The Boy Scouts Under Fire in Mexico.
by Lieut. Howard Payson.
CHAPTER I.
FOUR SCOUTS AFLOAT.
"Luff a little, Merritt!"
"Luff it is, Rob. And let me tell you right now that if this head wind keeps on growing stronger, we"re going to have it nip and tuck to get home before dark sets in. These November, days have a quick end, you know. Steady now, everybody; we"ll have to come about."
"On the next leg, Merritt, run in as close to the sh.o.r.e as you can,"
continued the boy who was handling the sheet of the sailboat, and who seemed to be in command, though he had given up his place at the helm to a comrade.
"Just what I"ll do, Skipper Rob. Here, Andy, and you, Tubby, swing over to the la"board in a hurry, now, and help hold her down. You"re the best ballast we"ve got aboard, Tubby."
The stout boy who seemed so well named, for he was built on the order of a tub of b.u.t.ter, hastened to change his position as the boom of the sailboat swung over, and the little craft with a jump started on a new tack, this time heading for the mainland.
"Say, you want to make sure and clear that point over there!" he sang out as he sprawled along the upper port side of the craft like a great crab, owing to a sudden lurch of the boat.
"Going to do it as easy as to turn your hand over," replied the boy at the rudder; "but what makes you say that, Tubby?"
"Oh! I reckon now there might be some fellers got a duck blind on that point, which is said to be the best along the bay," replied the other.
"Leastways I noticed a whole raft of stools dancing up and down on the waves the last time we ran in close to the sh.o.r.e."
"Good for you, Tubby," remarked the boy called Rob, who was clinging steadily to the sheet, with the strain mostly relieved by the fact that it pa.s.sed through a hole in the stout cleat; "it"s plain that you"ve got your eyes with you this trip, and don"t mean to be caught napping. There are two fellows in a blind over on the point; I saw them watching us the last time we ran in; and they acted as though they were afraid we"d anchor and spoil all their evening shoot when the ducks are moving again. But never fear, we"re going to clear the point by a wide margin this time."
"It was a good thing school let out so early to-day, boys," remarked the lad who up to now had not spoken, and who seemed to answer to the name of Andy; "and that Rob invited the rest of us to go with him after that half bushel of big oysters his folks want for dinner to-morrow."
"What makes you talk that way, Andy?" asked Rob, wondering if the other had also been keeping his eyes about him and noticing things. "This is Friday afternoon, and if we hadn"t gone to-day what do you think would hinder our taking a little spin up the bay in the morning?"
"Oh! you never can count on the wind around Hampton," replied the other; "chances are, when you want it most of all, it gives you the go-by. And besides, Rob, I"ve been watching that sky up there. Look how it"s mottled, will you? I"ve always heard that that sort of clouds meant a storm."
Rob laughed as though rather pleased.
"Well, that"s just one good reason why I hurried off this afternoon instead of waiting for morning," he observed; "but then, I had a better warning than the looks of the sky to give me notice. You see, I chanced to drop around by the post office on the way to school after lunch, and stepped in to read what the weather report man in Washington had sent along. There"s a whopper of a storm coming up the coast from the West Indies, and headed right this way; a sort of left-over hurricane, it says; and storm warnings are ordered up from Jacksonville to Nantucket!"
"Whee!" exclaimed Tubby, "that means winter will like as not set in right after that storm pa.s.ses along, and we"ll get no more sails on the bay. I hate winter for all the fun with skates and bobsleds. Don"t I wish now my Uncle Mark would make up his mind to send me down there to a warm country like Mexico to look after his tangled business affairs?
Honest Injun, fellers, he did say he might think of something like that if he didn"t get some better soon. He"s terribly bothered for fear he"s going to lose all his cattle and everything, with those rebels and regulars cavorting all over that section. h.e.l.lo! that was a gun spoke then; and there goes another! Yes, and he got one duck, anyhow, because I saw it drop like a stone. And we"re already past the point, boys!"
While the little sailboat is beating up against a head wind and sea, bent on making Hampton, several miles away along the Long Island sh.o.r.e of the bay, it might be a good time for us to renew acquaintance with the four lads on board, and glance back over their past career.
All of them were dressed in the well known khaki suits that, the world over, have become a recognized sign manual of Boy Scouts. These lads belonged to Hampton Troop, and were instrumental in starting the organization in the sh.o.r.e town. For some time it had consisted of but a single patrol, the Eagles; but as success followed their efforts, and more boys became enthused and enlisted, other patrols known as the Owl, the Black Fox, and the Badger were formed; so that at the time we meet Rob and his chums in the sailboat there was a very strong troop in Hampton, with even a rival organization under way.
Rob Blake was the leader of the Eagle Patrol, and Merritt Crawford held the post of second in command, or corporal; while Andy Bowles filled the position of bugler. Tubby as yet had not aspired to fill anything, unless it was his stomach; and his chums were forever joking him with regard to his fondness for eating.
In the first volume of this series, "The Boy Scouts of the Eagle Patrol," the reader was made acquainted with Rob and his friends, and followed their exciting fortunes after they had formed the patrol. Rob was the son of the president of the local bank, while Merritt"s father had been known as the finest blacksmith and wheelwright in that section of Long Island; Andy"s folks ran the big livery stable; and Tubby"s only parent, his mother, was said to be fairly well off in property and stocks.
