The Boy Scouts of the Flying Squadron | Page 8

may be that we'll find the
time to look into this other business, too. If more shocks come that are
as bad as that one was, we're not apt to get much sleep to-night, boys."
"Then here's hoping they'll stay away," wished Bud. "Why, a few more
shocks like that would start all my joints loose, I do believe! Could that
have been a meteor bursting, do you think, Hugh?"
"Well, that's a new idea," admitted the other, "and one that didn't come
to me, I'll own up. A meteor can fall at any old time, day or night,
though we only see them shooting after dark sets in. When one of these
fragments of fused metal and slag does rush toward the earth and bury
itself in the ground, it makes just such a brilliant flash. Some say there
is a fearful crash when it strikes. Stranger things have happened, I take
it, Bud, than to believe that was a falling meteor of a pretty good size."
"But don't shooting stars generally fall in the summer time, Hugh?"
questioned Bud.
It had become a habit with most of the scouts to ask the Wolf leader

any and all sorts of questions, as though he might be looked upon as a
walking encyclopedia or dictionary; and it kept Hugh pretty busy
accumulating information in order to be well posted for these constant
demands on his time and patience.
"Yes, I believe the earth does pass through the greatest showers of
meteors in August, but then there are lots of them loose at any time.
I've read of some remarkable ones being dug out of the earth in various
places. If this should prove to be a big meteor and we could find where
it struck, it would be a feather in the caps of the scouts. Some old
professor would be hustling up this way as soon as we let them know at
Yale or Harvard."
"Then we'll try to find where it struck!" declared Ralph.
"It would be as bad as hunting for a needle in a haystack in all this big
wilderness," ventured Bud; "though there'd be no harm in our
trying,---that is, if I'm in any shape to go with you after I've had my
little innings."
Again did Ralph wear a puzzled frown as he heard Bud make this
significant remark. He must have wondered more than ever what it
could possibly be that the other had conceived this time. On other
occasions his efforts, while ambitious, had ended in smoke, and the rest
of the boys often quizzed poor Bud most unmercifully on account of
his shortcomings. But then, all great inventors must make a beginning.
It is not expected that genius can take the saddle at one bound.
Persistence counts more in such cases than anything else.
The fellow who has faith in himself is apt to get there in the end, no
matter what grievous disappointments waylay him on his course; that is,
if he really amounts to more than a flash in the pan. Bud sometimes
comforted himself with reflections along this order. He was not easily
cast down, and that counted for a good deal.
The three scouts sat in the shack crosslegged, like so many Turks, and
chatted busily as time passed on. Ralph was easily induced to speak of
his various experiences when he used to trap in this same neighborhood

during past winters. He had run across a number of strange things that
were well worth telling; and Hugh especially showed the keenest kind
of interest in all he had to say.
Bud, like most promising candidates among those destined to become
truly great, had a habit of forgetting that there were others present
besides himself. He would fall into a reflective mood and knit his brow
as though wrestling with grave problems, upon the solving of which the
fate of nations depended.
Ralph knew all about the habits of foxes, mink, otter, weasels, muskrats,
raccoons, 'possums and divers other small fur-bearing animals such as
give up their warm coats for the purpose of keeping ladies' hands and
necks comfortable during wintry blasts. He had had many amusing
experiences with some of them, and as the scout patrol leader never
wearied of learning interesting facts at first hand, Ralph was kept busy
talking and answering questions, until considerable time had slipped by
and there was Bud yawning as though threatening to dislocate his jaws.
"Guess we'd better be thinking of bunking down for the night,"
suggested Hugh. "Did you fetch a blanket along with you, Ralph?"
"Well, I'm too old a hand to be caught napping in the woods without
thinking of the night that is coming," replied the other, laughing at the
same time. "Over in the corner you'll