The Banner Boy Scouts Afloat | Page 2

Betts.
"Well, I should say, yes. Between us we got seven fine bass, and a
pickerel. By the way, I caught that pickerel; Paul, he looked after the
bass end of the string, and like the bully chap he is divided with me;"
and the boy who limped chuckled as he said this, showing that he could
appreciate a joke, even when it was on himself.

About everybody in town called him Bobolink; and what boy could do
otherwise, seeing that his real name was Robert O. Link?
As the trio of lads were all dressed in the khaki suits known all over the
world nowadays as typifying Boy Scouts, it could be readily taken for
granted that they belonged to the Stanhope Troop.
Already were there three full patrols enlisted, and wearing uniforms;
while a fourth was in process of forming. The ones already in the field
were known as, first, the Red Fox, to which these three lads belonged;
then the Gray Fox, and finally the Black Fox. But as they had about
exhausted the color roster of the fox family, the chances were that the
next patrol would have to start on a new line when casting about for a
name that would stamp their identity, and serve as a totem.
An efficient scout master had been secured in the person of a young
man by the name of Mr. Gordon, who cheerfully accompanied the lads
on their outings, and attended many of their meetings. But being a
traveling salesman, Mr. Gordon often had to be away from home for
weeks at a time.
When these lapses occurred, his duties fell upon the shoulders of Paul
Morrison, who not only filled the position of leader to the Red Fox
Patrol, but being a first-class scout, had received his commission from
Headquarters that entitled him to act as assistant scout master to the
whole troop during the absence of Mr. Gordon.
"How did you like it up on the Radway?" continued the one who had
made the first inquiry, Jack Stormways, whose father owned a lumber
yard and planing mill just outside the limits of the town, which was
really the goal of their present after-supper walk.
"Great place, all right," replied Bobolink. "Paul kept calling my
attention to all the things worth seeing. He seems to think a heap of the
old Radway. For my part, I rather fancy our own tight little river, the
Bushkill."
"Well, d'ye know, that's one reason I asked how you liked it," Jack

went on. "Paul seemed so much taken with that region over there, I've
begun to get a notion in my head he's fixing a big surprise, and that
perhaps at the meeting to-night he may spring it on us."
"Tell me about that, will you?" exclaimed Bobolink, who was given to
certain harmless slang ways whenever he became in the least excited,
as at present. "Now that you've been and gone and given me a pointer, I
c'n just begin to get a line on a few of the questions he asked me. Well,
I'm willing to leave it to Paul. He always thinks of the whole shooting
match when trying to give the troop a bully good time. Just remember
what we went through with when we camped out up on Rattlesnake
Mountain, will you?"
"That's right," declared Tom Betts, eagerly; "say, didn't we have the
time of our lives, though?"
"And yet Paul said only today that as we had so long a time before
vacation ends this year, a chance might pop up for another trip,"
Bobolink remarked, significantly.
"Did, eh? Well, don't that go to prove what I said; and you just wait till
we get back to the meeting room in the church. Paul's just bursting with
some sort of secret, and I reckon he'll just have to tell us to-night," and
Jack laughed good-naturedly as he still led his two comrades on toward
the retired lane, where his father's big mill adjoined the storage place
for lumber; convenient to the river, and at the same time near the
railroad, so that a spur track could enter the yard.
Besides these three boys five others constituted the Red Fox Patrol of
Stanhope Troop. In the first story of this series, which appeared under
the name of "The Banner Boy Scouts; Or, The Struggle for
Leadership," the reader was told about the formation of the Red Fox
Patrol, and how some of the boys learned a lesson in scout methods of
returning good for evil; also how a cross old farmer was taught that he
owed a duty to the community in which he lived, as well as to himself.
In that story it was also disclosed how a resident of the town offered a
beautiful