CHAPTER XII
WHERE NO FOOT HAS EVER TROD
"Now whatever do you suppose made that racket?" demanded Seth.
"Sounded just like a feller getting drowned, and with his mouth halffull of water. But I don't believe it could have been a human being, doyou, Paul?" and Eben turned to the one in command of the troop.
"No, I don't," returned the scoutmaster, promptly. "More than likely itwas some sort of a bird."
"A bird make a screechy sound like that?" echoed the doubting Eben.
"Some sort of heron or crane. They make queer noises when they fight, orcarry on in a sort of dance. I've read lots of things about cranes thatare hard to believe, yet the naturalists stand for the truth of theaccounts."
Paul started off again, as though not dismayed in the slightest by thestrange squawk, half human in its way. And his example spurred theothers on to follow in his wake, so that once more they were makingsteady progress.
"I wouldn't care so much," grumbled Fritz, as he trailed along, "if onlyI had a gun along. But it's tough luck to be smooching through a placelike this, where a sly old cat may be watching you from the branchoverhead, and your trusty Marlin hanging on the nails at home."
"They say you always see plenty of game when you haven't got a gun; andso I guess we'll run across all sorts of things, from bobcats toalligators!" Paul went on to remark, whimsically, but there was onescout who chose to take his words seriously, and this was Noodles.
"What's that about alligators?" he called out from his place at the rearof the little procession. "Blease don't dell me now as we shall somereptiles meet up mit pefore we finish dis exblorations. If dere iss onething I don't like, worser as snakes, dose pe alligators. I would goacross der street to avoid dem. You moost some fun pe making when yousay dot, Paul?"
"Sure I am, Noodles," replied the scoutmaster quickly, "because thereare no alligators or crocodiles native to the state of Indiana. Ibelieve they have a few lobsters over in Indianapolis, but they don'tcount. But the chances are we will run across some queer things beforewe get out of this place."
"What gets me," remarked Jotham, "is the way the thing came on us. Why,we'd just about said that we'd like to explore the old swamp, fromcuriosity if nothing else, when that balloon hove in sight, and settleddown where we'd have to push right into the center of the place to findthe man who was hanging to the wreck."
"Well, we had our wish answered on the spot, didn't we?" questioned thepatrol leader, "and it came in such a way that we couldn't well backout. So here we are, up to our necks in business."
"I only hopes as how we won't pe up to our necks in somedings elsepefore long," came a whine from the rear, that made more than one fellowchuckle.
A number of times Paul stopped, for one reason or another. Now it wassome little imprint of animal feet that had attracted his attention inthe harder mud at the side of the narrow ridge he was following; thenagain he wanted to listen, and renew his observations.
Seth was watching him closely. Somehow he was reminded of that grizzledold carpenter whom he had observed, when the addition was being put totheir house, and who, after measuring a board three blessed times, andpicking up his saw, made ready to cut it in twain, when, possessed of anidea that he must not make a miscalculation, laid down his saw, and wentto work to measure it for the fourth time!
Paul was not quite so bad as all that, but he did like to make sure hewas right before taking a step that could not be recovered, once it wasgone.
"There's one thing sure," Seth could not help remarking, after he hadwatched Paul for some time, and noted how confident the other seemedwith every forward step that was taken.
"What might that be, Seth?" demanded Babe Adams, when the other paused.
"If that feller I talked with, the one that hunts muskrats around herein the season, had been just half as smart as Paul, he never would alost hisself in the swamps, and come near starving to death."
"So say we all of us!" added Jotham.
"That's as neat a compliment as I ever had paid me, boys; though Ihardly think I deserve it, yet. Wait and see if we get lost, or not. Theproof of the pudding's in the eating of it, you know. Talk is cheap andbutters no parsnips, they say. I like to _do_ things. But honestlyspeaking, I believe we're getting through this place pretty smartly."
"But she keeps agettin' darker right along, Paul?" complained Noodles,taking advantage of a brief halt to pick up a stick and start to wipingthe dark ooze from the bottom of his trousers.
"That only means we're pushing steadily in toward the center; and I'mbeginning to lose my fear about getting there. Perhaps, after all, itmay be an easy thing to put our feet where those of no other white manhas ever trod."
Paul spoke with an assurance that carried the rest along with him. Thathad ever been one of his strongest points at school in the leadership ofthe class athletic and outdoor sports team.
It was getting more and more difficult for several of the scouts tofollow their leader. The narrow ledge had been bad enough, but when itcame to passing along slippery logs, with the water all around, and abath sure to follow the slightest mishap, Eben's nerve gave way.
"If it's going to keep up like this, Paul, you'll have to drop me out,because I just can't do it, and that's a fact!" he wailed, as he clungwith both hands and knees to an unusually slippery place, having losthis stick in making a miscalculation when trying to brace himself.
One of the other fellows recovered the staff, and then Eben was assistedacross. Paul had been expecting something like this, and was not verymuch surprised. He felt pretty sure there was another who would welcomean order to stay there on that little patch of firm ground, and wait forthe return of the rest.
"Well, I was just thinking of leaving a rear guard, to protect our lineof communications," he proceeded to say, gravely, but with a wink towardSeth and Fritz, "and as it will be necessary for two to fill theposition, I appoint Seth and Noodles to the honorable post. You willtake up your position here, and if anybody tries to pass you by withoutgiving the proper countersign, arrest him on the spot."
"Which spot, Paul?" asked Noodles, solemnly.
