The Boy Scouts on Picket Duty

The Boy Scouts on Picket Duty

Project Gutenberg's The Boy Scouts on Picket Duty, by Robert Shaler
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Title: The Boy Scouts on Picket Duty
Author: Robert Shaler
Release Date: July 19, 2004 [EBook #12946]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BOY
SCOUTS ON PICKET DUTY ***

Produced by Jim Ludwig

THE BOY SCOUTS ON PICKET DUTY
by Scout Master Robert Shaler

CONTENTS

CHAPTERS
I. The Mysterious Steamer II. A Contraband Cargo III. On a Lone
Scout IV. The Hut on the Beach V. Kidnapped by Smugglers VI. The
Flight of the "Arrow" VII. A Gathering of the Clan VIII. The Blazing

Beacon IX. Deeds in the Darkness X. The End of the Raid XI. Aboard
the "Arrow" XII. A Surprising Adventure

CHAPTER I
THE MYSTERIOUS STEAMER
In the wake of an easterly squall the sloop _Arrow_, Lemuel Vinton
master and owner, was making her way along the low coast, southward,
from Snipe Point, one of the islands in Florida Bay about twelve miles
northeast of Key West.
With every sail closehauled and drawing until the bolt ropes creaked
under the strain, the Arrow laid a fairly straight course toward Key
West. She bore a startling message, the nature of which her captain had
considered of sufficient importance for him to prolong a cruise he had
undertaken and to hasten back to the port whence he had sailed,
twenty-four hours previously, to inform the authorities.
The sloop had not sped far from the Point, and the receding shore line
had scarcely grown dimly blue on the horizon under a peculiar
yellow-gray sunrise, when Captain Vinton's crew began to make their
appearance on deck. The crew consisted of five Boy Scouts, an older
companion who was in charge of them, and a Seminole Indian guide,
called Dave, who had been hired to conduct the boys on a brief
exploration of the Everglades. Four of the boys belonged to a troop of
scouts who had their summer headquarters at Pioneer Camp, far away
among the New England hills. They had, however, formed a resolution
to spend the present summer not at Pioneer Camp, where most of their
younger comrades would be, but in seeing some new sections of their
native land. To this end, three of them---Hugh Hardin, his chum Billy
Worth, and Chester Brownell---had gladly accepted an invitation from
the fourth, Alec Sands, to spend a month at Palmdune, the Florida
residence of Alec's father, who had sent them on this cruise. With them
Mr. Sands had sent his secretary, a young man named Roy Norton, who
had left them temporarily at Key West while he attended to business in
Havana. When he had returned from Havana, he had found a new

member of the party---Mark Anderson, the son of the captain of Red
Key Life-Saving Station.
The Arrow had been anchored off Snipe Point during the previous night,
where Captain Vinton had gained the information which made him
decide to return to Key West. This knowledge, which he had already
imparted to the boys, was to the effect that throughout the night before,
while he and Dave alternately watched, he had seen a gray steamer or
perhaps a gunboat cruising among the islands off the Point,
occasionally coming close enough to the beach to be made out
distinctly, but showing no lights and making no signals.
Immediately his suspicions had been aroused by this mysterious action.
His impression was that the vessel belonged to a country which was
then hostile to the United States. In that case she was either grappling
for the cable between Key West and the mainland terminus at Punta
Rossa, which lay close inshore at Snipe Point, or was trying to make
connection with some other vessel carrying supplies or ammunition
from some West Indian port, perhaps intending to run the blockade.
Why she should attempt to tamper with the cable, he could not
understand, knowing the superior efficiency of the wireless system; but
he thought she might be one of the elusive filibustering vessels reported
to have been seen in the Gulf of Mexico several days before this.
Stories about these mysterious vessels had caused official orders to be
sent to Tampa and to Galveston, Texas, concerning the departure of
several transports with American troops. And Captain Vinton himself
had almost encountered a notorious filibuster named Juan Bego, one
night during the earlier part of this pleasure cruise; that is, he had
sighted a vessel which he felt sure was