. Enough had been sent in thistedious way to let the other know the main facts of the matter; and theywere surely startling enough in themselves, without the particulars thatwould follow later on, when peace had settled over the camp.
He saw that Allan understood the need of haste; for as soon as he hadmade that peremptory signal, the second in command commenced going downthe slope of the hill with the bald top, taking great leaps as he went.
Eagerly did Thad watch his progress. Once, in his haste, Allan trippedand fell headlong; and Thad's heart seemed to be in his mouth with thesuspense; but immediately the other scrambled to his feet again. Hisfirst thought must have been of the chum whose eyes he knew were gluedupon him; for he made a reassuring wave of his arm, and resumed hisdownward progress, a trifle more carefully now.
Presently he vanished among the trees that grew about two-thirds of theway up, and Thad saw only occasional glimpses of him from that momentonward; as the flying figure flashed across some little gap in theverdure-clad hillside; never failing to wave his arms reassuringly tothe watcher.
"He must be nearly down at the base now," Thad said to himself, aftersome time had elapsed since he saw any sign of the hurrying scout.
Knowing what was apt to follow, he kept his ears on the alert forwelcome sounds which would tell that Allan had given the recall to thetwo scouts sent to the distant station, with their relay of flags, inorder to receive and send messages.
A minute, two, three of them glided away. Thad was beginning to feel atrifle uneasy, not knowing but that some further accident might havehappened to Allan, in his eagerness to reach the foot of the hill.
But his fears proved groundless. Presently there floated distinctly tohis ears, for water carries sounds wonderfully well, the sweet notes ofthe bugle which Bumpus Hawtree knew so well how to manipulate. It wasthe "assembly" that was sounded, and those distant scouts, upon hearingthe well-known signal, would surely understand its tenor; and that forsome reason the plans of the day had undergone a decided change, so thatthey were to return forthwith to the camp.
Sweeter sounds Thad believed he had never heard than those that camestealing over the troubled surface of Lake Omega that morning, whenaffairs were beginning to have such a serious look for the Silver FoxPatrol.
He gave a sigh of relief. Some of the strain seemed to have departed,now that his signaling task had apparently been successfully carriedout.
"In a short time, Giraffe will be starting across for the road leadingto Rockford," Thad was saying to himself, as he sat there in his loftyeyrie, and surveying the whole island that lay bathed in the sunlightbeneath him. "With a fair amount of good luck he ought to get there byhalf-past one, perhaps much earlier; for Giraffe is a fast runner, andhas staying powers."
The prospect was of a character to give Thad infinite pleasure. Andsomehow he seemed also greatly delighted because he had been able tohurry matters along in a wonderful manner, thanks to the knowledge heand Allan possessed of this Signal Corps work.
"Why, it's already paid us ten times over for all the trouble we tookto learn the code," he was saying to himself, between chuckles. "Andbesides, it was only fun, learning. Smithy was right when he said thisBoy Scout business was the best thing ever started in this or any othercountry to benefit fellows. And I'm glad I had that idea of starting atroop in sleepy old Cranford, so far behind the times."
Just then he happened to remember that he was not alone on the island.Smithy would be getting quite anxious about him by now; and Thadconcluded that he ought to hunt the other scout up, so as to relieve hismind.
He had read enough of the character of the new tenderfoot scout to feelcertain that Smithy would obey orders to the letter. Told to wait on thelittle pebbly beach until his superior officer joined him, he would staythere indefinitely; just as another lad, known to history and fame,Casibianca, "stood on the burning deck, whence all but him had fled,"simply because his father had told him to remain there.
So Thad commenced to descend from his lofty perch, meaning to huntSmithy up, and not only relieve his natural suspense, but reward him forhis long vigil by relating the result of the exchange of signals.
That the new recruit would be deeply interested, he felt sure; foreverything connected with the scouting business had a fascination forSmithy; now living an existence he may have dreamed about in formerdays, but really never hoped to personally experience.
Just then the loon, floating and diving out on the bosom of the watersomewhere, had to give vent to his idiotic laugh. Possibly he had beenobserving the watcher in the dead tree-top, and was announcing hisopinion of such silly antics when he noticed Thad begin to descend.
The sound struck a cold chill to the heart of the boy, though he laughedat himself immediately afterward for allowing such a feeling to comeover him.
"It's only the loon," he said, as he again slipped from limb to limb,constantly nearing the base of the tree. "I suppose the thing's beenwatching me all the time, and wondering what under the sun a fellowcould be doing, waving his old handkerchief around as though he weredaffy. He looks on me as a lunatic, and I know him to be a loon."
Chuckling at his little joke, Tha
d presently reached a point where hecould hang from the lower limb by his hands, and then drop lightly tothe ground.
He waited only a minute to recover his breath, for after all the comingdown had been more of a task than the mounting upward. Then he startedfor the shore of the lake, and the little beach that had witnessed bothlandings of the invading parties of scouts.
Twice now had that same beach afforded a surprise as unwelcome as it wasunexpected, when the boat had vanished so strangely. Thad hoped historywould not feel bound to repeat itself. True, they no longer had a boatto lose, since it had already disappeared; but then, there was Smithy!
As he drew near the beach, he tried to discover the form of his comradesomewhere in the open, but without success. Still, Thad knew that thetenderfoot would doubtless consider it the part of wisdom to hide, whilewaiting for his comrade to finish his work aloft, and join him.
Thinking thus, and yet with an uneasiness that he could hardlyunderstand, Thad kept on, until presently he had broken through the lastline of bushes, and stepped out on the little sandy stretch of beach.
Certainly Smithy was not in sight. He turned in both directions, andswept the half circle of brush with an anxious gaze.
Then he called in a low tone, but which might easily have been heard byany one chancing to be hiding behind that fringe of bushes:
"Smithy, hello!"
There was no answer to his summons. The loon laughed again out on thelake, as though mocking his anxiety; a squirrel ran down a tree, andfrisked about its base; but the tenderfoot scout seemed to have vanishedas utterly as though the earth had opened and swallowed him up.
The Boy Scouts' First Camp Fire; or, Scouting with the Silver Fox Patrol Page 27