Tom Slade on Mystery Trail | Page 2

his peculiarities and preferences,
particularly those who were regular summer visitors at the big camp,
and few ever followed him into his chosen haunts. Occasionally some
new scout, tempted by the pervading reputation and unique negligee of
Uncle Jeb's young assistant, ventured to follow him and avail himself
of the tips and woods lore with which the more experienced scout's
conversation abounded when he was in a talking mood. But Tom was a
sort of creature apart and the boys of camp, good scouts that they were,
did not intrude upon his lonely rambles.
The season was well nigh over at Temple Camp when this thing
happened. Not over exactly, but the period of arrivals had passed and
the period of departures would begin in a day or two--as soon as the
events with which the season culminated were over.
These were the water events, the tenderfoot carnival (not to be missed
on any account) and the big affair at the main pavilion when awards
were to be made. This last, in particular, would be a gala demonstration,
for Mr. John Temple himself, founder of the big scout camp, had
promised to be on hand to dedicate the new tract of camp property and
personally to distribute the awards.
These events would break the backbone of the camping season, high
schools and grammar schools would presently beckon their reluctant
conscripts back to town and city, until, in the pungent chill of autumn,
old Uncle Jeb, alone among the boarded-up cabins, would smoke his
pipe in solitude and get ready for the long winter.
It was late on Thursday afternoon. The last stroke of the last hammer,
where scouts had been erecting a rustic platform outside the pavilion,
had echoed from the neighboring hills. The usually still water of the
lake was rippled by the refreshing breeze which heralded a cooler
evening, and the first rays of dying sunlight painted the ripples golden,

and bathed the cone-like tops of the fir trees across the lake with a
crimson glow.
Out of the chimney of the cooking shack arose the smoke of early
promise, from which the scouts deduced various conclusions as to the
probable character of the meal which would appear in all its luscious
glory a couple of hours later.
A group of scouts, weary of diving, were strung along the springboard
which overhung the shore. A couple of boys played mumbly-peg under
the bulletin board tree. Several were playing ball with an apple, until
one of them began eating it, which put an end to the game. Half a dozen
of the older boys, who had been at work erecting the platform,
sauntered toward the scrub shack, leaving one or two to festoon the
bunting over the stand where the colors shone as if they had been
varnished by that master decorator, the sun, as a last finishing touch to
his sweltering day's work. The emblem patrol sauntered over to the flag
pole and sprawled beneath it to rest and await the moment of sunset.
Several canoes moved aimlessly upon the glinting water, their
occupants idling with the paddles. It was the time of waiting, the empty
hour or two between the day's end and supper-time.
Upon a rock near the lake sat a little fellow, quite alone. He was very
small and very thin, and his belt was drawn ridiculously tight, so that it
gave his khaki jacket the effect of being shirred like the top of a cloth
bag. If he had been standing, he might have suggested, not a little, the
shape of an old-fashioned hour glass. A brass compass dangled around
his neck on a piece of twine as if, being so small, he was in danger of
getting lost any minute. His hair was black and very streaky, and his
eyes had a strange brightness in them.
No one paid any attention to this little gnome of a boy, and he was a
pathetic sight sitting there with his intense gaze, having just a touch of
wildness in it, fixed upon the lake. Doubtless if his scout regalia had
fitted him properly he would not have seemed so pathetic, for it is not
uncommon for a scout to want to be alone in the great companionable
wilderness.

Suddenly, this little fellow's gaze was withdrawn from the lake and fell
upon something which seemed to interest him right at his feet. He slid
down from the rock and examined it closely. His poor little thin figure
and skinny legs were very noticeable then. But he picked up nothing,
only kneeled there, apparently in a state of great excitement and elation.
Presently, he started away, looked back, as if he was afraid his
discovery would take advantage of his absence to steal away. Again he
started, hurrying around