"There, you see now," broke in Fritz, "if we only had my gun along, Eben here could be a real sentry, and hold a feller up in the right way.
Watch this second slippery log here, boys. You c"n easy enough push anybody into the slush if he gets gay, and refuses to give the pa.s.sword."
Then he in turn also followed after Paul, leaving the bugler and Noodles there, congratulating themselves that they could be doing their full duty by the enterprise without taking any more desperate risks.
And then when the six scouts had gone about fifty feet Eben was heard wildly shouting after them.
"Paul, O! Paul!" he was bellowing at the top of his voice.
"Well, what is it?" asked the scoutmaster.
"You forgot something," came the answer.
"What?"
"You didn"t give us the pa.s.sword, you know; and how c"n we tell whether any fellers has it right, when we don"t even know."
Paul just turned and walked on, laughing to himself; and those who followed in his footsteps were shaking with inward amus.e.m.e.nt. Either Eben had taken the bait, and gorged the hook, or else he was having a little fun with them, no one knew which.
However, all of them soon realized that Paul had done a clever thing when he thus coaxed the two clumsy members of the patrol to drop out of line, and allow those better fitted for coping with the difficulties of the slippery path to go forward; because it steadily grew worse instead of better, and neither Eben nor Noodles could have long continued.
Why, even Fritz began to feel timid about pursuing such a treacherous course, and presently he sought information.
"Don"t you think we must be nearly in the heart of the old bog, Paul?
Seems to me we"ve come a long ways, and when you think that we"ve got to go back over the same nasty track again, perhaps carrying a wounded man, whew! however we are going to do it, beats me."
Paul stopped long enough to give a tree a couple of quick upward and downward strokes with that handy little tool of his, and then glance at the resulting gash, as though he wanted to make sure that it could be seen a decent distance off.
"Well, that"s a pretty hard question to answer," he replied, slowly. "In the first place, we don"t know whether the man fell into the heart of the Black Water, or over by the other side. Fact is, we haven"t come on anything up to now to settle the matter whether he fell at all."
"Great governor! that _would_ be a joke on us now, wouldn"t it, if we made our way all over this beastly place, when there wasn"t any aeronaut to help? We"d feel like a bunch of sillies, that"s right!" burst out Fritz.
"But we acted in good faith," Paul went on to say, positively. "We weighed the matter, and arrived at the conclusion that he had fallen somewhere in here; and we agreed, _all of us_, mind you, Fritz, that it was our duty to make a hunt for Mr. Anderson. And we"re here on the ground, doing our level best."
"Ain"t got another word to say, Paul," Fritz observed, hastily, "you know best; only I sure hope it don"t get any worse than we find it right now. I never did like soft slimy mud. Nearly got smothered in it once, when I was only a kid, and somehow it seems to give me the creeps every time I duck my leg in. But go right along; only if you hear me sing out, stop long enough to give me a pull."
"We"re all bound to help each other, don"t forget that, Fritz," said Seth. "It might just as well be me that"ll take a slide, and go squash into that awful mess on the right, or on the left. Don"t know whether to swim, or wade, if that happens; but see there, you can"t find any bottom to the stuff."
He thrust his long Alpine staff into the mire as far as it could go; and the other scouts shuddered when they saw that so far as appearances went, the soft muck bed really had no bottom. Any one so unfortunate as to fall in would surely gradually sink far over his head, unless he were rescued in time, or else had the smartness to effect his own release by seizing hold of a low-hanging branch and gradually drawing his limbs out of the clinging stuff.
Then they all looked ahead, as though wondering what the prospect might be for a continuance of this perilous trip which had broken up their great hike.
"I guess it"s about time to make another try with a shout or so, Fritz,"
said Paul, instead of giving the order for an advance.
"All right, just as you say," returned the other, "we"ve come quite some distance since we made the last big noise; and if he"s weak and wounded, yet able to answer at all, p"raps we might hear him this time. Line up here, fellers, and watch my hands now, so"s all to break loose together."
It was a tremendous volume of sound that welled forth, as Fritz waved his hands upward after a fashion that every high school fellow understood; why, Seth declared that it could have been heard a mile or more away, and from that part of the swamp half way out in either direction.
Then they strained their ears to listen for any possible answer. The seconds began to creep past, and disappointment had already commenced to grip hold of their hearts when they started, and looked quickly, eagerly, at one another.
"Did you hear it?" asked Fritz, gasping for breath after his exertions at holding on to that long-drawn school yell.
"We sure did--something!" replied Jotham, instantly, "but whether that was the balloonist answering, Eben or Noodles calling out to us, or some wild animal giving tongue, blest if I know."
And then, why, of course five pair of eyes were turned on Paul for the answer.
CHAPTER XIII
THE OASIS IN THE SWAMP
"Was that another fish-eating bird like a crane, Paul?" asked Seth.
"Sounded more like a human voice," Jotham put in.
"And that"s what it was, or else we"re all pretty much mistaken," was the verdict of the scoutmaster.
They turned their eyes toward the quarter from whence the sound had appeared to come; and while some thought it had welled up just in a line with this bunch of bushes, or it might be a leaning tree, still others believed it had come straight up against the breeze.
Although there might be a few points difference in their guesses, still it was noticeable that on the whole they were pretty uniform, and pointed almost due east from the spot where they stood.
"How about the prospect of getting through there?" queried Jotham, anxiously.
"Huh! couldn"t be tougher, in my opinion," grumbled Seth.
"But if you look far enough, boys," remarked Paul, "you can see that there seems to be some firmer ground over there."
"Well, now, you"re right about that, Paul," interjected Fritz, "I was just going to say the same myself. Made me think of what an oasis in a desert might look like, though to be sure I never saw one in my life."
"Solid ground, you mean, eh?" said Babe Adams, gleefully, "maybe, now, we won"t be just tickled to death to feel the same under our trilbies again. This thing of picking your way along a slippery ledge about three inches wide, makes me feel like I"m walking on eggs all the while. Once you lose your grip, and souse you go up to your knees, or p"raps your neck, in the nasty dip. Solid ground will feel mighty welcome to me."
"Do we make a bee line for that quarter, Paul?" asked Andy.
"I"d like to see you try it, that"s what," jeered Seth. "In three shakes of a lamb"s tail you"d be swimming in the mud. Guess we have to follow one of these crazy little hummocks that run criss-cross through the place, eh, Frank?"
"Yes, you"re right about that, Seth; but I"m glad to say I think one runs over toward that spot; anyway, here goes to find out."
The young scoutmaster made a start while speaking, and the balance of the boys lined out after him.
"Keep close together, so as to help each other if any trouble comes,"
was what Paul called out over his shoulder.
"Yes, and for goodness sake don"t all get in at once, or we"ll be drowned. Think what an awful time there"d be in old Beverly, if six of her shining lights went and got snuffed out all at once. Hey, quit your pushin" there, Jotham, you nearly had me overboard that time."
"Well, I just _had_ to grab something, because one of my legs was in up to the knee. Oh! dear, what a fine time we"ll have getting all this mud off us," Jotham complained, from just behind.