A happy chance allowed some of the scouts to visit the far Southwest, and in the second story many of the strange adventures that befell them there were narrated. Though "The Boy Scouts on the Range" teems with thrilling happenings, those who read it from cover to cover will admit that the Eagles bore themselves man-fully under all conditions, and always acted according to scout law.
Later on some of the boys became interested in the subject of aviation; and about this time chance allowed them to be of considerable a.s.sistance to certain parties in the employ of the Government, who were conducting experiments not far from their home town; all of which was told in the pages of "The Boy Scouts and the Army Airship."
A fourth volume was given up to what occurred while the Eagles were encamped in the wilderness; where circ.u.mstances arose that called for all their knowledge of woodcraft and scout lore; but those who have read "The Boy Scouts" Mountain Camp" will surely unite in saying that Rob and his chums met the situation as became true scouts, and came out of the affair with great credit.
In the succeeding story, "The Boy Scouts for Uncle Sam," the boys found themselves involved in a succession of thrilling events. An opportunity arose whereby their services were in demand in order to save the design of a wonderful submarine craft, intended for the use of the United States Government, from being stolen by the clever agents of a foreign power. It was largely through the efforts of the scout patrol that this treacherous design was finally foiled.
A sixth volume, just preceding the present story, "The Boy Scouts at the Panama Ca.n.a.l," contained the history of events that befell Rob and his particular chums at a time when they were given a splendid chance to visit the great ditch which Uncle Sam was then digging down on the Isthmus. Once again they managed to bring into play the resourcefulness which, as members of the Eagle Patrol, had been developed in them; and it was princ.i.p.ally through the agency of scoutcraft that the evil designs which certain envious nations had upon the locks of the ca.n.a.l were blocked.
Which short but necessary explanation once more brings us to the four chums as they tacked back and forth while trying to make the home port before dusk set in. Now that they were headed toward the mainland they made rapid progress, for the wind was certainly increasing in force right along. It came from a point that enabled them to make this the long leg, gaining quite a considerable distance. Once again they tacked, and the best they could expect to do was to hold their own in a beat toward the sandy outer sh.o.r.e of the bay, which helped to make the inlet all but landlocked.
"This is sure going some!" Tubby called out, as he began to get himself into readiness for another quick slide across when they should come about again; the spray was flying in their faces, more or less, and the waves that raced past seemed tipped with white.
"Look out for your heads when we swing around!" called Merritt. "That boom is heavy enough to sweep you overboard, I guess!"
"Excuse me from taking a bath right here and now!" exclaimed Tubby, who was not much of a swimmer at the best. "But see here, what does all this mean, fellers? Why, look at the water in the bottom of the boat, will you? Tell you what, she"s gone and sprung a leak as sure as anything!
Rob, you won"t head out in the bay again, will you, with all this chance of our foundering? Gingersnaps! it keeps on getting worse and worse, I tell you! We"ll sink inside of ten minutes!"
Rob, who owned the sailboat, took one look at the water that was already washing about in the bottom of the uptilted craft. He must have realized that something strange had happened to cause so staunch a boat to spring a leak, and also that the situation was serious; for no sooner had he taken in the suspicious way in which the water was rising in the c.o.c.kpit, than he shouted:
"Keep her headed straight for the sh.o.r.e, Merritt! We"ve got to beach her one way or another. Tubby, help me with the halliards so we can drop the sail. You pull up the centerboard, Andy! Hurry now, everybody!"
There was a scene of activity on board the little pleasure craft just then, with three of those lively scouts springing about their duty. And as the sail came rattling down on top of the cabin, with Tubby sprawled under its folds, and as Andy fastened the heavy centerboard which he had drawn full height in the well, the boat ran up on the sandy beach of a little cove that had chanced to lie directly ahead at the time the skipper gave his hurried orders!
CHAPTER II.
THE STRANGE LEAK.
"Gee whiz! but this is a bad job!" Merritt remarked, after the four of them had clambered over the bow of the stranded sailboat. "Here we are as much as three miles away from home, with night coming on and not much chance of getting the boat fixed so we can go on again in her."
"She never played you such a mean trick before, did she, Rob?" asked Andy, who had managed to get his feet wet in making a jump for the sandy beach, but, boylike, seemed to care very little about such a small thing.
"No, and I"m wondering right now what could have happened to make her spring a big leak like that all of a sudden," replied the other.
As though impelled by curiosity, Rob once more climbed aboard the boat and started to look around. One of the first things he did was to fling ash.o.r.e a sack that seemed to be pretty heavy,--as might be expected, since it contained the half bushel of extra large oysters for which he had been sent to the beds near the ocean side of the bay, a long way from Hampton town.
"I"m bound to get that sack home with me if I have to carry it on my back," he called out; at which the other boys, of course, declared that they would willingly "spell" him, though the prospect could not have seemed very inviting.
"But see here, will it be safe to leave the boat in this little cove all night with a big storm heading along up the coast?" Merritt asked next.
"Safe or not," came from the one aboard the stranded boat, "there"s nothing else we can do, is there? Besides, if that storm holds off till noon, I"ll be up here on my wheel the first thing to-morrow, bale her out, fix the leak, and work her back home by hook or crook. h.e.l.lo! what in the wide world does this mean, now?"
"Found the place where the water came in, have you, Rob?" called Tubby, who was hefting the sack of bivalves, and perhaps secretly wondering whether it might not make their labor of transporting the same to the Blake house easier if they proceeded to discard a few of the sh.e.l.ls and partake of the juicy contents.