The Boy Scouts of the Flying Squadron | Page 2

knew of it,
but no one had been able to coax Bud to let them share his confidence.
When the time came that Bud could not contain his secret any longer,
he had gone to the leader of his patrol and confessed. At the same time
he managed to interest Hugh to such an extent that the other promised
to go off with him during the few days of grace granted by the school
authorities around "turkey-eating time" in late November, so as to give
his new invention at least a fair trial.
And this was why they had started so soon after the annual big dinner,
which fact in itself spoke volumes for the grit and determination of the
two lads. Few boys would have been in condition to walk three miles
during the balance of the day.
They knew one fellow at least, Billy Worth, also a Wolf scout, who
was so fond of eating that doubtless at this very moment he was
stretched out at full length on the sofa in his den at home, trying to
figure how ever he could partake of supper after disposing of such a
stupendous amount of turkey and fixings.
In the previous stories of this series, the reader who may have been
fortunate enough to peruse them has come to know both Hugh and Bud
pretty well. They have been followed through many adventures
calculated to prove their worth as scouts, and, taken on the whole, it
will be admitted that in most cases the boys carried off the honors. In
the Wolf patrol, as well as among the Otters, Hawks, and Foxes, there
were other lads who were also animated by the same sort of progressive
spirit, and who never allowed an opportunity to improve their minds or
to broaden their knowledge of Nature escape them.

After taking up their heavy burdens again, Hugh and his comrade
walked on for some time through the woods. The leaves were well off
the trees, though the oaks still held their brown mantle, being the very
last to shed their summer coat. It had frozen quite hard for several
nights previous, and some of the town boys had cherished vague hopes
that there might be ice for the Thanksgiving holidays, a custom that
used to prevail years before, according to the accounts given by their
parents. As yet, however, only a covering an inch or so thick had
settled on the ponds, and of course the running river showed no signs of
congealing, so that skating would have to be postponed to a later date.
Around the two scouts there lay a complete wilderness of trees. Had
they searched high and low it is doubtful whether they could have
found a more lonely spot within twenty miles of home.
Stormberg Mountain, on which many of their previous adventures had
taken place, reared its peak on the right; and Rainbow Lake was within
two miles of their present location. In selecting this place for their little
outing, Bud had probably figured that the chances of their being
disturbed or spied upon by any of the curious town boys would be very
slight. And, like all modest inventors, Bud was very shy about showing
off until he could be certain that he had actually something worth
talking about to display.
The sun had seemed to hesitate upon the horizon, but now it took a
sudden dip below the earth's rim, and Bud exclaimed:
"Say, did you see the sun just slide out of sight then, as though he was
ashamed to leave us in the dark? This place has all grown up since I
was here last, so I hope we'll get to the shack before night really sets
in."
"We will all right, Bud, so don't worry any," laughed Hugh, whose aim
it seemed to be to take things as philosophically as possible, especially
when they could not be changed. "Right now I'm beginning to
recognize some familiar things around us. There is that chestnut that
has thrown out three young suckers. When it gets big, it will make a
land-mark worth talking about. I noticed it the last time I was through

these woods."
"Yes, like as not," grumbled Bud, who was very tired, "if the old
chestnut bug that's killing all the trees in the next county doesn't get up
here next year and put the kibosh on our fine nut trees for keeps. Oh!
look at that rabbit spin out of that brush pile! He's on the jump, let me
tell you! Hugh, I'm beginning to recognize some things around here,
too, that I remember must have been close to the shack. There's the
meadow clearing that I had in my mind when choosing to come away
up here to try out