CHAPTER VII
JACK DANBY'S PERIL
Tom Binns was in no condition to go to the Scout camp opposite BeaverDam, and he was taken back to the city by one of the railwaydetectives. Jack Danby was going home with him, but Tom wouldn't hearof it.
"They'll be wondering why we didn't turn up after our hike, and maybethey'll think there's something wrong with us," he said. "You go on tothe camp, Jack, and explain. I'll be all right, sure, tomorrow."
So Jack, reluctantly enough, for he felt, in a way, that he wasdeserting his plucky little comrade, got off the train at Beaver Dam,and rowed across the lake to the twinkling fire that showed where therest of the Scouts were gathered.
He was welcomed with a shout.
"But where's Tom Binns?" cried Pete Stubbs finally, when they realized,suddenly, that the little fellow wasn't with them.
Then Jack explained. He told of the accident that had turned out, inthe end, to be so fortunate a happening, since, had it not been forTom's twisted ankle, they would never have reached the station, and thetrain might have been wrecked, with a terrible loss of life.
"So we couldn't finish our hike tonight, of course," said Jack. "We'lldo it the next time, though. And a week or so doesn't make muchdifference."
A tall, bearded man, with a slouch hat, was sitting with Scout-MasterDurland at the fire, and at Jack's last words he turned to theScout-Master with a smile.
"I think you can afford to waive the strict letter of the rule thistime, Durland," he said. "These boys of yours have certainly provedtheir right to be regarded as First Class Scouts. I don't know thatthere's any special badge of merit or honor, except the one forlifesaving, that they are entitled to, but I shall make it my businessto see that the Scout council takes some action on the heroism of ScoutDanby."
Then Jack learned that the stranger was a member of the National ScoutCouncil, one of the highest officers of the organization, and a manfamous all over the world as a pioneer and a worker for the things thatthe Boy Scouts stand for.
"You think that Scout Danby is entitled to his badge, then?" saidDurland, unsmiling, and, at the other's quick nod, he called Jack up tothe center of the group around the fire, and pinned the full Scoutbadge, of which Jack had thus far been wearing only the bar, to hisbreast.
"You have earned this badge by close attention to duty, and by beingalways prepared," said the Scout-Master, while the Scouts of the threePatrols cheered the reward. "We are all proud of you, Danby, and weknow that you will never do anything to bring discredit upon yourbadge, nor do anything that is not strictly in accordance with theScout oath that you took when you were first enrolled as a TenderfootScout."
There was another burst of cheering at that, and all of the Scouts whowere present crowded up to shake hands with Jack and congratulate him.Dick Crawford was one of the first, and gripped Jack's hand heartily.
"I guess you'll get a big reward out of the railroad," he said."That's a splendid thing for you, Jack. You can use it to go tocollege, if you want to. They ought to be generous."
"The detective did say something about a reward, Dick, but I'dforgotten all about it for the moment. It will be divided up among TomBinns, Hudson and myself, of course, if there is one. But I wasn'tthinking about that."
"I know you weren't, Jack, but that's no reason why you shouldn't haveit. It wouldn't be right to do a fine thing just because there was areward, but that's no reason why you shouldn't take it. You helped tocapture those fellows, and the chances are that they are well-knownthieves, who are wanted for more than one crime."
"The detective recognized them, I think, Dick. He called them by name,and seemed to know all about them. I suppose men who would dare to tryto do a thing like that must be old stagers. No man who was committinghis first crime would try anything so fiendish as wrecking a train andtaking the chance of killing a lot of innocent people, do you think?"
"I should say not! And there wasn't any chance about it, either. Ifthe train had been wrecked, going at sixty miles an hour or so, as itwould have been, if it was late, and trying to make up lost time, therecouldn't have been any result but a terrible wreck."
"I wonder if there were only three of them?" said Jack, thoughtfully."I've been thinking since that there may have been others in the gangthat weren't caught. There must have been someone to set the blockadefor the train, and I don't believe those fellows we caught had time todo everything. They had to put Hudson out of the way, you see, andkeep him from using the telegraph to give warning. I've got an ideathere was at least one other man in it, and maybe more than that, whodidn't show up in the station at all."
"Well, if that's so, you'd better look out for yourself, Jack, in casethey try to get even with you for spoiling their little game. They'dbe apt to try to take that out of you."
"Perhaps they won't know I had anything to do with it. And, anyhow,I'm not sure there was anyone else mixed up in it. That's only a guessanyhow."
"I'd be careful, just the same. Don't go around alone at night--thoughyou'll be safe enough in the city, I guess, unless some of those peoplethat were mixed up in that kidnapping case get after you."
"They haven't anything more against me, or any more reason to be soreat me, than at anyone else that was concerned in the whole job, anyhow.But I'll keep my eyes open. I'll be glad to turn in pretty soon. I'mpretty tired."
"I should think you would be. I am myself, and I haven't done as muchas you."
Soon after that sentries were posted, and the Scouts, wrapped in theirblankets, were all asleep in their lean-tos. Jack's sleeping partner,Tom Binns, was not there, so he slept alone, on the edge of the camp,and some distance from the campfire.
Tired as he was, he did not get to sleep at once. Out on the lakepuffing motor boats, running back and forth from the big summer hotelat the head of the lake to the cottages that were clustered near thedam, made the night noisy. Those people were late risers and they wentto bed late as well. There was a dance at the hotel, and it was wellattended. So the sharp beat of the engines of the little boatsdisturbed those who were trying to sleep. Jack was so tired, too, thatit was hard for him to get to sleep.
