Afloat on the Flood

Afloat, by Alan Douglas

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Title: Afloat or, Adventures on Watery Trails
Author: Alan Douglas
Release Date: February 1, 2007 [EBook #20499]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
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Produced by Al Haines

[Frontispiece: The track could plainly be seen but the trail ended
abruptly.]

AFLOAT:

or,
Adventures on Watery Trails
BY
CAPTAIN ALAN DOUGLAS
SCOUT MASTER

M. A. DONOHUE & COMPANY
CHICAGO :: NEW YORK

Copyright, 1917, by
The New York Book Co.

CONTENTS
I. THE RAIL BIRDS HEAR SOME NEWS
II. WHEN HEN CONDIT LEFT TOWN
III. A PROMISING CLUE
IV. JOHNNY'S CHICKEN THIEF TRAP
V. THE KNIFE WITH THE BUCKHORN HANDLE
VI. BOUND FOR SASSAFRAS SWAMP
VII. THE MISSING SKIFF
VIII. PICKING UP CLUES

IX. THE PERILS OF THE WATER LABYRINTH
X. THE SUSPICIOUS ACTIONS OF LANDY
XI. A NIGHT ALARM
XII. THE VALUE OF SCOUTCRAFT
XIII. HEN CONDIT'S STRANGE MESSAGE
XIV. BOUND TO SUCCEED
XV. WOLF PATROL PLUCK WINS
XVI. CONCLUSION

ON WATERY TRAILS
CHAPTER I
THE RAIL BIRDS HEAR SOME NEWS
"Elmer said we'd take a vote on it!"
"Yes, and tonight the next regular meeting of the Hickory Ridge Boy
Scout Troop is scheduled to take place, so we'll soon know where we
stand."
"Thith hath been a pretty tame thummer for the cwowd, all told, don't
you think, Lil Artha?"
"It certainly has, as sure as your name's Ted Burgoyne. Our camping
out was cut short, for with so many rainy days we just had to give it
up."
"Yeth, after three of the fellowth came down with bad cases of malarial
fever. The mothquitoes were so plentiful."

"That was some news to me to find out that a certain breed of
mosquitoes are the only ones that give you the malarial poison when
they smack you."
"Huh! I used to think all that talk was a silly yarn, too, Toby, but now I
put a heap of stock in the same," declared the unusually tall and thin
boy, who seemed to answer to the queer name of "Lil Artha;" he had
evidently been dubbed so by his comrades as an undersized cub, and
when shooting up later on had been unable to shake off the absurd
nickname.
"But here we've still got a couple of weeks left of our vacation, you
know," remarked the chap called Toby, "and it'd be just a shame to let
the good old summer time dribble away without one more whack at the
woods, and the open air life we all love so well."
"Toby, jutht hold your horthes!" exclaimed the one who lisped so
dreadfully, and whose name was Theodore Burgoyne, though seldom
called anything but Ted; "you let Elmer decide for the crowd. I'm dead
certain he'll lay out a joyouth plan at the meeting tonight that'll call for
the unanimous approval of every member of the troop to be found in
thith sleepy town these dog days."
"Hear! hear! Ted has got it down pat, let me tell you!" cried Toby Jones,
who in the bosom of his family was occasionally reminded that he had
once upon a time been christened Tobias Ellsworth Jones.
"Yes, you know our faithful and hard-working patrol leader to a dot,
Ted," added the long-legged scout, with a wide grin on his thin and
freckled face. "Trust Elmer Chenowith to think up a programme that
will meet with universal approval. But this is a pretty warm proposition
for a late August day. Let's sit in the shade a while, and cool off, while
we're waiting for Landy and Chatz to show up."
Accordingly the trio of boys in faded khaki suits, that looked as though
they had seen considerable service, proceeded to perch upon the
top-most rail of a fence at a point where a splendid oak tree threw its
wide-spreading branches over the road.

They were just outside the town of Hickory Ridge, and if you want to
know where this usually wide-awake place was situated it might be
well to refer to earlier books in this Series in order to ascertain all the
interesting particulars.
These three lads belonged to the local troop of scouts, just then in a
most flourishing condition. Under the leadership of Elmer Chenowith
the Wolf Patrol of the troop had accomplished so many unusual things
that a fever had taken possession of the town boys to become enrolled.
There was also the Beaver Patrol, with a full number,