The Boy Scouts on Picket Duty | Page 6

drawn up on the sand and moored by a line fastened to a palmetto, well
out of reach of the rising tide.
Behind him sparkled the ruddy camp fire with the recumbent figures of
the five scouts, Norton and the Indian grouped around it, and nearby
lay the neat little pile of provisions and utensils covered with a
tarpaulin. What matter if rain should chance to fall during the night?
They had brought light blankets and rubber ponchos from the sloop, so
they would be well protected.
Everything was safe and in order; he was satisfied and at peace with all
mankind,---even with the smugglers who had roused his righteous
wrath,---and his youthful companions were happy, enjoying the cruise
and their adventures.
So unpromising did the weather beyond the keys look, and so congenial
seemed the lagoon and this sheltered islet, the captain came to the
conclusion that it would not be amiss if they should linger there a day
or two longer than they had planned. After all, Alec's father had set no
time limit for the cruise and the boys were in no hurry to return to
Santario.

Thinking thus, he rejoined his crew around the fire and heard them
discussing a plan to take the dory and row out on the lagoon in the
morning, if it were not too rough, in the hope of catching some fresh
fish for breakfast. He assented to this plan, for he himself intended to
go aboard the Arrow the first thing on the morrow to look her over and
see how she had weathered the night. Wrapping himself in a blanket
and bidding the boys follow his example, he lay down beside the
embers and was soon asleep.
Hugh and Billy, lovers of surf-bathing, would fain have taken a dip into
the breakers before going to sleep; but Alec sensibly counseled them
against this.
"Wait till daylight If you shed your clothes now and go in, the
mosquitoes will eat you alive before you're dry again," he warned them.
"Besides, it's dangerous to go in around these shores in the darkness.
You might stumble into a hole or a sea-puss and be carried out to sea
before you knew what had happened. And Dave told me there are
sharks that-----"
"Oh, forget it!" laughed Billy. "We have no intention of furnishing
supper to a shark. Anyway, real, live, man-eating sharks are as scarce
as hens' teeth---almost."
Nevertheless, being overruled by Hugh, who saw the wisdom of Alec's
advice, he promptly abandoned the desire for a plunge; and, as he soon
learned, they did well to seek the protection of their smoke smudge, for
the mosquitoes were truly formidable. Even under the canopy of smoke,
these noxious insects darted viciously to bite and torment the campers.
Time and time again, the boys were awakened from sleep by the attacks
of these buzzing pests; but at last they grew more accustomed to such
onslaughts, and pulling nets closely around their limbs and faces, they
sank into deeper slumber.
* * * * * *
"The evening red, the morning gray Sets the traveler on his way. The
evening gray, the morning red Brings showers down upon his head."

Hugh whispered these words softly to himself when he awoke in the
dim twilight hour just before dawn. It was still too dark for him to
distinguish objects clearly, and for a moment he felt that queer
sensation of being lost, of not knowing just where he was---that feeling
which sometimes comes to one even in the most familiar surroundings.
At once, however, it left him, and the little rhyme crept into his mind
instead.
"Wonder why I waked up so suddenly?" was his silent query as he lay
there blinking up at the sky, watching the few visible stars grow pale
and paler. "Thought I heard some noise like distant thunder, very far
away, and then it changed into the sound of muffled oars, or the
tchug-chug-tchug of a motor boat. Then a voice said softly, 'It's a fine
morn---' Oh, pshaw! Must have been dreaming. Is anybody else
awake?"
He sat up and peered through the dusk. No, his companions were still
asleep, prone on the sand. The breeze had lessened and the nocturnal
insects had begun to take flight into the shadowy undergrowth,
retreating before the advance of day. Across the dark stretch of water
between this island and the mainland a flock of waterfowl flew
noiselessly and vanished over the dunes. The surf broke with
monotonous, soothing rhythm, stirring the silence with little waves of
sound.
"It must have been the surf I heard," Hugh thought, still trying to decide
what had roused him from sleep.
Quietly rising, so as not to disturb his friends, he stole down to the
beach and