"Well, it doesn't matter, so long as you stay here and guard our line ofretreat. And boys, keep your eyes on the watch for signals. Perhaps wemay have to talk with you by smoke signs. So you can amuse yourselves bypicking up some wood, and getting ready to start a smoky fire, onlydon't put a match to it unless we call you."
"All right, Paul," returned Eben, taking it all in deadly earnest,although the other fellows were secretly chuckling among themselves."And then again, I've got my bully old bugle, in case I want to give youa call. Don't worry about Noodles; I'll be here to look after him."
"The blind leading the blind," muttered Seth as he turned his face away.
"There, you see now," broke in Fritz, "if we only had my gun along, Ebenhere could be a real sentry, and hold a feller up in the right way.Watch this second slippery log here, boys. You c'n easy enough pushanybody into the slush if he gets gay, and refuses to give thepassword."
Then he in turn also followed after Paul, leaving the bugler and Noodlesthere, congratulating themselves that they could be doing their fullduty by the enterprise without taking any more desperate risks.
And then when the six scouts had gone about fifty feet Eben was heardwildly shouting after them.
"Paul, O! Paul!" he was bellowing at the top of his voice.
"Well, what is it?" asked the scoutmaster.
"You forgot something," came the answer.
"What?"
"You didn't give us the password, you know; and how c'n we tell whetherany fellers has it right, when we don't even know."
Paul just turned and walked on, laughing to himself; and those whofollowed in his footsteps were shaking with inward amusement. EitherEben had taken the bait, and gorged the hook, or else he was having alittle fun with them, no one knew which.
However, all of them soon realized that Paul had done a clever thingwhen he thus
coaxed the two clumsy members of the patrol to drop out ofline, and allow those better fitted for coping with the difficulties ofthe slippery path to go forward; because it steadily grew worse insteadof better, and neither Eben nor Noodles could have long continued.
Why, even Fritz began to feel timid about pursuing such a treacherouscourse, and presently he sought information.
"Don't you think we must be nearly in the heart of the old bog, Paul?Seems to me we've come a long ways, and when you think that we've got togo back over the same nasty track again, perhaps carrying a wounded man,whew! however we are going to do it, beats me."
Paul stopped long enough to give a tree a couple of quick upward anddownward strokes with that handy little tool of his, and then glance atthe resulting gash, as though he wanted to make sure that it could beseen a decent distance off.
"Well, that's a pretty hard question to answer," he replied, slowly. "Inthe first place, we don't know whether the man fell into the heart ofthe Black Water, or over by the other side. Fact is, we haven't come onanything up to now to settle the matter whether he fell at all."
"Great governor! that _would_ be a joke on us now, wouldn't it, if wemade our way all over this beastly place, when there wasn't any aeronautto help? We'd feel like a bunch of sillies, that's right!" burst outFritz.
"But we acted in good faith," Paul went on to say, positively. "Weweighed the matter, and arrived at the conclusion that he had fallensomewhere in here; and we agreed, _all of us_, mind you, Fritz, that itwas our duty to make a hunt for Mr. Anderson. And we're here on theground, doing our level best."
"Ain't got another word to say, Paul," Fritz observed, hastily, "youknow best; only I sure hope it don't get any worse than we find it rightnow. I never did like soft slimy mud. Nearly got smothered in it once,when I was only a kid, and somehow it seems to give me the creeps everytime I duck my leg in. But go right along; only if you hear me sing out,stop long enough to give me a pull."
"We're all bound to help each other, don't forget that, Fritz," saidSeth. "It might just as well be me that'll take a slide, and go squashinto that awful mess on the right, or on the left. Don't know whether toswim, or wade, if that happens; but see there, you can't find any bottomto the stuff."
He thrust his long Alpine staff into the mire as far as it could go; andthe other scouts shuddered when they saw that so far as appearanceswent, the soft muck bed really had no bottom. Any one so unfortunate asto fall in would surely gradually sink far over his head, unless he wererescued in time, or else had the smartness to effect his own release byseizing hold of a low-hanging branch and gradually drawing his limbs outof the clinging stuff.
Then they all looked ahead, as though wondering what the prospect mightbe for a continuance of this perilous trip which had broken up theirgreat hike.
"I guess it's about time to make another try with a shout or so, Fritz,"said Paul, instead of giving the order for an advance.
"All right, just as you say," returned the other, "we've come quite somedistance since we made the last big noise; and if he's weak and wounded,yet able to answer at all, p'raps we might hear him this time. Line uphere, fellers, and watch my hands now, so's all to break loosetogether."
It was a tremendous volume of sound that welled forth, as Fritz wavedhis hands upward after a fashion that every high school fellowunderstood; why, Seth declared that it could have been heard a mile ormore away, and from that part of the swamp half way out in eitherdirection.
Then they strained their ears to listen for any possible answer. Theseconds began to creep past, and disappointment had already commenced togrip hold of their hearts when they started, and looked quickly,eagerly, at one another.
"Did you hear it?" asked Fritz, gasping for breath after his exertionsat holding on to that long-drawn school yell.
"We sure did--something!" replied Jotham, instantly, "but whether thatwas the balloonist answering, Eben or Noodles calling out to us, or somewild animal giving tongue, blest if I know."
And then, why, of course five pair of eyes were turned on Paul for theanswer.
Boy Scouts on a Long Hike; Or, To the Rescue in the Black Water Swamps Page 12