Tom Slade on Mystery Trail | Page 6

that's what has me worried. I want to go home from here an Eagle Scout. Gee, I don't want all my work to go for nothing."
"You want what you want when you want it, don't you?" Tom said, smiling a little.
"It's on account of my troop, too," Hervey said. "It isn't just myself that I'm thinking about. Jiminies, maybe I didn't choose the best ones, you know more about the handbook than I do, that's sure, and I suppose that one badge was just as easy as another to you. Maybe you think I just chose easy ones, hey?"
"Well, what's on your mind?" Tom said.
"Do you know where there are any wild animal tracks?" Hervey blurted out with amusing simplicity. "I don't mean just exactly where, but do you know a good place to hunt for any? A couple of fellows told me you would know, because you know everything of that sort. So I thought maybe you could give me a tip where to look. I found a horseshoe last night so maybe I'll be lucky. All I want is to get started on a trail."
"Sometimes there are different trails and they take you to the same place," Tom said.
No doubt this was one of the sort of remarks that Tom was famous for making which had either no particular meaning or a meaning poorly expressed.
Hervey stared at him for a few seconds, then said, "I don't care whether it's easy or hard, if that's what you mean. Is it true that there are wild cats up in these mountains?"
"Some," Tom said.
"Well, if you were in my place, where would you go to look for a trail? I mean a real trail, not a cow or a horse or Chocolate Drop's kitten. [Chocolate Drop was the negro cook at Temple Camp.] If I can just dig up the trail of a wild animal somewhere, right away quick, the Eagle award is mine--ours. See? Can you give me a tip?"
Tom's answer was characteristic of him and it was not altogether satisfactory.
"I'm not so stuck on eagles," he said.
CHAPTER V
WHAT'S IN A NAME?
"You're not?" Hervey asked in puzzled dismay. "You can bet that every time I look at that little old gold eagle on top of the flag pole I say, 'Me for you, kiddo.'"
"I like Star Scout better," Tom said, unmoved by his companion's consternation.
"Why, that means only ten merit badges," Hervey said.
"It's fun studying the stars," Tom added.
"Oh, sure," Hervey agreed. "But star and eagle, they're just names. What's in a name, hey? Is that the badge you meant that I forgot about? The astronomy badge?"
"No, it isn't," Tom said. "You're too excitable to study the stars. It's got to be something livelier."
"You've got me down pat, that's sure," Hervey laughed.
Tom smiled, too. "Well, you want the Eagle badge, do you?" he said.
"You seem to think it doesn't amount to much," Hervey complained.
"I think it amounts to a whole lot," Tom said.
"When I get my mind on a thing----" Hervey announced.
"That's the trouble with you," Tom said.
"There you go," Hervey shot back at him; "you've been through the game and walked away with every honor in the book, and you know the book by heart and you can track with your eyes shut and you've been to France and all that and you think I'm just a kid, but it means something to be an Eagle Scout, I can tell you."
Doubtless Tom Slade, scout, was gratified to receive this valuable information. "And there's just the one way to get there, is that it?" he answered quietly, but smiling a little. "I always heard that a scout was resourceful and had two strings to his bow."
"You just give me a tip and I'll do the rest," said Hervey.
"It must be about tracking, hey?"
"That's it; test three for the stalking badge. _Track an animal a quarter of a mile._"
"Well, let me think a minute, then," Tom said.
"Up on that mountain, maybe, hey?" Hervey urged.
"Maybe," Tom said.
So they ambled along, the elder quite calm and thoroughly master of himself, the younger, all impulse, eagerness and enthusiasm. His generous admiration of Tom, amounting almost to a spirit of worship, was plainly to be seen. It would have been hard to say how Tom felt or what he thought. At all events he had not been jostled out of his stolid calm.
"Did you ever hear any one say that there is more than one way to kill a cat?" he finally inquired, pausing to notice some bird or squirrel among the trees.
"I don't want to kill a cat," Hervey said. "I want to find some tracks, I----"
"You want to be an Eagle Scout," Tom concluded; "and you've got your mind set on it. That it?"
"That's it; but it's for the sake of my troop,