He kept thinking of everything that had happened at Haskell Crossing,and of the desperate minutes in which, while he knew the fate that wasin store for the onrushing train, he had been powerless to prevent thecatastrophe that threatened. And then suddenly, while he was halfasleep and half awake, he remembered something that had escaped himbefore, something he had seen and that had been recorded in his brain,although it was only now that the picture stood out vividly and withmeaning.
There had been three men in the room with Hank Hudson and Tom Binnswhile he had waited at the window and spied upon them. And three menhad returned, after he had seized the chance to give the warning thathad saved the train. But they were not the same three. He rememberednow, with a sudden flash of clear understanding that one of the threehad been a stranger--that of the three who were caught, one was a manhe had not seen before.
He started up in his blanket.
"Then there _were_ four of them!" he cried, half aloud. "And one ofthem is free, and able to plan new deviltries. I wish they'd caughtthem all!"
But even that thought, disturbing as it was, did not keep him awakemuch longer. As he lay there, his tired body resting with the very actof lying down, he grew gradually more drowsy, and he drifted off asleepat last with the humming of a power boat on the lake beating againsthis ears.
He slept a long time. The camp was quiet. In the distance an owlhooted now and then, and until long after midnight the sounds ofactivity persisted on the lake. The moon had risen early, and wassetting soon after midnight, so that it was very dark under the trees,though out on the lake, once the shadow of the trees around the shorewas passed, the stars gave abundant light. And, because he was sotired, and trusted so entirely to the sentries, Jack had no thought ofwatchfulness when he fell asleep, and slept more heavily than was usualwith him w
hen he was in camp with the Scouts.
The sentries were posted on all sides of the camp, as a rule, but noone had foreseen the need of any watch on the side of the camp nearestthe lake. Yet it was from that spot that danger came, in the end.
It was two o'clock when a launch, with silenced engine, glided up tothe beach near the camp, as silently as a rowboat might have done, andgrated softly on the shelving beach. One man, slight and delicate inappearance, was at her wheel, and from the bow, as she touched bottom,another stepped out into the water and made his way cautiously, and inroundabout fashion, toward the sleepers. He was big, strong, andmassive. His face was concealed, or nearly concealed, by a black maskthat hid his eyes and his nose and he walked with the stealthyfootsteps of one long used to avoiding detection as he moved about hisbusiness. He seemed to know what he was doing, and where to go, andone might have guessed that he had been spying on the camp, to learnthe way in which the sleepers were disposed. He avoided the lean-tosnear the fire, and, sneaking back and around through the woods, heapproached Jack Danby's lean-to from behind.
For a moment, silent and ominous in the darkness, he stood there,studying the situation, as it seemed, and making up his mind just howto accomplish his purpose. Then, drawing a handkerchief from hispocket, he took the cork from a small bottle and poured its contents onthe handkerchief. At once a strong, sickly, sweetish smell arose,unhealthy, and unpleasant, in contrast to the strong, fresh smells ofthe sleeping woods. Holding this handkerchief in his hand, thenewcomer, a savage grin of ugly satisfaction on his lips, approachedJack Danby, and, with a motion so swift as to be hardly visible, flunghis hand, with the handkerchief flat on his palm, over Jack Danby'sface.
Jack awoke at once and struggled for a second. But he could not cryout, and in a moment the handkerchief, soaked with chloroform, had doneits work, and he lay unconscious.
Jack was entirely helpless, drugged as he was, and, with a triumphantleer, the man who had drugged him picked him up, and, moving ascautiously as ever, carried him to the motor boat. But he hadunderestimated the watchfulness of the Scout sentries. At the sudden,sharp explosions of the engine as it was started, and the launch backedoff the beach, there was a sudden cry from one of the watchers, and ina moment his shrill whistle aroused the camp, so that a dozen Scouts,turning out hastily, saw the motor boat back out and turn, as if torace for the outlet at the foot of the lake, nearly ten miles away.
For a moment all was confusion in the camp. Awakened suddenly from asound sleep, the Scouts could not at first tell what had happened.
The sentry who gave the alarm had seen only the one thing--the motorboat backing out from the beach.
"It's nothing," said Bob Hart, sleepily. "Someone mistook this fortheir own landing, and, when they found out their mistake, backed outand went for their own cottage."
But Dick Crawford thought suddenly of Jack Danby.
"Jack!" he shouted. "Jack Danby!"
There was no answer, and a swift rush to his lean-to proved that it wasempty. Durland and Dick Crawford ran there together, and Durlandrecognized the smell of the chloroform at once.
"There's been foul play here!" he cried, furiously. "Someone hasdrugged Jack and carried him away."
He called for Crawford then, but the Assistant Scout-Master was alreadygone to the rescue.
"Get to the outlet as soon as you can!" he shouted, and they heard himbreaking through the woods to the road that was near by. "I'm goingthere on my wheel!"
Dick had ridden to the camp on his motorcycle, and now they heard thesharp clatter of its engine as he started it.
"If they're making for the outlet, he'll head them off," said Durland."Hart, take your Patrol and go up to the dam there, in case they wentthat way. The rest of you follow me. We'll take Crawford's route,and see if we can't get there in time to help him. I'm afraid Danby isin the gravest sort of danger."
They followed him with a shout, half dressed as most of them were.Jack Danby didn't lack friends, at least, even if he did have powerfuland determined enemies.
Boy Scout Fire Fighters; Or Jack Danby's Bravest Deed Page 7